Just released from the stone, the frog, shouldn't come into contact with the polluted air outside, so Vangala bought a large square glass fish tank with a cover for it. However, the fish tank alone still wasn't a suitable place to live because it only had swaying clear water and no place to stand for the frog, which was not conducive to its health.
For this reason, Vangala had to run to the bird and flower market in the middle of the night and bought some fake mountains, aquatic plants, fine sand, and snail shells to make some padding.
When he had finally finished arranging everything, it was already three or four in the morning. The small frog was placed in a cave in the fake mountain, curling up its short limbs, closing its big eyes, and remaining still. If an uninformed person saw it, they might think the frog was just a plastic item, like the aquatic plants, fine sand, and snail shells, used to decorate the glass tank.
However, only someone observant could notice that the dry yellow film covering its body was now saturated with water, beginning to transform into a viscous, gel-like substance. After this gel was completely dissolved in water, perhaps tomorrow, or the day after, this imprisoned creature would awaken from its slumber. It wouldn't understand what it had experienced, its limited intelligence unable to interpret that dark and hopeless past. However, the survival instinct rooted in its genes had already prepared it for rebirth.
Without a doubt, this was a miracle of life.
With these impromptu lodgings, Vangala's empty rented house finally had some signs of living. He placed the bathtub on a small table on the balcony, enveloped it with a magnetic field, isolating it from the polluted air outside. He then sat aside, watching with fascination as the yellow film turned into gel and dissolved into water.
That night, he did not lie down in the bathtub to rest, but instead sat on the balcony until the morning dew dampened the tips of his hair.
As he was engrossed in the vitality of life, Ms. Xu downstairs was enduring each second as if it were a year. In this over 180-square-meter home, she had nowhere to hide. No matter where she hid, her child could always find her, then stand opposite and gaze silently at her.
This kind of shadowing was more unbearable than direct and cruel violence. She would be scared and cry out for mercy when she was taken by surprise by her child. She tried to call the police but couldn't explain what was threatening her clearly. She called her husband, who would initially respond and ask about the situation at home. After learning that her child still hadn't left, he would become silent and then simply put her on the blacklist.
With nowhere else to turn, Ms. Xu had no choice but to call the property management company, but no one answered the call. When she stood on the balcony and shouted for help, her pitiful cries were swallowed by the rampant wind outside the building. No one came to her aid. In this building, torment and desperation seemed to have become the norm.
Ms. Xu had completely lost hope and only now, finally understood the saying "cry for the moon in the day and complain of darkness in the night." Faced with her walking corpse, no amount of violence, abuse, trampling upon her personality, or punishment through starvation could have any effect because she had died long ago. She did not feel the pain anymore and was no longer afraid. Once, she made her child desperate and fleeing with no options; now, that child was tormenting her with that same pain.
When she cowered in a small cabinet, gripping the doors and trying to convince herself that everything would get better, her child effortlessly disassembled the cabinet with his thin arms. Finally, she broke down; she cried uncontrollably and pleaded, "Xu Yiyang, I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have hit and scolded you in the past. Please spare me! I'm begging you, spare me!"
She cried so much that tears and snot filled her mouth, but the expressionless child did not respond. He only squatted in front of the completely broken cabinet, staring intently at her with his black, empty eyes.
Those eyes didn't change with light and shadow, nor did they reveal emotions; they were a bottomless abyss. Ms. Xu couldn't peek into his inner world through those eyes and fell into deeper fear. She was certain the child had returned to take revenge and wanted to torment her to death.
Her intense fear finally transformed into immense courage. Somehow, Ms. Xu fiercely pushed her child and then used her hands and feet to crawl out of the cabinet, snatching her phone and wallet as she made her escape. She ran through the neighborhood, gasping heavily, her eyes darting around, hoping a security guard would suddenly appear from the dark corners to rescue her.
She finally realized what her child had been thinking every time he couldn't bear the abuse and fled home: he was also searching for a savior. But no one was there; the neighborhood was filled with the light and shadows from the streetlights and the rustling of trees in the wind, but people were absent.
Ms. Xu ran all the way to the security booth, but it was empty, with only a television playing a historical drama but eerily without sound. Her pupils contracted to pinpoints at the sight, further stimulating her nerves and eliciting a scream of fear.
No one, no sound, no daylight, only eternal night, does this kind of environment resemble a ghostly realm? Could it be that she has been trapped here by that child? Just like the colorless world in "Silent Hill"? This kind of imagination terrified Mrs. Xu, she turned and ran towards the main gate, she needed to see what the outside world was like, and if she could still fit in.
The Moon Bay community was too remote, a road winding through the darkness, with no signs of life on either side. Mrs. Xu didn't know how far she had run, but when she finally saw two headlights gradually approaching on the road, she found that she had actually run off her shoes, and her feet were covered in a bloody red trail.
"Stop, stop, take me to the city, please? I'll pay you!" she took out her wallet, and stuffed all the cash she could find into the driver's bewildered face.
An hour later, she finally arrived in the city, and she was relieved to find herself still in the same world, not swallowed by the ghostly realm. The feeling of blending into the worldly life was so profound, it brought tears to her eyes as she excitedly ran into the hotel and booked a room.
She was so tired, she needed to find a safe place to hide herself.
Her phone was dead, it rang twice and then went silent; there were only two coins and a credit card in her wallet; her shoes were lost; her clothes had several holes... Mrs. Xu sat dejectedly on the carpet in the room, tidying herself up in a sorry state.
She was exhausted to the point of almost fainting, when she took a shower she had to hold on to the handrails set up for disabled people to stand steady, the warm water flushing over her bruised body, bringing waves of stinging pain. This made her think of a time she washed the child after a beating, the water temperature was comfortable, the bathtub was newly bought, yet he shivered and trembled, flailing about and crying, leaving her drenched.
The anger she had just calmed quickly exploded like a Molotov cocktail, she reprimanded, "I've taken such good care of you, why are you crying? Is the shower not comfortable? Is the bathtub not good enough? Do you have no bones to stand?"
But today, she finally realized that after such torment, showering was really uncomfortable; the bathtub was too slippery to use; her bones were there, but now they were all soft, softened by the beatings, scolded and scared soft! The retribution she had caused, bit by bit, was all coming back to her.
She didn't know how, but as she huddled under the warm water flow, she cried close to collapse. But the universe was not willing to let her off easily. When she finally lay down in bed, closed her eyes, and tried to sleep, the mattress next to her collapsed, and there was a cold, icy thing pressed against her arm.
She trembled, her teeth making a jarring noise in the silence. She covered her head with the quilt, and the cold thing slipped into the duvet with her, still clinging to her arm. She finally let out a piercing scream, and when she opened her eyes, the child had indeed followed her, behind him were two opened French windows, with beautiful, shimmering neon lights outside.
He had run along dozens of kilometers of road, and climbed up hundreds of meters of high-rise building, no matter where she was, he could always find her!
This fact plunged Mrs. Xu into endless despair. She screamed and ran out, sitting terrified and shivering all through the night in the bustling lobby. The staff ran over several times to inquire about her reasons, and told her they could help her call the police, but she could only open and close her mouth silently, just like her child, losing the ability to express herself in extreme fear.
Finally, after enduring until early in the morning, she hurried into the bustling crowd and took the early train to her husband's company, with the crowded people giving her a great sense of security, making her vaguely aware of why the child liked going to school so much, because in the company of classmates, he could avoid the fate of being beaten, just like her current state of mind.
Life is a cycle, you reap what you sow.
In the late morning, Mrs. Xu finally arrived at her destination and, under the guidance of a helpful employee, found her husband who had run away first in the staff tea room. His face was haggard, but the clothes he wore were neat and clean. A young woman was reaching out to adjust his tie, and he lowered his head and smiled gently at her. The terrible things that had happened at home seemed to have left no shadow on him, and his life was as usual.
Mrs. Xu stared wide-eyed at the scene, unable to believe it.
The employee who brought her into the company could only awkwardly cough, reminding the two of the clear emotions flowing in the tea room.
"Why are you here?” seeing his sudden wife, the tenderness on Mr. Xu's face disappeared instantly, "Let's go, this is not the place to talk." He pushed Mrs. Xu roughly, his attitude very rude.
The young woman with flushed cheeks ran away and another staff member stared at Mrs. Xu's bruised body, showing a skeptical expression.
Mrs. Xu had lost her shoes long ago and had to wear the thin slippers from the hotel. The soles of her feet, drenched in blood, had stained the pure white cloth dirty, and the bruises on her body had darkened overnight, appearing shocking. Along the way, countless people had offered concerned greetings to her and were ready to help her report to the police or send her to the hospital, but when it came to Mr. Xu, he turned a blind eye to her misery just as he had to his son's pain.
Mrs. Xu was pushed into a dim stairwell, and her heart sank.
"Where did you stay last night?" she asked with a suppressed sobbing tone.
"Of course, I stayed at a hotel. Why did you come to my company? And what about him? Did he leave?" Mr. Xu asked eagerly.
"No, he didn't leave. He came to get revenge. How could he leave? I stayed at a hotel on the 30th floor, and he still found me! Honey, I want to stay by your side, I'm scared!" Mrs. Xu clung to her husband's sleeve, but he harshly pushed her away, his tone callous, and the temperature in the stairwell dropped to freezing, "He's following you? You...how can you be so cruel? Are you planning to kill me too? You were the one who abused him. If you hadn't beaten him to internal injuries, would I kick him to death with one kick?"
Mr. Xu realized he misspoke, looked around, squeezed Mrs. Xu's neck, pinned her to the wall, and warned in a barely audible voice, "If he's seeking revenge, it's for you, it's none of my business. Get away from me!"
"Honey, don't leave me behind, save me!" Mrs. Xu struggled to catch her breath, but continued to plead. At her most desperate moment, she didn't know who else she could turn to for help.
But Mr. Xu had no intention of entangling with her, he gripped her shoulders, pushed her out of the stairwell, took her down in the elevator, and then put her into a taxi, taking out a thousand yuan and tossing it to the driver impatiently, "Take this crazy woman far away!"
"Where should I send her?" The taxi driver only cared about making money, and didn't pay attention to Mrs. Xu's pleading and struggling.
"Lock the doors and take her as far as possible. Is the money enough? If it's not enough, I'll give you more!" Mr. Xu took out a wad of cash and threw it into the driver's embrace.
The driver was overjoyed and quickly locked both front and rear doors, elatedly saying, "Alright, I'll make sure to throw her into the wilderness."
Neither of them had thought about what danger a woman, barefoot, and without a phone or wallet, might face in a remote place. Just as Mrs. Xu had never thought about how the child, who she had beaten until he could barely breathe, could cope with everything outside.
She screamed, cried, and pounded on the locked doors and windows, but could only watch helplessly as her husband grew farther and farther away from her. His once handsome face turned twisted and ferocious in the glaring sunlight.
Mrs. Xu cried until she was almost breathless, then collapsed against the back of the chair, and weakly said, "Driver, take me to Moon Bay community, that's far enough, right?"
The driver, just wanting to make a profit, readily agreed.