Chapter 64
The sky grew darker, and the sounds in the alley grew fainter. From the simmering of cooking at first, to the familiar news broadcast, to the rustling of the wind, finally, only the two of them could be heard breathing.
Yang Ye's breathing slowed, as if she still had a lot of things weighing on her mind, unspoken. The words stuck in her throat, unable to utter or swallow. Zhou Yi sat beside her, staring blankly at something in front of him. She didn't know how much time had passed, but she felt the wind begin to grow colder, creeping up her collar and into her body. Yang Ye shrank back, wanting to pull out her phone to check the time, but her body froze.
Unable to dig the phone out of her pocket, Yang Ye sniffed and lowered her head to whisper, "Do you know what borrowing a life means?"
Without waiting for Zhou Yiheng's reply, she continued, "Master Chu Fang told me that I didn't have a long life. When I was shot, I was already dead. It was Xue Shangyang who knelt down and kowtowed before the Bodhisattva for three days and three nights before Master Chu Fang said, 'I can borrow your life.'"
"After coming down the mountain, he found a few people who could do this and asked them to transfer his life to me, that fool." Yang Ye suddenly chuckled, but there was an indelible bitterness in his smile. The wind in the alley grew colder, picking up her scattered hair.
Yang Ye buried her face in her cold palms, then slowly lifted it up. She looked up, watching the dark clouds covering the moon, its light growing dimmer and dimmer.
"That idiot..." She repeated it again, but this time, almost no one could hear it except her.
Yang Ye wiped his cheek with his hand, his fingers were wet, probably because he had kept his eyes open for too long and the wind blew his tears down.
"Master Chu Fang calculated before and said that he was destined to be extremely rich and prosperous. He had accumulated blessings for several lifetimes, and only then could he have such a smooth life in this one. Do you know how long he could have lived? Over a hundred years, over a hundred years. When Master Chu Fang told me this, I didn't believe it. But now..."
The wind picked up, and Yang Ye's shoulders slumped. "He's so old, but he doesn't want to live, so he lets me live. What's the point of me living? I'm not as capable as him. I can only hide. When I encounter problems, I just want to escape. I don't even have the ability to stand up and say a word."
Yang Ye was talking nearby, and as she spoke, she turned to look at Zhou Yiheng. In the darkness, she could only see his blurry profile, his eyes momentarily hazy, a blur that grew ever wider. His profile was right before her, but to Yang Ye, it seemed increasingly distant. Until it became a streak of light, and within that spot, she could clearly see Zhou Yiheng's features.
"Sometimes, I really wish you were him," Yang Ye sighed as she looked at him. Her words were spoken softly, perhaps unintentionally, perhaps without her even realizing it.
She blinked, "If you are him, then it means he has another life, which means Master Chu Fang's divination is wrong, and he didn't give me his life."
Yang Ye turned away, the hesitation in her voice gradually fading. She closed her eyes, and when she opened them again, only a calming clarity remained in them. She said decisively, "But you're not him after all. No matter how much you two resemble each other, you're not him. He gave me a life, and I have to live with it, including his share. If you're scared, leave, but I beg you, don't tell anyone about this, okay?"
Her last words were filled with pleading.
Yang Ye stood up, brushing off the nonexistent dust from her clothes. Her movements carried the relief of having been relieved of a heavy burden. She stood on the eaves beneath the doorway, looking up at the sky, which had sunk into the inky black.
"I used to feel like he sacrificed his life for my survival, something I couldn't get over, just like the most common thing he told me back then was to live well." She tilted her head to see Zhou Yiheng still sitting there. He was no longer as defiant as he had been at the beginning, but silent, looking up at Yang Ye.
Yang Ye smiled softly, a smile as fleeting as the fleeting light on the water. "You and him really seem like a joke God played on me. Maybe it's God's way of reminding me that it's time to put those confusing days behind me."
He stared at Yang Ye's back as he was about to leave, and suddenly asked, "Do you still love him?"
The voice echoed in the quiet alley. Yang Ye stopped and lowered his eyelashes, as if he was thinking about this problem seriously.
"He is my thought, my thought for living," said Yang Ye.
"Have you ever thought that he gave you his life so that you could live well, not live for him?"
Yang Ye chuckled softly, "Living for him, living for me, we're all living anyway, so what's the difference?"
"Of course not," Zhou Yiheng said, "You live for him now. For the first few decades, you lived for the rules, for your parents, and for the last few decades, you lived for him. Have you ever lived for yourself?"
Yang Ye was stunned for a moment. She said nothing, simply walking towards the alley. Her slender figure, shrouded in the streetlight, stepped into the dark alley. Zhou Yiheng remained where he was. He didn't chase her, nor did he say anything. He just watched Yang Ye's shadow slowly disappear around the corner of the alley.
Perhaps because tomorrow was a holiday, the entrance to the alley was busier than usual. She checked her phone and saw it was almost ten o'clock. She followed the crowd toward the subway station and bought a string of candied haws and roasted sweet potatoes from a stall at the exit of the alley.
Holding the hot sweet potato bag, Yang Ye turned on his phone, swiped through the address book, found a familiar number, and dialed it.
The other party answered the call quickly.
"Sorry to bother you so late," Yang Ye said.
"It's okay, it's okay," the agent's voice was filled with a familiar warmth. "Boss Yang, what can I do for you?"
"Please help me make an appointment with the other party. I am willing to sell the house."
The agent on the other end of the phone was silent for two seconds. He slowed down his voice and said, "Boss Yang, I have something to tell you. The buyer needs to go back to the United States to deal with some matters. It will probably take six months for him to come back."
"It's okay, just tell me when he comes back."
"Okay," the agent responded.
Li Cheng rushed over immediately after receiving Yang Ye's message, his sneakers clattering as he walked down the alley. Turning into the alleys, he saw Zhou Yiheng sitting on the steps in front of the old house. He took the last puff of his cigarette and crushed the butt on the ground.
The spark struggled for a moment in the darkness before being extinguished.
"She told you everything." Li Cheng walked over, his voice full of fatigue.
"Hmm." Zhou Yi sat sideways without moving, his eyes fixed on an invisible point in the distance, as if he was thinking about something that was difficult to figure out and understand.
Li Cheng sat down next to him, picked up the half-empty cigarette box on the steps, took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and lit it with a lighter.
The cigarette had a red dot in it, flickering in the darkness.
The cold in the alleys seeps deep into your bones. The cold air that seeps out from the cracks in the bricks curls up your ankles and legs, like countless ice needles piercing your flesh. Even the white air you exhale turns to water droplets that cling to your lips.
"She is actually a very lonely person," said Li Cheng.
Zhou Yiheng looked up at him with questioning eyes, but did not speak.
White smoke blew out of Li Cheng's mouth. "None of us can imagine what it's like to live in the same place for decades. From the Republic of China to the present, the people around her have changed one after another, some have grown old, some have been born, but she is the only one who has kept her body unchanged, guarding those memories that have long since become useless, and has lived alone until now."
"Have you known her for a long time?" Zhou Yiheng finally spoke. His voice was dry as if he hadn't spoken for a long time. The coolness of the steps penetrated his pants, and he suddenly felt a little cold.
"It wasn't that early. I got to know her because of my teacher," Li Cheng rubbed the cigarette wrapper with his fingers. "I was a senior student at the time, and I went with my teacher to do a field survey. I met her in a small village in Jiangxi."
Li Cheng smiled, his eyes fixed on the nearest street lamp. "She spoke very little back then. Sometimes she wouldn't say a word the entire day. When I asked her something, she would only use basic utterances like um and ah to tell me."
"I almost thought she was mute," Li Cheng chuckled. "Later, I asked my teacher, and he said it wasn't that she couldn't speak, but that she hadn't had a proper conversation with anyone in a long time. It's like someone who has stayed in a room for most of their life, and you suddenly drag her out into a crowd. She won't adapt and will be scared to death."
"What about her now?" Zhou Yiheng asked.
"She's been annoyed by Liu Guoxing and me for most of her life, and it's just a natural reaction." Li Cheng smiled, paused, and turned to look at Zhou Yiheng. "You look like Xue Shangyang, but that might not be a good thing for her. When she looks at you, she might not only see a face, but also the decades she spent alone, and the person who is no longer with her."
Zhou Yiheng's grip on his hand suddenly tightened a bit, his Adam's apple rolling up and down, and he spoke in a hoarse voice, "Actually, she still mistook me for Xue Shangyang."
"I thought so before, but in her heart, she can tell the difference," Li Cheng said, "I also talked to Xiao Xiao about your relationship before. I asked Xiao Xiao what Yang Ye thought of you and whether she had any other thoughts about you. Xiao Xiao told me that she didn't. She can tell who you are and who Xue Shangyang is. Even if she sees you and you live under the same roof, she will still wake up from nightmares at night."
"Does she often have nightmares?" Zhou Yi lowered his head a little.
"Almost every day," Li Cheng said, "Xiao Xiao's room is just downstairs from her. Occasionally, at night, I hear the noise of people getting up and walking upstairs. It's said that the light in her room is sometimes turned off in the middle of the night. Xiao Xiao has stayed up all night several times, and I would run into her when I went out to cook supper at three or four o'clock. But she wouldn't say anything when I asked her."
"You know she's going to the temple on the mountain, right?"
"Know"
"The original abbot of that temple was Master Chu Fang," Li Cheng said. "The original temple was on a mountain outside Beijing. Later, something happened and the temple was bombed. The disciples on the mountain ran away, one after another. Only a novice monk who was raised by Master Chu Fang was lucky enough to fight hard and snatch some things from the temple. Later, he met Yang Ye on the way to escape, and the two of them got together. The novice monk knew some skills in building temples, and Yang Ye had some money. So they rebuilt the temple brick by brick on the mountain where it is now."
"Is the novice monk still in the temple?"
Li Cheng shook his head. "He passed away a few years ago. He was quite peaceful when he left. He said that he had finally done his duty to his master and the people who accompanied him in guarding the temple. But he was only sorry for Yang Ye. Even after the novice monk passed away, Yang Ye still hadn't let go of the things in his heart."
"So why did she go there?"
"Maybe it's because of a thought." Li Cheng looked at him seriously, "I have to admit that you two really have a lot in common. Your appearance this time may have been a blessing in disguise, and it also helped him see himself clearly. This may be a kind of relief for her."
"This is the key to my car. If you want to go back, just drive back." Li Cheng took out the car keys from his pocket and gently placed them on the steps next to him, letting him choose.
The next morning, the sky was just beginning to turn a bright blue, the morning mist still lingering. The smell of freshly fried dough sticks and steamed meat buns wafted through the streets.
Li Cheng and Xiao Xiao stood on the steps in front of the hotel for nearly half an hour. The steps under their feet were almost hot from their steps. Xiao Xiao wrapped his coat tightly, and the white breath he exhaled quickly dissipated in front of his eyes.
"He won't leave, will he?" Xiao Xiao asked, looking up.
Yang Ye glanced at the time. It was past eight-thirty, almost nine. Last night, Xiao Xiao had tentatively sent a message in the group chat, saying they would go to the Forbidden City tomorrow and meet at the hotel entrance at eight-thirty.
Normally, Zhou Yiheng would be the first to reply to such things within seconds, and sometimes he would even ask if he wanted to bring breakfast. But after sending the message yesterday, the group was silent, and no one has replied until now.
"He should go back," Yang Ye said softly as she walked down a step.
After hearing her story, anyone would be scared.
"Wait a little longer," Li Cheng stopped Yang Ye. He looked at the hotel behind him and said, "Wait five more minutes. Xiao Zhou is not that kind of person."
Xiao Xiao also wanted to speak up to persuade him.
But when she turned around, she saw a familiar figure coming from the entrance. Zhou Yiheng, wearing a dark gray cotton-padded jacket, walked briskly over with his newly bought hot buns and soy milk in his hands. When he saw them, he was stunned for a moment, then asked loudly, "Didn't you say we were going to the Forbidden City? Why are you still standing here? If you dawdle any longer, it will be packed once we get in."
Li Cheng walked over and put his arm around his shoulder. "Come on, come on. Aren't we waiting for a car? Xiao Xiao, have you taken a taxi yet?"
"I hit him," Xiao Xiao said with a smile.
Zhou Yi turned around and saw Yang Ye and asked, "Boss, have you had breakfast?"
"Eat it," Yang Ye chuckled.
Zhou Yiheng nodded and asked, "What about you, Professor Li, Sister Xiao Xiao?"
"I haven't eaten yet, please give me one of your buns," said Li Cheng.
“Well, I bought two extra ones.”
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