Qingmu's hair was a bit messy, an old grey trench coat was thrown carelessly over his t-shirt, his faded jeans had no holes at the knees but the hems were unraveled, his hands were shoved into his trouser pockets, and he was walking down the street with a slight slouch and a leisurely air, the slippers on his feet dragging almost flat against the ground and making a slap-slap sound.
"Hey, look at this guy, wearing a trench coat in such hot weather, is he crazy?"
A young couple walked past holding a parasol, and the guy said with a smile to the girl beside him.
The girl turned back and gave him a serious look: "He's just handsome!"
"Hmph! Is having a bird's nest for hair handsome?" the guy said with indignation.
This outfit had a pretty high head-turn rate, drawing quite a few judgmental comments, but Qingmu didn't mind at all, wearing a lazy and indifferent expression.
A little girl of five or six holding her mother's hand turned her head three times at every step, her big eyes blinking as she stared fixedly at Qingmu, until she finally couldn't hold back her curiosity and asked:
"Mister, aren't you hot?"
"Uh... not hot."
Qingmu touched his messy hair and considered whether he should go get a haircut, but thinking that getting a haircut was too much trouble, he gave up on the idea.
The little girl's mom smiled apologetically at Qingmu and said to the little girl: "He's a big brother, Meimei, don't go calling people random things."
"Aha, it's fine, it's fine, al-also not that young!" Qingmu said, rubbing his head in embarrassment.
This mom was so young! White and tender skin, delicate facial features, denim shorts wrapping around plump buttocks, revealing long legs and a slender waist. She looked like a college student, and nobody would ever guess her daughter was already this big.
"Big-bro-ther!"
The little girl named Meimei called out softly and smiled shyly, revealing a mouthful of milky-white teeth.
The young mom tucked her long hair, dampened by sweat, behind her ear, smiled slightly at Qingmu again, and took the little girl's hand to walk forward.
Probably because it was too hot, they quickened their pace and stopped in front of the convenience store ahead.
"Meimei must be thirsty? Mom will buy you a drink."
The young mom let go of the little girl's hand, took her shoulder bag off her back, and just as she was about to open it, a young fellow with dyed yellow hair darted in from the side, first shoving the little girl hard, then quickly snatching the bag from the young mom's hands and fleeing for his life.
The little girl let out an "ah" and tumbled off the curb as a car sped past her with the screech of brakes, missing her by just a hair's breadth.
The young mom had her bag snatched and let out an alarmed "ah," wanting to chase after him, but seeing her fallen daughter, she hurried over to help her up. By the time she looked back again, the bag-snatching criminal had already vanished at the street corner.
The car stopped, the driver rolled down the window, stuck his head out, and cursed: "Are you walking blind?!" Then he hit the gas and drove away.
"Meimei, are you okay, Meimei!" The young mom wore a look of anxiety.
"Mom, Meimei doesn't hurt, Mom, go catch the bad guy!" In the wake of her terror, the little girl instead comforted her mom.
Apart from Qingmu, there was no one else on the street.
Qingmu walked over to them, squatted down, and looked at the little girl's injuries.
"Your name is Meimei? Such a nice name!" Qingmu asked while gently pinching the girl's slightly swollen knee, "Does it hurt?"
"Mm, my name is Meimei, Meimei doesn't hurt. What is big brother's name?"
"My name is Qingmu." Qingmu let go of Meimei's lower leg and said to the young mom, "The bones are fine, just go back and apply some medicine and it'll be better."
The young mom nodded gratefully.
"Meimei, wait right here, big brother will go help you get Mom's bag back, okay?"
Before the mother and daughter could react, Qingmu had already stood up, slap-slapping his way toward the street corner, and vanished in the blink of an eye.
"Mom, is Qingmu big brother super strong?"
"Mm, maybe, he is."
"Hey, you two, are you going to call the cops or what?" The proprietress inside the convenience store finally poked her head out to ask.
"Oh, wa-wait a minute."
The young mom hesitated for a moment, then pulled her daughter's hand and hurried off in pursuit of the corner where Qingmu had disappeared.
"Such strange people!" The convenience store proprietress watched the mother and daughter leave and put down the phone in her hand.
In a dark alley piled with garbage, the yellow-haired fellow unzipped the shoulder bag, rummaged through it, and a smile appeared on his face.
From who knows where, a crow flew out and cawed at him twice.
"Damn it, bad luck, get lost!" the yellow-haired fellow cursed.
"Hey! You snatched someone's bag, and you're just going to leave like that?"
The yellow-haired fellow got a fright and turned around to see a strange person.
This person had messy hair, wore a pair of bell-bottoms popular only in the 1980s with the trouser legs cut short and unraveled at the bottom, still wore a trench coat in the blistering heat, and had his hands shoved in his trouser pockets, leaning lazily and slantingly against the base of the wall.
"What's it to you?" the yellow-haired fellow said viciously.
"If you're going to snatch a bag, you snatch a bag, why did you push a kid into the street?"
"You punk want to meddle in other people's business?" The yellow-haired fellow put down the bag, pulled out a switchblade, flashed the sharp blade, and flicked it back and forth expertly in his hand, "Watch out I splatter you with blood!"
Qingmu looked up at the sky: "It's broad daylight!"
"Heh!" The yellow-haired fellow shook the knife and jigged his leg, "This patch is my turf. Let me tell you, there are no security cameras around here, and this place is full of nothing but garbage. Even if I killed you, nobody would know."
"Is that so?" Qingmu amusedly chuckled.
"It looks like there really aren't any cameras!"
"And there's no one around!"
"Nothing but trash!"
"Even if I kill you, no one will know!"
Qingmu narrowed his eyes and muttered to himself, as if he were talking to a pile of trash. He slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets and lazily stretched.
"You really shouldn't have pushed that kid."
The yellow-haired guy was irritated by the endless muttering from the man in front of him. What was wrong with him? Had he escaped from a psychiatric hospital?
The crow behind him cawed twice more.
Damn, what bad luck!
The yellow-haired guy didn't want to argue with a lunatic.
If I can't afford to mess with him, I can at least avoid him, right?
He spat at the crow perched on the pile of trash and was about to leave when something suddenly felt off.
Why had it gotten so dark? The buildings and trees in the distance had disappeared. The narrow alley was gone. All that remained around him were piles of black garbage bags.
Every bag was bulging, as if there were something inside, wriggling.
Then the bags burst, and a thick liquid poured out, like asphalt, or the blood of a rotting corpse.
"You really shouldn't have pushed that kid."
The lunatic's muttering sounded in his ear again. He turned around, but couldn't see that strange man. Apart from the crow, there was nothing around him but trash.
The liquid flowed to his feet and quickly submerged his ankles. He stumbled backward in fright, but the black, viscous liquid had already flooded the entire street.
He ran for his life, trying to escape the street. But his feet were too heavy to lift, and his legs felt as if they were filled with lead. He seemed to be running in slow motion.
"You really shouldn't have pushed that little girl."
"There are no cameras here."
"There's nothing here but trash."
"Trash..."
The voice grew more and more unreal, and the trash kept piling up.
The black liquid surged toward him like a wave, rose past the yellow-haired guy's neck, and poured into his nose and mouth. He smelled death.
He tilted his head back and struggled with every last bit of strength.
At the last moment before the sewage covered his eyes, he saw the crow flap its wings and fly off into the distance, cawing as it went.
"Damn, what bad luck!"
With one last complaint in his heart, he sank into the endless abyss.