Around eleven at night, commotion filled the hallway, eventually concentrating on the opposite side. Someone yelled hoarsely, “Where’s the massage girl? She was registered to enter your room!”
Another voice boomed even louder, “Bullshit! I haven’t seen a single hair of any woman, are you trying to scam me with this trick?”
The waves of voices rose and fell, with someone muttering words of mediation from the side. In the end, it wasn’t clear which party backed down, and everything dispersed like passing clouds and scattered stars.
Jin Xiu leaned against the door, listening to the whole process. When it was over, she felt oddly disappointed: indeed, if they couldn’t find what they were looking for, they would give up searching. When something doesn’t concern you, let it be – only your closest family would constantly think of you and remember you.
Looking up, she saw Yi Xiao sitting on the sofa watching television. However, Jin Xiu doubted she was watching: it was a Cambodian channel, with foreign gibberish, and seemed to be broadcasting some national security news. Moreover, her eyes were half-closed, like a monk in meditation. The flickering TV light swept across her face, adding to the eeriness.
After midnight, Yi Xiao turned off the television. Inside and outside the room fell completely silent. Jin Xiu swallowed, her heartbeat getting faster and faster, as rapid as war drums. Then, amidst this dense “drumming,” a sudden splash of water intruded. Jin Xiu’s heart skipped a beat: it’s time!
She looked toward Yi Xiao, and after receiving a signal with her eyes, she hurriedly entered the bathroom. In the bathtub, the still water rippled slightly – clearly, the earlier sound of water wasn’t an illusion.
Jin Xiu began preparations: mixing water to the right temperature, readying basins and towels, placing blankets and pillows on the washstand, and bringing in a standing fan to plug in and await use. The bathroom was already small, and now it seemed even more crowded.
After finishing these preparations, she stood guard by the bathtub, her hanging fingertips trembling slightly like an athlete anxiously awaiting the starting gun, afraid of missing even a fraction of a second.
After an unknown period, Zong Hang suddenly convulsed violently underwater, with large bubbles emerging from his mouth and nose. Jin Xiu quickly knelt, reached the bottom of the tub, and forcefully pulled out the plug.
The water was somewhat sticky and upon careful smelling, had an indescribable strange odor. The skin that had been submerged had a subtle burning sensation. Jin Xiu steadied herself, letting her arm air dry while watching the water level decrease inch by inch.
The door behind her opened – it was Yi Xiao entering. She walked close, looked at Zong Hang who was convulsing and struggling to breathe, and said, “Actually, before people are born, they all grow in amniotic fluid, naturally able to swim and breathe in water – the fact that we can drown now shows we’ve regressed.”
After speaking, she looked at Jin Xiu: “I leave him to you.”
Jin Xiu responded with a sound of agreement, moving aside to make way for her: “Then you get some good rest.”
When the water drained completely, a thin layer of sediment remained at the bottom of the tub – its nature unknown. As Jin Xiu cleaned the tub with a towel, Zong Hang finally recovered from his convulsions and slowly opened his eyes.
Jin Xiu was genuinely happy for him, leaning over the tub’s edge to look at him: “Zong Hang?”
As she spoke, she reached out to wipe away water droplets from his eyelashes. The water was very sticky, coating his body in a layer that resembled glue.
Zong Hang seemed not fully conscious yet, his gaze somewhat confused.
“Don’t you recognize me? I’m Jin Xiu. We chatted and drank together, and I gave you a book about Angkor Wat, remember?”
She could tell when Zong Hang recognized her. His eyes gradually brightened with a hint of joy mixed with guilt.
After a while, his lips moved slightly, and he said in a hoarse voice: “I’m sorry.”
Jin Xiu was startled: “Sorry for what?”
Zong Hang said: “She…”
He tried to move but had no strength, only managing to curl his fingers: “She asked me if I had anyone I trusted, how to contact them. I only remembered my parents’ numbers, but she kept asking… kept asking, and in my daze, I mentioned you.”
Jin Xiu was momentarily stunned.
So that’s why Yi Xiao had sought her out.
Back then, when she wanted to befriend Zong Hang, she had slipped her phone number under his door. Her mobile number was short and easy to remember; most people could memorize it after seeing it once or twice.
The reason she was here today is traced back to that moment – the workings of cause and effect were truly unpredictable.
She said: “Then do you know…”
She stopped mid-sentence, turned to look at the door, raised her finger to make a hushing gesture toward Zong Hang, and quietly moved the standing fan behind the door.
“Then do you know who she is?”
Zong Hang shook his head with difficulty: “No idea. She’s strange, doesn’t tell me anything, just asks me questions.”
“Was she… the one who kidnapped you?”
Zong Hang paused for a moment: “No, I guess she saved me.”
Jin Xiu let out a long breath: someone who saves people probably isn’t a bad person.
She wanted to ask Zong Hang what had happened during these days but felt it would inevitably be a long story, and seeing his poor condition, she didn’t want to distract him.
So she wrung out the towel: “Let me help you clean up first.”
Zong Hang called out: “Jin Xiu?”
“Yes?”
“How long has it been?”
Jin Xiu looked at him, not quite understanding.
Zong Hang asked softly: “How long has it been since we last had drinks together?”
Zong Hang had regained consciousness several days ago. His last memory was of a gray-black sky, blood dripping beneath him, and then his vision blurred.
He knew he was dying.
Shot multiple times, losing so much blood, and in a foreign country, on a vast lake – no one would come to save him, and even if they did, they would only find a corpse.
When he closed his eyes, he had accepted his fate.
He only thought about reincarnation: wanting to be reborn as Zong Bishing and Tong Hong’s son again, though worried his father would still disapprove of him.
Then everything went blank.
When he woke up, he was underwater in a bathtub. He panicked, choked, struggled, and above the water’s surface, a ghostly woman looked down at him.
He thought she was the woman who had died with him that night, but wasn’t sure: she no longer had that overwhelming stench of decay.
When he asked her questions, she rarely answered, only coldly glancing at him before turning away, leaving him in the bathtub to struggle futilely like a trapped beast before losing consciousness again.
He had lost all sense of time.
How long had it been?
Jin Xiu said: “It’s been… over a month.”
Over a month – then many things must have inevitably happened.
Zong Hang asked: “How are my parents?”
Seeing Jin Xiu’s silence, Zong Hang added: “It’s okay, you don’t need to worry about me not being able to handle it. I want to hear the truth.”
Jin Xiu sighed, knowing she could only tell the truth, unable to make anything up: how could parents be happy when their son had disappeared?
She briefly mentioned the key points: they filed a police report, it made the news, and Zong Bishing and Tong Hong both came and offered a million-yuan reward. Zong Bishing sent Tong Hong back to rest in China but said he would return to continue searching, even if only to find a corpse to bring home…
Jin Xiu couldn’t continue speaking. She wiped her eyes and began helping him clean his body.
His skin was covered in slippery secretion, and she couldn’t apply too much force. Once, when she lost focus, she accidentally wiped off a piece of his skin – this skin seemed like it was being shed and regrown, breaking at the slightest touch.
Jin Xiu became extremely careful, and after wiping for a while, her forehead was covered in sweat: no wonder Yi Xiao needed someone Zong Hang “trusted” – this task couldn’t be accomplished with money alone…
Zong Hang spoke softly: “Jin Xiu, what do you think I am… now?”
Jin Xiu paused her movements. This question had been weighing on her mind too, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask it.
Zong Hang mumbled: “Like I’m growing in the bathtub, no strength in my body, can’t even sit up, can only move my fingers… Every time I wake up, I’m soaking in water, with some unknown layer growing on my skin…”
Jin Xiu sniffled and said: “Don’t talk nonsense. You know, that Yi Xiao…” She gestured toward the outside: “That woman, she said you’re ‘perfect.’ Perfect must mean good. You have to believe that whatever is happening to your body, it’s a good thing…”
Zong Hang gave a bitter smile: “Only you would believe such ghostly talk…”
Jin Xiu interrupted him: “Zong Hang, I need to remove your pants now.”
This tactic successfully diverted Zong Hang’s attention. His eyes suddenly widened, and then his fingers curled at his side, suddenly gripping the edge of his pants tightly.
Jin Xiu wanted to laugh. He still had that teenage boy mentality – having lost hope in life but still having the energy to feel shy.
She said: “Yi Xiao told me she hasn’t been taking care of you. Those things have been building up in your body for days. We need to clean it thoroughly, and that area gets dirty more easily…”
Zong Hang’s face instantly turned red, and he closed his eyes, his eyelids flushed with embarrassment.
Jin Xiu said: “Just think of me as a caregiver. Those elderly folks who can’t take care of themselves, needing help with toileting and everything – they all get seen naked, and nothing happens to them.”
Zong Hang mumbled: “That won’t do.”
Jin Xiu had thought Zong Hang would be easy to convince, but she didn’t expect him to be so stubborn about certain things.
Finally, unable to persuade him, she had to hand him a wrung-out towel and turn her back: “You need to do it slowly, don’t use force…”
That seemed redundant – he couldn’t use much force anyway.
“If it’s difficult, tell me…”
Zong Hang made a sound of agreement, breathing heavily. Jin Xiu felt she’d stated the obvious again: of course it was difficult, even moving his fingers was exhausting.
She sighed: “Why are you being so particular? I don’t mind. They paid me a lot of money. You’re not even enjoying your good fortune. Does it have to be your parents to help you with this?”
After a pause, she heard Zong Hang say quietly: “Not even parents.”
Such pretense – when you were just born, forget parents, doctors, and nurses saw everything.
Jin Xiu pursed her lips: “What about a wife then?”
She perked up her ears waiting for his answer.
After a long while, she caught his mosquito-like whisper: “Wife… would be okay.”
Jin Xiu burst out laughing.
She waited for him to finish before taking the towel to do the rest, having to close her eyes while helping him change his underwear. He wouldn’t even let her wash the old underwear, insisting she throw it away, saying they could buy new ones daily and she could advance the money, which he’d pay back later.
Not a big person, but quite particular about things.
After cleaning up, Zong Hang gradually became tired. Jin Xiu helped him with a pillow and stood by with a blanket.
Yi Xiao had instructed: that after he fell asleep, various abnormal reactions would occur.
– When shivering from cold, cover him with blankets;
– When sweating profusely from heat, turn on the fan at full blast, or if necessary, apply ice;
– If black blood vessels surface like roots wrapping around his body, that’s up to fate – she needn’t do anything but watch. If the blood vessels burst…
Back then, Yi Xiao had said: “If the blood vessels burst, wake me up.”
Jin Xiu had asked: “Does that mean only you can help if the blood vessels burst?”
Yi Xiao hadn’t answered, but her expression was strange.
At the time, Jin Xiu couldn’t read that look, but now she suddenly recalled Yi Xiao’s mocking words: “You? Capable of killing?”
Was it because she couldn’t kill that she needed to wake Yi Xiao?
Jin Xiu shuddered.
Zong Hang asked her: “What’s wrong?”
Jin Xiu smiled to cover it up: “Nothing.”
Zong Hang seemed to notice her forced smile and after a moment of silence said: “I’m sorry for causing you trouble.”
Jin Xiu said: “What trouble? I should probably thank you, you know…”
She leaned closer to Zong Hang, lowering her voice: “She’s paying me a lot – twenty thousand US dollars for just one year, over a million yuan. I might not earn that much in ten years.”
Zong Hang said: “Did she just promise or give it to you? You need a deposit for this. Don’t be naive, falling for empty promises.”
Jin Xiu looked at Zong Hang with newfound respect: those words really made him sound like the son of successful businessman Zong Bishing. Seems he wasn’t completely ignorant about money.
She said: “She gave it. I was just about to tell you.”
She reached into her back pocket and pulled out a palm-sized, bright golden ingot.
Zong Hang said: “This… a gold bar?”
Truthfully, in the era of electronic payments, he rarely saw even paper money, let alone gold.
The bathroom light was dim, but perhaps like “beauty under lamplight,” the golden glow was extremely alluring.
“It’s not fake, is it?”
Jin Xiu gave Zong Hang a look, weighing the gold ingot in her hand: “What woman doesn’t have some gold and silver jewelry? I know how to appraise it. Ever heard of ‘seven green, eight yellow, nine five red’? This red-gold color means at least 95% purity. And look here, I bent it – these wrinkles are called ‘fish scale patterns.’ Only gold of 97% purity can show these patterns…”
“Most importantly, this shape – doesn’t it look like a dried persimmon? Let me tell you, this type of gold coin existed in the Han Dynasty, called persimmon gold. At current gold prices, this piece is worth at least seventy or eighty thousand. If it’s an antique, then…”
She didn’t continue.
Zong Hang had fallen asleep.
Jin Xiu felt disappointed at not being able to show off completely.
If it was an antique, just this deposit would be a huge windfall.
But…
Where did Yi Xiao get persimmon gold, and why would she use it for this transaction?
Jin Xiu spent a sleepless night.
By daybreak, Zong Hang had finally escaped from various conditions and fallen into deep sleep. Jin Xiu, in a daze, filled the bathtub with water, watching as it gradually submerged Zong Hang. For a moment, she suddenly felt like she was committing murder.
The thought gave her cold sweats.
She pushed open the bathroom door and came out.
Yi Xiao had just gotten up and was forcefully pulling open the curtains. The bright white daylight instantly wrapped around them, extremely dazzling.
Jin Xiu raised her hand to block it, and after a while, lowered it.
She saw Yi Xiao standing with her back to the window. Without the shelter of darkness, the light left her nowhere to hide: she was older and more haggard than imagined, even her lips were bloodless, her hair messy like dead grass, surely brittle to touch.
With so much money, she couldn’t even take care of her appearance.
Yi Xiao glanced at her: “Good work, you can rest now. I’ll have the staff buy food and necessities.”
Jin Xiu asked: “Will Zong Hang stay like this forever?”
“Can’t handle it anymore?”
“No, I’m afraid he’ll lie in the bathtub for the rest of his life.”
Yi Xiao smiled slightly: “That’s unknown, it depends on his fate. If he can endure seven days, gradually, if his flesh becomes firm, his limbs gain strength, he can walk and eat, then he’ll have passed this hurdle.”
Jin Xiu became excited: “Then what? Will you… let him go home?”
Yi Xiao ignored her.
She turned to face the large window. The sunlight shot into her pale gray eyes, creating a white expanse before her, rippling with countless gleams, like that night over twenty years ago at the Star Sea where the convoy had stopped on their way to Zaduo.
Then what?
Who could know what comes next?
Perhaps then it would end, or perhaps everything was just beginning.
(End of Volume One)