"Sun?" Shi Jinzhe took the half-finished marriage certificate and said, "Most people in this county are surnamed Pu. Locals should have a deeper impression of different surnames. The groom and Boss Sun have the same surname. Maybe there is some connection. We will go and inquire about it tomorrow morning."
"Hmm," Ding Xun replied weakly, unsure if he would even live to see morning.
The three of them searched around some more, but there wasn't much to find. Most of the shelves were empty, and all they found were some family planning supplies.
Shekh asked Ding Xun, "Did you really not think about anything before you saw the woman?"
"No, absolutely not." Ding Xun shook his head firmly.
"Have you ever been in a relationship?" Shi Jinzhe pulled up Ding Xun's information and saw that the age column showed 24 years old. He suddenly asked this seemingly irrelevant question.
“No,” Ding Xun said. “I’ve never met anyone I like, it’s just…” He clicked his tongue and thought about how to describe it to Shi Jinzhe. “Others who are fifteen or sixteen years old and have early romances will talk about the girls they like from time to time, but I don’t feel anything. Even now, even if a very beautiful woman appears in front of me, I won’t be interested.”
Fearing a misunderstanding, Ding Xun added, "But it's not that I don't like women. I'm pretty sure I'm not interested in the same sex. I just seem to dislike everyone... I don't like people getting close to me, and I can't really say what kind of people I like. However, I do have a little bit of affection for those I can talk to, regardless of gender. I don't know how to describe this feeling. For example, that woman that only I can see. I admit she's very beautiful, but I'm really not interested. If she doesn't appear, I don't have any specific image of that type of woman. So she can't possibly be a reflection of my mind."
Shekh: "She is not a reflection of your mind, therefore she truly exists."
Ding Xun's words further confirm that Zhuo Jiajia died at the hands of the red woman, and what he saw was correct.
But Shehe couldn't understand. If what Ding Xun saw was the truth, then what was going on between her and Shi Jinzhe?
At this moment, Shi Jinzhe asked Ding Xun another question, "Excuse me, but since you don't have anyone you like, have you ever had sexual urges?"
"..." Ding Xun's lips pursed white, his wrinkled face filled with disbelief at why you would question this about me. "I am not impotent."
Shekh: "What have you thought of now?"
"I've thought of a word," Shi Jinzhe said to Ding Xun. "It's not impotence, so you have normal physiological urges. Have you heard of a word? Asexuality."
"Asexual?" Ding Xun's tone took a turn.
"Yes, it's very similar to your self-description. Because there's no image in your subconscious that can arouse your desires, it can't reflect a specific person. Therefore, even when the anomaly doesn't occur, you can still see the most authentic scene, which is the red woman."
Ding Xun is a variable; the boss who captured him probably never imagined that humans could have an asexual orientation.
“Based on what you’ve said, I think I know why what we’re seeing isn’t human.” Sheh crossed his arms and leaned back. “Our mental projections must be of each other, but actually projecting the other person is no different from self-destruction. This instance is closely related to male and female desires. For example, this Heart Heart Hotel, the iron bars sealing the windows, and the double-walled design of the interior windows are all reflections of inner closed-offness, reflecting repressed desires.”
She looked at Shi Jinzhe and said, "But we don't shy away from this matter, and we have no intention of hiding it from the light of day, so we saw the truth just like Ding Xun."
Ding Xun: "Since the women and adult shops are real, why did you only see the shops while I only saw the women?"
Shi Jinzhe: "I have no interest in human women; they are outside my primary sphere of thought, which is why only adult shops have appeared."
Beneath Ding Xun's calm exterior lay a turbulent inner scream; he was momentarily at a loss for how to understand those words.
Having nothing to say, he could only express his meaning through silence.
Fortunately, Shekh pulled out a yellowed book from behind him and changed the subject, “The Encyclopedia of Newlywed Life. The documentary said that decades ago, these kinds of books were given to newlyweds, and these family planning products were probably also distributed.”
Ding Xun asked, puzzled, "Why are you sending this again?"
Shi Jinzhe: "We still get them now, especially in the countryside. They're mainly for preventing the spread of disease. We didn't lack these things in the 1990s."
Shekh turned his head. "Illness?"
Shi Jinzhe met her gaze and saw Shehe nod at him. He then asked her to confirm, "You mean someone in this couple has contracted the disease?"
"That would require someone who's attracted to both men and women, right?" Ding Xun's eyebrows furrowed like earthworms. "There are those like me who don't like either men or women, and there are those who like both. Could the guy be bisexual?"
Shi Jinzhe rarely showed his unspoken confusion, but he couldn't help but sigh that it wasn't easy to find a copy that brought together such a diverse range of species.
He casually flipped through the yellowed book and noticed that one of the pages was folded at the corner and the edges were a bit rough. When he opened it completely, he saw that it read, "What is sexual frigidity?"
Shekh looked over and said, "The wife wondered why her husband wasn't interested in her, and she only found out about his problem long after they got married."
"It seems so." Shi Jin folded the book. "Let's go directly to Boss Sun. Let's not wait until tomorrow morning to avoid any unforeseen circumstances."
Sher looked out the window at the small building in front of the Heart Heart Hotel; it was completely silent inside.
“Boss Sun isn’t home, there’s no one inside, she’s…” Sheh closed his eyes and turned his head in another direction, “She’s at the entrance to the county town, the place we were at this afternoon.”
Shi Jinzhe put down the book and said, "Let's go."
The two made their preparations, and at the end, they didn't forget to call out to Ding Xun, "Come on."
There were no lights outside, so Shi Jinzhe followed the same route he had come from towards the entrance of the county town.
The buildings in the county town are very close together, with only a little over a meter between the walls. The drainage in the old buildings is poor, and the moss growing at the base of the walls makes it easy to slip. The three of them walked lightly, but the sound of stepping on the water was still quite loud.
They walked out of the alley and returned to the main road of the county town. All kinds of shops had long been closed, except for one roasted nuts shop.
The dim light bulb illuminated a small area. Of the stacked square iron trays, only a small pile of sunflower seeds remained on the top. Shi Jinzhe had seen the woman in the blue-green plaid clothes that afternoon, but she was not there. However, as he got closer, he heard her voice.
His voice, filled with anger and resentment yet kept tightly suppressed, was choked with sobs and trembling with despair.
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