The Child's Past Life

by Cai Jun

  Lu Zhongyue pinched her neck, and she tensed in pain. Si Wang looked as if he was going mad as blood flowed out from under the tape, like he’d bitten off his tongue.

  “Ouyang Xiaozhi, I’ve spent the past few weeks here figuring out where you lived. I waited a whole day at your building. I was worried you wouldn’t come out until tomorrow. But you came out ready to go to the Demon Girl Zone after all.”

  “You were the one who called me two months ago?”

  “Yes, I got your number from Chen Xiangtian.”

  “You finally talked to her?”

  Lu Zhongyue lit a cigarette. “I killed her.”

  Xiaozhi looked directly at Si Wang as she said, “You can kill me, too. Please let the young man go. He’s innocent.”

  “I’m looking for another young man. You know where he is.”

  “I don’t.”

  He found a phone in Xiaozhi’s bag and scrolled through the contact list to find Lu Jizong’s details.

  Lu Zhongyue slapped her. “You hid my son.”

  He taped shut Xiaozhi’s mouth. Watching her anxious expression, Lu Zhongyue took out his own cell phone and dialed Lu Jizong’s number.

  “Hello, is this Lu Jizong?”

  “Who is this?” said the voice on the other end.

  Lu Zhongyue calmly answered, “I’m Ouyang Xiaozhi’s lawyer. She has some business she wants me to handle with you. Where can I meet you?”

  “Now?” Lu Jizong sounded hesitant against the noisy background. “Fujian Snack Shop at Seven Spirits Bridge.”

  “OK. Will you still be there at nine thirty?”

  Lu Zhongyue looked at the clock. It was 8:45 p.m. now.

  “I’ll still be working, yes.”

  “Please wait for me.”

  Ouyang Xiaozhi struggled as hard as she could, but the rope only got tighter. She cried from the pain. She saw that Si Wang’s eyes were moist, too.

  Lu Zhongyue had left the room, but a few minutes later he came back with jugs of gasoline and a weird black machine. He added two batteries to it, and when its red light flickered, he said, “It’s enough for at least twenty-four hours.”

  Lu Zhongyue packed up, taking out all the trash, including the cigarette butts. There was nothing but the two of them, the gasoline, and the machine.

  Si Wang and Ouyang Xiaozhi were alone in the Serenity Road murder house.

  Ginkgo trees could be seen outside the curtains.

  The smell of gas filled the room.

  Si Wang breathed heavily through his nose and thought of his mom.

  He tried to move the chair. His muscles could have burst, but he still couldn’t get close to Xiaozhi. They were less than half a meter apart, and both their mouths were taped shut.

  She said with her crying eyes—

  You’re Mr. Shen!

  I am! his own eyes replied.

  More tears blurred Xiaozhi’s gaze. She remembered December 21, 2012—that cold night when she saw Si Wang’s bright, naked body with a red birthmark on the left side of his back.

  A wound from a past life?

  On that supposed last night of the world, Xiaozhi had said nothing as she kissed his back with pity. Then the tides of desire submerged the both of them.

  Staring at this other captive now, trapped in the murder house, she could no longer tell him and Mr. Shen apart. She knew there was something she owed him before death.

  “Mr. Shen, I know your last question. Why did I want to see you that night? I could tell that you wanted to kill someone, so before you could I wanted to see you—in the Demon Girl Zone—because that was where we first met.”

  “To do what?”

  Xiaozhi wanted to slap him, but all she could do was keep talking with her eyes:

  “I wanted to give myself to you. That would have been my first time. But you were killed that night. That my first time wasn’t with you is my biggest regret. The world knew your fiancée had abandoned you, that everyone had abandoned you. If I could have given myself to you that night, you wouldn’t have wanted to kill anyone. You would have always had me—right, Mr. Shen?

  Tears poured from Si Wang’s eyes. He understood that she’d wanted to give Shen Ming a reason to live.

  Xiaozhi nodded to affirm that she knew what he was thinking.

  Xiaozhi had wanted to sneak out from the school to meet Shen Ming. The students usually used a window on the ground floor. But after Liu Man’s death, the school had taken extra precautions and the window had been boarded up. The teachers kept watch at the dorm entrances all night long. Xiaozhi cried in her dorm room, kept awake by the thunder and her worries about Shen Ming.

  Yan Li’s body was found the next day. There was no question: Shen Ming had killed him.

  The police were looking for him, but there was no news for three days. Xiaozhi snuck into the Demon Girl Zone and found Shen Ming’s body underground. She didn’t want to disturb the scene. After crying there by his body, kneeling in the water, she returned to the school and let it slip that Mr. Shen might have gone there.

  CHAPTER 81

  June 19, 2014—9:30 p.m.

  Thunder rolled outside.

  Carrying his backpack, Lu Zhongyue walked through the busy Seven Spirits night market. The bigger the crowd, the safer he felt—just like the sea was the best place to hide a drop of water.

  He touched the cell phone in his pants pocket. A push of a button decided two people’s fates.

  He’d prepared the jugs of gasoline and a remote explosive device at the Serenity Road house. The device was of his own design, requiring little more than two cell phones and some old circuit boards. One phone dialed, and the other one would start the explosion. It was worthy of a patent. At least Lu Zhongyue’s electronic engineering degree was good for something.

  There was only one Fujian Snack Shop in the area. Red-and-yellow lights adorned the door; cooking sounds could be heard. A few hair salon workers were having steamed dumplings and noodles. He ordered some wonton noodles and subtly looked around. A tired-looking teenager came out of the kitchen; he had a birthmark on his forehead.

  “Lu Jizong.”

  The young man looked at Lu Zhongyue, who raised his head to show off his birthmark.

  “You called me?”

  “Yes. Are you done with work?”

  “I just got off.” Lu Jizong sat in front of him. He was taller than his father but still had a babyish face. Many people thought he was still in high school. “What did Aunt Xiaozhi need?”

  “I’m not a lawyer.”

  Lu Jizong remained silent as he considered the old man who was looking at him as if he wanted to drill a hole in his face.

  It was impossible to miss the man’s birthmark.

  His mom had always told him, “Jizong, your dad has that same birthmark.”

  Lu Jizong’s lips were quivering. He had never met his dad, but he’d imagined this moment, this face. It had always seemed like something out of a movie.

  Lu Zhongyue nodded, smiling. “Kid, I’m your father.”

  “Is this the first time we’ve met?”

  The young man’s hands balled up into fists as he remembered his maternal grandfather’s raspy warning right before he died: Your dad was a selfish bastard. He never even wanted you to be born.

  Lu Zhongyue stroked his son’s hair. “Jizong, I’ve watched you grow up.”

  “I’ve never even seen you.”

  Lu Zhongyue was lying.

  So was Jizong.

  His mom had always kept a photo of his father; she’d look at it sometimes late at night. It disappeared after her Jizong started junior high. She searched for it everywhere, but Jizong had burned it. He’d never felt so good as he did watching the photo of his “dad” turn to ashes.

  “I’m sorry. I had a wife, then I had to trave
l everywhere.”

  “Because you’re a fugitive—a killer,” Jizong said with quiet urgency.

  Lu Zhongyue’s face stiffened. “Who told you that?”

  “Aunt Xiaozhi.”

  Lu Zhongyue’s hand found the cell phone. He was was itching to press the button. “My cousin, she’s a little paranoid, likes to say crazy stuff.”

  Lu Zhongyue ordered two sodas. The young man finished his in a few swallows.

  “What did you want to say to me?”

  “I just wanted to see you, to talk a bit. Then I’ll disappear again.”

  “Have you been to see my mom?”

  “I have. She misses you a lot.”

  “When I was growing up, everyone called me a bastard because you weren’t around. All the kids bullied me. They’d hold me down on the ground and beat me. I’d be covered in blood but didn’t dare try to get revenge. I’d tell my mom, and we’d cry together. I’d think, what was my dad like?” The young man’s face looked like a dog about to be butchered.

  “I’m sorry, but you must understand that there are many things in this world we can’t change.”

  Lu Jizong recalled what his aunt had told him about any strange visitors. He asked, “Where is Aunt Xiaozhi? Why didn’t she come with you?”

  “She’s tied up with something.”

  Lu Jizong pretended to straighten his shirt as he discreetly dialed that familiar number. Two seconds later, he heard the Hikaru Utada song “First Love.”

  Ouyang Xiaozhi’s ringtone.

  The sound came from Lu Zhongyue’s backpack. He calmly opened the bag, realizing that the incoming call was from Lu Jizong. He pretended that he didn’t notice anything unusual and just turned off the phone, and then took out the battery. He also had Si Wang’s phone with him; he calmly took out its battery, too. No one could track them now.

  Lu Jizong stood up slowly. “I need to show you something.”

  “Wait, Jizong.” Lu Zhongyue said as he also rose from his seat. “Can you call me Dad?”

  “OK. Come with me.”

  Lu Jizong led him into the kitchen. The teenager grabbed for something amid the steam and smoke. “Dad,” he said, turning toward his father. Lu Jizong had never used that word before, though as a young boy he’d wanted to so much.

  “Son!”

  Happiness came so quickly in the kitchen of this unassuming restaurant. The hug was so tight, and Lu Zhongyue’s face was right next to his son’s. For the first time since becoming a fugitive, the man shed a tear.

  Lu Zhongyue felt a burning stab of pain in his chest.

  He wanted to speak, but his throat felt stuffed with a liquid warmth. His neck and face turned red.

  The son let go of the father and stood panting by the kitchen counter. His shirt was now covered in blood, and he still held a kitchen knife.

  Lu Jizong walked out of the kitchen. His father clutched his chest and backed out of the kitchen, too. Restaurant customers ran out screaming. Waiters scattered. Lu Jizong’s only thought was that he hoped the place wouldn’t go out of business because of what he’d done.

  Three years ago, during the summer after junior high, he gave a neighbor girl a rose bouquet after much debating. It cost him six months of spending money. The girl gladly accepted the flowers but chose to date a Police Academy guy instead. She said to him, “My boyfriend said there’s a dangerous fugitive who looks like you. Is that your dad?”

  Lu Jizong swore to himself that if he ever met his father, he’d kill him.

  Outside on the crowded street, thunder sounded overhead, but no rain came. Bats flew around. He glanced at the dripping knife—it looked like it came straight out of Defense of the Ancients. He was back in the small Southern town, and every stab he made with the computer game knife was at the man with the birthmark.

  Monster, you finally came.

  The man he’d imagined killing countless times before was lying on the street in a pool of his own blood. People stood around to stare, but no one came to help.

  Lu Zhongyue blinked, watching the stormy night sky. Right now he missed the clear, starry sky above Nanming Road and the kid called Shen Ming. It had been twenty years, but he never stopped imagining what death felt like. What happened as the knife pierced the heart? Was there pain? Desperation?

  He couldn’t see his son’s face, just the many faces of passersby: scared, cold, smiling, rushed.

  He wanted to shout, “I killed myself. That kid didn’t do it. He’s not a killer!”

  But the blood had filled his throat, and he couldn’t say anything.

  Someone in the crowd shouted that the police had arrived. Lu Zhongyue reached a bloody hand into his pants pocket to grab that cell phone.

  In a hurry to reincarnate?

  The last drop of his blood seemed to drain from him. A cop leaned over him, checking to see if he was still breathing.

  He pressed the button.

  CHAPTER 82

  June 19, 2014—9:55 p.m. Serenity Road Number 19, second floor. He Qingying’s childhood bedroom.

  “If there was tomorrow, how do you want to make up your face? If there was no tomorrow, how do we say good-bye?”

  A familiar ringtone sounded.

  Si Wang didn’t know what it meant, and though his mouth was sealed shut, in his heart he started singing along with the Han Yue song.

  Ouyang Xiaozhi heard it, too, and her eyes widened with fear as she used all her strength to try to break free.

  The ringtone played for about ten seconds before they heard a loud noise, like a firecracker. Sparks flew all around, some of them landing in the gasoline jugs.

  Almost instantly, flames spread across the room.

  They reached Si Wang’s pants. He screamed, but his mouth was still blocked; the pain felt worse than death. He closed his eyes and thought, Let me die like this with Xiaozhi. It’s OK as long as our charred bodies are together.

  Burning tears and black lines streamed down Xiaozhi’s face as the whole house began to burn. She and Si Wang were about to die in the fire. The smoke was making her cough, but she couldn’t open her mouth. She nudged the chair leg and managed to topple herself over.

  The flames reached her tied hands, singeing her skin and burning off the rope. She ignored the pain and fought to free herself from the chair. She didn’t even rip the tape off her mouth before lunging to Si Wang.

  Even if her hands turned to ashes, she was going to untie him first. But the knot was a complicated one and she couldn’t undo it. She rolled Si Wang toward the flames in an attempt to burn away the rope, but it was fire resistant.

  All she could do was rip off the tape covering his bloody mouth and kiss him as though that would lessen the pain.

  Si Wang butted her away with his head, saying, “Xiaozhi, go!”

  “No.”

  A terrifying sound came from overhead. The house was going to fall down.

  If she ran out now, she might survive.

  9:55 p.m.

  Xiaozhi heard breaking glass. She dragged him and the chair toward the window.

  Somehow she summoned the strength to throw the muscle-bound young man tied to a chair out the window.

  His pants and hair on fire, Si Wang flew into the night sky over Serenity Road.

  Then he fell.

  The chair broke into pieces, and the rope unraveled.

  The roof and columns of the house collapsed into a pile of burning ruins.

  Xiaozhi was still inside.

  Si Wang wanted to save her, but he couldn’t get up. Two brave neighbors grabbed him and dragged him across the street.

  He watched the reflection of the burning house in the grimy basement window.

  There was an illusion of a teenage girl crying on the house’s steps.

  June 19, 2014—10:00 p.m.

&n
bsp; The rain poured from above.

  Si Wang watched the flames die down. He wanted to shout her name, but his throat was burned by smoke and couldn’t make a single sound.

  When the fire trucks got to Serenity Road, the fire was almost completely extinguished.

  Ouyang Xiaozhi was buried in the ruins. She could neither see nor hear anything. Everything was gone but the endless silence.

  Another ball of fire erupted, and suddenly she was surrounded by garbage and wooden boards. She was small and skinny, and wearing dirty clothes. Touching her hair and chest, she knew she was back to when she was eleven.

  Nanming Road. 1988.

  Dazed by the fire, a man appeared like a hero from the sky riding on colorful clouds, and he picked up his young bride and whisked her away.

  CHAPTER 83

  Midnight.

  Ye Xiao was so busy that he was almost going mad. He’d been covering two murder scenes; the crimes had happened almost simultaneously.

  The first scene was at Seven Spirits night market where a waiter at the Fujian Snack Shop had stabbed a middle-aged man to death. The victim was the fugitive Lu Zhongyue. The suspect was arrested. Lu Jizong was only nineteen and claimed to be Lu Zhongyue’s illegitimate son. Ye Xiao contacted the police in the young man’s hometown police and learned that his mother had been murdered in her home two months ago. The local police had been looking for Lu Jizong.

  The second scene was at Serenity Road Number 19. A house abandoned after a murder thirty years ago had suddenly caught fire at 9:55 p.m. The house burned down in a few minutes. Inside, the firefighters found a charred body, which they were trying to identify. The initial impression was that it was arson; a lot of gasoline was at the scene, as was as a remote explosive device. There was one survivor. He’d suffered a broken leg and was sent to the hospital. His name was Si Wang.

  He Qingying had looked for her son all day. She’d called Ye Xiao and even gone to the Demon Girl Zone. By the time the rain started at ten o’clock, she thought of another place—Serenity Road. While she was panicking, Ye Xiao got the call about the Seven Spirits murder. He went to that scene, and He Qingying took a taxi to Serenity Road, finding her childhood home in ruins. The firefighters and the police were cleaning up; someone mentioned a young man who’d survived.