Shadows of Obsession

Two Days

"You're acting up again, I'm done with you!" Lauren lowered his voice and yelled in Ella's direction. Some passersby turned to look at him, making him appear even more disheveled.

"I really..." he started to say, then turned away, took a few steps, but couldn't resist turning back to see Ella's reaction.

However, Ella had already blended into the crowded.

The car was still by the roadside. Lauren pressed the remote, opened the door, and got in. The car key didn't align with the lock several times, and it took a while before it finally clicked in. The steering wheel lowered, music blasting at full volume.

He drove a few hundred meters towards the direction of the convalescent home but couldn't resist suddenly turning around, rolling down the window, and retracing his steps.

Ella had just received half a month's salary that day. He had made up his mind to leave and ran all the way to the bus station. Inside the terminal, only four or five people were in line, checking which bus was departing next and purchasing tickets accordingly. Others had large and small bags, but Ella's hands were empty.

The train carriage was sparsely populated with passengers, and it grew darker as he moved further in.

Ella felt like a desperate man who had lost his treasure while fleeing for his life, numbly boarding the train and choosing a window seat.

As long as he endured the bumpy ride for over ten hours, he could finally be free. Ella thought this to himself as he pushed the window up a bit, revealing a fist-sized gap, just in time to see a man buying a ticket and entering.

Lauren looked up along the window, calling out all the way, "Ella, Ella." He tapped on the window until someone inside cracked it open a bit to let him see clearly.

Ella abruptly lowered the window, focused, and moved inside a bit. Outside, someone was banging on the metal: "Ella, Ella." Someone inside the carriage had already started cursing when Ella heard the train whistle a long blast. Her eyelids twitched, and suddenly a thought struck her, causing her to want to kneel down and pray, hoping Lauren would catch up and join her, hoping Lauren would also get on board, if they could walk together.

Just as she silently repeated this thought three or four times in her mind, she saw a figure coming up, followed by voices:

"Ticket?"

"I'll buy one when I get on."

She heard faint, palpable footsteps.

"Ella? Ella?" Lauren called softly, moving over with the support of the chair, attempting to pick out that one person from among the crowd.

Ella stared at him, afraid of missing a crucial opportunity, the train hadn't started yet, and she couldn't be caught. She moved back, sitting in a spot without the headlights on, holding her breath, as if she had successfully abducted someone, ecstatic yet nervous.

Lauren couldn't find the person, standing in the middle of the aisle.

The train lurched slightly, and finally the doors closed shut. The faint sparks from the friction between the wheels and the rails seemed to splash into Ella's eyes. The rhythmic clanking of the wheels turning deafened her ears, feeling the wind blowing against her face, her body alternating between hot and cold. Ella stood up, grasped Lauren's hand, and pulled him to her berth.

Lauren's body was cold all over. Seeing Ella was like a suffocating person finally grasping their own oxygen, gradually warming up. He grabbed Ella's hair, tousling it. "We'll get off at the next station." Ella forcefully pulled him. "Just give it a try, just a few days, just think about me. Otherwise, go on your own." Ella looked at the side of Lauren's face, discerning the sound of his breathing. They sat shoulder to shoulder like this, faintly retracing a few steps back towards the verdant yesterday amidst the swaying of the train.

A gust of night wind carried with it a warm breath. Under the lamplight, silence was the last breath of fate, making her believe in the man who had furrowed his brow all day, subdued and taciturn, much like believing in a young man always impeccably dressed, neat yet quiet.

After a while, Lauren asked her, "How many days?"

Ella looked at him, paused for a moment, then suddenly broke into a smile.

That smile, like a clenched fist suddenly opening, startled him. Her eyes are full of joy.

Ella smiled and said, "Three days."

After waiting for a moment, Ella smiled again and said, "Make it two days. One day is too short, isn't it?" Ella looked at Lauren, still smiling warmly. "Two days?"

Seeing Lauren did not verbally oppose, Ella gradually relaxed his shoulders, enclosing Lauren's tightly held left hand in his own palm. He noticed Lauren's eyelids trembling, so she smiled and said, "You promised, you'll think about me." Lauren closed his eyes tightly, his eyeballs rolling restlessly under his eyelids.

Ella reached out to lift the corners of his mouth. "Smile a little."Ella said.

The playful banter from back then, a head peeking out from behind a camera, now close enough to whisper in his ear. Ella gently exerted pressure, trying to smooth out the furrow between Lauren's brows.

"We're going out to have fun, eat delicious food, have big crabs, and stay in a hotel with a TV. It's all on me." Lauren looked at her, his breathing gradually quickening. The carriage was swaying, making people drowsy. He only remembered those long-lost fingers lightly touching the corner of his mouth again, teasing him with, "Say cheese." It tickled.

How long ago was that, the flash of the camera, bright as day, everything white, only hearing a clear and crisp voice. "Hey, so you do know how to smile." Both were as smitten as can be.

A warm front passed, and torrential rain poured down. Outside Ella's old house, the sound of the rain was loud and gentle, like the tearing of a workbook, softly soaking the wild vines. Water streaks snaked down the window, one vertical, one horizontal, each washing over the other.

The window frame had been rusted for a long time. No matter how hard it was closed, a crack would remain. Raindrops drifted in through the crack, lightly hitting the cheeks, while the sound of frogs croaking came from some unknown drain, hidden deep in the night.

Ella turned up the desk lamp a bit. The table's red paint had peeled off. She climbed up and struggled to lift the window latch.

Outside, a round, oval moon hung in the sky. The newly cemented road had not yet dried, leaving numerous shoe prints from passersby. Next to the road was a wild field, full of blooming brown-yellow wild chrysanthemum flowers, with purple-red veins sprawling chaotically.

"Lauren," Ella called. Lauren stood outside the window, holding an umbrella, helping her pull open the rusted iron window bit by bit.

Ella propped herself up on the table and clumsily climbed out, ducking under the umbrella. "Come on, come on, I'll take you to a good place." Their cheap rubber shoes quickly soaked through as they stepped over rough terrain. But Ella ran faster and faster, and Lauren's umbrella couldn't keep up with her. The rain poured directly onto Ella's face, making it almost impossible to keep her eyes open. The newly paved cement road, lit by tranquil orange-yellow streetlights, looked like a string of pearls. In the rain, the lights blurred into patches of color, flowing in the puddles.

The two hurried like this for over twenty minutes until they reached the reservoir. The screws on the iron railings of the dam were all loose. Ella climbed onto it, half her body leaning out.

The sluice gates were discharging water, the rain pounding into the accumulating black torrents. A layer of factory wastewater foam and oil slick floated on the water's surface, emitting a pungent and more stimulating smell than the salty sea, a nightmarishly sticky stench.

White foam splashed everywhere, and the continuous sound of rain was incessant in their ears.

Ella brushed back the hair clinging to her forehead. "Ah, look, look!" Through the layers of dark rain clouds, they caught a glimpse of the sun.

The rain suddenly quieted, and in the scorching light, it was dyed into countless fine golden threads. The dawn burst forth, and the sky gradually brightened.

Ella stared in a daze for a long time. She pulled the backpack from behind her to her chest, took out a plastic bag, and handed Lauren one of the two meat buns inside.

Lauren switched the hand holding the umbrella and took a big bite, probably also hungry.

Ella leaned to his ear and whispered, "This is our secret base." Lauren looked at her and nodded seriously.

"Pinky promise. In the future, we'll go to even farther places, just the two of us." Ella sat beside him, and Lauren seemed to have fallen asleep. Ella couldn't find a trace of sleepiness; she watched Lauren in the darkness. Every time the train passed through a tunnel and the streetlights shone into the window, she would instinctively reach out to shield him from the light.

The yellowish hue was like looking through a piece of golden candy wrapper; even the numb tip of her tongue could taste a slight sweetness.

Lauren's brow smoothed out as if he were dreaming something pleasant.

Ella gently brushed aside the hair on his forehead, looking at his beautifully shaped eyebrows.

Lauren was promising, understanding the bigger picture, different from the rest of their rowdy group. Ella had never been particular about anything—cleats, towels, she could use them for years—but when it came to this matter, she couldn't settle.

Someone squeezed past them in the aisle, and Ella quickly hid her hand behind her back. Only after the person hurried past did she start to laugh silently. She thought about where to take Lauren after they got off the train, where she had taken him before, sifting through her memories like a sieve, all filled with scattered trivialities.