Wild Fire Bids Farewell To Summer Chapter 39

equinox

Huang Jinye got up from the camp bed.The canvas rebounded after the weight was removed, and the spring let out a dull groan that lasted for three seconds before going still.He didn’t look at Wei Zhiheng on the bed. Instead, he bent down and pulled out the bamboo mat from under the bed.

Straw woven, hard, dark brown strips, broken in three places on the edges, tied with red rope.There is a human-shaped depression on the mat surface, and the shoulder blades and pelvis form a smooth, deep pit with an amber color.He rolled the mat into a tube and tied it tightly with hemp rope, making a dry and crisp sound of the bamboo strips breaking.

Then he turned around and looked at Wei Zhiheng.

Wei Zhiheng was lying on his side, with his back to the light source.The No. 055 school uniform jacket wraps around the shoulders, and the frayed edges of the cuffs brush against the chin.The breathing is shallow, the chest rises and falls very little, the air flows in and out with a gurgling sound with blood foam, and the intervals are very long. Every inhalation seems to be pulled up from a very deep place.

His right hand stretched out from the quilt, his fingernails were tinged with lavender, and he was holding a quarto sketch paper. The paper was wrinkled, softened by the sweat on his palm, and turned translucent.

Huang Jinye walked over.

When the right knee is bent, it makes a dry rubbing sound, and the accumulated water flows from the inside to the outside, making a gurgling and muffled sound.He dropped to one knee, his right knee hitting the ground, the water prickling under the pressure.The frost on the ground was crushed by the knees, and the white frost was embedded in the fabric of the sports shorts. The coolness penetrated the polyester fiber and pierced the patella.

He stretched out his hand and hovered his right hand over Wei Zhiheng’s left shoulder, stopping five centimeters away from the school uniform fabric.The fingers are spread out, the joints are stiff, and the edges of the fingernails are embedded with white stone powder – limestone powder scraped from the wall of the villa this morning.

Hover for seven seconds.

The body temperature formed invisible convection in the air, and the hot skin was roasted by the cool air. The frost on Wei Zhiheng’s shoulders began to melt, forming water droplets, soaking the fibers of the No. 055 school uniform jacket, and forming dark spots on the gray-blue cloth.

Huang Jinye lowered his finger.Pressing his fingertips on Wei Zhiheng’s left shoulder, he could feel the hard edges and corners of his shoulder blades through two layers of school uniform fabric, squeezing against Huang Jinye’s shoulder blades, making a dry sound.

He used force to turn Wei Zhiheng’s body towards him.

Wei Zhiheng’s body is light and is transforming into geological weight, making a subtle friction sound of cloth when it is turned over.The center of gravity shifts to the left and the left shoulder sinks.Huang Jinye adjusted the angle of his right knee. The accumulated water in the joint cavity surged from the inside to the outside, causing a fine tremor that spread from the thigh to the ground.

Wei Zhiheng’s eyelids trembled.The eyelashes rub against the cornea, making a rustling sound.He tried to open his eyes, but his field of vision was completely black, and the retinal hemorrhage had completely swallowed up the sense of light.He opened his mouth to speak, but his tongue became a piece of lead lying at the bottom of his mouth.He made a breathy sound, hissing, and the air flow rubbed against the glottis.

Huang Jinye did not respond.

He bent down, pulled Wei Zhiheng’s right arm over his shoulder, and put it on his neck.His left hand moved backward to support Wei Zhiheng’s left knee.Wei Zhiheng’s body leaned forward, his sternum pressed against Huang Jinye’s shoulder blades, and the two bones collided, making a dry sound.

The weight came on.Light, but unevenly distributed – Wei Zhiheng’s center of gravity shifted to the left. Huang Jinye adjusted his posture and pushed his right knee on the ground. The accumulated water swayed in the joint cavity, making a muffled sound.

He straightened up.

The gait is heavy.The right foot pressed the frost surface first, and the ice crystals shattered, making a crunching sound; dragging the left foot, the rubber sole scraped across the limestone ground, making a rustling sound.One heavy and one light, the rhythm is fixed, forming an echo in the empty villa.

Wei Zhiheng rested his chin on Huang Jinye’s right shoulder, and his breath blew behind his ears.It is warm at first, with a sweet and rotten smell – rotten apple mixed with rust, deposited on the back of the tongue; then it becomes cool, and finally it is as warm as frost.

The left hand hangs on Huang Jinye’s chest. The fingernails are tinged with light purple and swaying with the steps. The knuckles are white, the skin is taut and translucent, and the veins under the skin are bulging and turn purple to black.

Huang Jinye walked towards the door.

The right hand is holding on to the iron pipe handrail, the green paint is peeling off to reveal the silver-white metal, and the coolness is transmitted to the radius bone through the palm of the hand.He descended, three steps and one step, his right knee got stuck, and his body leaned to the left, but his gait remained stable.

There are no lights in the stairwell.

Wei Zhiheng’s breath blew on the side of Huang Jinye’s neck. The air flow became weaker and weaker, and the intervals became longer and longer.Each exhalation creates a flow of warm air, but the temperature is dropping, compromising with the temperature of the environment.

The iron gate of the villa is ajar.

Huang Jinye pushed it open with his shoulder, the hinge groaned like it was breaking, and the tremor of metal fatigue echoed in the empty hall.The limestone floor of the courtyard was covered with hoarfrost, and the gray-white matrix was covered with a layer of salt-white crystals, which made a crunching sound when his spiked shoes crushed it.

Frost rose from the ground, sank to knee height, and spread upward over Wei Zhiheng’s hanging hands.The hand appeared bluish-white in the frost and mist, and the lavender color of the fingernails looked dazzling against the gray-white background.

They went down the winding mountain road.

The sky was still dark blue, without stars or moonlight. Only the lights of Guixi County in the distance formed a blurry halo at the bottom of the canyon.Huang Jinye’s gait was steady, heavy on the right and light on the left. The rubber soles of his spikes collided with the asphalt road, making a dull thumping sound, and his rhythm was synchronized with his heartbeat.

Wei Zhiheng’s body temperature was transmitted through the fabric of the school uniform.First it is warm, a living temperature; then it is cool, closer to room temperature; and finally it begins to approach the constant temperature of limestone.Huang Jinye felt the coolness seep from his back, penetrate the skin, sink into the muscles, and merge with the temperature of the bones.

At the 14th minute, we reached the Chengjiang embankment.

The concrete embankment is full of cracks, and dead grass grows out of the cracks. The surface of the grass stems is covered with hoarfrost and is gray-white.The beach below the embankment is grey-white, with coarse sand. It is the product of weathering limestone and is covered with frost. When stepped on, it collapses with a muffled sound.

The skylight is at the end of the embankment.

The shaft is thirty meters in diameter and bottomless. The edges are covered with ferns. The leaves are dark green and there are sporangia on the back. They are now covered with a thin layer of frost.The well wall is exposed limestone, gray-white, with clear longitudinal bedding, and dark gray flint strips distributed straight, parallel, and equidistantly.

The underground river flows through the bottom, and the sound of the water is roaring, low, and stable in frequency, about sixty times per minute, synchronized with the heartbeat, but slower than the heartbeat.The roar resonated in the chest, causing the ribs to tremble slightly.

Huang Jinye stopped at the edge of the shaft.

Bend your knees and put Wei Zhiheng down.Wei Zhiheng’s right foot touched the ground first, and his knee was bent for cushioning. A dull pain exploded deep in his left hip – the aftershock of the steel needle rotating in the bone seam.He staggered, and Huang Jinye’s left hand grabbed his right elbow to steady him. His fingers dug into the skin and pressed against the coin-sized purpura, causing dull pain and sharp pain.

Wei Zhiheng was unsteady on his feet.

His vision is empty, not even black exists, it is just the cessation of visual function.He stretched out his right hand, spread his fingers, and stopped ten centimeters in front of his eyes – from this distance, he should have been able to see the outline of his palm, but now he could only feel it: the tremors of the muscles under the skin spread from the wrist bones to the knuckles, and the fingernails were tinged with light purple.

Huang Jinye unfolded the bamboo mat.

Straw strips spread across the rocky surface at the edge of the shaft, making a dry rustling sound.The humanoid shape on the mat has a concave surface facing upwards, and the fibers are compressed to form a smooth concave surface. The deep pits at the shoulder blades and pelvis appear dark brown in the dark blue skylight.

He helped Wei Zhiheng sit down.

Wei Zhiheng’s buttocks were in contact with the bamboo mat. The straw was hard, rubbing against the sitting bones, and was as warm as the limestone.He leaned back and leaned his head on Huang Jinye’s right shoulder.

Huang Jinye sat down.

The right knee made a sharp friction sound, and the accumulated water sloshed in the joint cavity, rushing from the inside to the outside.He adjusted his posture so that Wei Zhiheng’s center of gravity rested entirely on him, with his right shoulder bearing the main weight.Their shoulder blades were intertwined, separated by two layers of school uniform fabric.

Body temperature is exchanging.

Huang Jinye’s body temperature is hot; Wei Zhiheng’s body temperature is cold, approaching the constant temperature of limestone.The temperature difference stings at the contact surface, and the heat flows in one direction, from hot skin to cool fabric, irreversibly.The coolness seeps through the right shoulder, first through the skin, then through the muscles, and finally reaches the bones, joining the dull pain in the bone marrow.

Wei Zhiheng’s breathing changed.

It became shallower and slower, each inhalation had a long tail sound, and each exhalation was accompanied by the gurgling sound of blood foam.The airflow passed through the narrow airway, emitting a high-frequency whistle sound that was out of time with the roar of the underground river. The sound became lower and lighter.

The roar of the underground river continues.

The sound was so low that the limestone at the edge of the shaft trembled slightly. Fine frost powder peeled off from the rock wall and fell on the bamboo mat, dazzlingly white.

Huang Jinye’s right hand was inserted in his trouser pocket, and his fingertips touched a hard object.Limestone specimen – the one in Chapter 1, ivory white with gray chert bands, flat base and sharp edges.The piece that cut through Wei Zhiheng’s left hand that night in the stairwell.

He tightened his grip, and the stone pressed against the purpura on his palm, causing a dull pain.The stone was cold, synchronized with Wei Zhiheng’s body temperature.

He didn’t take it out immediately.

Instead, he remained sitting and let Wei Zhiheng lean on his shoulder, feeling that the body was getting cold.The heat on the skin surface dissipates quickly, from warm to cool; but from cool to the constant temperature of limestone will be a slow process that takes geological time.

The light is changing.

The ink blue begins to lighten, transitioning to cobalt blue.No gold, no red, just variations in blue tones, from dark to light.The limestone on the shaft wall shows different grays in the change of light – from black gray to light gray, the flint strips go from invisible to visible, straight and parallel.

Wei Zhiheng’s breathing intervals became longer.

Inhale, pause for three seconds, exhale, pause for five seconds, and inhale again.Each pause felt like stopping, only to be broken by the next breath.His body temperature continued to drop, and through the fabric of his school uniform, Huang Jinye felt that the coolness had penetrated into his right shoulder muscles, forming local anesthesia.

The roar of the underground river changes.

As the water level rises, or falls, the frequency of the sound fine-tunes, becoming lower and heavier, about fifty-five times per minute.

Huang Jinye took out the limestone specimen from his trouser pocket with his left hand.

The stone appears gray-white in the dark blue sky, with sharp edges, and there are traces of Wei Zhiheng’s blood on the bottom – left over from Chapter 1, which have been oxidized to dark brown, forming a strip of color difference with the gray-white limestone.

He opened Wei Zhiheng’s right hand.

The hand had become cold, the joints were stiff, and it was in a half-fist position.Huang Jinye exerted force, his knuckles made a slight friction sound, and he straightened his fingers.Then he placed his right hand next to Wei Zhiheng’s right hand, with their palms facing each other and their fingers interlaced.

The temperature difference stings.

Huang’s palms were hot; Wei’s palms were cold.Heat flows from Huang to Wei, but Wei’s hands are like porous limestone, and the heat cannot be retained and continues to lose to the constant temperature.

Huang Jinye retracted his hand.

He placed the limestone specimen into Wei Zhiheng’s palm and forced his fingers together.The stone was cold, in sync with Wei’s body temperature.The edge cut into the skin of the palm. Wei Zhiheng’s fingers spasmed when the stone was embedded. His nails scraped against the limestone surface, making a dry sound, and the stone powder embedded in the gaps between the nails.

The stone acted as a counterweight to hold his hand down and prevent it from floating away.

The fingers are wrapped around the stone, showing a natural depression, a passive posture, unable to hold it voluntarily, it is just filled.The constant temperature of the limestone is in contact with the skin of the palm, so there is no temperature difference and a balance is achieved.

Wei Zhiheng’s breathing changed again.

For longer intervals, inhale and pause for five seconds, exhale and pause for seven seconds.Each exhale is lighter, the airflow is weak, and the chest is decompressed.The gurgling sound of blood foam weakened, and the whistling sound of air flowing through narrow airways became lower and finally disappeared.

Huang Jinye remained seated.

His right shoulder was completely numb and was cooled by Wei Zhiheng’s body temperature.He didn’t move, but felt the coolness spreading all over his body from the contact surface – from his right shoulder to his spine, from his spine to his left shoulder, and from his shoulder to his arm.

The light continues to change.

Cobalt blue transitions to pearl gray.The sky is a uniform light gray, with no clouds and no wind. The frost flowers remain intact on the rock surface, and the white salt crystals appear silvery white in the pearly gray light.

Wei Zhiheng’s breathing stopped.

It’s not a sudden stop, it’s a gradual disappearance – the last exhalation, the airflow is squeezed out from the compressed glottis, hisses, and then stops.The chest did not rise and fall, the nose did not quiver.

Pause.

Seven seconds.Ten seconds.Fifteen seconds.

There is no next breath.

Huang Jinye felt the pressure change on his right shoulder – Wei Zhiheng’s body sank slightly after his last exhalation, and his center of gravity pressed more completely on him.The body temperature continues to drop, moving closer to the constant temperature of the limestone, slowing down and settling.

The roar of the underground river continues.

Low, about fifty-five times a minute, now contrasted with stopped breathing.The roar echoed through the shaft, becoming the only rhythm.

Huang Jinye didn’t move.

He remained seated, bearing weight on his right shoulder, his left hand hanging on his knee, with white stone powder on the edge of his fingernails.His breathing was out of sync with the roar of the underground river – his heartbeat was seventy beats per minute, and his breathing was twelve times per minute, forming a trio of irregular hums with the low frequency of the underground river.

Frost settled on them.

White frost precipitated from the air and fell on the No. 055 school uniform jacket, Wei Zhiheng’s hair, and Huang Jinye’s right shoulder.Tiny ice crystals, hexagonal in shape, appear silvery white in the pearly gray light.

Thirty minutes.

The soft period before rigor mortis.Wei Zhiheng’s body is still soft, the joints can move, and the muscles have not become hard, but have become colder, closer to the constant temperature of the limestone.Huang Jinye felt that the coolness had penetrated deep into his right shoulder, forming an eternal temperature difference.

He had no tears.

With dry eyes, he stared at the limestone wall opposite the shaft, at the longitudinal strips of flint, straight, parallel, not melting, not flowing.Those textures appear dark gray in the light of pearl gray, creating a color difference with the off-white matrix.

The limestone specimen is in Wei Zhiheng’s palm.

The stone had synchronized with his body temperature, cold and heavy.The blood seeped out from the old scar of the tiger’s mouth – the dark red color left in Chapter 1, flowing along the palm lines to the wrist, dripping on the bamboo mat, mixing with the dark brown of the straw, forming purple-black mud.

Huang Jinye’s right hand moved away from Wei Zhiheng’s knee and hovered in mid-air.

The fingers are spread out, the joints are stiff, and there is white stone powder on the edge of the nail plate.He lowered his fingers and pressed the pads of his fingers on Wei Zhiheng’s left wrist – the location of the radial artery.

No pulse.

Cool to the skin, the temperature of limestone.

He maintains this posture.

Fingers pressed against the carpal bones, against the purpura, against the edges of the limestone specimens.He didn’t move away, just felt the stillness – no beating of pulse, no rise and fall of breath, only the roar of the underground river, about fifty-five times per minute.

Light stabilized in Pearl Grey.

There was no gold, no red, just this uniform, cold gray that enveloped the shaft, enveloped the limestone, enveloped the body cooling from warm to constant temperature.

Huang Jinye retracted his hand.

Putting it into his trouser pocket, his fingertips touched the piece of eucalyptus candy – it was wrapped in tin foil and had green stripes. It had softened and deformed. It was mixed with Wei Zhiheng’s blood and made it sticky.He held the candy tightly, and the edge of the tin foil cut into his skin. The stinging pain made him confirm that he was still at this coordinate.

He remained seated.

Wei Zhiheng’s weight is bearing on his right shoulder, and the weight is getting heavier – not an increase in weight, but an illusion caused by muscle fatigue, or a relative change in gravity.Wei Zhiheng’s body was tilted, his head resting on the crook of his neck, his hair brushing his chin, and his hair rubbing against his skin, creating irregular resistance.

The roar of the underground river changes.

As the water level rises, the sound becomes lower, about fifty times a minute.Huang Jinye adjusted his breathing and moved closer to that frequency, deep and slow, forming a duet with the underground river.

Thirty minutes passed.

The soft phase of the corpse is coming to an end, the muscles begin to harden, and the joints begin to stabilize.Wei Zhiheng’s right hand still holds the limestone specimen. His fingers are stiff and the joints are locked. His nails have left scratches on the surface of the stone. They are white and not obvious on the gray-white limestone.

Huang Jinye stood up.

The right knee made a dry rubbing sound, and the accumulated water swayed in the joint cavity, making a muffled sound.Wei Zhiheng’s body fell forward, he stretched out his hand to hold it up, and held Wei’s left elbow with his left hand, feeling the coolness – constant temperature, the temperature of limestone.

He didn’t let Wei fall.

Instead, he maintained that position, leaning against the rocks at the edge of the shaft, in a sitting position, with his head slightly lowered, holding the limestone specimen in his right hand and placing it on his lap.

Huang Jinye took a step back.

Looking at that posture – Wei Zhiheng was sitting on the bamboo mat, leaning against the limestone, holding the stone, his head slightly lowered, in a still sitting posture.The No. 055 school uniform coat covers the shoulders, and frost has formed white crystal patches on it with sharp edges.

He didn’t speak.

No tears.

There was only the roar of the underground river, low and continuous.

The light is still pearl gray.

The blues last all the time, there is no sunrise, no gold, only this eternal, cold gray, covering the rattling skylights, covering the limestone, covering the body cooled to a constant temperature.

Huang Jinye turned around.

The steps are heavy and light, heavy on the right and light on the left. The spikes crush the frost flowers on the ground, making a crunching sound.He didn’t look back, he just returned along the original path, carrying the empty bamboo mat on his back, rolled it into a tube, and tied it tightly with hemp rope.

Behind him, the shaft continued to roar.

Low, continuous.Wei Zhiheng sat there with a constant body temperature, holding the limestone specimen in a still sitting posture.

The roar of the underground river had stopped, or perhaps he had gone deaf.