Chapter 39
Zhou Yue did not see the "most spacious and bright ward" where Xiao Yuan lived. She didn't know whether Jiang Huai had lied to her, because they returned to Shenzhen the next day. That was her first time to visit Jiang Huai's real "home".
It was already evening when she got off the boat, and she and Jiang Huai went to a hotel.
Unlike the magnificent yet somewhat rustic style of old-fashioned restaurants in Hong Kong, this place is very new. The magnificent ceiling lights are so bright that people can't open their eyes. The phoenixes inlaid with gold and jade on the walls and the soaring blue dragons on the dragon pillars are reflected on the gray and white cloud-patterned diamond tiles, as if the dragon and phoenix are circling in the clouds.
On the first floor were people in black suits. The sounds of drinking, playing drinking games, playing cards and laughing and cursing were so loud that the crystal ceiling was shaking. The moment they saw Jiang Huai, there was absolute silence, as if they had pressed the pause button. They all stood up in a flash, and there was not even the sound of tables and chairs being dragged. Jiang Huai raised his hand, and it was as if he had pressed the play button, and in an instant, there was a bang and the place exploded again.
Zhou Yue saw familiar faces everywhere. She took the opportunity to look at the group of people while Jiang Huai was talking to a man in a black suit, but there was no one. She looked at Jiang Huai again, who was still listening to what the man said. The back of the gray head was facing her. She took the opportunity to look again, again and again, but still no one.
The second floor was filled with people in elegant suits, many of them accompanied by female companions. They wore evening gowns shimmering with scales, which made the Buccellati necklaces, as luxurious as peacock feathers, on their slender necks even more dazzling.
She wore a sapphire blue evening gown, holding Jiang Huai's arm, and looked at one blurry-faced person after another who came to toast her. Their smiles were all exactly the same flattering, and the eyes looking at her made her doubt whether they could see her at all, or whether she was just a ghost, a mist, and what they saw through her was their own desires.
The leather-scented cigars and the sweet Bulgari perfume were suffocating. Her ankles were cold and stiff in her silver high heels, from tingling to numbness. She smiled at them, just as she had in Hong Kong.
But Jiang Huai was different. He was obviously much happier than when he was in Hong Kong. The fleeting ruthless haze never appeared in his eyes again. But that was not inner peace, but a brief calm after part of his ambition was satisfied.
"Mrs. Jiang is so beautiful!" When they said this to their female companions, their faces had a decent expression as if they had been trained. There was no longer the impudence of wanting to strip her naked with their eyes. They didn't even dare to look at her, look at Jiang Huai.
"No, no," he smiled, and calmly glanced at the person who handed him the wine. The glass that was about to reach Zhou Yue fell down. He adjusted his glasses and looked at her, smiling even more happily, "We are preparing for pregnancy!"
Suddenly the atmosphere became boiling.
"Congratulations!"
"Wow, Mr. Jiang is so handsome, and Mrs. Jiang is so pretty, if they have a baby, it's bound to be a big star!"
…
"What are you looking at?"
After the dinner, Jiang Huai's car drove into a place she had never been to before. It was pitch black, and he carried her into the bedroom in the dark.
"Stars." She said, there were shadows of trees outside the window, and through the gaps she could see the stars in the night sky.
"Hmph," he smiled, picking up his tie from the bedside and tying it around her eyes, "Focus."
She held his face in her hands and stroked his eyes with her fingertips. He was stunned for a moment, but closed his eyes obediently, allowing her to outline his features. "Your eyes are so long, reaching your temples," she said, carefully touching the tip of his nose. "Your nose is so high, like a cold mountain." When she stroked the upturned corners of his mouth, she chuckled, "You are laughing, your mouth is grinning from ear to ear." As his movements suddenly intensified, she stroked his back, which was so delicate that there was not a single scar on it, and cried. Her tears soaked his tie in the violent shaking.
"Still so naive." He breathed comfortably in her ear, but just when they were being affectionate, he suddenly screamed. Her nails pierced into his back, and blood slid down his flawless skin onto the bed sheet.
"You really want to die so badly." He raised his hand and slapped her in the face. He gritted his teeth in excitement, and beads of sweat splashed down his face. He grabbed her wrists with one hand and pinched her neck with the other. The dull impact of flesh and the crisp sound of wrist bones breaking came one after another.
…
The sound of water in the bathroom lasted for more than half an hour. Zhou Yue stood under the shower head and rubbed her body with a towel over and over again. Her wrists felt like they were broken and she had no strength at all. But she still rubbed the skin at the base of her legs. The blood spots were particularly glaring on her fair skin, even redder than the rows of teeth marks and finger marks.
She rubbed her face desperately while watching it upside down, and tears flowed into her nose along with the water.
Jiang Huai fell asleep in the early morning with a contemptuous attitude of a victor, and she hasn't woken up yet. She stood in front of the mirror, and the misty water vapor gradually turned into flowing water droplets.
The rising sun shone through the colorful glass windows and onto the black tiled walls of the bathroom, turning them into sapphire blue and sapphire red. In the hazy light and shadow, she could see the texture of the tiles for the first time.
She walked over to take a look in confusion, then touched it and immediately pulled her hand back. The tiles were bumpy, with fine protrusions of different sizes, arranged vertically and horizontally, and warm, like a breathing animal.
Zhou Yue stood there, racking her brains to think of what material could make it so realistic, when she heard a woman's voice outside the door, calling out something, as if from a long distance away. It took a long time to hear clearly that she was calling "Madam".
Zhou Yue opened the door and saw a woman standing outside. She was older than Aunt Xu, about sixty years old. She was not as smart and agile as Aunt Xu. She had an expressionless face and lowered eyes. She was wearing gray silk clothes and her long hair was tied up in a plain bun. Not a single hair fell down, like a piece of felt.
"lady."
Now Zhou Yue was sure that she was talking to her.
"Madam, my last name is Wu. You can just call me Auntie Wu." She probably spoke Mandarin too seldom, so she spoke slowly, enunciating each word. But she tried very hard to speak clearly, her effort almost servile, with her waist bent and her eyes never raised from beginning to end.
"Madam, breakfast is ready." She leaned forward and whispered, raising her hand eagerly and pointing to the living room. Across the long, dim corridor, she could see the dining table filled with dishes, steam rising in the sunlight.
This place was too old, too outdated, dark and damp. She was surprised that there was such a place in Shenzhen. The gorgeous and luxurious arched doorways and carved Roman columns, the wallpaper with acanthus leaves and roses were obviously very old, dull and mottled, and the gorgeous and intricate crystal chandeliers seemed to be products of the last century.
The huge oil painting at the corner of the stairs is in typical classical Baroque style, with rich colors, strong contrast of light and shadow, and emphasizes solemnity.
But the woman in the painting had a Chinese face like an ink painting. She was wearing a theatrical costume, a bun with patches on her hair, and a slender waist. Her makeup was too plain, and the aqua red eye makeup immediately added a bit of eerie ghostliness. No matter how you look at it, she looked like the person standing at the stairs at this moment, with her shirt collar still standing up. She was buttoning her cuffs while glancing at the dining table downstairs. Her eyes turned to her and then immediately moved away. She turned back to her room with a gloomy face.
Zhou Yue watched him disappear in bewilderment. At that moment, Wu Ma smiled. The wind blew a few strands of hair down her eyes, revealing her smile lines. Her voice was as old as a witch's: "Xiao Huai, you're so sorry." (Xiao Huai, this child is still embarrassed.)
Zhou Yue tilted her head back, the sound of car tires rubbing against each other broke the tranquility of the early morning. There was definitely more than one car parked outside the villa.
She thought back to the first two years she had been with Jiang Huai. She had no idea how he treated the people he was really close to. Now that she knew, it was too late.
The venomous snake swam back and forth, then stopped beside her, hissing and spitting out its tongue, gazing at her lovingly. It coiled itself around her ankle, injecting its venom into her bloodstream bit by bit. He watched as her skin festered, her organs failed, the air around her unable to enter her lungs, and she eventually died. The snake coiled around her ear, saying, "You are mine."
Zhou Yue lowered her head and remained silent for a long time. There was no light in the corridor and no shadow. Finally, she only said, "Thank you, Aunt Wu," and walked to the dining table.
As I took my first sip of Meiling porridge, the man upstairs came down, pulled out a chair, sat down, and changed his shirt into a short-sleeved polo shirt. While putting on his glasses, he said, "I'll go see Xiao Yuan later. He just recovered from his injury and moved. I'll go help him pack up and clean up."
"Okay." She tried her best to hide her heart that was beating again.
"Yeah." He nodded, took a sip of porridge, and chewed slowly. While chewing, he glanced at her wrist casually. She held the spoon in one hand and supported this hand with the other, and drank the porridge like this.
He stared at her for a moment, then withdrew his gaze and said coldly, holding the spoon, "You can go back to school, but I've agreed that attending classes every day is impossible. You can only audit one or two classes. Think carefully about it. If you don't want to, don't go."
"willing."
He didn't expect that she didn't get stubborn this time and agreed so readily. He raised his eyes to look at her, and when his eyes met hers, he lowered his head again and said, "Yes."
After finishing her meal, Zhou Yue went upstairs. All her pitiful belongings from her villa halfway up the mountain had been moved there and hung neatly in the shabby rosewood wardrobe. When she opened it, a faint woody fragrance wafted in. She took out a black and white polka-dot silk scarf and tied it around her neck.
Xiao Yuan was settled in Luohu District by Jianghuai. The house here was neither new nor old, with white painted walls and not many floors. The air was filled with the fragrance of rice and laundry detergent, and it was not as aggressive as the skyscrapers that sprang up in Shenzhen in the next decade or so.
If you want to get to that building, you have to walk up a long, gentle cement staircase first. The bougainvillea has all fallen, and the sunlight shines through the gaps between the lush green leaves. The mottled light and shadow are as fine as raindrops. The bluestone slabs are covered with moss and are loose, covered with broken leaves, and there are light clanging and rustling sounds when you step on them.
Later, she always liked to stand at the foot of the steps, tilting her neck to count numbers. She could never count past ten when a tall black shadow appeared. His expression could not be seen in the shadows of the trees that blocked out the sun. He walked down silently through the plum forest. Shadowy spots of light flowed on his black shirt, as if passing through time and memories to come to her. Only then could she see his face. He was looking at her quietly, and the corner of his mouth that was not smiling was calling her Madam under the swaying shadows of the trees. This was the rule, but there were no people from Jianghuai there. She thought he still hated her.
But those days always seemed to be sunny, with the chirping of cicadas and a gentle breeze. She walked beside him with her head lowered, waiting for him to feel sorry for her and make small talk. Every time she decided to ignore him and ignore whatever he said, but in the end she would be hooked by a word or two from him and start chattering non-stop. As she talked, she deliberately walked a step slower, walked around from behind him to his left, and watched the corners of his mouth that he couldn't suppress.
Perhaps the amount of words a person speaks in their lifetime is predetermined, or perhaps she subconsciously knew that it was one of God's few and dwindling mercies, and the total number of words she spoke in the following years was less than what she said in one day at that time.
But on the first day, Zhou Yue felt only nervous, but Jiang Huai was quite happy and asked his men to park the cars on the side of the road. This was a civilian area, and once his cars were parked there, the narrow road became even more crowded. The adults sighed, but the children didn't know, and had never seen such a large and imposing car. They gathered around holding marshmallows and popsicles, very curious and wanted to touch them. But before their little hands touched the iron sheet, a man in a black suit got out of the car. Without saying much, he slammed the car door, strode over and raised his hand to slap the little boy, but when he saw Zhou Yue, he immediately retracted his hand, so fast that it caught people off guard. He lowered his head, and her sunglasses reflected her angry face and Jiang Huai's smiling face.
"Do you like it?" Jiang Huai came over and touched the little boy's head with a smile. The little boy raised his little face to look at him with a marshmallow in his hand and nodded seriously, "Okay!" Jiang Huai smiled even more happily when he heard that. He picked him up and put him on the hood of the car. A lock of gray hair fell down, and he let the child's hand rest on his shoulder. The sweet cotton wool rubbed against his gray polo shirt. He adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and smiled with his eyes narrowed into slits, "Just play with it if you like it." He tapped the headlights of the car, signaling the people below to turn on the hazard lights. The headlights flashed a few times, and then he honked the horn a few times, making a group of children jump for joy, laughing and shouting.
After he had entertained the child enough, he came over and hugged Zhou Yue as they walked up the long stairs. "Are you happy?"
"You won't do anything to them, right?" Zhou Yue lowered her head blankly.
"Hmph," he said, wiping his hands over and over with a disdainful smile as he took the wet towel handed to him by his subordinates. "I just don't like going out with you. You're so boring." Suddenly, he remembered something and became happy again. "What do you northerners say? Oh, I've noticed you're quite serious!"
"That's the Beijing people. People where we live don't speak like that."
"I've noticed you're quite particular!" He threw away his towel and walked into a building first. The sunlight immediately dimmed, but he smiled brightly. "I'm telling you, you can't live on the top floor; it's too sunny, and you can't live on the ground floor; it's too damp. I've arranged for our brother to have the best lighting and the largest apartment, with north-south ventilation..."
The corridors were dusty, the stairs were low, and every household's security door was covered with upside-down Chinese characters for "Fu" and Spring Festival couplets. It had only been a short time since New Year, and the couplets were still new. As I approached, the scent of ink hit me, the aroma of rice filled the air, and I could faintly hear the clatter of spatulas flying around inside. It was noon, and the TV was playing the midday news. It must be because there were elderly people living there, so the volume was exceptionally loud...
She climbed up step by step, stopping in front of a door, her head lowered. The narrow corridor was covered in piles of debris, blocking the sunlight. But a ray of light still filtered through the dusty, rusty window frame and fell on the "Welcome Home" mat. He washed it every week. The red background was fluffy and soft, and the golden lettering was as warm as the setting sun...
So this is what it means to be homesick, she said softly to herself in her heart.
"Huh?" Jiang Huai looked up at the house number, then turned to confirm with the person next to him, "You're pretty accurate! This is it!"
Zhou Yue craned her neck to look at his excited face, then pointed to the other end of the corridor. "There are two households over there, and only one here, with a separate iron door. Maybe the two households were connected to form one, so this is the largest one."
"Oh!" Jiang Huai suddenly understood and proudly praised to the people around him: "Look! Look! See if your sister-in-law is smart!" After that, he put his arm around her waist, hugged her with a smile and stepped aside, letting the people who followed them block the door and knock on it, but for them, this knock was already very light, with a certain degree of respect.
Zhou Yue stood by the door and listened to the slow and steady clacking of spatulas and the stop of the range hood. She remembered the quick and light sound of the fabric of children's trouser legs rubbing against each other, but now she heard a series of dragging footsteps, one drag, one drag, and the soles of the slippers rubbing against the floor made a slow and steady rubbing sound.
The door opened, and Zhou Yue only saw two black plastic slippers. Both feet were bare, with round nails neatly trimmed, but the left ankle was bandaged.
The smell of medicine in the room wafted out from the open door. Zhou Yue forced herself to look up and saw his legs. The old scars were like the bumps on an old tree, and it was unclear above the knees. He was wearing black shorts and a black vest. The scars above his collarbone, the gunshot wounds and the burns spread like tongues of fire, devouring all the way to his jaw.
But he was smiling, as calm as the afternoon sun. The willow trees beside the sighing bridge swayed gently across the shimmering lake in the breeze. He had long since stopped going to school. When he took her to school, she would sit on the back of the bicycle, hugging his waist, and lie to him, saying that the tears soaking the back of his tattered white T-shirt were drool from her sleep...
She is a liar. She lied to him that she would never love him again, lied to him that she went to school, and lied to him that she didn't want him anymore. The one who deserves to die the most is not Jiang Huai, but her.
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