After Shen Bing left, I was not idle. I tried to do more work to stop myself from thinking about her. This person is really strange. I had a vague feeling about her before, and sometimes I felt it was unreal. But after listening to Shen Bing's dream talk, it was as if the floodgates in my heart were opened, and the flood rushed out, uncontrollable. My longing for her can be described as a flood.
I don’t know how I could have changed so quickly. From years ago when I couldn’t tolerate any other woman because of Yaxue, to now, in just two months, I have fallen in love with a girl from the provincial capital.
The day after Shen Bing left, I asked a carpenter to make the same old-style door panels. I rearranged the Azure Dragon, White Tiger and Eight Trigrams Ghost Suppression Bureau in the shop, repaired the shelves, and placed the magic bottles on them.
The people in the town are very enthusiastic about me now. The carpenter doesn't charge for making door panels and repairing shelves. But it's better to pay. From time to time, they will come to me to help them check whether the Feng Shui layout of their homes is appropriate, or if someone has a headache or fever, they will ask me for help. I feel that what I do is similar to what Mr. Luo does.
This is good, I don't have much free time to begin with, and now I have almost no spare time, and I have to deal with Wang Zijun's schooling, so I am very busy. But even though I am busy, I feel very empty inside.
After the Lantern Festival, I picked a good day to bury Yaxue's ashes in the ancestral grave. I stayed at her grave for a whole day. Although there was another person in my heart, my love for her did not change at all. If she were still alive, I would never fall in love with anyone else.
Every afternoon when I open my eyes, I am busy. After midnight, when I sit alone in the store without any customers, I feel very bored and want to call Shen Bing. But looking at the watch, I think if I disturb her at this time, I will definitely be scolded. Alas, she has been gone for more than ten days, and I have not called her once. I always can't muster up the courage. You say that I am not afraid of anything, not even ghosts, but I am afraid to call her.
As time went by, I realized that time will dilute everything, just like when Yaxue said goodbye to me. That period was very difficult to endure at first, but after a while, everything will slowly fade away until it is buried deep in my heart and becomes a seed that never sprouts, rotting into soil over time.
Just like Shen Bing and Yaxue, they don’t belong to me, so why should I make myself suffer
Life went on as usual, and my mood gradually calmed down. Every night I sat in the shop, playing Teresa Teng's Tuberose on the old tape recorder left by my father, squinting my eyes, and it was so enjoyable. I am a conservative person and cannot appreciate new songs, especially Jay Chou's songs. I really want to open the tape and straighten his tongue.
But whenever I hear the clacking sound of high heels outside the store, my heart would inexplicably rise to my throat and I would stretch my neck to look outside. Damn, Aunt Niu from next door walked past my door in a cheongsam and high heels. You are already in your fifties, but you still dress up so flamboyantly, aren't you ashamed? I thought it was Shen Bing.
Alas, I thought I hadn't thought about her for many days, but the sound of high heels brought her back to my mind. Bah, you old pervert, you made me miss you again!
Just when I was getting angry, this kid Wang Zijun came. He would come to my place every night at 11:30 every three or five days. He begged me for many days, and I only taught him some simple Maoshan introductory knowledge, which was enough for him to cheat and deceive people. It was much better than Master Mao not teaching him anything.