Lin Feng didn't seem to hear a word I said. He stood at the cliff's edge, clutching my throat and lifting me into the air.
By that point, I had no strength to fight back. My hands instinctively grabbed his arm and struggled a few times. As I flailed, a pill tied with Wyrmvine Threads slipped out of my sleeve, dangling near my mouth. Fortunately, Lin Feng didn't notice this small detail. He looked at me and said calmly, "Out of respect for the white-haired one, I'll leave your corpse intact. Pick a good landing spot on the way down—don't blame me if you shatter into pieces."
Just as he finished speaking, his fingers loosened. My body dropped.
At that instant, I clamped my teeth around the pill, tore it free from the threads, and shoved it into my mouth. As I plummeted off the cliff, I jammed my fingers into my throat, forcing the pill down. A muffled boom followed—my vision went black, and everything disappeared.
I didn't know how long had passed before I regained a hazy sliver of awareness. It felt like I had entered another realm, surrounded by endless darkness. Nearby, two dimly glowing figures floated in and out of my vision, drifting around as though waiting for something to happen.
Then, suddenly, they grew excited—circling me a few times before stopping above my head. One of the silhouettes, the shorter of the two, said, "All right, your big day has come. Come with us—time to enjoy the afterlife."
There was something magnetic in the figure's voice. In a daze, I began walking toward them, unable to resist.
But I hadn't taken more than a few steps before a sharp, familiar voice cut through the air. "His time hasn't come yet. You two go enjoy your afterlife alone."
The two figures immediately grew agitated. The one who had just spoken to me shrieked, "You can't do this! We had a deal—you don't get to interfere with things down here! We still haven't settled the last time you slipped someone in through the back door. Now you're blocking us again? What the hell do you want?!"
There was a pause. Then the familiar voice came again, cold and unyielding:"Didn't I make myself clear? Do you need me to say it again?"
Dead silence fell.
Eventually, the second figure—who hadn't spoken until now—croaked out, "This isn't over…" Then the two silhouettes dissolved back into drifting lights, fading dimmer and dimmer until they vanished completely.
Darkness returned. I stood there, groggy and confused, waiting for that familiar voice to speak again. But it never did.
I waited for a long time, stupidly, until I slowly lost consciousness once more.
Then, after another long while, a chaotic jumble of voices pulled me partially back. It felt like a dream. People were yelling my name, voices jumbled and frantic. They all sounded familiar, but I couldn't place a single face.
Their shouting gave me a splitting headache. I wanted to scream at them to shut up, but I couldn't wake myself. Eventually, I got used to the noise, and when an overwhelming fatigue swept in again, I drifted back into darkness.
"Bullshit! Who said he's dead?!"
Suddenly, another familiar voice—this one sharp and angry—cut through the noise, laced with the sting of antiseptic. "I'm telling you, one more word of nonsense and I'll make sure you die before he does."
There was the sound of a gun slide being pulled back, then a loud click. A woman screamed, "Murder! Someone's killing—"
But I didn't hear a gunshot. No one dropped dead. The only new scent in the air was a sharp stench of urine.
The man's voice growled again. "One more word and I will kill someone. You'll be first."
The woman fell silent instantly.
Then he muttered through clenched teeth, speaking toward someone else, "Doctor, I know damn well whether he's dead or not. I'm telling you, even if he's nothing but bones, as long as I haven't said stop, you keep trying. I'm not joking—if you give up on him, I'll see you dead before him."
Another voice responded—this one calmer, more clinical. "Prepare for another defibrillation. Increase to 400... And someone get me a new pair of pants."
A bolt of electricity ripped through my chest. My world went black again.
The last thing I heard was someone yelling, "I told you to save him, not fry him!"
I didn't know how much time passed before my consciousness stirred again. It still felt like a dream. I seemed to be lying on a bed, but something heavy on my chest made it hard to breathe. I was suffocating—until suddenly, something wet, warm, and pungent swept across my face. Like… an animal licking me?
"Get down, damn it! The chicken leg's over here! Why're you licking him?"
That voice—I knew it. It had to be the same guy who pulled a gun earlier.
The pressure on my chest vanished. Below the bed came the sound of bones being crunched—crack, crack.
Then the voice came again. "Lazi, enough already. You've been lying here for two months. Time to get up and stretch those legs."
A blurry image formed in my mind—a two-hundred-and-sixty-pound fat man: Sun Fatty.How could I have forgotten him?
Sun Fatty's voice was still murmuring by my ear. "Not to rag on you or anything, Lazi, but seriously—this is ridiculous. You've been sleeping for over two months. You were all comfy and cozy, but nobody else wanted to handle the Sixth Division's mess, so Director Gao dumped it all on me…"
He kept rambling, like he was just talking to himself. Eventually, the conversation turned to the three who had died:
"Po Jun's gone too… Goddamn it. Still no solid answers. We only found Old Yi's head and body. If Ouyang Pian Zuo's Natal Talisman Paper hadn't ignited on its own, we might still not even know that Lin Feng, Po Jun, and the three of them were already gone…"
Lin Feng! After a brief blank in my mind, his face immediately surfaced. Everything that happened that night played back like a movie in my head. It was all Lin Feng's doing. How could he be dead? Was it Wu Rendi's revenge? Or had that Chixiao come back to fight him to the death? I racked my brain, but no answers came.
Sun Fatty kept talking on the other side, "I used to think Lin Feng was the mastermind behind the crackdown on Yang Xiao, the one who staged that ambush on the train. Now Old Lin's Natal Talisman Paper is burned, and with him dead, there's no storm to stir up. I'm telling you, Lazi, snap out of it—I'm counting on you now…"
Sun Fatty was muttering to himself like Xianglin's Wife, endlessly rambling. After a while, he sighed and said, "Lazi, I come here every day just to talk nonsense with you. I don't even know if you're tired of hearing it. If you are, just get up and yell at me, even if you scold me a little—I promise I won't talk back…"
At that moment, a soft "huff huff" sound came from under my bed. Sun Fatty's voice grew more distant as he spoke toward another direction, "Dabai, I'm not kidding—two bites and that's enough. With your appetite, I can't afford to keep feeding you."
His words had barely fallen when the animal's voice grew low and gruff, as if about to argue. Sun Fatty seemed to step back, then said, "Don't scare me, Dabai. If I hadn't brought you to the hospital and made you stay with Lazi so you'd have food and drink, you'd still be gnawing on Director Wu's radishes at the bureau. If you don't want to stay here, fine. I'll take you back now. But forget about chicken, duck, or fish—you'll be back to nibbling on radishes and cabbages."
After Sun Fatty finished, the animal's grumbling gradually quieted. It seemed Sun Fatty smoothed its fur a few times before returning to my bedside.
"Lazi, don't worry. Yinbai is here watching over you. No one can harm you unless Wu Rendi shows up. Just rest a few more days. When you wake up, tell me who did this to you—bro, I'll get revenge for you…"
At that moment, a soft knocking sounded on the door. Sun Fatty replied, then the door opened. Another voice said, "Director Sun, it's almost midnight. Shouldn't we head back now?"
Sun Fatty ignored the newcomer and continued to me, "Lazi, sleep one more night. I'll come back tomorrow. Remember, damn it, you have to wake up for me tomorrow…"
After Sun Fatty left, a weight pressed down on my chest again. A wet tongue, smelling faintly of roast chicken, licked my face once more. After a while, Yinbai lay motionless on my chest, seemingly asleep.
I don't know how much time passed, but my reactions to the surroundings dulled. Eventually, I sank back into endless darkness once again.
Since then, I would "wake up" from time to time. Although I still couldn't control my body, my awareness of what was happening around me grew sharper.
Many people came to visit me at the hospital. Though my mind remained foggy and I only clearly remembered Sun Fatty, I could vaguely tell these were old colleagues and friends. Even someone called Director Gao came and stayed for a while.
On one occasion, I clearly felt someone sitting beside my bed. Yinbai, however, showed no interest in that person, still curled up soundly on my chest.
I don't know how long the visitor stayed. He didn't move and didn't speak, just silently watching me. Only when noises erupted outside—apparently another patient being resuscitated in the next room—did he slowly stand as if wanting to say something, but after a long pause, no words came out.
This person felt very familiar, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't recall who he was. I struggled to open my eyes, but the more I tried, the duller my senses became. Finally, I "voluntarily" sank back into the blackness.
When I regained consciousness again, I had no idea how much time had passed. It seemed I had been moved to another ward. Not only was Yinbai there, but now there was another person in the room as well. This person usually sat motionless in a corner; if not for occasional visitors seeking him out, I might never have realized he was there.