Xiaolei - Chapter 3

There was a real chance that what happened that night had begun with me.

I had not uttered that word since I was ten, yet it had rolled off my tongue. That alone was uncanny.

I could no longer pretend not to see.

So I said to Chen Wei, “First tell me what happened to you that night.”

He seemed deeply unwilling to remember. With his eyes, he gestured toward the medicine bottles beside him.

I took out two pills and helped him swallow them.

Once he had taken the medicine, Chen Wei began recounting that night. Terror gradually spread across his face.

The girl he had met at the studio was Liu Xiaohui.

You could say they had fallen for each other at first sight.

My insistence on going home with them—playing the shameless third wheel—had inspired a mutual dislike in the two of them.

When I went inside to fetch my bicycle, they fled.

Chen Wei had even played a little trick.

He offered to wheel Liu Xiaohui’s bicycle for her, then secretly punctured the tire with a utility knife.

That smoothly created the conditions for the next step: giving her a ride home on his bike.

At this point, Chen Wei still felt compelled to defend himself.

Their routes home overlapped for only a short distance, he explained. If he wanted to make a strong impression on their first meeting, he needed to manufacture a little accident.

He did not know what had possessed him to use a trick like that.

Nor had he imagined that this little accident would become unforgettable for the rest of his life.

The moment Liu Xiaohui hopped onto the rear rack, one arm naturally circled Chen Wei’s waist.

He was beside himself with delight.

They took Shuguang Road that night, a notoriously bad stretch.

Almost every streetlamp on either side was broken, and the pavement was riddled with potholes.

As Chen Wei rode, he deliberately swerved from side to side. Liu Xiaohui squealed and laughed behind him, gripping him more tightly.

After a while, he began hearing something brushing against the front and rear wheels.

Tap…

Tap-tap-tap…

Tap-tap-tap-tap…

It was not loud. Chen Wei assumed he had caught a twig or plastic bag and ignored it.

After riding a little farther, he realized something was wrong.

He knew this road well. Why did it seem so long tonight?

The farther he rode, the more broken streetlights there were. Pinpricks of light appeared only after long stretches of darkness.

The road had no visible beginning ahead and no visible end behind.

Liu Xiaohui also seemed to be growing heavier and heavier.

Chen Wei had trained in competitive cycling for two years and prided himself on his stamina and skill, yet even he was beginning to pant.

Behind him, Liu Xiaohui kept asking why they had not reached Heping Road.

Pedaling and gasping, Chen Wei promised they were almost there.

“Keep going,” Liu Xiaohui encouraged him.

He immediately felt recharged and found another burst of strength.

After a while, the road finally changed.

A bridge appeared ahead.

Liu Xiaohui laughed when she saw it. Once they crossed Heping Bridge, she said, her home would be right there.

Chen Wei slowly pedaled onto the bridge. The slope was gentle, but he moved more and more slowly, nearly unable to continue. From behind him, Liu Xiaohui whispered, “Faster…”

Her lips were almost touching the back of his neck. Then she began blowing on it.

Whoosh—

Whoosh—

Chen Wei’s face flushed and his heart raced. Xiaohui really knew what she was doing, he thought.

The excitement did not last.

How could a person’s breath be colder than ice?

It was November, true, but it should not have been that cold.

Goose bumps instantly rose along the back of his neck.

Behind him, Liu Xiaohui continued whispering over and over.

“Faster!”

“Faster!”

“Faster…”

“Why don’t you go faster faster faster faster!”

Her voice remained low, but each repetition came quicker, more impatient, more terrifying.

And besides…

How could anyone speak while blowing air at the same time?

Chen Wei had reached the middle of the bridge. He planted one foot on the ground and tried to get off.

Before he could steady himself—

Buzz!

The bicycle suddenly shot forward.

He squeezed the brakes, but two sharp cracks sounded. Both front and rear brakes had broken.

Rather than slowing, the bicycle flew ahead like an arrow.

Chen Wei was too terrified even to scream. He clung to the handlebars while the bicycle carried him hurtling down the road.

Something felt wrong when I heard this part.

Chen Wei had trained as a cyclist. In that situation, could he not have braked with his feet?

And how fast could a bicycle possibly go?

He stared at me, agitated.

“I’ve done ninety on a motorcycle without getting scared, but that bicycle…”

The memory seemed to seize him again. His entire body began to tremble.

“At least a hundred! One tiny mistake and I’d have been thrown to my death!”

Once, Chen Wei had taken me out on his motorcycle. At fifty kilometers an hour, I had been terrified out of my wits, hugging him and begging for mercy the whole way.

I could not imagine how frightening a bicycle traveling at a hundred would be.

But the mad bicycle had not been the most terrifying thing that night.

Liu Xiaohui had.

At first, she screamed from the rear rack. Then her screams turned into laughter.

No matter how wildly a normal person laughed, they eventually had to breathe. She did not. She laughed madly without pause the entire way.

The laughter grew more frenzied until it was impossible to tell whether she was laughing, weeping, or howling.

The sound was shrill, cold, and mournful.

No human could have made it.

Chen Wei felt as though his eardrums would burst.

But he dared neither look back nor release the handlebars.

The tapping from the wheels also grew louder and louder.

In the darkness, it seemed as if a water truck had sprayed his face. He did not dare move and only touched his tongue to the liquid.

It tasted foul and reeked of iron.

It was all blood.