Aromatherapy

In the next few days, Li Xinyun wandered around Jiuqiao Town all day long.

Jiuqiao Town has not changed much, and the scenery seems to have remained the same as before. Li Xinyun seems to have returned to his youth, walking through every corner of the town alone, most of which are still unclear to Li Xinyun. The appearance in the memory of the teenager.

When Li Xinyun couldn't count the days, he finally came to the "haunted house".

After the operation, Li Xinyun had many vague and hazy dreams.

He dreamed that a tree full of orange blossoms was in full bloom. He sat under the tree, facing the overwhelming aroma, and sat under the tree with a young man. Intimate and lingering, but he couldn't see the boy's face clearly anyway, he was as elusive as if he was a spirit transformed by the rich fragrance, the more Li Xinyun wanted to see him clearly, the more he couldn't see him clearly.

And all these dreams are related to this "haunted house" in the town.

Li Xinyun was very clear about the purpose of his trip, he just came here, but when he really came to this house, he seemed to be timid because of his hometown, and he had a lot of hesitation and wandering.

There seemed to be something in his mind that could not wait to emerge, but he had no clue. The mottled and unclear fragments of Li Xinyun's dream wandered in Li Xinyun's thoughts like a flock of birds that lost their direction.

Looking in through the rusty iron gate, this "haunted house" seems to be sealed in the old time, the red wall covered with vines, and the bitter orange tree that can be seen at a glance in the yard , but this place is different from the scene that Li Xinyun can recall clearly at this moment. The yard is not barren, and it is obviously taken care of by someone. Apart from being old, the house and yard look very tidy, and it does not seem to be uninhabited at all. There may even be places where haunted rumors can appear.

Li Xinyun stood in front of the door for a while, when he heard footsteps behind him, he turned his head, and saw an elderly man, with his back slightly bent and his hands behind his back, walking slowly towards the house, and saw Li Xinyun , those eyes that seemed to be a little blurry looked at him slightly for a while, he grinned, showing his leaky teeth and said, "Who are you looking for? No one lives here." The key opened the iron door.

Li Xinyun asked him: "Who are you? How do you have the key here?"

"The owner of this house hired me to take care of the place. I come here every now and then to check on the cleaning and prevent outsiders from entering. It's been many years, and I haven't seen anyone coming." Hastily pushed him away, although he said "prevent outsiders from entering", but after Li Xinyun pushed the door open and followed him into the courtyard, he didn't say anything, as if he didn't notice it , Trembling, went straight to the house.

The moment Li Xinyun stepped into the courtyard, his thoughts had lost their autonomy and fell into an almost erratic state, as if he was stepping on clouds, led by the scene in the courtyard, he walked to the bitter Under the orange tree, looking up at the tree, those vague dreams gradually turned into real and vivid memories, and those mottled fragments were gradually assembled into a complete image.

The slightly cold wind blows, it is the beginning of spring, the air is still filled with chill, it is only February, and the flowering period of bitter orange has not yet arrived, so there are only clusters of oily green leaves on the tree, and the flowers have not yet bloomed, but However, Li Xinyun seemed to smell the familiar fragrance, the bitter and rich fragrance that has been spreading since his youth.

As if in an instant, the tree was covered with beige flowers.

Suddenly, Li Xinyun seemed to have returned to his youth when he often sneaked into this haunted house by climbing over the wall.

He remembered that he often sneaked in over the wall to pass the time. This uninhabited haunted house was a place for him to hide and entertain. He spent a lot of time here alone until...

until what?

In a trance, Li Xinyun seemed to hear someone calling him. He turned his head and saw a boy in a wheelchair wearing a loose white shirt and khaki trousers on the terrace on the first floor facing the bitter orange tree. .The young man had long hair that reached his shoulders, and his jet-black hair set off a face as pale as snow. An eerie yet alluring ghost.

Li Xinyun's first thought was whether this girl is the legendary female ghost in this haunted house—yes, his facial features are so beautiful that Li Xinyun regarded him as a girl at first sight.

"Who are you?" asked the "girl" in the wheelchair, "what are you doing here?"

His rough and hoarse voice, which is typical of men in the voice-changing period, is not pleasant, and there is even a strong sense of separation from his appearance, and it also presents a sense of contradiction that combines weirdness and beauty.

The sun that was so light that it seemed to turn into water vapor and float in the air made Li Xinyun realize that the person in front of him was certainly not a ghost, not even a girl.

Li Xinyun knew that this "haunted house" was being cleaned recently, and it seemed that someone was going to live in it, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. Come to think of it, this young man is the owner of this house.

"I, I am, look at the flowers." Li Xinyun said.

And the young man looked at Li Xinyun's hand with ice eyes that seemed to have never melted for years, and Li Xinyun followed his line of sight and saw that he was holding an orange flower in his hand, the orange flower that had just been broken off.

It seems that Li Xinyun's "look at the flowers" is very perfunctory - because there is no doubt that Li Xinyun looks like a flower thief who was caught and tried to quibble.

The young man didn't speak, he didn't show any expression, just looking at the flower in Li Xinyun's hand, Li Xinyun was almost at a loss - maybe it was because the young man's beautiful appearance made him too flustered, or maybe it was because he was overwhelmed by his master. The family was too ashamed to catch him stealing the flowers. He stepped forward and stretched out his hand hastily, and handed the flower branch to the young man. He wanted to say "return it to you", but because he was too flustered, he stammered: "send, send for you."

The young man stared at his hand and the flower on it for a while, then he stretched out his hand, with a slender, pale hand, took the flower from Li Xinyun, put it in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully, he looked at Li Xinyun, Smiled slightly, when he smiled, his pale face seemed to regain some blood color, and against the off-white orange blossom, he looked extremely moving, like the spring breeze, the morning sun, the light clouds, and all the beautiful and lively things. Natural imagery, he seems to have stored the missing soul, and immediately changed from a gloomy ghost to a vivid person.

Li Xinyun looked at his smile and was stunned for a while, until he saw the young man's pale and slender fingers stained with bright red, and then suddenly came back to his senses - the branches of bitter oranges have thorns, and the young man He grasped it too tightly, and the thorns on the flower branch pierced the skin of his fingers. Li Xinyun grabbed his hand in a panic and said, "You are bleeding."

The boy looked at the blood on his fingertips, but he didn't panic at all.He raised his hand, put it on his lips and sucked it gently. The wound caused by the flower thorn was very small. After a while, he spread his hand again, and there was no more blood, as if the skin had never been punctured, only the It was still dyed with a little bit of red, which showed the pain left by the flower branch. It was the blood stains on his lips, which reflected on the pale lips, showing a strange beauty.He looked up at Li Xinyun, the ice and snow in his eyes seemed to have been melted by the sun, and what flowed out was overwhelming spring water. He said to Li Xinyun, "Thank you for the flowers."

"You haven't told me who you are." The boy looked at him and continued to ask.

"I, my name is Li Xinyun." Li Xinyun seemed to be unable to straighten his tongue, "You, what about you?"

The young man lowered his head, sniffed the orange blossom in his hand, and said, "My name is Chen Hongting."

In an instant, Li Xinyun seemed to step into the clouds again, and everything began to become ethereal, until a familiar voice pulled Li Xinyun out of the ethereal clouds, causing him to fall back into reality.

"Mr. Li?" There was a familiar voice behind Li Xinyun, and a "click". Li Xinyun was very familiar with the sound, it was the shutter of the camera.He turned around and saw Xiao Jin, who stood beside him, looked at the bitter orange tree with him, and asked curiously: "What's so interesting about this? I called you several times and you didn't hear it. "

"Nothing to see, just thinking about something," Li Xinyun looked at Xiaojin and asked, "Why are you here?"

"Didn't you say this is a haunted house? I'm curious, so I'll take a look," Xiao Jin raised his camera, and took a few more pictures of the yard, "But it doesn't look too eerie. Mr. Li saved it here before. person?"

"Probably..." Li Xinyun said looking at the courtyard in front of him.Many fragments in his mind are being reorganized, but not completely reorganized, as if it is an unfinished film, only fragments that cannot form a coherent plot.He watched Xiao Jin clacking and clapping his hands in the yard, and then asked, "Are you a photographer?"

Xiao Jin scratched his head and said, "That's sort of it."

"Do you still have to work even when you travel?"

"Well, work is always involuntary."

"Then your boss is unreasonable enough."

Xiao Jin nodded: "That's true."

Li Xinyun looked at Xiao Jin, and continued to ask: "Is your boss called Chen Hongting?"

Xiao Jin was surprised at first, then quickly recovered his normal expression, and said, "How did you find out?"

Li Xinyun smiled helplessly: "I'm not sure, I just lied to you... In fact, you have always followed me in the past few days."

Regardless of whether Li Xinyun had already discovered it long ago, or was just lying to himself, Xiao Jin had already revealed his secrets, and he spread his hands helplessly: "Mr. Li is indeed very smart."

Li Xinyun laughed, how could he be considered smart, but...he already knew Chen Hongting too well, even if he said he wanted to stay alone for a while, Chen Hongting was absolutely impossible to let it go like this. The most suspicious person around him was Xiaojin. He cheated casually, and Xiaojin confessed—I am afraid that Chen Hongting was not worried that he would find out, and even the people he sent were not as thoughtful and secretive as before.

Chen Hongting, Li Xinyun raised his head, the bitter orange blossom has not yet bloomed, but Li Xinyun seems to have smelled the ubiquitous fragrance.

He sighed, and said to Xiao Jin: "Tell Chen Hongting, I will stay here for a long time, if he must let someone watch me, at least it will not be so conspicuous, even if it is pretending, at least it will not be so conspicuous." Give me some time that looks like I can be alone with my thoughts."