La collection complète des cercueils fantômes de Yellow River

Chapitre 23

[Do you know who I am now?]

These few sentences left me dizzy; I had no idea where the wind had come from. It took me a while to remember to check the posting time—it was all posted the day before yesterday at noon. I remembered then; I had talked to him about Meng Ling the day before yesterday at noon. I had really decided not to mention that name again, but now the news about Xichuyangguan forced me to bring her up.

It seems the information about leaving Yangguan Pass to the west is related to our conversation that day. These words seem to be directed at Meng Ling's situation, but I still don't understand. Judging from his tone, this isn't the first time something like this has happened to Meng Ling, nor will it be the last. He also said I don't need to look for answers, implying that searching is futile. Yet, he also said that finding the answers would put me in a desperate situation… I thought about it several times but couldn't figure it out, so I waved my hand and sent a message: [Are you trying to scare me?]

What a coincidence, he was online and quickly replied: [No, I mean it.]

"Why?" I asked.

Telling you why is telling you the answer.

[Then tell me the answer.]

[It's useless.]

How do you know it's useless if you don't tell me?

[I already told you, you just didn't know it.]

[When did you say that?] I quickly scrolled through the chat history, carefully reviewed what we had talked about, and recalled our conversation from the morning before yesterday. I didn't find anything that could be called an answer, but I did find a bunch of questions.

[Heh, that's why it's useless. See, I told you, but you didn't know.]

"Who are you?" I asked hurriedly. "Why are you being so mysterious?"

[I'm not a mystery; I've already told you who I am.]

[How come I didn't know that?]

[Because you don't know the answer.]

[Ugh.] I cursed inwardly, [Isn't this just making excuses?]

[This isn't an excuse; I'm being very sincere.]

I was both amused and exasperated—this was the first time I'd encountered someone like this. If it weren't for the fact that his conversation suggested he genuinely knew me, I would have ignored him long ago. I racked my brains trying to remember which classmates were known for their playful nature, but I couldn't recall anyone like him. Even Han Xiaofeng, who was usually the most playful, didn't seem like the type to stay calm and joke for so long.

He then recounted numerous events that happened between us at school, speaking as if it were the truth. But I had no recollection of any of those events—no, I should say I had no recollection of being with him. Yes, I did steal some oranges from the hill behind the school and took a hard fall while running for my life. I did also pretend to be a ghost to scare a few timid female classmates in the middle of the night, but I did all of that alone, without any accomplice. That's fine; everyone knows those things. Anyone I know can tell me. The problem is that he also mentioned other things, things I did alone, things no one saw at the time, and things I didn't tell anyone afterward. No one should know about them, yet he described them all so clearly, as if he had actually witnessed them himself.

[How did you know?] I was a little nervous.

[Because I was with you then, we did it together.]

[Nonsense, I did it all by myself.] I found it unbelievable. I thought about it again and again, and I really didn't see anyone else around at the time. How did he know?

He smiled and then mentioned a few things that I had never heard of before, but he insisted that I did them with him, which left me speechless.

[I'm not talking to you anymore.] I sent an angry emoji.

He smiled and said, "[It's alright, if you don't want to say, then don't. I'm glad you don't know anything.]"

[What exactly happened?] My curiosity was piqued.

He said "[88]" and then disappeared. I called him several times, but he did not respond.

I felt angry again.

Everyone seems to know something: Xu Xiaobing knows about Xu Xiaobing's affairs, Meng Ling knows about Meng Ling's affairs, and now he probably knows about Li Yuntong's affairs as well. Even Xiao Geng and Aunt Xu, who were originally uninvolved, seem to know and participate in something. This guy from Xichuyangguan knows everything about me.

I was the only one who knew nothing. Not only was I unaware of what was happening around me, but I was also unclear about what was happening to me. Everyone else, on the other hand, was very clear about my situation. It was as if I were a transparent person walking in an opaque world.

Maybe I shouldn't have given up. I should have kept searching until I found the answer.

[You don't need to look for the answer; you'd better not find it. If you do, you'll be trapped in a dead end.] I recalled those words from Xi Chu Yangguan. Was it a deliberate attempt to mystify, or a genuinely well-intentioned warning? Before seeing his words, I already felt the immense power of the truth. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it was vast, too vast for me to bear. I thought of Meng Ling and the others' expressions—all those who knew even a little bit of the truth seemed somewhat heavy-hearted, while I, who knew nothing, seemed the happiest.

Is the truth necessary? Should we sacrifice happiness in pursuit of the truth? Perhaps ignorance is a blessing.

I hesitated, struggling fiercely with myself. When I got angry, I punched the computer screen: It's all west Chu Yang Guan's fault. I had already decided to give up, but he just had to pique my curiosity again.

However, a voice in my heart whispered: Was it the journey west of Yangguan that aroused my curiosity, or was that curiosity always dormant in my heart, never willing to be easily extinguished?

I pondered and pondered, and an unprecedentedly beautiful night was wasted in daydreaming. Finally, exhausted from thinking, I came to no conclusion, only more confusion. I sighed deeply, flopped onto the bed, and quickly fell asleep.

25

In retrospect, this pleasant night was the last pleasant night I experienced in Nancheng—perhaps the last night of my life. Like a final burst of energy before death, before my happiness ended, I gave up seeking the answer. Xu Xiaobing changed her attitude, and we easily and comfortably enjoyed that spring night. The thin, cool, fragrant breeze, even the fishing lights outside the window seemed to be lit just for us. We enjoyed a beautiful night as normally as before we met Meng Ling. I thought it was the beginning, but it was actually the end.

The next day, the pleasant mood still lingered in Xu Xiaobing and me. We quickly finished washing up and left the house side by side like true best friends. After saying goodbye amicably, we went to our respective companies.

The weather had truly cleared up; the last traces of rain had vanished from the sky, and the lush greenery, glistening with moisture, looked even fresher under the soft sunlight. Everywhere was brimming with vitality, and people's steps were much lighter. Young people had already shed their heavy winter coats, and the streets flowed with graceful curves emerging from winter's shell. Influenced by the weather, everyone's mood seemed to lighten. People on the bus chatted loudly about trivial matters when a baby suddenly let out a loud laugh. Everyone on the bus paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.

When I arrived at the company, it was already past the start time. There wasn't much work today, and everyone was chatting about the recent weather with their breakfast and teacups. Ouyang was sitting at his desk, munching on a croissant. When he saw me come in, he swallowed hard and walked over. I looked at his expression carefully; he looked quite well, and you couldn't tell he had been so sick yesterday.

"Stop looking," he waved his hand. "It's nothing. Where's the order I asked you to do yesterday? Let me see it."

"Your headache hasn't stopped since then, has it?" I asked as I turned on my computer.

"Of course not," he said nonchalantly.

Before long, everyone in the office had arrived. Aunt Xu counted the number of people and announced loudly, "Payday is here!" Everyone cheered, and Xiao Geng and I clapped loudly. Xiao Geng exclaimed, "Thank you, Aunt Xu, for saving me in my time of need!" Everyone laughed, and Aunt Xu pushed Xiao Geng's bright red head away, saying, "Go on! If you're in such a hurry, then you can be the first one to collect your pay."

I looked around the office and felt like something was missing. I quickly realized that Li Yuntong wasn't there.

"Where's the other person?" I asked.

"Who else?" Zhang Lan asked, flipping through the newspaper and sipping her soy milk.

"Li Yuntong," I said, "why hasn't he arrived yet?"

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the office froze. For a brief moment, everyone stopped moving, no one made a sound, and everyone's face showed confusion and panic. This made me panic too, wondering what had happened.

"Li Yuntong?" The panic lasted only a moment before Ouyang was the first to react, "Why hasn't he arrived yet?"

“He wasn’t in the office all day yesterday,” Old Liu said, taking a big gulp of bitter tea.

After saying those two sentences, everyone seemed to have completed their task and immediately changed the subject, each talking about other things.

I was filled with deep doubt again, wondering why their reaction was so strange, and why Li Yuntong hadn't come to work yet.

"I made money! I made money!" Xiao Geng waved his newly received salary, walked over to me and winked. "Now I can pay off my debts, pay off my debts..." This guy often spends a month's salary in a week, and lives on borrowing money for the rest of the time. He's really heartless. Wei Feng tapped him on the head a few times: "Kid, save some money to get married!"

It's normal; they're behaving normally right now. But I can't forget their strange behavior when Li Yuntong was mentioned earlier.

"Jiang Ling, come and collect your pay," Aunt Xu joked. I hurried over to her side, still thinking about what had just happened, and even forgot to take the money Aunt Xu handed me.

"Oh, you don't want it? If you don't want it, then give it to me." Aunt Xu nudged me, and I snapped out of my daze and quickly smiled. She looked me over carefully. "What are you thinking about? Count them."

"What's the point of counting this?" I stuffed the money into my jeans pocket, thinking to myself that I was going out for a nice meal with Xu Xiaobing that night.

Aunt Xu slowly distributed everyone's salary in the office. When she finally settled the accounts, she checked them several times, making "tsk tsk" sounds all the while.

"What are you tsk about?" Wei Feng and I stared at her face; she looked somewhat anxious.

"Wei Feng, can you take a look at this account for me?" Aunt Xu said with some doubt, "How come there are several thousand yuan more than I should have calculated?"

Wei Feng picked up the ledger and payroll records and looked at them for a long time, then used a calculator for a while before frowning and saying, "Yes... have all the salaries been paid?"

"They've sent them out, and no one was missed," Aunt Xu said.

"Old Xu embezzled," Old Liu said with a laugh, holding his teacup. Everyone else laughed too, but Aunt Xu didn't. She was genuinely worried. I couldn't help but ask, "Has Li Yuntong received her money too?"

There was another moment of silence. Aunt Xu's eyes darted around, and she suddenly realized, "Oh, his salary hasn't been paid yet. Look, I forgot about it."

"What a memory!" Wei Feng laughed and turned to leave.

I felt something was even stranger. Why did this strange reaction occur every time Li Yuntong's name was mentioned? I had decided yesterday to drop the matter, but it was still ongoing, and I couldn't ignore it. I went back to my desk, sat behind my computer, and carefully observed everyone. Everyone seemed normal; there was nothing particularly unusual about them. To test them, I deliberately mentioned Li Yuntong's name a few more times. Each time, it was the same: everyone's thoughts seemed to pause for a moment when that name was mentioned, like a film reel getting stuck, before continuing to flow smoothly.

Xiao Geng noticed me looking at him and glared at me back: "Am I handsome today?"

"Tch." I turned my head away. He tossed his hair, picked up his water glass to get a drink, and as he passed Li Yuntong's table, he casually picked up a photo frame, placed the glass on it, and whistled, carrying the frame and glass together to his own table as if on a tray. The photo frame contained a picture of Li Yuntong and her family of three, one of the few things Li Yuntong valued. I was about to remind Xiao Geng not to get it wet when I saw him put the glass down on the table, casually open the frame, pull out the photo, and before I could react, he had already torn it to shreds in a few swift movements.

"What are you doing?" I suddenly stood up and pointed at Xiao Geng.

"What?" Xiao Geng looked at me in astonishment, as if he didn't understand what I meant. The others also looked at me. Old Liu, holding his teacup, asked, "What's wrong?"

"How could you touch other people's things like that?" I walked over to Xiao Geng and snatched Li Yuntong's photo from his hand—the photo had been torn into several pieces, and the smiling family of three in the photo was now torn apart. This reminded me of the photos of Meng Ling that I destroyed last night.

"Ah!" Xiao Geng seemed to only then come to his senses, and stood up in a panic, his face flushed red. "I didn't notice, I didn't mean to, oh my god, whose thing is this?"

I stared at him, feeling a mix of emotions. An anger welled up inside me, but I couldn't pinpoint who it was directed at.

"Whose photo is this?" Old Liu pieced together the photos in my hand and scolded Xiao Geng, "You're really inconsiderate. You tore up someone else's family photo. It's bad luck."

I found Lao Liu's behavior strange. Li Yuntong's face was clearly visible in the photo, yet he still insisted on asking whose photo it was—even if he didn't get along with Li Yuntong, did he have to make it so obvious? Thinking of this, I couldn't help but glare at him with some disdain. He looked at me blankly, about to speak, when suddenly we heard Zhang Lan ask at the door, "Who are you looking for?" We instinctively looked towards the door and saw a thin woman walk in, holding a child's hand.

"Is Li Yuntong here?" she asked shyly, while the child looked at us with his eyes darting around.

Everyone paused for a moment, then Aunt Xu went up to him: "He hasn't come to work yet, who are you?"

“I’m his wife,” the woman said, her eyes, slightly dark-circled, drooping for a moment before lifting again, her face full of helplessness and anxiety. “Where is Li Yuntong?”

“He didn’t come to work today,” Aunt Xu said. “We’re looking for him too.”

"Oh?" The woman became even more anxious. "What happened? He didn't come home all night, and his phone is off. I've asked all my relatives and friends, but no one knows where he is. I'm so worried." Tears streamed down her face as she spoke.

"Ah?" We were all surprised and instinctively gathered around. Aunt Xu pulled her to sit down on the sofa. "Don't worry, don't worry, have some water first." Zhang Lan quickly poured a glass of water and handed it to her. The woman thanked her, placed the water on the coffee table next to the sofa, pulled the child into her arms, and hugged the child tightly. "Where could he have gone? He's never been like this before. Even if he's a little late, he'll call home—I'm so worried..."

Everyone seemed to relax now, crowding around the woman and offering suggestions. I stood to the side, a chill running down my spine. So, Li Yuntong disappeared after speaking to me yesterday? Where could he have gone? Could something have happened to him? A sense of foreboding rose within me, blurring my vision. Thinking about everyone's attitude towards Li Yuntong these past two days, the unease only intensified. Everyone was comforting the woman and child, helping to make phone calls to find Li Yuntong. Everyone seemed very enthusiastic. I observed coldly; I couldn't detect any pretense on their faces. All their emotions seemed genuine. However, thinking about their behavior when Li Yuntong was mentioned, a knot remained in my stomach.

After a flurry of activity, everyone they could contact was reached, but no one knew Li Yuntong's whereabouts. The expressions on everyone's faces grew increasingly grave, until finally, they fell silent. Aunt Xu and Zhang Lan sat on either side of Chen Jing and Li Xiaohu—Li Yuntong's wife and child—embracing Chen Jing and tenderly wiping away her tears with their hands. Xiao Geng, head bowed, kept stroking Li Xiaohu's head. Li Xiaohu looked nervously at one person and then the other, timidly asking, "Is my father dead?"

I was shocked when I heard this. A strong sense of sorrow exploded in my heart like a bomb. Although it was baseless, a strange feeling told me that what Li Xiaohu said might be true.

We may never see Li Yuntong again.

“No, we just can’t get in touch with your father right now,” Wei Feng said.

“How about,” Old Liu hesitated for a moment, glanced at everyone, and said in a low voice, “call the police?” These words weighed heavily on everyone’s hearts. Chen Jing cried even harder, and Li Xiaohu also burst into tears: “Dad must be dead!” The cries of the children and women were like knives slicing through my ears. The torn contracts and photos, Li Yuntong’s dejected expression as she left the office, the bewildered looks on everyone’s faces when they mentioned Li Yuntong… all of this flashed before my eyes like an exhibition, and my heart was filled with an ominous premonition.

Old Liu called the police. He was on speakerphone, and we heard the police officer repeat Li Yuntong's name once when someone exclaimed, "Li Yuntong?" Then came a flurry of activity, and a different person answered the phone: "Li Yuntong is missing? What happened? Explain clearly!" The voice sounded familiar; I was trying to remember where I'd heard it before when Chen Jing suddenly rushed to the phone, crying, "Gao Ming, he didn't come back all night! We can't find him anywhere, and his phone is off..." She mentioned Gao Ming, and I remembered—he was Li Yuntong's classmate from the Public Security Bureau, the one who'd helped a lot with the recovery of the woman's body from Liufang Lake. Gao Ming kept comforting Chen Jing. After she finished explaining, he said, "Sister-in-law, don't worry, nothing serious has happened. If something serious had happened, we would all know." This made Chen Jing cry even harder. Gao Ming was a criminal investigator; the thought of what he meant by "serious trouble" was chilling. Gao Ming offered a few more words of comfort, promising to find Li Yuntong as soon as possible, and then hung up.

Chen Jing sat for a while longer before leaving with Li Xiaohu. Before leaving, she left her phone number and address, telling us to contact her immediately if we had any news.

After seeing Chen Jing off, everyone discussed the matter for a few minutes before shifting their attention to other things. No one mentioned it again, as if it had never happened. This deeply surprised me—usually, everyone would talk for ages about who bought a new piece of clothing, so why was the reaction to Li Yuntong's disappearance so indifferent? I observed carefully. Throughout the morning, people would occasionally take one or two items from Li Yuntong's desk, seemingly unintentionally destroying them. At first, I tried to stop them, but I found that even after I turned away, the items were still destroyed. I didn't know what this meant. Looking at their nonchalant expressions, a nameless fear welled up in my bones. The image of Li Yuntong's expression when he last spoke to me replayed in my mind. The more I thought about it, the more I hated myself. Perhaps he had already sensed something then, but I hadn't listened to him finish, instead advising him to see a psychiatrist! Every time I thought of this, I couldn't help but pound my head hard. Xiao Geng looked at me in surprise: "What are you doing?"

"It's nothing." I shook my head. My head felt a little sore, not too bad, just throbbing, like someone was gently pinching my head.

The morning passed just like that. At noon, Ouyang offered to treat me to lunch to thank me for taking him to the hospital yesterday. I felt that this was unnecessary. To be honest, if I hadn't taken him to see Meng Ling, he might not have had a headache. But I didn't say this, afraid that mentioning Meng Ling's name would upset him again.

The restaurant downstairs was as deserted as ever. After ordering, Ouyang and I chatted idly. My head had been aching a bit, and I kept pressing it with my hand, which Ouyang noticed.

"What's wrong? You have a headache too?" he asked.

"Hmm." I nodded and quickly put my hand down. Usually, when I'm not feeling well, I prefer to be alone, and I find it annoying when others ask me all sorts of questions. But Ouyang is a very attentive person. After noticing my headache, whenever I frowned, he would immediately ask with concern, "Headache again?" I felt very embarrassed. Under such concern, pressing my head would be obviously trying to gain sympathy, so I could only endure the pain and dare not pay attention to it.