Chapter Sixteen: The Old Lady's Face in the Mirror

  Hope the picture didn't scare anyone...

  In 1990, winter.

  This winter arrived especially early, the leaves on both sides of the street had all fallen off, piled up on the ground, and when blown by the cold wind, they made a harsh and dry rubbing sound. The pedestrians on the road had already put on thick cotton-padded jackets too early, shrinking their necks into the high-standing collars.

  Du Jie sat at the back of his father's bicycle, with a face full of reluctance. The tear stains on his tender face had not yet dried, and were blown by the cold wind onto his face, making it even more painfully numb.

  "Dad, don't go get that thing done, okay? I'm so scared, it's going to hurt, isn't it?" Du Jie cried and begged, clinging to his father's waist.

  "You're such a wimp! Are you even a real man? Go to the hospital and get checked out, then we can figure out what's going on and treat it. If you don't go, how the hell am I supposed to know why your stomach keeps hurting?"

  "Dad, I...I found out that my stomach doesn't hurt anymore. It really doesn't hurt anymore. Can we go home now?"

  "You think I'm willing to spend that much money? I won't be at peace if I don't check carefully.Your mom passed away early, I promised her to keep you safe and sound until you're a hundred years old."

  In Du Jie's frightened heart, his father had already ridden the bicycle to the entrance of People's Hospital. His father locked up the bike and carried Du Jie into the hospital as if he were a small rabbit. When they arrived at the Gastrointestinal Department, Doctor Chen wrote out an order for a gastroscopy and asked: "You haven't eaten anything since last night until this morning, have you?"

  Du's father said: "No, no, you ordered us yesterday that we must come on an empty stomach today to check, we remember."

  "The doctor said: 'After you go to the cashier to pay and get the receipt, take it to the inspection department for inspection. After the test results come out, bring them back to me.'"

  "Yes, thank you." Du Fu grabbed Du Jie's small hand and headed to the payment office. After completing all the formalities, Du Fu dragged a reluctant Du Jie to the gastroscopy examination room.

  I didn't expect so many people to be doing gastroscopy, and they even had to queue up. A nurse at the entrance asked everyone to hand over their documents, then wait for their name to be called before going in for the gastroscopy examination.

  Du Jie was trembling with fear, sitting on a chair in the corridor, when he saw a middle-aged man who had just finished checking from inside and walked out. The middle-aged man was covered in sweat, his veins bulging, his right hand covering his neck, and his face contorted in pain. Du Jie saw that the corners of his eyes were filled with tears.

  The middle-aged man's expression deepened Du Jie's inner fear. He wanted to escape, run far away, although he still didn't quite understand what a gastroscopy was like, but yesterday he heard the doctor say it was inserting a tube with a camera from his mouth all the way into his stomach, which was too scary.

  He was very regretful, why his stomach always hurt, every time after eating, he started to hiccup constantly, and then there was a faint burning pain, and taking medicine had no effect. His father had no choice but to follow the doctor's advice and have an gastroscopy done for his son.

  The waiting process was very scary, feeling that time passed very slowly, but also hoping that time would pass slowly. However, after waiting for about 45 minutes, the nurse finally called Du Jie's name. Du's father wanted to follow him in, but was rejected by the nurse: "Family members can wait outside."

  Du Jie was led into the examination room by a nurse. As he entered, there was another patient next to him undergoing a gastroscopy examination. The middle-aged man lying on the bed had a huge tube inserted into his throat and kept making hoarse, painful sounds, as if he wanted to vomit but couldn't. His legs were constantly kicking.

  His struggling appearance made Du Jie's legs go soft, and he was pushed onto the bed by a rough nurse. He desperately overcame his inner fear, but found that his heartbeat accelerated to the point where it almost jumped out of his chest.

  The doctor who performed the examination was a kind-hearted middle-aged woman, she saw that Du Jie was extremely nervous and smiled to comfort him: "Don't be afraid, it doesn't hurt, during the insertion process you will only feel a little nauseous and want to vomit, don't worry, it's quick."

  The doctor applied a layer of medical lubricant around the tube, then took something and inserted it into Du Jie's mouth, prying his mouth open to prevent him from closing it due to discomfort. The thick tube was slowly inserted into Du Jie's mouth, inching its way in bit by bit.

  At the moment when the tube slid down his throat, Du Jie felt that his whole body suddenly contracted, a huge vomiting sensation came, and the feeling was extremely uncomfortable. However, apart from this discomfort, he didn't actually feel any pain or anything. Du Jie gradually began to relax because he had previously expected it to be very painful. This psychological contrast made him much more at ease. He couldn't understand why those middle-aged men looked like they were fighting for their lives.

  The doctor couldn't help but praise him: "You're a really brave little boy."

  Having received the doctor's praise, Du Jie relaxed even more, his mood relaxed, and his nerves were no longer tense. Those uncomfortable feelings also alleviated a lot.

  Next to Du Jie, there was something similar to a computer. On the screen was an image taken from inside Du Jie's stomach. Du Jie suddenly had a strong desire to see what his stomach looked like on the inside, so he took advantage of the doctor typing on the keyboard and slightly tilted his head, allowing him to also see the image of his stomach interior.

  His one glance was almost too much, and nearly scared him half to death.

  Because on that square screen, there is a red and yellow picture, which is a sticky red flesh wall emitting white light. This red flesh has two places with slightly deeper colors, these two places with deep colors are parallel, and the color below is white.

  That's a human face! A living person's face, with a pair of grayish-red eyes, at this moment revealing a row of white teeth, smiling in front of the camera.

  Yes, this is a human face, and it's inside my stomach. The deep red eyes, the forehead has some wrinkles, that should be the facial features of this face, she looks like an old lady, an old granny with a wrinkled face, but her teeth are very white, when she smiles at the gastroscope camera, those rows of white teeth are slightly curved upwards.

  Du Jie was so scared that he let out a loud scream, but because of the tube in his throat, he couldn't make any specific sound, only making "hmm" noises, and his four limbs were also reflexively kicking.

  The doctor said: "Why are you suddenly struggling now? Don't worry, the examination is over. You don't have to move anymore. I'll take out the tube."

  When the tube was pulled out of Du Jie's throat, he lowered his head and vomited with a gurgling sound, but since there was no food in his stomach, it was just dry retching.

  "Hey kid, the examination is over. Why do you look so pale? Don't be afraid, it's nothing serious. You can go out first, and the nurse will call your name later to give you the test results."

  Du Jie covered his stomach and ran out like a madman. His throat felt as if there was something slippery rubbing against it, just like when he swallowed a piece of greasy fat, the fat rubbed against his throat and made him feel nauseous.

  There's a face on my stomach, an old lady's face inside my stomach. It's impossible, that's too terrifying. But I really did see it, a wrinkled old lady who seemed to know I was peeking and deliberately smiled at me. This is just too terrifying...

  Du's father saw Du Jie's unusual appearance and scolded: "You little rabbit, why do you have a pale face like a dead person? You're not going to tell me that the examination found some serious illness, are you? I don't have money to treat you, you know!"

  After 5 minutes, the nurse took out the test sheet and called Du Jie's name. Du father quickly took it over, saw a line of words on the test sheet, but most importantly: no abnormalities.

  That is to say, Du Jie's stomach is healthy and strong. Since the gastroscopy said there was nothing wrong, then it really is nothing serious. His pain should slowly get better.

  Du Jie walked out of the hospital without saying a word.

  "Du Fu scolded: 'You little rabbit, the inspection is over and nothing's wrong, shouldn't you be happy? Why are you still looking like a dead man?'"

  Du Jie said in a frightened tone: "Dad, I...I just did an endoscopy and saw an old lady's face inside my stomach..."

  He had just finished speaking when Du Fu suddenly slapped Du Jie with a loud slap. The force of the slap was so great that Du Jie was knocked to the ground.

  He didn't understand why his father suddenly tied him up, it hurt so much. Was it because he said there was a human face in his stomach and that enraged his dad? Although his dad usually liked to scold him with all sorts of foul language, he had never hit him before.

  All of this, what is it all because of?

  That terrifying blood-red human face has been hiding in my stomach all this time, eating the food I eat every day, and has spent over 20 years there...