Fan Jian wondered what kind of man could possibly be worthy of a woman like her. As for Zhong Qing, she hoped she'd have as little to do with someone like Fan Jian as possible, and that she wouldn't need to seek him out again.
It had nothing to do with the superiority that came from various advantages. Men who had spent years consuming betel nut, cigarettes, and alcohol carried a distinctive smell. Zhong Qing disliked it intensely.
"That boy's name is Liu Chang'an. Here's his number." Zhong Qing sent Liu Chang'an's phone number to the young woman holding the Rottweiler's leash.
Her name was Zhu Juntang.
Zhu Juntang lowered her gaze from the Baolong Center tower and looked at Liu Chang'an's name and number.
"He seems to be homeless," Zhong Qing said, sharing what she'd just learned from Fan Jian and drawing her own conclusion.
"He might be a high school student... or a college student." Zhu Juntang noticed the odd look in Zhong Qing's eyes and explained, though to her, whether he was homeless or a student, his actions were enough to make anyone forget about his identity.
"It makes no difference," Zhong Qing said coolly. Whoever he was, someone of Zhu Juntang's stature shouldn't be paying attention to an utterly ordinary young man.
"How tall is this building?" Zhu Juntang asked herself, half narrowing her eyes until they looked long and alluring.
"452 meters." Zhong Qing knew the statistics for this tower, which ranked somewhere in the top fifteen tallest buildings in the country, by heart.
"If someone jumped from that height, could they survive?" Zhu Juntang wrinkled her pretty nose, then relaxed it again. An incredulous look crossed her face as she patted her cheek.
"No."
"I didn't think so either." Zhu Juntang nodded, then glanced at the Rottweiler, which was panting with its tongue out. "Just to be sure, go buy a pig and drop it from the roof."
Her dog had clearly failed to understand that its owner had just imagined what it would be like if it fell from the roof.
"Third Miss, please stop doing such bizarre things. I heard you had people looking for a body nearby last night, then went downstairs yourself and wandered around for ages in the middle of the night." Zhong Qing was Zhu Juntang's assistant, but she couldn't go along with her antics.
Zhu Juntang yawned without the slightest trace of ladylike decorum, handed the leash to Zhong Qing, and turned toward the Baolong Center.
In the elevator that went straight to the top floor, Zhu Juntang remained silent, staring at Liu Chang'an's name and number.
"That year, when Liu Bang entered Xianyang, I was rescued. Xiang Yu came back, couldn't find me, and burned Xianyang to the ground."
"From when Qin Shi Huang began searching for immortality and imprisoned you, to when Liu Bang rescued you—you were locked up for more than ten years."
"Yes. Then Liu Bang locked me up again."
"..."
Last night, someone had spouted nonsense to her on the roof, then leaped off and vanished without a trace... And now Zhu Juntang had spotted a young man working at the construction site through her telescope. He seemed to look just like the person she'd seen last night.
She still remembered clearly how he had leaped off. Zhu Juntang had cried out and lunged after him, instinctively trying to grab him, but she'd only seen his figure plummeting faster and faster until it disappeared into the darkness.
"I... I..." Zhu Juntang's teeth chattered. This was one of the tallest buildings in Junsha. There was no way anyone could survive a jump from here. The only question was whether he'd be smashed to pieces or reduced to a pulp.
Her pupils widened. Zhu Juntang's legs turned weak, and she sank to the ground. She had sometimes imagined jumping from here herself, but seeing it happen for real made her realize how terrifying it was. She felt all her blood rush to her heart, which seemed ready to burst under the strain. Her limbs turned cold, and her whole body crumpled.
It took a long while for Zhu Juntang to get back on her feet. She returned to her room, then took the elevator all the way down.
It was midnight. Uniformed security guards were still patrolling the lobby downstairs. When they saw Zhu Juntang, they quickly saluted and came over to greet her.
Zhu Juntang rushed out and searched in every direction, afraid all the while, forcing herself to prepare for the sight of a horrific scene.
He must have died horribly from a fall like that. I'd better not jump, Zhu Juntang thought, her mind awhirl with questions. Why had he jumped?
She remembered the last look he'd given her. How calm he had seemed. Surely only someone who had given up on everything, with no attachment to the world at all, could have such a look.
Compared to him, she was nothing but a coward. He was probably even more unfortunate than she was.
Zhu Juntang searched the plaza in front of the building.
"Miss, what are you looking for? We'll help you search," the guard on duty said, following behind her.
Zhu Juntang was baffled. She opened her mouth, hesitated, then asked, "I just saw someone jump from the roof."
The security guard was shocked and immediately called the other patrol guards over to help search for the "body."
Half an hour later, the patrol teams searching for the "body" reported that they hadn't found anything within a hundred meters of the building.
After all, a person weighed more than a hundred jin. Someone who jumped from the roof wouldn't be blown far away like a kite. Searching this area should have been enough.
"Miss, are you... are you sure...?" the head of security asked cautiously.
"Maybe I was mistaken." Zhu Juntang smiled. "Sorry for the trouble."
"It's no trouble. It's late, so please go upstairs and get some rest."
Zhu Juntang turned and walked gracefully into the elevator, her elegant high heels, studded with diamonds, casting a wavering reflection on the floor like rippling water.
The elevator doors closed. Through the gap, the guards could still be seen holding their bows, utterly attentive and showing not the slightest negligence.
"This is insane!"
Zhu Juntang's elegance suddenly crumbled. She sank limply onto the sofa and clutched the armrest so tightly that her fingers turned white. There was no way she could have been mistaken. She had watched that young man leap down right in front of her!
Could he have been smashed to pieces? Could cats or dogs have eaten him after he fell? Could he have landed right in a trash can and been buried under the garbage?
Zhu Juntang imagined all kinds of possibilities. She went upstairs, changed into running clothes, and planned to pretend she was out for a jog while searching the area again. She simply couldn't accept that a person had jumped right in front of her, that she didn't know if he was alive or dead, and that not even a trace of him remained.
Zhu Juntang ran around the building for more than an hour. Thinking that some of the guards might be someone else's spies, she finally gave up.
After all that trouble in the middle of the night, Zhu Juntang didn't get up until noon. She sat up lazily, and the events of the previous night flashed through her mind like a dream. She was jolted fully awake. Only after drinking a glass of water did she finally accept that it hadn't been a dream: she really had seen it, and she really had sent people to look for a "body."
Still unwilling to give up, Zhu Juntang watched from the window with her telescope—and unexpectedly spotted him at the construction site next door.
Her telescope was made by Leica. It was expensive, and its precision couldn't match that of the most specialized telescope makers. But it was good enough to make out a person's face and identifying features from several hundred meters away, and tell whether he was someone she'd seen before.
Though she trusted her own eyes, what she had witnessed clashed so violently with her established knowledge and understanding of the world that Zhu Juntang still felt uncertain and doubtful.
In the end, she decided to send a text to the number.
"Hello, I'm Zhu Juntang. Last night, we spoke at length about longevity. Seeing you again today has left me quite astonished. I hope we can meet for a brief chat, just the two of us. I'll await you at the rooftop restaurant of the Octagon Pavilion."
After sending the text, Zhu Juntang sat by the floor-to-ceiling window, leaning back languidly with a copy of Li Ling's Zhou Xing Tianxia in her hand. Her eyes glimmered as she looked up at the blazing sun slowly sinking westward.
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