Late Autumn
Maple leaves fell one after another by the roadside, covering the entire road with red foliage, giving the impression that no one had passed by for a long time.
The distant sky was a single shade of ink, like the silence before a heavy rain, or as if the world was shrouded, blocking out all daylight.
"Bang!"
"Ah! Someone jumped from a building! Someone's dead!"
"Turned into a bloody mess, what a terrible death!"
"Who is this dead person?"
"With them smashed to pieces like this, who can even recognize them? I wonder what happened..."
"What else could it be? They didn't want to live anymore."
"Dying here, what bad luck..."
A cacophony of voices filled the air.
Zhuo Jian woke up, finding herself alone. They had separated.
She walked towards the place where the crowd was in an uproar.
The street was chaotic. Under the dim sky, it felt like the desolation after the end of the world, inexplicably casting a gloom over one's mood.
She was being affected again.
Suppressing the strange feeling in her heart, Zhuo Jian walked out of the park. Not far away was the accident scene. A crowd had gathered, their voices noisy but devoid of any sympathy.
As she was about to walk over, a woman standing nearby stood up.
"Miss, buy an umbrella."
Zhuo Jian looked at her. It was a woman in her forties, of medium build, with an unremarkable face that would disappear into any crowd.
She repeated with a smile, "Miss, it's about to rain, buy an umbrella."
Zhuo Jian politely declined, "Thank you, no."
A bound earth spirit.
It hadn't committed any evil acts... yet. Otherwise, she would have been an evil spirit instead of a bound earth spirit.
"Oh." The woman, perhaps surprised by her politeness or embarrassed, said, "Please do, it's about to rain. Miss, go home early, or you'll get caught in the rain, and that won't be good."
"Alright."
Zhuo Jian walked away.
From behind, she could hear the middle-aged woman's voice.
"It's about to rain, buy an umbrella."
"Sir, would you like to buy an umbrella?"
"Sis, buy an umbrella..."
"..."
She walked past the intersection and saw the place surrounded by people. Resentment filled the air. To one side of the intersection stood a towering building that had just been erected.
That was the person who had jumped from there.
Zhuo Jian stopped, gazing at the tiny figure on the high building with a detached expression.
The person above seemed to be looking at her as well, their gaze filled with disdain and endless malice.
This time, it seemed even more ferocious.
"Ah Jian, so you're here!"
Someone suddenly rushed over and grabbed her arm. "What are you doing here? Someone jumped from a building, it's terrible luck. Come with me quickly, hurry, hurry, let's go..."
She was oblivious and had no choice but to temporarily follow her away.
As the woman walked, she muttered, "People die every few days, what's so new about that? They'll never finish dying..."
She pulled Zhuo Jian through winding alleys into a dormitory building. The entire building was filthy and disordered. As they entered, an old woman in her seventies or eighties sat by the door, wearing a dirty padded jacket, her eyes vacant as she stared into the distance.
"Why are you sitting here again? Go inside, people will say I'm abusing you if they see you. Come in..."
The woman released Zhuo Jian and turned to pull the old woman who was sitting on the stairs.
Soon, the old woman was dragged inside, and the door slammed shut with a bang.
The room was still dirty and chaotic, everything in a state of disarray that made one's eyes blur and their heart feel agitated.
The woman tidied things up haphazardly while chattering, "Too many people have died lately, you shouldn't go outside. I have to work, I don't have time to look after you. If you stay home, you can help me watch her. The money your parents left isn't much, and you can't afford to eat without working..."
"Knock, knock, knock."
The woman stopped what she was doing, cursed, and went to open the door. "Who is it?"
"Hello, we're looking for Comrade Jiang Jian."
Someone said Zhuo Jian was a witness to the suicide and that the police needed to take her in.
The woman immediately became displeased. "I told you not to go out, but you didn't listen. Now you've gotten into trouble. Officers, my sister here doesn't have a good head on her shoulders, she can't help you much, you see..."
"Big sister, please don't worry, we just need to ask her a few questions, it's nothing serious."
She was taken into the police car.
As the police car drove out of the residential area and onto the road, a large truck turned and collided with them.
"Bang!"
"Someone else is dead..."