Fantasmas de la tumba antigua

Capítulo 21

Even when he went to Fuhu Mountain last Sunday, he had already informed He Jihong beforehand—in case he couldn't get back before 4:30. However, he still showed up at the student cafeteria's work area three minutes before dinner was served at 5:00. As for Wang Danyang, who sprained her ankle—after getting off the bus at the school gate that day, Shen Wei carried her directly to the girls' dormitory—during their late-night chat, Shen Wei said that carrying a girl through the campus was fucking awesome! It felt like a hero wading through a minefield!

After a few days of adjustment, Jiang Boyu was already quite adept at his work in the cafeteria. Even He Jihong remarked that people who play football are efficient—they always know what to do next! Jiang Boyu secretly worked hard—both to cherish this job and to let He Jihong know that he, Jiang Boyu, was no mere pretty boy!

There are currently ten students working as cleaners in the cafeteria. Jiang Boyu transferred in to replace a boy who had just been expelled by He Jihong. They are divided into two groups of five, each responsible for lunch and dinner respectively. Since starting work, Jiang Boyu and He Jihong have been working together during the dinner period. Their work areas are also right next to each other. Every time, Jiang Boyu would pretend to unintentionally cross the "borderline" to help He Jihong tidy up a few rows of tables, or mop her area a bit while he was mopping the floor. He Jihong never said thank you, at most just nodding and smiling.

Back in 1998, the medical university only had one student cafeteria. Long queues always formed at each window before mealtimes, not to mention the bustling scene after 5 PM – it was like a giant market. Jiang Boyu and his colleagues moved between the food counters, collecting empty plates, wiping the tables clean, and moving on to the next. After 6 PM, when the number of diners gradually decreased, they would begin cleaning the floor – usually working until 6:30 PM. Their work wasn't considered complete until the shift leader's inspection and approval!

He Jihong is the head of the work-study students in the cafeteria! She is in charge of recruiting and distributing wages, and she is also the group leader of the group that Jiang Boyu is in—Jiang Boyu hears her classmates calling her "He Daban" behind her back!

Although it was purely physical labor, Jiang Boyu felt more comfortable working here than as the women's soccer coach. As a coach, he had to think about and manage too many things, but here his mind could completely blank—he could focus on his task and ignore the surrounding noise! Once everything was tidied up, they could go to the back workroom to get their own food—free and all-you-can-eat! Even Shen Wei envied Jiang Boyu's job because of this, saying that one dollar an hour was a bit low, but being able to eat his fill was worth it. In fact, the work-study position here was indeed a "lucrative job"—He Jihong had pulled some strings for Jiang Boyu.

He Jihong's attitude towards Jiang Boyu always seemed lukewarm—even Duan Youzhi was now at a loss as to how to break through her "last mile." At work, she was equally strict with Jiang Boyu, never chatting with him privately. Even during their free dinners—He Jihong would always hide in a corner with an English novel to eat alone. Their group consisted of three women and two men; besides Jiang Boyu, there was also a male student from the 1998 class of Dentistry named Chang Ruoping—a name that sounded feminine, an introverted Zhuang lad from Guangxi. Although Jiang Boyu often sat with him at meals, after a week of work, the two hadn't exchanged more than twenty sentences in total!

Relying solely on part-time work in the cafeteria to pay off this enormous debt of over ten thousand yuan seemed like a distant dream. Jiang Boyu also went to the school library to apply for a job as a book organizer. Unfortunately, there were far more applicants than positions available; there were already over thirty people ahead of him in the queue. It would probably be a year before it was his turn—that afternoon, as Jiang Boyu dejectedly walked out of the library, he bumped into He Jihong and the boy in the short polyester overcoat he had seen before, walking into the library together. He quickly hid behind a stone pillar by the entrance—watching them laughing and chatting as they entered the study room on the first floor. At that moment, Jiang Boyu felt a turmoil of emotions. Feelings of inferiority, disappointment, and endless frustration overwhelmed him.

The next day at dinner, Jiang Boyu took his plate to the table where He Jihong was sitting and then sat down opposite her.

He Jihong looked up from the English novel *Jane Eyre* she was reading and gave him a strange look. "Is there something you need?" she asked.

Jiang Boyu hesitated, his lips trembling. "Yesterday, was that boy your boyfriend? That's all I want to ask."

He Jihong smiled and tapped Jiang Boyu's plate with her spoon, saying, "Yes! We're friends! Aren't you the same?"

Jiang Boyu muttered that it was different.

“He’s a senior in our group—last month I signed up for a student research project in the biochemistry department, and he’s the project leader, a master’s student in biochemistry.” He Jihong smiled. “Don’t overthink it. Focus on your studies and work.”

"What's his name?" Jiang Boyu asked, his head lowered and his face tense.

"Lei Ming! Are you investigating household registrations, Junior Brother Jiang?" He Jihong lowered her head again to read her novel.

"I'm leaving." Jiang Boyu stood up, holding his tray. He bowed his head and said softly, "Thank you."

That day, Jiang Boyu went straight back to his dorm after dinner. As soon as Shen Wei saw him, he shouted, "We won, Lao Jiang, we won!" Then he put his arm around Jiang Boyu's shoulder and patted and shook him.

"Who, who won?"

"Wang Danyang and her team made it out of Group B! Next up is the finals, and there are only three groups. Damn, they can at least get third place again. That's a 500 yuan prize. First place is 1000 yuan!" Shen Wei said excitedly. "I told Wang Danyang she'd give you 20% of the reward. You have no idea how thoroughly they wiped out the 97-level high-level guards. That O'Neal fought so bravely..."

"Boss, I'm about to fail my computer exam. Can I borrow your computer lab pass? I lost mine." Jiang Boyu interrupted Shen Wei expressionlessly.

Jiang Boyu, carrying "Computer Basics Tutorial" and Shen Wei's crumpled computer lab pass, slammed the door shut and turned to leave.

"Damn it, it's another cloudy day. Who stirred up this weird wind for you?" Shen Wei muttered to himself behind the closed dormitory door.

Jiang Boyu went directly to the computer lab on the sixth floor of the school library. Unexpectedly, he was stopped at the registration desk. "Sorry, it's full," said the female teacher with bangs that reached her ears.

Jiang Boyu peeked inside and, sure enough, it was true. The computer room was packed, and there were more than a dozen people standing outside.

He was extremely anxious. During the break from classes, he hadn't studied much. He had mastered the first half of the computer course, the overview and office software, but he only grasped two out of the three major chapters on VB programming—without practical computer use, studying was completely useless. The exam was only three days away—this was the first required course of the semester, worth three credits.

Left with no other choice, he could only come downstairs with a heavy heart.

"Hey, Junior Brother Jiang, what brings you here too?"

Jiang Boyu, looking down at the corner on the second floor, knew without even looking up that it was He Jihong. This time, He Jihong was alone, and it seemed she had just come out of the magazine reading room on the second floor.

"Yeah, I have an exam the day after tomorrow. I'm going to the computer lab."

"Coming down so early? Is there no available space?"

Jiang Boyu nodded. "Yes, there's no other way but to read the book. I just can't understand the VB parts without using the computer."

He Jihong smiled and said, "Look at what I have here?"

Jiang Boyu watched as she patted the bag slung across her shoulder. "What's that?" Jiang Boyu asked curiously.

"Your laptop! You have an exam coming up, right? I can lend it to you for a couple of days. There are some VB programs on it that you can practice with."

"No, no, no, it's too, too precious. I'm afraid I'll break it." Jiang Boyu was startled—this wasn't just politeness! He truly dared not make any rash moves with such a high-class item.

He Jihong deftly took the bag, smiled, and handed it to Jiang Boyu with both hands, saying, "Here you go. As long as you don't dismantle it into pieces, the computer won't break. But you'd better lock it in the cabinet before you go to sleep!"

Looking at the computer handed to him, Jiang Boyu hesitated for a moment before taking it with both hands. "I... I thank you. I won't touch anything on the computer!" Jiang Boyu stammered.

He Jihong shook her head, still smiling, and said, "I'm completely honest and upright; there are no secrets on my computer. I'll definitely help you if I can. But don't overthink it. We've always been friends, and I hope we'll still be friends when you graduate from university."

Jiang Boyu nodded. "I'll return it to you when I'm done. Don't worry, I understand."

Jiang Boyu carefully placed the IBM laptop on the table after returning to his dormitory. Shen Wei and Duan Youzhi were both out, so there was no one to disturb him.

He plugged in the power and turned it on. Once in the Windows 98 interface, Jiang Boyu couldn't find the VB program folder—"Ugh, I forgot to ask before I left, damn it!" Jiang Boyu grumbled inwardly. He Jihong wasn't in the dormitory either, so calling her was useless. He had no choice but to resort to the brute force method—searching one by one.

Jiang Boyu opened "My Documents" at the top of his computer screen, and there really was a folder named "Programs." Jiang Boyu was secretly pleased that he had gotten it so easily—he quickly double-clicked the icon. But when he opened it, there was nothing there except a Word file named "Xia Xianlong."

Xia Xianlong? Vice Mayor Xia? His heart pounded as he recalled the questions his counselor had once asked him.

"Could it be that He Jihong and Mayor Xia have something going on...?" Jiang Boyu subconsciously moved the mouse to the file title.

Double-click to open. Jiang Boyu saw the following message.

"uncle:

Hello! Because you're so busy, I don't want to bother you, so I'm sending you an email instead. I'm sorry to trouble you again, but I really need your help. Here's the situation: There's a student at our school…”

Jiang Boyu skimmed through the letter. The earnestness and high praise it conveyed made it hard for him to believe it was written by He Jihong. However, the signature at the end, "Niece: He Jihong," forced him to believe that it was indeed He Jihong who had approached Mayor Xia this time!

In an instant, Jiang Boyu's vision blurred... His hands, resting on the keyboard, trembled slightly. This girl whose name contained the character "Hong"—perhaps it was a destiny from a past life, or even countless eons, that destined him to meet her—but fate was so cruel, knowing each other yet unable to love, longing for each other yet unable to stay together—he remembered the words of Master Huiming: "The missed opportunities in this life are the suffering of resentment from the past life." A nameless melancholy and indescribable sorrow suddenly welled up in Jiang Boyu's heart.

He reopened the Word document and started typing in the new file using the Wubi input method, which he wasn't very familiar with.

I don't know what to call you. Maybe I should call you "older sister"!

On the computer, I inadvertently saw something I shouldn't have. But if I hadn't seen it, I might regret it for the rest of my life. Perhaps, I won't even live to see that day of regret... Thank you, sister. Please allow me to call you that. You're a good person, always supporting and caring for me. I truly feel like you're a female bodhisattva by my side. I'm not good with words of gratitude, but one day I will repay you.

I've never regretted meeting you! Not in the past, not now, not in the future. I have no regrets! But I know I can only be a friend, a little brother, right? If there really is a next life, could I please not call you "sister" anymore, but just "Jihong"...

Time ticked by. An hour later, Jiang Boyu saved the file. Filename—Jiang Boyu typed "Received by He Jihong". Save location—Jiang Boyu chose "Desktop".

After writing this special letter, Jiang Boyu felt a deep emptiness in his heart...

To proofread the typos, he read the letter again, suddenly realizing he didn't know why he had described He Jihong as a female bodhisattva—the metaphor was too bizarre! Since returning from his meeting with Master Huiming, he had become much more depressed. He had copied those four lines of poetry into his diary, but what lingered in his mind were the unexplained last two lines—especially "a thousand knots in the heart"—he remembered that it was at that point that Master Huiming had stopped speaking.

The more Jiang Boyu read, the more uneasy he felt. Perhaps He Jihong didn't want him to know about her relationship with Vice Mayor Xia at all. If that was the case, why should he presume to reply to this letter... Thinking this, Jiang Boyu hesitated and moved the mouse pointer to the letter again.

He ultimately chose to "close the file," then dragged it directly to the "Recycle Bin" on the desktop and pressed "Empty Recycle Bin" in the menu.

It was deep winter outside the window. The indigo sky seemed exceptionally high and distant. Jiang Boyu gazed at the twinkling stars in the night sky, feeling that the four lines of poetry, brimming with profound meaning, were more like a portrayal of the true meaning of life—the turbulent world, the blooming flowers in the water, the tears at midnight, wandering the ends of the earth—each image evoked endless emotions and a deep, lingering desolation in his heart! He closed his eyes, but a tear slowly, slowly seeped from the corner of his eye and slid down his cheek…

Heart Dust, Part Six

As soon as the computer exam ended, Jiang Boyu immediately returned the laptop to He Jihong. During the two days he borrowed it, he took great care of it, not even letting Shen Wei and Duan Youzhi touch it much—he practically slept with it—not for any other reason than he was afraid that if something went wrong and it got lost or broken—that would cost more than ten thousand yuan.

When returning the computer, Jiang Boyu didn't ask He Jihong whether she had contacted Mayor Xia—he had already written everything he needed to say in that letter, and he believed He Jihong would see it when she opened the computer.

But Jiang Boyu wasn't one to keep things bottled up; his emotions were always written all over his face. In the student cafeteria work area, He Jihong took the computer and laughed, "Why are you looking at me like that? Your gaze is strange. No wonder they say your eyes can speak."

Jiang Boyu lowered his head shyly. "Oh, it's nothing. I'm very grateful to you. Without your help, I would have been finished." Jiang Boyu didn't know if He Jihong could understand the double meaning in his words.

"Of course. Didn't we say we're good friends? How did your exam go? Did you pass?"

"It's alright. Anyway, the test paper is filled out. I... I'm going to change my clothes first." Jiang Boyu pursed his lips, lowered his head, and rushed out of the workroom. Tears were already welling up in his eyes—"Friend, why can we only be friends? Why can she trust me so much and help me, but we can't get any closer?"—Jiang Boyu's heart was surging with emotions.

The day after finishing his computer exam, Jiang Boyu went to Fuhu Mountain alone. It was a Saturday.

He couldn't explain why he came. Was his heart too troubled? Was his wound too deep? — It was hard to say, a tangled mess.

Jiang Boyu, his mind a jumbled mess, couldn't confide his feelings to the open-minded Shen Wei or the refined Duan Youzhi. He had only one impulse—to go to nature! To go to the mountains! To let the mountain winds awaken his dazed soul, and let the mountain eagles carry away his hopeless longing!

When he reached the summit, the sun was just rising. This was the first time in his life that Jiang Boyu had seen a sunrise from a high mountain. The distant clouds changed from pale red to crimson, then to scarlet; the sun went from a halo to a ball of light, then to a blazing fire—Jiang Boyu was deeply moved by the magnificent grandeur of nature! The brilliant sunrise spread across the vast sky, outlining the city skyline below with a beautiful golden edge. The impact of the beauty of creation eased the pain in his heart, but it also made him begin to ponder: "What makes life flow? What governs this endless cycle of love and hate?"

The more he thought about it, the less he could find an answer. Like a trapped beast, he mustered all his strength and let out a cry of "Ah—" at the very moment the sun fully rose.

No one could hear it except for the echo.

“He Jihong—I love you—He Jihong—I love you—” he shouted almost hysterically. The echoes crashed against the rocks, against his eardrums, and startled flocks of mountain birds.

At this moment, tears were streaming down his face. He looked as wronged as a child.

After watching the sunrise, Jiang Boyu lingered on the mountaintop for a long time. Only when he heard the morning bell of Yungu Temple behind the mountain did he slowly drag his tired steps down the mountain.

Yungu Temple was Jiang Boyu's real destination on this trip—to watch the sunrise. However, the temple's morning prayers begin around 4 a.m. and continue until 7 a.m. when the monks' chanting ends—during this time, the temple is not open to tourists. But no tourist would be so paranoid as to rush there so early in the morning.

After entering the mountain gate, Jiang Boyu noticed that many monks were glancing at him with questioning eyes. He was unaware that his eyes were red and swollen, and his expression was listless—his distraught appearance made it impossible not to suspect something!

Knocking on the door knocker of the abbot's room, the young monk who opened the door kindly told him that Master Huiming was giving a sermon in the meditation hall.

The meditation hall is located to the west of the Arhat Hall in Yungusi Temple, opposite the dining hall where the monks eat.

The meditation hall was completely silent at this moment. More than a hundred monks sat neatly on the floor mats with their legs crossed in the lotus position.

Jiang Boyu had no intention of entering the meditation hall—that place filled him with awe, and he was just an ordinary mortal! But as he stood at the foot of the steps facing the entrance, Master Huiming, who sat on the high seat inside the meditation hall, said loudly, "You outside, come in."

All the monks, young and old, turned their heads and immediately turned their gazes to Jiang Boyu. Jiang Boyu hurriedly stepped over the threshold and stood by the pillar at the very back of the meditation hall.

"Being able to hear the Dharma shows that you have planted good roots over many lifetimes. Today, I will be giving a lecture on the Heart Sutra. You may listen for a while."

Jiang Boyu was speechless, unsure what to say. He could only nod frantically. Finding an empty cushion, he sat down cross-legged.

Master Huiming lowered his eyes. Each word was uttered clearly and fully from his lips. Jiang Boyu's face was full of admiration, and his previously chaotic thoughts settled down like sand in water.

"Shariputra, form is not different from emptiness, emptiness is not different from form. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Sensation, perception, volition, and consciousness are also like this..."

Suddenly, Master Huiming asked, "Young man who just came in, could you tell me your understanding of 'form is emptiness'?"

Jiang Boyu quickly stood up, his face flushed, and shook his head.

"The time is not yet ripe," Master Huiming uttered softly. Then he let out a long sigh.

Master Huiming's lectures lasted for three hours at a time. For the remainder of the time, he completely ignored Jiang Boyu. Jiang Boyu simply sat in the back row, unable to understand most of what was being said, but he found it strangely enjoyable to hear Master Huiming's voice.

After the lecture ended, Master Huiming whispered a few words to his attendant. The attendant then approached Jiang Boyu and said, "The abbot said you should leave. He will not see you again!"

"I...no, I have something to do..." Jiang Boyu said anxiously.

"Please take care, benefactor. The abbot will not be receiving guests today!" The attendant's voice was not loud, but there was an underlying sense of intimidation in his resolute tone.

Jiang Boyu watched in despair as Master Huiming quickly left the meditation hall, surrounded by a group of monks.

Outside the tightly closed abbot's room, Jiang Boyu paced helplessly. Every ten minutes or so, he would knock on the door knocker—but no one answered.

It was nearly 5 PM, and Jiang Boyu's legs felt like jelly. He hadn't eaten lunch and was starving. He gritted his teeth and vowed to see Master Huiming today. He had already asked He Jihong for leave last night and asked Chang Ruoping to cover his work—but wouldn't it be a huge loss to make the trip for nothing?

"Sincerity brings results, sincerity brings results..." Jiang Boyu chanted to himself as he paced anxiously back and forth.