parfum

Chapitre 26

"A well?" Feixiao was surprised that such a thing still existed.

"That's right! It's a well. Nowadays, almost everyone uses piped water, but my parents still often go to the well to draw water!"

"Then let's go look around that well!" Fei Xiao said, pulling Xiao Qian away. The grass in the woods was very tall, as if it was desperately trying to prevent the two of them from getting closer to the truth.

"What on earth is going on?" Xiaoxi was getting more and more scared. Ever since she brought this man back yesterday, everything had changed. Her life, her parents, were all different, and even this forest now seemed so terrifying.

"You'll find out soon enough!" Fei Xiao held her cold hand and walked forward without telling her why.

After walking for a while, it seemed like they had gone in a small circle and returned to the vicinity of her home. In the hazy night fog, a well could be seen in the distance, surrounded by tall grass, clearly abandoned.

“This is the well!” Xiaoxi pointed to the abandoned well.

Feixiao looked up at the well, which seemed to carry the sorrow of being forgotten. However, it was precisely because it was forgotten that it became the best choice for people to hide their secrets.

"Yes, this is it! I can smell the scent of greed!"

Xiaoxi stared at the person in front of her, completely bewildered. What was going on?

The moon in the sky remains bright and clear. Does the moon truly know what it has seen all these years?

"I...I'm scared!" Xiaoxi stared at the bluish well rim in the moonlight not far away, not wanting to take another step forward.

"It's alright!" Feixiao turned to look at her timid little face. "None of this is real, don't be afraid!"

"The man who died in that yard, my father, and my mother—weren't they real?" Xiaoxi was filled with doubt as he kept saying that none of it was real. It all felt so real, happening right before her eyes. She would never forget that pale face, or the way her parents were digging in the yard. Tonight's events were like a nightmare, a series of nightmares that made it hard for her to breathe.

Feixiao took her hand and walked quickly towards the well, saying as they walked, "That dead man who looked just like me was someone I devised to create. As for your parents, you'll find out soon enough!"

As the two talked, they reached the well. The dark well opening looked menacing in the night, like a ferocious beast with its mouth wide open, waiting to swallow something.

"I can't see anything!" Xiaoxi leaned over the edge of the well and looked inside. It was a dry well, and although the moonlight was so bright, there wasn't even a sliver of reflection inside.

"Move aside!" Fei Xiao said, pulling Xiao Qian aside. With a wave of her hand, a ball of blue flame leaped out, its eerie blue light illuminating the forest at night.

"What is this?" Xiaoxi was very happy to see this and reached out to touch it.

Feixiao grabbed her hand: "Don't touch it, it'll burn you!" Xiaoxi had no choice but to withdraw her outstretched hand with a look of disappointment.

Under the blue light, a tattered hemp rope could be seen inside the well. It seemed that someone didn't want others to see it, so the rough rope was deliberately hidden and could not be seen at all without careful observation.

“This should be it!” Fei Xiao grabbed the rope, and with a rustling sound, a black object tied to the other end of the rope was pulled up from the bottom of the well.

"What is this?" Xiaoxi asked Feixiao curiously, looking at the small object that seemed to be wrapped in black oil paper.

"This is greed! Something attached to greed!" Fei Xiao said, pulling the black object up from the bottom of the well. "If I'm not mistaken, this must be the money your parents got after killing someone!"

"What about my parents?" Xiaoxi asked in horror, as if she understood something.

Feixiao stared at her pale face: "Xiaoqian, from the moment I stepped into your house, there have never been any parents of yours! Haven't you noticed the changes in them?"

"Yes! Yes! They used to be so good to me, but I don't know when they started to change like that, like money-grubbing demons!"

Feixiao continued, "There was no one in that house at all, and there was a strong smell of death in the courtyard. I guess there were several skeletons hidden inside!"

"I...I don't want to hear it anymore!" Xiaoxi said, covering her ears. She seemed to have a pretty good idea of what would happen to her parents.

"No, you have to listen!" Fei Xiao looked at the little girl in front of her: "When I went in, I only saw the ghost of greed, but you actually called them Mom and Dad. From that moment on, I understood what was going on!" Fei Xiao paused as she spoke: "Xiao Qian, your parents may have been arrested for murder and may have been sentenced to death. But their greed still remains in this remote mountain village. Only by finding the thing that is attached to greed can we prevent them from repeating the past in this house again and again!"

Xiaoxi's eyes widened, completely bewildered. "How do you know they're dead? Didn't they just leave?"

“I know, Xiaoqian!” Feixiao said, pointing to her clothes: “The clothes you are wearing, the furnishings in your home, are all from more than ten years ago, so what we are seeing are just things that happened in the past!”

"What about me? Am I also a ghost born of greed?" Xiaoxi suddenly felt very scared. Did she not even exist?

"You—" Fei Xiao was about to answer when she heard footsteps treading on fallen leaves behind her.

"My money, all of that is my money!" someone shouted hoarsely from behind.

Feixiao and Xiaoqian turned around together. Behind them was Xiaoqian's father, still holding that blood-stained knife, rushing towards them.

Feixiao quickly grabbed Xiaoqian and dodged, managing to avoid the danger.

But the man didn't chase after them to kill them. He went straight for the black oilcloth package, brandishing a knife, his bloodshot eyes filled with greed: "You, you mustn't come any closer! Nobody can take my money! Even if the police come, I won't tell them where the money is!"

"Dad!" When Xiaoxi saw her father's appearance, she began to believe Feixiao's words. He looked like a greedy devil, and there was no trace of a human being left.

Xiaoxi's father continued to brandish the knife in his hand, as if facing countless enemies, shouting, "Don't come near me for my money, it's all mine!"

"What should we do?" She turned to look at Feixiao. "What should we do?"

"Leave it to me, Xiaoqian!" Feixiao said, rushing towards the man like lightning.

"Don't take my money!" When Xiaoxi's father saw someone coming, he swung his knife down, and it was clear that the knife had already cut into the person's body.

Xiaoqian screamed "Wah!" in fright, closed her eyes, and dared not look any further, afraid that blood would splatter everywhere in front of her in a moment.

But the knife seemed to have struck a rock, sparks flew, and a "clang" was heard.

Xiaoxi's father was startled. Before he could react, it seemed as if he had been punched hard in the face, causing him to stagger back a few steps and fall to the ground.

Upon closer inspection, he realized he was holding a large rock in his arms, and it seemed that the blow had come from this rock.

"Where's my money! Where's my money?" Xiaoxi's father snapped out of his daze and was still focused on finding his money, ignoring everything else.

"Is your money here? It's right here!" someone nearby said with a smile.

When Xiaoqian turned around, she saw Feixiao still standing next to her as before, holding a black oilcloth paper package in her hand, which was the same one her father had just taken.

"Give me back my money! It's mine, all of it is mine!" The man on the ground rushed over like a madman when he saw what Feixiao was holding.

"Hehe, the person is already dead, what's the point of being greedy for money? I'll send you on your way!" Fei Xiao said, as if her hand suddenly caught fire, a blue flame shot out with a "whoosh", and the black oilcloth paper package was on fire, the air filled with the smell of burning.

"No! Don't burn my money!" Xiaoxi's father shouted hoarsely, reaching out to stop it, but he couldn't keep up with the speed of the flames. He only managed to grab a handful of ashes before disappearing in a flash.

Only black ashes drifted and scattered in the woods; people and knives, all seemed like a nightmare, vanishing with the rising flames.

"Alas, money is nothing but an external thing. If you are so greedy, you will become a slave to money even after you die. Human greed is truly terrible!" Fei Xiao said, blowing away the paper ash on her hands and letting out a long sigh.

"Where's my dad? Where's my dad?" Xiaoxi cried out anxiously when she saw that her father had vanished into thin air.

Feixiao reached out to pull her, "Xiaoqian, that's not your father at all. He's just a demon born of greed. Don't look for him anymore!"

"What about my mother? She's gone too, right?" Xiaoxi suddenly felt very pitiful. Even if she was a ghost born of greed, she still saw her parents in her eyes.

Feixiao nodded: "Then none of that happened. Let's go back!"

He took her hand and started walking back. Xiaoqian just followed behind him, crying softly. After walking for half an hour, they finally saw the roof of their house. It was already dawn, and the dilapidated tile-roofed house looked even more shabby under the rising sun.

"Are we going home?" Xiaoxi asked him.

“Not bad!” Fei Xiao looked at Xiao Qian with a sorrowful expression on her face.

"My parents are long dead, why did I come back?" Xiaoxi looked at her yard. Sure enough, what she saw last night was gone. The murdered man, the cave where the evil was buried, it turned out that it was all just a nightmare.

Her courtyard was still dilapidated, clearly indicating that no one had lived there for a long time.

"Is there anything you're worried about? Let's come back and look for it!" Fei Xiao said, leading her to push open the dusty door. Last night, everything here was neat and spotless, but now it was covered in dust, as if it were from another world.

"Why? What happened to the thing I'm worried about?" Xiaoxi felt a sense of foreboding growing in her heart.

Feixiao took her hand and led her to a dark little room inside, then pushed open the door.

"This is my room!" Xiaoxi said, shaking off his hand and walking quickly inside. "Why is there so much dirt? Has it been a long time since I've stayed here? But I was definitely staying here last night!"

“Xiaoqian!” Feixiao stood at the doorway, unsure how to say it to her: “When I came here yesterday, the house was already like this. What you see are all things from your past memories!”

"Then, what am I? Am I also greed? But I don't have that kind of greed!" Xiaoxi asked him.

"Look at the corner of the bed, what's there?" Fei Xiao said to her, pointing to the dusty bed.

"The corner of the bed?" Xiaoxi walked to the dilapidated bed, took something out from under the tattered quilt, looked at it, and suddenly burst into tears.

It was a cotton-padded coat, a red one with flowers printed on it, exactly the same as the one she was wearing. Her favorite clothes, the things that brought her joy, the color red that accompanied her childhood—it turned out that this was what she had always been attached to.

"Am I dead too?" Xiaoxi asked him, turning around while holding the clothes.

"I don't know!" Feixiao shook her head. "Right now, you only have memories left in your favorite things. Maybe you've already grown up somewhere else!"

"Really?" Xiaoxi turned to look at the man in white. His arrival had changed everything. "Then I'm relieved! It turns out I was just living in the memories of the past!"

Feixiao looked back at the rising sun and distant mountains. There were so many mountains here, and they were so high. There were so many longings and so many attachments left here. She couldn't find a way out and just wandered around.

"Thank you. My childhood was actually quite wonderful, wasn't it?" Xiaoxi said, carefully folding the red cotton coat. "I should go now. People can't live in memories forever. Now that I know everything, I can't stay any longer!"

Feixiao smiled and nodded at her: "I promise you, you are now growing up somewhere else and living happily!"

"That's good!" Xiaoxi smiled and wiped away her tears. "I'm leaving!" With that, she disappeared.

There was only a neatly folded red cotton coat at the corner of the bed, so incongruous with the dusty, dilapidated bed. But no one knew that such a simple red coat held all the joy and happiness of a girl's childhood.

In the morning light, Feixiao walked out of the dilapidated courtyard. She hadn't rested all night, so it seemed the family she had found to stay with was really not good.

"Young man, staying in a haunted house!" An old man in a nearby courtyard shouted to him from afar.

"Hehehe!" Feixiao walked over to him and asked, "Not bad, but you didn't see any ghosts!"

The old man looked at him in surprise: "That house is very eerie. The couple who lived there used to murder people for their money, killing many people!"

"And then?" Feixiao continued to ask him.

"What else could happen? He was arrested by the police and sentenced to death. He's probably dead by now!" After saying that, the old man added mysteriously, "But there are still ghosts in this house. Many people who moved in were scared away because they saw the couple still doing those heinous things inside! Their relatives can't sell the house either, so it's just been abandoned!"

"Does that couple have a girl named Xiaoxi?" Feixiao asked the old man.

"Xiaoqian, I think she was adopted when she was a teenager. She's probably in the city now, it's been many years!" The old man said, turning to Feixiao and asking, "Are there really no ghosts?"

“Yes!” Feixiao said to him with a smile, “There is only human greed inside, I didn’t see anything else!”

Greedy people will eventually be devoured by their own greed.

Upon hearing news of Xiao Qian, Fei Xiao suddenly felt much better. The morning sunlight seemed exceptionally bright. The girl who used to wear the red cotton coat must be living happily somewhere in this world. Thinking of this, he happily hummed a song:

My carefree face is that of a young man.

Unhurried eyes, waiting for the years to change.

The street that you and I know best is now deserted as the sun sets.

People say goodbye to each other on the street.

Chapter Nine Diary

Chen Kai and Professor Wang returned to school in less than three days. He had already exceeded his leave period, but fortunately, he had Professor Wang's signature and went to the school hospital to get a note, so he was not punished according to the demerit regulations.

It's already autumn, and each rain brings a chill. I used to think that autumn only came early in that remote mountain village, but now it seems that nature is fair. Even in a city full of reinforced concrete, it can't stop a few autumn rains and a few gusts of cool wind.

Between classes, Chen Kai would sit by the window, gazing at the golden leaves covering the ground, counting the days. How many days had it been since he left Fei Xiao? It seemed like almost a week. Would that girl know to take a bus back? If she walked back from such a far place, it would probably be half a year before they could see each other again. He hoped Fei Xiao wasn't that foolish. Maybe, just maybe Fei Xiao would be back tomorrow?