Night fell, and in the middle of Kyoto City Bridge, a young man of about 20, leaning on the railing with both hands, stared blankly at the scenery before him.
Perhaps because it was the weekend, Kyoto City was a blaze of lights and colors, and fireworks were being set off not far away.
But at this moment, the thin young man, whose online name was Pighead, had no mood to appreciate anything; he slowly lowered his gaze to the pitch-black river below, where nothing could be seen, only the faint sound of rushing water indicating how turbulent the river was.
Pighead stared silently downwards, as if the dark river was about to swallow him whole.
That’s right, he didn't want to live anymore.
His story was actually quite simple: like many young people, he met someone he thought was the best person at the best age, and then, for this person, he gave his all.
He didn't care about the money he earned from game boosting, because in his young eyes, money was just meaningless numbers; he hadn't even spent much of the money he earned, saving every penny just hoping that the person in his heart could live better, at least better than he did.
But in the end, his sincerity was misplaced; at this moment, he truly understood the phrase he had often heard before: losing her was like losing the whole world.
Now he was like a walking corpse, feeling that death was not scary; with his heart gone, what did death matter?
Before coming to this bridge, he deliberately ordered a burger he usually couldn't afford, which could be considered fulfilling a wish!
He slowly climbed onto the railing, sat down casually, put on his headphones, and played the song they had once listened to together, hoping it would accompany him on his last journey.
However, just a few minutes after the song began, his phone prompted him that it was only a trial version, and he needed to pay to listen to the full song; at this moment, he was stunned, because he couldn't even afford to listen to a song.
It seems even the heavens are mocking me!
He subconsciously clicked into the b chart monthly song list; he usually just listened to songs there to pass the time because it was free.
Suddenly, a song title caught his attention: “i once thought of ending it all.”
Haha, a bitter smile appeared at the corner of Pighead's mouth; this song really suited him right now.
He gently clicked on it, and as he expected, the singing slowly came from his headphones:
“i once thought of ending it all, because seagulls were wailing at the pier, rising and falling with the waves, pecking at the past and flying away.”
The scene depicted was so similar to his current situation; perhaps for many people contemplating suicide, the scenery before their eyes is much the same.
But as the singing continued from his headphones, his emotions also fluctuated with the song.
Just as the words “I know, I know, but!” flooded into his ears, his eyes instantly welled up, and tears streamed out uncontrollably; he didn’t know why, but he felt as if the depths of his soul were being gently touched.
The song continued, and at this moment, Pighead just sat quietly on the railing, silently listening to the emotional voice from his headphones.
Kyoto City Bridge usually has patrolling police, for a somewhat absurd but true reason: people often jump into the river to commit suicide here, especially in the evening.
Today, Luo Xiang was on duty; he had never encountered anyone attempting suicide, so he was a bit lax in his work, basically only coming here for a patrol every two or three hours.
As he was patrolling the bridge bored, a figure caught his attention.
“Damn it, it can’t be such a coincidence.” He saw someone sitting on the railing not far away, their whole body leaning out over the railing, as if they were about to jump at any second. Seeing this, Luo Xiang quickly ran towards the figure.
He ran up to the figure, disregarded his own safety, rushed over and hugged the person's waist, then used all his strength to fall backward, causing both of them to fall heavily to the ground.
Luo Xiang ignored the pain in his body, quickly got up and held down the young man in front of him, fearing he would make another move, and a scolding burst out: “Are you crazy? What could be so bad that you want to jump into the river? How old are you? What problem can’t you overcome?”
He stopped halfway through his sentence because the young man in front of him was now in tears, extremely emotional, but he didn't struggle, only kept murmuring, “I’m not jumping, I’m not jumping.”
In an ordinary apartment building, Liu Shuangshuang opened the door, placed the bought bento on the table, and flopped onto the bed.
It was almost 10 PM, and she still hadn't eaten dinner, but it seemed she was used to it; after a short rest, she skillfully put the bento into the microwave, then opened her phone, found her playlist, and clicked loop play.
This was her habit: to eat while listening to music. This was also one of her few leisure times in a day. Sometimes she felt lost, not knowing why she had to work so hard, but everyone else seemed to do the same, and she had always done so, getting used to it as she went along.
The downside of free songs was that the quality couldn't be guaranteed; the previous song was so annoying she couldn't even eat. Don't ask her why she didn't pay to listen to a chart songs; the answer is it's too expensive. For a working person like her, who saves every penny, where would she get money to spend on listening to songs?
One song after another, none of them pleasant to listen to. She irritably pressed the skip button, unsure if the reason for her anger was the lack of good songs or the monotonous yet highly stressful daily life.
Suddenly, a gentle prelude began, followed by a slightly deep female voice entering Liu Shuangshuang's ears: “i once thought of ending it all, because seagulls were wailing at the pier.”
Liu Shuangshuang picked up her chopsticks, thinking that although the lyrics were a bit strange, the song was quite good; there were good songs on the b chart after all.
Until the song ended, Liu Shuangshuang’s chopsticks hadn’t moved. She wiped away a tear, somewhat absentmindedly wondering when she last cried. Oh, right, it was when she left home for university!
She didn't continue eating; instead, she took out her phone and sent a message to her boss, asking for a week off. She missed home and wanted to go back to visit.
Then she shared that song in a song-lover group, adding a note: “Newly discovered treasure song, trust me, you won’t regret listening to it.”
After doing all this, she thought for a moment, then clicked the play button again. This time, she just closed her eyes and quietly listened to the sound coming from her phone.
This was just a microcosm of a few ordinary people in Kyoto City.
More and more people paid attention to this song, but since it was a song on the b chart, its popularity wasn't very high, and even the traffic brought by trending topics was negligible.
Until a big influencer posted an update on Facebook, just a short sentence accompanied by a song recommendation, which made the entire internet boil over.