My girlfriend is a Miao demon.

There is an amusement park on the verge of bankruptcy on Yile Street in the old town of Wangshan City – Wangshan Amusement Park.

This long-established amusement park, which opened in 1987 and covers an area of ​​only 35 square meters with more than 50 attractions, has seen its business decline since the beginning of the new millennium. In particular, with the completion and opening of two global theme parks in the development zone in recent years, this old amusement park has been left barely surviving. The deserted scene always makes the old Wangshan residents who pass by the gate sigh with regret. Especially for those born in the 80s and 90s who grew up in Wangshan, the decline of the amusement park that carries the memories of their generation, and its inevitable demise in the foreseeable future, foreshadows the passing of their youth and its irretrievable fading away.

For Xiang Nanfeng and Gui Luyao, this amusement park probably holds an even more special meaning: it might represent the beautiful and complete childhood that they could see and hear but never actually had.

An orphan's childhood is incomplete no matter what.

Who would have thought that the basic ticket to this amusement park only costs 10 yuan?

"Hehe, I didn't expect it to be only 10 yuan. My deskmate in elementary school was a dark-skinned and chubby girl from the north. I still remember that she wore two very thick braids. Her family came to Wangshan to do clothing business. Her father often drove an old Volkswagen Santana to pick her up. Later, the old Santana was replaced by a Santana 2000. She was always arrogant."

"Is it a story of childhood sweethearts?"

"No." Xiang Nanfeng shook his head. "There's no such thing as childhood sweethearts. This classmate brags to me every day that she comes here to play every week. She can play every single attraction here, and she can play as many times as she wants."

"Heh. And then?"

"Then one year on her birthday, she invited the whole class here, and she treated them."

"You're here too?"

"no."

"You...don't want to come?"

"No, but the teachers at the welfare home won't allow it. There's a rule that we can't go out on weekends."

"Hey, so what? Everyone else went?"

"Then I felt sad. Everyone else had been to this amusement park except me. Actually, only about a dozen people went for her birthday. After all, they were elementary school students and had to take the bus, so not many parents were really at ease, and many families didn't go. But after her birthday, she kept bragging to others about her birthday, bragging about how she treated everyone to this amusement park. She was my deskmate, and she kept talking about it for a week or two, maybe longer, I can't remember exactly."

"I was so young then, I was really upset, and I cried. Haha. I was just a kid back then. Hey, Luyao, I'm talking to you, why are you crying!"

"It's alright, go on, please continue."

"But actually I cried secretly after school when I got back to the orphanage. There was an older sister in our orphanage, a year older than me, she was really my older sister, her name was Dang Lan, she protected me since I was little. She was in sixth grade at the time, and the next day when she went to school, during the break of the first class, she rushed into our class, grabbed that little fat black boy's braid, and cut off his braid in front of the whole class."

"Wow! This older sister is so nice, you're so lucky to have an older sister!"

"Yes, I felt the same way back then. It was like a ray of light in my childhood."

"And then what happened?"

"Well, according to regulations, the school should have punished Dang Lan, and the other parents were also very persistent. But then the director of our welfare home went to the school, and the other parents, knowing the situation, were quite understanding and didn't pursue it further, so the matter was over. But the teacher had to give an explanation to that chubby little black boy who sat next to me. Why should a victim willingly give up the pursuit? So she told her that Dang Lan and I were orphans."

"In addition, the teacher also changed our seats."

"But this way, my being an orphan was exposed. She would secretly tell one or two people today, and another one or two people tomorrow, and then those one or two people would tell another one or two people. Soon, the whole class knew I was an orphan."

"Sigh, actually, what's most upsetting for me isn't that everyone else has been to this amusement park but I haven't. There are so many places everyone else has been but I haven't, and so many things everyone else has but I don't—I'm used to that. What I can't accept is that everyone knows I'm an orphan. I don't want to be treated differently. Sigh..."

"Look, the amusement park ticket is only 10 yuan!"

"Hehe... Hey, Luyao, is this your first time here?"

"Hehe, no, this is the second time. The first time was last year..." Luyao answered, wiping away her tears with a tissue. She cried and laughed at the same time, shaking her head. Her bitter smile was truly pitiful. "This isn't my first time here. Last year, the kindergarten organized a trip for the senior class. I... I brought the children here."

After Luyao finished speaking, she lowered her head deeply, holding the warm cup of bubble tea in both hands as if she were holding the entire chilly early winter.

Xiang Nanfeng took off his camel-colored wool overcoat and draped it over Luyao's shoulders, pulling her into the crook of his right arm. Through the narrow cabin of the Ferris wheel, he looked down at this childhood paradise that was gradually lowering and shrinking. This paradise was perhaps destined to be somewhat heavy. After a long silence, Luyao finally broke it:

"Nanfeng, where's your eldest sister? Where's Danglan?"

"I haven't seen her for three or four years. We met once when she graduated from university. She was a national defense student and joined the army right after graduation, a submariner."

"So cool! That's so true to her personality!"

"Yes, she's always been like that. I wonder where she is now, maybe somewhere in the Pacific Ocean, haha. I could write to her, but she's always thought I was being long-winded. If I write her three pages, she'll probably only reply with three lines. But speaking of which, we should really take a picture together and send it to her so she knows I have a girlfriend and that I even came to Wangshan Amusement Park."

As Xiang Nanfeng spoke, he took out his phone. Luyao initially resisted, saying, "I just cried, I look terrible, don't take a picture," but ultimately couldn't resist her boyfriend's insistence, and this imperfect moment was captured. When Xiang Nanfeng put down his phone to check the selfie, Gui Luyao asked:

"Oh, by the way, Nanfeng. Was she also an abandoned baby?"

"Yes, that's right. She was an abandoned baby, just like me. But she was probably a bit older than me when she was abandoned. She had congenital heart disease. Her parents probably brought her to Wangshan for treatment, or maybe they came to Wangshan to work? Anyway, the one-child policy was strictly enforced back then, and since she was a girl and had a disease, she was abandoned at the train station. Actually, congenital heart disease is curable, and once cured, she's a perfectly good person."

"Does she know who her biological parents are?"

"I don't know."

"So her surname is Dang?"

"Hey, I didn't tell you, did I? 90% of the children in our welfare home are either related to the Party or the country. This is probably a tradition, because they don't have parents, so it's like the Party or the country gave them a second life, so most of them are given the Party or the country's surname."

"Then why don't you have the surname of the Party or the country?"

"I am rather special. I heard from one of my teachers that I was abandoned in Nanfeng Lane in the east of Wangshan Old Town. The old headmaster at the time thought that one day I might have a chance to reunite with my biological parents based on this clue, so he reversed Nanfeng Lane and registered me with the name Xiang Nanfeng."

"Oh, that's a really nice name. So, if that's the case, why didn't Dang Lan have that name? Hahaha, shouldn't she be called Zhan Huoche? Isn't Zhan a surname too? Hahaha."

"Okay, I'll write to her tonight and tell her that my girlfriend calls you Zhan Huoche."

"go!"

"Actually, the story of Nanfeng Lane is quite strange. When I was in high school, I was very curious about my background, so one day after school, I went to the old city east."

"and then?"

"Back then, there were only a dozen or so streets in the old eastern part of the city. I asked around, but there was no Nanfeng Lane."

"No? That's impossible. Nanfeng Lane, since it's called a lane, it sounds like it should be a small lane. Maybe the road is too narrow and they just didn't ask?"

"Probably not. The old eastern part of the city was mainly comprised of more than a dozen garment factories and electronics factories, as well as urban villages in the middle of the factory area. I asked the elderly people in the urban villages back then, and they were all locals. They probably knew about it."

"And then what happened?"

"Later, after I went to university, I searched on online maps, and there wasn't a single street called Nanfeng Lane, not just in the old eastern part of the city, but throughout the entire Wangshan City. Or Dongfeng Lane, Xifeng Lane, Beifeng Lane, Nanfeng Street, Nanfeng Road, Nanfeng Lane, Nanfeng Lane, Nanfeng Lane, Nanfeng Lane, Nanfeng Lane, Nanfeng Street—you can search for it now. I searched for all the similar characters back then, and none of them were found. There is no Nanfeng Lane in Wangshan."

"Wangshan doesn't have Nanfeng Lane? Didn't you ask the old dean who registered you back then?"

"The old director? The old director passed away before I started elementary school. The teacher who told me about this... um, I know her surname is Zhang. She was very young, maybe she came to the orphanage right after graduating from vocational school? Maybe you can't find her? We orphans always call the teachers at the orphanage 'Mom,' but this Teacher Zhang was probably called 'Sister' because she was young at the time."

"What about Teacher Zhang? You can ask her?"

Xiang Nanfeng shook his head:

"I can't ask her anymore. I remember very clearly when Teacher Zhang told me about this. I was in fourth grade at the time, and I was just starting to get interested in my background. I often pestered her to ask, but she only said she would tell me when I grew up. But one day she suddenly told me about this, and less than a week later she left and resigned."

"You resigned?"

"Yes, I heard that she married an overseas Chinese. All we knew was that she went to Australia. Later I thought that the day she told me that story was actually her way of saying goodbye to me. As for why I am called Xiang Nanfeng, and as for the story of Nanfeng Lane, I later asked several older teachers at the welfare home, but they all said they had never heard of it."

"This is actually quite normal. In places like orphanages, every child sent there will have a similar 'mystery of their origins'."

"Didn't you ask the police? They must know whether it's Nanfeng Lane or not, and they should also know the person who first found you. If a kind person finds you, they should call the police first before sending you to the welfare home."

"Hey, it's useless. It wasn't like this 25 years ago. Back then, there was no 110. People would go to the nearest police station to report a case, and once the case was resolved, that was it. How could there be such a clear record of the report?"

"Even if we find the person who reported the case, the kind-hearted person, and the police officer in charge, 25 years have passed, and they probably won't remember it anymore. Besides, even if there really is a Nanfeng Lane in the old eastern part of Wangshan City, so what?"

"If the abandoned babies of that time couldn't find their parents back then, how could they be found 25 years later? Besides, what good would finding Nanfeng Lane do? Are they really going to look for their biological parents?"

"Hehe. Found her, do you want to acknowledge her?"

"The old site of the Wangshan City Children's Welfare Institute was on Wentang Street in the north of the city, you know that? I pointed it out to you last time I passed by. After the welfare institute moved, it was converted into Wentang Road Middle School. More than 100 orphans lived at that old site. Of those 100-plus children, 3 were later found to their parents. One of them was found through a TV program on Wangshan TV that helped people find their families. In the program, you could see the deep affection between mothers and children, and fathers and children, right? But in reality, it was not like that at all."

"You should know that the vast majority of families, the vast majority of couples, and the vast majority of parents, no matter what kind of predicament they are in, will not abandon their own children in order to get out of their predicament. Even if they pick them up, steal them, or rob them, violating morality and the law, most people will not violate human nature."

"We were abandoned, not lost or trafficked, so even if we found our parents, the outcome would likely be worse. So actually, I've long since let go of the obsession that there's no Nanfeng Lane in Wangshan. I'm more curious, yes, purely curious."

As Xiang Nanfeng spoke, he unzipped his collar and reached inside to pull out a black leather cord. A heavy object hung from the cord, clearly a pendant. Xiang Nanfeng used both hands to pry open the cord around his neck, removed the pendant, and placed it in Gui Luyao's hand.

"You see, I've been curious for years: what kind of parents would put such a strange thing in their child's swaddling clothes?"

"Wow, what is this? It's so...so ancient!"

It was a ring made of a special kind of jade. Its warm and smooth texture did not come from its rough texture, but from the thick patina that had been polished by time over thousands of years.

"What is this? Jade?"

"Yes. It's jade."

"It seems quite different from the jade sold in shopping malls?" Gui Luyao stuck out her tongue, looking both ignorant and eager to learn.

"Yes, this is neither jadeite nor Hetian jade. You can't find it in shopping malls, but I've seen it in museums."

"A museum? That...that must be very valuable, right?"

"I don't know, and I don't think I should say that. The jade stones you see in shopping malls that cost tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan are expensive primarily because of their material and then their carving."

"Look at how white Hetian jade is, and how delicate its texture is. Look at those glutinous or icy jadeite pieces; they're clearly just stones, but their transparency is so high. If you add the design and carving of a skilled craftsman, they're definitely very valuable. But look at this piece of jade; its material itself is far inferior to Hetian jade and jadeite. I've looked it up; this material is called chicken bone white jade."

"Chicken-bone white jade?"

"Yes, it's white jade that looks like chicken bones, hence the name 'chicken bone white jade.' This type of jade has a history much, much earlier than Hetian white jade. The earliest Hetian jade entered the Central Plains during the reign of King Wu Ding of the Shang Dynasty, but this chicken bone white jade existed as early as 8000 years ago."

"Eight thousand years? The age of dinosaurs?"

"You really are... sigh, you should read more books! It's probably the era of Emperor Yan and Emperor Huang."

"Oh, okay. Please continue."

"This is probably the era when Chinese jade culture originated. The earliest jade artifacts were made of chicken-bone white jade. In that era, chicken-bone white jade was specifically used to make ritual objects, which were used in tribal sacrifices to worship gods and heaven. It predates the use of bronze tripods as ritual objects."

"The Book of Songs says, 'Stones from other mountains can be used to polish jade; stones from other mountains can be used to cut jade.' This refers to this kind of jade."

"Oh? If that's the case, then it should be even more precious?"

"Perhaps. Look at the Hongshan Culture, which has jade pig-dragons; the Liangzhu Culture, which has jade cong; the Qijia Culture, which has jade bi, and so on. In the era from 8000 to 5000 years ago, this kind of chicken-bone white jade was the highest grade of jade material. Almost every prehistoric civilization in China that revered jade culture used it to make ritual objects."

"It's just that the primitive religions of different prehistoric civilizations differed, so the shapes of their ritual objects also varied. This is also the main indicator and standard for the identification of cultural relics today."

"I understand. So, which prehistoric civilization does this jade ring symbolize?"

"I don't know. When I was in college, I actually took some archaeology and art history classes and read some related books. At that time, I was in Beijing, so it was very convenient to see exhibitions. I also saw a lot of chicken bone white jade ritual objects from the prehistoric period, but none of them were similar to this."

"I was auditing the class, and after class I would go to the teacher to ask questions. I even showed this to a professor at our school who specializes in jade."

"What did he say?"

"He didn't say much, but he said this thing was neither like the Hongshan nor the Liangzhu, and asked me where it came from. I said it was a family heirloom. He said there was no such shape, so it must be fake."

"That professor was very famous; he often appeared on TV as an expert appraising antiques. When get out of class ended, there were so many people gathered around, I didn't have a chance to ask many questions. But what he said really made me feel quite frustrated; I actually believed him at the time."

"When I thought about it, I realized it made sense! In the dead of winter, with heavy snow falling, to leave a baby who was only a few hours old in an empty alley and put a cheap, imitation fake in the swaddling clothes—that's the kind of thing my parents, whom I've never met, would do."

"Nonsense, utter nonsense!"

Why are you angry?

"I said, what kind of fake expert is this! This is clearly a priceless treasure!"

"Haha, it's probably not priceless, but after reading some books, I've gained some understanding myself."

"Also, there's an older guy at our station, over forty years old, whose family has run an antique shop for generations. Once, we were chatting, and I showed him this. After looking at it, he said this thing was definitely not a modern fake. Why?"

"First, you can find new materials and imitate new techniques, but this skin, this patina, is too beautiful. You can't replicate it in a new imitation. In their industry terms, it's called 'a perfect replica.' You can imitate 60 or 70% of the original, but you can't imitate 100% of the original."

"Secondly, the purpose of counterfeiting is to make money. To make money, they will definitely imitate whatever is most profitable. Craftsmanship can be counterfeited, but it cannot be indistinguishable from the real thing; it must be genuine craftsmanship. If a modern person were to make a jade piece of this shape, they would use small machine tools for cutting, grinding, and polishing. But if you want to make a purely traditional piece, you have to do it entirely by hand, truly following the method of 'learning from others' to improve your own jade.' The problem is, why would they spend so much money processing chicken-bone white jade when they could sell it for more money processing Hetian jade?"

"Furthermore, even if he wanted to work with chicken-bone white jade, he should have at least imitated an existing, well-known artifact. Why not imitate a jade pig-dragon or a jade cong? Why bother making something that even experts would consider a fabrication?"

"Yes. That's a real expert."

"Haha, you're really serious."

"Actually, I'm pretty open-minded. Whether this thing is real or fake doesn't really matter to me. I'm just curious. You see, it looks a bit like a jade disc:"

"Jade discs exist in Qijia Culture, Liangzhu Culture, Hongshan Culture, and Dawenkou Culture, but this one looks somewhat like a jade disc, yet it is not a jade disc at all. It is more like a jade ring from the Warring States period. What kind of prehistoric civilization do you think created it? In terms of craftsmanship, it is far more advanced than other prehistoric cultures of the same period. Don't be fooled by its simple appearance; look at the three parallel lines on its inner side."

"That's so difficult to process!"

Gui Luyao opened her hands and examined the jade ring carefully. The jade was of ancient quality, and its simple yet mysterious design was extraordinary. Its outer diameter was about 4 centimeters, its inner diameter was about 1 centimeter, and its thickness was also about 1 centimeter. The jade ring was perfectly round and smooth. Although it had been through thousands of years, there was not a single bump or scratch, no chip or scratch left by friction with hard objects, and no crack or breakage caused by external impact.

On the inner wall of the jade ring, there are three parallel raised lines evenly distributed. The lines connect around the jade ring and are arranged with extreme precision. Only the raised edges have very slight polishing marks.

"Look, this jade ring is so simple, but those three lines are raised lines, and the inner diameter is only 1 centimeter. How was it made? And so precise! So I sometimes fantasize about how advanced this prehistoric civilization must have been, but why did it disappear without a trace in history? Why is there no trace of it at all?"

"And then there are my parents, whom I've never met. What kind of people would possess this jade ring, and where did they get it from? Hehe, I'm just curious."

As Xiang Nanfeng spoke, he picked up the leather cord of the jade ring and casually draped it around Luyao's neck. The pure white and antique jade ring rested beautifully on her fair and lustrous neck, creating a lovely and fragrant scene. Xiang Nanfeng gently kissed Luyao's neck and whispered in her ear:

"It doesn't matter anymore, none of it matters. It's just a home, isn't it? Now we have one, don't we?"

"I've got it! I've got it too!"

The warm winter sun, like crumpled gold leaf, sprinkles across the Ferris wheel cabins. The tiny, mottled, rusted, and deserted old amusement rides on the ground always make one inexplicably imagine what they used to look like when they were brand new, shiny, trendy, fashionable, and running at lightning speed.

"South Wind. You will keep this jade ring for me, but remember, you have given it to me, it belongs to me now. From now on, you must keep it safe for me, and you must never tell anyone about it or show it to anyone!"

"Okay, I promise."

In the hazy night, in front of his computer, Xiang Nanfeng looked at the message from Mao Xi Gu Zhu on the screen: "Who are you? Who are you, Xiang Nanfeng?" He silently grabbed the jade ring hanging from the leather strap on his chest through his hoodie. He recalled the familiar voice that had rang in his ears when the veil of the handless ghost bride was lifted in the stone chamber of the ancient castle: "You promised, don't forget."

Was it really Luyao? Was it something I actually heard or something I just imagined?

What exactly did I promise? What is it that I shouldn't forget?

"Buzz buzz buzz" "Buzz buzz buzz" That was the sound of the screen shaking sent by the master of the Maoxi Gu.

Mao Xigu Master 2012.01.07 20:36

"Xiang Nanfeng, besides Nanfeng Lane, do you have any other clues about your background? Do you have any special tokens or clues?"

Nomads Go on a Party 2012.01.07 20:37

"There was only an old swaddling cloth, very ordinary. When I left the orphanage at 18, I threw it away as soon as I got it."