"My love?" Zhang Mingli’s excited and fervent emotions cald down sowhat; love was the turning point of his life, and also the beginning of his transformation.
The smoke was dispersed by the night wind, and Zhang Mingli remained silent for a long while before speaking: "I’ve had two romances, my first love started in middle school, we knew each other since then."
"Childhood sweethearts?"
"No, she just said I was a loser from the sa village." Zhang Mingli held a cigarette, driving through the night; occasionally the vehicle jolted, and the fire axe in the passenger seat bounced: "We were poor when we were young, but both of us had good grades, enrolled in the town’s only middle school, and then got into the city’s best high school. I was always first in class, she always ranked second. I’ve always liked her, that kind of liking was pure, when I think about it, I don’t even know what exactly I liked about her? Just felt happy being near her, felt safe seeing her."
"Did you confess?" Huang Ying also turned his head.
"I had a crush, and I tried to subtly express it once." Zhang Mingli’s fingers rested on the steering wheel: "I knew she was very competitive, so during the midterm exam of sophomore year, I deliberately skipped a few questions, wanting to gift her the first place."
"Is this the romance of a top student?" Han Fei showed interest: "And then?"
"Damn it, the test was too easy, so insensible jerk took the first place, she remained second, and I failed at controlling my score and ranked sixth, even further away from her." Zhang Mingli punched the steering wheel: "Afterward, I focused on studying hard, we ended up in the sa city for university, and t again at a provincial-level competition, it felt like seeing an old friend."
"I didn’t date in college, the girl I talked to the most was her, I had no idea what kind of life she was living, I was curious about everything concerning her, yet I didn’t want to ask, since we had no relationship."
"The real change happened before graduation; during that ti, she was unusually downcast and even learned to drink. She seed to have no friends, similar to in that aspect."
While recounting his love, Zhang Mingli swore visibly less, appearing more normal: "Our first date was when she invited herself. She said she wanted to drink a little, I didn’t think much of it, and that day we talked a lot. Perhaps because we had grown up, we talked a lot about topics we had never discussed before, plans for future work, a longing for achieving life’s value, and a hope for a beautiful life."
"Actually, I couldn’t drink at all, that was my first ti drinking, foolishly following her, cup after cup."
"At that ti, I was very naive, after drinking, the words from my heart rushed out endlessly. Her future was all about herself, while my envisioned future was entirely filled with her."
"What’s the point of striving? Isn’t it to, when you et soone you like, ignore materials, work, reality, and to love boldly?"
"Most people don’t have that qualification, they take things step by step. But I started planning my life early, started putting in all my effort very early."
Smoke swirled, Zhang Mingli’s speech slowed a bit: "That period just before graduating university was very joyful for ; we were together every day, but after graduation, she went to work in another city."
"You weren’t together?" Huang Ying asked Zhang Mingli for a cigarette, seed addicted to listening.
"She didn’t give an answer." Zhang Mingli gazed at the dark night road: "Ninety percent of one’s pain stems from obsession; knowing full well you’re holding a rose full of thorns, yet even if the palm is filled with blood, you’re unwilling to let go, I’m precisely that kind of person. When I was young, even if a scratch-off showed ’Thanks’, there was still an eager anticipation to reveal the ’Thanks for your patronage’ completely before giving up; grown-up, I’m still like this."
"Is it impolite to keep knocking on a closed door?" Huang Ying rested one hand on the car window, this nightmare seed like a solo trip for three n.
"Yeah, I hesitated too, but in the end, the door opened for ."
The night car sped through the pitch-black night road, seemingly no one knew where the destination lay.
"We got together; my intention from the start was marriage, knowing I had nothing, therefore I worked desperately, I did not want her to suffer grievances, nor did I want her to feel that being with was a wrong choice."
"I would fulfill all her needs; during that ti, I was like a superhero. Maybe that’s what the power of love is."
"She was also a really good person, in terms of work ability she wasn’t inferior to , and she was very caring, gentle and virtuous, very polite to everyone, and would volunteer at a welfare ho during her free ti."
"In my eyes, her life seed to shine, like flas illuminating ."
This was supposed to be a perfect tale, yet as the ashes fell, Zhang Mingli slowly erged from his reverie: "She was extrely excellent, with nothing but strengths at a glance, yet I couldn’t understand why soone like her would deceive ?"
"Did she cheat?"
"Not exactly cheating; just being with was too boring for her, yet she couldn’t let go of this stability." Zhang Mingli lit another cigarette: "Perhaps she had a hidden side, only she knew, I didn’t want to think of her from that negative perspective, both when we were together and after we separated."
"You broke up?" Huang Ying replaced Han Fei, curiously pressing on.
"Yes, just a few days before we were to get married." Zhang Mingli was profoundly calm when ntioning his first love: "Her love for didn’t teach what love is; she seed like the sun always chased in life’s journey, one day I truly embraced it, only to find that besides being dazzling, she would scorch my soul, burning to ashes; maybe that wasn’t love."
"Recalling now, most of my mories of her have blurred. Perhaps I didn’t love her so deeply; what I regret is rely that self who climbed over mountains, crossed oceans, drained of energy."
"After we broke up, I went to volunteer in teaching. Knowing the hardships those mountain kids face, I wanted to help them change their fate, at least they shouldn’t follow my old path."
"Actually, I’m a very insecure person; such people even if outstanding will seem timid when encountering love, in the end, leaving only pain."
"So in my view, love equates to pain. The first love made think this, the second love taught this is the truth..."
Zhang Mingli had just gotten to this point when a "thump thump" sound suddenly ca from the trunk of the car, as if soone was tapping on the body of the car.
Han Fei and Huang Ying in the back seat heard it clearly, the trunk of the car was opened by so force, and sothing was crawling outside the car!
Dark, dirty blood flowed down the car windowpane, and the sound of nails scraping ca from the roof. Just a few seconds later, a bloodstained face suddenly appeared!
A long-dead female corpse lay on the car roof, looking down through the windscreen at Zhang Mingli.
"What the hell!"
Zhang Mingli hit the brakes, bringing the car to a stop. When he ca back to his senses from the shock, the female corpse on the roof was nowhere to be seen.
"Did you see a female corpse!" Zhang Mingli shouted loudly.
Huang Ying didn’t answer imdiately, looking at Han Fei, whether he saw it depended on Han Fei’s opinion.
"We saw it too, she... seed to have crawled out of your trunk." Han Fei stared at Zhang Mingli, waiting for Zhang Mingli to offer an explanation.
"Impossible! How could there be a corpse in my trunk!" Zhang Mingli didn’t seem to be lying, he stepped out of the car to open the trunk: "There’s nothing here! There’s not even a drop of blood in my trunk! How could it hide a corpse!"
"Should we get out and take a look?" Huang Ying’s hand gripped the car door.
Han Fei also prepared to open the door, but as soon as he cracked it open a sliver, the blood-colored Ghost Pattern on his body was activated, indicating sothing very dangerous was waiting for them outside!
"Don’t get out, this nightmare has sothing special about it..." Han Fei whispered: "Zhang Mingli’s tablet contains many photos of a woman. Although those photos cover her face, judging by the body shape, the woman in the tablet should not be that female corpse."
"Could it be that Zhang Mingli killed his first love himself but forgot about it?" Huang Ying proposed a hypothesis.
"If Zhang Mingli is the master of the nightmare, then this night road is his entire life: the burned house, the three elderly people who extorted him, the female corpse should be symbols of certain things, not necessarily aning the female corpse simply represents the dead." After a brief exchange with Han Fei, Zhang Mingli checked the trunk and returned to the car.
"I feel those dirty things are deliberately stopping ! They don’t want to keep driving forward, but I’m determined not to be swayed by superstition; today I’m going to drive all the way down!" Zhang Mingli was fearless of ghosts; real or fake, he seed indifferent to them all.
After securing the fire axe, Zhang Mingli didn’t forget to reassure Han Fei and Huang Ying: "You two don’t need to be afraid, if that female corpse shows up again, I’ll chop it dead with one axe!"
"What if you can’t chop it dead?"
"Then we’ll drag it into the car! Tie it to the passenger seat! Read to it the Tao Te Ching!" Zhang Mingli said viciously.
The vehicle started, night wind blew inside, and they seed to gradually forget what had just happened, resuming their previous topic.
"Teacher Mingli, your second relationship seed more morable?"
"My second relationship was true Love, I t soone who changed my whole life, understood Happiness, joy, and the aning of living, that girl beca my wife." Zhang Mingli’s eyes softened, just recalling his wife lted all madness.
"Seems she’s your true Love." Huang Ying asked Zhang Mingli for a cigarette, listening patiently.
"Actually, this trip out is to find her." Zhang Mingli gripped the steering wheel tightly: "No matter what I encounter along the way, I’ll keep driving until I et her."
"Did your wife leave you too? Did you have unresolved conflict?" Huang Ying, approaching forty yet unmarried, wanted to know what marriage life was truly like.
"I Love her very much, and she Loves too, but she feels we can’t be together anymore." As Zhang Mingli spoke, he suddenly saw a child crouching beside the abandoned phone booth by the roadside, the child looked only three or four years old.
The car had already passed, yet Zhang Mingli suddenly reversed, stopping beside the phone booth: "Wait a mont, it’s not safe for the child alone by the roadside at night."
"He might not be a child, maybe a Ghost Baby."
"Then he’d feel lonely as a ghost, wouldn’t he?" Zhang Mingli didn’t take the fire axe, grabbing a handful of Sugar from inside the car, he went out.
The child crouching by the phone booth in pure white clothes emitted a mournful Cry.
"Hey kid, stop crying, uncle’s giving you Sugar." Zhang Mingli seed afraid of the smoke from his body bothering the child, he waited for the wind to blow a bit before approaching: "Where are your parents?"
The boy looked up, and he surprisingly bore a slight resemblance to Zhang Mingli.
"Speak up! You need to tell what’s troubling you so I can help." Zhang Mingli stuffed Sugar into the boy’s hands, he could feel the boy’s body was as cold as ice, void of any warmth.
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