Li Xiu limped towards home.
He looked quite disheveled now, his body covered in dust from the old villa, and his school uniform was crumpled up like pickles.
The corners of his mouth and forehead felt hot, swollen and burning, probably swollen. There was also a faint dampness running down his temples, probably blood. Walking down the street, Li Xiu could feel someone staring at him from time to time.
Because of his leg problem, Li Xiu has always been extremely sensitive to the gazes of strangers, but at this moment, his whole body was almost numb with pain, and he didn't care about those people's stares.
However, due to a deep-rooted habit, Li Xiu subconsciously chose a more remote and deserted path on the way back. He dodged and dodged, and finally managed to force himself to return to the familiar residential building.
The small building where Li Xiu and his grandmother lived wasn't far from school. It was located in one of those urban villages that plague every city, a source of headaches for city administrators. Sewage sloshed through the narrow streets, and next to the spiderweb of electrical wires lay dripping, cheap underwear clamped to the wires. Illegal structures filled the already narrow alleyways. Li Xiu walked very slowly today, and by the time he finally reached his home, the afterglow of the setting sun had completely vanished from the horizon.
The light dimmed completely.
It's too late.
Li Xiu checked the time, his already grim expression growing even darker and gloomier. He unconsciously quickened his pace, even though it intensified the burning pain in his overwhelmed right foot.
In a panic, Li Xiu accidentally bumped into someone downstairs.
"I'm sorry—"
"Oh, I'm so mad at your mother, do you have eyes?!"
Before he could even open his mouth to apologize, Li Xiu was met with a series of curses in a heavily accented voice.
The man was a familiar face, Li Xiu's neighbor.
...the kind of relationship that's very bad.
When she saw Li Xiu, the old lady was stunned at first, and was obviously frightened by Li Xiu's miserable appearance. The next second, she frowned in disgust, as if she had seen something very unlucky.
"Li Xiu, did you get into a fight? Tsk, you're still so young and still don't learn your lesson," the aunt scolded, then raised her plastic dustpan and broom towards Li Xiu. "I'm too lazy to go upstairs. Go back and tell your grandma not to burn these messy things at the door. I've told you so many times, but you still do it, burning them every day. Your family isn't afraid of bad luck, but we are—"
Just then, another resident happened to pass by. The old lady acted decisively, raising her voice again as if to address the person: "You say we live in a new society now, but you still believe in these feudal superstitions. We've only lived together for so many years and are neighbors. Otherwise, I would have called the police long ago."
"Well, I'll remind grandma."
Li Xiu had already lowered his eyes when the old lady kept yelling, and did not pay attention to her for too long. He responded without any rise or fall in tone, and then walked into the dark and narrow corridor with a stern face.
He left so abruptly that when the aunt came to her senses, she was too late to stop him. She could only lower her voice in annoyance: "This little lame guy is so arrogant and presumptuous. He looks just like that old woman. He's always doing these weird and unorthodox things. I'm so unlucky to live with such a person..."
"That kid's school uniform looks pretty impressive, why is Aunt Tang so mean to him?" Someone who just passed by heard the aunt's mumbling and couldn't help but ask.
The old lady looked up and saw that the person she was talking to was a new tenant. She immediately found a place to vent her complaints. She quickly grabbed the middle-aged woman and, glancing in the direction Li Xiu left, she began to ramble, "Oh, Liu sister, I'm telling you, don't deal with that family. They're not in their right mind. The kid always has a sullen face and doesn't talk or even look at anyone. There's an old woman at home who's always playing tricks on people, burning incense and burning things at the door. It makes the place smell smoky and foul."
After hearing what the old lady said, the tenant's face became stiff and he said awkwardly, "Is that a fortune teller?"
The next second, the old lady slapped her thigh and raised her voice again: "Ah, bah——"
The old lady spat and cursed, "What kind of fortune teller is that? That old woman is a notorious liar. If you don't believe me, go ask her. Everyone knows it. Even her own sister said that her parents are always cheating people outside..."
The tenant listened with great interest to the story about that family from the old lady: the fraudulent fortune-teller and her daughter had a falling out because of the deception and never had any contact with each other again. In the end, the daughter broke off all ties with her, so the fraudulent old woman had to pick up a lame baby from the street to take care of herself in her old age.
In the aunt's mouth, both the fraudulent fortune teller named Qi Po and the boy named Li Xiu were the same weird and ignorant guys.
But the tenant couldn't help but feel a little worried when he thought of the boy he had just seen.
That boy Li Xiu was beaten like that, it was really pitiful to see...
*
Li Xiu, who seemed somewhat pitiful to outsiders, was almost out of breath when she climbed the narrow and steep stairs home.
When opening the door, Li Xiu accidentally kicked something at the door.
It was a pair of beige women's high heels that looked very old. After being kicked by Li Xiu, they fell crookedly.
It looks like grandma has guests today too.
As Li Xiu was thinking, he pushed open the door with a pale face and an expressionless face.
After opening the door, Li Xiu was instantly enveloped by the familiar scent of inferior sandalwood. The entrance to Li Xiu's house (if it could even be called an entrance) faced the narrow, dark dining room. To the right was a small corridor connecting to the so-called "living room." Further to the left was the equally narrow, old kitchen.
Passing the dining room, behind the lopsided dining table, was a narrow, slightly tilted hallway connecting the various rooms. Clearly, this layout made the home seem incredibly cramped and oppressive. But Li Xiu had lived here for as long as she could remember, and she didn't see any reason to complain.
If there is something that really makes Li Xiu feel distressed...
That is, he couldn't remember when his grandmother stopped liking to turn on the lights.
It's the same now.
It was almost pitch black outside, but the lights were still off. Only the red glow from the electric candles in the shrine at the back of the living room added a faint glow to the house.
"Wuwuwu… Wuwuwu…"
Continuous faint crying sounds came from the living room.
Li Xiu glanced in the direction where the crying sound came from and saw that her grandmother was sitting behind the square table as usual, while another middle-aged woman was hunched over, crying with her back to Li Xiu.
Li Xiu thought of the women's shoes at the door, but didn't pay much attention to them. Not many people came to see her grandmother, and this middle-aged woman seemed to be the most frequent visitor. Li Xiu could hear her crying at her grandmother's place from time to time.
"I'm back."
Li Xiu lowered her head and spoke softly towards the living room.
He developed a habit since he was a child of never disturbing his grandmother when she had guests.
He originally thought that his grandmother would ignore him as usual, but this time, his grandmother stood up, pushed aside the beaded curtain at the living room door, and tremblingly stretched out her face towards Li Xiu.
"Why are you back so late?!"
The old man's voice sounded particularly sharp in the shadow.
"I..."
Li Xiu subconsciously took a step back, afraid that her grandmother would see the wound on her face.
Of course, he soon found that his nervousness was unnecessary.
Although the pair of cloudy eyeballs wrapped in fine wrinkles were staring straight at Li Xiu, grandma didn't ask about Li Xiu's injury at all.
"Hurry up and bring food to your brother!"
"Hurry! Hurry!"
"What if your brother is hungry?!"
"You told me that when you get to the new school you can leave school early and go home to bring your brother lunch! But look at you, you're only coming back at this time——"
Li Xiu pursed her lips at her grandmother's urgent urging.
"Well, I'll come back early next time."
He murmured in response.
The light in the room was dim and grandma's eyesight was poor, so she probably didn't see the wound on his face.
Li Xiu said this to herself as she dragged her feet and limped into the kitchen.
Although she said she was going to deliver food to her brother, Li Xiu did not cook in the kitchen.
He simply skillfully scooped two handfuls of raw rice from the rice bucket and placed them in the porcelain bowl.
Next, he took an inconspicuous jar from the shelf, opened it, shook the bottom of the jar, and took out some fine black powder.
That was the incense ash he had prepared earlier.
After mixing the incense ash and raw rice evenly, Li Xiu held the bowl in one hand, walked through the long and narrow corridor, and came to the small room at the end of the corridor.
"Ga—"
The room, with no lights or windows turned on all year round, was completely dark.
However, the neighbor next door turned on the light, and there was a faint light coming through the old window in the corner of the wall, which had been covered with gray and turned translucent.
The room was a mess and filled with all kinds of things. Some were plastic bottles and cardboard that my grandmother collected from other communities, as well as some cheap incense burners, Bagua mirrors and so on.
In the shadows, the crude and exaggerated deceptive props of the past inexplicably have a sense of real eeriness.
In the corner of the room, there was a double bed that had been picked up some time ago, and it was also piled with miscellaneous items.
Li Xiu walked towards the bed with her eyes lowered.
He half-knelt down and put the bowl of rice in his hand under the bed.
While doing this, his injuries were affected again. He shuddered in pain and almost collapsed to the ground.
Fortunately, he managed to keep his balance at the last moment.
"Brother, eat."
Because he was in so much pain, he was a little perfunctory when he invited his brother to dinner today, and just mumbled something softly.
The bed frame of the old bed was already covered with dust.
The shadows beneath the bed were dark.
The room was very quiet, so quiet that I could faintly hear the vague conversation between my grandmother and the guests in the living room.
"Oh, isn't it... He's really not talkative... and his legs are lame..."
"What can I do? I told you at the beginning that it was you who didn't listen..."
"Well, well, well... I don't really count on him for my retirement anyway..."
…
Li Xiu maintained the previous posture, supported herself on the ground with her hands, slowly slid down, and sat on the edge of the bed for a while.
The place where he had been beaten by Wang Rongfa and his gang was getting hotter and swollen. Li Xiu could no longer care about the pain and could only pray desperately that he would not break any bones. After all, there would be a mock exam soon, and according to the contract he signed with Qiming, he had to at least be in the top five in his grade to get the guaranteed living expenses and bonus.
If he really had a fracture, it would have delayed his exams a lot.
The family next door must have finished their meal and were watching TV. The bland soap opera dialogue, accompanied by occasional laughter and conversation, came through clearly, yet seemed so distant, as if it came from another world.
Li Xiu herself didn't know that her face was as pale as a piece of paper that was gradually soaked by water.
Finally, he no longer had the strength to support himself. His bruised body hunched over, he fell silently to the dirty floor of the room.
Turning his head, he could only see the dark shadows under the bed.
And there's the bluish outline of the white rice bowl in the shadows.
"elder brother..."
Li Xiu murmured in a voice that couldn't be any lower.
"I was bullied by those guys again today."
…
"I wanted to fight them, but I couldn't."
…
"It hurts so much."
…
No one responded to Li Xiu's trembling whisper.
There was still dead silence in the room.
*
Due to extreme fatigue and pain, Li Xiu began to lose consciousness without realizing it.
It was the sound of the door closing when the guest left that suddenly woke him up. He then realized that he had accidentally dozed off in the room.
Damn it—
Li Xiu cursed inwardly and was about to get up when she heard her grandmother's old and stern voice scolding.
"Li Xiu, why are you still in there?! I've told you so many times to come out after delivering the food. You should come out after delivering the food. Your brother hates quarrels the most. What do you want to do in there?!"
Grandma never liked Li Xiu staying in this room for too long - the room that belonged to her brother.
In fact, Li Xiu himself is the same.
Having seen so many of his grandmother's tricks to fool customers, Li Xiu didn't really believe in ghosts and gods. However, he didn't know why, even after years of delivering meals to his "brother," he still couldn't adjust to the overly silent atmosphere in this room.
Li Xiu attributed this maladjustment to childhood psychological trauma.
He still remembers the first time he was brought food to his room as a child. He was so frightened that he cried all night and then had a fever for a week because of the shock. Even when his fever reached 40 degrees Celsius and he could barely walk, his grandmother would still pull him out of bed every day and force him to bring food to his brother.
Li Xiu had long forgotten what had frightened him into that state as a child, but the feeling of being terrified and terrified to the point of tightening his internal organs remained deeply ingrained in his heart.
That's today…
After being beaten so badly, maybe his brain has become abnormal, which is why he is huddled here for no reason, complaining like a madman to a "brother" who does not exist at all.
Li Xiu seemed to hear a voice inside his body mocking himself.
Thinking of his weak behavior just now, Li Xiu couldn't help but sneer. He raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes, then stood up and walked towards the door.
Li Xiu knew better than anyone that his "brother" would never come out to help him escape the bullying of the class like a "brother" in real life.
Because Li Xiu's brother was just an urn placed under the bed.
Grandma once said that if she had no other choice, she would never let Li Xiulai bring food to her "brother".
"That child is so fierce...ah..."
*
Li Xiu could no longer remember the exact day when her "brother" came home.
He had a vague memory that when he was very young, a group of people suddenly came one day, huge and mighty, crying and kneeling, forcing his grandmother to leave the house that day.
A few days later, when grandma came home again, she brought "brother" back with her.
——For the sake of wealth and fame, many powerful people did not hesitate to take crooked paths and even sacrificed their innocent children in a heartless manner.
But, just like what is described in many stories.
What awaits the greedy and powerful, besides the tremendous power they dream of, is also an extremely cruel and tyrannical evil spirit.
*
"…It's a sin."
Grandma never talked about what happened in those days again, but every time she mentioned my brother, she couldn't help but sigh.
She placed the urn under the bed in the corner room, and then Li Xiu had this seemingly very strange task.
Every day he would return home on time and place a bowl of rice mixed with incense ash on the dusty urn under the bed.
Back then, Grandma was in much better spirits, and her temper wasn't as erratic as it is now. So occasionally, she would still patiently explain things to Li Xiu.
My grandmother said that placing a bowl of raw rice under the bed is actually offering food to the ghost and eliminating the ghost's hostility and karma.
Grandma said that Li Xiu was a boy, so there was no need to worry about the ghost running into his stomach.
"…and if you bring Him food every day, He will recognize you and treat you as one of His family."
"By the way, according to age, you should actually call him brother."
"From now on, when you deliver food to him every day, just call him Brother."
"A Xiu, if you listen to me and become a family, not only will He not harm you, He will also protect you forever."
…
When exactly is this "then"? Li Xiu never got a clear answer from her grandmother.
He just repeated the action of delivering meals to his brother day after day.
To him, "brother" represents the shadow under the bed and the darkness in the room.
As for the rest, Li Xiu felt nothing.
He also didn't understand why, as the years went by, his grandmother became more and more afraid of this room to the point that she didn't even dare to open the door. He couldn't understand the fear that flashed in her eyes when she mentioned "brother".
My brother doesn't exist at all.
*
"Ka--"
At the moment when Li Xiu was about to push the door and leave the room, he suddenly heard a crisp sound of porcelain hitting the ground.
He was startled and turned his head in surprise.
Then he saw an empty bowl spinning out from under the bed.
The rice under the bed was scattered all over the floor.