Kate was surprised, but she shook her head immediately.

“OK. Smart.” Curly-head snorted.

He took another deep drag and threw his cigarette out of the window. And then he pointed at her with his forefinger and threatened her, “That thing since you said you didn’t have it, you’d better never take it out. Otherwise, you will end up like your friend…” He made a gesture of pointing a gun at her temple with his hand and pulling the trigger, “Bang!”

Kate shrank to the back of her seat but could not help asking, “She…did you…really kill her?”

Curly-head changed his face and said impatiently, “Better not to know too much.”

He pulled something from the front seat and threw it to her. She looked down. It was her shoulder bag.

“Get out.” After Curly-hair scrutinized her for a few more seconds, he released her.

Kate felt excited and pushed the door open. She jumped out hastily for fear they might reconsider. She walked fast at first, but as she got further away from the car, she simply ran.

The car didn’t drive away but stayed there until she lost sight of it at the corner. Curly-head went to sit in the front and took out his cell phone and called to report. “Boss. She has been sent back.”

“OK. Did you make the arrangement?”

“All set. We took extreme caution this time.”

The call ended. Buzz-cut started the car, and Curly-head took out the pack of cigarettes and gave one to him, helping him light it. And he lit one for himself, cursing, “Shit. Bad luck. What a moron.”

They had worked all night, and even hypnosis had been used. The girl had talked, but none of it was useful. They prick their ears up for a long time.

And finally, their boss concluded that these tricks only worked on normal people, but this one has a problem here: the boss pointed at his head.

That was to say, they had to play the game differently.

Kate ran up to the third floor in one breath. She took out her key and opened the door with trembling hands. She sat down on the floor as soon as she got into her room. Her roommate was not there during the day. The small room looked empty and spacious.

She sat there for quite a while, and when she got up to her feet, she felt darkness come over her eyes and discomfort all over her body. It felt like she was drowning. When she wiped her forehead, it was wet.

Kate managed to walk to her bed, found some cold medicine, and swallowed it down with cold water. And then she laid down on her bed. The medicine took effect, and she soon felt herself slipping into sleep.

She slept deeply and only woke up once in the middle of the night. Her roommate was back. It was soothing to see a familiar face, and she closed her eyes again.

Kate heard her roommate saying something and wanted to get up, but her body was rooted in the bed. Her throat was dry and burned so much that she could not speak a word.

At last, Kate’s roommate woke her up. She was from Ohio. Kate said she had a fever and kept raving. Her roommate helped her take some antipyretics, and then Kate went back to sleep.

The next time she woke up, it was early in the morning. This time her cell phone rang for a long time. She put it to her ear and covered her head for fear of disturbing her roommate. She saw the number was her elder sister. Her sister cried on the phone, “Kate, come back home. Father is in the hospital.”

She was shocked. “Father? What is the matter with him?”

Her sister sobbed, “Some fatal disease.”

When Kate got outside, the sky was still gray. The city had not yet fully awakened. She took the bus to the supermarket, got something she put there, and headed to the railway station.

John caught her at the lounge of the railway station and gave her a bulging envelope with three thousand dollars. He said, scratching his head, ”Not much, but it might help. Don’t be anxious to return it to me.” Kate was so moved that she couldn’t say anything. John patted her on the shoulder and said, “No need to say anything. We are friends.”

The train finally reached Portland. The city had just had heavy snow. Workers were cleaning the city with snow removal trucks and spreading salt in the middle of the roads, which were noisy and jammed. The melted snow and salt made the road dirty.

The temperature was -13 degrees Fahrenheit, and all of Kate’s limbs were numb by the time she got to the hospital. She wasn’t aware of the cold because her heart was eaten by her deep worry. Portland Mercy Hospital, 13th floor.

She finally saw her father, lying on a bed with pipes connected to his body. She had not seen him for a year, and he looked totally different. His face was dry and gray, his cheekbones protruded, and his skin stretched over the bones like a tent. Her tears gushed out immediately.

Her father became skinny in the past year, and he had stomach aches from time to time. He didn’t take it seriously and bought some medicine at the drugstore to kill the pain. It was not until a few days ago, when he coughed up blood, that he went to the hospital for a checkup.

The doctor informed him that he was in the middle stages of stomach cancer and recommended him to get to Portland Mercy Hospital. Her father was not insured, and they ran out of the five thousand dollars they brought with them quickly. The doctor told them that surgery and after-treatment would cost about $100,000. It was an astronomical figure for a family like them.

Her father wanted to go back home and save the money so that his son could go to college. Kate’s mother and elder sister, of course, did not agree with this. Her elder sister had asked her husband to try to borrow some money from his parents, but it was not going smoothly. Kate’s younger sister was in college, and her little brother was in high school. They didn’t know about their father’s illness yet.

Kate sat by the bed and listened to her mother, telling her about her father’s condition. She drank a mug of hot water and warmed up. She said, “Father cannot leave the hospital now. I have three thousand dollars here. We can hold on for a few more days with this. And we will think about what to do next.”

It was not easy to think of any solutions; Kate knew that this would take some thinking.

Without insurance, staying in the hospital was like burning money. Kate’s three thousand lasted only three more days before the hospital started to urge them to pay the bills. Her mother and two sisters were anxious and sad, but they had to conceal their feelings in front of their father.

When Kate sat on a bench downstairs in the inpatient building, she stared blankly at the bank outside the hospital gate. She imagined herself wearing a mask and rushing into the bank for a robbery. A shadow blocked the sun, and a flat voice asked from above, “Kate?”

She looked up and was surprised to see a middle-aged man with sunglasses and a dark coat, showing a mild smile on his face, “Our boss wants to see you.”

She was startled and wanted to stand up. She composed herself and said, “Your boss? Do I know him?”

The man chuckled and said, “Our boss is Mr. Fox.” He paused and then added, “You saw him a few days ago.”

Kate’s heart was seized. She had fallen into the icy river again.

Kate followed the man mechanically, about one step behind him. The man looked amiable and chatted with her, “Don’t you feel cold? Portland is quite different from Los Angeles. Probably negative 20 F degrees?” As he mentioned the temperature, he shrank his neck into his collar.

The man led her to a fancy coffee shop. When they entered the shop, she saw Curly-hair immediately. He raised the corners of his eyebrows and said, “Fancy meeting you again.”

And then she saw that man.

He sat at a table by the window, wearing a dark sweater and a shirt under it. He looked handsome and refined, which she knew was but a disguise.

The room was warm, probably 70 degrees higher than outdoors. Not knowing if it was because of the abrupt temperature change or her anxiety, Kate sneezed suddenly.

The man smirked and pointed to the seat opposite him and said mildly, "Sit down, please.”

Kate walked over and sat down.

There were four chairs, but the other two men just stood respectfully. It looked strange, but they behaved naturally. They kept silent and seemed to melt into the background. In the center of the table, there was a small vase with a perfume lily. The tender and broad pink petals spread at ease, not feeling the cold from outside at all.

Out of the tinted window, Kate saw the hospital building in the distance. The layers of drapes separated this world from the outside. She felt a little discomfort in this confined space. The table between her and the man could not block the domineering air she felt from him. She didn’t dare to look his way, but she still could feel he was looking at her.

She didn’t know what his intentions were. He was probably trying to put some pressure on her. His silent stare made her nervous, and she pretended to look away. When she looked back, she met his gaze accidentally. They were clear and deep, like a vortex that could suck a person into it.

To release Kate’s anxiety, the man smiled and poured a cup of tea for her and started chatting as if they were friends, “How is your father?”

Kate felt her heart being stabbed by a needle. She answered awkwardly, “Just like that.”

The man put the cup of tea in front of her. Kate was startled by this ordinary behavior.

He poured a cup for himself and took a sip. “Nice. Have the hot tea. It can help you warm up.”

Kate wondered what he was playing at. She was on the verge of saying, “Stop beating around the bush.” But instead, she took up the cup and had a drink. She was nervous and drank too fast. The tea was too hot, and she almost wanted to spit it out.

The man waited until she put down her cup and put his cup down too. He said, “Miss White, how about we make a deal.”

As he just said these words, the middle-aged man moved forward and put a bank card in front of Kate on the table.

“There are two hundred thousand dollars on this card. It is for your father’s surgery. Don’t delay this anymore.”

Kate’s eyes fell on the card about a foot away from her. She heard the sound of her saliva moving in her throat, and the next second she heard the man, with power in his voice, “You know what I want.”

She blurted out, “No.”

Realizing her reaction was negative, she added hastily, “I don’t know what you want. I have things to attend to. I need to go.”

When she stood up, she made some noise pushing the chair back. Curly-hair was about to stop her, but his boss said calmly, “Let her go.”

Curly-hair turned to his partner and pursed his lips in the direction of their boss. Curly hair's partner looked back at the boss, taking up his cup of tea with ease. It was as if he knew it was in the bag.

As Kate hurried back to the hospital, she ordered herself to wave away the idea, not allowing herself a chance for hesitation. She walked faster and faster, and when she got back to the ward, her back felt moist.

It was noisy in the room. A few hospital staff members were there, and her mother and sister were arguing with them about something. Her mother pleaded with them, insisting that they could get the money soon and pay the hospital.

But the male hospital staff said, “You can check in when you have the money ready. You know a lot of patients are waiting for a bed out there. Besides, we cannot treat him if you cannot even pay the money you owe to the hospital. There is nothing to be discussed. He has to get out of here today. This is not an asylum.”

Kate’s usually mild-tempered sister got angry too, “How can you speak to her like that?”

Her father struggled on the bed and intended to lift the quilt and get down underneath it. He coughed and said, “Let’s leave this goddamn place. I want to die at home.”

The sound of her mother pacifying her father, her father’s coughing, the hospital staff exchanging words, all mixed together and turned into a net, wrapping and trapping Kate and making her feel suffocated. In confusion, she could only see the bankcard in her brain…two hundred thousand dollars.

With two hundred thousand dollars, her father could have the surgery immediately.

Without the two hundred thousand dollars…

After a short stalemate, her mother accepted the fate they had to face and started to pack up their things. Her sister had called her husband, and they fought over the phone, and now she was sobbing. It looked as if their last hope was broken.

Kate had never had such a hard conflict inside her. She looked at her luggage at the corner of the room. It was something that did not belong to her. Besides, somebody’s life might be at risk.

A phone rang. The male hospital staff, coldly monitoring them, answered the phone. After a few “well” and “ah,” he changed his face and said awkwardly, “You don’t need to go today.”

“Uh?” The whole family stared at him in surprise.

He waved his hand and said shortly, “Somebody paid your bills.” And he added, “But you have to try to get the money ready for surgery. The resources of this hospital are tight. You have to know that.”

He jerked his head to the other staff, and they left together.