“That night, when my brother came home, he went to sleep very early. The next morning, he woke super early and then also went to bed early, too. We ate breakfast together while talking about yesterday. He even laughed saying that his eyes were tired yesterday and scared himself. I asked him what did he see yesterday and he told me that he saw a white face hanging on the tree, staring at himself condescending or just staring at himself, it had a pair of black holes for eyes, just like that staring at himself. When I heard about it, I even laughed and my brother also smiled embarrassingly. We all thought he was just tired. Inside that park, it didn’t have any lights, there are normal security guards on duty, sometimes they will flash their flashlight at someone, or smoke a cigarette. With a beam of light, obviously it was going to affect someone’s eyes. That probably happened to my brother. Later on, we went to work and got off work and nothing really happened. My brother called that girl and met her at the park. That night… that night… he ran back home…”
“He saw that face?”
“Yes, he saw it.”
*crackle*
“Hey——*hu*——little buddy, you smoke?”
“No thanks.”
“*hu*——… my brother came back in advance, this time he didn’t say anything, and just rushed into the house and locked himself in his room. That time I slept in the same room as him. Our family conditions weren’t that good because our grandfather was the director of the factory. Our home was divided into two rooms and one living room, the elders one and us, brothers one. I was watching TV with my parents and he just rushes in and slams the door. No matter how many times we knock, he wouldn’t budge. That night I couldn’t get in and had no choice but to sleep in the living room. But actually I didn’t sleep for that long anyways. His girl friend came to our home and also rushed inside and cursed. Our neighbors came to see the commotion, asking my mom to give her a hard time and close the door to talk. The girl talked and talked while wiping away her tears. I listened to her incoherent talk and listened for a long time till I understanded. When my brother ran, he was with her in the bed, he was already half-naked and all of a sudden he runs off leaving the girl alone. Doesn’t this make someone confused and anxious? When she finished talking, she was worried about my brother and when my mom told her that he locked himself in the room, she was also nervous. She crouched down beside the door and to talk to my brother. My brother made no noise in the room. My grandpa’s temper rose and yelled at me and that was when my brother finally spoke. He yelled at us to not come in… but it wasn’t an angry yell, but more like a scared yell. *hu*——”
“After that?”
“After that, my mother brought the girl to the other room to speak and finished sending her off. I can tell that the girl was still worried, but she left. She turns around and whispers to us that my brother probably… probably had a problem suddenly and just left the girl and ran and now he’s locked himself in the room. I didn’t believe that was the case, but my mom and dad all believed it. They knocked on his door and told to just think about work and go visit the doctor and things like that. That went on for a long time. My brother got annoyed and let out another sound of rage and everyone went back to sleep again. Woke up the next day and he opened the door, but under his eyes were dark like he was almost going to die. My mom was very worried and my dad asked for a leave for my brother and immediately took him to go see the doctor. My brother agreed. That day I accompanied him. *hu*——”
“The kind of illness my brother had was better off not to let anybody else know. We didn’t go to the hospital at the factory and instead went to the hospital in the city, riding a bicycle from the factory to the city for a long time. At the beginning, it seemed fine, we arrived at the city and there was this road at the entrance of the hospital it had two neat rows of trees. I remember that was during the summer, the trees all had green leaves with the sunlight shining and all the street lights closed. That road, had a documentary which I watched. It was a famous love road in the city. When I talked to the people there, they all went to this road to run just like the workers in the factory.”
“Ok, is it Kangxin Road?”
“Yes, yes! It is Kangxin Road! The first time I went there, it was somewhat strange. Our family has been living near the factory for a while. We used to be farmers and then we went to the factory and became factory workers and did not come to city very often. Both me and my mom thought the road was very pretty and rode our bikes slower and just listened to noises… when we went back, we saw my brother fall. He was riding his bike pretty fine, there were no other cars or bikes beside him and he just fell. His bicycle was still on the road and half of his legs were under the bike. His whole body was just on the floor, his neck was turned and his eyes blank. That time I wasn’t far from him and I just saw the blood on his face flow down with cold sweat on his forehead. His body was trembling and the bicycle was also shaking. It was windy and the leaves were rustling and he suddenly he started to cry…”
“Mr. Li, be careful of the cigarette.”
“Ah? Oh… *hu*——Even from this day on, I can still remember his cry, I never heard him yell like that. I remember when he first went to to the factory as an apprentice and he also bumped into a machine and yet he did not yell, he stayed calm and told the people there to shut it down. The workers there all said he was very brave and promising. But that time, he just sat on the floor and cried and everyone came to him. *hu*—— I went over to help him up and put one of my hands on his shoulders, it was summer, but his body was cool and ice-like. Probably because I blocked his sight, he looked at me for a while and then slowly calmed down. I lifted him up, he lowered his head and wiped away his sweat, he just became distracted. Me and my mom asked him what happened. Later on, I realized that he probably saw that face again.”
“Please wait a minute, you always said that your brother saw a face?”
“Yes, he told me that he saw a face.”
“Not an human head?”
“Head… it could be a head. I never saw the thing he saw, when he told me it, he always talked about the face.”
“Okay. Sorry to interrupt you and please continue.”
“Later we went to the hospital. My mom went to register him, so I stayed with him. We were on line, we saw the doctor… and he always seemed preoccupied. That doctor was actually good. He explained to him that this illness was normal, not shameful, and can be cured. Then we lined up to check something… we were walking in the hospital, he suddenly stopped and stared at the hospital’s bulletin board, and pointed to a doctor in one of the photos saying that he wanted to that doctor. Me and my mom took a look, it was an opthalmologist, some kind of expert. My mom asked him what happened, he didn’t answered, and he ran to the registration. My mom couldn’t catch up, I caught up with him and asked him what happened, he didn’t say anything, and registered himself. I didn’t have any idea either and met up with my mom and went with him to see the doctor. When we walked back, he suddenly started talking, and he just randomly say that he must have a problem with his eyes. I don’t have a illness anymore, so I’m going to see the opthalmologist. My brother that day said that he saw a snow white face thing and the image just came to mind. I made myself scared to quivering… *hu*—— Then, I went to my mom and she told me that we need to go to the opthalmologist with my brother. My brother didn’t even want us to be near him, he drove us out, and talked with the doctor by himself. We waited for him and he came out all absent minded and went to register for… psychiatrics.”
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