165 Struggle and despair (1/2)

Sun Yu donned a red hoodie and was sitting at the top of the hotel, looking out at the dimly lit urban city.

The wind blew strong, and it was a very chilly night, yet she didn't feel the cold. Perhaps her heart had already frozen. Tears poured out from the corner of her eyes and rolled down her delicate face, their trails reflected in the moonlit night.

She sat leaning against the wall, hugging her knees. She had her phone held against her right ear, waiting for a response. She was sobbing quietly like a lost child.

Xiao Luo answered the phone. When he heard her crying voice, his anger and was immediately replaced by a grave sense of dread.

He asked urgently, ”Are you alright? What's with you?”

Sun Yu spoke in between sobs, ”Brother Xiao Luo, that day when you announced to everyone that I was your woman, I so badly wanted to say aloud that I liked you too. When we first met, I was already strongly drawn to your charm. I am deeply attracted to you. I like your easy smile, I like looking at you, and I like the times I've spent with you.”

Sun Yu didn't sound like her usual self. Her speech was giddy and incoherent, almost child-like. She was crying and laughing all at once; there was a touch of desolation in her sad voice.

”How I wish time could stop forever that night. On the night when we were eating roasted sweet potatoes together. You said to me that those times were best, remember? When we were kids with no troubles and no worries. Trying to touch fish in the stream, digging rat holes in the field, folding paper aeroplanes, and playing in the mud. I was always happy then. I still remember that nursery rhyme, Brother Xiao Luo, let me sing it for you if you're okay?”

Without waiting for Xiao Luo's reply, she started singing softly, and her sweet voice was pleasant in his ears.

”You clap once, I clap once, frequent showers frequent change of clothes. You clap twice, I clap twice, remember to bring a handkerchief every day. You clap thrice, I clap thrice, don't spit everywhere. You clap four, I clap four, kill the flies and the mosquitoes. You clap five, I clap five, exterminate bed bugs and mice...”

As she continued singing, tears began to flow down uncontrollably. The tears had long blurred her vision. She felt an emptiness within herself, she longed for a place where she could get away from all this…

By this time, Xiao Luo had arrived at the hotel's entrance. As soon as the taxi stopped, he immediately pushed the car door open and rushed out. Shouting desperately into the phone, he asked: ”Where are you?”

”I am at home!”

Sun Yu's smiled a vacant smile and then took the phone closer to her, ”Brother Xiao Luo, I've wanted to tell you these last few days that, in fact, I love you…”

”Beep… beep… beep…”

The cadence of the busy signal streaming out from Xiao Luo's receiver sent a sudden rush of panic through his very soul.

Just then, there was a commotion from the crowd on the street.

”Quick, look! Someone is jumping from the rooftop from above!” Sharp piercing cries and screams of panic came from all directions.

Xiao Luo turned towards the directions they crowd was facing, raising his head to scan the night. He focused his sight, and there, he saw a slight figure in a red hoodie jumping off the roof of the hotel. For a while, she appeared to float in the air like a drifting crimson rose, then suddenly plunged towards the ground at an alarming speed. She was falling with her back to the ground, staring up to the heavens, with her arms apart, no signs of fear or struggle, like she had a sincere wish to meet with death.

Sun Yu!

Call it intuition, but Xiao Luo knew that was Sun Yu, even without seeing her face.

There was not a second to spare. This was a matter of life and death!

In a flash, he bounded over in several powerful leaps with muscular feline grace. As he landed on his chosen spot, he planted his feet firmly, bent his strong legs, and leaped forward, high towards the falling body as it neared its point of impact. Stretching fully, he got his arms to her, pulled her into him even as they were airborne. Rotating himself forward while keeping her tucked in his chest, the entangled bodies were thrown in a lateral direction landing not far away from where she would have fallen. Xiao Luo broke the fall, rolling off his back, and the momentum caused him to rotate several times more. Sun Yu was flung from his grasp, landing not far away. But he had broken her fall, saving her from certain death. Without even reaching its terminal velocity, the impact still had a violent effect on Xiao Luo. His ”Constitution of King of Mercenaries” skill was unable to bear the load of such a force.

Click... At the point of contact, Xiao Luo's arm had instantly been dislocated. It all happened in an instant. The pain flashed through the entire left arm, causing him to blackout for a split second. Intuitively, his body reacted in the way he had visualized, pulling her body into his own, and rolling over as he hit the ground.

Sun Yu, having been thrown from his grasp, fell a short away and remained unconscious. Fresh blood slowly flowed from where she lay.

Xiao Luo picked himself up and limped over desperately. Endured the pain in his left arm, he picked her up and returned to the waiting taxi.

Looking at Sun Yu covered in blood, the driver was in shock and turned pale, ”Is this your… your friend?”

”Drive!”

Xiao Luo couldn't keep calm and roared at the driver to move that very instant.

Without further delay, the driver quickly put on his seatbelt and drove directly to the People's Hospital. They arrived within minutes.

…

…

The strong smell of disinfectant permeated the hospital air.