Who Moved My Ashes Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Chen Man sat at the head of the bed. The moon outside rose high then slowly fell. The blood between her fingers gradually thinned out and slowly dried. No matter what happened in the outside world and to her body, Chen Man’s time was paused. She couldn’t move, hurt, cry or laugh.
Never in a million years did Jiang Xichu think that Chen Man would be affected this much by her death. She was so shocked that she missed a detail: no one would have been this devastated by the death of a good friend. This was the kind of reaction that could only be seen when someone loses the love of their life, shattering their entire world.
For three whole days, Jiang Xichu stayed with Chen Man. She didn’t go anywhere. She looked at the haggard Chen Man who only ate two meals in three days. She had one bottle of yogurt which was bought by Jiang Xichu for Chen Man - it was a snack for her to drink as a nutritional supplement. Now the yogurt had expired, and although it hadn’t deteriorated, it shouldn’t be consumed. Chen Man didn’t even look at the expiry date and drank it.
The other meal was frozen zongzi* that Jiang Xichu also bought for her. Chen Man was extremely lazy. She was used to being pampered like a princess and didn’t take care of herself at all. Jiang Xichu was her chief secretary and would also be her nanny in private. She was the one who hired the housekeeper for regular cleaning services, and also the one who dragged Chen Man to the supermarket to stock the kitchen. The zongzi may have a longer shelf life than yogurt, but Chen Man simply popped them in the microwave, plastic wrapping still attached.
(TLN: Zongzi (粽子) is a traditional Chinese steamed rice dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with a range of fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Can be sweet or savory)
When Jiang Xichu saw this scene, she almost came alive due to anger.
Chen Man watched the microwave turn and turn. When she heard the “Ding” sound, she took out the plate, but found that the plastic was deformed and melted onto the glutinous rice. She looked at it and directly removed the plastic covering. As if nothing had happened, she continued to peel off the leaf from the stuffed glutinous rice.
Jiang Xichi scolded her angrily: “Is your head full of mush? Don’t you know that this makes the food poisonous?! Don’t eat it, you’ll end up going to the hospital!”
Chen Man couldn't hear her. She peeled off the leaf from the stuffed glutinous rice and numbly took a bite. After biting down on it, she found that although it was hot on the outside, the stuffing was still cold, the more she bit, the colder it was. The red date in the middle was as hard as ice.
Now Jiang Xichu understood how Chen Man had managed to turn herself into such a sorry state after only half a month.
She had no intention of living properly at all.
If Chen Man had lived like this since she passed away, she would die in no more than a week.
At first, Jiang Xichu looked at her with a gloomy face. After staring at her for a long time, she finally bit her lower lip and decided to go back to the underworld to fetch back-up. She couldn't save Chen Man, but the old man and the little brother in white would be able to. She couldn’t watch Chen Man torment herself this much.
After making up her mind, Jiang Xichu was ready to leave immediately.
Chen Man paused mid-bite. From her perspective, she could only feel a gust of wind blowing past, but at the same time, she felt a sudden pang of pain in her heart.
Like that day, when she sat in her office. Nothing was happening, but she suddenly felt a sharp, stabbing pain in her heart. Less than two minutes later, secretary Yang had rushed in, face panicked and pale, telling her that something terrible had happened downstairs.
Recalling the scene from that day, Chen Man closed her eyes briefly, uncaring of the sudden pain. There wasn’t a day that went by without her heart hurting, so a sudden flare-up like this came as no surprise to her.
When Jiang Xichu went to the wall, intending to step through it and go back to the tunnel, she was shocked to find that she couldn’t leave.
As she stood at the wall, Jiang Xichu suddenly remembered that Secretary Yang liked to read all kinds of supernatural novels, and sometimes would call her so they could read together. In these novels, there was a kind of soul called the Earth-bound spirit*.
(TLN: aka the Stone Tape theory (地缚灵) a pseudoscientific claim that ghosts and hauntings occur when traumatic events are imprinted on certain stones or other materials and are subsequently replayed, similar to a magnetic tape recording)
......
......
......
Surely she couldn't be that unlucky, could she?
As it turned out, she was that unlucky; no matter which direction she went, she couldn’t get out. It was like the house had an enchantment on it and she was completely trapped. At the same time, Jiang Xichu never strayed into thinking about the possibility she would become a stranded ghost. She only had one thought left in her heart: what would happen to Chen Man?
She couldn't go out, and no one visited. Chen Man’s family also lived overseas. As long as she didn’t say anything, no one would find her behavior strange. Then wouldn’t she...
Jiang Xichu finally panicked.
With the exception of Chen Man’s two words to the urn that night, the rest of the time, Chen Man was just like a wooden puppet. She sat on the bed, held the urn in her hands, fell asleep without realising, woke up from a nightmare, cried, slept, woke up, and so on.
When Secretary Yang came to the door, Jiang Xichu almost cried with joy. She looked at Secretary Yang as if she was an angel who had descended from the sky.
But the angel’s expression wasn’t good.
She pressed the doorbell for a long time, about ten minutes. She just kept pressing it until finally, Chen Man opened the door for her. Secretary Yang looked at Chen Man expressionlessly, but her eyes were explicitly cold.
“President Chen, it’s time for you to go back to work.”
Chen Man wore a casual suit. She remembered Jiang Xichu’s tidy nature, so she still cleaned herself daily. This spared Secretary Yang from being able to see her with an unkept appearance.
She turned her eyes away, not wanting to talk to Secretary Yang. “You have Zhang Mei there. Go find him and don’t bother me.”
Zhang Mei was the vice president of the company. He was older than Chen Man and had always wanted Chen Man’s company, scheming all the time. Both Chen Man and Jiang Xichu knew this, so when she heard Chen Man’s words, Jiang Xichu was stunned.
She didn’t even care about the company that she founded herself?
Secretary Yang looked at Chen Man and realized she was serious. She could no longer hold back any longer.
Chen Man had opened the door but didn’t let her in, so Secretary Yang squeezed herself in and closed the door with a bang. Then, as if she had been possessed by the spirit of Jiang Xichu, unleashed a torrent of words upon Chen Man. “I know you’re sad, who isn’t? But you have to think for yourself, think for the employees of the company. Life goes on, there are still so many tasks at hand, you can’t just throw away your responsibilities!”
Chen Man kept her eyes averted, refusing to look at her, as if she hadn't heard a word Secretary Yang said.
Secretary Yang faltered, and her voice dropped. “President Chen, it’s been a long time, you have to let it go. I understand your feelings, a … of mine also passed in an accident. But what about it? The dead are gone, and the living must continue to live.”
Jiang Xichu looked at Secretary Yang. The latter had muffled a word. ‘What of yours? Your friend?’
Chen Man finally had a small reaction. She looked at Secretary Yang and shook her head gently, “It’s different.”
Secretary Yang didn’t understand, “What’s different?”
After a brief pause, Chen Man’s answer drifted out like it came from thin air. came out of thin air. “I loved her deeper than you. You could walk out of the shadows and fall in love with another, but I…I can’t.”
At first, Jiang Xichu didn’t react.
The moment the words sank in, she turned sharply, her gaze landing on Chen Man with stunned, frozen disbelief. The latter kept her gaze lowered, masking the intensity of her emotions in her eyes. Secretary Yang felt a wave of shock herself, and after a long silence she sighed. “I won’t persuade you anymore. You won’t listen to me, but I will come tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. As long as I haven’t been dismissed by the company, I will come every day.”
Secretary Yang placed her hand on the doorknob and turned her back to Chen Man. Before she left, she turned her head and said one last sentence: “But I’m not doing this for you. There are plenty of general managers who treat their subordinates well, you’re not special in that regard. I’m doing this for Secretary Jiang. You might not care if this company goes under - after all, your family is wealthy so you have no need to worry about that - but for Secretary Jiang, this is where she gave her youth and poured her life into. You can always start another company, I can move to a better job, but for Secretary Jiang, she had nowhere else but here.”
Jiang Xichu looked at Secretary Yang’s back dazedly as she departed. When she was alive, she didn’t have a good relationship with Secretary Yang. They just worked together and occasionally went out to play when they had a break. She didn’t expect Secretary Yang to say something like this here.
Chen Man seemed to have been influenced by these words. After Secretary Yang’s departure, she finally took out the hand that she had been hiding behind her. She didn’t want Secretary Yang to see it. Her first was clenched tightly and her thoughts known only to herself.
The next day, Chen Man went back to the company.
Chen Man left, but Jiang Xichu couldn’t leave, she was still trapped in the house. From this day on, Chen Man would leave early at 6 o’clock in the morning and come back at 11 o’clock every night. If one arrived home and went straight to bed, this kind of schedule was okay, but she didn’t go to bed..
When Chen Man returned home, the first thing she did was fill her stomach with fast food and snacks. The second thing was to go to the study and continue to work. At about two or three o’clock, she would go to bed and sleep while holding Jiang Xichu’s ashes.
She slept for less than five hours every day, and it was visibly wearing her down. Chen Man’s entire appearance grew more and more haggard. Jiang Xichu didn’t know what she was trying to accomplish from her hard work. When Chen Man was working, she would watch. When Chen Man was sleeping, she would watch. She hoped that Chen Man would say some more words to the urn and let out her thoughts and emotions, but Chen Man was too busy. She was like a clockwork toy. She squandered all her energy and then didn’t know how to rest.
It continued like this until half a year later, when Jiang Xichu finally discovered Chen Man’s reasoning.
She wanted to personally promote a person to take over as general manager.
The candidate was ready-made, that was, it was the sales director. Chen Man had been busy all this time in order to train and pave the way for her. This way, after the sales director took over, as long as she didn’t do too badly, the company would continue to thrive.
The company had been saved, and the person she had chosen was also very good. She had talent and will certainly run the company well.
After she transferred the position of general manager to the sales director, Chen Man never went back to the company again. Secretary Yang had come over two or three times, but each time, no matter what she said, she couldn’t persuade Chen Man.
During this period, Chen Man’s parents also called and video chatted with her several times. Chen Man’s disguise was very good. Even if there was something wrong, Chen Man would cover it up with words. Her parents checked out the situation of their daughter’s company and found that it was well. They thought she was self-confident and no longer had doubts. So, even after so much time had passed, they still hadn’t realised that their daughter had developed a severe problem.
…
Two months have passed, and today is a different day.
Because today, Chen Man received a phone call. The other party told her the murderer was finally executed.
The reason for his murder spree was very simple. He had no job, his family was very poor, his wife couldn’t stand him and ran away with his children. He didn’t want to live anymore, but before he died, he wanted to take a few people with him. Before his wife divorced him, he was a clerk of Chen Man’s company, so he set the scene of his crime at the door of his old job.
After she listened to the other party’s words, Chen Man simply snorted, then hung up the phone.
Jiang Xichu looked at her silently. She had been trapped here for nearly a year. Chen Man didn’t speak, and the oppressive atmosphere could almost drive people crazy.
She could see that something was different about Chen Man, but she couldn’t say exactly what was different.
In the evening, Chen Man held the urn in her arms again. She lowered her head and kissed it gently.
“He’s dead.”
Jiang Xichu sat on her knees beside her, heard her words and snorted, regardless of whether or not Chen Man could hear.
“I can’t avenge you because he has nothing and doesn’t care about anything. I can’t retaliate against his wife and children because they are innocent, just like you.”
Chen Man caressed the lines on the urn and gently asked, “Do you blame me?”
“No.” Jiang Xichu hung her head. Everyone had their own lives, Chen Man was right to do nothing.
Chen Man placed the urn in her arms and curled up. Her thin waist was like straw, looking as if it would break from a touch. For a long time, she didn’t speak. Jiang Xichu thought she was going to sleep, but then she abruptly said something.
“...I’m so tired.”
Chen Man's voice was too light, almost impossible to hear. “I’m really tired. But I’m lazy. I’m afraid of fatigue, pain and sadness. I’m a coward. I can’t be as strong as you. I know, you must want to scold me again, or yell at me.”
The air was silent. Chen Man gave a faint smile and her eyelids gradually closed.
Jiang Xichu looked at her and seemed to realise something. She stood up in a panic and looked around. Finally, she ran to the kitchen and saw that the gas stove was on - for how long, she didn’t know. In that moment, Jiang Xichu realized what was more terrible than death.