parfum

Chapitre 34

“This should be it!” Fei Xiao looked at the stone carving and sighed. A living person had been deprived of the right to live.

"This is a sacrifice; in ancient times, living people were used to sacrifice to the gods!" He still remembered the first time he met Ximan; it was only last night, but now it felt like a lifetime ago. Chen Kai sighed. Back then, Ximan had a sorrowful expression on her face, and weren't these words also describing herself?

The two walked out of the vermilion gate. The guests who had come to pray had long since scattered like birds and beasts. The morning sun was exceptionally dazzling, and the brilliant sunrise made Chen Kai unable to open his eyes. This was a vibrant world, completely different from the inside of those high walls.

Chen Kai glanced back at the high wall behind him, then looked happily at Fei Xiao. He suddenly felt great and hoped that Fei Xiao could help Xi Man find happiness.

The two walked further and further along the dirt road. Birds were flying in the blue sky. Yes, no one in this world is born to be imprisoned. Everyone's soul should have wings to soar freely in time and space, in happiness and pain, in tears and laughter.

Chapter Eleven: The Curse

That night, Fei Xiao found a comfortable hotel near Chen Kai's house and stayed there. As soon as Chen Kai got home, he was relentlessly questioned by his mother. It seemed that the fleeting glimpse of Fei Xiao had left a deep impression on her, and she wouldn't give up until she got to the bottom of it. Chen Kai was so shocked and frightened that he came back exhausted and could only give her a perfunctory answer before going back to sleep.

The next day, the two of them went to the antique market to look for Qin coins. Although it was the New Year, the market was still bustling with people, all kinds of people holding up antiques, some real and some fake, and asking for prices.

"How are we supposed to find them?" Chen Kai asked Fei Xiao beside him. There were too many ancient coins here, mostly displayed on red velvet cloths in front of the stalls. Looking around, there could be thousands of ancient coins for sale on this street, but even a fool would know that there couldn't possibly be that many ancient coins.

"I can't do that either?" Fei Xiao smiled helplessly. "Back in the Qin Dynasty, I was still living in the mountains and hadn't learned how to spend money yet!"

Chen Kai shook his head and sighed. This guy was useless when he needed help, but when he didn't, he would brag loudly.

"Didn't Changqing tell you how to identify it?" Feixiao glanced at him. "Don't expect everything from me!"

"I told them!" Chen Kai nodded, looking helplessly at the coins covered in green patina.

"Then hurry up and choose!" Fei Xiao urged him, "Go back and give this to him, and don't contact him again!"

Chen Kai fiddled with the coins in his hand for a while, then glanced back at him and said simply, "I forgot!"

Feixiao was furious. What could Chen Kai possibly remember? Thinking this, she snatched the coins from Chen Kai's hand: "I'll do it. If all else fails, we'll use magic!"

"What kind of magic?" Chen Kai perked up again upon hearing this.

"Hehehe!" Feixiao said to him with a grin, "Have you ever heard of 'the past leaving its mark'?"

"How could I possibly have heard of that?"

"We'll find the real one eventually by using magic to see the coin's past, it'll just take some effort!" He picked up the coin and held it to his eye, looking through the hole. After a while, he threw the coin back in frustration. "This is fake, its history only goes back to last year!" He then grabbed Chen Kai's hand. "Let's look again!"

Chen Kai watched him examine a coin for a long time, and it was a fake made last year. He timidly asked, "At this rate, how long would it take to pick out seven coins?"

"Seven?" Feixiao glanced up at the sky. "It'll probably take about half a month!"

"What? It'll take that long?" Chen Kai exclaimed upon hearing this. "We'd better not bring it for him!"

"Oh, you must keep your word and fulfill your promises! You taught me that a long time ago!" Fei Xiao said, then gave him a mysterious look. "And what does Chang Qing need seven coins for? Haven't you thought about it?"

"How would I know?" Chen Kai felt uneasy whenever he thought of Chang Qing. Regardless of whether Chang Qing knew the details of the family banquet or not, he had indeed dragged Chen Kai into a dangerous situation.

"Seven? Seven isn't a lucky number most of the time!" Fei Xiao ignored him and said to herself, "Seven is the number of the Demon Realm, and he wants seven coins. I just want to see what he's up to."

Chen Kai didn't think much of it. He followed Fei Xiao angrily, weaving through the crowd. The ancient coins, set against the red velvet, gleamed with a dark green light.

A dozen days later, Fei Xiao finished helping Chen Kai select the Qin coins and went back home. He sat on the windowsill of Chen Kai's house to say goodbye, then jumped off the building and left, seemingly without any means of transportation.

Chen Kai stood upstairs, watching Fei Xiao walk further and further away on the snow, and sighed helplessly. He figured that at this rate, Fei Xiao wouldn't even be home by the time he got back.

After another ten days or so, Chen Kai's vacation finally came to an end. It would not be an exaggeration to say that he was eager to go home. Chen Kai packed his things, bought two braised ducks, and set off. He felt as if his heart had grown wings and he couldn't wait to fly back.

But when Chen Kai returned to the small apartment where the two of them lived, his heart sank to the bottom. As soon as he entered the house, he knew that Fei Xiao had already arrived home, and had arrived quite early, because things were scattered everywhere in the house, and the garbage was almost piled up outside the door. Chen Kai carefully avoided the garbage as he walked into Fei Xiao's room and found that he had only cleaned his own bed, while the surrounding area was full of leftover food.

"You're back? Chen Kai, I've missed you so much!" Fei Xiao was lying on the bed eating when she saw Chen Kai, her beautiful eyes sparkling with excitement.

"You, you want me to come back and clean the house, don't you!" Chen Kai was furious when he saw this.

Feixiao blinked and nodded innocently: "You're so smart! You know I can't clean the room. If you hadn't come back soon, I might have had to find another place to stay!"

"Okay, okay, stop talking. I'll start cleaning now, alright?" Chen Kai said, putting down his luggage and busy packing. If he didn't finish cleaning by nightfall, he might not even have a place to stay!

"Chen Kai!" Fei Xiao called to him from her bedside.

What's wrong with you now?

"Did you bring me some food?" Fei Xiao asked, reaching into his luggage. A moment later, she pulled out a duck and ran back to bed to eat, cheering.

So Chen Kai cleaned up while Fei Xiao sat on the bed gnawing on a duck bone, tossing it down one after another. Amidst the scattered duck bones and Chen Kai's groans, their new life together began.

A few days later, Chen Kai received a call from Chang Qing, who was coming to collect the seven and a half taels of silver.

"What should we do?" Chen Kai asked Fei Xiao, who was sitting next to him, after putting down the phone.

"Go and take a look!" Fei Xiao said sternly. "Don't touch those Qin coins with your hands, and don't leave any trace of your presence on them!"

"But about that banquet..." Chen Kai asked him hesitantly, now he was really afraid to face Chang Qing.

"Don't mention it unless he asks. Let's see what he says!" Fei Xiao said, patting Chen Kai's shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll find a way to help you if you're in danger!"

Chen Kai took out the few coins wrapped in red velvet from his luggage, put them in his coat pocket, pushed open the door, went downstairs and left. It was a snowy winter night, and the wind and snow were so fierce that the road looked so unreal in the darkness.

The place where Chang Qing arranged to meet Chen Kai was a hot pot restaurant. As soon as Chen Kai entered the restaurant, he saw Chang Qing. He was wearing a dark green sweater and glasses, waving at him, and his usually calm face showed a hint of haggardness.

"Here's what you wanted!" Chen Kai said, taking the money out of his pocket, throwing it on the table, and turning to leave.

"Don't rush!" Chang Qing said, grabbing Chen Kai's arm. "Let's have some food together. Winter is the perfect season for hot pot!"

Seeing that he said that, Chen Kai couldn't refuse, so he had no choice but to sit down and eat with him.

"I'm so sorry to trouble you like this!" Chang Qing said, his face showing signs of fatigue.

"It's nothing, just passing by!" Chen Kai kept Fei Xiao's words in mind and didn't dare to say anything more.

"By the way, how was the meal?" Chang Qing asked him with a smile. "I haven't been there in a long time!"

"It's alright, it's alright!" Chen Kai nodded in response, while watching Chang Qing's reaction.

To everyone's surprise, Chang Qing simply nodded, seemingly without any surprise. "That's good. Actually, I also wanted to go back, but I've been too busy lately and haven't had the time!"

It seemed that Chang Qing didn't know what the family banquet was all about either. Chen Kai looked at his expression carefully again, and it seemed that he wasn't lying. Perhaps he really had misunderstood a good person.

"By the way, do you have an older sister?" Chen Kai suddenly remembered Xi Man's last words.

Chang Qing was taken aback by Chen Kai's words, and after a while, he said awkwardly, "You could say yes, or you could say no!" It seemed he didn't want to give a direct answer.

However, Chen Kai breathed a sigh of relief after learning that Chang Qing was unaware of the banquet. He felt that Chang Qing was not such a scheming person, so he started chatting and laughing with him again.

Chang Qing seemed to be in a good mood. He ordered a few bottles of beer and drank happily with Chen Kai. When the two of them went out, Chen Kai dragged him out.

"I'll call a taxi to take you home!" Chen Kai said to the half-drunk Chang Qing.

"No, I'm not going home!" Chang Qing waved his hand groggily. "I'm going to the hospital!"

"What are you going to the hospital for?" Chen Kai asked him curiously.

Upon hearing this, Chang Qing's face, already flushed from the alcohol, turned even redder, and tears welled in his eyes. He said, seemingly in great pain, "My... my wife has been sick for two years now..."

After saying that, she squatted down and burst into tears.

This startled Chen Kai so much that he was flustered and didn't know what to say. He had never heard of Chang Qing having a wife before. Was it because of his wife's illness that he hadn't gone back?

"Don't cry, your wife will get better!" Chen Kai hurriedly squatted down to comfort him.

"You, you don't know!" Chang Qing grabbed Chen Kai's sleeve and buried her head between her legs. "If her illness isn't cured soon, her muscles will start to atrophy, and she'll be finished!" Her sobs grew louder.

"Is there really no other way?" Chen Kai felt heartbroken seeing him cry. Such a grown man must have been unable to bear it any longer to cry like a helpless child.

"I've tried everything I can think of. If she dies, how can I live?" Chang Qing said, raising his head with tears streaming down his face.

Chen Kai looked at his face. His usual calm demeanor had vanished. Chang Qing now seemed like someone whose hope could be blown away by a gust of wind.

Chang Qing looked at Chen Kai, seemingly more sober, and wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have told you all this!"

After saying that, he stood up unsteadily, walked towards the dazzling river of cars, and reached out to hail a taxi.

"Let me help you!" Chen Kai saw that he was about to fall and went to help him up, but Chang Qing seemed to be completely unaware, muttering incoherently, "In heaven, we wish to be birds flying wing to wing; on earth, we wish to be trees with intertwined branches! You said those words first, so how come you're the one who broke your promise? You're the one who broke your promise too?"

Before Chen Kai could grab him, he had already flagged down a car, pulled open the door, and climbed inside, seemingly having completely forgotten about Chen Kai's existence.

As soon as Chang Qing got into the taxi, Chen Kai saw him slump into the seat, muttering to himself, his face blank with a look of utter despair. He watched the car drive away, letting out a long sigh. He had countless scenarios for meeting Chang Qing, but this scene was completely beyond his imagination. Chang Qing's tear-streaked face was so pitiful.

When he got home, he told Feixiao what had happened, but Feixiao just sighed and didn't say anything more. Perhaps he couldn't predict the things that happened in this world.

For more than a month afterward, Chen Kai never saw Chang Qing again. The person seemed to gradually fade from his life, like a pebble that stirred up a ripple in his life before sinking to the bottom of a lake and disappearing from sight.

The weather has warmed up, and the air smells of spring.

Just when Chen Kai was about to completely forget about this person, Professor Wang called him. It was a rainy spring night, and the continuous spring rain made people feel sticky. Chen Kai was having dinner with Fei Xiao at that time.

"Professor Wang, this is Chen Kai. Is there something you need?"

"Chen Kai, do you still remember Chang Qing?" Professor Wang's voice sounded very urgent.

"I remember!" Chen Kai then recalled that there was such a person.

"I couldn't find him, so I called to ask, and you know what? They told me he was dead!"

Chen Kai was shocked. How could this be? Chang Qing had died in less than two months. He hurriedly asked, "When did this happen?"

"People say—" Professor Wang's voice trembled noticeably, "He—he's been dead for two years!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Kai's mind went completely blank, and the microphone fell to the ground without him even noticing.

Professor Wang's anxious voice came through the microphone: "If he's been dead for two years, who would we have seen then?"

However, Chen Kai couldn't hear any of this anymore! Outside, the spring rain was still sticky, as if it wanted to suffocate people's hearts as well.

"What happened?" Chen Kai asked Fei Xiao, who was standing next to him, after the incident.

Fei Xiao's beautiful face was also full of doubt, her two sword-like eyebrows furrowed together. "It's hard to say, maybe it's a zombie, maybe it's a double!" After thinking for a while, she suddenly stood up and said urgently to Chen Kai, "This matter is too strange, let's go find Professor Wang together tomorrow!"

"Do you want to ask Professor Wang to confirm?" Chen Kai rarely saw Fei Xiao, who was usually calm and composed, so flustered.

“That’s right!” Fei Xiao glanced coldly at the drizzling spring rain outside the window and nodded. “Whether Chang Qing is dead or alive, I want to see him!”

Chen Kai watched Fei Xiao's white figure nervously. The dim light in the room made his long black hair glow with a faint brown light, and his face was clouded with worry.

It seems Fei Xiao also has questions she can't figure out. What did Chang Qing want with those seven Qin coins? Could his death be related to those Qin coins? No, Chang Qing died a long time ago! The Qin coins came later. The more Chen Kai thought about it, the more confused he became. He felt like his thoughts were caught in a whirlpool, and he couldn't tell where the beginning or the end of this whole thing was.

The next day, the two set off early in the morning to find Professor Wang. Due to the rain the night before, the road was muddy, but both were preoccupied with their own thoughts and neither complained about the muddy road. The cold breath they exhaled made the road ahead even more obscure, and the journey seemed so long.

When they arrived at Professor Wang's office, he was still wearing those thick, bottle-bottom glasses, sitting anxiously at his desk, staring blankly at the phone. When he saw Chen Kai and Fei Xiao, he seemed to see a savior. "You've finally arrived. What exactly happened?"

"I don't know, why don't we go and see?" Feixiao replied.

"Where should I look? I don't know where Changqing's home is?" Professor Wang asked, puzzled.

“The dead always have a place to rest!” Fei Xiao said with a smile. “Let’s go to the cemetery!”

Professor Wang and Chen Kai's eyes widened in surprise upon hearing this. They hadn't expected Fei Xiao to be going to such a place. However, Professor Wang still made a few calls to some friends to find out which cemetery Chang Qing was buried in. The three of them locked the door and set off.