Chapter 60 - A Close Call
"What's that smell!" Yuan Ge arrived at the bottom of his flat building and smelled a faint odour of rotten cabbage. Oh no! He screamed in his mind and immediately rushed up the stairs as fast as he could. When he reached the security door of his flat, the smell was even more pungent and there was no doubt that it was coming from his own place. If he listened carefully, he could even hear a subtle hissing sound from inside.
Little loony must have committed suicide!
A fine sweat immediately broke out on Yuan Ge's forehead. He meant to help him by bringing him home... but had he done a bad thing with good intentions? If this kid died in his home, just forget about continuing to be a film director. He would probably be held legally responsible if the parents decided to sue him! Yuan Ge suddenly felt that what he had done before was so immature, mainly due to his own wishful thinking. Just because of the boy's appearance and the name "Rong Qiuchen", he had let himself be carried away.
With a heavy heart and trembling hands, he unlocked the door quickly with his key..
Fortunately, he did not see the boy lying on the floor, but standing in front of the stove, trying to light the gas burner!
"WHAT THE FUCK!!! STOP! STOP! STOP! Stop it RIGHT NOW!"
Yuan Ge rushed forward and violently yanked Rong Qiuchen away from the stove, flung him onto the sofa and pointed at his nose, shouting, "Are you fucking crazy! It's going to explode! You can't do that even if you want to die! From now on, just sit there. Don't move, and don't touch anything in the house!"
Hearing the sound of Yuan Ge opening the door, Rong Qiuchen's face was overflowing with heartfelt joy. However, before he could properly greet Yuan Ge, he was flung onto the sofa by him all of a sudden, and was reprimanded in such a harsh manner. He felt aggrieved and tried to explain, "Childe Yuan, it's getting late. Qiuchen just wanted to make you something to eat …"
But Yuan Ge had no time to listen to him or his grievances. Covering his nose, he first opened the cupboard door under the gas stove, turned off the main valve, scanned the room to make sure no appliances had been turned on, then rushed to the door and opened it as far as it would go, followed by opening all the windows of the flat.
"Are you out of your mind?! Do you want to kill yourself that badly?! Smell the air yourself! The methane level in this room must have reached 15% already!" Yuan Ge came back into the sitting room and yelled at Qiuchen, "It was a mistake to bring you home. Thank goodness you didn't manage to light the gas burner, or we would have been blown to bits! The point is, you can kill yourself if you want to, or even get me killed and blow up my home, but think about the street we live on! Yandai Byway, what a busy street that is! With such a high methane content, if there was a fire, a small brick building like this would not be able to withstand it and would have collapsed in an instant. Look out the window and see how many people are on the street and how many shops are downstairs. If this building catches fire, there will be a big explosion if we are unlucky. Are you really crazy or are you just pretending to be crazy?"
Yuan Ge's tone did not soften in the slightest. He finally showed his teeth - no longer as a gentleman, but as a stern director who used to barking orders at his crew, scaring Rong Qiuchen into cowering in the corner of the sofa like a little mouse.
"Childe Yuan … I … you ..."
"You what you! Luckily we're all using natural gas now, otherwise you would have succeeded in killing yourself as you wished!" Yuan Ge grunted and collapsed onto the sofa, feeling exhausted. The good mood he'd just had after the audition had all but gone out of the window. He should have known this was an idiot, so what the hell was he thinking, leaving him at home alone! Yuan Ge was filled with horror of hindsight. He could not condone Rong Qiuchen's behaviour despite his pitiful, aggrieved look, so he got up and took him to the nearest police station.