Chapter 5 Fives

A co-worker of mine once emailed me a joke, also about talking dogs.A man walked into a bar with a dog and said to the waiter, "This dog can speak human language. I'll sell you five yuan." "Really? Tell him to talk about it." The waiter said.So the man elbowed the dog. "Say something and let him listen." The man ordered.The dog looked up at the waiter and opened its mouth and said, "Please, Mr. Mercy, you must buy me anyway. This man treats me very badly. He always keeps me locked in a cage. Never takes me for walks, and only feeds me once a week. He's a really, really scary man." The waiter was amazed. "This dog can make you rich," he said, "Why do you only want five bucks?" The man replied, "Because I've had enough of his lies."

Although this is just a joke, it hides an interesting question: Who can guarantee that a talking dog will be more honest than a human?Who can guarantee that if I really teach Luo Li to speak, it will definitely tell me the truth? Before I married Lucy, I had never owned a dog; frankly, I was even a little afraid of them.When I was a child, I met a big dog named Rufus who lost his temper all the time.Its owner is named Bucky?Jones, a brutal and withdrawn man, terrified our group of kids who lived nearby by blatantly cutting up a deer carcass in the yard and throwing some of the mangled entrails on our way to school.I dare say he must have mistreated the dog in some way, but Rufus was still very loyal nonetheless.This dog was tied under a tree all day long, and when it saw outsiders, it kept jumping and growling viciously; but whenever its owner walked into the yard, it whimpered happily, as docile as a pet dog.On summer nights, Bucky would often climb up to the roof and sit on it drinking beer, swearing some rude words into the air alone, and sometimes he would bring Rufus up too, and the strange silhouette of this man and dog under the night sky was always there until It still pops up in my dreams today.

The first official meeting between Luo Li and I—if we don’t count the short, wary look at each other at the second-hand auction, it was after Lucy and I agreed on a date and went to her house to pick her up (the date turned out to last a whole week).As soon as I pressed the doorbell, I heard Luo Li's loud barking coming from a distance away from the house, and then rushed to the other side of the gate at an alarming speed.When Lucy opened the door, I involuntarily took two steps back, and my whole body was pressed against a pillar in the porch, but Luo Li still rushed out and jumped directly at me, putting her front paws on my chest.I stood stiffly, and it stopped barking, and just looked at my face so closely for a long time, but when I looked into its eyes, I felt an unexpected calm.Originally, I was still anxious about how to proceed with tonight's date, but at this strange moment, these worries seemed to have subsided, and I never thought that I would reach out and place my hand on its head slowly. superior.This is the beginning of our story, mine and Lori's, which is different in many ways from the story Lucy and I have created since that night.This is the first time I have looked into its sincere eyes and touched its soft fur.This is also the first time that I vaguely feel the gentleness of dogs. The trust of canines in humans has been a miracle for a long time, and I didn't expect it to happen to me.Now, just the two of us, a man and a dog guarding the empty house, all our sorrows and frolics, moving from room to room as the day progresses until the sun goes down.It all started the moment we met on the porch.Lucy was standing there, witnessing it all.

When Luo Li was still on top of me, Lucy rushed forward——I turned my head to look at her for the first time that day.She pulled the dog away, apologized to me repeatedly, and reprimanded Luo Li in a serious tone, then pulled him into the house and locked the door.At this point, I was no longer nervous and stage-frightened like I used to be on a first date with a woman.Lucy's been deliberately vague about our plans for our first date night, which made me uneasy, not used to this strange feeling of not knowing what to do.But now, as I watch her get it all sorted, calm the dog, put on the jacket and lock the gate, I don't know why, but I've made up my mind right away—whether she's taking me tonight Wherever I go, I must follow her.

"Hi," she turned to me, with a relaxed smile on her face, "I'm sorry, Luo Li is so rude. She is usually very good, but sometimes it is difficult to bark." "I understand." I said. Lucy looks quite charming today.She was wearing a black silk T-shirt and a long skirt, and her brown hair was pulled back.From the day we met, during this week, as long as I had nothing to do, her shadow would appear in my mind, but until now I realized that I almost remembered all the details wrong.Now I saw that her brown eyes were still shining with amber light, and her face was melon-shaped, not as square as I remembered.I also saw her hair in shades of flaxen and deep honey, and her skin had a rosy glow.Only now do I really realize that she is indeed a very beautiful woman.

"So," I said as we walked towards my car together, "where are we going?" "Well," she replied, apologetically, "I'm afraid the first thing we're going to do is go to a wedding." "Wedding?" I tried my best to suppress the panic rising in my heart.Anyone who knows me well knows that socializing with strangers has never been my specialty. She said hastily, "I know it's weird to go to this kind of event on a first date, but they're my clients and I promised I'd be there. Don't worry, we won't be there for long, I'm not going Knows everyone there. I promise we can go back to something fun after the wedding is over."

"Wonderful," I said, taking a deep breath, "seems to be interesting." she laughed. "Not necessarily," she said. "If you want to retreat now, I don't mind. But I dare say this wedding will be very different from any you have been to before." I opened the car door for her. "In that case," I said, "what are we waiting for?" We set off in the car, finding our way using a small map drawn on paper.I guess, the back of this piece of paper may be the wedding invitation. "By the way," I said, "you just said that the couple is your client. I don't know what you do yet."

She smiled again. "Well, my job is nothing special," she said, "but I'd like to keep it a secret for a while longer." "Is this suitable for a later occasion?" I asked, "Isn't this a very formal wedding?" "It's not formal at all. In fact, it's a bit of a New Age wedding. They chose today because it's the vernal equinox -- the day of the year when the day and night are as long as they are. They say this day It's 'the wedding day of the sun and the moon.'" She couldn't help laughing, "I guess they were trying to find something more dramatic than just 'Britney and Federline's wedding day.'"

We have driven into the country.It is late afternoon and the sun is about to set.According to the map, we turned onto a long gravel road and finally came to a grassy patch of weeds and wildflowers.A path leads to this meadow, and on both sides it is decorated with a wreath of roses. A woman stands at the entrance of the path, holding a large basket decorated with ribbons.As we approached, she first smiled at us, then held up her basket and reached towards us. "Choose a mask, please," she said. I glanced at Lucy and saw she was smiling at me. "You choose first," she said.

Cautiously, I leaned over to look into the basket.I was expecting to see one of those Halloween masks I used to wear as a kid, one of those thin plastic monster or Superman masks held to the head with just an elastic band.However, the masks in this basket were not like that. A dozen or so paper faces were looking up at me with hollowed-out eyes. I had never seen a level of sophistication.The first thing I saw was a frog, then a zebra, a sunflower face surrounded by bright yellow petals, and a ghostly mask covered in golden feathers.More than three-quarters of the masks in the basket have exaggerated curved eyebrows and murderous-looking hooked noses, and some are the clown jesters seen on playing cards.I also saw Medusa, the witch with snake hair, and Bacchus, the god of wine, wearing a crown of vines.Faced with the choice, I can't help but feel dizzy.

"Choose quickly," said Lucy, "which part would you like to play today?" I reached into the basket and pulled out the first mask I came across.The mask is made in the shape of a book, a thick book with open pages in classical style, and the eyes, nose and mouth of the mask are designed on the inner text decorated with gold powder within the pages. "It suits you very well," said Lucy.As she leaned over to rummage through the basket, I took a good look at my book mask.Among the open pages, there was a long handwritten sentence: "You took away the best warrior in my order." I adjusted the mask and put it on my face. "That's great," I heard Lucy say, "I just hope the mask hasn't been picked." I turned to look at her.Her beautiful face has been covered with a dog's mask --- a loyal, sincere, very familiar dog's face. "This is Luo Li!" I said. "That's right," she said, "so now you know what I do for a living?" "You made all these masks?" I asked. "Yeah." She said, taking my hand. "Let's go in to the wedding." We walked in along the path and came to a clearing in the jungle.Many chairs were placed in the open space, enclosing a central passage, and on each chair sat a masked figure.I saw an ama with starfish in her hair talking to a man in a bull mask, and an angel with a halo above her head talking on a cell phone.Lucy and I also found seats and sat down. Next to us was a Madame Butterfly with a gorgeous mask, and on the other side was a man with a huge iceberg on his head, and the miniature version of the Titanic broke down on the iceberg. It became two pieces. Ahead of us, a string quartet has begun to play, wearing ordinary band clothes except for a lot of silver stars pasted on their faces.We stood up with the crowd and turned our heads to see the "sun" and "moon" walking towards us through the crowd.As soon as the bride came out, she became the focus of attention. She was wearing a light yellow silk gown with layers of pearl luster tulle, and the dazzling sun mask on her face formed a circle of golden light radiating in all directions.The groom wears a formal evening gown, and the mask on his face is a long, pointed silver crescent.This couple is very beautiful. Lucy crept closer to me. "It's doubtful, how are they going to kiss now?" she whispered.I reached out, took Lucy's hand, and watched with her the silhouette of the newlyweds in the twilight, watching the divine marriage of the sun and the moon.