Li Lan had hoped that by having a normal son, she could form an emotional anchor of her own. Unfortunately, the son she gave birth to suffered from the exact same affliction.
She had fallen into despair.
Yet Li Zhuiyuan didn't feel he had done anything wrong.
Even the most formidable church in the world could never sell an indulgence to someone who had not yet been born.
The moment the boy replaced the address of "Mother" in his heart with "Li Lan," it meant he had cleanly severed the relationship.
Go on struggling in your agony. I can't be bothered to watch.
Better to exhaust others than consume oneself.
Li Zhuiyuan set down his cup, intending to leave.
*Snap!*
Like the pull cord of an electric light bulb at Great-Grandpa's house being yanked down, Li Lan suddenly went dark.
She turned icy cold, utterly detached. Deep in the pupils of her eyes, something seemed to peel away in rapid succession.
She lifted her head again, looking at the boy standing before her.
The moment their gazes met, Li Zhuiyuan felt his heart pounding violently. It ached and throbbed, as if it might leap straight out of his throat at any second.
In his mind, the image of looking into a mirror flashed into view.
It was her, yet also him.
He recognized the "person" before him, because another such presence resided inside his own body. Moreover, after that fortune-transferring ritual, he seemed to have appeared once, altering the name "Wei Zhengdao" to "Pseudo Zhengdao."
In truth, Li Lan had lost long ago.
Whoever spoke first lost.
That phone call placed to Aunt Zhang's sundries store half a year ago had been Li Lan's final bout of hysteria.
She had transitioned from a normal person who might occasionally suffer a relapse into a patient who might occasionally seem normal.
This was the destination she feared most, and quite possibly, his own destination as well.
"Weirdness and thrills raise the threshold easily. Once your threshold climbs so high that it can no longer be satisfied, you'll choose on your own to become like her."
It was still Li Lan's voice, her tone even a touch gentler now, yet it sounded like an evaluation of a machine designed with defects.
She had even reduced herself to a machine.
Li Zhuiyuan clenched his teeth. Both hands pressed against the tabletop as his expressions shifted continuously, his body beginning to tremble.
"You must have chosen an anchor of your own as well.
"She chose an emotional refuge.
"What about you?
"Mutual support? Symbiosis?"
Li Lan leaned her face close to Li Zhuiyuan's, staring intently at his features. "You should be able to hold out longer than she did."
Li Zhuiyuan did not speak. Beneath his fingernails, flakes of red lacquer were already scraped from the tabletop.
Li Lan reached out, lightly stroking the boy's head.
"Go on playing. When you're worn out, when you can't play anymore, my true son will come looking for me."
Li Zhuiyuan shoved hard against the table with both hands, stumbling back several paces until his back hit the cupboard, preventing a fall.
He stared in terror at the woman before him.
Li Lan did not look at the boy again. Instead, she stood up, walked over to the sink, and washed her hands with meticulous care.
"You two truly are mother and son. Just like the old her, you always want to leave a little filth on your skin. Isn't being clean and spotless better? Being human is such a dirty business."
After washing her hands, she gathered the documents and report sheets from the table, tucking them neatly into her briefcase.
Then she walked out.
Two successive clicks echoed through the room—the opening and closing of the door.
Li Zhuiyuan leaned against the cupboard and sank slowly to the floor, clutching his head with both hands.
Just now, Li Lan had shown him what total relapse looked like once the illness broke out completely.
A suffocating weight crashed over him. He felt as though he had been thrown into a sealed glass bottle, where no matter how hard he hammered, only a dull, muffled silence remained.
He felt like he was losing his mind, the stifling pressure threatening to crush him into dust.
The boy's gaze fell upon the thermos kettle on the dining table. He pushed himself up, walked over, grabbed the handle with his left hand, and tilted the spout downward while spreading his right palm flat beneath it, ready to catch what poured out.
Inside was freshly boiled water.
The spout tilted further. Scalding water poured out amid clouds of white steam.
*Splatter, splatter, splatter...*
The boiling water splashed onto the floor.
The boy yanked his hand back just in time.
*I can't do this. Ah Li would be angry.*
"Hoo... hoo... hoo..."
For a moment, a trace of fresh air seemed to seep into the suffocating room, and the boy drew it in greedily.
He walked out of the apartment and closed the door.
*Click!*
Li Zhuiyuan lifted both hands, touching his own face. That sound of the door clicking shut had been like a stapler, pinning the human skin back onto his face.
Right after, the boy opened the door and pulled it shut again, then opened and closed it once more.
*Click! Click! Click!*
*Right. A few extra staples.*
Seeing Li Zhuiyuan emerge, Principal Wu Xinhan and Teacher Yan bade farewell to the old professors. They exchanged contact information, thinking they might invite them for school lectures in the future.
Next came the roast duck.
They had originally ordered just one whole duck and two dishes, which should have been plenty.
Yet the moment Li Zhuiyuan remembered Li Lan saying "Being human is such a dirty business," he couldn't stop himself from frantically shoving pancake-wrapped roast duck into his mouth.
This prompted Wu Xinhan to order another half duck.
Early the next morning, Wu Xinhan and Teacher Yan woke at dawn. They intended to let Xiao Yuan sleep in without disturbing him, but as soon as they opened their door, the room opposite opened as well.
After that, they took Li Zhuiyuan out for a breakfast of stewed lung and offal, followed by shopping for some local specialties.
By the time they reached the airport and boarded the plane, Wu Xinhan and Teacher Yan both fell fast asleep.
Li Zhuiyuan stared through the cabin window at the blue sky outside and the thick blanket of white clouds beneath.
He hadn't slept a single wink the previous night.
After landing, a car from the school met them, and Li Zhuiyuan arrived back at Great-Grandpa's house before dusk.
A joyous event was underway in the west part of the village, so Great-Grandpa had taken Runsheng and Yin Meng along to feast at the banquet, while Tan Wenbin had headed home.
Walking straight up to the second floor, Li Zhuiyuan entered his room. Ah Li was holding a small hand planer, shaving down an ancestral memorial tablet.
A leather whip lay on the floor beside her, half of it already wrapped neatly in thin strips shaved from the tablet's surface.
Whenever the boy was not home, the girl either drew or helped him with these handicrafts.
When Li Zhuiyuan appeared in the doorway, the girl looked up. The corners of her lips curved upward, and her eyes lit up.
Yet very quickly, she seemed to sense something, and her expression dampened accordingly.
"Look, nothing."
Li Zhuiyuan spread his hands toward the girl. There were no wounds on his palms.
"Nothing on my body either. I held back. Truly, I did it."
The boy strove hard to prove himself, like a child boasting about his exam score.
By comparison, the so-called Math Olympiad competition was not even worth mentioning.
The smile that had faded from the girl's lips surfaced once more.
Upon seeing her, the taut bowstring that had been stretched tight inside Li Zhuiyuan finally went slack.
He walked over to the bed, lay down, blinked twice, and fell directly into an exhausted stupor.
During that sleep, he had many dreams. In them, one moment he saw himself, the next he saw Li Lan; one moment he was being led along by Li Lan's hand, the next he stood shoulder to shoulder with Li Lan, watching a mother and son walking hand-in-hand off in the distance.
Day broke, and the boy woke.
The girl was seated at the edge of the bed, watching him.
Just like the last time he had collapsed from exhaustion, she had kept vigil over him throughout the night.
Liu Yumei felt that meeting the boy at Li Sanjiang's home had been Ah Li's fortune.
Li Zhuiyuan felt that meeting Ah Li at Great-Grandpa's house was his own.
Two doors that ought to have closed shut slowly had jammed against each other upon meeting, and were now doing their utmost to prop each other open.
Auntie Liu's voice drifted up from downstairs, echoing like the toll of a temple bell, cleansing the spirit and putting a definitive end to his journey to the capital:
"Breakfast is ready!"
***
Winter vacation began for the students, which meant the New Year was approaching.
Aunt Zhang's sundries store had brought in many new snacks, and a colorful assortment of firecrackers was laid out right before the shopfront.
This was the one time of the year when children possessed considerable spending power. From morning till dusk, groups of three to five continually came by to buy treats and toys.
Li Zhuiyuan also came over to make some purchases.
"Brother Yuan!"
"Brother Yuan!"
Huzi and Shitou waved eagerly toward Li Zhuiyuan.
Both of them had actually received their lucky money already, but having tight pockets on ordinary days meant that as soon as they had cash, it came and went in a flash—they had long since spent every cent.
At the moment, they were merely accompanying other children who still had money in their pockets, volunteering explanations on which firecrackers were the most fun in hopes of scoring a few to satisfy their cravings after the others bought them.
Seeing that Brother Yuan was also here to buy firecrackers, they promptly stepped up beside him with eager enthusiasm to serve as advisors.
Li Zhuiyuan picked up several boxes of firecrackers and sparklers, then asked, "What do you two want? Pick some for yourselves."
Their eyes lit up at once, yet each only picked the cheapest box available.
"Pick a few more."
Seeing Brother Yuan so generous, the pair stopped being bashful and chose several boxes they fancied.
Li Zhuiyuan paid the bill and left.
Clutching their firecrackers, Huzi and Shitou ran over to boast proudly before the other children.
Back home, Li Zhuiyuan walked up to Runsheng, who was weaving paper effigies.
"Brother Runsheng, give me two sticks of incense."
"Sure."
Runsheng lit two slender sticks of incense and handed them to the boy.
Holding the incense, the boy walked over to Ah Li and passed one lit stick to her.
Then the boy and girl began placing firecrackers in various spots, lighting them together with the incense.
From the courtyard and the vegetable patch below, popping explosions rang out from time to time.
Holding a chalk line marker, Yin Meng stepped out of the house. Twisting her neck lightly, she looked down at the two playing together, momentarily dazed.
"They're quite delightful."
Runsheng hummed in agreement and asked, "Do you want to set off firecrackers too?"
Yin Meng nodded. "Sure, it's New Year's after all."
"Wait here."
Runsheng put down the rattan strips in his hands, went into the inner room, and returned carrying eight double-bang firecrackers.
"Here, go ahead."
"These?"
"Yeah. If we don't light them soon, they'll expire. They should still make a good bang right now."
"My dad paged me! My dad paged me!"
Tan Wenbin had a pager clipped to his waist. Pointing at it with one finger, he swaggered out with his pelvis pushed forward in an awkward posture that looked as if his hip were dislocated.
Because of his good final exam results, Tan Yunlong had bought him a pager. Ever since, he had worn it clipped to his waist, and to go with it, he had deliberately gone to town to pick out a new pair of jeans and a leather belt.
Runsheng asked, "Did your dad page you right in the face?"
"Heh, I know you're just jealous."
Tan Wenbin kept his hips thrust forward, scuttling down off the courtyard like a crab.
The sight brought a smile to Yin Meng behind him and to Liu Yumei, who was sipping tea on the courtyard.
Tan Wenbin trotted over to Aunt Zhang's sundries store to return the call. A moment later, he jogged back, calling out to Li Zhuiyuan, who was still setting off firecrackers in the field with Ah Li:
"Brother Yuan, my dad said the station is sending someone over soon to pick up you and Uncle Li. They said an odd corpse was brought in, and they want you two to go have a look."
"All right." Li Zhuiyuan nodded, leaving the field with Ah Li to wash their hands at the well on the courtyard.
Tan Wenbin asked, "Should I go call Uncle Li back?"
Liu Jinxia had taken on a job and invited Li Sanjiang over to consult; he hadn't returned yet.
Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "No need. We can just go ourselves."
"Fine by me." Tan Wenbin felt the same way; whether Great-Grandpa went made no difference.
Runsheng asked, "Xiao Yuan, should we come along?"
"Brother Runsheng, I'll call you if we need you."
"All right." Runsheng walked down from the courtyard, tore open the wrapping paper on a double-bang firecracker, and pulled out the fuse inside.
Before long, a police tricycle motorcycle pulled up. Calling out "Uncle Liu," Tan Wenbin led Li Zhuiyuan aboard.
After they departed, Yin Meng took a stick of incense and lit a double-bang firecracker.
*Bang... Crack! Boom!*
After setting off one, Yin Meng looked at Runsheng and remarked, "Say, how is it that this place of yours is so peaceful?"
Runsheng pointed off in the direction of Big Beard's house. "Xiao Yuan says it's because there's a big fellow lying over there who hasn't died yet."
"When will he die?"
"No idea, and it doesn't matter anyway. In just one more semester, Xiao Yuan will be off to university. Just bear with it a little longer."
At that same moment, seated on the motorcycle, Tan Wenbin was rubbing his fingers incessantly. After experiencing intense thrills, long stretches of ordinary life felt rather hard to endure.
Upon arriving at the station, Tan Yunlong came out in person to receive them.
Tan Wenbin pulled out two cigarettes, offering one first to Uncle Liu who was driving the motorcycle, and then to Tan Yunlong.
"Here, Captain Tan, have a smoke."
Tan Yunlong took the cigarette and asked, "Smoking again?"
Tan Wenbin stuffed the cigarette pack back into his pocket with a grin. "How could I? It's almost New Year's, Uncle Li gave them to me."
"Xiao Yuan, follow me."
"Okay, Uncle Tan."
Tan Yunlong led Li Zhuiyuan to the forensic examination room, with Tan Wenbin naturally following along.
"Captain Tan, this is..." A young female forensic pathologist looked startled to see two youths arriving.
She still remembered speaking with an elderly folk corpse retriever last time, who had provided numerous insights and perspectives.
Shouldn't that old man have been invited today? Why hadn't he come?
"Pathologist Wang, let's begin." Tan Yunlong offered no extra explanation.
Pathologist Wang led them over to a gurney. Grasping the edge of the white sheet, she still asked with some concern, "Captain Tan, is this really all right? I'm afraid it might frighten them."
Tan Wenbin shrugged. "Don't worry about it. It's just postmortem bloat, what's the big deal?"
Though covered by the white sheet, the exposed feet were severely swollen, proving the body had been submerged for a long time.
"It's more than just postmortem bloat." Pathologist Wang pulled back the white sheet to reveal a bloated corpse, its chest completely hollowed out like a spoonful scooped from pork skin aspic.
Pathologist Wang had expected them to be terrified, but the two boys flanked the gurney and began examining it with keen interest.
"Hey, this is interesting, Brother Yuan."
"Yeah."
"What's the deal with this missing chunk in the middle? It's even an arc shape. How did that happen? It couldn't be that, could it?"
"No."
"Then could it be that other one?"
"Not that either."
Pathologist Wang stood beside them, completely bewildered by their exchange.
Tan Yunlong couldn't help glaring at his son. "Speak human."
Tan Wenbin complained, "I told you to read more books."
Tan Yunlong: "..."
Seeing his father look on the verge of genuine anger, Tan Wenbin hastily explained, "Dad, these are professional terms I learned from Uncle Li."
He had read *Jianghu Zhiguai Lu*, and the terms that had sprung to mind were "mother-child dead-flipper" and "parasitic dead-flipper," but Xiao Yuan had refuted both.
Li Zhuiyuan reached out, pointing to a green strand within the hollowed-out cavity of the corpse.
Pathologist Wang said, "Is that water weed?"
Li Zhuiyuan shook his head. "It's not water weed. It's animal fur."
Tan Yunlong asked, "Xiao Wang, didn't you test it?"
"I..." Pathologist Wang said in embarrassment, "It was an oversight on my part. I didn't notice it."
"Uncle Tan, where was this corpse found?"
"In the Tongxing River. We've already dispatched people upstream to investigate recently missing middle-aged men."
"Is the upstream closer to us, or the downstream?"
"What do you mean by that?" Tan Yunlong didn't quite follow.
Tan Wenbin spoke up: "Xiao Yuan, I know that river. It passes through our area first before flowing into the neighboring town."
Li Zhuiyuan said, "Uncle Tan, then conduct the search downstream instead. Don't go upstream."
"A corpse can travel against the current?"
"Yes. What if it was dragged along by a boat? That's possible, isn't it?"
"All right, I understand." Though Tan Yunlong still didn't comprehend the reasoning, he planned to follow the suggestion.
Whether due to mysterious posturing or the atmosphere, Pathologist Wang now held a degree of respect for the two boys. Pointing at the corpse, she added, "There's also this: the rate of water seepage from this corpse is rather strange."
Tan Wenbin grew excited the moment he heard this. "That's great! When we get back, we'll bring our gear over right away."
Li Zhuiyuan said, "It's fine. This counts as normal."
Pathologist Wang asked dubiously, "This counts as normal?"
"Yes. No need to worry."
Leaving the examination room, Tan Yunlong summoned Xiao Liu once more to drive the two back home.
After stepping off the motorcycle onto the village road in front of their home, Tan Wenbin finally couldn't help asking, "Xiao Yuan, what was that thing really?"
"A corpse demon."
A creature akin to the Cat-Faced Old Woman from back then—an animal corpse accumulated with resentment merging with a human corpse.
"Oh?" Tan Wenbin gestured a circle with his hands. "That missing part was the demon's actual body?"
"Yes."
"The corpse is here, so where did it go?"
"It got scared off."
"Scared off?" Tan Wenbin turned to look in the direction of Big Beard's house. "It reached our territory, and even a corpse demon got scared off? No wonder you told my dad to investigate downstream! Right, if this corpse demon fled in terror, its original heading must have been toward our place."
An ordinary corpse could naturally only drift downstream, but for a corpse demon to swim upstream was not surprising in the least.
"So that seeping corpse won't turn into a dead-flipper either?"
"No, it won't."
Tan Wenbin gave a helpless laugh. "I really think we ought to tear down Big Beard's house and put up a shrine instead. It truly protects the realm and keeps the people safe."
"Brother Binbin."
"Yeah?"
"Study hard."
"What else can I do? Sigh, other than aiming high and making progress every day, there doesn't seem to be anything else to do."
Returning home, Li Zhuiyuan saw that Li Weihan had arrived, carrying a load of goods on a shoulder pole.
They had been sent from Li Lan in Beijing.
During holidays and festivals, Li Lan always sent packages back, and her monthly remittances had never ceased.
This year's holiday gifts were extraordinarily abundant, largely because there was an extra share for her "son."
New clothes, new shoes, new stationery, and various snacks filled two entire gunnysacks.
Li Weihan said to Li Zhuiyuan with a smile, "Xiao Yuanhou, look, your mother has been thinking of you all along."
Li Zhuiyuan could only mirror the joyful expression, putting on a performance before his grandfather.
Yes, he knew. She was using this method to remind him that she still remembered him.
On New Year's Eve, at noon, Li Zhuiyuan accompanied Li Sanjiang to Li Weihan's house for an early reunion lunch.
Li Sanjiang had originally planned to invite Li Weihan, Cui Guiying, and their household over to his place for New Year's Eve dinner. But with winter break underway, Li Zhuiyuan's uncles had dumped their broods on their grandparents once again, turning the house into a noisy schoolroom.
Li Weihan felt embarrassed about bringing all the children over to Li Sanjiang's home to eat, so they had settled on this compromise.
As he led Li Zhuiyuan out after the meal, Li Sanjiang kept cursing those ungrateful ingrates under his breath.
They did not head straight home, turning instead toward Big Beard's house. Because the property was under Li Sanjiang's name, custom dictated that it should be tidied up before the New Year.
Runsheng and Yin Meng had already arrived early to clean for a while. Li Sanjiang grabbed a broom and joined in, and even Li Zhuiyuan picked up a rag to help wipe down the tables, chairs, and benches.
By the time they finished, dusk had fallen.
Li Sanjiang rested his hands on his hips, grumbling with a chuckle, "Ah, owning such big property isn't all good either. Cleaning it up is real exhausting, haha."
Finally, Li Sanjiang set up two sticks of pagoda incense on the courtyard.
These were handmade by Auntie Liu; had he needed to buy them outside, Li Sanjiang would never have borne the expense.
Smoke from the incense curled into the air, and Runsheng took several deep breaths beside it.
Li Sanjiang waved him off. "Shoo, shoo. This is an offering to the Bodhisattva, so it will keep blessing you all in the coming year."
Hearing this, Li Zhuiyuan, Runsheng, and Yin Meng couldn't help looking toward the peach orchard ahead.
Indeed, they truly owed their thanks to its "blessing"—blessing them so thoroughly that none of them had any work to do.
Yet such complaints could only be kept to their hearts, or at most voiced in a few passing grumbles. They couldn't let their thoughts wander too far; after all, no matter what, the absence of dead-flippers was undeniably a good thing.
At the New Year's Eve feast, Li Sanjiang distributed red envelopes to everyone except Liu Yumei, as they were either his juniors or his hired hands. As for Zhuangzhuang's share, it had already been handed over before he went home that morning for the New Year.
Liu Yumei distributed lucky money as well.
Afterward, Ah Li handed both of the red envelopes she had received over to Xiao Yuan.
The girl still remembered how strapped for cash the boy had been back then.
Li Zhuiyuan held Ah Li's hand, walked into the east room, opened her collection chest, and placed all four red envelopes inside.
That night, the household gathered around the television to watch the Spring Festival Gala.
When the midnight countdown ended, joyous cheers erupted from the television, and the scheduled booms of firecrackers echoed outside.
The locals generally didn't count age by specific months, calculating years broadly with the passing of each New Year.
Li Zhuiyuan held Ah Li's hand and stood at the edge of the courtyard, gazing at the distant fireworks that were only faintly visible.
"Ah Li, we're both a year older now."
Chapter 73