Shadow Code - C57
Then, after racking my brains to figure out why, I put them on the table, one by one, and looked back and forth, a few times, still confused, and began to pull the drawers again.
There were some Qing Dynasty coins in the drawer, there were also some old coins and paper money, they seemed to be collection items, there were also a few Yuan Bigheads, a few Chairman Mao’s medallions, a few copper boxes of cracking cream, underneath these things was an old calendar paper. Originally I was going to close the drawer, but after a while the drawer got old, and when I closed the drawer, it didn’t go well, and I only pushed it a few times, but then the calendar paper was pulled by something on top, revealing some things on the bottom.
At the bottom of the page was a book. This book had no cover, it was just a stack of paper bound together, and this stack of paper was actually the page of an old account book.
The old account books that had been torn off at the front and back were once again bound together and made into a new book.
I couldn’t wait to open the book. I had a hunch that the book would remember something.
When I opened it, the emotions were complicated, such as loss, surprise, bewilderment and deep contemplation.
The most surprising thing was that there were indeed some things in these books. The only thing that puzzled him was why there were some designs here, while the thing that made him think about it was that he didn’t seem to be a stranger to these books.
I didn’t graduate from architecture, so I definitely wouldn’t be familiar with architectural designs. But why does this painting give me a sense of familiarity? I stood there for almost ten minutes, and finally understood that these blueprints were the blueprints of this shop.
First, each of the pages had been designed in detail, and then there were all kinds of blueprints. As I flipped through the pages, I kept thinking about why I tore open some old account books and made them into a book for my design. Normal people should at least take out an account book and use it for their own purposes, unless this person is abnormal.
Or maybe, I thought, the store wasn’t designed all at once, maybe a person designed it every once in a while, and wrote it down at the same time, and after a while, when it was found that the design was complete, he would tear down the sketches and arrange the costs, which was a reasonable thought, but if that’s the case, then the store was already a store when it wasn’t, because the account book was designed at the same time as the design drawings, which was the store running while he was keeping accounts and designing blueprints for the later period.
In the end, I thought that this idea was very reasonable. Perhaps a hundred years ago, when I first ran this shop, when I didn’t have any money in the village, I set up a shop in this courtyard to sell leather. Later on, when I made a profit and earned enough money, I planned to tidy up this place and buy this place and decorate it properly. Thus, I planned to keep an account book while designing the blueprints in my account book, and according to the time when I made a profit, I was even more certain that I would have to continue designing and renovating the shop.
When I think about it, I don’t find it so weird to look at the torn parts of the old accounts. On the contrary, it’s the hard feelings of intimacy.
But just as I was beginning to feel that all this had gone back to being reasonable, I flipped to the last page of the design blueprints.
This page was the complete blueprint of the entire store.
Something was wrong with that part of me, I couldn’t say. Something was definitely wrong.
F * ck, it’s the upstairs bedroom.
The bedroom of the design drawing was twelve, but the shop actually had thirteen rooms.
I went back and forth counting the number of rooms on the blueprint. Finally, my entire body went numb. It was absolutely true.
When I found this strange place, I didn’t dare to look back at all. I just stood there, frozen in place. The whole shop was like a strange hell, while I stood alone somewhere in hell.
He didn’t dare to leave the study. He went along the corridor and checked the blueprints to see which room had been added.
I tried to trace the truth of the shop in my mind, and realized that I hadn’t found one of the deadliest things in my many years of staying in this shop, and that was that the rooms on both sides of the upstairs bedroom corridor were one to one, and the whole shop was a standard square, with no extra room to the east or to the west, so why were there thirteen bedrooms in this one-to-one shop? Either 12 or 14, it had to be a double count. Was it not too impossible to get more single rooms?
Furthermore, I swear to Yama that I have never seen any bedrooms on the second floor that can’t be found on the opposite side. That is to say, all thirteen bedrooms on the second floor of this shop are opposite of each other.
Unless there was one possibility, which was that there were two small rooms corresponding to a large room, but that was not true, because each bedroom was the same size, as was the actual shop, and as indicated on the drawings.
Then, what does that mean? It means that there are twelve bedrooms on the blueprint that are exactly the same size and structure, while in reality, there are thirteen bedrooms that are exactly the same size and structure. Oh my god, they should come back quickly, I’m about to collapse.
Can you imagine how many years you’ve lived in a shop that’s home? One day, when you discover the mystery of the room, won’t you go crazy?
I looked at my cell phone. It had only been half an hour, and they couldn’t possibly be back soon. The restaurants in the capital were bustling with activity, especially the ones that were good to eat, and didn’t go to the restaurants that didn’t seem to be in a bad mood. I waited for them to come back, and with the time we had to drive back and forth, I estimated that it would take two to three hours.
Actually, in the past, I’ve stayed in this shop countless times during the night, such as when the shop assistant went back home or opened up an old store, and the new shop wasn’t hired yet. In the past, I decided to go back, in the past, I’ve stayed in this shop for countless of nights, such as when the shop assistant went back home or opened up an old store, such as the new shop assistant going back home, such as the old shop assistant, and so many times when the shop assistant went old, it could be said that the shop store was deserted most of the time. All day long, there were endless customers, so most of the time, it was a deserted shop. People went in and out of the shop, but it was very lively.
For the first time, I felt fear and unfamiliarity towards the countless shops that were all alone.
When I finally turned my head, I saw that my bedroom door on the other side was as though it had seen a ghost and I didn’t dare to take another look.
Almost ran out of the study, into my bedroom, kicked the door shut, and leaned against it, gasping for breath.
With my cell phone in my hand, I wondered if I should call the pockmarked one and come back quickly, thinking what would happen if I didn’t come back and live in the shop, and I couldn’t tell the pockmarked one that I was going to sleep in the same bed as me tonight, and, step back and think about it, I was the one who had just discovered the abnormality in the room, the one who had been so confused for so many years, without missing an arm or an egg, and that was when, for the first time in my life, I understood something: ignorance is happiness, you get upset when you know something.
For example, if you go to a restaurant to eat, do not look at the kitchen, or else you will not be able to eat. For example, if you drink a drink, do not go to the factory to watch the production process, or else I feel, hehe, for example, we are all normal professionals, but you should try to do a forensic examination. With so many bodies dissected every day, you will be able to see the human body from a different perspective.
Leaning against the door, I stood there blankly, looking out the window at the bustling night lights. There were many cars and very few people on the street, and time passed by second by second. For some reason, I cried by myself during this time.
When I reached a certain age, I wanted to find a girl I loved and had a lot of plans for my life, but after half a month, my life was messed up. I originally thought that these were all just small episodes, but more and more, I felt that this episode was just the beginning.
And what did I lose? Having lost the most ordinary life of an ordinary mortal, when all ordinary mortals dream about making their lives extraordinary, who would have thought that extraordinary people would crave for their ordinary lives to be doubled.
After thinking a lot, I finally saw the figure of pockmarks in the street light below. I realized that I had been standing stiffly against the door for nearly three hours now.
When I heard the door open and close, I turned around and opened the door. I rushed to the first floor and threw myself into the arms of the pockmarked man.
The pockmark first hugged me, and then touched my waist. Afterwards, he pushed it away. “Fuck, I thought that girl was waiting for me, so why is it you?” “Was it sleepwalking, or did he suffer from sexual blindness after taking a rat drug?”