Chapter 66 I can cut up the body and build it into concrete
The year after Gu Weiyi left, Wen Jing decided to leave Africa completely.
She stood alone on the hillside, watching Gustav's helicopter take him away. For the past two days, she had only glimpsed him from afar outside the ward. She had thought she could accept his departure, but when he was truly gone, the emptiness she had endured for so many days, the emptiness of his absence, suddenly collapsed. Sour, bitter, these feelings and the torment all washed over her. She leaned against the hillside and vomited until her stomach was empty. Then she lay on the ground, panting, staring at the sky, waiting for the pounding breath in her heart to subside.
Human time is divided into natural and social clocks. The world around her undergoes dramatic changes daily, yet she is trapped in the wind and sand that has remained virtually unchanged for millennia. Time has lost its meaning, becoming nothing more than an eternally flowing stream of sand, constantly engulfing every outsider, ultimately assimilating them into a single speck of dust among billions.
What is the end of this wandering? It’s Africa, which I can’t leave, but also my motherland, which I can’t return to.
Finally, she was left alone. The boundless sky terrified her. Her place in the world was always uncertain, a mere puff of wind and it would vanish. She sat up, scooped up a handful of sand, and blew hard. The wind blew even harder, sending a few grains of sand flying into her eyes. She closed her eyes and collapsed again. The morning sun warmed her body, the warmth from the previous day's dew temporarily soothing her frayed nerves. Just as she was about to fall asleep in the sun, the ringing of her cell phone pierced the silence.
"Where are you?" Lu Cong's voice on the other end of the phone came into her ears in a hurry.
"Go to the mountain and measure the data to see if there is anything wrong."
"What's the result?"
"I can't see it." Li Wenjing coughed twice. "The wind and sand here are moving very fast. Even if there was anything, it would have been wiped out. What about you?"
"When I went there, his computer, cell phone, even the notes and fucking photos in the drawer were all taken away by his father. No one else could touch them."
Li Wenjing sat up cross-legged from the ground, holding the mobile phone tightly. Her knuckles turned white due to the force, and they trembled slightly, with cold sweat oozing from her palms.
"But I secretly copied a copy while they weren't paying attention. How about it? Do you want it?"
"Are you a secret agent?"
"Alas... I'm just filling in the gap. I'll be doing 007 for you for free this time. This won't happen again."
He was joking, but Li Wenjing remained silent. He added, "Well, it's not just for you. Doctor Gu is a very good person, a modern-day Bethune, isn't he? It's hard for everyone to bear with what happened to him. It was that nurse Anna who whispered to me that he always had a backup, and the hard drive was with her. Look, everyone is trying to help you, so don't be sad. We're all here for you, and everything will be fine."
"Hmm." Li Wenjing felt a lump in her throat and snorted softly.
"Are you okay now?"
"generally."
"What do you mean by 'normal'? You're being too perfunctory to me!" Lu Cong complained. "Well, I'll come find you tonight. You can order anything to drink."
"Whatever, red, white, anything is fine."
At eight o'clock in the evening, Lu Cong came to her room with a hard drive. As soon as he walked in, his boots made a crackling sound on the wooden house. Then he walked over slowly with light steps. There were five bottles of beer in his bag, which were lined up on the table in front of Li Wenjing.
"I'll drink it later," she said.
"Of course, business is more important."
He pulled up a chair and sat at the table, not urging her, but simply staring at her intently. Li Wenjing inserted the hard drive into the computer. The copy would take some time, so she stood up, picked up two bottles of beer, and staggered slightly to the window, cracked the caps, and handed him one.
Lu Cong clapped his hands, "I didn't realize you had this skill."
"It's okay."
"What happened to your foot?"
"It's okay. I accidentally sprained it while going down the mountain."
Li Wenjing leaned against the wall, drinking, taking a huge gulp, the wine dripping onto her shirt collar. Lu Cong, still sitting on the stool, looked up at her, raised the bottle in a toast, and then raised his head to take a large gulp.
"I'm a little confused. What were you doing in Nairobi? I heard he had a fight with his father, and there was also the matter of Philip."
Besides the old grudges between Gu Weiyi, Little Philip, and Gustav, she told him everything that happened at the dinner party. He was silent for a moment, then finished a bottle of beer before sighing, "You guys are really ruthless. You're also the one who got caught in the crossfire."
"It was Phillip and the others who did it. In this godforsaken place, there's nothing we can do without evidence! I'm so angry!"
"Oh, it's urgent! Look, you've sprained your ankle. Don't go up the mountain. I'll ask around for you."
"There's no way to find out. Not even Gustav can do anything about it. He treats him..." Li Wenjing paused, her voice lowered. "I'm sorry, this is his personal privacy. I can't explain too much to you. Anyway, little Philip wants to harm him. I'm sure of it."
"I know you love him, and he loves you too. You know his affairs best. Last time I asked him how you two met, and when he mentioned you, he looked so happy. A man in love, his smile couldn't be suppressed. I sincerely hope that you can have a good result. I told him, 'If you can't get Wen Jing, I will get her.' Guess what he said? He said it wasn't him who chased you, it was you who chose him. Isn't that infuriating? Why is this guy talking to me so 'viciously'?"
She chuckled as she listened. Seeing this, Lu Cong slumped back in his chair, his hands resting on his arms. "Now that he's gone, I'm still not used to it without him. But it's good, he's back in Europe to enjoy life, unlike the two of us who live in misery here every day."
The computer beeped, signaling the data had been copied. She spun back in her chair and began examining the folders. Lu Cong stood beside her, accompanying her. "A lot of it's in French," she said. "I can't understand it, so I sent it to a friend to translate. There are so many medical records, and I need to check them one by one... You can go back first. You don't have to accompany me. I can do it myself."
"To be honest, I'm still worried about you. Wouldn't it be better if I were with you? You've been overdrawing your body since Dr. Gu's accident. And you also know about Philip. What if he targets you? If anything happens, you must contact me immediately. As long as you call, no matter where I am or what I'm doing, I will come to you immediately."
"You are..."
"Don't forget that I'm a peacekeeping soldier. It's my responsibility to protect the civilians, including you."
"Thank you," Li Wenjing rubbed his forehead. "That's nothing to worry about. People like that who are so high and mighty think everyone has their place. They're born leaders, and I'm a born lackey. He never takes me seriously. Nothing I do threatens him. That's how they are. I hate them."
Hatred for Philip gnawed at her heart. He had destroyed him, destroyed Gu Weiyi both mentally and physically. If it weren't for Philip, he would have lived a healthy, normal life. Even so, he wouldn't have come to Africa, and she wouldn't have met him—as she had initially assumed, those who came to the African continent were inherently abnormal.
So she cursed him: "I shouldn't have brought Philip that day. I'm going to leave him in the mountains and watch him bleed to death and become a dried corpse. I'm going to hide him and throw him in the sand pit. No, I'm going to build him in concrete so that no one can find him."
"That's a good plan, but you have to be able to carry his body first. Do you want my help?"
"No need to carry him. I can cut him into pieces, throw the body parts in, mix them with the cement and concrete, and leave him in the desert forever."
Lu Cong smiled, raised the bottle and toasted with her, "Wait! Let's make a deal first, I'm almost drunk, don't do this to me, I'm scared to death."
He had to get up early for work the next day, so he drank two bottles of wine and said goodbye to Li Wenjing. Li Wenjing walked him to the door, and as soon as she stood up, he gently pushed her back into the chair.
"If you sprain your ankle, don't move. Rest well."
Back in her room, alone, Li Wenjing drank her last beer while checking Gu Weiyi's computer. Opening his memo, she paused on a photo. She had never seen it before. The background was of Ruth's wedding. She was right in the center of the frame, smiling like everyone else. She felt she rarely smiled like that. She remembered that he had indeed taken many photos of them that day, and this moment of her was something he had treasured in his memo.
Continue scrolling down and you will see his diary.
"She and I seem to be outside the order. In fact, we are already in love. I also want to be like normal people, dating, eating, and sleeping with her. The sad thing is, I am just a weak snail, curled up in this shell. I often think that I don't deserve to love her, and even less deserve her to love me. I am letting her down. If nothing happened, would I still fall in love with her? I would rather it be like this. I don't want to be a proud person. The hateful thing is that I have been infected with this problem, so I can't understand her. I misunderstand her, the misunderstanding is deep. We don't understand each other. She has been trying, but obviously this one-sided effort cannot last..."
Her diary was thick with entries, her vision gradually blurred by tears, which fell heavily on the keyboard, drop by drop. She downed the last sip of her wine, her fingertips trembling as she clicked on the last, most recently dated document—an email written in French. She launched the translation app, and the familiar, his tone, like a ghost, slowly rose before her eyes, word by word. It was addressed to a lawyer, and the content of the letter, about her, was his final words to the world.
Subject: Urgent instructions regarding my personal property arrangements
Dear Mr. Maynard:
I hope this email does not disturb you. In view of the current complex situation, I feel it is necessary to sort out and arrange my personal affairs as soon as possible.
I am severing my paternal relationship with Gustav and would like you to assist in the separation and identification of all assets in my name that are not related to Gustav. This includes, but is not limited to: the entire estate left to me by my mother, all investment income, my UK real estate, and all vehicles. I wish to unconditionally transfer ownership of all of the above assets, including all future income, to Ms. Li Wenjing.
I made this decision not on impulse but after careful consideration. Ms. Li Wenjing is the only woman I want to spend the rest of my life with, my true love, and she deserves a life with more freedom and choices. While these things may not make up for the trouble I may have caused her, I hope they can at least provide her with confidence in her future.
Also, please forgive my selfishness. I remember Gustav has a Ferrari sports car. If possible, in the division between him and me, I hope you can negotiate with Gustav to get this car. You can also exchange it for other things. I remember she said that this is what she wanted.
Finally, I know this request may seem a bit sudden. But life is unpredictable, and I just want to pave a small, perhaps smoother, path for the people I love while I am still lucid and able to make decisions.
It was already very late at night, but Wen Jing hadn't fallen asleep yet, sleepiness eluding her waking consciousness. She stared at the ceiling with her eyes open, thinking of him in bed. Her gaze penetrated the low ceiling, and she missed his small wooden house on the hillside, the bitter mosquito repellent, and the green jacket he wore during the rainy season in Mombasa, which had been washed darker in the rain, like a green grape, emitting a sour and refreshing aroma. He stood beside her, and the two of them walked along the road around the island under an umbrella, the sea breeze bringing a wonderful scent that embraced them together. She quietly recalled the clothes he had worn, the color of his backpack, the books he had read, and every meal he had cooked for her... Until this moment, the more quietly one recalled, the more the pain came to her, revealing its true weight and pressing her so hard that she could hardly move.
Finally, the alarm clock in the early morning was like a pardon, temporarily rescuing her from this silent penance. Daytime never belonged to herself, it belonged to work, to the people of this land.
"Li Wenjing, stop thinking about it. It's time to go to work."
She pulled her hair into a high ponytail, and when she tightened the rope, she felt a sharp pain pulling upwards on her scalp, as if she had tightened the spring of action, and a new day had begun.
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