Chapter 11: 11

Missing Appointments and Searching

 

 

 

Sunday, September 29th, morning.

It had just rained lightly and there was a refreshing coolness in the air.

Wearing a plain black shirt, Yi Zhize bought a large bouquet of bright red roses from the florist downstairs.

Placing the bouquet carefully on the passenger side, Yi Zhize drove from his neighbourhood to Anhe Mountain in the remote suburbs of A City.

The mountain was not a tourist attraction and had not been developed in any decent way. The car could not drive up there at all, so it had to stop at the foot of the mountain.

Yi Zhize got out of the car, holding the bouquet of flowers, and walked towards the only path through the mountain.

Twenty years ago, this was the public cemetery of A City. Later, due to the development of the city, the cemetery was moved to a more convenient location. The number of people coming to the cemetery gradually declined, and it became more and more deserted.

The mountains were green, and from time to time birds flew from here to there.

Black leather shoes stepped on the old and dilapidated stone slabs, and the sound of the breeze rustling through the trees was heard in the background.

About ten minutes walk along the stone brick path, halfway up the hill, there was a cemetery hidden away.

It had been left unattended for years and was overgrown with weeds.

Passing by patches of monuments and stones, Yi Zhize stopped at the end of the path.

Placing flowers before the small bluestone inscription, he said nothing.

The sky was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain.

Yi Zhize frowned and headed down the mountain.

About half an hour later, he turned back again, a black umbrella in his hand.

As the rain fell, he opened the umbrella and placed it gently in front of the monument, covering it and the beautiful roses.

The rain drenched his hair and clothes, but he seemed unaware of it.

Yi Zhize stood in place, perfectly silent.

The rain stopped for a while.

He gently stroked the name of the person on the tombstone: "Mother, I brought you roses. It has just rained and the petals are stained with moisture, it's very pretty."

Naturally, there was no reply.

Yi Zhize added, "I know you like mountains, and I like them too. The city is so crowded and murky, it's nothing compared to here."

A bird suddenly flapped its wings and flew out of the bushes. It rested on the tombstone and chirped at him.

Yi Zhize smiled softly, "With it keeping you company, I guess it won't be too lonely."

The bird cocked its head and looked at Yi Zhize, then abruptly burrowed back into the bushes.

"Mother, I feel like I can't hold on any longer." Yi Zhize said softly, "Can you enter my dream and talk to me?"

He sat down on the steps as if alongside someone: "It is getting late into autumn, I hope to see the stars tonight."

It was nearly noon and there was no sun on a rainy day, so he was unaware of the passage of time.

The rain came in bursts, wetting his coat over and over again.

Droplets of water slid down the corner of his forehead, and Yi Zhize suddenly remembered that he had made an appointment with Ou Tingyun for a treatment this afternoon.

Taking his phone out of his pocket, it was 12:07 PM.

He opened WeChat and sent a message to Ou Tingyun: [Tingyun, I have to do something today, so I have to cancel my appointment, sorry.]

After sending the message, he switched off his phone.

Because of work, there were always calls coming in.

But today, he didn't want to be disturbed by anyone.

Sitting alone and withered, from daylight to nightfall.

When he looked at the sky and the first star was revealed, Yi Zhize blossomed into a smile and said, "Mother, look, the stars are out."

It was as if he had returned to his childhood years, the time he had spent with her on autumn nights.

The sound of insects was incessant and Yi Zhize felt desolate inside.

Suddenly, a beam of light shone across the area, and he looked blankly towards the light source as someone approached him.

Surprisingly, he was not scared at all.

It even occurred to him that if it was a real paranormal event, it wouldn't hurt to end his life here.

But then he heard a familiar voice calling him, saying, "Zhize?"

It was Ou Tingyun.

Yi Zhize stood up from the steps, “How did you...?"

Ou Tingyun seemed relieved, "I finally found you."

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Yi Zhize looked shocked and muttered the same words over and over again, “How did you?"

"Have you forgotten? We made an appointment for this afternoon."

"Didn't I send you a message to cancel the appointment?"

"I didn't get it.” Ou Tingyun asked, "When did you send it?"

"Noon."

"Here?"

"Mmm."

Ou Tingyun sighed and said, "There's no signal here, didn't you know?"

Yi Zhize shook his head, "So, that message wasn't sent?"

"Yeah, I thought you were..." Ou Tingyun turned off the light on his phone and looked at him carefully for a while in the moonlight, "It's good that you're okay."

"You thought I was what?"

"Your mental state isn't too stable and I'm worried about you."

Yi Zhize smiled, "Worried about me for what?"

Ou Tingyun asked rhetorically, "What do you think? If anything were to happen to you, as your psychotherapist, my reputation would fall on your hands."

"How did you find this place?"

"Do you think this place is easy to find?” Ou Tingyun said helplessly, "Our earlier appointment was at two o'clock, and when you didn't show up at two thirty, I started looking for you."

"Who did you ask?"

"The people from the law firm."

"They shouldn't know."

“En, so I ended up getting your grandfather's contact information from the emergency department, and he told me that you come here every year."

"The mountain roads are not easy."

"Yes, I started on them at five and found you now."

"I'm sorry." Yi Zhize stifled a laugh, "Do I need to pay overtime for you?"

"Of course!” Ou Tingyun pretended to be angry, "There's also an emotional damage fee."

Yi Zhize laughed softly, "Okay."

"Are you very happy, Zhize?"

"No."

"Then why are you laughing?"

"I just thought it was funny." Yi Zhize looked over at him, "I'm really sorry, Tingyun. But I'm in good shape now, there's no problem."

"Good, shall we go back then?"

Yi Zhize shook his head, "You go back, I want to stay a little longer."

Ou Tingyun looked at the clock on his phone, "It's almost seven o'clock, do you want to spend the night here?"

"Why not?"

"You're not staying here all day, are you?"

"Yeah."

Ou Tingyun noticed a bouquet of bright red roses with an umbrella over them in front of a monument not far away.

He asked, "You left your umbrella there and got wet yourself?"

"Yes."

"Zhize, you're so...” Ou Tingyun couldn't think of an apt description for a moment. He touched Yi Zhize's sleeve, which was indeed wet: "Take off your clothes."

"Why?"

"You'll catch a cold."

"I won't."

"Are you a doctor or am I a doctor?"

"You're a psychiatrist, not an outpatient doctor."

Ou Tingyun was furious with him, "Zhize, if your mother knew that you were so capricious and did not care for your body, would she be sad?"

Yi Zhize then compromised, "Change out of my wet clothes, what will I wear then?"

Ou Tingyun took off his jacket and handed it to him, "This."

Yi Zhize took the jacket and draped it directly over his shirt, "It's not polite to change here."

Ou Tingyun asked, "Barrister Yi, when do you plan to go down?"

"I'm going to look at the stars for a while longer." Yi Zhize didn't sound quite the same as usual, sounding as if he were a teenager who didn't know what was going on, "Just for a little while."

Ou Tingyun looked at him in silence, understanding that this was an outflow of his subconscious, an attachment to his mother deep in his psyche.

 

"Okay.” Ou Tingyun said, "I'll stay with you."

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