A flute.
A flute.
He saw a flute lying quietly in the box - a flute in Pandora's Box?
Daniel smells some kind of rotten odor coming from the box. But the smell gave him the urge to take a risk, so he reached out his hand and slowly picked up the flute.
The moment Daniel's fingertips first touched the flute, he immediately felt a chill that seeped through the surface of the flute and into his skin. The hand holding the flute trembled as he stared at it for several minutes. It was a traditional style bamboo flute, about forty centimeters long, with the surface of the tube coated in brownish-yellow lacquer, and fuchsia silk threads inlaid between the holes. The holes were covered with a thin, cicada-like membrane that looked to have been unused for many years and was slightly slack.
Although it has been lying quietly in the box for many years, the color of the lacquer is still bright, under the dim light of the ward, it gives off some kind of strange reflections.Daniel gently stroked the surface of the flute with his fingers, and it felt surprisingly cool to the touch, that kind of smooth and delicate feeling is not found in ordinary flutes, and it looks like a rare piece of art made by a famous flute maker. However, usually flutes made by famous masters would leave a signature and time, but this one did not. Only two Chinese characters in cursive script were engraved at the very top of the flute - "Xiao Zhi".
"Xiao Zhi?" He softly pronounced it, probably the name of this flute was "Xiao Zhi". Daniel shook his head helplessly and looked at the teacher on the hospital bed, could it be that this flute was really the one that made him so scared?
The teacher's cloudy eyes suddenly had a spirit again, he tilted his head to look at the flute with great effort, and mumbled something in his mouth.Daniel quickly put the flute in front of the teacher's eyes, so that he could see it more clearly. At the same time, Daniel also crouched down and put his ear to the teacher's mouth, wanting to hear clearly what the teacher said, perhaps this was the last last words of the old man's life.
"Promise me-"
Daniel finally heard his teacher's words and he immediately nodded his head. The breath coming from the cancer patient's throat poured right into his ears, luckily Daniel wasn't breathing through his ears.
The teacher continued in a weak voice, "Never, never play this flute."
"Why?" Daniel felt very strange, isn't that what a flute is for?
"It goes back many years." The teacher broke off, as if the words were more important than all the words he had ever spoken in his life, "I was only about twenty years old ... On a summer night, I was walking down a remote, deserted street ..."
The old man looked weaker and weaker, and his next voice became so soft and slurred that Daniel couldn't really hear him clearly, and could only hear a few scattered snippets, "The blood ... He didn't say a word ... Flute ... I got ... the ... last ... no ... not me!"
Daniel was taken aback as the old man's voice suddenly rose, it was filled with fear and pain, Daniel had never seen his teacher so frightened.Daniel noticed the teacher's eyes were first fixed on the flute, then his eyes moved back behind him.
"I saw it ..." A strange sound came from the old man's throat, like a moan or a plea.
"What?" Daniel couldn't hold back any longer, his spirit was breaking.
A few seconds later, four words came out from the old man's mouth-
"The midnight flute."
Instantly, Daniel shivered and silently recited the four words the old man had just said in his heart - Midnight flute? He lowered his head and once again scrutinized the flute in his hand, and immediately many things swept before his eyes, as if countless fragments, glittering with starry light, burrowed into his brain.
A minute passed before Daniel came back to his senses. He asked softly, "Teacher, what do you call a midnight flute?"
No one answered, the ward was dead silent.Daniel looked at the old man, his eyes were still open, but not moving.
Daniel's heart sank to the bottom.Soon, nurses and doctors came and confirmed the old man's death. One of the female nurses was the one who had called him earlier, she told Daniel, "The old man had terminal cancer, he died a week ago, it's a miracle that he's managed to hold on until now, just to see you once. He doesn't have any family, and for that reason we asked a lot of people to get your phone number, and it was a way to fulfill the old man's last wish."
Daniel nodded and whispered, "Thank you very much."
The old man's body was wheeled onto a stretcher and the caretaker pushed the old man towards the morgue.Daniel came out into the corridor and watched as they disappeared into the elevator bay. The nurses were gone too, and he was the only one left here, sitting quietly on a bench in the hallway.
He had the flute in his hand.
It was 2:55 a.m. and he was sitting alone in the hallway of the hospital's intensive care unit, having just witnessed the death of an old man he was close to. The dead silence of the hospital corridor late at night, in the dim light, always conjures up some sort of image.
He stared blankly at the flute and suddenly had some strange urge to put the blowhole of the flute to his mouth. At that very moment, the old man's voice rang in his ears, "Never, never blow this flute."
He was startled, he looked back around, there was no one, but just now it felt like the old man was standing behind him and talking.Daniel felt that the old man's words before he died were still floating here, although his flesh had been sent to the morgue, it seemed that something still remained here, like a part of the old man's life.The old man's words were still here, but he had not been able to hear them before he died.
Daniel lowered the flute again, and a cold wind blew from that end of the corridor, mingling with the peculiar smell of the hospital straight into his clothes. He shivered a few times and looked silently at the flute in front of him, the only thing his teacher had left him. And what exactly was the teacher trying to tell Daniel with those intermittent strange last words?
"A flute in the middle of the night?"
Daniel said softly to himself, these were his teacher's last words before he died. What was he to do?
Suddenly, a strange wind blew from the hospital room where he had just been, creeping into the flute holes and weaving its way through the pipes ...
He stretched out his finger and waved it in front of the old man's eyes. the cloudy eyeballs looked straight ahead without any reaction. daniel ambled down again and found that the old man's pupils had dilated - he was dead.
The flute fell gently from Daniel's hand and landed on the old man's bedspread.Some of the moist liquid in Daniel's eyes spilled out.Then he pressed the warning light at the foot of the bed.
Now, Daniel sat quietly at the edge of the hospital bed, his teacher had become a corpse and was slowly turning cold. He stared blankly at his teacher's rounded eyes; they seemed like two bottomless black holes.
Soon, nurses and doctors came and confirmed the old man's death. One of the female nurses was the one who had called him earlier, she told Daniel, "The old man had terminal cancer, he died a week ago, it's a miracle that he's managed to hold on until now, just to see you once. He doesn't have any family, and for that reason we asked a lot of people to get your phone number, and it was a way to fulfill the old man's last wish."
Daniel nodded and whispered, "Thank you very much."
The old man's body was wheeled onto a stretcher and the caretaker pushed the old man towards the morgue.Daniel came out into the corridor and watched as they disappeared into the elevator bay. The nurses were gone too, and he was the only one left here, sitting quietly on a bench in the hallway.
He had the flute in his hand.
It was 2:55 a.m. and he was sitting alone in the hallway of the hospital's intensive care unit, having just witnessed the death of an old man he was close to. The dead silence of the hospital corridor late at night, in the dim light, always conjures up some sort of image.
He stared blankly at the flute and suddenly had some strange urge to put the blowhole of the flute to his mouth. At that very moment, the old man's voice rang in his ears, "Never, never blow this flute."
He was startled, he looked back around, there was no one, but just now it felt like the old man was standing behind him and talking.Daniel felt that the old man's words before he died were still floating here, although his flesh had been sent to the morgue, it seemed that something still remained here, like a part of the old man's life.The old man's words were still here, but he had not been able to hear them before he died.
Daniel lowered the flute again, and a cold wind blew from that end of the corridor, mingling with the peculiar smell of the hospital straight into his clothes. He shivered a few times and looked silently at the flute in front of him, the only thing his teacher had left him. And what exactly was the teacher trying to tell Daniel with those intermittent strange last words?
"A flute in the middle of the night?"
Daniel said softly to himself, these were his teacher's last words before he died. What was he to do?
Suddenly, a strange wind blew from the hospital room where he had just been, creeping into the flute holes and weaving its way through the pipes ...