Chapter Text
After closing the door and carefully placing a wedge, Lu Guang walked toward the edge of the rooftop with a sense of purpose he rarely felt in his life. All his life, he did as he was told without asking questions. Work hard in school so he can go to a good university. Work hard in university so he can get a good job. Work hard from before 9am to past midnight so his boss can claim all the credit while getting stuck in an entry level job for over three years. All with the explanation that it's a good company, with great potential, great contact for his career, he should consider himself lucky, few graduates have jobs and even less with a salary of more than 3000 yuan per month. And after doing everything his parents asked him to do for over 20 years? He receives a phone call while doing unpaid overtime to finish his boss' report about why he still isn't married yet, that he should meet that great girl they know from a good family and while we're at it you should hurry to have kids. For some reason, that conversation was the last straw to break his mind. After finishing his tasks, instead of walking back to his studio for a few hours of sleep, his feet made him climb the stairs all the way up in a rare act of defiance.
Yet, now that his toes are hovering over nothingness, he stopped. Not because of fear, regret or any emotions someone would feel before jumping a 20 floors building, but because he felt nothing. No family he would miss, no friends, no rewarding career, not even an unfinished book that might make him procrastinate his demise. That emptiness made him stare at the scenery for a minute. The city lights and the drizzling prevented seeing stars, but the quietness one can find at 2am on a rainy night had a certain charm that did replaced the emptiness with peacefulness.
"Please don't jump!"
Peace that was quickly replaced by surprise as Lu Guang turned around. There's only one door leading to the rooftop and he made sure to close it, so how...
Surprise was replaced by incomprehension. A man about his age was standing a few meters from him. Lu Guang had recently been responsible for updating the employees' database and was sure the stranger was not one since his face didn't ring any bell at all. Even if he was contracted or recently hired, no one would come to work in sneakers and a sport jacket. And even if the company didn't care for uniforms (which Lu Guang doubted), why would someone come on the rooftop on at 2am? All to come back to his initial question of how he got on the rooftop in the first place? A homeless person, perhaps? Wouldn't a homeless person still have a coat or something to protect themselves from the rain? No explanation made sense, so Lu Guang stayed silent. Which didn't seem to bother the stranger.
"Oh, I didn't think much about it, hum? I saw you on the security camera footage and came as quickly as possible. I don't have a speech ready... do you work here?"
Lu Guang had no interest in answering questions from a strange stranger, yet something about this man catched his attention. His smile. Lu Guang saw smiles every day from people serving customers to smiles his boss gave him when he kindly asks him to do extra work or else. This one was different. It was an honest smile; one he could remember seeing on mothers caring for their child or on lovers on a date but never directed toward him. Until now that is.
"Yes."
"Great! I mean, not really, because this company is quite awful from what I've seen. Did you know they are involved in a lot of illegal things? As if exploiting their workers was not enough."
Actually, Lu Guang did notice that. His main job and field of expertise was in accounting. He noticed when numbers made no sense. He was just too tired to care, physically and emotionally. And besides, if he reported on it? The company would pay a bribe, fire him and continue as usual, so why bother?
"Anyway", the stranger continued to ramble, "I guess my point is that they'll soon be caught. So, since you'll probably lose your job, isn't it pointless to jump? Oh, that came out wrong. What I mean is, I've seen so many people who thought they were forever stuck because of mistakes they made, only to one day find their way toward a happy future. I don't know what your life was until now, surely it was bad if you are trying to jump of a building, but you can always change your future! Take it as a chance to change job, move out of the city, anything!"
Lu Guang scoffed at hearing such a naive viewpoint of life. No less coming from someone who somehow successfully did industrial espionage on one of the biggest companies in the country, if he didn't bluff earlier. Or maybe he’s a complete idiot. At this point, the jury’s still out.
"Like what?"
"If you have nowhere else to go, you can always work at my shop!"
All of Lu Guang 's thoughts on figuring out what that guy's deal was (truly, figuring out that mystery was the main reason he was still freezing in the rain on top of a building instead of being dead on the sidewalk 50 meters or so below) all came to a screeching halt.
"Seriously?" Clearly Lu Guang misheard.
And for some reason, the stranger looked like he just said the first thing that came to his mind but somehow decided, after thinking about what he just said, that it was the greatest idea ever.
"Yes, you can work at my shop; it would be perfect! Having a handsome face taking care of the shop and replying to messages when I'm gone would be great for the business! Oh, are you good with all that bank reconciliation and those bill thing? You know, the math stuff?"
"Yes." Lu Guang was so surprised by the impromptu job interview his mouth answered before he realized what he was doing.
"Great! You know, I thought of telling you that nothing's set in stone, but me meeting you must be fate! Now QL won't pester me every month about how important balancing books is! And if you need a place to stay, I have an extra bed. Think of it as a job benefit, since I can't give you a high pay, but hey, I guarantee that job will be much more relaxing than whatever you are doing right now. We’re never working after midnight at least."
"You really think I would agree?" Because who on earth would agree to something like that?
"Right now, euh, probably not, it's 2am, I think, and honestly you can't trust any decision your brain takes that late. How about we exchange phone number instead?"
Then, for the first time in the conversation, the man got closer, handing his phone over to Lu Guang. Seeing the man drenched and shivering yet still showing an excited smile over his "brilliant" idea somehow convinced Lu Guang to play along with this insane man (clearly there was no other explanation for the whole interaction), took his phone, created a new contact in the stranger's phone and handed it over.
" Lu Guang? What a nice name. I'm Cheng Xiaoshi, nice to meet you!"
Before Lu Guang could reply, the man froze.
"Crap, the mission! Sorry, I'll text you as soon as I'm done!"
And then something strange happened. The man clapped his hands, a shadow and cracking sound happened, then he was gone.
Lu Guang stared at the spot where the man was for a few minutes, wrecking to figure out what the hell just happened. He was just about to conclude he just had the weirdness dream while standing up when his phone buzzed. A text from an unknown number. When was the last time he had text that had nothing to do with work? For the first time in a very long time, a lightness akin to excitement filled his heart as he opened it.
"Cheng Xiaoshi here. I'm real, I'm not joking, don't die, please?"
Hum.
New knowledge acquired: somehow, guys can just disappear at will, apparently.
Lu Guang looked one last time at the scenery, then walked away from the edge with a sense of purpose, but somehow different from earlier. Earlier, he was walking with the confidence of someone with a goal and nothing to lose. This time, he still had nothing to lose, but he wanted to stay alive another day to see if the strange man was right. And if he wasn't, well, nothing's stopping him from going back on a rooftop.