Mo Du (默读) - Silent Reading

Humbert Humbert X

In twenty years, Lotus Mountain had undergone a bone-flattening, skin-swapping renovation; its face now presented an entirely different appearance. The streets and buildings were seamlessly joined together, their style identically “modern”, more dignified even than in the city. Only the roadside trees had not yet had time to develop their shade, dimly revealing the haste beneath the heavy makeup.

Luo Wenzhou drove a few circles before finding the nondescript newsstand.

A man wearing reading glasses was sitting inside, his back stooped, minding the stand. You could have said he was middle-aged, or you could have said he was old. Looking at his face alone, he looked like he hadn’t yet reached retirement age; but his whole body was permeated with a heavy lethargy, as if he was lingering at death’s door.

It was the hottest part of the afternoon. The surface of the street had been baked by the sun until oil was coming out of it. Luo Wenzhou pushed his sunglasses up to the top of his head and walked in front of the newsstand. “I’ll have an iced soda water.”

The newsstand’s owner heard him and put aside the book he was reading. He bent down and chose a cold drink thickly covered with frost, then handed it over.

Luo Wenzhou stepped under the newsstand’s sunshade, twisted open the bottle cap, and downed half the bottle in one go.

Already having worked overtime, he’d spent all day engaging in battles of wits with all kinds of his fellow professionals. Relying on Director Lu’s face and carrying the banner of inquiring about the old case, he’d attacked by innuendo, trying to determine whether there was anything suspicious about the other party. They all belonged to the same system, their tricks all followed the same lines; they went back and forth, each scene comparable to a scene of palace intrigue in a television drama, severely fatiguing.

Now Luo Wenzhou’s head was wooden inside. His gaze dull, he drank until he was chilled all the way through, then leaned under the sunshade, relaxing entirely.

The newsstand owner saw that he had no intention of leaving immediately and stuck out his head to say, “Hey, young fellow, I have popsicles, too. Do you want one?”

Luo Wenzhou waved a hand. “I’ve drunk my belly full of gas. I won’t be able to eat. I’ll rest here a while.”

The newsstand owner said an “all right” and moved over a long-legged plastic stool for him. “Sit down, then. On a hot day like this, no one has it easy.—What kind of work do you do?”

Luo Wenzhou put the soda water bottle on his knee and lightly shook it a couple of times. “I’m with the police.”

The newsstand owner had one foot up on the stand’s small threshold. Hearing the word “police”, he froze in place. After a long time he turned his head. He took off his reading glasses and folded them away. His lips trembling faintly, he lowered his voice. “I’ve applied to have the charge withdrawn. The government approved it, too.”

“I know,” said Luo Wenzhou. “Uncle Guo, I don’t mean anything by it, I just want to talk with you about Feifei’s case from twenty years ago.”

The newsstand owner was Guo Heng.

Guo Heng had killed Wu Guangchuan, then had been sentenced to prison for deliberate killing. Later his sentence had been reduced, and he had been released upon completion of the term two years earlier. Naturally he had lost his job. Twenty years had passed; everything had changed. His parents and relatives had died or left. His wife had divorced him before the killing. He had no relatives or connections, alone in the world. Returned to the wholly changed Lotus Mountain… District, he was doing a bit of business to make his living.