stories that happened on a specific occasion

"Dajun, you are back."

When my mother saw me, she was still used to calling me like that.

I nodded and squatted down in front of her wheelchair.

"Do you think the children will be back soon?" My mother asked while touching my face, "Is it the Chinese New Year soon?"

I continued to nod, holding her hand in my own.

Mother looked out of the window, a bare branch without branches and leaves stretched out in front of the window unsightly.However, a magpie flew from nowhere and landed on that branch.

I was a little surprised, but when I looked closely, it disappeared again.

"Da Jun, have you seen that child recently?" My mother suddenly looked at me and asked, with a look of disappointment in her eyes.

I lowered my head, not daring to meet her eyes, but nodded again.

"You saw it too, didn't you?" Mother said, cupping my face.

"I see." I replied with a smile.

"Then take a look," the mother's gentle eyes suddenly became ferocious.She lowered her body, widened her eyes and said in a low voice, "Look, is she right behind you?"

I suddenly straightened my back unconsciously, but I didn't dare to look back.

"Who is it?" I asked my mother.

The mother suddenly screamed, and then waved her hands in the air indiscriminately, shouting incessantly: "Don't blame me! Don't blame me!"

Upon hearing the sound, the nurse who rushed over immediately contacted the doctor, and continued to comfort the terrified mother in the wheelchair.

I took the opportunity to boldly look behind me, but there was nothing but the white wall.

I don't know what my mother saw, or imagined something that frightened her. She was still dancing and shouting desperately, while curling up to the corner of the wall.

"What happened just now?" The doctor who arrived asked me.

It was the first time I saw my mother like this, and my thoughts were confused for a while, so I just shook my head silently.

The doctor injected a sedative for the mother, and she finally fell asleep slowly.

"Your mother's condition has been a bit unstable recently." The doctor walked up to me and said.

"Does she do this often?" I asked.

"It has happened from time to time in the last few months," replied the doctor.

"Do you know what caused it? Like seeing something?"

After I asked this question, I felt a little regretful.Even if the mother really said something, maybe the doctor wouldn't care about these grotesque remarks.

"The first time this happened, she said there was someone in her room." The doctor suddenly replied.

I was a little surprised, and asked, "Who is it?"

The doctor smiled and said, "We have 24-hour surveillance here. How could anyone be in her room? Maybe it's just the shadow of a tree outside the window."

I nodded, but thoughtfully.

"However, we should really take a look at it more often. Old people will get lonely easily at this age." The doctor said.

"Okay," I said, glancing at my sleeping mother on the bed, "I will, thank you doctor."

The doctor turned and walked out, but stopped again by the door.

"By the way," the doctor turned to me and said, "Next time, tell your family that the end of visits is at 05:30 in the afternoon."

I nodded and agreed, "I know."

The doctor also nodded, turned around and said, "Just remember to tell your sister."

"What did you say?" I looked at the doctor and asked in shock.

The doctor was also taken aback by my expression and tone, he was taken aback for a moment, and then said: "I said remember to tell your sister, after 05:30 in the afternoon, no visits are allowed."

"My sister?" I asked again.

The doctor nodded.

"I don't have a younger sister." I said, "I guess you remember wrongly."

"She has been here several times, all after 05:30." Then the doctor said her name and said, "We have visit records."

I could feel my pupils dilated in an instant, as if I had been hit by an electric shock, and there was a slight pain in my chest.He quickly stopped the doctor at the door and asked to check the records.Although the doctor was a little helpless, seeing my serious expression, he couldn't refuse and took me to his office.

The doctor handed me the visit records of the last few months. I checked the time and signature, and the name that hadn't appeared in the past 20 years jumped on the paper.

"Have you seen her?" I asked looking up.

"Is your sister?" The doctor looked at me suspiciously, and replied, "Yes."

"What does she look like?" I asked again at once.

The doctor's eyes were full of doubts, and he said incredulously: "She is your sister, don't you know what she looks like?"

I didn't speak, just stared at the signature in a daze.

"She came here last month, we have surveillance video."

The doctor said, logged into an internal website, and showed me a video of the last date on the registration form.

"Look, is this your sister?" The doctor paused the picture and turned the computer screen to me. "I still wear this kind of clothes in winter, so I am more impressed."

I looked at the screen, and it was a girl in a summer floral dress.

"She's not my sister," I said.

"Oh, maybe I made a mistake," the doctor said apologetically, "Is it your relative? She comes to visit your mother every time, so we didn't ask in detail..."

The doctor was still explaining, but I felt top-heavy for a while.

"It's my sister."

As I stood up and walked out of the office, I whispered to myself.

The doctor was puzzled again, and kept asking questioningly behind me: "This is, your sister?"

I ignored it and went back to my mother's ward.

As soon as he walked to her bed, he knelt down on the ground weakly.

I held my mother's hand tightly, and then felt that my throat was blocked by an unknown mass, making it difficult to breathe and swallow.Finally, I couldn't help crying out loudly.

I don't know if it's because I've been suppressed for too long, or it's a kind of bitterness of reunion after a long absence.In short, I was like a child, lying on my mother's bed and crying happily.The nameless thing stuck in the throat also followed the trend, swam to the chest cavity, and slowly approached the heart again.

Although, my memory of her is already blurred, but whenever I think of her, I feel heartache.

I feel my heartbeat slowly slowing down in pain.

Slower and slower.

I don't know when, there was a cold feeling on my neck, as if there was a hand on my neck, and I suddenly woke up.

It was already dusk outside the window.

I looked up and saw my mother was still asleep.

"Visiting time is up."

The door was pushed open, a nurse reminded me so.

I nodded and got up from the ground, still in a trance.

I don't know when I fell asleep lying on the bedside like this, and I don't know how I was woken up.

Walking out of the nursing home, the residual red of the setting sun is over the city, and the heavy color makes people feel depressing.

I followed the sunset and looked into the distance.

Orange, Tangerine, Bright Red, Purple, Dark Blue, Navy Blue.

black.

I walked back to the hotel along the desolate streets. There was no place for me in this city, only messy memories and my mother who had forgotten me.

I looked up and looked at the sky that had been swallowed up by the night.

There is no snow in this city in winter.

While thinking about everything that happened today, he walked back to his room.

I opened the door, and what greeted me was bright.

I walked into the room, everything was the same as when I left, the only difference was that there was a man standing by the window with his back to me.

Seeing me push the door open, the man also turned around.

"Hi, I'm Lin Yancheng." The man said.

Hearing this name, I retreated to the door unconsciously, with one hand quietly behind my back, trying to reach for the doorknob.For some reason, he gave me an inexplicable sense of resistance.

The man looked at me with a friendly smile on his face, walked towards me and said, "Maybe this name is a little strange to you." The man said, and stretched out his right hand to me.

While hesitating, I also stretched out my hand behind my back, as a gesture of friendship.

The man shook my hand and said at the same time: "Let's call me Makoto Sato, it's more cordial and suitable for friends who have reunited after a long absence."

I suddenly pulled my hand back vigilantly.

I looked at the man in front of me. He was about the same height as me, but he gave people a feeling of oppression.

"Makoto Sato?"

I repeat his name.

Makoto Sato looked at me and suddenly burst out laughing.

"It seems that you really forgot." Sato said with a smile.

"Do we know each other?" I asked.

Sato put away his smile, moved closer to me, and said, "If you describe it in Chinese, you and I should be regarded as old friends."

After Sato finished speaking, he turned and walked back to the room, and sat on the sofa.He rested one hand on the back of the sofa leisurely, looking at me with a smile.

But I kept thinking in my mind, where did I see the face in front of me.

"That day, you were the person standing under my office building, right?" I asked after finally remembering it.

"So you saw me?" Sato said lightly, "I'm still a little unsure."

If he can be called an old friend just because of the one-time relationship that day, or more precisely, the unclear one-time relationship, maybe Sato's Chinese is not as good as he imagined.

"How did you get in here?" I asked him.

Sato sneered and said, "Don't be so indifferent? Don't you want to hear the story I'm going to tell?" Sato called my name after finishing speaking.

is my real name.

"How did you know my name?" I asked.

Sato didn't answer me directly, but took out a wooden box from the inner pocket of his coat.

It was a long wooden box with exquisite carvings on the surface, and it could be clearly seen that it was a tiger pattern.

Sato opened the hidden compartment at the bottom of the wooden box, and took out an incense stick.He took out the lighter again and lit it.Soon, the fragrance drifted away one by one, and the whole room was instantly filled with a faint fragrance.

"Can I start my story?"

Sato put the lit incense back into the box.The fragrance rises through the gaps in the pattern of the box.

Although I had many doubts about Sato in my mind, when I smelled this fragrance, all doubts were put on hold again.As if I had just unloaded a heavy burden, I felt suddenly relieved.

I didn't speak, but Sato smiled again when he saw that I let my guard down.

"I know you don't remember." Sato said.

Indeed, apart from the surveillance video Zuo Zhenzhen gave me and the hurried side in front of the office building that day, I have almost no impression of this person named Makoto Sato.

Just when I relaxed my vigilance, suddenly in this enchanting smoke, the surrounding environment began to change.

I don't know if it's the tiredness that's blinding me, or if I'm hallucinating.

The four walls of the room fell down like pieces of paper, and a wider space appeared.I looked at everything in front of me, and unconsciously leaned to the side in surprise, only to find that beside me was no longer the wall of the hotel room, but a cold and solid wooden bookcase.

Amidst the smog, Sato walked towards me.

Makoto Sato, he introduced himself to me, is the owner of the pawn shop in front of me.

I quickly looked around, and I found myself in a quaint shop with decoration.Although this shop looks unfamiliar, everything is not completely unfamiliar.The strange totem sculptures at the entrance, the tall and short bookshelves against the wall.Along the wall above the bookshelf, there are scroll paintings of figures, animals, and landscapes with a strange atmosphere.At the end of the bookshelf is a row of bead curtains, and a red tengu mask can be vaguely seen on the wall behind the bead curtains.

Looking at everything in front of me, I couldn't figure out the situation. I couldn't help but looked around and asked, "Where is this?"

At some point, Sato stood behind the bead curtain.

Behind the bead curtain is an improved curved-foot incense table, with two square stools beside it.Sato sat on one of them, and he was making tea.

"My pawn shop."

Sato told me that his pawn shop does not accept any common and visible pawn articles, calligraphy, paintings, antiques, or gold and silver jewelry.

"What's the pawn?" I couldn't help but interjected.

"Secret." Sato replied.

I thought his questions and answers were because of commercial secrets, but no one would have guessed that the only thing his pawn shop bought and sold was "secrets".

"Everyone has a secret," Sato said.

I don't deny it, but how to pawn the secret?

Sato explained to me unhurriedly.In his pawn shop, any secret can be bought and sold.And the price is naturally set by him.

How to price a secret?

Sato motioned for me to step forward.I opened the bead curtain and walked over.

According to Sato, every secret has its price and meaning.These secrets can be sold or bought.Among these secrets, there are not only personal grievances, but also commercial secrets, and even illegal things such as killing people for life.

"How do you know that the secrets these people say are true?" I couldn't help but interrupted again.

Sato smiled.

"Of course I know," he said.

He has opened this pawnshop for a long time, so long that he can't remember the exact time.

Today, he traveled thousands of miles from Japan to this small hotel room in a foreign country just to tell me a story that happened in his shop.

Of course I don't believe it.

Sato's story

You can go back within three days, and you can cash it out within five days.

This is what Sato said to all those who come to the pawn shop.

It means that if you regret betraying your secret, you can come to the store to get your secret back within three days.But if it is not brought up within three days, the secret is sold forever.At the same time, Sato bought the check issued by Secret, which can be cashed within five days.

To me, Sato seems to be just an oddball curious about other people's privacy.

But even so, he has his own set of rules and procedures.

Absolutely cannot break the contract.

This is Sato's bottom line for this transaction.

"Once the contract is broken, you will fall into hell." Sato said.

Naturally, I was connected with the previous campus mass suicide case and the case of classmate A investigated by Zuo Zhenzhen.I don't know if what he said will really happen, but the two cases actually happened.

Sato runs such a business, and has received all kinds of customers.No matter how strange the story seemed to him, it might just be an ordinary thing.

But such a person also encountered an unforgettable thing.

More precisely, a person.

I met this person one day ten years ago.

That day was also a time of great cold.In the snowstorm, a young man came to Sato's shop.

The young man looked to be in his early twenties.Carrying a huge backpack for travel, he walked into Sato's store with a look of embarrassment, and was attracted by everything in the store while wiping the rain off his body.

Sato beckoned him into the depths of the shop and offered him hot tea.

I thought that this person just strayed in to avoid the rain for a while.

But Sato looked at me with a chuckle and said something.

"The customers who come to my store never enter by mistake." Sato suddenly lowered his voice and said, "Only fate comes."

The author has something to say: I have entered the final chapter of the novel, friends who like it are welcome to leave a message and bookmark, thank you for reading :)