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"I can't do it. I've tried twice already, haven't I?"
Old Chen's cloudy eyes misted over, and he felt that his endless decline would continue to plague him. "Good boy, please come tonight. I beg you."
"I'm sorry, my grandparents won't let me go out at night."
He was about to say more, but was interrupted by a sharp voice at the door: "Who are you? What are you doing here?"
Yin Sui hurriedly pushed the door open and explained to Lin Su who came to deliver breakfast: "Aunt Su, this is Sui Sui from next door. He is my boyfriend. He came with me to visit Grandpa Chen."
The ferocious woman's expression suddenly softened upon hearing this: "Sui Sui, it's been a long time since I last saw you. You've grown so big. It wouldn't be a problem if you stayed a little longer. It would be lonely for him to live here alone as an old man."
"I will definitely come here often. I'm going back for dinner today, and I'll definitely come back some other day."
"It's time to eat."
Lin Su passed by with her lunch box. With Ji Xunjin's keen hearing, he heard everything she said after she entered clearly:
"Kill me." The old man said in a shrill voice.
The woman was completely oblivious to the reaction of the person on the bed. She spoke to herself with joy as if she were living in another world: "You like it? As long as you like it."
"Kill me." The broken bed creaked and shook, and he struggled impatiently like a fish deprived of oxygen.
"Oh my, why are you in such a hurry? Your son and grandson have only been gone for two days. Besides, I haven't treated you badly. They might all be back tomorrow and I won't even bother to bring them food."
The struggling subsided.
"I'll go back to take care of the kids after you finish eating. Didn't you say you like it? Eat some more."
Yinsui couldn't stand it anymore and ran downstairs first, and he followed closely behind.
"You helped him twice?"
"yes."
The hurried footsteps sounded like drumbeats, one after another, bright and cheerful echoing with dull and calm, and the incessant groans of the dying people left upstairs lingered faintly.
"And then come back to life during the day?"
"I don't know, I don't go out at night." So I had no idea when or how he would appear during the day.
She stepped on the solid ground and saw the closed coffin again. The groaning seemed to still be heard inside. When she pushed open the lid, she could see the old man with his eyes open, making a sad request.
Ji Xunjin opened his mouth. Is this the hometown you want to hide and preserve? He changed his words to: "I'm hungry again."
Two eggs and a handful of noodles and you're hungry again in less than an hour? It's normal to grow up at 19.
The sounds of mahjong tiles colliding and shuffling were endless, the teahouse was filled with smoke, and half of the seats were occupied by elderly men and women who were just killing time.
The gossipy middle-aged people were all here. Seeing the new faces in the village, especially a young couple dressed in smart clothes, many of them looked up and stared intently while chatting.
"Which kid brought their boyfriend to meet their parents?"
"She looks quite young. Her family must be angry if she's dating and meeting her parents at such a young age."
"What do you know? City people who take good care of themselves can look like they're in their twenties even if they're thirty. You can't really guess age from appearance."
"What if they are brothers and sisters?"
"They really look like them. I guess they are someone's grandchildren coming back to the village to play. But I haven't heard of anyone nearby giving birth to those two beautiful children."
She didn't bother to talk anymore and just walked straight through the crowd to find the boss: "Boss, I want to buy something."
The boss put down his crossed legs and pointed lazily at the sales counter behind him.
"Anything you want to eat?"
Ji Xunjin picked up a pack of instant noodles at random. She took it and threw a lot of it into the plastic bag before taking it to pay. The crumpled change was placed on the counter, and the boss took out two coins from the drawer as change. In the era of popular mobile payment, this way of payment is rarely seen.
"There's hot water at the back door, turn left, and it's free." The boss didn't even raise his eyelids and gave the usual reminder in a flat tone.
There are bright red velvet chair backs and a glass coffee table. The back door leads to a different world. It is a place for casual players who just want to drink tea and chat without playing mahjong. The air is much cleaner than the cigarette smoke that fumes your eyes right in front.
"Hot water," she poured a pot of water and placed it on the table, then sat down opposite him. "It's normal now that you're out, right? In fact, during the day, only Mr. Chen seemed abnormal."
"Because he's the only one awake."
Ji Xunjin tore open the seasoning packet, stood up and poured water in. The boiling water poured down, and the white hot steam that spread out burned his eyes. The person opposite him was blurred, just like the mist itself.
People say: "When a man is about to die, his words are good", because at this point lies are no longer necessary, and they have already made preparations to abandon everything and pass away. The so-called fancy things to embellish the future are meaningless to them. The most turbid fish eyes are looking at the surroundings with the clearest eyes.
For him, being trapped in an absurd world where the truth is revealed only when it is concealed has become a punishment for this kind of clarity.
"Isn't it ridiculous that he is the one who needs to be dealt with, rather than others who are truly abnormal?" It is easy to cause resentment if you casually burst other people's dreams. At least this time he came in purely by chance and he didn't intend to put it on the agenda, but it probably would be too late if he didn't burst it now.
"Because I can't bear to leave."
She did not show any anger or embarrassment at being hit in the sore spot. After all, the questions Ji Xunjin asked were the same questions she had asked herself countless times. She knew the standard answers but could never get them right.
Problems that are too stubborn often make it impossible to make the right choice, just like the rare treasures and ordinary bricks on the two ends of a scale. It makes no sense no matter how light the left side is or how heavy the right side is. Weighing is just a formality, and telling lies with open eyes afterward is the inevitable result.
"Me too. As a spectator, I can't bear to watch a living person being thrown into a pit of corpses and dream with them. They can only dream, but you can obviously get out. You are still alive and well." His eyes were helpless, so his words sounded less like questioning and more like fatigue.
What happens when the dog dies and you're confirmed dead? If the dog becomes a zombie like everyone else in the village, following the same path as before, will you willingly join them? What's the point other than adding another victim?
Yin Sui looked down at the instant noodles on the table. The smoke had faded, revealing the murky soup base. "The noodles are getting cold."
"Eat it cold," Ji Xunjin blurted out without realizing her intention at first. After a pause, he added, "You don't have to eat it. It's just a bowl of instant noodles."
"What if I starve to death?" Even if the food in front of me is highly poisonous, I would still be willing to swallow it, at least I can enjoy it.
"You won't starve to death, as long as you are willing to go out and find food."
"You eat first, and I'll tell you the rest. I'll listen to you after you finish eating." Her voice was very soft, as if she was coaxing someone to sleep. She rested her hands on the table and said calmly.
"I've been out before, but I couldn't fit in. It took me three years to make one friend, but just a few days ago, one of my four classmates disappeared. One blamed me for not helping her, and I'm afraid to make friends with my only friend again for fear of bringing trouble to her. I've been in school for three years, and it's the same as not going at all. Even if I haven't studied at all, I can automatically solve problems I should know when I see them, but I can't solve problems I shouldn't know no matter how much time I spend. In reality, neither social connections nor achievements belong to me."
Life is like a lonely boat on the sea. When the waves come, all the fish you have caught will be scattered. When your spirit is worn away and there is little left, it is time to fall asleep holding the only wooden frame you have.
Besides, she liked wooden shelves, even if they were everywhere, they were a shelter built with all her efforts.
"In the village, many people died and many people went missing, which is why we can live a normal life 99% of the time now." The father who ran away from home, the mother who left to find a way, the elderly and children who were left behind, and the rest of the people either did not want to wake up or woke up to find a ruin and might as well lie down again.
Yinsui sighed and turned his gaze away, not caring about reminiscing about the past. "Eat slowly! There's no time limit."
After a while, "Eat slowly, don't choke."
Ji Xunjin held up a finger. "I'll just say this: since you've made this decision, at least you should know the consequences, right? What if the others who regain consciousness at night have already regretted their decision? But if you don't go out at night and have no way of knowing, what will you do if you end up regretting it along with them?"
She lowered her eyes: "Then stay and watch tonight."
The dark house outside the village opened its mouth, swallowing the two closest people, but the person in front of me was right, we have to get out eventually. How can we make a sincere decision if we are living in a corner and are not even sure whether we can be safe?
Unexpectedly, he agreed readily. Ji Xunjin knew that the argument had reached a dead end and there was no need to continue the conversation since everyone was sticking to their own opinions, so he tacitly put the topic aside for the time being.
Until noon, they stayed in the teahouse as usual, eating snacks and playing the Monopoly game that Yin Sui had found out from somewhere.
"Don't you need to go back for dinner?"
"If they didn't see me in the morning, they wouldn't know I was home today, so they wouldn't do my share."
…
"Er Tiao, oops, I lost." The uncle who was lucky almost laughed his mouth off, and raised his eyebrows proudly at his mahjong friends one by one.
The person on his left sighed, thinking that his luck was bad today and if he sat down again he would lose everything he had, so he quickly found an excuse to leave.
"Why are you running away right after I beat you? We didn't play for long. Let's play another round."
"No, no, I'm only wearing one pair of shorts today. If I wear seven or eight pairs someday, I'll just weld my butt to death in the mahjong parlor."
There was a burst of laughter nearby, and the uncle couldn't persuade them anymore, so he turned his attention to the newcomer who had just walked in and hadn't taken a seat yet. He turned around and called to Ji Lin: "Since you're here, let's play a few games."
Ji Lin, who had just walked in, waved his hands repeatedly: "What are you doing? I'm here to pick up my granddaughter for dinner."
When he came back from picking vegetables, he found a sticky note on the dining table. There was a long-haired little man with 5:00 on his head scribbled on it. There was a mahjong parlor next to it. He knew it was the work of his granddaughter, who came here at the right time.
The space behind the door is limited, and everyone is in full view.
Ji Lin spotted two people who stood out at first glance, stepped halfway across the threshold, and called out in a loud voice, "Are you back yet?"
Under the puzzled gazes of the people around him, Yin Sui pulled out a chair and stood up and replied: "Grandpa, just help me take my friend back. I won't be going home tonight."
"This..." An expression even more difficult than Ji Xunjin's appeared.
"Didn't we agree on this?" she begged in a coquettish tone.
We all agreed.
—When can I go out at night?
——When you can live on your own.
Meeting someone's condemning gaze, she laughed out loud, a rare laugh from the bottom of her heart, and waved at them.
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