What is the divine prophecy?
I was in the hallway in my senior year, and a girl came over and she told me,
I was astonished at the time, because there was no news lately that the psychiatric hospital had failed to look after the patient. I said, “Believe you, but are you?”
She said, “My name is Horu, who passed on to your class.”
I said, “I was cleaning up last class. No wonder I didn’t see you.”
She said, ‘Do more of the things that matter, or when you die, you will be remembered, whether you are polishing glass or cleaning the earth, and you will not know it.’
I said, “I love this environmental business.”
She said, “You still owe it.”
I’m interested. I said, “Do I have money in the future? How many wives do I have?
She shook her head and said: “Die in July.” The graveyard is old.
And We said: How shall we save me?
She said that the basic law of passage through time and space was an unchanging historical process.
I said, “So.”
She said, “So?”
I said, “So you came to watch me die?”
She thought, “Yeah.”
I turned around and left her alone.
01
It’s a question whether it’s the future or not. I went to her a couple of times, and she slapped me on the shoulder and said to me, “Man, you’re gonna die anyway, so don’t ask me the finals, okay? Or look at me with the eyes of a retard and say to me, “If I know the lottery number, do you think I’ll go to school all day?”
It’s a boring thing to be a high school student. It’s more fun to talk to a psycho. I made up my mind to dig my cause of death out of her mouth before summer came, of course, and I don’t believe it at all. I was 16 years old, and I firmly believed that I would always be young and that only I would kill the world.
I went over, knocked on the table, and I said, “What’s your relationship with that dead me?”
She said: “Friend.”
I said, “What kind of friend?
She said: What do you think?
We said, “What kind of money is in your debt?”
She said, “Go get me a soda, and I’ll tell you.”
I ran down the stairs and bought a Coke, and when I came back in my panting, I saw where I was sitting by the window, looking at the school playground.
Hollois, very careful to twist the bottle cap and talk.
She said, “I was with you in high school.” Senior summer, you’re dead. Cause of death, can’t tell you.
I said, “I know that history cannot be changed.
I thought about it, and I said, “No, but now there are two of you in the class.
She said, “Yes.”
And I looked to my left and my right, and said: Where is it?
She said, “Don’t look. I’ve changed my name, I’ve got a face.”
We said, “You are the one who has enough blood.”
She said, “This is all worth it.”
I said, “Just to see me die?” Oh, my God, what did I do to you?
Then she looked down, and she looked down, and said: “Don’t ask.”
02
Did the dead one ever molest her? Is that what I think?
It’s like I’m always ashamed of myself. I was curious to touch her face and ask her, where did she go? And she didn’t slap me like the other girls, but she turned away and said, “Come on, buy me a Coke.”
She likes to drink coke. I happen to like to skip school, and whenever I disappear in class, the teacher says, “Go and call me back.” She ran to the top of the school building with a pony tail, and I was lying on the roof with a tan and a plastic blanket.
She said: What are you doing?
I said, “Do light co-operation.”
And she came and sat with me, and said, “Before, you have blocked my sun.”
I threw her a Coke. She was a little surprised.
We said, “Drink, just bought.”
She lifted the bottle and looked at the sun. There’s a lot of clouds in small towns, and the afternoon sun isn’t so bright.
She said, “The cap is open.”
I said, “Swipe it.”
She said, “Did you not spit in it?”
And I said: Sister, I fear you will not be able to wring.
She took a sip, said, thanks.
She stretched out her hands to the ground and looked at the white clouds in the sky.
I said, “Hey, do I like skipping class, too?”
She said, “Yeah, you’re in third grade because you’re avoiding school.
I said, “That’s too much.”
She said, “What is a compliment on you?” When you first died, the teacher kept talking, and the kid left.
I said, “Then what?”
She said, “Then no one mentioned you.”
I said, “Fuck, before I get cold, you fucking forget me?
She said, ‘Everyone is busy with a high examination and a busy course.’
I thought, according to her, it was kind of like I was frozen that summer. It’s a romantic view of death. I was always holding a popsicle that summer, watching my friends grow up, and I swayed alone at the age of 16, without fear, and went nowhere.
The small town blew the wind, and the hair swung.
We said, “Holu, you are becoming more and more like a true story.”
Horu didn’t say anything.
I said, “What happened to my parents after I died?”
He bowed his head and said, “Your parents agreed to divorce.”
Small towns still blow the wind.
All of a sudden, I felt a bit of condensed air around me.
I had half my body, and she looked at me with her eyes, and she looked at me with her signature dead fish.
We said, “Holu, you are really from the future, right?”
03
My parents are getting a divorce, and my mom and dad are doing a good job keeping secrets. If I hadn’t accidentally found that divorce in their room, I’d probably never know. Just one day I woke up and left a note: Son, you’re a grown-up, and then you’re on your own. Love you. And I find myself lying in a dump.
The divorce agreement says that when I go to college, they automatically dissolve the couple.
Since then, I have developed a good habit of skipping classes, passing papers and sleeping in classes. It’s not self-defeating. I’m not going to college. I’m going to high school for ten years.
I have to break my leg. But then Dad stopped hitting me, and I came up with a zero-point test and looked at him with the eyes of “Kill me, kill me” and he signed his name and said, “Come on, son. Say it with a nice look at me.
I ran into the kitchen, and my mom was cooking, and I had a brain full of vinegar.
My mom smiled and said to me, “Dumb kid, Mom’s making noodles today.
I finally fell apart and cried out that I wouldn’t eat no noodles.
I wandered up the street, Saturday at noon, and there were no passers-bys.
That day, I suddenly wanted to go to Ho Lu, and it was only then that I realized I never knew where she lived.
04
I sat at the Internet cafe all afternoon, almost until evening, feeling like I was standing behind you.
I said, “How’s the equipment?
He said: “The game went down.”
I sifted, and said, “Hey, sister, don’t be so dramatic, okay?
I got off the plane and bought her a Coke, and two people walked out of the net and walked by the river. I’m holding a piece of bread, and I’m chewing.
I said, “A little curious. Where do you usually live?”
She said, “This has nothing to do with you.”
We said, “I want to die to understand.”
She said, “Look out.
I said, “Okay, thanks. By the way, did I lose my face when I died?
She said, “Death is as spicy as hot.”
I thought, anyway, the fire could be ruled out, or it should die like a lamb.
We went to a chair by the river and sat down. The lights are on. The wind of the river is blowing, and the air is cool.
We said, ‘Do those girls who love me when I die?’
She said, “This joke is cold.”
I grabbed my hair and said, “What a failure.”
Hollu said, “Hmm?
We said, “It’s too early to die, or my life will be a failure.”
She suddenly pointed to the river. And I looked and looked, and the water was still.
I said, “What’s wrong?
She said, “Do something meaningful before death.”
We said, “What does this have to do with this river?”
She said, “Hands are sore, lift up anything.”
05
Horu promised to help me in stopping my parents from getting divorced.
She recalled for a while, slowly telling me that they were going to divorce, which seemed to be related to cheating.
I’m sitting in the classroom, holding my head and thinking, “Who the hell is that? – I came back to class, and she said that there was a price to be paid for everything and that you were in the classroom, and that you were contributing to social peace.
I asked her, “What’s the price of time travel?
She thought about it, and she said, “The time line is impossible to meet again.”
And when I opened my mouth, I said, ‘I do not understand.’ Wait, isn’t it a plastic surgery?
She said, “I changed my name only.” The plastic surgery was a lie. Do you think a man’s 26 and 16 looks the same?
I can’t believe I said, “Isn’t that a big difference?”
And so she smiled, and she said, “Why don’t you know that women wear makeup?”
06
You’ll cheat, you’ll cheat. For days, I followed my mother, and she was watching TV or cleaning the room. My dad’s far more depraved, normal, off-duty, and the only fun is to play mahjong with his buddy.
By the way, the lives of middle-aged people are truly bitter.
And We said to Horun: “They are not like the state of life in which they should have been deceiving.”
He said: “This is what happens when feelings are broken, when you look at each other and you look at each other and you look at each other, and you look at each other and you look at each other.
I said, “I don’t know where she is.”
It’s true that it doesn’t make sense to catch two people in bed.
I’m a long one.
“What are you thinking?”
I said, “Do you know me too well?
On the weekend, I was at the market with Ho Lu, and she was wearing a dress, and I didn’t change my uniform, and she was staring at her.
And she came and said, “What, silly?
I said, “You’ve become a big sister.”
She said: Go, brother, and go with her sister.
I bought a bouquet of flowers, I bought a belt, and two came out with their gifts and walked side by side in the street. Actually, these are for my parents. I have enough money to buy flowers and belts.
We said, “When I die, will I return my inheritance to you, widow?”
She looked at me for nothing.
07
I sat in the room and listened to the noise outside. I let them go, pretending they gave each other. The two men were quiet for a while and said something, and later they began to suppress their voices.
I suddenly felt powerless.
I pushed the door and the living room was quiet again, as if nothing had happened. Dad opened a newspaper, Mom changed her clothes, and said, “Get out?
I’m wearing shoes and I don’t look back: go out and meet my lover.
I ran down the street and I didn’t know where Helu was. But hides that she’s not far from me.
I ran, I lost my strength, I stopped breathing.
There’s a girl in the front. She’s wearing a school uniform.
She said, “What about running at night?
We said: “How can I find you, Horu?”
She swung.
We said, “It’s too hard to see you.”
She said, “Yeah.
I said, “Can’t you tell me where you live?”
As if she had returned to her eyes, and said, “Ah, in an alley near your house.”
We walked along the river.
We said: “What is Horu, dead?” Is it disappearing in this world?
He said, “It’s always at a moment.”
I said, “Isn’t it nice to stay at the happiest moment?”
She shook her head and said that happiness was because she knew that tomorrow would be better. There is no future, it is torture.
We said: “It is painful for you to give up the future.”
She said, “It’s almost over.”
I counted the time, indeed, the time of my death in July.
We said, “They still fight.”
She said, “You’re not going to reverse the gift. Your mother got the belt, your father got the flowers.”
I said, “It’s not a gift, it’s cheating.” There’s nothing to stop. They’re trying to cheat. Shit.
On a street by the river, there was a commissary, and I went over to buy her a Coke, and I helped her break it, and she took a sip. They’ve known each other for so long that they’re getting more comfortable with the coke.
She said, “Are you done with your homework?”
I waved, I didn’t read for half a year, and now I’m turning on my homework, and that little slider on the ground, who’s moving in the universe, has no idea when, let me do my homework and let me die right now.
Then I got down by the river and I lit a cigarette and took a deep sip. She looked up and she asked me: “Where’s the smoke?”
I said, “I just bought it at the commissary.”
She said, “Strangling.” Bad for the body.
I said, “Come on, I don’t have time for lung cancer, if I want to.”
She reached out, grabbed my cigarette, threw it in the river. I’ll flat-mouth, forget it. Take out the cigarette case and throw it in the river. As the June town passed, the river level was calmer and the sound of the water was light.
And We said to Horu: Sister, speak of the future. How are my classmates?
Helu said: he went all over the country to study at work. Some of the suits are worn out, some of them are undressed.
And I said: Will they return to their home school?
He said, “Sometimes, the school was demolished and no one came back. Later on, the reunion, the car, the house.
And I said: Disappointed, I thought we would be pure forever.
She said, “The angels come to the earth, and they will end up human beings.”
We said, “What about my parents? What happened after the divorce?”
Ho Lu was silent for a while and said, “It’s been a good life.
I had some difficulty in understanding, and then I thought, probably without me, that they could finally move on to a new life without being attached.
Actually, it’s good to die in the summer of 16 years. Always holding a popsicle under a blue sky cloud, free. Death protected the young man from the ruins of time.
Then, when he was separated, Holu suddenly stopped me.
She said: Ye Xiaobai, learn.
And We waved, and said: ‘I know. I’ll do what I promise before I die.
08
I’m going to study again, and I’m going to ask Ho Lu, and I didn’t expect her to forget her knowledge. We went to the teacher, like two retarded people, and he spoke to us for a long time, and he looked up and said, “Living to learn is a good sign. But why do you look like you’re in love?
And We made a smile of nine springs, and said: “Teacher, I am in love.”
A small town in June, hot and stinging for a year, continued to appear under the shade. Less than a month before July. In the meantime, my classmates were surprised to discover that I had to come to my funeral, help with hot water, help with hygiene, and I used to wipe my sweat.
They will understand, and say, “Beware, indeed, it is you who will be able to take it.”
Fuck, do I look like an incompetent? But forget it. When it comes, everyone will understand.
I couldn’t sleep in the middle of June and looked at the moon outside the window all night. Helu says insomnia is due to overthought. I looked where I lived, quietly, with lights on the window, and girls couldn’t sleep.
One night I thought for a long time and finally knocked out the parents’ room.
They’re asleep staring, asking me, what’s wrong?
And We hid it in darkness, and said: “Pa, Ma, I know.”
What?
I said, “I don’t have to wait for my divorce.”
They’ve been quiet for a long time.
And my father said: Son, we shall at least wait for you to grow up.
What I’m trying to say is, you don’t have to wait. By July, after the pain, your lives will be better. But for some reason, when I came to my mouth, I felt something stuck in my throat, down my head, whispering, “Thank you, thank you.”
What Helu is right cannot change the course of history. I should leave the quarrels and the sorrows and stand in the barriers of time and see them move towards what they deserve. That’s what they deserve. I can’t take it from them.
09
Horu asked me: How many exams?
And We gave a score, and said: “A hundred advanced, isn’t it?
She said, “Bullshit, you were back in the year.”
I said, “You can’t encourage it.”
She said, “Hold on, handsome.
I said, “Forget it, it won’t happen again.” It’s a shame I don’t have enough time.
After the final exam, in July, the school gave us two months of summer vacation. This gives me and Horu a lot of time to come out and chat, and she never told me the exact time of death, and she couldn’t have come a few days later.
Mom and Dad were so happy that they made a special meal. The old man opened a bottle of wine and asked me: “Have a drink?” I said, “Come on, fill up your buddy. He took a picture of my head and said, “No big, no small.”
I’m touching my head.
Then he said, “Son, speak to you about something.”
I said, “Hmm?
He said, ‘I talked to your mother, and gave us a little more time, and I spoke to her.’
I said, “Don’t force it.”
He said, ‘Being sincere.’ Besides, I haven’t said it yet. At least, peaceful coexistence, active communication.
I said, “Hmm.
He said, “Your mother is really pretty…
I said, “I don’t know.
We had a drink, the evening of July, the vibe. The children downstairs were taken by their parents and laughed in the streets. Mom drank wine, she had a red face, I laughed so hard, it was so good, it opened all my hair so I could feel the world before I left.
10
There was dinner that day, there was a news feed on TV, and there was a noise coming from downstairs.
She called me by my name, Yip. It’s almost time.
I said hi and ran away.
He came here to smell me and said, “Have you been drinking?”
We said, “What I drink with my father, and I love, and I love.”
She said, “How are they?”
I said, “Be better.” It’s not easy.
She nods her head and goes in silence.
After a while, she turned back and found me standing there.
And I’ve been waiting a long time. Am I dead? Not sure, open your eyes, or that little town.
And I pointed to myself and said, “Do I look as if I was spicy?”
She shakes her head, and she says in despair, “Just a little longer.” Are you an idiot?
I said, “Oh, I didn’t say so.”
I walked along the river with her.
I said, “Now, can you tell me the cause of death?” How else am I supposed to kill myself?
Helu said: Car accident.
I said, “I was so careless about traffic safety.”
He said: No.
Eleven.
Helu said that in July of that year, she went to buy Coke and a truck came. She ran away and I pushed her away. She had to be saved, and I was thrown under the car.
I nod my head and stand at the intersection waiting for the car that hit me once to kill me again.
I said, “Yeah, I’ve been wondering, what would you do if it really changed the course of history?
She said, “I’ll disappear.”
I said, “How does it disappear?”
She said, “You have not died, and I have no reason to return.” The passage of time will not happen.
I said, “I don’t understand a word…”
She said, “It is hard to explain with your intelligence.” Anyway, I’ll go back to the future, back to my time line. And forget everything because I won’t remember anything that didn’t happen. I think it’s just a vague recollection of a student named Yip who went to a college where he couldn’t name himself.
She said, “You and I will never be able to coincide again.”
And I said: Will I also forget you?
She said: Yes.
And I said: So sad.
She said, “This is how people grow up.”
I suddenly remembered the 16-year-old kid who was frozen in the summer. He would be happy to know that the girl who was saved was thinking of him after he died.
We said, “Molu, can you tell me your real name?”
And He said: Ye white, go and buy me a Coke, and I will tell you.
I nod my head and head to the nearby commissary.
A big truck came up behind him and shocked the rocks on the ground.
On summer nights, there was always a lack of water in the air, and I looked up and looked at the sky, and the sky was slowly moving over the head of this small town, with dark blue clouds. The coke you just bought in your hand, it’s cold, and I don’t know if the stars touch it.
I look back. It’s across the street. It’s not there anymore.
It was my 16-year-old summer, and time was moving slowly, like a nebula. I drank a Coke, kicked a rock and walked home step by step.
What is the divine prophecy? – Answer from Story Archives.
I don’t know.
Keep your eyes on the road.
