The Fall: Chapter 7. Pride

The 78^th floor is a small one. It only consists of Huang Ming’s office, nothing else. The emergency stairways entrance, along with two elevators, and the lavatory are all located in this one room.

The room is lined up with a row of metal cabinets on both sides and a gold statue of Huang Ming right in front of the entrance. Huang Ming’s desk is located at the further end of the rather rectangular room. Behind the desk is his cushioned brown leather chair, and behind it is rather thick glass spanning the entire end of the room. Huang Ming has an affinity towards simplicity, yet he also takes pride in exquisiteness.

Dust piled in between the cabinet drawers and every crook and crevice. Two out of the five LED light tubes malfunctioned, stealing some of the shining glory away from the room. Newspapers are scattered throughout every single inch of the red-carpeted floor. One of them has a headline that read “Huang Ming Technology: The Biggest Scam of All Time?”

I continue walking. An empty cup lie solitarily on the ground near Huang Ming’s desk, staining a small area on the carpet with coffee. On the desk sits Huang Ming’s rather bulky black laptop computer, still charging. The computer screen displays an article that reads “Is This the End of Huang Ming Inc.?”

I walk towards the end of the room, past his desk. I move the chair to the side. I get close to the glass. I wonder to myself, where in the world is Huang Ming?

The glass breaks.

It starts with a rather large hole in front of me. Immediately, the surrounding glass shatters into sand-like particles. The quality of the glass is abysmal; it only looks sturdy, but is weaker than Styrofoam.

Just like the statues on the 8^th floor. None of them are made of real gold, they are only painted gold.

Just like Huang Ming.

I look down. Everything is blur, but I can roughly sketch an image in my head. I’m also good at guessing things.

I see a small yellow rectangle. It slowly disappears. It must be a safety cushion. And it is deflating.

I see red and blue flashing lights. It must be the ambulance, or the police, or firemen, or all three. The latter is most likely.

I see a black dot. It moves very wildly. Several other black dots surround it, I think. All the black dots head towards the flashing lights, then, the flashing lights start moving to somewhere.

It must be a man, and this man leaped to his death, only to be rescued and… Well, Huang Ming hates questioning the obvious, and he hates it when people does the same.

I turn around. I see the abandoned child from the junkyard, standing behind the desk.

He does not look at me. I don’t think he even knows that I’m here. Also, he seems a bit older.

“Teacher! A man once told me that I am ‘reborn’, that means I can live however I want to! So I will eat and keep eating! I will eat as a job! I will be the king of fries!”

The child is getting older. He grows taller, larger, and then skinnier.

“Man, if I keep eating, people will laugh at me. I am reborn now, so I’ll find a job that allows me to work and eat! An ice-cream seller sounds good!”

He gets older.

“I’m reborn. And I believe that I’ll continue to be reborn. So I’ll enjoy this life by taking drugs and drinking till I meet him again!”

“I’m reborn again! I knew it! I’ll do something riskier, like becoming a woman! When I meet the masked man again, I’ll pretend to be pitiful and beg him for that mask of his!”

“This can no longer continue. I have to accept my past, and move on. I asked to be resurrected, not reborn. I’ll use the remaining money from the drugs to be a man again, and a true man this time. I’ll find true love!”

“I shall no longer fear society, as the man resurrected me. I will find a girl, get married, have kids, and make the kid ‘tough’ so that he won’t have to experience what I’ve faced! I’ll give him a shirt with a middle finger on it!”

“My family hates me! They all left me! I have to start over from scratch! This sucks! I hate being resurrected! Damn, now I have to be a stupid cleaner!”

And he keeps growing. From a cleaner to a businessman; his clothes become more and more extravagant. His hair whiter and whiter. He was born a broken boy, and now he is a broken man.

“Who are you?”

He no longer recognizes me. He even refuses to look at me, instead, he looks at the area above me. I’m like a slave to him.

In front of me is the desk, and behind the desk is him. A fragment of the white mask appears on the desk. It is only half of the full mask.

“After you’ve become a businessman, you no longer chose to be resurrected or reborn.”

“What for? I have a vision, and I have all I need and want now. However, I know well enough that I don’t need you.”

I grab the mask, climb onto the top of the desk, jump towards him and press it onto his face.

He screams.

I return to the desk. I search for a word document named “Huang Ming Technology: Unedited Draft” on his laptop. I upload the document onto his website.

That is all.

All I wanted to do is to reconcile with Huang Ming. I want to help Huang Ming. I have to. It is my duty. But it is too late. Huang Ming is unfixable. Everything has to end.

Without me, Huang Ming is nothing but a man without rationality, a man too dangerous, too insane.

Pride is the worst of all sins.

A man… who could’ve avoided all this suffering… if his parents were a little more careful in their decisions…

I stand at the edge of the floor. I spread both hands to the sides, palms facing forwards. I look down. I see a white mask floating around. A full, unbroken white mask. I see it slowly fade. I slowly fade. But the white mask keeps coming back. Therefore, I will keep coming back. There is no need to be reborn. There is no need to be resurrected. There is no more hope in this life. I lean forward.

I fall.

After I’m gone, Huang Ming will be committed to a mental asylum, where he will be isolated from the rest. He will be locked into his own room to protect the other patients. Without me, he will no longer have any meaning in life.

Because I was, am, and will forever be Huang Ming.