Tuer l'amour

Chapitre 5

Back home, Liu Er wasn't watching TV in the living room, nor was he sitting on the chair in the bedroom. I was startled when I saw him in the bathroom. It wasn't his appearance; his hairy body was certainly unsettling at first, but I'd gotten used to it over the past few days. But Liu Er was looking in the mirror! I remembered he hadn't stood in front of a mirror at all in the past few days.

"I've had this idea in my mind for a long time," Liu Er said to himself in the mirror.

"What?" I was uneasy, wondering what kind of shock Six Ears would feel if he saw his own reflection in the mirror.

Liu Er turned around and looked at me: "Do I look like a monkey?"

I quickly shook my head: "What are you thinking?"

"No, I mean..." Liu Er's face showed a hint of confusion: "You've had many strange experiences, some of which are completely illogical. Do you think I might be... might be possessed?"

"Possession?" I was taken aback, then suddenly realized what he meant.

"In Shunchang, on the day I started to itch, we went to a pool of water, and I drank a lot of the water. The tour guide said that the water contained the divine power of the Monkey King, and that drinking it would cause unimaginable things. I know it's absurd to think that way, but the timing was so coincidental. Do you think it's possible that possession really exists?" Liu Er said in one breath, clearly this question had been weighing on his mind for a long time, but having grown up in an atheistic system, he himself dared not believe it.

“But I’ve never heard of possession before,” I said, frowning. But deep down, Liu Er’s words stirred something within me. During the day, I felt I’d missed something, and now I realized it was related to the so-called Monkey King. Usually, when someone has an acute illness, the cause is close to the onset of the illness; if it’s a chronic condition, the incubation period can be much longer. My subconscious had already considered a possible connection between Liu Er’s sudden illness and our previous trip, but the idea was too far-fetched, so it only flashed through my mind and was automatically deleted by my logic, impossible to retrieve.

"Think back again, did the itching really start that night?"

Liu Er nodded firmly: "I didn't feel anything before, but it suddenly started to itch that night."

"There are quite a few other people who drank that water with you. I'll contact them tomorrow to see."

"And I drank a lot; I even finished a whole bottle later."

I nodded; Liu Er's actions left a deep impression on me.

"Possession is unlikely, but the water itself could be the problem."

Six Ears agreed with me, saying, "I've been cooped up in my room these past few days, thinking wildly, and that's when I came up with the idea of possessing someone. You're right, that water was probably contaminated. I don't know what kind of virus I swallowed. If it really was Sun Wukong possessing someone, it couldn't just be about growing hair; that would be too lame."

I frowned.

Liu Er also felt that saying that was a bit of bad luck, so he awkwardly shut his mouth.

Although I was suspicious of the water, I knew I'd have to go to Shunchang again to get samples. I called several members of tour groups, not directly asking if they had any hair on their bodies, but just offering pleasantries to get the point across. It seemed that, apart from Liu Er, no one had returned from their trip with any strange illness. This made me even less confident about my already uncertain suspicions.

However, things sometimes happen more unexpectedly than a storyteller's tale, and I soon had the opportunity to go to Fujian again.

After lunch, I went to the restroom to wash my hands and heard the sound of flushing water. Then, two stall doors opened almost simultaneously, and Su Shixun and Wang Liu strolled out leisurely. These two were somewhat well-known in the club. Su Shixun was from our mobile department, and Wang Liu was from the arts and literature department. They were both known for their sharp tongues and cheeky manner.

These two men often told jokes about feces while eating, embodying all sorts of disgust. They were the kind of people who could say "a dead child's skin wrapped with maggots dipped in feces" while chewing meat, which had a profound influence on the dieting plans of many female reporters.

The two met in the restroom this time, and of course, they didn't have anything nice to say to each other.

"Oh, you've used up all your depth charges now." Wang Liu said with a beaming smile.

“Yes, put in four or five at a time,” Su Shixun replied.

"It's alright, did you manage to keep the water splashing?"

I wanted to laugh when I heard that, but it's actually a very useful question.

"Sigh, they say that depth charges can't suppress the splash. The deeper you put it, the higher it splashes. There's no cure."

“Yes, yes, I tried to dodge it but I still couldn’t escape.” Wang Liu patted Su Shixun on the shoulder: “The revolution is not yet successful, comrade, we still need to work hard.”

My stomach hurt from laughing. Su Shixun followed me out of the restroom, and I gave him a thumbs up: "You guys are amazing."

Su Shixun raised his eyebrows: "It's alright."

Seeing that he didn't seem very happy, I joked, "What's wrong? Didn't you feel satisfied with the depth charge earlier?"

"Sigh, Zong'er asked me to go to Fujian the day after tomorrow to interview about the tomb of the Monkey King, but I have things to do at home in Shanghai. It's really troublesome," Su Shixun sighed.

"The tomb of the Monkey King? It's in Shunchang, right? I went there during my vacation this month. But isn't that old news?"

"We've detected something beneath the Twin Saints' Tomb. It's not a cenotaph, so we're going to excavate it to see if the Great Sage Equaling Heaven and the Great Sage Reaching Heaven really are there." Su Shixun looked at me with a fawning expression: "Oh, so you just went there? You know the area well, can you help me out?"

"What?" I pretended not to know, but was secretly delighted.

"Stop pretending. Go to Shunchang again. Zong'er will definitely be fine there. He'll feel more at ease if you go."

"More business trips, business trips, I'm exhausted, what's the point?"

Su Shixun was exasperated: "Please, this is big news! With your skills, writing a few big articles and getting bonuses is a piece of cake. It's all money, brother. If I wasn't really busy, would I have asked you? Are you coming or not? Consider it a favor I owe you."

So after buying Liu Er a box of instant noodles, I embarked on my journey to Shunchang once again.

Tourism at Nantianmen has been temporarily suspended, but it is clear that the number of visitors will surge several times over in the near future.

This place has never attracted so much media attention before. When I arrived in Shunchang, the initial excavation work had already begun, and some newspaper reporters had even arrived two days earlier than me and had already sent back quite a few juicy stories.

The archaeological excavation at the Twin Saints Temple was already somewhere between an archaeological discovery and gossip. Almost no Chinese person would believe that the monkey with seventy-two transformations from Wu Cheng'en's novel actually existed and was buried here. But it was precisely this reason that made the story more dramatic. Everyone wanted to know what lay beneath the Twin Saints Temple.

As for the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, he was merely a supporting character.

The day before I arrived, a colleague who had arrived earlier interviewed a scholar who specializes in researching "Journey to the West." The scholar claimed that Sun Wukong was just a strange-looking outlaw who knew kung fu. His story was passed down among the people and was later artistically embellished by Wu Cheng'en. Therefore, it was quite possible that his remains could be unearthed at the Shuangsheng Temple.

This news excited everyone who was following the story, and of course, it put even more pressure on me as a journalist.

A large cordon was drawn around the Twin Temples, and reporters were not allowed to enter freely. Initially, in order not to damage the original state of the Twin Temples, the method of digging directly from top to bottom was not adopted. Instead, a passage was dug diagonally from the side in order to move the items out through the passage.

Unexpectedly, halfway through the excavation, they discovered it was blocked by a tomb wall. Below, they found a stone hut almost the same size as the Twin Saints Temple, and not just two coffins buried there. As a result, they had to break through the tomb wall, but still couldn't completely preserve its original appearance.

That's so unprofessional, I muttered to myself.

Fortunately, what everyone was focused on was the two exquisitely carved nanmu coffins that were discovered after the tomb wall was broken through!

Yes, it really exists!

As the coffin was dragged out of the passage and exposed to the bright sunlight, the clicking of camera shutters rang out like a cacophony of beans. All the reporters, including myself, were beaming – this time we had a big story to write.

First, the wooden coffin of the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was opened; the best items were saved for last.

What's extremely frustrating is that only Xinhua News Agency reporters were allowed to take photos next to the wooden coffin; all other newspapers were forced to use Xinhua's photos. This was to protect the precious cultural relic, and it also reflected Xinhua's authority.

I stood outside the circle, tiptoeing to look inside, while Xinhua News Agency reporters were snapping photos incessantly, but I couldn't see anything.

Perhaps because the reporters on the outer perimeter were shouting so loudly, we were allowed to get a little closer, but we still couldn't get a good angle to take pictures. We could only barely see that inside was a skeleton dressed in silk and satin.

Several archaeologists had already gotten up and started to remove the nails from the coffin, struggling to pry open the lid. Everyone's attention immediately turned to them.

The moment the coffin lid was opened, a Xinhua News Agency reporter standing nearby, ready to take a picture, suddenly exclaimed in surprise. The archaeological team members next to them also looked quite surprised.

I stood on my tiptoes like a ballerina, but I still couldn't see anything.

The question didn't last long; there was nothing inside the coffin—it was an empty coffin!

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment; a look of frustration quickly spread across the faces of every reporter.

Some funerary objects were also unearthed in the tomb. These, along with the clothing and accessories worn by the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, proved that the previous research was correct, and that the tomb owner died and was buried around the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

We thought it was a grand promotion, but it flew high into the sky and fell back down without a sound. The supporting character is left to perform a one-man show. The Great Sage Who Reaches Heaven looks no different from an ordinary person, at least judging from his skeletal structure. The relevant authorities took some samples to take back for testing, but we don't have much hope. He's probably just an ordinary wealthy man from the Yuan Dynasty who called himself the Great Sage Who Reaches Heaven in such a remote place.

In the following days, I tried everything I could to salvage this tarnished news story. And my efforts paid off; the scholar who had previously suggested Sun Wukong was a Robin Hood-like figure, once again offered his bold speculation.

He maintained his original conjecture about Sun Wukong, adding that the presence of a temple on the mountaintop and a considerable number of burial objects suggested that the Great Sage Equaling Heaven (Tongtian Dasheng) wielded considerable power in the area during his lifetime. This power likely stemmed from his elder brother, the Great Sage Equaling Heaven (Qitian Dasheng), a classic case of the younger brother relying on his elder brother's influence. Given the chaos of the late Yuan Dynasty and the difficulty of communication, and considering that the Great Sage Equaling Heaven was a bandit leader engaged in high-risk activities, he might have perished in the chaos of war, disappearing without a trace and unable to return home. Therefore, when his brother died, besides building the Twin Saints Temple, he also provided an empty coffin for his elder brother.

This argument was quite self-consistent, so I wrote it down and sent it back to the newspaper, making it an exclusive article interpreting the empty coffin of the Monkey King.

This time, the media whetted the public's appetite, but then let it go easily; the Monkey King ultimately remains an ethereal myth.

But I also gained something.

Among the people who received the reporters was an old acquaintance—Zhang Ting from the Shunchang County Cultural Bureau. He was the same person I'd met at the Shuangsheng Temple when I impersonated a British expert to interview him. As soon as he saw me, he asked why I hadn't called him after the last time and whether I'd finished the article.

I was a little embarrassed by his question, so I laughed it off and said I felt the materials weren't enough and there weren't enough newsworthy points. I felt ashamed of myself for saying that; it was incredibly unprofessional. If I had encountered someone less tactful, they would have immediately retorted, asking why I wasn't actively seeking interviews with them if the materials weren't sufficient.

Fortunately, when Zhang Ting heard what I said, he enthusiastically said, "If the materials are insufficient, then I have some news here. Several British experts went to the Twin Temples again. They were very interested in the three rabbits on that big rock and brought special testing equipment. In the end, they still couldn't find out what tool was used to carve it. I said maybe it was written directly with a finger, but they didn't believe me."

I laughed and said, "How could you believe that? They believe in science in everything. Human fingers are made of flesh, and they don't read martial arts novels."

Zhang Ting laughed and said, "I was just saying it casually. Those experts didn't come away empty-handed. According to their analysis, the three rabbits were carved on the stone about 50 to 100 years later than the inscription stone carvings in the Shuangsheng Temple."

I was taken aback: "Isn't it said that the Twin Saints Temple was built at the end of the Yuan Dynasty? So the stones were only put into the temple in the Ming Dynasty?"

Zhang Ting shook his head: "It's not from the Ming Dynasty; they actually only moved in last year."

"last year?"

"It's quite a coincidence. Last year, someone saw this rock on the side of a highway in our county and wanted to remove it from the road to avoid affecting traffic. That's when he saw the picture above. He didn't pay much attention to it at first, but after a while, he saw it in the news."

"Didn't you notice?" I interjected. "This picture is quite amazing. If I saw it, I would definitely think it's something extraordinary."

Zhang Ting smiled and said, "You... are still young. To be honest, people around here don't think this picture is anything special."

I sensed that he was holding something back, but I didn't want to reveal too much to someone I didn't know well, so I just listened to him continue.

"Don't be fooled by Xinhua News Agency's news report on the Shuangsheng Temple this year; it was already quite a hot topic in Fujian last year. Our county newspaper did a lot of coverage, and detailed pictures of those steles were published in two pages. When that person saw the picture of the three rabbits in the photo, he remembered the stone and called our bureau. We sent someone over to take a look, and the stone was there, and the picture was still the same one, but it really looked like it was hand-painted. After discussing it, we moved it to the temple."

I recalled Tang Sanzang's confident assertion about this stone and couldn't help but shake my head. You really can't trust a tour guide's words.

The Three Rabbits picture was mysterious, but at the time I thought it had nothing to do with me, so I didn't pay much attention to it. There are too many mysterious things in this world to keep track of, especially since I'm already entangled in one myself.

"Do you have any special legends about Sun Wukong here? Like possession or something?" I asked Zhang Ting casually.

"Possession? How could such a thing exist?" Zhang shook his head.

"So... is there any family whose child looks like Sun Wukong?" I continued to ask, forcing myself to speak, feeling like a paparazzi reporter for a tabloid.

“Sun Wukong is a monkey, how can anyone look like him? Wouldn’t that make them a hairy kid?” Zhang Ting laughed, but his gaze at me was a little strange, which made me wisely shut up.

To do justice to Zhang Ting, I wrote a short article discussing the connection between the mysterious Three Rabbits painting and the Twin Saints Temple, which I published in the Morning Star. Zhang Ting saw it online the next day and even called to express his gratitude.

The first thing I did upon returning to Shanghai was to give Liang Yingwu a bottle of water that I had taken some time to fill at that small pond for testing.

"Have the results from last time come out yet?" I asked anxiously.

"It's only been a few days, how can it be so fast? Do you think it's a blood test? We need to test this vial of water quickly, and if all goes well, the results will come out together."

I shrugged. "Okay, okay. You guys are really interested in You Hong's situation?"

Liang Yingwu nodded: "It is quite interesting. Judging from the changes in his skin pores, it is an extremely rare mutation in human physical characteristics. And the abnormal growth rate of his hair has also broken human physical records. Perhaps some kind of powerful hormone is at work. If such a hormone is found, it will be a major discovery."

Liang Yingwu took a deep breath as he finished speaking; he had done this several times already.

"Damn it, it's your smell!" Liang Yingwu cursed. "I can't shake it off no matter where I go."

I chuckled awkwardly, "You just took a long train ride, the newspaper doesn't pay for plane tickets. Why are you being so fussy? Men don't need to be so particular." I was a little embarrassed and angry; Liang Yingwu always paid too much attention to these details.

"Go, go home and take a shower." Liang Yingwu handed my travel bag back to me and shooed me into a taxi.

I threw my luggage into the living room and told Six-Eyed, who was shaving his fur in the bedroom, the story of the Monkey King's empty coffin. I told him that the possibility of possession was basically nonexistent, but he was still determined to go to the X organization to become an experimental animal... That's what I thought before entering the door. I unlocked the door and took two steps inside before stopping.

Liu Er sat upright on the sofa in the living room, watching the TV—it should be Liu Er, right?

The television wasn't on, but the smooth, glossy black screen reflected the shape of Six Ears. I wanted to describe it as a human-shaped plush toy, but this toy was neither cute nor funny.