Daomu Biji: A Thousand Faces

TV shows usually omitted the wrap-up scenes of an adventure. When the screen lit up again after a protagonist was injured, he was already present at a field hospital. At this point, the explosion scene had already been cleaned up and his wounds had already been stitched. Either the protagonist still had his eyes closed and hadn’t regained consciousness, or he could already talk affectionately with the supporting cast about the upcoming plot. 

When conveying these messages, plot progression was more important than the process of how his injuries were treated. In real life, however, the more important part was what was omitted on screen. It didn’t matter whether the story would progress further or not.

Ah Tou turned the heater to its maximum setting and then tucked Liang Yanyan under the covers. Then, she got some warm water and wiped the mud off the unconscious woman’s body bit by bit. 

Ah Tou always did things quite meticulously, so she started with Liang Yanyan’s arms and kept the rest of the woman’s body under the covers. After Liang Yanyan’s arms were cleaned, Ah Tou wrapped some towels around them before wiping the next body part. Liang Yanyan had the type of figure that attracted many men’s interest. Ah Tou had dreamed of having such a body when she was little, but after she grew up, she unhesitatingly chose to please herself rather than pleasing the opposite sex. 

After she cleaned up Liang Yanyan’s front, Ah Tou realized that the other woman didn’t have any injuries on her body at all. Moreover, her skin was in extremely good condition. Ah Tou pressed the area where Liang Yanyan had broken her ribs and found that they had already been healed. There wasn’t a depression, either. 

She wanted to turn Liang Yanyan over to wipe the other woman’s back, but she was too weak to do it. Plus, the bedsheets were already muddy, so if she were to turn Liang Yanyan over, the woman’s front would become dirty again. Ah Tou sat down on her bed and recalled a time when she had been sick before. Her attendant had to lift her up one-handed while using the other hand to pull the sheets off and replace them with new ones.

At that time Ah Tou was as light as a feather because she was quite lean. Liang Yanyan, however, only had a small body. She didn’t have many flabby areas, but she did have some muscles and was quite tall. As a result, the two women were vastly different in weight. 

Ah Tou’s final solution was to put the two beds together, turn Liang Yanyan sideways to clean her back, flip her directly onto the other bed so that she was lying face down, and then call housekeeping to replace the muddy sheets. 

Ah Tou continued pushing Liang Yanyan, trying to get the other woman to lie on her side, but she failed again after a couple of times. At this time, she once again saw the tattoo on Liang Yanyan’s back. She couldn’t see it clearly because the other woman was still lying on her back (which was all covered in mud) but the tattoo was so huge that it didn’t look like something random. There had to be a story behind it. 

Ah Tou suddenly became intrigued and wanted to take a closer look at it. She took a deep breath and went to the other side of the bed to push the woman on her side from another angle. At this time, her wrist was suddenly grabbed and Liang Yanyan opened her eyes and looked at her.

Ah Tou heaved a big sigh. So, she was able to wake up? Were all my efforts done in vain again?

“Where’s Long Immortal?” Liang Yanyan asked her in a very faint voice. 

"When I came out of the shower, you were already lying in bed. I didn't see him but I think he sent you back."

Liang Yanyan looked at her and asked weakly, “Did you clean me up?"

"I thought you'd be sleeping a little longer, so I wanted to make you more comfortable," Ah Tou replied awkwardly.

"I’m quite comfortable," Liang Yanyan smiled. "I'll take a shower later."

Then, the two fell silent. "Are you hungry?” Ah Tou asked after a while. “I can order something to eat."

Liang Yanyan shook her head slightly. She didn’t speak again but continued to look at Ah Tou with a very soft expression in her eyes.

Is she showing her real self because she’s too weak? Ah Tou wondered. The two stayed silent for a while, which just made her feel awkward. “Well…the chauffeur had a checkup and was diagnosed with stomach cancer. But he’s recovered now—” 

"You don't have to try to break the ice,” Liang Yanyan grabbed Ah Tou's hand. "I just need a bit more rest, don’t mind me." She patted Ah Tou’s hand, "I've made you dirty." (1)

Ah Tou had just taken a shower, but for some reason, she felt that the scene in front of her was so intense that she couldn’t resist it anymore. She nodded uncontrollably and headed into the bathroom. 

But after she got into the bathroom, she felt that she was being kind of unreasonable. What am I doing? Didn’t I just take a shower? But she couldn't leave now and just laugh it off, so she turned on the showerhead and started washing her hands. Her clothes got wet while she was washing her hands, so she took off her pyjamas. By the time she came back to her senses, she found herself naked and taking another shower. 

She began to calm down while showering, and after taking a few deep breaths, she said to herself, "This isn’t necessary. There’s no need. This is just social anxiety. She was just telling me her real thoughts. I don’t have to respond to her.”

When she came out of the bathroom again after drying off, Liang Yanyan was no longer in bed. The dirty sheets were all on the floor and a female housekeeper was in the middle of taking them out. Liang Yanyan had put on a T-shirt and was leaning against the balcony door while smoking and examining the X-rays they had brought out of the basement before.

Since she was bare-legged, the middle-aged housekeeper kept telling her in broken Mandarin that her knees would hurt when she got old. Liang Yanyan's face remained expressionless the whole time as she continued looking at the X-rays very carefully.

Au Tou sat down on her bed, deciding not to bother the other woman. She had lost her phone and bag, so she just stared at everything in the hotel room. She didn’t know when or how she fell asleep, but when she woke up, it was already noon. Or maybe it was afternoon since the sun was shining brightly outside. The beds were still pushed together, so she could see Liang Yanyan sleeping heavily beside her. 

She felt extremely relieved being surrounded by the other woman’s scent and soon went back to sleep. It was the sound of the TV that woke her up again. She sat up, suddenly feeling completely sober. She had never slept so well in her adult life. 

She realized that Liang Yanyan had woken up a long time ago. There were clothes strewn all over the bed, indicating that the other woman had gone shopping at some point. Liang Yanyan was messing with the TV, on top of which was a videotape recorder that had probably come from a second-hand market. There were also a lot of alcohol and cotton swabs sitting off to the side. The videotapes taken from the basement had all been cleaned and Liang Yanyan was trying to get them to play.

"The truth is in these tapes," Liang Yanyan said to Ah Tou as she seemed to get one of the tapes to start working. "You can sleep more if you want."

Ah Tou yawned and shook her head right as a doctor showed up on the TV screen and spoke into the camera, “I’m Dr. Pan Boda, a surgical oncologist. This is a pre-surgical recording. The surgery I’ll be performing this time is very special, so we’ll try our best to record as much detail as possible to document mine and my patient’s decision. Everything we’re recording now will be preserved as evidence. If anyone questions what happened today, you’ll see how we got to this stage, step by step."

Then, the doctor moved away from the camera, revealing the patient on the operating table behind him. It was Long Immortal. The operating table couldn’t fully accommodate him, so there was an extension that seemed to have been welded to the bed. It was hardly possible to estimate his height, but you could tell that he was extremely tall. 

The camera zoomed in, showing Long Immortal’s extremely serious expression. He pulled out a piece of A4 paper with his huge hand and began reading:

“I volunteered and initiated this operation to study the relationship between my brain tumor and the symptoms my body is exhibiting. I have not been coerced or deluded by anyone. Instead, everyone involved in this operation has been constantly trying to persuade me to give up this surgery and stay alive. But my knowledge of life has made me fearless of death, so I decided to have a craniotomy. If anything happens during this surgery, it will be my own responsibility.”

Then, Long Immortal put down the A4 paper and said to the camera, "I don’t know why, but I have the ability to cure diseases. In order for me to use this ability on people, God gave me a sensitive heart that made me feel my patients’ joy and pain. By treating my patients, I’ve perceived countless lives in the world and seemed to become a part of their lives. Because of this, I have lived countless times so I’m not afraid of death."

He paused. "While experiencing my patients’ feelings, I hoped to find someone who would suffer less from life. A lot of people believe that life is bittersweet, but no, it’s hardly ever sweet. Many people are against me on this but let me tell you the result of my sympathy: most of your lives will be full of pain.

“I can heal their diseases and keep them alive, but I know that their pain won’t go away.

“Experiencing enough lives means experiencing different kinds of pain. After I turned thirty, I lost the ability to heal them and would even make them worse. 

“I thought God wanted me to learn more, but later, I realized that God didn’t deprive me of the ability to heal. I had simply been given the ultimate ability to heal the pain: death.

“I’ve felt the lives of so many people, but I can't find a single episode of their lives without lies, betrayals, self-imposed worries, or fears. I tried so hard to save people, but they kept trying to fight for what they would inevitably lose and destroyed what they already had. How could they not understand that they were endowed with so many beautiful things that I never had?

“Why do people always have to lower their heads and choose to suffer? I just wanted to say that as humans, we shouldn’t lower our heads, because our parents once lifted us above their heads.”

He paused again. "After I turned thirty, I also wondered whether I should use my ability to help people end their suffering and free them from their pain forever. But after thinking about it for a long time, I finally realized—"

Long Immortal looked at the camera, "You don't deserve it."

“I'm tired. I just want to take a look at what’s inside me. I want to know what makes me who I am. I'm too sensitive and I can feel everything in this world. It's making me extremely tired. You should be happy for me. If I die during this surgery, I'll be resting forever and won’t be tired anymore.” 

Long Immortal’s expression looked extremely tired. In fact, Ah Tou had never seen anyone look this tired before. After he finished speaking, he closed his eyes. Ah Tou saw that the doctors around Long Immortal were crying, and she suddenly realized that her own eyes were wet with tears.

This was a simple and unadorned speech, but under the weight of such exhaustion, Ah Tou suddenly felt that Long Immortal was too pitiful. He was so pitiful that even death was a gift for him.

Dr. Pan Boda, who had been living with Long Immoral for several years now, turned to the camera and said, "The surgery is about to begin. I’m very honored. The mortality rate for this surgery is ninety percent, so maybe I’ll end up in hell because of this.”

"There’s no hell," Long Immortal said from behind him. "There’s only what you imagine hell to be.”

Ah Tou looked at Liang Yanyan and found that the other woman also had watery eyes. She went over, huddled into her side, and continued watching. 

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TN Notes:

(1) I've made you dirty = I did you dirty 

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