Perhaps it was a psychological effect, coupled with the fact that basically all the residents had gone to sleep in the latter half of the night, but after Chi Qing rubbed against Xie Lin’s hand that day, he actually fell asleep after going back.
A dreamless night, hearing no sounds at all—no distorted voices, and no sudden jolts awake.
It wasn’t until dawn, when the people in the building gradually resumed their activities, that various sounds of conversation gradually increased.
Although he had slept for less than five hours at night, in Chi Qing’s week-long journey of insomnia, this could already be called a miracle.
Chi Qing reached out to grab the alarm clock by the bed. The hour hand pointed to ‘9’.
Someone was hurriedly pressing the elevator button: [Forgot to bring the document folder, sigh, definitely going to be late for work today, gonna have to look at the manager’s sour face again. I’ll buy a lottery ticket on the way to work later; if I win the jackpot, I’ll resign immediately.]
There was also someone who had taken a day off to rest at home, yet was hoping to go to the company: [Can’t go to work, when will this illness get better. I’m currently in the rising phase of my career, every day is precious. What if the performance of XXX from the next team surpasses mine? This promotion opportunity…]
After getting out of bed, Chi Qing’s spirits were slightly better. He took his medicine on time, and while holding his glass to drink water, the topics in his ears changed several rounds.
By the time everyone who needed to go to work had gone, the hour hand had turned another small half-circle. The only people left in the building were the sick patient worried about performance, retired elderly folks at home, kids on vacation, and… a drunkard who only woke up near the afternoon.
[I hate Daddy the most.] A young voice said, tinged with a sob.
Following that, the voice paused for a long time. It didn’t ring out again until Chi Qing put down his water glass, carefully selected a small silver folding knife from the knife set, took an apple from the fruit bowl, and had peeled it halfway.
[Don’t hit Mommy.]
[Stop hitting Mommy—]
The red apple peel in Chi Qing’s hand snapped halfway through.
Downstairs on the third floor, Room 302.
The drunken man reeked of alcohol. Seeing the woman toiling away at home, he ordered hoarsely, “Go pour me a glass of water.”
“Wait a minute,” the woman’s curly hair, permed and dyed a long time ago, looked exceptionally messy. The clothes in her hands weren’t finished washing as she said, “I’m still busy, go pour it yourself.”
However, the drunk man acted as if he didn’t hear her.
He waited a bit. Fueled by alcohol, the accumulated displeasure of the past few days erupted in his thirst. He raised his foot and kicked: “Damn it—”
In the corner of the living room, a little girl shrank beside the refrigerator. Her eyes were very red as she glared straight at him.
“You’re just like your mother, seeing you pisses me off,” he turned his head and said, “What are you glaring at me for!”
The girl let out a very soft sob from her chest, finally shutting her eyes tightly and covering her ears.
[Our family wasn’t like this before. Ever since Daddy’s factory went bankrupt… why did it become like this? My daddy clearly wasn’t like this before.]
Just as she was thinking, ‘Can all this end quickly? How can it end quickly?’ she heard a “ding-dong.”
The doorbell rang abruptly.
Cursing and swearing, the man stopped his hands to go open the door. Taking the opportunity, the woman hurriedly wiped her tears and pulled the girl tightly into her arms, covering her ears as she said: “It’s okay, it’s okay, don’t be afraid. Your daddy is just drunk.”
A stranger stood outside the door. Seeing him open the door, the person slowly and leisurely released his black-gloved hand from the doorbell.
The person was very thin, wearing a dark-colored sweater. His slightly long hair made him look inexplicably gloomy. His red lips were pursed, and his skin tone was excessively pale. He had lived in this building for a long time but had never seen this person. And most importantly, this person held a small knife in his other hand.
A two-finger-wide folding knife. Even in its retracted state, one could peek at a portion of the sharp blade tip.
The man looked the visitor up and down, comprehending the situation in his heart, and blurted out: “I don’t have any money!”
Chi Qing: “…”
“You’re here to collect a debt, right?” The man used to live a glamorous life, but after his downfall, he plummeted from the clouds. Acting recklessly in desperation, he said, “I have no money, but I have a life. The factory is gone too, I’m completely penniless. Do whatever you see fit, I’m not afraid of you.”
Chi Qing didn’t speak. Standing at the doorway, he coldly cast a glance into the room. The situation inside was roughly the same as what he had heard.
The man obviously misunderstood this glance: “I really don’t have any money!”
“…”
“I’m not a debt collector,” Chi Qing finally said. “Besides, your life isn’t as valuable as you think. Alive, you waste public resources; dead, you waste land.”
“I just came to say one sentence.”
The man listened blankly to that cold, indifferent voice.
“You’re too noisy, quiet down,” the knife in Chi Qing’s hand was just something he conveniently brought along while peeling the apple earlier; it actually had no other meaning. Right now, he pointed the handle of the knife at the woman inside the room, his face still devoid of expression. “Try moving again.”
The man: “…………”
For a moment, the man even forgot to think about how this unfamiliar resident didn’t even live on this floor, so how could he have heard the noise and found it loud.
It wasn’t that no one had come to break up their fights before, but those neighbors mostly considered that they were, after all, husband and wife. It was hard to interfere in other people’s domestic affairs; even the police couldn’t manage it, let alone them.
But no matter what, none of the people who had come before were as tyrannical as this one.
This unfamiliar resident seemed completely unconcerned about what was happening in their home, simply finding it noisy. Unlike other neighbors who were filled with righteous indignation, his effectiveness was outstanding.
The girl, held in the woman’s arms, opened her tightly shut eyes, realizing that everything had ended, just as she had pleaded in her mind moments ago.
She only had time to catch a glimpse of the person’s hand holding the folding knife and that pair of black gloves.
After Chi Qing finished speaking, he paid no more attention to the man. The elevator happened to have just stopped at the first floor, so he directly pressed the elevator button. When the elevator slowly stopped at the third floor and the doors opened, he came face-to-face with Xie Lin, who had just returned from the psychological clinic: “…”
Xie Lin’s finger was pressing on the ‘open door’ button to make it convenient for whoever on the third floor wanted to enter. He never expected that the person he’d encounter on the third floor would be Chi Qing: “Why are you here?”
Chi Qing: “If I said I just came down to take a random look around, would you believe it?”
Xie Lin’s gaze lingered on Chi Qing’s hand and the people in apartment 302, before finally saying: “Looking at the current situation, it’s very hard to believe.”
The man, who was originally intimidated into silence, had seen Xie Lin before. After all, with such a person living in the building long-term, it was hard not to have an impression. Meeting Xie Lin’s smiling face, his courage suddenly doubled, as if he had found a basis to continue causing a scene: “You two know each other? He came down holding a knife threatening me—I’ve never even seen him before. This matter cannot be dropped just like this.”
Xie Lin smelled the stench of alcohol all over the man and glanced at the slightly ajar door.
Chi Qing thought Xie Lin would ask a question, but he didn’t ask a single one.
“Just because you say it’s a threat makes it a threat?” Xie Lin still maintained that easy-to-talk-to appearance, but the words that came out were, “Sorry, didn’t see it, wasn’t there.”
“…”
Xie Lin signaled Chi Qing to enter the elevator: “My tenant has a very gentle personality, he couldn’t possibly do something like threatening people. I hope you pay attention to your wording before speaking next time.”
Chi Qing, who had absolutely nothing to do with the words ‘gentle personality,’ felt this evaluation was too exaggerated himself—so exaggerated that he didn’t immediately notice the prefix to the phrase.
Xie Lin’s gaze passed over the man, landing on the slightly ajar door behind him. The final sentence he spoke before releasing the elevator button was clearly not directed at the man. He slowed his voice, making it hard for people to feel tense: “Police report records and hospital medical records are two important pieces of evidence to confirm domestic violence. According to the law, you can contact the neighborhood committee, the Women’s Federation, and the police station; all three institutions have an obligation to protect you. Of course, exactly what to do depends on your personal wishes. It’s just that sometimes, parents’ actions and choices will influence their children to a large extent… If your child encounters the same thing in the future, she might feel that endurance is normal and correct.”
Xie Lin let go of his hand.
The elevator doors closed completely.
Pinching the folding knife in his hand, forced by Xie Lin’s sharp observation skills, Chi Qing could only proactively explain: “When I was going downstairs just now, the elevator happened to stop at the third floor. I heard some commotion in room 302…”
Speaking up to here, Chi Qing paused: “Do you really think I didn’t threaten him?”
Xie Lin: “Depends on which meaning of threat. After all, just standing there without speaking is enough to make people feel threatened.”
“…”
Xie Lin then continued: “But what does it matter to threaten a person like that a bit.”
With the topic of 302 ended, the elevator fell into a brief, awkward silence.
Although he had indeed slept well after rubbing against him yesterday, in this closed and cramped space, the tiny bit of unnaturalness deep in Chi Qing’s heart was magnified.
A second before the elevator arrived, Xie Lin broke the silence: “Doctor Wu told me.”
Chi Qing looked up: “?”
“As long as you need it, I can cooperate with you.”
Xie Lin then looked at Chi Qing’s hand, gloved as always: “No need to wear gloves next time we meet. If you wear gloves, how am I supposed to touch you.”
When Chi Qing brought this matter up with Doctor Wu before, he simply felt troubled by it. Later, having no other choice, he brought it out to explain to Xie Lin. But besides these, he hadn’t thought of anything else, let alone that Doctor Wu would proactively seek out Xie Lin to put the treatment plan on the agenda.
It wasn’t until Chi Qing went back and closed his door that he took off his gloves little by little, staring at his own hands for a long time.
Until his phone rang.
Before going out, he had casually placed his phone on the cabinet at the entryway. The phone rang several times, and the caller ID showed: [Ji Mingrui].
Ji Mingrui had been so busy lately he hadn’t had time to sleep. Finally finding a chance to nap in his car, he woke up, grabbed his phone to check the time, and only then realized Chi Qing had been missing for nearly a week—not replying to messages and not answering calls.
“Hello,” when the call connected, Ji Mingrui said, “Big master, you’re still alive huh.”
The big master on the other end of the phone used the most familiar tone to say the coldest words: “Not dead.”
Ji Mingrui: “As long as you still have a breath left. Scared me to death, thought something happened to you.”
Ji Mingrui climbed up from the back seat, his two legs numb from sleeping. He pounded his legs: “By the way, didn’t you say last time that you were receiving treatment… is there any progress?”
The two couldn’t chat for long.
Because Su Xiaolan quickly pulled open the passenger door. After sitting inside with her notebook, she said: “Finished investigating here, heading to the next place.”
So Ji Mingrui hastily hung up the phone and expertly climbed over to the driver’s seat in front: “Alright, won’t talk anymore, chat later.”
Su Xiaolan asked casually: “What treatment?”
Ji Mingrui released the handbrake: “What else could it be, the guy with the illness of course.”
Ji Mingrui added, “Germophobia treatment.”
The first thing Su Xiaolan thought of was Chi Qing’s hands, and the black gloves that never left his hands year-round: “Has that treatment… made progress?”
Ji Mingrui actually hadn’t waited for Chi Qing’s response at all just now, but he still said with utmost confidence: “Impossible. Would I not know my own brother? Incurable. Last time I went to his house, he got nauseous just having me touch him. What progress could there be.”
Outside the car window, the sun went down, and the time stepped into evening.
A day passed quickly, the sun and moon alternated. The last bit of light was also covered, and the streetlamps on both sides of the road instantly lit up. Night had fallen again, and the night outside was heavy and dim.
Chi Qing lay on his bed with his eyes closed, brewing sleepiness.
However, whenever he thought he might be able to fall asleep, a voice would suddenly pop up: [He’s right. If my child encounters this kind of thing in the future, will she make the same choice as me?]
Without even needing to think, Chi Qing knew this voice came from the third floor.
Ten minutes later.
For the second time, Chi Qing knocked on the door across the hall.
“I didn’t wear gloves.” When Xie Lin opened the door, Chi Qing was just wearing a thin jacket over his clothes. His voice was still cold, but his eyes unnaturally looked downwards. Clearly, other than speaking abrasively, he was very unaccustomed to other forms of expression. “…Are you free right now?”
__
Author’s Note:
Ji Mingrui: ?
