Happy New Year everyone!!
It was the little boy I had seen at the subway station.
He has changed since the last time I saw him.
A spirit had wrapped the boy like a bundle, in a layer of gray mist and was standing together with him. I could make out her face that had turned from pale white to purple.
Those innocent eyes were also covered by a layer of unknown substance. Looking at the mist, there wasn"t any light.
I was gone for just seven days! This boy"s soul was pure and clean and now it has turned into this. I suddenly felt guilt rake my heart.
Earlier I kept thinking about him but in the end, I didn"t help him. Right now, seeing him standing there I felt upset.
Pervert noticed that I had stopped walking. His sight fell on the street light and he looked over.
"Hua"er."
There were a lot of people walking around me, if now I were to go and talk to that little boy, won"t they think I was crazy ah?
But I knew that he was looking for someone to help him. If I still ignored him and walked away, I wouldn"t be able to bear it.
Besides, there is a child inside my belly too and even though he isn"t born yet, my concern for the young child is no less. I don"t have the heart to abandon him and leave.
I was quickly thinking of a way to approach the little boy without being noticed by other people.
Pervert saw through my intention but he just called my name and didn"t say anything else. He quietly accompanied me.
Suddenly, I thought of a brilliant idea and was pleased!
I pretended to be just another pedestrian hurrying towards the subway station and just as I was about to reach the stairs going down to the underground tunnel, I took out my phone from my bag and put it on my ear, pretending that I got a call from someone.
This action was seen by Pervert but I didn"t notice the smile in his eyes.
"h.e.l.lo, I am outside."
I walked towards the street light while talking, leaned against the iron pole and bowed my head.
To the pa.s.sersby it would look like I had lowered my head to make a phone call.
But the truth is….
"Little one, are you lost?"
The little boy totally didn"t expect that someone would come and talk to him. He raised his head and looked at me but I still maintained my original posture.
As soon as he saw me talking to him tears rolled out of his hazy gray eyes and he burst out crying!
"Jiejie![1] Mommy is gone! My mommy is missing! I want to find mommy!"
He cried and ran towards me. I was about to reach out to hold him when suddenly a red light flashed towards him!
The little boy was shocked to be hit by the red light. He moved back several steps and fell on his b.u.t.t. Tears flooded his eyes and gushed out like a broken dam.
I was a little shocked! I had never been in such a situation before. Then I heard Pervert"s voice.
"It"s the bracelet"s light, it will protect you. This spirit(departed spirit) smells like it"s close to turning into an evil spirit so the bracelet a.s.sumed that he would harm you and so protected you."
"As expected, tomorrow he will lose his sense of right and wrong completely and become an evil spirit."
I felt how cold Pervert"s words were. His tone was so calm, as if this was something not even worth mentioning, that this child turning into an evil spirit had nothing to do with him.
But I was unsettled by his(the child) pitiful expression.
"Seven days ago, I saw him at the subway station."
I looked glumly at Pervert: "At that time, his smell was still very pure and he wasn"t wrapped in the gray mist either."
"When I came back and got out of this subway station, I didn"t try looking for him, I didn"t help him."
Pervert saw me looking like this and worry flashed through his eyes. His big hands gently caressed my cheek and said: "Hua"er, this is not your fault."
"How is it not my fault! I saw him! I knew he needed help but I didn"t help! I know it"s not my responsibility but I"m human, a living person! I can"t bear to see it ah!"
I couldn"t help shouting. A few people walking past me gave me odd looks. I quickly suppressed my emotions. If I hadn"t ran into this child today, I would have forgotten all about him.
But things have changed, he is standing in front of me right now so how can I possibly abandon him?
The little boy stopped crying after hearing this. He stood up from the ground, wiped his face with his dirty hands and looked at me innocently.
"Jiejie, can you help MaoMao find mommy? I don"t have any other request. I only want to go back to mommy. Me and mommy got lost, I have been looking for her for a long time but I can"t find her."
I looked at him and nodded: "I"ll help you."
"Hua"er……"
Just as Pervert was about to speak, I interrupted him with my eyes, calmed myself and said: "Don"t say anything, I am going to help him. You"ll say that I am being meddlesome or that I am being too sympathetic but my heart isn"t made of stone. If what you said just now is true then we don"t have much time."
"This child is definitely unable to find his mother which is why his soul is stuck here. If we help him find his mother before he turns into an evil spirit, we can send him to the Underworld."
Pervert put an arm around my shoulders, squeezed and said: "I just wanted you to know about it."
I looked at him, in those deep, gentle eyes. He pointed at my nose and in a soft, yielding tone that made my body go numb said: "I will respect Hua"er"s decision……if it"s not too excessive."
I couldn"t help but smile hearing Pervert add a condition.
"If you will support me then I have nothing to fear."
I lowered my head and asked the boy named MaoMao: "Do you know where your home is?"
MaoMao"s eyes showed confusion and doubt, he tilted his head and thought for a very long time but in the end still shook his head: "I don"t know, I only remember mommy came here for work before she went over there."
As expected, the memory of the spirit is fragmented. MaoMao didn"t know where his home was, he only remembered the subway station.
His mother works here?
Is it possible that she is a train attendant? Or in ground handling?
Rather than thinking like this it would be better to look for someone working in the ground service department and ask them. Maybe they"ll have some information.
"MaoMao, do you know your mommy"s name?"
MaoMao immediately replied: "Lin MiaoMiao."
Good, as long as we have a name, we should be able to find MaoMao"s mother.
If MaoMao remembers correctly that his mother works here then we should definitely be able to find her.
I trotted down the stone-brick staircase and as the evening approached, the subway station began to clog up and the announcements started inside.
"It is the rush hour now. Please safeguard your belongings, don"t look at your cell phones while using the staircase……"
Pervert was walking behind me and MaoMao was floating on my left, not touching the ground, as I walked through the crowd towards the information desk.
Several middle-aged women stood around the information desk wondering who to ask. I could see that the handsome young man working at the subway station had an impatient look on his face but was still controlling his temper and patiently explaining.
They were some troublesome older aunts who were making a fuss.
Under such circ.u.mstances I didn"t want to just barge into their conversation. Not only will I not be able to get any useful information, it was highly likely that the staff members will be annoyed.
So, I stood at the service window, patiently waiting for him to deal with the situation.
After a while, a female ground service attendant walked into the information desk, exchanged glances with the man and helped him deal with the difficult pa.s.sengers.
"Really! I have explained it so many times! What can"t they still understand?"
The young man mumbled impatiently, he sat down and turned to look at the small window and at last noticed me.
With an exhausted smile on his face he said: "How can we help you?"
I too didn"t beat around the bush and got straight to the point: "I am looking for someone."
The young man was surprised. Looks like he didn"t expect me to ask something like this.
He smiled a bit embarra.s.singly, clearly misunderstanding what I meant: "This young lady, did you lose someone?"
I shook my head: "I am asking you about a person, Lin MiaoMiao, she should be working at this platform, do you know about her?"
Sure enough! His face darkened immediately but he was also a little excited. Suddenly, he stood up from his seat and looked straight at me: "Are you Lin MiaoMiao"s family?"
"No, I"m not….but I know her son……seeing you like this, something must have happened. Can you tell me?"
Like a deflated rubber ball, the young man suddenly slumped in the chair. He rubbed his face with both hands and looked at me sadly.
"Lin MiaoMiao is our old ground personnel, very dedicated to her work. You can say she is our senior, but……ai, G.o.d is really unfair ah!"
He sighed deeply, his voice was filled with sorrow. I felt that if he wasn"t a man, he would have definitely burst out crying.
His tone was overflowing with negative emotions, just hearing it would make people"s heart ache.
"Her husband had an affair but worse still he ran away with that woman and left her with a huge debt. The debt collectors came to demand repayment and said that if she could not pay them back then she should use the house to settle the debt. Older sister MiaoMiao could not let her child sleep on the streets, so she had to work several jobs in order to pay the debt."
This was something I had seen only in movies and shows, hearing it out loud made me feel disgusted.
"Doesn"t Lin MiaoMiao have any relatives?"
The young man showed an expression uglier than when he was about to cry: "Her family is knee deep in debt, who would get close to them?! Most people are afraid and won"t even lend a helping hand, they said they won"t even offer them any shelter even if the mother and child had to sleep on the streets. Such monsters ah!"
I more or less understood the situation and couldn"t help feeling sad for MaoMao.
"Lin MiaoMiao, where is she now?"
The young man said this much and, in the end, couldn"t control himself. His eyes filled with tears that trickled down from the corner of his eyes.
My heart trembled. I had a bad feeling.
"She had a brain hemorrhage due to overwork. She is still in the hospital."
With a bang I felt the world crumble. Not my world but MaoMao"s. Standing right there I could see his world rapidly turning gray. A black and white symbolizing death gradually emerged.
TL Corner:
[1] Jiejie=Older Sister.
Does anyone know what 小哥=Xiǎo gē means? It translates to ‘(lit.) Little older brother", I"m not sure if it means "little brother" or if it"s an affectionate way of calling an older brother so I am going with ‘young man" instead.