The snow had stopped.
But the temperature outside was still very cold, and occasionally small hexagonal snowflakes could be seen swirling in front, and then would drift away again along with the wind blowing to the north in the sky.
Bian Shengjian and Lu Shen followed Deng Jiaqi all the way silently, feeling that the place she had just walked out of was not a home, but a man-eating devil’s den.
It was unknown how long she had endured the torture in this house before she finally turned into that hysterical look.
When running out of the house, Bian Shengjian saw that not only did she not wear the red hat, she didn’t even wear a coat, she just ran out with only a sweater on, and her mother’s reaction from the beginning to the end was very calm, as if she had expected her daughter to run back by on her own in a short while.
This kind of blind arrogance and boundless desire to control made Bian Shengjian feel a chill down his back. The two of them followed Deng Jiaqi all the way to the commercial street near her home. It seemed that they wanted to come out to buy the orange cake she wanted to eat, but as they were about to walk out, the thin figure in front stopped and used her hands to pull out every pocket on her body before squatting down in place, vigorously picking at the snow on the ground.
“…What is she doing? Bian Shengjian was taken aback and asked.
“Looking for her five yuan,” Lu Shen said, “she lost her money.”
Bian Shengjian didn’t speak.
There were a lot of people coming and going on the commercial street, and the neon signs of various colors were also lit up with the darkness of the sky. The light shone through the window glass onto the girl squatting on the ground, who was only wearing a sweater.
The girl squatted on the ground, her thin back trembling.
“This is the darkest day in her life,” Lu Shen said softly, “according to the original course of events, she will jump off the third floor tonight.”
Bian Shengjian’s breath stopped, then he listened to Lu Shen continue, “But she didn’t die, she was sent to the hospital and was saved.”
“Then why do you think she committed suicide?” Lu Shen turned to look at him and asked softly. Bian Shengjian was silent, and suddenly understood the way Lu Shen told him at the beginning on how to resolve Deng Jiaqi’s resentment: buy her an orange cake worth five yuan.
“That cake was the trigger that made her finally collapse?” Bian Shengjian was silent for a while and said.
“Hmm.” Lu Shen responded.
Bian Shengjian thought of Deng Jiaqi’s distorted face in the real world, and could probably infer that even if she hadn’t died in the car accident back then, she would have grown up to become a person with a serious anti social personality, deeply hating all people and things in this world, and even mistakenly becoming a dangerous terrorist.
“What kind of mother was that?” Bian Shengjian gritted his teeth and cursed, “Damn it, just don’t give birth if you don’t know how to teach your kid.”
Lu Shen squeezed his frozen fingertips, and took him a few steps forward. “Go, seize the time.”
Bian Shengjian silently looked at the figure squatting on the ground not far away, and when he got closer, he realized that Deng Jiaqi’s fingers were already red from the snow, but she still mechanically dug the ground with her hands as if she didn’t realize the temperature, and murmured, “My money……Where did my money go?”
“Hello.” Lu Shen squatted down, he smiled and stuffed the five-yuan note into her red palm. “Little girl, is this the money you lost?”
Deng Jiaqi was taken aback, and suddenly raised her head to stare at him, with the still obvious signs of crying on her face.
“Who are you?”
“Is it not your money? I just picked it up on the road.”
Passers-by looked at her more and more strangely, and one even stopped to look at her and asked, “Little girl, who are you talking to?”
“Shh, only you can see the two of us.” Lu Shen lightly blinked at her. Deng Jiaqi stood up like she was greatly frightened, but still tightly held the five yuan that Lu Shen had just handed him – but judging from her expression, it was estimated that half of the shock was due to the short sleeves they were wearing in the ice and snow in the first place.
“…Can we talk in another place?” Bian Shengjian couldn’t help rubbing his arms again, feeling his lips were turning pale from the cold. “I’m really dying.”
“There is a cake shop nearby, don’t you want to buy it?” Lu Shen also stood up and pointed to the shop next to him.
Deng Jiaqi just stared at the two of them in horror, but when more and more passers-by came around, she lowered her head and rushed out of the crowd, holding the still warm five yuan and pushing open the door of the small cake shop, and when she came out again with her head lowered with a box, Bian Shengjian was still standing at the door with his teeth grinning and waiting for her. Seeing Deng Jiaqi’s frightened expression, he could only sigh helplessly and take a step back. “Don’t be afraid, we are really not bad people, I….”
“Ah!” Deng Jiaqi suddenly let out a horrified scream, probably because a passer-by accidentally passed through Bian Shengjian just as he backed away. This horrifying scene seemed to be infinitely magnified in Deng Jiaqi’s eyes, almost not being able to hold onto the packaged cake box in her hand.
“What are you guys!”
“We’re ghosts okay?”
Deng Jiaqi looked down at the cake in her hand, then looked at the two people shivering in the cold wind, swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and finally said cautiously, “You guys…are you really cold?”
“Nonsense, of course it’s cold! Why don’t you take a look, it’s only a few degrees out here…” Bian Shengjian stood in place and bounced several times before feeling the blood flowing back in his body, but the soles of his feet were completely numb from the cold.
“No, why don’t we sit down and talk somewhere else, you’re only wearing a sweater, aren’t you cold?”
Deng Jiaqi looked at him and Lu Shen several times before she finally believed what they said earlier, “Only you can see us”. Although her eyes were still full of fear and vigilance, she took a step back and whispered, “My…there is heating in the stairwell near my house.”
“Then hurry up, let’s go.” Bian Shengjian took a few steps forward, gripping Lu Shen’s arm as he spoke, lowering his voice with trembling teeth, saying, “Her resentment is resolved…..resolved now right?”
“We have to wait until she eats the cake.” Lu Shen also lowered his voice and said.
Bian Shengjian sighed tremblingly, and at the same time clenched Lu Shen’s arm, “…All right.”
After finally entering the corridor, Deng Jiaqi immediately retreated as if in a big battle. Looking at them step by step, “You….what are you going to do to me?”
“Hey, don’t look at me with that look, I’m not interested in a dry little girl like you.” Biansheng Jian immediately denied her unreasonable conjecture, while stretching out one leg and stepping up the stairs, “Hurry up, eat the cake.”
“Why…do you want to help me?”
Deng Jiaqi’s voice was very low, and she crumpled the corner of the cake box with all her strength. “How…did you find me?”
“Jiaqi.” Lu Shen interrupted her and said bluntly, “We traveled through time and space to find you.”
Deng Jiaqi opened her mouth slightly and looked at him very confused.
“Listen,” Lu Shen said slowly, “I have witnessed the lives of many different people in my life, including yours.”
“But in all my life experiences, almost every section has left behind regrets, but no matter whether it is facing the dead mother or the person one likes, these people have never given up hope of living from the beginning to the end, so I hope you will not choose to end your life soon hastily.”
Although Deng Jiaqi was a little confused about his words, when she heard the last sentence, she still sobered all at once. She even trembled as if she had been exposed.
“I don’t… I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Don’t give in.” Bian Shengjian stood aside and said suddenly, “In short, don’t let your mother’s words affect you. You know what kind of person you are.”
“How do you know about my mother and me?” Deng Jiaqi trembled even more fiercely, even with a hint of collapse in her tone, “She said…she said I was crazy, she said I had a brain problem.”
“You don’t-, “Lu Shen said decisively.
“I really don’t know where you’re from! ” Deng Jiaqi suddenly broke down and roared. “I don’t know why you came to tell me these things! Who the hell are you!”
“We-,” Lu Shen paused and smiled. “Okay, okay. Actually we don’t have anything else to do, we’re just here to treat you to a cake.”
Deng Jiaqi lowered her head and didn’t speak. Sitting on the stairs, she roughly tore open the box of the cake, her eyes red, forked the cake and squeezed the cake into her mouth, while her tears also fell down.
“No one has ever cared about me… no one…” Deng Jiaqi wiped away her tears with her hands while eating, causing the cream to also be smeared all over her face.
I am so tired, I am so tired of living.
Bian Shengjian and Lu Shen looked at each other, squatted down and at the same time reached out and patted the thin girl on the back lightly, but did not say a word.
“I really don’t know who you are…” Deng Jiaqi cried and leaned her head on the shoulder of one of them, while her tears fell down the stairs. “But, thank you. “
“There are gaps in everything, and that’s where the light gets in.” Lu Shen said softly, and at the same time released the talisman that was clamped in the palm of his hand. It burned, and it was a blinding white light. Bian Shengjian closed his eyes, feeling a faint heat flow in his eye sockets.
Sure enough, no matter how many evils she did in the future, she was still a child who could be coaxed with cakes at the beginning.
When he opened his eyes again, for some reason Bian Shengjian could faintly hear the sound of a police siren, and the sound seemed to be getting closer and closer–
“Heh.” Suddenly someone next to him sneered, and Bian Shengjian turned his head to see that Deng Jiaqi’s figure had gradually become transparent. “How about it, wasn’t I really stupid before?”
“Not stupid, it’s much more adorable than you are now.” Bian Shengjian frowned slightly and couldn’t help but glance at her. “Why, I saw your resentment has already been resolved, but why is it still quite heavy?”
“Tsk.” Deng Jiaqi stared back not to be outdone, and suddenly raised her tone. “Come on, if you have time to hurt me here, why don’t you say goodbye to your family….isn’t he going to leave?”
Bian Shengjian was stunned and immediately turned back only to find that Lu Shen, who had stood before, had sat down against the wall, breathing softly, and looked very weak.
“Lu Shen!” Bian Shengjian let out a subconscious roar and rushed to him, groped and rubbed him with trembling hands while saying, “How are you…how do you feel?”
“Young Bian.” Lu Shen barely opened his eyes, looked at him with a pale and weak smile. “I’m leaving now. ”
Bian Shengjian didn’t speak, just shook his hands and wanted to grab his wrist, but the next second he was horrified to find that Lu Shen’s body was gradually becoming transparent like before.
“The fuck!” Bian Shengjian embraced him in horror, lowered his head and kissed him several times on his lips, and his tone became a little choked, “You fucker…didn’t you agree to stay with me for the rest of your life?”
“Then I’m going back on my word.” Lu Shen looked at him with a smile, traces of tears clearly slipped from the corner of his eyes, then he muttered in his mouth, “It’s just a pity…There are still many things I haven’t done with you…” The siren sounded louder and louder. “Okay, shut up, you, don’t talk.” Bian Shengjian hugged him tightly, although he didn’t cry, his mouth was full of bitterness. In fact, he knew that such a day would come, but for some reason, when the day really came, his heart still hurt.
“Okay.” Lu Shen stretched out his hand to stroke his hair, and suddenly, as if remembering something, he went around his neck and untied the longevity lock that had been with him for many years, and gently stuffed it into Bian Shengjian’s palm.
“This…for you. Just a token of love.” Lu Shen said with a smile.
“What ghost would want your broken chain!” Bian Shengjian roared, his tone already filled with tears. “Lu Shen, I…”
“Shh..” Lu Shen raised his head and looked at him with some difficulty, with a shallow smile on the corner of his mouth. “Young Bian… I want to hear you sing, the one you sang at the literature night before, it sounds great, really.”
“Get lost, how can you make me sing now?” Bian Shengjian gritted his teeth, but he could only watch Lu Shen’s body become more and more transparent with the passage of time, and he almost couldn’t hold his hand.
“Baby, please” Lu Shen was still smiling. But Bian Shengjian could clearly see that his tears flowed more fiercely.
“You’re crying face. It’s ugly.” Bian Shengjian reached out and pressed his eyes hard, and then, under Lu Shen’s gentle and longing gaze, he finally sang tremblingly, “I cleared the fog and heard the throbbing in the wind…”
Lu Shen leaned against his arms and listened quietly, but his face kept smiling.
“I walk forward, seeing the shattered starry sky falling one by one….”
The low pitched voice mixed with the distant sound of police sirens actually reached a subtle harmony between the two. It seemed to be a simple accompaniment to Bian Shengjian’s soft humming.
“I opened my eyes, and there were raindrops falling on the crossroads in front of me. It was a dream that I could never wake up from…”
Lu Shen closed his eyes. Before he opened them, he seemed to see the young man singing wantonly and sweating on the stage again. In the words of that time, he felt that the person was shining. Regardless of whether it was in a bar or the literature night, he clearly remembered the heartbeat brought by every song of the person who was hugging him at the moment.
…Ah, I think I already fell in love with him at that time. It’s just that Lu Shen, you are too stupid and unexpectedly find out so late. He is precisely the light.
“I want to tear up those darkness and step through those dawns, and run against the wind before dawn…”
Bian Shengjian’s voice tightened, and he hummed the lyrics of the next line softly after gritting his teeth.
Let’s go, don’t look back if you want to go.
Don’t look back.
Let’s go, to the place where the wind blows.
Let’s go.
That’s where I’m going.
That’s where I’m going.
At the end of the song, Bian Shengjian’s tears finally fell down, but this time…the tears fell directly to the ground.
“Third Brother.” Lu Shen’s voice had gradually become blurry, but a smile could still be heard in the tone. “I love you.” Bian Shengjian closed his eyes, feeling that his hands were empty. But he still kept his eyes closed. At the same time, he felt that there seemed to be a gust of breeze passing over his head, like a lover’s hand gently caressing his cheek–
“Dear, you have to remember to come and see me.” Lu Shen said softly with a smile.
