Chapter 8: She Broke The Rules

The windfall made Kate's mother and sister both ecstatic. They hurried to get her father back to bed. Kate ran out to catch up with the hospital staff. "Please, tell me who paid the bills for us?" The hospital staff turned crossly, "A big guy called Mr. Fox. He talked to our hospital president. Since you knew such a powerful person, what were you doing earlier? It is a waste of my time." And he left angrily. Her suspicion was confirmed. She leaned on the wall languidly. What did this mean? Had he forced her to accept the trade? While she was leaning on the wall weakly, and enduring the fight inside her heart, the phone in her pocket rang all of a sudden. Kate shook so hard that a nurse passed by and gave her a strange look. She took out the cell phone and saw an unfamiliar number. This time she didn't hesitate but accepted the call immediately. The mild male voice asked, "Miss White, have you thought it over?" Tears emerged from her eyes, and she heard herself said in a dry voice, "Yes." Back at the café, Curly-hair and the middle-aged man were still standing. And the boss was standing by the window making a call. He turned his back to the door and put his other hand in his pocket. On the table, there was a notebook computer. When Kate entered the door, she stopped. Curly-hair walked over and asked her for the thing, but she ignored him even though he was obviously cross. The man turned back only after he finished his call, and he looked at her lightly. She walked up and put the envelope on the table. Curly-hair took it and examined it by the light from the window. The man didn't give a second look at it. Instead, he asked, "Did you see it?" Kate shook her head. He handed her the card and said calmly, "The password is the last six numbers of your social security number. And the other fifty thousand is compensation for the offense we caused you a few days ago." Kate took the card and held it tightly in her palm. The sharp edge poked her soft skin, but she didn't feel pain. Curly-hair passed the envelope to his boss and nodded to him. The man went back to his seat, looked at the receiving address and sender on it, and made a hardly audible snort. Kate heard it and looked up at him. He tore the envelope neatly and put the disc into his notebook computer. She observed his cold and sharp profile and his curved lips. That might be ironic or complacent. While waiting for the document to be read by the computer, he tapped his fingers on the table, and the ring on one of his fingers gave some icy glare under the sunlight. Kate looked down to the tile below her feet and waited. After a few minutes, the man finished browsing the contents of the disc and walked up to Kate, still carrying the cold and calm air, "That is it for us. As soon as you walk out of this door, everything you hear and see in here…" he pointed to her head, "has to be deleted completely." Kate nodded. The man could not see her face and seemed to think that was an obstacle to their communication. He lifted her chin and forced her to look into his eyes and then felt satisfied. "Don't play a game with me. Don't get yourself and your family into any more trouble." He stressed the word family and pronounced it especially distinctly. Kate looked into his deep-set eyes and felt a little dizzy, but she replied affirmatively, "I know." The man scanned her face again as if to identify if she was telling the truth, and then he released her, "You can go now." Kate turned, pushed the door open, and walked out without hesitation. As soon as the door was closed, Curly-hair asked, "Boss, you really want to let her go?" The man leaned back to the chair and lifted up his cup of tea while looking at the pink perfume lily. He seemed to not be hearing Curly-hair's question and muttered, "They should change this lily to a white one." As he took a sip of the tea, he turned to them, "What do you think?" Curly-hair was startled. What did he think about it? A pink or a white lily? He replied in the next second with coldness in his tone, "I think only dead people are reliable." The man raised his eyes and gave him a stare, "Is it funny to kill?" "Uh…" Curly-hair paused. "Of course not." The man took another sip and said slowly, "Remember, we are here to solve the problem, not to make another problem. Or else I will have to spend all my time following you and cleaning up the mess for you. How can I do anything else?" Curly-hair was ashamed by his words, and he said respectfully, "I will keep an eye on her. If she oversteps the boundary, I will…" He made a cutting gesture on his neck. The man seemed to not hear him. He poured another cup of tea for himself as if he was now enjoying the tea only. Kate had the card in her pocket, but her heart did not feel relieved for solving the problem of funds. Instead, she felt heavier than before. Her heart was empty as if she had had something inside of it removed. An important organ of her body was gone. She put her hand on her chest. It felt hard. Kate walked to the hospital with heavy steps. She paused for a second when she stepped across the gate of the hospital. She walked to a remote place, a lane between two buildings. Nobody walked by there. The snow was about five inches thick, clear and crystal, white and pure. She squatted down and looked at the snow. It was so white it made her feel ashamed. She inserted her fingers into the soft snow and couldn't feel the coldness. She wished she could wash away the dirt on her hands. After a long time, she felt the piercing wind blowing through her coat, and her nose became sore. Tears came to her eyes as she put her hands on her face and cried out. She remembered when she was a child; she played cat and mouse with her friends. In the middle of the game, the TV had some show, and her friends ran back to watch. She kept hiding in her neighbor's garden. At first, she was happy nobody found her but soon she felt something was wrong. However, she stayed there unmoved because that was the rule. She fell asleep until her parents came to find her. They beat her up. Another time, her mother had asked her to send something to her aunt. She went to the house, but her aunt was out, and the door was locked. She waited there all day until the next morning. Her parents thought she was stupid and wondered if her brain had been damaged from the time she almost drowned while saving her brother from the river. She always followed the rules, never crossed the lines. It had become a habit. But now, she broke the rules.