"She's in Hong Kong."

Si Wang poured a cup of hot tea from the kitchen and opened the mooncake box.

"But she didn't tell me."

"That's to surprise you."

"It's not—" She turned her head to look out the window, the plants were still flourishing, and the nightshade was overflowing, but the words in her mouth were long in her mouth, "Surprise." ”

"Don't worry, she was still on the phone with me today, entrusting me to come to see you on her behalf."

After a moment of noncommittal silence, she picked up her cup and took a sip of tea: "Okay, thank you, Si Wang." ”

"Don't you eat mooncakes?"

She opened her toothless mouth.

"I'm sorry!"

The boy slapped himself, he cut the mooncakes one by one, and brought the filling to her. The old lady, who was over ninety years old, picked up a piece and stuffed it into her mouth, closed her eyes and chewed for a long time: "Thank you!" The last time I ate mooncakes was during the Mid-Autumn Festival in 1948. ”

"Yin Yu hasn't eaten moon cakes with you for so many years?"

"Mooncakes are meant to be eaten with the family, and we are all alone, you won't understand, child."

"No, I understand."

His expression was so serious.

"Tomorrow, it's the Mid-Autumn Festival - I've almost forgotten what mooncakes taste, it should be very different from what we used to be." Miss Cao's eyes were a little tired, and she couldn't imagine whether her face more than 60 years ago had been overwhelmed by a man who had been waiting for her whole life, "Is she really in Hong Kong?" ”

"yes!"

Yin Yu is still alive.

Three months ago, when Si Wang came to the gate of Nanming High School, Yin Yu said goodbye to him after the college entrance examination, and just finished singing Li Shutong's "Farewell", he suffered a car accident on Nanming Road - the accident was caused by an earthmoving vehicle, which crashed into Yin Yu because of brake failure.

She was seriously injured and bleeding from the head, and after three days and three nights in the hospital, she finally escaped from the mouth of death.

Yin Yu never woke up again, and the doctor said that he might become a vegetative person.

As the top liberal arts student in the city's college entrance examination, she has received an admission letter from the University of Hong Kong. Her father is an international trader, and there is a Hong Kong hospital that specializes in treating serious brain injuries, and hopes that she will wake up one day and go directly to HKU.

"But the phone never rang."

Miss Cao pointed to the phone, and Si Wang replied naturally: "You don't know, the University of Hong Kong is very strict, she studies very seriously, and she is often locked up to study. ”

This is lying.

Sometimes, deceiving the elderly is like cheating a child.

"Oh, as long as she's doing well."

Finally, Miss Cao smiled at him and picked up another piece of mooncake, it seems that she has a good appetite today.

"Don't worry, she won't forget about you."

"Hehe, I wish she had forgotten about me! In this way, she can be a normal girl, why should she be attached to me, an old immortal who has been tossing and turning? ”

She touched Si Wang's palm with her rough but warm hand: "It's dark, your mother is waiting for you to come home." ”

"Miss Cao, please take care! I'll be coming to see you often! Call me if you have something! ”

Leaving the house surrounded by creepers, he returned to the rest of the night, mounted his bicycle and slowly pedaled the pedals.

In 2011, the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday came one week after the start of school, and the first thing Si Wang did when he came out of school was to buy mooncakes without telling his mother.

The rest of the road was eerily quiet, and the full moon passed through the white lotus-like clouds. The faint street lamp stretched the shadow of him and the bicycle, almost cast on the other end of the road, the old house where Yin Yu lived in his previous life, the mailbox was stuffed with today's evening newspaper and garbage advertisements, indicating that there were still many residents. The air windows at the foot of the wall are half exposed to the ground, almost next to the sidewalk. Si Wang lay on the ground, spit saliva into the palm of his hand, and vigorously wiped the dusty air window. He took out a flashlight from his arms, the light was not enough to penetrate the dust underground, and it seemed to be full of all kinds of debris.

Turning around and looking across the road, the dark and sleeping old house, the abandoned murder house in 1983, if the ground floor window was lit, you would definitely be able to see the scene inside, whether it was a person or a ghost.

In the moonlight, Si Wang stood up and took a deep breath, there were no cars and no people on the street.

A leaf fell in front of the iron gate at 19 Sabbath Road. He touched the rust on the door, pressed his ear against the crack in the door, and except for the dust falling, he faintly heard a sound like the wind passing through the roof, and like a snake crawling on the ground.

Bending his knuckles, he knocked on the murderous mansion that had been sleeping for nearly thirty years, and a dull echo came from inside the door......

Unable to enter from the main entrance, Si Wang took a few steps back and found a small courtyard on the right, with a low fence and lush willow leaves sticking out. Si Wang struggled over the wall, landing his feet on the narrow patio littered with fallen leaves, garbage, and wildcat droppings. There are two windows on the side of the house, which look like they are tightly closed, but in fact the glass is broken. He opened one of them with ease, and the flashlight shone into it, and the house was full of dust and debris, and the smell of rot wafted from the ground, and the thought of it would have terrified the average person—and he boldly climbed in through the window.

The flashlight swept through the empty house, and most of the furniture had disappeared, either sealed as evidence by the police or removed by thieves. There were only a few empty chairs left in the living room, covered in thick cobwebs. He held his breath so that mold or toxic dust would not get into his nostrils. I didn't see a white line on the ground that represented a dead man, which is only seen in American movies. But there are symbols and lines on the walls, and it is here that the body was found.

He stood in front of the living room window, took a cloth and wiped the glass, and could see Nanming Road in the moonlight, as well as the gas window in the basement of the opposite house. After turning around the ground floor, I carefully walked up the stairs. The soles of the feet squeak and fall apart at any time.

The upper floor is divided into three rooms, first of all, the bathroom, the filthy flush toilet is disgusting, the walls are covered with large white tiles, which have turned brown over the years, and the brick bathtub, which used to be only found in rough houses. In another large room, there was a large bed like a corpse, with rusty metal pillars like skeletons, and a few rats scurrying under the bed. He exited with his nose covered, opening the last door.

There was a small bed in the room, a nearly rotten wooden bed frame, and cockroaches ran through it in swarms. There is a mirror on the wall, inlaid in a black frame of oval wood. Si Wang slowly walked to the mirror, and the flashlight shone a blurry shadow.

In the dusty mirror was the sixteen-year-old Si Wang, who did not dare to wipe the mirror clean, there were ghosts here.

When I turned my head, it was a dilapidated cabinet with some toys. Pick one up and wipe it off, it turned out to be a wooden doll, the kind that many little girls used to play with. The doll was undressed, naked in time and dust, with wide eyes—like a living one.

Si Wang put the doll back and was about to escape from the haunted house, but the flashlight swept through the corner of the wall, revealing a black hole. Originally, it was wrapped in wooden planks, well camouflaged in the wall mezzanine, and after so many years, the wood has long been damp and broken.

After a moment's hesitation, he reached in and pulled out a square jar, only to see that it was a tin cookie box with a round lid. After wiping off the dust, the tin box is very beautiful, and the four sides are actually classical color paintings, drawing four women in ancient costumes, and then look at the text carefully, it turns out to be the "Twelve Hairpins of Jinling" of "Dream of Red Mansions", which are Xue Baochai, Miaoyu, Wang Xifeng, and Li Kun.

In the past, many people had this kind of tin box at home, storing candy and various snacks, and they would see it every Chinese New Year, and they usually hid it in a corner of their home.

He inserted his fingernails into the cracks of the lid and pried them open with all his might, and a musty smell came to his nose, like the ashes of his dead master. Boldly reached in and took out a few pieces of paper, but it was Guan Yunchang of the Three Kingdoms, and then turned it over to the Three Heroes Battle Lu Bu, which turned out to be a cigarette brand - now children must not have heard of it, the earliest is a small picture attached to the cigarette box, with landscapes or characters printed on the front, and explanatory text on the back. In fact, it has little to do with cigarettes, and they can be bought at roadside stalls. Many boys will collect in sets, such as the Water Margin One Hundred Singles and Eight Generals, the Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and the Yang Family's Heroes. The usual way to play is to scratch the slices, place two cards on the ground, and use the palm of your hand to suck or stir up the wind, preferably to turn it over......

The house was obviously occupied by a girl, the only witness at the time of the crime, who was also the daughter of the deceased, and the cigarette brand was a boy's game.

He turned the whole tin biscuit box upside down, and there was a pair of bows in it, although it was already black, he could still see the appearance of the year, which should have been used by a girl of twelve or thirteen.

Finally, a tape.

In 1983, it was probably when cassettes were just starting to become popular.

There are also small words on the cassette, and it was only after repeatedly wiping off the dust that I could distinguish them with a flashlight—

01. Alone in the West Building 02. May people last long 03. A few sentimentals 04. Yerba grass is unforgiving

05. Quiet Night 06. Does anyone know that I am in love at this time "Faint Love" Teresa Teng

It turned out to be Teresa Teng's cassette, and this simplified version was obviously pirated, and the genuine version could not be bought at that time.

The album of "Faint Love" is all recomposed according to classical poetry, among which "A Few Sorrows" is Li Houzhu's "just like a river flowing eastward". The album has a total of twelve songs, followed by six more songs, including Li Houzhu's "Rouge Tears, Leave People Drunk, When Will It Be Heavy." Since people grow and hate water and grow east", and Ouyang Xiu's "On New Year's Eve last year, the flower market was as light as day. The willow tops on the moon, people about after dusk. ”

Turn the cassette over to the B side, and it's the next six songs-

07. Rouge Tears 08. Manye Chisheng 09. People about after dusk

10. Looking at each other with teary eyes 11. If you want to talk about it 12. Sijun

There was nothing left in the hole under the wall but rat droppings.

Standing in the girl's bedroom thirty years ago, Si Wang's snort was filled with the smell of decay, but the phone rang harshly.

He Qingying called: "Wang'er, why haven't you come home yet?" ”

"Oh, Mom...... I'll be right back! ”

Stuff the tin box back into the corner, whether it has anything to do with the murder or not, the police certainly didn't find the secret in the hole in the wall back then. Quickly left the murderous mansion, did not dare to move the locked door, or went out through the side over the wall.

Si Wang rode his bicycle home, and the moonlight cast a long shadow behind him.