Gu Changfeng raised an eyebrow.
"So it was him. That kid Professor Li called a 'monster'."
He put down his teacup and nodded at the "sleepy god" on the screen.
...
Inside the examination room.
Lin Que was certainly not asleep.
He was conceiving this essay in the dark little world created by his school uniform.
What to write?
Write a letter like the one Namiya Grandpa from "Miracles of the Namiya General Store" awaiting a client's advice?
Being too straightforward can easily be judged as plagiarism or pandering to the judges.
What kind of eeriness is this? Death?
He would probably be strangled to death by Shen Qingqiu on the spot.
Since the title is "Waiting" and it's a "Trouble-Relieving Cup,"
Then you have to write about that kind of "warm cruelty".
He abruptly lifted his school uniform, the glaring light making him squint.
This action startled the proctor next to him.
They thought the student was going to skip the exam and leave.
Lin Que ignored the stares around him and sat up straight.
I took a deep breath and wrote the title on the answer sheet.
The Man Waiting to Die
It's not about people, nor is it about events.
He wanted to write a story about the redemption of "malice".
The pen tip touches the paper, and the ink flows.
Under the arch of Jiangcheng Bridge lived a homeless man named Lao Ya.
He was extremely ugly, with a scar running across his face, and his whole body reeked of sourness.
No one has ever seen him beg, nor has anyone ever seen him collect garbage.
He only does one thing
--wait. 】
He would sit by the railing along the river every day, waiting for those who wanted to jump into the river.
Late at night, a bankrupt middle-aged man stepped over the railing, his face filled with despair.
The crow emerged from the shadows, offering no dissuasion.
Instead, she rubbed her hands together excitedly, her cloudy eyes fixed on the watch on the man's wrist.
"Are you going to die? Great." The crow's voice sounded like sandpaper rubbing.
“If you die, this watch will be mine.”
And your leather shoes look pretty new. Take them off before jumping in; it's cold in the water anyway, so it doesn't matter whether you wear them or not.
The man froze, turning to look at the disgusting beggar.
Old Crow pulled out a half-empty bottle of Erguotou (a type of Chinese liquor) from his pocket.
The bottle was also stained with yellow oil.
He handed it forward, his voice hoarse:
"Want a sip? It'll make you brave enough to jump in without feeling any pain."
"Hurry up and jump! I'm waiting to collect the corpse; I might make a fortune tonight!"
The man accepted the drink. It was the only warmth in this cold night.
However, just as the man tilted his head back to drink, the crow suddenly swooped down.
She snatched the briefcase the man had placed on the ground, turned and ran, cursing as she went:
"Idiot! You're about to die, what do you need a bag for! Is there any money in it? It's mine!"
The man froze for a second, then erupted in a thunderous roar:
"You old beast! Give me back my bag!"
Despair instantly turned into rage. The man leaped back over the railing and chased after the crow like a madman.
The crow wasn't fast, but it always managed to slip into a deeper alley just as the man was about to catch up, letting out a piercing laugh:
"Come on! Chase me! If you can't catch me, then die! I'll spend your money for you!"
That night, the man chased him for five kilometers.
He collapsed from exhaustion in front of the police station, until the police subdued the panting homeless man.
The man retrieved his bag, looked at the crow chained to the radiator, and gritted his teeth in hatred.
The crow, however, remained huddled in the corner, a smug, greedy smile on its face, muttering, "What a pity, I didn't get that watch."
The man left. He wasn't dead, because anger made him forget his despair, and the chase had sobered him up.
This has happened countless times.
A heartbroken girl, a student who failed her exams, an elderly person diagnosed with a terminal illness...
The crows always appear on time, hurling the most vicious insults at them and stealing their belongings.
He forced them down from the railing, turning them into enraged beasts that hunted him down.
Everyone hated him. He was a malignant tumor on the riverbank, a scavenging demon waiting to devour him.
Until that winter, the crow froze to death in the bridge arch.
When the police were sorting through his belongings, they found a moldy tin box.
There was no money or gold watch in the box.
There were only neat stacks of newspaper clippings and an account book.
The newspaper clipping featured the news of that bankrupt man's comeback.
It's the wedding photo of that heartbroken girl, the good news of that student who failed the college entrance exam getting accepted...
On the first page of the ledger, a line of text was written in a crooked and messy manner:
"The 49th one. He didn't jump. He cursed me for not having a real son. Good thing, as long as you have the energy to curse, you can survive."
It turns out, he wasn't lingering on the edge of death to scavenge for carrion.
He used his own dignity and life as bait, and used malice to stimulate life.
He was waiting to die, waiting for those who wanted to die to come back to life.
He is the ugliest demon in the world, and also the only guardian by the river.
Lin Que wrote very quickly.
The handwriting wasn't as neat and printed as Zhao Zichen's; instead, it had a sharp, sloppy quality.
He broke down the elements of horror and hid them beneath a facade of warmth.
They hid their tenderness within the deepest malice.
Was that crow a bad person? Yes.
He robbed, he insulted, he was greedy.
But he was also a saint.
In a near-self-destructive way, he erected a human wall in front of the abyss of despair.
It embodies the core of healing and relieving worries, while also carrying the eerie aesthetics unique to dream weavers.
It's like adding a drop of ink to hot milk.
After writing the last period, Lin Que glanced at the time.
There are forty minutes left in the exam.
He put down his pen and looked up at the camera again.
This time, he did not dodge.
Instead, he gave the camera a meaningful smile.
...
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