Chapter 45 "Which One?" (6)

  Dong Agen knew that his son was frugal from a young age, and apart from a few sets of clothes to change into, he wouldn't have left much behind. But this trunk was unusually large. Dong Agen remembered that when his son first went to the new city, he didn't have such a trunk with him. He hadn't paid it any mind, thinking that his son must have made it himself later on. The trunk was very heavy, and he had no idea what his normally frugal son could have packed inside.

  From the boss's attitude towards handling his son's aftermath, he seems like a decent person and wouldn't casually open the discount box to look at a dead man's belongings. Dong Agen also became curious, felt around but found that the box was locked with a very large lock, the boss didn't give him the key, maybe it fell off when Dong Agen's son crashed down. Dong Agen gritted his teeth, found tools and struggled to pry open the box, then reached his hand inside.

  Dong Agen spoke in a flat tone, as if telling someone else's story, but when he got to this point, I noticed his body trembling slightly. I quickly asked: "What was in the box?"

  Dong Agen slowly turned his head to "look" at me, and the eerie white of his eyes in the candlelight made me even more afraid. Dong Agen was still desperately trying to open his eyes wide, as if he wanted to see clearly the person in front of him. He said: "Inside are coffins, many coffins!"

  "What kind of coffin?"

  Dong Agen said: "It's a small coffin, I shook it, and each coffin has something hidden inside. (Material Empire)"

  My heart was almost jumping out, vaguely I thought I had discovered something, I held my breath and asked: "What's inside?"

  Dong Agen reached into his close-fitting clothes and handed me something. As soon as I took it, my whole body felt like it had fallen into an icy cave. My guess was correct - the thing in the coffin was a jade pendant, the same one I held in my hand now. The peony on it was a bright red, like blood, shining brightly.

  What really scares me is not seeing this jade pendant, but thinking of a sentence that Dong Agen's son said to me: "There are still many things that haven't been put away properly, I have to go to work." I never understood what he meant by this sentence, but now I think I understand. The small black coffin in the wall of my house should be the one he put there. No one is more likely to do something secretly on a construction site than a migrant worker. As for why he did it and where these coffins came from, it's not necessary to say that they must have something to do with the Dream Club.

  What I'm afraid of is that I suddenly thought of a possibility, Dong Agen's son often works two jobs at the same time, and there are many small coffins in that trunk. Adding to what he said to me, it can be confirmed that he has placed such small coffins in many places. Because of this coffin, I saw all sorts of strange things in my room that scared me. Did others see them too? What did they see? The letter recording the story of Old Chu flashed through my mind again, and what the migrant worker said was: "What did you see?"

  My heart is not just afraid, but also a bit confused. I really saw someone who shouldn't be seen: Dong Agen's son.

  Perhaps the only choice I have now is to continue listening to Dong Agen, so I asked: "What about that big trunk?"

  Dong Agen said: "It was taken away by someone."

  I was shocked: "Who took it away?"

  Dong Agen said: "A woman, a very old woman."

  After Dong Agen came out of the hospital, he either faced his son's belongings or went to the cemetery to guard in front of his son's grave. Although he was blind, he had a good memory. Others took him there once, and he remembered where his son's tomb was located.

  Dong Agen was startled by the sudden voice, his eyes couldn't see but his hearing was very good, yet he hadn't heard the woman's footsteps. Although he had been talking and hadn't noticed earlier, this woman appeared too mysteriously, especially with her abrupt and inexplicable sentence.

  But Dong Agen couldn't care about that, he was already an old man, and after his son left, he felt that life was dull and meaningless. So when he heard this sentence, although he thought it was unbelievable, he immediately asked: "What's your solution?"

  The woman said: "Give me that trunk."

  Dong Agen was startled: "What box?"

  The old woman sighed and said, "That box filled with small coffins, give it to me, then I'll teach you how to see your son. First, prepare the box, and I'll come find you at night."

  Dong Agen hastily said: "How did you know there was that trunk? Who are you?"

  Before long, the old woman had gone far away, and only a voice came from afar: "Because that trunk was given to him by me."

  Dong Agen heard the woman walk away, remembered what she said, and lost interest in staying at his son's grave. He hastily packed up and rushed back, and when he reached the entrance of the cemetery management office, he couldn't help but ask the gatekeeper if he had seen an old woman enter earlier.

  Dong Agen almost every day comes to his son's grave to cry, the old man who guards the door is very familiar with him. When he asks, he tells him very bluntly that he has been guarding the gate all along and hasn't seen anyone go in. Finally, he also kindly reminds Dong Agen to pay attention to rest, implying that he might be having hallucinations due to excessive nostalgia for his son.

  Dong Agen knew that all of this was not an illusion, but he also didn't know why the old man at the door hadn't seen such a person enter. He thought back to how quietly the woman had come and gone, and his heart had skipped a beat as he wondered if he had "seen a ghost". Returning home to remind him, it wasn't until very late that the woman still hadn't come over to take anything, Dong Agen let out a sigh of relief. But at the same time, he also felt a hint of regret, because he really wanted to see his son again. Although he knew this idea was too absurd, what if the old woman was actually a ghost?

  Dong Agen was lost in thought, when the clock struck twelve, signaling midnight. He got up to go to bed, just as he heard a sudden "knock knock knock" at the door.

  The knocking sound was neither urgent nor slow, and it didn't seem to stop. It just kept going in a regular rhythm, as if the person inside wouldn't open the door unless it continued like this. Dong Ah's heart, which had already relaxed, immediately tensed up again. She gritted her teeth and finally opened the door.

  The blind man's senses were very keen, but he couldn't feel anyone in front of him now. Dong Agen's heart suddenly stood on end, and he cautiously asked, "Where are you?"

  At this moment, Dong Agen suddenly felt that there was an extra person behind him, and he couldn't help but jump in fright. He blocked the doorway, and it was impossible for the other party to bypass him and enter the room. The only possibility was that the other party was not human. Dong Agen's body began to tremble with tension as he asked, "Who are you?"

  I was also made nervous by Dong Agen's narrative, and before he could open his mouth, I asked impatiently: "Who is she?"

  Dong Agen shook his head: "She didn't say, just took away that trunk and then told me to do what she said, saying that as long as I did well, I could see my son."

  I curiously asked: "What did she ask you to do?"

  Dong Agen said: "She wants me to help everyone convey some words to people they will never see again."

  This sentence is a bit awkward, I thought for a while before I realized it was what they called spiritualism. I'm not very convinced of these things, even if I just saw Dong Agen's son, it can't change my mind, but I don't know how to say this to Dong Agen, so I said: "Is that all? Then how can you communicate with those dead people? And what makes you believe what she says?"

  Dong Agen shook his head and said, "These things can't be told to you, just know that I can do it, and she doesn't allow me to accept any payment, the only requirement is just one."

  "What requirements?" I asked hastily.

  Dong Agen said a sentence that was extremely familiar to me: "If you want to know what others don't know, you must use something that others can't know to exchange it." This wasn't the first time I heard him say this, but the first time I didn't understand what he meant. Now looking at the stack of paper in front of me and thinking about the young woman from earlier, I think I finally understood - what's being asked for is using one of your secrets to exchange for a chance to pass on a message to the dead.

  I looked at the papers in front of me, and I didn't know what to feel. It turned out that the things recorded on these papers were all like this. After thinking for a moment, I asked: "What if someone just made up something to deceive you?"

  Dong Agen smiled and said, "You can try."

  I forced a dry laugh and hastily changed the subject, asking "What happened next?"

  Dong Agen said: "Later she left, I asked her who she was and why she wanted to find me, she only said one sentence."

  "What's wrong?" I asked nervously.

  Dong Agen's expression on his face also changed, as if he was also savoring the meaning of those words. After a while, he said: "She said 'You are the first one, your son is not the first one.'"

  This is a sentence that makes me also confused, Dong Agen once said I was the second, now another "first" and a "not first" come out, what are they talking about, after all, which one am I?