Mai Minghe was so startled that countless electric currents seemed to explode through her body. She hurriedly pushed the door forward with every ounce of strength she had-her reaction was quick enough that, before Jonah could squeeze his body inside, the sliding door clamped tightly against his neck.
If she could suffocate him like this, perhaps things would be simple.
Unfortunately, the door pressed against an artery on one side of his neck. Although his face turned blood-red and his breathing grew labored, his windpipe had not been fatally compressed. As long as he could still breathe, he still had strength. One hand gripped the edge of the door and shoved it hard toward Mai Minghe.
The fellow could even still talk.
"Do you know?"
His breathing was obstructed, but his words were still clear and complete. "...Anyone who stays in the Nest for more than seven days, or dies in the Nest, will be broken down piece by piece-not just their flesh, but their mind, memories, emotions, experiences, even a single thought. They'll take other forms and become part of the Nest. You've lived a whole lifetime. You must have experienced plenty, right? And had plenty of evil thoughts, too? Once you die here, who knows what strange sights will appear... People who only die in the Nest in their seventies or eighties are quite rare."
She seemed to understand, yet also seemed not to.
After death, emotions, memories, and experiences all became part of the Nest? What did "part" mean? Could her own memories turn into individual residents, too?
As though he had heard her thoughts, Jonah laughed hoarsely. "What things will come walking out of eighty-six years of life... I can hardly wait."
Was Jonah saying all this to shake her again, just as he had before?
Mai Minghe braced desperately against the door and gritted her teeth. If so, he had miscalculated.
"Is it because Jonah always has to train newcomers that you can't help giving me a crash course, too?"
Her muscles trembled and her whole body shook, but that did not stop her from talking. Her breath quavered as she said, "You live inside someone's body like a roundworm in their gut. You have no experience of life. Who gets through a lifetime without setbacks, suffering, or hardship? But then, life always gives you a little light and tenderness when you least expect it.
"Even if you kill me here today and use me as raw material to produce residents, I won't be miserable or angry. I didn't have many days left anyway, lying in bed day after day like an empty husk. The best was already gone forever. But before my life ends, I get to be young again, to live again, and die looking like the self I remember. Who else gets that lucky? That's heaven's tenderness toward me. I'm quite happy."
"Shut up!" Unable to get a word in, Jonah shouted hoarsely, "Shut up!"
"People get a bit long-winded when they're old. Once we start, we can't stop."
Jonah seemed very angry. He set an example by shutting his own mouth first, pressing his lips into a tight line. A person and a human head quietly engaged in a reverse tug-of-war for a while, amid their own heavy, ragged breathing.
Sure enough, Mai Minghe could not hold back and spoke again.
"You've crawled inside Jonah's body, but does that mean he has no will of his own left at all? Hey, young man, are you still in there? Do something about that brain worm. This can't go on."
The pressure had long since burst the capillaries in Jonah's face, leaving it covered in large, alarming patches of bloody spots, like a swollen purple grape. But he did not seem to care, nor did he react to Mai Minghe's words. He kept pulling at the door.
It was bad enough when people got stuck on something. Now it seemed that when something inhuman got stuck on something, it was no easier to deal with...
Mai Minghe knew her stamina was certainly no match for Jonah's.
Even though she had regained her youth and strength, that was only compared with her eighty-six-year-old self. Jonah was strong and fit, and often risked his life. They had never been on the same level to begin with-besides, elderly people had poor appetites. The day before she fell into the Nest, she had eaten only a few crackers and a little egg, then thrown it all up. Now, looking at the "child's" mangled remains on the floor, she was actually beginning to feel a little hungry.
She had only lasted this long because of her advantageous position. If the stalemate continued, sooner or later she would be in trouble.
Mai Minghe glanced at the "child's" mangled remains again and suddenly sucked a cold breath through her teeth. "Huh?"
As surprise and uncertainty appeared on her face, her hands involuntarily slackened.
Jonah reacted at once and, just as she had hoped, followed her gaze and lowered his head-Mai Minghe had been waiting for precisely this moment. She seized the opportunity, threw her whole weight against the door, and rammed it forward with all her might. A hoarse, cracked shriek came from between the door and the wall, as though a worn-out flexible hose had been caught there.
"A child's trick, and it really fooled you into looking down," Mai Minghe said, though inwardly she groaned.
She had thought that when Jonah lowered his head, she would have a chance to shut the door completely.
Now look at this. The situation was practically no different from before, and who knew how much longer the stalemate would last.
Air passed fitfully in and out of Jonah's throat several times, each breath seemingly harder than the last.
Had she caught his windpipe?
Because he had turned his head, she could not quite tell from her angle.
"I... I..." Jonah faced the wall, his voice muffled and hoarse. It sounded less like speech than air leaking from a balloon. "Am... a hunter from the Morgan Faction..."
He was still thinking of introducing himself at a time like this?
Just as Mai Minghe began to wonder, she sensed something was different and kept listening.
"My name is Jonah Jenko... This is already my fifth day in the Nest..." he said with difficulty. "Please... go to the Morgan family... ask for help..."
A prickling layer of goose bumps rose over Mai Minghe's skin.
She did not know whether she had compressed some crucial spot and temporarily cut off the resident's control, but the person speaking to her now was not the Nest resident bent on killing her. It was Jonah, a hunter from Blackmoor City, begging her to save his life.
"What about your companions?" Speaking was very difficult for Mai Minghe now, too. "Can you call them over? As you can see, I can barely keep myself alive."
Her limbs had long since begun going weak in waves. She had only held on this long by constantly telling herself, One more second, and after that second passed, One more second.
"Get out, out of the Nest right away..." Jonah continued haltingly.
"I can't get out," Mai Minghe interrupted. "Can you control your own body and stop the resident from chasing me down? It's still a long way from here to the Nest's exit-"
"No, no... It lied to you."
Mai Minghe snapped her mouth shut, her teeth clicking together.
"The way you came through the passage... is the way you go back..." Two clicking sounds came from Jonah's throat, and he fell silent.
Just as Mai Minghe's heart rose into her throat, thinking the resident had seized control of him again, he unexpectedly continued, "Fell in through a television... television... go back. You've already passed through the passage once, so when you see it again, you'll feel it..."
"But the moment I let go, the resident will regain control of you, won't it?" Mai Minghe could no longer hide her anxiety either. "Never mind whether I can run out of here. Even if I can, I don't know whether I can find a tele-before it catches me-"
The rest of "television" stopped dead in her mouth.
Her gaze rested fixedly on the far end of the room.
After a few seconds, Mai Minghe asked quietly, "When I see the passage, I'll know it's the passage. Is that what you mean?"
A hissing sound came from Jonah's throat. He seemed unable to answer her.
Mai Minghe could not help swallowing. Her heartbeat was so loud she could hear it in her ears.
In the dimness, she could barely make out a small door at the other end of the room.
Although the medical imaging room had no windows opening outside, a small room had been partitioned off inside it. That door led to the little room, and beside it was a glass window facing the X-ray machine.
When looking for weapons, she had only searched nearby, within easy reach and sight, so although she had seen the small door and glass window, she had thought nothing of them. Now, however, she suddenly realized something-when she had gone for X-rays in the past, the doctor would often sit in the little room.
Why sit there?
Because the doctor had to operate the equipment and examine the images.
Now, through the edge of the window, she could see the outline of half a computer screen. There was no light, and everything was indistinct. Unless she looked for it deliberately, she probably would not have realized it was a screen.
The screen was used for viewing medical images and was very large-the eagerness she had felt while lying in bed, desperate to reach the television, suddenly blazed up in Mai Minghe's heart like a wildfire, burning ever fiercer.
Could her passage be not a television, but a "screen"?
No, that wasn't right. Then why hadn't she felt anything when she passed the nurses' station and saw the computer screen on the counter?
That question did not matter right now, and this was not the time to think about it.
"Hey, Jonah?" Mai Minghe called. She wanted to confirm her guess with him, but only a gurgling sound came from his throat.
"How do I find the Morgan Faction? Do you have... have their phone number?"
She probably couldn't find a hunter faction in the Yellow Pages-oh, right, there were no Yellow Pages anymore. People used to worry that others wouldn't be able to find them, so they registered their home numbers in public telephone directories. People now were the exact opposite. What they seemed to fear most was something called a "privacy breach."
The world had changed.
How was she supposed to find the "Morgan Faction"? Was it on a smartphone? She couldn't let a perfectly good young man get killed by some lousy worm.
But even after Mai Minghe called to him several more times, Jonah gave no response.
She glanced at the screen in the little room, her heart burning like wildfire.
If her guess was wrong, and she risked rushing into the little room only to find she could not return to Blackmoor City, she would certainly die. But if she kept up this stalemate, death would be hard to avoid, too.
Since there was danger either way, she might as well act.
Mai Minghe took a deep breath and lowered the foot she had braced against the door.
She let go. As the pressure on the door eased, the resident immediately awoke. At the very moment Jonah shouldered the sliding door open, Mai Minghe broke into a run toward the little room.
Today was another flying day for me. I expect to take at least three more flights over the next two weeks. All the airlines must be celebrating right now-except China Eastern.
When I'm booking flights, just seeing the words China Eastern makes me feel sick, and I have to scroll past immediately. Isn't there a saying that people won't remember what you said or did, but will always remember how you made them feel? That's China Eastern for me. I've forgotten what they originally did to disgust me, but that disgust has stood firm through the test of time. Just thinking of China Eastern can give me motion sickness while I'm sitting on the toilet. So I'd rather take a China Southern flight that arrives at eleven at night than give a single penny to an afternoon China Eastern flight.
(End of chapter)
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