Chapter 49
After the typhoon, Shenzhen was sunny and bright again. During those days, Zhou Yue still ran back and forth between home and the store. The person who picked her up and dropped her off was not fixed. Sometimes it was Xie Jun, sometimes it was someone else.
Shenzhen is developing so fast, with tall buildings springing up like mushrooms after rain. Yesterday you saw a dusty empty lot, but when you came back two days later you were lost. When you looked up in confusion, you only saw the green cloth covering the steel and concrete fluttering in the wind. On the red banner, the words "Huainan Group" always appeared together with "Warm Congratulations", looking majestic and prosperous.
Every morning Zhou Yue would be stuck in traffic on her way to the store. The hustle and bustle of pedestrians and the jingle of bicycles hurried past her in the morning sun and breeze. No one knew her, and no one saw her. Occasionally, someone would glance inside through the black rear window of the Bentley and see their own faces.
The car stopped at a red light. The people in the car next to her were always holding the steering wheel and talking on the phone, either happy or anxious, but still no one saw her.
The country is peaceful and the people are prosperous.
Wu Ma also returned, saying that Jiang Huai had called the countryside in Meizhou several times, urging her to return, saying that his wife was alone at home with no one to take care of her. Zhou Yue couldn't imagine Jiang Huai repeatedly calling a white-haired old woman, staring at her from behind and asking, "Are you feeling better? When will you be back?"
She felt that Jiang Huai had an attitude towards Wu Ma similar to that of a son towards his mother, both annoyed and submissive. Jiang Huai said that he could only live in the attic for the first few years after returning to the Jiang family. His father, Jiang Jide, made his fortune with the help of his father-in-law. He had to take care of his wife's mood in everything at home and didn't even dare to say a word to his son. Jiang Huai was only 1.85 meters tall, but he couldn't even straighten his back in the Jiang family's mansion worth hundreds of millions.
The servants would read their master's mood and always bring cold soup and rice. Only Wu Ma felt sorry for him and would stuff anything delicious or useful into the attic door.
Generally speaking, Jiang Huai is a person who remembers favors. This is the only card in Zhou Yue's hand, a ray of hope in desperate situations, and even God is angry and says that she deserves revenge.
After Wu Ma came back, she felt better, with a brighter complexion and a better mood. After finishing her work, she hummed a Hakka folk song from Meizhou while weaving a few peanut-shaped mosquito repellent sachets with mugwort leaves. She stuffed honeysuckle, mint, and lemongrass inside and hung them on the bed curtains in the second-floor bedroom. Standing on a small stool, she smiled joyfully and said to Zhou Yue in broken Mandarin, "May you have a baby soon! May you have a baby soon, my lady." She said that Zhou Yue had gained weight, had a rounder face, and could eat and sleep well. "She eats half a chicken for a meal!"
Zhou Yue didn't go to the hospital or even the pharmacy. She didn't dare, even though every day after taking a shower and standing in front of the bathroom mirror she could still remember the opened pack of sanitary napkins behind the mirror that hadn't been used for a month.
Three days passed, and on the fourth day, Jiang Huai still hadn't returned.
At sunset, the sunlight was as thin as water, and then disappeared completely. The mannequin in the living room, entangled with needles and threads, became eerie. The half-made suit was still lying there, and the expensive material shone with a cold, watery light in the twilight.
Zhou Yue looked back at Aunt Wu in the kitchen again and again, but couldn't help asking, "Aunt Wu, Mr. Jiang hasn't come back yet. He said he would be back in three days."
But Wu Ma understood her words differently and brought out the soup and placed it on the dining table. She had a skeletal deformity and walked unsteadily. As she staggered towards the kitchen, she smiled and said slowly, "Don't worry, Madam. Xiao Huai really likes you..."
Zhou Yue stopped looking at her and stopped talking. She turned her gaze back to the TV. She liked to watch a news program on the local channel. It was called a local channel, but it would broadcast current affairs in Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. It started at six o'clock every evening, but today it was almost seven o'clock and the commercials were played over and over again without any sign of it starting.
There was no main light in the living room, only a ceiling light above the dining table. Zhou Yue was curled up in the shadows wrapped in a blanket, staring at the cell phone she had thrown in the gap of the sofa. After thinking it over again and again, she picked it up and called Jiang Huai.
He picked up the phone almost as soon as it rang, "Hello." This was his habit, just saying hello without saying anything or asking what she wanted.
"Hello, Mr. Jiang," she looked at the black TV screen, "How are you? You're in Shanghai."
"Finally you remembered me?" His voice was light, teasing as usual. The echoes of the piano and fountain echoed around them, suggesting they were in an empty room. She forced a smile and said, "I didn't dare call casually, for fear of ruining your plans."
"What can you do to me?" He also smiled, paused for a second, "It's okay."
"Oh..." Zhou Yue smiled and smoothed her hair, "I'm glad you're okay. If you're okay... come back early."
"good."
"Okay..." Zhou Yue smiled and nodded, not knowing what else to say, but the other party was reluctant to hang up the phone. The living room was so quiet that she could even hear his slight breathing.
"Then if you have nothing else, I'll hang up first..." She glanced at the dining table. Wu Ma wasn't there. She never listened when she and Jiang Huai were on the phone, but the table was already filled with dishes and soup. "Wu Ma, dinner is ready. I'm going to eat."
He didn't speak.
“…Hello?” He didn’t dare to hang up the phone unless she agreed. After waiting for a long time, he spoke first when she was about to speak.
"moon."
He never called her by her name, Zhou Yue, Yue Yue, nothing. He didn't even call her that often. Most of the time, she would take the initiative to move over when she noticed he was looking at her. Even if he called her, it would be "you" or a mischievous "ah" to express intimacy.
"What's wrong?" She frowned slowly and looked at the TV screen in confusion, but it was dark and the TV screen was also dark.
"I really love you," he said, his words clear, frank and powerful.
Zhou Yue's breathing stopped, her palms and back felt cold and wet, her skirt was soaked from being gripped in her hands, and she forced a smile, "Why are you suddenly saying that..."
"And you?"
Zhou Yue opened her mouth and watched the steam rising from the table...
"I love you too."
He smiled before he finished speaking, as if he had received a satisfactory answer.
"Yeah, I get it." He said, and she could almost see him smiling and nodding. "Hurry up and eat. Then go to bed early. Tomorrow is Monday and you still have to go to school."
"good."
He paused for a moment and said, "I'll be back soon."
"Okay." She nodded again and said, "Goodbye."
"goodbye."
That day was like any other. Even the news broadcast didn't cover any major international events. At 8:30, the local station finally broadcast the news from the Pearl River Delta. It was all about trivial matters: a couple had a fight, and officers from a local Shenzhen police station braved the scorching heat to mediate a dispute at a resident's home. The children had returned to school, and the fruit-flavored gel pens sold at the stationery store outside the school made them dizzy and nauseous. They suspected they were poisoned by the fragrance, possibly due to inferior raw materials.
Zhou Yue curled up on the sofa and looked at the snow-capped screen. Then she looked up at the clock on the living room wall. It was half past nine.
That day was so similar to any other day. Even the chirping of cicadas and the ringing of bells were as weak and dull as usual. The fragrance of the flowers in the yard was damp and cool, drifting in from the balcony. Nothing was foreshadowed. She didn't know that Zhou Yue would end her life in the most cruel way, nor did she know that the big news that was supposed to be reported that day was a murder in a tube-shaped building in the suburbs of Shenzhen.
The murder had happened the day before. A pregnant woman had committed suicide at the entrance of a certain house's staircase. It was said she was high on drugs and had taken her own life in a haze. There were a lot of transient people in that area, and it was a mixed crowd, so a few drug addicts wasn't unusual. Normally, no one cared, and it was impossible to control them. But that day, almost all the police in Shenzhen were there. Armed police and special police surrounded the hallway, completely blocking out any escape. She jumped out at the perfect moment, clutching a baby, followed by a smaller child, and pregnant with another. She raised a kitchen knife and proceeded to dissect herself like a fish...
That night Zhou Yue still slept in the small room on the first floor. The moonlight was everywhere, and the window pane shone on the bed sheets, dividing the moonlight. She had a long and distant dream. At noon, when the sun was shining brightly, Kang Xingxing rode a bicycle to take her to school. The bicycle jingled as it passed the Bridge of Sighs. The willow trees brushed against the shimmering water under the bridge, brushing out a shower of tiny stars.
"Crying?"
"I didn't!" She hugged his waist and wiped her tears on his white T-shirt. He smiled and said, "Why are you crying? You going to college is the same as me going to college. You are me and I am you."
"As long as you live, I live. Don't forget me."
She held him, looking at him from behind with her head propped up in confusion. Slowly, he changed. A scar appeared at the corner of his mouth, his narrow, sharp eyes became straight, his dark skin turned wheat-colored, and his tattered white T-shirt became a black jacket...
"Stars!" She suddenly jumped up and rushed into the darkness. There was really a solid and tall body in the darkness. The smell of hot leather and tobacco swirled into her nostrils. There were all the smells she had ever smelled in her life: the smell of cooking smoke from the tube-shaped building, the smell of the sun on the sheets that had been dried in the sun for an afternoon, and the smell of coal slag floating in the hard cold wind that made people runny noses in winter... It was real, he was hot. She hugged him tightly, listening to his heavy heartbeat, "Don't leave me, I really love you, I love you so much, you are my life, you are myself, I beg you, please let me live." She covered herself in his jacket and cried, sad and helpless, but there was nothing. His eyes were sad, her tears and screams flowed into his heart, and he was silent.
"Xingxing, please take me away." She raised her head with tears in her eyes and looked at him resolutely, "Please take me away, I really can't hold on any longer, I'm dying."
He smiled and opened his arms to pull her into his embrace.
"good."
…
She couldn't believe it. She thought she must have heard it wrong and stared at him blankly. "Really?" After a moment, she suddenly realized and grabbed his collar, making the leather crackle. "If you dare let me go alone, I will die right now."
"How could that be?" He smiled and held her face, kissed away the bitter tears from the corners of her mouth, and kissed her eyes. "The stars are the home of the moon. I want to take you home and marry you."
"As for your side of the matter, you...you must not lie to me!" Her eyes were crystal clear, with nothing in them. She looked up at him intently, staring into his eyes without blinking.
"It's over." He looked at one place blankly, then smiled and nodded, "It's all over."
"You won?"
"Yes, I won." He held her and rocked her gently, looking at the cold moonlight on the ground.
"Oh!" Her eyes widened, tears still rolling in her eyes. As her eyes rolled, tears fell onto the bed sheet. She smiled and muttered softly: "Yes, yes, you win, you win... I thought, he didn't come back, he must have been arrested by the police in Shanghai, you win, I know you will win..."
That night was the first time he took her for a drive. He said that when he made money he would buy a fancy car and take her around the world to see the sights. But she thought a big car would cost a lot of money and she couldn't bear it, so she told him to just buy a big truck so they could travel around the world and make money transporting goods.
Now their wish has come true. The evening breeze is blowing, and Shenzhen has finally become peaceful in the early morning. The lights of thousands of houses have fallen into a peaceful sleep. Only a few lights are left on in the high-rise buildings in the distance. None of them belongs to them, no one knows them, and no one remembers them. But it doesn't matter. She sees the sea. If she keeps walking along the coastline, she and he will be able to go home.
He took her on a boat. The boat owner was an old man. He burst into tears when he saw her and held his hand tightly, as if looking at an old friend through this young face. Zhou Yue didn't know who he was. He only said that he was someone she could absolutely trust.
The cabin was small, with only one bed. She wrapped herself in the quilt, listening to the sound of water outside the boat and looking at his face under the kerosene lamp.
He sat on the edge of the bed, looking down at her, his big white teeth bared in a silly grin, like a fool who had scrimped and saved his entire life and finally brought home a beautiful wife. His round, clumsy fingers traced the contours of her eyebrows and eyes over and over again, as if he were looking at a rare treasure. This treasure belonged to him, had accompanied him through his life, and was enough to sustain him through the cruelest fate, the most terrible pain...
She held his hand, not letting go for a minute, not a second, and not closing her eyes for a minute or a second. When her eyes were so sore and dry, she blinked, and then quickly opened them. He was still there, he was still by her side.
The horizon brightened, the black sky turned gray, the stars disappeared, and only a transparent afterimage of the moon was still hanging in the sky. The waves hit the side of the boat, and the sound of it remained unchanged. It was so quiet that even the seagulls seemed tired of calling and fell silent.
Zhou Yue's brain felt as if it was stuffed with cotton. She closed her eyes for a moment, longer than usual, and never opened them again.
Kang Xingxing was sitting on the edge of the bed. His name was also Yuan Shouyue. His master asked him to give himself a name, and he gave himself this. His master said that he and his father were of the same character. They both loved to be dogs for women. When he saw his mother, she couldn't even walk. But they were so passionate that they gave birth to him before they even got married. The wedding banquet and the full moon banquet were held together. His father held him in his arms as if he was holding a gold brick, and his face was almost broken with laughter. None of them, the brothers who had sworn all their lives for each other, were allowed to touch a toe of his precious son.
When the master said this, he remained silent as usual. He could not remember his father, and even his mother was just a vague shadow.
But at this moment, he looked down at her. The man who was holding the baby and grinning foolishly at the table became himself, and the woman who was wearing a wedding dress and following behind him with an angry face, stretching out her arms for fear that he would drop the child became her.
The master said that he was the same as his father in this respect, and could not even fart after three kicks. But he felt that the master did not understand the feelings of a person who did not like to talk, and language could not express anything.
So in the end he decided not to say anything. He just leaned over and kissed her, took the gun, and placed an old, yellowed passbook next to her pillow. The handwriting inside was worn and frayed, and the sea breeze blew it, and it turned to the unfinished page. The ink of the last line of small words was new.
Back then, the master rambled on for a long time before he said two words: "Give me money."
The passbook was held down by an old black Nokia phone, and on the screen was an edited but unsent text message:
"I love you."
He thought about it, scratched his head with a silly smile, and finally pressed the delete key, then walked into the night with the gun in hand...
…
When Zhou Yue opened her eyes again, golden sunlight poured into the cabin.
There was no one by the bed. A white-haired corpse on the ground had become stiff, and its skin was grayish white, like lime putty on the wall. A man was sitting on the cabinet opposite. He was wearing a black shirt and black pants, with his legs supported by his elbows, leaning forward to look at her. The rippling water reflected the fragmented sunlight and shone on his handsome face. He was smiling, and he seemed unaware of the hideous scar like a rift valley under his shirt torn by a bullet. The blood splattered on his face had dried up.
"Madam is awake," he smiled warmly, "Boss Jiang asked me to take you home."
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