Chapter 28 (1/2)
CHAPTER 28
After saying this, I turned around and left
I took off all ht each item up to my nose to sniff, to see if it had a nicotine s with soap over and over again After I finished washi+ng up, I changed into a white embroidered shi+rt It was new, I had never worn it before I placed the clothes that I had just taken off into a plastic bag and brought it to the laundroet dry cleaned
The dry cleaner wasn’t far from the entrance The boss’ wife and I chatted I asked her whether sarette smell on clothes
“Of course,” she said, “if you smoke, or those around you smoke, the fibers on your clothes will all have a tobacco smell It won’t come out no matter how much you wash it You can’t smell it yourself, but those who are sensitive to it, will smell it immediately We always tell those who donate used clothes to us that we don’t want the clothes of those who smoke”
I listened My head was about to explode, “Boss’ wife, I don’t want the clothes anymore Please help me donate it …Never mind, return it tooodas therapy I strolled in a few departs in my hands When I returned to the hotel, it was already lunch time I returned to my own room and inexplicably took another bath I sat in the bathtub observing ht…it was a little yellow It was steeped in nicotine Thepart was that I smoked a pack a day and even if I watched what I ate, I still needed to save two thousand to Lawyer Chen and was hard pressed for money, I would probably have smoked even more Boo, I didn’t think it was too serious before I had already abandoned myself to despair anyway But now, it wasn’t the sae to sers couldn’t help but start to treety and tired My lips were dry and I couldn’t sit still I thought about the designs I needed to translate in the afternoon I needed cigarettes to helpabout this, I touched ood, thank heavens, I still had oneto the back I used to always smoke next to the park entrance The park was in front of the hotel entrance and there was a lot of foot traffic It wasn’t good to affect thee trash cans, each one as tall as a person No one wanted to stand there, inhaling the se It was the perfect place to smoke
There was an e lot I went along the wall of the hotel to the left and heard a boy’s laughter travel through the empty air, “Mister, throw it over here! Here! Here!”
“Come over here a little, look at the ball Don’t look at netic male voice, low and firm, yet distinct
The boy happily shouted, “Ah ha! I caught it! I caught it! Mister, again, again!”
It was thatto throw it far You must run faster”
“Throw it! Throw it!”
It was Li Chuan, half kneeling on the ground, playing ball with a three year old The child’s
“Okay A Ji, let’s go ho Mister has already played with you for an hour”
“No, no, I want to play! I don’t want to eat!”
“Mrow up if you don’t eat? How about this, let’s go home to eat and then afterwards, Mommy will take you to the park, okay?”
“No…no…no…”
“Song Xiao Ji! Let’s go home! How many tied Her face changed too
Finally, the little boy, dillydallying, took hisit, slowly stood up He saw nored him, walked to the side of the trash bins and stood there silently, waiting for hih I couldn’t control h that I would stoop down to s in front of a sick person
But he wouldn’t leave Instead he followed nored hiry, you should at least pick a place with better air to stand It’s all trash bins here The air isn’t good”
I ignored him
He took out a black box fro Bao” brand candy for quitting s
“I tried it It’s mint flavored, not bad …Do you not like to eat candy?”
I took the Ji Xiang Tong Bao and threw it into the trash
He brought out another box and took out soiving up s Nian Hua’ You’ll definitely like to use it Try one? Okay?”
I snatched it over and threw it into the trash bin also
I fiercely said, “What else do you have? Take it out so I can get rid of it all at once”
There was a pile of cement blocks next to the trash bins It went up a few levels and was around the sa as a room and needed a special truck to tow it If soh, he could climb onto the cement blocks to throw stuff away
Li Chuan picked up a long tree branch froround and pulled me onto the cement pile, “Here, Xiao Qiu Let us see what there is in the trash bin?”
What the heck was he doing? We both stuck out our heads and looked down
What would a trash bin have in it?
Trash Right?
Egg shells, leftovers, tea leaves, ripped plastic bags, charcoal bits, fish bones, pork bones, dead cat, chicken feathers, duck feathers, rotten vegetable leaves, es, scratched CDs, pieces of glass, pieces of ith nails, packing peanuts, moldy rice, dried bean curd, cucuerine, wires, carpentry gloves, ots, houseflies…
The trash bin was only about half filled, not too full Li Chuan poked around inside with the branch
I didn’t knohat he was looking for At least, I wasn’t going to talk
After poking around for awhile, he used the branch to hook up a huge bag of vegetable leaves It was riddled with holes He held it out in front of , in a few years, your lungs will become like this Aren’t you afraid?”
“What should I be afraid of? This is pretty good” I said, “What is wrong with it?”
Sory
He stared at me for quite awhile and said word by word, “Xiao Qiu, it looked like you are forcingOr I julare!
I blinked, “Juo ahead and jump This trash bin just so happens not to have a cover”
Li Chuan had mysophobia It wasn’t normal mysophobia He showered many ti dirty I didn’t believe that he would ju so filthy as trash
I was just thinking this when I heard a plop
That person really ju a prosthetic li” motions I looked at him, scared speechless He was still okay He turned over and sat up, sitting in the trash He picked up so and threw it atat it carefully, I saw that it was the candy that I had throay earlier
“Two pieces each time Eat it now”
The case was still new, still in the plastic wrapping I tore it open and ate the candy
“Are you hurt? I’ll put you up!”
“I won’t come up!”
“…I’ve already eaten the candy”
“You swear! Swear you’ll quit s it doesn’t count! You’ve already said it before! You said it before and still broke it!”
“I never said it!”
“You said it last night!”
“That was a dream Dream talk doesn’t count!”
“May I ask, who stuck out their foot in front of me and said, ‘Li Chuan, take off …speechless…was it that erotic?…super depressing
“I surrender I’ll give up sive up s for the rest of er to scoop out !”
“Thron your scarf!”
What did he need a scarf for? I took off my scarf and threw it down He wrapped the scarf around his wrist
The scarf was dark blue I saetness start soaking it My heart started thu?”
“It’s not You can go”
“I’ll pull you up”
“You won’t be able to Go call René to helpto be cal not to alarm anyone I knocked on René’s door and found Ji Chuan also inside The tere talking in French
“Annie?”
“Mr Dubois, I need you to help me”
“No problem”
“Follow me”
I pulled him quietly to the back doors and cli his the original spot
“My God!” René called out, “What happened?”