Late Again

Meanwhile, fifty meters away, a leaf succumbed to gravity and drifted down from the sky. It landed right in a nearby cradle, covering the baby's face, and the baby immediately started crying.

The child's father had walked away to smoke, but when he saw what had happened, he hurried back to remove the leaf. Once the mother saw that the baby was fine, she scolded him and told him to stay away from the child while he was smoking.

The father could only grin sheepishly at his wife's scolding. Seeing that there wasn't much left of his cigarette, he simply took a few steps toward a nearby trash can and tossed the butt inside. It was worth noting that, had this not happened, he would certainly have thrown it into another trash can more than twenty meters away.

The half-smoked cigarette butt did not go out after landing in the trash can. It continued to smolder. About three minutes later, a middle-aged woman walked over and tossed a bag of garbage inside, covering the nearly extinguished butt.

The trash inside the bag then caught fire. The flames were small, though, and there was plenty of damp garbage in the bin, so no open fire could take hold. A faint wisp of greenish smoke immediately began to drift out of the trash can, and the wind carried it toward the grass about twenty meters behind it.

There were quite a few camping tents on the grass. The tent closest to the trash can was empty. The second one was the very tent Fang Linyan was in! The fire in the trash can burned for only two or three minutes before going out, and no one noticed the little incident—not even the sanitation worker assigned to clean the trash cans. This sort of thing was all too common; trash cans were sometimes scorched black on the outside, so this was a minor case by comparison.

But no one knew that the smoke from the burning mixed garbage contained a significant amount of nitrous oxide, a common inhaled anesthetic used in clinical practice!

Fang Linyan, inside the tent, naturally had no idea any of this was happening. Two minutes later, he suddenly yawned and instinctively leaned against the pillow beside him.

"Why do I feel so tired? It's fine. I'll just rest here for a bit."

That seemed perfectly reasonable to him.

But after leaning against the pillow, he felt even sleepier. Fang Linyan thought to himself:

"It's fine. I'll just close my eyes and rest for a moment. I definitely won't put it in. Huh, did something just intrude? Whatever. What am I supposed to put in????"

And then—

Ahem. That was the end of it. He began to snore softly.

Fang Linyan slept especially soundly. He even had a vague, pleasant dream in which he had made a complete recovery. Then a thought suddenly surfaced in his mind:

Maybe? I think? Perhaps? Could it be that I have something to do?

At first, the thought merely circled around in his mind. But then Fang Linyan jolted! Right—what time was it? I have to get there!

He sprang out of bed, rubbed his bleary eyes, and saw that the clock's hands had mercilessly reached 10:25 a.m.!

Aaaaah!!!

Only then did Fang Linyan realize that he was doomed to be late again!!

His mouth was full of bitterness, and to make matters worse, he desperately needed to pee. His lower abdomen felt ready to burst. In his haste, he simply stepped out of the tent and relieved himself beside the green wall. But halfway through, a chubby woman in charge of the grounds glared at him and bellowed:

"What are you doing?!"

Fang Linyan was truly at a loss. He hurriedly pulled up his pants and, as the woman roared at him, dropped a ten-yuan bill and bolted.

By the time he reached Baisheng Road, he could already see thick smoke rising in the distance. A foreboding feeling seized Fang Linyan. Clinging to a glimmer of hope, he sprinted to No. 3 Baisheng Road. By then, he felt as if his lungs were about to burst. Tongue hanging out, he panted like a dog—but the scene before him had already plunged him into despair.

There was no Keith Cafe anymore.

It was 10:46 a.m. No. 3 Baisheng Road had once been the site of a small building, but now only most of its crumbling ruins remained, along with a deep crater. Wisps of black smoke curled up into the sky.

Several injured people lay sprawled nearby, clutching their heads and groaning. Blood trickled from their ears. That was probably why so few people dared to gather and watch; otherwise, the place would have been packed, and Fang Linyan would have had no hope of pushing his way through.

Fang Linyan stared at the scene for several seconds, but soon realized he didn't have much choice. His late-stage lung cancer had only been temporarily controlled, not cured.

So he gritted his teeth and silently repeated, "Better late than never." Then he pulled his hood down to cover most of his face and charged toward the explosion site. As he got closer, he smelled something like scorched protein. He didn't dare think about where the smell was coming from.

Then he began searching the ruins frantically for something. Yes, coffee—and the black wallet mentioned in the message.

Although the place no longer had anything to do with a "cafe," and he was already at least ten minutes late, Fang Linyan still decided to follow the mysterious text message's instructions to the end.

After all, he had already reaped plenty of benefits from following them.

After searching frantically for little more than ten seconds, Fang Linyan found a vending machine for instant coffee nearby. It was tilted and mostly buried under fallen sand and rubble, but its spout was still more or less intact. There were also several disposable paper cups scattered beside it.

As soon as he saw them, Fang Linyan picked up a cup and rushed over to the instant coffee machine. He forced open the spout and tried to fill the cup, but not a drop came out.

In anger, Fang Linyan kicked the machine hard. It tilted from the impact, and then, with a sudden crash, the ground beneath it gave way. The entire machine rumbled and rolled down.

Only then did Fang Linyan realize there was a basement here. The earlier collapse had buried its entrance. His kick had triggered a chain reaction, exposing the stairs leading down to it.