Chapter 56 Life Hangs by a Thread
What was the darkest moment you've ever experienced in your life?
Is it a pitch-black night, or a nightmare from which there is no escape?
Everyone has a different answer.
For Rei Furuya, this is precisely the moment.
He felt as if he were in a void.
There was no light, no color, no sound, and no smell.
He even felt that he himself did not exist.
Only consciousness drifts and wanders in the darkness, unable to find an anchor.
Suddenly, he felt a power that seemed to come from nowhere.
It pulls him, drives him, and slowly rises up, escaping this lifeless void.
Floating along like this, he gradually reached the dome and could no longer rise.
He began to regain some sensation, the first thing he felt was touch: cold.
Zero disliked this feeling; he couldn't help but miss warm things:
The fluffy little Guang from the Poirot Cat Cafe snuggled into his arms and meowed softly at him;
On a cold winter night, Jing and he shared a warm cup of sake to warm themselves.
Forgot to bring an umbrella on a rainy day, so after school Jing and I ran home in the rain and took a nice hot shower;
There was also the hot pot we shared at the snow festival, and the scarf that Jing had neatly adjusted for me in the biting cold wind…
"scene…"
Zero, unconscious, called out softly.
Jingguang thought the other person had woken up and anxiously called out, "Ling! Ling! I'm here!"
However, Zero had not yet regained consciousness; his consciousness remained suspended in mid-air, blocked from the world by an invisible barrier.
Today is December 7th, and this is the first time the two of them have met in three years.
In fact, they meet frequently.
However, there was always something between them every time they met:
Separated by a door, a wall, the glass of an RX-7, and the louvers of a ventilation vent…
More often than not, it's just a small electronic screen half a block away.
Now there is no physical barrier between them, but the shadow of death looms between them.
Jingguang hugged Ling tightly, a touch of melancholy creeping into his heart:
Why was this hug, which hadn't happened in three years, even colder than the last one?
"Zero! Wake up! Look at me!" Jing Guang shouted desperately.
As if sensing something, Zero heard the voice coming from above.
A very thin beam of light shone down, like an invitation from the human world.
He seized the beam of light without hesitation.
Ling recalled that he had a similar experience when he was 7 years old.
It was a cold winter morning when he invited Jingguang, whom he had only recently met, to go fishing.
However, upon arrival, they discovered that the lake had already frozen over.
Young Zero was not disappointed; instead, he abandoned his fishing gear and excitedly began skating on what he considered to be a fairly solid ice surface.
However, he was wrong; the ice was only a shallow layer.
Just as Zero was having a great time, there was a loud crack:
The ice broke, and he fell into an ice hole.
When the icy water engulfed him, it was Jing who rescued him, pulling him out with a rope made of fishing line and net.
Ling clearly remembered Jing shouting, "Grab me! Get up here!"
This was the first time Jingguang had spoken since developing aphasia, all to save Ling.
It seems that from that moment on, the two of them were like a rope twisted together, inseparable ever since.
Since then, whenever Zero hears the phrase "on the brink of death," he thinks of young Jingguang crying tears of joy, and that warm embrace that was so tight he couldn't break free.
"Jing, hug me..." Ling said indistinctly.
Jingguang hugged the person even tighter, holding him firmly in his arms.
Zero's eyes remained closed, like those of a newborn puppy. He felt the warmth and instinctively moved closer to the heat source.
Jingguang thought this was a sign of awakening and said excitedly, "Zero! Hang in there! The rescue team will be here to save us soon! Conan just told me they've reached the foot of the mountain safely. My brother and the others will come to rescue us!"
However, Jingguang was too optimistic; Zero is currently in a state of semi-consciousness.
Zero heard the other person's voice, but couldn't make out anything. All she knew was that Jing kept talking non-stop.
A faint smile appeared on his lips, and with his eyes still closed, he said softly, "Jing spoke, that's really great."
"Huh?" Jingguang was a little confused.
Based on the tacit understanding of their more than twenty years of childhood friendship, he seemed to understand something and tentatively asked, "How old are you this year, Zero-kun?"
"Seven years old," the golden retriever replied obediently.
"I knew it! I knew you'd confuse that thing from when you were little!"
Jingguang smiled wryly and couldn't help but think: Could it be that he has been influenced by Conan after spending so much time with him?
However, Xiao Ling was completely unaware of this and continued to rub against Jing Guang, wanting a hug.
Having just been buried in snow, the low temperature caused insufficient blood supply to the heart, making it unable to regulate body temperature properly. So even though Jingguang was holding him, Ling was still very cold.
"Would you like something to eat?" Jing Guang freed one hand, took out a thermos and compressed biscuits from his backpack, soaked them, crushed them, and fed them to the other person little by little.
"Come on, open your mouth."
Ling obediently opened her mouth and subconsciously chewed her food.
As he ate, he finally opened his eyes and muttered a complaint, "It tastes awful."
"I'll cook you something delicious after we get down the mountain, okay? You need to replenish your energy now," Jingguang reassured him.
Just then, Zero's pupils suddenly dilated, and he asked in horror, "Jing, what are you doing here?!"
"Otherwise, who did Zero think it was just now?"
"Huh? It was a scene just now, and it's still a scene now. But, but..." The golden retriever, now back to 29 years old, was in complete confusion.
In the darkness, he saw a speck of snow on that face so close to his, a face he knew all too well. He wanted to reach out and wipe it off, but his hand wouldn't obey him.
He has not yet regained sensation in his limbs.
"Can you eat a little more?" Jingguang coaxed Ling.
Zero nodded and diligently ate the life-saving food.
"Jing, what are you doing here? Weren't you in Tokyo?" Zero asked curiously.
“I had a bad feeling from the moment you started talking about the octopus, so I came here,” Jingguang explained. “I located you on the snow mountain and was a little worried, so I followed you up the mountain. Unfortunately, my snowmobile was totaled in the avalanche just now.”
"Then how did you find me?"
Jing Guang smiled slightly and replied, "Because you are Zero and I am Jing, it's that simple. It might be incredibly difficult for others, but it's a piece of cake for me. I will always find you, Zero."
Zero laughed upon hearing this, then sighed and said, "I think I've found out a clue about Dad, but the octopus is dead. It's so hard to find, isn't it?"
“But we will find it eventually, I’ll be with you,” Jingguang said firmly.
“Okay, okay…” Zero replied softly, but her voice grew softer and softer.
Jingguang suddenly tensed up and asked in a trembling voice, "Ling, what's wrong?"
"I'm so sleepy..." Zero mumbled, leaning on Jingguang's shoulder, "I want to sleep..."
"No, no, no, you can't sleep now! If you fall asleep, you won't wake up! Ling, wake up, let's wait for the rescue team to arrive before you sleep, okay?"
“But it’s nighttime now…don’t we go to sleep at night?” Zero said, feeling wronged.
The snow fell harder and harder, and the biting wind blew straight down to my neck.
The sheltered spot that Jingguang found didn't seem to be able to withstand the onslaught of wind and snow.
The two could only keep warm by cuddling together, the most primitive way.
"Zero, hang in there! Can you listen to me? Don't fall asleep!" Jing Guang pleaded.
"Okay, I'm listening to you..."
“Do you remember we made a promise to come to Nagano? We haven’t kept that promise yet. After we come down the mountain, where do you want to go? How about we go together? Zero, is there anywhere you particularly want to go?” Kagemitsu asked.
"I think...I think..." Zero seemed to have lost the ability to think because of the cold, and for a moment she couldn't think of any fun places.
But seeing Jing's expectant expression, he couldn't bear to refuse, so he answered earnestly, "I want to go to your house."
"Huh?" Jingguang was completely dumbfounded, never expecting that the first stop on Zero's Nagano travel itinerary would be his own home.
However, a promise is a promise, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree, "Okay! I'll take you to my house after we get down the mountain."
Ling smiled like a child and asked mischievously, "Can I stay in Jing's room?"
"Sure, of course! As long as you're safe and sound, I'll agree to anything you say!"
Zero realized this was a good opportunity, so she intensified her demands, asking for all sorts of benefits: "I want to eat soba noodles, oden, and sukiyaki made by Jing herself..."
"Okay! I'll make them all, and I'll make sure every meal is different."
"I also want to see photos of Jing when he was a child. They have to be all of them, including his embarrassing moments! They can't be hidden away."
"I don't really have any dark history!" Jingguang muttered softly, amused by his childhood friend's adorable request, and readily agreed, "Whatever you say, I'll show you everything!"
Zero smiled with satisfaction, but his body involuntarily shivered.
"Ling, are you cold?" Jingguang asked with concern.
Ling shook his head, then nodded.
Jingguang could only hold the shivering Golden Retriever tightly, relying on friction to generate heat to keep it warm.
Many years later, Jing Guang wrote in his autobiographical novel, *No Such Person: The Story of Cats and Dogs*—
"Many people like to use snow-capped mountains as their desktop background, simply because they find them majestic and beautiful. However, at that time, I only felt how cruel and ruthless this furious ice giant was! The heavy snow buried all life except for us. And our lives were also being devoured by the snow."
I looked up at the sky, trying to shake the pessimistic thought out of my head. I found that the snow had stopped, which was good news. There were only a few scattered stars in the night sky.
"I suddenly felt a strange sense of loneliness. I knew that those bright little points of light were actually very far away, so far that even light would have to travel for a very long time to reach this blue planet. The ones I see are no longer the same as they are now, so are those stars doing well now? Or have they even died?"
“I don’t want to think about death, but it’s too close to me and it won’t leave my mind. It’s a tug-of-war between me and death: I want to save him, but death wants to take him away.”
"I felt his warm breath turn into cold air, like the loss of life force. How could I pass on my life force to him? I didn't know. All the knowledge I had learned was useless in the face of harsh nature."
"I began to pin my hopes on some kind of metaphysical theory I had created. People always use heartbeats as a manifestation of vitality. So, can I transmit vitality through heartbeats?"
"I pressed my heart tightly against his; every beat he made was a beat of mine, and every beat I made was a beat of his..."
"And so, we resonated in unison, waiting until the first rays of dawn in the east brought hope for life."
"Zero, look! It's dawn! Can you hear the helicopter?" Jing Guang shouted excitedly.
But Zero, who had been struggling to hold on, could no longer manage. He weakly murmured, "I'm so...so cold..."
"Hold on, they'll be here soon!" Jingguang cried out in terror. "Ling, don't leave me! Promise me you won't collapse here! Please, no matter what, just try a little harder! Keep breathing, keep your heart beating!"
In a daze, Zero seemed to hear the roar of a helicopter. He struggled to open his eyes:
As the rosy glow reflected off the snow, a red sun slowly rose, dispelling the darkness and ushering in the victory.
He realized he had never loved the sun so much!
Zero reached out, wanting to grasp the warm sunlight.
But the last thing he grabbed was Jing's hand: "Ling, promise me you won't give up, okay? Survive!"
Zero gave a weak smile and whispered, "Okay..."
"I...I promise you..."
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