Sludge to the Mountain Ghost

The little girl was brought up by her grandma, and she knew her temper very well. It was something she could do to sit on the train for twenty hours in a fit of anger.

"I'll call him tomorrow, it's okay." Lin Pai raised his phone and shook it, "Too much homework tonight, if it's too late, I'll sleep at the Internet cafe, grandma, go to bed first."

After Lin Pai finished speaking, he went out. He walked to the door of Xinsheng Internet Cafe sullenly, and saw from a distance that Dong Wenwen was no longer there, and the person on night shift was replaced.

He continued to walk forward, and after three streets, he arrived at Heshan High School. The dormitory building in the living area was far away from the gate, and the teaching area in front was empty, and the gate was closed tightly as expected.

He walked around the back mountain with ease, and then arrived at the school at the old place.

In the middle of the night, there is no light on the path behind the experimental building, and the darkness stretches along the experimental field, as if there is no edge, the dry ropes on it are hidden, and the sheds in the distance are blurred.

Lin Pai took out a cigarette, knocked it upside down along the corner a few times, and then caught it between his index finger and middle finger. He pressed the lighter, and a ray of fire lit up in the long darkness. It was soon blown out by the howling north wind.

He repeated it several times, all with the same ending.

Lin Pai gave himself a deadline: after smoking this cigarette, he will dial Lin Kangrong's number.

But the cigarette doesn't seem to light up anyway.

After the fire went out several times, Lin Pai suddenly saw a beam of light in the direction of the school gate, which seemed to be from a flashlight, approaching him.

He put away the lighter, and quietly retreated to the tree with crooked branches and leaves, silently waiting for the security guard or teacher patrolling late at night to leave.

31. Chapter 31

"Hey--"

Accompanied by an exclamation, a beam of light suddenly lit up in the darkness, just as Lin Pai took out the lighter, he raised his hand reflexively to cover his eyes.

The beam of light he saw in the distance disappeared after a while. He thought it was the patrolling person walking away, but he didn't expect that the other party turned off the flashlight on purpose and walked this way.

Being caught smoking in school, Lin Pai even began to conceive of a self-criticism to be read on the rostrum.

"Lin Pai? Why is it you?" The light swayed from side to side, and finally moved from his face to the ground. Lin Pai heard the other party let out a long sigh of relief, as if he had let go of a boulder that was pressing on his heart.

He rubbed his eyes, took a moment to get used to the light at the moment, and finally recognized Xu Rui's eyebrows and eyes by the light of the flashlight shining on the ground.

"Why are you here?" The two asked each other in unison, but no one answered.

Lin Pai was holding a lighter in his hand, and there was still a cigarette in his left hand that he hadn't had time to light. From anyone's point of view, his intentions were obvious.

He silently threw the lighter into his pocket, and looked Xu Rui up and down. The other party was still wearing the clothes he left the Internet cafe, and his schoolbag was still there, as if he had just returned to school, but didn't he mean that he received a call from the police station? Is there a call?

"Then what...you smoke it." Xu Rui raised the phone, pointed to the pocket of the lighter that Lin Pai had just thrown into the lighter with the light of the flashlight, then turned off the flashlight function of the phone, and leaned against the wall with his back, as if he could Break the embarrassment between the two.

Lin Pai took out the lighter from his pocket and held it in his hand, looked at it hesitantly, and then started to light the fire without saying a word. The flame blew a few times in the wind and went out without accident.

Lin Pai tried a few more times, but it was still the same as before, the flames were shaking in the cold wind, flickering and extinguishing.

Xu Rui caught a glimpse of this scene out of the corner of his eye. He turned to Lin Pai and put his palms around the lighter to shield Lin Pai from the wind, but it still didn't light up.

"Forget it, maybe it's out of gas." Lin Pai held the lighter and lowered his hand to his side.

Xu Rui unzipped his coat, approached Lin Pai, raised his collar and surrounded a narrow space with the open placket, "Try again."

Lin Pai raised his eyes and was stunned for a moment. After receiving Xu Rui's affirmative nod, he habitually turned the cigarette upside down, tapped a few times along the corners, and this time it was lit with one click.

The faint spark became the only light source in the dark night. Lin Pai took a sip, and the smoke he exhaled spiraled upwards, and disappeared without a trace when blown by the wind.

"Didn't you go to the police station? Why are you here?" Lin Pai and Xu Rui leaned against the wall side by side and asked him with their heads turned sideways.

"Didn't you also say to go home and then hide here to smoke?" Xu Rui lowered his head and said sullenly.

After a while of silence, the two said the same sentence again, "You speak first."

Xu Rui chuckled helplessly, "They found a surveillance camera in a corner of Nanxing City. There was a person whose back was very similar to He Hui. They asked me to identify whether that dress belonged to He Hui."

"Is it her?"

"It should be, but it was all monitored two days ago. I guess they will have to wait for enthusiastic citizens to provide clues if they want to find someone."

"Finally there is progress..." Lin Pai raised his head halfway, the smell of nicotine and burning tar surrounded him, he gradually closed his eyes, and continued to ask, "And then? What does this have to do with you appearing here ?”

"Do you believe me when I say telepathy?"

Lin Pai shook his head, although Xu Rui might not be able to see this movement, he still shook his head a lot, "You lied, didn't you? What seven aunts and eight aunts, you just talked about it casually A lie, used to lie to me."

"Yes, I've been living in the school equipment room recently. When I came back and saw the fire, I thought that group of people had chased me into the school, and I was shocked." Xu Rui was silent for a while, but still admitted it.

"No..." Lin Pai continued to shake his head, "You just want to find a reason to reject me."

"I didn't, I just, I've troubled you enough..."

"Oh..." Lin Pai lowered his head, took a deep breath, and all the smoke he exhaled was blown onto his face.

Xu Rui suddenly felt that something was wrong with the atmosphere, he raised his elbow and bumped Lin Pai twice, then changed the subject and said, "It's your turn."

"Me? I quarreled with my grandma, ran away from home, gone."

"Why did you quarrel? Speaking of this, I happened to see you opening the door and rushing into your house. Did you want to go out too, but I didn't seem to see you go out that night. "

"That time... also ran away from home..."

Lin Pai's voice became more and more emboldened, but Xu Rui burst out laughing.Lin Pai gave him a wink, and Xu Rui cooperatively stopped smiling.

"The reason for the quarrel is... my grandma told me to call Lin Kangrong, and asked me to call him back for the New Year. You said he hadn't heard from him for nearly ten years, why did my grandma suddenly, just, have to look for him?" Lin Pai's emotions rose up, and the volume also unconsciously amplified.

"Who is Lin Kangrong?"

"Similar to your relationship with He Hui."

"Your mother?"

"My Father."

"Is he missing too?"

"The nature of his matter is different from yours. Occasionally—for example, every one or two years, he will send a letter home, probably...telling us that he is still alive, but he just won't come back."

"Then have you compromised?"

"Well, her old man's bitter tricks have been played..." Lin Pai nodded helplessly, the cigarette between his fingers had only been burned to a short length, "I originally wanted to finish smoking this cigarette , just give him a try, he might not answer anyway.”

Lin Pai walked a few steps to the trash can, and put out the cigarette butt in the ashtray above. The faint sparks scattered and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

He walked up to Xu Rui and took out his mobile phone, and called up Lin Kangrong's number in the address book, "It's over, please dial the number for me."

Xu Rui glanced at the number. He had heard of the name of the place where the number belonged to, but he had never been there. His impression was that it was about the same location as Heshan Town. In any corner of the map, he pressed the dial button nonchalantly.

"Wrong, wrong, wrong, it's my fault. Why don't you say it when you're in love, I'm so confused by the helplessness of life. Can you stop talking, it's better to keep silent—"

The waiting ringer rang, Lin Pai didn't press the speakerphone, but in this silent night, the ringer from the receiver was still clear, it was a recent popular song on the street, especially popular among middle-aged people .

"Hey?"

Through the mobile phone, Lin Kangrong's voice was a little different from usual, and Lin Pai hardly recognized whether it was him, "Hello, is this Lin Kangrong?"

"I am, who are you?"

"I'm Lin Pai, grandma asked me to call you and let you go home for the New Year."

"Fuck! She kept calling herself, and even asked someone to change the number to call. I fucking knew it... beep, beep, beep..."

The call was hung up by Lin Kangrong. Lin Pai closed the "Call ended" interface, and the phone displayed "Recording has been saved".

He originally wanted to use this recording to communicate with grandma, but he has now deleted the recording cleanly.

"Is he usually like this... irritable?" Xu Rui looked up at Lin Pai tentatively, and blinked at him.

"I don't know how he is usually, but in my childhood memory, he seems to be a normal person."

Lin Pai put away his mobile phone indifferently, and took out a new one from the cigarette case. Xu Rui noticed that the pack of cigarettes he smoked was not the same as Zhao Kun's.

"Let me help you." Xu Rui snatched the lighter from Lin Pai's hand, carefully shielded it from the wind, and lit a cigarette for Lin Pai.

He observed Lin Pai's smoking posture curiously, and suddenly asked him, "When did you start smoking?"

Lin Pai held the cigarette in his ear, didn't speak, let the cigarette butt burn in it, as if he was really trying to remember, "I can't remember