Chapter 558 - Staircase to Heaven (2/2)

“I hope you won’t get offended; I’m just making a casual guess.” The man did not have much of a sense of humor. His laugh was awkward, but even so, Chen Ge could hear how much it pained him to even laugh.

“Brother, can you tell me your story? If you keep it to yourself for too long, it’ll turn bad and fester within you. You’ll feel better if you share it with someone.” Southern Jiujiang was not that far from the World Trade Center, so Chen Ge had confidence that he would be able to make it this time.

“I don’t have that much of a storied background. I was just a normal person, but probably due to my smoking habit, I found out that I had lung cancer last year.” The man’s voice was even. Other than the coughing, there was no change in his emotions.

“I went for three sessions at the cancer hospital and then went home to prepare to enjoy that period of time that I had happily. I wanted to enjoy it while it lasts. I’m not a coward, so I’ve tried my best to fight it, but it’s a very hard battle. I gave it my all and used my happiest memories to try to defeat it, but it has been trying to use fear and pain to counter.

“This war that took place on my body was long and hard. I swore to never give up and never surrender, and it tried many different tactics to make me kneel before it. My breathing became difficult, and there was constant pain and aching all over my body. Other than that, there were also the fevers.

“My body weight kept dropping, and the ache eventually got so intense that I could barely move my limps. Every cough felt like my whole body was shaking, but I resisted the urge to take a painkiller.

“I’m really not a coward.”

This was the second time the man had stressed that.

Chen Ge did not ask why. He merely nodded and replied, “I understand.”

The man seemed to sigh in relief. “About one month later, there was a swelling around my neck. The lymph node was bulging. You could feel it with your fingers. At the time, I thought that I was unable to breathe; it was a labor just to drink water.

“After seeing the doctor, they said the constant bloody coughs caused the throat to expand, and that led to the swelling of lymph nodes. The consequence of that is that the intestine was affected.

“Before I could beat the previous enemy, a new adversary arrived. However, I still would not admit defeat.”

The man was a stubborn man, just like how he kept insisting to Chen Ge, who was a stranger, that he was not a coward.

The wind grew to such a scale where the sound of children’s recitation could not be heard anymore. The man was still moving.

“Brother, can you please tell me where you are now? How about I come get you?” Chen Ge was honestly quite worried about the man. He hoped that if he rushed over at that moment, he would be able to change something, as insignificant as that change might be.

“I’m climbing a long flight of stairs.” The man wanted to say that with a laugh, but whenever he opened his lips, he could not stop the cough from happening.

“You’re on the stairs?” Chen Ge heard the howling wind that was coming true, and he felt like something was wrong. Stairs that were on the outside of the building? Could he have gone up to the roof? Was he at the top of the World Trade Building?

Chen Ge had been to Jiujiang World Trade Building before; the place did not have an exterior staircase. It was then that he realized that he might not be heading to the right place.

“I’m stepping on the stairs, going toward my destination with one step after another. I should be able to reach the place soon.”

When the man spoke, the sensation of pain was obvious, and every cough was a torment for the man.

Chen Ge told the rather impatient driver to stop and park the taxi by the sidewalk. He held his phone and started to study the man’s words, start from the beginning.

Stairs, the destination is at somewhere high…

In the man’s voice, Chen Ge could hear the pain, both conspicuous and inconspicuous. The man kept stressing that he was not a coward, and he did not avoid the horrendous fight with his illness. Why would someone like that escape from home without his family’s knowledge?

He is already so physically weak, so why does he insist on going somewhere high?

Chen Ge listened closely. The man’s body was failing him, but his steps were even and slow; it did not sound like he was climbing any steps.

A staircase that is built on the ground… is there a place like that?

When Chen Ge was thinking, something flashed across his mind. When the call was first connected, he had caught the sound of a train!

The train tracks!

There were wooden boards at constant intervals on the train tracks, and in a way, that could be described as a staircase that was laid flat on the ground. If seen from this perspective, the man was not really heading to the World Trade Center.

He was seeking death!

The end of this staircase was death, the place where all his pain and misery would end.

It was because he had given up that he kept insisting to Chen Ge, a veritable stranger, that he was not a coward. Realizing that, Chen Ge started to search online.

Earlier, he had also heard the sound of children reciting poetry. There were two traditional Chinese schools in Jiujiang, and one of them was situated right next to a train track.

Chen Ge told the driver to take him there. After doing all that, he tried his best to console the man, to try to buy as much time as he could.