64 Waiting is a torture with no end

It was late afternoon, the sun slanting across her desk, making her feel drowsy. Liu Yuwei rubbed her eyes. The food delivery app showed her coffee had arrived. She went downstairs to pick it up, but her phone flickered on and off, with no new messages. When Jin Lang joined the crew, he'd mentioned that the director of this drama prioritized location shooting, and that the signal wasn't very good in the deep mountains and forests of Guizhou. Liu Yuwei didn't take it too seriously. She lined up for the elevator, her cooler bag in hand. Two sophisticated workers in stilettos were quietly complaining about their boss. "An amateur leading the experts will eventually bankrupt the company!" "The point is, he still thinks he knows everything!" Another girl stirred the ice in her clear coffee cup. "The girl in our group has been tortured to the point of being on sick leave for half a month. If this keeps up, I'm going to get depressed!" "Everyone's suffering. This morning, I tried to contact the Junda lawyer we worked with on a previous project, but couldn't find him. Guess what?" "On sick leave too?" Liu Yuwei hadn't meant to eavesdrop. Although the speaker's voice was clearly lowered, the rest of the message still penetrated her cochlea clearly. "They say he died suddenly while working overtime in the office last night. He was found this morning, stone-cold." "How tragic! Is it worth all the hard work, only to end up with nothing in the end?" The elevator dinged, and Liu Yuwei followed them. One of the girls nudged the other's elbow, and they said nothing more. They returned to their workstations, the aroma of coffee filling the air. Liu Yuwei flipped through her WeChat contacts and found Jiang Fan's profile picture. The two hadn't seen each other since their last encounter at the court, but after the rider article was published a while ago, Jiang Fan sent her a WeChat message to congratulate her. Liu Yuwei had previously sought her help with Lao Niu's case, so it was only natural that she invited Jiang Fan to dinner. However, Jiang Fan said she hadn't had time recently and owed him a meal, and that was the end of the conversation. [Sister Jiang Fan, I heard a colleague at your firm had an accident? You said you've been busy lately. How are you doing? Let me make up for the meal I owe you when I have time!] After sending the message, Liu Yuwei casually clicked on her WeChat Moments. The latest post was a photo of her and her children hiking in the forest park over the weekend. The child was inappropriately dressed in a sparkly blue princess dress, with the caption, "The King has sent Queen Elsa to patrol the mountains this time!" Liu Yuwei couldn't help but smile and flicked her finger to like the post. Like the one she had sent at lunch, this message went unanswered. Before bed that night, a push notification from the weather app popped up on Liu Yuwei's phone—…

It was late afternoon, the sun slanting down on her desk, making her feel sleepy. Liu Yuwei rubbed her eyes. The food delivery app showed that her coffee had arrived. She went downstairs to pick it up. Her phone screen flickered on and off, with no new messages.

Before joining the crew, Jin Lang mentioned that the director of this drama focused on real-life shooting, and the signal was not very good in the deep mountains and forests of Guizhou, so Liu Yuwei didn't take it too seriously.

I was queuing in front of the elevator with a cool bag in my hand. Two sophisticated workers in high heels were whispering about their boss.

"If an amateur leads the professionals, the company will be ruined sooner or later!"

"The point is, he still thinks he knows everything!" Another girl stirred the ice in her clear coffee cup. "The girl in our group has been tortured so much that she's been on sick leave for half a month. If this keeps up, I'm going to get depressed!"

"Everyone is suffering. This morning I tried to contact the Junda lawyer I worked with on a previous project, but I couldn't reach him. Guess what?"

"On sick leave too?"

Liu Yuwei had no intention of eavesdropping. Although the speaker had obviously lowered his voice on purpose, the rest of the content still penetrated clearly into her cochlea.

"They said he died suddenly while working overtime in the office last night. He was found early this morning, stiff."

"It's so tragic! Is it worth it to work so hard, only to end up with nothing in the end?"

The elevator opened with a ding, and Liu Yuwei followed behind them. One of the girls touched the other's elbow, and the two said no more.

Sitting back at her workstation, the aroma of coffee filled the air. Liu Yuwei opened her WeChat address book and found Jiang Fan's profile picture.

The two hadn't seen each other since their last court meeting, but after the rider's article was published a while ago, Jiang Fan sent her a WeChat message to congratulate her. Liu Yuwei had asked her for help with Lao Niu's case, so it was natural for her to invite Jiang Fan to dinner, but she said she didn't have time recently and that she would save up for a good meal, and that was the end of the conversation.

[Sister Jiang Fan, I heard a colleague at your office had an accident? You said you were very busy recently. How are you doing lately? Let me make up for the meal I owe you when I have time!]

After sending the message, Liu Yuwei casually opened her circle of friends.

The latest update is a photo of him taking his children to Forest Park for a hike over the weekend. The little girl was inappropriately wearing a sparkly blue princess dress, with the caption "The King sent Queen Elsa to patrol the mountains this time!"

Liu Yuwei couldn't help but curl up the corners of his mouth, moved his fingers and clicked a thumbs-up.

This message, like the one sent at lunch, fell on deaf ears and received no reply.

Before going to bed at night, a push message from the weather software popped up on Liu Yuwei's mobile phone - a red alert for heavy rain in the three southwestern provinces, and landslides and flash floods may occur in some mountainous areas.

The trees outside the window were swaying in the wind, casting uneasy silhouettes on the curtains.

Liu Yuwei had a bad feeling. Last summer, extreme rainfall in northern Beijing triggered a mudslide that destroyed several villages in the suburbs and even razed a luxury hotel. A colleague on vacation had been out of touch for several days. Later, after hearing his story of escaping death, everyone marveled at his incredible luck.

Such accidents can happen even in places less than a few dozen kilometers away from the bustling capital, not to mention the remote mountains that require several hours of driving to reach.

Unable to fall asleep, Liu Yuwei tossed and turned, so she sat up. A thin layer of sweat covered her back in her pajamas. She turned on the desk lamp, and the warm yellow light instantly filled the bedroom, but it failed to dispel the haze in her heart.

She thought there might be some information in the fan group that she didn't know, but she didn't expect that she had to answer questions before joining the group. Fortunately, the questions were all about Jin Lang's personal preferences, which was a blessing in disguise.

Jin Yangyang1314: I saw in the weather forecast that there will be heavy rain and floods in Guizhou. I wonder if Jin Lang's crew has been affected?

Langligelang: Just joined the group?

Langligelang: screenshot.jpg

The picture is the chat record in the previous group. To sum up, there is no movement from the crew and Jin Lang's studio, which means everything is fine.

It seemed to make sense, so Liu Yuwei finally put his heart at ease, lay back on the pillow, and slowly fell asleep.

Outside the window, scattered raindrops hit the air conditioner outdoor unit, making a sound like Morse code. She didn't expect that this peaceful sleep would be the most restful sleep she would have in the next few days.

…

Early the next morning, before Liu Yuwei had even settled into her workstation, she was called by Lawyer Tong to the conference room to discuss a recent case with several other colleagues.

The two-hour case analysis was like a high-intensity brain marathon. Liu Yuwei, thirsty, walked into the tea room, holding a cup in one hand and clicking on an unread message with the other.

Xiaohe sent a link and added, "Is this the mother we met in the park on New Year's Day?"

Liu Yuyi didn't react at first, and subconsciously clicked on the long string of blue characters, and was stunned for a moment.

The colleague who came in to get water saw Liu Yuwei standing there motionless like a sculpture, so he walked over and patted her on the shoulder.

The mug in her hand slipped and shattered into pieces of ceramic fragments the moment it hit the ground.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you? I just wanted to say hello..."

A colleague's slightly panicked voice came from far away, pulling Liu Yuwei back to the real world.

"It's okay, I just got distracted. Let me clean it up!"

She squatted down and saw her reflection on the glistening porcelain tiles. The sharp edges left a slight sting on her fingertips. She carefully cleaned the water stains on the floor before dragging her heavy feet back to the cubicle.

Sitting in front of the computer, Liu Yuwei's hands trembled uncontrollably.

On the phone screen was a glaring obituary: "Jiang Fan, senior attorney in the Dispute Resolution Department of Junda Law Firm, unfortunately passed away in the early morning of March 30, 20XX due to a sudden illness. He was 35 years old."

The black and white photo below is that familiar face.

Liu Yuwei still found it unbelievable, so she found the WeChat account of another male classmate who was in the debate team at that time.

[Sister Jiang Fan is in trouble. Do you know? Is it true?]

The moment the message was sent, the phone vibrated and the other party replied almost instantly.

【Know. 】

The two words hit my chest like two dull hammers. Then he sent me a screenshot of his Moments. It only had a short paragraph, followed by a long string of "My condolences" and white candles.

March 29, sunny

My daughter's birthday is in two weeks. At breakfast, I asked her what she wanted. She said she wanted to go to Disneyland with her parents to see Elsa. My wife smiled and said no problem, and she would buy the tickets that evening.

Fan, I have bought tickets for three people. When will you go home?

These three short lines of words, like a blunt knife, slowly and cruelly cut open everyone's heart.

Liu Yuwei's nose felt sore and tears were about to flow. She suddenly raised her head and the incandescent light on the ceiling turned into a dazzling spot of light.

I was in a trance until the afternoon when a Weibo special attention reminder popped up on my phone - the official Weibo account of Jin Lang's crew had been updated.

Recently, a film crew was filming on location in a mountainous area in southwestern Guizhou when they were hit by torrential rain, which triggered a flash flood and destroyed the communication base station. Currently, all crew members have temporarily lost contact with the outside world, and the specific casualties and material conditions cannot be confirmed for the time being.

The crew immediately activated their emergency response plan, contacted local authorities and rescue agencies to initiate search and rescue efforts, and coordinated communications, medical, and other specialized resources to the scene. We are fully committed to verifying the safety of the crew. In the meantime, we urge netizens and media outlets to refrain from spreading unverified information to avoid unnecessary speculation and panic.

Please remain calm and wait with us for further information.

Thank you all for your concern and support, and pray for the safety of everyone.

When I read this passage for the fifth time, the simplified Chinese characters on the phone screen were strangely distorted into ancient oracle bone script, jumping and reorganizing in my sight.

Liu Yuwei blinked her sore eyes. A sharp chirping echoed in her ears, as if millions of cicadas were fluttering their wings inside her skull. Her brain, like an overloaded old computer, could no longer process information coherently.

When it was time to get off work, Liu Yuwei mechanically turned off the computer and was the first to leave his workstation.

Standing on the swaying subway, she read all the news and scoured thousands of chat logs in her fan group, trying to piece together the approximate coordinates of where the crew had lost contact. She zoomed in on the distant dot on the map app and estimated its distance to the nearest town.

Those unfamiliar place names rolled on her tongue: Langmahao, Panyingpo, Tianba Village... Each syllable was like a piece of ice, sliding down her throat into her stomach.

The tunnel wall outside the subway door receded rapidly, and the shadow of a billboard occasionally flashed across the dark concrete surface. At one moment, she vaguely saw Jin Lang's face floating on the glass.

When Liu Yuwei returned to the community and just got out of the elevator, she looked up and saw her neighbor Aunt Wang.

"Why are you leaving get off work so early today?"

Liu Yuwei forced a smile and said, "I came back as soon as nothing happened!"

"Why hasn't your friend with the scar on his face come over recently? I wanted to thank him for taking out the trash for me!"

"He's... a little busy at work."

The last part of his voice trembled uncontrollably. Liu Yuwei felt that some emotions were about to burst out like a flash flood, so he hurried home.

After closing the door, she leaned weakly against the wall. The bunch of lilies at the entrance seemed to be bought the last time she went to Jin Lang's house. The edges of the petals had turned yellow, but they were still shouting silently like an open trumpet.

Liu Yuwei felt a sting in his eyes, but it was nothing compared to the hollow pain in his chest. The sun had long since vanished outside the French windows, and a thin sliver of red gradually became transparent, as if it was taking away even the last bit of life.

She mechanically took out her cell phone and tried to dial a number she knew by heart again, but the answer on the receiver was always an emotionless robotic female voice.

Liu Yuwei barely slept that night, holding a notebook and looking up all kinds of information on extreme survival, such as hypothermia, dehydration, hunger... More than a dozen web pages were open at the same time. The more he read, the more frightened he became. His heart was pounding, and he felt nauseous in his stomach.

She didn't know how she fell asleep. In a daze, she seemed to see Jin Lang standing in the heavy rain, mud and water flowing down his cheeks, and his body was covered in blood.

His voice penetrated the rain. "I'm sorry, I broke my promise. Don't wait."

I woke up with a start and found my pillow was wet.

Outside the window, the morning light is dim. My phone screen reads 07:15. A new day has begun, but the waiting continues, like a never-ending torture.

All day, Liu Yuwei checked Weibo every few minutes, afraid to miss a single message. Every time she received a WeChat message, her heart would skip a beat, but disappointment would weigh on her chest like a heavy stone. During this time, she even tried calling Shen Cheng, hoping he might have some inside information.

By the third day, Liu Yuwei had fallen into a strange state of confusion. One moment, she was optimistic, believing no news was the best news; the next, she was filled with despair, uncontrollably imagining the worst-case scenario.

If her classmates in the debate team hadn't reminded her that tomorrow was Jiang Fan's farewell ceremony, she would have almost forgotten about it, and the guilt would have overwhelmed her like a tide.

The sunlight outside the window suddenly became dazzling, making Liu Yuwei's vision go dark.