Chapter 5 Confession (1/2)

“Gu Yu.” Just at this moment, Wen Jiubo suddenly asked, “Tell me honestly, how long have you been preparing this speech for?”

I looked up, embarrassed and angry because he saw right through me. “Wen Jiubo!”

He burst into loud laughter. I could see the slyness in his fox-like eyes. I glared at him, but after a short while, I was affected by the atmosphere in the room and laughed as well.

As soon as the laughter started up, it became hard to control. As Wen Jiubo’s chortle turned into an enormous belly laugh, I also laughed so hard that my chest began to hurt.

After a while, Wen Jiubo finally stopped, leaving only a slight smile on his face. He stood up from the table and beckoned to me.

“Gu Yu, come. I need to show you something.”

“Okay?” I stood up.

Wen Jiubo turned around and left the table. I followed him, crossed the lobby and came to the porch.

Outside the door, the light of day was fading away, giving away to the velvety darkness of the night. The moon hadn’t come out, but the stars shone brightly in the gathering gloom.

Wen Jiubo raised his head and looked up at the sky. Suddenly, he lifted his hand and pointed towards the south. “Gu Yu, can you see it?”

“See what?” I lifted my head, looking in the direction where he pointed at.

“There, below the middle of the sky, can you see a constellation?” Wen Jiubo asked.

I looked again in the direction Wen Jiubo pointed. However, due to my limited knowledge of stars, I couldn’t distinguish any constellations.

I answered bitterly, “While I can see the stars, I don’t how to find the constellations…”

Wen Jiubo patiently pointed with his slender fingers at the sky. “It’s the end of December now, so you can find Aries below the middle of the sky, and Taurus is located east of Aries; further to the east, you can find Gemini.”

I narrowed my eyes and tried to find the constellations he talked about, however, instead of being able to tell them apart, I began to feel dizzy after intensely staring at the bright stars for a long time.

I shook my head, indicating that I could not recognize any of them.

Wen Jiubo glanced at me and smiled. He put down his arm and whispered, “In the eyes of the ancient Greeks, constellations were formed by various animals, and the names of twelve constellations all came from the ancient Greeks. In astronomy, the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is called ‘the ecliptic’. The ecliptic system includes the orbits of all planets as well as constellations. A celestial belt is exactly divided into twelve constellations of thirty degrees longitude, which we call ‘the twelve signs of the zodiac’. In fact, the word ‘zodiac’ in Greek means ‘zoo’, but when astrology was introduced into our country, the ancient people thought the sun was great, so the place where it rests must be a glittering golden palace, that’s why we called it the twelve palaces of the zodiac in Chinese.”

Wen Jiubo started his lecture again without any reason. His words made me confused.

“Why are you telling me this?” I asked.

Wen Jiubo shook his head and said, “No reason, it’s just… I’ve wandered in this world for thousands of years. People come and go, the only thing that remains are the stars. The stars were the same before my birth and they will remain the same after I die. Nature is the true law, it doesn’t change for anyone.”

I stared at him silently. I had a hunch telling me that he had something important to say.

“Sorry, I lied to you.” He turned his head to look at me. There was a faint smile on his face.

“When?”

“I told you, I forced you to have that dream to peek at the future because I can’t travel along my own timeline. That was a lie,” Wen Jiubo whispered. “Actually, I should have done this myself, but right before I started, I got scared.”

“Scared? What were you scared of?”

“I was scared of witnessing my own death.” Wen Jiubo sat cross-legged in front of the porch. He said quietly, “You were right. Everyone fears their own death. As for me, I’m not just scared, I’m petrified.”

This sentence was exactly the same as what Wen Jiubo said in my dream.

“If you do evil things when you’re alive, you will be punished in the afterlife.” Wen Jiubo smiled bitterly. “People usually use those words to frighten little children. However, when they know their doom approaches, anyone will ask themselves if they have ever done anything bad in their life. And then they will die without regret. And for me… huh, I don’t think I need to say more than that.”

While he was talking, he looked at the horizon. “You asked if I’m scared of death? Of course, I am. But what can I do about it? I’m already a dying man, perhaps this is the best ending for me.”