495 10 Minutes
When Han Fei saw Seaglass Cat in the game yesterday night, he felt something was wrong. She had a very low desire for life. She even wanted to kill herself to leave the cryptic world. She didn’t care about the things she had, she had lost interest in everything around her. She had no hope. That was a very scary thing.
Han Fei used 20 minutes to reach Seaglass Cat’s place. It was an old neighborhood. It was placed between the old city and the intelligent city. “Room 1031.” After getting the address, Han Fei raced into the neighborhood.
“Are you a tenant here? How come I haven’t seen you before?” The guard at the door stopped Han Fei.
“I’m here to look for a friend. She lives in Room 1031.” Han Fei moved so fast that the two guards couldn’t even keep up with him.
“Stop!” The guard spoke into the walkie-talkie. He fixed his eyes on Han Fei, afraid that he might disappear from view. “We need help! We have a trespasser!”
“What does he look like?”
“He ran too fast for me to get a clear look!”
Han Fei entered Building 1 and scanned all the room numbers. His brain was a calculator. Without wasting any time, he made an accurate choice. He came to the third floor. Han Fei knocked on the door and shouted Seaglass Cat’s name but there was no answer. This made him very anxious.
“Stop knocking.” Seaglass Cat’s neighbor opened the door. A middle-aged woman walked out with a spray can. “The girl is not at home.”
“Do you know where she is?”
“Not sure. Ever since her family died, she rarely comes out. This morning, when I was watering the plants on my balcony, I was shocked to see her out of her room.” The woman thought about it. “She was on her phone but the other person didn’t seem to answer her. She carried a schoolbag with the name of an orphanage. She was acting very weird.”
“A schoolbag with an orphanage’s name?” Han Fei was reminded of the girl’s parting words in the video. She planned to leave this world in a unique world, to return the present the world had given her. She would start with her despair.
“The orphanage built by Immortal Pharma!” Han Fei turned and he ran into the group of guards. “Who are you looking for? We can help you…”
“Thanks.” Before the guard finished, Han Fei grabbed his arm. “Let me see the surveillance footage at your gate!” The guard was only saying that to delay Han Fei but when he came to his senses, he was already dragged away by Han Fei. He widened his eyes. The guard turned to his colleagues and they were still standing there shocked. “Don’t worry, I was once a neighborhood guard too. I will not hurt you unless you don’t cooperate with me.” Han Fei entered the guard room and stood before the computers. He looked through the footage. He controlled the machines better than the guard.
Soon Han Fei discovered Seaglass Cat on the footage. It was from 1 hour ago. She held her phone, lowered her head, and carried a ruined schoolbag. “Who was she talking to?” Even at maximum enlargement, Han Fei couldn’t see anything so he gave up.
“Immortal Pharma had built 2 orphanages, they were all at the northern side of the old city. She was heading that way too.” After leaving the guard room, the 3 guards set up a strong defense like they were against a toughened criminal. However, Han Fei only nodded his thanks politely at them and ran out. He called a taxi to head to the orphanage. He still had a minor impression of the place.
“Sir, can you drive faster?” Han Fei felt like he should use his own money to buy a car or else it was very inconvenient. If a car was too ambitious, he could start with a motorcycle. 15 minutes later, Han Fei arrived at the orphanage. Even after so many years, the place still looked the same. Even though the outside had been updated many times, the inside hadn’t changed. Although from appearance, the place looked more like a children’s hospital than an orphanage.
After paying the cab fare, Han Fei ran towards the orphanage. He was only halfway there when he realized a big crowd had gathered on the street across from the orphanage.
“Someone is jumping! There’s a girl on that building!”
“Quick, call the police!” Various noises came from the crowd. Han Fei stopped to look up the building opposite. The building opposite the orphanage belonged to Immortal Pharma too, it was 7 stories high. No one knew what it was for, it had no sign or anything.
Han Fei’s eyes moved up and he saw a girl on the rooftop of the building. She carried the schoolbag and stood at the edge of the roof. She swayed in the wind like a leaf in the fall.
“Seaglass Cat!” Han Fei had met many suicide patients in his life. Some of them were agitated, their suicide was a call for help. They couldn’t find a reason to live, they were destroyed by reality’s cruelty. This kind of people was easier to persuade. The other kind was the difficult one. They were numb to death, or rather they had considered their death for a long time. When they chose to commit suicide, their brain had already simulated the situation thousands of times. They tried to persuade themselves from not doing it until they couldn’t persuade themselves anymore.
She walked up the steps and the light left her eyes. Seaglass Cat was the latter. She had gone through the worst childhood, she participated in some kind of experiment, was led to different places until she wasn’t herself anymore. Perhaps if she hadn’t seen the light, she could still live in the dark. She was like a cat stuck in the storm. When she was almost dead, the old lady adopted her. The old lady slowly pieced her broken personality together, using love and care to mend her.
Perhaps her personality was still broken but at least it had been pieced together, she gained the reason to live. But the cruelest part of this experiment was once the old lady died from illness, the pieced together personality would shatter again.
When the old lady lived with Seaglass Cat, the old lady really took her as her granddaughter. She gave the child all her love and slowly forgot the purpose of the experiment. The old lady told Seaglass Cat the truth at the last moment of her life. At that moment, the old lady probably did want to save Seaglass Cat, it was why she told her the truth, or else she could have come up with a lie so that the girl would continue to live in the falsehood. The hope was fake but the love was real. Either way, it didn’t matter to Seaglass Cat anymore.
“Move away! Move away!” The police arrived and then the firemen. The siren shattered the silence. The airbag was dispensed. The firemen entered the building with various tools. The building’s manager walked out. He was a fat middle-aged man. He was nervous and sweaty, he kept telling the police things.
“Why would a girl so pretty do something like this?”
“Probably because she was dumped, the kids nowadays are incredibly fragile. I don’t believe that she dares to jump.”
“Watch your words. The girl doesn’t look like she is joking. Plus she doesn’t look sad at all. There is no tear on her face and her eyes look shattered.”
“You are kidding. You can tell so much from her eyes? Are you a doctor?”
The people on the street took out their phones to record. Some of the people zoomed in so they could see the girl’s face.
“Is she going to jump or not? I’m almost late for work.”
“I’ve been recording for so long already. I don’t think she really wants to die. She’ll be safe.”
“I’m depending on her for clicks…” A very nasty-looking man was recording when his screen turned black. He turned around and saw Han Fei standing before him. Han Fei covered the lens with his hand. “Are you sick? If you want people to jump that much, why don’t you go up and there and jump?” Han Fei’s voice was even but it caused the man to shiver. The man wanted to counter but he was pulled away by his friends. The two guessed correctly that Han Fei was not to be trifled with. They cursed Han Fei and disappeared into the crowd. After memorizing these people’s faces, Han Fei slipped through the crowd to enter the building. The elevator was used by the police so Han Fei used the safety passage. He climbed all the way to the rooftop.
“Hey! What are you doing? You can’t be here now!” A young officer stopped Han Fei. Han Fei stopped and asked about Seaglass Cat’s latest update. When he was communicating with the young officer, an aged officer came down from the roof. “What are you still doing here? Have you contacted her family?”
“She is an orphan, the old lady who adopted her died not too long ago. I believe that is why she is doing this.” The young officer sighed. “She has no family left.”
“Then we will be her family. Now is her saddest and lowest moment. We need to find a way to help her calm down.” The aged officer looked over to the edge. A female officer was trying to talk to Seaglass Cat. “The wind is very strong there, why don’t you come down here so that we can talk?”
No matter what the female officer said, Seaglass Cat didn’t react. Her eyes were transfixed on the orphanage opposite. From her vantage point, she could look into the orphanage. Even after all these years, there were still children abandoned there. They had some kind of deficiencies, either mentally or physically.
“Feels like she’s waiting for a specific moment.” Han Fei was reminded of something. He held the officer beside him. “Have you looked into the time of death for Seaglass Cat’s grandmother? Was it in the morning too? How much longer until that time?”
The young officer wanted to ignore Han Fei but when the aged officer heard Han Fei, he turned around in shock. “Han Fei? I didn’t recognize you earlier. Why are you here?”
“You know me?” Han Fei relaxed. “O wait, perhaps you’ve seen my movie.”
“I don’t watch movies.” The aged officer said, “When we were going after Butterfly, the superior has shown your picture to all of us. They told us to protect you.”
“Then I have to thank your superior.” Han Fei walked towards the aged officer. “I have seen this girl before. She lived in the orphanage opposite when she was young.”
“You’ve seen her?” The old officer was shocked.
“We don’t time for the details. The girl is not just facing a simple mental breakdown. She has lost all hope for life. Normal persuasion won’t work, she will not listen.” Han Fei glanced at his watch. “Help me find her grandmother’s time of death. I suspect she is trying to match that time.”
“Found it. Her grandmother died at the hospital at 10.34 am.”
“It’s now 10.24 am, we have 10 minutes.” Han Fei looked at the officer beside me. “Can you let me go over to talk to her?”
“Sorry, but we can’t do that. Only experienced people are allowed to talk to suicidal people, or else it might make things worse.” The officer immediately rejected Han Fei. Han Fei was very kind and clever but one needed professional knowledge, experience, and empathy to deal with suicidal people.
The firemen were ready on the 7th floor. But there was still distance between the 7th floor and the roof.
On the roof, a male and female officer slowly approached. When they were 5 meters from Seaglass Cat, they couldn’t go any further because the girl’s body was tipping forward. Time ticked by and the situation reached a stalemate. When it was 3 minutes to 10.34 am, Han Fei charged onto the roof. He wanted to save the girl but he was risking a lot doing this!
If the girl died when she talked to Han Fei, the bad press would ruin Han Fei’s career. His former agency would make sure that Han Fei was made into a murderer. The 50 cent army would come in full force. It was why most people chose to be silent because words and actions could be easily misconstrued.
But at that moment, Han Fei chose to make his move.
“I know where the old lady who adopted you is. I’ve seen her and I can bring you to go and meet her!” Han Fei’s voice echoed in the roof. Then he said the other sentence, “Your voice is amazing, I am sure many people in the world share my opinion.”
Seaglass Cat who was unresponsive to the outside world slowly turned around.
This was what Han Fei said when he sent Seaglass Cat back from the cryptic world.
