Die einsame Stadt geschlossen

Kapitel 28

This is Xili's true dream.

Chapter Nine: Ding Yan and the Egg

1.

Yang Xin drove his dilapidated police car lazily, patrolling the streets, yawning as he watched the crowds go by. Among these hurried people, who would think of suicide today? Who would plan to give up on life tomorrow?

He remembered Ding Yan saying that in everyone's life, there will always be a period when they feel particularly bored, listless, and that life is meaningless. At some point, the thought of suicide will flash through their mind. However, some people only think about it, while others actually do it. Among those who actually do it, some succeed, and some fail.

On the street, a man in his fifties stood nervously by the roadside, clutching a briefcase, watching the vehicles rushing recklessly across the road with trepidation.

"Great," Yang Xin thought. "Could he be planning to commit suicide?" Lately, no one had committed suicide, and Yang Xin was feeling quite bored.

He quietly parked his car behind the old man, then carefully got out and grabbed him, causing the man to scream in fright.

"W-What are you doing?"

"Uncle, you have to think positively. It's better to live a miserable life than to die," Yang Xin said.

"What do you mean by 'death'? Are you crazy? Does the police think they can just arrest people randomly?" Sweat beaded on the uncle's forehead as he shook off Yang Xin's hand.

"You're not...you're not...going to commit suicide by crashing a car?"

"You're the one who should crash a car and commit suicide!" The old man hugged his briefcase to his chest, then looked around, as if he was worried about something.

"Then... what are you afraid of?" Yang Xin asked with a suspicious look. "Is this bag yours?"

“Of course it’s mine!” he shouted. “Do you suspect I’m a thief?”

"I do have some doubts; you seem suspicious. What are you worried about?"

"Sigh..." Uncle sighed, "Who would have thought that the name I've always feared, a name that's so uncommon, would recently become a hot topic in public opinion?"

"What name? Which name?" Yang Xin asked curiously.

"Well... sigh... I can't say..." The old man wiped his sweat. "Officer, anyway, I'm not a bad person, you can just believe me..."

Just as Yang Xin was about to ask further questions, his phone rang. It was Ding Yan. A smile immediately spread across his face.

"Hello? Ding Yan... What's up?"

"Um, it's nothing..." Ding Yan lay listlessly on the sofa, "I just suddenly remembered what you said to your dad last time, and I wanted to ask you if it was true... Could you say it again?"

Which time?

"It's the time your dad spanked you..."

"Oh...I...I...What did I say?" Yang Xin turned around while on the phone.

"Hey! You said it yourself, and it was such an important thing, how could you forget it?" Ding Yan sat up angrily and yelled into the phone.

"Hey, Ding Yan, I'll call you back in a bit!" Yang Xin turned around and saw that his uncle, who had been holding the briefcase, had fainted. He quickly hung up the phone, picked him up, and shook his shoulders: "Uncle! Uncle! Are you alright?"

2.

"Hmph!" Ding Yan slammed the phone on the sofa, thinking angrily, "So he didn't care about me at all! That Yang Xin is getting more and more ungrateful."

"Women shouldn't be too proactive," Aunt Mei said with a smile as she served the soup. "Have some beauty soup, otherwise you'll be even less desirable when you get old."

"Auntie Mei! Don't talk nonsense, I'll really get angry! What do you mean 'no one else wants me'?" Ding Yan grabbed the phone. "I'll show you whether anyone wants me or not! Humph! Hello? Wang Xiaofeng! It's me!"

Ding Yan looked at Aunt Mei smugly, "Hmm! I'm in a bad mood today!"

"No reason?" Ding Yan made a face at Aunt Mei. "I'm just in a bad mood, why ask so many questions?"

"Okay! Come over here right now, not a minute, no, not a second can be wasted! Okay!" Ding Yan hung up the phone, sat on the sofa, and shook her head. "Hmph! What's the use of all your beauty treatments? Nobody's still after you, hmph!"

"Do you understand what I call a high level of self-control? I maintain my beauty for my own sake, not for those stinky men!"

"Who are you calling a stinky man?" The old postman, who was reading a book behind the curtains, poked his head out. "You old witch, you eat children all day long, your stomach smells like rotten flesh! You're the stinky one!"

"What business is it of yours if I talk to my servant Ding Yan? So what if I say 'stinky man'? You're not a man yourself!"

Say it again!

well!

Ding Yan sighed deeply. Why couldn't these two people from the same hometown get along? When Wang Xiaofeng arrived, the two were arguing fiercely. He stood at the door, looking bewildered, unsure whether to come in or leave.

"Okay, okay, ignore them! Let's go out and play!"

"Oh..." Wang Xiaofeng handed Ding Yan a beautiful glass bottle filled with bright red blood. "Would you like some? It's warm."

"Huh? Where did you get this? You didn't kill someone, did you?" Ding Yan opened her mouth wide, looking extremely cute.

"I'd even kill someone for you," Wang Xiaofeng chuckled. "Try it."

"You really killed someone?" Ding Yan shouted from the doorway.

"Shh... keep your voice down..." Wang Xiaofeng chuckled, with a wicked charm. "No, not at all. How should I put it? You know I've been working on a great corpse sculpture project lately... the bodies are all from volunteers I recruited, and of course, I pay their families a lot of money. This blood was drawn before I injected the coagulant."

"Is he sick?"

"Don't worry, I checked everything beforehand." Wang Xiaofeng patted her head, as if she were his most beloved child.

Ding Yan gulped down a mouthful, licked his blood-red lips, and smiled, "Of all the people, you're the best to me."

"You know that's good." Wang Xiaofeng wiped her mouth for her. "Where are you going? What do you want to do?"

“Hmm…” Ding Yan tilted his head, “Shall we pretend to commit suicide? And tease Yang Xin while we’re at it. He’s in charge of suicides.”

Upon hearing the name "Yang Xin," Wang Xiaofeng frowned, then smiled and said, "I'll do whatever you say. Everything is up to you."

3.

The doctor said that the old man who fainted was probably just nervous or frightened, and that his physical condition was perfectly normal.

Yang Xin breathed a slight sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from his uncle's forehead. His uncle slowly opened his eyes and said weakly, "Luckily, it wasn't an egg. If it were before, I would have been unconscious for 24 hours upon hearing the word 'egg,' but the effect of those two words is shorter, only about an hour."

"What are you saying?" Seeing that he was awake, Yang Xin took out his phone. "It's good that you're awake. I have things to do." Ding Yan might be throwing a tantrum right now. He felt uneasy after hanging up on her. She was the most important person in his heart.

Speak of the devil, and he appears; Ding Yan's phone rang again, sounding anxious.

"Hello? Ding Yan, listen to me, I didn't hang up the phone, it's just because..." He glanced at his uncle, only to see that the guy's eyes rolled back and he fainted again.

"Yang Xin! You scoundrel! How dare you hang up on me! I'm standing on the roof of the West Asia Mall right now, on the 30th floor! If you don't come, I'll jump!" Ding Yan said to Yang Xin, chuckling to himself while pretending to be angry.

"Ding Yan, don't do anything foolish! I... I'm coming right now!" Yang Xin's face turned deathly pale. He glanced at the old man, rushed out the door, and called for the doctor.

Wang Xiaofeng stood behind Ding Yan with a faint smile: "Stand back a bit, don't actually fall..."

"It's alright!" Ding Yan waved his hand. "I've seen plenty of things like this. Dying isn't that easy!"

"Don't say things like that to me again! Even though I know..."

"What do you know?" Ding Yan turned around. "What do you know?"

Wang Xiaofeng gritted his teeth and said, "I know your profession; you're a suicide counselor."

"How...how did you know?" Ding Yan exclaimed, feeling that she had always kept it well hidden.

“Actually, when Millie died, I suspected that someone was behind it all… On the day Millie died, I found a business card from Very Consulting at the scene. When I learned that you lived in Very Apartments, I became suspicious… and started paying attention. Later, I found the same business card in your home…”

"You...you...why didn't you say so sooner..." Ding Yan swayed on the edge of the rooftop.

"You...you..."

"Don't worry, silly girl..." Wang Xiaofeng hugged Ding Yan from behind, took off his coat and belt, tied them together, and hung them on her wrist to prevent her from falling. "Even if you're a murderous monster, I will... I will..."

"Shh... Get out of the way!" Ding Yan hurriedly pushed Wang Xiaofeng aside. "I saw a police car coming."

Wang Xiaofeng frowned and murmured softly, "I will still like you as always..."

"Ding Yan!" Yang Xin rushed out of the car like a madman, "Get down here right now!"

Ding Yan saw the young policeman Yang Xin anxiously pushing through the crowd downstairs and rushing into the building, and then he began to smugly accept the admiration of the onlookers on the ground. This feeling was not bad.

A few minutes later, anxious knocking began to sound from the rooftop.

"Hey, did you lock the door?" Ding Yan asked.

"Don't worry, it's locked very securely."

So Ding Yan turned around and continued looking down.

Thirty stories high. This height made her dizzy and unsteady, giving her an urge to jump. Below, thousands of feet in the sky, there seemed to be a mysterious gravitational pull, drawing her in and tempting her.

For a moment, Ding Yan wondered if it would be wonderful to actually jump. He knew that jumping off a building was the most pleasurable way to commit suicide.

Just then, Yang Xin rushed downstairs again, holding a megaphone. He shouted at his colleagues to quickly set up the air cushion, "It was my fault. I shouldn't have hung up on you. No matter how urgent the situation, I shouldn't have hung up on you! Come down! Come down! If... you have to jump, jump onto the air cushion!"

Ding chuckled; she wouldn't be so foolish as to jump onto the air cushion. She had warned countless people contemplating suicide: either don't jump at all, or if you must, never jump onto an air cushion. Especially at this height, jumping onto an air cushion would almost certainly result in permanent disability; it's better to just die.

Ding Yan's phone rang, and she answered it with a smile.

4.

"Please...please come downstairs, Grandma..." Yang Xin was sobbing anxiously downstairs, tears and sweat mingling together. He wiped his face, "Please..."

“You call me great-aunt...you call me old...am I that old?” Ding Yan said, feigning anger.

"No, no...that's not what I meant. Anyway, get down here quickly, I'll do anything you want!"

"Then you should say I'm a princess..."

"Princess, princess, my princess... please come down!"

"Then tell me what you said when you got spanked that day!"

Wang Xiaofeng frowned as he looked at Ding Yan. Ding Yan was actually acting cute, acting cute towards that brat Yang Xin!

"What did I say..."

“So you really forgot…” Ding Yan sighed, bowed down, and a gasp came from downstairs.

"I remember now! I said I wanted to be with Ding Yan forever, I said I wanted to be with Ding Yan!" Yang Xin shouted.

"Are you telling the truth?" Ding Yan smiled. She wanted to hear this question, and she wouldn't get tired of it even if she heard it a hundred or a thousand times. "Then say it again!"

"Ding Yan, I want to be with you forever..." Yang Xin wiped away his tears: "Forever and ever..."

"Okay! It's a deal!" Ding Yan straightened up, turned to Wang Xiaofeng and made a victory sign, saying, "Don't tell anyone about the Extraordinary Consulting Company! If you don't agree, I'll jump right now!"

Wang Xiaofeng gripped the belt tightly as he said, "Don't worry, just like you will never tell me that I'm making corpse sculptures on my own, I will never reveal your secret. That's our agreement."

"Pinky promise!" Ding Yan extended his little finger.

Wang Xiaofeng cautiously crept over and gently hooked his finger around Ding Yan's. Ding Yan released his hand, stood up triumphantly, and was about to jump onto the rooftop when he lost his footing, stumbled, and fell backward.