Second type of death

Chapter 11

“I’ve got it,” I said. Her words just now suddenly reminded me of something, which was exactly the question that had been lingering in my mind but kept slipping through my fingers—that’s right, why did Xu Xiaobing remember to borrow money from Meng Ling back then?

Why is Meng Ling's information in the company?

Why does nobody recognize Meng Ling now?

There seems to be an invisible thread connecting these three questions, and Xu Xiaobing's words made me realize what kind of clue I was looking for—what if Meng Ling really did exist?

If Meng Ling did indeed exist, then the records of Xu Xiaobing and the company are not surprising. What is strange is when the records about Meng Ling disappeared...

If Meng Ling never existed, then Xu Xiaobing's records and the company's records should not exist in the first place. When did this inappropriate existence begin?

Regardless of whether Meng Ling actually exists, the timing of the appearance and termination of Xu Xiaobing's and the company's records is an important clue for us. Perhaps by understanding the timing, we can also understand the reason why things happened.

It took me a lot of effort to make Xu Xiaobing understand what I meant. After she agreed with my analysis, we started organizing the company documents. We organized them in chronological order. After placing the documents in their places, Xu Xiaobing first looked at the last document, which was the one with the most recent date. The signature date on the document was February 25th.

"Did you bring all her information?" I asked.

"No, our company archives its documents every three months. Documents older than three months are all put into the archives."

"So that means all the information about her from the last three months is here?"

"Um."

As we continued reviewing the documents, along with Xu Xiaobing's own accounting records, we discovered that all the records showed Meng Ling was still at the company before February 25th. Before February 25th, Meng Ling's name occasionally appeared in Xu Xiaobing's personal ledger, sometimes indicating they went out to eat together and paid the bill, and sometimes indicating that she owed Meng Ling a certain amount—Xu Xiaobing discovered she owed Meng Ling a total of 500 yuan. Furthermore, the records also showed that before February 25th, Xu Xiaobing's housing expenses were shared equally between the two of them, while after February 25th, all expenses were borne by Xu Xiaobing alone.

"What happened on February 25th?" I asked her, and she shook her head, indicating that she didn't know either.

Now that things have progressed this far, what drives our actions is no longer just fear, but also intense curiosity. We find it very strange that a person can suddenly disappear so completely out of thin air.

“It seems there really is such a person,” Xu Xiaobing said. “It seems we have all been collectively brainwashed.”

"Hmm." I just can't understand these things.

“I’m increasingly convinced this is a supernatural thing,” Xu Xiaobing whispered, leaning closer to me. As soon as she said that, I felt an eerie atmosphere fill the room. To dispel the atmosphere, I deliberately laughed a few times: “You seem to have never thought this wasn’t a supernatural event.”

"Don't you think this sounds like something out of a horror movie?" She frowned at my laughter, clearly annoyed. "What scientific explanation do you have for this?"

I was speechless—what scientific explanation could there be for this? The only scientific explanation is that everything was a lie told by Xu Xiaobing. But Xu Xiaobing wasn't present when some of these events occurred, such as what happened this afternoon in this house.

She's right, this whole thing is getting increasingly supernatural. But what kind of supernatural event is this? I've heard of ghosts haunting people, I've heard of monsters harming people, I've even heard of aliens, but I've never heard of anyone leaving behind all the evidence of their existence yet being unable to prove it…

“That’s right, to prove her existence…” I murmured.

"What did you say?" Xu Xiaobing, seeing me lost in thought, gave me a hard shove. I snapped out of my daze, and she was looking at me with an impatient expression. Xu Xiaobing was actually quite pitiful. She already felt wronged to have to live in the same house as someone she didn't like, and now she had to discuss this matter with me. She probably never even considered cooperating with someone like me. I found this situation somewhat ridiculous. Our personalities were completely opposite, yet we were so tightly bound together.

“I said,” I smiled, “we have to prove Meng Ling’s existence.”

“Hasn’t it already been proven?” she said, pointing to the documents.

I shook my head: "These are just documents. Nobody has ever seen Meng Ling. Documents can be forged."

"Are you saying I forged documents?" she said coldly, tilting her head.

“If you insist on thinking that way, there’s nothing I can do.” I was too lazy to explain further. She was so angry that her face turned ashen. She gathered all the documents together with a clatter, muttering something under her breath—from her lip movements and the occasional sounds I could hear, she was undoubtedly cursing me. At that moment, I didn’t intend to argue, but I couldn’t control my mouth. Before I could stop her, those words had already come out: “It’s not hard for someone to argue once, what’s hard is arguing with someone all the time.”

After saying that, I immediately slipped into the bathroom.

As expected, her voice came from outside the restroom: "What do you mean by this?"

I didn't say anything, and just covered my mouth and laughed in the bathroom. She kept asking me, and when I didn't answer, she angrily slammed her hand on the bathroom door: "Childish!" Then I heard footsteps moving around in the living room, I guessed she was tidying up those documents, accompanied by a soft, mumbling sound like a silkworm chewing, which reminded me of Tang Sanzang in A Chinese Odyssey.

13

I spent about half an hour in the bathroom, reading a magazine on the washstand. When I heard no more noise from the living room, I slowly came out. Xu Xiaobing had already closed the door to her room, so I turned on the TV and casually tuned it to the local news channel.

Hearing the television, Xu Xiaobing came out. She wasn't angry anymore, but instead tossed me a piece of paper with names, addresses, and phone numbers written on it. Seeing my puzzled look, she explained, "This is a list of clients Meng Ling contacted a few days before February 25th, along with her home contact information."

“Oh.” I nodded. Seeing that I didn’t seem to understand her meaning, she snorted and sat down next to me, “patiently” saying, “Didn’t you want to prove her existence? You can go find these people.”

"Should you look for it or should I?" I asked.

"Let's search together!" Her "patience" had reached its limit.

“Okay,” I said, “are you scared?”

"I'm scared, of course I'm scared," she glared at me helplessly, "What can I do?"

At that moment, I blurted out, "I'm asking around to find a place to live. Why don't you move out with me?" After saying that, I felt extremely regretful and desperately hoped that she would refuse me.

She didn't refuse—anyone who moved into a house like this wouldn't refuse such an offer, even if it meant living with someone she disliked even more than me—she nodded: "As long as the rent isn't more expensive than here," she hesitated for a moment, "a little more is fine, as long as it's not too much more!"

For Xu Xiaobing to say "a little more expensive is fine" shows that the house had indeed reached an intolerable level. Keep in mind, she endured that situation alone for half a month! However, at that time she didn't know of Meng Ling's existence. Now, this Meng Ling has appeared in a unique way; she seems to be a physical entity from a document, a person from a document who can leave various traces of her existence in our room, yet we can never see her—connecting these things together, not only is the timid Xu Xiaobing terrified, but even I, who has always disbelieved in superstitions, find it extremely eerie.

Besides, there was Li Yuntong's version of events. I glanced at Xu Xiaobing and felt that she had already endured enough. There was no need to tell her about Li Yuntong's encounter with a ghost at the hospital; I didn't want to see her eyes widen in near-madness again. I simply mentioned that I had almost caught Meng Ling that afternoon, and just as her eyes were about to widen again, I quickly changed the subject.

In reality, it was the news on television that shifted the topic.

The television was broadcasting an advertisement for identifying a corpse. The advertisement featured a long-haired woman with a terrified expression, her face pale and looking quite frightening. I was wondering where I had seen this woman before when the news mentioned "Liufang Lake," which made me listen more attentively.

"You didn't see her? She just ran away right under your nose?" At that moment, Xu Xiaobing had just finished listening to me talk about what happened that afternoon, and her eyes were wide open.

"Shh, listen to the news," I said quickly.

Her attention shifted to the television, and thank goodness, her eyes slowly returned to normal.

The news broadcast showed the footage I saw at Liufang Lake today. Many boats were shuttling on the lake, and the announcer was explaining the cause of the incident in a voice-over. Then, Li Yuntong and I were pushed to the center of the screen, and Xu Xiaobing gasped beside me: "You're on TV?"

"Hmm, not very photogenic," I said.

"What happened?"

"You'll understand once you listen."

Xu Xiaobing fell silent, and we listened intently to the news. Perhaps there were too few news events in Nancheng; this news report lasted a full fifteen minutes, detailing the cause and effect of the incident and even including an interview with Li Yuntong. Finally, the announcer said, "According to Mr. Li's description, the woman's head was clearly visible on the lake surface, but his colleagues and the police who came to rescue her didn't see anyone. How could this be?" Then, the announcer mentioned Li Yuntong's recent claims of seeing certain people or things that others hadn't seen—excluding the incident at the hospital—and I realized that this wasn't the first time Li Yuntong had seen people others couldn't, which startled me. "Did those people Mr. Li saw really exist, or was it just a hallucination?" the announcer asked, clearly leading the conversation. "How exactly did the victim drown in Liufang Lake? Will the victim's identity be revealed? The truth awaits further investigation. We will continue to follow up on this story, and we welcome viewers to provide clues. The hotline is..."

"Is he sick?" Xu Xiaobing asked me suspiciously after reading it.

I didn't say anything. Anyone who reads this news will think that Li Yuntong has hallucinations. In fact, I have that suspicion too, but Li Yuntong is a good person, and I don't want to say that about him.

“You told me about this,” Xu Xiaobing said. “At the time, I thought he had seen a ghost, but now it seems he must have been hallucinating.”

"I don't know," I said. In the afternoon, Li Yuntong categorized Meng Ling as one of the "unseen people" he had seen, which was what nurse Feng Nan called a ghost. After reviewing the information just now, I increasingly felt that Li Yuntong's words made some sense.

We must find out whether Li Yuntong is hallucinating.

I've discovered there are just too many things I need to figure out. In just a few days, simple life has become complicated. This isn't the life I want. If life is too complicated, it becomes burdensome, and I'm not old enough to live that kind of burdensome life. My mother's ever-present sigh echoed in my mind—"You haven't grown up yet!"

Thinking of my mother, her call came. Seeing that familiar phone number on the screen, including the area code of my hometown, my eyes suddenly welled up with tears. I quickly looked at Xu Xiaobing, who had already gotten up to prepare the dinner that had been interrupted. The sound of the cleaver was busy again, and I could hear my mother's voice in my ears. It felt like I was back home.

As usual, Mom asked about my well-being, health, food, career, and so on. After she finished her barrage of questions, I answered with "Everything's fine," and then she asked the same questions again… This conversation was monotonous and repetitive, with nothing new, yet it was more captivating than any novel. We chatted for a long time, and Mom said that one of my classmates had returned from America and had just called to ask for my phone number. We chatted for a while about the recent situations of other relatives and friends, and then reluctantly hung up.

"Have you had dinner yet? Let's eat together?" Xu Xiaobing said. "I cooked a little too much rice today, so let's not waste it."

I'd already digested the KFC food, and I was actually starving. Hearing her say that, I nodded without hesitation. Seeing that I agreed, Xu Xiaobing ordered me to wash the celery. As I washed the vegetables, I was still savoring my conversation with my mother, feeling a warm glow inside—after all, home is the best.

“You should cook with me from now on,” Xu Xiaobing said. “It’ll save money if we eat together.”

"Okay." I thought about it and it made sense. Eating out all the time doesn't seem good for my health. "But I can't cook."

"It's okay, you can wash the vegetables," she said.

After quickly washing the celery, Xu Xiaobing checked it and exclaimed in surprise, "It's not clean!"

"Where?" I asked nervously as she leaned closer. She broke open the thick stalk of celery, revealing mud in the green gaps, which made my face turn red.

"You rarely do housework at home, do you?" she asked while washing the celery.

"Mmm," I said softly.

The meal was ready quickly. Xu Xiaobing's cooking skills were quite good. I hadn't had such home-cooked meals in a long time. I kept praising the food as I ate. Xu Xiaobing humbly said that her cooking skills were not good, but it was barely edible.

After we finished eating, I dutifully cleared the dishes. Just as I turned on the tap to wash them, my phone rang again. I dried my hands and said to Xu Xiaobing, "I'll wash the dishes in a bit. You can go watch TV. Don't worry about it."

The call was from my classmate who came from the US. She went abroad to study during her sophomore year of college, and there were many rumors about her; some even said she married an American, though I didn't know if it was true or not. After exchanging a few pleasantries, I immediately asked, "Did you marry an American?"

"Huh?" She burst out laughing on the other end of the phone. "Who told you that?"

“Many people say that,” I asked. “What exactly did you do in America?”

She laughed so hard she could barely breathe: "Studying abroad, what else can I do?"

I laughed too: "Who told you to be so pretty? These days, nobody believes that pretty women can concentrate on their studies."

“Haha, why are you still the same?” she continued laughing. “The little guy hasn’t grown up yet.”

...

Two friends who haven't seen each other for a long time naturally have a lot to talk about, especially since they are two women. After talking for an hour, we had strayed far from our original topic. Neither of us remembers how the conversation turned around, but it ended up about our boyfriends. She spent a long time recounting her dating experiences. I rarely interrupted her, only asking her to stop twice: once because her ear was getting hot from the phone, so she switched to the other ear, and another time because her phone battery had run out, so she temporarily plugged it in.

"...So, I'm free again now," she said with a smile, then asked, "And you? How are things between you and Yu Fei?"

"What?"

Her voice became ambiguous: "Are you still together?"

"Who?" I asked, bewildered.

Hearing my question, she paused for a moment, then sighed, "I didn't expect even someone as good as you two..." Her tone quickly lightened again, "It's nothing, it's normal, first loves rarely succeed..."

"What are you talking about?" I couldn't help but raise my voice, because I couldn't understand what she was saying.

"Alright, you don't need to put on a brave face in front of me—tell me what really happened? Did you dump him or did he dump you?" She sighed again.

I felt utterly helpless. Had Xu Li lost her mind? Judging from her tone, the so-called "Yu Fei" seemed to be my first boyfriend, and we had unfortunately broken up—there was a hint of mourning in her voice, which made me both laugh and cry—she must have met too many people over the years and confused me with someone else.

"You must be mistaken?" I shook my head repeatedly. "I don't even have a boyfriend yet, who could I possibly break up with? Don't curse me!"

"You hate him that much?" she asked in surprise, seemingly not listening to me at all, continuing to speak according to her own train of thought. I couldn't take it anymore and shouted into the phone, "This is Jiang Ling, your college classmate. You haven't mistaken me for someone else, have you?"

“I know you are Jiang Ling,” she said calmly, “but how did you and Yu Fei break up?”

"What happened between Yu Fei and me?" I was too lazy to explain anymore, so I just went along with what she said.

"Aren't you two the dream couple in our class? You're both pretty silly, you don't know anything..." Xu Li's voice was full of sighs, and I could almost imagine what she looked like at that moment—she must be wearing her favorite pajamas, and at this moment, her face should be covered with a thick face mask, with a pair of eyes shining through the gaps in the mask—her eyes are not big, and whenever she recalls the past, she likes to sneakily turn left and right—at this moment, those eyes must be rolling around non-stop, and perhaps she is also listening to a very old song to match this nostalgic atmosphere.

At this moment, her face should be covered with a thick face mask, and a pair of eyes should be shining through the gaps in the mask—her eyes are not big, and whenever she reminisces, she likes to sneakily dart left and right—at this moment, those eyes must be rolling around non-stop, perhaps she is also listening to a very old song to match this nostalgic atmosphere... I couldn't help but secretly laugh, but Xu Li was completely unaware of my thoughts, and continued to speak in a reminiscing tone, "Only someone like Yu Fei would go to the mountains to pick wildflowers to plant for you—and only someone like you would be moved by such an action... Didn't he draw a portrait of you every day? What about your portrait collection? Do you still have it?"

"Hahahaha..." I couldn't help but burst into laughter, "What a romantic story..."

I interrupted Xu Li's dreamy reverie, but she wasn't annoyed at all and laughed, "Yes, yes, it's so romantic it gives me goosebumps!"

Even now, she still hadn't realized she'd mistaken the person—I'd encountered this before, but it only happened with older people, those in their sixties and seventies, who often misattributed other people's stories to me. Xu Li was so young, yet she made such a blunder. I was both amused and annoyed: "Dr. Xu, have you gone mad from all your studying? Haven't you realized it yet?"

"What did you find?" She seemed genuinely stunned.