Preface to Chapter 48, 'New Year's Eve'

Time: February 6, 1997, winter. Preface:

['The Night of the Dead']

February 6th, New Year’s Eve.

north.

It was snowing heavily, like goose feathers, carried by the knife-sharp cold wind, blowing on people's faces, but blocked by their cotton-padded jackets.

The world was white and silent, with only the whistling wind in my ears.

The ground was covered with thick white snow. There were only a few people walking on the road, silently in the snow, and their footsteps made a squeezing sound on the snow.

Today is New Year's Eve.

The streets were paved with red couplets, but there was no atmosphere that matched the occasion. Instead, there was an eerie silence, and everyone seemed to have lost their souls.

"Squeak~"

Seventeen-year-old Zhang Hai stopped and exhaled. The warm breath turned into white mist and was quickly blown away by the wind.

He wrapped himself in his cotton jacket, raised his head and looked at the sky.

The sky in the north is gray.

The grayer the sky, the richer the people.

The weather has gradually improved in the past two years, driving the smog into people's hearts.

The sky is getting clearer, but people's hearts are getting darker. Zhang Hai doesn't know how many years this has happened.

He didn't say anything, but lowered his head, pushed his bicycle, disappeared into the snowy night, and turned into an inconspicuous black shadow on the road, moving slowly against the wind.

The roads no longer had the warm greetings of previous years. Most people had numb faces and cloudy eyes.

Zhang Hai was not walking around aimlessly.

He pushed the cart and walked slowly towards somewhere.

He has walked this road before.

When he was a child, Zhang Hai sat in the back seat of a car and his father pushed him to school, leaving crooked wheel marks on the snowy road.

Later, he stopped going to school, but his father still pushed the cart and the ruts were still there.

But the ruts have taken on a new meaning.

Later, my father was hit by a car while looking for a job and became paralyzed in bed, so this tire track was left by him.

"Squeak~"

Zhang Hai stopped, looked up and took a look at the magnificent building.

This is a bathing club. Countless men come in and out every day, and the women inside are despised by the people around them.

Zhang Hai didn't go in. He parked his bicycle, squatted in the corner, stuffed his hands into his sleeves, held them in his arms to resist the cold wind.

His breath blended into the cold wind, taking away the warmth from his face, leaving his skin icy cold.

"Squeak~"

The back door opened and a woman about her age came out.

She was silent, with her head down buttoning her clothes, and just happened to see Zhang Hai.

Zhang Hai subconsciously turned his head to look, and their eyes met, but they immediately turned their heads away, until the other person disappeared into the corner and left.

He knew her, she was his childhood friend, but the difference was that she was still making money to go to college, but he didn't.

Zhang Hai recalled the past, the cold wind blew away his thoughts and carried them away into the distance.

Until "squeak~"

The door opened again, and a middle-aged woman came out, tying her clothes as she walked towards him.

Zhang Hai stood up, lifted the car that was leaning against the wall, and patted the ice chips on the back seat.

The middle-aged woman didn't say anything and sat quietly in the back seat.

Zhang Hai was pushing his bicycle and walking on the street.

The snow-covered road left a rut, just like the mark left by going to school a few years ago.

On the way, neither of them spoke.

There were quite a few people on both sides of the road, watching the two of them leave.

Zhang Hai buried his head in his chest, but the road was bumpy and he had to expose it.

After a long while, the bicycle stopped.

A thatched house appeared in front of the two.

Hanging on the door was a simple piece of red paper that came from somewhere, with a few calligraphy words written on it.

Pushing the door open, two people walked in.

There was a middle-aged man lying on the kang in the main room, with his back against the two of them, silent.

There was also a child who looked sick, pale and weak, timid, and did not speak. He sat obediently on a chair, watching TV.

The Spring Festival Gala is on TV. It is the most popular program these days, no doubt about it.

There were bursts of sound coming from the TV speakers.

“I expressed my opinion right away.”

The passionate voice did not bring any warmth to the family. The middle-aged man who had been paralyzed for a long time turned over and looked at the TV. The woman who had just returned home paused and watched silently.

Zhang Hai turned off the TV. He didn't say anything, not a single sound, and just sat on the kang.

Tonight is New Year's Eve.

You have to eat dumplings on New Year’s Eve.

The dumplings have to be filled with meat.

So, a bowl of dumplings with added ingredients was brought to the table. They were filled with fragrant meat stuffing. The steaming aroma penetrated into the little boy's nostrils. His eyes lit up with greed and his saliva was overflowing.

"Eat more and eat until you are full."

In the evening, the old father changed his usual dull expression, a smile appeared on his face, and he dragged his paralyzed body to pass the meat filling to his youngest son.

"In the future, you will."

My mother is no longer the walking corpse she used to be.

After eating the dumplings, she seemed to come alive. She held Zhang Hai's hand, gave him instructions for a long time, and said many words.

Several years of words seemed to be crammed into this one night.

There are not many dumplings, just seventy-three in total.

Zhang Hai didn't eat a single bite.

Soon, the whispers in my ears gradually disappeared.

Please...collect 6_9_book_bar (Six//Nine//Book//bar)

The sounds of struggling became quieter and quieter.

My father, mother, and younger brother were all silent, lying on the table, foaming at the mouth.

The warm house lacked vitality. The three people lay on the table like statues.

No one spoke, and no one would speak again.

Zhang Hai turned on the TV and watched the lively Spring Festival Gala in silence.

The harsh sound of the TV rang out in the silent house and reached his ears.

Watching TV.

Zhang Hai watched the skits on TV. He changed a few channels and looked at the people in brightly dressed clothes. His eyes gradually became dull.

In my heart, a wildfire gradually burned.

The next day.

Zhang Hai's figure appeared on the street outside.

His figure was hidden in the flying snow, like a clear black spot in an ink painting.

The heavy snow from the sky covered the surface, it was cold, but it turned into water and took away a lot of heat.

The wind is cool, but not as cool as the dumplings.

The weather is cold, but not as cold as people’s hearts.

This is the North, the Spring Festival of 1997.

The cold and oppression could not extinguish his impetuousness, but instead made the fire burn more and more fiercely.

In a trance, the firelight reflected a hideous and twisted figure emerging, like a devil.

['The Night of the Dead']

(Case closed) October 3, 2003.

Xu Hao opened his eyes.

He rubbed his head, a smack on his face and mixed emotions in his eyes.

After returning home from the Municipal Bureau last night, he went into a dream as usual.

However, emotions that are suppressed to the extreme are more likely to disrupt other people's thinking and cause people to go to extremes.

Xu Hao saw two extremes in his dream.

One is Zhang Hai who came later.

One is Chen Li.

"I didn't expect Chen Li to be sick too."

After a long while, after sorting out the memory in his mind, Xu Hao rubbed his eyebrows slightly, and his eyes appeared slightly red.

“He’s still very ill.”

That’s right, Chen Li is also sick.

Zhang Hai went to the extreme of a madman, while Chen Li went to another extreme.

“Smiling Depression”

Xu Hao murmured and used a psychological term, which is also called sunshine depression.

Literally, a sick person will have a smile on his face and look very sunny, happier and brighter than ordinary people. He is as healthy as can be.

But his heart is very sick! "Yes, it should be checked carefully."

"I have no parents, and there are two elderly people in my family. They were very poor before this wave of poverty appeared. It was said that five or six years ago, a girl could survive and have money to go to college and pay tuition."

Recalling the scene in his dream, Xu Hao couldn't help but shook his head.

The experience of selling her body will haunt Chen Li for the rest of her life.

Zhang Hai would want to step on others, but Chen Li would serve others like a slave.

This is also why Xu Hao said two extreme things.

As expected, even if the two people did not meet, Zhang Hai would eventually be arrested for the crime.

As for Chen Li, there is a high probability that she will suddenly commit suicide early one morning when no one around her can tell that she is sick.

Xu Hao sighed, suppressed the strong emotions in his mind, and then let his own spirit take the lead.

I had just gotten out of bed, washed up and was about to write something when I heard a voice next to my ear.

“Knock knock knock~”

(End of this chapter)