Chapter 326 - 141: Fall from the Rooftop (Part 2)

Chapter 326: Chapter 141: Fall from the Rooftop (Part 2)

Zhang Shutong instinctively wrapped his arm around her waist.

The bike sped up.

Everything before him receded at a dizzying speed, his body lurching back and forth with the bike. He didn’t know why, but it felt like riding a motorcycle, even though it was just a flimsy bicycle. Beneath her, however, it moved with incredible agility, as if it were an extension of her own body. Lu Qinglian weaved through several small alleys, a few times nearly colliding with open windows. They were only close calls, but Zhang Shutong watched, stunned, as window frames scraped by, mere centimeters from his nose. Before he could even process it all—

"We’re here."

Lu Qinglian squeezed the brakes.

They had arrived at the back wall of the dormitory building.

Looking up, he could see the mottled exterior. The once-white plaster had turned a grimy gray-black, and it was covered in cracks.

It was an old-fashioned "tube" building, not facing the street. He figured the area must have been a wasteland when it was first built.

Weeds grew wild all around, nearly reaching his knees. Not far away lay the skeletal frame of a discarded sofa and a stack of old tires. The cold wind howled as it hit them, producing a sharp whistling sound.

Amidst the desolation, Zhang Shutong tried to recall the scene he had witnessed from the rooftop, searching for the spot where the figure had landed.

In truth, he didn’t need his eyes; his ears were enough—

From the other side of the building came the sound of an ambulance siren. The people from the hospital had arrived before them.

Zhang Shutong’s heart tightened. He leaped off the bike, rounded the corner of the building, and sprinted forward.

He could hear the medical staff talking:

"Who called the ambulance? Can we contact them?"

"It was a student, apparently. I’ll try calling him again..."

Zhang Shutong didn’t know if a jump from a two-story building would be fatal. But regardless of the odds, he remembered the person had fallen backward, arms spread wide. A fall like that meant landing on the back of the head, which could be lethal even from a low height.

He held his breath at the thought. Even though he hadn’t seen the impact, he braced himself for the worst: for the bloody, mangled scene he was about to witness, and for the fear of recognizing the face.

"What are you doing here?"

When two paramedics came into view, one of them looked up and gave him a surprised look.

Zhang Shutong froze for a moment, too. He realized it was the male nurse, Xiaoli; the two of them had worked together to get Song to the hospital.

"I’m the one who called 120," he explained quickly, his gaze shifting to the ambulance, its back doors wide open. "How are they?"

As he spoke, Zhang Shutong started to walk toward the ambulance but was stopped by the other man, who he assumed was the driver. The driver said angrily:

"What’s a student like you doing, causing trouble?"

"Hey, calm down. I know this kid. Let me ask him what’s going on," Xiaoli said, holding the driver back as well. "We shouldn’t be in the wrong place..."

Their words were a meaningless gust of wind to Zhang Shutong. He stood frozen in place as a chill swept through his entire body.

’...Where is the person?’

’The one who jumped from the building?’

There was no injured person in front of the dormitory building as he had expected.

He had subconsciously assumed that Xiaoli had already loaded the victim into the ambulance and was preparing to leave for the hospital. But just a few seconds ago, he had gotten a clear look inside the vehicle.

It was immaculate.

There was only an empty stretcher.

’Where did they go?’

’Why had the figure who jumped backward from the second floor vanished?’

Zhang Shutong felt his breathing grow difficult again. He took a few deep breaths, almost thinking they must have all gone to the wrong location. But then Xiaoli turned his head.

"You can stop looking. We’ve already searched all the way around the building. There’s nothing."

He pulled down his mask as he spoke, his brow furrowing.

"I don’t doubt you or think you’re lying to cause trouble, but when you called 120, you said you saw someone jump from a school rooftop, right? Are you sure you weren’t mistaken? That it was this building, and not one of the others around here?"

Then Xiaoli started muttering to himself:

"But that’s not right either. If someone really had jumped around here, Master Sun would have gotten a call by now..."

"Enough! Why are you wasting your breath on these kids? I’m telling you, it’s just these little bastards playing a prank!"

The driver, who was called Master Sun, was a middle-aged man with a shaved head and a scar across one eyebrow. As he scowled, the scar seemed to twitch.

"Do you think you can just call an ambulance for fun? Do you have any idea what a waste of public resources this is? You even made up a story that sounded real. What was it? Someone jumped backward? Well, let me ask you, where is this person?"

But Zhang Shutong was still thinking about what Xiaoli had said. ’Could it be that I really saw the wrong building?’

The jumper definitely existed, but which building they had jumped from was now in question.

He closed his eyes, then opened them, trying to recall more details.

’No, the building itself is the most distinctive feature.’

Even if there were other two-story buildings nearby, this was the only "tube" building with its last-century architecture.

Besides, Lu Qinglian had seen it too.

Even if the fall hadn’t been fatal, the person should have been seriously injured. They couldn’t have just landed, dusted themselves off, and walked away. Zhang Shutong didn’t know whether to feel relieved or more worried. The good news was that the jumper definitely wasn’t Song. The bad news was, how in the world did they just vanish?

Zhang Shutong glanced at the front of the dormitory building again. Lu Qinglian had come to his side. The driver, it seemed, was genuinely angry now.

"Hey, I’m talking to you! Are you deaf? Do you think that just because there are consequences for false police reports, there aren’t any for fake 120 calls? What class are you in? I’m going to call your teacher right now and ask them how they raised you!" the driver cursed.

Xiaoli managed to calm the driver down and came over to whisper to Zhang Shutong:

"Do you have enough money on you? If not, you’d better call your parents. How do I put this... Master Sun’s ambulance isn’t owned by our hospital. It’s contracted out by a city company, so it’s not exactly by the book. Don’t mind his yelling, he’s mainly..."

Sure enough, before Xiaoli could finish, the driver pushed past him, walked straight up to Zhang Shutong, and reached for his wrist.

"This trip costs eighty, total!"

Zhang Shutong understood what was happening. The driver was probably bluffing a little, but it was true that you had to pay for an ambulance call-out. There was nothing to argue about there.

He figured the man was afraid that he, a student, would try to skip out on the fee. Zhang Shutong just wanted to get rid of him. He dug through his pockets but only managed to find fifty yuan in loose change and bills.

"Not one cent less! Otherwise, hurry up and call your mom and dad!"

Just then, Lu Qinglian suddenly asked him:

"Not enough money?"

"And who are you..."

"Please stop yelling."

Her gaze was so cold it actually made the man hesitate and stop moving forward. Zhang Shutong knew how intimidating Lu Qinglian could be when she was serious. The girl finished speaking, pulled a bill from an inner pocket of her green robe, and placed it in Zhang Shutong’s hand.

"Count me in. I was involved too. Is this enough?"

It was a fifty-yuan bill.

Zhang Shutong had no idea where she got so much money.

He added it to his own money and handed it to the driver. The man didn’t say another word, just yelled for Xiaoli to get back in the ambulance.

The ambulance drove away, leaving the two of them alone in the desolate field.

Zhang Shutong glanced at his phone.

It was already time for class to start.