The officer blocked her path. “I understand your feelings, but please, remain calm!”
Hearing the word “calm” made her blood boil, feeling insulted, she shone the lamp into the officer’s face. “How nice you sound, if it were your loved one down there, would you be calm then?” As the officer turned away from the bright light, she quickly maneuvered around him and continued forward.
The officer, perhaps a rookie, seemed inexperienced with such major cases, initially excited but lacking the skills to comfort family members. He grabbed Lai Hui like a chicken and dragged her to the cliff’s edge, ignoring her threats of complaints, snatched the lamp from her, and shone it down the slope. It was a steep incline, covered in frost and dead grass, with a small patch of green trees at the bottom, likely pine trees, and beyond that, layers of white fog stretching to another mountain. “Look, you can’t even see the bottom, how would you find your way down to save someone? Even if you knew the way, do you have the experience to navigate such mountains? In this weather, do you think a miner’s lamp alone would help you find anyone? Are you here to save or to die?” After speaking, the officer turned off the lamp.
Lai Hui looked once more into the dark abyss, feeling as if a bucket of ice had been dumped over her head, extinguishing the flame of hope. She understood the meaning of powerlessness, could only squat at the cliff’s edge, staring blankly at the forest that might bury someone, realizing that without waiting for help, there was nothing she could do. The rookie officer, regretting his harsh words, squatted beside her, feeling remorseful.
