Chapter 143: Uncle Wang
Bypassing the museum with its carved beams and painted rafters in the amusement park, passing through the haunted house full of twists and turns, Uncle Wang arrived at a deep path. Walking forward led to unkempt green turf without pavement, and stepping over the trampled yellow mud path revealed dilapidated plank houses hidden among the woods—that was Uncle Wang’s employee dormitory.
Some colleagues had once lived in that place, but they later couldn’t endure the damp chill of the plank house during the transition between spring and summer, as well as the frequent harassment by snakes, insects, rats, and ants in the summer, and eventually all moved away from there. Only Uncle Wang was still willing to live there, simply because staying in that place required no dormitory fee, not even utility expenses.
Uncle Wang returned to the tin-plank house where he had worked for ten years and also lived for ten years.
Opening the door, the light outside seemed unable to penetrate, the darkness inside hard to illuminate. His skinny fingers gently pointed and flicked in the pitch-black room, and the electric lamp inside the house turned on, illuminating his spotless tidy dormitory, as well as a lonely swarthy wrinkled old face.
He stood at the door, looking at the familiar surroundings, listening to the rustling sounds of insects moving in the hidden corners. His eyes began to moisten, and he couldn’t help shedding tears for his impending farewell to this place.
The thing he was most worried about had finally come. The amusement park supervisor had called him for a talk that afternoon, directly announcing that his labor contract would expire at the end of the month and would not be renewed.
But the bitter truth that made his heart ache was that the reason the amusement park was not renewing was not because business was declining, but because his age had reached the point where no one was willing to employ an old man like him anymore.
Uncle Wang picked up the mirror on the desk by the window, looking at it, seeing the haggard, gloomy, rough old face covered in brown spots in the mirror. His hands trembled slightly; he hadn’t realized he was already so old.
Age is a very mysterious number in this busy society; only when mentioned do people realize how much they have lost.
Uncle Wang was no exception. He sighed that his ten years had passed so quickly, and he didn’t know what to do next.
Home still needed money; he couldn’t get old yet.
Uncle Wang put down the mirror, then took off his shoes and sat cross-legged on the bed. His eyes red, he looked at his ankle showing the burn scar and muttered, “Is it because of you that I’ve become so unlucky?”
He rubbed the scar, the scab of the scar like a stubbornly attached leech, firmly fixed on it.
He rubbed hard, rubbed vigorously, rubbed with all his might, rubbing until he gritted his teeth, the bed board vibrating, rubbing until he felt the skin and flesh were about to separate… A smear of bright red soaked through the skin of the burn scar and also covered his thumb stained with bits of skin.
The pain brought Uncle Wang back to his senses. Looking at the scar that still showed mysterious symbol markings even after being scraped raw, the shock and anger in his heart slowly turned into pure fear.
“What the hell is this thing? What does this symbol mean? Why did it appear on my foot?” The doubts in Uncle Wang’s heart intensified his inner anxiety.
He could only recall that on that day, the madman who had attacked with a knife grabbed his ankle—the one that produced the mysterious scar—with his bloodstained hand before dying, muttering in his mouth about the passing of the mission and the inheritance of the task.
But that meant nothing; he wouldn’t do it.
Uncle Wang knew very well the meaning of the madman’s last words, but that madman’s last words were like a demon’s whisper, appearing nonstop in his dreams and when his mind wandered, urging and tempting him toward nameless depravity, falling into irredeemable hell.
The pained Uncle Wang subconsciously picked up the photo frame on the desk again. Inside the photo frame was a family photo of three: he held the young himself, his gentle wife, and his happy daughter in the photo, curling up at the head of the bed, letting the blood from his ankle drip onto the bed sheet, longing for his family to give him wordless power.
Ding ling ling…
The vibration and warmth from the mobile phone in his pocket woke Uncle Wang. He sat up abruptly from the bed, looking at the desk, the bed, the lamp, and the wardrobe in the dormitory. Nothing in the dormitory had changed, but outside the window, it was already night sky, with a sly crescent moon hiding behind thick clouds.
Uncle Wang picked up the mobile phone, looking at the caller ID and the clock displayed in the corner of the screen, only then realizing he had unknowingly slept for so long.
Looking at the caller ID showing the caller, Uncle Wang didn’t dare delay any longer and answered the phone call.
“Hello.” Uncle Wang’s tense bitter face suddenly thawed, like basking in spring breeze, revealing a calm and simple smile, “Little girl, what’s up?”
“Dad, summer vacation is coming soon. Will you come back?” His daughter’s mild crisp voice made him feel like holding clear spring water, savoring it sweetly, his brows relaxing.
Uncle Wang was silent for a moment, then smiled, “Yes, I’ll be home often from now on.”
Uncle Wang’s tone was relaxed, but his daughter seemed to hear her father’s broken heart. Somewhat nervous, she asked, “Dad, is there a problem with your work? I saw that news…”
“It’s fine.” Uncle Wang interrupted his daughter’s questioning, taking a deep breath that sounded like a sigh, and said, “How are things at university? One more year and you’ll graduate. How’s the preparation for the graduate entrance exam?”
Hearing this, his daughter was silent for a bit, then said dryly, “Dad, I don’t want to go to graduate school.”
“Don’t worry about money. Dad has some savings here, enough for you to study.” Uncle Wang’s tone became serious, “Don’t worry about my affairs. Your dad may not have much ability, but he can still afford your education.”
“Then at least let me work part-time while studying?” His daughter softened her attitude.
Uncle Wang didn’t agree immediately, but he also knew his daughter had inherited his wife’s gentleness and no less of his own stubbornness. He knew that being too firm might provoke a stronger rebellion from her, so after some thought, he compromised too, saying, “As long as you can guarantee your studies will proceed smoothly, you can work part-time.”
“Okay, I guarantee.” Hearing this, his daughter laughed happily. Listening to his daughter’s joyful laughter, Uncle Wang was also sincerely delighted.
Unknowingly, they chatted until late at night. Uncle Wang urged his daughter to rest early; he also needed to wash up soon and prepare to end this physically and mentally exhausting day with sleep.
After taking a bath and lying down on the bed, the fatigued Uncle Wang soon fell asleep.
That night, Uncle Wang had a strange dream. He dreamed of the universe starry sky, colorful and ever-changing spacetime dimensions. Like a tiny speck of dust, he floated and sank uncontrollably in that vast endless spacetime. Those images beyond reason and bizarrely inexplicable deeply stimulated his brain. In a daze, he heard the madman’s whisper again, but this time the madman’s whisper became exceptionally ethereal and resounding, like vast Buddhist chant deafening and soul-stirring.
When he woke from the dream, Uncle Wang was frightened by the scene in the room and lost his facial expression. Snakes, insects, rats, and ants were all over the floor, flipped over with bellies exposed, dead in piles everywhere. Their death states… were just like they had been scared to death.
