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Auntie
Finally, Saturday arrived, and Mu and Qing got up early.
The weather was nice today, neither too hot nor too cold. In this kind of weather, Mu Heqing didn't need to button up her beige thick coat for the time being. Today, she was wearing a light green thin fleece shirt on top and a dark green long skirt on the bottom.
To carry her things, she also wore a small yellow and white crossbody bag, with a plush duck toy hanging from it. Combined with her soft, serene, fair face, she exuded the feeling of spring.
"Auntie!" Mu Heqing waved happily and walked towards a white domestic car. Standing next to the car was a woman with shoulder-length short hair and wearing sunglasses.
This person is Mu Heqing's aunt.
"Oh, Qingqing, so cute." Aunt Li Heyue rubbed Mu Heqing's face.
"Don't pinch my face." Mu Heqing's face was being pinched into a bun shape, and she hurriedly rescued her face from her aunt's hands.
Li Heyue said unhappily, "It's been so long since we last met. Don't you miss me at all? Look at me, don't I look all haggard?"
She took off her sunglasses so that Mu and Qing could see her face clearly.
Mu Heqing couldn't see any signs of aging, but Li Heyue's face was radiant.
"No," Mu Heqing replied honestly.
Li Heyue cheered up again. She let Mu Heqing get into the car and began to complain: "This lousy company, all I have to do is report this and report that. I'm already so busy, and I still have to report to them. I can write everything down in an email, but they still ask so many questions."
Mu and Qing nodded in agreement as usual, making a few "uh-huh" sounds in response.
Li Heyue was just complaining. Her current company paid her a decent salary and had good benefits, but the procedures were a bit complicated, requiring her to run around to both places constantly.
"How's your work?" Li Heyue asked about Mu Heqing's recent situation.
"It's just so-so." The job is alright, I just don't want to know too many people.
Mu Heqing's aunt knew her well, and she teased, "What's wrong? You're so young, yet you have such thoughts? What's wrong? Tell your aunt."
“You’re not that much older than me, okay?” Li Heyue is only 7 years older than her.
Li Heyue: "But I've seen more than you. If it's not a work issue, then it must be a relationship issue?"
"I'm getting off the bus. You can go by yourself."
"Don't be angry, Qingqing, I was wrong, I won't say it anymore. I feel so lonely without you." Li Heyue immediately hugged Mu Heqing and tried to appease her.
Mu Heqing had no temper with Li Heyue clinging to her; she wouldn't really stop spending time with her.
The two chatted for a long time, and before they knew it, they had arrived at their destination.
Mu and Qing were sitting in the passenger seat when they saw a tall sycamore tree with bright green leaves. A woman wearing a white blouse and a brass name tag ran out from under the tree.
The woman nodded to them, indicating that the car should be parked in a suitable spot.
"Auntie, this doesn't seem to be the beauty salon you usually come to," Mu Heqing said, looking around.
Because of her work, Li Heyue needs to wear makeup all day long, and sometimes she even works overtime late into the night. Beauty treatments are a regular occurrence for her. When she was in Ancheng, she liked to ask Mu Heqing to come out and keep her company.
Mu and Qing readily agreed, mainly because the beauty salon Li Heyue frequented had delicious, unlimited snacks. Usually, Li Heyue would be getting her treatment while Mu and Qing ate snacks in the waiting area.
"I'm here to try out the company's new perks, since they're so stingy with them." Li Heyue got out of the car and stuffed the keys into the pocket of her short jacket.
She is slim and likes high-waisted pants and cropped tops, saying that they make her legs look longer.
Mu Heqing agreed, saying that Li Heyue was indeed very cool and capable.
The woman in the white blouse was named Linda. Li Heyue had made an appointment in advance, and Linda was the person who would be in charge of receiving them throughout the process.
"Ms. Li, this way please." Linda led Mu and Qing through several glass doors, took the elevator up to the second floor, and arrived at a small private room.
While Linda and Li Heyue were deciding on their beauty treatments, Mu Heqing peeked outside the private room and noticed that the beauty salon was doing quite well, with many customers coming and going.
The private room was divided into a waiting area and a beauty area. Mu and Qing sat in the waiting area, which had a TV, a massage chair, and snacks and hot tea.
"Qingqing, it'll probably take about two hours. You can watch a movie, and I'll take you to eat your favorite spicy boiled fish for lunch." Li Heyue changed into a bathrobe.
Mu and Qing lay on the massage chair, eating snacks, and gave each other an OK sign.
She opened the movie app, randomly selected a new movie, and started playing it.
Perhaps the movie was too boring, or perhaps the massage chair was too comfortable, Mu and Qing's consciousness grew increasingly sluggish.
When she woke up again, the movie was already coming to an end, and the male and female leads were embracing each other and looking at the stars in the sky.
How long has she been asleep? Is Auntie feeling better yet?
Mu and Qing got up and found that the private room was unusually quiet. Apart from the sound of the television, there was no other sound.
When she and her aunt first entered the beauty salon, there were clearly quite a few people there. The place wasn't particularly soundproof, so it wasn't completely silent.
"Auntie, are you there?" Mu Heqing called from outside the door.
There was no response from inside the door. Mu and Qing turned the handle and entered their aunt's beauty room. As soon as they entered, they saw a gray curtain hanging from the ceiling.
She quickly pulled back the curtain, but there was no one inside, only a beauty bed and beauty equipment beside it.
She took out her phone and started calling Li Heyue. The female voice on the other end sang for a minute, but no one answered, and no phone rang in the private room.
Mu Heqing's face was grim as she walked out of the private room.
The beauty salon's corridors were plastered with various posters, each featuring a different exquisitely beautiful face. She walked towards one of the posters featuring a woman with brown hair, opened the door next to it, went inside, and looked around, but there was no one there.
The familiar silence enveloped Mu Heqing once again; how could she not know what was going on?
One after another they keep popping up, it's never-ending, does she ever have a moment's peace?
Mu and Qing searched the entire second floor of the beauty salon, but still couldn't find a single living person.
Mu Heqing thought of something and started making a phone call again. The woman on the other end started singing again, but there was still no ringtone from her aunt's phone on the second floor.
She took the elevator to the third floor. When the elevator doors opened, she was in front of a small, open "L"-shaped space. There were no advertisements or posters, and no noise. There were only two doors on the sides of the "L".
She started making phone calls again.
A telephone rang from behind one of the doors.
She flung open the door, revealing a cell phone lying on the floor behind it, its ringtone particularly clear in the quiet world.
Mu and Qing bent down to pick up the phone. The caller ID showed "Qingqing," which was her aunt's phone. She put the phone in her pocket.
She stood up and looked around the room. There was a huge white cloth supported by a wooden frame, which divided the room. The side facing Mu and Qing was white, but the back was opaque.
It looks like the back of a painting.
Mu and Qing walked to the cloth and gently stroked the white cloth. She wondered how she could get to the other side of the cloth.
She remembered the location of the doors; the two doors must have been in the same room, one facing the back of the cloth and the other facing the side.
Mu and Qing hurriedly left the room and opened another door.
She was instantly stunned by the sight before her.
There were so many people, whether they were customers in bathrobes, staff in smocks, or other accompanying persons, sitting close together, looking up at the cloth in front of them as if they were gazing at a statue.
Quiet, with only the sound of shallow breathing, eyes fixed in a daze, motionless.
Mu Heqing spotted her aunt in the crowd at a glance, and Li Heyue, like everyone else, looked up in fascination.
"Auntie!" Mu Heqing cried anxiously, pushing through the crowd and squeezing into the sea of people. Fortunately, the room was large, and after being pushed aside, the people did not make any other moves, their eyes remaining fixed on the giant cloth in front of them.
She came to Li Heyue's side, blocked her view, patted her face, and called out to her anxiously.
"Auntie, wake up! Stop looking! Wake up, Auntie! Li Heyue, wake up!"
Li Heyue struggled to get up, her view blocked. She turned her head and tried to see the cloth through the gap in Mu and Qing's figures.
Mu Heqing could only press Li Heyue's face tightly against his chest, making sure she couldn't see it at all.
Li Heyue made a whimpering sound and began to struggle. Mu Heqing could only use more force to press Li Heyue into her arms.
"It's okay, Auntie, it'll be alright soon. It's me, Qingqing," Mu Heqing gently comforted her.
Just as Mu Heqing breathed a sigh of relief after Li Heyue calmed down in her arms, Li Heyue suddenly slammed her head against her. Caught off guard, she felt a sharp pain in her lower abdomen and fell backward.
There were too many people here, and if she fell, she would definitely crush someone else. Mu and Qing could barely keep their balance and did not fall completely.
But the cloth was now exposed to Li Heyue's view, and she looked at it with an even more infatuated gaze.
Mu and Qing exhaled and turned to look at the cloth. It was indeed a canvas, covered with intense colors.
With just one glance, Mu Heqing felt her heart pounding. She quickly bit her tongue to calm herself down.
It seems impossible to wake up my aunt; I don't know how long she's been standing there.
The only option is to destroy the painting.
She stepped through the crowd, lowered her eyes, and squeezed to the front of the painting. Even though she didn't want to see it, it still jumped into her field of vision.
The colors on the painting intertwine and flow, as if it were a living thing.
Excitement, pain, guilt, shyness, joy, anger—all sorts of emotions erupted within Mu and Qing, ultimately coalescing into one thought: she wanted to continue looking at the painting.
No, this won't do.
Mu and Qing reached out and pressed down on the canvas. Although it was stretched very taut, it should be able to be damaged.
She stood in front of the canvas, blocking part of the painting. The people who had been sitting quietly suddenly started to move, and those in the front row began to wave their arms to drive Mu and Qing away.
She tried to avoid being pushed around, but one of them still pushed her down.
Her body slammed heavily onto the canvas, which was already taut. The impact from Mu and Qing's bodies caused several tears to appear on the canvas. The intense colors assaulted her eyes, and she was momentarily dazed.
People started to stand up and move closer to her; at this density, if someone fell, they would inevitably get hurt.
What's more, my aunt was also in the crowd.
Mu Heqing struggled to her feet, gritted her teeth, stuffed her fingers into the opening of the canvas, and pulled hard, causing half of the canvas, along with her body, to fall to the ground.
The moment the canvas was destroyed, everyone froze, their eyes glazed over, like humanoid robots that hadn't been turned on.
Mu and Qing were lying on half a canvas when a figure approached her, bending down to look at her.
She recognized the person.
"Sifei!" Mu Heqing shouted, suppressing his anger.
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