In 1995, Shen Ming and Gu Qiusha's new wedding house had just been renovated, and the newly bought water heater was tried, and the two of them squeezed into the large bathtub, foamed each other's faces, and watched the steam rise in the mist, I really wanted to soak like this forever......

"Qiusha, what do you mean by despair?"

"Despair?" She touched the stubble on her fiancé's chin, which had been soaked in hot water and softened, "Why are you asking this?" My dear, your future is promising. ”

"I had a nightmare last night, and it doesn't seem like a good sign."

"Affirm, there is no more desperate thing than to lose the most cherished person." Gu Qiusha kissed him deeply, "It's you." ”

A month later, Shen was killed.

What is Despair?

In fact, Gu Qiusha never had an answer.

A few months ago, when Wang'er first came to her house, she bathed the boy several times. In the largest jacuzzi in the house, in the foam and hot water that would allow a small child to swim, Gu Qiusha found a light red scar on his back. She carefully washed it with a bath bomb to confirm that it was not a scar, but a birthmark from birth, which happened to be on the left side of the vest. This birthmark is also very strangely shaped, it is a straight line about two centimeters long, and it is thin and really looks like a knife wound.

It was as if someone had stabbed a sharp knife straight into the back, just shattering the heart.

Suddenly, Gu Qiusha remembered a legend when she was a child - the birthmark on the human body was a wound left when she was killed in her previous life.

Her own heart cramped too, and she gritted her teeth and almost screamed in pain, hugging Wang'er in the bathtub, caressing his bare chest, and putting her ear to his heart, listening to the rapid heartbeat in the boy's chest.

"Mom, what's wrong with you?"

Wang'er, who was relaxing in the hot water, looked at her with a foamy face suspiciously, but Gu Qiusha hugged him and said, "My dear, I want you to live well!" ”

Her clothes were all soaked, half of her body was soaked in the bathtub, and there was a trance in front of her eyes, flooding with the steam that swirled ten years ago - in the large bathtub of Gu Qiusha and Shen Ming's wedding room, the two of them were soaked in hot water and their bodies were red.

January 2006.

It was a bitterly cold morning, and Wang'er got up at six o'clock in the morning, turned on the home theater system in the living room, and played a genuine CD. As the dark and deep prelude begins, a symphony resounds throughout the villa, like a dark water rushing and winding, and the cello part imitates the movements of a lonely boat, repeating like a labyrinth, struggling to approach a bleak and abrupt island, and emerge like a near-death experience......

Gu Qiusha was woken up by this sound, and went downstairs in a panic in her nightgown, only to find Wang'er sitting alone in the living room, looking at the TV with gloomy eyes, the screen flickered with a snowflake, and soon turned into five oil paintings scrolling.

In each of these paintings, there is an island surrounded by seawater, and strange rocks protrude from the water. Under the desperate iron-gray sky, a small boat is approaching the island, and a mysterious man in white is alone in the bow.

"Wang'er!" She almost screamed and threw herself in front of the boy, shaking his thin shoulders, "What are you listening to?" ”

"Isle of the Dead."

"Early in the morning, are you crazy?" Gu Qiusha touched his clothes again, "Aren't you cold?" ”

The boy shook his head blankly, and she threw herself in front of the stereo to turn it off, but she didn't know where the remote was. In a hurry, even the main power supply could not be found, and the symphony still resounded in this big room, like a sharp knife constantly piercing the eardrums.

"This man on the boat - represents the Grim Reaper."

"Turn it off!"

"Tyusha, do you know the River Styx?" He didn't wait for Gu Qiusha to answer, and continued to talk to himself, "After a person dies, those who want to enter the underworld must cross this river first, but they need to pay the ferry money, otherwise they will be thrown into the river by the ferryman Xia Long." The water of the River Styx is lighter than that of the human body, and it is impossible for human bodies to cross it unless they take the boat of the underworld, and even the ghosts will melt in the River Styx - this is an ancient Greek legend. ”

"What are you telling me?"

Gu Qiusha shivered, couldn't help sneezing, rushed to the wall and twisted the air conditioner.

"In the painting of 'Island of the Dead', the charron on the bow of the ship symbolizes a man, the dark cove represents a woman, the sea is the birth* of all things, and the cypress tree is the material for the cross...... These are five paintings by Bocklin between 1880 and 1886, a master who was deeply attached to death. ”

"Wang'er, this is not what you should say!"

At this moment, she only felt strange and frightened about this boy.

"And the music you're listening to is a work by the Russian composer Rachmaninoff, inspired by this set of 'Island of the Dead.'"

Finally, she found the main power supply at home and decisively pulled down the electric switch.

A few hours later, Gu Qiusha came to the company nervously, and just wanted to call a private doctor to make an appointment to treat her neurasthenia, but found that there were only a few hundred yuan left in her bank account.

At the same time, the procuratorate broke into the headquarters of the group and seized all the accounts and materials. The next day, training sites across the country closed overnight, and major newspapers published news that Erya Education Group was involved in a shady trading and bribery scandal.

Seven days later, Erya Education Group declared bankruptcy.

The properties of the Gu family will be seized by the court as collateral for bank loans. Lu Zhongyue filed for divorce from Gu Qiusha, and she signed and agreed without blinking. After going through the divorce procedures, she found out that Lu Zhongyue owned a company in Hong Kong, and within two months before the group's accident, 50 million yuan was transferred to several offshore companies, and finally entered the company's account as investment funds.

On the day that Lu Zhongyue packed his luggage and left the Gu family, Gu Changlong grabbed him by the collar at the door of the villa: "Why did I raise your white-eyed wolf with my own hands?" ”

"I'm sorry, Principal Gu, you're no longer my father-in-law."

The old man hadn't dyed his hair for two weeks, and in a blink of an eye, his head was full of silver threads, and there were countless wrinkles on his face, just like an old man who was about to die at the age of seventy or eighty, he slapped Lu Zhongyue with all his might: "Ungrateful thing!" ”

Lu Zhongyue touched his face, and his smooth and beardless chin flashed with red marks: "Principal Gu, everything has cause and effect, I will come to your memorial service, goodbye." ”

With that, he kicked away his former father-in-law and rode away in a brand-new Mercedes-Benz.

A thin layer of snow drifted from the sky, falling on Gu Changlong's white hair, like pieces of torn tin foil and paper money.

It was Chinese New Year's Eve.

Only then did Gu Qiusha chase out of the door and pick up her father who fell to the ground. The wind ruffled her hair, like a middle-aged woman with nothing, and she didn't know how to comfort her father, so she could only put a coat on him. She has already fired her Filipino maid and driver, and she will have to move from here tomorrow, and all the valuable things in the family will go to pay off her debts.

Wang'er walked out in a down jacket, the ten-year-old boy became more and more beautiful, his cheeks were red from the cold winter, and he carried a small travel bag, and walked silently towards the gate of the villa.

"Wang'er!" Gu Qiusha grabbed his trouser legs, "Where are you going?" ”

He looked down at his adoptive mother, with a slight sadness: "Go home." ”

"We're only moving tomorrow."

"Back to my mother's house."

"Wang'er, I'm your mother."

Gu Qiusha left her father in the wind and snow, hugged the ten-year-old elementary school student tightly, and he broke free with all his strength: "I'm sorry, Qiusha." ”

"What do you call me?"

"It's getting dark, and I can't catch the last train back to the city." He looked up at the gloomy sky with snow, and finally had no expression, "I'll contact you again in the next two days, goodbye!" ”

"Don't go! Wang'er! ”

She was almost lying on the ground, but she watched the boy's back in the distance.

Tears slid down his eyes and melted the snowflakes on his face, but he was thinking about a question in his heart - why did he call me "Qiusha"?