Chapter Ten: Mistakes

Chen Jing smoked a cigarette, watching Shengyao and Bai Xiao from afar in the corridor of Row Thirteen. Beside him stood Xiao Jin, his face wary and guarded.

Xiao Jin’s voice, hoarse for days, now rattled on without pause. “Brother Chen, are we really just going to let that guy keep fooling the girl? We have to expose him! This liar is too much.”

Chen Jing took a deep drag of his cigarette. “Even the person involved said it was a misunderstanding. You’re just a cemetery security guard—why meddle so much?”

“So we’re just going to keep watching?” Xiao Jin retorted.

Chen Jing said nothing. He agreed with Xiao Jin that letting Shengyao deceive the girl was wrong, but unlike Xiao Jin, he wasn’t a hot-blooded youth. Getting involved as outsiders would please neither side; the girl might blame them for interfering and ruining her relationship.

“Brother Xu is coming,” Xiao Jin suddenly said, peering deeper into the cemetery.

Chen Jing turned his head and saw Old Xu approaching, accompanied by Xiao Wu.

They exchanged greetings and then together watched the corridor of Row Thirteen.

Old Xu sighed. “We’ve done all we can... but what happens next is no longer the cemetery’s concern.”

Chen Jing nodded slowly.

Xiao Jin was disappointed, muttering under his breath.

Xiao Wu clenched his shirt hem in a death grip, struggling to suppress his trembling. He didn’t dare look at the two people in the corridor, keeping his gaze fixed on his toes, not moving an inch.

...

Shengyao didn’t need to turn around to feel the increasing gazes upon him.

The misunderstanding at Evergreen Park deepened, but he didn’t care. His mind was consumed by the information Xiao Jin had just hinted at.

His gaze landed on Bai Xiao, watching her as she laid flowers before the headstone. The Bai Xiao in the photo looked gentle and serene.

But this scene was about to end. The grave was to be demolished. Even though Shengyao was willing to pay to extend the lease for Bai Xiao, Evergreen Park could not continue the contract.

“A new regulation has been issued—these traditional graves can’t be renewed anymore. The whole traditional section will be converted to tree burials, planting trees and flowers, with ashes buried beneath them. They won’t rebuild all at once, but in the coming years, any ashes moved will be buried under the trees in the Evergreen burial section…”

Emotions grew unchecked in Shengyao’s heart.

“I can help you,” Shengyao said. “This cemetery won’t renew the lease, but we can move the grave elsewhere. Crane Cemetery…” He blurted out the name, then dismissed it inwardly. Crane Cemetery had no vacant plots left. But if not Crane, surely there was somewhere else Bai Xiao could be buried.

Bai Xiao looked up at Shengyao.

“We can ask around. If this place and Crane Cemetery don’t work, there’s Fortune Garden, and I remember two more cemeteries farther out…” Shengyao spoke as he thought.

Bai Xiao just gazed at him quietly, as if memorizing his face.

Shengyao grew flustered. “Bai Xiao… I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to pry into your privacy. I overheard the security guards… They have some misunderstandings about me. I…”

“You can’t help me,” Bai Xiao interrupted.

“Is it an identity issue?” Shengyao hurriedly asked. “I heard the guard say she… your relative was buried without any family present. If you want to claim her ashes, there might be paperwork. We can ask the community for help, maybe get some proof. Don’t worry. There must be a way. Where do you live? This relative of yours—”

He was interrupted again.

This time, Bai Xiao smiled, gently placing her hand over Shengyao’s lips.

“You can’t help me, Shengyao… Let’s leave it at that. I won’t come tomorrow, and you don’t need to come anymore.”

Shengyao’s eyes reddened as he clutched her hand.

He felt her palm, cold and soft, as if boneless. The motion pressed her sleeve against her arm, which was so slender it seemed to contain only a single bone.

Shengyao sensed something was wrong and wanted to hold her hand to examine her condition, but she suddenly withdrew.

Her hand slipped away like a silken thread.

“Our meeting was odd to begin with. You… are strange too…” Bai Xiao tilted her head, smiling at Shengyao. “We met the wrong person at the wrong time, in the wrong place.”

“No—”

“Qingming is over now,” Bai Xiao continued, unmoved, stepping back with her hands behind her, putting distance between them. “It’s already over.”

“Bai Xiao…”

“I’m actually very happy,” Bai Xiao’s eyes brimmed with tears. “I’m glad I met you, and glad that you… like me… That’s enough.”

Shengyao felt as if someone had seized his throat; he couldn’t utter a sound.

This wasn’t the confession he imagined. He hadn’t yet planned how to confess to Bai Xiao. Their meeting was already unusual—Qingming Festival, a cemetery… wrong time, wrong place… This confession felt equally out of place.

Shengyao shook his head violently. “No! It’s not the wrong time or place, and definitely not the wrong person! Shengsheng—”

Bai Xiao stepped back again, shaking her head gently but firmly, her movements softer yet more resolute than Shengyao’s. “It’s impossible. This… is already enough. Thank you for accompanying me these past few days. It’s enough.”

She glanced sideways at the headstone bearing her name, her voice softening. “Thank you, this is enough…”

She spoke as if to herself, then looked up at Shengyao again. The tears in her eyes vanished, but her smile grew.

Before Shengyao could speak, she bowed her head, her body trembling lightly. The hands behind her seemed to stretch back forcefully, her shoulders straining as if breaking apart. Suddenly she relaxed her arms, turned without warning, and ran out of the corridor toward the Evergreen burial section.

“Shengsheng!” Shengyao shouted, giving chase.

...

“Hey!”

A voice of ambiguous exclamation sounded from the dark TV room.

The doctor, his ice-blue eyes unblinking, watched the screen where the young man and woman chased each other in a scene worthy of a melodramatic soap opera. Yet the doctor watched with relish, clenching his fists, uncertain whether he was rooting for the girl to escape or for the boy to catch her.

The fingers pressed under his fists produced muffled laughter and cries, voices torn and hoarse, making the TV room feel less like a soap opera and more like a tense sports competition.

...

“Stop him!” Chen Jing threw down his cigarette and hurried into the corridor.

Xiao Jin jumped up, but instead of following Chen Jing into Row Thirteen, he ran along the main road toward the Evergreen burial section.

They formed a pincer movement.

Old Xu couldn’t run, so he pushed the dazed Xiao Wu. “Go to the Evergreen section and keep an eye on the girl.”

Xiao Wu looked up blankly, glancing around, seeing Bai Xiao running and the three men chasing her; he shivered.

Old Xu pushed him again, harder. “Go!”

Jolted, Xiao Wu followed Xiao Jin, heading toward the Evergreen burial section. Unlike Xiao Jin, he didn’t exert himself, running sluggishly, clearly holding back.

He glanced at Bai Xiao’s retreating figure, his heart trembling.

Old Xu told him to chase… chase that thing…

What a joke!

They didn’t know—didn’t know what that thing really was…

Xiao Wu watched it run into the Evergreen burial section, slowing even more.

Run away… let it run, and never return.

“Don’t run, kid!” Xiao Jin shouted, reaching the Evergreen section first and blocking Shengyao at the entrance to the stone path.

Shengyao didn’t hesitate, treating Xiao Jin like a wall and dodging around him.

“The girl’s already run off, and you’re still chasing her! Sexual harassment! Have you no shame?” Xiao Jin kept yelling.

He finished shouting, only to realize Shengyao had vanished in a blink. Stunned, he spun around like a top, quickly spotting Shengyao behind him. He saw Shengyao for a second before the young man darted along the stone path, disappearing behind a cypress tree.

Shengyao plunged into the Evergreen burial section, speeding along the winding stone path, moving faster than before.

His eyes stayed locked on Bai Xiao, running between shadows and graves.

Her arm swung as she ran, not quite in standard form, but astonishingly fast.

Her swinging arm struck the bushes, sending something gray flying.

Shengyao’s legs stopped abruptly, his body stiffening as he gazed at a nearby peach tree.

The peach tree was in full bloom—petals from white to red layered thickly, vibrant yet tasteful, strikingly beautiful.

...

The TV camera zoomed in. The back of Shengyao’s head filled the screen’s right half, his trembling hair and neck covered in goosebumps. The left half showed the peach tree. Amid the red blossoms was a patch of unremarkable gray.

Plop!

Gray, decaying flesh like a glove dropped from the branch, landing among the bushes below. It slowly slipped through the foliage, falling to the grass beneath, hidden by stems and leaves, only a few wrinkled, yellowing fingernails left among the leaves.

The screen switched to a close-up of Shengyao.

His pupils contracted, reflecting the dazzling peach blossoms.

“Sigh…”

The doctor relaxed his fists and let out a sigh. His freed fingernails quieted.

The TV room echoed with his sigh.

...

Chen Jing, out of breath, ran up. “You… you kid… what are you doing? You’re harassing that girl, and she’s still kind enough to speak with you—don’t push it.” He pressed a hand on Shengyao’s shoulder, then looked at Xiao Jin and Xiao Wu, who were approaching. Looking past Xiao Wu, Chen Jing couldn’t find Old Xu, so he addressed the two younger men, “You two go check on the girl. Make sure nothing happens to her. Escort her out. If you can’t, call the police and have them take her home.”

He tugged at Shengyao. “Come with me!”

Shengyao didn’t move.

Chen Jing frowned and took a step closer, seeing Shengyao’s face.

Shengyao was dazed, his eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

Chen Jing couldn’t read his expression, feeling uneasy. “What’s wrong with you?”

...

Shengyao’s eyes shifted to Chen Jing, who instinctively loosened his grip, wanting to put some distance between them.

“She…” Shengyao forced out a word, but couldn’t continue.

“The girl’s already run off. Give up,” Xiao Jin said, returning to his senses, his tone sour. “You run fast enough—why not put that to better use? Why do this?”

He pulled Xiao Wu along. “We’ll see her home, so stop scheming.”

Xiao Wu struggled in terror, powerless against Xiao Jin’s strength.

Xiao Jin frowned, muttering, “What’s with you?”

Xiao Wu wanted to refuse Chen Jing’s orders, but when he looked up, he met Shengyao’s eyes.

It felt different from their encounter yesterday in the Evergreen section.

A vague thought flickered in Xiao Wu’s mind, but was snatched away as Xiao Jin tugged him along.

“Hurry up. Who knows where she’s gone—don’t get lost.”

Xiao Wu had no time to protest, swept along by Xiao Jin’s impatience.

Chen Jing saw the two go in search, then turned his attention back to Shengyao.

Shengyao lowered his eyes, his body trembling slightly.

He wasn’t sure what he’d just seen.

Bai Xiao’s hand… had it fallen off…?

How could such a thing happen?

But he’d seen it! He’d seen her skeletal hand!

How could a normal person have such symptoms? Even with illness, he’d never heard of anything so bizarre!

Could it be some rare disease?

Was this why Bai Xiao rejected him?

Shengyao’s heart jolted.

“Stop playing games and come with me. This time, I’ll really call the police,” Chen Jing said.

Shengyao turned to him. “That grave! Bai—” He almost uttered “Bai Xiao,” but stopped. Saying the name felt as if it would break something vital.

In his conversations with Bai Xiao, he never spoke the name that matched hers.

“The grave next to my grandparents’—the owner, how did she die? Was it illness?”

Chen Jing snorted. “You still remember your cover story.”

Shengyao ignored the sarcasm, just wanting an answer.

Chen Jing looked at him, meeting his urgent, earnest gaze, and was moved. “It’s no secret. She died in a typhoon—an accident.”

“Not illness?” Shengyao pressed.

Not illness—so it wasn’t hereditary…

Chen Jing pulled Shengyao toward the security room, greeting the late-arriving Old Xu. “I’ll tell you another thing. She had no family. When she was little, a relative got married and the whole family attended. A fire broke out and everyone died. She was lucky—out playing, she survived. The neighborhood committee and police looked for family, but there really was nobody left. So don’t try to pose as her relative and deceive that girl. My two colleagues will explain everything to her. Give it up.”

Shengyao was stunned, dragged along by Chen Jing, stumbling toward the security room.

“All gone? Really gone?” he muttered.

“Really,” Chen Jing replied.

“How… how is that possible… Then she… she…” Shengyao’s mind was a mess.

The young woman’s face from the black-and-white photo surfaced in his mind.

The monochrome face slowly gained color, becoming young again.

Then it turned gray, the skin pitted and decayed, blue veins spreading at the edges.

He recalled the flying hand, imagining the face drenched in blood.

“We met the wrong person at the wrong time, in the wrong place.”

All… wrong…

Shengyao closed his eyes, his heart torn as if by a knife.