Liu Lingzhong's Selected Short Stories Serialized (1127)

Under the Mask (2)

There were four buses in a row, and they were all so crowded that I couldn't get on at all. I was anxious to take a taxi, but it seemed that it was very difficult to get a taxi at this time, and finally a taxi stopped, and I had to carpool with others, and I didn't get along the way.

"It's ridiculous that I'm in a hurry!" I thought.

In the second car sat an old man, barely roughly in the same direction, and the driver had to take him home before sending me. The driver said apologetically, this can't be helped, I had to share the red rental book with others. When he was about to get to the old man's house, he was stuck in traffic again, because he had to wait for the float procession to pass first, and even if the old man was willing to get out of the car and walk for a short while, the taxi still couldn't turn around, and he couldn't find another way to get to the railway hospital. I listened to the loudspeakers on the roof of the float, playing the happiest songs. The other party has made several phone calls one after another, and Guo Jia used to be my treasure looking partner. I was thirteen years older than him, and we went to the adolescent forest together for seven years. After losing his land and home, he regained his confidence and returned to Maguan Town to open a relatively small foot washing shop. He only worked as a technician in the past, and had no other skills, so this time he and his wife Dong Xueqin were the bosses. It was already years after the discovery of the body of a 35-year-old man, Zhao Jiwei, in the cat cemetery near the ironworks inn, and the death sentence of his brother-in-law was solved. Dong Xiaobao's important accomplice, the perverted manager Yang, did not wait for legal sanctions, and died of AIDS complicated by the disease, which can be regarded as retribution. But I really don't understand, if the relevant regulations are met for opening a foot washing shop, the procedures are complete, what reason does the public security department have to search the store, and what kind of emergency situation did it take, resulting in Guo Jia's serious injuries in the back? Who is the man who called me?

It seems that the other party knows quite well that I have a special relationship with Guo Jia since he was young, and it is impossible for him to tell his privacy to irrelevant people for no reason. Could it be that the two of them are now partners in finding treasures, and under the nose of Guo Jia's wife Dong Xueqin, she would actually allow her husband to play a game of treasure hunting with others? I have always known that Dong Xueqin is beautiful, and she is as good as a fish in water in their technician business, Guo Jia and her old cousin Chen Houjing are handsome and chic, and they are highly sought after in the gray area of the circle to which they belong and are not known to outsiders, which is absolutely possible. In fact, we've been out of touch for five years. Could it be that Dong Xueqin was dizzy after making money, and she no longer cared about Guo Jia's. Why wasn't the caller Dong Xueqin, could it be that she let the public security arrest her. It seems that something is not quite right to suddenly pull me into this kind of case inexplicably, and I am not mentally prepared at all, whether someone will work in the unit, and disaster will fall from the sky. If the police trouble me, how should I explain that Guo Jia was injured by a gunshot after all. The person who told the story sounded very young, maybe he was originally a technician recruited by Guo Jia and Dong Xueqin's foot washing shop, and he couldn't hear it from the voice and speed of speech, or he was born a little stupid, and his speech was clueless and unclear.

"You can't make it clear. I asked.

"I really can't tell!" the other party hung up.

It seems that all my doubts will have to wait for me to take a taxi to the railway hospital, and maybe I will have to see Guo Jia himself to understand. It was close to half past two in the afternoon, and it was time to go to work again, and there was a long queue in front of the window of the hospital's registration hall. I didn't see anyone in the emergency department, so I asked the nurse, and she said that no one had been sent to rescue a middle-aged man in his 40s with gunshot wounds this morning.

"If not, that's weird. I thought.

Or Guo Jia's enemies have investigated his past, wanted to play a game of treasure hunting, and went to the castle to threaten him, so he couldn't have been a rival hiding in a dark corner to warn Guo Jia through my mouth. The reason for this is also understood only by the parties concerned. I said that the patient's name was Guo Jia, about forty-one years old, maybe he had a middle-split head, maybe he had his hair cut short, and I hadn't seen Guo Jia for five years. At around 12 o'clock, someone called the university where I was teaching and informed me that Guo Jia had been shot and wounded and that he had been sent to the railway hospital for rescue. I immediately remembered that Guo Jia had planned to drink pesticides and threaten me, and immediately said that maybe it was not a gunshot wound. His name was Guo Jia? The nurse suddenly remembered that there was indeed a patient with this name, and it was not sent today, but in fact it had been three or four days since it was delivered, and it was a gunshot wound, but it was not a regular gun, or a kind of gunpowder gun that she had made herself. Oh my God, I wonder I think too much, and when I hear about a gunshot wound on the phone, I naturally associate it with law enforcement, and in these days, if you think about it, who would dare to hide a gunpowder gun in their own home? Gun control is unprecedentedly strict.

Guo Jia has undergone surgery and does not seem to be completely out of danger, and should still be in the intensive care unit. I just had a preconceived notion that Guo Jia was only injured this morning, so I was so busy that Miss Nurse was confused.

According to the nurse's instructions, I quickly found the door of the intensive care unit, and no one greeted Guo Jia. Who will be calling?

A week later, Guo Jia was transferred to the general ward, and when I saw him, I learned that the foot washing shop had not been opened three years ago, just like raising ducks on the roof after immigrating, and later renting a space with his old cousin Chen Houjing to breed them. What shocked me the most was that the foot washing shop was closed Zhang Daji because his wife Dong Xueqin died in a car accident. It was also three years ago, she took a motorcycle and went to the back seat, it is estimated that the master of the motorcycle rode a bicycle to answer the phone, Guo Jia smiled wryly at me with a wrinkled face, he couldn't tell clearly. It was obvious that my former treasure hunter was deliberately vague, and as a result, the motorcycle crashed into a large rock.

"She's too stubborn to stop. Guo Jia said.

I recalled that time when I originally planned to leave Guo Jia's hometown by the river, he really didn't want to go, and he took a boat to send me five kilometers upstream, and then he took a small road to see me off. I know that when I get to the T-junction and I get on the bus, Guo Jia will return home to accompany his wife Dong Xueqin and continue to earn money by fishing. Dong Xueqin was not at ease with her husband at all, so she asked the guy from the same village to ride a motorcycle to catch her up, and caught up with the two of us at Da Fengxiangshu Primary School, Guo Jia could only go back with his wife. He and she are not ready to continue to work in the city, on the one hand, they are disgusted with the technician, and the accident of the brother-in-law is also a fatal blow to the two of them. I privately think that Manager Yang's illness and death may have scared Guo Jia a lot, and he didn't want to go to the cold drink shop again.

I asked him, "Who is the young man who called me?"

"It could be him. Guo Jia said while lying on the bed in the ward.

"Is it your treasure hunting partner?" I asked, confused.

Many years ago, I left the Adolescent Forest Iron Factory Inn with my partner to find the Demon Palace, believing that Mu Tangjie would be waiting for us in that place. No matter how bad it is, you can find the cat graveyard, and pick up two glowing pebbles to go back.

"You look confident!" I said to Guo Jia.

"Tian Sen, you're not in a bad mood. He replied.

The bridge head is dark green and lush, and it is matched with colorful flowers and mountains, complementing each other. Ancient vines, thorny roses, towering jujube trees in Yunnan, curtain-like stone pines and bird's nest ferns, and even black alders are scattered here and there. Layer upon layer, we were surrounded by smoke and rain. If it is a sunny day, the distant mountains will fly through the clouds. On the side of the road, the black alder and the bird's nest fern and weeping stone pine obscured most of the hole, and the Ecstasy Cave and the rickety chain bridge that the Flying Knight and his cat walked across at the masquerade ball stood across the deep canyon. I estimate that the depth of the cave is five miles.

It is divided into two parts: a dry cave and a water hole. In the cave, stalagmites, stone pillars, stone spears such as forests, stone drums, stone flags, stone bells, stone curtains, including thousands of animals. The water hole is narrower and deeper, and it is crooked, and the raft cannot enter many forks at all. The flow is slow, smooth as a mirror, the flashlight shines, and the light spots gently shake, beat, mysterious, and mottled. According to the treasure seekers who have entered the Ecstasy Cave in the Iron Factory Hotel, a water flow in the cave is like a treasure keeper playing the piano, and the call sound is wonderful, and even confused. It often makes the treasure hunter feel like he has been tricked, half-drunk and half-awake, demented, reluctant to give up, and he can't wait to find a stone house to live in for a long time. How is that possible? After all, a game is a game, and it's strange not to be starved to death.

Both of us are more rational people, and life is normal in the wider world outside. I write novels, Guo Jia needs to continue to be a foot-washing technician to earn money, not to mention that he needs to support his wife and family. I'm probably more idealistic in comparison. The two of us brought flashlights from the ironworks inn, and Guo Jia seemed to ignore it, and immediately wanted to drill a hole. I turned around and looked at him in a trance, and didn't squeak again.

The cave was dimly lit, and it was impossible to see clearly.

"Neither of us seems to have walked this road before. ”

"I wish I had the excitement of every adventure. ”

"If you're on your own and don't partner with someone who will affect your mood, you may have a much better chance of finding a pebble. ”

"The Tao is not the same, I must care about you!"

"Or you won't give up halfway. Guo Jia said.

I shouldn't have been with Guo Jia's old cousin Chen Houjing that day, maybe I was disappointed in finding a treasure partner, maybe I didn't want to be too embarrassed in front of Dong Xueqin, or I didn't want to lose my trust to her.

"That's not a breach of trust at all, I want to. ”

I still want to deliberately take revenge on Guo Jia and let him enjoy desperate torture. Guo Jia suddenly said, Tian Sen, have you noticed a strange phenomenon, but anyone who is related to the search for the Warring States Red has been either dead or injured for many years, even if it is not uncommon to be disabled for life. People as smart as Manager Yang and his brother-in-law will also be cursed by the magician and lose their lives. Or simply go along with the dirt and go straight to becoming a magician's apprentice.

"The gunsmiths on our street are not related to magicians. ”

"Even if a gunmaker is different, he can't escape the spell. ”

"None of them are the ones who can sway my joys and sorrows. ”

"It's best to play treasure hunting games, don't take your feelings too seriously. ”

I shuddered all over my body, as if I had been bitten by an ant deep in my heart, and suddenly I felt a sense of déjà vu, and I vaguely understood something? I can only continue to indulge in the unfathomable gray-green, pink, and light-spotted underwater of the sea of love, and see the masquerade in the square move to the Water Cube. Kamen Rider, Superman, and Mutangjie become phantoms of the Demon Palace, and the cats in heat are called Haru who is heartbreaking, chasing, fighting, and biting. I thought of Wang Fengshuo, a teacher at Changgou Leprosy Village School, and Ding Qiang's life and death entanglement with him was actually the same as Manager Yang's use of Dong Xiaobao to make cat specimens. I see them struggling.

"The picture of your wife and brother being shot is vivid. ”

"We may not have as much luck as they do in the future. ”

I immediately held my breath and arched into the shape of a shrimp.

"Oh my God! My chest was about to explode. I shouted.

"Tian Sen, as a partner in finding treasures, why do you have to sink in the water for so long, you can't get along with yourself. He asked.