Chapter 732: The Unreachable World (2)

I held the Embroidered Ball in my hands, countless thoughts running through my mind.

The little guy hiding under the blanket peeked out. He stared at the Embroidered Ball in my palm, then looked down at the black sphere clutched in his own arms. He seemed completely stunned, not even noticing when the blanket slipped off his head.

I ran my fingers over the fine, dense stitches. After so many years, the Embroidered Ball was still perfectly preserved. It was clear how much the old woman treasured it.

"Granny, could you tell me about your past?" I set the bamboo basket aside and crouched in front of her, holding the Embroidered Ball.

"I'm getting on in years, and I can't remember a lot of things clearly anymore." The old woman threaded her needle. In no time at all, green hills and clear waters began to emerge on the silk. Her hands were incredibly deft, moving like a pair of fluttering butterflies.

I caught the polite refusal in her words, and I knew it was rude to pry, but she was my only breakthrough. There were some things I had to figure out.

Softening my voice, I held up the Embroidered Ball. "Granny, when did you make this Embroidered Ball at the bottom of your basket? The craftsmanship looks completely different from the rest of your embroidery. The strangest part is that the silk itself has faded, yet the stitched patterns still hold their original color. Why is that?"

At the words 'Embroidered Ball', the old woman's steady hands gave a sudden tremble. "I made that in passing many years ago. It isn't anything precious. I just kept it as a memento."

"Is that really all?" As she spoke, the deep wrinkles on her face were quivering. She was obviously highly emotional, unable to hide it at all.

She clearly wasn't telling the truth, which further confirmed a suspicion of mine.

Instead of pressing the issue, I gently placed the Embroidered Ball back into the bamboo basket and covered it with the silk. "I put the Embroidered Ball back. I just noticed the craftsmanship was different from the silk on top, so I got a little curious."

"The craftsmanship is quite different." The old woman's expression softened considerably, the tight lines on her face relaxing. "A woman only makes this kind of Embroidered Ball once in her life. The thread used isn't ordinary, either. It is her own hair."

"Hair? No wonder. Even after all these years, when the silk itself has faded, the threads remain tough, smooth, and as vibrant as ever." I looked at the black stitches on the Embroidered Ball, then up at the silver-haired Old Granny in front of me. For the first time, I felt the sheer weight of time so palpably.

"There is a technique in Su Embroidery known as hair embroidery. It uses black hair as thread and white silk as a backing." She left some things unsaid, but I had already caught on.

A person's body and hair are gifts from their parents. In the past, hair was used to convey unwavering loyalty and deep affection. A woman would give her hair to her lover as a symbol of eternally tying hearts together. In that light, this Embroidered Ball certainly held extraordinary significance for her.

"Did you have anything else to ask?" she asked, fixing her completely white, pupil-less eyes on me. "If not, go rest outside. Do not touch the iron chains on the door, stay away from the windows covered in red paper, and remember—don't let the red candles inside the room go out."

She laid out a few bizarre rules, but I didn't do as she asked. I bent down and glanced at the short, shadowy figure hiding beneath the blanket, my gaze resting on the spherical object in his arms.

"Granny, are you one of the survivors of the Pig Cage Apartments from decades ago? Did you... eat meat too?"

The moment I said that, her hand jerked back. Looking down, I saw that the needle had pricked her fingertip, drawing blood.

The Old Granny hadn't expected me to say that. Caught entirely off guard, it seemed I had just laid bare the deepest secret buried in her heart.

Bleeding from her finger, the old woman sat there in a daze, holding the half-embroidered silk. A drop of blood fell onto the white brocade, staining the silk threads red.

"I have never mentioned this to anyone. How did you know?" the Old Granny asked, her voice changing, suddenly rushed.

"Jinghai is a massive city, yet you chose to live right next to the Pig Cage Apartments, and you've stayed here for years. That in itself is highly unusual." I stood by the bed and pulled back the blanket. The short, shadowy figure hiding beneath it instantly darted out and hid behind her. "The person you've been waiting for all this time must be this child. Although I can't clearly see what he's holding, the size and shape perfectly match your treasured Embroidered Ball. I once watched the Ancient Building from Bai Ya'er's apartment on the fourth floor; this little guy ran out from there. You claimed you have no family, so why would you stubbornly stay in the Red Building, waiting every single night for a child who runs out of the Ancient Building? Since you aren't related by blood, there's only one possibility. You two knew each other a very long time ago, and that Embroidered Ball is the best proof."

"This little guy refuses to let go of his Embroidered Ball, proving it's the most precious thing he has. Meanwhile, you've carefully preserved yours for over seventy years, proving you care about it just as much." I took a deep breath, piecing together all the clues in my head. "And there's something else you said earlier—'Seventy years have passed for me, while he simply repeats another night.' You said it with such a lamenting tone. I didn't understand what you meant at first, but after seeing that you two have the same Embroidered Ball, it all clicked. Over seventy years ago, both you and this little guy lived in the Pig Cage Apartments. Then, some tragic incident occurred. You survived, but he met a terrible fate."

After I finished speaking, a cold sweat broke out across my back. I was terrified that, much like Zhang Shuxue, she wouldn't be able to handle the shock and would let her obsession take over her body.

Minutes ticked by. She remained seated where she was. She turned her head to look at the small, shadowy figure cowering behind her, an incredibly complex emotion welling up in her completely white eyes.

"You're right. I am a survivor from the Pig Cage Apartments." The Old Granny slowly closed her eyes and told me a story far bleaker than despair.

"Over seventy years ago, to escape the ravages of war, my entire family fled from Xiangnan to Jinghai. Back then, this area was still a foreign concession."

"My father was a silk merchant. He had arranged everything in advance, and we thought we would easily find refuge inside the concession. But who could have foreseen that the concession authorities would delay time and time again? In the end, we were temporarily housed in the Longchang Community, making us its very first tenants."

"I was only eight years old at the time. I spent my days learning Su Embroidery from my mother, constantly yearning for the day we could enter the concession. Unfortunately, every night I waited up for my father to return, only to watch that faint hope fall through."

"The flames of war raged on, and the people were left utterly destitute. More and more refugees sought safety in the concession. Over a month passed, and eventually, there were at least tens of thousands of people stranded Outside Jinghai Customs."

"Organized by the refugees themselves, Longchang was continuously expanded to make room for new tenants. That was when he appeared."

"His name was Gu Junsheng. He was a year younger than me, and not even as tall. He was so thin and frail that when I first saw him, I thought he was a sickly child."

"His father was a soldier, supposedly fighting on the front lines. It wasn't easy for his mother to raise him all on her own."

"There were a lot of kids in the Longchang Neighborhood, but they were wild. Fighting and roughhousing were common. Junsheng was always the one getting picked on. Once, I simply couldn't stand it anymore and stepped in to help him. From then on, I gained a little shadow."

"He loved to read, and he loved to watch me embroider. And I loved to listen to him recite poetry."

"'The zither has fifty strings for no reason, every string and bridge recalls the prime of life.' His voice was beautiful to listen to. As we spent more time together, I slowly realized he wasn't sickly and weak; he just had a very delicate, refined appearance."

"Those days lasted for a little while. About seven months later, the front lines collapsed after a series of brutal defeats. The fires of war finally reached Jinghai. All supply lines were severed, leaving Jinghai an entirely isolated city."

"Army supplies became scarce, which naturally meant less and less food was distributed to the refugees. Eventually, the concession completely abandoned the tens of thousands of people trapped in the outer district. They even mounted machine guns at the Hongqiao Port. Anyone outside who tried to force their way into the inner district was gunned down on sight."

"The hope of finding safety inside the concession was entirely shattered. Some people tried to flee Jinghai altogether, but the outside had already fallen under enemy occupation. A total blockade was enforced. For every ten people who ran, only one or two made it out alive. Tens of thousands were trapped in the outer district."

"Without a steady food source, those tens of thousands of people scoured the land like locusts. Frogs, minnows, voles—anything edible was crammed into their stomachs. Later on, people had to fight over fern roots, grass stems, and tree bark."

The old woman's voice trembled, her eyes squeezed tightly shut. "When a dragonfly is starving, it will eat its own tail. When a human being is driven mad by starvation, they will do far more horrifying things. The ground was littered with the starved. People resorted to trading children to eat. A special kind of 'meat' began to appear among the refugees."

"If you didn't eat, you died. If you died, you were eaten. Mad. Everyone had gone completely mad."

"Over a few months, the number of the living dwindled. From strangers to family members, people wept as they swallowed. That was when Longchang earned the name Pig Cage Apartments."

"My mother committed suicide. She wanted my father to stay alive and take care of me. But she could never have expected that after leaving the apartment one day, my father would never return."

"Tens of thousands were reduced to a mere few thousand in just over half a year. To survive and to avoid unnecessary deaths from fighting, someone in the apartment complex established a brand new set of rules. Everyone had their own number. Once the previous person was eaten, the next number would be drawn at random to serve as food..."

Calloused hands covered her face. The Old Granny bowed her head, hiding her expression from my sight.

"Unfortunately, I was drawn in the second month. That night, I washed myself clean and stayed alone in my room. There were guards outside. I couldn't tell if what I felt in my heart was terror or a sense of relief. Sitting in the chair my mother always used, just as I had done so many times before, I threaded my needle. I wanted to leave something behind for Junsheng."

"Sometime past midnight, Junsheng suddenly came to find me. He said he had found a route to slip past the guards and escape. He wanted to take me with him."

"I believed him. Just before dawn, he led me as we quietly slipped out of Longchang. We took the same path we normally took, yet there wasn't a single guard in sight."

"When we neared the enemy-occupied territory, he suddenly said he had forgotten something very important. He told me to wait for him in the mountain hollow where we used to play together. But who could have known that this wait would drag on for so long..."