"Ding Dong"

The doorbell is not used all year round, and the tone sounds strange, like the hair-raising birthday song on a greeting card when I was a kid.

There was no movement in the back room.

I looked up at the courtyard, raised my hand and rang the doorbell several times in quick succession. There was still no one in the house who answered the door. I couldn't help but look down and check the address in my hand, a rush from nowhere ruffled the hair on my forehead, and the note recording the address almost flew out of my palm.

It's getting hotter and hotter. I muttered to myself as I looked at the scorching sun as it slowly climbed upward. The note in his hand was a little soaked.

"Who's going to find who?" Finally, a nanny-looking man leaned out of the room.

I immediately looked up through the courtyard gate and tried to smile as hard as I could, trying to make a good impression on her.

"Hello, I made an appointment with Mr. Song, my name is Wu Chao."

When the nanny heard my name, she looked suddenly enlightened, straightened her bent back slightly, and walked into the courtyard and skillfully opened the gate.

"Miss Wu, you're so early," she said to me as she opened the door, bowing her head, and I couldn't make eye contact with her, as if I were a stone on the ground, "Mr. Song is inside, please come in." ”

I nodded, and stepped into this detached villa that looked exquisite on the outside, but revealed a lonely one.

The scorching sun seemed to scorch the surrounding walls.

Qin Chuyi found out the source of the missing person report before, which was sent by the woman's family in the young couple in the photo. Decades have passed, and the family has long given up on the idea of looking for their daughter. Now that this old thing has been brought up again, it is inevitable that we will be sad again.

According to the investigation, the family's surname is Song, and in addition to the relatives who have passed away, the mother and younger brother of the woman in the photo are still living here. Looking at the magnificent façade of this single-family villa, the family must have been very wealthy before. But the solitude of the Men seemed to remind me that they were no longer what they used to be.

Oh, you said Qin Chuyi, he was still asleep at home, he was too tired yesterday, and today I came by myself.

"Miss Wu, please come here." I followed the nanny through the spacious living room and came to a neat room, which looked like a study, and Mr. Song was sitting in it.

"Hello, I'm Song Qiuzhu, I'm here for your trouble." He was very polite, and hurriedly held my hand, although he was half a hundred years old, his temperament was still the same as back then. It is conceivable that this Mr. Song Qiuzhu must have been a graceful and beautiful young man. "Miss Wu, it is said that you have found the missing person report sent by our family a long time ago, and there are any new clues, right?"

"Well, yes." I nodded, and he motioned for me to sit in the mahogany chair across from him. I sat down gently, my body taking up only a third of the chair. The nanny brought the freshly brewed tea, made it for the two of us, and then consciously closed the door of the study and went out.

The high ceiling of the whole house, coupled with the heavy mahogany design, makes the original noisy and hot summer is isolated from the door, and you can feel the cool and comfortable without turning on the air conditioning. This is indeed a rare and good house.

"Can you tell me a little bit about your sister first?" I'll speak first.

He crossed his hands, propped his elbows on the desk, lowered his head and leaned forward slightly, lost in thought.

"My sister's name is Song Qiulan, and she disappeared when she was twenty-one years old. My father used to be a city leader, and his family was relatively well-off. This villa was left by my father. Mr. Song finally spoke.

"Sister, she is the pearl of her parents' palms, she is proficient in everything from the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and she has an independent new female perspective, and our family is proud of her. Relying on her own ability, she was admitted to the leading key university in China at that time, studying cultural relics and archaeology. Due to his excellent grades, he was sent by the Cultural Relics Bureau to participate in various missions before he graduated. ”

Seeing that my sister will have to talk about marriage after graduation, her parents are looking forward to her meeting a good candidate. However, when she brought her then-boyfriend into the house, we were dumbfounded. ”

"Don't you all like that guy?" I answered.

"No, it's not that I don't like it, it's disproportionate." Mr. Song took a sip of tea, and the heat wafted out of the teacup like silk threads. He continued: "Although our family is wealthy, we are by no means backward in our thinking. Her boyfriend was born in a poor family or something, and we didn't mind at all. As long as he has the ability and ideals, and can give Qiulan a bright future, we will all agree. Besides, it will be the two of them living in the future, and it stands to reason that this is a private matter for the two of them. But what makes us unacceptable is his thoughts. ”

"What kind of man is he?"

"Old school." Mr. Song said the word out of his mouth. There is no pejorative meaning, but it speaks to the essence of human beings and hits the nail on the head. I couldn't help but be struck by the subtlety of his diction.

"Old school?"

"Yes. Our family could be said to be a very open family at that time, so the theory in Qiulan's mind was also very novel. But he is not, I can see at a glance the old-school atmosphere revealed in his body, he is the kind of person who a woman must be at home and a man can be in charge. No matter how incompetent he is, no matter how talented his wife is, he is destined to be confined to the old school of thought and unable to accept the new ideas. ”

"I can't figure out why my sister would like such a person. Maybe it's his talent that made her fall for it. Our family received him politely at the time, and then expressed our thoughts to my sister. My sister understands and will try to change him into a person who accepts new ideas. ”

"And after that?"

Not long afterward, my sister disappeared. Relying on the relationship at that time, my father inquired everywhere to find the whereabouts of his sister, and even put down his work for a few bits and pieces, but these efforts turned into bubbles. After years of unsuccessful searching, my father became ill and passed away from a sudden illness, and my mother was also ill. The pillars of our house quickly collapsed. At that time, I was still in school, and I worked hard to write manuscripts and earn money to support my family. Although the people who were friends with my family at that time left, they were still idle. It's also good for me to live with my mother like this. ”

After Mr. Song finished speaking, he smiled at me. It is conceivable that after so long of the incident, the family has treated Song Qiulan as a dead person. Some traces of pain will be slowly covered in the wind and sand of the years, and my heart will not hurt so much, but I know that once these wind and sand are swept away, those painful traces will still lie there hideously.

"Mr. Song, it turns out that so many things have happened in your family, I should not have bothered if I knew this."

"It doesn't matter, it's been a long, long time since then. If there's anything you need to know about her, just tell me. He finally finished his story.

Then it was my turn.

I took out the slightly yellowed old photo from my bag and handed it to Song Qiuzhu. Mr. Akitake stood up with the photo in his hand, walked slowly to the window, raised his glasses and squinted half-squinted, as if trying to identify the image on the photo.

"It's her!" Mr. Song shouted in surprise, "It's my sister, Song Qiulan." Editor-in-Chief Wu, where did you find this photo? ”

"I found it from a friend. Then look, is this young man next to her her boyfriend at the time? I said.

"Yes, yes, it's him, I remember what he looked like." Mr. Song walked back to his seat through the window, his face still showing the joy he had just faced. "When my father died, my mother burned all the photos of my sister in a fit of rage, and now I can't even think about it, and I regret it very much. Now the appearance of this photo can make the old mother go quietly in the last days. ”

I couldn't bear to interrupt his joy, but I still had to speak: "Does this boyfriend of hers have any specific information?" ”

Mr. Song relieved himself and said, "He and his sister are in the same university, and their grades are also very good, so they are assigned to a group with their sister to participate in the work. The name is ...... Zhao Cheng, right, Zhao Cheng, the Cheng of the project. ”

I froze there as if I had been struck by lightning, and I was surprised that I didn't know how to speak.

"Miss Wu, can you leave this photo to us?" He asked kindly.

"This ...... Originally, I was going to take it back, after all, it was borrowed from a friend. But don't worry, I'll send you a scanned copy later. "After all, there is an enchantment sealed in this photo, if the woman in the cave is Song Qiulan, I have to find a way to rescue her.

"That's right...... Mr. Song lowered his head and thought about it, "Okay, just leave a thought, don't force it." But could you please show the picture to your mother first? Her old man's days are numbered, and I'm afraid I won't be able to wait for your next visit. ”

I nodded, the old man's last wish was still to be fulfilled. Song Qiulan and Song Qiuzhu's mother were lying in the next room, which was originally two separate bedrooms, but now the middle wall has been broken through and merged into one large transparent room. The whole room is like a condensed hospital, and all kinds of medical equipment are neatly arranged there.

"Miss Wu, my mother's health is getting weaker and weaker, and the hospital has no power to recover. I took her home and wanted her to leave in peace. ”

The air is filled with the smell of disinfectant and the smell of fabrics that is characteristic of the elderly. In the room, except for the sound of various instruments, the breath of the man lying on the bed was not felt at all.

I took a deep breath and slowly walked towards the old lady's bed. Each step was extremely gentle, for fear of alarming the dying life on the bed. Her face was on a ventilator, I don't know whether she was awake or asleep, her wrinkled eyelids and her lower eyelids were slitted apart, and her cloudy eyes slowly rolled in them, and her shriveled face was deeply sunken, thin as a paper man.

Song Qiuzhu skillfully and gently took the ventilator away, and the old lady seemed to be awakened, and let out a muffled sound from her mouth, which sounded like the last wheezing sound from what sounded like a broken machine had been forcibly turned on.

"Qiuzhu......" The old lady opened her cloudy eyes and shouted slightly in the direction where Mr. Song was.

"Mom, Miss Wu has come to see you," Mr. Song said loudly into the old lady's ear, "She brought a picture of Qiulan." ”

"Qiulan's ...... Photo ...... "The old lady repeated as she struggled to move her head in my direction, and finally fixed her eyes on me with her cloudy eyes.

"Qiulan...... Qiulan's ...... Photo ......" Her hoarse voice came from her thin body, as if she had exhausted all her strength, and she had to gasp for several times with each word she spat out.

I hurriedly took out the photo and put it in her matchstick-like hand.

Just when the old lady carefully identified the people in the photo, I suddenly had a feeling that the whole body was penetrated by an electric current, and I looked carefully at the old lady in front of me, she seemed to ......

"Qiuxia!" I couldn't help but blurt out.