Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 1 Yin Yang Eyes

On the twenty-fourth day of the fifth lunar month, it is Lesser Heat, and the tiger is in the south, and the god of destiny is on duty.

The shrill sound of a train whistle hurried through the night, and the train carrying shiny black coal blocks crossed the overpass and rushed into the distance with a strange "clang clang" sound.

Ran Qing, wearing a loose sports school uniform, stood on the overpass thoughtfully, watching the train loaded with coal disappear.

That summer in the late 1990s, he was lost.

Ran Qing, who is about to enter his third year of high school, has final exams just around the corner. For him, the final scholarship is extremely important, and he must do his best to get into the top five in his grade.

But he has been restless these past few days. Not only does he frequently lose focus in class, but he also suddenly becomes dazed while walking or eating.

He stayed on the bridge for a long time, until the train loaded with coal completely disappeared in the dark mountains, then Ran Qing turned around and left with a sense of loss.

Deep in the old shantytown on Qingyuan Road, the dilapidated two-story cement house that Ran Qing rented appeared crookedly on the dark and narrow slope, and the dim light from the rooftop bulb cast a long black shadow behind him.

The landlord here is surnamed Chen, and his family consists of six people, including three generations of grandparents and grandchildren.

At this time, the landlord's youngest son was sitting on the doorstep crying. There was a big swelling on his right ankle, which looked a bit shocking.

The landlord's daughter-in-law, a dark and stout woman, was cursing and rubbing the child's ankle with medicinal wine.

The woman's angry curses and the child's shrill cries spread in the dark alley, sounding a bit harsh.

A cold wind blew by, bringing with it a foul odor, a mixture of sewage and toilet urine.

In the sloping alley, foul-smelling black water flowed down the roadside gutter. From the dry toilet not far away, the smell of fermented feces wafted day and night. Swarms of flies were circling around the toilet, and an old cat with sparse fur lay listlessly on the wall, motionless.

In the late 1990s, the Qingyuan Road shantytown was still a dilapidated, filthy garbage dump. With the economic boom still far away, these aging landlords living on the city's fringes could only squeeze into cramped, dilapidated buildings, renting out a few vacant rooms to impoverished students nearby for a pittance.

In the small building where Ran Qing lives, Lao Chen's family of six are squeezed into the first floor, and six students live in the four empty rooms on the second floor.

When Ran Qing passed by Old Chen's house, he politely greeted the landlord's wife, then walked along the wall to the stairs and climbed up to the second floor.

Four painted wooden doors stood side by side in the dim second-floor corridor. On one side of the corridor was an opaque wall, leaning against the mountain behind. At the end of the corridor was a half-closed restroom.

Ran Qing's room is right next to this toilet, at the deepest end of the dark corridor.

Forty dollars a month, it’s the cheapest among these rooms, but the smelliest.

Fortunately, Ran Qing had lived there for a year and had long been accustomed to the urine smell in the toilet that could never be flushed away.

He closed the door, sat down, turned on the desk lamp, opened the book at the desk as usual, and started doing the exercises.

However, the sound of reciting English words came from next door, and the crying of the second child downstairs became louder and louder, mixed with the old man's distressed muttering and the scolding of Old Chen's wife to the child.

These complicated noises made Ran Qing, who was already in a bad mood, even more irritated.

At half past eleven, the sound of guitar playing and the heart-wrenching roars of two boys were heard again from the next room.

"...I'm the one who has the most videos! The lucky guy is rubbing his hands on me!"

"Let's go! Cunni!"

This shrill howl became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Although the two boys sang every night, their singing tonight was particularly harsh.

Ran Qing suddenly pushed open the book in front of him and saw that there was a large blank space on the test paper. He had only finished three multiple-choice questions in more than an hour.

Ran Qing, holding his head, muttered to himself: "...Am I under too much pressure?"

The noise downstairs continued, and the little baby's crying was intermittent. He cried for so long with a sprained and swollen ankle.

The child's grandmother's nagging gradually increased, and the old woman seemed to have different opinions about the child's condition.

But Ran Qing had no intention of caring about other people's family affairs. The blank exam paper on the desk had already made him tired and frustrated, and he didn't want to listen to the noise downstairs at all.

At this moment, there was a knock on the door and Ding Yong, who lived next door, walked in.

Ding Yong, who has a square face, is also a sophomore in high school, but half of his hair is already gray, and his premature graying is so severe that he looks like an old man.

He sat down on Ran Qing's bed and asked, "Do you know that Li Hongye ran away from home?"

Ding Yong and Li Hongye are both students from Class 2 next door.

Ding Yong's grades are average, but Li Hongye is one of the top five students in the grade and a strong rival for Ran Qing in the competition for the scholarship.

Hearing that she had run away from home, Ran Qing raised his head: "When did it happen?"

"Just last week, didn't Li Hongye ask for leave to go home? I heard that she had an argument with her father after she got home, ran out of the house alone, and then disappeared. No one knows where she went."

After saying that, Ding Yong glanced at Ran Qing again, his eyes full of doubt: "You really don't know?" "..." Ran Qing lowered his head helplessly: "Why should I know?"

Ding Yong chuckled and said, "Who in the whole grade doesn't know that Li Hongye is your girlfriend?"

Ran Qing shook his head: "Bullshit! We just occasionally communicate and learn from each other, and help each other. If it were really puppy love, Teacher Jin would have skinned me alive long ago."

Premature love among students is a disaster in high school. The whole school is on high alert to prevent it. If there is any sign of it, the teachers will bombard it with criticism.

Ran Qing and Li Hongye are not in the same class, but they are both excellent students. They occasionally discuss problems and help each other.

After listening to Ran Qing's explanation, Ding Yong chuckled but didn't say much.

Ran Qing couldn't help but ask again, "Li Hongye is missing. Has the school called the police? What happened?"

The public security in Yuezhao has improved a lot in recent years.

The Qinglong Gang that had been rampant in Yuezhao City a few years ago was finally wiped out. The gangsters were either shot or imprisoned in detention centers, and the rest scattered and could never become a force again.

In Yuezhao City today, you will basically not encounter any danger unless you wander around outside late at night.

Although petty theft is rampant, at least it doesn't kill people. Unless it's the two months leading up to the Lunar New Year, you don't have to worry about being robbed when walking on the street in broad daylight.

But even so, it would still be dangerous for Li Hongye, a girl, to go out.

Ding Yong shook his head and said, "It was only after her family called the police and they came to the school that we learned she was missing."

"They said they had asked all their relatives and friends, but no one had any news. After running away from home, there was no news from them."

"I thought she came to elope with you, but I didn't expect that even you have no news of her. It seems that she is in jeopardy..."

Ding Yong sighed, stood up and left.

In this day and age, even in the city, it is still dangerous for a young girl to mysteriously disappear at night and be unable to find her whereabouts.

Ran Qing's heart was instantly in turmoil.

After Ding Yong left, some time passed before the chorus from next door finally stopped.

The sobbing of the second child downstairs became intermittent, and the child was finally tired of crying.

The night was completely quiet and everyone was asleep.

But at this time Ran Qing couldn't sleep.

He lay on the hard bed, staring blankly at the dark ceiling above his head. As soon as he closed his eyes, he seemed to see Li Hongye's face.

He did not lie to Ding Yong. He and Li Hongye were indeed not boyfriend and girlfriend.

At their age, falling in love is a disaster, and even top students have no privileges in this regard...or rather, precisely because they are top students, they are watched even more closely.

In the past two years, Li Hongye and Ran Qing often did papers and discussed difficult problems together in the teacher's office, but Ran Qing never did anything unnecessary and never said anything unnecessary.

The way the two of them get along is indeed just mutual help between two top students, and no one can find fault with it.

But Ran Qing knew in his heart that what was surging in his heart was a bitter and difficult emotion that he dared not express directly.

The girl, who grew up in the city and came from a wealthy family, was as bright and playful as the sun. She was different from a poor country student like him. Her confident and cheerful, bright and sunny personality always made Ran Qing envious.

Ran Qing thought that if he waited until the college entrance examination was over, he would be able to say some things.

If he could get into a good prestigious university, he would have the confidence to speak up.

Ran Qing had a good plan, but he didn't expect that Li Hongye would suddenly disappear one year before the college entrance examination. The news brought by Ding Yong made Ran Qing unable to sleep anymore.

As soon as he closed his eyes, he could see Li Hongye's blood-stained face staring back at him. Then, a sharp pain in his chest came over him, making it impossible for him to fall asleep.

Finally, Ran Qing, who couldn't sleep, turned over and sat up as if possessed by a ghost.

He crawled along the bed to the window and carefully looked outside through the edge of the window.

An old man was standing quietly on the cement ground in front of Old Chen's house.

The light bulb on the roof was still on, casting a dim light on the concrete house. But the old man standing under the light cast no shadow.

It was dressed in a dirty black shroud, its withered goatee clinging coldly to its jaw. Its face was gaunt, its eye sockets sunken, and its pale hands drooped limply at its sides. Below its right ankle, there was nothing.

Seeing this scene, Ran Qing felt a chill in his heart.

Since he was very young, he has been able to see things that ordinary people cannot see...

(End of this chapter)