He Jiaqing's Mouth

Li Banfeng sat in the hospital ward, watching He Jiaqing on the bed. After two full days of emergency treatment, He Jiaqing's life had been saved, but he had fallen into a deep coma, with no telling when he might wake. The cause of the coma remained unknown, and the hospital had yet to devise a treatment plan for the next stage. According to the doctors, the next phase of treatment depended on He Jiaqing's physical condition, as well as the depth of Li Banfeng's and He Jiaqing's pockets. Li Banfeng had already poured in every bit of his living expenses. Even after deducting what health insurance could cover, it remained a drop in the bucket. There were some savings in He Jiaqing's bank account, but without the PIN, the money could not be withdrawn for the time being. Li Banfeng had tried to reach He Jiaqing's family. Though the two were close friends, Li Banfeng did not have any contact information for his relatives; he did not even have a way to reach Lu Xiaolan. If this went on, Li Banfeng would soon have no idea where his next meal was coming from, and He Jiaqing's oxygen line probably wouldn't last much longer either. Fortunately, on the third day, things took a turn. A man named He Haisheng appeared. He claimed to be He Jiaqing's Third Uncle. Though Li Banfeng had never met this uncle before, that hardly mattered—the man immediately stepped in and paid He Jiaqing's medical bills. Someone who took the initiative to hand over money was, in all likelihood, not a fraud. Provided the money was real, of course. "You must be Li Banfeng? The university told me you've been the one looking after Jiaqing these past two days. Thank you for your trouble." He Haisheng peeled an apple and handed it to Li Banfeng. "Here's what happened..." Li Banfeng took a bite of the apple and was about to explain the events, but He Haisheng cut him off. "We can talk about the rest later." He Haisheng pulled out his wallet, drew out a thick stack of cash, and handed it to Li Banfeng. "Take this as a small token of my appreciation. Please don't think it's too little." Li Banfeng needed money badly, because he had none left to eat. Yet he didn't want to take this money. "I'm not short on cash. Jiaqing is the one who needs it right now." "Don't read into it, it's just my appreciation. If you don't take it, that means you think it's too little!" He Haisheng firmly shoved the cash straight into Li Banfeng's coat pocket. After sitting in silence for a moment, He Haisheng let out a sigh. "The school told me they called home to say something happened to Jiaqing. I thought my second brother and his wife would rush over as fast as they could, but neither of those two is reliable. "It's my fault for coming late and wearing you out. Banfeng, go on back and get some rest. I can handle things here." Li Banfeng stepped out of the ward. Having barely closed his eyes in three days, he truly was exhausted. Walking down the hospital corridor, his legs felt like jelly. As he neared the elevator, his phone suddenly chimed. *Click-clack—* It was a text message. The sender's number still showed He Jiaqing. Li Banfeng's brow furrowed at once. The text still bore those same four words: *Brother, save me.* Li Banfeng texted back: *Who are you?* *I am He Jiaqing.* *Where did you get this phone?* Li Banfeng had seen He Jiaqing off at the station, watched him board the train, and then found him abruptly lying in his own bed. Before that, Li Banfeng had called He Jiaqing; after that, He Jiaqing had sent Li Banfeng a text. The entire affair was bizarre—so bizarre that Li Banfeng could not make sense of any logic behind it. Yet no matter how bizarre the sequence of events was, the reality before his eyes would not change. He Jiaqing was lying right there in the hospital. Even though he had neither ID nor phone on him, that was definitely He Jiaqing; Li Banfeng would never mistake him. Which brought up the questions. Who had answered the phone back then? And who was sending these texts right now? The only reasonable explanation was that He Jiaqing had lost his phone. Whoever picked it up had answered Li Banfeng's call that night, mimicked He Jiaqing's voice to deceive him, and was now texting him. *If he found the phone, why keep contacting me?* *Isn't this a classic scam?* *I should report this to the police.* Li Banfeng felt certain that He Jiaqing's coma had some connection to this person. No reply came from the other side for a long while. The elevator arrived. Just as Li Banfeng tucked his phone away and prepared to head downstairs, a middle-aged man with a broad forehead, long narrow cheeks, and a gaunt build blocked his path. He smiled at Li Banfeng, drew an ID from his jacket, and showed it. "I'm a police officer. You're Li Banfeng, right? I have a few questions for you regarding He Jiaqing." The man looked to be in his fifties. He spoke in a raspy, gravelly voice, as though an old wad of phlegm were stuck in his throat. *Just as I was about to go to the police, an officer shows up...* Li Banfeng wanted to take a closer look at the credentials, but the man had already put them back into his jacket and whispered a few words to a nearby doctor in a white coat. The doctor seemed quite familiar with him, leading the officer and Li Banfeng into an empty ward. The doctor closed the door from the outside, leaving only Li Banfeng and the middle-aged man inside. The two sat across from each other on adjacent hospital beds. "Don't be nervous," the officer said with a smile. "My surname is Chen. You can just call me Old Chen. I only want to ask you a few simple questions. You were the one who brought He Jiaqing to the hospital, right?" "Yes," Li Banfeng nodded. "How did you discover something was wrong with him?" "He was sleeping in my bed, his complexion and breathing were both abnormal, so I immediately dialed emergency services." Old Chen nodded, sizing Li Banfeng up and down, his gaze shifting slightly. He watched Li Banfeng's face, but his eyes were fixed not on Li Banfeng's gaze, but on his forehead. "I heard you two drank together that day?" "Yes!" Li Banfeng nodded. "He was heading home, so I gave him a send-off." "You saw him off?" "Yes. I took him to the train station, rode the subway back myself, and after getting back to the dorm, I suddenly found him sleeping in my bed." Li Banfeng's words defied all reason. He Jiaqing had gone to the station; how could he have reappeared in the dorm? And in Li Banfeng's bed, no less. Yet Old Chen seemed entirely unsurprised by the answer. His expression remained relaxed, his gaze still fixed on Li Banfeng's forehead. "Were there usually any conflicts between you and He Jiaqing?" *Conflicts?* Li Banfeng thought carefully. *I looked at some photos of his girlfriend—does that count as a conflict?* Clearly, that wasn't the point. The point was the implication beneath the question. Li Banfeng looked at Old Chen and asked with a calm expression, "Do you suspect I harmed He Jiaqing?" Old Chen shook his head. "I wouldn't call it suspicion, just asking. If I really suspected you, I wouldn't be questioning you here. I heard you have a certain degree of psychiatric history?" Li Banfeng nodded. "A minor issue, but I'm not crazy. You can check my medical records. I saw He Jiaqing and Lu Xiaolan board the train together to head back to their hometown. You can verify this with Lu Xiaolan." "Lu Xiaolan..." Old Chen drew out a cigarette, glanced around the room, decided smoking wasn't appropriate here, and slipped it back into the pack. "Who is this Lu Xiaolan you just mentioned?" Old Chen pressed. "He Jiaqing's girlfriend, a classmate from our school. I took both of them to the station, and she got on the train with He Jiaqing. She can testify for me." "Since both of them boarded the train, why would He Jiaqing end up in your dorm?" "I don't know," Li Banfeng answered truthfully. "You should ask Lu Xiaolan about that too. The two of them were together the whole time." "Do you have Lu Xiaolan's contact information?" "I don't. The university can look it up, and the train ticket records definitely have it." "Which train did they take?" "How would I know..." Li Banfeng thought for a moment, and a string of digits suddenly surfaced in his mind. Train 1160. "Train 1160. They were on Train 1160." Li Banfeng recalled the platform announcer's voice. Old Chen rubbed his lip with a finger. When his thoughts hit a dead end, he really did crave a smoke. "Seems like Lu Xiaolan won't be easy to find either." "Why won't she be easy to find?" Li Banfeng didn't understand what he meant. Old Chen continued stroking his stubbled upper lip and said slowly, "On the night He Jiaqing had his incident, Train 1160 derailed and plummeted off a cliff. So far, no survivors have been found." Li Banfeng blinked. Thunder seemed to roll through his mind, and amidst the rumbling, He Jiaqing's voice echoed over and over: *"She sleeps deeper than me, dead to the world, deader than a pig! Even if the train derailed, she wouldn't wake up!"* The train really had derailed. Lu Xiaolan might truly be dead. Had He Jiaqing's mouth been blessed or something? Or had he known something in advance? *He seemed to have mentioned to me that Lu Xiaolan was lying to him.* *Could it have been about more than just Teacher Song's peaches?* *Why did he tell me to call him once I got back to the dorm?* Old Chen kept his eyes fixed on Li Banfeng's forehead and asked in a low voice, "What are you thinking about?" Li Banfeng shook his head. "Nothing much. Just worried about Lu Xiaolan." Old Chen showed keen interest. "How was your relationship with Lu Xiaolan? Between the two of you and He Jiaqing, was there something of a..." "Are you trying to say a love triangle?" The corners of Li Banfeng's mouth turned up; he was growing irritated.