sunset melting gold

Wild pheasants walk under the window of the villa.

The beautiful male bird drags its long tail feathers and draws deep and shallow tracks on the ground. The female bird forages under the pine tree, and the bamboo branch-like footprints overlap in a messy way.

Fang Shiqiu leaned on the soft pillow of the sofa, watching the wild pheasants jump up the windowsill and pine branches, rising and falling in the snow.

They haven't been seen for a long time.

One year, two years... or three years?

Fang Shiqiu couldn't remember clearly, it seemed that he hadn't seen them since Liang Min broke his wrist.

Those memories about wild pheasants are incomplete, like the ingredients piled up in a blender, and the pain of bone fractures are twisted into mud, filling the empty gaps in the heart.

This sudden spring is much more lively than the cold winter.

The wild pheasant, which had not been seen for many years, came back, and the dark brown owl drove the unknown birds to the pine forest where they were looking for food.

Gray and white birds hid in the dense branches and leaves, owls cast huge shadows on wild pheasants, frightened males raised their necks and flapped their wings to demonstrate to the intruders.

The pine forest echoed with bursts of loud and clear birdsong, drowning out the sound of birds falling to the ground.

The bloody down feathers fell like snowflakes, and Fang Shiqiu remembered the French windows where he had stopped in his dreams.

No matter in mid-winter or mid-summer, there are always birds resting in front of the French window, sometimes black and white magpies or carrier pigeons, sometimes melodious thrushes and tits.

Pretty birds, smaller than pheasants, would perch on the terrace rails and splash in the petal-laden pool in the center of the garden.

The water poured down from the pottery vase embraced by the plaster statue, and the colorful bird feathers and crystal water droplets shone dazzlingly under the refraction of the sun, and the splashed water mist set up a hazy rainbow bridge in the air.

When was that memory?

Fang Shiqiu can't remember clearly, it seems to be a long time ago, even longer than the appearance of wild pheasants.

The owl outside the window fled away, and irregular footsteps sounded outside the room.

Fang Shiqiu turned his head and saw the dumb girl who pushed the door in.

The dumb girl didn't seem to expect him to wake up, she paused for a moment when closing the door before limping in with her feet.

She was holding the tray, and there was a bandage on the index finger of her left hand. The wound seemed to have not healed, and the injured fingertip was slightly raised.

The mute girl came to this villa much earlier than Fang Shiqiu. She was Liang Ming's woman in charge of taking care of Fang Shiqiu in the villa, and she was the only person Fang Shiqiu could see besides Liang Ming.

Whenever Fang Shiqiu was tortured until his body was covered with bruises, the dumb girl would appear.

She will clean him up so that Liang Ming can have fun when he comes next time.

Fang Shiqiu had no complaints about this.

I am a plaything for Liang Ming's entertainment, and the dumb girl is a servant who takes care of the plaything. In the final analysis, they are all private property raised by Liang Ming.

But after saying goodbye that day, Liang Ming disappeared without a trace as if the world had evaporated.

He never came to the villa again, never injected Fang Shiqiu with any medicine, and the number of dumb girls appearing in the room gradually became more and more frequent.

As always, she delivered three meals a day and medicines, changed the blood-stained sheets and pajamas, treated Fang Shiqiu's inflamed and infected wounds, and left without staying for long.

Everything seemed peaceful, but the atmosphere in the villa became more and more weird.

Fang Shiqiu was always drowsy, and the paradoxical hallucinations in his mind had disappeared along with Liang Ming's departure, and his dull brain also noticed something strange.

His body was constantly aching, and he was too weak to even do simple things like walk around the room, let alone investigate the source of that weirdness.

The red sun outside the window rises and sets, the whistling wind and snow rages and melts, the branches of pine trees are broken and regenerated, Fang Shiqiu spends the life that does not know when it will be extinguished in a warm cage.

It might be easier to forget.

he told himself so.

The dumb girl put the porridge on the small table next to the sofa, and didn't turn around and leave immediately.

Fang Shiqiu looked at her haggard side face through the dim light in the room, and vaguely recalled what happened when he first tried to talk to her.

At that time, he had just removed the plaster cast fixed on his wrist and ankle, and Liang Ming carried him to the sofa, and the woman who fished him out of the snow came into the room with stewed food.

It was a long time since I saw anyone other than Liang Ming. After the woman set the tableware, Fang Shiqiu couldn't help asking "What's your name?"

Before the woman could answer, Liang Ming at the side suddenly became furious and grabbed her hair fiercely.

Trays and drinking glasses fell to the floor, and the emaciated woman thumped to the ground and was dragged downstairs like a dying animal about to be sent to a slaughterhouse.

Liang Min's angry roar came in from the wide open door, Fang Shiqiu trembled all over, curled up on the sofa with arms folded.

After a muffled sound of the wooden stick beating his body, he heard a crisp cracking sound, which was exactly the same as the sound of his own bones breaking.

It should have hurt, but the woman didn't make any sound.

She couldn't speak, couldn't cry out to anyone for help, and could only endure everything in silence.

The sound of beating downstairs pierced into Fang Shiqiu's ears intermittently. The dinner in front of him exuded a rich aroma, and the stewed vegetables were wrapped in thick cream. He only felt sick when he saw it.

"Aren't Qiuqiu hungry?"

Liang Min who didn't know when came up stood by the door and smiled lightly.

Holding the mute girl's apron in his hand, he slowly wiped the blood on his hands, from the fingertips to the bases of the fingers, even the fine lines of the skin were not missed.

The bloody white cloth was finally thrown into the burning fireplace.

The flames devoured wood and cloth, and the fireplace let out a smoky belch contentedly.

The black smoke spread out in the empty room, and Fang Shiqiu finally regained his composure and grabbed the spoon in panic.

He scooped up a large spoonful of the white sticky substance and stuffed it into his mouth hungrily. The cream spilled from the crack of his lips that couldn't be fully closed, trickled down the corner of his mouth, and was wiped away before it dripped.

"Slower."

Liang Ming half bent over, holding a tissue soaked in cream in his hand.

Fang Shiqiu suppressed his nausea, raised his head vigorously, and swallowed the whole unchewed potatoes.

The dumb girl disappeared for a long time, and Fang Shiqiu didn't see her again until Liang Ming left the villa.

Her calf was bandaged, and she walked very slowly, her movements were not as agile as before, and some of the water and food in the tray would always spill out.

The liquid was sticky hanging on the outer wall, and the dumb girl carefully wiped off the spilled liquid with her apron, accidentally revealing the black bracelet on her wrist.

The familiar black leather ring stung Fang Shiqiu's eyes, and a slight electric shock-like spasm spread from the neck to the limbs, faintly haunting the newly healed joints.

"Thank you." He whispered to the dumb girl.

"sorry."

The dumb woman shook her hand holding the water glass, and the spilled water trickled down the water glass and her wrist.

She turned her body slightly, without answering, just lowered her head and hid those chaotic eyes in the shadows.

From that day on, Fang Shiqiu didn't try to talk to the mute girl again.

He was not allowed to leave the room, nor was he allowed to communicate with anyone other than Liang Ming.

Whether it's one-way speech, two-way writing, or eye contact.

He regards the mute girl as a lone soul wandering in the villa, and tries his best to ignore her existence.

The dumb girl's past was buried in the desolate snow mountain. Fang Shiqiu knew nothing about her name, her identity, and all the experiences before coming to this snow mountain villa.

The only thing he knew was that the mute woman was not born with a loss of voice.

She doesn't know sign language, and occasionally she just gesticulates randomly when communicating with Liang Min, but she is proficient in first aid knowledge, and it can be seen that she has received a good education.

When Fang Shiqiu was in a daze with a fever, he had imagined the dumb girl standing calmly and calmly in front of the operating table.

He guessed that maybe she was a medical student at a top university, or a medical staff member who saved countless lives, that's why Liang Ming imprisoned her here.

The dumb girl should be very smart, and the lack of sign language is probably because the process of making her dumb was brutal and brutal, and she didn't have enough time to study.

very pitiful.

Fang Shiqiu thought sympathetically.

But he has no time to consider the tragic fate of others.

The wild pheasant slowly walked out of the window, Fang Shiqiu withdrew his wandering eyes and thoughts, and belatedly noticed the existence of the dumb girl.

The woman who was supposed to leave stood quietly by the side, like a lifeless dead thing, the porridge delivered some time ago was still steaming, and a piece of folded paper was pressed under the ceramic spoon strip.

note?

Fang Shiqiu was stunned for a moment, then suddenly raised his head to look at the dumb girl.

Liang Ming didn't intentionally establish rules, but since that broken bone, he hasn't seen a dumb girl like this for a long time.

Fang Shiqiu thought that the dumb girl would avoid his sight, but this time, she did not dodge.

She stared at herself with a sad, hopeless and helpless look.

There was a loud sound of propeller turning from above the villa, and the birds in the pine forest were startled, flapping their wings and flying towards the treetops, and the pine forest was once again blown by snow.

Fang Shiqiu picked up the note under the spoon, and his trembling fingers left deep and shallow wrinkles on the narrow paper.

Amidst the roar of the machine, he unfolded the note.

Only three words were written on the irregular white note——

he's gone.

The reddish-brown handwriting repeatedly traced with sharp objects exudes a faint fishy smell, and the coagulated blood spreads in the rough plant veins of the paper, and the scrawled handwriting becomes hideous.

Fang Shiqiu clenched the note tightly, looked up at the beams of the ceiling, and the helicopter that was only a wall away from him hovered over the villa for a while, and finally flew towards the end of the setting sun.

The roar gradually faded away, the wind and snow rising outside the window slowly stopped, and Fang Shiqiu closed his eyes.

He got it.

Liang Ming was bored.

He wanted to kill them, and wanted the raging wind and snow on the snow-capped mountains to destroy their corpses and wipe out their traces.

They will all die.