Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Stumbling Block

Lin Jianyuan thought he was still dreaming. He reached for the squish toy and found it bobbing its head from side to side.

“Hey, thief.” He squished it—squish, squish. “What did you just say?”

“Amen, there’s a grapevine by the door. I’m not a snail, I’m an oriole,” the squish toy warbled.

Lin Jianyuan: “???”

That woke him up for real. He sat up and squeezed the squish toy again and again, suspicious.

Every squeeze squeezed out another bizarre line. The whole snail babbled like it had a concussion.

“You crazy?” he muttered—then, a beat later: “Oh. I’m the one who’s crazy.”

He’d forgotten to take his meds yesterday.

He scrambled out of bed to take them. The squish toy, abandoned on the sheets, wobbled upright and started yammering again, head lolling.

“Grapes, grapes, hush now, or you’ll wake Lin Jianyuan up—doomed, doomed! If Lin Jianyuan doesn’t get his sleep, you’re dead meat!”

Lin Jianyuan：“………………”

Skipped a dose yesterday—can I make it two today?

Whatever. Down the hatch first!

After all that fuss, he did, in fact, leave late.

Only five minutes behind schedule, but those five minutes set off a chain reaction.

He watched the last share bike get pedaled away right under his nose. A sweep of the street turned up not a single one in sight.

Rush hour—of course the bikes were all taken. Nothing to be done.

He could only power-walk to the subway under the pounding sun.

By the time he reached the station, he hadn’t even started down the stairs and already saw a wall of people.

The security line stretched from the checkpoint all the way back to the station entrance!

He saw black for a second. Helpless, he hurried down the stairs anyway.

The endless queue was enough to make a man despair.

He joined the long line for the scanners, slipped a hand into his pocket, and tried to put the squish toy to work.

Squish.

Squish, squish, squish.

He squeezed it over and over; the line ahead refused to shrink.

Lin Jianyuan：“……”

Screwed.

Took too much this morning—now even the skip trick wouldn’t kick in!

He sank into gloom and regret; if he’d known, he wouldn’t have taken that second dose!

You don’t stop your meds—and you sure as hell don’t double them on a whim!

Total ball-ache, but there was nothing he could do. He had to wait it out, inching toward security.

He finally cleared the scanners, swiped in, and rushed through the gates.

It was peak commute: the escalators were jammed, and even the stairs were crammed shoulder to shoulder.

He couldn’t even pick up the pace.

Squeezed in among the bodies, he checked the time on his phone as he shuffled downward.

Shit. Miss this train and he’d be late for real.

“Sorry, excuse me—coming through—” He wriggled into any crack he could find, forcing his way down.

Rumble—right then, the train pulled in.

The crowd surged forward in a single heave.

He was jostled senseless, the squish toy in his pocket going squish, squish, squish.

The carriage doors were right there when the warning lights flashed.

A security guard raised a bullhorn and shouted, “Doors closing! Stop pushing! Stop pushing!”

Lin Jianyuan was just about to step into the car, just about to let out a breath—

Rattle, rattle...

His foot caught, and Lin Jianyuan pitched forward headfirst!

Screams erupted all around him!

"Oh no!"

"Aah!"

Thud, thud—thud-thud-thud—

The doors were sliding shut to a blaring alarm.

Half of Lin Jianyuan was inside the car, the other half still out.

"Get in, get in!" the safety officer barked, his whistle shrieking.

Scared half to death, Lin Jianyuan didn’t even try to stand; he scrambled in on hands and knees.

Panicked commuters grabbed for him and hauled.

By sheer combined effort, they yanked Lin Jianyuan inside just before the doors clamped shut.

"Holy shit..." He glanced back at the doors now sealed tight and felt a cold aftershock.

He pushed himself upright on all fours; his legs were still jelly.

"That was way too close!"

"Yeah, what are the safety staff even doing? The doors were about to cut him in half—couldn’t they hold them a second?"

"No way—it’s rush hour, trains are stacked nose to tail. Hold this one and the next’ll rear-end it!"

"You can’t just stand there and watch the doors crush someone!"

Righteous anger bubbled; that near miss had everyone on edge.

But Lin Jianyuan, the one it had happened to, looked more and more perplexed.

He looked down at the floor. Morning rush hour—nothing but a tangle of shoes, and nothing else.

So that rattle he’d heard... was it another hallucination?

Had he taken too much of his meds, or not enough???

Not being able to use the skip function had him in a state, but luckily the squish toy could still be squeezed, skip or no skip.

So all the way there he worked that trash-talking squish toy, squish-squish, to take the edge off his anxiety.

If nothing went wrong he could still make it. Please don’t be late—they’d been brutal about timecards lately. One late clock-in docked you 200; last time Jiang Chen was late they docked him on the spot...

Just thinking about the fine made Lin Jianyuan’s chest seize.

He was broke as it was; he couldn’t afford to lose 200 yuan.

But on the subway there was nothing he could do—he couldn’t very well cheer the train on.

And anyway, why the hell is being late a 200-yuan hit? He barely made a little more than that for a whole day’s work!

Doesn’t that violate labor law?!

As his irritation and panic bloomed, the train finally dumped Lin Jianyuan at the foot of his office building.

The moment he shot out of the elevator, he broke into a sprint.

He ignored the high-summer sun beating straight down, pelted into the building, and made for the elevators, gasping.

"Hold the door!" Lin Jianyuan shouted as the doors began to close.

"Over capacity! Catch the next one!"

Someone inside tossed the line out without a shred of pity, and the doors slid shut.

He stood there heaving before the sealed doors, nowhere to vent his frustration and no time to spare.

He stabbed at the other call buttons.

All of them were already lit.

Every car had just left the first floor and was on its way up.

Shit. No wonder no one else was waiting—every elevator had just taken off.

His vision went black again.

He checked the time. Another blackout.

Seven minutes left…

Seven minutes to reach the 13th floor—could he run it?

Even if he could—thirteen floors! He was exhausted just thinking about it.

But if he didn’t take the stairs, who knew how long the elevators would take.

In the end, between stairs and elevators, he chose incense.

He pulled out a cigarette, lit it, stuck it in the ashtray on the trash bin, pressed his palms together, and prayed for the elevator to hurry up.

As he prayed with eyes closed—

Clatter—

There it was again.

It was quiet this time. He could hear it: something like a tiny rock rolling.

He opened his eyes, looked around. The marble floor was spotless—freshly mopped, by the look of it.

Where would a pebble come from?

…Yeah, you can’t screw around with psych meds. He should book a follow-up with Dr. Cen.

He sighed and turned back to keep praying to the elevator.

One glance—and he was furious again.

What the—The car was only at the 4th floor!

Did it stop at 2 and 3? Come on! Which jackass takes the elevator for two floors?

The fire in his gut flared.

And when he watched it stop at 4, 5, 6—every floor—his temper blew.

Is this cursed?! Stops on every floor?!

Okay, fine—this one always did.

Six elevators in the building; some served odds, some evens.

He moved away from the cursed local like it burned. Lucky he’d missed it—being trapped inside while it stopped on every floor would’ve blown his lungs out.

Clatter—

With the maddening roll of that pebble, he realized, despairing: at this hour, every elevator was a damn local.

Fuck!!

No way. Elevators would never make it.

Stairs it is!

Blazing, he dashed to the stairwell and started huffing up.

One flight, two, three…

His chest was a furnace of agitation, stoking him upward.

Even so, after ten flights he was gasping, breath in tatters.

Rust crept up his throat. His chest felt like it would burst.

Gonna die… Even the thousand-meter run in college wasn’t this bad…

Clutching the rail, he panted. If he couldn’t make it, so be it—he was dead on his feet… Then he checked his phone.

One. Minute. Left.

—He’d come this far.

Keep going!!!

He let out a roar and charged on.

11th… 12th… 13th!

The 13 glowed ahead. His heart hammered; he coughed like he’d hack up a lung.

He staggered to the landing and went to push through—only to find—

It. Wouldn’t. Budge.

What the hell?

His face changed. He threw his whole weight into it.

It still wouldn’t move.

Clatter…

The pebble rolled, right by his ear.

He pulled out his phone and watched the minute tick over: :00 to :01.

—Late.

Thirteen floors. And still late.

Clatter, clatter…

The pebble kept rolling, the sound like mockery.

He stood there with his phone, veins jumping in his forehead.

His grip tightened until the phone almost cracked.

But he didn’t. He remembered what Qin Shi had said.

“Your phone is yours! Phones are expensive! Expensive!”

Right. It was his, and it was pricey.

Late anyway. So—

Clatter…

He drew a breath, lifted his foot, and kicked the door open hard.

Bang!!!

The clatter cut off. The pebble pinged off the wall and dropped back down.

Lin Jianyuan: “…”

Pebble: “…”

The pebble froze, looking up at the human—a giant, to it.

The giant, deeply irritable, spotted the stone and put it together a beat later.

He exploded. “So you’re the little shit blocking the door?!”

The odd-shaped pebble squealed and tried to roll, but the giant snatched it up.

Fuming, Lin Jianyuan crouched, clamped the writhing pebble in his fist, and called HR.

“Hi, it’s Lin Jianyuan—the crazy one. I’m taking sick leave. Yeah, to see a doctor. Wrong meds. No, I’m fine, I just want to punch the world to bits.”

Right then, the squish toy thief burst into song.

“You’re done for, done for—Lin Jianyuan’s late, you’re done for—”

Lin Jianyuan: “.”

Pebble: “.”

The pebble glanced at the blazing, bewildering Time Thief, then at the storm-cloud giant.

At last it couldn’t help it and squealed again.