Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Pei Yingzhang stood by the second-floor window, watching the black BMW downstairs drive into the rainy dusk. A disgust he had never felt before surged inside him.
His brother-in-law, while his sister was gravely ill, was not thinking about caring for his wife. He was thinking about his first love. Ever since that class reunion, he had no longer been able to hide the restless desire in his heart.
Even though it was already seven in the evening and the rain was pouring, nothing could hold back his urge to leave.
So Pei Yingzhang told the driver to follow him.
The trip was an hour and a half, long enough to make a person drowsy.
When he opened his eyes, the car had already entered a residential complex. The infrastructure there was poor, and under the streetlights everything carried a worn, defeated look.
The driver pointed not far ahead.
Pei Yingzhang looked up and saw the woman covering her face, dressed in a white dress, running out from the entrance of the complex and throwing herself straight into his brother-in-law’s arms.
Both of them were married, and they still cared about appearances, so they soon separated. They found a milk tea shop and sat face to face to talk.
Pei Yingzhang felt irritated. He told the driver to keep watching, then got out of the car alone.
The north wind struck his face like a blade scraping across it.
He walked along the road lined with camphor trees, as if he had entered a deserted world.
That year, he was ten. Because his parents had put pressure on him too early, always telling him to take good care of his sister, they would glare at him coldly whenever he fell short.
He did not know why his parents were so harsh with him, even with a trace of dislike. His sister was warm to him sometimes and cold at others. The strange atmosphere at home often tore at his emotions.
He sat on the damp swing, sinking into a helpless exhaustion.
Just then, a little girl in a pink down jacket darted past his eyes. She was like a penguin, round and plump, with an awkward kind of nimbleness.
She was alone in the grass opposite him, digging nonstop with a branch.
Such a strange scene naturally made one wonder.
Pei Yingzhang decided to go over and see.
Only when he reached behind her did he see several cats’ bodies by her feet, their flesh and blood mangled together. He frowned instinctively and asked what she was doing.
The girl jumped in fright, blinked, and turned around. There were still traces of tears on her face.
She looked at him timidly.
Pei Yingzhang took two steps forward and realized she was digging a pit to bury the kittens’ bodies.
After understanding what had happened, he returned to the swing.
The girl huffed and puffed as she dug alone for more than half an hour. At last, Pei Yingzhang could not keep watching.
He walked over and asked if she wanted help.
She was struggling too much, and she kept reminding him of his niece, who was four years younger than him.
The girl watched him for a while, then lifted her head and said, “Thank you, big brother.”
He found a wooden plank and quickly dug out a large pit. With red eyes, the girl placed the kittens inside. Then, without warning, she dropped to her knees with a thud and began kowtowing devoutly.
Pei Yingzhang was startled.
As she kowtowed, she said, “I’m sorry, little cats…”
He had never seen anyone kowtow to cats before and did not know what to say.
When the girl cried harder and harder, he pulled her up and said stiffly, “Stop crying. You weren’t the one who killed them. They won’t blame you.”
At that, she cried even harder. “It was my dad. He didn’t like Mom keeping cats, so he threw them down.”
Pei Yingzhang thought, What kind of parents throw cats in front of their child? But seeing the girl sobbing so miserably, he could not help comforting her.
Perhaps because he was used to coaxing Song Qiyu, this girl, who was the same age as her, was soon coaxed into calm.
She reluctantly covered the pit with soil. After she finished, she kowtowed a few more times.
Then she looked at him with a pair of wet eyes.
Pei Yingzhang decided to be kind to the end and asked which building she lived in and whether he should walk her back.
She shook her head. “Mom told me to wait here for her to come home after I finished burying the kittens.”
Her father had thrown cats in front of her? Her mother had made her bury them alone? Pei Yingzhang glanced at his watch. It was eight forty. What decent parents could do something like this?
The girl’s eyes were clear as an autumn lake. She did not look like she was lying.
He brought her back to sit on the swing and gave her a piece of candy. The girl put it into her mouth without the slightest guard and smiled brightly. “Thank you, big brother.”
Before Pei Yingzhang could speak, the driver called to say the two people over there had already separated.
He hung up. Then he watched the girl run toward the intersection with his own eyes. “Mom.”
It was the very woman who had met his brother-in-law.
She held a bouquet of roses and frowned in disgust. “Your hands are filthy. Don’t get my dress dirty.”
The girl obediently lowered her hands. “Mom, your flowers are so pretty. Can I touch them?”
The woman shook her head and refused. A blush colored her cheeks, giving her the shy air of a young girl.
The little girl followed beside her, chattering nonstop. “Mom, just now an older brother helped me bury the kittens, and…”
The woman cut her off impatiently. “Enough. When we get back, tell Grandma we went to the flower shop to buy flowers. Don’t tell her about the cats, understood?”
The girl seemed to understand and yet not understand, but she nodded.
Pei Yingzhang stood across from them. The world around him was dark and silent. His heart felt as if it had been injected with freezing fluid, and all strength left his body.
He had never expected that the little girl would be that woman’s child.
At that moment, it was as if he had personally stepped into an ancient, absurd play. The feeling was impossible to describe. Many years later, he would finally understand the phrase: fate is impermanent.