ISBH - Chapter 21
Chapter 21: Sculpture
The first week of October was the statutory holiday decreed by the state.
It had rained for several days and the temperature had begun to drop, but the weather favored them these past few days. The sky gradually cleared and people had started wearing short sleeves again.
Wang Zhi's family was taking Wang Zhi on a trip outside the province these few days, so Mo Sheng did not need to go tutor Wang Zhi for a while.
Mo Sheng had recently picked up an abandoned cart from a construction site. After Han Tian fixed its wheels, the little cart became Mo Sheng's tool for hauling large finds home, and anything Han Tian wanted to scavenge ended up tossed into Mo Sheng's cart.
Han Tian had been focused on repairing the things Mo Sheng brought back, and during this time she was working on fixing a mobile phone.
At first she had felt a little awkward, but by now Han Tian had gradually grown used to it. She could follow Mo Sheng through the garbage piles with ease and had already put together a set of repair tools.
All Han Tian wanted now was to fix this mobile phone. Whether Mo Sheng kept it for herself or sold it, it could bring in a good amount of money.
Because she had repaired the mobile phone late into the night, Mo Sheng was already awake when Han Tian woke the next day.
Over these past few months, Mo Sheng had saved a little over a thousand from selling scrap and tutoring. To Han Tian it was only the price of one of her own dresses, but to Mo Sheng it was a fortune.
When Han Tian woke, she saw Mo Sheng lying across the bed and slowly opening the pillowcase.
From the tattered pillow stuffing, Mo Sheng dug out her savings. Biting her lip, she counted out three hundred and hid the rest away again.
After Mo Sheng's father died, relatives had divided up the valuables and savings at home. Mo Sheng had learned her lesson after that. The most precious and valuable things had to be kept hidden.
Han Tian rose lazily from the edge of the bed and stretched. She glanced at Mo Sheng and then her eyes went wide. Mo Sheng had put on her newest dress and clean sneakers and had combed her hair with care!
Mo Sheng looked much neater and prettier this way, only she was still too thin, and there was no hiding the arms and face darkened by the sun...
"Mo Sheng, you look so good like this! When our Little Mo Sheng grows fairer, she'll be a little beauty!" Han Tian felt a little happy looking at Mo Sheng and could not help wanting to give her some advice on dressing.
But Professor Han herself lived in jeans and a tee shirt year round, and what little sense of style she had was borrowed from Mo Sang's casual looks...
Han Tian glanced around and found a half worn straw sun hat. She had spotted it in the garbage pile a few days earlier. It looked much like one Mo Sang had once worn.
As if driven by some impulse, Han Tian had tossed the hat into Mo Sheng's cart and brought it back. Then she had torn up some scraps of cloth to make a little flower on top of the hat, so that now the sun hat looked almost exactly like the one Mo Sang had worn.
Living in a different time and space, Han Tian could only express her longing in this veiled way.
"Put on the hat!" Han Tian offered advice from the side. "Braid a few little plaits! Our Little Mo Sheng will look like a lively tropical beauty..."
Han Tian had only mentioned it in passing. To her, Mo Sheng already looked fine as she was, but Mo Sheng was clearly a little dissatisfied with her outfit and studied herself in the mirror for a long time.
At last, Mo Sheng's gaze shifted to the woven hat beside her...
...
After Mo Sheng styled herself as the female ghost beside her had suggested, even she hardly recognized herself in the mirror. The girl in the mirror had bright eyes and a slender chin, and her darker skin looked like a sign of vitality, youthful and lovely.
Mo Sheng bit her lip lightly. Five years ago, before her father left, she had been a little girl many people praised for her looks, with no need for such adornments...
...
"I knew it!" The female ghost beside her seemed delighted and kept drifting around her. "Little Mo Sheng will only grow prettier!"
"Little Mo Sheng, what are we doing today?"
...
Han Tian felt a flicker of anticipation. It was not because Mo Sheng was taking her out for air, but because Mo Sheng finally seemed in the mood to go out and play, growing lively at last like any girl her age.
...
Mo Sheng came to herself then. Lowering her head, she tugged at her skirt a little awkwardly, locked the door, and walked ahead.
This time she finally allowed herself to spend one yuan on the bus.
The bus stopped in front of the largest supermarket in the city.
Mo Sheng went inside the supermarket. Her heart fluttered with nerves, but no one stopped her at the entrance as she had feared.
Mo Sheng let out a breath of relief.
Han Tian drifted behind Mo Sheng and watched her push the cart to where the rice was kept, and understood. Mo Sheng wanted to buy rice.
"Little Mo Sheng, do you want to buy rice?" Han Tian drifted beside Mo Sheng and watched her choose carefully from the shelves. She had no experience picking rice and could offer Little Mo Sheng no advice.
But Mo Sheng already had a plan. Without checking the quality, she picked a rice priced in the middle of all the options.
One bag of rice cost 80 yuan, the National Day discount price.
Mo Sheng picked out some oil and seasonings. With everything she wanted selected, the total came to exactly 290 yuan, and Mo Sheng quietly breathed easier.
Without warning, a faint 'ding dong' rang out from the cart.
Mo Sheng's lashes trembled. From the corner of her eye she saw the female ghost's hands clenched tightly together.
"Well, Little Mo Sheng, the skin on your face has been darkened by the sun. You should use some skin care," the female ghost said with a guilty tone. "Especially since winter is almost here."
"It's not expensive altogether. I looked all the way through and picked the cheapest. Face cream plus hand cream is only nine yuan, and you'll still have one yuan left for the bus home..."
...
She had calculated very precisely, even leaving one yuan for the bus...
Hearing the female ghost, Mo Sheng wanted both to laugh and to cry, yet in the end she did not take the things the female ghost had dropped into the shopping cart back out.
At checkout, Mo Sheng felt a rare mischievous urge to startle the female ghost beside her. After the code was scanned, she deliberately picked up the face cream and hand cream the female ghost had tossed in and examined them. Seeing the nervous look on the female ghost's face, Mo Sheng was about to put them back when the cashier glanced at her receipt and looked over with a smile.
"Little friend, you happen to be our 999th customer today, and your purchase has reached our required 299. We have a little gift for you..."
A few minutes later, Mo Sheng stared at the doll stuffed into her arms, and her usually composed face looked lost for the first time.
When Mo Sheng was small, she had longed for a doll, but in her harsh circumstances she had given up that dream early.
While tutoring Wang Zhi, Mo Sheng had seen the many dolls in Wang Zhi's room. No matter how much she envied them, Mo Sheng had never let that envy show.
If she could not have one, then she would simply stop liking them.
Mo Sheng had never imagined she could one day own a doll.
This doll wore a pink lace dress. Its lashes were long, its cheeks full, and it looked incomparably beautiful.
Mo Sheng did not even dare reach out to touch it, afraid of dirtying the little doll's pretty dress.
"Little Mo Sheng, see! I really do bring you luck! If I hadn't slipped in the moisturizer and hand cream, you wouldn't have reached the required amount, and you wouldn't have gotten such a cute doll..."
"So you must listen to me more from now on! I'll bring you even more luck..."
"Believe me, life will keep getting better..."
...
The female ghost beside her looked even happier than she was, chattering nonstop at her side.
Listening to the female ghost, Mo Sheng quietly lowered her gaze.
In that instant, Mo Sheng could hardly keep the corners of her mouth from lifting.
Since meeting the female ghost, life really did seem to be getting better little by little.
Once Dad comes back, life will surely be even better!
...
On the second day of the National Day holiday, Mo Sheng went out again and bought new towels and a washbasin.
On the third day, Mo Sheng sold all the remaining scrap.
On the fourth day, Mo Sheng cleaned the whole house until it looked brand new.
...
Han Tian gradually caught on. Mo Sheng seemed to be preparing for something.
Was a guest coming?
...
Perhaps a good mood was contagious. Though she did not know what Mo Sheng was hoping for, Han Tian could not help feeling a little expectant herself.
On the afternoon of the fifth day, Mo Sheng went to the wet market.
She spent several dozen yuan on vegetables, then went home, took a bath, and hugged her cloth doll as she got ready for sleep...
But she was probably too excited, for Mo Sheng found she still could not fall asleep by midnight.
Mo Sheng got up to use the bathroom, but the sound of the light woke the female ghost dozing at the head of the bed.
Mo Sheng watched the female ghost rub her sleepy eyes and pressed her lips together as she lowered her gaze.
All this time she had left half the bed empty, yet the female ghost was very well behaved and had never once climbed onto the bed.
Mo Sheng made a silent promise. Once Dad returned, if Dad said she could talk to the female ghost and touch her, she would tell the female ghost right away to come sleep on the bed!
After using the bathroom, Mo Sheng still felt not a trace of sleepiness, and the female ghost was not asleep either, sitting at the head of the bed and yawning.
Mo Sheng took a deep breath and suddenly decided to tell the female ghost how she felt, sharing her happiness so the female ghost could be happy for her too.
...
Mo Sheng took out paper and pen and decided to record her feelings in the form of a diary.
"My birthday is October 7. On the night before my ninth birthday, Dad slipped out without telling me. I only learned later that he had gone to order a cake for me.
But not long after, I heard that Dad had been hit by a car.
They asked me to claim Dad's body. That day Dad bled so much that blood covered the whole ground.
I was a little scared and kept crying and calling 'Dad' as I wept. The people around me said Dad had gone to a very far place and would never come back.
How could Dad not come back?
Dad had told me more than once before that he might go to a very far place, but he'd definitely return in five years! He even gave me a keepsake...
After Dad left, many people bullied me. They stole the money Dad left behind and the valuables at home...
I was very scared.
I don't know how I got through these five years. Some people helped me, and some people bullied me...
But everything will get better.
Dad will be back tomorrow!
Dad is amazing! He can solve every problem I run into.
Dad will protect me from now on! No one will dare hit me or steal my things or scold me again..."
After Mo Sheng finished writing, she realized the female ghost who usually loved to chatter was unusually quiet.
Had she fallen asleep?
Pretending to stretch, Mo Sheng glanced toward the female ghost, only to see her staring blankly at what was written on the paper, her eyes seemingly brimming with tears...
Mo Sheng stared at the female ghost's expression and then slowly understood. Did the female ghost feel sorry for her?
But why should she feel sorry for her?
Her own Dad was about to return. Should the female ghost not feel happy for her?
Could it be that the female ghost, like everyone else, believed her Dad would never return?
...
Mo Sheng suddenly felt angry. She had thought the female ghost would understand her.
The female ghost knew nothing!
Dad had demonstrated his experiment for her. He had found a kind of medium, and once the machine experiment succeeded, Dad would conquer the whole universe!
Dad was someone who could bring miracles. He would never die!
The female ghost was such a big fool!
...
Mo Sheng gritted her teeth in anger, switched off the light again, and lay down on the bed sprawled out in the shape of a '大' character.
In a haze, the female ghost seemed to drift over again.
Mo Sheng did not want to pay her any mind and turned her back to face the inside of the bed.
The female ghost seemed not to mind at all. Instead of nagging as Mo Sheng had expected, she sat by Mo Sheng's bed and softly began to sing...
This time the female ghost changed to another tune, a song that had been playing on the radio lately, and she sang just as terribly off key...
So dumb!
Mo Sheng hugged the doll in her arms tightly...
Thinking about how she would tease this female ghost once Dad returned, Mo Sheng's mind grew hazy, and she did not even know when she fell asleep.
When Mo Sheng woke, daylight was already bright.
Dad was coming back!
Mo Sheng was in high spirits. She scrambled up from the bed and bounced into the kitchen.
Mo Sheng had never cooked, but she had watched Wang Zhi's mother cook.
Besides, though Han Tian beside her could not cook, she could at least guide Mo Sheng through making a meal.
Mo Sheng cooked rice with the rice cooker Han Tian had fixed. Watching Han Tian quietly tell her how much water to add, some of her anger at the silly female ghost melted away.
The female ghost seemed a little unhappy today. She usually circled her with a smile, but now she kept her eyes lowered and looked listless...
But Mo Sheng had no time now to think of how to cheer the female ghost. Her whole heart was set on letting Dad taste her cooking when he returned, letting Dad know she had not lived too badly these past years, so Dad would not feel guilty.
Once Dad returned and found a way to bring the female ghost back to life, the female ghost would cheer up, wouldn't she?
...
After cooking the rice, Mo Sheng squatted in the kitchen and opened a cookbook she did not remember picking up, and began to read.
After studying it, Mo Sheng began to chop vegetables. Her movements were unfamiliar, and she cut each dish with great care.
Han Tian knew she could be of little help and could not bear to watch Mo Sheng prepare so earnestly for her Dad's return with such hope, so she drifted outside the kitchen.
...
Han Tian had not expected Mo Sheng to cling so deeply to the belief that her Dad could return.
If it were possible, Han Tian sincerely hoped Mo Sheng's Dad could return.
Yet every sign now showed that Mo Sheng's Dad would not return.
Mo Sheng was now greeting everything with joy, but what if Dad did not return in the end?
Then what would this lonely little girl before her do?
...
Listening to the sounds of cooking coming from the kitchen, Han Tian had never felt such panic and heartache as she did now.
...
It was Mo Sheng's first time cooking. Though she had read the cookbook, she could not control the heat well. The eggs were scorched, and the eggplant and potatoes were half raw...
Mo Sheng felt a little disappointed, but luckily the rice turned out fairly well this time, and her confidence returned a little.
Normally Mo Sheng would have hated wasting ingredients, but this time she paid it no mind. She carried the dishes she had cooked to the table, then ran up to the second-floor attic.
In the attic stood that box made of strange material with a lock on the outside.
Mo Sheng felt out a key from a crack between the bricks beside it and opened the box.
Han Tian thought Mo Sheng wanted to carry the box downstairs, and drifted to her side to help, never expecting the box to hold a pile of things extremely familiar to Han Tian...
Test tubes, beakers, a balance, a microscope...
There was also a thick stack of manuscripts.
Han Tian's gaze fixed on the cover of the manuscripts. The three characters for Mo Runsheng stood out starkly.
Han Tian's eyes went wide. Mo Runsheng was the author whose paper had sparked her interest in time and space research.
In that instant Han Tian suddenly understood. Mo Sheng was Mo Runsheng's daughter!
In that instant, Han Tian partly understood why she alone could touch Mo Sheng!
Most likely Mo Runsheng had done something to Mo Sheng, which was why Mo Sheng was different from others...
In Han Tian's heart, Mo Runsheng was a genius.
Han Tian had never imagined Mo Runsheng would pay such a great price for his ideals!
Although Mo Runsheng acted for his science, Han Tian did not agree with his methods. After all, the field of time and space was vast and profound, and no one knew what consequences an experiment might produce, yet Mo Runsheng had dared to use Mo Sheng for his experiment. If the experiment failed...
In that moment, amid her shock, Han Tian even felt some doubt about the direction of time travel.
When Han Tian studied time travel, her original intent was only interest in the field, along with a wish to help people make up for past regrets...
But only now did Han Tian begin to consider the many ethical questions connected to it. If time travel were realized, would people become like Mo Runsheng, no longer cherishing what surrounded them and counting on time travel to change everything?
But could the past truly be changed?
If the past were changed and time and space fell into disorder, what would everything become?
...
Han Tian now felt deep regret as well.
When Han Tian returned to the country and asked someone to help her search, she had not found Mo Sheng, only this pile of things in the box.
If she had thought a little more then and thought of looking after Mo Runsheng's family, might she have crossed paths with Mo Sheng sooner?
...
Mo Sheng lowered her head and searched through the box, finally turning up something from the very bottom...
Looking at it, Han Tian's eyes went wider in an instant. It was the sculpture Han Tian had once kept at home!
Han Tian suddenly remembered. When she fell into the machine, she had been holding this very sculpture...
And when they first met, Mo Sheng had been rummaging through the garbage pile. What Mo Sheng had been looking for was very likely this sculpture that the boy who bullied her had thrown into the garbage dump!
Her heartbeat raced faster and faster in that instant.
Could this little girl sculpture be the medium for time travel?
...
Looked at closely, this sculpture resembled Mo Sheng a great deal.
No wonder she had sometimes felt an inexplicable familiarity when looking at Mo Sheng!
Everything linked together into a single thread, and Han Tian finally understood. Mo Sheng was no natural miracle. Everything had traces to follow.
...
If this sculpture could bring her here, did that mean it could also take her back?
Han Tian stared fixedly at the sculpture in Mo Sheng's hands.
Yet Mo Sheng held the sculpture tightly too. She sat at the table cradling it, her face full of expectation...
"Dad, Dad, come back soon..."
"Dad..."
...
So was this sculpture the keepsake Mo Runsheng had spoken of?
If Mo Sheng's Dad was Mo Runsheng, then it was truly possible Mo Runsheng had not died but was traveling through time and space.
His five year agreement with Mo Sheng was perhaps not groundless.
Hope revived in Han Tian's heart as well, and she decided to wait with Mo Sheng...
Whether or not Mo Sheng could wait until her Dad returned, Han Tian intended to wait with her. She had already stayed in this time and space so long that a little more time did not matter...
After all, this was a crucial time for Mo Sheng. Mo Sheng was surely nervous, and Han Tian did not want her to face it all alone.
The food gradually grew cold.
The sun moved little by little to the west, then sank behind the mountaintop...
The moon rose.
At first Mo Sheng's face was full of expectation, but later she sat stiffly before the table...
The hands of the clock ticked by second by second. After eleven fifty, Mo Sheng bit her lower lip hard, nearly drawing blood...
The midnight bell passed, yet the sculpture showed no strange movement...
"Clang!" With her eyes closed, Mo Sheng let the sculpture gripped in her hand slip through the palm Han Tian reached out to catch it with, and it fell to the floor!
...
?!
What was happening?
Han Tian reached out instinctively to try again, only to find she still could not touch the sculpture...
Could it be the sculpture was not that kind of medium?
For a moment, Han Tian's mind was in turmoil.
...
What worried Han Tian even more was Mo Sheng's state. Mo Sheng looked as if all life had suddenly been drained away, sitting motionless in her chair...
This was truly too cruel for Mo Sheng!
"Mo Sheng, happy fourteenth birthday!" Seeing Mo Sheng like that and remembering how full of hope she had been, Han Tian's tears fell in big drops. "Don't be sad. You still have me! I'll spend your birthdays with you from now on. I'll protect you..."
...
How could she not be sad? This world was truly too hard.
Never enough to eat, never warm enough to wear, trampled underfoot...
And now... even Dad could not return.
Living was truly so tiring!
If she died and became a female ghost, would she be a little happier after?
...
Meeting Han Tian's tearful gaze, Mo Sheng slowly raised her head and looked straight into Han Tian's eyes.
She was now close to utter despair, feeling as if wildfire had swept through her heart. Her heart felt burned to ash, and life and death no longer seemed to matter...
Yet she did not know why, though she did not want to cry, tears fell on their own.
"Can you turn me into a female ghost like you?"
"How do I need to kill myself?"
"You know I'm very good."
...
?!
Han Tian's eyes went wide in shock!
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