Chapter 5: The wake

: The body is cremated and buried in the cemetery. After that, there is a three-day wake on the ruins.

Zhang Jigang stayed up all day, his eyes were bloodshot and he yawned several times.

He and his mother have been living in such a broken house with a simple tent built on tiles and soil, with two sides flooded with wind and rain.

The husband has no money and no education. He has been addicted to smoking and drinking all year round. His liver and lungs are not in good condition. He cannot pass the physical examination. He can only use the prestige of his father Zhang Rucheng to find a job as a driver in the middle school, which earns 900 yuan a month.

But not a cent of this money went into Duan Juanjuan's pocket. I don't know which wild girl went into her pocket.

Not only that, Duan Juanjuan also had to pay for it, either for the wine money Zhang Mie owed or to compensate for the repair costs of the damaged store.

She only had a job as a supermarket cashier, and the rest she had to rely on support from her parents to make ends meet.

This old man is a tough guy.

Mother's family, mother's family, even after a woman gets married, she still only has her mother.

...

On the vigil night, it was so quiet that the wind could not be heard.

His mother cried hoarsely, lying on the simple bed, and asked him: "Are you afraid?"

She was referring not only to the dark night and ruins, but also to the future life of orphans and widowed mothers dependent on each other.

Zhang Jigang turned over from the next bed, changed the subject and asked, "Mom, do you want some water?"

Before his hand even touched the paper cup, the boy on the side took it away.

Cui Yu poured a cup of hot tea for Duan Juanjuan, put his arms around her thin shoulders and said in a deep voice: "Auntie, I will go to the same university as Ji Gang, and I will accompany him from now on."

He was speechless to the extreme. Why don't you go home to join in the fun at this wake...

Zhang Jigang didn't know how to respond. With his academic performance, he could hit the provincial champion level, so why should he go to A University?

"Jigang... I always feel like I'm dreaming, is it a dream..." She couldn't help but call her son, as if she still couldn't accept the fact that her father had passed away.

The mother fell asleep with pain, and she may have gradually felt in her heart that her husband had turned into a puff of smoke and a handful of ashes.

Zhang Jigang clenched his fists, pulled up the corner of Cui Yu's clothes and muttered: "Come out."

He pulled Cui Yu out of the tent and looked at the wasteland.

"Don't change any of your decisions because of me. You want to hit the top spot. All the teachers think you can." His jaw straightened into a straight line, his expression stubborn and forbearing, and he let go of the boy's hand.

Cui Yu licked his lower lip and said softly: "But I don't want to."

Zhang Jigang felt a strange feeling in his heart, sour and painful.

Suddenly the circles under his eyes were wet, and his body was like a sieve. He squeezed out a sentence from his throat: "I'm bad enough! You, you want to make me a homosexual!"

In the current millennium, children from poor families have to marry a wife. Difficult, he is the only son in the family, how dare he imagine doing such an unethical thing.

Although Cui Yu's skin is as tender as a little girl's, he is still a boy.

"I want you to live."

Cui Yu raised his finger and touched the black mole in the corner of his eye with a rough touch. There was a sadness that Zhang Jigang couldn't understand deep in his eyes.

Rustle, sand.

There was a strange sound of turning earth in my ears.

The next second, the soil on the ground was suddenly dug up, and several bloody hands stretched out!

Then there were several rotting and stinking heads and stumps. Some faces were burned, some were covered with bullet marks, and some even had no heads left, only half of their necks with their trachea and esophagus exposed...

And Zhang Ming , the father who witnessed the body being cremated and burned, and who had already been pronounced dead, was currently wearing the blue jacket he was last seen wearing.

Zhang Ming, with messy hair and dull eyes, stood in the ruins of the dancing black shadows, looking at him silently.

He thought, perhaps, those things were not humans, but ghosts.

Zhang Ming's feet were dangling in the air, with a thick black mist lingering outside his body. He tilted his head and looked forward, as if wondering why his son was there, wearing a pale shroud.

Dead or not?

Zhang Jigang rushed over with anger in his heart and punched Zhang Min on the left side of his face, but it was in vain.

He was furious and shouted: "You scum! Even if you become a ghost, I can't beat you!"

The most ridiculous thing is that Zhang Ming, who turned into a ghost, saw his son swinging a fist and subconsciously dodged it, and his already fragile and crooked neck was directly broken. , with a bang, it hit the ground.

Anyone else would have fainted from the shock of this ridiculous and terrifying scene.

Zhang Jigang is not very courageous, he was just overwhelmed by anger.

A headless female ghost stretched out her mutilated hand to grab his trouser leg. Zhang Jigang kicked it away distractedly, but unexpectedly, the joint between the skin and flesh was rotten and the severed hand flew several meters away.

The main reason why he could tell that it was a female ghost was because the two huge waves were swaying in front of his eyes and could not be removed from his mind.

He coughed softly, clenched his back molars silently, and glanced at Cui Yu: "Don't look at anything inappropriate."

Then, he couldn't bear to look at it and turned to the female ghost and said: "Sorry, I have to deal with some personal matters, or... …Give me a moment?”

The female ghost was not very violent, so she moved her position, and the severed neck that emitted a strong smell passed in front of Zhang Jigang’s eyes, and then she obediently searched for her lost hand.

Zhang Ming's head looked up at his son, and he probably felt that the perspective was strange. A father was not allowed to bow his head to his son casually.

So, his body moved slowly driven by the black mist, he held his head in his hands and thrust it into his neck.

Perfect connection.

Zhang Jigang felt his scalp numb. After seeing this weird scene for a long time, he thought he was in a bad mental state and couldn't distinguish between virtuality and reality.

Cui Yu stared coldly at the strange crawling things that unexpectedly emerged from the moist soil.

With a calm look on his face, he pulled Zhang Jigang towards him, bit his fingertips and dabbed the corners of his eyes with blood.

Those things immediately scattered in all directions, roaring in terror.

What dispersed them was the bright blue flame surrounding Zhang Jigang and coming from Cui Yu.

Zhang Jigang was shocked by the illusion-like scene and rubbed his eyes. At this time, there was only one person left in his sight.

Cui Yu disappeared, but the reassuring voice was still there.

"Jigang, go talk to your father."

Zhang Jigang folded his arms and stared at the man with cold disgust, thinking that the accounts between humans and ghosts were finally connected, and the resentment in his heart that was about to overflow had nowhere to release. !

"I'm dead, right?" There was a hint of sadness in Zhang Ming's eyes.

Zhang Jigang sneered and said: "What do you have to feel bad about? Living like this for more than forty years is a waste of social resources. Didn't I send you to the cemetery? Why are you here, looking for me?"

"When you were born, Your mother and I both think it's a miracle... As long as I can remember, I loved you and have always loved you, son."

Zhang Ming sobbed and said, "I don't know what happened... I was watching the news at home just a second ago. The next second, I was in the casino and lost all the money in my pocket. Was it because the alcohol invaded my brain, or was it just like this? I was dead like this, but I still couldn't escape death..."

Suddenly, a flash of lightning struck.

Fine raindrops fell, and then became more dense, until Zhang Jigang was soaked to the skin and stood staring in the rain.

Zhang Min took a few steps back. The black mole at the corner of his eye was like a speck of mud dripping from the gap in the dark clouds, which was very dazzling.

But ghosts can't understand such complicated things.

So Zhang Ming turned around and left, literally turning into a wisp of black mist.

*

In shock, Zhang Jigang returned to the tent and tossed and turned.

The simple bed was very small. Zhang Jigang was wearing a pair of camouflage striped shorts and a white vest with a few holes in it.

But if he took off that layer of shabby cloth, he couldn't hide his shame.

He and Cui Yu were squeezed into the same bed, and he felt the man's breath coming from behind, like using an invisible quill to stir his nerves. Warmth gathered in his chest, and his heartbeat seemed to have missed a beat.

I couldn't sleep, I was upset.

"Your ears are red again..."

Cui Yu moved closer to him, his eyes greedily scanning Zhang Jigang's closed eyes - his eyelashes were fluttering like cattail fans, and his hands were clenched into fists at some unknown moment. In front of you.

"Don't you like it?"

Cui Yu retracted his hand, cold wind poured in, and the distance between them widened.

He heard the other person mutter to himself: "...I'm sorry."

With clear finger bones, he stroked the ends of his hair silently, smoothing the few disobedient hairs for him.

My mother's snoring was thunderous. The doctor said that it was caused by structural defects in her nasal polyps, which were naturally caused by inhaling air and were difficult to cure.

He thought that his mother should not be able to hear the sound.

Zhang Jigang sat half-circled in the quilt and turned around cautiously.

As soon as he raised his head, he met Cui Yu's slightly surprised eyes.

He stretched out his arms to grab Cui Yu, closed his eyes and whispered: "...It's so strange."

"...I want an explanation."

Cui Yu disappeared into thin air after leaving a drop of blood mole. And his memory is continuous and error-free.

The blue ghost fire lingering around him was hot and could be touched, and it lingered for a long time until the evil ghost was burned into black mist and rose.

Then, Cui Yu appeared outside the tent again, crossing his arms on his chest and looking at him with a smile.

It was storming outside, which made people panic.

Zhang Jigang grabbed Cui Yu's sleeve and asked again: "Give me an explanation...Who are you? Do you know what those things are...Why can I see..."

But the man didn't answer. Instead, he lifted his chin and blocked it fiercely, as if to rub him into his arms.

With emotions of fright and uneasiness, Zhang Jigang lay stiffly next to Cui Yu, his head a ball of mush.

"What a pervert...are you here again?"

Zhang Jigang wanted to apply the law that stipulates that intentionally touching or kissing someone's face is sexual harassment. However, it came from the protection of women's rights, and he was a young man.

I lay on my back until four o'clock in the evening, when the PHS phone under my pillow that I had just bought a few days ago suddenly trembled.

The single bed was very crowded, and Zhang Jigang almost leaned on Cui Yu's shoulder to answer the call.

It was his aunt who called with a calm tone: "Your grandpa is dying. He is in the municipal hospital. Why don't you come? He wants to see you."

"Huh?..." Zhang Jigang frowned. He didn't like it at all. These relatives in the family, raised by the Zhang family, are all indifferent little people. The word reunion only comes to mind when dividing property.

However, the aboriginal people around this ruins have all moved to new areas to live in high-rise buildings. How can there be drivers running orders in this desolate land at three or four o'clock at night?

He wanted to say something else, but the call was hung up.

"Cui Yu, you go home first..."

"I'll send you there."

Zhang Jigang was stunned. How to send him there?

"Did you call the driver at home?"

Cui Yu shook his head. After getting dressed, he took it from the corner and rushed the black umbrella with two broken wire brackets onto the road. Then he stared at him: "Let's go."

There was no one on the road . There were no traces of people, and the old trees were dying under the wash of heavy rain. Cui Yu held an umbrella for him, and their silhouettes were elongated by the dim light.

"Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-"

a rapid horn sound came, and the black Volkswagen with license plate number XS484848 approached at a slow speed, stopped, and then rolled down the window.

Who is so disgraceful? The license plate number is the same!

An old man with a dark green beard sat inside and whistled at them.

"Thirteen, have you found your master?"