Vollständiges Metamorphose-Handbuch

Kapitel 3

He tried to reach out several times but failed.

In the end, it was Dr. Qiao who helped him pull the rope.

Then, Dr. Qiao quickly secured him to the metal frame, drew the medicine into the syringe, and approached him.

As Dr. Qiao gently stroked Zhen Jili's arm with his slender fingers, which smelled of Lysol, searching for veins, he spoke in a doctor's gentle tone, as if talking to a child: "It's okay, it won't hurt, it really won't hurt, it's just like getting a regular injection..."

He stared blankly into Dr. Qiao's eyes, his lips trembling.

The moment the needle pierced his skin, he suddenly forced out two words through clenched teeth: "Dad..."

Then, his head floated up, and his eyes fixed on Dr. Qiao's face.

He could no longer see him. The lethal drug brought him back to that dream from many years ago, the images even clearer…

Nighttime, an empty road.

The sound of monks chanting sutras drifted from afar, very orderly and urgent. Then, he saw those brown rain boots again! No one was wearing them, yet they were moving on the ground.

It's a little smaller than an adult rain boot and a little larger than a child's rain boot.

It stopped, turned its toes toward him, and slowly walked toward him.

He was terrified, picked up a brick, and smashed it down on it...

Then he started running.

His legs were trembling so badly he could run no more. Just then, he heard a clear, ringing bell sound coming from the deserted street: "Ding-ling ding-ling ding-ling..."

It stopped beside him, and the black curtain was lifted slightly, revealing a fair-skinned face. It said, "Get in and let's go?"

He climbed up. The carriage continued on its way.

He was plunged into boundless darkness.

"Why don't you open the door?" he asked.

Dr. Joe said in the darkness, "This car has no doors."

It was a weekend.

Xiao Qiao arrived, skipping and hopping into her father's studio to call him home for dinner.

She saw a heart in a glass bottle filled with culture medium; it was red, and she immediately vomited.

Kahei and Xiao Qiao have always been very loving.

I won't go into the details of everyday life.

Coincidentally, shortly after Zhen Jili was executed, Xiao Qiao suddenly fell seriously ill. She was diagnosed with viral myocarditis, which caused myocardial necrosis.

When she arrived at the hospital, she was having difficulty breathing, and her heart had even stopped beating. Doctors quickly put her on an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine to temporarily sustain her life…

Kahei was frantic, like an ant on a hot pan. He declared: "I'll spend whatever it takes to save Xiao Qiao."

A renowned cardiac surgeon performed her heart transplant.

The surgery lasted 6 hours.

Her heart was removed and thrown away. Another heart was put into her body.

Fortunately, no rejection reaction occurred.

On the day she was discharged from the hospital, she and Kahei hugged each other and cried.

That evening, Kahei was out of town on business and wasn't home.

As Xiao Qiao lay in bed, scenes from her teenage years flashed through her mind like a movie...

The sky was very blue, and she and Zhen Jili sat together on the grass.

Zhen Jili silently tugged at the grass on the ground. His long hair was being tossed about by the wind.

Xiao Qiao said, "You won't change your mind, will you?"

Zhen Jili looked up at her, his eyes filled with deep affection: "I love you, Xiao Qiao. Believe me, my heart will always be yours."

Then, he took Xiao Qiao's hand and gently placed it on his chest. His heart was pounding strongly.

Xiao Qiao believed him. She liked the vigorous heartbeat of a man like that.

...In the quiet of the night, as Xiao Qiao pondered, she suddenly felt a pang of fear. She seemed to see cold iron bars on the windows, and behind them, in the darkness, the pale face of Zhen Jili loomed in the shadows...

Her heart started pounding.

She told herself that he had been dead for six months, and not to be afraid...

However, her heart was beating even more violently, as if she were very excited and very angry, as if it was about to burst out of her chest!

She suddenly realized: This is someone else's heart!

And so, her fear intensified, and the greater the fear, the faster her heart pounded! She gasped for breath, her mouth agape, her eyes flashing with terror…

A weak voice seemed to emanate from within her: Where...is...your...heart...?

The next day, when Kahei returned, he found that Xiao Qiao had died at home.

She died of heart failure. Time is the most terrifying thing.

Encounter

I've always had no sense of time; I can't even remember if I was 13 or 16 when I dropped out of junior high. The reason I remember that day so clearly is because, for me, it was the most thrilling day of my life—it was the first time I experienced being with a woman.

Encounter on the road (1)

That day was July 28, 1991.

I have never had a sense of time, and I can't even remember whether I was 13 or 16 when I dropped out of junior high school.

The reason I remember that day so clearly is because it was the most thrilling day for me—it was the first time I experienced a woman.

From then on, whenever I see the words "forbidden fruit" anywhere, I think of fields of rapeseed flowers.

Yes, there are vast fields of crops growing along the roadside; those must be rapeseed. The bright yellow flowers stretch as far as the eye can see, they are absolutely beautiful.

At that time, I was serving in a unit in Datong City, Shanxi Province, in charge of military fuel, and I was a private.

My dormitory was a white room in a quiet corner of the military compound. It often made me feel a girlish sense of self-pity and self-love.

After dinner, I would always climb to the roof and gaze at the family quarters outside the military camp.

Behind every dark, empty window lives a young woman, married or unmarried. None of them belong to me.

I'm a child from the countryside. Nobody knows me, nobody cares about me. My loneliness and sensitivity, my laughter and tears, are all ignored by this city. I'm like a blade of grass peeking out from a crack in the concrete road, watching the busy footsteps of city women with longing eyes, feeling only inferiority, self-pity, and despair—they wear leather shoes of all colors and styles, their long heels as high as my insignificant life…

After being suppressed for so long, I wanted to take a risk. So one day, I secretly drove away.

I can't drive.

Before setting off, I used a jack to lift the rear wheels of the vehicle, letting them spin freely, and used this method to familiarize myself with the forward and reverse gears. Then, I drove the massive military vehicle out of the military camp gate at a leisurely pace.

It was a Jeep with a big tail.

I still can't imagine how I, who had never received any driving training, managed to navigate through the traffic, pass one traffic light after another, and finally drive the car out of Datong City and onto the highway leading to Huairen County.

I went there to visit a fellow villager who was working in a military unit in Huairen County.

By the time we returned from Huai'ren County, it was already dusk. Sparse trees and open fields lined the roadside, and the air was incredibly fresh.

It was my first time driving, and I was so excited that I kept honking the horn loudly, hoping to run into someone I knew or a girl.

I had never been to Huai'ren County before, so of course I couldn't possibly know anyone there. But after I passed through a village, I saw a girl carrying a small bag, walking along the side of the road. When she heard a car, she stopped and looked back at me.

I got excited and slowed down, driving slowly toward her.

This is a friendly suggestion.

She seemed to have mustered her courage and carefully raised her arm and swung it.

I stopped the car, and she climbed up.

“Thank you, brother,” she said softly. Her accent was heavily influenced by the local dialect.

"where did you go?"

"Front."

Is it far?

"Not far."

With the car window open, the wind was blowing in, which felt great.

Her hair was quite long, and it was occasionally tossed about by the wind.

Most of the time, she only showed me half her face. She wasn't pretty; her face was slightly dark, probably from sun exposure. But her arms were very white, like tender lotus roots. She wore a white sleeveless shirt, and that arm swayed in the corner of my eye, captivating my attention. She wore a grass-green skirt, the only bright color in the dilapidated driver's cab.

She seemed to have something on her mind.

I drove slowly and chatted with her.

"How old are you?" I asked her.

“19 years old.” She turned to look at me and answered seriously.

"You live in that village we just passed, right?"

"No. My home is dozens of miles away from here."

A nimble bird flew towards her and nearly hit the windshield, startling her.

"What's your name?" I asked.

She stared intently at the digital watch in the car, without answering.

"Don't want to talk about it?"

She suddenly snapped out of her daze: "What did you say?"

"What's your name?"

"Oh, my name is Saburo."

"That sounds like a boy's name."

"that is."

After walking for about ten miles, a small town appeared ahead. This town was filthy; I remembered it, as I had almost been caught here by a lame traffic supervisor on my way here.