Human emotions do not intersect, no one can feel the same.
Hu Li invited me to have dinner together tonight, but I refused. I have plans tonight.
Before getting off work, I deliberately told Chief Physician Liu that I had a blind date. Chief Physician Liu was so happy, as if I was getting married tomorrow. He notified my colleagues in the department to not call me unless necessary, so as not to affect me. My goal was achieved.
I turned off my phone, changed into running shoes, and put on black running clothes. I melted into the night shadows.
I took a taxi to near Central Plaza, paid cash, circled the perimeter of the plaza twice, then turned into the small road, passed the car I had parked earlier, went through the small road, and the back door of Ben Se Bar was across from me.
This was a street full of bars, with over twenty bars big and small on this street.
Every building had its own separate exit. Bo Rongqi had an office on the third floor of Ben Se Bar. He and his partner had a system where they alternated shifts.
When he was on duty, around midnight, he would first go back to the office, then go home. Because he had been drinking, he always walked home, about fifteen minutes past Central Plaza’s other entrance, to one of the best apartment buildings around.
I had followed him many times before and never tried to enter the residential area, because there were too many surveillance cameras around that could easily leave a trail.
But today I have to closely observe the surroundings of the residential area to see if there’s another suitable place I can make Bo Rongqi disappear without anyone noticing.
The office lights turned off.
Two minutes later, Bo Rongqi walked out humming a song while swinging his keychain. Was someone with him? Were they going the same direction?
Three minutes later, his companion turned left at the second intersection onto another road.
He kept humming as he walked.
It's been 22 years, but I still remember him humming as he bid my parents goodbye.
22 years later, not only has he not aged, but time has given him an attractive charm.
In my memories, the sun was glaring that day.
Having waited at the courtroom entrance for too long, my eyes hurt opening them.
When the doors crashed open, I saw him, his eyebrows dancing animatedly as he arrogantly told others, “I believe the law is fair and would not wrongly accuse me...”
While dad was being held back to prevent him from rushing forward to hit him, mom had already collapsed crying into Aunt Huang’s arms.
No one noticed me, a seven-year-old, watching to the side as he triumphantly pushed open the heavy wooden doors of the courthouse walking out, clearly relieved of a burden, seeing my mother crying on the floor, he even walked over intending to help her up while uttering words I still clearly remember every single one.
He said, “What a pity. I was hoping to be able to call Uncle and Aunt mom and dad with Little Pearl, we had the affinity to become a family. Uncle and Aunt, take care.”
After speaking, he bowed towards dad, who was using all his strength to break free. Watching dad howl like a wild beast, watching mom bawling loudly, only then did he back away as his family pulled him away.
He even whistled a tune and started humming a song.
Dad howled furiously like an injured animal, while mom lay paralyzed on the floor unable to get up.
Perhaps since that day, when I was seven, a demon had moved into my heart.
I hid in the shade watching him swipe his access card to enter the residential area. It was a side entrance with a surveillance camera aimed right at it.
It would be easy to expose myself, I can’t get in there. What to do?
From the eastside, I jogged along the perimeter of the residential area inconspicuously while observing across the street. There were three entrances total – main entrance, east entrance, and west entrance. The east entrance was the one he had just entered, closest to the building he lived in. To the left of the entrance were a row of parking spots, five spots total. He lived on the 21st floor in apartment 2102 of building F. There were eight buildings total in the complex, 32 floors each, two units on every floor, and high occupancy rates so high exposure risk.
What to do? It would be very difficult to surreptitiously take him away.
