Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

Back at the cemetery office, I was going to make a phone call to the editor of the Frontier newspaper.As mentioned earlier, in my spare time I illustrated stories for the criminal section of the Border Town Paper, so I had a good personal relationship with some of the editors there.I timed the newspaper.According to Mr. Guan's account, the traffic accident happened on September 18, 1995, and the newspaper mentioned the 18th of this month. There is no doubt that this is a 1995 The September newspaper, and the date of the newspaper must be between the 19th and 30th.It would be much easier to narrow the scope down to ten days.After the phone call, the editor quickly said that there was no problem, and he would help me find it in the afternoon, and just go and pick it up when I have time.

Stretching, those things that happened in the past appeared in my mind like a movie.I suddenly felt that I had matured a lot. Brother Meng ran over and said with a look of surprise: "Taozi, there is something about Jingjing's matter. She called me just now and said she didn't have your new pager number, so she called me." "Ah!" This was a surprise I didn't expect, and it took no effort to get it.Who would have thought that after we had racked our brains for so long, she would show up by herself.Alas, last month I used my salary to exchange myself for a Motorola Hanxian pager, and the number was also changed.My little Casio was handled by my aunt.Unexpectedly, such a small detail almost missed my lifelong event.I jumped up excitedly, wanting to grab Brother Meng's pager and watch.He held down his pager while enjoying himself.

"What to grab? Is it okay to show you?" I took his pager, and there was a line like this: "Hu Taozi just found out that he changed his number today. How are you doing during this time? I miss you very much. At four o'clock this afternoon, if you are free, let Taozi went to the air-raid shelter on the right at the foot of the mountain behind No. 30 Middle School. I want to see him. Jingjing" It turned out to be true and I was ecstatic. This guy, who hasn't shown up for so long, where did he go?When we met in the air-raid shelter, I blushed. The back mountain of No. 30 Middle School is composed of many small hills and is located on the west side of Jixi City. It is generally called Xishan.It's very close to my house, only ten minutes' walk away.In the last few years of Little Japan in the Northeast, it organized local laborers to excavate and build underground military facilities.In particular, air-raid shelters and underground fortresses can be seen almost everywhere in the mountains of Northeast China.Hutou Fortress, located in the Hulin area under Jixi, is the largest military fortress in Northeast China, with a radius of tens of kilometers. It was discovered by local farmers by accident after liberation.It is said that the underground winding area is as large as our Jixi city, but how many laborers' lives can be exchanged for it.The air-raid shelters in our Xishan area are not that large, but they are basically connected by mountains and mountains.Local children have been playing there since they were young, and they often go in and out of it with a flashlight to explore.So I've always been familiar with the terrain over there.

Although the air-raid shelter is full of antiquity and mystery, the air-raid shelter is warm in winter and cool in summer, sheltering from wind and rain, and it is a good place for sex and moon.Maybe kids in today's big cities don't understand what dating has to do with bomb shelters.But in 1996, if an underground romance happened on the street, it would quickly become street news.Therefore, places like the woods by the cemetery and the air-raid shelter in Xishan became the tryst places frequented by lovers. In the afternoon, I changed into the clothes I thought were the most handsome and went to Xishan.I couldn't help being excited when I thought that I would see Jingjing, whom I had been thinking about day and night, soon.

In autumn, the Xishan Mountain is full of golden colors, which is very spectacular.In addition, today's autumn is breezy, which reflects my good mood.I can't wait for a second, and I will see my beloved Jingjing.I think I should just give her a long, deep kiss.No, that's not enough to express how much I miss.I wanted to beat her up again, where did she go for so long, there was no letter, it was just torturing me.It is estimated that I will have to lose three years of my life because of this matter, and she will have to pay me back.It's okay, it's fine when people come back, there's no time to blame, it's too late to pity.

Thinking wildly, the entrance of the cave Jingjing mentioned is in front of her.It was an oval-shaped hole, and inside was a long, dark tunnel.I came here once when I was in elementary school.It is said that some of the tunnels left by these devils will have ambushes, such as landmine flaps and iron nails.But it's just a legend, I haven't heard that anyone has actually seen those things.I remember making a bet with my classmates at that time to see who would dare to go in first, and I was the first to bite the bullet and get in.After entering, I realized that this place is no different from ordinary caves.Later, I went into the cave with other children and walked for half an hour before I found another exit.The exit at that end is at Xijixi Freight Station, (Xijixi, as the name suggests, is a place name located in the west of Jixi City. The terrain is low, at the foot of Xishan.) and it has been converted into a vegetable cellar for winter storage of Chinese cabbage.Each of us children stole two Chinese cabbages and turned around and ran away. We were already out of breath when we came out of the hole here.When we led other children to drill the hole every few weeks, barbed wire had been installed at the other end of the vegetable cellar, and it must have been discovered that someone was stealing vegetables from it.These childhood experiences are both funny and scary when I think about them now.For the Chinese cabbage that cost a few cents a catty at that time, the brothers risked their lives.

That's a long way off.The familiar hole is right in front of you. Nearly ten years have passed, and the place is still the same as before, without much change.I was so excited to patronize, but when I got here, I realized that the time was still early, and there was still nearly half an hour before the agreed time.What are you going to do?The most interesting thing is to hide it and give her an unexpected surprise. Looked around and found no suitable hiding place.With that, I hid in the hole.It's a pity that I didn't bring a flashlight, and there were messy branches, pieces of paper, and plastic bags at the entrance of the cave.I stepped over, turned on the indicator light on the pager, and entered cautiously step by step.

Suddenly my feet were empty, and then there was a gust of wind, and then I lost consciousness in a daze. I don't know how long it took before I woke up, and my body was in severe pain.I lay on my back, and it was very dark around me.Directly above is a square, through which a faint light shines. where is this place?The underworld. I fumbled around myself and the pager was gone.This is miserable, I have lost both the judgment of time and the lighting.I try to stand up and remember what just happened.After sorting out my thoughts, I realized that I accidentally fell into a square well when I entered the hole.

I don't remember when I came here to play when I was a child, there was this square well in the cave?Did someone dig it later?What's the use of digging a well in such a place?I really deserve to be damned unlucky, what kind of surprise should I play.Now it's all right, how to get out is a problem. I tried to stand up and look at the square hole above, but when I stretched my legs, I felt numbness in my lower limbs.I had to hold on to the wall with my hands.Is the leg broken?There was some tightness in the chest and soreness in the head and neck.Thinking about it when I fell, it was fortunate that my feet touched the ground first, or I would have to explain it here if I didn't die.Fortunately, this square well is not very high, only about 2.5 meters, and I can almost reach the mouth of the well with my arms stretched out.If I jumped up, maybe I could reach the mouth of the well and climb up.But not now, I think I have trouble walking, let alone jumping.

I touched around the wall and found that the square well is more than ten square meters in size. The walls on all sides are made of mud, but it seems that someone has reinforced it and it is very smooth. It is basically useless to climb. Gradually I got used to the light here, and I could see the situation at the mouth of the well clearly.The mouth of the well is square and narrower than the walls.The roof of the air-raid shelter can be seen above the well, but the surrounding situation is not easy to see clearly. The light has lost its strength after several reflections, and things can only be seen vaguely at the bottom of the cave.The pain in the body lessened a bit, but what followed was the deep terror of this dark and quiet space.

I don't know what's going on outside the cave. Is Jingjing here?There is only one random word left in my mind now. With all my strength, I shouted to the outside: "Jingjing, are you here? Is anyone there?" The echo levels were frightening, and I didn't dare to shout after a few times.All I can do now is to squat down and look for pagers all over the place.The ground was originally muddy, like the kind of ground used to be in rural homes, but it became black and hard because of many people stepping on it.I think the pager should not be broken. I do a blanket search, groping from one side to the other.Suddenly I bumped into something, and my hand shot away as if I had touched a switch, and I couldn't help but let out an "ah".The thing I touched just now was soft, as if it was a human hand. For a moment my heartbeat almost stopped. I quickly thought about all the possibilities.This is a military fortress dug by the Japanese. Could it be the devil who died in the cave?I remember that when Tiger Head Fortress was just discovered, local farmers found some Japanese corpses at the entrance of the fortress.Those were Japanese civilians hiding in the fortress, who were left out during the Japanese retreat.In order to avoid the artillery fire of the Soviet army, they never got out of the hole until they died in it. On second thought, it's impossible.Tiger Head Fortress was discovered decades ago.Even if a ghost really died here, he would have turned into a skeleton long ago, and it is impossible to still be in the flesh.Could it be, Jingjing?My hairs stand up at the thought of this layer—could Jingjing have died long ago?Ghost, it's the ghost that summoned me here.My brain buzzed. When people are extremely afraid, they will have two manifestations: one is to be frightened mad or frightened to death, and the other is to be scared to the extreme and not be afraid.Thankfully - I am the latter.Although I was scared, there was no other sound in the cave, and I gradually calmed down after a while.I decided to step past that thing and find my pager.But this time I learned to be smart, and instead of groping the ground with my hands, I used my feet to gently move forward to explore the way. Minutes seemed like years, and finally I felt something hard on my foot, and my heart burst into ecstasy.I explored and gradually squatted down, tentatively trying to reach that thing with my hands.As my hand got closer to that thing, my heart beat faster and faster.The whole world is so quiet, I feel like my heart is about to pop out of my throat.I'm really afraid that the one on the ground is not my pager, but a grenade or something. Finally, my hand touched the thing.Beep, beep, beep... The sound of the pager suddenly sounded in such a quiet space, accompanied by flashes of fluorescent light.I didn't have any precautions, and the pager I just touched came out again, which really scared me to death.After all, when you are quiet, you are just scaring yourself, and the fright caused by external factors is often more deadly. The pager was still flashing, and the fluorescent lights illuminated the surrounding area.I didn't care much, so I quickly crawled over and grabbed the pager, like grabbing a life-saving straw. I was not interested in seeing who sent the message on the pager, so I immediately pressed it to the lighting state.The big Motorola man is obviously a cow. Not only is he big, but his light is much brighter than ordinary pagers. Several small lights on the upper and lower sides shine together, which allows me to see the situation in the well at once.Sure enough, it was an empty well with nothing in it.I immediately thought of the soft thing just now, and I took a picture of it with a pager, and there was a small thing there, not too big, and it didn't look like it was someone's hand.Alas, it turned out to be... similar to the nausea of ​​touching a dead hand, but the degree of shock is not so high.In the corner over there was nothing but a dead mouse. My heart fell back into my stomach, and I took a few deep breaths to calm myself down a bit.Finally, I can see who sent the message, it can't be Jingjing.There is a line of words on the pager: "How about it, hasn't the ghost come to you yet? When you walk on Huangquan Road, you can meet me. Jingjing" what!I cried out unconsciously.This, what is this?Jingjing?I was about to collapse, and my spine was numb. Jingjing has become a ghost? I had to trust the information on the pager.What is her purpose in bringing me here?Have a ghost relationship with me?No matter, I will be Ning Caichen, as long as I am with Jingjing, I will recognize it.It's a pity that this place was really not chosen well. I really don't want to die in such a square well without knowing why. There seems to be some movement up there.I was shocked when I looked up, and there was a black shadow standing there silently. There is light on the top of the cave, but there is no light in the well. No matter how bright the pager is, it cannot illuminate the top.So the person above just looks to me like a silhouette.Wouldn't it be scary for someone to come out of such a dark place? Emboldened by myself, I yelled: "Who, who is there?" My echo came back in several layers, and then there was the eternal silence. After several centuries, there was a soft response from above: "Tao Zi, is that you?" "Jingjing, is it really you? Jingjing?" I was about to cry.Regardless of whether she is a human or a ghost, if I can see her again, my life will not be in vain. "Jingjing? Did you recognize the wrong person?" The voice above became much colder.I suddenly realized that the voice was not Jingjing, but Xiaojing. "Why are you, how did you get here?" Knowing that it was her, my heart was half cold, but I wasn't so scared anymore. "I still want to ask you, why did you come here?" Xiao Jing asked me from above. "This is not a place to talk, get me up first." This square space is like a big coffin, and I can't stay there any longer.Xiaojing also came to her senses, said "wait a minute" and ran out.Not long after, she brought a branch, let me hold one end, and grasped the other end by herself.I was afraid that I might drag her down again, so I didn't dare to use force.She said it was all right, and with her other hand she grabbed a piece of tree root protruding from the wall of the cave.Wenxin Pavilion Forum After working hard for a long time, I finally climbed up.Both of us were too tired to move, we sat on the ground and gasped for breath. "Why are you here?" I gasped for the last breath, and asked the same question just now. Her face turned red immediately, and she said, "I, Brother Meng invited me." "Ah? Brother Meng invited you?" Even I was confused now, why is it so messy.I looked at the pager again, the time is now 4:15, it seems that I didn't pass out for a few minutes just now.I thought about the cause and effect of the incident, and secretly watched Xiao Jing in front of me.Except that she is more fashionable, she is not much different from before, and she doesn't look like a ghost.But what happened to Jingjing's date?Why did Xiaojing and Brother Meng meet here? We walked a few steps back and forth, and finally got out of the air-raid shelter.I don't want to go into this damn place for the rest of my life.However, the question just now has not been resolved, and I looked at Xiaojing with a confused mind. Xiao Jing stared at me with her big round eyes, and suddenly laughed, falling forward and backward.Her laughter echoed in the valley, both hearty and a bit weird. I was at a loss: "What are you laughing at?" I don't know what happened, but the more I said that, the harder she laughed.Looking down at myself, I get it.It turned out that after such a toss, the body and feet were covered with mud, and the face may not be much better, very embarrassed. "Hey, don't laugh at me. Where have you been these past few months? You can just disappear. We are quite worried about you." He said the word "we" inadvertently.Of course, the extra person refers to Brother Meng. Xiao Jing really stopped laughing, her cheeks were slightly red.I knew she must have guessed that I already knew about that. "Well, how are you all doing recently. As for me, I am a very independent person and never want to be controlled by anyone. I can fly wherever I want, and no one can stop me." Then he said faintly Said: "Unless I meet someone who lets me anchor." "What about today's date?" Xiao Jing also showed doubts.It didn't seem like it was an act, and she didn't know what was going on. "Brother Meng asked you out?" I asked again. "Yes, he asked me to meet here at four o'clock." Xiao Jing replied. It turned out that Brother Meng was lying to me.Obviously he was the one who invited Xiaojing, but he brought me over.Oh, I see.He must have felt that I lost Jingjing, so he deliberately created opportunities for me and Xiaojing. After thinking about this relationship, I want to leave here quickly.Barren mountains and wild mountains, lonely men and widows, I am not Liu Xiahui, if something happens, how can I feel sorry for Jingjing.I really wanted to ask her some things, especially to understand why she was in such a hurry to dedicate her first time to Brother Meng.But how can I talk about this kind of topic.I hesitated here for a long time, and finally made up my mind to say: "Xiao Jing, since the date is over, let's go back. Wait until you find a place with a phone, and I'll call Brother Meng for you. Also, I should go back Change clothes at home." Xiaojing wanted to say something but hesitated, and we left Xishan one after the other.Along the way, I imagined her expression in the back, but I never looked back.After leaving the mountain pass, there is a grocery store in front of it. On a broken wooden board, the words "public telephone" are written crookedly with a brush.I turned around to greet Xiao Jing, only to realize that she had disappeared at some point. An indescribable feeling, be it loss or something else.Xiaojing is indeed a likable girl, and I don't want to be so indifferent to her.But my heart can no longer leave room for another woman, even a little bit.But, do I still have Jingjing?Where the hell is she? It was getting darker, I didn't want to go home, so I slowed down and wandered on the road like a ghost.I suddenly thought of a person - Fatty He, who said yesterday that he had something to tell me.From the small phone book that he carried with him, he quickly found his phone number. "Brother He, I'm Tao Zi." "Oh, Taozi, that's great. I was just about to contact you. I'll hold a small banquet tonight, thank you for saving your life, I wonder if you'd like to honor it?" I really can arrive at whatever I want, and I can also have a good meal, and my mood is better again.The place where I made an appointment with Fatty He was near the medical school, just one stop away from my current location. I only walked for ten minutes before I saw the smile on his fat face. Take your seat, serve the dishes, push the cups and change the cups, and thank me for saving my life. I said Brother He, you don't have to be so polite, you are Brother Meng's friend and also my Taozi's friend.Besides, I also know the other party, so why not do a small favor without any effort.Brother He's complexion changed: "Taozi, just because of your actions yesterday, I will take you as a real brother, a real buddy. Let me ask you something..." I didn't know what he was going to say, so I listened with surprise. He asked such a nonsensical question: "How does Brother Meng treat you?" "That's right, we two are as good as brothers." When I said this, I thought of Meng Ge's willingness to abandon Xiaojing for me today, what kind of heart this is, and I couldn't feel the warmth in my heart. "I don't think so." Unexpectedly, Fatty He made a 180-degree turn after asking this sentence. "How do you say this?" Although I don't know what he wants to say, I think at least he is serious, and I have to listen to it. "Do you remember eating in the border town that day? It was the day Xiaomeng introduced us to each other. I told you a lot about the health school dormitory." "Of course I remember." He took a sip of his wine, as if he was making up his mind, "Taozi, I shouldn't have said this, but because of your friendship with your brother yesterday, I have to say it." "Tell me." I couldn't wait.His way of telling the story whetted my appetite. "Xiaomeng and I went to the restaurant first that day. Before you came, he asked me what happened. After I finished talking, he told me that the missing Jingjing was originally his girlfriend. You snatched her away. Now that she is missing, it might be a chance for him to find her back. So he asked me to exaggerate the weirdness of the dormitory when I told you these stories, implying that you Jingjing will never be found. " I recalled what Fatty He said that day in my mind, and it was true.That day Fatty He really kept saying that he couldn't be found, so it was Brother Meng's conspiracy.It seems that Brother Meng has not given up on Jingjing.That being said, today I saw that Jingjing’s text message on his pager was also fake, it was sent to him by himself.What about that text message I got in the bomb shelter?He also sent it?To scare me?It must be so.I really know people, face but not heart. Why is Meng Ge such a person? It's a waste of my sincerity to him. Fatty He saw that I was already thinking, and continued: "Later, he asked me to help him find relevant information in school. I found Xie Mengmeng's admission file and copied it to him, and he even told me not to tell you. .” Oh, it seems that Brother Meng is investigating this matter behind my back.In fact, why is this necessary? Jingjing's return is the most important thing, and it is not impossible to join forces.As for who Jingjing chooses, that is her own business, and we men don't need to be upset about it.Of course, this was also my own thought at the time, maybe it is not easy to say this from Meng Ge's point of view.Because I know that the person Jingjing chooses must be me. Autumn is crisp, the cemetery. Brother Meng jingled my newly finished tombstone, and stone dust flew everywhere.Suddenly, stone dust flew into his right eye.While patting his hair and rubbing his eyes, he called me, "Peach." "Yes." I was tracing the stele on the other side of the room.He stopped what he was doing, not knowing what orders Brother Meng had. "Bring me my glasses, they're in the office cabinet." I glanced over at him. He was carving a granite tablet.Granite can be regarded as the hardest kind of stone, and there are many spots on the black tablet surface.It seems that Brother Meng is competing with this monument. I agreed and ran into the office.There is a layered metal cabinet behind the director. The middle layer is used by Brother Meng and me. We usually use it to store pens, dictionaries, hammers and so on.I opened the cabinet door, and the glasses that Brother Meng wore while working were placed inside.I froze for a moment when I took out the glasses, his black handbag was next to him.I was suddenly intrigued to see what was inside.Looking around, there was no one else in the room, so Teacher Guan went to clean the cemetery.I quickly took out the black handbag and unzipped it. There were a lot of bills in it.I filtered them one by one, and finally found a piece of copy paper.Open this piece of paper, it is a student file of the medical university.Xie Mengmeng is written in the name column in the upper left corner, and a one-inch photo is in the upper right corner. The photocopied photo is not very clear, but the outline of the face is still clearly identifiable - a girl with big eyes and a round face, revealing sweet smile.The person in this photo is none other than Xiaojing. Seeing this picture blew my mind and made me understand everything.In an instant, my whole body was icy cold, and a chill finally pierced through my bones.If all kinds of strange things before can be explained, this time I am really confused. Do ghosts really exist?And, always by my side? I was in a daze when I heard Brother Meng shout: "How is it, Taozi, did you find your glasses?" "Hey, here we come." I replied, packing things in a hurry. Go out and get to work.Fortunately, Brother Meng didn't notice that my face was covered with thin beads of sweat. Xiaojing is indeed Xie Mengmeng, which means she has been dead for almost a year.I counted everything about her in my mind, and assembled such a complete process in my mind: In March 1995, Xie Mengmeng—that is, Xiaojing came to the Medical University from Donghai Mine to study, and after a fight, she was admitted to the ghost dormitory.During this period, due to some chance, she met Zheng Xinyuan, a taxi driver six years older than herself, and the two fell in love at first sight until they couldn't leave each other.But whether Xiaojing knew that Zheng Xinyuan had a family is a mystery.During a date, the two had a car accident, and the Crown driven by Teacher Guan's son hit a utility pole on the side of the road.Xiao Jing was killed on the spot, and Zheng Xinyuan died later.Since then, Xiaojing has existed in the form of a soul.Looking at it now, since the strange footprints appeared in the snow in Laba last year, she has always been around us.Those footprints must be hers.She seemed to tell us something, but couldn't get it out.It could be seen that she liked me very much at first, and once persuaded me to leave the cemetery.But then I did not listen to her advice.Then she approached Meng Ge again, forcing Jingjing to leave Meng Ge.Apart from Brother Meng and me, no one has ever mentioned her.Could it be that only the two of us in this world can see her?Originally, there was one person we could ask, that is the rural red from Shiliju, they were together before.But even she died inexplicably. Xiaojing is Xie Mengmeng. This conclusion can solve a bunch of my previous doubts, but at the same time it draws more question marks for me.Why did she show herself in front of Brother Meng and me?What does she want in us? There is also the most important question: Why did Brother Meng lie and say that Jingjing asked me to go to the air-raid shelter?Early this morning, he was a little surprised when he saw me, and then became indifferent.I asked him if he had really received the message from Jingjing, and he answered in the affirmative, so I didn't ask further, as long as both of us knew it well.From his expression, I can guess that he must not have found Jingjing either. It seems that Brother Meng has long known that Xiao Jing is not human.Then why did he lie to me that Jingjing asked me to go there?There is only one possibility, he still has a grudge against me because of the Jingjing matter, and wants me to go on that ghost date alone.He made up information and called Hutai by himself, completely fooling me.Fortunately, I am lucky, Xiao Jing's purpose is not to kill people.Thinking of this, my cold sweat is pouring down. If she really wants to kill someone this time, accountant Xu, Mr. Guan's son, Zhang Da, Scarface, and Bald, which one can escape.Brother Meng used a knife to kill someone so viciously that it almost cost me my life.When I was not in contact with the society, I often heard people say that people's hearts are sinister, but I didn't feel it, but now I deeply understand this point.Is it true that the only person left in this world who can be trusted is yourself? I looked at the figure of Brother Meng who was working. He was no longer as tall as before, but it made me feel unspeakably sick. I didn’t go to work in the cemetery yesterday. I went to the Workers’ University and got a junior college diploma, which means that my student days are officially over.Dad is helping me contact the work unit. If there is any clue, I can leave this place.In the current cemetery, there is no place worthy of my nostalgia except for the income.