All living beings in hell

Chapter 2 - Hime Sasuzu

A woman in exotic clothes walked in with her waist twisted, a red crop top with golden sequins hanging around her waist, every step she took, the sequins collided together, making a sound like wind chimes.

The woman's jet-black hair hangs over her shoulders, and she looks about 25 or [-] years old. Her limbs are long and slender, reminiscent of a dancing girl holding a pipa in a Dunhuang mural.

When the woman got closer, I realized that the chime-like sound was not just caused by the sequins around her waist.Starting from her chest all the way up, it was covered with dense glass shards.The glass shards went all the way up, the shoulders, collarbone, throat, and lips were split in two obliquely from top to bottom, and the blood had solidified into a charred coal color.

Her nose bridge is high, her eye sockets are deep, the whites of her eyes are punctured by glass shards, uneven blood red spreads all over the rough eyeball surface, and her light maroon pupils look like bloodthirsty bats in this gorgeous red.Every piece of glass was deeply embedded in her flesh and blood, as if it had grown inside and could not be pulled out.

"How do I call you?" I picked up the sapphire pen holder, which was heavier than I imagined, but it fit very well.

"My lord, my surname is Zuo, and my name is Suzuhime." The woman pulled away the chair in front of the wooden table and sat down slowly. The sound of the glass pieces on her body rubbing against each other made my pen tremble uncontrollably.

"Sasuke Hime, what do you want me to do today?"

"I heard that your lord set up an office here to write about the antecedents and afterlife of us lonely ghosts. I stayed in hell for more than six hundred years, unable to reincarnate, and felt depressed. The more depressed I was, the more the glass The slag is like a deep root, stabbing into my skin. I can’t pull it out, and it grows deeper and deeper every day. The pain is unbearable. I’m afraid that my flesh and blood will turn into this glass slag in the future. "

As she said this, she pinched a shard of glass in the tiger's mouth of her left hand with her right index finger and thumb, and pulled it out violently, blood suddenly sprayed out and sprinkled on the rice paper in front of me. There were a few drops of red blood next to the word "Zuo Ling Ji", which quickly melted, like bitter plum blossoms in the cold winter.

I put down the sapphire pen, got up and poured a cup of hot tea, and placed it in front of Zuo Lingji, the cup was steaming: "Tell me, where did the glass shards that bother you so much come from?"

Zuo Lingji's eyes suddenly turned red, and tears flowed down with blood.The following is the story of Hime Sasuzu, which I have recorded here based on her dictation.

Most of the children in Yanbian towns on the Silk Road do not know who their father is. Gujiang City is such a city.The passing merchants took their camels to stay overnight in the city. The blue-eyed and high-nosed Westerners were fed up with the dry air and lifeless gravel.The camel bell merchant group from Europe, after crossing most of the ALS desert, everyone looked like a walking dead, with cracked lips and shriveled eyeballs.

Gujiang City was built around an oasis.The water source in the center of the oasis is wide and long, as swift as a river.But the strange thing is that this river gushes out of the ground out of thin air, and then hides underground at the end, without a head or tail, so people named it "Gujiang" for this reason.When these Westerners entered Gujiang City, it was like entering a kiln: they ate and drank well, soaked themselves in the water and washed themselves thoroughly.The next step is to find a local girl to vent out all my anger and loneliness towards the desert, and moisten my almost dry heart in the turbulent clouds and rain.

Merchants came and went, and over time, the children in Gujiang City looked strange, and they didn't know who their father was.One such child was Sasuzu Hime, who had eight different siblings with varying shades of skin, some with curly, matted hair and some with wispy blond hair.

Sasuzu Hime is the only girl among eight siblings, and also the prettiest one.When she was very young, her mother taught her to dance with musical instruments, hoping that she would capture the hearts of groups of foreigners in the future.

Zuo Lingji once asked her mother about her biological father when she was a child, and her mother told her: "You grew up in a live kiln, and the children in the kiln don't have a father, and don't need a father, they only need a man. and money."

Zuo Lingji fell in love that year, and fell in love with a man from the Central Plains who was 30 years older than herself.The man is not a businessman, but a bard who traveled all the way from Luoyang.This kind of person is the most unpopular person in Gujiang City. He has neither officials nor money, and he doesn't even have any Western novelties that can replace a one-night affair.His sleeves are empty, only romantic poems.Praise the mountains and rivers, talk about the love between men and women.

"He was so drunk that day that he was kicked out of a tavern by some big men and fell to the ground. The big men yelled at him behind him: "A stinky scholar in the Central Plains, I really treat my own calligraphy as a treasure! I hurried up to see him. His nose was bruised, his face was swollen, and he was unconscious, so I carried him home. My mother was naturally dissatisfied. A poor scholar with no money is the last thing in this world. But I insisted on keeping him, and even took my own The room was partitioned off for him, but my mother couldn't resist me, so she just pretended to ignore it."

The poet's name is Qiao Mancheng, and he has lived with Zuo Lingji ever since.He composed poems and sang songs for her; she accompanied and danced for him.He said that he has traveled to so many places, and he has never seen a woman like Zuo Suzuki, spinning and dancing like a fairy.Zuo Lingji also fell in love with his poems, the sadness and freedom in his lines.The landscapes in his paintings make Zuo Lingji yearn physically and mentally. For 15 years, she has never seen the misty green hills or the gurgling green water.

Both the desert and the lonely river began to bore her, "The world always passes by in a hurry, why should I stay here?" Zuo Lingji thought so.

So on a moonlit night, Qiao Mancheng put his arms around the girl in his arms, and the two of them lay naked on the bed, sweat soaking the bedding under them.Zuo Lingji kissed Qiao Mancheng again and again, afraid that he would fall asleep, afraid that he would not hear what she was going to say next: "Take me away," Zuo Lingji whispered, "I want to leave here with you. "

Qiao Mancheng has closed his eyes, breathing evenly, as if he is asleep.Zuo Lingji looked at the sleeping person in front of her, her heart was as cold as the moonlight that night, but it was so bright that she could see everything.

In the early morning of the next day, Qiao Mancheng left, and Zuo Lingji stayed behind.

It wasn't because Zuo Lingji changed her mind, but Qiao Mancheng's clumsy act of leaving without saying goodbye made the moonlight in her heart slip away.

"I know that his breathing sound is not like this when he is asleep. He is not asleep. Men like to pretend, pretend to be romantic, pretend to be disdainful, pretend to be affectionate. In fact, I know that he is afraid. Qiao Mancheng has nothing to do with those Western men The difference is that I can withstand the sandstorm of ALS and the hardships of traveling thousands of miles, but I can't bear a promise from a woman." Zuo Lingji's mood had returned to calm, and she took a sip of the hot tea in her cup.

"What happened next?" The weight of the sapphire pen holder in my hand made my wrist a little sore.

"I hate him, I hate him so much. Just like I hate my mother's disdain, I hate that I never had a father." Zuo Lingji suddenly looked up at me, the glass shards on her body were clump together due to tense muscle contraction, There was a rustling friction sound, which stimulated my eardrums.

Zuo Lingji stayed in Gujiang City for another ten years later. Counting Qiao Mancheng, she fell in love with three men in total.

The second man was a boy with blond hair and green eyes, about the same age as Susuzuhime.The boy led her to run outside the city wall, and lit a bonfire in the depths of the endless desert.The flames danced, and the stars above danced with the flames.Under the watchful eyes of the starry sky, the two hugged each other tightly, and the boy impregnated Sasuzu Hime with a child by the campfire.

Three months later, Zuo Lingji went to the gate of the city to see the boy off with her slightly protruding belly. The boy kissed Zuo Lingji's cheek, knelt down and kissed her belly, and whispered in her ear in a language she didn't understand. Whispering promises that can never be kept.She really wanted to ask the boy, can he take her away?But she watched the boy's thin body stepping on the high horse, and she felt as if she was illuminated brightly by that moonlit night, so she didn't say anything.

The last man was Thomas, a complete Western businessman. He shipped all kinds of novel mechanical and metal gadgets from his own country, traded them for tea and silk, and brought them back to sell to the rich and nobles.Zuo Lingji had seen this man when she was a child. He used to be her mother's lover, but now she is her own.

This man often came to visit Zuo Suzuki, and with the increase in the number of his visits, Zuo Suzuki's room was gradually filled with various Western toys.There are brass birds that sing when they are wound up, and jewelry boxes inlaid with Mediterranean shells, but of all the toys, Sasuzuki's favorite is a mirror, a mirror just enough to reflect her entire upper body. silver mirror.

Before that, Zuo Lingji had only seen the brass mirror, and always thought that her skin was the same as the one in the brass mirror, dark yellow with rust.And in this silver mirror, all her features have been completely restored—wheat-colored skin, light maroon eyes, and a few freckles dotted on her cheeks.She often stares at herself in the mirror, as if looking at another stranger: Does this face belong to me?Or does it belong to my mother?Or does it belong to my unknown father?
As she watched, a child in a stroller in one corner of the room cried.Zuo Lingji went to pick up her child. The child's hair was black and shiny like Zuo Lingji.But the eyes were like that boy's, as green as the green water and green mountains she had never seen before.

Thomas saw Zuo Suzuki always staring at the silver mirror in a daze, and thought she loved the silver mirror, so he gave her a huge mirror on her 25th birthday.The mirror stood on the ground, enough for her to see her whole body.She kissed Thomas, and although she hated how red his cheeks were always flushed by his beard, she just wanted to repay him, and it was the only way she knew how to repay him.

That night, Thomas fell asleep beside her, and the heavy snoring made her miss Qiao Mancheng.Qiaoman's breathing was soft when he was mature, and he seemed to be deliberately controlling not to wake up the person next to him.

Thinking about this, Zuo Suzuki got up from the bed and walked to the huge silver mirror.

Sasuzu Hime in the silver mirror was naked, exuding the charming aura of a young woman.Her fingertips touched the cool surface of the silver mirror as if she were stroking her own skin.Hard, cold, endearing yet unapproachable.

"Qiao Mancheng is my favorite dancer, but I have never seen my own dance."

Thinking so, she took out a red dance dress from the closet and put it on, and took out a sequined gold chain to tie around her waist.The moonlight shone on her through the wooden window, and she walked lightly, watching the fairy-like girl in the silver mirror, dancing lightly.

"And then?" I asked.

"The next day, I died."

"Why did you die?"

"It's all because of the silver mirror. I looked at myself in the mirror, jumping faster and faster, and felt like I was trapped in that mirror," Zuo Lingji trembled slightly with her hands holding the teacup. "I'm so scared, so scared, I want to get out of here, I don't want to be trapped in the mirror. I'm not me anymore, I've never been myself..."

I put down the sapphire pen and continued to listen to Zuo Lingji.

"At that moment, at that moment, I just wanted to get out of here, out of the mirror, in whatever way... The moonlight became so bright, so bright, like the sun at noon. Everything couldn't be hidden, my child was crying, I want to hug her, but I can't leave the world in the mirror, I can't leave the mirror...unless..." Zuo Lingji's voice suddenly dropped, "Let the mirror shatter."

Zuo Lingji slammed into the mirror with all her strength. Amidst the loud noise, the mirror exploded like fireworks. Countless pieces pierced into her body, and the deadliest piece pierced her heart.Sasuzu Hime died, and the baby in the room was still crying.

I looked at the shards of glass on Zuo Suzuki's body, which were pieces of small mirrors.Every mirror reflects my face.

Zuo Lingji stood up, and bowed slightly to greet me: "Thank you, my lord. After telling these old rotten things, I really feel a lot better."

"All I can do is write down your story. It's my job, so don't thank me."

"I have something, I don't know if I should ask." Zuo Lingji hesitated, and the small mirrors on her body reflected light of different colors.

"Please speak."

"My lord, do we all live for love?"

"We, who are you referring to?"

"I, you, this lonely ghost in hell, everyone in this world...maybe, the common people of the Three Realms."

"We live for many things, and love is part of it."

"My lord, what do you live for?"

"I haven't died of anything yet, so I don't yet know why I live."

Zuo Lingji stopped at the spot and thought for a while, bowed her head slightly, opened the door and left.

(End of this chapter)