Chapter 136: Floating
"I don't have to take this path," I replied. "As long as I can follow you, I'll walk whichever path you want me to."
Uncle Rong's face changed color, and he said irritably, "A Jin, I don't need anyone else following me anymore. I've got enough money to last until I die! You're just holding me back, do you understand?!"
"I..." His words stung me deeply.
Maybe I'd drunk too much. I'd never felt this bad before.
Uncle Rong didn't need me anymore. Jiu Zai didn't need me either.
I had become a fist floating in midair, without a body or a brain.
Where was I supposed to land? Where was I supposed to belong?
"I understand." I nodded, feeling a strange ache in my eyes and nose. "Uncle Rong, I won't cause you any more trouble. I'll leave at daybreak."
Back at Uncle Rong's house, I lay on the sofa, unable to fall asleep no matter how hard I tried.
What the hell happened?
Why had everything changed?
That idiot "brain"—without his "fist," wouldn't he just run away?
Why did he have to sacrifice himself?
Where had all his usual cleverness gone?
Damn it. I think you're not a "brain" at all. You're just a bloody fool.
The more I thought about it, the worse I felt. The night grew deeper, but I couldn't calm down.
Every time I closed my eyes, Jiu Zai's face appeared before me.
All those bullshit nonsense he used to talk—I remembered every word with painful clarity now.
"A Jin, what would you do without me, your 'brain'?"
"A Jin, you should smile more. Right now you look like a piece of wood."
"A Jin, learn from me: 'Fuck!' Say it like that, it sounds more impressive. 'Fuck!' You don't like it? Then how about 'Go to hell, your whole family'?"
"A Jin, remember to put on a shirt! Why do you keep coming out like this?"
"A Jin, protect me! Fuck! If the 'brain' gets smashed, you'll turn stupid too!"
"A Jin, if one day I'm not around, find yourself another 'brain.'"
"A Jin, if you can't find a 'brain,' then just smile more. At least die as a smiling ghost."
I touched my cheek. Something was running down it—cold.
"Fuck..."
I let out a bitter laugh. Living in this world really was damn hard.
With that thought, I flipped off the sofa, grabbed a bottle of beer from the fridge, quietly opened the door, and headed up to the rooftop.
"A-Jiu, is that why you were always smiling? Because you knew how hard it was to be alive from the very beginning?"
I sat on the edge of the rooftop, my legs dangling over the side.
Staring at the dazzling neon lights below, I felt as if I were standing above the entire city. There was an indescribable sense of freedom in my heart.
I took a sip of beer, then poured a little onto the ground.
The early morning breeze chilled my skin. I'd forgotten to put on a shirt again.
"Jiu Zai, let's drink our fill tonight."
"Ahhh!" A sudden scream from behind startled me so badly I nearly jumped off.
I steadied myself and turned around. An elderly woman was sprawled on the ground, clutching a broom in her left hand and a stack of yellow spirit paper in her right.
She stared at me, trembling, as if she'd seen something utterly terrifying.
A bad feeling crept over me. I quickly climbed back down and went over to check on her. "Auntie, are you okay?"
"You... you..." She frowned, but her expression quickly calmed. "Young man, you scared me half to death!"
"Me...? I don't understand. I was just sitting here drinking. How did I scare you?"
"You!" She pointed angrily behind me. "Your tattoo! Who told you to get it like that?!"
Realization dawned. "Auntie, don't worry. I have a tattoo, but I'm not a bad person."
"Who said anything about that?" She stood up and dusted herself off. "Couldn't you have gotten anything else? A line of text? I thought I'd seen a ghost."
Something flashed through my mind.
"Auntie... have you seen someone else with a line of text on their back?"
"As a matter of fact, I have..." She crouched down and spread out the yellow paper on the ground. "There was a young guy with a tattoo similar to yours on his back. He jumped from this rooftop last week. If you two didn't look different, I really would have thought I'd seen a ghost."
"What did you say?!"
"What? You think I'd come out in the middle of the night just to lie to you?" She carefully separated the spirit paper, then pulled out a lighter from her pocket. "Today marks the seventh day after that young man's death—his 'head seven.' I'm just a janitor, but I still follow the proper rituals."
She lit the yellow paper, pressed her palms together, and muttered under her breath: "I'm just a cleaner. I meant no disturbance. If I've offended, please forgive me..."
The flickering flames danced in the early morning light, casting a glow on my dead-fish eyes.
"Auntie, stop burning that." Expressionless, I turned around and showed her the tattoo on my back. "Take a close look. Are you sure his tattoo really looked like mine?"
She gave me an impatient glance. "Yeah, it did. Of course it did. The words were different, that's all. Yours says 'Heaven and Earth originally...' something. His was 'Wind and flowers and...'—more characters than yours."
Hearing that, my heart died completely.
"Hey, the police said that young guy wasn't even a resident of this building. Why on earth would he jump from here? It made me..." She caught herself and slapped her mouth three times. "Pfft! Spoke out of turn. Don't mind me!"
I understood now.
Jiu Zai had jumped from this rooftop seven days ago.
So Uncle Rong had lied to me.
I turned my head and looked at the edge of the rooftop. For a moment, I thought I saw Jiu Zai's shadow standing there.
He was bare-chested, and on his back was a line of bold cursive text—
"The wind, flowers, snow, and moon are naturally idle; it is the restless who bring their own troubles."
"But why did you jump?" I asked.
Jiu Zai's shadow let out a bitter laugh. "A Jin, keep living with my smile."
I blinked, and the shadow vanished.
I don't know if it was the too much alcohol tonight or if Jiu Zai's spirit really had returned on his head seven, but at that moment, I truly felt I had seen him.
The expression on his face was one of deep sorrow.
I knew Jiu Zai. If someone had hacked him to death, he wouldn't have looked that sad.
He would have arrogantly ordered me to avenge him.
So why was he so sad?
Because he didn't want to die.
I mimicked Jiu Zai's expression, putting on that carefree grin, trying to think from his perspective.
"This time, lend me your brain."
Before, with Uncle Rong and Jiu Zai around, I never had to think for myself. But now, things were different.
So...
What was Uncle Tong's goal in hunting down Uncle Rong?
Money.
Therefore, Uncle Tong wouldn't actually kill him. If he did, he'd lose both the man and the money—he'd be the biggest loser.
Besides, the "hunt" was entrusted to Brother Chong, and Brother Chong wanted to bring me into Uncle Tong's fold.
If Brother Chong had already located Uncle Rong, he could have sent men to kill him directly. But he didn't.
So the "hunt" didn't really exist.
The claim that Jiu Zai was hacked to death was even more absurd.
I looked up at the moon. "Out of loyalty or some other consideration, you wanted Uncle Rong to return the money to Uncle Tong, right?"
The sky was silent.
"Uncle Rong not only refused to listen, but he also thought you were betraying him, right?"
I asked the moon again. No one answered.
"You had no idea Uncle Rong wanted to kill you, so you came to the rooftop with him unsuspecting, right?"
The moon looked fuzzy, hidden in the early morning mist.