Wild Fire Bids Farewell To Summer Chapter 29
bynew year’s day
The seats in the auditorium are rows of plastic folding chairs, blue, with sunken seats and raw edges that are pierced into the fabric of school uniform pants.Wei Zhiheng sat in the last row on the right, with his back pressed against the wall, and the moisture from the limestone bricks seeped into his shoulder blades through his sweater.In his right hand he holds a specimen of limestone, ivory white with bands of gray flint, and with a flat base.The stone pressed against my thigh, the weight weighing on my muscles.He picked at the edge of the stone, his nails scraping against the flint strips, making a slight rustling sound, and the stone dust embedded in the gaps between his nails.
There is a piece missing in the upper left corner of the field of vision.
The upper right corner of the stage disappeared into the black shadow, a blind spot after the retinal hemorrhage expanded.He stared ahead, his pupils dilated in the dark, and the stage lights formed a halo in his eyes, spreading and overlapping.
He tilted his head and buried his face in the collar of his school uniform. The fabric was rough and smelled of old turpentine and blood.
In the third row from the front left, a girl is peeling mint candies.When the iron box is opened, the candy cubes make a crisp sound when they collide.She took one in her mouth and handed the iron box to the classmate next to her. The classmate shook his head. She took it back, put it in her pocket, and turned to look at the back door of the auditorium.
Standing at the back door was a security guard in gray uniform, holding a rubber baton in his hand, covering his mouth with the back of his hand and coughing.
On the right side of the stage, the logistics teacher squatted next to the curtain and took a nap, his head hanging on his chest.At his feet lay a bundle of wires, black with white dust on them.
The host reads out the names.
Electrical noise surged from the loudspeaker, harsh.Wei Zhiheng heard the three words “Wei Zhiheng”, turbid and distant, coming from the depths.The sound hits the eardrum, forming a membrane.He didn’t move.The body sank into the seat, and the plastic seat groaned as the air pressed under the weight.His breathing was shallow and rapid, hissing as the air flowed through the narrow airway.There is a rusty taste in the mouth, which is sweet and astringent, and blood oozes from the gums and accumulates under the tongue.He swallowed, his Adam’s apple rolled, and the blood clot slid into his esophagus, which was heavy.
The front seats shook.
Someone stood up, and his back blocked the stage lights, forming a black silhouette.Huang Jinye.He was wearing a school uniform jacket, size 055, made of cotton, old, with the zipper only pulled up to the chest, revealing a black sports vest.He walked towards the side of the stage, his steps were heavy and light, heavy on the right and light on the left. When his knees bent, they made a dry friction sound, and the water in the joint cavities swayed and gurgled.
The stage lights hung overhead, their tungsten wires vibrating and buzzing with electricity.The light is golden and dazzling.Wei Zhiheng closed his eyes, and the blood vessel network on the inside of his eyelids showed a dark red grid in the darkness.He pinched the stone tightly with his right hand, and the edge cut into his fingertips, causing pain.Blood oozed from the fingertips, seeped slowly, and dripped on the knees. Dark red spots mixed with the school uniform fabric to form hard scabs.
Huang Jinye walked onto the stage.The rubber soles rubbed against the wooden boards, making a squeaking sound.The host handed over the trophy.Made of plastic material, gold color, surface sprayed with metallic paint, reflective and dazzling.The trophy is hollow with an injection molded seam line on the bottom and sharp edges.The weight is very light, about 200 grams. It is weightless in the hand, hollow and light.
Huang Jinye received the trophy.The plastic touches the palm, and the coolness penetrates through the skin.His fingers were looking for a fulcrum on the base. The pads of his fingers were not attached firmly and the knuckles were protruding. There was white stone powder between the nails, scraped from the limestone wall tiles when he climbed over the wall in the morning.His knuckles turned white as he held the trophy, fingerprints stained with sweat on the plastic surface.
He turned around and faced the audience.
The auditorium was full of people, and the darkness above formed an undulating outline under the light.He looked for the seat on the right side of the last row, looking through the gap in the front seats, across the middle aisle, and landed in that corner.Wei Zhiheng huddled in the shadow of the wall, his school uniform jacket wrapped around his shoulders, his head lowered, his left hand hanging outside the armrest, and his nail beds were as dark as bruises.
Huang Jinye raised the trophy.With his right arm straightened and his elbow joint locked, the trophy formed a golden spot under the light.He maintained this posture, his knuckles locked, and there was white stone powder on the edges of his fingernails.The base of the trophy is facing Wei Zhiheng, and the seam line is pointing into the dark.
clink.
He didn’t move his feet, didn’t move toward Wei Zhiheng, he just pushed the trophy forward and made a collision in the air.The plastic trophy is silent when in contact with the air.The trophy is hollow, and the internal air column produces a slight tremor when pushed, emitting a buzzing resonance, low and continuous, at the same frequency as the roar of the underground river.
Wei Zhiheng raised his head.He saw that golden light in the darkness, dazzling.He misperceived: It was not a trophy, but the turpentine bottle that had been broken in the stairwell that night, hovering in the air.He blinked, and the light spot was still there, but its shape changed, becoming the outline of a hand, with the fingers spread out and the knuckles locked.
He stretched out his left hand and hovered it beside him, stopping five centimeters away from the armrest of the seat.The fingers were spread open, the knuckles locked, and the nail beds were swollen purple in the dark.His hands were shaking, and the muscles under the skin were trembling slightly, starting from the inside of the wrist, jumping and jumping, and passed to the knuckles. The fingertips were spasmodic and in a grabbing posture, but they did not fall, just hovering.
Stop action.
Fingers hover, spasming.Blood drips from fingertips, hovers, stretches, the surface tension maintains a hemispherical shape, and the stage light refracts internally.It broke after a second, fell, and hit the armrest of the seat. Dark red dots spread out on the blue plastic.
Huang Jinye retracted his hand.The trophy hangs at the side, and the plastic surface reflects the stage lights, forming a flowing light strip.He walked off the stage, his steps heavy and light, heavy on the right and light on the left. The trophy hit the outside of his thigh, making a dull plastic sound, hollow and reverberating.
He walked to the last row.The rubber soles rub against the terrazzo, making a rapid crunching sound from far to near.He stopped in front of Wei Zhiheng, blocking the stage lights and forming a black silhouette.Wei Zhiheng smelled the smell: the acid of sweat, the rust of blood, the astringency of stone powder, and the smell of chemical paint on the surface of the plastic trophy, which was pungent and settled at knee height.
Huang Jinye bent down.There was a sharp scraping sound in the right knee, the fluid prickling under the pressure.He put the trophy on Wei Zhiheng’s lap, not handing it over, but putting it down.The plastic contacts the fabric of the school uniform pants, which is light and weightless.The uneven edge of the trophy base touched Wei Zhiheng’s thigh, causing a dull pain. The edge was sharp and cut inward.
Wei Zhiheng lowered his head.He looked at the trophy on his lap, gold, hollow, cheap.He stretched out his right hand and hovered over the trophy, stopping three centimeters from the plastic surface.The fingers were spread open, the knuckles were locked, and the nail beds were bruised.His fingertips touched the base of the trophy, and the coolness of the plastic penetrated his skin. It was the same coolness as the limestone specimen, and the same coolness as the 16°C underground river water.
He holds the trophy.The plastic surface has sweat stains left by Huang Jinye and is slippery.Blood oozed from his fingertips, forming dark red fingerprints on the golden surface, covering the original fingerprints. Two fingerprints overlapped, one complete and one incomplete.
Applause poured in from the direction of the stage.First it was sparse, then dense and heavy, hitting the eardrums.The sound formed a membrane on Wei Zhiheng’s eardrum, which was turbid, distant, and blocked.
Huang Jinye turned around and sat on the empty seat next to Wei Zhiheng.The seats groaned and the plastic buckled.His right shoulder pressed against Wei Zhiheng’s left shoulder, and the bones collided, making a slight friction sound.Body temperature exchange, Huang Jinye’s shoulders were hot, Wei Zhiheng’s shoulders were cold.
Wei Zhiheng hugged the trophy to his chest.The plastic surface is attached to the sweater, and through the fabric, you can still feel the lightness and emptiness.He lowered his head and touched the top of the trophy with the tip of his nose. The smell of metal paint was pungent and chemical, like hospital disinfectant or carpenter’s glue.
His blood seeped from his fingertips, flowed along the seam line of the trophy base, seeped into the plastic gaps, formed a dark red line, branched, and meandered, covering the original fingerprints.
The stage lights dim.The tremor of the tungsten wire weakened, and the current hummed low.The auditorium fell into semi-darkness, with only the emergency exit lights glowing green and hanging in the darkness.
Wei Zhiheng closed his eyes.The black shadow in the field of vision completely spread, swallowing up the entire auditorium, swallowing up Huang Jinye’s shoulders, and swallowing up the trophy on his lap.He heard his own heartbeat hitting his eardrums, a turbulent low-frequency noise that was out of sync with Huang Jinye’s breathing.
He clutched the trophy.The plastic makes a subtle squeezing sound in the palm of your hand, and the hollow structure resonates at the same frequency as the roar of the underground river and the echo of the heartbeat.
Huang Jinye’s right hand hung on the armrest of the seat, his fingers spread and his knuckles locked.His fingertips touched Wei Zhiheng’s left wrist, skin contact, and his pulse was beating fast and chaotically, more than a hundred times per minute.He didn’t hold hands, just touched, their fingertips touched, exchanging coolness and heat.
They have no dialogue.The trophy was on Wei Zhiheng’s lap, the plastic seam cutting his palm. Blood flowed along the golden surface and accumulated at the base, forming a dark red lake. The surface was calm and reflected the green light of the emergency lights.
In the back row of the auditorium, the security guard stopped coughing, straightened up, and looked towards the corner of the last row.The light was too dim, and all I could see was a blurry outline, shoulder to shoulder, still.He turned his head and continued to stare at the back door. The rubber baton in his hand tapped lightly on the outside of his thigh, making a dull sound.
In the third row from the front left, the girl peeling off the mint candy looked back again.She saw the golden reflection in the last row, saw the shoulders of the two figures leaning together, and saw the hand of one of them hanging down shaking.She turned back and stared at the stage, her fingers caressing the edge of the iron box unconsciously.
On the stage, the logistics teacher woke up.He rubbed his eyes, bent down to pick up the bundle of wires at his feet, put it on his shoulders, and walked towards the wing.The wire roll rubbed against his shoulders, making a rustling sound, and white ash fell off, forming white marks on the black pants.
Wei Zhiheng picked at the seam of the trophy base.The edge of the plastic is sharp and cuts into the fingertips. It is different from the cutting feeling of limestone specimens. This sharpness is industrial, brittle, and easy to break.He exerted force, and the skin of his fingertips sank, turned white, and then burst, and blood gushes out, mixing with the previous blood to form a thicker deposit layer on the plastic surface.
Huang Jinye stared at the stage.His knees were shaking, and the accumulated water sloshed in the joint cavity, causing fine tremors that spread from his thighs to the seat and to the ground.He clenched his right hand into a fist, and his nails left four crescent-shaped indentations on the palm of his hand, pressing against the coin-sized purpura, causing a dull and sharp pain to counteract the dull pain in his knees.
The trophy became heavy on Wei Zhiheng’s lap.It’s not an increase in weight, it’s because his arm muscles are tired and unable to maintain the holding position.The trophy slid down, the plastic surface rubbed against the sweater, making a dry sound, and stopped in the middle of the thigh. The base pressed against the quadriceps, causing sharp pain.
He didn’t adjust his posture.Let the trophy press against the muscles, let the blood dry on the plastic surface, let the black shadow in the field of vision swallow everything.He heard Huang Jinye’s breathing, heavy and bloodshot, forming a slight resonance in the silent auditorium. It mixed with the hollow reverberation of the plastic trophy, forming an irregular rhythm that was at the same frequency as the flow of the underground river in the limestone cavity and resonated with the sound of time being crushed.
The lights went out completely.The green light of the emergency exit becomes the only light source, and the outline of the seat emerges in the green light, vertical and still.Wei Zhiheng and Huang Jinye sat in the last row, shoulder to shoulder, blood condensing on the plastic surface, forming dark red scabs, a seal, a scar, the last signature of the “Skylight” series.