The cable car hung suspended in mid-air. Over the intercom, a staff member’s voice crackled:
It’s past closing time for the park. You’re coming down this late, so you’ll have to pay me overtime.
Let’s make it a flat fee of 7,000 bucks. That’s for the whole 7,320-meter cable car ride, I’ll even round it down for you.
“Transfer the money, and I’ll restart the cable car. If you don’t, you can all hang here in mid-air tonight!”
I pleaded with the staff member to restart the cable car because two elderly people had suddenly collapsed from high blood pressure and were already unconscious.
The staff member scoffed, “Then pay up for your lives, simple as that. No money? Then you deserve to die there!”
Without warning, the cable car shuddered to a halt, leaving us dangling in the vast emptiness.
The steel cables groaned and shrieked in the wind, a sound that grated on my teeth.
Below, the valley plunged into an abyss, the twilight bleeding ink-black into the horizon, rapidly devouring the sky.
Inside the cabin, our senior tour group of twenty elderly passengers, just starting to unwind from a day of sightseeing, were now plunged into the abyss of panic by this sudden stop.
“What’s going on?”
“Why did we stop? Is something wrong?”
“Chloe, dear, is everything alright? This looks so scary…”
My heart plummeted. I forced down my own rising anxiety, managing a reassuring smile.
“Don’t panic, everyone. It might just be a temporary stop. I’ll ask what’s happening.”
I immediately found the intercom button on the cabin wall and pressed it.
“Hello? Control center? We’re passengers on the downhill cable car. Could you tell us why we’ve stopped?”
After a brief static hiss, a young woman’s voice, laced with laziness and impatience, cut through.
“Hello, hello, can you hear me? This is Amy from the mountain base control room. It’s already past closing time for the park, and you guys are coming down this late. That’s infringing on my private time, so you’ll have to pay me overtime!”
Overtime?
Everyone froze, stunned.
The woman sneered, then slowly continued, “By the rules, it’s one buck per meter, and this cable car line is 7,320 meters long. I’ll round it down for you, let’s just make it 7,000 bucks. Transfer the money, and I’ll get the cable car moving again. There’s a QR code right next to the intercom, see it? Now, scan it and transfer the money, immediately!”
“Money in my account, and I’ll send the cable car right down. If not…”
Her voice suddenly turned chilling, “Heh, then you can all hang up here in mid-air and freeze your asses off tonight! The night wind up here can literally kill you!”
The cabin erupted into chaos, the elderly passengers gasping in horror.
“This… what kind of logic is this?”
“This is robbery! It’s blackmail!”
“This is outrageous!”
“Are you and the park staff in on this together to scam us, tour guide?”
I couldn’t help but frown.
I’d led so many tours, been to this park thousands of times, and we usually descended around this time.
This was the first time I’d ever encountered anything like this.
I quickly calmed the seniors, suppressing my own anger, and tried to speak into the intercom in as steady a voice as possible:
“Ma’am, what’s your name?”
“Amy.”
“Ms. Amy, I don’t know if you’re a new employee, but I’ve brought groups to this park so many times, I know your schedule by heart. We are not past closing time.”
“Your demand is unreasonable and completely baseless. We’ve purchased valid entrance tickets and cable car tickets, and the park is obligated to transport us safely down the mountain. Please restart the cable car immediately. We can discuss any issues once we’re safely on the ground.”
Amy instantly shrieked, “Discuss? Who’s discussing anything with you?!”
“My time is money! Cut the crap, no money, no movement!”
Just then, Margaret, an elderly woman from our group, tugged at my sleeve, whispering anxiously, “Chloe, dear, you need to look… Arthur and Eleanor… their faces aren’t right. Arthur looks… it’s making my heart race…”
I turned back to look.
Arthur was practically slumped in his seat, his face an unnatural, deathly gray, his lips a terrifying purplish-blue. One hand was clutched tightly to his chest, his breathing shallow and ragged, as if he might stop any second. His forehead was beaded with cold sweat.
Eleanor gripped his other arm tightly, her aged face etched with immense fear and helplessness, her lips trembling.
“Medicine… Arthur, where’s your blood pressure medicine? Your heart medicine?”
Arthur shook his head slightly, with great difficulty, his eyes already unfocused, his voice barely a whisper.
“Finished… last pill… forgot… to bring…”
My heart plunged to rock bottom.
Arthur suffered from severe high blood pressure and a coronary heart condition.
This sudden fright and being suspended at this altitude were a fatal blow to him!
I immediately rushed back to the intercom, yelling, “Ms. Amy, we have an elderly passenger in our group who has fallen critically ill because of your actions! He’s showing signs of oxygen deprivation and needs to be taken down the mountain for emergency medical attention immediately!”
“You need to restart the cable car right now! Otherwise, if anything happens to this elderly man, you will be held fully liable in the eyes of the law! This is murder!”
Amy scoffed, full of contempt.
“Legal liability? Murder? Who are you trying to scare? I don’t fall for that crap!”
“Heart condition? Old man? So what? Just because they’re old and useless, they get to leech off society? A bunch of useless old folks just taking up space, they deserve to die! They die early, and they save the country some pension money!”
“I’d actually be thrilled if my own in-laws, those two old farts, just had an accident and died! Save me the trouble of seeing their faces every day! Maybe their own family members think the same thing, just wishing they’d kick the bucket already!” Amy’s words instantly ignited the public’outrage among the seniors, who began to accuse her.
“Who are you cursing to die?”
“Exactly! Don’t you ever get old?!”
“How can you be so vicious? What did your family elders ever do to you, that you curse them like that?”
Just then, Eleanor, with trembling hands, pulled an old-fashioned flip phone from her pocket.
“Chloe, dear, I… I’ll call my son. He… he might work at this park…”
“He’s in security or something… he’ll definitely know what to do… he can definitely handle this person…”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but the intercom was on speaker, and Amy clearly heard her words.
Then, what answered us was just Amy’s sneering laughter echoing through the intercom, full of disdain.
Eleanor clumsily used her shaking fingers, pressing one number after another, as if summoning all her strength, then hit the call button.
The cabin instantly fell silent, so quiet you could hear a pin drop. Everyone held their breath, twenty pairs of eyes fixed on that small flip phone, hoping the sound of the call connecting would bring a miracle.
The long waiting tone hammered like a heavy club on everyone’s heart.
However, the hoped-for voice never came until the call automatically disconnected.
“No… no one picked up…”
Hope instantly dwindled by half.
Margaret tried to comfort her.
“Maybe he’s busy? What about your daughter-in-law? Call your daughter-in-law and ask.”
Eleanor snapped back to reality and frantically picked up the flip phone to dial again.
The phone rang a few times, then was answered.
Eleanor excitedly said, “Amy! It’s me! Your dad and I are on the cable car going down the mountain, and it’s stopped, it’s not moving! Your dad’s having a heart attack, and he’s out of medicine. He can’t breathe, his face is turning purple!”
“The staff member controlling the cable car is demanding money to restart it, 7,000 bucks, you…”
The woman’s voice on the other end impatiently interrupted, “Mom, Daniel and I are busy making big money right now. Can we call you back when we’re done?”
Before the call was cut off, everyone heard the other person mumble:
“So annoying. Daniel is great in every way, except he’s blindly devoted to his parents. If I wasn’t afraid he’d argue with me, I would have gotten rid of those two old farts a long time ago.”
Eleanor held the phone, dumbfounded.
The cabin fell into a deeper silence again, broken only by Arthur’s heavy, gasping breaths.
My brows furrowed sharply, and a chill snaked up my spine.
That daughter-in-law’s voice on the phone…
That sharp, arrogant, selfish tone…
How could it be… so much like Amy’s voice on the intercom?
They were practically identical!
And Amy had just cursed her own two elderly in-laws…
A wildly absurd, yet terrifying thought suddenly surfaced in my mind.
Could this staff member, Amy, who was extorting us…
Be Arthur and Eleanor’s daughter-in-law?!
I forced down the stormy turmoil in my heart, knelt down, and gently held Eleanor’s cold, trembling hand.
“Eleanor, please don’t fret. You just said… your son works at the park, so your daughter-in-law… is she… does she also work here?”
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