Hypnos and Figs

Lin Jia Ji suffered all afternoon under the scorching sun, and had to pretend to have fun.

By the third hour, she had already marked Fei Ge with a red cross in her heart.

She couldn’t last a minute on this day. No matter how aesthetically pleasing the other party was, she was like Dracula, in a hurry to climb back into the coffin, wanting to sleep in the dark immediately.

Finally, the other party wiped off his sweat and announced the end of the day with the last dashing shot.

She don’t know if it was an illusion, but she felt that the other party’s steps were a little wobbly.

Fei Ge also gave Lin Jia Ji a cross in his heart.

By the first half hour, he had already been became a sun-dried human being, lying in wait hoping that the other party would scream out boredom and obtain a reduced sentence for him. But this woman was so terrifying, she had followed the coach to study and practiced diligently with enthusiasm, and not a second was wasted for the entirety of three hours.

The gap between people intimidated him. 

But Fei Ge is a mature white collar. Even if the date fails today, there may still be business dealings in the future, so it’s for best to not burn bridges and finish the date. 

He still took Lin Jia Ji to a nearby western restaurant as promised. With phoney smiles, the two of them took a sip of soda water with ice, and flipped through the menu while chatting about some safe topics.

The western restaurant Fei Ge recommended for had a good environment. There was a white grand piano in the middle. At this time, a young girl who looked like a part-time college student was playing Fur Elise.

Fei Ge introduced softly: “The steak here is good.”

Lin Jia Ji: “Then I’ll have the ribeye…”

Before she finished speaking, the pianist finished playing. The female college student closed the score, rolled up her sleeves, and played Unravel1.

Lin Jia Ji’s ordering paused for 0.3 seconds, and then continued: “…with a salad, thank you.”

Opposite her, Fei Ge was as motionless as a mountain: “I’ll have the same.”

Fei Ge ordered exactly the same dish as Lin Jia Ji, with reason.

As long as there is something different,  there may be conversations such as “How does your food taste?” “Ok, do you want to try it?” “Then I’ll take a small bite.”

And the exchange of food is one of the smaller breakthroughs during the progress of a relationship.

Since Fei Ge had already given her a cross, he will not give any wrong signals. This is the professional quality he has achieved so far with his single status.

It just so happens that Lin Jia Ji also wanted to finish the meal quietly and go home to lie down.

The two were relatively silent but felt very comfortable, and even secretly thanked the other person for not being interested in them.

In the long silence, a female college student not far away reached the chorus.

Perhaps because of the intensity of her emotion, she played the highest note wrongly.

The female college student panicked for a moment, but quickly comforted herself, “Even though I played it wrong, it sounds quite harmonious. Surely, no one here will find out.” She looked up quietly, and a pair of man and woman at the nearby table was looking at her.

Female college student: “?”

Is it a coincidence? It must be a coincidence, right?

Fortunately, the two of them look away quickly.

The next second, they looked at each other.

Fei Ge: “…”

Lin Jia Ji raised her eyebrows slightly: “It sounds pretty good.”

Fei Ge: “… En.”

Lin Jia Ji felt that this explanation was a little pale, and at the same time was a little puzzled as to why the other party turned his head.

While thinking about it, she heard Fei Ge say something casually: “I might have heard it somewhere.”

“Really?” Lin Jia Ji’s doubts quickly dissipated and said lightly, “Maybe it’s from an episode of some TV series.”

Fei Ge didn’t answer.

The female college student cleared up her emotions and changed to “A Cruel Angel’s Thesis2”. She played and played happily. 

Suddenly, a dark shadow flashed from of the corner of her eye, and an alarm bell rang out in her mind.

It was a six or seven-year-old boy with no adults around. He stood beside the piano and craned his neck over, looked at the pianist and then at the piano, and even stood on tiptoe to put his head in to study the keys.

The pianist unconsciously leaned back and watched him approach step-by-step. The child looked at her movements with a smile, and slowly stretched out his hand.

Pianist: Dangerous.

She looked around in despair, but still couldn’t find his parents, so she could only hurriedly say: “Little boy, you can’t touch this.”

She gave a frantic wink to the waiter not far away, but the waiter didn’t seem to notice.

The child said, “Auntie, I want to play.”

The pianist played two wrong notes again.

There is a mistake in the song, Sister Lin cares.3

She raised her head to see this scene, and the depths of her soul began to tremble.

There is a reason why the room at Lin Jia Ji’s house is locked. Five years ago, her aunt brought her elementary school son to see a doctor in her city, and her father was oblivious, warmly persuading her aunt not to spend money on a hotel, but to sleep at Lin Jia Ji’s house for a night.

Lin Jia Ji closed her door at that time. She felt that her aunt looked polite and respectful, and it couldn’t be her turn to experience the kind of tragedy that occurs with a rowdy child.  She went out to the shop downstairs and bought two towels. When she came back, the piece she had just spent three hours assembling and changing its colour fell onto the ground, breaking into pieces. Her little cousin was crying with various paint on his hands.

The incident went like this: Her cousin slipped into her room to explore while her aunt was not paying attention. When he saw a robot, he grabbed it with his hands in joy, and suddenly found that the paint has yet to dry and it transferred onto his hands. At this time, the aunt called for him outside, and the cousin had let go of his hand in panic, allowing the robot to fall onto the ground.

Her aunt scolded him by the side: “You broke your sister’s toys, and dared to wipe the paint on your clothes, how will I wash it off now?” Turning around and seeing Lin Jia Ji, “I’m so sorry, I’ll let him put it back together for you? “

Lin Jia Ji squatted down and picked up the transparent jacket she had just made.

A large, clear fissure ran through it.

She squeezed out a smile: “It’s okay, I’ll just stick it back with glue.”

She couldn’t get angry or ask for compensation. If this matter fermented just a little longer, it would get passed onto the ears of her parents.

And she didn’t want her parents to ask how many such “robots” were still in her residence. Seeing that she wasn’t angry, the younger cousin’s cry immediately subsided, and his eyes began to look at the other “robots” in the cupboard. Lin Jia Ji hurriedly said, “Come on, let’s go see the room that I’ve cleaned up for you.”

When she pushed her cousin out, she heard him muttering, “Mom, I want that…”

Her aunt looked at her and hit her son lightly: “That’s your cousin’s stuff, it’s rude.” But her tone was indifferent, and she didn’t seem to expect that she would not let him have the toy. After the aunt left, her room was locked. Since then, whenever Lin Jia Ji saw children of such age, she felt a sense of fear from the bottom of her heart.

When Lin Jia Ji was remembering the traumatic incident, the child’s index finger eventually touched the keys. The sudden and sharp treble pierced broken the melody of the cruel angel. The pianist couldn’t bear it anymore, so she stopped playing and grabbed his wrist: “Where are you sitting, little kid? I’ll take you back.”

The bear boy said innocently: “Auntie, I want to play it for you.” 

Then he smashed the piano with the other hand that was not caught, boisterously.

The female college student’s blood shot up into her brain, and she unconsciously used more strength to pull his hand: “No—”

The rowdy child’s face changed and he let out a cry.

In an instant, his father came back to life, put down his phone from the seat in the corner and rushed over: “Hey, what are you doing?” It turns out that the child’s mother went to the bathroom and asked the child’s father to watch the child. The father was playing with his mobile phone, but didn’t notice that the child had disappeared, only hurrying over when he heard his cry.

The waiter also came back to life, trotting over. It turned out that no waiter had stood up, because they were afraid of such parents. They knew that managers wouldn’t want to investigate the cause and effect. As long as something went wrong, whoever standing at the scene of the incident will have their wages deducted.

That dad was so loud that most of the customers in the restaurant looked over. Although no one spoke, their attention was better to take advantage of than anything else. The father’s face was void of any confusion, just anger, as he pointed to the mark on the child’s wrist and said, “Who gave you the right to touch my son?”

Waiter: “I’m so sorry sir, can we go over there and clear…”

That dad: “Call your manager!”

The waiter went to call the manager. Even though no one knew what they said to the manager, as soon as he came, he immediately bowed deeply to the man with a smile on his face.

Man: “You must give me an explanation today—”

Manager: “Sure, no worries, I will waive off your bill for you, would that be okay?”

The man pointed at the pianist: “What about her?”

The pianist’s face was pale as she tried to argue: “I told the child from the beginning to not touch…”

“How dare you talk back!” The man seems to be used to being in control, or it may be the other way around – being the party under control for too long – but it manifested in his behaviour as he pointed arrogantly at the pianist, “For even daring to touch my son, you should count your blessings that I’m not suing you!”

He turned his head and asked the manager, “Are you going to fire her? Are you going to fire her?”

Lin Jia Ji: “Excuse me.”

​​If murderous intent could really emerge from her eyes, the restaurant would have been razed to the ground by Lin Jia Ji. With the bottled rage from the past, Lin Jia Ji was so angry that she crossed over to the evil side, and she couldn’t care about Fei Ge’s reaction. She went straight to the manager and said coldly, “I happened to witness the whole process, and I don’t want this lady to be a scapegoat.”

Man: “Who are you?”

“I’m currently working in XX Law Firm.” Lin Jia Ji opened his mouth and the lies came naturally to her.

Although she was wearing casual clothes today, her merciless expressions, her composed way of speaking, and her majestic aura mixed with murderous intent instantly made the man cowered for a while.

This person was intimidating. 

Lin Jia Ji: “This lady’s job is to play the piano, and she has no obligation to guide the guests back to their seats. And in the three minutes this row… this little boy had harassed her, no waiter performed their duties to take him away. Who should be blamed for this?”

The manager wiped his sweat. The waiter and the man spoke at the same time: 

“I were standing in the distance and didn’t see…” “Be respectful, what harassment are you talking about?”

The manager complained in his heart, and didn’t understand why the incident seems to be burgeoning out of control.

“All of our staff will deeply reflect on this matter, and we’ll be more careful to give our guests a better dining experience. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Lin Jia Ji shrugged: “I’m just serving as a witness for this lady, she did nothing wrong.”

The pianist looked at the person who was currently putting herself between the parents and her, and suddenly sadness washed over her and her eyes became wet.

Man: “No, I don’t care, she has to leave today!” He raised his mobile phone, “I have already taken a picture of my son’s scars, and I’ll really call the police!”

Lin Jia Ji calmly asked the manager, “There should be surveillance cameras in the restaurant, no?”

“It doesn’t have to be so troublesome.” Fei Ge’s voice rang from behind.

He also came over and shook his phone: “It should be all recorded here, all ten minutes of video, do you want to watch it?”

Before the manager could speak, Fei Ge had grabbed his shoulders, and clicked on the video in front of the manager: “Look, when the boy came over, there were two waiters beside him…”

With his shoulders grabbed by Fei Ge, he had no choice but to look down even if he didn’t want to.

When the video reached the mark when the child began making trouble, Fei Ge turned up the volume to the maximum.

The manager finally saw the beginning and end of the incident, and looked at the father with strange eyes. The father stood beside him and didn’t want to watch, but he heard the whole process and his face was ashen.

He seemed to want to fight for something, but the man and woman in front of him looked like they had just killed plenty of lawyers in court and came to celebrate after getting off work.

The child’s mother arrived late: “What’s the matter?”

The child’s father grabbed her and said, “Let’s go.”

“Hey, have you settled the bill?”

“Shut up!” The man gave Fei Ge a vicious look and pulled his hand away.

With his confused wife, he dragged the crying rowdy child with one hand and walked away quickly.

​​Lin Jia Ji looked at the manager: “They didn’t settle their bill. This matter can be brought onto court. Do you need me to help?”

The manager’s legs softened: “No, no, no, no!” He gave plenty of reasons and spoke in great lengths just so he could invited these two Buddhas back to their seats.

Lin Jia Ji, the fake lawyer, had only said this to toy with the manager. After sitting back in her seat, she couldn’t hold herself back and happiness leaked out of her aura.

She suddenly remembered Fei Ge’s performance and looked up at him.

Fei Ge said at this moment: “I didn’t expect you to have this side.”

Lin Jia Ji: “Which side?”

Fei Ge thought: A partner of justice.

He instead said, “One who stands up to injustice.” 

Lin Jia Ji: “I’m just a good citizen. But you…?”

Fei Ge: “To be honest, I just don’t like rowdy children.”

Having said that, both of them lowered their heads and drank water.

Lin Jia Ji silently uncrossed the red cross in her heart. 

She thought to herself: maybe there is no need to force interests, why not go with the flow and see how it goes. 

1 – Tokyo Ghoul’s opening theme.