Chapter Index

    Chapter 61 Chapter 61

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    He was sure that this was Chen Zongqian’s voice. Yesterday, he was emotional, and the whisper in his ears was so clear. Today’s instructions, every sound struck his heartstrings.Now it feels strange again, even the affection is strange.Who is this?Whose brother is he?Why has he never figured it out?

    The silence lasted too long, and Xu Qiaochuan finally spoke after suppressing it for a while.He had promised to return home on time, but now he broke his promise due to confusion and did not want to go back.

    Xu Qiaochuan was dull on the other end of the phone, unable to answer the question.

    “Then just wait, I’ll pick you up.” The other party said again.

    “Do you know where I am? How long have you been looking for me? It’s very late…”

    Chen Zongqian looked at the sky before going out. The night does fall early in winter, but how late is it?The last bus from here to Beiguan Town will leave on time at 19:30, and the last bus returning from Beiguan Town will leave at 8pm. Chen Zongqian remembers the two times clearly, and it is still far away now. How late can it be?

    What made him reluctant to return?The signal in the elevator was not good, and the dry current mixed with the human voice made it even more hoarse, giving it a familiar sense of decadence.His and Xu Ni’s voices blended together to form a murderous web, trapping Chen Zongqian and unable to escape.

    Xu Qiaochuan’s voice stopped suddenly, even for a short period of time.

    The number on the elevator floated to the one position, and Chen Zongqian suddenly felt a dull pain in his heart, and the mass of flesh and blood was pulled hard.He paused for breath, and dense cold sweat quickly broke out on his forehead.

    Watching the phone fall to the ground, the phone hung up and switched to the lock screen. The newly changed wallpaper became so distorted on the cracked screen.

    He remembered that the photo was taken not long ago. On an afternoon, Xu Qiaochuan was holding the cat by the bay window. The medicine to soothe the spirit took effect, and sleepiness set in. Both the man and the cat slept peacefully.This rare moment in life was quietly captured through someone’s camera.

    Now the crack on the screen was showing an ominous look. Xu Qiaochuan said he could not come back. He thought about it for a day, but in the end he only got panic.

    “What’s wrong?” Yao Can was startled by the voice, and turned around to see Chen Zongqian covering his heart, his face pale and bloodless.

    On the 5th floor, Chen Zongqian saw the number clearly and felt that he was falling straight to the ground for the first time in a long time;

    Floor 4, what does it feel like to be weightless?The body is tied to the ground, while the soul hangs high.The spirit was lifted to the throat, but it was choked there and unable to spit it out.Chen Zongqian took half a step back and hit his back against the elevator wall. Yao Can ran over and grabbed his hand;

    On the third floor, he clearly felt that his blood was boiling. Only when he touched the body temperature of a normal person did he realize how cold he actually was. He was as cold as a brick of ice and snow.Perception is disordered, everything in front of you is skewed;

    On the 2nd floor, he suffered pain like being shattered into pieces. Not a single bone was intact anymore, not a piece of flesh remained, all of a sudden.

    As it fell, a loud bang slowly reached my ears.

    There was an electronic beep before the door opened. The sound was crisp, indicating that the elevator was landing.

    1st floor.

    His mind flashed back uncontrollably, and there were more similar and similar sounds in his ears – such as pressing the shutter of a camera, and a certain time stayed in the same place forever; such as the judge announcing the verdict, a final word, confirming a certain fate; such as Xu Ni pushing away his hand and asking to fall, giving him a bad result.

    The door opened, and the lights in the lobby of the office building were bright, but his eyes could not feel any light. A layer of black suddenly covered his spirit, causing him to fall straight into infinity.

    Is it just Xu Ni’s death that tortures him?Obviously the truest nightmare has existed for too long.Xu Ni is a fear that adds to fifteen years of regret and pain, making the nightmare more profound.

    The doctor could not completely eliminate his fear and suggested that he could choose to avoid it if it could not be alleviated and transferred. However, the nightmare lingered in his mind and he could not avoid it.

    The bells and Zen words of Zhaozheng Temple are not good either.The scriptures say that “self-grasping is the root and gives rise to all kinds of troubles. If there is no self-grasping, there will be no troubles.” He asked what “self-grasping” was. The old Zen master said that it was the source of suffering and the cause of reincarnation. He also pointed to him and said: “The five yins are blazing and trapped in the house of fire.”

    The Buddha has infinite compassion and wisdom, but it is too ruthless to choose to leave him. Chen Zongqian cannot accept it, and a short verse of the Buddha will not let him go.

    After all, he was the one who let go, and it was he who left and lost Xiao Ran. Every bit of suffering in the past fifteen years was his penance and atonement.If Xiao Ran cannot be truly retrieved, he will suffer for a long time until his life is spent.

    His hands and feet lost strength and he almost fell to the ground. Yao Can desperately pulled him to his feet and took him away from the elevator that was about to close again.Chen Zongqian could not make any more movements, and his only strength was used to cover his mouth and nose. Only his sense was left to let him understand why he was out of balance.

    It’s because of Xu Qiaochuan.

    The heart chamber contracts and relaxes violently, beating at an abnormal frequency, causing countless panic.Chen Zongqian bent down uncontrollably. His brain mistakenly believed that his chest was being compressed and that the poor man was on the verge of suffocation.

    But in fact, his breathing was particularly rapid, as excess oxygen poured into his body and excessive carbon dioxide was expelled.

    This was not a life-saving move. His breathing control had lost stability. Chen Zongqian took a few breaths and then began to feel difficulty breathing.The hands were shaking, not only because of the cold, but also because the nerve center was affected, making the body stiff and numb.

    Someone covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief. He couldn’t see in front of him, and there was no other sound except a sharp buzzing in his ears.Before he completely fainted, his consciousness was drawn into the boundary between life and death, and an inexplicable force pushed him forward.

    He knew clearly that that direction was not liberation.

    During the long wait, the phone hung up and the screen went off. Xu Qiaochuan didn’t know that his phone was out of battery, so he didn’t hear Chen Zongqian’s voice.

    He lay down on the empty bed in the old house. The smell of old wood enveloped him, and the flying dust lingered around him. Everything made him even more tired and heavy.He couldn’t control his thoughts, couldn’t escape from the pain, and simply let himself fall into those messy thoughts.

    Gao Xuan had never heard that Chen Zongqian had a younger brother. When he mentioned Chen Zongqian in front of him, his words were always somewhat ambiguous, thinking that he was Lawyer Chen’s lover.

    He didn’t care what Gao Xuan thought, he couldn’t understand it himself.

    Is there really a person like Chen Xingran in the world?He had only heard Chen Zongqian mention it, what other confirmations were there?There is no name of this person in the household registration book, and there is no trace of this person’s existence anywhere in the house. Chen Xingran seems to only live in the mouth of one person.

    He thought of Xie Mingxiao again, and the photo on the family search website. It looked so familiar, he must have seen it somewhere.

    The reason for the disappearance was abduction, and the place of disappearance was Xinhe District Seaside Park… Xu Qiaochuan’s memory gradually became clearer.In that photo, the child, whose young body was half covered by the ocean ball, was having so much fun, and his smile was so bright that it made the old photo more vivid and allowed him to be part of it.

    Although the sun was bright that day, because it was close to the coast, the wind carrying moisture could blow away the heat, making it a very cool weather.In the inflatable paradise castle, countless blue or white plastic balls form an ocean. If you jump in, he will be a small fish.

    His brother is much older than him, and he no longer thinks the seaside park is fun, but he will still take him there if he begs.My brother didn’t like ocean balls. He just watched him play and borrowed a camera to take pictures for him… My brother disappeared with the camera. He hated the camera and hated taking pictures.

    Who is the brother?Is it “Xiao Ran is five years old in the seaside park” or is Xie Mingxiao five years old in the seaside park?He didn’t dare to think about it at all.

    ——————-

    “Self-grasping is the root, giving rise to all kinds of troubles. If there is no self-grasping, there will be no troubles.” Quoted from “Consciousness Only”

    House on fire: a metaphor for a world full of suffering, from the Lotus Sutra: Parables: “The three realms are unsafe, just like a house on fire; full of suffering, it is terrifying.”

    p.s. I have started school, and classes are full on Monday and Tuesday, so I will write more slowly…

    Although pps was very slow before…

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