Laura lit a cigarette, took a puff, and blew out the match. She took another puff of her cigarette. "I don't feel the smell of smoke," she said sadly, "and it doesn't seem like smoking is working." ”

"I'm sad. He said.

"Me too. Laura said.

She smoked hard. When the flame of the cigarette butt lit up, he could see her face clearly.

"So," she asked, "they let you out?"

"Yes. ”

The cigarette butt shimmered with an orange-red fire. "I'm still grateful to you. I really shouldn't have let you get involved in that. ”

"It doesn't matter," he said, "that I do it willingly. I could have refused. He wondered why he wasn't afraid. A strange dream about a museum can make his heart tremble, but he has no sense of fear in the face of a walking zombie.

"Yes, you could have refused. She said, "You big fool." Smoke surrounded her face, and in the dim light and shadow, she looked very beautiful. "You want to know about me and Robbie?"

"I think so. ”

She put out her cigarette in the ashtray. "You're in jail," she said, "and I need someone to talk to, a shoulder to lean on." I need you when you're not there. At that time, I felt very uncomfortable. ”

"I'm sorry. Ah Xiu realized that something was not quite right in her voice, and he wanted to find out what was going on.

"I know. The two of us first met up for coffee and talked about what we'd do when you got out of prison and how nice it would be to see you. You know, he really likes you. He plans to give you back your old job when you come out. ”

"That's right. ”

"Then Audrey went to visit her sister and left for a week. This, uh, happened a year after you left, no, thirteen months. There was no emotion in her voice, and every word she spat out was flat, like a small pebble falling silently into a bottomless abyss. "Robbie came to see me, and then we both got drunk. We had sex on the floor of the bedroom. It's great, it's a great feeling. ”

"I don't need to listen to this part. ”

"What? Oh, I'm sorry. When you're dead, it's hard to make choices and sift through things. You know, what happened in life is like a picture, it doesn't matter anymore. ”

"For me there is a so-called. ”

Laura lit another cigarette. The movements are fluid and not stiff at all. For a while, Ah Xiu wondered if she was really dead. Maybe it's all just an elaborate prank. "Yes," she continued, "I understand. The two of us began to fornicate — of course, we don't use that word to call our relationship — and remained in that relationship for the next two years. ”

"Are you ready to leave me and join him?"

"Why did I do that? You are my dearest baby, my Ashu, and you have done so much for me. I've waited three years for you to come back and be with me. I love you. ”

He resisted the urge to blurt out "I love you." He won't say those three words again, never. "What happened that night?"

"The day I died?"

"Yes. ”

"Robbie and I went out to discuss a welcome party for you. Life is about to get better. I told him that my relationship with him was over. Now that you're back, the relationship should end. ”

"Well, thank you, baby. ”

"Nothing, dear. A ghostly smile appeared on her face. "At the time, we were both very impulsive and stupid. I was drunk, he wasn't. So he drove. On the way home, I announced that I was going to give him a farewell memento and have sex with him one last time. Then I unzipped his pants. ”

"Big mistake. ”

"I know. My shoulder hit the gear lever and Robbie tried to push me out of gear again, and our car veered off the lane, and then there was a loud bang. I remember the whole world spinning and I thought, 'I'm going to die.'" I was calm at the time. I remember it all. I'm not scared at all. And then I don't remember anything. ”

There was a smell of burnt plastic. Ah Xiu suddenly realized that the cigarette had burned to the filter. But Laura apparently hadn't noticed it yet.

"What are you doing here, Laura?"

"Can't a wife come to see her husband?"

"You're dead. I also attended your funeral this afternoon. ”

"You're right. She stopped talking, her eyes glazed over. Ah Xiu stood up, walked over to her, took the smoldering cigarette butt from between her fingers, and threw it out the window.

"What's wrong?"

Her eyes searched for his. "I don't know more about life now than I did when I was alive. Although there are many things that I didn't know before my death, and I know them now, I can't put them into words. ”

"Normally, people stay in their graves when they die. Ah Xiu said.

"Really, really in the grave? I used to think so, but now I'm not sure. Maybe. She got out of bed and walked to the window. Her face is as beautiful as ever. That's the face of the woman he went to jail for.

There was a sharp pain in the chest, as if an invisible hand was clenching and squeezing. "Laura......?"

She didn't look at him. "You've embroiled yourself in something really horrible, Asho. If you don't have someone to protect you, you're going to be out of luck. I will protect you. Also, thank you for the gift you gave me. ”

"What gift?"

She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the gold coin he had thrown into the grave earlier today. The gold coin also had black grave soil on it. "I'll string it up with a necklace. You're really good to me. ”

"You're welcome. ”

She turned to look at him, her eyes as if they were staring at him, but as if they weren't resting on him. "I think we have a lot of problems in our marriage that have to be addressed. ”

"Baby," he told her, "you're dead." ”

"Obviously, this is one of many problems. She paused, "All right," she said, "I have to go." I'm still good to go. She turned, naturally put her hand on Ashu's shoulder, and stood on tiptoe to kiss him goodbye. She used to kiss him goodbye like this.

Reluctantly, he bent down to kiss her cheek, but she leaned her lips over and pressed them against his. Her breath carried a faint smell of mothballs.

Laura's tongue reached into Asho's mouth. Her tongue was cold, dry, and smelled of cigarette smoke and bile. If Ah Xiu had any doubts about whether his wife was really dead just now, there was no doubt about it now.

He struggled to back away.

"I love you," she told him succinctly, "and I will keep you safe." She walked to the door. There was a strange sensation in his mouth. "Sleep, Ah Xiu," she advised, "remember not to get into trouble. ”

She opened the door and walked out into the hallway. The fluorescent lights in the hallway are not good colors. Under this light, Laura does look like a dead person. Then again, anyone looks like a dead person under fluorescent lights.

"You could have told me to stay overnight. Laura said in that cold, stone-like tone.

"I don't think I will. Ah Xiu said.

"You will, dear. She said, "You won't wait for it to be over." She turned away and walked down the hallway.

Ah Xiu stood in the doorway and looked out. The night shift guy is still watching Stephen King's. He didn't even lift his head as she passed him. Her shoes were stained with a thick layer of graveyard dirt. She walked out of the hotel and disappeared.

Ah Xiu exhaled, slowly, slowly. His heart was beating a little unevenly. He hurried down the hallway to knock on Drinkward's door. When he knocked on the door, he suddenly had a very strange feeling, as if he had been flapped by a pair of black wings, as if a huge crow had flown through his body, into the corridor outside, and flew farther away.

Drinkward opened the door. He was naked, with only a white hotel towel around his waist. "Hell, what do you want to do?" he asked.

"There are some things I have to let you know. "Maybe it's just a dream—but it's not—maybe I've inhaled some synthetic toad from that fat boy, maybe I'm just crazy......"

"Alright, alright, shut up. Drinkward interrupted, "I'm busy here." ”

Ah Xiu peeked inside the room. Ah Xiu didn't know that the bottles and cans were lying on the floor of the room, and a crucible was smoking, and the traces of smoke seemed to turn into Laura's smiling face. He lowered his voice. "I just saw my wife," he said, "and she was in my room just now." ”

"You mean ghosts? Did you see ghosts?"

"No, not a ghost. She's real. That's her. She's dead, but not the hell. I also touched her. She kissed me. ”

"I see. Drinkward said, glancing hastily at the woman on the bed. "I'll be back soon, dear. He said to the woman.

They walked down the hallway and back to Ashu's room. Drinkward turned on the light and saw the cigarette butts in the ashtray. He scratched his chest, his ** was black, the color of an old man, and his chest hair was gray. There is a white scar on one side of the torso. He sniffed the air vigorously before shrugging.

"All right," he said, "looks like your dead wife has come out and shown herself." Scared?"

"Sort of. ”

"Wise. Dead people always make me feel like screaming. Anything else?"

"I'm ready to leave town. Laura's mom took care of the apartment and other chores, she hated me anyway. When are you going to go, I'll go with you. ”

Drinkward smiled, "Good news, my child. We'll leave tomorrow morning. Now, you can go back and continue to sleep for a while. If you need alcohol to help you sleep, I also have some Scotch whisky in my room. How?"

"No, I'm fine. ”

"Then don't bother with my good deeds. The long night is still waiting for me. ”

"Good night. Ah Xiu said.

"Great. Drinkward said, closing the door as he left.

Ah Xiu sat down on the edge of the bed. The smell of cigarettes and preservatives remained in the air. He wished he could mourn Laura: it seemed more appropriate to do so than to be harassed by her. It wasn't until she left that he admitted that he had been a little intimidated by her. It's time to mourn her. He turned off the lights and lay on the bed, thinking about what Laura had been like before he was put in prison. He recalls when they first got married, when they were both young, happy, and somewhat stupid, always holding each other's hands.

It had been a long, long time since Ah Xiu last cried, and it was so long that he thought he had forgotten how to cry. Even when his mother died, he didn't shed a tear.

But now, he's in tears. He sobbed sadly, his body shaking in pain. For the first time since he was a very small child. He cried and cried and fell asleep.

Ah Xiu found himself dreaming again, this time not in the museum of forgotten gods or extinct races......

Guided by the stars and the coastline, they sail on the turquoise seas. Whenever they were far from the shore and the night sky was obscured by dark clouds, they sailed under the guidance of faith. They begged the Almighty Father to bring them back safely to land again.

It was an unfortunate voyage, their fingers were numb from the cold, the cold penetrated deep into the bone marrow, even the bones were shivering, and even the wine could not warm the body. They woke up early in the morning to find their beards covered with hoarfrost, which could not be warmed up until the sun rose. They looked like a bunch of old people, with white beards before they were old.

By the time they finally landed on a green piece of land in the west, their teeth were shaking and their eyes were sunken. "We have moved away from our homeland, from the ocean we know and the land we love," they said. At the edge of this world, we will be forgotten by our gods. ”

Their leader climbed a boulder and mocked them for their lack of faith. "The Almighty Father created the world," he said aloud, "and He created the world with the flesh and bones of the Father Titan, with His hands. He threw the brains of the female Titans into the sky to form clouds, and turned their salty blood into the oceans we sailed. You know? He created the world, and he created the land. Here, as long as we die like men, we will also be accepted by His temple. ”

They began to cheer and laugh out loud. Filled with hope in their hearts, they set about building camps and houses of worship out of tree trunks and mud. They knew that they were the only inhabitants of this new land. Despite this, a small defensive fence was set up outside the camp with sharpened logs.

On the day the chapel was completed, a storm came. At noon, the sky was as black as night, and countless cracks were torn by white lightning, and the thunder was so loud that it almost deafened their ears. Even the cats brought by the boat to pray for good luck hid under their longship moored on the shore. The storm was fierce and wild, but they laughed happily and patted each other on the shoulders excitedly. They said, "Thunder has come with us to this distant land. They were grateful to the gods, and everyone was ecstatic. They began to drink and have fun, and they were so drunk that they could not walk.