A man sinks into the water—
As before, he lost all sleepiness, and let the cold water flow over his lips and nose, over the top of his head, he opened his eyes slightly, and his expression was between indifference and confusion.
There was a sound of thunder, and the pouring rain followed one after another. The sleep-seekers were already asleep, and the hustle and bustle of the day disappeared. At this time, Xie Lanshan sank at the bottom of the bathtub with his eyes closed and motionless. His skin was already blushing, and one or two bubbles occasionally rose in the water, proving that he was just contemplating and not dead.
Suddenly, Xie Lanshan opened his eyes wide, stretched out his hand and waved it in the void, as if he was drowning in the deep sea, unable to move at all.
He saw the woman again.
I only know that the other party is still young, but his appearance is very vague. In the dream, he pressed the woman face down into the bathtub. The other party seemed to have multiple stab wounds, and the water in the bathtub was instantly stained blood red. The woman struggled to the death, lifted her head out of the water again and again, and was pushed back into the water again and again by him, and he heard her cry silently and desperately.
There was blood all over the place.
Xie Lanshan was stunned by this extremely real and cruel image. He wanted to struggle and shout, but he was so stiff that he couldn't make a sound.
It wasn't until a second before he drowned that Xie Lanshan got up from the bathtub, gasping for breath like the rest of his life. He lifted his foot and stepped out of the bathtub, without wiping his body, he just walked around naked, letting the water run all the way. Xie Lanshan's skin is very white and creamy, but his body is very strong, his limbs are slender and spiritual, and the muscles in his chest and abdomen are rough.
There is a necklace hanging around his neck all the year round, and he has not taken it off for many years. The pendant is a real bullet, simply strung with a black leather cord, hanging closest to the heart.
The bathroom is a bit cramped and airtight, like a chrysalis. Xie Lanshan stretched out his hand to wipe off the fog on the mirror, leaned closer, and carefully looked at the face reflected in the mirror—a handsome man's face, with a much three-dimensional outline than ordinary Asians, his eyes flashing coldly, and the curvature of his lips inverted. very sweet.
Xie Lanshan tried to smile at the mirror, feeling unspeakably weird. He might have almost drowned just now, and his conjunctiva was slightly congested, so his demeanor was somewhat gloomy, which did not match this handsome face.
The cat barked three or two times outside the window. At two o'clock in the morning, Xie Lanshan took a bath towel, wrapped his lower body, and walked out of the bathroom.
There was a book scattered on the coffee table in the hall, he picked it up, his eyes hurriedly glanced over its title—
"Transfiguration", the author is the Japanese reasoning writer Keigo Higashino, one of the famous "private novel trilogy", about the shy and introverted male protagonist accidentally shot, after receiving half of the brain transplant, gradually affected by the change. Became a ruthless and ferocious demon.
Xie Lanshan likes Keigo Higashino, but he doesn't like this book very much. The setting of "brain change" seemed relatively new at the time, but he had only read one third of it, and he felt that the plot was set too hastily, and he couldn't even swallow the freshly crafted and neat words.
However, there is a sentence on the cover that has always impressed him.
"Even if I cease to be me, even if I have turned into a bloodthirsty murderer, even if the whole world has turned into ruins, I will still love you with all my life, till death..."
He threw down the book, turned around and opened the window, and a gust of night wind with rain came in from outside, dispelling a bit of the dullness in the house, and also brought a soft cat meowing. Xie Lanshan stuck his head out of the window and whistled at the wild cats sheltering from the rain under his window, motioning them to go back to their respective dens.
Xie Lanshan lived in an old-fashioned conjoined villa, with two floors up and down, with a height of more than three meters. The outside of the villa looks very imposing, but in fact the lighting is not good, it is dark and old, the occupancy rate of the community is not high, and every door is strictly guarded. At night, except for a dozen or so wild cats, there is no other sound from time to time.
Xie Lanshan was so happy that he was quiet, and he was so happy that only the wild cat accompanied him. He can be regarded as "Elvis" in another sense. He is naturally attracted to cats. Sometimes he is busy with cases and can't stay at home. He will give two hundred yuan to a little girl in the community to count the wild cats they feed together.
These little things remembered to eat well, they all listened to him, called out twice, and went away.
Sitting down in a corner of the room, he leaned his head back, closed his eyes, and began to recall the all-too-real dream just now.
Recently, I have often dreamed of this woman. Every time I dreamed, he was so short of breath that he fell into an abyss, and every time he woke up and tried to recall the face of the woman in the dream, it always ended in failure. No matter how hard he tried to pick it up and piece it together, that face was always separated by a layer of mist, and it banged and splattered in the instant it was about to become clear.
His head was still swollen and painful, and he couldn't sleep. Xie Lanshan decided to pack up and go out to get some air.
There is a newly opened movie theater near my home. In order to attract audiences, a "suspense movie week" is being held recently. The discounts on the ticket price are very strong. They are all suspense movies or horror movies that are rarely seen in movie theaters, and they are all at midnight. .
The cinema is crowded during the day, but there are many audiences at night. Except for insomniacs like Xie Lanshan, who are deeply troubled by headaches, most of them are young couples who come here to seek excitement. They like to watch horror movies to soar their adrenaline while doing things they love in the dark cinema.
Maybe because of the weather, there were not many people in the theater today, and there was only one audience in a huge screening hall with a huge screen, except for Xie Lanshan.
The movie just opened, and the audience unwisely chose to sit in the front row. Judging from his stature, he should be a man.
A movie that focuses on reasoning and solving crimes, the whole film has a dark and humid temperament, and it also has a religious color. The director has a good idea, but he used too much force to turn a good suspense film into a horror film. The picture is startling and the soundtrack is very eerie. Xie Lanshan is well versed in the routines of such films, and often guesses the end after reading the beginning, so he quickly lost his interest in finding the answer to the mystery, and instead turned his attention to another man in the screening room. He piqued his interest.
After all, watching a horror movie alone in the middle of the night, there are definitely not many freaks in this world who have this hobby.
The light in the projection hall was dim, the man was wearing a black hooded trench coat, and he still wore a hat indoors, maintaining a straight and straight posture from beginning to end.
The screen is too wide and the distance is too close to make it uncomfortable to watch a movie in the front row. Xie Lanshan raised his volume and said to the man, "I thought it was common sense not to sit in the front row when watching a movie."
The other party seemed to have been waiting for Xie Lanshan to speak, and answered him naturally: "I like to observe people's expressions up close, especially after experiencing fear, shock and despair."
This man's voice was low and soft, but inexplicably penetrating, as if he could stir up the thick ink-like night at once. Xie Lanshan couldn't help but be curious. People with such a beautiful voice should not look bad.
"Why?" he asked more.
"Career needs."
Xie Lanshan thought about it for a while, and after ignoring the more likely answers, he took a slanted guess: "Artist?"
"No," the man said modestly, "I'm just a painter."
Unexpectedly, I guessed it right. The painter needs a lot of observation and accumulation, and it is true to listen. Xie Lanshan tried to remind: "This is acting, not real."
"Then I can't really kill someone." The other party chuckled, as if he had said something out of place.
At this time, the movie screen was a little brighter. With the light from the big screen, Xie Lanshan saw the person sitting in the first row turned his face to himself. The brim of the hat blocked his eyes, and his specific appearance was indistinct. Only from the outline of the chin outlined by the faint light, it could be judged that he was indeed a very handsome man.
Anyway, there is no one else in the screening hall, and there is no need to be restrained by those "watching the movie without saying a word". The two had some exchanges on the murderer's motive and method of committing the crime in the film. It can be reproduced exactly like the movie.
This person not only has a good voice, but also has a good aesthetic and logical thinking. Xie Lanshan found that in terms of criminal technology, the other party may be even worse than himself.
"The murderer preached by killing," the other party recognized Xie Lanshan's judgment and added, "There is a saying that 'the son of a thousand gold cannot sit down in the hall', the director arranged for the third dead person to be killed so easily and without any precautions. Probably a failure of the film."
As soon as the words fell, the third deceased appeared in the movie. It was indeed the rich man who appeared at the beginning of the movie. The foreshadowing was buried deep, and he never had a big role.
Xie Lanshan had a good impression of this man at first, and it was too late to meet him at this moment. After all, he is a police officer who has been engaged in criminal investigation for many years. It is normal for him to have this reasoning ability, but as an ordinary movie enthusiast, the other party is too bright-eyed. a little.
So they started a bit of a rivalry, and the two of them were rushing to spoil each other as if they were intentional. The plot line was quickly guessed by the two of them. Fortunately, the director also buried a love line in the film, which can be used for entertainment.
"Wow, with so many roses, I bet this girl's psychological defense is about to collapse, and she's going to have to go to bed with the murderer soon."
"I bet not."
"Do you think so?" Xie Lanshan was a little surprised. From beginning to end, the two of them had a high degree of agreement on the film, but there was a disagreement on such an obvious point.
The man actually said a little waywardly, because I don't like roses.
In the movie, the heroine cried with joy when she saw the rose, and lingered face to face with the murderer. Outside the movie, the phone rang suddenly.
Xie Lanshan quickly cut off his mobile phone and had a headache all day, so much so that he forgot to put his phone on silent mode before the movie started.
Just muted, the call came again.
Looking at the bright mobile phone screen, the caller was the leader, and it was estimated that what he wanted to talk about was an important matter related to his own life and death. Xie Lanshan had to get up to answer the phone, but before he stepped out of the theater, he heard the man behind him say, "Do you know why I can guess that the third deceased is the rich man?"
"Huh?" Xie Lanshan turned his head, but the man didn't.
"Because I've already seen this film." The other party understated it, and in one sentence he revealed all the mysteries, which greatly surprised people.
Xie Lanshan's interest was finally completely hooked by this person. Before this sentence, this man was at most a stranger who had the same interests and keen observation as himself, but at this moment he suddenly had a strange feeling: this man was coming for him.
When he went out to pick up the phone, it was Tao Jun, an instructor from the Hanhai City Public Security Bureau, who specially reminded him to return to work tomorrow and not be late.
When Xie Lanshan returned to the theater, the man was gone.
It was replaced by a young couple who were late, and in front of the screen of death, they were embracing each other eagerly.
The kissing sound was sticky, and it sounded unusually loud in an empty cinema. Realizing that a third person had appeared in the screening room, the young couple stopped and hurriedly sorted out their clothes, looking embarrassed.
Xie Lanshan turned his head out of the theater, put his hands in his pockets, and walked slowly in the sudden night wind.
The rain stopped, the moon and stars were thin, and the haze of the past few days was swept away. He was inexplicably relaxed, and even in the smell of rain mixed with dust, he could smell a little bit of the fragrance of May flowers.