(1)
The rain continued to pour down without end.
Steaming after her bath, An Jing pulled on her oversized school uniform to use as pajamas.
“The temperature is going to drop over the next few days.” Yu Mingfei pressed the remote, searching for a long time without finding a program she wanted to watch. Finally, she just started watching the city weather report broadcast in standard Mandarin.
[In the city area: light rain turning to overcast, twelve to six degrees Celsius, northeast wind level four to five. Shitang: light rain turning to moderate rain, ten to three degrees Celsius….]
“You should be careful to wear more clothes when the temperature drops so you don’t catch a cold.” Yu Minghui handed a cup of hot milk to An Jing. “An Jing, drink some honey milk and go to bed early tonight. You still have school tomorrow.”
“Ha—whew…” An Jing nodded while yawning and wobbled into her room. After a moment of hesitation, she sent a text message to Wang Xinru.
[Remember to take your medicine if you wake up.]
The phone vibrated after a few seconds of delay, indicating the message had been sent successfully.
An Jing stared at the phone screen for a long time until a chilly breeze made her sneeze. “A-choo! Ah, a-choo!! She… she’s probably still sleeping. She’ll likely sleep straight through until tomorrow…”
The computer screen was still lit. She sat on the bed holding her hot milk with her legs crossed.
The mouse moved gently, making clicking sounds.
A lot of web games had been added to the QQ Zone recently, most of them management simulators.
An Jing didn’t have much interest in QQ Farm, but she was quite interested in a game called Parking Wars. Unlike real-world logic, in this game, not only did you not have to pay to park, you could actually earn money. You could use that money to buy better cars and snatch higher-level parking spaces to earn even more money. Constantly doubling your earnings like that was a bit addictive, even if it was just virtual numbers.
The key was that it wasn’t like QQ Farm where you had to time things perfectly to steal other people’s crops or worry about others stealing yours. Parking Wars was very simple; you just parked your car and checked on it once in a while.
Although it was just a game played with mouse clicks, there was a bit of management strategy to think about. Every day when she got out of school, she had something to look forward to—wondering how much she could earn today, whether the in-game traffic police would ticket her car, and if she’d earned enough to buy a new car…
“You actually snatched my parking spot? Watch me give you a ticket… You’ve been parked for exactly eight hours, so I’ll just take half your income… Oh! It looks like I can buy a new car!”
With a few relaxed clicks of the mouse, she finished her business in Parking Wars and then opened another web game—Friends for Sale.
To put it simply, it was a slave game. If your net worth wasn’t high enough, others would buy you as a slave. You could only buy your freedom once you earned enough money, and a Slave Owner could also be someone else’s slave.
In short, it was full of black humor.
An Jing didn’t like playing this game much, but to prevent people from casually buying her as a slave, she still had to go online occasionally to increase her value.
“That guy Zhou Chao bought half the class as slaves. His net worth is way too high…” An Jing clicked her tongue. She looked at her own value and then at her status. She had been a free person before, but now she had become a slave again. “…Bought by Xiao Ying. Dammit, am I really worth that much? I don’t have nearly enough money to buy my freedom…”
An Jing sighed helplessly and looked at the log. it showed when she was bought and what the Slave Owner had done to her—it was all various types of “comforting,” without a single use of the “torture” options.
“Whatever… I don’t care.” She pouted, clicked out of the boring game, drank the rest of her hot milk in one gulp, and crawled into bed as she heard the sound of the computer shutting down.
The small bed was pressed right against the wall. If she slept on her side, she could clearly hear the sound of the television coming from the living room.
Yu Mingfei was watching the local news broadcast in the regional dialect—it was mostly trivial matters. Instead of news, it felt more like gossip.
Yu Minghui seemed to be saying something in a low voice, making Yu Mingfei burst out laughing.
Outside the cracked-open window, more noisy sounds drifted in, but An Jing didn’t find it loud. She even felt exceptionally at ease.
If it were as silent as the rooms in the research institute, she actually wouldn’t be able to fall asleep.
Perhaps it was because of those lively sounds that there was an atmosphere of life, and in places with an atmosphere of life, there was a kind of peacefulness that made one feel safe…
—
(II)
It was midnight, though she didn’t know the exact time. Even the barbecue stalls had packed up. Drunkards supported each other as they vomited into the gutters in the alleys.
The phone on the nightstand, which looked like a small brick, suddenly buzzed and vibrated, making An Jing’s ears feel numb.
The world of dreams began to collapse, everything shattering like bubbles.
An Jing’s heart began to thud. That inexplicable feeling of palpitations woke her from her dream.
The phone on the nightstand was still vibrating.
The night was hazy.
The window clattered against the frame from the wind. The cold, damp air made An Jing shiver as she reached her arm out from under the covers.
She could barely open her eyes. She simply relied on memory to feel for the phone on the nightstand and then pressed the answer button.
“Mmm…?”
“…” Only heavy, labored breathing came from the other end of the line.
“…Hello?” An Jing raised her voice slightly.
“An-an… it hurts so much…”
“Eh?” An Jing, who had been dazed just a moment ago, was suddenly wide awake. “Wangwang? What’s wrong?”
“…Huu… ugh…”
“Are you in pain?”
“Mhm…”
“Ah, what should I do? Should I call 120 for an ambulance?”
“Huum…”
“Hello?”
“…” The call was cut off with a series of beeps. An Jing hurriedly threw off her quilt and sat up. After a moment of hesitation, she dialed Zhou Chao’s number.
However, the voice from the other end was cold: “Sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off…”
These days, many people turned their phones off to charge at night, and some didn’t have original chargers, necessitating pulling the battery out to charge it.
But at a time like this, it made An Jing as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
“I can’t get Zhou Chao to help get Wangwang to the hospital. What do I do, what do I do… Should I wake up Sister Huihui?”
An Jing scratched her head. Within a few short seconds, she made up her mind. She threw on her slippers haphazardly and hurried out of the room—she didn’t even notice that she had her left and right slippers on the wrong feet.
She gently pushed open the master bedroom door. Her two cousins were sleeping soundly.
Yu Mingfei was curled up, hugging a pillow in the corner, while Yu Minghui was spread out in a star shape, even resting one leg over the former.
She hadn’t expected the usually gentle and meticulous Yu Minghui to be so careless when she slept…
An Jing shook her head, tossing those scattered thoughts away. She then grabbed her eldest cousin’s shoulder and shook her hard. “Sister Huihui, Sister Huihui?”
“Mmm…”
“Sister Huihui, wake up! I need your help—” An Jing leaned close to her ear and raised her voice.
Yu Minghui finally opened her eyes slightly and looked out the window in a daze. “Is it dawn…?”
“No, but something happened. Sister Huihui, I have a friend who is sick. Right now she might not even have the strength to call an ambulance herself. Can you drive her to the hospital? I’ll go with you and give you directions.”
“Okay.” Yu Minghui didn’t hesitate at all, even though she wasn’t fully awake yet. “Phew… pull me up.”
—
(III)
Sitting in the passenger seat, An Jing was still wearing the loose school uniform she used as pajamas, while Yu Minghui was wearing her fluffy pajamas without having changed at all.
As soon as the engine started, a faint smell of gasoline filled the car. Yu Minghui rolled down the window, took a breath of the cold midnight air, let out a massive yawn, and then released the handbrake and slammed on the accelerator.
“An Jing, which way?”
“Go toward the school first, and then I’ll direct you.”
Yu Minghui gave a tired “Mhm” as she sped out of the alley at extreme speed and then merged onto the national highway outside. There wasn’t a single car to be seen. At this hour, the road seemed exceptionally wide and exceptionally desolate.
The car moved at high speed. The farmland by the side of the road flashed past. This old white Fukang sped through the dark night like a bullet, even as the starry sky was shrouded by dark clouds.
Only at a time like this was An Jing glad that Yu Minghui drove so fast.
She was so fast it felt like she could outrun time itself.
“Go straight on the road in front of the school gate. Take a left at the first traffic light after the riverbank, then keep driving until you reach a steep slope and turn left there.”
“Want to go faster?”
“If it’s safe…” An Jing expertly grabbed the handle on the roof with both hands. “You can go faster… Whoa!!”
Even though she was mentally prepared, the sudden acceleration still made An Jing’s heart jump.
Although it was an old car, the feeling of being pushed back into the seat during acceleration wasn’t bad at all; in fact, it felt even stronger.
“At this speed—can you even make the turns!”
“Don’t worry!” Yu Minghui seemed to snap to attention instantly. She tapped the brakes to swing the front of the car around, entering the curve while staying extremely close to the edge. After straightening the steering wheel slightly, she accelerated again.
An Jing broke into a cold sweat because if they had been any closer just now, the car would have driven into the fields.
Unlike mountain roads, these roads bordered by farmland didn’t even have guardrails!
The white sedan projected two beams of orange light, piercing through the boundless darkness as it drove toward Wang Xinru’s house.
An Jing gripped the phone in her pocket tightly, her entire body tensed up.
She had clearly taken medicine during the day, but it seemed Wang Xinru’s condition still hadn’t improved.
She remembered that many illnesses were hereditary. If that were the case… perhaps it was a hereditary disease manifesting early…
“Phew… It should be… fine.” She took a deep breath and slowly closed her eyes, wishing she could be at Wang Xinru’s door in the next second.
“Turning left now. Which way?” Yu Minghui’s voice gave her a jolt, and she snapped her eyes open.
“Ah, slow down! Stop in front of that house in the middle up ahead!”