Chapter 61: Lost (Part 2)

  "Welcome back!"

  This is the first sentence I saw, I don't know what it means, it's my first time here, why does it say come back?

  The text behind tells me how to proceed next, and now I have no room for choice. After all, the two old men still have no news, and I don't know why, but in my heart there is a strong urge to go to that place to take a look. This impulse is beyond my control, and it doesn't even seem like my own consciousness, but rather someone has put it in my mind, and then suddenly at this moment it pops out and commands me to hurry over.

  Those words were written extremely detailed, even in the dark, because there was this mound of earth beside me as a reference object, I still easily understood the route to take next. Because at that time, I didn't think about taking the night road, so I didn't prepare extra batteries, fortunately, this flashlight can adjust brightness, I adjusted it to the lowest light that my eyes could see, and then walked forward with one foot deep and one foot shallow.

  After walking for about ten minutes, it seemed that there was a white thing in front of me. Originally, I wouldn't have noticed these things, but this white thing happened to be on my route. As I walked closer, I couldn't help but shine my flashlight on it. Although I had already been scared by the mound of earth earlier, this time I still couldn't help but start trembling all over again.

  What I saw was still a tomb, the kind commonly found in rural areas made of cement, so it would have a pale color in the dark. What scared me was this tombstone, which was black and had the deceased's portrait on it - someone I knew extremely well: my dad and mom.

  I rushed to the front of the tomb, and the cement on the tomb had already begun to crack, and even some weeds had grown out. It was clear that this tomb had been around for a while. The tombstone was also the same, it didn't look like it was newly made, but why were there two old people's photos on it? And these photos were exactly the same as the ones I saw at the bottom of the well, and they were wearing the clothes they wore on the day they went missing.

  I shone my flashlight on the tombstone, which had the birth and death dates of two elderly people. Their birthdays were the same as Mom and Dad's, and their deaths were three months ago. This suddenly reminded me of the death date on my mother's tombstone, also three months ago. If these really are the two old men, then who has been with me for the past three months? Why didn't I know that they had passed away as their son?

  With a mind full of doubts, I carefully looked at the tombstone again. When I saw the bottom part, I felt as if I had fallen into an ice cave. I adjusted the flashlight to its maximum brightness and reluctantly examined the tombstone repeatedly. I wasn't mistaken - there was no name of mine or my descendants on it. Only two old people's names and photos were engraved. This completely goes against China's traditional funeral customs. The practice of engraving "xx's tomb" is mostly seen in movies and TV shows, but rarely happens in real life. Not having the child's name on the tombstone is equivalent to driving them out of the house and severing the parent-child relationship, which is a great insult to those who are someone's children.

  I stared blankly at the two old people on the tombstone, and suddenly a strange idea emerged in my heart: if all of this were real, they are objectively existing, and the one who truly does not exist is actually me. Then everything seems to be explainable.

  My body started shaking uncontrollably. If this idea is true, then it means that I am the one who should not exist in this world, and I should be a ghost.

  But why can't I remember anything?

  Two old men on the tombstone smiled at me, I stared blankly at them, tears streaming down my face, flowing over my mouth, with a hint of bitterness. This feeling was so real, just like all my life before this sudden thought burst out, but now I don't know if it's true or not.

  I stood there stupidly, and I don't know how long it took, suddenly everything went black in front of me. It turned out that the battery had run out, but this brief blackout also made me come to my senses. I wiped away the tears on my face and bowed deeply to the old man's photo. No matter whether what I thought was true or not, at least during this time, I was happy to have them with me. I seemed to hear my mother say again: "You know, the most important thing in life is to be happy." I blinked my eyes frantically to prevent tears from flowing out, then picked up a flashlight that had been left on the ground and walked quickly in the direction provided by my phone.

  All the way, I saw many white graves again, each with a familiar photo on it, all smiling at me. I saw Erliang smiling at me, I saw Xiaorui smiling at me, and I saw Aunt Er from next door smiling at me. Their tombstones were engraved with their family members' names, and the time of death was three months ago. They looked at me and smiled, as if mocking this strange creature that came out of nowhere.

  I kept walking forward, and in front of me, white graves kept appearing. I didn't dare to look at them again, because I knew that no matter who they were, they would all be staring at me with a strange smile on their faces. I could only quicken my pace, trying to reach the place mentioned on the phone as soon as possible, and then solve all these mysteries. I didn't want to think that I was really a ghost, nor did I want to believe that the two old men had truly ceased to exist.

  Until the flashlight went out again, the sky gradually turned pale and I finally saw a faint light in front of me. I couldn't care about my fatigue, I exerted myself to walk forward, and the lights in front of me increased, although there were only a few points, but I knew I had arrived at my destination, according to the clues provided by my mobile phone, this was a small village, and those few lights should be the electric lights lit by early risers.

  There was a phone number in the woman's mobile phone, and it was because that number kept calling the woman that I could find her tomb. However, I didn't dial back to that number, because the number displayed on the phone was very familiar - it was my own phone number.

  I certainly knew that I didn't call my mother at that time, but now I've seen too many unbelievable and incomprehensible things, gradually becoming numb. Maybe someone used some high-tech thing to copy my phone card, or maybe it's because there's another me existing. Since I can appear out of nowhere, why can't there be another even more mysterious me?

  Following the prompt on my phone, I walked down the mountain step by step and slowly entered the village. At the entrance of the village, there was a huge stone monument with three large characters: Huā Fén Tóu. The characters were painted with red lacquer, which seemed to be dripping with blood.

  I knew this was the name of the small village, with a hint of strangeness and eeriness. But I didn't think about it anymore, starting from the tree next to the stone tablet, some early risers began to stare at me strangely, I ignored them and continued counting forward for twenty-four trees, seeing a not particularly large flat house on the side, the outer wall was painted black, just like the small black house in the old mansion that seemed like a black coffin. This is where I wanted to find. I thought: Chapter 23 told me how to find this place, now it's the twenty-fourth tree, could it be Chapter 24? All my doubts should be explained here. Without thinking much, I pushed open the slightly ajar door with force.

  There is a small courtyard inside the gate, and at one end of the courtyard there is only one small house. When people are outside, they can't see anything strange about this flat house, but when they walk in, they find that the internal structure is somewhat eerie. The side near the door is more spacious, and the further in you go, the narrower it becomes, making me think of a coffin lying flat on the ground at first glance. What surprised me even more was that I was very familiar with the small house in the courtyard. I had seen a woman walking here in my daze, and inside there was a young man wearing glasses waiting for me.