But now, it had a bottom; a bottom composed of soil (loess), covered with a thin layer of snow.
He raised his head to look outside of the well; snowflakes drifting in caused him to squint his eyes.
Squatting down, he gauged the thickness of the accumulated snow, estimating that the well had been sealed for less than half a day.
…..
“You wouldn’t?”
Tang Thirty-Six took the kitchen knife from Chen Chang Sheng’s hand before staring at him and questioning.
These past few days had been Chen Chang Sheng’s turn to do the cooking; Tang Thirty-Six disliked his cooking, thinking that it was lacking in taste in comparison to Xuan Yuan Po’s, therefore he had come to remind Chang Sheng that pickled pepper stir fry with meat should include pickled peppers, it was at this time that he came in just as Chen Chang Sheng had raised the kitchen knife and was preparing to hack at his own finger.
Chen Chang Sheng knew that he had misunderstood the situation, and said: “Do you think I’m that type of person?”
That type of person? The type that couldn’t handle external pressure, that had to self-mutilate in order to escape reality, or more specifically, the type of person that couldn’t handle external pressure and had thus lost their sanity and only wanted to experience the euphoria of the edge of a blade; or maybe the type of person who couldn’t handle external pressure and would forget the love and care of their parents to leap from the top floor of some building.
“You’re not that type of fool, but I was afraid you might have suddenly decided to be unyielding and remove a finger in order to prove your determination.”