Chapter 10 9. Those feelings

That night, Dad got off work very early on a rare occasion and returned home around eight o'clock.Regarding Mr. S, my mother didn't say a word to my father.It seems that to my mother, not to mention the disappearance of Mr. S's body, even Mr. S's death is so insignificant.Thinking of this, I feel very annoyed.But if I bring up Mr. S in front of my mother, I'm afraid I will be accused of lying and deceiving others again.So, I didn't say anything either. Dinner is curry rice.As soon as we started eating, my mother left the table, leaving only Mei Xiang, my father and me at the table.Seeing this opportunity, I plan to tell Dad about Mr. S.But unfortunately, my mother came back soon.

"Xiao Meixiang, mom bought you a cup for Baby Doremi today." Mom walked lightly up and down among the litter-strewn floors, talking like she was singing. "Look, isn't it cute?" Mom put a white mug on the table opposite me.A bouncing doremi baby is printed on the surface of the cup.Now this house is full of Baby Doremi's tea bowls, chopsticks, spoons, forks, etc., and almost all the tableware is patterned by Baby Doremi.Every time I eat, all I see are the figures of baby Doremi. "What do you drink in this cup? Fruit juice? Barley tea?" - Always juice.

Mei Xiang said quietly.Mom seemed to be dancing and took apple juice from the refrigerator and poured it into a mug.I also put my own glass aside, but my mother pushed it aside. "Just drink water." I stood up and went to the tap to get a glass of water.Back at the dinner table, Dad glanced at me through his glasses.The corners of the mouth were slightly raised, with a helpless smile, as if to say: "It's so disgusting", and then looked away immediately.Dad always thinks that stability and tranquility are more important than anything else. When I look at my father, I always think of the tortoise.Sleepy-eyed and tired-looking, like a tortoise in a daze between sand and water.And even the way the upper lip protrudes slightly forward is very similar.Dad was always slow and slow, too, and I never saw him panicking no matter what happened.

While eating curry rice, I felt more and more restless.It seems that there is no chance to tell Dad about Mr. S.One day Dad will learn about this matter from some other channel, and he will also know how I am related to this matter.How shocked Dad would be then.And I didn't tell my father personally how much this incident would bring him a big blow.I don't want to be rejected by my father. "Well, Dad." Hesitating again and again, I still tried to speak. "What happens when a person dies?" If I say this, my mother probably won't react too much. If my father finds out about Mr. S in the future, he will probably understand why I said that.Maybe my dad would think, "My friend died suddenly, and my son was hit. It's hard for a very sensitive child to tell the truth directly." What a good idea, I couldn't help but feel proud.

"After a person dies? Yes, according to what I heard, after a person dies, he seems to be reincarnated. There is such a saying in Japan. At the funeral of my grandfather, the mage in the temple said so. By the way, you will be reincarnated at the funeral. Didn't you go too?" "Yeah. But, I can't remember." I just remember that someone did say something about reincarnation.In my impression, there seem to be many complicated and difficult words behind. "You were four years old then? Five years old?" Behind the lens, Dad's eyes were sleepy and tired.Then, Dad went on to say: "—after a person dies, the soul will separate from the body, and the soul will hesitate and wander between this world and that world. What is the process of soul wandering called... By the way, it seems to be called Qiqi. It means that during this period, the soul wanders between that world and this world." The strange wind blows, and the appearance of Mr. S flying in the air like a piece of paper comes to my mind .So, that is Mr. S's soul.

"In Qiqi's state, the soul has a chance to be reincarnated every seven days. If you don't reincarnate in the first seven days, then wait for the next seven days. If it doesn't work, wait for the next one..." "Oh, a week." "Yes, one week. Among the many opportunities, some people are reincarnated, and some people are not." "So, there are also people who have never been reincarnated?" "That's not true. Exactly which seventh day is reincarnated varies from person to person. However, on the seventh day, that is, the forty-ninth day, everyone will be reincarnated into something, but this is different for different sects. The words are different."

After finishing speaking, Dad glanced at Mom.Mom looked angry and ate curry rice without saying a word.I finally let out a sigh of relief and started eating again. While eating, I thought blankly, if Mr. S was reincarnated, what would he become?Dad should turn into a tortoise; as for mother, she must become a praying mantis. At this moment, Dad suddenly made a very unusual move. "Hey?" Dad looked out of the open dining room door, frowned, craned his neck slightly, stared straight at the dark corridor without lights, and the spoon in his hand stopped in mid-air. "What's wrong? Dad?" I asked.

"Well, it's nothing." But Dad's eyes still stayed in the corridor. "What the hell is it!" Mom looked impatiently at Dad's face, then at the dark hallway as far as she could see.There is nothing in the corridor.In the dark of the hallway, the clock on the wall is pointing to 8:15. "I haven't visited grandpa's grave recently..." Dad said as he resumed eating.I asked again "What's wrong?" But Dad just blinked slowly and shrugged.From then on, until the end of the meal, Dad didn't say a word, and he didn't look at the corridor again.I looked at my father's profile and felt that he seemed to be thinking about something all the time, but he didn't seem to think about anything, he was just in a daze.What did dad actually see?This question is all over my head.

After eating curry rice, I suddenly wanted to go to the toilet. "I'm going to the bathroom." "It's so dirty." Meixiang said disgustedly. On the way to the toilet, I inadvertently looked at the dark part of the corridor and the inside of the stairs.But there was nothing but shadows and dust.While closing the toilet door and sitting on the toilet—— There were footsteps in the corridor.It was the sound of slower footsteps than usual.The footsteps approached a little bit, and I thought it might be that my father or mother forgot that I was using the bathroom. The footsteps stopped outside the door.

"I'm in there!" I said. But the other party did not answer, as if standing there all the time.After flushing the water, I opened the door, but there was no one in the corridor. Confused, I returned to the table. "Did someone go to the toilet just now?" Dad shook his head, and Mom continued to eat in silence, only snorting in boredom.If I asked again, my mother would probably lose her temper again, so I put the tableware I used in the sink and went upstairs with Meixiang.I stopped suddenly at the door of the room. "Aren't you going in?" Meixiang asked puzzled.

"No, go in. But—" I don't know why, but I haven't opened the door for a long time.I can't tell why.It's just that at that moment I just didn't want to open the door. But you can't just stand there at the door.I grabbed the doorknob, but still didn't want to slam the door open.So, I opened the door a crack, took a step forward, approached the crack and looked into the house.It was dark in the room without lights. For a moment, I suddenly felt as if there was a mirror in front of me. Right in front of my eyes, a face appeared.The eyes are wide open, and the mouth is opened as if screaming, the teeth inside are twisted up and down, like sawtooth. I slowly closed the door. "What's wrong? Why is it closed again?" Mei Xiang asked.But I can't say anything. "Brother, what's the matter?" "It's not good, Meixiang..." It took me a lot of effort to open my mouth. "It seems that Mr. S is here..." "Mr. S? Where is it?" I didn't answer, just raised a hand and pointed into the room. "What nonsense are you talking about!" Mei Xiang said firmly. It is indeed Mr. S's face.Staring at me with wide eyes.Although I couldn't hear his voice, I could feel him shouting something to me. "Oh, no, it's impossible." I shook my head.I must have this hallucination because I heard what my father said about the soul and this and that.I say so to myself.Then I took the doorknob again, but my hand was still shaking. "Mei Xiang, I'm going to open the door..." "Ok!" Twisting the doorknob, taking a deep breath, I flung open the door.The air in the room blows towards the face, and it seems that the sound of the air flow can be heard.I tried to stand still and stared at everything inside the door. There is nothing in the house. I reached over and unscrewed the light.The fluorescent light on the ceiling flickered two or three times and finally turned on, illuminating the room brightly.I was still standing at the door, carefully inspecting almost every corner of the room.Sure enough, Mr. S was nowhere to be seen. "I said no." "I'm afraid it's already..."