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In this final instalment of Feng Ye’s story, we reach the horrific confluence of 4 lives – Feng Ye, Yao Meng, Tan Liang and Lin Qingyan. While we know how it all ends, let’s see what Feng Ye feels and thinks as events hurtle to their conclusion.
I have a question to ponder! In the 1st 2 short stories, Ding Mo details the events in Lin Qingyan’s life that nudged him towards the actions he chose to take. On the other hand, Ding Mo in this short story seems to be portraying Feng Ye as someone who, from the start, was amoral and had psychopathic tendencies. Who do you think is more to be pitied? LQY, who was ‘led’ to make bad choices, or FY, who never had a choice in the beginning?
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We are All Mortals
Feng Ye Short Story Part 1.3
Did I hate Lin Qingyan? No, of course I didn't. If we were to change places, I would have done the same. He had come up tops* this time, so what was there to hate? However, I was extremely patient. Sooner or later, he would commit more crimes, and then, I would be able to make a comeback.
*(成王败寇 – lit. become king, defeat enemies)
However, he was really sick in the head, dressing up corpses to look like lovers. It seems he had been severely tormented by my mother all those years, such that even his mind had become twisted.
At the beginning of the third year, I encountered Tan Liang.
It was a spring morning. I was sitting in the cave, roasting a freshly-caught rabbit. Suddenly, I heard footsteps approaching, and then a fair, clean-cut young man came into sight. He was wearing the uniform of a forest ranger, and he looked at me quietly as he asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Roasting meat." I used my dagger to cut off a piece and held it out to him. "Do you want some?"
He laughed. "Why wouldn't I want it?"
After many days, we became as close as brothers. He lived by himself, watching over the forests in the deep mountains. He had no friends, and called me 'big brother'.
He didn't say much, but, whenever I asked him why a university student would become a forest ranger, or about his superiors and colleagues, he would become especially silent, and there was a predatory gleam in his eyes.
Ha, another one of the same kind.
This world is really distorted.
I lived in the cave, he lived in the forest ranger quarters. At times, we would spend the night at each other's place. One night, I caught two turtledoves, and brought them to his place. From far away, I could see that the door to the building was tightly shut. When I peered into a window, I was amused: he was holding down a woman on the bed, and was frantically making love to her.
I knew that he was a virgin. So, today was the day he would become a man. Who knew what kind of woman would be willing to be with him. At first, I watched them with avid interest. After all, I had suffered a drought for 3 years, and as I watched, I became unbearably hard. After a while, I became aware that something was not right – the woman's face was pale, she was unmoving, and her hands were hanging limply off the side of the bed, as if she were dead.
It was only after he had ejaculated on the ground that I noticed the livor mortis* on the woman's thighs. Fk me, this bastard is really hardcore. Where on earth did he find this exquisite corpse to play with? Unbelievably, could this have been his only option in his urgency**?
尸斑 – livor mortis, the purplish red discoloration that is one of the signs of death
** 如花似玉 – lit. delicate as a flower, refined as precious jade
***饥不择食 – lit. when hungry, you can't pick what you eat
I looked even more carefully. This woman's appearance, disposition and clothes, brought about a sense of deja vu.
I pushed open the door and walked in. At first, Tan Liang's face was both flushed and pale. However, when he saw me calmly examining the body, he squatted behind me, and smiled as he said, "I picked her up in the forest. Big brother, do you want to do her?"
I laughingly scolded him. "Go to hell, I don't get it on with dead people."
After a few simple questions, how Tan Liang had discovered the body became clear. I had hidden in the deep mountains, cutting myself off from the world. But, now, I was almost certain – Lin Qingyan was here.
Look, wasn't it amazing how fate had swung back in my favour?
——
In accordance with the proper etiquette of reciprocity, I decided to give Lin Qingyan a present, the kind of present one should give when meeting someone for the first time.
The first thing was to persuade Tan Liang to return the body intact to the original location. On this point, Tan Liang was very understanding – after all, he did not want to go to prison. Then, to give him all the information on the 'Angel Killer' – naturally, everything that was hidden knowledge about the killer was in my report. Therefore, Tan Liang thought I was just hunting for the ‘Angel Killer’, and had no idea of my real relationship to this situation.
"The killing devil is here," I told Tan Liang. "He is only a human being. In order to conduct further research on him, I have even procured some potassium cyanide and the Japanese-made aphrodisiac. I know his criminal methods by heart."
Tan Liang's eyes were glowing as he asked, "Big brother, are you thinking of imitating his methods?"
"It's hard to say," I laughed as I replied. "To truly imitate him, the result would have to be that the crime is attributed to him. If I have the opportunity, I will give it a try."
However, the degree of Tan Liang's insanity exceeded my expectations. I thought that Tan Liang would wrestle with the idea for at least a month, but, as a result of our talk, he carried an unconscious woman into my cave on the third day. Looking at her clothes, she was obviously a backpacker. He asked me for the drugs. Of course, I gave them to him, and even gave him all the information on the 'Angel Killer' case.
That's right. Once the door of desire is opened, who can resist it? But, Tan Liang was too stupid. He had seized someone on the mountain – wasn't that tantamount to drawing a target on himself? This teammate was really as stupid as a pig. The police would inevitably search the mountain. I immediately packed my bags, and headed into the deepest parts of the mountain to hide.
As expected, it did not take long for the entire mountain to be in an uproar. From my hiding place in the cave, I looked down at the mountains from a distance, and could see the police cars in a never-ending stream on the mountain roads. Tan Liang had run into a dead end road. Without anywhere else to go, he naturally came looking for me at my original roosting place in the cave. From where I was hiding now, I could see all the mountain thoroughfares, and it was easy for me to observe when the police finally left, and then emerge from deep within the mountain.
Who knew, that night, I saw Tan Liang driving a BMW like the wind, with someone in the passenger seat next to him. He stopped the car at the foot of the mountain and carried that person out.
In the bright moonlight, I saw the woman's face clearly.
Yao Meng?
How could it be Yao Meng?
I followed them up the mountain.
Tan Liang was carrying her, so I was naturally faster. I hastened back to the cave before him, and pretended to be asleep.
"Big brother, you'd better leave in a hurry." He threw Yao Meng onto my bed. "The police are after me."
I frowned. "How did this happen?"
Surprisingly, he still sounded somewhat pleased with himself as he explained the plan hatched by him and Lin Qingyan. As it turned out, when he was moving the second corpse, he had caught Lin Qingyan's eye. After he had disposed of the third corpse, Lin Qingyan had appeared to negotiate with him. Tan Liang was so stupid, there was no way he could be Lin Qingyan's opponent. Lin Qingyan told him that he had left too many clues behind when he killed the third person. The police were already sweeping the mountain, and there was no way for him to escape death. Since he was going to die anyway, why not take the blame on Lin Qingyan's behalf. Moreover, Lin Qingyan would take down his previous supervisor, and give his parents a large sum of money at the same time.
That's how the two of them settled everything.
Once Tan Liang had finished talking, he looked at me and asked, "Big brother, why are you crying? Don't you think this is a great deal?"
Laughing heartily, I replied, "Great, of course it's a great deal."
I just did not expect that Lin Qingyan would use someone's own methods to gain retribution*. I had to concede that he had won this round. Really heartbreaking.
*以其人之道还治其人之身 – to use an opponent's own methods to obtain retribution (an idiom from Song dynasty neo-Confucianist Zhu Xi 朱熹), fig. to give somebody a taste of his own medicine)
I looked again at Yao Meng, who was on the bed. "What about this woman?"
Tan Liang answered, "I met her by accident on the road." His delicate, beautiful eyes gleamed as he said, "Since I'm going to die, before I die I might as well enjoy myself once more. It will be cool."
"You hang in there, I'm off." I patted his shoulder and left the cave. After I had walked a short distance, I noiselessly turned back. From a distance, I could see he had already stripped off, and was now removing Yao Meng's pants.
I took out the tranquiliser gun, and fired.
I dragged Tan Liang, unconscious, to one side, and sat by the bed, gazing at Yao Meng with a degree of lament.
She was even more beautiful than before, even more sexy. I gently caressed her face, her neck, her chest . . . the sensations were just as I remembered. Moreover, Tan Liang had already fed her the sex stimulant, her eyebrows twitched slightly, her cheeks flushed, and her body writhed under my hands.
Yao Meng, between Tan Liang and me, I think you'd definitely be more willing to have sex with me.
I removed her jacket, and saw the purse in her pocket. When I took it out to have a look, I had to laugh.
It was a photograph of her and Lin Qingyan together. Lin Qingyan looked so gentle and soft, and her face looked even more brilliant than the time when she had been with him (FY).
Lin Qingyan, you madman, you even wanted to possess my woman?
I replaced the purse in her pocket, switched off the lamp in the cave, and looked down at her.
Lin Qingyan, do you know what is meant by 'a clever person may become the victim of his own ingenuity'? This match, don't you know who has won and who has lost?
Her panting was becoming heavier and heavier. In the darkness, all the blood in my body seemed to be boiling over.
One last thrust to the end, how cool.
Yao Meng, between me and Lin Qingyan, who are you more comfortable with?
Of course it's me. How could that old psycho compare with me?
My dearest Xiao Meng, since the heavens have sent you to me again, in this lifetime, I will never let you go.
Translator: shl
TL Checker/Editor: Tranzgeek
Proofreader: Librismuse, Calculusfanatic