1RomanceEB Chapter 28 I Came from Heaven
Chapter 28 I Came from Heaven
"I'm telling the truth, the truth. It's true—!!! I fucking really like her—!!! But I don't know how to pursue her—!!! All I know is spending money—!!! All I've ever done in my life is spend money—!!! I give her flowers, she doesn't want them; I give her bags, she doesn't want them; I give her gifts, she doesn't want them; I ask her out to dinner, she finds eight hundred reasons to refuse—!!! Every time I see the way she looks at me, I know she hates me—!!! But the more she does that, the more I want to pursue her—!!! I thought that as long as I got her, she would like me—!!! I was wrong, okay—!!! I'm a fucking loser—!!! Are you satisfied now—!!!!"
Two thousand five hundred meters.
Li Zheng looked down at his second brother in his arms.
The suit was torn to shreds by the wind, the tie had long since flown off, and two buttons on the shirt had popped off, revealing the vest underneath.
Tears, snot, and saliva smeared all over his face, and the wind blew them into an abstract painting.
My eyes were watering as if I were in a level 10 typhoon.
Two hours earlier, this man was still sipping champagne on his private jet.
Just 20 minutes ago, he was saying, "Either kneel down or jump."
Now he's saying, "I'm a piece of trash."
Li Zhengyi suddenly realized that his second brother had probably never been as honest as he was now in his entire life.
Two kilometers.
Lee Woo-bin's struggles stopped.
It's not that I don't want to struggle anymore, it's that I'm exhausted.
His limbs hung limply like a puppet with its strings cut, and he lay sprawled in Li Zhengyi's arms, with only his mouth still moving.
His mouth kept repeating the same sentence over and over again.
"Third brother, I beg you... Third brother, I beg you... I don't want to die... I really don't want to die..."
1,800 meters.
The brain's survival mechanisms have already covered all other processes.
He held Li Zhengyi and shook him desperately, like a drowning person clinging to the last piece of driftwood.
Tears and snot were all mixed together.
He had lived for thirty-two years and had never been as afraid as he was now.
It wasn't the kind of fear I felt when my father locked me up as a child.
It's not the kind of fear of failing an exam and getting scolded by the teacher.
It's a fear that starts at the cellular level, like immersing your entire soul in ice water.
For the first time, death transformed from a concept into a concrete event.
It's not the numbers in the news, not the black and white photos at the funeral, but his own heartbeat, breathing, and blood—all of it will stop.
It will stop soon.
"Zhengyi, third brother, I beg you..."
His throat was sore.
"I was wrong, I was wrong to laugh at you before. Open the umbrella... please open the umbrella!!~~"
1,500 meters.
Li Zhengyi remained calm.
He was counting.
He is waiting.
Approximately 1,300 meters.
Lee Jung-il fastened the metal buckle of the parachute to Lee Woo-bin's belt.
Then I pulled the ring.
Bang--!!
The parachute exploded overhead.
The dark green nylon fabric bloomed under the starlight, like a giant mushroom that suddenly sprouted.
The speed dropped sharply.
Free fall turns into floating.
The sound of the wind disappeared.
The world suddenly fell silent.
It was so quiet I could hear my own heartbeat, thump-thump-thump, steady and unhurried. Only the ringing in my ears remained.
Neither of them were overweight, so the main umbrella could support the weight.
Li Zhengyi began adjusting his gliding direction, drifting towards the coast.
People can still die in the seawater in November.
Lee Woo-bin was completely paralyzed, his head tilted to one side, drool dripping onto his chest, his eyes open, but his pupils had lost focus.
They drifted for a long time.
The sea breeze carried them from the sea to the shore, across a hilly area, and over a vast expanse of freshly harvested rice paddies.
The black earth drew ever closer, ever closer.
Landing.
Li Zhengyi stopped.
Bend your legs to absorb the impact.
He even reached out and grabbed Lee Woo-bin the moment he landed to prevent him from hitting his face.
Although it wasn't much better.
Lee Woo-bin's knees buckled, and he knelt directly in the mud.
It's not the kind of kneeling where someone forces you to kneel; it's kneeling where your knees give up support on their own.
Mud splashed up and covered him up.
He knelt there, trembling like a leaf.
The sound of his teeth chattering was particularly clear in the quiet rice paddy.
Li Zhengyi stood in front of him, looking down at his second brother, while unfastening the umbrella buckle on his body.
After untying the umbrella, he also untied Lee Woo-bin's clothes.
Then he squatted down.
He looked at Lee Woo-bin at eye level.
"Second Brother."
Lee Woo-bin did not react.
Li Zheng reached out, brushed aside the wet, messy hair on his forehead, leaned close to his ear, and whispered something.
"Before you try to make me afraid of you next time, make sure you're not afraid of death yourself."
Lee Woo-bin's body trembled slightly, but he did not react at all.
obsolete.
Li Zhengyi stood up.
He patted the mud off his knees and turned to walk towards the dirt road.
At the end of the dirt road, there was a lamp, the signboard of a rural convenience store, its orange light appearing especially warm in the early morning mist.
A farm tricycle was parked under the light, its engine churning. The cargo bed was filled with several baskets of ribbonfish and dried squid.
The smell of the sea wafted over on the morning breeze.
Several middle-aged women, wearing headscarves, were sitting on the bus, chattering about today's seafood prices.
The driver was a young girl, probably a high school student or even younger.
She wore a headscarf and a faded floral cotton-padded jacket.
His skin was a wheat color from years of exposure to wind and sun.
She's not stunningly beautiful, but her smile is so comforting, like a sun-dried quilt.
Ahua was adjusting the rearview mirror, preparing to head to town to deliver goods.
Then she looked up.
A man wearing a blue convenience store uniform walked out of the rice paddy.
His legs were covered in mud, his hair looked like it had been ravaged by a tornado, and his shoes were nowhere to be seen; he was barefoot. But he smiled and waved at her, as if nothing in the world was a big deal.
"Annyeonghaseyo, excuse me, how do I get to Seoul?"
Judging from the mud on his feet, Ahua figured he had just crawled out of the field. Judging from his smile, he was either crazy or had an incredibly arrogant attitude.
"...Where did you fall from?"
"In the sky."
She paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.
"A foreigner, right?"
"From Seoul."
Li Zhengyi gave a thumbs-up and pointed backward.
"There's another one over there, my second brother. Could you give me a ride? Just to the nearest station."
Ahua looked in the direction he was pointing.
A man was kneeling in the rice paddy.
Suit.
Covered in mud.
It was impossible to tell if the liquid on my face was tears, sweat, or some other liquid.
He knelt motionless in the mud, looking as if he had just been abducted by aliens and sent back to his homeland.
She then looked at the barefoot man in front of her.
"What happened to your second brother?"
"I'm afraid of heights. I was scared when I crossed the log bridge just now."
Ahua looked again at the endless rice paddies.
A log bridge?
Where?
There isn't even a ditch in this field, so where would a bridge come from?
"Get in, I need to deliver some goods to town."
She shook her head as she spoke, because neither of them seemed like bad people.
Thank you.
Lee Jung-il walked back to the rice paddy, grabbed Lee Woo-bin's arm, and lifted him up.
Li Yubin was dragged along by him, staggering, with muddy water seeping out of his trouser legs with every step.
His Italian handmade crocodile leather shoe, which hadn't fallen off, was stuck in the mud, and when he pulled it out, it made the sound of a clogged toilet.
Li Zheng helped him onto the truck bed.
She climbed up first, then reached out and pulled him up.
The tricycle sputtered and started moving.
As it rolled over the ditch, the entire truck bed bounced around like it was having a disco.
The smell of salted fish, the fishy smell, and the odor of diesel exhaust—a triple assault.
Lee Woo-bin's stomach started churning again, but there was nothing left to vomit.
He leaned against the salted fish basket, staring blankly at the dirt road ahead, his soul probably still thousands of meters in the air, unable to catch up.
"Young men, where did you come from?" an Azuma (auntie) couldn't help but ask.
Seoul.
"Oh, someone from Seoul."