Tuesday, October 12, 2004, at the entrance of Changshou Road No. 1 Primary School.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, Gu Qiusha sat in the back seat of the BMW 760, rolled down the window and looked at the elementary school students after school. Many parents waited at the door to pick up their children, and private cars lined up along the street, and the old man who collected the parking fee thought she was also here to pick up the children. Behind a group of children who were walking and chatting, Si Wang was silent and melancholy alone, and no one greeted him. He was wearing a blue school uniform, and his heavy-looking schoolbag was stained with sand and a hole in his red scarf.

Gu Qiusha opened the car door and stopped in front of the third-grade elementary school student. He looked up into her eyes, almost without any expression, but spoke very politely: "Auntie, can you let me go by the way?" ”

"Don't remember me? Yesterday, I came to listen to your language class. ”

"I remember." The boy subconsciously pulled his clothes, and seemed to know how to maintain his image in front of the lady, "You like Yuanzhen's poems very much." ”

"Where is your home? I'll send you home. ”

"Don't bother, I walk home, I don't need to take a car, thank you!"

His humble and arrogant attitude made Gu Qiusha feel familiar, and it was rare for her to wear a pair of flat shoes: "Okay, I'll accompany you." ”

Si Wang was no longer embarrassed to refuse, and let this strange woman accompany him. Behind the first primary school on Changshou Road is Suzhou Creek, and there is a small road along the river where you can take a shortcut. Gu Qiusha hadn't taken a walk for a long time, smelling the earthy smell of Suzhou Creek, a few dead leaves falling, only to realize that autumn had already arrived. The river whimpered, exposing the filthy riverbed near the shore, with months of silt and garbage from adults, and perhaps the bones of animals. A boat drove by noisily, setting off waves like geese, rolling across the embankment, and making waves. Passing off the beaten track, the sound of sparrows sounded everywhere in the setting sun, and black wildcats walked by the factory walls. The shadows of the two people were stretched very long, one red and one blue, one long and one short.

"Si Wang, I have a question, why don't your teachers and classmates know your talent?"

He continued to walk briskly but didn't answer, Gu Qiusha then asked: "I've read your exam papers, and I found that you sometimes deliberately answer the wrong questions, obviously writing the correct answer, but crossing out the wrong one, and it's very wrong." And your handwriting is terrible, but it doesn't seem natural, as if it was deliberately written crookedly. ”

"Because, I'm afraid that after my words are written, people will pay too much attention to me."

"You finally told the truth, your teacher said that you don't have any friends, you don't go to your classmates to play, and you haven't taken your classmates to your house, why are you so withdrawn?"

"Well—my house is small and broken, and I'm embarrassed to let anyone else see it."

"So you've been hiding yourself? But why did you stop when you saw me yesterday? ”

"The teacher asked the students to talk about Yuan Zhen's other works, but everyone didn't react, I was afraid that she would be criticized by the principal, and she usually treated me well, so I wanted to help her, someone in class had to answer the teacher's questions - it just so happened that I was also very familiar with Yuan Zhen."

The child's eyes were so sincere that Gu Qiusha dispelled her previous hesitation.

"I'm sure you've read a lot of classical poetry, so do you like to read novels?"

"Auntie, are you testing me?"

She half-squatted down, rubbed the boy's beautiful cheek and said, "You can call me Miss Gu." ”

"Alright, Miss Gu."

"Have you seen Jane Eyre?"

Although this book is too adult for elementary school students, it is not this that Gu Qiusha wants to test him.

"I've seen it."

“Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am soulless and heartless?”

Inadvertently, Gu Qiusha recited the beginning of this famous quote that Jane Eyre said to Rochester, she believed that the boy in front of her would have difficulty passing this round of exams, and if she could translate it into Chinese, thank God.

“You think wrong!” Unexpectedly, Si Wang directly said the English behind, "I have as much soul as you, and full as much heart!" And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh; it is my spirit that addresses your spirit; just as if both had passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal, as we are!”

When he finished reciting it with emotion and sincerity, Gu Qiusha no longer dared to look directly into the child's eyes. Ten years ago, Gu Qiusha gave Shen Ming a copy of the original Jane Eyre novel, which her father brought back from a trip to the United States, and she remembers Shen Ming reciting this passage in English repeatedly.

"It's like the two of us walking through the grave."

She couldn't help but pronounce this sentence in Chinese, Si Wang lowered her eyes, and her eyes were hidden behind her long eyelashes: "I'm sorry, I've read the original English book, but I can only memorize this English passage." ”

"Si Wang, do you understand the meaning of this sentence?"

"Understood."

"Like you've been through it?"

He paused for a few seconds and shook his head: "I don't know. ”

Gu Qiusha didn't know what to say? The two walked forward in silence, and in the most secluded section of the Suzhou Creek, a battered jeep stopped on the side of the road.

This car looks a little familiar, although two of the four wheels are deflated, the front face of the car is almost off, the brand logo is gone, and only a pair of foreign license plates are obliquely inserted in the back. She could still tell that it was an old JEEP, with a red rose painted in the back window and a white skull, which was dulled by the thick dust and dirt, but it was certain that it was painted on the original car.

Si Wang said beside him: "This car has been here for two years, and when I was in the first grade, my grandfather sent me home and got it. ”

Strictly speaking, it's just the corpse of a car.

In autumn, the riverside became desolate and desolate, and the car was always parked there, rotting slowly like a dead man. Suddenly, it seemed as if someone was calling someone......

Gu Qiusha turned back in a panic, but she didn't see anyone, ran up to the green belt by the Suzhou Creek, and didn't even find a ghost. She got closer to the car, making sure the doors and windows were closed and there was no sign of them being opened, because of the thick dust that had accumulated on the door handles. Boldly put my ear to the window, my heart still beating frighteningly, hoping to hear that voice again. She shivered and looked around, the silent wasteland, with the icy Suzhou Creek on one side and the factory façade on the other.

And a quirky boy.

Dusk, five o'clock sharp.

Still no passers-by, she crouched in front of the jeep's windshield and tried to look into the driver's seat—the empty seat was littered with debris, discarded newspapers and instant noodle paper cups, and some disgusting stains on the backrest. The windows next to it are black, so you can't see the inside from the outside.

She smelled a foul smell.

The smell is so weird that it's just creepy...... Is this the car? Gu Qiusha still moved this thought, no matter what, to open its secret, just like only an autopsy can find out the cause of a person's death.

After two circles around the jeep, I found that the trunk was slightly loose, maybe there was something heavy in it? Or after so many years of wind and rain, the door lock has long been rusted and destroyed? She didn't care about getting dirty at all, so she found an iron rod from the nearby grass, stuck it into the gap in the trunk, and pried it up with all her might.

"What are you going to do?"

Si Wang looked like a schoolboy, looking at the adult's crazy actions suspiciously.

"Can you help me?"

It seemed that Gu Qiusha's strength was still not enough, but the boy was very active, helping her pry the trunk together, and at the same time nervously looking to the side, lest anyone pass by and take them as car thieves.

With a "bang", the trunk pried open!

Sure enough, a strange smell gushed out, and they almost fainted. Gu Qiusha took a few steps back, covered her nose with her hands, and looked into the open trunk......

The flies, a few butterflies as fat as a butterfly, flew out weakly and fell at the boy's feet in the blink of an eye.

The wind blew the red scarf on Cheese's chest.

There was a thick roll of carpet in the trunk, and this third-grade elementary school student did something that adults would not dare to do, tearing open the tightly rolled carpet......

"Don't!"

Before Gu Qiusha could finish speaking, a corpse was revealed in the carpet.

Strictly speaking, the corpse of a man.

More strictly speaking, the body of a man who was so highly decomposed that it was close to the bones, but the black suit crawling with maggots and a fallen man's leather shoe accurately indicated the sex of the deceased.

He's been dead for at least two years.

Seeing the corpse of the dead man, Gu Qiusha was so frightened that she ran away and hid behind the big tree. Instead, the boy redoubled his composure, tiptoeing back into the trunk - in order not to destroy the scene of the crime, although it was most likely not the place where the murder was made,

Like a seasoned detective, Si Wang carefully watched his surroundings and did not touch them again to avoid leaving fingerprints, and it was hard to believe that he was only nine years old.

However, Gu Qiusha already knew who the deceased was.