My 26-year-old female tenant

Chapter 20: Sky City 2

Standing on the guardrail against the wind, I opened my eyes wide trying to find the reflection of that "City in the Sky" on the rippling river surface, but all I saw was the superficial glory of the city under the flickering neon lights.

Sobering up, I realized that I was actually so afraid of death, afraid of being submerged in the bottomless moat.

I looked back at Mi Cai, who seemed indifferent.

"Aren't you really going to persuade me?" I frowned and asked Mi Cai.

"Why should I persuade you?"

"But I will really die if I jump!"

"It's you who will die, not me," Mi Cai still said with an unshaken expression.

I jumped down from the guardrail and said angrily, "I was right about you, you are a venomous woman, willing to let others die to achieve your own goals."

"I have no purpose, it's you who said you wanted to jump into the river," Mi Cai still said calmly.

I was even more angry, pointing at Mi Cai and said, "Can you stop trying to kill me so calmly? ... I remember I called you to persuade me not to jump, right? According to the script I set, you shouldn't act like this!"

"When I came, you were lying there like a dead man, and you wouldn't jump anyway. Why did you make a fuss and call me? Is it fun to tease me?" Mi Cai's words finally showed anger.

I felt a bit aggrieved, and I would have jumped on impulse, but who knew that fate was against it, and the alcohol suddenly surged up, making me pass out.

I didn't know how to explain to Mi Cai and said casually, "I really wanted to jump into the moat. When I was about to jump, I remembered that I still owed you more than ten thousand yuan and didn't pay it back. It doesn't matter if I die! But no one will pay you back, so I made up my mind and didn't jump, because I am a person with a conscience and moral bottom line, and I will never do such a thing as not repaying the debt."

"You said it's really tragic!" Mi Cai looked at me with a smile and said.

"It's really tragic, okay? You don't know how hard I struggled at the time, on one side is the relief after death, on the other side is the condemnation of my conscience for not repaying the debt, it's hard to choose! ... Of course, in the end, I made a difficult choice to stick to the moral bottom line, so I am still alive," I said with an exaggerated expression.

Mi Cai seemed unwilling to listen to my nonsense, stood up from the ground, and was ready to leave.

"Wait a minute." I stopped Mi Cai.

"What's the matter again?" Mi Cai's words were very impatient, and she put on the coat she had just covered me with.

"Have you been sitting here guarding me since the afternoon?"

"I came to collect your body, not to persuade you, so I came in the evening," Mi Cai said in her unique calm.

"Who are you kidding? If you came to collect my body, why did you cover me with a coat?" I exposed Mi Cai's lie with a meaningful smile.

Mi Cai looked back at me coldly and said, "There will be something covering a corpse to cover the appearance, don't you know?"

I was speechless by what Mi Cai said, so I was stunned, and my attention jumped out of the bickering with Mi Cai, so the alcohol that had not been completely digested started to make trouble in my body again, I felt dizzy, and then had a strong sense of vomiting.

I leaned on the guardrail and vomited into the moat, I really drank too much at noon.

After vomiting, I sat down against the guardrail in a state of exhaustion, closed my eyes, my consciousness became more and more clear, so the picture I experienced at the wedding of Yuan Fang and Yan Yan at noon appeared in my mind again, followed by a tearing pain filled my body.

At that moment, Xiang Chen helped Jian Wei put on the diamond crystal necklace, which means the token of love, how I want to tell Jian Wei regardless of everything: I want to go back to the past, to the past of joy in silence, the past of love...

But there is no past that can go back, I lost Jian Wei, and I can only watch her happiness in other people's world forever!

In the tearing pain, I felt warmth at the corner of my eyes, as if I were crying!

It must not be me crying, it's the City in the Sky that's crying, dissolving my inner sorrow with its tears.

"You're crying, wipe your tears."

I opened my eyes, and Mi Cai hadn't left yet; she handed me a tissue.

I didn't take the tissue; it's better to let the wind dry my tears so they won't leave any traces.

Mi Cai squatted down and looked at me, her tone finally softening as she asked, "Did I just speak too harshly? I shouldn't have mocked you as a corpse."

I was silent for a long time before whispering, "Actually, it has nothing to do with you. Even if it were a corpse, it only ached for a moment before death, but the pain of being alive is heart-wrenching... Do you understand this feeling?"

Mi Cai shook her head and said, "I don't understand. What I'm thinking about now is when you will move out of my house."

"Do you really hate me that much?" I asked with a smile, as if my tears had already been dried by the wind.

"Yes, your behavior doesn't give me a good impression at all. You are a complete jerk!" Mi Cai bluntly stated.

"Is that so?... But you don't know, the jerk who has done all the bad things in your eyes once had a clean city in his heart!"

"I don't quite understand what you're talking about."

"You don't need to understand... because today, this city has already separated from my body and become a City in the Sky that I will never be able to touch!"

I reached into my pocket but found no more cigarettes to burn away my melancholy and mend my shattered soul.

Mi Cai didn't say anything more; she sat down beside me, leaning against the railing behind us in the same posture. Our surroundings grew increasingly quiet, as if isolated from the city's hustle and bustle by the night. A gust of night wind blew, equalizing all beings and extinguishing the worldly fireworks!

I saw a half-smoked cigarette on the ground that I had extinguished, picked it up, blew on it, and lit it again. The taste of tobacco once again filled the air, then dissipated under the hazy light...

I finally said to Mi Cai, "I know you want me to leave, and I will move out, tomorrow."

"Is this time for real?"

"It's true... I've already lost a city, so why would I care about a room?"

Mi Cai seemed curious about my constant references to the city, and she asked me, "What is the City in the Sky you mentioned like?"

I thought for a moment and said, "It's a crystal-clear yet always silent city. It has a kind of magic that makes people forget their worries, their pain, and their extravagance. When you live in it, nothing else matters because you transform into a crystal-clear bird, breaking through all constraints and flying in the free wind..."

"But birds must eventually land. Will it still be crystal-clear after landing?" Mi Cai asked, looking at me.

"I don't know... because I've never thought about what it would be like after landing."

...

Perhaps my pitiful appearance aroused Mi Cai's sympathy. That night, she didn't leave me alone by the river. I rode in her car, heading towards the bustling, somewhat illusory city, and I had made up my mind that after this night, I would move out of that old room. Anyway, my life couldn't get much worse, so I might as well fulfill Mi Cai's wish and give her some peace.

On the way, we were both silent. I interpreted this silence as Mi Cai's continued dissatisfaction with my deceptions throughout the day, and my current desolation and pitiful state couldn't completely extinguish her anger. The fact that she brought me back from the suburbs already showed considerable humanity.

Back at our residential community, Mi Cai parked the car, and we walked towards the entrance of the building, only to unexpectedly find my father sitting on the steps at the entrance, with the old-fashioned black briefcase that had been used for decades by his side.