Shapeshifters

Shuisheng didn’t seem like a fool either; usually silent, but he didn’t miss this chance to interact with her a bit. However, thinking about the water stains on the ceiling made it all clear. This way, Su Ying and I got acquainted. I half-jokingly said to her, “This counts as fate.” She nodded in agreement. “Well, I’ll excuse myself for a moment,” Su Ying surveyed the water in the room and sighed, “I need to tidy up the place first.” “It must be tough cleaning up alone. Since I’m free, let me help too.” Now that we knew each other, it would be impolite to just leave, especially with such a beautiful lady. I volunteered eagerly. Unexpectedly, she unceremoniously invited me inside. The room was a mess, with wet newspapers scattered everywhere and a few slippers floating like little boats on the water. Many things were hastily piled on a table, including clumps of just-pulled-out wires. This was probably the messiest room I had ever seen in a single woman’s apartment. “Guys can help by mopping the floor; I’m not strong enough,” she said, tossing her hair and handing me a mop, which I took, secretly sticking out my tongue. Thus, we started our cleaning, and during this, we had some initial conversation. “Besides shooting ads, what else do you do?” “I go to class!” Su Ying answered casually. “Oh, you’re still a university student?” I was slightly surprised. “Yes, I study film at Shanghai University. Sometimes people ask me to shoot some small ads; I just earn some pocket money.” “But your ads are often on TV. Do people ask you for autographs?” This was true; her shampoo ad seemed to be on during prime time slots, and occasionally, her hair-flipping pose would catch my eye. If there was any flaw in the impression she gave me, it was that her eyes always seemed a bit vacant, perhaps due to just waking up or a lazy gaze. Moreover, her tone when answering me was always very casual. If it were a carefree man, such an attitude would be annoying, but with the beauty before me, it added a touch of mystery. “Not really, it’s okay,” I said while mopping, suddenly noticing that most of the floor from the bathroom to the living room was waterproof, so I jokingly asked, “Do you often encounter such situations? You don’t seem nervous at all, like you don’t care.” Unexpectedly, she looked at me and nodded. My small deduction was correct. “I particularly enjoy the feeling of being submerged in water,” she paused, made a gesture of water up to her neck, and smiled, “It’s much more comfortable than sleeping in bed, so I often lose myself in it, soaking endlessly, almost like an out-of-body experience, so the water often overflows, but fortunately, the people downstairs are quite nice. Shuisheng has never complained.” I remembered the water stains that were already on the ceiling, now understanding their cause. Besides, Shuisheng was not good at socializing, so he probably wouldn’t know how to handle such a situation, especially with a beauty like her. But I had never heard of such a peculiar habit. Maybe those addicted to saunas or Turkish baths were somewhat similar. In any case, she left me with an initial impression of having a quirky personality. I continued to mop the floor with gusto, Su Ying swept the water onto the balcony, and I casually mentioned the key issue of last night’s encounter. Thinking about the atmosphere last night, I couldn’t help but shiver. “Do you often go for midnight walks?” “So it was you last night. No, I just couldn’t sleep last night and went for a walk.” She looked at me, brushing her hair as she answered. I couldn’t help but ask, “Aren’t you scared in the middle of the night?” “Scared of what?” “Scared of… ghosts!” I said jokingly. “What’s there to be afraid of!” To my surprise, Su Ying seemed a bit annoyed, her tone becoming somewhat agitated. “No, I was just kidding, really…” I didn’t expect her to get so easily agitated, so I quickly explained. “Then what were you doing there in the dead of night?” she retorted. “Uh?” I hadn’t expected her to ask that, and then realized I had no reasonable explanation. Could I earnestly tell her that I was out because a black cat, flattened by a truck and vomiting a pool of blood, started wandering and meowing outside my window in the middle of the night, so I went to chase it, but after chasing it for a while, I ended up meeting her? Such an answer would make Su Ying think I was either mentally unstable or making up excuses with ill intent, neither of which was what I wanted. For a moment, I racked my brain for an excuse, and we both fell silent, making the situation somewhat awkward. “It’s okay, I actually don’t want to know,” Su Ying, seeing my embarrassment, spoke first, “We need to clean up quickly; I have classes this afternoon.” “Oh, right,” I quickly said, “I have things to do this afternoon too, need to get back to the newsroom. Let’s hurry.” So, while we continued our work, we chatted casually, focused on cleaning, and soon cleared the water from the room. After saying goodbye, I went downstairs to freshen up and prepare for the afternoon’s work. Back in my room, I turned on the computer to check my workload for the month and realized I hadn’t submitted enough articles. This could mean failing to meet my targets, which was no laughing matter as a seasoned professional journalist… But speaking of which, recent news has been uninteresting. After all, news requires journalists to dig it out. Although I’ve been online daily these past couple of days, I haven’t come across anything interesting or novel. I’m not one to follow the crowd and write trivial stories or hype up boring news, so after that official piece about Zhidan Courtyard, I haven’t written much. Zhidan Courtyard! Right! I almost forgot I live next to this archaeological site. One way or another, I should dig up some news from there; it would be a waste of such an opportunity otherwise. I hastily finished my lunch with instant noodles, left the house, and headed straight for the site.
When I arrived at the construction site, I saw a man from a distance wearing a hard hat, standing by the edge of the site with blueprints in hand, seemingly directing the work. That was Zhang Qiang, the head of the archaeological team in charge of this excavation. I remembered his name from the press conference where he was surrounded by countless reporters, their camera flashes making him blink repeatedly. I had a deep impression of him, though I couldn’t recall what he said at the time. Now, he was there alone, overseeing the excavation, which gave me the perfect opportunity for an exclusive interview. “Hello, Captain Zhang! I’m Nado, a reporter from the Morning Star Daily,” I introduced myself with practiced ease. “Could you tell me about any progress in the archaeological work?” His tanned skin glistened in the sunlight. “Hello. I seem to have been dealing with journalists non-stop these past few days,” he said with a smile. Zhang Qiang seemed like an honest man, easy to deal with, one who wouldn’t hide things or play tricks. However, to my great disappointment, when I asked about the progress, he told me essentially the same things that were announced at the press conference ten days ago. There had been no significant finds. Archaeology is indeed a slow process, as it requires meticulous work. Looking over at the site, I saw workers moving earth on the outskirts, while inside, a few professional excavators were using small brushes, their buttocks high in the air, looking like lizards sticking out their tongues from afar. Occasionally, someone would pick up a shard of pottery or a broken tile, examine it for a long time with a magnifying glass, and then toss it aside after consulting a booklet, shaking their head. According to Zhang Qiang, they were making progress at a rate of one to four meters per day, as they had to be careful at every step. What they found were mostly old items discarded by villagers in the riverbed, of no real value, and thus, no news value. I glanced at Zhang Qiang; he seemed quite enthusiastic. I remembered a joke about archaeologists preferring older wives because, for them, the older something is, the more valuable it becomes. Archaeologists often seem a bit eccentric, always interested in things that are dead or broken. But from another perspective, they are just doing their job, albeit in a unique way and location. Archaeology is still an important job for humanity and society, albeit somewhat mysterious. After watching for a while, I grew bored but felt reluctant to leave, pondering how I could spin this into an article. I kept asking Zhang Qiang various questions about the team, the origins of the members, the uses of the unearthed artifacts, and predictions about the future of the excavation. Initially, Zhang Qiang patiently answered my questions, but soon it was evident he was getting tired of my inquiries. He patted me, quite heavily, and with a wry smile said, “Come back tomorrow. An expert from Beijing, an absolute authority in archaeological excavation, will be here to reassess the construction date and purpose of this site. You can find him then; there will definitely be news for you. I really have nothing more to tell you.” “Reassess?” I asked, curious. “Wasn’t it already concluded at the press conference that this is a Yuan Dynasty water gate structure? Why the need for reassessment? Any new discoveries?” “No,” Zhang Qiang said, clearly trying to keep his patience. “There were disagreements from the start about the date and purpose; this is quite normal in archaeology!” “Why the disagreements?” “To give you journalists something to write about!” he jested. Finally, I got Zhang Qiang’s number for the expert, Ruan Xiwen, and headed back to work, feeling somewhat rewarded.