1

A delicate fragrance came, like the orchid, wearing the pier a perfume where a young lady of grace had just stepped gently, with her enigmatic solemnity from the ship brimming with harsh words, casticating the ship driver for his “taking his time” style, surely making many of the lad’s hearts skip a beat, including me.

“Would some of you like to give me a hand?” chirped her, and just with her luscious eyes blink, my feet and hands moved as if they were suddenly electronically motivated. I grabbed her suitcase and spit out the words that I would’ve expected never being said. “I just knock off. Not a trouble for me at all.”

“Oh, that’s so heavy. What’s in it?”

“Nothing. Just something for living.” She smiled.

2

“Orchid Mansion, that’s a good name.”

“I heartily appreciate your words. It really makes my day.” Her over-politeness seemed to me a burst of uneasiness. “I’m not lionizing you. It’s really beautiful. Look at those ‘O chid’…”

“It’s ‘orchid’.” She chuckled as my face blushed. I had quitted school for centuries, and I even didn’t know how to specifically describe her beauty, combined with grace, sophistication, and a little archaic aesthetic. It’s just, beyond all my vocabulary.

“I don’t even know your name.” I braced up my courage and even being a bit scared by my pretense of confidentally shouting out loud.

“Orchid. Call me Madame Orchid.” She replied in geniality.

“I…I’m 28, actually.” Considering that my apperance belied my age, and she might think I am a young boy, I specially told her my age.

“I know. I just said call me ‘Madame Orchid’. Your age can be a secret actually.”

This was, ridiculous, for she looked just in her middle twenties, obviously calling her ‘Orchid’ is a better choice. Maybe she’s just putting on airs.

“You wanna come in and have a cup of coffee? You must be exhausted.” I’d never expected she would invite me. I was the very kind of man who had been teased as lacking of masculine charisma, let alone being popular among girls. I never thought of a girl or a woman inviting me of her own accord. I just felt a fire burning inside at that moment, burning out my capability of saying no to invitation.

3

“Martin, this is my new friend.”

An old man, well-clad in white blazer with the badge from some unfamiliar organization, greeted me with a plastic smile, a smile, at least, which was opposed to the young man behind whose handsome masculinity, just like his father had (because of their resemblance, I assumed they are father and son), was shrouded by the effeminate fright on his face as he saw Madame Orchid and me.

“Good job, Martin.” She said to the old man, and whispered in the ear of the young man, as his fright was exaggerated to the tremulous despair. “No, no.” I read his words from the movement of his lips, as his father quietly wiped his tears with a transparent effort to hide from the attention of their master.

?“What are you looking at? Come. Let me show you around the house.” Her voice pulled me to the reality. As I travelled around her house with a fusillade of paean and psalm, I reached her garden full of orchid.

“So, that’s why you are ‘Madame Orchid’?”

“Not really. Orchid is actually my family crest. We’ve been exposed to the nourishment of orchid for centuries, and I’ve benefited the most from it. Orchid, for me, is more like the continuation of life.” As she said those wired words to me, I was peeping the beauty of their family crest. Pure and graceful as they were, they somehow radiated a sense of nausea to me as they gave out their delicate fragrance, which doctors might classify as the psychological reflection of uneasiness when coming to a strange place, but the palpitation betrayed everything. It was not the uneasiness. It was real. Oh my god, something changed in front of my eyes. The orchids started to crook. The sunlight was really scorching, out of proportion to the high latitude here, and…Oh, I felt exhausted, as if my stamina stored for the whole weeks’ labor was stolen…I left there as fast as I could with the improvised excuse, irrespective of whether it sucked, having no time to count on how many times I tripped over the miscellanous flowers and vines interspersed over her mansion, squinting up, with the help of the moonlight, at the nuance of the old man’s face. “ Something’s wrong with his face.” I said to myself, but I didn’t have time to contemplate which part of his face has changed. I dashed to a soda fountain, having my mind cooled off by the air conditioner and the iced Americano, talking to the barista about what happened…

4

“Martin once worked with us. But one day, he’s gone, without a word. Heard that he’s married to a woman, and we lost contact. He was the most eminent barista I have seen, and he was so kind and attractive, the de-facto endorsment. Those young girls from the college, some widows haunted by loneliness, and some lascivious chicks, you know…I know it can’t be him. He was of the same age as me, but what you describe is just a clone of him.” He babbled, and just after that, a memory suddenly struck me. “The wrinkle!” I almost jumped from my seat, “He gained more wrinkle on his face!” Without any vis-a-vis communication, I could, even when I was running for my life, notice the change of his face. Maybe it shouldn’t be called as ‘nuance’, but a kind of horrid senility as if decades of years elapsed over just one hour. Something sinister came to my mind.

“So you are the researcher of Orchid Family?” Just after I posted my experience online, an anonymous friend invitation popped from the bottom of my screen. This guy, a self-claimed professor of the school of history at XX University, sent me a screenshot, and meanwhile, into the unlimited fear. The Orchid Family, having existed and flourished in history, was obliterated two centuries ago. And there had been only the corpses of the elderly, not even one younger than 60 years old according to their looks. Pinkton concluded it as the mass suicide for being solitary confined by their improperly functioned body and separation from offsprings. No one seemed to dig into the truth, as if no one dared to do so. No one would ask where those young men and women of Orchid Family had been even just out of curiousity, let alone noticed that there were 59 bodies.

“How did you get this?” I texted, ready to bombard him with a fusillade of questions.

“You don’t have to know. Any questions? If not, I’ll go sleep.”

“Hold on, hold on.” I instantly typed these words, fingers almost gouging my keyboard, trying to grab the last straw to get to the truth.

Nothing happened. A prank, I thought to myself. Just as I was about blacklist the man out of sheer ennui of listening to his make-up stories, a piece of new message popped, “Why did you just leave my house?” Just as I was shocked to speechless, another message came.

“ONE ALWAYS IGNORE WHAT HAPPENED BEHIND HIM.” The delicate fragrance, again, it came…

5

I am aging.

Recently, my skin has not as smooth and moister as it was, wrinkles creeped onto my countenance, my muscle flapped, breasts sagged, and my hair, no, why interspersed with gray hairline?! I know the time has come. “They are not enough for me, sucker.” Soon our neighbor may see a woman of senility, both physically and mentally, hoe orchids, again, just as their ancestors witnessed ten scores ago. And the telepathy, again, with them, is a torture.

Under a star-scanted sheet of pitch black without moonlight, I stripped off and dug myself onto the soil nourishing the orchids, bearing the fire burning and insects gnawing at my flesh and blood without letting out a moan for not waking people nearby up and ruining this telepathy. Just as I itched so much like the wound of the rash fester and the soil is as cold as ice, the connection has built. The life of orchid has been the life of me. And those tiny babies are itching for the nourishment of young man.

“Now, you are Madame Orchid, again.” I talked to the shriveled body in the mirror as I knew it was the last time I saw it.

Martin, with his brother Luke, was the first two lads to be overwhelmed by my charisma, owing to the perfume I wore extracted from the pedal of orchid. They came to my mansion and unconsciously became the bait of my babies in the garden.

But I, myself, needed a young man, too. Drooling over the freshness and strength of the young men of nowadays owing to the invention of lotions, toners, gyms and the advent of plastic surgery, I truly needed one to take me a thrill ride like the roller coaster in the theme park. However, I didn’t really get the amusement of it since when I was of that age, it was just used to convey mines and coals, which was a job of tempting fate for money. “So, Luke, come to my bedroom and lock the door.” I couldn’t wait to enjoy the youth that Martin interfused and the voluptuousness Luke gave. No one, including the dock worker, ever took even a close look at the clock in the living room—each of the minute was named after one of a family members as our first head of our family imposed her precept on the whole family that at any time, the family members should be 60 as our Orchid Family was, is, and will always be the presdigitator of time.

“Now, you’re the next.” I said to the boy fainting on the table in front of the computer, feeling the bunch of orchids in my hands sucking his youth and fill the room with the fragrance, dropping a bomb on the society that Madame Orchid has come again.

中文版

1

輪船上，因這位司機(jī)慢慢騰騰的駕駛風(fēng)格而產(chǎn)生的尖刻斥罵不絕于耳。一位優(yōu)雅的年輕女子款步走下輪船，渾身上下透著一股神秘感，而又不失莊重。她所到之處，幽香若蘭，似為這座碼頭噴上了香水，引得碼頭上的年輕男人紛紛淪陷，當(dāng)然，也包括我。

“請(qǐng)問有哪位可以為我搭把手嗎？”她的聲音清脆婉轉(zhuǎn)。僅僅是一個(gè)濃情蜜意的眼神，我就如同被電力驅(qū)動(dòng)一般走了過去。我接過了她的行李箱，并隨口吐出了那幾個(gè)字：“我?guī)湍惆研欣钅没厝グ伞Ｎ蚁掳嗔?，一點(diǎn)都不會(huì)麻煩的?！蔽艺嫦Ｍ覐膩頉]說過這話。

“哦，這太重了。這里面是什么??？”

“沒什么。只是一些生活用的?！彼χf。

2

“蘭花公館，這名字真好聽。”

“我由衷地感謝您的夸獎(jiǎng)。這讓我很開心?！彼坪跤行┻^于禮貌，我的心中生出了一絲不安?！拔也皇窃诖蹬?，它確實(shí)很漂亮，看看這些‘南花’……”

“是蘭花。”她咯咯地笑著。我卻老臉一紅，我已經(jīng)輟學(xué)很久了，我甚至不知道怎樣具體描述她的美，是那種混合著優(yōu)雅，持重，還有一絲絲古樸的美感的美。只是，我的詞匯量顯然不允許我描述出這種美。

“我還不知道您的名字呢?！蔽夜淖阌職夂俺隽诉@句話。我自己甚至都被我強(qiáng)裝自信的音量嚇到。

“蘭花。你可以叫我蘭花夫人?！彼恼Z氣十分和藹。

當(dāng)時(shí)，我覺得她可能以為我只是個(gè)小男孩，畢竟我長(zhǎng)得這樣年輕，確實(shí)看不出年紀(jì)，所以我特意告訴了她我的年齡：“其實(shí)，其實(shí)我28歲了。”

“我知道。我只是說叫我‘蘭花夫人’就好。至于你的年紀(jì)，你完全可以對(duì)我保密?！?/p>

這就太離譜了。她看上去不過25歲上下。很顯然，直呼其名是更好的選擇。我以為她存心擺架子，就沒多問。

“你要進(jìn)來坐坐嗎？你一定累壞了吧?！蔽覜]想到她會(huì)主動(dòng)邀約我。因?yàn)椋乙恢北怀爸S為缺乏男性魅力的典型代表，更不必說受到女生青睞了。我從沒想到也會(huì)有一個(gè)姑娘會(huì)主動(dòng)邀約我。我感覺我的體內(nèi)有一團(tuán)烈火升起。我知道我已不可能拒絕了。

3

“馬丁，這是我的新朋友?！?/p>

門前的一位老人正在對(duì)我笑臉相迎。他衣著考究，穿著一套白色的制服，上面印著一個(gè)徽章，代表著一個(gè)我并不熟悉的組織。如果這位老人至少還是擺出了一副假笑的話，后面的那個(gè)年輕人則是完全不同，他有著不輸于他父親的英武（由于他們兩位長(zhǎng)得非常像，我便將他們當(dāng)作了父子），但在看向我和蘭花夫人時(shí)，臉上卻寫滿了與之不相稱的柔弱和恐懼。

“做得好，馬丁?！碧m花夫人對(duì)老人說道。話畢，又對(duì)那個(gè)年輕人耳語了幾句。聽到蘭花夫人的話，這個(gè)年輕人的身體開始抖動(dòng)，恐懼的神情又增加了幾分，變成了絕望?！安唬灰??！蔽易x出了他的唇語，又看到了他的父親悄悄拭去了臉上的淚水。顯然，他不想讓蘭花夫人看到這個(gè)動(dòng)作。

“你在看什么呢？過來，我?guī)銋⒂^一下我家?！狈蛉说穆曇魧⑽依亓爽F(xiàn)實(shí)。游覽著她的公館，我生發(fā)出了連珠炮似的贊歌。左看右看，我已經(jīng)來到了她的花園，園里種滿了蘭花。

“所以這就是你叫‘蘭花夫人’的原因？”

“也不算是。蘭花其實(shí)時(shí)我們的家族徽章。數(shù)個(gè)世紀(jì)以來，我們的家族就一直受到蘭花的恩澤，這點(diǎn)我是最有體會(huì)的。于我而言，蘭花就是生命的延續(xù)?！本驮谒蛭以V說這些奇奇怪怪的話時(shí)，我偷偷瞟了這些她們的族徽。雖說它們純凈素潔，婀娜多姿，散發(fā)著馥郁的芳香，但不知怎么的，它們始終帶給我一種眩暈惡心的不適感。這種不適感對(duì)醫(yī)生來說可能就是一種因?yàn)樵谀吧h(huán)境下感到不自在所產(chǎn)生的心里映射，但是心悸的感覺告訴了我一切。這不是心理上的不安，這是真真切切的。我的天，我眼前的景象變了，這些蘭花正在變得扭曲。這里是高緯度地區(qū)，為何陽光會(huì)如此毒辣？而且……啊，天呢，我感到好累，感覺下一周的精力都被掏空了……我現(xiàn)編了一個(gè)借口，有多快跑多快，根本不想管這個(gè)爛借口能不能騙到她，數(shù)不清被滿地的花朵和藤蔓絆倒了多少次，只是瞇起眼睛抬頭看了一眼，借著微弱的月光，我看到那位老人的容貌似乎有些細(xì)微的變化?！八哪樣悬c(diǎn)不對(duì)勁。”但是我沒有時(shí)間仔細(xì)思考究竟是哪里變了，就火速跑向了一個(gè)冷飲柜臺(tái)。吹著冷氣，喝著冰美式，我的思緒也平靜下來，開始和咖啡師講述著今天發(fā)生的一切……

4

“以前也有個(gè)馬丁在這里干活。但是有一天，他走了，沒有留下一句話。聽說他和一個(gè)女人結(jié)了婚，后來我們也就斷了聯(lián)系。他是我見過的最卓越的咖啡師，他是如此善良如此迷人，他實(shí)際上已經(jīng)成了我們店的代言人。那些大學(xué)女生，那些寂寞的寡婦，那些辣妹，你懂的……我知道，那個(gè)馬丁不是他，他和我同歲的。但是，你說的那個(gè)老人真像一位翻版的他?！痹谒跣踹哆兜?cái)⑹鲋?，我突然想到了什么，幾乎是從座位上跳了起來?！鞍櫦y！他的臉上皺紋變多了！”沒有與他面對(duì)面交流過的情況下，僅僅是在逃命中的一瞥，我就注意到了他臉上的不同。看來，那不是什么細(xì)微變化，而是一種衰老，一種好像在一小時(shí)內(nèi)老了幾十歲的可怕的衰老。一些可怕的念頭在我的腦海中浮現(xiàn)。

當(dāng)我在網(wǎng)上發(fā)布我的經(jīng)歷后，我收到了一條好友邀請(qǐng)：“你也在調(diào)查蘭花家族嗎？”這個(gè)人自稱是某某大學(xué)的歷史系教授，給我發(fā)來了一張截圖。光是看一眼上面的內(nèi)容，我就陷入了無盡的恐懼。蘭花家族在歷史上真實(shí)存在過，并且也興盛過，但是在約兩個(gè)世紀(jì)前卻被一股神秘的力量消滅了。當(dāng)時(shí)，現(xiàn)場(chǎng)全部都是老人的尸體，從他們的相貌來看，沒有一位不超過60歲。對(duì)此，平克頓偵探事務(wù)所的結(jié)案報(bào)告卻僅僅只是集體自殺，這些老人年老體衰行動(dòng)不便，遠(yuǎn)離子女，終日受困于家中，無法接受這一切。沒有人去進(jìn)一步求證真相，好像沒有人敢這么做一樣，因?yàn)樯踔翛]有一個(gè)人對(duì)蘭花家族其他年輕男女的去向感到好奇，更不必說現(xiàn)場(chǎng)有59具尸體。

“你怎么會(huì)知道這些？”我問道。我有一肚子的問題要問他。

“你不必知道。還有其他的問題嗎？不問的話，我要睡覺了?！?/p>

“等一下，等一下?！蔽铱焖俅蛳逻@行字，手指幾乎要戳穿鍵盤。這是最接近真相的一次了，我無論如何都要抓住這根救命稻草。

什么也沒發(fā)生。大概是場(chǎng)惡作劇吧，我想著，就要拉黑他，單純是因?yàn)槁犨@些騙人的廢話聽膩了。正要拉黑他時(shí)，一條新消息彈出：“你那天為什么要跑？”就在我驚訝地說不出話時(shí)，第二條消息彈出：

“人們總是不知道看看他們的背后?！蹦丘ビ舻姆枷?，我又聞到了……

5

我正在變老。

最近，我的皮膚不再像之前一樣光滑水潤(rùn)了。皺紋悄悄出現(xiàn)在我的臉上，我的肌肉開始松弛，胸部開始下垂，而我的頭發(fā)，不，為什么，為什么里面散布著白發(fā)？！我知道，那一刻到來了。“該死的，他們的生命不夠我用的?！彼裕芸煳业泥従佑謺?huì)看見有一個(gè)身體和大腦都嚴(yán)重衰老的女人拿著鋤頭在種蘭花。她又開始種花了，與他們的祖先在二百年前見到的一樣。對(duì)我來說，與這些花兒重新實(shí)現(xiàn)心靈感應(yīng)，才是真正的酷刑。

今天晚上沒有月光，星星很少，我脫去衣服，把整個(gè)身體都埋進(jìn)蘭花所處的這片土地里，忍受著火焰灼燒和百蟲撕咬血肉的痛苦，并且為了不驚擾到鄰居而破壞這場(chǎng)儀式，我一聲不吭。當(dāng)我感到周身奇癢難耐，像是皮疹化膿的感覺，并且泥土冷得像冰窟窿一樣時(shí)，我就與它們建立了聯(lián)系。現(xiàn)在蘭花的命就是我的命。這些小寶貝可是十分期待年輕生命的滋養(yǎng)了。

“現(xiàn)在，你又做回蘭花夫人了?！蔽覍?duì)著鏡子里那具干癟的身體說著。我知道，這是我最后一次面對(duì)這樣蒼老的軀體了。

多虧我噴上了我從蘭花花瓣中萃取出的香水，馬丁和他的哥哥盧克成為了我迷人魅力的頭兩個(gè)獵物。他們來到了我的公館，并在不經(jīng)意間成為了我花園里那些小寶貝的獵物。

而我自己，也需要一位年輕男人。現(xiàn)如今，由于男士乳液，爽膚水，健身房和醫(yī)美的誕生，我所垂涎的新鮮且充滿力量的肉體隨處可見。我太需要一位能帶我飛升的年輕男人了，那感覺就像是坐過山車一樣。但是，我從來沒有從過山車中獲得過樂趣，因?yàn)楫?dāng)我在玩過山車那個(gè)年紀(jì)時(shí)，這玩意兒還是用來運(yùn)煤運(yùn)礦的，那是個(gè)玩命掙錢的活?！八?，盧克，來我房間，把門鎖好?！蔽乙呀?jīng)等不及享受馬丁給我的年輕肉體了，更加等不及享受盧克的愛了。包括最近的那個(gè)碼頭工人在內(nèi)，沒有一個(gè)人注意到客廳里的那個(gè)時(shí)鐘，表盤上的每一分鐘都是以我們家族成員的名字命名的。我們家族的首位掌門人就為整個(gè)家族定下了鐵之戒律，就是蘭花家族的成員必須一直是60位，因?yàn)樘m花家族會(huì)一直是時(shí)間的魔術(shù)師。

“現(xiàn)在，下一個(gè)就是你了?！笨粗晃沂种械奶m花迷暈倒在電腦前的這個(gè)男生，我感覺到這些蘭花正在吸收他的精氣。而這充斥整個(gè)房間的馥郁芳香，就是在像社會(huì)投出一則爆炸性新聞：蘭花夫人又回來了。