amazing stories

Chapter 25 Ashes of Shadows (3)

There were days when I was often alone in the attic of my house.Cheng Yu, like all boys in love, has left his friends behind.I don't feel bad about it, though.It would only make me sad if Sung Woo showed me how sweet he and Su Ya are, even the details of their intimacy.

However, Cheng Yu still came to look for me one afternoon, and as usual, he got into the attic to read a book.The difference is that this time he directly took a copy of "Criminal Law", with an expression of excitement and anxiety on his face.After flipping through it for a while, he leaned over to me and asked me hesitantly, if a 15-year-old commits a crime, will he be arrested?
I lowered my eyes and said, "It's okay to commit a crime by negligence."

He let out an "oh" and asked again, "What is negligent crime?"

I raised my head, looked at the sincere and even flattering expression on his face, and patiently explained what negligent crime was.After talking for a long time, seeing that he still looked like he didn't know what to do, he directly said that there was a fire, a traffic accident or something.

He said "Oh" again, thought for a while, and then asked, "What crime did the 15-year-old commit and be arrested?"

I became a little impatient, and said like a cannonball: "Murder, set fire, rob, rape, explode..."

But he listened very carefully, followed by a long silence, as if he was weighing something.Finally, he asked me cautiously: "Then, abducting women...no, what about girls?"

The book in my hand fell to the ground with a "snap".

From that day on, I began to pay attention to Cheng Yu and Su Ya.They got tired of being together for a long time, and even secretly passed notes during class.However, what they discussed was definitely not as simple as dating or skipping class, because from their respective expressions, it can be seen that this matter has gone through a long-term planning, and even repeatedly denied or even reconsidered.I captured their every move like a spy, and imagined countless possibilities for them. However, in the end, there was only one conclusion that convinced me.

elopement.That dreadful word was clearer in my mind than ever before.

Finally, on the way home from school one day, Cheng Yu walked with me on a rare occasion.It was an unforgettable road—silent, long.When I walked downstairs to my house, Cheng Yu suddenly said to me: "Can you lend me some money?"

I turned around, looked at him fixedly, and asked, "What do you want to buy?"

"Don't ask. We're good buddies, aren't we?" His face was full of enthusiasm that he had never seen before, "I will definitely pay you back."

I didn't speak, but it had nothing to do with any emotion, just that at that moment, my mind went blank.

After a long time, I spit out two words: "Okay."

"Thank you!" Cheng Yu's face brightened, "I'll wait for you at the school warehouse at 9 o'clock tonight—don't tell anyone."

After all, he rushed over, hugged me hard, turned and ran away.

What followed was the same as countless nights before, dinner, homework, and then I climbed into the attic.However, I didn't read the book.I haven't read any books.I just sat quietly in the dark, watching the electronic watch on my wrist, beating every second.

After all, I am cowardly and powerless.I can't grasp anything, whether it's the only friend, or the girl I like.

At 8:150, I opened an iron box on the bookshelf, which contained the lucky money I had accumulated.I counted, it looks like more than 500 pieces.In my head, I try to convert this amount into distance.How far can it take them? [-] kilometers, or more?
I pocketed the money, got up and went downstairs and out the door.

At this time, there are not many pedestrians on the road.I walked alone on the deserted street, and suddenly felt that I was both pathetic and great.I want to tell people, you know, I'm in a funeral -- my friendship and my love.

I didn't wait for others, but met Su Kai.

He held a barrel of gasoline in his left hand, and an iron cage in his right hand, in which were a few scurrying rats.Judging by the cruel excitement on his face, I knew he was going to burn mice for fun again.

"Hey, did you see Su Ya?" He asked me carelessly, "If you don't come home so late, my dad will beat her up!"

I ignored him and planned to go around.As we passed each other, I suddenly realized what was going on.Some kind of force hollowed out me, rubbed it in the black night, and then stuffed it back into my body.that's not me.Even after many years, I still believe that who I was at that moment was not me.

"She won't go back." I stopped and said word by word, "Go to the school warehouse and you'll understand."

After all, I didn't have time to see the astonished expression on his face, so I turned and ran home.

That night, I was so excited that I couldn't sleep.I believe that my expression at that time must be like Su Kai's expression when he poured gasoline on the mouse and lit it again.Still, toward midnight, I fell asleep so sweetly that neither the far-off firelight nor the blaring of sirens woke me up.

The next day, I came to school early.I can't wait to know the ending and see how miserable they are when they are captured.

Only, I don't see those.What I saw was a piece of charred ruins still smoking black smoke.A classmate told me that last night, a fire broke out in the warehouse, some people were burned to death, some people were seriously burned, and a girl was taken away by the police for questioning.

That day, I didn't go to class, and ran to a wood in the suburbs for a day and a night.In the early morning of the next day, when I went home, I only said one thing to my crying mother and furious father: I want to transfer to another school.

When people dug out Cheng Yu's body from the ruins, only a short piece of him was left. Cheng Yu's mother recognized him from the surviving clothes fragments under him.Su Kai's face was severely burned beyond recognition.Su Ya told the police that they burned rats in the warehouse and accidentally started the fire.The police identified the fire as a fire accident, and since both Su Ya and Su Kai were under the age of 16, they will not be held criminally responsible.

When I heard this, it was already half a year later.Only I know that what Su Kai wanted to burn that night was not the mouse, but Cheng Yu.

I didn't have the slightest thought of avenging Cheng Yu, because the one who was guilty was actually me.

A guilty person cannot be a judge.

My father didn't understand this, and of course he doesn't care about it now.Punishment of criminals is already far away for him.In his eyes, there are probably only two kinds of things in the world - those that can be eaten and those that cannot.In fact, I believe that during the long period of unconsciousness, my father had a brief period of sobriety, especially when he suddenly became quiet and his scattered eyes gradually focused.It's just that such cases are too rare.

I don't know when he will leave me, and I neither look forward to nor reject that day.It's just that I have to be with him now because I really don't have much else to do.

Su Ya still often called to greet her, but after the conversation that day, I never saw her again until late one night.

That afternoon, my father was so shameless that he pooped in his pants twice in a row, and I had to run back and forth to the laundry room.When I came back, I found a missed call on my phone, which belonged to Su Ya.She called back, but she hung up, and when she called again after an hour, the phone was already turned off.In the evening, my father suddenly had an extremely unstable heart rate. I dared not leave his side and stayed by my side until 10 o'clock at night, until he returned to normal and fell asleep peacefully.Just when I was going to sit in a chair until dawn, Su Ya came.

She's clearly been crying, and she's been drinking, and her disheveled hair makes me suspect she's met the bad guys.She ignored my questioning, stood by the bed, looked at my sleeping father for a while, and then dragged me into the corridor.

There was silence in the nursing home at midnight, and only faint breathing could be heard from the various concealed rooms.The cold moonlight quietly splashed in the corridor, against which, Su Ya's eyes sparkled.She held my hand, didn't speak, just looked at me so enthusiastically.After a long time, she came close to my ear and said softly, "Make love to me."

I was led by her like a puppet, tiptoeing through the corridor in the middle of the night, pushing away the penultimate room in a violent heartbeat.As soon as the door was closed, Su Ya entangled her.

We bit and tore at each other like wild animals in the dark, entangled each other tightly, and eagerly took off each other's clothes.Even so, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a human body lying quietly on another bed.Thinking of Su Ya's familiarity with the road before, I suddenly understood whose room this was.

"No, not here." I struggled up, "I can't..."

But Su Ya pulled me down on her body again, her hands tightly wrapped around my neck.

"It's okay...it's okay, she doesn't know anything."

My body was gradually lit by her movements.Next to Cheng Yu's mother, Su Ya and I had intense sex.Among the suppressed panting and moaning, I can clearly distinguish the breathing on the other bed, sometimes long and sometimes short.

In fact, she knew it all.

In the early hours of the morning, Su Ya left quietly, and I returned to my father's room.The surroundings were silent as usual, and my father fell asleep knowing nothing, as if nothing had happened.I sat in the dark, staring at him for a long time, watching his body undulate slightly under the moonlight, listening to his unconscious whispers in his sleep.

How long can I look at you like this, my father?

When the apex came, Su Ya raised her head and let out a long, silent howl.Exhausted, I lay on her body, stroking the scars that hadn't subsided.After I gradually calmed down from the aftertaste of the climax, and the sweat gradually cooled down, Su Ya was still in a state of trance.After a long time, she whispered:

"Anyway, please take me away."

After many years, Su Ya once again became a woman longing to escape, and this desire seems to have never stopped in the past 20 years.

Actually, why am I not?It's just that what she wants to escape is the ravaged life, but what I want to escape is the nightmare memory.

We have all been brutally and irreversibly changed by that event.Maybe, there is still a chance for taking her away - Su Ya can ask for her happiness, and I can ask for my redemption.

This is a future full of temptation.Now I can finally understand the fanatical expression on Cheng Yu's face, and what is even more fanatical is Su Ya.

She has even planned the future well: I mortgaged my father's house, got a loan, and went to Shenzhen with Su Ya.I continued to run my business, and Suya opened a bookstore using the contacts accumulated from working in the publishing house.After a period of time, my father was quietly picked up again.Of course, all this must be hidden from one person——Su Kai.

I don't object to this, because I still don't have the courage to face Su Kai. Even though I know Su Ya's scars come from him, I'm still so cowardly that I don't even have the slightest thought of revenge.It seems that he didn't reveal the secret to Su Ya: the instigator of the disaster back then was actually me.

I owe him, I owe everyone.And now Su Ya's suggestion may be able to make up for part of it.

(End of this chapter)