"Your wife's body is at Wendell's funeral home, where a memorial service is taking place. "After lunch, they'll send her to the cemetery for burial." ”

"How do you know?"

"I called and asked when you were in the bathroom. Do you know where Wendell's funeral home is?"

Ah Xiu nodded and said he knew. Snowflakes fluttered and swirled in front of them.

"We go in from here. Ah Xiu pointed the way. The car drove off the interstate, past a string of motels, and into the northern part of town.

Three years have passed. There are a lot of lights and unfamiliar shops. As he drove to the gym, Ashu told Drinkward to slow down. "A family member has died, and it is now closed. "There was a handwritten sign on the door.

Driving down the town's main thoroughfare, they passed a new tattoo parlor and army recruiting center, then Burger King's fast-food restaurant, Olsen's pharmacy — a familiar old one, unchanged — and finally Wendell's funeral home, which faces the yellow brick walls. The neon sign on the window reads: Rest Room. There are piles of uncarved tombstone stones in the window.

Drinkward pulls up his car in the parking lot.

"Do you want me to go in too?" he asked.

"No need. ”

"Good. He grinned again, but not much, "You go in and say goodbye, I have other things to do." I'll open a room for both of us at the motel, and you'll come back to me when you're done. ”

Ah Xiu got out of the car and watched it drive away, then walked in. The dimly lit hallway was filled with the smell of flowers and furniture paint, and a faint smell of formaldehyde. At the end of the corridor is the chapel.

Ah Xiu realized that he was clutching the gold coin tightly, and uncontrollably turned the gold coin in his palm again and again. The heavy texture of the gold coin made him feel at ease.

The note on the door at the end of the hallway had his wife's name written on it. He walked into the chapel. Most of the people in the chapel knew Ashur: Laura's colleagues, and her friends.

They all knew him, and they could tell it from their faces. But no one smiled at him or greeted him.

At the other end of the room was a small table with a coffin painted cream and surrounded by flowers: scarlet, yellow, white, and dark purple. He took a step forward and could see Laura's body from where he stood. He didn't want to go any further, but he didn't dare to turn around and walk away.

A man in a dark suit, presumably working at the funeral parlor, approached him and asked, "Sir, would you like to sign the memorial book of condolence?" and he pointed to a leather-covered booklet spread out on the small chanting platform.

He wrote "Ashu", signed the date under the name, and then slowly wrote the nickname between the two below. He put down his pen and walked across the room to where the people were staying. The coffin, and the body inside the cream-colored coffin, was no longer Laura herself.

A petite woman came in through the doorway and stood there hesitating for a moment. Her hair was blonde and copper, and her clothes looked expensive, and black, which was a widow's mourning dress. Ah Xiu knew her very well. She is Audrey, Robbie's wife.

Audrey holds a small bouquet of violets wrapped in silver foil. That's what children like to buy in June, Ah Xiu thought to himself, but violets are rare this season.

She walked through the room and over to Laura's coffin. Ah Xiu followed her.

Laura lay there, her eyes peacefully closed, her hands crossed over her chest. She wore a conservative blue skirt that he didn't remember ever seeing. Her long brown hair tucked back behind her head, unobstructed by her eyes. It's his Laura, but it's not. He noticed that her sleeping position was unnatural, and Laura was always relaxed when she slept.

Audrey placed the small bouquet of summer violets on Laura's chest. Her mouth moved for a moment, and she suddenly spat Laura's face hard.

Spit fell on Laura's cheek and ran down her cheek to her ear.

Audrey walked towards the door. Ah Xiu hurried to catch up with her.

"Audrey?" he called to her.

"Ashu, did you escape, or did they let you out?"

He wondered if she had taken a tranquilizer. Her voice seemed ethereal.

"I was released from prison yesterday, and now I'm a free man. Ah Xiu said, "Hell, what the hell are you doing?"

She stopped in the dark hallway. "You mean violets? That's her favorite flower. When we were little girls, we used to go violet picking together. ”

"It's not Violet's business. ”

"Oh, that's it. She said, wiping the non-existent spittle from the corner of her mouth. "I thought everybody understood. ”

"I don't understand, Audrey. ”

"Didn't anyone tell you, Ah Xiu?" her voice was calm, without the slightest emotion, "When your wife died, she still had my husband's ** in her mouth, Ah Xiu." ”

He returned to the funeral home chapel. Someone has already wiped the spit off.

Ashu had lunch at Burger King, and after lunch was the funeral. Laura's cream-colored coffin was buried in a small, non-religious cemetery on the edge of town. The cemetery has no walls, and the hillside meadow is lined with tombstones of black granite and white marble.

He rides Wendell's funeral home's hearse to the cemetery with Laura's mom. Mrs. Mark Cabe seems to think that Laura's death is all Asho's fault. "If you had stayed at home," she said indignantly, "this misfortune would not have happened." I really don't know why she married you. I have advised her, more than once. But children always refuse to listen to their parents, don't they?" she paused and leaned closer to take a closer look at Axiu's face. "You're fighting again?"

"Yes. "He's honest.

"Barbarians. She huffed, closing her mouth and ignoring him. She held her head high, her chin straight, and her eyes staring straight ahead.

Ah Xiu found it strange that Audrey also came during the funeral and stood outside the crowd. As soon as the brief ceremony was over, the coffin was lowered into the icy tomb. The people scattered and went home.

Ah Xiu did not leave. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, shivering as he stared at the dark tomb that had sunk into the ground.

The sky overhead is iron-gray and smooth like a mirror. The snow was still falling, and the irregularly shaped snowflakes tumbled and tumbled and fell like ghosts.

He also had something to say to Laura. He waited quietly, waiting for himself to remember what he was going to say. It was getting dark. Ah Xiu's feet began to freeze and numb, and his hands and face were also painful. He dug his hand deep into his pocket to keep warm, his fingers grasping the gold coin.

He suddenly walked to the tomb.

"This one is for you. He whispered.

The coffin was covered with a few handfuls of earth, but the grave was far from filled. He threw the gold coins into the tomb and kept Laura company, and pushed more dirt into it to cover the gold coins so that the greedy gravediggers wouldn't steal them. He slapped the dirt off his hands and muttered, "Good night, Laura." After a while, he added, "I'm sorry. He turned his face to the place where there was a light in the town and walked towards the town.

The motel he'd be staying at was about two miles away, but after three years in prison, he liked to be able to go on and on, without thinking about anything, forever. He could face all the way north, to the hills of Scotland, or east, to France, and beyond. He could go to Afghanistan in the Middle East, where he heard that many British people who were dissatisfied with life stayed there as mercenaries.

A car pulled up beside him with the windows rolled down.

"Would you like a ride, Asho?" asked Audrey.

"No, don't want to ride in your car. Ah Xiu refused.

He continued to walk forward, with Audrey beside him, slowly following him at a speed of 3 miles per hour. Snowflakes flutter in the light of the headlights.

"I thought she was my best friend," Audrey said, "and we talked every day. Whenever Robbie and I quarrel, she was the first to know. The two of us would go to the Kizzy Bar for a Margaret and scold men for being scum. However, at the same time, she was cheating on my husband behind my back. ”

"Please go away, Audrey. ”

"I just want you to know that I have an absolute reason to treat her like that. ”

He didn't say anything.

"Hey!" she cried, "Hey, I'm talking to you." ”

Ah Xiu turned to look at her. "Do you want me to tell you that you were right to spit on Laura's corpse? Do you want me to tell you that you didn't hurt me by doing that? Or do you tell a story that will make me hate her instead of missing her? never, Audrey. ”

She drove beside him for a while, not speaking. Then she asked, "How are you doing in prison, Ashu?"

"Good. "It feels better to be home." ”

She stepped on the accelerator, the engine roared, and the car sped away.

The lights of the car were far away, and it was all dark. The last glimmer of light in the sky faded into the night. Ah Xiu hoped that continuing to walk would warm up his cold hands and feet, but unfortunately it didn't work.

While still in prison, Loki once said that the small cemetery behind the prison hospital resembled a skull orchard. This statement took root in Asho's mind. As a result, he had a dream that night about a skeletal orchard in the moonlight. In the orchard there is a bone tree, whose branches and leaves end in the arms of a skeleton, and the roots of the bone tree are deeply embedded in the grave. In his dream, the trees in the skull orchard still bear fruit, but there seems to be something wrong with the fruits in the dream. But when he woke up, he had no idea what strange fruit was growing on the tree, or why he found it disgusting.

Several cars passed by. Ah Xiu hoped that someone would give him a ride. He suddenly tripped over something, and he couldn't see clearly in the darkness, and he fell to the ground in the ditch by the side of the road, his right hand stuck in the cold mud several inches deep. He slowly got up, wiped the wet mud from his hands on his pants, and stood there a little awkwardly, at a loss. Only then did he realize that someone was standing beside him, and before he could react, his mouth and nose were blocked by something wet. Immediately after, he smelled a pungent smell of sulfur.

At the time of this fall, the ditch seemed to be warm and comfortable.

It was as if someone's temples had been pressed into his skull, and it hurt to death, and his hands were tied behind him with belts or something. He was in a car, sitting on a leather mat on the floor inside the car. For a moment, he felt that there was something wrong with the depth of field of his vision, and then he realized that the seat in front of him was indeed far away from him.

There were people sitting in the seats behind him, but he couldn't look back at them.

A handsome young man, sitting in the seat at the other end of the stretch limousine, took out a bottle of red wine from the compartment wine cabinet and opened the lid. He wears an oversized black coat made of what appears to be some kind of silk. He was covered in pimples on one side of his cheek and looked to be no more than a teenager. Seeing Ah Xiu wake up, he smiled smugly.

"Hello, Ah Xiu. He said, "Don't mess with me." ”

"Okay," said Ashu, "I won't." Can you drop me off at the hotel? It's just a short walk down the road. ”

"Beat him. "The kid ordered the man on Ashu's left. A punch hit Ah Xiu in the abdomen so hard that he stopped breathing and curled up in a ball. It took a long time for him to slowly straighten his waist.

"I told don't mess with me. Seems like you know everything about where you are, do you know who the old man is with you? He's dangerous, he's almost the most dangerous if you don't count the other madman---- Getler Drinkward---- God, I just named a wizard----"

Ah Xiu didn't understand what the somewhat neurotic young man was saying, but he realized one thing, his employer had already arranged for him to fight --- first job.

"Oh, you look nervous at all, by the way, I forgot, you've always lived among Muggles, and you don't know anything about these things--- well, let's talk about realistic things, you can understand, otherwise I'm singing a one-man show, it's too boring--- you have to understand, you're in my hands now, I don't have to kill you, maybe I can have my men crush every bone in your damn body." There are a total of 206 bones in the human body. So, don't mistreat me. ”

"Hmm...."Ah Xiu realized once again that his current job was dangerous, and he really didn't understand, and he hesitated to ask.

The top lights of the carriages changed from purple to blue, then to green and yellow.

"You work for Gatler Drinkward?" asked the young man.

"Yes. Ah Xiu replied.

"What the hell is this bastard looking for? I mean, what is he doing here? He must have a plan, how the hell does he want to play?"

"I only started working for Mr. Drinkward this morning," said Asho, "just an errand boy." ”

"You're saying you don't know anything?"

"I really don't know anything. ”

The boy opened his clothes, took out a silver cigarette case from the pouch inside, opened it, took out a cigarette and handed it to Ah Xiu. "I find that the Muggle world is not completely useless, for example, this cigarette, it tastes much better than the one I smoked in the wizarding world, do you smoke?"

Ah Xiu wanted to ask for his hand to be untied first, but in the end he decided not to ask for anything. "Thanks, I don't smoke. He said.

The cigarette was apparently rolled by hand, and the boy lit it with a black lighter with a rough surface. The smoke smells a bit like Porto wine, with a sweet and greasy taste.

The boy took a deep breath, then held his breath as the smoke slowly emerged from his mouth and back into his lungs through his nostrils. Ah Xiu guessed that he must have practiced in front of the mirror at home for a long time before performing in front of everyone. "If you dare to lie to me," the boy's voice seemed to float from far away, "I'm going to kill you, you know?"