Chapter 32 Chapter Thirty-Two

Another person was sent out to clean the lens, and this time, it was the most painful experience in Lucas' life.The next morning, it was supposed to be a holiday, but he had the urge to go to the office and pretend that nothing happened, that today was just another normal day.He sat at the end of the bed, trying to pull himself together and stand up.On his lap was a star map he had drawn.He stroked a star on the picture lightly with his fingers, afraid that the charcoal marks on it would be crushed by him. That star is not like the others.On the gridded paper, the other stars were just tiny black dots with dates, positions, and brightness written beside them.However, that star is not a star in the sky, nor will it shine forever in the sky.It was a five-pointed star, the outline of a police badge.He still remembered that when she was talking to him that night, the dim light of the stairwell shone on her chest, and the police badge shone with a faint halo, so he drew the star.He still remembered that her voice exuded an intoxicating magic.Her appearance was like a crack in the clouds suddenly, revealing a ray of sunshine, illuminating his dull and unchanging life.

He also remembered that in the middle of the night before yesterday, he confided his feelings to her, but she refused, pushed him away, and told him to forget her. Lucas's tears had dried up.All night, he cried secretly for this girl whom he had only met a few times.But at this moment, he no longer knows what to do today, what else to do in this life.He thought that she was outside at this moment, and she was going to die in order to help the people in the bunker clean the lens.Thinking of this, he suddenly felt sick.I don't know if it was because of this that he couldn't eat for two days in a row.Deep down in his heart, he knew very clearly that even if he forced himself to eat, he would not be able to eat.

Then, he put the star map aside, bent down, and buried his face in his hands.He felt so tired and wanted to cheer himself up and go to the office.If you go to work, you can at least divert your attention.He tried to remember how far he had been working in the server room last week.Is server No. 8 broken?Sammy suggested that he replace the control panel, but he thought it was a wiring problem.He remembered that he was adjusting the Ethernet network at that time.So, he should go to the office today to adjust the Ethernet network, in short, just don't sit here like this.If it continued like this, he might really fall ill because of a woman, and he had just met that woman not long ago and had only mentioned it to his mother.

Lucas stood up, put on yesterday's overalls, and then continued to stand, staring down at his bare feet, wondering why he stood up.Where is he going?His mind was blank and his body was almost numb.He didn't know if he was going to stand here like this for the rest of his life, motionless, feeling as if his stomach was tangled up.Someone should find him in a few days, right?He was found dead standing upright like a statue. He shook his head, shaking off these chaotic thoughts, and stared at the ground looking for his shoes. He found the shoes.Not easy.It was not easy for Lucas to finally get his clothes and shoes on.

He walked out of the room and walked slowly to the landing, passing several screaming and laughing children, and the adults were busy trying to catch them back to dress and put on shoes.School is on holiday again today, and everyone is going to go up to watch the sunrise again.Lucas, however, thought the noise sounded far away, just a slight "buzz," as if he could barely feel the soreness in his leg.That night, he went down to find her on the middle floor and came back up the stairs, his legs so sore that he was almost paralyzed.And now, he could hardly feel the soreness.He walked out of the residential area and came to the floor platform. At that moment, he instinctively wanted to go to the big restaurant.For the past week, all he could think about was to get through another day and go to the top floor, maybe he could see her again.At the moment, that's what he's thinking about.

It occurred to Lucas then that he still had a chance to see her.He has no interest in sunrise.What interests him is the twilight before dawn and the stars in the night sky.However, although he didn't want to see the sunrise, if he wanted to see her, he had to climb the stairs to the dining room and see the desolation outside.He might see a new body.He'd see the thin sunlight streaming through the gaps in the clouds, and her brand new hazmat suit glistening in the sunlight. An extremely clear scene appeared in his mind: she was lying on the ground, her legs were bent, her arms were flat on the ground, her helmet rolled to the side, but her eyes were not closed, as if she was staring at the bunker in front of her.What is even sadder is that he saw himself decades later, a lonely old man sitting in front of the wall, staring blankly at the gloomy world on the wall, with a piece of paper spread out on his lap, holding a stick of charcoal and drawing all the time. .However, what he painted was not the stars, but the gray world in front of him. Day after day, he drew the same world every day, looking at the lover he might have had, drawing her motionless body, and tears It slid off his face and landed on the paper, the charcoal traces on the paper were blurred and scattered in the tears.

He would become another Manes, the poor old man.The deputy security officer died, but no one could bury him and let him rest in peace.Thinking of the deputy security officer, Lucas suddenly thought of Juliet's last words to him.She begs him not to like her.Go find someone else, don't be alone. This is the platform on the fiftieth floor. Holding on to the iron railing, he bent over and looked outside.Looking down, he saw that the spiral staircase stretched all the way down to the bottom.He could see that the platform on the fifty-sixth floor was just below, but the platforms on the middle floors had different angles, so he couldn't see it.He couldn't calculate the height from here to the fifty-sixth floor, but it should be high enough that he didn't need to go up to the eighty-second floor.Many people who jump from buildings like to go to the 82nd floor, because they can jump all the way to the 99th floor platform without being blocked by other floors.

Suddenly, he seemed to see himself flying downward, hands and feet spread out.He thought that if he jumped in this posture, he would have no chance of hitting the platform below, because he would hit the handrail first on the way, and then his whole body would be almost cut in half.Maybe, if he had jumped a little longer and turned his head down, he might have died a little easier. He stood up straight, a sudden fear welled up in his heart, and goosebumps appeared all over his body.The imagination just now was too realistic, as if I really saw myself falling, my body was smashed to pieces, and my flesh was mutilated.He turned to look around to see if anyone saw him.Maybe someone got up early in the morning to watch the sunrise.He had seen a few grown-ups like him before, poking their heads out of the railing to see what was going on underneath.At that time, he always thought that they probably couldn't think about it.He too had grown up in bunkers, so he was well aware that only children would throw things off platforms on purpose.When they grow up, they will try their best to hold on to everything so that they don't fall off.And one day, you will find that you have lost something, and that thing will fall down to the bottom of the bottomless bunker, and at that time, you yourself will want to jump down——

Then, as if a courier was climbing the stairs, he felt the stair-slabs vibrate.Not long after, he heard a sound of bare feet stepping on the ladder, getting closer.Lucas backed away from the railing, concentrating on what he was going to do today.Maybe he should go home and go back to bed and sleep and kill a few hours in his sleep. Just as he was trying to think of a reason to convince himself to go home and sleep, the courier had already whized past him.Lucas caught a glimpse of the kid's face, terrified, contorted.Later, the sound of his fast footsteps gradually faded away, and the whole person disappeared, but his terrified expression still remained in Lucas's mind.

At that moment, Lucas suddenly understood.The child's "crackling" footsteps went all the way down, gradually deepening into the ground. At this moment, he already understood that something must have happened this morning.Something must have happened up there, and it must have something to do with cleaning the lens. A glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in his heart.There has always been a kind of extravagant hope lurking deep in his heart, as if a seed was buried.He hated that seed because it could be poisonous and choke him.But at this moment, that seed sprouted.Could it be that she wasn't sent out to have the lens cleaned?Could it be that the inquisitor decided to reconsider her crime?People from the mechanical and electrical district submitted a petition, and hundreds of people risked their lives to sign it.In order to save her, they may suffer themselves.Could it be this act of bravery that moved the Inquisitor?

The little seed of hope began to take root, spread its branches and leaves, and occupy Lucas's chest.He couldn't wait to rush up to have a look.Just now he was so desperate that he wanted to jump off the railing, but at this moment, those thoughts have been forgotten by him.He sprinted away from the railing and rushed up, squeezing past several early risers.He noticed that everyone was talking about it, and the courier must have spread the word.And, he wasn't the only one who noticed. There are many people climbing up with him.Two days ago, he climbed the stairs for too long and his legs were sore, but now, the soreness has disappeared without a trace.Then, he saw a pair of parents walking up with their children in front of them, walking very slowly.He was about to speed up his pace and get ahead of them, when he suddenly heard the sound of a radio behind him, very loud. Lucas looked back and saw Deputy Security Officer Mashu behind him, only a few stairs away.He was sweating profusely, fumbling for the radio hanging behind his buttocks, and a small cardboard box hanging on his chest. Lucas immediately stopped and grabbed the railing, waiting for the deputy security officer on the middle floor to come up. "Mashu!" The deputy finally turned down the volume on the radio, looked up, and nodded to Lucas.At this time, a worker was leading his apprentices to go up. He and Ma Shu immediately leaned against the railing and let them go up first. "What happened?" Lucas asked.He knew the deputy security officer very well, and knew that he would tell him the truth. Ma Shu wiped his forehead and moved the small paper box under his armpit. "This morning, Bernard was urging me to go up." He complained, "I have really climbed enough stairs this week!" "No, I'm asking you what's wrong with cleaning the lens?" Lucas asked. "A delivery man just rushed past me like he saw a ghost—" The Deputy Security Officer looked up at the stairs above. "He asked me to send her things to the thirty-fourth floor as quickly as possible. Hank carried these things from the bottom to my side, and almost got up—" He suddenly walked around Lucas , and began to climb up again, with a look of impatience, "Listen to me, I have to leave quickly, or I will lose my job." Lucas grabbed his arm.There were many people behind them who wanted to go up the stairs, but they were blocked by the two of them.They were a little unhappy, and squeezed past them, just as someone came down from above, they almost crashed into a ball. "Did she go out to wash the camera?" Lucas continued to ask. Ma Shu leaned against the railing, and a small voice came from the radio. "No." He said in a low voice.At that moment, Lucas suddenly felt as if he could fly, soar freely in the gap between the stairs and the concrete wall, bypass countless floor platforms, and fly straight up to fifty floors—— "I mean, she went out, but she didn't wash the camera." Mashu said.He spoke very softly, but it was like thunder in Lucas' ears, shattering his dream. "She climbed over the top of the dune and went back—" "Wait a minute, what did you say?" Ma Shu nodded, the sweat dripping from his nose. "She's gone." Then he let out a breath that sounded like a radio hiss, "I've got to get something to Bernard—" "I'll help you." As he said, Lucas stretched out his hands in front of Mashu, "Anyway, I was going to the thirty-fourth floor." Ma Shu quickly moved the carton away, avoiding his hand.Poor deputy security officer, he looked as if he would collapse to the ground at any moment.Lucas kept begging him.The night before yesterday, he had asked Ma Shu to let him go to the cell to see Juliet. "I'll get it up for you," he said. "You should know that Bernard won't mind. He and I are on good terms, and we've always been on good terms—" Ma Shu raised his hand to wipe his lips, and nodded his head slightly, as if thinking about it. "Listen, I was going up anyway," Lucas said.Then, he slowly reached out to Mashu to take the cardboard box.At this moment, he was too excited, and his hands were a little disobedient, but he still reached out to take them.He could barely hear the noise of the stairwell now.He had thought Juliet was still in the bunker, but now that hope was gone.But now that he had heard that she hadn't washed the camera and that she had climbed the sand dunes—another hope suddenly ignited in him.Deep in his heart, there is a power that stimulates him, making him eager to draw those star maps.And now, the event touched that power again, stirred up hope.That meant he wouldn't see her body rotting away in the dunes. "Then be careful." Ma Shu said.Mashu kept his eyes on the box while Lucas tucked it under his arm. "I put my life on it," Lucas told him. "Trust me." Ma Shu nodded, indicating that he believed it.Lucas then immediately sprinted up the stairs, chasing those who were going up to watch the sunrise.The camera is clean again, and they can celebrate again.Lucas hugged the box tightly to his chest.There was a "crash" sound in the box, and Juliet's things were inside.