Soon, He Ling and I arrived at our destination. It was a single villa near the sea, which was located in a remote place with unsatisfactory scenery and few people around.
He Ling and I were busy tidying up the room during the day, and at night he sat on the balcony in a daze, and I started to contact Chu Yuanjiang.
Instead of calling, he sent letters to me and his private mailbox, telling him what happened, my current address and contact information. I don't know when Chu Yuanjiang will see it. In the evening, He Ling and I ate a simple meal I made in silence, and then went back to our rooms to sleep.
I went out to the bathroom in the middle of the night, maybe it was an illusion, when I walked by the window, I seemed to see someone on the beach. He walked to He Ling's door uneasily, knocked for a while, but there was no response.
I yelled again, still no answer.
So I put on a coat and went out to the beach. In the dark night, I vaguely saw a row of long footprints leading to the sea, I quickened my pace, and finally ran wildly following the footprints on the beach.
The moon had already set, and in the starlight all over the sky, there was only the sound of violent sea waves, and everything seemed to be swallowed up in the dark night.
"He Ling!" I yelled.
His figure appeared under the starlight, and the sea water reached his shoulders, but he was walking to a deeper place.
I hurriedly ran towards him, the sea water wet my trousers, when I reached the depths, I used my hands and feet to cut through the water, and rushed over to drag him up.
"What are you doing?" I grabbed his collar and reached the shallows where I could settle.
The starlight made his cold silhouette even more obvious, only a pair of eyes shimmering in the dark night, he looked at me indifferently: "I can't sleep, I want to swim, why are you here?"
I yelled, "Anyone swimming in a shirt?"
After a while, he lowered his head and sighed, "I really just want to swim."
I wiped my face: "You are so tired on the road, you haven't slept for two days, and finally lost your foot, where are you going to go?"
He didn't speak, the wet shirt stuck to his skin, and even his eyelashes were stained with water.
I pulled him and walked towards the shore: "Man, what's the big deal? What are you afraid of when you come back after all the money is gone?"
He staggered and was dragged ashore by me.
From then on, I began to care about He Ling's work and rest. One day he asked me: "Have you got in touch with Chu Yuanjiang?"
I nodded: "Well, we got in touch on the first day."
He Ling nodded as if sleepwalking: "That's good, is he okay?"
"I sent an email and he said he knew all about it and reassured me."
He Ling fell silent thoughtfully.
One day in the second month, He Ling and I drove to the town to do some shopping. The car was already full of food and daily necessities. However, He Ling stopped by the newsstand on his return journey. He picked up an English newspaper and quickly browsed it. A photo was pasted on a small section below. It vaguely showed a man covered in blood being escorted by a police car. The appearance of carrying away.
I didn't quite understand what it meant, but He Ling drove around a few blocks and bought several Chinese newspapers.
I asked with some doubts: "What's wrong?"
He suddenly looked up at me, with a light in his eyes that I didn't understand: "Get out of the car and go back by yourself."
I froze for a moment and didn't move.
The temperament of his whole body seemed to have undergone a subtle change, and he pursed the corners of his mouth.
He threw the newspaper to me, and I glanced at it, only to see that the photo in the English newspaper just now had been enlarged many times and placed on the front page. The first few photos were related series of reports.
I glanced at the content above—Peter Xiong, the richest Chinese man in County X, was shot at his mansion last night, and he is still being rescued, and his life and death are unknown. The police have determined that the murder was paid for, and the instigator was a fellow Chinese with the surname Chu according to preliminary investigations. The police have issued an arrest warrant.
Looking up, He Ling seemed to have regained his stern look in an instant: "I'm going back to see Xiong Xiliang now. Do you want to get out of the car, or go with me?"
The car door slammed shut, and I staggered a few steps, watching the car speeding away in front of me.
A person walked back slowly, unable to recover from the shock all the way. Things moved so fast I didn't have time to digest them. My mind is like a paste, I just think in a chaotic way, I want to go back to the villa and take the few bank cards I made up in the past few days. I just asked Chu Yuanjiang to come with me, and he agreed, but where is he now
After walking for four hours, I finally returned to the deserted beach, opened the door of the villa with a key, and just stepped forward with a foot full of thoughts, when my head was pointed by a gun.
I turned my eyes a little slowly, but met the same surprised eyes.
"Where's He Ling?" Chu Yuanjiang asked, withdrawing his gun.
I gasped: "You did a good job, he went back to see Xiong Xiliang."
Chu Yuanjiang muttered a curse, limped to the edge of the sofa and sat down on it. It was only then that I saw him clearly, his face had no blood at all, and it was even faintly black.
Chu Yuanjiang bowed and sank into the sofa to prop up his forehead, coughing violently: "I've been played with."
I sat down beside him, stretched out my hand to help him gently, and sighed: "Who dares to play with our Master Chu?"
Chu Yuanjiang took out a cigarette and lit it, staring at the floor with shadowy eyes, without speaking. I snatched his cigarette and put it in my mouth: "Why are you smoking again? Didn't you quit?"
Chu Yuanjiang sat gloomy without saying a word, I gently held his hand: "Tell me, what's going on?"
Chu Yuanjiang lit another cigarette, and I saw that his cigarette case was already half full, so I simply ignored him.
He smoked his cigarette silently, and suddenly said, "You've been fucked too."
"Oh." I looked at him quietly.
Chu Yuanjiang leaned on the sofa as if his strength had been taken away, his whole body was exhausted, only his eyes were bright and frightening: "Damn it, the hands and feet on the car were Da Biao's idea in the first place, but it's not a big problem , I guess I just wanted to vent my anger and kill people. The man was sent by the surname Xiong, so he acquiesced in this matter, who knows what the fuck Xiong Xiliang thinks."
"What?"
"You still don't understand?" Chu Yuanjiang closed his eyes, and said in a hoarse voice, "He Ling used Lao Tzu and Lin Ye as guns. Now it's all right, Xiong is half dead. He Ling can do it this time." Swallow them all."
"Didn't Xiong Xiliang buy all his businesses?"
"Who knows what kind of tricks the two of them are playing... Xiong Xiliang started to get He Ling ruthlessly. He Ling was seriously injured, but he is a vegetarian? He Ling sold all the profitable business of He's property to Several overseas companies that Xiong Xiliang took over were indeed surnamed He, but there were only a bunch of shells that only eat money and don’t spit out money, which dragged Xiong Xiliang half to death. It was later learned that those overseas companies were all passed by He Ling Indirectly controlled by the way of cross-shareholding, he himself does not appear in the shareholder list at all... "
"You mean..." I suddenly felt a little cold behind my back.
Chu Yuanjiang smiled weakly: "Even a fox like Lin Ye was deceived by his retreat... He Ling also had contact with Lin Ye, and kept saying that it was done by Xiong. But it’s true, the one captured on the surveillance video who got under your car is Xiong Xiliang’s man.”
"Lin Ye also participated in this matter?"
"Lin Ye has been investigating this matter. As soon as Lao Tzu took action, he sent someone to tell me that I made a mistake..."
Silence suddenly filled the empty living room, neither Chu Yuanjiang nor I spoke.
I took out another cigarette, but it couldn't be lit, so I simply threw the lighter away.
"You said it's not a big problem for Da Biao to tamper with the car? Then why..."
"He Ling did it."
Seeing my dumbfounded expression, Chu Yuanjiang seemed to gather his strength all of a sudden, and punched me on the stomach, causing me to bend down in pain.
The huge impact made me breathless, but Chu Yuanjiang coughed violently from above, I clutched my stomach and climbed back to the sofa to let him breathe, but he pushed me with a look of hatred: "You bastard... I forgot my surname when I saw the pretty one... Why did you provoke He Ling? Is he an ordinary person?!"
I bowed my head and said nothing.
The pain eased a little, and I asked hoarsely, "How did you get here?"
"Lin Ye sent someone to send me here."
"Oh. Have you thought about what to do next?"
Chu Yuanjiang calmed down and said, "Here... not far from the Pisces Mountains, I want to go climbing."
I looked up at him, but I couldn't see it clearly.
There are too many things in his eyes, and the years have left traces on his face. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and there was a fine line around his slightly hooked lips.
"I've been fighting people all my life, but I've been rescued by my enemies again and again... That's it, let's go climbing, shall we?"
My fingertips trembled a little: "That's a plateau, more than 3,500 meters. You need at least half a year of training before you go, let alone you..."
Chu Yuanjiang smiled slightly: "You have been hiding it from me, but the body is my own, can't I not feel it? This time I went out, I went for a checkup, and it is already in the late stage." Chu Yuan said Jiang held my hand tightly, and said softly, "Just let me grant my last wish, can't you? I don't want to go to jail anymore."
My eyes were a little wet, I wiped my face: "Okay, let's go."
I went to the town to swipe my card to buy a car, and I took Chu Yuanjiang to the distance.
…When I found out that he was terminally ill, when I first arrived abroad, I never told him clearly, nor did I take him for treatment. People I knew in the past, as long as they entered the chemotherapy room, they did not come out alive within half a year.
Besides, I couldn't make him lie down in the hospital.
I still remember the phrase "I want to go home" he said to me. I'd rather have him die by my side than have him spend a little longer in the hospital.
I haven't discussed it with him, but if one day he knows the truth, he will not blame me, because although we have so many differences, our views on life are the same. He will make the same choice as me.
In the past two years, Chu Yuanjiang almost gave me the illusion that he is already healed, he has recovered. But I know his body like I know mine, and I know it's getting worse, as fast as I can see it.
I should have known earlier what Chu Yuanjiang said to me on the small mound before leaving the house...
"I've been worth it all my life. I've been penniless until now, and I've even left the country."
"Junzi, I'm so happy, really."
"I see everything now..."
"I gave you this piece of jade to keep you safe and let you live freely, not to tie you down, understand?"
"I'm going far away..."
It turns out... he already understood.
He said that he went out this time, made the last fortune, and checked his body by the way. I understand him... He has always been a person who refuses to admit defeat. Even if he dies, he doesn't want to die on the hospital bed.
The sky is very blue.
The foot of the mountain is still full of flowers, but it gets colder as you go up, and the road is covered with snow.
I stretched out my hand to wrap Chu Yuanjiang's coat tightly, his legs were already too stiff to move, I carried him on my back, and walked up bit by bit, even after walking for so long, I didn't feel tired at all.
The cold air he exhaled was in my ears. After three thousand meters, he began to weaken, his face was covered with gray and gray, but his body was running a fever: "Junzi... all my life, I have been climbing... just... I have arrived. Now, I'm still going to the heights..."
"Hmm." I replied sullenly.
Chu Yuanjiang smiled, stretched his arms around my neck, and touched my face: "Why are you crying? The doctor said... even minor injuries... and chronic infections may cause bone cancer... just like people fall when walking... This catastrophe I couldn’t make it through... At that time... They were all dead at that time... I survived, but I can’t escape the first day of the junior high school, but I can’t escape the fifteenth day... "
"..."
"You...you always dislike me...saying that when I went abroad, I didn't do things properly...I'm not afraid to tell you now, I'm a dying person, what kind of reputation do I want...all the money I earn...is reserved for your… "
I choked up.
Walking forward step by step, the footprints fell in the snow, stepping on a deep depression.
Chu Yuanjiang's breathing became short of breath, and he was gradually speechless. I hurriedly covered his face with the oxygen mask beside me, and touched his forehead. His body temperature had already dropped, and he became cold and lifeless.
I carried him on my back and continued to walk up without stopping.
When climbing to the top of the mountain, there is a vast snow scene below. I held him in my arms and shook him violently: "Yuanjiang! Yuanjiang!! Wake up! Don't you want to go to a higher place? You have reached the highest point..."
His lips were blue and white, he opened his eyes slightly, and then closed them again.
"Yuanjiang..." I held him in my arms and cried out.
Tears blurred my vision, I felt like someone was touching my face, but I saw Chu Yuanjiang under the oxygen mask with a distant smile...
I leaned him on my arm, his face was no longer as pale as before, but as if he had been frozen red, with the slightest trace of blood showing in the light.
He reached out and took off the oxygen mask with difficulty: "Jun... Junzi... I... my life is worth it... the only... only one regret..." "What... what?"
He reached out to touch my face and smiled: "I... I said... You mustn't be angry..."
"I am not angry… "
"you you… "
I pressed his stiff hand to my face.
"You... if... it's... a girl... I'll be fine. I... I'll marry you..."
My tears fell on his face uncontrollably: "You... you are talking nonsense... I... If you are a woman, I won't play you to death..."
"I would like to..." His voice was so soft that it seemed to fall into the wind.
I tilted my head and kissed the back of his hand, a somewhat lonely expression froze on his face, and the last trace of warmth in the palm against his face disappeared, and it fell stiffly into the snow.
He was in my arms and slowly closed his eyes.
It wasn't until his body was completely frozen and stiff in the ice and snow that I cried and howled.
Chu Yuanjiang...
Chu Yuanjiang...
Suddenly a thought of following him came to my mind, I was in a trance for a moment, I didn't know who he was...
I could so easily agree to take him to kill myself...
He can also give me the last part of his life...
My soul, like his icy body, is gradually going away...