Chapter 25 Section ten

When Sima Xunxin woke up, he found himself lying on a long wooden chair.She leaned on the back of the chair and sat up, then staggered and walked a few steps on the ground paved with herringbone patterns of blue bricks.She found that it was a not-so-spacious hall with white walls.On the wall facing the main entrance are portraits of several great men, and below it is a blackboard embedded in the wall. On the blackboard are several therapeutic prescriptions for preventing heat stroke and a notice: political study at 4:30 p.m.There were several glass windows on the other two walls, all of which were painted with huge red crosses, and the words "registration", "payment", and "medicine collection" were written respectively. She knew that this was the Ping'an County Hospital.

It was almost dusk, and the hospital was empty, with no one in sight. The door to the street from the hall was ajar, and all the windows with the red cross painted on them were closed.The two corridors connecting the hall and leading to the consulting room and ward respectively are also dark and bottomless, as silent as death.But the side door leading to the backyard of the health center was open, and there was a chill in the early autumn sunset. Sima Xunxin couldn't help shivering.She knew there was another place to go in the backyard. Sima Xunxin sat back on the chair again, she thought for a while, but didn't understand how she came here.She looked down and saw the dark red blood stains on the front of her shirt, and the scene in the square gradually revived and flashed in the depths of her heart.

"Chongwen!" She rushed towards the open small side door, and couldn't help crying like rain.But the backyard outside the side door was also empty, and the door with the word "mortuary" was closed tightly.Suddenly, the long and short cries of an old woman rang out in the empty hospital.Soon, her silk shirt was soaked with tears, and the balls of blood on her chest became more vivid.After crying for a while, she took out a handkerchief and wiped her face, straightened her messy white hair, and straightened her clothes. She took a last look at the side door leading to another world, and walked out of the hospital slowly. On the street that was unusually dark and deserted due to the twilight.

Sima Xunxin said as he walked, "It's good to go, it's good to go! I shouldn't have come!... You left, why didn't you wait for me!" Her words could only be confiding to herself, Because she couldn't find an audience.People and cars that were supposed to be bustling with each other disappeared somewhere, and the deserted streets seemed to be a passage to another world. Sima Xunxin walked lonely on the dark and empty street like this, she passed the school, post office, credit union, and miscellaneous closed shops, and came to Shiziguan in the center of the county.Standing in front of the cross pass, she raised her head and stared at the commanding height of the county town - the Bell and Drum Tower, and stared at it for a long time without moving.Then she stepped up the stone steps of the Bell and Drum Tower step by step: first level, second level, third level... It is said that there are eighteen levels in hell, but why is there only nine levels in heaven! ?It seems that most people are destined to go to hell only.Level 26, level 27, level 28... She finally stood on the top floor of the Bell and Drum Tower.

A few crows perched under the rafters were suddenly startled, fluttering up and circling around the Bell and Drum Tower, their cries of "quack-quack" seemed to vent their dissatisfaction with the intruders, and seemed to be laughing at the person in front of them. Desperate old lady. Sima Xunxin stood on the Bell and Drum Tower, held his head high as usual, and watched the last bit of sunset slowly disappear, below the earthen city wall to the west of the county seat. Night is coming, and it's time for even the crows to go home. Sima Xunxin no longer hesitated, she climbed over the dark and mottled wooden guardrail, and took a step forward.At this moment, she felt like a big bird, or an old crow hovering in mid-air for a long time, spreading its wings and flying in the twilight, flying to another distant country.