Die Landschaft ist wie ein Gemälde

Kapitel 31

"What kind of evil and unorthodox method is this?" Mingyang exclaimed. "This ghost is no ordinary thing!"

Just then, bursts of laughter came from behind me—a man's maniacal, hysterical laugh. I knew something was wrong; it was probably that old man's vengeful ghost, his rival, causing trouble. Without realizing it, I had gripped Mingyang's hand so tightly it turned blue. He pulled me into his arms: "Don't be afraid! I'm here!"

The stairs stretched endlessly, and I had this strange feeling that if I kept going down, I'd end up in the underworld. But I don't believe in the existence of an underworld. As I was lost in thought, I yelled at the person in front of me, "What?! That's stabbing me!"

Section 77: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (5)

Mingyang was startled and quickly touched his chin. It turned out that he had hugged me too tightly, and his beard was touching my forehead. "Hehe, it's only been two days since I shaved, and it's grown so fast."

"You have a beard?" I blew on it, staring at him, even though it was dark all around and I couldn't see anything.

He was clearly angry: "What kind of international joke is this? I'm a man!"

“I thought you were a little kid!” I retorted.

As if they had suddenly forgotten their dangerous situation, they both burst into laughter.

"How can you be so happy when you're going to hell?" The eerie male voice rang out again, but this time he seemed very angry.

I leaned close to Mingyang's ear and said, "He seems really angry that we're having so much fun, so let's annoy him a little more. I wonder if this illusion will break down once the ghost disrupts the energy field."

Mingyang readily agreed: "Oh dear! I'm hungry, I'd like to have a hamburger."

"Don't always eat junk food. It's bad for your health if you eat too much of that stuff. If you're craving it, you can go eat Peking duck. It's better than hamburgers." I said this while listening to the ghost's movements.

"Beef jerky is still the best, the authentic Sichuan kind, right?"

"Who said that? Yunnan has it too. Yak jerky is produced on the plateau. Why don't you try something different?" I couldn't help but laugh. When did being with him make even dealing with ghosts become so much fun?

"Cows eat milk and produce grass, right?"

"Wrong! Cows eat grass and are milked!"

We finally couldn't help but burst into laughter again.

This time, the ghost couldn't take it anymore. He roared angrily, and in the blink of an eye, all the phantoms around him disappeared. The stairs beneath his feet remained fixed, and the dark, deep hole behind him vanished. Behind him was the corner of the stairs, just like always.

I really wanted to shout "Long live Mingyang!" three times, but he pinched my arm to calm me down: "He's right here, right beside us." Then he shouted into the darkness, "Come out! We're not afraid of you!"

A voice slowly descended: "Why aren't you afraid?"

“I’ve seen too many ghosts.” He replied nonchalantly. “Just like you get tired of eating abalone and bird’s nest every day, you’re not bothered by ghosts anymore. Come out here! Let’s talk.”

I was surprised; this was probably the most unique opening line I'd ever heard when communicating with a ghost.

The moonlight emitted a faint white glow, illuminating everything with a bluish-purple hue. Just then, we saw him—a head, hanging below the steps, only inches from our heads. His eyes stared at us with a bloodthirsty, predatory look, motionless.

I gripped Mingyang's hand tightly, still feeling nervous.

His appearance was terrifying.

Mingyang grasped my hand and calmly looked at him hanging overhead.

Those eyes gleamed with a faint blue light, and made a clattering sound as they moved. He stared at Mingyang and said, "When did this old man find such a fine son?"

I angrily shouted at him, "You're not allowed to insult that old man! He's a good person!"

"A good man?" He laughed so hard he could barely breathe. "What kind of good man is he? That old man is fifteen years older than Huijun. What right does he have to marry a young and beautiful woman? He's already so old, isn't he ashamed?"

"You're the one who's shameful!" I was really angry. "You stole someone else's wife, broke up someone else's family, and then you say these nonsensical things, and you keep bothering the living with your nonsense. You're the one who's despicable!"

The head glared at me angrily, its eyes turning fiery red as if it wanted to spit flames and devour me: "What do you know?"

Mingyang coughed lightly: "So you're saying someone stole your wife, and that's why you're so resentful! You died as a vengeful ghost and came here to seek revenge?"

I reckon even a ghost would be so angry at our questions that it would bleed from all seven orifices and bang its head against a wall.

But he became depressed, his anger turning to sorrow: "Huijun and I were childhood sweethearts, and we could have been together. But because of our social class and status, because of job transfers, and because her younger brother could find a good job, she left her hometown of Liuzhou without telling me and married this old man. By the time I found out, it was too late. Her brother had found a job, and she was already six months pregnant."

"So you were so enraged that you killed his son?" Mingyang asked.

"It's his son's own stupidity! Someone who can't swim went winter swimming and died on the winter solstice. It's karma, hahaha..." This exaggerated and bizarre laughter gave me goosebumps.

"After his son died, you abducted his wife?" Mingyang's question gradually became sharp.

"Why should I tell you?" This ghost still had a temper, tilting its head back disdainfully. Unfortunately, it had no neck, so no matter how it tilted its head back, it still looked like a ball from my angle.

Section 78: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (6)

"Hehe," Mingyang said calmly, trying to provoke him, "Then let me tell you. After this poor woman lost her son, you started to approach her again. But you couldn't forget her betrayal of your vows of eternal love, so you lured her to elope with you and then staged a car accident to get revenge on her, wanting to kill her too. But you miscalculated and lost your own life as well. So you died unwillingly, and became a vengeful ghost to haunt that old man. There's a Chinese saying, 'Those who come, even in death, take someone down with them.' You've already killed your childhood sweetheart, and now you want to kill your rival!"

Upon hearing this, the ghost, his expression filled with righteous indignation, cried out, "Nonsense! Nonsense! You are insulting me!"

"Oh?" Mingyang grinned mischievously. "Then tell me what you think!"

"What do you mean by 'abducted'? She was originally mine! Huijun could have been my husband, we could have been loving and affectionate for a hundred years..." He could cry too? "But, things didn't go as planned, we were in a car accident that day..." He also had moments of heartache?

"well……"

The sigh was very long...

The head creased in agony, tears welling in its eyes: "She died right beside me, but before she died, she said she felt sorry for that old man and wanted to go back to her husband… Go back to her home my ass! This is her home!" He wailed like a child, "That damned policeman overheard that and sent her ashes back to that old man! They're all bastards! I want them back! I want them back!! Even if Huijun is dead, I won't give them to him!"

"You're so judgmental! She's a person, not an object. Maybe she loved you before, or maybe she resented her husband, but he did give her a home, and she bore him a child. You don't understand women; life can change a person's initial intentions. She can go from hate to love, from taking to giving..."

I think that this woman named Huijun might have truly loved her husband. She may have chosen her husband, who was financially better off at the time, for some purpose back then, or perhaps to secure a stable and relatively wealthy life, abandoning her childhood sweetheart. However, her husband's frequent absences and the prolonged emptiness of her marriage caused her pent-up psychological or physical needs to transform into longing and yearning, prompting her to rekindle her relationship with her former lover. Even after her son's death, when she was heartbroken for a time, she felt free to choose her love again and eloped with her old flame… Later, when the car accident happened, she was overcome with guilt and wanted to return to her husband!

Or perhaps, Huijun only realized she and her former lover were fundamentally incompatible after they started living together. Time can forge a deeply unforgettable love, but romantic moments rarely become the eternity of life. Time is a long, arduous process of destroying or reshaping the monotony of daily life. People discover that love is not the same as life. Therefore, Huijun had long wanted to return to her husband, but couldn't find the opportunity. Then, a sudden car accident changed her fate, allowing her to go home and return to her husband.

Mingyang and I were having a mental battle, trying to figure out what was going on with them, little did we know that the ghost was about to go crazy with anger.

“Maybe the old man’s son really was killed by this ghost…” Mingyang brought up the issue again.

The ghost suddenly went berserk, shouting, "I didn't kill anyone! I didn't kill his son!"

Mingyang sighed: "If you were still alive, you would definitely be sent to a mental hospital. The way you are now is just like the manic behavior of someone who has gone on a killing spree."

“Murderers all have a psychological defense line,” I said. “Once that line is broken, they completely collapse!”

Mingyang quickly chimed in: "Don't you often suffer from a guilty conscience? Aren't you uneasy? Aren't you fearful? Even when facing the woman you love, you're afraid that one day the truth will come out, that the person you love will know you harmed her son, and she will hate you, then you'll lose everything. You're anxious, and your unease transforms into all sorts of restless factors, affecting her judgment, so she rebels. In the final moment of life and death, she runs away like a deserter who has temporarily switched sides, turning her heart back to her husband..."

"Shut up!" he roared like a shrew. After the rage came frustration, weakness, and exhaustion…

I watched his arrogance gradually fade away, like a defeated prisoner tearing off his own precarious nerve. In psychiatric terms, that was a psychological breakdown, tantamount to him killing himself once again.

“I didn’t want to kill her son, I didn’t want to…” His voice was low, as if he had become a different person, “I begged Huijun, since the marriage was unhappy, to come with me! But she refused, saying that even if she could let go of everything, she couldn’t let go of her son. That child became her heartache, a chasm between our love. I hate him! I hate him to death!”

Section 79: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (7)

"But he's just a child." My heart began to tremble again. "How could you do that?"

"Yes, it's a child. I've bought him snacks before, and he calls me uncle. His eyes look just like Huijun's! So bright, so innocent..." At this moment, he showed no signs of aggression. The illusory scene around us had completely dissipated. If Mingyang and I wanted to run away, this would be our chance, but we didn't.

Even a person with inner turmoil might hope for guidance from a therapist, let alone a ghost!

“That day I took him to McDonald’s, and I put a slow-acting tranquilizer in his Coke. He trusted me so much, always calling me ‘Uncle, Uncle,’ which softened my heart. But whenever I thought about how he was an obstacle between me and Huijun, I reminded myself that I had to be ruthless and get rid of him.” His eyes began to gleam with a bluish-white light again, as he bitterly chewed on cruelty. “I took him to the swimming pool. Winter in the river mouth isn’t cold, but there are very few swimmers in winter. The huge swimming pool was empty. I let Dongzhi go in first, and I went to the restroom. Actually, I was…” I secretly observed him from around the corner. The drug was taking effect, a slow, gradual onset… He yawned a few times on the surface of the water, then slowly sank. I killed him silently, and as I quietly slipped out of the swimming pool, a brief pang of guilt washed over me, quickly overshadowed by the excitement of finally being able to be with Huijun forever. But Huijun wasn't as happy as I was. When she was notified to claim her son's body, she was devastated and even contemplated suicide. I was furious! Did I mean less to her than that man's son?

I shook my head: "You don't understand women at all. Once a woman has a child, it becomes her life. No emotion can compare to a mother's love for her child."

"That was the first time I saw something in Huijun's eyes, something unfamiliar, something called hatred... She hates me? She hates me?" He laughed wildly, but pain coiled around his nerves like a snake. That expression was almost unbearable to look at...

"I eloped with Huijun as I had wished. What we didn't have the courage to do when we were fifteen, we accomplished when we were thirty. But then, I started having nightmares! I was awakened by nightmares every night. What's worse, I unconsciously started talking in my sleep. I was terrified, afraid that Huijun would hear my murmurings beside my pillow, because every night I would call out the name of the winter solstice. I often dream of his corpse, always wet, as if it had just been pulled out of the water..."

This is also a form of psychological suggestion.

"I think that car accident was what Huijun secretly wanted. She wanted to die, she wanted to leave me, she had been thinking about it for a long time. I even suspect that she already knew that I was the one who killed Dongzhi, so when she said she wanted to go back to her husband, she didn't have any lingering feelings for me at all?" Would you call this a sudden realization?

“Then you shouldn’t be clinging to her! This woman doesn’t belong to you at all! Why disturb the living like a ghost?” Mingyang sighed and shook his head.

Those who do evil will not live long.

"But I love her! I love her!" came the strange cry, a mixture of crying and laughter.

"Love can't be a one-sided affair. Unrequited love will never blossom. That woman truly doesn't belong to you. If you love her, you should let her rest in peace. You've already killed her son, and now you want to harm her husband? If you continue to be so stubborn, she will never forgive you!" I said harshly, like a strong dose of medicine.

Love is a mystery.

Whether you love with resentment, hesitate, or feel overwhelmed, it's a gamble with no winners or losers. Once you enter this fog that makes you both infatuated and resentful, you can only charge into battle. Whether you live or die is entirely up to you.

The dawn is approaching.

The ghost had lost its arrogance; its ethereal head had become limp and ball-shaped.

A dead heart is like a lamp going out; a gust of wind and it's gone.

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes.

All desires and evils vanished.

When Mingyang and I ran out of the haunted building, Da Senlin was waiting downstairs. He also said something strange: "It's like I had a dream. I saw you guys running ahead of me, and no matter how much I called out, no one answered me, and I couldn't catch up. But as soon as the string of Buddhist beads on my body glowed, all the images disappeared. Then I found myself already standing outside the exit of this building."

"Yes. This string of prayer beads is a good thing, keep it safe." After saying that, Mingyang hugged the forest tightly and said to him, "Brother! I'm back!"

The sun rises, its rays shining brightly.

The thrilling battle between humans and ghosts came to an end, and the Great Forest said to us in a commanding tone, "Both of you come home with me."

"Go home? Where to?" I looked at Mingyang.

He grinned mischievously: "Let's go! Let's get out of the river mouth first."

Section 80: The "Ghost Building" at the River Estuary (8)

"Tell me where we're going first?"

"Don't worry, I won't sell you," the two brothers said in unison.

Mingyang stood to my left and Da Senlin to my right. They both very gentlemanly bent one arm over, and I took one arm in each of theirs as we walked toward the bustling city.

The morning in Hekou is usually peaceful, but this tranquility is quickly drowned out by the hustle and bustle of the city. Vendors vie for customers like fish swimming in the river. Vietnamese women are even more busy, their carrying poles clattering and their clear shouts filling the air.

The three of them started growling at the same time. They looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh. "Let's go! Food is the most important thing for people. We need to fill our stomachs first before we have the energy to do bad things." Mingyang winked at Da Senlin.

“What bad things can you do?” I asked him.

He gave me a dry laugh and said, "Let's go eat congee. Have you ever tried Yunnan glutinous rice cakes? They're pretty good."

That naughty boy, always changing the subject.

We drank a kind of cornmeal porridge at a small stall. In the local dialect, it's called "baogu chen'er," and it looked like pig swill, but it tasted pretty good. "Baba" is actually a kind of egg pancake. Mingyang ate three servings by himself, exceeding his usual standard. When he patted his stomach and stood up, he said to me, "I'm full. Let me take you to play! The Nanxi River and the Red River meet, one clear and one muddy, one blue and one red, clearly distinct, two colors in one body of water—you've definitely never seen anything like it."

"Stop fooling around." Before Mingyang could finish speaking, Da Senlin interrupted him, "Let's go home first! We can come out again later if we want to go somewhere else."

I stuck my tongue out at Mingyang, and he shrugged at the forest. Sigh! These two are worlds apart. I joked, "You two are the ones who are truly worlds apart!"

Mingyang tapped my head with chopsticks, but the forest was still incredibly cool.

He handed me the hotel key: "Take Mingyang to the hotel to rest first! I have some errands to run." Then he parted ways with us. Watching him disappear into the crowd, Mingyang suddenly asked me, "What's wrong with Di Luo's face? Why is he always covering it up? Those big sunglasses don't suit him."