Chapter 11 8

The cemetery stretches out on the top of the mountain using the nearby gentle terraces.There are thin gravel walks criss-crossing around the tombs.Pruned rhododendron trees, like sheep grazing, are scattered everywhere.Looking down from the vast cemetery, several thin, tall mercury lamps with arched backs like fern buds stood side by side, casting unnaturally white light into every corner. The mouse parked the car in a forest in the southeast of the cemetery, and while hugging the woman's shoulders, he looked at the vast night view of the city below him.The streetscapes looked almost like clouded light flowing through flat moulds, or like giant moths dusted with gold dust.

The woman leaned against the mouse with her eyes closed as if she had fallen asleep.Rat could feel the heaviness of her body from shoulders to flanks, a marvelous weight, the weight of a being who has loved men, who has had children, and who is old and dying. The mouse took out the cigarette case with one hand and lit the fire.Occasionally, the wind blowing from the sea climbs up the slope under the eyes, shaking the needles of the pine forest.The woman might really be asleep, the mouse reached out to touch the woman's cheek, touched her thin lips with a finger, and felt her moist and hot breath.

The cemetery is not so much a cemetery as it looks more like an abandoned city street.More than half of the cemetery is empty because the people who were supposed to be housed here are still alive.Occasionally, on Sunday afternoons, they would bring their families to confirm their final resting place.And looking from the high platform to the cemetery, eh!Here, the view is vast, flowers bloom all year round, the air is good, the lawn is well manicured, there are even automatic sprinkler irrigation equipment, and there will be no wild dogs to steal sacrifices.In addition, they thought: the most important thing is that the environment is good for health.Satisfied with these conditions, they sat down on the bench and finished their bento, then hurried back to their daily work.

In the morning and evening, the administrator will use a long stick with a flat board attached to the tip to smooth the gravel road.And drive away the children who ran to the central pool to catch carp.In addition, three times a day, at 9:00, 12:00, and 6:00 o'clock, the old famous songs of Old Heijue are played on the loudspeaker in the park.Rats don't understand the point of playing music.However, at six o'clock in the afternoon when the twilight began, the melody of Old Heijue swayed in the uninhabited cemetery, but it was quite a sight. At 6:30, the administrator took the bus back to the lower world, and the cemetery was completely surrounded by silence. Then several couples drove up to hug each other.There are quite a few cars of that kind lined up in the woods in summer.

As far as Mouse’s youth is concerned, the cemetery is still a place of profound significance. In his high school days when he could not drive, Mouse rode a 250cc locomotive with a girl on his back on the ramp along the river bank. Going back countless times, and each time looking at the same street lights embracing them.All kinds of aromas drifted slowly across the mouse's nose, and then disappeared.I have had all kinds of dreams, all kinds of sorrows, and made all kinds of promises, but all of them disappeared without a trace. As long as you look back, death has taken root in different underground areas of the vast cemetery.Sometimes the mouse took the girl's hand and walked aimlessly on the gravel road in the pretentiously solemn cemetery, with all kinds of names and times, accompanied by the death of their own past lives, just like a line in a botanical garden. Like rows of shrubs, spaced equidistantly, extending indefinitely.They are blown by the wind but do not make rustling noises, do not emit fragrance, and cannot stretch out the tentacles that should be stretched out in the face of darkness.They look like trees lost in time.They have no thoughts, no language to convey them, which they entrust to living beings who continue to live.The two returned to the woods and hugged each other tightly.The sea breeze blowing from the sea, the fragrance of the branches and leaves, the crickets in the grass, only these are the sorrows of the world that continues to live, filling the surroundings.

did i sleep for a long timethe woman asked. No.The mouse said: Not very long.