twenty one
The rain had completely stopped, and the sky, shredded by twigs, was a misty blue. Shentu Hai huddled in the back seat. The two women's argument was muffled; she could only hear a few vague words and Zhuang Xiaodie's shouting. After that, their voices suddenly dropped, like wiping glass with a rag. A moment later, Nian Jinsi opened the driver's door, and Zhuang Xiaodie got into the red car. Shentu Hai raised his body slightly and met Nian Jinsi's eyes in the rearview mirror.
"Do you want to sit in the front?" Nian Jinsi asked.
Shentu Hai shook his head.
The red car started, and when it turned around, Nian Jinsi followed. They were silent until they drove out of the mountain. Without the branches blocking the sky, the sky was vast, high and far away. Shentu Hai's face was pressed against the car window, staring, and suddenly he heard Nian Jinsi speak and turned to look at her.
“Have you been to Inner Mongolia?”
"No." Shentu Hai replied.
"The grassland stretches all the way to the horizon. The sky is like a canopy, high, wide, and far away," said Nian Jinsi. "When the wind is strong, it seems like it can blow you up and throw you into the sky."
Shentu Hai didn't say anything.
"Very free." Nian Jinsi said. Shentu Hai looked in the rearview mirror. Nian Jinsi stared straight ahead, not looking at her.
"I have a friend," Shentu Hai said. "She longs for the grasslands and has made an appointment with me to go to Inner Mongolia."
"oh?"
"I'm lying. She never made such an agreement with me." Shen Tu Hai suddenly smiled and said, "She just wants freedom."
The wheels rolled over a shallow pothole, and they all jolted. Nian Jinsi probably realized who she was talking about and didn't respond.
However, once he started talking, Shentu Hai felt like he couldn't stop, as if he was in a car with broken brakes: "Who is Kong Yanchen?"
"Did you hear that?"
Shentu Hai hugged the back of the passenger seat and leaned over: "It's so loud, it's hard not to hear it."
Nian Jinsi was silent for a moment and said, "He's just an insignificant person."
"Dead?" Shentu Hai asked.
Nian Jinsi didn't answer.
"He's dead, why are you pulling her back?" Shen Tu Hai said, "Ex-lover?"
Nian Jinsi burst into laughter. When Zhuang Xiaodie was away at work, or rather, working part-time, they had plenty of time alone. Yet, they barely communicated, and even when they did, Nian Jinsi rarely smiled. Shentu Hai looked at her curiously.
"You keep talking, are you scared?" Nian Jinsi asked.
Shentu Hai was slightly surprised.
"There's no point in being scared. What's done is done," Nian Jinsi said. "You know what? Running is very helpful."
"What?"
"I suggest you run every morning from now on. Get up early and it will be cooler," said Nian Jinsi.
At this time they drove out of the village and turned onto the highway.
"It's no use trying to change the subject." Shentu Hai looked at her. "You're not here just for sightseeing, are you?"
Nian Jinsi said: "Whether it is or not, it is not now."
"You've always wanted to take her away, right?" Zhuang Xiaodie said, "I heard it all. He beat you, and you wanted her to go back and help you."
The faint ironic smile on Nian Jinsi's face gradually faded, and her lips slowly pursed into a straight line.
"Since he's dead, what do you still need her to help you with?" Shen Tu Hai asked, "Are you looking for her help, or—"
Nian Jinsi sighed softly: "Little girl, I advise you not to delve into other people's affairs."
Shentu Hai continued: "——scapegoat."
Nian Jinsi's face was expressionless, her eyes fixed on the red car in front of her, showing no sign of being guessed. Shen Tu Hai stared at her for a long while, unable to get the emotion he wanted to show.
"She's a good person." Shentu Hai said softly, "Don't—"
"Good man." Nian Jinsi murmured again, "--good man."
There was a moment of silence between them, and Nian Jinsi suddenly spoke: "Did she tell you our story?"
"What's the story?"
"When we were in school, we secretly kept a cat. It was said to be calico, but its fur was actually quite ugly. Fortunately, its eyes were round, so it was still pretty. We kept it in the yard and fed it every day at noon and in the evening when we got home from school. We dug a hole in the foam box and put some old clothes in it to make a nest. It was a little warm and could keep out the rain. Then one day there was a heavy rain, and the foam box was flooded. She took the wet cat home, intending to hide it in the room and put it back in the yard when the weather cleared, but she was discovered."
"Why not just keep it at home?"
"She tried to ask first, but her father kicked her and the cat out without a word and even went straight to sleep. She kept knocking on the door in the middle of the night before being let in, and then she kept beating until dawn, until the neighbors came knocking on the door."
Shentu Hai fell silent.
"Just asking to keep a cat is like that. Sneakily bringing a wet cat into the house is even worse," Nian Jinsi said. "You know the result without me telling you—you can hear her screams from across the yard."
"Her mother beats her too?"
"Her father beat her mother. When she was less than ten years old, he beat her mother away." Nian Jinsi said calmly, "Then they divorced two years later. Her mother ran away and has never been seen since. She was left behind."
"That--"
"Then she started getting beaten instead of her mother, at least three or four times a week. Her body was often covered in bruises. She always said it was from knocks, but we all knew what was going on. By the time we were in high school, her father had passed away."
"Gone?"
Nian Jinsi pursed her lips.
"How did you leave?"
"I went up the stairs after drinking, lost my footing, and fell down, breaking my neck."
Shentu Hai said: "Then her mother——"
"Oh, her mother came specially to see his body," Nian Jinsi said. "It is said that she looked at it for five minutes and even touched his broken neck."
"Then she can live with her mother?"
Nian Jinsi glanced at Shentu Hai in the rearview mirror and said, "I have to."
"She barely knew this woman, who already had another family. She felt more like a leftover mistake that she had to face again years later."
Shentu Hai did not respond.
"Her mother gave her money to finish high school, but she lost contact with her after she was admitted to university," Nian Jinsi said. "She had to earn all her tuition and living expenses on her own."
"Where is the cat?" Shentu Hai suddenly remembered the beginning of the story.
"The cat was thrown to death by her father." Nian Jinsi said in a very calm tone.
Shentu Hai fell silent.
"That's about it." said Nian Jinsi.
They stopped at a quiet lane. Daybreak had already begun, and Zhuang Xiaodie returned to the hearse. Shentu Hai was still processing the sudden revelation, and for a moment he remained silent. Zhuang Xiaodie leaned back in her chair. They were both exhausted, yet their spirits remained tense.
The next step is to find a long hose to wash the car and clean the trunk.
But what next? Shentu Hai looked at Zhuang Xiaodie, then at Nian Jinsi.
Now that things have come to this, where should they go?
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