Chapter 16 Calcaneus
At work, today was the master's shift, I sat down and made some tea, and then Mao Xiaoli came in. She started tending to the flower pot, which was always in full bloom, and she never felt tired.
"Sister Mao, what is this flower called?"
"Soul flower."
I've never heard of it.
“It’s blooming really red.”
Mao Xiaoli poured the red water into it and locked the bottle. There was a smell of blood, really, a smell of blood, it made my scalp explode.
"Sister Mao, what kind of water is that?"
"Are you sick?"
Mao Xiaoli suddenly shouted at me, which scared me.
"Strange woman."
After I finished speaking, I got up and left. Mao Xiaoli chased me to the door and then went back.
I went to the director's office.
"Mingzhe, give this material to Mao Xiaoli and ask her to sort it out and give it to me tomorrow."
I took a look and saw that it was Mao Xiaoli's responsibility.
"Director, can you give me a new office?"
"Why?"
"Mao Xiaoli's..."
"That's just the way she is. Just ignore her and pretend she doesn't exist."
"But I see that..."
"Soul flower? It's pretty, but a little too red."
When I saw that there was no hope, I just had to endure it.
I went back and gave the materials to Mao Xiaoli.
"Ke Mingzhe, I'm telling you this for the last time, don't mess with me again."
I am really scared of this weird woman.
The master called me and said he was off work and waiting for me at the door.
When I went out, the master was already at the door. She held my hand and seemed to be in a good mood.
Zhang Xiaoxue actually called me from behind, "Let's stop," and Zhang Xiaoxue ran over.
"Mingzhe, grandma wants you to come over for dinner."
"Zhang Xiaoxue, why are you so mean?"
"I do."
Zhang Xiaoxue looked at me and I looked at the master.
"Sorry, I'm busy."
The master took my hand and left. Zhang Xiaoxue stood there without saying a word.
Yinyan asked me to go to her house. This was my second time going to her house. I lived there myself. She said it was the house left by her parents. It had three bedrooms and a living room. It was well decorated and clean.
"We'll get married here in the future."
I was stunned for a moment. Getting married here? I hadn't considered this before. Although my mother doesn't care about it anymore, it still has to come to an end.
This knot is something I can't get over, and I think Yinyan should understand it too.
That day, I returned home and the house was very cold. I didn't like it, as if it was never warm.
I went to pick up the car. This time I was careful and the driving went smoothly. Zhang Xiaoxue called me and said that Master Zhou wanted to see me and asked me to come over.
I hesitated for a moment and drove over. Zhang Xiaoxue was there.
"Mingzhe, I asked you to come here today just to chat, nothing else."
Zhang Xiaoxue looked at me happily and sat next to me.
"Grandma, Yinyan and I must be together."
"Okay."
Master Zhou was not very happy, so Zhang Xiaoxue jumped up.
"Nu... No, I like Mingzhe. "
"Alright, Yinyan has always given in to you since you were a child. Everything belongs to you. You should give in to her for once. That girl is quite pitiful."
"Milk……"
Zhang Xiaoxue waved her hand and went into the house. Master Zhou shook his head.
When I was driving back that day, something unexpected happened again. I almost wanted to chop off my hand.
Yinyan came, looked at me, and actually laughed.
“You’re amazing.”
I drove the car between two trees and didn't hit the car at all. But the strange thing was that the distance between the two trees was not even as wide as the car, so I couldn't get through. How did I get through? I just felt a flash in my eyes, and then I passed through and stopped.
"How did you get in? It's unlikely."
I was also confused.
"Looks like we need to find a crane. It's really strange that there's no way to get it out."
More and more people gathered around, and someone, who knew what was going on, called a reporter, who showed up too. Within ten minutes, the news was all over the internet. No one knew how the car got in there. Some said it was lifted in by a crane, perhaps hoping for fame. Fuck him! How could I have so much free time?
The crane came and the master was happy after seeing it.
"Dude, your skills are world-class. I almost suspected you used a crane to lift it in there. Are you kidding me?"
I glared at him, and he was so happy that he couldn't contain himself. He said, "Get in the car, lift the car out, and we get in." Yinyan was also happy.
"Don't laugh, my eyes are flashing again."
Yinyan looked at me and said.
"How could this happen? Go to the crematorium."
I will never dare to drive again after seeing Yinyan driving. I will become famous now. It will definitely be on the TV news tonight. No doubt about it, it is a negative example.
When we entered the crematorium, Yinyan went towards the small building. I followed her. After entering the small building, Yinyan went to the second floor, the innermost room on the east side of the second floor. Yinyan unlocked the door, and I was wondering how she got the key to this place. When we opened it, there were shelves everywhere, row after row. They must have been used to hold urns.
“This used to be the urn.”
After Yinyan finished speaking, she walked in, row by row, and stopped at the last row. I saw an urn, pitch black, hollow, and shaped like a two-story building. It was very beautiful and could be said to be a work of art.
"Such a beautiful urn? I've never seen one before."
"Yes, it's really beautiful, handmade, it must be the work of a master."
"Whose?"
"Ji Gangji, one box."
I haven't heard of it. In the funeral supplies room at the fire scene, those are all machine-processed, all kinds of them, but they can't compare to this.
“There are actually people who make urns?”
"Of course, there are those who make coffins, and there are those who make urns. Of course, they all use machines now, but those who are particular will still go to Ji Yihe."
I looked at the urn. There were photos, but the colors had faded. One person was blurry and I couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman.
"Whose urn is this?"
"I don't know. It's been here for 20 or 30 years, right?"
The master walked to the side, to the corner, and I saw the plastic bag there.
"It seems that leaving it here won't work."
Yinyan picked it up, came out and locked the door.
After getting in the car, Yinyan drove to Master Zhou's place. This was the place she hated to go the most. She had been like this since she was a child. She said that she was a person that her grandmother did not like.
When we went over, Master Zhou was home alone and looked unhappy.
"Grandma, these are bones."
Yinyan told what happened.
Master Zhou took a long time to speak.
"You've got a problem. This is clearly a human leg bone. It's on the way to the crematorium. I don't know how it got there, but you have to send it back."
"You don't even know who it belongs to? Where should you send it to?"
Yinyan said.
"Heel bone."
Yinyan shook her head, obviously not understanding.
"Yinyan, if you're determined to be with Mingzhe, then be fine."
"I know."
Just leave the bones here, I'll take care of it, and everything will be fine tomorrow.
I didn't know how Master Zhou handled it. I was very curious and wanted to know. Yinyan gave me a look, meaning don't ask too much.
I asked as we got in the car.
"Yanzi, what do you think of Master Zhou's heel bone?"
Yinyan shook her head.
"There are many things here that I don't know, and it's better not to know them."
Yinyan was not very happy. She went home with me and sat at home watching TV.
"When are we having the wedding? "
Yinyan suddenly said this.
"Master, next May Day."
"If you call me Master again, I'll pinch you?"
After Yinyan and I had a fight, I cooked at home and she actually had the same cooking skills as Master Zhou.
"You can do it too?"
"My grandma taught me that if a woman can't cook, she can't support a man."
Yinyan put the dishes on the table, and I took out the red wine. It was bought by my father. He bought no less than a hundred bottles of red wine, all of which were placed in the cabinet, but he had no chance to drink it. He wanted to drink it with my mother, but my mother never gave him such a chance.
I looked at the wine and shook my head.
"My father's, but my mother never gave him such a chance."
Yinyan looked at me.
"I'll give it to you."
That day, Yinyan stayed overnight at my place. I lived in my father's original room. My mother had always had her own room since I was old enough to understand.
That night, I dreamed of my father. He wanted to hug me, but he didn't dare to hold me back, so he stretched out his hands...
I cried and woke up in the middle of the night and sat in front of the window. My father liked to sit here and watch me go out and come back.
When I woke up in the morning, Yinyan had already prepared breakfast.
After eating, I went to work and Yinyan cleaned up and waited for me to get off work.
As soon as I entered the office, Zhang Xiaoxue came in.
"Brother Mingzhe, I brought you breakfast."
"I've eaten it. Swallow made it."
Zhang Xiaoxue just stood there in a daze for a long time before she walked away and bumped into Mao Xiaoli who came in.
"You little bitch, where does your temper come from?"
After Mao Xiaoli sat down, she acted sarcastic but didn't say anything.
I was getting angry, so I went out for a walk. I couldn't go anywhere else. My master told me not to go anywhere here, and not to go if I could avoid it.
I took a walk and came back. There were a lot of mourners here, and there were especially many people today.
I'll go back, said Mao Xiaoli.
"Go home if you're okay."
"Then I'm leaving, Sister Mao."
"Let's go, it's okay, I'll take care of it if anything happens."
When I got home, Yinyan had already cleaned the house, and it looked great.
"You're back so early?"
"Yeah, I came back when I was alright."
I asked about Master Zhou's heel bone, and Yinyan looked at me for a long time and said.
"Don't know what you don't need to know."
I was just particularly curious, but now it seems that I really shouldn't have known about the car accidents, which happened one after another and were so strange. Now open the computer and you can see my video. There are so many amazing replies that I have become a joke. This guy drove the car to this extent, he is an amazing driver.
Yinyan said while eating.
"Go to your mother's place tomorrow and talk about getting married."
"Can we wait until next year?"
"Why?"
I didn't say anything. Actually, I wanted to make my mother happy, but it was already impossible. So I thought of other ways, which might be better, but I didn't have any good ideas.
Mao Xiaoli didn't come today, so I was quite comfortable being alone. But by the afternoon, looking at that soul flower made me shudder. I wondered what that red stuff in the bottle was. It smelled bloody, so what else could it be? Before coming to the crematorium, I'd seen something online about using the blood of the dead to grow flowers that bloomed year-round, incredibly vibrant. The thought made me shudder. If that were the case, I absolutely couldn't let Mao Xiaoli do something like that under my nose.
The cabinet was locked. I thought about it for a long time and finally took off the back panel. I got the bottle of red water and opened it. It smelled of blood. It was definitely blood. My hands were shaking.
I put it back and fixed the backboard, and then I started sweating. I lit a cigarette and sat there smoking. No, I have to find the manager for this matter.
I went into the director's office and saw him looking through some documents.
"Director, Mao Xiaoli..."
"I told you not to mention her and stay away from her."
"I mean, she's growing flowers with human blood."
The director was startled, stood up suddenly, and sat down again.
"Are you kidding? That's impossible. All those legends are fake."
"real."
The director stared at me for a long time, lit a cigarette, and took a deep puff.
"Don't ask too much about this matter, don't interfere, just pretend you didn't see it."
"Captain, this is immoral. Seriously, it's illegal. If the family knew about this, I'm afraid you wouldn't be able to handle this."
"Maybe it's not human blood, but some other kind of blood."
"But I heard that it's called a soul flower, and it must be fed with human blood, otherwise it won't survive and won't bloom so brightly."
The director's face was extremely grim, probably because he blamed me for being too involved, but I didn't want to think about it. I saw it, I knew it, and I couldn't accept it. If I didn't say it, my conscience would be broken. What if I said it? The director would feel uncomfortable too.
"Well, I'll hold a team meeting tomorrow."
I went out, went back to the office, packed up and left. I couldn't stay in this room full of blood.
When I met Yinyan in the evening, I told her about this. She looked at me for a long time and said.
"You didn't see anything."
"But I can smell the blood."
Yinyan stopped talking and said, "I can't stand this kind of thing."
I really can't understand what kind of person Mao Xiaoli is. I heard that she was already in the office when she came. Her father used to be a small leader, and she has been working here ever since. She has never been married. She is in her forties, and I can't understand why she doesn't get married. It's not that it's difficult to find a partner here, but it's not that she can't find one. She must be sick.
