parfum

Chapitre 25

"Okay!" Fei Xiao quickly replied and walked a few steps into the house.

The furnishings inside the house were very simple, with only a wooden table and a few chairs, and a dim incandescent light bulb hanging from the beam. It was clear that the family was not very wealthy.

"Please sit down!" A middle-aged woman came out of the house. Her cheeks were sunken, and she looked pale like Xiaoqian. However, when this woman saw Feixiao, her eyes lit up with a sharp light, and she looked him up and down.

"This is my mother!" Xiaoqian introduced her to Feixiao happily.

"Oh, hello!" Feixiao nodded to her as she stood in front of her.

"What a handsome young man!" said Xiaoxi's mother with a smile. Her smile brought a touch of spring to her usually bitter face.

"No, no!" Fei Xiao hurriedly waved her hands, "I got lost around here, could I stay the night?"

“No problem!” Xiaoxi’s mother nodded repeatedly, her face full of a kind smile. “We’re closer to the highway, and many people who can’t find the highway stay here for the night!”

"Thank you so much!" Fei Xiao looked at the woman, who seemed no different from any other woman. Under the dim and warm light of the room, he realized that he might have been worrying too much.

Just as I sat down, a man's voice came from outside: "There's nobody here today. I've been wandering around for ages!" His voice was filled with indescribable anger and frustration.

As soon as the owner of that voice entered the room, upon seeing Feixiao sitting in the chair, he quickly shut his mouth, which was about to say something, and his wide eyes showed indescribable surprise.

"This is the guest Xiaoqian brought back!" the middle-aged woman who was busy in the kitchen said as she came out.

"Do you all come back this late?" Fei Xiao asked the man.

"Yes, yes!" the man said awkwardly, "but I went out late too!"

"Dad, this is the friend I brought back!" Xiaoxi ran over and sat on the table.

"I know!" his father said fiercely, his eyes scanning Feixiao up and down before turning to him and asking, "Don't you have any luggage?"

"No!" Fei Xiao spread her hands, indicating that she hadn't brought anything with her.

"Oh!" He seemed a little disappointed, responded with a sound of disappointment, and then ignored Feixiao, going into the kitchen to talk to his wife.

"Are these your parents?" Fei Xiao pointed at the couple with a strange expression on her face.

“Yes!” Xiaoxi said. “What’s wrong?”

"Nothing!" Fei Xiao stared blankly at the two people busy in the kitchen. After a while, she asked, "Do you often have people who come to stay at your house?"

"Yes! But I don't like them coming!" Xiaoxi said, lowering her head, looking very sad.

"Why?" Feixiao was very curious. This girl didn't seem selfish, so why would she hate visitors?

"Can I say goodbye to you again tomorrow morning?" Xiaoxi looked at Feixiao with a worried expression, her words seemingly nonsensical.

"Xiaoqian, don't worry!" Feixiao smiled at her, "I'll be fine, and I'll definitely be able to say goodbye to you tomorrow morning!"

Xiaoxi smiled at him, as if his words pleased her.

Dinner was extremely simple, consisting of only two plates of vegetables and a bowl of simple soup. There wasn't much oil or fat in it. Feixiao, who was used to eating chicken, found the food unpalatable and only ate a couple of bites before stopping.

The couple didn't say anything; the three of them just ate in silence, the only sound on the table being the sound of them swallowing their food.

Xiaoxi's mother stared at Feixiao as soon as they finished eating: "Why don't you go to bed early? Aren't you leaving this morning?"

"Yes, yes!" Feixiao nodded quickly.

"Come with me!" Xiaoxi's father said, standing up and leading her to the back room. He pushed open the wooden door to a room and said to Feixiao, "Our home is rather simple; please make do here for the night!"

It was a dusty room, and no one had lived there for who knows how long. Feixiao pinched her nose, feeling a hundred times unwilling, but she still nodded with a stiff upper lip.

When Xiaoxi's father saw that he had agreed, he reached out and closed the door: "Go to bed early tonight. The power is turned off here at night, so don't wander around."

Feixiao, used to sleeping on a soft bed, could only shake her head when she saw such a simple bed board. It seemed that she had become too tainted by human nature and was increasingly fond of comfort.

He found a clean spot in the bed and went to sleep, making do for the night. Looking at the moon gradually climbing above the treetops outside the window, he wondered if it was a good thing or a bad thing that he hadn't gone with Chen Kai and the others.

On nights like these, in mountains like these, resentment is most likely to accumulate, and ghosts and monsters will appear.

The moon was big and round. The duel with the ghosts of Shubai's village was only the day before yesterday. The same moon now felt like a lifetime ago.

Sometime later, he had already drifted off to sleep on the dusty bedding.

In just a short while, he heard someone knocking softly on his door. Fei Xiao's hearing was extremely sharp. He sat up immediately, put on his white coat, and reached out to open the door.

Outside the door stood Xiaoqian, still wearing that red floral cotton-padded jacket, her face showing a worried expression. Her pale complexion looked somewhat frightening in the dark night.

"What's wrong?" Feixiao asked, seeing her standing outside the door like this, worried that something had happened to her.

"You should leave now!" Xiaoxi said anxiously to him. "Come with me quickly, don't stay here anymore!"

"Why?" Fei Xiao was puzzled. Wasn't it Fei Xiao who brought her here in the first place?

“All the guests, all the people who stayed here, I never saw them again!” Xiaoxi said, her fear growing stronger. “Even if it’s early, you can’t travel before dawn! So, so, you should hurry up and go. There’s still time to go to someone else’s house! I shouldn’t have brought you back, I shouldn’t have!”

Feixiao listened, lowered her head and pondered for a while, "I can leave, but you'd better come with me. Wait for me!" After saying that, she turned around and went back into the dimly lit room, not knowing what she was doing.

When she came out again, through the half-open door, Xiaoxi could see what appeared to be a white shadow lying on the tattered bed.

"What is that? Why do you want me to come with you?" Xiaoxi was very surprised by this person's actions.

"Don't ask anymore, you'll find out in a bit!" Fei Xiao said, pulling Xiao Qian's cold hand. The two of them walked through the dining room and out into the courtyard.

A cold wind was blowing outside, the night was deep, and the moon in the sky was big and beautiful. How many evils has such a beautiful moon witnessed?

"I'll take you to someone else's house. I know a lot of people here." As soon as they left the courtyard, Xiaoqian was busy seeing him off.

"Xiaoqian, don't you want to know how those people who stayed at your house disappeared?" Feixiao asked her as she turned around in the night.

Upon hearing this, Xiaoxi stood stunned on the village path, a hint of fear on her face. "Have they all left? Or what happened?"

"Don't leave, we'll find out soon!" Fei Xiao stood outside the fence of the yard, holding Xiao Qian's hand. "Don't be afraid, what we have to face will always come!"

"Okay!" Xiaoxi thought for a moment and lowered her head, saying, "I believe you!"

"Let's go over there first. It's too easy for someone to spot us here. We'll come back later!" Fei Xiao looked around and pulled her towards a secluded corner of a nearby house.

"But it's so far away, how can you see it?" Xiaoxi looked back at her home, which looked like a haunted house in the night, with only an outline and nothing clearly visible.

“I know!” Feixiao pointed to the bright moon in the sky: “It will tell me!”

"Really?" Xiaoxi seemed to genuinely believe him. "Then what else can it tell you?"

"Hehehe!" Feixiao didn't expect anyone to believe such a lie, and found it amusing: "I'll tell you later, let's sit here and wait for a while!"

As she spoke, she pulled Xiaoxi to sit on a stone ridge. The night wind was a bit cold, as if it wanted to take away the last breath of life in this late autumn. But Feixiao and Xiaoxi sat on the cold stone ridge, and neither of them complained about the wind; they were both lost in their own thoughts.

"Xiaoqian, let me ask you, is all you do every day just bring people who want to stay here?" Feixiao asked, looking at Xiaoqian's thin, sallow face.

"Yes, I don't know when it started, maybe a few years ago. My family is poor, and this is how we can have some income!"

"But they don't charge money, so how can they have income?" Fei Xiao felt that the girl's words were contradictory.

"They used to charge money, but then for some reason they stopped!" Xiaoxi said, sounding quite scared. "But, but I haven't seen any of those people who stayed there since then!"

"But you still brought me here~" Feixiao looked at her pale face, "You repeatedly told me not to talk about money, how could you not know what's going on?"

"I, I~" Xiaoxi looked at the person in front of her. Although he seemed nonchalant, it was as if he knew everything. "I saw that you didn't have any luggage, and the mountains are scary at night, so I brought you here!"

"You know everything, don't you?" Fei Xiao glanced at her. "So you won't let me talk about money? Are your parents really kind-hearted, or are they just greedy?"

"I...I don't know, I really don't know!" Xiaoxi said, shaking her head vigorously as if she was trying to avoid something, and covering her head with her hands, not wanting to say anything more.

"Okay, okay, okay!" Fei Xiao quickly comforted her, realizing that the girl was avoiding the truth she already knew. "Let's not talk about this anymore, everything will be clear in a little while anyway!"

"Will everything... everything become clear?" Xiaoxi looked at Feixiao's face, unsure if she really wanted to know the truth.

The two chatted for a long time. Feixiao learned that Xiaoqian's favorite thing was the red cotton-padded jacket she was wearing, which her mother made for her during the Chinese New Year. She also learned about some things about Xiaoqian at school, such as having some good classmates and listening to nice music together during class.

Feixiao watched her beaming face and just smiled. This girl was so young, and happiness came so easily. A new dress and a few friends were enough to make her so happy. Feixiao's heart unconsciously became transparent along with hers.

"I still have so much to say..." Xiaoxi continued to raise her hand as if to say something, but Feixiao covered her mouth.

"Something's happened, just as I thought!" The face in front of her suddenly turned serious, and Xiaoxi could only stare with frightened eyes, swallowing all her little bit of happiness.

"Let's go!" Fei Xiao stood up and pulled Xiao Qian along, her eyes filled with sorrow. "Don't be surprised by anything you see later. It's all in the past, it's not real!"

"What do you mean by the past? It's not true?" Xiaoxi asked him hurriedly. The night breeze was so clear on her face, everything was so real, how could it be said to be the past?

However, Feixiao did not answer her, but simply took her hand and led her to the outside of her house's courtyard.

Under the silvery moonlight, two people could be seen digging in the yard, with a white object beside them that looked like a person crawling on the ground.

When Xiaoxi saw this scene, she didn't dare to breathe. The two people digging in the dirt were clearly her parents. Why were they doing this so late?

“I already told you, this man clearly doesn’t have much money, but you still insisted on going to see him!” her mother said.

"But he looked quite well-dressed! I didn't expect him to be so poor!" Xiaoxi's father dug a big hole in her heart. "Let's just consider it a waste of effort!"

"Alright, come up here and we'll carry him down!" The woman waved from above. The pit seemed to have been prepared for burying something, and the loose soil on top was quickly dug out.

You can see the man climb up, and the two of them together lift up the white thing next to them. It really is a person, a person wearing white clothes!

They struggled to carry the person a few steps, dragging and pulling. Xiaoqian's heart was in her throat. Everything was just as she had expected, but she just didn't want to admit it. Her parents had been committing murder for money.

Just then, the person being carried swayed with the jolting, and their head drooped, their pale face drooping down. It was a beautiful face, with a streak of bright red blood winding down it. Their eyes were half-open and half-closed; even though they were beautiful, they were lifeless.

Xiaoqian screamed in fright when she saw it. The face that only a dead person would have, and the face next to hers, were exactly the same as Feixiao's face.

"Who are you? Are you already dead?" Xiaoxi felt that she was encountering something terrifying and unknown.

"Don't be afraid!" Feixiao said, "It's all fake, nothing is real. Aren't I still alive and well?"

"But, but~" Xiaoxi looked at him in fear. Such a beautiful person suddenly looked ferocious under the moonlight.

Before she could finish speaking, her eyes looked at Feixiao's back as if she had seen a ghost.

"What's wrong?" Fei Xiao noticed that she seemed a bit crazy. Could it be that her little trick had scared the girl?

Xiaoxi pointed ahead: "Dad, Dad!"

Feixiao felt a chill and quickly turned around. There was a man standing behind them, holding a bloodstained knife.

"Hurry up!" Fei Xiao said, pulling Xiao Qian along as they ran into the jungle.

"You, how come you're not dead?" The man seemed unable to believe his eyes when he saw Feixiao: "How could you not be dead?" He grabbed his knife and chased after her.

"What should we do?" Xiaoxi asked him as she ran. Was that man really her father? His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked no different from a demon.

"It's alright!" Fei Xiao picked up Xiao Qian quickly. "Think carefully, do your parents have anything they particularly cherish or love?"

"Things to cherish and hold dear?" Xiaoxi felt as if the trees around them were receding, and they were heading deeper and deeper into the forest.

"Good, once we find that thing, everything will be solved!" Seeing that she had already run quite far, Fei Xiao put her down on the damp ground in the jungle.

"I don't know!" Xiaoxi thought for a moment, "but my parents often go to the well!"