Wild Fire Bids Farewell To Summer Chapter 17

After the heat

In front of the sink in dormitory 307, the faucet was not closed tightly.The water droplets hit the ceramic, making a sound similar to the movement of the second hand.Wei Zhiheng lowered his head and spit out a mouthful of pink foam.

Blood mixed with toothpaste stuck to the edge of the porcelain basin, refusing to slide off.The upper gums are broken again.It’s not pain, it’s swelling, like a small stone embedded in the gum, pushing against it with the pulse.

He swallowed his saliva and raised his head.The water swirled around in the mouth, turned light red, overflowed from the corners of the mouth, and dripped along the chin to the collar of the school uniform.A few dots appeared on the white fabric, and the edges were blurred.

He pulled off the towel.I’ve been using this towel for two months, and the edges are pilling, and it feels rough like sandpaper when applied to my face.He pressed on his upper lip, pressing hard.The blood seeped into the fabric, turning from white to dark red to almost black.The smell of blood sank in the nasal cavity, with the sweetness of rust and the fishy smell of decay.

Fingers shaking.My muscles are weak and I can’t hold things.The towel became heavy, saturated with liquid, and fell into the palm of my hand, warm and sticky.He balled it up and threw it into the trash can at the end of the bed.The plastic bucket made a muffled sound.

There was already a wad of paper in the trash can.It is used to wipe nosebleeds in the afternoon. Rub it tightly until the surface dries and turns brown.Cover it with a bloody towel, and the two lumps are next to each other, one is wet and the other is dry, and the color changes from deep to light.

Wei Zhiheng stared at it for two seconds.

Like sedimentary layers of different ages in a geological section.

The wet one is the Quaternary period, and the dry one is the Cambrian period.

There was a sound of turning over from the upper bunk.The iron bed frame creaked and stopped again.Wei Zhiheng didn’t look up, he knew it was Lu Yan.Lu Yan is always awake but rarely talks.Wake up, but don’t look at others.

The bleeding hasn’t stopped yet.He changed a tissue and pressed it on his gums.The paper towels are cheap ones, rough, hard fibers, and stinging when pressed.The blood quickly soaked through the first layer, so he folded another layer and continued pressing.You can feel the temperature of the blood on your fingertips, which is a little higher than body temperature. The moist heat comes out through the tissue.

“Here.”

Something was handed down from above.It was Lu Yan’s hand, holding a roll of medical tape. It was transparent and narrow, with only one circle left, and a few winding hairs stuck to the inner circle.His hand hung on the side of Wei Zhiheng’s face and paused for three seconds.When he didn’t get a response, he retreated again and placed the tape on the edge of the sink.The plastic packaging made a slight scraping sound.

Wei Zhiheng didn’t take it.He continued to press the tissue, and the blood seeped out slowly, turning into a slow ooze, like turpentine crawling out from the cracks in the bottle cap.He stared at the mirror, which was covered in water stains and calcification forming a gray-white map on the surface of the glass.His face was broken behind those white spots, with black and blue under his eyes.

The door was knocked open.The hinges groaned as if they were breaking.

Two other roommates rushed in, bringing with them the smell of heat and sweat from the hallway, and the smell of rubber from just playing football.One is a physical education student transferred from the next class. His surname is Zhou. He is tall and has broad shoulders.The other is a local, surnamed Liang, wearing glasses and always holding an English book.

“Holy shit, what does it smell like?”

Zhou threw his schoolbag on the bed and twitched his nose.

“Like rust.”

Liang pushed up his glasses and glanced at Wei Zhiheng, the tissue in his hand, and the dark red object in the trash can.His movements stopped, his fingers still on the door handle, his knuckles turning white.

Wei Zhiheng threw the bloody tissue into the bucket.The movement was very light, but in this quiet room, it was like throwing a stone.The blood drops accumulated in a small pool at the bottom of the bucket, and the surface tension kept them from spreading, like a black mirror reflecting the light tube on the ceiling.

“You…”

Liang’s voice got stuck in his throat and turned into a hiss of airflow.He took a step back and pressed his back against the door that had just closed, causing the door panel to tremble.

“Are you…”

“Bleeding gums.” Wei Zhiheng said.The voice was squeezed out of the blood-moistened throat, muffled and turbid with liquid resonance, “Lack of vitamins.”

Zhou didn’t speak.He stared at Wei Zhiheng’s collar. There were a few drops of blood, which had dried and turned brown.His eyes moved upward and he saw Wei Zhiheng’s lips – pale, chapped, with a crack in the center of the lower lip, oozing with blood.

Lu Yan, who was on the upper bunk, sat up.The bed frame shook violently, making a metallic groan.He stuck his head out, his hair a mess, and looked at the deadlock below.Then he reached out and took out a box of mints in an iron box and green packaging from the side of the pillow, and threw it to Wei Zhiheng.

“Hold it,” Lu Yan said, “Stop the bleeding.”

The iron box hit Wei Zhiheng’s bed, bounced, and rolled to the wall.No one picked it up.

Liang had already retreated to the door of the balcony, groping for the handle of the sliding door behind his back.His glasses reflected light, making it difficult to see his eyes clearly, and he could only see the wings of his nose twitching rapidly.

“I…I’m going downstairs to buy water,” he said in a high-pitched voice, “Do you…do you want to bring it?”

No one answered.

Zhou stood there, not retreating like Liang, but not getting closer either.His feet scraped against the ground, the rubber soles screeching against the terrazzo.

“Well,” he scratched his head, “there are still people in the infirmary right now, why don’t you go and take a look?”

Wei Zhiheng shook his head.He bent down to pick up the iron box. The movement affected his waist, and there was a dull pain deep in his ilium, as if there was a needle spinning inside.He picked up the iron box. The metal was cold and there were dents on the surface.He opened the lid, and the smell of mint rushed out, pungent and stimulating, temporarily covering up the smell of blood.

He took a piece of candy and put the tin box on the bedside.The sugar cube rolls on the tip of the tongue, its hardness and edges scrape the oral mucosa, bringing a clear sting.The blood was still seeping slowly, but he stopped wiping it and allowed it to mix with saliva, forming a salty and sweet liquid in his mouth.

Liang had already gone out, leaving a crack in the door.The light from the corridor cuts in, forming a bright thin line on the ground, cutting the room in half.Zhou Ye climbed onto the upper bunk, moving very gently, as if he was afraid of disturbing anything.Only Lu Yan was still sitting on the bed, looking at Wei Zhiheng and the two dark red objects in the trash can.

“Go to sleep.” Wei Zhiheng said.His voice was muffled because the candy was stuck in his cheeks.

Lu Yan didn’t move.He stared at the bloody tissue for a long time, then lay back and pulled the quilt over his head.The quilt rose and fell a few times, then stopped.

Wei Zhiheng was lying on the bed with his head elevated. This was the posture Huang Jinye taught him.The smell of blood lingers in the mouth, and the coolness of mint cannot suppress the sweetness of rust.He put his right hand under the pillow and touched the limestone specimen. The edge was sharp and cut into his fingertips, causing a clear sting.

The stone was cold, just like his body temperature at the moment.He held it tightly and listened to the movement in the corridor.

The sounds of footsteps, voices, and the slamming of doors and switches came and went like a tide.Someone walked past the door of 307, paused, and then left quickly.

He closed his eyes, knowing that something had seeped out, like blood seeping into a tissue, like turpentine seeping into a canvas, and it was irreversible.

At the end of the corridor, the voice-activated light was broken.The tungsten wire was broken, leaving a black carbonized spot hanging, casting a shaking shadow on the ceiling.The light was dim, only the emergency exit indicator light glowed green, hanging in the dark.

Huang Jinye stood in the shadows.He was not wearing a school uniform jacket, only a black sports vest, with broad shoulders, his right hand in his trouser pocket, his left hand hanging by his side, an unlit cigarette between his fingers.A few tobacco pipes leaked from the curling tip.

He originally just wanted to come out to take a breath, but he stood at the top of the stairs and did not move.

Several figures walked over from the direction of Building 2, speaking in low voices and walking in a hurry.He was a freshman in high school. He had just finished his evening self-study, and his face was still flushed with excitement.When they saw Huang Jinye, their voices suddenly stopped.

Huang Jinye didn’t move.He leaned against the wall, his back pressed against the limestone wall tiles. The moisture on the wall sent a chill through the fabric of his vest.He looked at the students, his eyes unfocused and scattered, falling on the wall behind them, or in the darkness further away.

The leading student stopped.He recognized Huang Jinye, who was in the physical education class, and had seen him in the cafeteria.He took a step back and kicked his heels against the wall, making a slight sound.

“Say.”

Huang Jinye spoke.The voice was low, squeezed out of the chest, hoarse with congestion of the vocal cords after exercise.It’s not a question, it’s a statement.

Several students looked at each other.The air is thick.The leader swallowed, his Adam’s apple rolling.

“What did you say?”

“You said so.”

Huang Jinye took a step forward, and the distance shortened to one and a half meters.He didn’t raise his voice, but it was just loud enough to be heard in the silent corridor.

“Say it again.”

Silence.

Huang Jinye’s breathing was heavy and rough, causing a slight tremor in the air.He took his right hand out of his trouser pocket. He didn’t hold anything in it. It just hung by his side, with his palm facing up and his fingers naturally curled.There is a fresh scratch on the back of the hand, where the barbell was rubbed during training during the day. The blood has solidified and is dark red, like a centipede.

The leading student looked at the hand, the scar, and Huang Jinye’s eyes.Those eyes were dark and unreflective in the dim light.

He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.The two students behind him were already pressed against the wall, their backs pressed against the limestone and their shoulders tightened.

“Building 2…” The leader finally squeezed out a few words, his voice trembling, “Someone said… someone is sick…”

“What’s the disease?”

“I don’t know… it’s… bleeding…”

The sound grew quieter and disappeared into the darkness of the corridor.

Huang Jinye said nothing.He raised his right hand, the scarred hand, hanging on the side of the leading student’s face, stopping ten centimeters away from the skin.The fingers are spread out, the joints are stiff, and there is white stone powder on the edge of the nail plate, which cannot be washed away and was brought from the mother’s factory.

He remained in this position for a long time.

The smell of blood—perhaps from Wei Zhiheng’s body or from his own hands—filled the air, mixed with the damp musty smell in the corridor.He did not show any evidence, did not take out his mobile phone, and made no threats. He just hung his hands in silence, letting the oppressive feeling sink down, spreading over the ankles and knees of several students until it submerged in his chest.

The leading student lowered his head.His eyes fell on Huang Jinye’s right wrist, where there was a circle of faint strangulation marks, which were left when he was carrying someone before, and they were already turning blue.

He swallowed.

“We won’t talk anymore,” the voice was so low that it was almost inaudible, “I’m sorry, we talked nonsense…”

Huang Jinye retracted his hand and put it back in his trouser pocket.He turned sideways to make way for the passage, but his body still blocked most of the space at the top of the stairs, leaving only a narrow gap.

Several students squeezed sideways, their shoulders brushing against the wall, and the fabric of their school uniforms rustled against the limestone.Their footsteps sounded in the stairwell, fast, messy, almost running down, echoing in the empty corridor, and then disappeared.

Huang Jinye stood there and did not move.He looked up to the third floor. The window of 307 was lighted, and there was a figure moving behind the curtain, but he couldn’t see what he was doing.

He took his hand out of his trouser pocket and looked at the palm of his hand – there was a piece of purpura there, the size of a coin, with a purple and black center. It was a pinhole bruise left from the blood transfusion a few days ago.He pressed his thumb against the bruise, applying force until the pain became sharp, like pins and needles.

He didn’t go upstairs.He turned around and walked back to Building 1. His steps were heavy and light, heavy on the right and light on the left, forming a steady rhythm in the silent corridor.His shadow was elongated by the green light of the emergency lights and cast on the wall. It was huge, blurred at the edges, and moved slowly.

In dormitory 307, Wei Zhiheng opened his eyes.He heard footsteps in the corridor, and he recognized that rhythm.

He loosened his hand holding the stone, leaving several crescent-shaped indentations on his palm, which were white and dazzling on the pale skin.The bleeding finally stopped, leaving only the coolness of mint and the astringency of rust in the mouth, which mixed into a strange taste, like water from an underground river, fishy, ​​sweet, and cold.

He turned sideways, facing the wall.In the trash can, the two bloody objects lay quietly, dark red and lumpy, like fossils exposed in the stratum, recording the speed at which blood seeped out and the temperature at which rumors stopped on this night after the summer heat.

Lu Yan turned over in the quilt and uttered a vague murmur, whether it was talking in his sleep or sighing.

The Guixi River outside the window flows in the distance, the sound is dull, like the friction of mud and sand when the underground river changes its course.