Volume 35: The Ghost Girl with a Rift...
Time is the best medicine. The reason why it is described like this is because time can indeed heal many illnesses and traumas, both on the physical level and on the psychological level. If you are physically injured, as long as it is not serious, then you can heal it with time. Recover on its own with the passage of time. In the same way, if you are psychologically injured, the passage of time can still make you forget the past and heal the trauma unconsciously. Through various examples, it can be concluded that time is a good medicine, but good medicine is not It does not mean that it can cure all diseases, and in some cases, time, which seems like a good medicine, often turns into a fatal poison that makes people irrecoverable.
There are few people on the street, and occasionally vehicles pass by. It doesn't seem to be lively, but in fact it is just a matter of time. Since it is currently 3 o'clock in the afternoon, it is during working hours, so the street is slightly deserted, not to mention that Jinchuan County is not a city in the first place. A bustling big city.
Riding her bicycle, Matsuzaki Taeko left the supermarket. This was also the first time she left the supermarket early in three years. After leaving the supermarket, Matsuzaki Taeko was quite depressed, her face was slightly gray, and her eyes were dull and confused. She was just wandering on the street like this. The goal is moving forward, and the reason for her state is undoubtedly her mood problem. She can be summed up in one sentence: she is unemployed. .
As a single mother, since her husband died in a car accident three years ago, Matsuzaki Taeko has shouldered the heavy responsibility of raising three children on her own. In order to support her family, she stopped working as a full-time housewife and became a supermarket salesperson. Although the job is somewhat It's hard work, but Taeko Matsuzaki doesn't care. As long as the children can grow up smoothly, what does it matter if she works hard? So the days passed like this, and three years passed in the blink of an eye. Matsuzaki Taeko also worked hard for three years. She thought that the hard but peaceful life would continue forever, but things went against expectations. With the sudden advent of the bubble economy, society entered a period of turmoil. Almost every industry has been affected, including the supermarket where she works.
The severe collapse of the economy caused the supermarket to declare bankruptcy after struggling for several months. As the saying goes, no egg is left unfinished after the nest is overturned. With the closure of the supermarket, Taeko Matsuzaki, who was about to be promoted to foreman, also completely lost her chance of promotion. Now she has even lost her job. Unemployment may be nothing to other colleagues. At worst, she can go home and rely on her husband and become a full-time wife again. But for Matsuzaki Taeko, who is a single mother, unemployment means the sky is falling. The ground is sinking because she knows that it is extremely difficult to find a job when all walks of life are closing down or laying off employees.
The sun was as pale and blurry as people's moods and tilted slightly. At this moment, controlling the bicycle, Matsuzaki Taeko looked confused and just drove forward mechanically until a shout came from nearby.
"Hello!"
Seeing that the bicycle was about to hit an old man walking on the road, Matsuzaki Taeko was stopped. A uniformed traffic policeman grabbed the handlebar at the critical moment and then forcibly stopped the vehicle. The next moment, the traffic policeman shouted loudly. , and it was only at this moment that Matsuzaki Taeko came back to her senses.
"Ah, yes, I'm sorry." Seeing that she almost hit the old man at the intersection, Matsuzaki Taeko hurriedly got out of the car and bowed to apologize to the traffic policeman beside her. Faced with Matsuzaki Taeko's sincere apology, the traffic policeman did not give a warning as expected, but instead He gestured to the side of the road.
Leaving the road and coming to the side of the road, Matsuzaki Taeko saw clearly the appearance of the traffic policeman. He was approaching 50 years old, and the years had left clear traces on his face. No matter how you looked at it, he was an experienced veteran traffic policeman, but because of that Both experienced and experienced, after seeing Matsuzaki Taeko's gray face and still confused eyes, the old traffic police seemed to understand something, sighed, and then said to Matsuzaki Taeko: "This lady, the current situation of society That's it. It can't be reversed by manpower. Even if you are like this, even I am always facing the pressure of being laid off by the government. Although there is no way around it, I believe that the difficulties will eventually pass and life will always have a bright future. .”
"Is it bright?" After listening to the encouragement and guidance of the old traffic policeman, Matsuzaki Taeko was startled at first. She subconsciously looked up at the sky and saw that the sun was pale and blurry. Could this paleness be the so-called light?
In order to avoid being taken to the police station for further conversation, in the end, under the guidance of the old traffic policeman, Matsuzaki Taeko pretended to have regained her confidence, and then said goodbye and left under the satisfied gaze of the other party. Perhaps
In the eyes of the old traffic policeman, he helped another office worker who was depressed due to layoffs today. Unfortunately, his help was ineffective. Although the so-called sunshine does exist, in this overall depressed society, the pale light Even more despairing than darkness, let alone others, at least for Taeko Matsuzaki.
After spending several times slower than usual, Matsuzaki Taeko finally returned home in the evening. This is a B&B residential area with a single courtyard, and Matsuzaki Taeko's home is here. She came to the door of the two-story house. , put down the bicycle, Matsuzaki Taeko opened the door and entered.
I took off my shoes and walked through the entrance. When I came to the living room, I saw a lot of noise inside. The three children had already finished school. They were playing and playing as usual. The 11-year-old brother Matsuzaki Fujiyama and the 10-year-old second sister Matsuzaki Mie competed for comics. , the youngest Matsuzaki Noboru was also trying to fight for it. Of course, since the youngest was only 8 years old, Matsuzaki Noboru couldn't compete with his elder brother and sister, so he could only wait for the opportunity. When his mother came back, Matsuzaki Noboru hurriedly came to complain: "Mom, look at them quickly. My brother and sister are grabbing my comics again!"
"Xiao Sheng, please stop talking nonsense. This comic is not yours. I bought it after school!" Faced with his younger brother's complaint, his elder brother Matsuzaki Fujiyama immediately became unhappy and immediately came over with the comic to explain to his mother. However...
What surprised Matsuzaki Fujiyama and even the brothers Mie Matsuzaki and Noboru Matsuzaki was that her mother, who usually played happily with them for a while after get off work, did not speak this time. Not only did she not speak, but her expression was full of numbness. Just use it like this. He stared at them silently with his dark eyes, and then slowly walked towards the kitchen under the suspicious gazes of the three brothers and sisters.
"Go and wash your hands. I'm going to cook." Without looking back, Taeko Matsuzaki went to the kitchen, leaving only the three brothers and sisters looking at each other in the living room.
The dinner ended in a rare silence among the family. It was obviously different from the usual talking and laughing. The person who caused the silence tonight was naturally her mother, Matsuzaki Taeko. Seeing that her mother was taciturn and depressed, her brother, Matsuzaki Fujiyama, I did ask curiously, but my mother shook her head slightly and said she was fine, so she had no choice but to give up.
As the next day came, after watching her three children leave home to go to school, maybe she had figured out something last night or she had seen the pressure of responsibility from the children again. Matsuzaki Taeko was quite busy today, and she started to make phone calls. Give it to relatives and friends, and then pray in a respectful tone that they can find a job for you. Yes, in order to allow the children to continue studying until they grow up, even Matsuzaki Taeko, who has always been strong, can only put down her body and ask for help from relatives and friends. It is a pity. Her request for help was ineffective. Under the impact of the bubble economy, society is now on the verge of collapse. Not only small businesses have gone bankrupt, but even large companies have been busy laying off employees. As expected, she made several calls in a row and obtained The answer is always sorry, including several relatives and friends who are unemployed like Matsuzaki Taeko. It is conceivable that when oneself is not safe, who can care about others?
Seeing relatives and friends asking for help was in vain. In desperation, Matsuzaki Taeko changed her hope. She dressed neatly and walked out of the house and began to go to the surrounding neighbors to seek help. There was no denying that Matsuzaki Taeko had always had a good relationship with her neighbors, but the results of her visits were always in vain. The Qingyuan family next door is now in a worrying situation. According to Mrs. Qingyuan, Mr. Qingyuan is also facing the pressure of layoffs. In order to prevent being laid off by the company, Mr. Qingyuan has been working hard recently, leaving early and returning late. Not only does he have to work hard, but he also They had to work overtime day and night, and it was late at night every time they came home. The Aohara family was like this, and the neighboring Aso family was not much better. Mr. Aso, who had been responsible for supplying the seafood market, was also affected by the large number of closures of seafood shops. The business is bleak. In order to save money, Mr. Aso laid off most of his employees. In addition, the Noguchi couple who originally worked in a large company have also been hit recently. Mrs. Noguchi was laid off, and the only remaining Mr. Noguchi is about to receive a dismissal notice.
After discovering that no matter whether she asked relatives, friends or neighbors to ask for help, the hope that had sprouted earlier disappeared again in Matsuzaki Taeko's heart. Although it was true that the hope disappeared, when she thought of her three children, she was still hopeful. Feeling confused, Matsuzaki Taeko still managed to cheer up.
So, in the days that followed, Taeko Matsuzaki traveled between major job sites and recruitment companies in the city every day. As mentioned earlier, the bubble economy led to massive layoffs in all walks of life, so whenever she came
When you go to a job market, there are always crowds of people inside. There are enough unemployed men and women queuing up to submit their resumes from the lobby to the door. Many companies have also stated that they are not recruiting. The few companies that are willing to recruit employees only recruit those with high education and rich work experience. How can Matsuzaki Taeko, who only has a high school diploma, succeed in finding a job?
A month passed in frustration, but because she could not find a job, Matsuzaki Taeko not only became more and more depressed, but her family also gradually experienced an economic crisis. In order to raise tuition fees for her three children, Matsuzaki Taeko sold her home at a low price. The car that my husband owned before his death was lost and sold at a low price was because no one bought it. Yes, when the entire society is in an economic downturn, who is willing to spend money to buy a car? I was lucky to be able to sell it at a low price. I first sold the car, then cut down on clothing and made careful budgeting. During the day, I traveled to various job hunting places. At night, I had to take care of and supervise the daily studies of my three children. There is no denying that the money from selling the car can allow the family to continue to survive for a while, but without work income, sitting on nothing is not an option after all. In order to obtain a stable income as soon as possible, Matsuzaki Taeko is exhausted and her mood is getting worse, which represents her direction. The collapse came from a small incident that happened tonight.
"67 points, you actually only got 67 points!"
Snapped!
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"
In the living room, looking at the report card of her eldest son Matsuzaki Fujiyama, Matsuzaki Taeko exploded. Finally, under the stimulation of heavy pressure, she slapped her eldest son hard. First she slapped her hard, and then she roared and cursed in the midst of his eldest son's cries: " Why? Why don’t you study hard? I worked hard to support you in school, but you don’t study hard. Are you worthy of me!?”
Seeing that his mother was rarely angry and even hit him for the first time, the eldest son Matsuzaki Fujiyama burst into tears. His sister Mie Matsuzaki and his brother Noboru Matsuzaki who were also at the scene were collectively frightened and trembling. Yes, this was the first time they had seen this in many years. The mother is so angry. Although it is rare for the mother to hit someone when she is angry, they can't understand why the mother is angry? After all, their brother's grades have always been bad. In the past, they never saw their mother getting angry when handing in their grades, let alone hitting someone. Faced with their mother's sudden anger, they couldn't understand it, but as young children, they wouldn't do the same. It was impossible to understand what was happening at this moment, so he had to hide in the corner and be afraid silently. While being afraid, he watched his mother angrily scolding his brother.
It is said that children are the most careless creatures in the world. This statement is true. Children are not only forgetful, but also naughty. The child's naughty nature cannot be eliminated by a few scoldings and slaps. In the following days, the three naughty children In this way, the child brought Matsuzaki Taeko, who was already under great pressure, to the verge of collapse. Whenever the three siblings made mistakes, Matsuzaki Taeko would always get angry and yell, and occasionally even slap her in the face. There is no denying that under the stimulation of huge pressure, Matsuzaki Taeko had already They are no longer as amiable as before, and their attitude towards children has gradually become worse, but over time, the three siblings have gotten used to it. After all, the occasional slap in the face is not a severe punishment, until... until that day comes.
July 15th is the Ghost Festival, commonly known as the Ghost Festival.
Walking in the dark streets with almost no one around, Matsuzaki Taeko looked gloomy. After a day of job hunting with no results, she was already in a bad mood and fell completely into despair. At this moment, she was as dazed as a ghost abandoned by the world. Wandering around, yes, she doesn't want to go home, because she doesn't know what she can do when she goes home? Do you have to face those three naughty children who don't understand your hard work when you go back? Or should we check the bottomed-out savings at home? No, there is no point in going back, there is no point at all. Instead of going back to face the pain, it is better to continue wandering in the dim night. Perhaps only in this way can you stay away from the cruel reality.
Walking aimlessly through the neighborhood, in order to completely forget her pain and troubles, Matsuzaki Taeko bought three bottles of canned beer when passing by a small supermarket. After paying the bill, she saw something in the look of the woman in front of her. Out of good intentions, the boss stopped Matsuzaki Taeko.
"Miss, please wait a moment."
Seeing the woman turning her head in confusion, the boss did not speak immediately, but looked up at the sky. After seeing the abnormally round moon in the sky, the boss frowned and said, "Miss, look at you like this, and what you just said Buying beer...you, you seem to be in a bad mood. Of course, this is your personal privacy and I don’t intend to pass it off.
Q, I just want to say it's too late, you'd better go home immediately. "
"Go home? Hehe, hehe, what's the point of going home? What's the point?"
Faced with the kind reminder from the supermarket owner, if it were normal times, Matsuzaki Taeko would definitely obey the good intention and politely agree. But this time it was different. Because she was too desperate for real life, Matsuzaki Taeko did not agree. Instead, she smiled bitterly and shook her head slightly. After that, No longer ignoring the supermarket owner, Matsuzaki Taeko turned around and left. Before she could get out of the boss's sight, she opened her beer and drank it until she disappeared into the distant night.
In front of the store, watching the woman drift away, the boss remained silent. He didn't say anything, but sighed helplessly.
No one knows why the supermarket owner sighed, but for Matsuzaki Taeko, who is currently walking and drinking, she is very comfortable now. Under the numbness of alcohol, she gradually gets rid of the troubles in her heart and gradually forgets the cruelty of reality, even if this Forgetfulness was causing her to become confused and staggering, but she didn't care and continued walking aimlessly.
As she drank all three cans of beer, Matsuzaki Taeko was drunk. In the blur, she discovered something. She found that she had moved her position at some point and came to a park that was darker than the street.
Because she lives in the local area, Matsuzaki Taeko knows this place and took her children to play here a few years ago. Unfortunately, with the outbreak of the economic crisis, the park began to become deserted, and people who were busy looking for jobs and livelihoods were not in the mood to play here at all. Over time, , the park gradually became dilapidated and became more and more deserted. Not to mention the night, there were few people there even during the day. At this moment, when she saw that she had arrived at the park in a daze, Matsuzaki Taeko was startled at first, but soon the corner of her mouth raised and smiled, and then She walked leisurely and swaying. Yes, she did not turn around and leave after discovering that this was a park. Instead, she continued to go deeper into the park through her drunkenness, heading straight towards the depths of the park.
It is also worth mentioning that because the moon tonight is rarely full and larger than before, even if it is close to midnight, the moonlight can still illuminate the park. With the relatively soft and bright moonlight, it will not take long. Taeko Matsuzaki comes to the end.
As mentioned above, this is the deepest part of the park, and it is also the edge area at the end of the park. In front of it is an old and dilapidated dark wall. I saw that I had wandered to the end unknowingly. Even if I came here to relax under the influence of alcohol, I could see that there was nothing in front of me. When there was no way, Matsuzaki Taeko should have turned back. However, the strange thing was that the road ahead was obviously blocked by a wall and the end of the park was indeed in front of her. However, under the numbness and stimulation of alcohol, she did not turn back. Instead, she shifted her gaze and scanned frequently. After a while, she saw a gap in the wall. Although the gap was mostly covered by the weeds nearby, due to the large gap, Taeko Matsuzaki finally discovered it. .
Next, maintaining the characteristic smile of a drunken person, Matsuzaki Taeko moved, staggering towards the gap under the influence of alcohol.
Pushing aside the weeds and coming closer, I saw that the gap in the wall was indeed not small. It was true that the gap was not big enough for people to pass through easily, but if I lowered my body, I could still barely enter. Therefore, I maintained the drunkenness that had not changed for a long time. With a smile, Matsuzaki Taeko bent down and slipped into the gap by accident.
We walked through a gap in the road and came to the opposite side. We originally thought that the opposite side would be another neighborhood, or at worst, a B&B alley. However, what we saw was empty, a wilderness that we had never seen before, overgrown with weeds and full of rocks. The surrounding area was obscured by night. Seeing this, Matsuzaki Taeko was slightly startled, a little curious about where this place was. After all, she had lived in Jinchuan County for no less than ten years and had been living here since she married her husband. In addition, Jinchuan County itself was not included. What a large city, so strictly speaking, she was basically familiar with it, but now she saw a plain wasteland that she had never been to before?
what happened? In your impression, there should be no wasteland in Jinchuan County? You must know that this is densely populated Japan. Even if there is wasteland, it has probably been built into buildings by real estate developers.
Yes, because she had never seen the wasteland in front of her, after staring blankly for a moment, Matsuzaki Taeko continued to move, and began to stagger forward driven by curiosity. She thought that the scope of the wasteland was definitely not large. As long as she could keep walking, she would definitely be able to. Walking out of the wilderness and back to the neighborhood, however, after walking for about ten minutes, they saw that there was still a wilderness ahead. Not only that, just when Matsuzaki Taeko was surprised by the size of the wilderness, a completely unexplainable strange phenomenon also happened to the drunk woman. Start happening on the move
…
As Taeko Matsuzaki walked farther and farther in the wilderness, the moon above her head changed. In the sky, the pure white moon that was bigger and rounder than before changed its color at some point, and finally turned into blood red!
The red moonlight shone into the wilderness, and Matsuzaki Taeko, who was still drunk and shaking, noticed something strange. She looked up and followed the red light, only to find that the moon had turned blood red at an unknown time. In addition to changing the color of the moon, it also changed the color of the moon. It adds an indescribable charm to the moon.
Matsuzaki Taeko was shocked when she saw the full moon above her head turning into the color of blood. Half of the alcoholism in her brain instantly dissipated. This was certain and inevitable, because the blood-colored full moon was so rare, almost unprecedented. Seeing this scene, Matsuzaki Taeko was scared. When she was nearly half drunk, she turned around in panic and planned to leave. It was obvious that she had to go back the way she came. After all, this wilderness was too large. Instead of blindly exploring and continuing on, it would be better to just turn around and go back the way she came. What's more, ….
Whether it was an illusion or not, as the full moon in the sky turned red inexplicably, the temperature of the scene dropped. It was obviously the midsummer season of July, but the temperature dropped suddenly at this moment, which even made Matsuzaki Taeko shiver subconsciously.
Thinking of this, Matsuzaki Taeko quickly turned around, but just when she turned around and was about to walk, she heard a voice. In this wilderness where she was the only one no matter how she looked, she suddenly heard a voice, a voice that clearly did not belong to her. woman laughs:
"hehe……"
