Chapter 121: The Madman in the Rye

Qi Ran didn’t speak, just listened quietly.

“At the time, I initially thought about using the same old routine. If I just dragged things out, I could disgust her. Best case, I’d find that man and expose her lie. Anyway, she couldn’t really force me out, right?” Silhouette paused, his voice very soft. “But in the end, I still couldn’t stay. It wasn’t because of any lingering sentimentality making me soft-hearted. It was just that, watching her cry her heart out, I suddenly wanted ice cream.”

He paused, adding: “That day was the first day of summer vacation, so hot it made me dizzy.”

“I took the six hundred yuan and the suitcase and walked out of that home. When I left the residential complex, the Security Guard saw me and greeted me, asking how I did on the exam, which High School I wanted to attend, blah blah blah… I interrupted his nagging and told him I wasn’t studying anymore, I wasn’t going to school,” Silhouette said. “The old man froze, then put on a stern face and said, how could you not study? Seeing him about to launch into a lecture, my head felt like it was about to explode from the pain. I could only grab my case and run off. It was summer then, the sun monstrously bright. As I ran, I broke out in a sweat, dragging my case to a McDonald’s hoping to get some free air conditioning… but it was packed inside. I circled around a few times but couldn’t find a seat.”

“Inside, I dragged my case back and forth. Every table was occupied by families. Their smiles were all cloned, everyone was the same, looking so fake it made people sick. I wanted to flip their trays and dump all the fries onto their heads to see if they could still smile. I circled around again and again, trying to find a spot, but everyone was happily eating with their families. I could tell which kids had done well on their exams and were confident, and which had done poorly and were eating with a guilty conscience. But whether the kids did well or poorly, the expressions on their parents’ faces were exactly the same, fake like those families performing in TV commercials. I even saw one family that only ordered a single meal, and the family of three was splitting the fries, laughing and chatting as they ate. Just that little bit of fries in the tray—even if I wanted to dump them on their heads, there weren’t nearly enough…”

“So at that moment, I thought about death,” he said. “Have you read The Catcher in the Rye?”

“Three times. A very classic book.” Qi Ran was gradually getting used to Silhouette’s abrupt shifts in topic and nodded.

“At that moment, I was dragging my case down the street, feeling like Holden Caulfield just out of school. I even wanted to curse out any dog I saw,” Silhouette said. “It’s just that he could still go home in the end. His little sister was waiting for him at home. But I had absolutely no idea where I could go, or who I could see.”

“I didn’t know how to find a rental, or how to find a job. It was like suddenly everything was thrown into chaos, everything was starting to crumble apart. This world had nothing more to do with me. I wanted to find a high place and jump. The problem was, wandering the streets, I couldn’t find a single tall building I could enter. Because of the Gatekeeper Grandpa, I didn’t want to go back to the old residential complex, and the office buildings wouldn’t let me in either,” Silhouette said. “It was only then I realized that The Catcher in the Rye is total nonsense. The world doesn’t give a damn about a runaway kid. There aren’t so many brilliantly terrible stories waiting to happen. The streets are long and the city is huge, but I had absolutely nowhere to go.”

“Eventually, I got tired of walking and sat down under a tree, right next to a beggar. I could tell he was faking it because his clothes were dirty but his body was very clean. After I sat for a while, he tried to chase me away, saying my sitting there was disturbing his begging. I said I’d buy this spot with money to sit for a bit and showed him the six hundred yuan I had. He snatched the money in one grab and ran. I couldn’t be bothered to chase him. Just sat there like that, a bowl placed in front of me, watching people come and go.”

“I planned to sit until nightfall and then go die. There were still a few coins in the beggar’s bowl. I could use those coins to take a bus to the Lake—I couldn’t swim anyway, might as well jump into the Lake,” Silhouette said. “My plan was very reasonable, but it was still disrupted.”

He paused, then continued:

“A woman in a white lab coat walked up beside me. I don’t know what she was dawdling for, but as she dawdled, she suddenly squatted down, pretending to tie her shoelaces—but the problem was, she was wearing slippers. I watched her, thinking to myself, could this woman dressed in a white coat be some lunatic who escaped from a mental Hospital? A second later I immediately regretted it. She wasn’t an idiot at all. She was doing it on purpose. While pretending to tie her nonexistent laces, she secretly reached out and snatched the coins from my bowl.”

“That action of hers really broke me. So many awful things happened, and none of them broke me—only this thing did. I couldn’t fathom how there could be a psycho who would steal a beggar’s money? And use such a stupid method?” Silhouette tapped his temple. “I felt my brain just explode for a moment. After stealing the money, she started running. I stood up and started chasing her, not even caring about the suitcase anymore. As I chased, I shouted, ‘Stop, thief!’ In the end, it was a guy who helped me subdue her. It was really a bit hard for that person, because she was a woman. For a moment, he didn’t quite know where to grab, eventually settling on her wrist. But then the woman just bit his wrist… Anyway, it was total chaos.”

“That woman was Grey Crow?” Qi Ran asked.

“Who else but her would do something like that?” Silhouette sighed. “That person asked me what she stole, whether to call the police. I gasped for breath and said she stole four coins from me, which left the hot-blooded, righteous dude speechless. In the end, I had to lie, saying she had a bad brain and stole money from the family, which stopped the guy from calling the police. After the guy left, I told Grey Crow to give me back the coins. But she just clutched them tightly, refusing to let go, insisting she hadn’t stolen anything. I got pretty riled up by her, forcefully trying to pry her hand open… In the end, she just swallowed all four coins whole. My anger vanished instantly, because I was completely dumbfounded. After swallowing them, she still brazenly insisted she didn’t steal them.”

“And then?” Qi Ran asked.

“What else would happen?” Silhouette said helplessly. “At the time, I didn’t know she was a Patient. I was just thinking I’d take this idiot to the Hospital to get her stomach pumped, and then go jump in the Lake. The whole way, she resisted to the death, biting and scratching. Not long after arriving at the hospital, the Executors came knocking. If it weren’t for White Cloth showing up and taking us away, both she and I would probably have been locked up. After that, we joined New World.”

“Truly… a story full of twists and turns.” Qi Ran offered dishonest praise.

Silhouette nodded, and suddenly said: “Actually, I was quite fortunate.”

“Fortunate?”

“Fortunate,” Silhouette nodded. “When I was sitting under that tree, I kept thinking: if just one person would exchange a word with me, I wouldn’t go jump in the Lake. Or if someone tossed me a coin, I wouldn’t jump in the Lake. But no one passing by ever saw me. I don’t know if it was because of my Syndrome, or because they couldn’t be bothered to notice a runaway kid. Anyway, no one saw me. Only Grey Crow saw me… more accurately, she saw the money in my bowl.”

“Grey Crow isn’t smart. Her brain has some issues. She’s a complete and utter mess. But if she hadn’t seen me, I really wouldn’t have known what to do. Maybe in the end, I would have gone to jump in the Lake. Maybe in the end, I wouldn’t have even had the courage to jump,” he had finished even the last can of beer, and could only hold the empty can, speaking slowly. “So no matter what she does, I’ll help her. Even if it’s the stupidest thing.”

“So you are companions.”

Jiang Zhique said something that sounded somewhat inexplicable, but Silhouette wasn’t particularly surprised. He just showed a slightly nostalgic expression and laughed silently. “Yes, we are companions. We help each other, rely on each other. No other relationship is more solid or reliable. That is my vow.”

Jiang Zhique was slightly taken aback. She hadn’t expected to hear these words from Silhouette, and for a moment she didn’t quite know what to say in response.

Qi Ran tilted her head back and drained the last bit of beer. She thought to herself, well, this was it now. Jiang Zhique had finally met a rival from the same school of thought. The companion superhuman meeting the companion great hero—these two sure understood companions too well.