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墨書 Inktalez
Old Wei's tears flowed as he spoke to Yuan Jun and Jiang He, "Just think about it. A little girl, without her father and mother. She may not understand now, but when she does, she'll realize that her father killed her mother. She'll know that the beautiful life she once had was nothing but a lie."
"What a lovely girl she was, and how tragic her life will be. This cannot happen." Old Wei stood up and said to the two of them, "Let her beauty remain forever at this age."
He held the girl tightly in his arms, feeling her breath grow weaker. She had been able to talk to him before, but slowly, she fell silent. In the cold of late autumn, Old Wei could feel her breaths becoming fainter until finally, they ceased altogether.
The girl's body felt soft and limp, like a plush toy.
Old Wei gently caressed her face, his heart calm at that moment. The girl wore her favorite red velvet skirt, lying quietly in his embrace. Just like her mother and father, they were all asleep—peacefully asleep.
He carefully placed the girl into the deep pit he had dug. As he covered her with loess, he spoke softly to her, "Don't be afraid. Soon you'll see your mom and dad again. Life is too painful; you can meet them underground. I will burn joss paper for you; don't worry, there will be no shortage of offerings."
Muttering to himself, Old Wei continued to bury her with loess. The earth gradually covered the pit until the two bodies were no longer visible. Finally, when the loess filled the hole completely, Old Wei stood above it, silently shedding tears. He knew that no one would come here; in a few years, when he too was gone, no one would know what had happened.
Perhaps years later, when this nearly abandoned crematorium was demolished, people might dig up two skeletons in the nearby fields—one adult skeleton and one child's skeleton. They would speculate about what had happened here but would never uncover the truth.
They might bury those bones without knowing who they belonged to.
In the end, Old Wei never learned the girl's name.
Then Old Wei stepped into the light.
Back at the guardhouse, a fragrant aroma wafted from inside. Old Wei knew it contained human entrails; a wave of nausea hit him as he realized it was human flesh yet found himself salivating uncontrollably. This filled him with a sense of horror as he frantically stuffed the entrails into his travel bag, zipped it up tightly, and tossed it into the tall weeds—leaving it there for four or five days.
Until today, Old Wei could no longer hold back. Because during these five days, he finally began to understand a story.
"Take us there now," Jiang He said.
Old Wei nodded and replied, "Alright, it's better than no one knowing if someone dies. But I would like to take some yellow paper, is that okay?"
Jiang He nodded in agreement. "No problem."
"Thank you, thank you." Old Wei nodded and walked over to the drawer, pulling out a stack of yellow paper. "Every morning, I go to the nearest morning market to buy this yellow paper. I buy it in the morning and scatter it in the evening; these are the two things I do every day."
"What about other times?" Yuan Jun asked, looking at Old Wei.
Old Wei closed the drawer and smiled. "I do nothing."
"Let's go," Jiang He said.
Old Wei nodded and stepped out of the room first. At over sixty years old, although he feigned a stooped posture, escaping from under Yuan Jun's watchful eye was impossible. Jiang He and Yuan Jun did not cuff Old Wei or follow closely behind him.
The two stood about a meter away from Old Wei, following his back as he walked ahead. Old Wei strolled leisurely, scattering handfuls of yellow paper into the air. He muttered something under his breath that neither of them could quite catch. In truth, it was more like a chant, echoing softly in Jiang He and Yuan Jun's ears like a lullaby.
The yellow paper danced in the air, caught by the fierce autumn wind, scattering everywhere but lingering in the sky without falling.
Jiang He and Yuan Jun looked up at the yellow paper, feeling the vastness of the fields around them.
Suddenly, Jiang He recalled what Old Shao had once told him. He turned to Yuan Jun and said, "Old Shao once told me that after a person dies, they become a star in the sky. When someone remembers them, that star shines brightly; when no one remembers them anymore, it fades away. The more people remember them, the brighter that star becomes."
Yuan Jun stared at Jiang He in silence for a long time. He noticed the change in Jiang He; if it had been before, Jiang He would have surely refuted such nonsense with logical arguments. Now, hearing such words come from Jiang He's mouth surprised Yuan Jun greatly.
"Yes," Yuan Jun said. "If it were the old you, you would definitely think this is fake. In fact, it is fake; it's just the living comforting the living. Once a person dies, they know nothing. They have already found their release, completing this life. But the living still have to carry on. You see, all these funerals are for the living, not for the dead."
In the end, Yuan Jun added, "These words were also told to me by Old Shao."
Jiang He nodded.
The two continued to follow Old Wei, who was still scattering yellow paper and chanting softly. They walked deeper into the fields, where a lot of wild grass had grown, but it wasn't very tall. Old Wei stepped on the grass as they walked, and they noticed that there was already quite a bit of yellow paper scattered on the ground, indicating that Old Wei often came here.
"Jiang He," Yuan Jun mustered his courage and said to Jiang He, "I owe you an apology regarding Wang Chao's matter. Without you, we would never have known where Wang Chao was. I was too emotional before; it was my fault."
Jiang He shook his head and replied, "It's okay. At that time, I just wanted to catch the murderer. I originally thought she would act according to my plan, but Old Shao was right; human nature cannot be calculated by probability. Perhaps Wang Chao and his wife have already become stars in the sky, accompanying us every night."
Yuan Jun looked up and saw only the scattered yellow paper.
"Maybe," Yuan Jun said.
"This is the spot," Old Wei declared as he finished scattering all the yellow paper and pointed to the ground beneath his feet.
"Are you sure?" Yuan Jun asked, still holding a iron shovel.
Old Wei nodded. "I come here every night to check; there’s no mistake."
Yuan Jun nodded and said to Old Wei, "Step aside; I'm going to start digging."
Old Wei and Jiang He moved aside while Yuan Jun raised the large iron shovel and began to dig into the loess with great vigor.
Jiang He looked at the ground, a small patch of earth hidden among the wild grass. If it weren't for someone familiar with this place, they would never have found it.
He turned to Old Wei and asked, "Are you very familiar with this field?"
Old Wei suddenly laughed and replied, "From the crematorium to the Sponge Factory, there are a total of four hundred thirty-one trees here, each one different from the others. I could walk through this place with my eyes closed."
"Right here," Yuan Jun said, moving quickly. Before long, a pit appeared before everyone.
Jiang He and Old Wei looked over and saw the corner of a garment—deep blue sportswear. It was undoubtedly the deceased Zhang Haitao.
Old Wei suddenly said to Jiang He, "Officer, I've lived over sixty years; I've had enough of life. I believe some people should never have been born. After they come into this world, all they feel is pain, loneliness, and despair—there's not a shred of happiness. What meaning does life hold for such people?"
Jiang He looked at Old Wei; he couldn't answer such profound questions and honestly replied, "I don't know."
Old Wei smiled slightly. "Perhaps that's the meaning you're searching for."
At that moment, Yuan Jun was focused on his task. To avoid damaging the body, he gently used a shovel to move the loess covering it until most of the corpse was exposed. He set down the shovel, and Jiang He stepped forward as well. Together they began to uncover the loess until both bodies were revealed.
One wore deep blue clothing while the other was dressed in a red velvet skirt.
One body belonged to an adult; the other was that of a child.
Both corpses were infested with various worms, and the exposed skin had already begun to decay, obscuring their faces. However, from their clothing alone, it was clear that they were Zhang Haitao and Zhang Beibei.
Old Wei turned to Jiang He and said, "Officer, I have a request. Can you tell me what this girl’s name is?"
"Who are you to decide someone else's life or death?" Yuan Jun shouted.
"Please, officer, just let me know her name," Old Wei pleaded.
"Zhang Beibei," Yuan Jun replied impatiently.
Upon receiving the answer he sought, Old Wei finally smiled. He said, "I was just afraid that no one would burn paper for them in the future. We are all going to become wandering souls."
Hearing this, Jiang He realized something. "No!" he exclaimed.
But Old Wei moved anyway; he finally dropped the pretense, his posture strong.
He quickly ran forward, heading straight for the nearest tree.
With a splat, Brain Matter splattered everywhere.
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