Chu Jiajun's ashes cremated, forming a small, thin, and fragmented puddle. Ji Yongtao had originally brought a plastic bag with him that day, not wanting to draw attention. Later, on second thought, he switched to a glass Coke bottle.
Someone had petitioned to flush the ashes down the toilet, so Ji Yongtao tucked them away in a corner of a public counter, lest no one claim them and they actually get flushed. Ji Yongtao couldn't claim them due to his status, nor did he want to. He felt that once someone was gone, gone was gone. Leaving a bag of ashes at home would reinforce the notion that Chu Jiajun wasn't gone.
With no one home, all the miscellaneous items Chu Jiajun had left behind were taken as evidence: a bubble gum box, a child's rainbow spring, a wind-up tin toy, and even a magazine and grenade left under the floorboards.
Under his pillow, he found two long-expired train tickets to Shanghai.
He also found a half-read magazine, clippings from martial arts novels, and an English vocabulary book. There were a few crooked strokes written inside: lie, lie, lie. Ji Yongtao suddenly understood that from the beginning to the end, this person had been preparing for the moment when his lies would be exposed.
Another word was also circled, and the three characters "Ji Yongtao" were written many times around this word.
Half a cantaloupe was still in the refrigerator, with the middle hollowed out. That's how the person liked to eat the melon. But in order to avoid being scolded by Ji Yongtao, he would sprinkle some sugar in the hollow in the middle.
Ji Yongtao was lying alone in his home, staring at the ceiling in a daze without turning on the lights. He stared at the ceiling for a long time, several hours, and suddenly sat up again, rushed downstairs in his pajamas, rode his motorcycle, and went to the department where the ashes were stored.
In the deserted streets late at night, the motorcycle rushed past one dim street light after another. He stopped the car at an intersection without warning and stared blankly at the empty intersection.
Finally, Ji Yongtao turned the car around and slowly returned to the Ai Ya River.