A man in a hat

"He even wears a hat when he makes love." When Yiran spit out this sentence, his eyes glazed over and seemed to drift away.

The goblet in front of her eyes was empty again. That night, she had drunk half a bottle of red wine, and the lip prints on the rim of the cup became messy. This indulgence is the first time in my meeting with her.

In the spotlight, her red face is twice as beautiful as usual.

The lighting engineer in Overlooking the Hotel is quite unique, so even if he lives in a corner of the city, he is still crowded with couples of mandarin ducks.

The "he" in Yiran's mouth is her boyfriend K. Every time this name is mentioned, her breathing frequency will become faster unconsciously, her pupils will dilate, her head will tilt to the left unconsciously, and her throat will twist unconsciously. From these actions, we can draw an obvious conclusion:

Yiran fell in love.

The name of a lover is like an oncoming meteorite, and everyone will make unnatural defensive actions, even if they have practiced a suit of armor.

There is no shortage of men around a woman like Yiran.

It is easy to be misunderstood, especially men, who think that they are seven points in appearance, eight points in temperament, independent in economy and good at showing weakness, and wear a smiling face that they are ashamed to put down all year round.

The most terrible thing is that Yiran knows all about his attraction.

However, people say that everything has its vanquisher. Even such a perfect woman has her nemesis, and the nemesis of happiness is K.

According to Yiran, she and K met at a wedding at No.74 Turin Street and married their same friend.

After the wedding, the carnival of the party has just begun. Young men and women, ambiguous lights, indulgent alcohol and the smell of desire are like a dangerous dragon wandering in the air with cologne.

Just as the power of alcohol was about to take away Yi Ran's last feeling, her left cheek felt a burning sensation, so she subconsciously turned her head and bumped into K's eyes.

According to Yiran's description, in the corner of the hall, K was leaning on a marble pillar. A black suit is spread out gracefully, and meticulous trousers and shiny leather shoes are as perfect as Michelangelo's statue. But Yiran said that he couldn't remember his face clearly, probably because of the hat, and his facial features and expressions were contained in the huge shadow under the brim. Except for two bottomless eyes. He was there, as if in another world, and it was not clear whether anyone had seen him except her.

In their later relationship, Yiran was often confused when he first met K. But that night, she was attracted by those black hole pupils and walked towards him unconsciously.

Who spoke first, Yiran can't remember, maybe no one spoke, and everything seemed tacit under the midnight light. Yiran only remembers that the closer she got to K, the faster she breathed. When she touched his skirt, she felt her joints creak, and the evil things hidden in her body were being pulled out by the pupils under the hat.

He has an ancient savage breath, which makes her unconsciously stick to him. His fiery lips, skin, every inch of bone marrow.

He even wears a hat to have sex!

After the crazy passion, Yiran vaguely remembered the hat that fluctuated on her face.

Later, the days of getting along with each other were very similar to the first time, and there were few conversations. They used bodies instead of words, and when night came, they disappeared before she woke up. At first, Yiran enjoyed this feeling, which was novel, exciting and relaxed, and each had his own needs. But more often, he gradually became dissatisfied with this situation. There seems to be something missing. K is like a dragon slayer in the middle ages. She can always reach the depths of the dragon cave and slaughter the restless black dragon. But one day, she suddenly began to yearn for the black knight who led her to the top.

Especially the head under his hat.

"Why do you always wear a hat?" On one occasion, after the passion subsided, Yiran asked.

K responded with silence.

"Maybe there's something hidden inside." Yiran touched his hat half jokingly.

"Don't move" K's hand gave Yiran a hard blow on the arm. Yiran stared at the red mark on his white arm for a long time, just like a car accident in the snow. His eyes gradually gathered something like a volcano about to erupt, and then she looked up and bumped into K's bottomless pupil. A biting cold ran through her whole body, and her mouth opened a few times like a goldfish without making any noise.

Kim wrapped up the black coat, slammed the door and disappeared like this. Yiran never saw him again for almost a month before we met. It seems that the inside and outside of the room belong to two parallel worlds.

"You said that he would never come back?" Under the confusing lights overlooking the hotel, the pleasant voice is like talking in a dream.

"I don't know. I am not a tough guy detective invented by Chandler. "

"Should I take his hat, knowing it's taboo?"

"Maybe, but since I decided to take it, I shouldn't take it down." I looked down at the table below, and the pointer pointed to 165438+ midnight. "It's getting late. Let's call it a day. "

I put the restaurant on the table, wrapped my coat and walked straight to the hotel gate. I took one last look back before leaving the hotel. Yiran still sat motionless in that position. I always feel that my eyes are not in this world. When I walked out of the door, a cold current from Siberia immediately penetrated me. I huddled in my coat and quickened my pace, but it didn't help. I seem to feel the pleasure of being caught in the underworld. I had a dream that night. I dreamed that K took off his hat, and there was half a head under it. I am like a naughty child, looking down at half a skull like an abandoned old well full of maggots.

After that, K's head wrapped around me like a coin in his pocket. When I am free, I begin to play with it.

"I said, halfhead, how can I throw my head as evenly as you, saying that half is half, not more than one inch, not less than one inch, and the fracture is as smooth as cutting with precision weights and measures. It can be used as a solid geometry textbook for high school students! "

"I said a half-headed man, how do you make maggots not climb out of their eyes and noses, but also go to work and get off work like normal people, kissing and having sex? Maybe he is your brain cell, so listen to your command, or do you listen to their command? "

This bad taste continued until the unexpected phone call came. We agreed to meet once a month, but when this call came, it was still two weeks before our next meeting.

"He's back!" Yiran's voice was anxious and excited, and I could feel the warm breath of generate coming out of the receiver.

"You mean, the man with the skull tied to the hat?"

"No, you guessed wrong." Yiran's voice is a little provocative, and it's hard for me to understand that desperate woman two weeks ago.

"oh? It seems that you have another man. "

"Well, you can also say that."

Yiran is the suspense, and I deliberately keep silent, waiting for her to throw the baggage out.

"If K who took off his hat is another person."

"Even half a head was cut off?"

Laughter came from the other end of the receiver, which sounded like a whistle outside Chongshan. Yiran thinks I'm joking.

"You guessed wrong. K who took off his hat not only has a flawless head, but also has thick black hair. "

"Not even a birthmark or a lump?"

"Not at all. I've never seen such a harmonious head. It can be regarded as a textbook primate head. "

"What a bummer." I sighed.

As expected, Yiran smiled again. "I won't tell you, he will finish taking a shower soon."

She hung up the phone in a hurry, and then there was only a direct busy tone on the receiver.

K actually keeps the other half's head, which has nothing to do with me, but it bothers me. Probably because of the lack of drama, K actually has a complete head, just like a perfect shot, with a kick and an arc, but it just misses the post.

However, I have a vague feeling that this matter has not ended so smoothly. The game has only been played for half a game, and it is far from winning or losing.

Two weeks later, I met Yiran as scheduled.

Overlooking the hotel, 7 p.m.

If you see a happy day, you can understand what "rotten eggplant" means. Yiran is one size smaller, and a black skirt is like hanging on a stripper's steel pipe, with sunken eyes and a face like being hit by a rotten tomato. Neither Chanel's cosmetics nor the lighting engineer overlooking the hotel can save Yiran's face. However, her mouth is always rising, and she is laughing! This reminds me of a nightmare many years ago. In my dream, a man I have never seen smiled at me. I took a stick and broke his leg. I watched the bones grow out of the festering wound. He's still smiling. I began to smash his face, nose, eyes and mouth. His face became bloody, but he still smiled at me, as if I had just hit an insignificant snake. He smiled, Bai Sensen's teeth crawled out from the torn corners of her mouth, and blood crawled back and forth between her alveoli like maggots.

"Can you tell me why I am caught off guard every time I see you?"

"Don't you like me now?" The corners of her mouth kept rising strangely.

"It's not my fault. Nobody likes a rotten eggplant. "

"I can't sleep recently, and I start having nightmares as soon as I close my eyes." She said with a frown, but less than a second later, she smiled again. She began to laugh and scratch the back of her head. It sounds like grinding stones on glass.

"nightmare?"

"I dreamed that I entered a closed room, which was the darkest darkness I have ever seen, as if the place had been closed for ten thousand years." Yi ran said, and began to scratch his head. It seems that this action was learned through laughter. "The air in the room is filled with the peculiar smell of inferior perfume, which makes people sick. The room is so small that you can touch the wall in two steps. The wall is soft, feels like flannel, and the radian is even. If I guess correctly, the room should be cylindrical. I'm sure I'm not alone in the room. Several times, I felt that grabbing an arm or touching a cheek was cold. But it disappeared in a flash. It's like that hand was accidentally extended from another world. I tried to shout, but the sound was blocked. There seems to be a heavy thing in the air that can effectively spread sound. "

"When did this dream begin, after K came back?"

Yiran nodded carefully and shook his head quickly. Smiling, I found her smile flattering. As for what makes her so scared, I don't know.

"Do you get along well with K?"

She hung her head, revealing a smile that only a little girl who first fell in love had, but there was something unspeakable in her wrinkled sallow face.

"Have you ever had a memory of the underworld?"

"underworld?"

"It's like" Yiran chooses words carefully ". Sometimes when we walk at night, we will hear some sharp voices. In other words, when I was a child, when I passed by the shrine, the old tree suddenly rang for no reason. When the dry season comes, the river bank looms, and you can see something stirring inside. I mean, we know these things don't exist in our world, or God doesn't want us to see them. I call them "intruders". K has this kind of thing that belongs to the' intruder', that is to say, he has a magic power that does not belong to this world and is incompatible with the magnetic field of this world. Do you understand me when I say this? "

I regret not trying harder when I said goodbye, because that was the last time I saw Yiran.

On the 7th of next month, Yiran didn't call. I have a bad feeling that something has happened to Yiran. Although Yiran and I meet once a month, we seldom contact each other. But interestingly, she and I both turned this monthly meeting into a ceremony. Whether in love, job-hopping or moving, we have never stood up. The seventh day of every month is already an unshakable "Happy Day".

I called her several times, but no one answered. I'm going to look for it, but I didn't realize until this moment that I never had any information about a pleasant place to live. It's like Yiran never existed.

I'm as restless as an addict who can't fly to the leaves. I vaguely think this matter has something to do with K, and I think of the place where Yiran told me that they first met, their wedding with friends, 74 Turin Street. I think all the answers may be found there.

I put on my coat and get ready to go out. The moment I walked to the porch, I turned around. I took out my computer and knocked. Then I dug out a camera from the drawer. I moved the armchair in front of my desk to the left corner. I stood up, stood on tiptoe and pulled out a telescopic dagger from a gap in the ceiling.

I pushed open the door, and the Siberian cold current running through dozens of latitudes poured in, washing the moldy room like a fire hose, and I took a breath.

74 Turin Street, I'm coming!

* * suicide note. Documentation:

**

Dear police officer:

When I typed these words, the first cold wave of winter was attending a banquet in this city, dancing a lame Latin dance. Looking out of the window in front of this computer, pedestrians passing by in the street are walking with their tails between their legs and their heads down. In fact, as long as they look up a little, they can see the black cloak that occupies half of the city sky.

However, when you read this letter, the cold current must have drifted farther south to torment those humans who are less prepared than you and me, and I don't seem to have escaped the curse of No.74 Turin Street. Chekhov said that as long as guns are mentioned in the story, someone must die. This old dead man makes me miserable.

Although the above manuscript has rhetoric and exaggeration to please readers, (no way, my readers are all white-collar sissies with ties and shiny shoes. If they are trampled, they must want to move out of their old mother to make a statement. But after removing the fancy tricks, the situation is basically true.

If I hadn't hung up too early, the video recorder would have been there. If my novelist's intuition is reliable, you will see a good play. As for me, I will be the best supporting actor. Go ahead, it's cheaper for you!

Salute!

A

65438+February 12

A week later, the door of A's apartment was open, and there were two people inside, one old and one young. The old man was dressed in a meticulous gray suit, about forty years old, with wrinkles as decent as a coat, a slightly curly beard at the corner of his mouth and bright eyes, quite like an old-fashioned western mounted police. Others are only in their twenties, with a lazy and playful face. The speed at which such people draw their guns always makes you suspect that the expression on their faces is just to hide their eyes and ears.

They are both policemen in this city.

"No wonder young people nowadays look at this kind of thing, and the world is getting worse and worse." The old policeman frowned and said that in front of him was A's Mac computer. In his view, A Jun's manuscript belongs to the wastebasket best.

"Don't be sour, Xu, there are countless brain-dead powder around here. Take off your cowboy hat and contribute it as a precious cultural relic." The thin policeman joked.

"Oh, if they can free their hands from their crotch, they can," said the fat policeman. "No.74 Turin Street, let's go and see what treasure this boy left for us."

Two people out of the apartment, put a Huang Cancan "seal" on the door, and then strode into the street. As expected, on the day they saw the suicide note, the cold current had gone away, and two policemen, one thin and one fat, got into the police car and the engine sound disappeared in the corner.

videotape

At first, A's face was in the video, and his Toyota car interior was in the background.

"It's about 6 pm now, and I'm at the gate of No.74 Turin Street." As soon as the camera turned, an empty street appeared in front of us, with several buttonwood trees standing next to it, just like the old people in the Nazi concentration camp. The video goes on. In the corner of the block, stands an old khaki house. Its surface looks monotonous, just like the epitome of this abandoned block.

"I was just about to walk into this house. I don't know what will happen. Either wish me luck or collect the body. " A got off the Toyota car, the video shook with A's pace, and the heavy sound of his khaki out shoes came from the loudspeaker. He went to the front door of the khaki building, and there was a rusty sign on the upper right of the door:

74 Turin Street.

"If someone really holds a wedding in this place, it seems that someone yearns for the love like" 400 Years of Surprise "."

A hand reached out and pushed the door open. At this time, a crow "squeaked" from the round transom window on the door, as if cutting a wound in the gray sky. The camera obviously shivered.

The camera followed the crow's flight path. It flapped its wings a few times and landed on a buttonwood tree by the roadside, giving a cry of panic.

The camera turned back to the gate, and A pushed it away, making a cry like a tear.

"The door was unlocked, probably because it was loud enough to wake the Egyptian Pharaoh."

As soon as I stepped into the gate, it closed automatically like a coffin board.

The camera scanned the hall, which was round and about half the size of a football field. The dome is visible to the eyes and the walls are black. A touched it tightly and a thick layer of dust accumulated on her finger.

Everything is exactly like a dream!

Then the camera stopped shaking. Apparently, A fixed the camera in one place and began to search the room alone.

Fast forward for nearly half an hour, there is a mosaic on the video, and there seems to be a mass of things in the corner.

It's a man! He is wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a suit of the last century, and he is really as perfect as the manuscript says.

A saw him, too

"Are you K?"

K did not speak. He stood there like a statue.

"Listen, don't stand there pretending to be a ghost, although this posture is quite like a cowherd." Grabbed k by the collar.

"Where is Yiran?" A said to K.

K still didn't speak, and his mouth suddenly rose. A swung his right fist and hit K on the chin, and K flew out like a rag.

A puts his left foot on K's face. "Now I want to see what's hidden in your charming head." A tore off K's hat and threw it aside.

K's head is really as perfect as Yiran described.

"Bad luck" A walked towards the door in disappointment.

The camera flashed another mosaic at this moment.

The hat thrown aside suddenly moved! It shook more and more until it stood up. A mass of black stuff gushed out of the hat like sewage. That thing ... is hair! Then the head also rose out, hands, body and feet.

It's Yiran!

She wore that rag-like dress, barefoot, and gave a ferocious smile. She picked up her hat from the ground and walked with small steps, three meters, two meters ... one meter. A finally realized something was wrong. He was about to turn his head when the hat fell off his head. He can't move. The hat devoured his body bit by bit like a wood chipper. In the end, the whole thing will go away.

Yiran looked at the bottomless hat and smiled with satisfaction. She walked up to K and put her hat on his head again. K opened his eyes and stood up bit by bit. Holding hands, the two men walked slowly to the corner and disappeared bit by bit.

The hands of the fat policeman with a video recorder were shaking, and years of experience collapsed at this moment. He felt cold in his back, and subconsciously looked back and saw a black hat on his head.