Su Xiaoyue clutched her phone and stared at the message on the screen. A heart-wrenching sob tore from her throat.
She curled into herself as she cried, her shoulders shaking violently. She pressed the phone tightly against her chest, as though afraid that if she loosened her grip for even a second, that person would disappear again.
Xia Anmian stood frozen, her mouth slightly open as she stared at Su Xiaoyue kneeling on the ground and sobbing uncontrollably. For a moment, her mind couldn’t even process what had happened.
But her body reacted faster than her thoughts.
She rushed forward and pulled Su Xiaoyue into her arms, pressing Xiaoyue’s head against her shoulder while gripping her wrist tightly with her other hand.
“It’s okay now.” Xia Anmian patted Su Xiaoyue’s back, her voice trembling uncontrollably. “It’s okay, Xiaoyue. Everything’s okay now…”
The two girls remained kneeling on the rooftop, holding each other. Wind rushed through the stairwell entrance, making the metal door bang repeatedly against its frame.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yi stood three steps behind them, his entire body pressed against the cold metal door. One hand still clutched his old phone, its screen shattered into a spiderweb of cracks, while his other hand hung limply at his side, his fingertips trembling involuntarily.
His gaze passed over Xia Anmian’s shoulder and settled on Su Xiaoyue.
She was crying without the slightest concern for her appearance. Tears and snot covered her face as she curled up in Xia Anmian’s arms like a kitten drenched by the rain.
Jiang Yi stared at her for several seconds before lowering his head. He turned off his phone screen and slipped it into his pocket.
There was no expression on his face, but cold sweat had already soaked through the back of his shirt.
The wind blew against him, pressing the damp fabric against his skin and sending a shiver through his body.
The customer service representative’s final message was still sitting in their chat.
[Done. The account has been restored. Be careful with it from now on. An account that’s been deleted once is more likely to trigger risk controls.]
Jiang Yi hadn’t replied.
The instant the customer service representative said it was done, he had rapidly switched to the previously deleted account, logged in, opened his conversation with Su Xiaoyue, typed four Chinese characters, and sent them.
[Don’t do anything stupid.]
Then he logged back out and switched to his regular account.
The entire process had taken only a few seconds.
Yet those few seconds had dragged him back from the edge of a cliff.
Jiang Yi raised his hand and wiped his forehead with the back of it. His skin came away drenched in sweat.
“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath, so quietly that only he could hear it.
Hurried footsteps suddenly came from the stairwell.
Director Zhao rushed onto the rooftop with two female firefighters. The instant he saw Xia Anmian and Su Xiaoyue kneeling on the ground in each other’s arms, all the strength seemed to drain from his body. His knees buckled, and he nearly collapsed onto the stairs.
“She’s okay?” His voice was still trembling. “She’s okay now?”
One of the firefighters hurried over to check Su Xiaoyue before turning back and nodding. “She’s fine. She’s safe.”
Director Zhao braced one hand against the wall and bent over, gulping down breath after breath. The sweat stain across the back of his shirt spread even farther.
It took him quite a while to straighten up.
He looked at Su Xiaoyue, then at Xia Anmian holding her. His lips moved as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, all he managed was, “Take her to the hospital. Give her a thorough examination.”
The two firefighters stepped forward and helped Su Xiaoyue to her feet by the arms.
By then, Su Xiaoyue had stopped crying. She seemed completely drained of strength, her body limp as she allowed them to support her. Yet she still clutched her phone tightly, her knuckles white. The source of this chapter is novelping(.)com.
Xia Anmian stayed beside her, supporting her all the way downstairs.
…
Downstairs, the rescue cushion had finally been fully inflated, and the blowers were still humming loudly.
The police began dispersing the crowd of onlookers, while the County Magistrate let out an unmistakable sigh of relief.
Su Xiaoyue’s parents were helped out of the stairwell. Her mother was crying so hard that she could barely stand, and her father had to half-drag, half-carry her into a car.
Xia Cuihua followed behind them. She patted Su Xiaoyue’s mother on the back while repeatedly reassuring her, “It’s okay now. Everything’s okay.”
Yet Xia Cuihua’s own eyes were red.
Jiang Jianguo squeezed through the crowd and patted Jiang Yi on the shoulder, his voice carrying the lingering fear of someone who had narrowly escaped disaster. “You okay? Did that scare you?”
Jiang Yi looked up at his father and replied, “I’m fine, Dad.”
“Good. That’s good.” Jiang Jianguo put an arm around his shoulders and guided him toward their car. “Go home and get some proper rest. What a mess tonight turned into.”
…
On the fifth floor of the old residential building, Jiang Jianguo took out his key and unlocked the door. The lock cylinder turned twice before clicking open.
The moment the door swung inward, Jiang Yi saw several cardboard boxes and two black woven bags stacked neatly near the entrance, occupying more than half the hallway.
He stopped in the doorway and looked down at the pile of luggage without saying anything.
Jiang Jianguo spoke first, sounding slightly embarrassed. “These are your Aunt Xia’s things. We already agreed she’d move in with us sometime in the next couple of days. It’s too exhausting for her to raise a girl while working at the construction site, and we happen to have a spare room here… We originally planned to come back together after dinner tonight and get everything sorted out, but then all that happened.”
As he spoke, Jiang Jianguo bent down and shifted one of the cardboard boxes blocking the entrance, clearing enough space for them to pass. “She probably won’t be able to move in for the next couple of days now. Go back to your room and get some rest. Don’t worry about this stuff. I’ll sort it out tomorrow.”
Jiang Yi nodded, took off his shoes, and squeezed sideways through the narrow gap between the cardboard boxes and woven bags. His bare feet landed on the cold tiles of the living room floor.
The living room lights were off.
Streetlight filtered through a narrow gap in the curtains, casting a long, thin strip of light across the coffee table.
Jiang Yi didn’t turn on the lights. He walked straight to his bedroom, opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it behind him.
He remained there with his back against the door for a moment and closed his eyes.
His room was dark, the curtains drawn shut. Only the glow of his phone screen illuminated his face.
He pulled the old phone with its spiderweb-cracked screen from his pocket. The fingerprint sensor no longer worked properly, so he entered his password instead.
The home screen appeared.
The upper-right corner of the WeChat icon was completely clear.
No red notification dot.
Su Xiaoyue hadn’t sent him another message.
In the chat list, their conversation still ended with the last message he’d sent.
[Don’t do anything stupid.]
There was no reply from her. New chapters come out on g.com first.
Jiang Yi couldn’t be bothered waiting any longer. He exited the account and switched back to his regular one.
There were two pinned contacts on his regular account.
One was his father.
The other was an account saved as “Sister Qian.”
Her profile picture was a mirror selfie. She wore a black camisole, and a small rose was tattooed over her collarbone. Only half her face was visible. Her lips were slightly parted, and her languid gaze carried a teasing allure.
Jiang Yi stared at the profile picture for two seconds before typing a message.
[Hey, beautiful. You there?]
After sending it, he tossed the phone onto his bed and fell backward onto the covers.
The phone vibrated.
He reached over and grabbed it.
The screen was glowing with a reply from Sister Qian.
[My little brother, don’t you know your sister is busy? Calling your sister on a dark and windy night like this? Your sister recently got her hands on a few toys. I want to hear your voice.]
Jiang Yi stared at the message, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Sister Qian was as fast as ever when it came to turning a conversation suggestive.
Holding the phone directly above his face, he paused for a moment before typing a reply.
[Beautiful, why don’t you just buy me a plane ticket? I’ll fly over and serve you personally~]
He sent it.
Sister Qian replied almost immediately, followed by an emoji sticking out its tongue.
[A plane ticket is easy enough. If you come, your sister will personally pick you up at the airport. But you’d better think it through. Once you’re here, you won’t get away with merely calling me Sister anymore.]
[And don’t forget what we agreed on. If you’re coming to me, you’d better deal with all those little girlfriends of yours first. Your Sister Qian isn’t some casual woman.]
Jiang Yi silently chuckled as he read the two messages, finally feeling some of the tension inside him ease.
‘Talking to a mature woman really is better. At least she won’t act like those younger girls and threaten to die just because of a breakup.’
Even now, Jiang Yi still had no idea how he was supposed to break up with Su Xiaoyue.
Then a thought suddenly struck him.
‘Wait!’
‘That’s right. If I don’t know how to break up with her, I can ask Sister Qian for help. Women understand women best.’
Jiang Yi immediately sat up, then lay on his stomach across the bed and hurriedly began typing.
[Sister Qian, something happened on my end. I need your help with something.]
After thinking for a moment, he added another message.
[If you can come up with a good solution for me, I’ll even video call you tonight.]