Qingmu took out a cigarette and made to toss it to Ma Fuqing. "Smoke?"
Ma Fuqing waved his hand. "No, I don't smoke."
Qingmu put the cigarette between his lips, toyed with the brand-new S.T. Dupont lighter with his slender fingers, then suddenly flicked it alight. The pale blue flame slowly approached the cigarette, then flared with the ardor of a young man meeting his lover, giving off a faint sizzling sound.
Ma Fuqing watched the man with the bird's-nest hair elegantly take two puffs from the flame and exhale a cloud of white smoke.
The smoke began to fill the room, growing thicker and thicker, like an autumn morning mist that would only keep thickening until sunlight tore it apart.
Ma Fuqing felt as though he were standing in a boundless wilderness, with mountains in the distance and a lake before him, mist rising over its surface.
He heard the morning breeze in the mist, the croaking of frogs on lotus leaves, and the cawing of crows in old trees.
He felt a little cold, and a little afraid.
He vaguely remembered that a policewoman had been sitting beside him.
He turned to look.
There was indeed a woman beside him, only she wasn't wearing a police uniform.
The woman stood up, stark naked, her skin pale and clean, like a white pig freshly scalded and scraped of its bristles.
If she had a head, she would certainly have been a beauty.
Unfortunately, she had no head.
There was nothing above her neck. The flesh curled outward, and dark red blood spilled from the opening, crawling like a swarm of writhing worms.
Ma Fuqing saw the headless woman approach him step by step, her snow-white breasts quivering, a black mole standing out on her left breast.
Ma Fuqing pointed at the woman. "Don't come any closer. Stop haunting me."
The woman's belly bulged and contracted. The two bloodstained nipples on her chest turned into eyes, while her navel stretched wide into a mouth, speaking in a deep, muffled voice from within her abdomen:
"Give me back my head-"
Ma Fuqing grabbed a brick and shouted at the woman, "Don't come any closer! Take another step and I won't hold back!"
The woman did not stop. Her blood-red eyes bulged, and the mouth on her pale belly kept saying:
"Give me back my head-"
She raised a hand, reached down into her neck, and rummaged around inside until she pulled out a bloody saw, bits of flesh still clinging to its teeth.
"Give me back my head-"
Ma Fuqing staggered backward until he reached a large locust tree, shouting, "Your head isn't here! Go away! Your head isn't here!"
Even with his eyes closed, Ma Fuqing could still see the headless woman and hear her footsteps.
A crow suddenly flew out of the locust tree and cawed a few times.
The woman's corpse stopped dead and lifted her head to look at the dark shape in the treetop.
Then Ma Fuqing heard an irritable voice:
"If you want to eat, get down here! Don't blame me if you starve to death!"
Ma Fuqing's head buzzed, as though a plane had crashed into it.
The world collapsed.
He opened his eyes in terror. Qingmu was still lounging in the executive chair behind his desk, while Hu Xing, in her police uniform, quietly read a magazine nearby. In his own hands was a thick book that had come from who knew where.
At some point, the crow had flown onto the ceiling light. Its originally black feathers now gleamed like sapphires.
"Food's ready! Food's ready-" the crow called.
Qingmu slowly stood up. "Want to join us for a meal? The landlady downstairs may be fierce, but she's a very good cook."
The crow chimed in, "Braised pork hock! Braised pork hock! Ruhua's braised pork hock!"
Ma Fuqing's face was pale. He hurriedly waved his hands. "No, no. I won't keep you from your meal, master. I'll be going."
As he spoke, he took out a red envelope and gently placed it on the coffee table.
"I can't take payment for doing nothing," Qingmu said.
Unable to stop his heart from racing, Ma Fuqing stood and headed outside. "No need, no need. Perhaps I got it wrong. I'll be going."
"Then I really can't accept this." Qingmu pointed at the red envelope.
"No one visits without a reason, and no visitor comes empty-handed," Ma Fuqing said. "I know the rules. I do."
By then, he had reached the door and hurried out in a fluster.
Hu Xing put down the magazine and went to the window. She saw Ma Fuqing leave the bar and turn into the neighboring alley on unsteady feet.
"He seems very afraid of you," Hu Xing said.
"He's not afraid of me. He's afraid of Boss Coal," Qingmu said.
Hu Xing glanced at the crow but saw nothing beyond its goofy cuteness. Assuming Qingmu was merely brushing her off, she recalled his performance at the criminal investigation unit and her own experience on the way here, then asked, "Was he dreaming just now?"
Qingmu nodded.
Hu Xing asked, "Then what did you see?"
"A woman without a head," Qingmu said.
"Can you really control other people's dreams?" Hu Xing felt both excitement and a shiver of fear.
"Everyone's dreams are unique. How could I control them?" Qingmu said. "A dream is an independent kingdom. Your dream is your world, and you set its rules. No one else can dictate them. You're the ruler of your own dreams. At most, I can only be an observer."
Hu Xing only half understood. "If people rule their own dreams, why do they have nightmares? Why don't they make themselves have pleasant dreams all the time?"
"Because when you dream, your conscious mind isn't awake. Your subconscious determines your dreams. All dreams are constructed by your subconscious, and the material it uses is your memory. Only when your conscious mind goes dormant does your subconscious step forward and use those raw materials without restraint."
"If dreams are made from memories, why do things you've never seen appear in them?" Hu Xing countered.
"No, nothing beyond your experience ever appears in a dream. Think carefully. Has anything you've never seen appeared in your dreams? All you've done is combine various things you've seen. It's like aliens in movies. However strange they look, they're still made up of things within human knowledge."
The cigarette in Qingmu's hand had burned down to the filter, but he did not put it out.
"Aliens will never look the way people imagine. Perhaps they have no appearance at all."
Qingmu's gaze grew distant and profound, just like those scientists who were immensely learned yet laughably naive.
At that moment, Hu Xing finally believed that Qingmu was personally acquainted with Professor Mei Yiqiu, because that look in his eyes proved they were the same kind of person.
Not wanting to dwell on such abstruse, headache-inducing questions, she steered the conversation back to reality.
"By your reasoning, that headless woman should be someone Ma Fuqing knows. Who is she?"
Qingmu returned to his lazy manner, stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray, and said, "How would I know?"
"Why didn't you make him tell you everything, like you did at the police station?" Hu Xing asked.
"He's not a criminal. Why should I interrogate him?" Qingmu said.
Hu Xing thought for a moment. "There's definitely something wrong with this man."
Qingmu stood and picked up the red envelope from the coffee table, smiling. "You're my lucky star. The moment you show up, I get business. How nice!"
The crow hopped onto Qingmu's shoulder, calling, "Red envelope! Red envelope! Braised pork hock! Braised pork hock..."
"Come downstairs for a meal?" Qingmu invited Hu Xing.
Remembering Bi Shenghua's looks, more handsome than a man's, and the fierceness that was so at odds with them, Hu Xing smiled. "I'd better not. I'll head back to the unit and report. My assignment was to get you home safely."
Qingmu did not press her and walked her downstairs.
As they passed through the bar, Hu Xing saw four exquisite dishes on a small table.
Bi Shenghua was mixing drinks behind the bar.
When their eyes met, Hu Xing sensed a familiar, needlelike prick in her gaze.
Before becoming a detective, as the well-bred daughter of a wealthy family, Hu Xing had often encountered such looks from other girls on all sorts of occasions. Of course, at those times, there had always been one or several handsome men hovering around her.
She seemed to understand something.
By the time she left the bar, Hu Xing was rather annoyed.
This fellow was so rude. He hadn't even walked her to the door, and had actually sat right down to eat!
He had actually sat right down to eat!
Hu Xing slammed the door behind her.
Once in the car, Hu Xing was just about to turn on the ignition when she spotted him in the rearview mirror, leaning lazily against the bar's doorway, his trench coat open and both hands in his trouser pockets. A white Paramount cigarette hung crookedly from his lips, its white smoke tossed about in the wind along with his bird's-nest hair.
"Hmph, trying to look cool?"
Hu Xing could not help laughing as she chided him and started the car.
Amid the roar of the engine, she faintly heard Qingmu say:
"Hey, check the case files when you get back. See if there have been any recent unsolved cases involving a headless woman's body. That woman had a mole on her left breast."