Chapter 152: Half a Caterpillar
Chapter 152: Half a Caterpillar
As the music continued, onscreen, yoyo, leaning against Andy’s shoulder, gradually changed from panic to calmness without even realizing it. Perhaps, in the midst of repetitive and monotonous daily life, having this kind of thrilling “romantic encounter” was actually not so bad after all, she thought. Little by little, a faintly happy smile had already appeared at the corners of her lips.
Because of the woman’s “tacit” cooperation, Andy successfully passed the inspection checkpoint. After returning the earphones to her ears, he got off the bus.
Only then did yoyo snap back to her senses. She hurriedly called for the driver to stop and quickly followed him off the bus.
One hand tucked into his pocket, he walked lazily along the sidewalk. She lowered her head and cautiously followed behind him, occasionally raising her eyes to look timidly at his back.
Andy finally could not hold back anymore. He suddenly turned around, startling the woman.
“Why are you following me?”
“I... I live here.” Like a little girl caught doing something wrong, she hurriedly explained herself in panic.
Andy watched as the woman took out her key and opened the security door. Just as he turned to leave, she finally reacted, called out, and chased after him, stuffing the sunglasses back into his hand.
Nicole did not know that the movie had been copied directly from Eric’s memories. Therefore, when she saw this part of the story, she could not help associating it with herself and Eric.
That seemed to be exactly the kind of attitude he had toward her as well: domineering, yet distant.
After the first climax, the movie’s pacing gradually slowed once again.
At the police station, Shawn endlessly talked to his colleagues about his suspicions. The somewhat petty Ian looked at Shawn’s enthusiasm, then thought about his own mediocrity, and suddenly felt that his position might be threatened because of it. Therefore, he decisively resorted to the ultimate elementary school tactic—snitching.
Unfortunately for him, his superior, who had a good relationship with Shawn, immediately shut him down. Left with no choice, Ian angrily went forward to make trouble for Shawn instead.
Yet after all his fault-finding, he unexpectedly gave Shawn the key breakthrough.
Prompted unintentionally by Ian, Shawn suddenly slammed the table hard.
“Idiot, I’m such an idiot! I forgot the most important clue—the financial company! We can go investigate...”
Ian, who had unintentionally helped Shawn instead, became even more depressed. Left helpless, he could only take a small jab at Shawn’s logistics supervisor position.
“The hallway lights keep flickering. Hurry up and get someone to replace them.”
Shawn’s lone investigation received no cooperation from anyone. The guilty financial company manager, the villainous side who distrusted the police, and everyone else all refused to cooperate. Shawn could only return to the office once more, where he then received the screw Andy had mailed to him.
That night, after tricking the old doorman at the front desk, Shawn successfully entered the building where the financial company was located. Using powdered milk to cleverly open the coded lock, he entered the financial company, and his second confrontation with Andy officially began.
The hurried footsteps echoing through the stairwell, the sudden blare of the emergency door alarm, the roar of car engines, the violent friction of tires against the ground, and the intense gunfight that lasted several minutes, all paired with highly tense percussion music—throughout the entire twenty-minute confrontation, there was not a single unnecessary shot. Every moment tightly gripped the audience’s attention.
Finally, the two escaped the pursuit of the villainous organization, and the car drove through a quiet Los Angeles street at night.
“Hah, looks like the situation’s reversed this time. The gun’s in my hand now. Know where the nearest police station is?” Shawn raised his eyebrows and lightly patted Andy’s shoulder with the handgun, his expression carrying a trace of smugness.
Andy laughed and cursed him for being ungrateful before saying, “Same rules as always. If you get me to the police station, you win.”
The car suddenly accelerated.
At the same time, the audience’s hearts, which had only just relaxed, were immediately lifted again. Everyone was curious about how Andy would escape this time.
Amid the startled screams of many girls in the theater, Andy slammed the accelerator all the way down and crashed directly into the roadside concrete barrier without hesitation.
Bang—
With a thunderous crash, the windshield shattered and the airbags burst out. Shawn, sitting in the back seat, was thrown completely off balance.
In one small, easily overlooked shot, because the front windshield had shattered, a small medicine bottle that Andy had placed near the window bounced out and spun several times across the concrete road.
The image slowly froze amid the crisp clattering sound of the medicine bottle hitting the pavement before fading into darkness.
Here, Eric had made a major alteration to the original version. He removed the entire scene where the two staggered around fighting over the box containing the diamonds.
Eric felt that scene was completely unnecessary and contributed very little meaning while also disrupting the movie’s pacing.
If the original twenty-minute confrontation felt like thoroughly enjoying a bowl of steaming spicy noodle soup until one was sweating all over, then the added scene of fighting over the box was more like stirring the noodles one final time and pulling out half a caterpillar from the soup.
After thinking it over repeatedly, Eric concluded that the only purpose of that sequence had been to make Andy lose the medicine bottle containing painkillers for terminal cancer, thereby creating Ian’s misunderstanding.
Thus, Eric simply used one clean, efficient shot of the medicine bottle bouncing away to lay down that clue.
After struggling in darkness for an unknown amount of time, Shawn suddenly opened his eyes and discovered he was already lying in a hospital room.
After hearing from the doctor that he was not seriously injured, Shawn grabbed his suit jacket, casually draped the tie around his neck, and walked out of the room.
Ian stopped Shawn with a heavy expression, and the two immediately began an absurdly mismatched comedic conversation.
“Hey, stop lying to me about this already.”
Shawn defended himself. “It’s like this. I was meeting a friend for dinner, and on the way—”
Ian interrupted Shawn’s nonsense with a shake of his head.
“We found your car. It was covered in bullet holes.”
“Someone was trying to get revenge on me. Nothing I could do about it. Us police officers always have a lot of enemies.”
“You’re still lying to me.” Ian emotionally dragged Shawn aside and raised the small medicine bottle in his hand. “What’s this? We found it in your car. I already asked a doctor. He said this kind of painkiller is for terminal cancer patients.”
Shawn inhaled sharply, seemingly understanding something. Leaning against the wall, he fell into thought.
Ian, however, sighed emotionally and wrapped an arm around Shawn’s shoulders.
“Ah, what a pity. So young too.”
Shawn raised his brows and looked at him, only for Ian to continue.
“I was wrong. I always had prejudice against you. But you were at fault too. Why did you always argue back against me? No matter what, I’m still the chief, and older than you.”
Shawn quickly realized Ian had misunderstood the situation, but he merely pressed his lips together and kept nodding without correcting him.
Actually, having this somewhat petty superior misunderstand things did not seem so bad after all.
As for the possibility of the truth being exposed in the future...
Well, future matters could wait until the future.
After figuring this out, Shawn simply went along with it and raised the medicine bottle.
“Western medicine. Too much internal heat.”
Ian once again wrapped an arm around Shawn’s shoulders and repeatedly apologized for all his previous petty behavior, making Shawn feel somewhat embarrassed instead.
Fortunately, the appearance of the female Interpol executive cameoed by Sigourney Weaver rescued Shawn from the awkwardness.
Through Andy’s files, Shawn finally understood the meaning behind the coaster with the number 13 written on it that the stranger had once left for him.
May 13th.
The same small restaurant once again.
After a verbal confrontation, Shawn agreed to cooperate with Andy’s plan to capture the bald monk, the true mastermind villain.
Inside the bowling alley, when Cruise appeared in surprisingly stunning women’s clothing, not only was Shawn in the movie shocked speechless, but cries of astonishment also rose throughout the theater audience.
When the bowling ball shattered and the diamonds stolen from the financial company scattered all over the floor, the villain, who had always handled everything flawlessly, was finally captured.
According to the clues Eric had planted earlier, as long as they could bring the bald monk into police custody, Interpol would cooperate by providing a series of evidence. The man would never leave prison for the rest of his life.
Amid the chaos, however, Shawn suddenly realized Andy had vanished into the crowd and immediately chased after him.
Inside the parking lot, the helpless Andy voluntarily climbed into his own convertible sports car.
Because this time, not only was the gun in Shawn’s hand, but the steering wheel was under his control as well.
The specially customized Lamborghini Diablo sped wildly through the streets, followed by a long convoy of police cars.
“You still not going to make your move?” After passing through several police blockades, Shawn finally spoke.
Andy weakly leaned his head against the seat.
“I’ve already done everything I needed to do.”
“But I haven’t. If I can’t take you to the police station, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
“Only if you have regrets will you remember me.” Andy flirted suggestively with Shawn, the atmosphere loaded with ambiguous chemistry.
Shawn fell silent for a moment before answering, “Don’t worry. I won’t forget you.”
Andy smiled and shook his head. He suddenly coughed violently several times as blood surged into his mouth and splattered across the windshield.
Shawn tightened his grip on the steering wheel.
After apologizing softly, Andy lifted the black cloth covering the bomb and took out a remote control.
Shawn glanced sideways at it.
“This trick again?”
“Then try it if you don’t believe me.”
Shawn immediately pressed the controller.
With a soft beep, the bomb began a one-minute countdown.
“This one can’t actually be real, right?”
Andy smiled.
“You were the one who pressed it. To me, when I die and where I die doesn’t matter. The important thing is not dying in a police station.”
Through the radio, Shawn informed the pursuing officers about the bomb. Then he stepped on the accelerator again, rapidly breaking through the final police barricades before stepping out of the sports car during the final ten seconds of the countdown.
Although the two had only known each other for a few short days, Shawn already completely understood Andy’s style of doing things.
He simply did not believe the bomb was real.
However, intentionally letting a criminal escape was an enormous burden on his professional ethics.
Thus, when Shawn got out of the car, his expression was somewhat heavy. But gradually, he seemed to figure something out. A smile slowly appeared at the corners of his mouth as he relaxed and walked toward his colleagues.
After finishing work, people were always hungry.
He should go find something to eat.
He wondered whether that little restaurant was still open.
Thinking this, he waved at the complaining Ian and walked away directly.
Without surprise, once the countdown ended, the Lamborghini’s engine automatically restarted, allowing Andy to escape once again.
Several weeks later, inside the small restaurant, Shawn widened his eyes after spotting a news article tucked into the corner of a newspaper.
Someone had donated a huge sum of money to the Children’s Cancer Foundation under his name.
He swallowed his food and curled the corners of his lips slightly, as though trying to smile, yet unable to truly do so.
Holding a bucket of popcorn beneath one arm and carrying the newspaper, Shawn wandered through the bustling crowd and, as if possessed, boarded a bus.
The moment he sat down, something familiar entered the corner of his vision.
“Miss, your necklace is beautiful. Where did you buy it?” Shawn could not help asking.
Yoyo picked it up for a look, a faint smile on her face.
“A friend gave it to me. It’s very cheap.”
“Your boyfriend?”
Yoyo hesitated briefly and did not answer. Instead, she softly said, “I haven’t seen him in a very long time. After giving it to me, he never appeared again.”
Shawn stiffly turned away.
“Keep it safe. Even if it’s fake, it’s a very convincing fake. Maybe one day he’ll suddenly appear in front of you again. Heh... and scare you half to death.”
Yoyo smiled slightly but said nothing more, her gaze turning toward the scenery outside the window.
Soon afterward, the woman got off the bus.
Through alternating slow and fast shots, lonely expressions successively appeared on the faces of both Shawn and yoyo.
Shawn tossed a piece of popcorn into his mouth and once again thought of Andy.
Buddy, how great would it be if all of this were just another one of your tricks...
Just like the fake gun and fake bomb, your illness was fake too. You only wanted to trick me into sympathizing with you so I’d let you go.
Even if you’re hiding somewhere right now laughing at how stupid I am, I wouldn’t mind.
Really.
That was his final thought as his expression dimmed.
As though symbolizing some kind of inheritance, the chanting that previously only played whenever Andy appeared now surfaced again as yoyo walked through the streets wearing that gemstone necklace.
Like some endless cycle.
Ethereal.
Mysterious.
And distant.