Chapter 31#

Chapter 31 Bones, Pears, and Inn

Even though he saw the mudslide erupt with his own eyes a few minutes ago, Gu Chenzhou didn’t have the feeling of being unable to say a word like this.

“He… Auntie, isn’t she in the cemetery?”

“Who knows whose ashes are in there?” He Hailou half-closed his eyes, the smile on his face was subtle, seemingly cruel and seemingly happy. He picked up the bones on the ground casually and threw them into the jar. At first, he would wipe the first few in his palm, but later he threw them directly into the jar with mud and water, without any appearance of being anxious to grab the jar in the mudslide just now.

“Did you put the ashes in the tombstone?” Gu Chenzhou looked at the jar containing bones in front of him and asked He Hailou.

He Hailou glanced at Gu Chenzhou and picked up the last bone: “It was me.”

“Let’s go,” Gu Chenzhou didn’t say anything more. He pulled He Hailou while standing up, and then let go—only then did he realize that their hands were still tightly entangled, “Let’s go up the slope first.”

He Hailou didn’t make a sound, glanced at Gu Chenzhou’s hanging hand, grabbed the jar and followed the other party’s pace.

The reverberation in the valley gradually subsided.

The two walked out of the mud and walked deeply and shallowly towards the hillside perpendicular to the direction of the mudslide. This hillside without mudslide had a very high inclination, and there was nothing around to grab. Fortunately, the two of them climbed mountains a lot usually. Helping and pulling each other, they finally climbed up to a height of more than ten meters steadily.

The sky was darker. The crescent moon originally hanging on the treetop had hidden into the clouds at some point.

Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou sat down on a slightly gentle slope. Both of them were covered with mud from head to toe. They didn’t feel it when they were at the bottom, but now that they left the dangerous place slightly, they immediately felt uncomfortable sitting anywhere. But no matter who it was, there was no desire to complain at this time. They sat side by side for a while, and He Hailou broke the silence:

“What did you hear?”

It took Gu Chenzhou a while to concentrate and distinguish that He Hailou was talking about his mother: “Not much. Auntie came here alone twenty years ago?” He summarized the news he heard in one sentence, “If Young Master He’s car wasn’t parked there, I really wouldn’t have associated it.”

“Even without my car, Young Master Gu could figure out this small matter in two or three days at most, right?” He Hailou said.

Gu Chenzhou was noncommittal: “Did Young Master He live here when he was a child?”

“Before four years old.” He Hailou gave the specific time lazily.

Gu Chenzhou’s heart moved: “Does Young Master He still remember the surrounding terrain?”

He Hailou shook his head: “I know what you are thinking… I do remember some paths and stone caves, but at this time I don’t know if there are still mudslides. The paths in the valley are most prone to danger, and the stone caves—let alone too far, even if we walk there, as long as we are unlucky and another landslide or mudslide happens, we will be buried alive directly, and die stupidly.”

Gu Chenzhou laughed dumbly.

He Hailou looked in the direction of the sound. In the dark sky, the face close at hand also became blurred. As he looked, it seemed that even the images in his memory began to be covered with a layer of mist, vague and unclear. He only saw—remembered—the outline in front of him, every line appearing soft and natural.

“My mom gave birth to me at twenty-six.” He Hailou suddenly spoke.

Gu Chenzhou looked in He Hailou’s direction.

“She didn’t like seeing people, or rather had a fear of people.” He Hailou took out a cigarette from his pocket, and shook the lighter hard—fortunately, this lighter had a lid and didn’t have any problems because of the ubiquitous muddy water—lit the cigarette, “Often stayed in the house, staying for ten days or half a month. Drank some water when thirsty, ate steamed buns like stones when hungry…”

He Hailou relaxed his body and leaned on the hillside, facing the sky, letting the cigarette butt burn at his fingertips. He narrated unhurriedly, but it didn’t seem to be for Gu Chenzhou to hear: “Bad temper, suspicious, muttering about people surnamed Lin, Xu, Zhou. Tried to throw me away or strangle me more than once. After waking up, she hugged me and cried bitterly… Then wanted to strangle me or throw me away again, repeating the cycle.” He put out the cigarette butt on the stone, “Unfortunately, my life is hard and I can’t die. But she… hit her head on the corner of the table and died.”

Hit her head on the corner of the table? Gu Chenzhou’s heart moved.

He Hailou seemed to know what Gu Chenzhou was thinking. He smiled skillfully, his tone calm and cruel: “I pushed her.”

“I also swapped the ashes in the tombstone,” He Hailou said slowly again, “I am willing to offer incense and offerings to a monkey or chimpanzee, but I don’t want her to rest in peace like this.”

“Young Master He said too much.” Gu Chenzhou’s voice was low and slow. He didn’t want to discuss these issues with He Hailou.

He Hailou laughed: “Anyway, I’m talking and Young Master Gu is listening. Once out of here, even if Young Master Gu talks to me about these again, I won’t admit it.”

Gu Chenzhou also smiled slightly: “Young Master He is joking with me.”

He Hailou spoke again, smiling seemingly true and seemingly false: “If Young Master Gu is interested in these old past events, no need to waste effort finding others to check news. Come directly to me. Based on the friendship of these two times, I will definitely say everything I know without reserve.”

These words were certainly not worth taking seriously. Gu Chenzhou nodded, responded casually with two sentences, and like He Hailou, relaxed his body and leaned against the mountain wall, his gaze cast straight into the void starry sky.

The moon was gone, but the morning star in the east was dazzlingly bright.

They stayed and waited on a mountain, watching the color of the sky being wiped tirelessly like by a huge eraser, from deep to shallow, until the morning sun of the next day rose from the top of the mountain, and the clean sky blue was also rendered into bright pink blue.

He Hailou fell asleep holding the jar near dawn.

Gu Chenzhou kept his eyes open and alert to the surrounding movements, but felt his whole head starting to get dizzy. He shook his head hard. This subtle movement woke up He Hailou who had just closed his eyes next to him.

“Dawn?” He Hailou straightened his back and sat up from the mountain wall. His voice was a bit dry and hoarse. Thick mud covered his face, but couldn’t hide the fatigue on it. Obviously, the impact of last night’s disaster on him was no less than on Gu Chenzhou.

“Can see the road clearly.” Gu Chenzhou answered. The glass on the dial was covered by muddy water last night and was not wiped off in time. Now the whole glass was dried loess, and the time couldn’t be seen at all.

He Hailou saw Gu Chenzhou looking at his watch and also fished for his mobile phone in his pocket. However, this electronic device was obviously not as powerful as the lighter, and had automatically shut down in the friendly exchange with muddy water long ago.

He Hailou tried the power button, found it didn’t work, and threw the phone back into his pocket: “Broken. Follow me.” He stood up first, pulled Gu Chenzhou, and walked down the hillside. Unknown if he forgot or to prevent falling, anyway, he didn’t let go of his hand.

After a whole night of fear, Gu Chenzhou really didn’t notice this trivial matter this time. He followed He Hailou half running and half sliding down the hillside.

The valley after the mudslide was a mess.

Displayed in front of the two was a world of high and low earth yellow. The house leaning against the hillside where He Hailou once lived collapsed by half, and mud covered one-third of the wall. The stream flowing through the valley turned into puddles, here and there, with turbid water inside. Walking a few steps along the direction of the puddles, small animal corpses could still be seen floating on them.

Early autumn had just arrived, and the tail of summer heat hadn’t completely hidden. In one night, flies and mosquitoes had surrounded these corpses, and the buzzing sound of wings flapping could be heard from several steps away.

The mudslide on the ground had not completely dried up. Walking in the valley, the two often sank their calves while walking. But having been buried last night, sinking once or twice and getting some muddy water now was like having too many lice and not feeling itchy. No one cared.

He Hailou leading the way suddenly stopped.

Gu Chenzhou looked forward and understood immediately: “The small path coming in is blocked?”

This was the narrow path they came in yesterday: the mountain walls on both sides rose high, at least one or two hundred meters high. The distance between them was wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The widest place was about ten meters wide, but the narrowest place—that is, the passage in and out of the valley—allowed at most two people side by side.

Of course, this was the usual state. After the mudslide erupted yesterday, the mountain collapse here was particularly serious. Rocks and sand slid down in a large area, blocking the narrow path completely. The pile of earth and rocks was higher than a person.

Gu Chenzhou walked two steps forward, and his hand naturally pulled out: “Fortunately you went back to get things. If we ran here yesterday…” That would be 100% buried alive. This topic was a bit ominous. Now the two were in a special situation, so Gu Chenzhou didn’t say it out loud.

He Hailou mocked: “It’s common sense not to go to this kind of terrain during a mudslide.”

But it was pitch black around, and the mudslide was behind. Unless one lived here for a long time and had this awareness of prevention, who would think so much? Although Gu Chenzhou thought so in his heart, he didn’t specifically refute.

Instead, He Hailou mocked and then said: “But in yesterday’s situation, probably the only thought in mind was to run out quickly…”

“Which way to go now?” Saying these things was meaningless. Gu Chenzhou guided the topic back to the right track.

He Hailou stared at the tightly blocked mountain road in front of him for a while: “It’s not safe to go here… Let’s try somewhere else.” Saying this, he turned around with Gu Chenzhou and walked in another direction.

As usual, it was endless undulating yellow mud, animal corpses, broken trees, puddles and stones of all sizes. Gu Chenzhou followed He Hailou turning left and right, climbing up for a while, walking down a few steps, winding around without following the previous road at all.

The two climbed up a steep slope again. He Hailou distinguished the direction left and right, and his eyes lit up when he saw a tree in front.

“Wait a minute,” He said to Gu Chenzhou, walked towards that tree, climbed up in a few strokes, picked two fruits and slid down, “Pears. Eat one first to replenish water. This tree’s pears have a lot of juice.” Saying this, he wiped one of the pears on his clothes, but found that the originally clean green skin was immediately rubbed with a patch of earth yellow. He quickly changed one for Gu Chenzhou.

Gu Chenzhou restrained the urge to wipe the pear on any part of his body. After biting the pear skin, he found that He Hailou was absolutely right: he almost swallowed half a mouthful of sweet water.

“Quite delicious.” The dark fire burning in his throat was extinguished, and he said sincerely.

He Hailou chuckled and patted the pear tree trunk: “This is my property.” His slender fingers slid across the rough brown bark, squatted down and pointed to a faint mark, “My height at three years old,” fingers moved up in turn, “Three and a third years old, three and two thirds years old, four years old, four and a third years old.”

Then the marks stopped abruptly.

He Hailou stood up straight, looked up at the crown of the pear tree, gestured his height against the trunk, and muttered to himself: “Twenty-two and two thirds years old.”

The sun in the sky quietly moved a position.

He Hailou withdrew his gaze and said to Gu Chenzhou: “Let’s go, almost there. I used to climb up and down here often when I was a child—the fruit of this pear tree is the most delicious in this mountain.”

“So it became your private property?” Gu Chenzhou asked.

He Hailou nodded seriously, not looking like joking at all: “This is a must.”

After a joke or two, Gu Chenzhou followed He Hailou to continue forward. When they climbed over another hillside, without He Hailou making a sound, Gu Chenzhou saw the ancestral hall of Qingquan Village leaning against the hillside.

The gray-black tiles were under his feet at this moment. Gu Chenzhou looked into the village and found that the situation in Qingquan Village was not very good, but not too bad either.

The mudslide obviously affected this small village, but because the scale was not too large, and most houses were built relatively in the middle, only a little height close to the ground was affected. Cracks appeared on a few walls, but no house collapsed. The people walking around were also scattered and silent, not particularly anxious, not looking like someone had an accident.

At this time, the people in the village also saw He Hailou and Gu Chenzhou standing on the hillside.

The villager closest to the hillside immediately shouted a few times in dialect behind him. Gu Chenzhou didn’t understand what the other party was saying. He Hailou translated on the side: “He said ‘Are these two from the pile of people from the city’.”

This shout alarmed most of the people scattered in the village. One of the slightly fat figures walked over from a distance and shouted happily: “Xiao Gu! It’s Xiao Gu back!”

Xiao Gu? He Hailou looked at the person beside him with a strange face: “Eldest Young Master Gu is approachable.”

Gu Chenzhou answered He Hailou: “I came here privately.” Meaning he didn’t reveal his identity. He then walked towards Li Youcai who trotted over and asked, “Was anyone injured yesterday?”

“That didn’t happen. It’s just that when the mudslide broke out yesterday, I found you missing and immediately told Engineer Dong. Engineer Dong was extremely anxious. As soon as it dawned, he dragged the people in the village to look for you everywhere.” Li Youcai briefly explained the situation, not forgetting to point out his own credit, “By the way, this is—” He looked at the person beside Gu Chenzhou.

“My surname is He.” He Hailou said his surname.

“It’s Xiao He.” Li Youcai gave an “Um”. He was thirty-three or thirty-four years old, and called the two young men in front of him Xiao Gu and Xiao He very smoothly, “You are not from the village, right? Why did you come here?”

Considering that Gu Chenzhou was also Xiao Gu, He Hailou didn’t resist his ‘Xiao He’, and answered the other party’s question casually: “Here for tourism.”

“Tourism?” Li Youcai was stunned.

“But drove the wrong way.” He Hailou added.

“So that’s it.” Li Youcai suddenly realized, and said to Gu Chenzhou, “Since Xiao Gu you are back, I’ll go tell Engineer Dong no need to look anymore.”

Gu Chenzhou thanked him politely.

Li Youcai walked a few steps away with satisfaction, dialed Engineer Dong’s mobile phone, and loudly said that Gu Chenzhou had returned safely.

The signal in the mountain was not good. Gu Chenzhou and He Hailou only saw Li Youcai walking back and forth in the village, shouting until his voice broke, but the person on the other end of the phone didn’t understand. Finally, the people in the village looked in the direction where everyone left before, and brought everyone back in ten or twenty minutes.

Gu Chenzhou stepped forward to express his gratitude. Unknown for what reason, He Hailou also followed Gu Chenzhou and said thank you a few times.

Engineer Dong, who led the search, waved his hand tiredly, and leaned aside to whisper to another person in charge of the convoy, Engineer Lin. Occasionally, words like ‘rescue’ and ’time’ drifted from afar.

“Where are your things?” Gu Chenzhou asked He Hailou.

“In the car.” He Hailou answered, walking towards the direction where his car was parked. But before he really got there, the two clearly saw that the white sedan parked in front of the jujube tree had been submerged by loess below the window, and even the roof was smashed concave by the fallen jujube tree.

“Your luggage…” Before Gu Chenzhou finished speaking, He Hailou took out the car key from his pocket and pressed it at the rear cover of the car. The white rear cover popped up after a burst of noise.

He Hailou put away the key, swept the mud on the car cover, and pushed it up hard: “The shopping guide was right, this car is indeed very sturdy.”

“If it can still drive, that’s truly sturdy.” Gu Chenzhou replied.

But even if it could drive, the two couldn’t clear the car out of the mud—besides, after the mudslide, a car with such a low chassis couldn’t move at all.

The two mud monkeys then found a tap in the village. Although the water flowing out was pale yellow and turbid, it was better than nothing. They washed their hands and faces respectively. After getting roughly clean, they took out clean clothes from the luggage and changed.

The rescue from Qingxiang County was earlier than everyone expected. Just past noon, several large vehicles with high chassis dragged a large pile of supplies to Qingquan Village. The person in charge of the inspection team hurried forward. After communicating with the leading rescue captain, the responsible captain waved his hand and allocated three vehicles to send the inspection team back to Qingxiang County.

The car was buried in the mud and couldn’t be used, so He Hailou naturally went with the inspection team.

“The county’s response speed is quite fast. The disaster happened last night, and they arrived at noon today. It takes three or four hours to drive from Qingxiang County to here, plus material allocation and information delay…” In the bumpy car, He Hailou and Gu Chenzhou talked in low voices.

“Well-informed news and superb skills, which one do you choose?” Gu Chenzhou said.

“Choose both.” He Hailou answered.

There were other people sitting around. After a simple conversation, the two stopped talking.

The disaster made everyone look extra tired. During the whole journey, no one made a sound. When the car returned to Qingxiang County, He Hailou left alone. Gu Chenzhou went to the guesthouse where they came from with the inspection team. Only this time he didn’t stay with others, but opened a room for himself, went into the bathroom and scrubbed hard from head to toe, then walked out of the bathroom wiping his hair, and drank a whole glass of warm water cooled on the table.

Walking out of the room, the people from the inspection team had gathered in the hall below. They had dinner together at the restaurant opposite the guesthouse. The two persons in charge announced returning to Beijing directly tomorrow.

Gu Chenzhou stood in the crowd and waited until the people around dispersed before stepping forward.

“You want to stay?” Engineer Dong looked a bit strange.

“Relatives are here.” Gu Chenzhou explained this way, and Engineer Dong looked enlightened, “Okay, then you stay.”

At this time, the floor arrived. Engineer Dong walked towards the room. Gu Chenzhou went up another floor. Just as he was about to insert the card to open the room, he saw the opposite door open from the inside.

“Young Master Gu, what a coincidence.” In this place, there was only one person who would call Gu Chenzhou Young Master Gu.

Gu Chenzhou turned around, looked at He Hailou who had changed into new clothes and even cut his hair from the scorched yellow semi-long hair that needed careful care to a refreshing crew cut, nodded and said: “It is quite coincidental, Young Master He.”

In fact, this small county town only had this guesthouse that was okay. Plus basically no one came at this time, and the two were one after another… It couldn’t be called a coincidence no matter what.

“What plans does Young Master Gu have next?” He Hailou stood by the door and asked with a smile, “Planning to stay?” He guessed Gu Chenzhou wouldn’t go back just like this.

“I still have some things to do, will stay for a while longer.” Gu Chenzhou answered.

Just as he guessed. He Hailou thought to himself. Really not here to find out about him. He felt his current feelings were a bit complicated, so he changed the subject and smiled half-truthfully: “What person has such big face to make Young Master Gu do it personally?”

Gu Chenzhou smiled faintly, didn’t answer He Hailou’s question directly, but asked: “What kind of person does Young Master He think can keep secrets best?”

“Dead people.” He Hailou answered.

“Dead people?” Gu Chenzhou said, “I think it’s myself.”

Then, he nodded politely to He Hailou, took out the magnetic card and walked into the room:

“Excuse me, Young Master He.”