Цветок весенней реки, лунная ночь

Глава 4

Inside the box was Su Yun's frequently used brown handbag. Lin Wei handed it to Ning Xia and took the opportunity to look inside the cabinet again. He exclaimed with delight, "There's a notebook here!" After flipping through it, he found it was Su Yun's diary. She was overjoyed, thinking that she might find something inside.

Lin Wei looked at the notebook in Ning Xia's hand, a strange expression appearing on his face, but it vanished in an instant.

"The cabinet is empty!" Lin Wei said politely, glancing around. "Ms. Ning, please register in the office."

"Thank you!" Ningxia was relieved that her trip hadn't been in vain.

"Ring ring..." A crisp cell phone ringtone sounded. Ningxia was busy at work and didn't know what to do. A few minutes later, she realized that her cell phone was in her drawer.

"Hello!" Ningxia saw that the caller ID showed "Millennial Ghost" and exchanged pleasantries. It took her a while to remember that it was the netizen who had asked her to find the strange characters a few days ago.

"Hello! Ningxia!" A cheerful male voice came from the other end of the phone. Ningxia's online name was her real name; she didn't like anything pretentious.

"Hello! 'Millennial Ghost'!" Ningxia was infected by the cheerful voice on the other end of the phone, and her mood improved a little.

"Hehe... You actually still know me? I've been looking for you online for days!" "Millennial Ghost" laughed, his mood seemingly out of place with his name.

"I've been too busy with work these past few days! So I'm sorry!" Ningxia said.

"Don't be so polite! What I wanted to tell you is that my teacher might recognize those strange characters you've been writing. He's invited us to his place tomorrow afternoon, and he'll explain them to us in detail! Tomorrow's the weekend, I wonder if you have time?"

Ningxia quickly replied, "Yes! What time this afternoon, and where shall we meet?"

The "Millennial Spirit" paused for a moment, then said, "It's at the entrance of 'Mountain Rain Garden,' my teacher lives there. It'll be at two o'clock this afternoon! Bring your mirror; my teacher wants to see herself!"

"Okay! Thank you!" Ningxia hung up the phone and quickly got back to work.

The next day, after lunch, Ningxia took a good shower, calmed herself down, and put on a blue corduroy overall dress that her sister-in-law, Jina, had brought back from her trip to Europe. She paired it with a short-sleeved white T-shirt. A graceful figure immediately appeared in the mirror. Ningxia was very satisfied with her outfit. She added a touch of lip gloss and happily went out with the dressing table.

"Shanyu Garden" is a garden-style residential community with many lush green bamboos planted in front of the gate, and the surrounding environment is elegant and tranquil.

Ningxia spotted a figure wearing a yellow T-shirt in front of the row of green bamboo in front of the "Mountain Rain Garden".

"Ningxia?" The owner of the yellow T-shirt was a sunny boy, about twenty-four or twenty-five years old, with bright eyes, a smiling face, and a very enthusiastic demeanor.

"A thousand-year-old ghost?" Ningxia laughed. "You seem to have absolutely no connection to 'thousand-year-old ghosts'!"

"Millennial Spirit" revealed a set of healthy white teeth, a little embarrassed, and laughed, "My original name was Fang Jian. I studied archaeology and dealt with people from thousands of years ago every day, so I took this name!" As he spoke, he led Ningxia toward the residence in the garden.

"Thank you so much this time!" Ningxia walked around admiring the various plants in the garden residence. The sheer number and variety of them made it feel like a small botanical garden.

"Teacher's wife!" Ningxia and Fang Jian greeted her politely.

"Your teacher is waiting for you in the study!" His wife opened a door. Ningxia's eyes were met by three floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, neatly arranged with various books of different sizes. The three large bookshelves clearly couldn't accommodate the numerous and diverse books; some larger volumes had to be placed on the wooden floor. In the very center of the bookshelves, a rectangular Ming-style table almost occupied the rest of the room, with a high-backed mahogany chair standing beside it. An elderly man, around seventy years old, sat in the mahogany chair, holding a calligraphy brush, writing something on the table.

"Professor Yu!" Fang Jian called out when he saw that the old man seemed not to have noticed their arrival.

The old man raised his head, his eyes bright and piercing, and said in a loud voice, "Ah! Fang Jian is here!"

"This is Ningxia!" Fang Jian introduced.

"Hello, Professor Yu! I have something to ask you!" Ningxia said politely, but her eyes suddenly fell on a few words that Professor Yu was writing on the table, and she was taken aback. It was the same strange text that she had found on the back of the bronze mirror.

"What exactly are these characters? I can't find their source at all!" Fang Jian asked, noticing the characters on the table.

Professor Yu did not answer Fang Jian's question immediately. Instead, he looked at Ning Xia, then at Fang Jian, and said, "Could you let me see that ancient mirror first?" His expression was slightly anxious.

Ningxia immediately took out the purplish-brown sandalwood box from her backpack and placed it on the table. Professor Yu and Fang Jian immediately gathered around; this antique triggered their professional instincts.

"It looks like something from the Ming Dynasty!" Fang Jian guessed, looking at the patterns carved on the box.

Professor Yu remained silent, his gaze fixed on the box, seemingly captivated by something within it.

Fang Jian looked at his teacher with some surprise. He had never seen his teacher with such a strange expression before. With his job, what kind of antiques hadn't he seen? Why would he pay so much attention to this inconspicuous ancient makeup box?

"Where did you get it?" Professor Yu suddenly asked.

"A funerary object shop in Black Town!" Ningxia looked at Fang Jian and recounted the strange process of obtaining the funerary object.

Seeing the strange look in Professor Yu's eyes, Ningxia suddenly felt uneasy, but dared not speak. A silence fell over the study.

After about five minutes of silence, Professor Yu slowly extended his right hand toward the box. Ningxia and Fang Jian both noticed that Professor Yu's hands were trembling slightly.

Professor Yu opened the lid of the box with trembling hands, revealing a yellowish-green sunflower-shaped bronze mirror standing before the three of them.

Fang Jian seemed oblivious, but Ning Xia clearly heard Professor Yu gasp, as if he was shocked by the bronze mirror.

Looking into the bronze mirror, Professor Yu made two gulping sounds, his voice hoarse as he asked, "Are those words right behind here?"

Ningxia quickly replied, "Yes!"

Professor Yu lifted the box and looked through the mirror, but seemed to find nothing, which puzzled him.

"Those words can only be seen in the dark at night!" Ningxia hurriedly explained.

"Oh!" Professor Yu's tone clearly carried a hint of regret. He looked at Ningxia and said in a pleading tone, "Miss Ningxia! Could you lend this antique mirror to your teacher for a few days?"

"This..." Ningxia hesitated. She wasn't worried about Professor Yu's character, but rather that what she had seen the other night might frighten the old man.

Fang Jian quickly persuaded Ningxia, "It's only for a few days! We'll come back to pick it up in a few days!"

Seeing Professor Yu's eager gaze, Ningxia couldn't refuse any longer and nodded in agreement. For some reason, Ningxia entrusted such a valuable item to Fang Jian out of trust; perhaps she herself couldn't explain why she would do so on their very first meeting.

"Professor! Have you found the source of these ancient characters?" Fang Jian asked again.

"Originally, I only thought of bronze inscriptions from before the Xia and Shang dynasties, which were similar to these characters. However, seeing the date of this square box today, it's a bit hard to say!" Professor Yu carefully handled the square box.

Fang Jian said, "It looks like something from the Ming Dynasty!"

"That's right! This is a common women's item used in the Ming Dynasty!" Professor Yu frowned slightly, carefully examining everything in the box with a magnifying glass.

"Then there's something strange about these few characters?"

Fang Jian said, "The writing system in the Ming Dynasty was already quite advanced. I've looked at almost all the commonly used scripts from the Ming Dynasty, and none of them resemble these characters!"

Have you ever compared hieroglyphics with other writing systems?

"Yes, I've compared the oldest oracle bone script, bronze script, and seal script, and they don't seem very similar!"

Professor Yu smiled slightly: "You must not have looked for folk texts!"

"Folk script, you mean the script created by ethnic minorities themselves?" Fang Jian suddenly realized.

Professor Yu nodded: "I examined these characters and their shapes and strokes, and they are similar to the scripts of two existing ethnic minorities. One is the Shui script of the Shui people, and the other is the Dongba script of the Naxi people! These two scripts are the only pictographic writing systems still in use in the world!"

Fang Jian and Ning Xia listened quietly, hoping to get an answer as soon as possible.

"But! I compared them, and although these characters are similar to the scripts of these two ethnic minorities, they do not belong to either of them!" He said, a hint of regret in his eyes.

Fang Jian and Ning Xia were immediately discouraged.

After leaving Professor Yu's house and saying goodbye to Fang Jian, Ningxia suddenly had a strange feeling while waiting for the bus at the bus stop. She felt as if a pair of eyes were watching her from somewhere behind her! Fang Jian had already ridden away on his electric motorcycle, and there were only a few ordinary-looking people waiting for the bus around, but Ningxia's intuition was very strong. She felt a chill that made her back go cold.

The No. 112 bus arrived. Before boarding, she glanced around again, seemingly noticing no suspicious individuals, then shook her head and sat down in a window seat at the back. The bus stopped at the next stop, and a black sedan sped past, disappearing before the bus could even start moving. Ningxia chuckled at her own overreaction.

That evening, Ningxia took a shower and was about to go online when she received a call from Chen Ying.

Xia! Are you home?

"Yes, I'm here! What's up?"

"I'd like to borrow something from you, is that alright?" Chen Ying's slightly embarrassed voice came from the other end of the phone.

"What is it? Tell me!" Ningxia smiled.

"You... your sister-in-law brought you back that blue dress from Europe!" Chen Ying hesitated for a moment before saying it.

"What? Going on a date?" Ningxia teased.

"No! ...I'm going to a colleague's wedding!" Chen Ying shouted in protest.

"Trying to cover it up only makes it more obvious! Fine! You come and get it!" Ningxia exposed her.

"Okay! I'll be right there!" Chen Ying hung up the phone with great joy.

Chen Ying arrived quickly, took Ningxia's dress, and then hurriedly left under an excuse, afraid that Ningxia would ask her any questions.

"Hey! I found Su Yun's bag and diary. Would you like to come and take a look?" Ningxia asked Chen Ying before she left.

"Take a look first! I'm busy right now, let's talk again next weekend!" Chen Ying couldn't hide the joy on her face as she lightly went downstairs.

"She's really a heartbreaker!" Ningxia concluded that Chen Ying was in a relationship.

"Lazy cat! Are you up yet? Come over here right now! Let's take a look at Su Yun's diary together!" Ningxia couldn't help but admire Chen Ying's sleep; this guy must have been playing games all night.

"Okay! I'm coming over for dinner! You have to cook something delicious!" Chen Ying's voice came from the other end of the line. Ningxia hung up the phone, went out to buy some groceries, and started cooking in the kitchen. Since her parents' accident, she had learned to cook all kinds of dishes, which was a well-known skill among her classmates. Su Yun and Chen Ying used to often come over for meals. Before she knew it, she checked the time and it was already past seven o'clock. She wasn't in a hurry. Chen Ying was known for being slow, and it would take her forty minutes to get over, plus getting ready, so it was common for her to dawdle for two or three hours.

Ningxia simmered the broth over a low flame, turned on the TV in the living room, and watched a variety of programs playing on the screen. Without realizing it, she closed her eyes.

A loud bang startled Ningxia awake. She jumped up in fright, and a pungent smell wafted from the kitchen.

"Oh no!" Ningxia exclaimed in alarm and rushed to the kitchen. The earthenware pot simmering meat soup on the gas stove was shattered into pieces, with fragments of the pot mixed with chunks of meat scattered everywhere, and all the soup had spilled out.

Ningxia quickly turned off the gas stove and checked the time. It had only been simmering for less than half an hour; how could the earthenware pot have exploded? She looked regretfully at the pieces of meat and thick broth on the floor and began cleaning up the mess in the kitchen. While picking up the shards, a piece of shard suddenly cut her right hand, and blood flowed. Ningxia's heart skipped a beat.

After she finished getting ready, Chen Ying still hadn't arrived. Ningxia glanced at the clock; it was almost nine o'clock. She couldn't help but wonder, even if she was slow, she should have arrived by now. She dialed Chen Ying's cell phone. After the call connected, there was a lot of noise, followed by a man's voice.

"Hello! Is this Chen Ying's phone? Who are you?" Ningxia frowned, suspecting that Chen Ying's phone had been stolen.

But then came the man's urgent voice: "I'm an emergency responder from the municipal hospital. Are you the injured person's friend? Your friend was seriously injured in a car accident and is on his way to the hospital. You'd better come to the municipal hospital right away!"

"What?" Ningxia felt weak all over. She asked again to confirm, "Is...is the injured person a girl?"

"Yes! Short hair! Round face!" A jumble of voices came from the other end, "Quick! Quick! Stop the bleeding! Give oxygen!..." and then the phone was hung up.

Ningxia felt dizzy for a moment, but after a few minutes, she calmed down and immediately took a taxi to the municipal hospital. On the way, Ningxia nervously dialed Chen Ying's home, but no one answered. When she arrived at the operating room of the municipal hospital, Chen Ying's parents were already there, sitting on chairs in the corridor, probably because the medical staff had called them.

It was past midnight, and most of the municipal hospital was quiet, like a giant beast entering a deep sleep. Even in its dreams, this beast continued to devour the lonely souls that were leaving this world. The only brightly lit part of the beast was its emergency room.

The emergency room was lit by pale, greenish fluorescent lights, and everyone's face appeared bloodless and sickly. Passing medical staff and patients alike seemed affected by this hellish environment, devoid of any life. The entire hall was empty, like a giant tomb. Ningxia felt a sudden sense of desolation and helplessness, and a chill involuntarily crept into her heart.

Walking down the long corridor, Ningxia immediately spotted Chen Ying's parents sitting at the end. Further down the passageway, Chen Ying's mother, her face streaked with tears, leaned weakly on her husband's shoulder, sobbing uncontrollably. Chen Ying's father, his brow furrowed, smoked a cigarette, his fingers trembling.

Ningxia felt a pang of sadness and walked over.

"Auntie! Uncle!" Ningxia's voice trembled. Chen Ying's mother nodded, completely listless. Chen Ying's father quickly said, "Sit down!" and then fell silent. She could only sit there, her mind unsettled, accompanying the two elderly people until the operating room door opened. A middle-aged male doctor came out.

"Doctor! How is my friend?" Ningxia asked, her voice choked with emotion.

The doctor looked at her with an almost sympathetic expression and shook his head.

Ningxia's head throbbed with a "boom," her last glimmer of hope shattered. A heavy weight pressed on her chest, making it hard to breathe, and her vision blurred. A scream rang out beside her, followed by Chen Ying's father's frantic voice: "Ningxia! Help! Your aunt has fainted!"

Chen Ying's father helped Chen's mother, whose body was limp like a fish, to her feet and let her rest on a stool. The operating room door opened again, and two nurses pushed out a hospital bed covered with a white sheet. The bloodstains on the white sheet were as striking and glaring as plum blossoms blooming in the snow. Chen Ying's motionless body lay under the sheet, trembling slightly with the movement of the bed.

Ningxia abruptly stood up. The hospital bed stopped at the doctor's signal. Her trembling hands gently lifted the sheet, revealing the familiar face of Chen Ying. Half of her face was stained with blood, her eyes were tightly closed, and her usually talkative lips were now forever shut. Unable to hold on any longer, her body slumped down. Her fingers traced the corduroy blue dress she had lent Chen Ying a few days earlier. She collapsed to the floor, weeping helplessly.

The hospital bed was wheeled away by the nurse, and the doctor helped Ningxia up, offered a few words of comfort, and then left. Chen Ying's father could no longer hold back and began to sob softly. Under the cold, bluish-white lights, an atmosphere of extreme sorrow permeated the entire hospital corridor.