Cosas en el estanque

Capítulo 5

"Not coming home so late, isn't she a female ghost?"

"What's it to you? I was tired and just lay down on the table thinking I could take a nap, but I've been lying there ever since."

"Then get up and write in your diary? Please, please don't tell me you're working overtime writing an article, I'll admire you to death."

"Pah, mind your own business! Hey, you're punished, take me home!"

"Huh? Did I do something wrong?"

"If you're so stingy, then forget it."

"Okay, okay, I was wrong. I sincerely hope that Miss Wei can give me a chance to repent and start anew so that I can take her home."

I chatted and laughed with Wei Weiwei along the way, and I secretly thought to myself that we had completely made up. Wei Weiwei lived in the suburbs, so it was no wonder that she said she was afraid to go home alone too late. For a single young woman, that kind of rural-urban fringe area was hardly a noble and virtuous place.

We chatted casually about old times when we were studying at the provincial university, and the conversation gradually drifted to my two shows. Wei Weiwei said, "Hey, it seems that your female listener named Qiu Hong didn't call today."

"Hmm. You know her too?"

"Of course I know. Are you afraid of her?"

"How could that be?" I vehemently denied it.

"Then why does your expression change whenever I mention her?"

"Did I?" Did I? I forced a smile. "No, not at all. But she's really good at scaring people."

"What brand was she talking about last time?"

"What brand? Where can I find any brand?" I tried to argue.

"Don't deny it. Everyone knows."

"Know what?" I asked curiously.

"That car accident and all that is just your excuse. Don't think everyone doesn't know, they just don't say it," she winked and said sarcastically. "You must have seen something really scary that day, right?"

"Of course not!"

"You're not admitting it!"

"I just won't admit it!"

"If they don't admit it, then it's true!"

"It's not true!"

"Never mind, I won't tell you anymore. I'm afraid it'll scare you so much you won't be able to sleep tonight." She sighed and continued, "You know what? Everyone's saying that you, you..."

"What about me?"

"You really want to hear it?"

"Of course I want to."

"Really?"

"Of course it's true."

"Yeah?"

"If you're going to talk, then talk; if you're not going to talk, then don't. Damn, you're even more long-winded than my mother."

She smiled, then sighed. "Everyone says you've been haunted," she said, looking into my eyes.

My heart skipped a beat. Had I encountered a ghost? I asked myself. Was Qiu Hong a ghost?

"Red light!" Wei Weiwei yelled. I slammed on the brakes, the car tires screeching loudly as they scraped the pavement.

"Look how scared you are," Wei Weiwei said with an embarrassed smile. I was still shaken and didn't dare to say a word. For a while, what really kept me on my toes wasn't almost running a red light, but rather Wei Weiwei's words.

"Never mind, I won't scare you anymore." Wei Wei noticed my unusual behavior and tried to comfort me. "I was just joking with you."

"What a funny joke, haaaaah!" My laughter must have sounded as awful as a duck crying for its mother in a slaughterhouse.

“That’s awful! Actually, I’m just really curious,” Wei Weiwei continued, “You have so many stories, and that Qiu Hong seems to be even more talkative than you. What are you people thinking about all day long? Are they all terrifying things?”

"Of course not. When you find the feeling, you can say whatever you want; when you don't, you can't even fart."

"Can't you be a little more polite? You're at least someone who can be considered an artist."

"Ah, who am I trying to impress with my politeness?" I tried to compose myself. Unexpectedly, Wei Weiwei continued, "You know what? I listened to both of your shows, and I feel like that Qiu Hong seems... seems..."

"Seems like what?"

"I won't say anything more, lest you get angry."

"You said I'm not angry."

"I think she can tell ghost stories even better than you. I'm thinking that if she hosted a show, she might attract a lot of listeners."

"Hmph, what do you mean?"

She chuckled: "It's nothing, just a joke. Why are you so nervous? It's not that easy to steal our popular NJ's job. Turn left here."

"Hmm, you mean I should go and find her and put her in the live broadcast room as a guest host or something?"

"Why are you asking me what to do with your show? Don't you know?" She rolled her eyes at me, and I got a little annoyed. Wei Weiwei is great in every way, but this temper of hers is what I hate. All she wants is some advice, right? Actually, I know she's not really stingy with her advice; she's just pretending to be stingy. In fact, she's already made her advice very clear.

The car turned into a dark alley. It was midnight, and the alley was deserted, save for a single dim streetlamp swaying in the night wind at its far end. Inside the car, Wei Weiwei and I remained silent. I silently pondered Wei Weiwei's words. Why did she tell me all this? It seemed none of it concerned her, yet she seemed quite interested. Moreover, this past week, she had suddenly extended her hand to me, seemingly forgiving me, then eagerly asked me to take her home, and then very kindly offered me an interesting suggestion, completely disregarding the fact that I was her biggest rival. All of this seemed too abrupt, somewhat incomprehensible. What was she trying to do? Was it simply, as she herself claimed, to satisfy the curiosity of a single woman, or was there something else I hadn't yet considered?

"Hey!" Wei Weiwei suddenly said, startling me. "What are you thinking about?"

"No...it's nothing."

"Ha, I didn't expect you to be such a scaredy-cat, you got frightened by me?"

“Of course not,” I said, annoyed. “How could I be scared by you?”

"Come on, hehe, I didn't expect someone who specializes in telling ghost stories to be so timid. You make me very suspicious. Hey, I have a feeling."

"What does it feel like?" That's how women are; they stammer and keep talking about feelings and intuitions.

"After listening to these episodes of your show, I feel that the show is more interesting when she calls in. Before, it seemed much more boring without her."

"Like today?"

“That’s not what I meant. But her story seems so real. I mean, it seems like it really happened. Turn right here.”

"Cowardly woman!" I chuckled inwardly, then turned to her and teased, "Unfortunately, Miss Qiu Hong, whom you admire, didn't show up tonight as you hoped. Hmph, she might have gotten hit by a car, who knows..."

"Ah—!" She stared ahead and screamed.

Then the car jolted, and there was a muffled thud in front, clearly indicating that it had hit something! I slammed on the brakes, hoping, God, that it wasn't a person.

"You hit someone! Oh my god—" Wei Weiwei exclaimed, covering her eyes. I quickly pushed open the door and got out of the car to check, my mind racing to recall any friends I had at the city traffic police brigade. But a strange thing happened: I looked around, and there was nothing there!

"Hey, is anyone there? Don't scare me." I turned around and shouted to Wei Weiwei, who was huddled in her seat, too afraid to get off the train. She exclaimed, "How could that be? Look again! Hurry, hurry, I remember it's on the right." She closed her eyes and gestured frantically, as if afraid of seeing something she shouldn't have.

I walked to the right and bent down, but still couldn't see anything. Under the car, only the four semi-circular shadows of the tires were visible in the darkness; perhaps because it was cool at night, there was some dew on the asphalt. The dim yellow lights in the distance shone down, and I could only make out a few cigarette butts and an empty Coke can. The accumulated garbage on the street was emitting a foul odor.

"Hey, still nothing." I asked Wei Weiwei through the glass window. Her eyes widened: "Impossible! I saw it clearly!"

"What did you see clearly?"

"Hey! You hit someone!"

"No." I spread my hands and shrugged.

"No?"

"No."

Wei Weiwei also opened the car door and looked around. Seeing that there was indeed nothing there, she couldn't help but open her mouth wide for a long time, muttering, "Could it be..." I couldn't hear what she was talking to, so I asked, "Could it be what?"

"It's nothing, maybe I misread it? Let's get in the car and go." She looked distressed, and I noticed her voice was trembling involuntarily as she spoke.

We drove in silence for a while. Apart from giving directions, Wei Weiwei didn't utter a single word, and I remained silent, focusing solely on driving. Finally, the car turned into a cluster of bungalows.

"We've arrived, this is the place."

"Here?" I peeked inside and saw a very inconspicuous, dilapidated bungalow. "You live here?"

"Is it not allowed?" She glared at me. I looked at her smart and fashionable clothes and found it hard to believe that she lived in such a dilapidated bungalow. It seems that people should try to understand each other more and not make hasty judgments. I sighed inwardly.

"Thank you for taking me home." Wei Weiwei jumped out of the car quickly. I leaned in and smiled, "Won't you invite me in?" Although I wasn't in the mood for teasing, I was just trying to lighten the mood. Wei Weiwei seemed to understand what I meant. She forced a smile and said, "Pah! You're too scared to go home alone? And you're a grown man, huh? Thanks, bye." She slipped through the old, blackened wooden door.

I watched her go inside, but I didn't intend to leave. Since there was a streetlamp right in front of her house, I got out of the car and carefully inspected the bumper.

Strange. There's not a single mark! The bumper is spotless, without even a dent. It's really strange. I went back to the car, lit a cigarette, and started thinking about what could have happened. The car jolted just now; it must have hit something. I can even clearly remember the dull thud when it hit something. But why can't I see anything after getting out of the car?

I was talking to Wei Weiwei when the car crashed, and I had my head turned to the side, so I didn't see anything. But I remember her eyes widening and screaming in terror just before the crash, which means she saw something. What did she see? Why is she keeping quiet about it?

I was a little tired, so I reclined my chair, wrapped myself tightly in my coat, closed my eyes, and continued to think.

Did I really encounter a ghost? Was Wei Wei just faking it when she bumped into me? But I definitely heard a muffled "bang".

However, her behavior today can only be described as abnormal. Although there were signs of her iceberg melting a couple of days ago, everything happened so much and so fast today that it felt unreal. Even when we collaborated on the music compilation before, she never acted this warmly. In my memory, she was a cold beauty, always with a stern face, radiating the image of a professional woman who was always businesslike—which was one of the reasons we didn't get along.

But today... it's like two completely different people.

Perhaps I know too little about her, or perhaps my "Little Tao's Ghost Stories" surpassed her "Music Bible" in listenership, forcing the usually proud woman to bow her head. So, was her behavior today a sign of surrendering to the powerful? There's a saying that men conquer women by conquering the world… My thoughts started to wander.

Outside the car, gusts of wind blew by, rustling the fallen leaves on the ground. The garbage on the street corner seemed to be blown around, and waste newspapers and plastic bags were carried by the wind, making all sorts of noises on the street.

The dim streetlights in the distance swayed incessantly in the wind, emitting a grating, rusty sound. I started to worry that one of the lights might be blown down by the strong wind, but I quickly realized how foolish that thought was. I was too tired to open my eyes—no, I didn't want to do anything except lie in the car. So I continued to close my eyes and try to discern the various sounds.

"Clang, clang, clang..." "...Clang, clang..." A sound came from afar, seemingly an empty Coke can being blown around by the wind. A Coke can? It seems vaguely familiar. Where have I seen it before? Probably in that pile of trash on the street corner?

No, wait! It was a car crash! After the crash, when I got out of the car to check, I saw an empty Coke can!

How many blocks could that Coke can roll with the wind? Wandering through corners and alleys, until it finds me?!

What is that?

Am I seeing a ghost? I remembered Wei Weiwei's words.

Or rather, I didn't hit anyone, but rather...

I felt the hairs on my body stand on end. I listened carefully, and the wind was getting stronger and stronger. The Coke cans were tumbling and rolling from one side of the street to the other and back again, but they were generally heading towards me. What kind of wind was this, so chaotic?

"Ding-ding, ding-ding-ding-ding, ding-ding..." The sound grew louder and closer to me. But what if it got closer? My heart was suddenly filled with fear because I had a bad feeling.

"Ding ding ding ding, clang clang..." The sound grew closer and closer, until it reached the car. "Bang!" It hit the car tire.

Just then, a "thump" came from under the car! It seemed like some part had fallen off the chassis, and the car body seemed to lift slightly due to the weight reduction! Can an empty Coke can damage a car?