Chapter 44 44.MEmento·MORI
Xie Kang was concentrating on revising the format of a meeting draft on his computer, and he didn't even bother to drink the full mug of water at hand.
Suddenly someone patted his shoulder from behind. Xie Kang was startled and turned around to see that it was Teacher Liu.
Teacher Liu said with a smile, "Teacher Zhuang is outside, waiting for you, right?"
Xie Kang peered out the office window and saw Zhuang Yongyuan, leaning against the railing, looking down at his phone. He was wearing a baggy black-gray sports jacket, jeans, and canvas shoes, looking like a student.
Xie Kang quickly stood up. Teacher Liu didn't leave, so he asked him, "Do you and Teacher Zhuang go to get off work together every day?"
"He didn't have a car, and I passed by his house on my way to work, so I gave him a ride."
Teacher Liu laughed and said, "How can people be so different? I asked my husband to leave ten minutes early every day to take me home, but he was not happy about it."
She patted Xie Kang on the shoulder and said, "I really don't know which girl Xiao Xie will marry in the future."
The section chief happened to be in the office as well. He overheard their conversation and looked up to add, "Did Xiao Xie once ride his motorcycle to bring Xiao Zhuang to class and was he caught and punished?"
He then said to Teacher Liu, "Don't you see what Xiaozhuang is like? He's a big star. My daughter said their band's appearance fee is hundreds of thousands. If your tuition fee can be that high, not to mention your husband, I'd rush to take you in too."
Teacher Liu drank his tea, spat the chrysanthemum he had swallowed onto the tissue in his hand, and said, "I can't count on earning hundreds of thousands, but I'm hoping the section chief can give our teachers in this section a raise."
Xie Kang said: "He was punished a few times. Captain Duan has a good memory."
"When you were in school, the director of the Moral Education Department was still Wang Biaopu, right?" The section chief lowered his voice. "Old Wang is not doing well now. He had a stroke and fell at home. It was too late to find him. He's still in a coma."
"Oh, my father-in-law is also..."
While the section chief and Teacher Liu were lamenting the impermanence of life, Xie Kang quickly slipped out and asked Zhuang Yongyuan, "Did you leave get out of class early?"
He set the alarm to remind himself to go find Zhuang Yongyuan at a certain time. There was still half an hour before the alarm went off.
Zhuang Yongyuan shrugged and said, "A teacher asked me to switch classes, and I have nothing to do right now."
"Why don't you just come in?" Xie Kang looked at him suspiciously. "How old are you and still afraid to enter the office?"
"Don't talk nonsense." Zhuang Yongyuan pushed Xie Kang and said, "Let's go."
Xie Kang hesitated a little: "Are you really going?"
"Didn't we agree on this? You are not allowed to go back on your word."
"Okay... okay."
Xie Kang tugged at the zipper of his jacket, subconsciously clenched his teeth, hurriedly said goodbye to his colleagues, and clocked out.
Xie Kang watched the red lights above him, feeling relieved instead of his usual annoyance. The sky was gloomy, and a heavy rainstorm was about to begin. When the navigation system prompted him to park by the roadside 500 meters ahead, he took his right hand off the steering wheel and grasped Zhuang Yongyuan's hand.
Zhuang Yongyuan glanced at Xie Kang and said, "Your hands are so cold."
"It's very cold today." Xie Kang parked the car, opened the door and got out. They were still some distance away from their destination, but the rest of the way was stairs, so they had to walk.
Halfway through the walk, Xie Kang asked Zhuang Yongyuan, "Did you bring an umbrella? It might rain."
"Don't you have an umbrella in your car?"
"Oh, I forgot to take it down." Xie Kang said dejectedly.
At the end of the stairs, there were several low, unremarkable tiled buildings side by side, with poorly tended plants growing out from the rusty security nets. The sky was dim, and from the perspective of Xie Kang and Zhuang Yongyuan, looking up, there was an indescribable sense of oppression.
"It's here." Zhuang Yongyuan said.
"How do you know that there are... people performing that kind of ritual here?"
"I asked my old neighbors."
"oh……"
They then went up the stairs, and Zhuang Yongyuan took out his cell phone to look up the specific address.
"Building No. 3, fifth floor, turn left at the stairs and walk to the end..." he read.
Xie Kang swallowed hard and before he could count the floors carefully, he found their destination: the building on the far right, a suite on the top floor corner, with faded red cloth covering the windows.
A gust of wind blew from nowhere down the stairwell, blowing eerily past them. They climbed the stairs silently, reaching the fifth floor. Turning left, they found the house at the end, a stark contrast to the surroundings. It lacked the usual apartment doors, but instead resembled a palace or temple, with a green-tiled roof and flying eaves. The carved wooden doors were also draped with red cloth. An incense burner hung from an iron hook on the ceiling.
Because the corridor was narrow, the entire door was smaller than a normal temple door, resembling a miniature model. The closer you got, the thicker the faint scent of incense in the air became.
Xie Kang suddenly asked Zhuang Yongyuan anxiously, "Zhuang Yongyuan, will you feel better after watching the falling Yin?"
Zhuang Yongyuan stared at the red cloth on the door in a trance and said, "I don't know either."
He frowned and asked Xie Kang, "Are you scared? Otherwise, go home first."
"I agreed to come with you." Xie Kang said, and walked forward and knocked on the door three times.
The wooden door was quickly opened, and a young girl asked them, "Who are you looking for?"
Xie Kang felt that the voice sounded familiar, and tried hard to see what the person in the crack of the door looked like, but there was no light inside, only a dim red light, and he couldn't see anything clearly.
Zhuang Yongyuan said, "Uncle Huang Yu from Kaiping Street recommended us here."
There was a sound of footsteps. The girl probably went back to ask the people in the house. After a while, she came back with "thump thump thump", opened the door and turned on the light.
When the lights came on, the three of them looked surprised.
“Shen Xifu?!”
"Teacher Xie, Teacher Zhuang?!"
Xie Kang asked incredulously, "Is this your home? What does your family do?"
Ana Shen looked embarrassed and said, “It’s my grandma’s house, she’s the one who does it.”
Xie Kang asked suspiciously, "Didn't you tell me you were going to the dentist and asked for leave this afternoon? Why are you here?"
“I…it was Grandma who insisted that I ask for leave to help her. My aunt went out for something.” After Shen Xifu finished speaking, she asked Xie Kang, “Teacher, do you know what this place is for?”
"I know." Zhuang Yongyuan answered quickly.
The old lady inside the house shouted, "Fu Fu, let them in."
Shen Xifu was obedient and didn't ask any more questions. She led Xie Kang and Zhuang Yongyuan inside. Xie Kang didn't forget to remind Shen Xifu as they walked: "Don't tell anyone that we have been here."
“Teacher, don’t tell others what my grandma is doing.” Shen Xifu said sullenly.
The furnishings in the house are somewhere between those of a temple and an ordinary home. There are plaques, lanterns, stone lions, as well as a television and cupboards. On the altar in front of the shrine are electronic lotus flowers, incense burners, napkins, rice cups, a Buddhist chanting machine, and even a pair of dentures in a stainless steel cup in the corner.
Xie Kang looked around and saw the windows sealed with bricks. He felt uneasy and broke out in a cold sweat. In front of Shen Xifu, he couldn't behave intimately with Zhuang Yongyuan, so he just leaned against him for warmth.
Shen Xifu's grandma walked out of the room slowly in cotton slippers. The old woman's hair was completely white, and except that she looked more capable, she looked like the grandmas you can see everywhere in the vegetable market and the park.
"Who is Yilai looking for?"
Zhuang Yongyuan and Xie Kang looked at each other, and Shen Xifu handed each of them a cup of tea. Zhuang Yongyuan took a few sips and asked, "Can you just say my name?"
"My place is simpler." The old lady pointed to a row of plastic chairs on the side and said, "Sit down first, sit down first."
Xie Kang sat down, then immediately stood up nervously, picked up the thermos and poured himself some water. In the short ten minutes that Grandma and Shen Xifu were preparing, he had already gone back and forth several times and drank five glasses of water.
Zhuang Yongyuan looked at him puzzledly and asked, "Are you so afraid of this kind of thing?"
Although Pingnan is full of temples and churches, Xie Kang's family has no religious beliefs. Zhuang Yongyuan always thought that Xie Kang was a materialist.
Xie Kang licked his lips and said, "I'm not afraid."
“You…” Zhuang Yongyuan hesitated to speak, Xie Kang turned his head away, staring at Shen Xifu who was walking towards him, and ignored Zhuang Yongyuan.
Shen Xifu was obviously uncomfortable facing the teachers in the school, and awkwardly gave each of them a three-finger-wide red cloth strip, lowered her head and said, “Tie this in front of your eyes.”
Xie Kang took the cloth and covered his eyes with it. The cloth was not thick and could let light through, but as soon as he covered his eyes with it, he felt that everything was dark and he could not see anything.
He seemed to smell blood again.
He wanted to tie a knot behind his head with a piece of cloth, but failed after several attempts. He dropped the cloth and picked it up again. It was the coldest time of winter, but he was hot and humid all over, with a layer of sticky sweat on his forehead.
"Let me help you." Zhuang Yongyuan's voice appeared in the darkness, followed by his hands, which moved swiftly behind Xie Kang's head to tie the red cloth strip.
Xie Kang let out a long breath, stretched out his hand as Shen Xifu requested, and noticed that she was tying a thin rope around his right wrist.
The world fell silent along with the darkness before his eyes. Xie Kang felt a little dizzy, inexplicably relaxed, even excited, and he could smell the smell of blood from time to time.
The rope in his hand was pulled by someone. Xie Kang thought it was Grandma Shen, and Zhuang Yongyuan's voice appeared again.
"Don't be nervous, I'm here with you," he said.
The smell of blood faded a little. Xie Kang held his breath and calmed down. The flickering light of candles and incense sticks lit up before his eyes. Granny Shen asked again, "Who is Yilai looking for?"
Xie Kang said almost calmly, "We're looking for Li Xiuyu."
"Place of origin, year of birth and death?"
"My hometown is here, a native of Pingnan. Born on August 17, 1992, and died on August 16, 2011."
Two summers. In the summer of 2010, Li Xiuyu's performance in a competition wasn't good enough to get into a top university, but she did receive an acceptance letter from a Shanghai university. They celebrated Li Xiuyu's birthday and agreed to return to Shanghai the following year to reunite and continue their lesbian relationship. But after that day, they didn't see Li Xiuyu again for the next year.
The following summer, in 2011, Li Xiuyu jumped from his room window the day before his birthday. He died instantly from the nineteenth floor. The next afternoon, Xie Kang received a call reminding him to pick up the birthday cake he had ordered for Li Xiuyu.
The smell of incense became stronger and stronger. Grandma Shen lit a handful of yellow paper and threw it into the burning gold bucket, muttering: "The sky is clear, the earth is spiritual, please come and ask for the truth, Third Aunt."
"Ask for the clear and the sorrowful, please, Third Aunt, come out of the altar."
"Close your eyes," Shen Xifu said. Her crisp voice was like a drop of ink melting into water, dissolving in Xie Kang's increasingly chaotic consciousness and spreading outward.
"Yin Dan meets the Yin Palace, the Yin Palace Lord, opens the palace. Stride to meet, every inch is clear. The big road gate is flat. The small road gate is through the dungeon."
His scattered consciousness slowly gathered, yet it still felt strange and peculiar. The black mist before him gradually dissipated, revealing a faint point of light in the distance. Xie Kang instinctively moved towards it.
He thought of Zhuang Yongyuan, but he couldn't look around, let alone make a sound, so he could only continue to move closer anxiously.
"Cross the bridge with your hands behind your back, and the bronze snake and iron rat will dodge aside. Walk quickly until you reach the hexagonal stone, where you will find good tea."
Flowers and grass stood there, motionless and rigid, their colors vibrant. Large expanses of gray flagstones formed the road. Xie Kang looked down at the dividing line between the flagstones, which was passing faster and faster, indicating that he was constantly moving forward.
He had done his homework before coming. He should see pavilions, towers and ancient-style palaces. If he was lucky, he might even see the ghost of Li Xiuyu. That ghost would tell him, "I forgive you. You didn't betray us."
But there was nothing there. A gray building blocked his way.
As soon as he saw the building, Xie Kang became extremely nervous. He wanted to leave, but when he turned back with great difficulty, the path he came from was already covered by flowers and plants, which were rising from the ground in clusters towards him, pushing him closer to the building.
The doors and windows of the building were all boarded up. The closer he got to it, the clearer Xie Kang knew what he was about to see. Grandma Shen's voice was no longer audible. He was too far away from his body, so far that it seemed he could never return.
He regretted it. This was not an area he should be involved in. He was always like this, overestimating his own abilities and being self-righteous. There were so many things in this world that he could not do.
It was a little after one in the afternoon, the sun was high in the sky, the sky and the earth were a pale white, the sun was blazing everywhere, and there was no shade to be found. Xie Kang ran forward, until the taste of blood welled up in his throat, but he still forced himself to run faster.
Finally standing at the foot of the building, he looked up and saw that he was almost there. Ten minutes faster, and he would be able to beat Li Xiuyu to death.
The moment Xie Kang arrived, his flesh and blood body plummeted to the ground, landing in front of him, his limbs broken into strange shapes. He blinked at Xie Kang, trying to say something, but only spat out a mouthful of blood. No amount of medals could keep Li Xiuyu.
Xie Kang turned and ran away. The flowers and plants that were there before disappeared. The sun set and two walls stood up beside him. He gradually walked into the room. One by one, the furniture was put back in place. It looked like the old house before he moved.
It was still a hot afternoon. He opened the door of Grandpa's room. Grandpa was taking a nap as usual, with his legs and arms stretched out straight and his body cold.
It wasn't that he didn't want to be better, it was that the deaths of others were chasing him. Before leaving, Xie Kang finally heard Grandma Shen's voice: "Hurry up, hurry up, walk to the hexagonal bricks, there's good tea underground. Hurry up, hurry up, walk to the hexagonal bridge, your feet will shake, your hands will shake."
With a "bang", Xie Kang fell straight from the chair to the ground. Zhuang Yongyuan pulled away the cloth and saw that his lips were pale, his breathing was short and rapid, and his head was buzzing. It was Shen Xifu who called the emergency number for him.
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