Chapter 54: Ghost Burial Notes X Warm Uterus

  I'm a bit disappointed that Qing Cheng has been hiding this secret all along, without any intention of acknowledging the two-faced baby at all. On the other hand, Hong Mei seems to have a strong affection for the two-faced baby and is very attached to it.

  Many things in the world are like this, the birth mother who has been pregnant for ten months and given birth to a baby does not cherish it, but an outsider who is not related to her loves it as if it were her own child.

  I suddenly remembered what the server Zhu Ling said: "My 'Ghost Burial' is the result of my gestation for four years, 48 months, day and night, a baby born, I just hope someone will see it, love it, rather than casually vilify it, destroy it."

  Yes, everyone who truly loves a result of their own labor will really treat it as their own child, in the warm womb, slowly growing, expecting one day to arrive in this real world, opening their eyes to see this rich and colorful world.

  I was thinking and thinking, and I started to feel drowsy. I really wanted to close my eyes and sleep. Suddenly, I noticed that the row of grayish-black nose mites on the ceiling had grown a lot, now they were tightly lined up in a black straight line. This scene was too disgusting. On the first night when I moved in, I wanted to give feedback to the landlady about this situation, but because so many things happened these days, I kept forgetting about those disgusting nose mites on the edge of the room's ceiling.

  Although the thing that makes me feel sick to my stomach is no longer the snot worm, but rather the mosquito, I decided to go talk to the landlady about the many snot worms in the room so that I can sleep soundly tonight and it's still early. I went downstairs and found that the landlady was not there. The large hall on the first floor was empty and desolate. The front door was not closed, and the cold wind outside blew in, causing the two rows of newspapers at the entrance of the dining room to rustle loudly.

  The first floor of the Lei Gong Hotel is mainly a large hall in the middle, with a dining room on the left and a staff rest room on the right. Now, surprisingly, there isn't a single person in the lobby, usually there would be an odd-jobber sitting on a worn-out sofa in the lobby yawning or the boss's wife playing with her phone at the cash register. Neither of them is present now, making this first floor look like an abandoned hotel, eerily quiet.

  I turned around a few times and found that there was no one, the atmosphere was a bit abnormal. In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, I quickly left the hall and returned to the second floor. I opened my own room and inserted the card to turn on the electricity. At this moment, I suddenly saw someone sitting on my bed.

  A person who shouldn't be in my room is now sitting properly on my bed, quietly looking at me. This person is exactly the one I was just thinking of finding, the landlady.

  I don't know why the landlady ran into my room. She said calmly: "You don't have to be surprised, I have a key card for all rooms here."

  I nodded, but I didn't lower my guard. She came to my room, she must have had her own purpose. The landlady was a stout and obese middle-aged woman with permed short curly hair, her eyebrows shaved off and redrawn into two thin curved willow leaf-shaped brows, her mouth smeared with inferior lipstick. She wore a fake yellow-brown leather coat with some inferior fluff at the collar.

  The boss's wife said: "You don't have to be so vigilant with me, I won't hurt you and can't even if I wanted to, although I really do want to hurt you."

  "I said: 'Alright, tell me, what's your purpose in coming to my room?'"

  The boss's wife said: "I came here to ask you to forgive my son. I want to plead with you on his behalf, please forgive my son."

  I was shocked, I really didn't expect that Ah Hao would be the boss's wife's son, this relationship is too unexpected.

  I said, "I'm not a vengeful person, and besides, he's already been taken away by the police. He'll be punished by law for killing his girlfriend. So I don't hate him, you don't need to come all this way to plead on his behalf."

  "I think you've got it wrong, my son is not Ah Hao but Zhu Huiling."

  "What? You're his mother?"

  I finally understand, after Ruan Defeng brought the police to successfully rescue us, the reason for that vague sense of unease - we were tied up on the wooden stakes, and it was impossible for Zhu Huiling alone to accomplish this with his thin build. He must have had other accomplices. And now I also know that this accomplice is none other than Zhu Huiling's mother - the owner of the Leigong Inn.

  "This child has been saying since he was young that he possesses the yin-yang eyes, and can see many people that ordinary people cannot see. So from a young age to adulthood, we have always thought of him as a spiritually defective child. After graduating from junior high school, he ran away from home, and even I couldn't find him. He would only call me on the last day of every month, saying that he is living happily now, and telling me not to worry about him. Haha, this silly child. He wandered outside for many years until a few years ago when he came back here. However, he has a medical record stating that he had suffered from brain trauma and lost many memories. The most heartbreaking thing is that he completely forgot about me. I remember the day he saw me as if it was his first time meeting me, saying that he just arrived and liked this place, hoping to work as a waiter in the restaurant. At first, I thought he was pretending not to recognize me, but later I realized that wasn't true - he really lost all memory of me. So I had no choice but to act like his boss, ordering him around every day, even sometimes hating him for not recognizing me, and for leaving home during the most important period of his life, not letting me accompany him by his side. Therefore, I often took out my frustrations on him, hitting him, scolding him, using the most vicious language to insult him. But he didn't care at all. I know that every day he writes on his computer, often staying up late writing that novel "Ghost Burial". Until today, he asked me to help him bring you three people into the forest. At first, I warned him saying don't do anything wrong, I'll call the police. But, but he actually said to me, boss lady, this is my first time asking you for something, and it will also be the last time, boss lady, when I first saw you, I felt a sense of familiarity, like you were my mother, I really want to call you... mom."

  The boss's wife said with tears streaming down her face, "My tears flowed instantly, and I decided to agree to his request - you all know what happened later."

  I remained silent, unsure of what to say. I wanted to scold the boss's wife for being so cruel and helping her own son jump into the abyss, but on the other hand, I could deeply feel the genuine emotions that she couldn't refuse.

  "I'm going to turn myself in at the police station, so I've come to ask you to forgive him. He's just too obsessed with his 'Ghost Burial' and that's why he's become like this."

  "Madam, I said I didn't hate him. At least he's no longer here now. Whether or not I hated him can't change anything."

  "Something can be changed, something can be changed, does this mean you've forgiven him?"

  "Uh-huh."

  "Great, yeah, naturally, I have something I want to give you."

  The boss's wife pulled out a light yellow notebook from behind her back.

  "This is——"

  "This was given to me by Zhuo Ling last night. He told me that no one believed him, and the 'Ghost Burial' he wrote is true. This notebook is a route map drawn by him during his many years of wandering in the Ghost Burial world. He hopes I can entrust this notebook to someone who is willing to forgive him, and at the same time, hopes that person can replace him to complete the Ghost Burial world, the last secret of the Ghost Burial."

  I said, "Sorry about this, I can accept this notebook and keep it well, but you want me to go to that Ghost Burial World he talked about? Sorry, I'm really not interested, nor will I go searching for the ultimate secret of the ghost burial."

  The boss's wife smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. As long as you're willing to accept this notebook, I'll be at ease. Whether you go or not is entirely up to you. I'll just thank him on your behalf."

  I actually just didn't want to refuse at that time, so I accepted this notebook. At that time, how would I have known what would happen later?

  This notebook has brought me so much trouble and excitement that it even changed the fate of the entire Muse Society.

  I put Zhu Huiling's notebook into my luggage, the landlady stood up and bowed to me again, saying: "Thank you very much for your forgiveness, I can finally settle this matter and go to prison with a smile. Once again, on behalf of Zhu Huiling and his restless soul, thank you."

  After the boss's wife left, I closed the door and locked it securely. I lay on my bed, with the gentle and calm voice of the boss's wife still echoing in my mind. The melancholy of loss was like the night outside the window, growing thicker and more intense.

  Sleep tight, tomorrow morning we'll leave the Leigong Inn and this place behind, returning to the bustling metropolis of Longcheng. Let everything that happened here be buried here.

  I lay in bed, tossing and turning several times, but eventually fell asleep. This sleep was extremely deep and sweet, without any dreams, and I slept until dawn.

  The next morning at 8 o'clock, I woke up and had breakfast with Kui Ruo Lan and Chen Qiu Yang in the dining hall. The waiter told us that the boss's wife had gone to the police station to surrender herself. After finishing our meal, we carried our luggage and went to the haystack to bid farewell to the Double-Faced Baby, but we didn't know whether it was out or hiding inside the haystack sleeping. We didn't see it.

  We went out to the highway and waited for a tricycle to take us to town. We were going to take a bus back to Longcheng from the town, and I also wanted to go to the town hospital to say goodbye to Qingjiang. The three of us sat in the back seat of the tricycle, watching the road slowly move away from the Leigong Hotel, with endless emotions.