Chapter 107
The rain fell delicately and silently. This was an ancient stone road; even in the daytime, not a single person was in sight. On both sides of the road stood grey, dilapidated buildings with nary a sign of life. On some walls, yellowed and torn pages from illustrated pictorials were still plastered on, and one could vaguely make out slogans like ‘The productivity of the land depends on the boldness of the people’ and ‘Long Live the Proletarian Cultural Revolution!’.
Most of the buildings had fallen into disuse, and looked as if no one had lived in them for a long time. Occasionally, a glimpse of a figure could be seen briefly in one or two of the buildings, just like a ghost. Jian Yao almost thought that she was dreaming as she walked down such a road while supporting Bo Jinyan. She could never in a million years have imagined that they would be stranded in such a peculiar place.
Bo Jinyan listened to her describing the landscape along the route, but his expression remained calm and collected. “The world is so large, it is full of extraordinary things. Besides, the Buddha’s Hand organisation is hiding here, so maybe everything we see is simply an illusion.”
Those words caused the chill in Jian Yao’s heart to intensify.
However, they finally saw a living, breathing person.
At the corner, a small shop had just opened for business. The lights were on, and the shelves held cheap candies, cigarettes, noodles, toilet paper, and other such items.
Jian Yao squeezed Bo Jinyan’s hand, then walked forward and asked, “Is anyone there?”
The sound of footsteps came from within. Jian Yao quickly took stock of the surroundings. This appeared to be a simple shop, there was a bowl behind the counter which someone had recently finished eating from, and a red plastic stool. On the half-closed wooden door, someone had used a coloured marker to write, crudely and crookedly, numbers and English letters: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J . . . as well as a few rudimentary Chinese characters. It looked like a child had been learning to write.
A girl walked out.