Chapter 3: Brother, Save Me

After leaving the train station, Li Banfeng took the subway.

A taxi ride from school to the station only took half an hour. The subway journey from the station back to school, however, took over an hour.

Li Banfeng lived in Dorm 6, which wasn't particularly close to the school gate. As he reached the building, the gatekeeper looked at him, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "You haven't left yet?"

Li Banfeng's lips curved upward. He gave the old man a somewhat vacant smile and went straight up the stairs. The school hadn't yet issued a notice telling students to leave; it was none of the old man's business if he stayed or went.

This floor was occupied by graduates, and the building was eerily silent, suggesting most residents had already departed.

Li Banfeng went up to the sixth floor, entered his dorm, and found the room completely dark. According to regulations, lights out in the dorms was at 11 PM. It wasn't even 9 PM, yet the old man had already turned off the lights. That dorm manager certainly knew how to save the school electricity.

Everyone else in his dorm had left. Those who found jobs went to report, and those without jobs stayed at home. He Jiaqing hadn't found a job, so he went home with his girlfriend. Now, only Li Banfeng remained in the dorm.

Li Banfeng couldn't find a job because he had a history of mental illness. He was also homeless; he couldn't possibly move back to the welfare institution. How would he live his life from now on? Go back to moving bricks on a construction site?

Contemplating his "bright future"—moving bricks on a construction site—Li Banfeng's brow relaxed, his lips curved upward, and he smiled. This was just emotional instability; no one could stay stable under these circumstances.

There was another job fair tomorrow; he'd try his luck again. *Tonight, I'm the only one in the dorm. At least I can get a good night's sleep.*

Li Banfeng went to the common bathroom for a cold shower. Just as he was about to get into bed to play on his phone, he suddenly remembered something: he needed to call He Jiaqing. What if he really wet his pants? And what if, because of that, he caught a chill and then a cold? That would be terrible.

He called, and the phone rang for a long time, but no one answered. *He really did fall asleep.* Li Banfeng called again. After ringing for ages, the phone was finally answered.

"Banfeng..." He Jiaqing's low, husky voice came through the phone; he sounded like he wasn't fully awake yet.

"Jiaqing, time to get up and pee!"

He Jiaqing's voice was full of confusion: "Pee? Where? Where am I..."

*Where am I? You really are sleeping soundly!*

Li Banfeng didn't say anything more. He hung up and, in the dark dorm room, fumbled his way up the ladder to his bed. Just as he reached the bed, Li Banfeng noticed his quilt was lumpy, as if someone was wrapped inside it. *Someone's wrapped in my quilt? Is it really a person?* Li Banfeng pulled back the quilt.

It really was a person! The person lay facing the wall, back to Li Banfeng, completely silent. *Who was sleeping in his bed?* A strong smell of alcohol wafted towards him; the person seemed to be very drunk. *Even if you're drunk, you can't just sleep on any bed!*

"Wake up! Who are you? Get up!" Li Banfeng pushed the person, but there was no reaction at all. The curtains weren't drawn, and moonlight illuminated the bed, dimly revealing the person's vague outline. Li Banfeng suddenly felt the figure looked familiar.

He tugged the person's shoulder to turn them over. When he saw the face, Li Banfeng almost fell off the ladder. It was He Jiaqing!

An hour and a half ago, Li Banfeng had just seen He Jiaqing off at the station. *And now he was sleeping in my bed!*

"Jiaqing, what's wrong? Jiaqing, wake up..."

After pushing and shaking He Jiaqing a few times, Li Banfeng suddenly pulled his hand back. *No! I just called He Jiaqing; wasn't he on the train? Wasn't he supposed to be going to pee? If He Jiaqing was sleeping here, then who answered the phone just now?*

The hairs on his body stood on end, and the previously stuffy dorm room suddenly felt much cooler. *Is this really Jiaqing?* Li Banfeng turned on his phone's flashlight and shone it on the person's face on the bed for a long time.

It really was He Jiaqing! This was his best friend from college; Li Banfeng would never mistake him.

Thud! Li Banfeng fell off the ladder, knocking over the wastebasket on the floor. He calmly stood up, righted the wastebasket, and quickly left the dorm.

He closed the door and stood silently leaning against the corridor wall. The voltage was unstable; the dim yellow lights in the corridor flickered continuously. Li Banfeng forced himself to calm down, took out his phone, and called He Jiaqing again.

The silence in the receiver was suffocating. After more than ten seconds, a woman's voice came through: "Hello, the number you have dialed cannot be reached temporarily." He tried calling several times, but the call never connected.

*Call Lu Xiaolan?* Li Banfeng didn't have Lu Xiaolan's number; he didn't usually have much contact with her. There wasn't a sound in the corridor; it seemed everyone on this floor had left. Li Banfeng looked back at the dorm room door, pondering what to do next.

*Was the person lying on the bed truly He Jiaqing?* He had been certain he hadn't mistaken him just moments ago, but now he was unsure again. *Go back and look again? Am I crazy? If I'm going back, I should at least find some help on another floor first! Where would I find help now? If worst comes to worst, he could call up the dorm manager. What good would calling him do? He wouldn't be helpful, he'd just cause more trouble. I might as well go back and check myself!*

Li Banfeng was arguing with himself. According to a normal person's logic, he definitely shouldn't go back to the dorm alone now. But Li Banfeng wasn't normal. He had been examined at the hospital; he wasn't clinically insane, but his mental state was somewhat unstable. His lips curved slightly upward, revealing a faint smile. Though his emotions were unstable, he felt remarkably pleased. He used a special method to stabilize himself. For the situation that had just occurred, he provided himself with a reasonable explanation.

*A hallucination, it had to be a hallucination! I have a mental illness, so it's perfectly reasonable to occasionally experience hallucinations. If I just walk back to the dorm now, as long as I stay conscious, I definitely won't see He Jiaqing again.*

With a smile, Li Banfeng opened the door and walked back inside. *Hallucinations, all hallucinations.*

The closer he got to the bed, the stronger the smell of alcohol became, as if warning Li Banfeng that this was no hallucination. Li Banfeng climbed back up the ladder, raised his phone, and looked at his bed. He Jiaqing lay on the bed, eyes tightly closed, face deathly pale. Li Banfeng patted He Jiaqing's face; it was warm. He then checked He Jiaqing's breath; he was still breathing, but very faintly and intermittently.

Climbing down the ladder, Li Banfeng decisively called for emergency services. After clearly explaining the location and situation, Li Banfeng hung up and quietly waited for the ambulance to arrive. He stood below the bed, while on it lay He Jiaqing, who had appeared from who-knew-where. The two of them maintained silence in the same dorm room.

A soft *click-clack*. A message notification sound broke the silence in the dorm. It was from He Jiaqing. He was certain that the He Jiaqing in front of him couldn't possibly have sent a message. But he had indeed received a message from He Jiaqing. The message contained only four characters.

"Banfeng, save me!"

P.S. The doctor said I could be discharged after finishing this chapter. I think he's lying to me, so I've decided to write another chapter.