When I opened the box that Ge Zhu left for me, I was stunned. It was something I had never expected.
There was a finger-print in the small box. I didn't recognize the girl on it. There was also some skin. I thought it was Ge Zhu's skin. So they asked me to make a finger-print? Then I would understand all about Ge Zhu's death.
I couldn't understand it at all. I actually learned finger painting in my dream. Is this true? It seemed that everything happened only in a dream. After waking up, everything was different. Bai Jie didn't exist, and Ge Zhu didn't exist either.
This big dream made me completely lose the reality of life and made me feel that it was a fear that was extremely terrible.
I sat on the bed in my bedroom, feeling completely out of rhythm.
I don’t know if all this is real. I woke up from the dream, but I’m still in the dream.
My father came in and spoke to me while I was in a daze. I knew that he had been feeling sorry for me all this time.
I secretly went to see my son Xiaozhe. He had grown taller. Every time he came out from school, he would notice me first and then look at me. Yunbai held his hand, and he would look back at me from time to time. Yunbai, you woman, really annoy me. Master Yunzheng appeared behind me.
"I will talk to Yun Bai. Since it's not a problem with the smell on your body, everything can be solved."
"Forget it. Yun Bai's heart is on that man. She is looking forward to the love of that man in his reincarnation."
I left after I finished speaking. The master's heart ached. On one hand, there was his apprentice, and on the other, there was his daughter. He was caught between two choices. At this moment, I knew he was in a conflicted mood, and I didn't want to put more pressure on him. I just wanted to let everything take its course.
When I went to work that day, there was always a negative energy in the refining room. I was busy until the afternoon, when I had lunch. I stayed in the office, closed the curtains, locked the door, drank some wine, opened the small box that Ge Zhu left for me, and started to do finger-cover painting. I couldn't fail, and I only had one chance like this, otherwise Ge Zhu's death would always be a mystery.
I worked until midnight that day, and when I was almost done, I heard footsteps. This was an office building, and it was strange to hear footsteps in the middle of the night. No one would come here, especially in the middle of the night. No one would stay here like me because I was homeless. My father's home was also my home, but the concept of that home was completely different.
The footsteps stopped and started, as if he was listening to something.
I didn't move. I thought that person should have seen the light coming through my door. When I felt something was strange, I stood up and hid under the table. I stared at the door. It was locked from the inside, with a latch. At that time, we used a latch.
The door seemed to be pushed, and I held my breath. I thought that if the person pushed it and couldn't open it, he would leave, because there was no lock on the outside. It was the kind of lock that a general would use only when it was hung there, so you knew there would be someone inside.
The insertion was actually straightening up little by little, and then pulling apart little by little. I was stiff and erect. The insertion was very tight, and I was sweating. How could this person do this? Fuck you, is this just kidding me? This is a dream, not real. I am still in the dream and have not completely jumped out. This is for sure.
I still didn't dare to come out. Anyone who could do such a thing must not be an ordinary person. That was not magic.
The door was unlocked, but the man didn't come in. He just stood there. I could feel him standing there without moving. I thought, "Fuck you, are you kidding me?" He was kidding my heart.
This person seemed to be playing with his patience. I couldn't stand it anymore and slowly stood up. It seemed that I was still young and didn't have this person's concentration. I opened the door and yelled. Then I wanted to give this person a big electric shock and then kick him to death with a shadowless kick.
This person turned out to be He Dana. He walked here by himself. I don’t know how he could do it. He had no legs, but now he has legs again. He looked at me and smiled.
"Godfather, you can kill me if you play like this."
"No, I'm here to play with you."
We came here to have fun, but we were having too much fun, weren't we
He Dana locked the door, sat down, and I poured him some tea.
"Why are you here so late at night?"
"When you get old and can't sleep, you run out for a walk. Are you scared?"
I nodded. I was scared, absolutely.
"How did you do that? That's it."
"This is child's play, it's very simple, I will teach you, you have so much to learn." I
I don’t know how many more tricks like this He Dana has come up with, tricks that I cannot accept.
"Are you doing finger-painting?"
He Dana saw it and told it out, so I immediately covered the finger painting with newspaper.
"Actually, there's no need. You and Ge Zhu are just a debt. Everything will be fine once you pay it back."
"But I don't even know her."
"You have been reincarnated for many lifetimes, but you don't know everything about every lifetime. There are many things you don't know. No matter what happens, there are causes and consequences. You can't just pick the fruit without eating the cause."
What He Dana said makes sense. I don’t want to ask what the cause and effect is between me and Ge Zhu. Coming is the result, leaving is the cause.
"After you're done, you'll find the murderer who killed Ge Zhu."
“I’m worried I’m going to fail.”
"Ge Zhu has been in your dream for so long just to teach you how to paint with your fingers. It won't fail."
"What on earth are you trying to do here today?"
"Oh, I followed someone here and I couldn't catch up. I don't know if this leg is mine or not. It's borrowed and doesn't work very well."
"Who?"
"I didn't see it clearly. I'm old and my eyesight is blurry."
It seems that He Dana doesn't want me to know.
"Okay, I'll sleep here. Do you want to join me?"
After I finished speaking, I looked at He Dana. He shook his head and left. I locked the door, turned off the lights, and lit a cigarette. I couldn't sleep for a while because this was such a shock that I needed some time to recover.
When I woke up in the morning, my eyes hurt, knowing that I didn’t sleep well. I changed my clothes and went into the refining room. I listened to the crying and howling every day. It seemed that I was used to it, as if it was the music of love. It was not sadness, but a farewell song.
The dead were burning in the furnace, and the sound was unique. I was frightened at first, but now I seem to have gotten used to it.
The manager came over and told me that a man, a refiner, would come in a couple of days to learn from me.
"Well, don't give me any apprentices."
I don't want to have any more apprentices. It's too much trouble.
"No, I'm worried about you being alone, so I'll switch shifts, work one day and rest two days."
The manager left with a gloomy face. He actually had a gloomy face towards me.
I finished my work and the crematorium became quiet. It was like two completely different worlds. It was boiling and quiet in an instant. There was absolutely no process for this transition. It was over in an instant. I was confused at first, but now I have become accustomed to this feeling, or I like this instant feeling.
I went into the office and still didn't go back to my father's house. I continued my finger painting. When I finished it, it was already dark. I prepared some food and wine for myself and drank them in the office. Outside the window was a row of morgues where countless corpses were stored.
After seven days of keeping the finger painting, I can see the murderer in the eyes. I look forward to that moment of discovery, which is a result you can never imagine and a story you can never guess.
I still sleep in the office. It's so quiet here that it's nowhere else.
I miss Xiaozhe, it seems like we really need to talk.
The next day, it was not my shift, so I went to find Yunbai, and she was at home.
"I think we need to talk."
"certainly."
Yunbai was still talking about that man. I would not let this man go. I mentioned Xiaozhe and she shook her head. I slapped Yunbai in the face that day. A woman has been cuckolded and I endured it. She took pride in it and scolded me. I didn't slap her and blamed me for being uneducated.
I left without a result.
I went back to my father's house.
"You can't keep doing this. I've invited Master Yun Zheng to come over to have dinner with you tonight and talk about your affairs."
In fact, I know that talking will not produce any results. If there is a result, if there is a way, it would have been done long ago. Yun Bai will die if she divorces me. This is a knot. There is no way. She can never be with me again. I know that she can smell the dead smell on me. Maybe it is a psychological smell, but it has been formed and cannot be completely changed.
We didn't talk about Yun Bai that day, we just drank. My father mentioned it, but Master Yun Zheng didn't respond. It seemed that the story could not be continued, so my father didn't mention it again.
My father took Xiaozhe back the next day after I got off work. Xiaozhe and I kept a distance and he didn’t dare to get close to me, otherwise he would be beaten when he got home. This is what he told me. Xiaozhe’s eyes really made me feel an indescribable pain.
This feeling is so uncomfortable, I don’t know what to do next.
I don't like going home, any home. I like the quietness of the crematorium. I asked the director for a house and moved my home here. The director tried to persuade me, but I shook my head.
A person who lives in a crematorium is a bit scary to me.
After seven days, the finger painting was deep enough to see the murderer's eyes. I drank a lot of wine that day, then I took out the finger painting, opened it, and took out a magnifying glass.
My hands are shaking. That was just a dream. Can I really see it in reality
Sure enough, I saw it, it was real, it was definitely not wrong, I never expected that the person in Ge Zhu's eyes was actually...
The magnifying glass fell to the ground and broke into pieces. I was panicked and shocked, and hurriedly covered the broken lenses with paper. In the crematorium, if you break glass or mirrors, you have to cover them immediately, as they are things that attract ghosts and spirits. Then I cleaned them up and sat at the table. When I lit a cigarette, my hands were shaking. I didn't know why this was happening. I thought it was impossible.
I smoked four cigarettes in a row and stood at the window. The man turned out to be the director. The director, this gentle man, actually killed Ge Zhu. Why? What happened? I don't know, I don't know at all. In the dream, Ge Zhu and the director had no intersection, and no contact between them. How could this be possible? I didn't believe it at all. I thought it was fake. It was all fake.
At daybreak, I entered the refining room and the director came with a boy, who was no more than twenty years old and still looked childish.
"This is your master Ke Zuo."
The boy timidly called out "Master", just like me back then, Cheng He.
"Wait for me in my office. It's right there."
I watched Cheng He walk towards my office. I glanced at the director who was about to enter the room. His back made me unbelievable. How could a man in his 50s kill Ge Zhu? Ge Zhu's death was ruled an accident because there was nothing at the scene. It was an accidental death.
How did the director kill Ge Zhu? He certainly didn't go to the scene, and Ge Zhu died. I don't quite believe this. I know that one of my classmates is a deputy in the Public Security Bureau and is the biggest leader among our classmates.
After get off work, I went to the police station. That classmate was really impressive. When we were in school, we always beat him, but he didn't hold a grudge. Instead, he extended his hand enthusiastically, then retracted it and smiled embarrassedly.
"It doesn't matter."
He knew that I was a murderer who burned people to death, so this reaction was normal. But when I mentioned Ge Zhu's case, he was stunned.
"I handled this case back then. It was just an accidental death."
I shook my head and he stared at me in amazement. (To be continued)