Chapter 25: Dream Club (Part 1)

  I looked at the sticky note, and the information that was revealed on it now seems useless. If I had believed Erniang's words back then, our family could have kept her from going out, and maybe she wouldn't have gotten into trouble. As for what she said about bringing many people to play with Erniang, my understanding is that this woman would take away even more lives. Yiniang must have seen the note, so when I told her everything about Erlang, she was scared because she feared being taken away by such a woman too.

  I continue flipping through the diary, where Er Lang's other world is hidden. Originally, I wasn't qualified to see these things, but now I have no choice but to understand all of this.

  I chose the last diary, and started reading from the first page, wanting to find something valuable inside, but unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any useful information in it. Most of what was recorded were work-related things. As I flipped through the pages, I suddenly felt that something was off, so I quickly flipped back to the page I had just turned over.

  I overlooked this page because I was preoccupied with thoughts of that woman, but after flipping past it, I realized the entry was too brief, so I flipped back.

  "I've finally joined the Dream Club, hoping my dreams can become ideals."

  "Arui, what's the difference between dreams and ideals?"

  "Do you have an ideal?"

  "If you were asked to give up or even go against some of your own principles for the sake of your ideals, would you be willing?"

  "Even if this ideal is absurd?"

  "My ideal is right here."

  "If one day... I will tell you."

  Those words about ideals that Er Lang once told me flashed through my mind, he had a premonition that something would happen to him at that time, unfortunately, he didn't tell me what his ideal was after all. As I looked at the sentence in the diary, an idea suddenly occurred to me: perhaps Er Lang will tell me what his ideal is in another way?

  I quickly and carefully flipped through the diary, but unfortunately, I didn't see any more text about ideals until the end. I put those few diaries in a bag to take home and study slowly. When I picked up the last one, another photo appeared underneath. Out of curiosity, I picked it up, and it was a group photo of two people, both of whom I knew. To be precise, I had only seen a photo of one of them before.

  One is Er Liang and the other is Wang Qiang.

  Did Erliang and Wang Qiang know each other? This was a completely unexpected discovery. Was Erliang trying to uncover the cause of Wang Qiang's death by constantly investigating this matter? It seemed like a plausible reason, but just then, I suddenly thought: if so, why did Erliang always run to Lao Chu's place? Even on the day he got into trouble, when he was already confused and disoriented, he was sitting at the entrance of Lao Chu's house, not Wang Qiang's. Could there be some unknown relationship between Erliang and Lao Chu that I didn't know about?

  The more I think about it, the more likely it seems, but now there's no one left who can give me a straight answer. I packed up all of Er Lang's diaries from over the years and took another look around to make sure I hadn't missed anything before heading downstairs and going home. As for going to Lao Chu's place, that will have to wait until after I've finished reading these diaries.

  Dad and mom also knew about Er Liang's affair, they had always treated him like one of their own, so when they heard the news, they were heartbroken too. Seeing me come back so late, they consoled me for a while, telling me to take care of myself more often. I nodded and responded casually before locking myself in my room to read those diaries.

  The next morning, I was woken up by a phone call from Yiniang. She gave me an address and asked me to go there, saying it was a law firm. The night before, I had stayed up too late reading Erlang's diary, so my head was still foggy. It took me a while to remember that Yiniang had told me to take full responsibility for handling all of Erlang's remaining affairs. I quickly got out of bed, washed up and rushed over there.

  The girl saw that I was a bit embarrassed, after a night's time, the anger in my heart had dissipated a lot, although I still had a lot of opinions about her, at least I wouldn't treat her like I did at first. After handing over all the procedures, the girl told me she had to rush back home immediately, and I was still afraid of her, but didn't blame her for anything. When we were about to part ways, the girl looked at me with a 'wanted to say something but couldn't' expression, I thought she had something to tell me but didn't know how to start, after thinking for a moment, I decided to tell her the one sentence that was stuck in my heart, I said: "Girl, I know what the second girl wrote that night?"

  The girl was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, perhaps this metaphor is not quite suitable for her, but I really saw her jump up, not the kind of angry "excitement" from arguing with someone, but because she was scared. I saw her face turn white, her whole body trembling constantly, her eyes staring at me as if she had seen something unbelievable. She stretched out a finger to point at me, I knew she wanted to tell me something, but couldn't open her mouth because she was too scared.

  I hastily supported the woman, although it was already noon, but her hand was cold to the extreme. She looked up at me, seeming to have made a major decision, and took out something from her close-fitting clothes, asking nervously: "Have you ever seen such a thing?"

  I took the thing that was handed to me by the woman, and my body suddenly became as tense as hers. I thought I had found something that might be useful to me again.

  It was a 'jade' pendant, in the shape of a rectangle, with a carved peony flower on it. What's different from what I've seen before is that this peony is red.

  That boss once said that Yang Hui gave him a 'jade' pendant, which he later sold to Old Chu. At the time, Er Liang specially asked about the appearance of this 'jade' pendant, and after hearing the boss's answer, Er Liang's face changed color. I thought his behavior was very strange at the time, but now it seems that it was because he had seen a similar 'jade' pendant before.

  I also have one on my body, which is said to be passed down from my ancestors. This piece on the old lady's hand should also be related to my old house, because they were all discovered by Yang Hui in the dry well of the old house. As for the rest of the pieces, I don't know who Yang Hui sold them to. I don't know what the old lady meant by taking out this piece, but I didn't tell her that I also have one. Pretending to be very curious, I took it and looked at it, saying: "I've never seen this before, where did it come from?"

  I want to get some information out of this woman because I feel like she's hiding a lot from me.

  The girl was still afraid and seemed not to have heard my question, until I asked for the third time, she suddenly came to her senses and said: "This was sent to me by Erliang a while ago."

  Where did Er Lang get this 'jade' pendant from? I was filled with curiosity, but I didn't ask directly. At this time, Mother should not hide anything from me anymore.

  As expected, the woman continued: "Erlang said that someone gave it to him, and then he passed it on to me, telling me to take good care of it and not lose it or sell it for money. At the time, I was very curious, but over the phone, I didn't ask any further questions. However, I always felt that Erlang seemed to have something to tell me that he couldn't say."

  I quietly looked at this piece of 'jade' pendant, carefully pondering one mother's words, seemingly, there is nothing useful, I handed the 'jade' pendant to one mother and said: "After all, this is a memento from Er Liang to you, just keep it."

  One of the girls saw the 'jade' pendant I handed over, but she seemed to have seen a ghost and shied away, her eyes full of shock and horror. She backed away while waving her hand: "I don't want it, I don't want it, throw it away quickly!"

  My heart skipped a beat: the girl was afraid of this piece of 'jade' pendant! I pretended to be nonchalant and said, "This is what Erliang left for you, why don't you want it?"

  One of the girls had a look as if she wanted to say something but hesitated, biting her teeth before finally speaking up: "This is a piece of demon jade!"

  I almost burst out laughing, but in an instant I suddenly thought of Yang Xiu's experience. Maybe this 'jade' pendant is really strange. I carefully asked: "Yi Niang, why do you say that?"

  The girl's face turned even paler, I almost doubted whether she could hold on like this, she kept a distance from me, staring at the jade pendant in my hand as if it would jump up and bite her at any moment. The girl said: "This jade pendant wasn't originally like this."

  I was startled and hastily asked: "What did it originally look like?"

  A girl trembled and replied to me: "It turns out that the peony is white like this 'jade'!"

  Although I am not a 'jade' stone expert, I also know that wanting a piece of 'jade' to change color in its natural state is absolutely impossible, let alone just targeting a certain part of it. If what the girl said was true, this can indeed be called a magical 'jade'.

  "What time did it become like this?"

  The girl seemed to be afraid of the cold and leaned towards me, but deliberately avoided the 'jade' pendant in my hand. She mentioned a time: "August 14th, 11 o'clock at night."

  My body also became as cold as a dead woman's, because it happened to be that night when Er Lang had the accident.

  But it was what the girl said next that truly made me feel afraid.

  That night, in the middle of the night, a woman got out of bed to drink water and inadvertently discovered that this piece of jade had changed color. Er Liang gave her this piece of jade, and she had been hiding it close to her body. I didn't call to tell her about Er Liang's accident until the next day. At that time, the woman was unaware of the matter, so although she was also very frightened by the change in the jade's color, she did not look like she does now.

  A woman and her husband bought a house by themselves, not living with their parents or having children, still enjoying their two-person world. That night, coincidentally, the husband was away on business, and the woman saw this change in the middle of the night, becoming so frightened that she couldn't sleep anymore, turning on all the lights in every room. Originally, she had placed that piece of 'jade' on the bedside cabinet, but every time she saw the red peony in the white 'jade', she felt terrified, so she moved it to the tea table in the living room, but when she returned to the bedroom, she still didn't feel at ease, always feeling like there was someone silently sitting in the living room. She spent half the night tossing and turning without sleeping well. The next day, I called her to tell her that Er Liang had passed away, and she immediately rushed over hastily, of course bringing that piece of 'jade' with her, after all it was the last gift her brother had given her.

  Yi Niang took a plane to get here, because the bureau wanted to do various tests on Er Liang's body, so Yi Niang stayed for a few more days. Of course, she didn't stay at Er Liang's house during these days, but instead stayed in a hotel.

  On the first night of staying in the hotel, Niang sat alone on the bed in the hotel room, staring at the jade that had changed color. Thinking of Er Liang, she couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness. Just then, suddenly heard from the top floor came a "ding" sound, like the sound of marbles falling to the ground.

  The rooms in the hotel were all carpeted, so even if something fell down, it wouldn't make such a clear sound. Moreover, it was just a small glass marble, but at that time, the girl didn't think of this question because suddenly, the bathroom started making "gurgling" sounds, as if someone was taking a bath inside.

  There was only one person in the room, so when she heard this sudden sound of running water, Yan's face changed color. She had also heard some rumors that hotels were the easiest place to see these things, so she quickly called the front desk and insisted on changing rooms.

  Someone came quickly from the front desk, and the showerhead in the bathroom was indeed leaking water. The staff took a look and said that the faucet was broken and needed to be repaired. Niang didn't care about that much, hastily packed her things and rushed out, just as she walked out of the room door, Niang seemed to see a little kid staring at her from the corner of the house.

  After changing rooms, it was indeed free from all these troubles, and the mother let out a big sigh of relief. She was also very tired, so she took a quick bath and went to bed to sleep. Just as she was about to fall asleep in a daze, she suddenly heard a voice speaking next to her ear.

  A girl let out a loud cry and jumped up from the 'bed', not only because someone was speaking in her ear, but also because she was too familiar with the sentence. The voice said: "Auntie said that tomorrow she will come to play with me again, and bring many people wearing red clothes to play with me together."