Doomsday Wonderland

Chapter 1350: Grim

Many people had already come to work in the Sky Journey company’s office. The sound of keyboards typing, phones ringing, the buzzing of the central air conditioning… “Who is she?” Someone whispered to a colleague as they passed Deng Yilan.

Deng Yilan sat on the waiting sofa amidst the passing employees, never before realizing so vividly how uncomfortable it was to be in pajamas and slippers. She wiped her hands on her pants several times, and her palms quickly became sweaty again.

“Hey, you.” Mr. Peng, who came out of an office, poked his head out and instructed a girl, “Bring Miss Deng over here.”

Deng Yilan looked up and saw a pale face with a tightly pressed expression. The girl was the one who had spoken to her outside the gate. She didn’t even make eye contact as she walked over and quietly asked her to come.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” Mr. Peng said politely, motioning for her to sit down. “Have you met Xiao Liu from our office?”

The girl avoided Deng Yilan’s gaze and shook her head unsurely; not wanting to make it difficult for her, Deng Yilan preemptively said, “I met her outside… because I lost my wallet and wanted to borrow money from her to go home. She thought I was a scammer and asked me many questions.”

As soon as the words came out, Deng Yilan herself was surprised. She had never been good with words. When she first joined the company, she was young, and the leaders always called the other female colleagues to accompany clients, but not her because the leaders thought she was too honest and inflexible. Since when could she come up with an excuse so smoothly and effortlessly?

Mr. Peng nodded, glanced at Xiao Liu, and then let her go.

‘I don’t know the security guard,’ Deng Yilan suddenly remembered what the girl had told her. That day, an unfamiliar security guard took Han Jun away, and today, there isn’t even a single security guard at Sky Journey company.

“How is the investigation progressing?” She took a few seconds to return to her senses, and Mr. Peng had already asked with a smile.

Deng Yilan squinted, carefully observing him for a moment. The sunlight filtered through the window leaves, shining on his meticulously groomed hair and golden-rimmed glasses. The fact that he had assaulted someone, especially Han Jun, suddenly seemed somewhat unbelievable at this moment.

“I’ve been a few times, but they just told me to wait at home for updates.”

“Well, just wait patiently,” Mr. Peng nodded, his skin showing signs of aging despite his efforts to maintain it. “I have confidence! I believe in the impartiality of the law.”

Yes, the impartiality of the law… Deng Yilan tightly grasped her pajamas, repeating these words to herself in a daze.

“I care a lot about Han Jun, and I heard about his death, I feel really upset. How about this? I’ll ask my friends in the bureau for you and try to find more information.” Mr. Peng’s expression softened almost to a kindly one. “What we want is the same, to give Han Jun justice as soon as possible and punish the culprit. During this time, you should rest at home, alright?”

Deng Yilan remained silent.

“I understand you’re sad, but you must care for yourself. Look, you’re running around outside in your pajamas in the middle of the night, lost your wallet, and can’t even go home. If Han Jun knew, he’d be so upset, wouldn’t he? If someone sees you, they might think you’re mentally unstable.” Mr. Peng shook his head and took a few bills from his wallet. “Consider it my kindness. Take this money and take a taxi home.”

She still didn’t say anything.

“Miss, say something. What are you thinking?”

Deng Yilan slowly raised her head. “…Cave people.”

Mr. Peng was puzzled, “What?”

“I’m thinking about cave people,” Deng Yilan said slowly. “When men hunted, and women gathered.”

Mr. Peng perhaps genuinely thought she was mentally unstable at this moment, blinking at her from behind his glasses.

“If Han Jun and I were cave people and became husband and wife… I don’t know if they had husbands and wives back then. Let’s just say they did. If he was killed by someone, I couldn’t call the police, there was no court, then I would have to seek revenge myself, relying on my own to find clues and the murderer.” Deng Yilan paused for a moment.

Mr. Peng obviously thought he understood what she meant and smiled, “Yes, it’s better to live in a modern society with the rule of law, isn’t it?”

Deng Yilan just said, “Mm-hmm”. She could only agree; she dared not say what she really thought.

The conversation proceeded somewhat indifferently for a while, mainly with Mr. Peng urging her to take the money and go home and offering many words of consolation. Deng Yilan sat there woodenly for a while, finally getting up and taking a few bills, saying, “You’re right. I’ll go home. Where’s the restroom?”

The conversation concluded with Mr. Peng looking delighted, calling his secretary to escort her out and even instructing the secretary, “You must personally escort Miss Deng to her car. She’s a very important guest to me.”

Deng Yilan intentionally sat on the toilet for a long time.

The secretary came in twice and said she had a stomach ache, telling her not to wait and that she would go out and take a taxi later. A woman in pajamas and slippers ran to the company’s bathroom to have diarrhea; she also felt that she must look like a lunatic; the secretary seemed too lazy to bother with her, and quickly left her behind.

When the sound of high heels disappeared, Deng Yilan immediately got up and quietly walked to the door. There was no one in the corridor outside the bathroom, so she took the opportunity to slip out, looked around, and ran quietly to the back storage room.

Her heartbeat was almost loud enough to burst her eardrums. Deng Yilan was afraid that there might be a security guard in the small storage room or that the door might be locked. She hurried to the door, and luckily, it slid open silently.

In the dimly lit storage room, between rows of file cabinets, Han Jun turned his head towards her and smiled slightly.

Deng Yilan felt as if someone had clenched her internal organs tightly. When she regained her composure and looked again, the storage room was empty, except for a small office desk, buckets of water, and other miscellaneous items, and there was only her.

Perhaps she was really going crazy.

She closed the door and stood still for a few seconds, trying to open and close her eyes forcefully, hoping to see him again. The only good thing that happened after Han Jun’s death was that she had hallucinations and saw him again, but he never appeared again.

Deng Yilan slowly walked to the center of the storage room, stopping where ‘Han Jun’ had stood just now. Did he ever come to this place? Did he also face an office desk like she did now? Did his feet also step on this floor?

Deng Yilan pulled her feet from her slippers and stepped barefoot on the cement floor. She thought she would feel Han Jun’s warmth, but her feet only felt cold.

She imagined how Han Jun would look in this room. Following his gaze, she scanned the entire storage room. This might have been the last scene Han Jun saw, so close to the sea outside, so close to the sky outside, the last thing he saw was this narrow storage room without even a window.

She looked up, and her gaze stopped on a file cabinet. In a corner, there was a long, narrow, black-red stain, as if someone had wiped it without noticing and left a streak. Deng Yilan forgot how to breathe for a moment, her hands trembling. She quickly looked around, and her eyes soon locked onto the chair behind the desk.

As she pulled the chair out and dragged it closer to the file cabinet, the storage room door was suddenly pushed open.

The secretary who had left her behind earlier, now flushed and panicked upon seeing her, reacted as if she had spotted an enemy scout. Without saying a word, she shouted, “Mr. Peng, she’s here! In the storage room!”

Deng Yilan didn’t know what to do now. She stared blankly as Mr. Peng, several employees, and the girl who had spoken to her earlier rushed into the storage room from outside. Mr. Peng’s eyes scanned the chair, file cabinet, and her before his expression changed.

“I’ve done my best,” he said, gritting his teeth. “You had no money, so I gave you money and had someone take you to your car. What are you doing here now?”

‘This might be my last chance,’ Deng Yilan thought. If she left here today, there would be no way to verify the black-red stain in the corner. No one would verify it besides her. She didn’t say anything, immediately stepped on the chair, and stretched her arm to touch the corner of the cabinet.

Mr. Peng rushed out of the crowd.

Despite his well-maintained appearance, he was strong — he kicked the leg of the chair hard, sending it flying. Deng Yilan felt her footing give way. Her brain, heart, and blood seemed to be thrown into the air, but her body fell backward with the chair until she hit the ground hard.

“Call the police!”

When Deng Yilan was almost beaten to a pulp, blacking out, she could hardly believe she had heard those words. “Take out your phone and call the police,” Mr. Peng yelled angrily. “She’s disturbing our business, refusing to leave, and trying to steal things—hurry up!”

It took Deng Yilan a long time to catch her breath. Rolling on the ground, she saw Xiao Liu, who had spoken to her, frantically dialing a number.

That scene somehow stayed imprinted in her mind.

‘That Xiao Liu, I wonder if she has been fired now?’

Deng Yilan sat on the cold floor, dazedly thinking.

The toilet in the corner shared by many people hadn’t been cleaned for who knows how long, emitting a strong smell of urine; several other people had been sitting or lying down, but no one spoke. She and several others silently awaited the increasingly grim future in this dreary little brick room.

The sound of keys tapping woke her up. She didn’t know when she had fallen asleep, but she suddenly realized someone was opening the iron gate; a woman opened the door and shouted inside, “Deng Yilan!”

She slowly rose, lowered her head, and followed the woman out. She was still wearing the same pajamas, now quite dirty. When she left, she retrieved her phone and house keys that she had forgotten in the hotel. She looked at the things she had left behind, silently clenching them in her hand.

When she was brought in, she said everything she needed to say and even accidentally let slip, “I saw Han Jun in that storage room. I know he must have been there.”—After saying it, she regretted it.

After signing the documents, Deng Yilan walked out, her parents waiting outside with grim expressions. Her mother, who always spoke harshly, didn’t say much today; her eyes were red as if she had cried a lot. Deng Yilan wished she could say harsh words as usual, because it was always easier to be angry with her parents than to feel guilty.

She walked out of the detention center with her parents, seeing the sun again after Mr. Peng had reported her to the police for 24 hours.

After 48 hours, Deng Yilan was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.