Chapter 0558 – Stairway to Heaven

　　The rusty gate closed tightly, Chen Ge removed the Do Not Approach sign on it and entered the abandoned children’s paradise.

　　There was a rainbow door that had lost its paint, a fountain without water, and a carousel that could no longer turn.

　　No one had been in here for a long time, Chen Ge walked around and finally stopped at the door of the warehouse.

　　Thrown in the moldy room was a worn out Robot Cat cartoon jacket.

　　”Hello? Are you still there?”

　　Chen Ge hadn’t hung up the phone, but until now, no one had responded on the other side of the phone.

　　He walked into the warehouse and picked up the cartoon doll costume on the floor, holding the robot cat’s head with one hand.

　　”I’ll put the clothes away for you first, take a good rest, I’ll wake you up when it’s light out.”

　　Chen Ge found a large bag next to him to stuff the cartoon doll costume into, and while he was folding the costume, he noticed that there was a photo placed in the pocket of the robot cat’s stomach.

　　It seemed to have been taken in a hospital, with a young father talking to a doctor about something, and a bony boy hiding behind the young man next to him.

　　Putting the photo away, when Chen Ge looked at his phone again, he realized that the call had already been hung up.

　　”Forgot to ask his name.” Chen Ge thought back and realized that neither the online reports nor the landlord’s elder sister had ever called out the man’s name.

　　It was as if he was living inside a cartoon doll costume, and people only knew that there was such a child-loving robot cat in the park.

　　Holding his cell phone, Chen Ge looked at the phone number on it.

　　Two dials, two different lives, two different dead people.

　　”What exactly does this number mean? Why did each of the deceased call this number in their lives? How the hell am I going to find the severe ghost I drew?”

　　Chen Ge thought about it for a while, not having much to think about, he decided to keep calling again.

　　Carrying the large bag containing the cartoon costume in one hand, he dialed the phone number with his other hand.

　　”In terms of probability, the severe ghosts drawn this time should be more powerful than Yan Danian, Old Zhou, and the rest of them combined.”

　　After three or four busy tones, the phone was finally put through, and with the experience of the previous two times, Chen Ge spoke directly this time, “Hello, how can I help you?”

　　It was noisy on the other side of the phone, and Chen Ge heard the sound of a train driving by.

　　When the sound of the train disappeared, the cell phone side was quiet again, and vaguely one could hear the children reciting something.

　　”Hello?” Chen Ge carried the bag out of the Children’s Kingdom Paradise, hailed a cab, and told the driver to drive forward casually.

　　The sound of whistling wind came out from the cell phone, Chen Ge didn’t rush the other party, he waited patiently, and he didn’t know how long it took, but the cell phone suddenly rang with the sound of a violent cough.

　　”Are you …… okay? Is your body uncomfortable?” Chen Ge’s voice was warm and could give people strength no matter what: “Do you need me to do anything for you?”

　　”Thanks, no.” The man on the other side of the phone seemed to have burnt charcoal shoved into his throat, his speaking voice was very unpleasant, and the moment he opened his mouth, it was accompanied by a violent cough.

　　”Your situation looks bad, don’t stay outside, go home quickly, or if you tell me your location, I’ll send you to the hospital as well.” Chen Ge summarized the first two calls, he arrived after the phone hung up, this time he was ready to find the other party before the phone even hung up.

　　”Thanks for your kindness, but forget about sending me to the hospital, the hospital can’t cure my illness anymore.” The man coughed for half a day before he got over it, he slowly walked forward, the wind was a bit loud.

　　”The hospital can’t cure it?”

　　”Yes, I’ve been in the hospital for a long time, but this disease just can’t be cured, I even feel like they’re not a disease, but a part of my body.”

　　At the man’s words, Chen Ge didn’t quite understand, “Older brother, what kind of disease do you have?”

　　”Lung cancer, it’s terminal.”

　　The man seemed to be talking about a very trivial matter, but Chen Ge’s heart thumped as he listened, “Then why are you still out there alone? Where is your family? Let me send you back, it’s windy outside.”

　　”The wind is indeed quite strong today.” The man would cough a few times from time to time, he was in a very poor state of health, as if he would fall at any time, “I sneaked out without my family’s knowledge.”

　　A patient with terminal lung cancer sneaked out without his family’s knowledge, Chen Ge’s mind immediately thought of the protagonist of the previous two calls, and he immediately realized that it was not right: “It’s too dangerous for you to do so, can you tell me where you are now? I won’t interfere with any of your decisions, how about simply accompanying you for a walk?”

　　”I’ll just walk slowly on my own, in fact, ever since I realized that I have lung cancer, I’ve always wanted to visit a place.”

　　”Go to a place?”

　　”That place is built on high ground, and if you want to go there, you have to climb a lot of stairs to get there.”

　　”You want to go to the Nine Rivers World Trade Center? Why do you want to go there?” Chen Ge seldom went to the city, but he knew that the World Trade Center was the highest place in Jiujiang, and he could look down on the whole of Jiujiang when he stood there.

　　Thinking of this, Chen Ge immediately gave the driver a sign to drive towards the Jiujiang World Trade Center.

　　The man didn’t answer Chen Ge’s question, he kept coughing, just listening on this side of the phone made him feel bad.

　　”Older brother, why don’t you stay where you are, I’ll come over to pick you up later.”

　　”No need.” After the man finished coughing, he seemed to think that Chen Ge was really a good person, and after he was silent for a while, he took the initiative to open his mouth, “You’re very much like my former attending doctor, no matter if it’s the tone of voice or the style of doing things, you wouldn’t be the one he’s posing as, would you?”

　　”Attending doctor?” Chen Ge was seriously thinking about whether he should play any role to facilitate the extraction of the other party’s words.

　　He knew in his heart that he had a problem with this number, every deceased person had dialed this number in the end.

　　Come to think of it, the last person the deceased contacted was most likely a doctor, so it was possible that this number belonged to a certain doctor.

　　”Don’t take it personally, I’m just saying.” The man didn’t have much of a sense of humor and his smile was forced, you could hear that he was in pain.

　　”Can you tell me something about you, old man? Some things can be hard to bury inside, it’s better to talk about them.” The southern suburbs weren’t that far from the World Trade Center, Chen Ge felt that he should be able to make it this time.

　　”There’s nothing wrong with me, the first half of my life was just a very ordinary person, probably because of the irregularity of smoking and resting, I found out about lung cancer last year.” The man’s voice was calm, except for the cough, there was not much emotional ups and downs.

　　”Had three treatments at the oncology hospital and then went home, ready to enjoy his last hours and be a happy man.”

　　”I’m not a coward and I’m fighting it hard, it’s a tug of war, I’m going to beat it with the best of intentions and the happiest of things and it’s trying to overwhelm me with pain and fear.”

　　”This war that is happening to my body is fierce, I tell it that I won’t admit defeat and it uses all sorts of tactics to make me bow down.”

　　”Breathing became difficult, constant generalized pain, low-grade fever, etc.”

　　”I was losing weight all the time, my limbs hurt so much I couldn’t lift them, every cough involved my whole body, but I just resisted taking the painkillers.”

　　”I’m really not a coward.” This was the second time the man emphasized that he was not a coward.

　　Chen Ge didn’t ask the reason, just nodded and said three words, “I understand.”

　　The man seemed to be relieved, “About a month later, a lymph node appeared on my neck that I could feel with my fingers, and at that time, I kept feeling like I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t even drink water.”

　　”After seeing a doctor, they said it was due to a swollen throat from coughing up blood over a long period of time, as well as the lymph node continuing to swell and compress the esophagus.”

　　”I didn’t defeat my last enemy, and now I have another opponent, but still, I won’t admit defeat.” The man was a very stubborn person, just like how he kept emphasizing to Chen Ge, a stranger, that he was not a coward.

　　The wind became louder, and the voices of those children who had just recited poetry were now inaudible as the man continued to walk forward.

　　”Older brother, just tell me where you are now, right? I’ll go pick you up, okay?” Chen Ge was genuinely worried about the other party, he always felt that he should be able to change something if he went over there now, even if that hope was slim.

　　”I’m on a long flight of stairs.” The man tried to smile and go on, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he started coughing violently.

　　”On the stairs?” Chen Ge listened to the sound of the wind whistling from the man’s side and felt that something wasn’t right.

　　Stairs built outside the building? Could it be that he had already reached the World Trade Center? Had he climbed to the top floor?

　　Chen Ge had been to the World Trade Center before, and there were no outdoor staircases there, so he realized that he might be looking in the wrong place.

　　”I’m stepping on the stairs, climbing step by step towards the place I want to go, I should be almost there.” As the man spoke, the pain in his body didn’t go away, and every cough was an ordeal for him.

　　Chen Ge let the somewhat impatient driver stop the car first, he took his cell phone and pondered over the man’s words from the beginning.

　　Stairs, want to go to the place in the high place ……

　　Chen Ge could hear the pain hidden in the man’s words, the other person had been emphasizing his tragic battle with the disease, emphasizing that he was not a coward, emphasizing that he had not run away.

　　Why would such a person sneak out behind his family’s back one day?

　　When he was suffering to this point, why did he prefer to go somewhere high up?

　　Chen Ge listened carefully, the man’s body was weak, his footsteps were flat, not quite like he was climbing a building.

　　”A ladder built on flat ground? Is there such a place?” Chen Ge was pondering, when something suddenly flashed in his mind, he had heard the sound of a train driving by when the call was first made!

　　Railroad tracks!

　　There was a piece of sleeper in the middle of the tracks, like a ladder laid on flat ground, if one thought about it that way, the high place that man was going to wasn’t any World Trade Center at all.

　　He was seeking death!

　　At the end of this ladder was death, and for him the place where all pain ended.

　　It was also because he had given up that he kept emphasizing to Chen Ge, a stranger, that he was not a coward.

　　After figuring this out, Chen Ge immediately started searching online.

　　He had also heard the sound of children reciting ancient texts earlier, and there were two national academies in Jiujiang, one of which happened to be built not far from the railroad.

　　Lifting his cell phone, Chen Ge signaled the driver to drive towards this place.

　　After doing this, he started trying to comfort the man, wanting to buy as much time as possible.