Chapter 31 chapter Five

Mei Lan hugged and said goodbye to Quan Manru and Zhang Xiaoxue in the garage. The next meeting will still be in this place, and it will also be Cheng Lijun's memorial service. Sitting alone in the Infiniti's driver's seat, Mei Lan took out a familiar photo frame from the glove box. It was a group photo of four women, and the same photo was placed on each of their bedside cabinets. There was another thing that she didn't say out loud, that is, when police officer Ye Xiao came to find her, he told her that Lin Zicui was missing. Who will be next? Ye Xiao repeatedly asked her about her relationship with Lin Zicui, but Mei Lan concealed it quite cleverly.

Finally, the officer asked a strange question: "Who is Odette? Who is Odile?" "I do not understand." "No, you know, the story about "Swan Lake". I checked your subject records at the Normal University. Both you and Cheng Lijun have taken the history of Western music as an elective, and your grades in this course are very good." "A ballet?" Merlin tried to recall, "Swan Lake is the repertoire of all ballet companies. Usually the white swan and the black swan, that is, Odette and Odile, are played by the same woman. Actors. So she's incredibly difficult and she's the polar opposite."

"Interesting, let's go on." She began to avoid Ye Xiao's gaze: "I'm sorry, Cheng Lijun still has a hobby of classical music for more than ten years after graduation, but I can't remember...Prince, um, he obviously loves Odette, that is, the white swan But at the prince's birthday dinner, Odile appeared in a black dress, he didn't distinguish the difference between them, he was completely deceived by the black swan, and swore to marry Odell, which led to the tragedy of the fourth act... It seems that Bar." "Thank you, I understand a little bit."

"Does it have anything to do with the case?" "Maybe." After Police Officer Ye Xiao left, Mei Lan still had lingering fears about his piercing gaze. At this moment, December 10, at ten o'clock in the morning.In the basement 500 meters below the revolving restaurant, she sat in front of the steering wheel obsessively, asking one sentence repeatedly in her heart: "Who is Odette? Who is Odell?" The text message rang, and she picked up the phone wearily. Just seeing the sender's name, she almost opened the car window and threw it out. Two simple words were displayed on the screen: Dumb.

After hesitating for a long time, she reopened the text messages on her mobile phone and saw the dumb message—— "Tomorrow night, I come back from my hometown, can I meet you?" Is the dumb style, simple, direct and rough, he is still alive? In an instant, Mei Lan felt extremely regretful, and vented, she honked the car horn. Hit the accelerator and pull into the street, trying to pass the car in front of you, but can't figure out where to go.How to deal with dumb tomorrow?Or ignore it at all, or—do it again? Stopping at a red light, she dug out another picture frame in the glove box, the same four women, but all of them had youthful looks—Cheng Lijun wore retro pigtails, Quan Manru was only half her current weight, and Zhang Xiaoxue looked like a high school girl At that time, Mei Lan was called Little Cecilia Cheung.

A group photo of them graduating from Normal University.Mei Lan's parents are both doctors, Quan Manru is the daughter of the financial bureau chief, Zhang Xiaoxue's father is the editor-in-chief of a newspaper, and Cheng Lijun's family has hundreds of millions of assets.They are both first-generation only children, and since they live in the same dormitory, they treat each other as sisters.Four people often squeezed together on the same bed to watch horror movies, cheated on exams together, spent money to tease the most hated classmates and teachers, traveled to Europe together during the summer vacation, occasionally went crazy in nightclubs, secretly smoked and drank...

At that time, Mei Lan had a vigorous love affair at school.The boyfriend came from the countryside, and after graduation he went back to his hometown to be a village teacher.She also wanted to go to that distant place with the other party at one time, but her parents strongly blocked her, and finally chose the school for the deaf and mute in this city as a teacher.She never saw the boy again, and heard that he died in a rural demolition many years later. In the year of graduation, Quan Manru stayed in school to work in the administrative office, and married a senior civil servant three years later.She concluded that her vision was right, this man was a potential stock, and he would have a great day.But because of this, she is extremely strict, checking her mobile phone every day, strictly forbidding him to associate with young and beautiful opposite sex, even young and shy boys have to guard against it, so as not to be ripped off.When the two of them went out together, even if he took a second look at the girl next door, he would be caught by his ears.Not long after the marriage, Quan Manru's prediction came true. Her husband resigned and went into the sea, becoming a multi-millionaire. Everyone praised his wife and said she was a prosperous husband.After she gave birth to her daughter, everything turned upside down again. At first, her figure was like blowing up a balloon, but she could never regain her original slenderness. Her husband had no interest in her at all.Besides, my husband's business is getting busier and busier. He is flying everywhere, and when he calls home, he calls HONEY twice in a hurry.She felt ashamed to go out with her husband, so she devoted herself to being a housewife.

Zhang Xiaoxue did not become a teacher, but went to work in a foreign-funded enterprise, which was also included in Huahua World.She followed a group of white-collar beauties, foreign bosses, various customers and suppliers, and traveled all over the nightclubs of Shanghai.Naturally, she had at least half a dozen boyfriends, not counting the one-night stands she met in bars.Until the age of twenty-nine, I really felt that my youth was passing, and the wrinkles around my eyes were about to burst out, not to mention my parents strictly urged me to arrange blind dates four times a month, and finally married myself.The other party is a diamond king, but there are not many scandals, because Zhang Xiaoxue is born with an honest look and has seen countless men, so she feels safe.After one year of marriage, she gave birth to a son by caesarean section, and felt more and more considerate of her husband. Since then, she completely changed her disposition and concentrated on caring for her husband and raising her children at home.At least, Mei Lan never heard her boasting that she had conquered a certain man again, but she was always blissfully saying how good her husband was to her, and the evidence was nothing more than a closet full of bags.

Cheng Lijun has only been a middle school teacher for two years, anyway, her father has money to support her.A few years later, she married lawyer Lin Zicui.Compared with the husbands of other girlfriends, although her husband is handsome and charming, he is the one with the least success in his career and has to rely on his father-in-law instead. As for Mei Lan, she had been a teacher in a school for the deaf and dumb for several years, and she never fell in love again.Seven years ago, a certain bank’s charitable public welfare activity went to poor mountainous areas to support disabled children. It needed the company of a sign language teacher, and Mei Lan volunteered to sign up.During that long summer trip, the representative of the bank was a young man of twenty-eight years old.Although he looks mediocre, he is active and enthusiastic everywhere, and he doesn't dislike the difficult conditions in the countryside. He prefers to play games with children.Mei Lan cooperated with him quite well, and found that the two had many common hobbies, such as Agatha Christie's mystery novels and suspenseful American dramas such as "Lost".In the most remote mountain village in Yunnan, Mei Lan was accidentally washed away when she was crossing a swift stream. There was a waterfall dozens of meters away. It was he who jumped into the water recklessly and saved her life at the last moment.That night, when she was warming up by the fire in the country middle school, looking at the flawless moonlight, accompanied by countless fireflies, like the world of Hayao Miyazaki's movie, Mei Lan accepted his courtship.

After a year of love, the mandarin ducks mingled with each other like glue, and Mei Lan became his wife.When she found out she was pregnant before getting married, she really wanted to give birth to the child, but he didn't want to rush into marriage with the child.He happened to be in a critical period of his career. He had just obtained a coveted position, but he was facing tremendous performance pressure.So, he forced Mei Lan to have an abortion—she was deeply in love with this man, knowing that he started from the grassroots, and it was not easy to get this position, so she was willing to make sacrifices for him.

In the second year after marriage, the husband's annual salary rose to 500,000, and the black income doubled.Mei Lan quit her job as a teacher and concentrated on raising children at home.However, six long years have passed, and the seven-year itch is approaching, and my stomach has never moved.Going to check again, the doctor said that it was the injury caused by the first miscarriage, which made it difficult for her to get pregnant again in the future. The husband couldn't blame Mei Lan, it was entirely his fault.But he began to indulge himself. He was busy with socializing all night, hanging out in nightclubs, or flirting with female secretaries.He thought he kept the secret perfectly, but in fact his wife had discovered it long ago.However, Mei Lan held back her words and covered up all of this very well, never piercing through this layer of window paper. She is not like many women who want to maintain their marriage and make compromises, but is determined to use her own way to revenge. Over the years, although their lives have undergone drastic changes, the four of them have become housewives, and Quan Manru and Zhang Xiaoxue have become mothers, but their friendship has not changed at all, and their gatherings every weekend have never been interrupted.Every time someone would shed tears and talk about all kinds of misfortunes after marriage... Quan Manru's husband was the first to cheat. She had quarreled countless times, but she didn't dare to choose to divorce for the sake of her infant daughter.She was always complaining that she gained weight after giving birth and that she completely turned off her husband, which was understood to be nonsense.What's more, she said that she still loves her husband deeply and doesn't want to be an abandoned widow, which is too embarrassing. Then there is Zhang Xiaoxue, whose son is less than two years old, and her husband has raised a girl outside.She can only curse silently every day, but dare not lose her temper with her husband.Her father just retired, and he has no one to rely on anymore.Divorce?Only a small part of the property can be distributed, and most of it is transferred by the husband.How can I support myself with only half a house?Are you going out to find a job again?It turned out that her position in a foreign company had long been taken over by a later girl. Which unit would dare to ask her to be a single mother? The most serious problem is Cheng Lijun, but she and her husband live in peace, even if it is found that the fallopian tubes are blocked.However, she lost her parents in the air crash a few years ago, and has since fallen into severe depression.Once, Cheng Lijun committed suicide by cutting her wrist at home, and Mei Lan arrived in time to save her.From then on, her temperament changed drastically. She was originally a timid woman who didn't dare to kill a fly, and would shrink back when encountering anything outside, but now she would lose her temper extremely violently. Mei Lan was worried about her safety, so she took the initiative to come to accompany her when she had nothing to do. She saw Cheng Lijun always venting to the hourly worker, forcing the middle-aged woman to do all kinds of dangerous and dirty work, which sometimes bordered on insult and abuse.The part-time worker actually persisted and never complained to anyone, because the hostess doubled his wages. Therefore, Lin Zicui also became acquainted with Mei Lan.It was often the two of them who accompanied Cheng Lijun to see a psychologist. During the long treatment process, they sat outside drinking coffee and chatting.Either he doesn't speak, or he speaks in a polite manner, and he can quote scriptures.Mei Lan had studied the history of Western music, and was happy to listen to him talk about Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff.Every time she saw Lin Zicui's eyes, Mei Lan's heart would tremble slightly. Many women have felt this way about him - this is a fascinating and dangerous man. She began to receive Wechat messages from Lin Zicui, who said some ambiguous things in the middle of the night, sometimes about Cheng Lijun, and sometimes completely irrelevant. At that time, Mei Lan just found out that her husband was having an affair, and she was in a terrible mood—she accepted Lin Zicui's invitation, and the two dated in a bar.He's a good flirt, and probably already had an affair, or had regular one-night stands outside.Poor Cheng Lijun, who suffers from depression, thought that her husband was loyal and unswerving, just because he was extremely careful in dealing with others and did not leave any flaws. One night, Lin Zicui wanted to get Mei Lan drunk, but he didn't expect that her drinking capacity was astonishing, and it was himself who fell down in the end.Mei Lan knew clearly in her heart: Once she stepped on this line, she would never come back again. After much deliberation, she finally reined in the precipice, calmly called a taxi, sent the drunk home, and never had any private contact with him again.She has never told anyone this secret, let alone Cheng Lijun, otherwise she will be sent to commit suicide earlier. During the winter solstice of that year, something happened to Cheng Lijun's house. The part-time worker fell from the third floor and broke his neck and died. Two days later, on Christmas Eve, the four women gathered at Mei Lan's house. Cheng Lijun cried and told the truth—it was she who forced the hourly worker to clean the windows. Everyone meets each other to keep secrets and never betray friends. Then, Cheng Lijun revealed an even more unbelievable secret—— "Actually, that dead hourly worker, she is a pervert." Cheng Lijun, who is suffering from severe depression, usually keeps her ears shut and her husband leaves early and returns late. The most important person in her world is the part-time worker named Ma Hongmei.From time to time, she cared about the part-time workers in every possible way and gave her own gold and silver jewelry.Sometimes I pick and choose. For example, every time the toilet is used, the hourly worker has to clean it again, wax the floor every three days, and wipe all the windows until they are almost transparent every week. Like all housewives who have not had children, Cheng Lijun is extremely bored at home, so she becomes more sensitive, and any disturbance will aggravate her depression.She secretly observed the part-time worker, and from the eyes of the other party talking, and the dazed look in the rest, she judged that Ma Hongmei was a person with a story. So, she decided to do an exciting thing-stalking and peeping hourly workers. The result was astonishing. Every morning, Ma Hongmei would go out on time to buy breakfast, and came to an unfinished building in the city center.At first, Cheng Lijun thought she was going on a tryst with her lover, but later she boldly followed her up the unfinished building, only to find that she had thrown her breakfast off the roof.After she left, Cheng Lijun discovered that a man was imprisoned in the hanging garden below. She didn't know who this man was. He looked to be in his fifties, wearing a thick padded jacket and some simple daily necessities. Ma Hongmei follows this rhythm every day, delivering meals to the man on the roof of the unfinished building without interruption, and does not talk to him, like the relationship between the warden and the prisoner who has been sentenced for life.Cheng Lijun remembered that the part-time worker said that her husband had died a long time ago—could the man on the top of the building be her husband?How many years has this captivity been going on? "This woman is terrible! Although, I didn't mean to want her to fall to death..." Cheng Lijun never lied to her three best girlfriends, "But after Ma Hongmei died, I felt a lot easier— — no more worrying about spending time with a psychopath every day.” At that time, what Mei Lan thought was: Dear Lijun, aren't you a pervert? Quan Manru and Zhang Xiaoxue expressed disbelief, how could such a thing happen?It's not a movie!They agreed that it was Cheng Lijun's hallucinations caused by depression, and they wove such a crazy story in the two days after the part-time worker died. "If you don't believe me, you can go and see with me!" The next day, the four women went together to the unfinished building that Cheng Lijun had mentioned. Under the Christmas sun, Mei Lan walked through Civic Square Park and saw the Tower of Babylon for the first time. This is a skeleton-like building, with blackened bones that are about to rot exposed, and blood vessels and nerves have long since ceased to exist. If a person is really imprisoned on the top of the tower, it is nothing more than decaying mold and maggots. Zhang Xiaoxue has done enough homework in advance to find out the past and past of the unfinished building—— The owner of the Tower of Babylon was born in this city. People called him "Professor".During the Iran-Iraq War, he claimed to be a Baha'i who went to the Middle East to do business, built various infrastructures for Iraq, and became Saddam Hussein's largest contractor for a time.This person funded the excavation of the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon, saying that he received the teachings of the Prophet Babu underground and wanted to rebuild the Babel Tower in the east.China’s first wave of real estate boom, he brought the huge sum of money he earned from the Gulf War back to China to invest, and invited a master architect to design the Tower of Babylon, and the reward was a 2,500-year-old stone statue of Nebuchadnezzar. It was dug out from the bottom of the Babel Tower.The ten conical floors below are planned to form a comprehensive shopping mall, and the ground floor is a private museum, which has the richest collection of ancient Babylonian cultural relics in the world.The ten floors of the upper part will be a five-star hotel.As for the sky garden on the top floor, no one knows what it is for. In 1998, during the Asian financial crisis, countless unfinished buildings appeared all over China-the Tower of Babylon was one of them, and it was the second day after its structure was capped. On the third day, the owner of the Tower of Babylon, the legendary "professor", stood in the hanging garden on the top of the tower, chanted ancient scriptures, and jumped down... The police searched every inch of the nearby streets, including roofs and green belts, and even salvaged the Suzhou Creek not far away, but failed to find his body, as if it had disappeared in mid-air.Most of his priceless collections were taken back to Iraq and burned in 2003 with the capture of Baghdad by the US military.It is said that the "professor" has integrated into this unfinished building. Every exposed steel bar, every mottled brick, and every cement gap are his bones, muscles and blood vessels.And his ghost will always float above the Tower of Babylon, such as the unknown hanging garden. "Lijun, tell me, the man you saw imprisoned on the top of the tower, could it be that professor?" "Who knows?" They passed through the small gate behind the green belt, and Mei Lan looked up at the wall above the top, "Since we've already arrived here, let's go up and have a look!" The four of them carefully entered the unfinished building, climbed up the nineteen long stairs, and came to the weeds on the top of the Tower of Babylon. They peeked at the sky garden by holding on to the railing, and they found the man. No one dared to speak, like watching a gorilla in a zoo, staring at this person who was about to starve to death.He looked like he hadn't eaten for days, and was lying in the corner, scrawny, without making any sound. Quan Manru and Zhang Xiaoxue were so frightened that they ran away on the spot. Mei Lan and Cheng Lijun chased them all the way downstairs before calling them back.The four women discussed for a long time, but Quan Manru had no idea, while Zhang Xiaoxue advocated calling the police immediately. Cheng Lijun firmly opposed it, thinking that this would bring him even more trouble—yes, how did they find out about this secret?Is it related to the death of the hourly worker Ma Hongmei?Cheng Lijun also lied to the police? Finally, Mei Lan proposed a plan: Throw a rope down and let the man escape without seeing them. Everyone nodded in approval, and boarded the Tower of Babylon again, prepared a strong rope, fixed one end on the roof, and threw the other end down the hanging garden, and left thousands of cash as the living expenses of the man after he escaped. Not long after they returned to the ground, a middle-aged man with unkempt hair came to Civic Square Park with dull eyes.Many people around were engaged in Christmas promotions, but no one came forward to help him, and he must have regarded him as a beggar. The man disappeared into the crowd, and Mei Lan never saw him again in this life. Ten minutes later, the four women gathered at the Starbucks across the street, wiping cold sweat from their brows: "It's so exciting!" Mei Lan looked at the unfinished roof of the building outside the window: "My dear, don't you think that this air prison is a gift from God to us." This day is the day when the "Desperate Housewives Alliance" was founded.