High-Altitude Worker, Unfortunately a Cannon Fodder Female Supporting Role - Chapter 4

Zhao Ke tilted her head back to glance at the hemp rope coiled around her right forearm.

Out of professional habit, she had immediately noticed the rope by the rooftop wall the moment she stepped onto the terrace. Its end was securely fastened to a metal post deeply embedded in the concrete wall, unlikely to break anytime soon.

With a slight exertion of her right hand, she hoisted herself and Qiao Qinglu into a flip, turning them to face the glass.

They had fallen approximately two or three floors. By now, the patients on the 22nd floor had been jolted awake by the loud crash. Fumbling in the dark, they switched on their lights and immediately spotted the two figures clinging to the window outside.

“Good heavens!”

The elderly woman standing by the bed, unaccustomed to such a shock, nearly fainted at the sight of the two figures pressed against the glass.

“Mom!” Her caregiver rushed to support her.

Zhao Ke controlled her facial muscles, forcing a somewhat friendly smile.

“Hello, could you please help us by opening the window?”

Oh my god, she’s still talking!

Mom, I’ve seen a real-life superhero!

I can’t handle this, I’m going to faint!

The young man closest to the window stiffly approached and pushed it open.

A blast of cold wind swept into the ward, leaving the patients and their caregivers—five or six people in all—dazed. Was this even real?

Seeing the window open, Zhao Ke casually shook Qiao Qinglu with her left hand.

“Hey, can you climb in yourself?”

She’s too strong! Too strong! A true role model!

Pfft, it’s a bit inappropriate, but I can’t help but say Qiao Qinglu looks like a half-dead fish being dangled by Zhao Ke.

Damn it, Qiao Qinglu, stop screaming and start climbing! Zhao Ke’s gonna get tired and drop you!

Fortunately, the young man who had opened the window reacted quickly, reaching out to catch Qiao Qinglu.

Qiao Qinglu also snapped out of her panic, stretching out her hands and desperately clinging to the window frame.

Inside the room, chaos erupted as everyone scrambled to pull Qiao Qinglu inside. After much effort, they finally managed to drag her in.

Qiao Qinglu collapsed on the floor, her eyes unfocused, gasping for breath from the shock.

But how is Zhao Ke going to get in?

Ahhh! What’s going to happen to Zhao Ke?!

Zhao Ke was positioned slightly higher than Qiao Qinglu and not directly facing the window. To enter the room, she would need to loosen the rope around her right arm by a loop.

But that was too dangerous. Without sufficient friction, she risked falling.

The young man inside the room extended his arms, gesturing with his eyes to Zhao Ke, signaling that he wanted to catch her.

The wind outside was too strong; Zhao Ke couldn’t hear him.

She shook her head.

Then, she retracted her dangling left arm, gripped the rope, and with a surge of strength, began pulling herself upward.

A woman among women! The epitome of femininity!

Mom!

This is too amazing! How can anyone be so incredible?

Alright, tonight I’ll forgive Zhao Ke for her past misdeeds.

Zhao Ke used her arm strength to climb back onto the rooftop.

She collapsed gracelessly onto the ground, untying the hemp rope from her right hand. Her palm and wrist were crimson, with patches of raw skin.

She shook her nearly exhausted arms and scanned her surroundings, searching for the phone she had dropped in her panic.

“Thank goodness, it still works,” she breathed, blowing dust off the screen, genuinely relieved to have survived.

With her meager savings, she couldn’t afford to replace a phone right now.

Zhao Ke, you’re being a bit dramatic.

Seriously? It’s just a phone. Why are you acting like this?

Upstairs, do you even have a heart?

After checking her phone, Zhao Ke turned her attention to her slippers.

Her sh1t-blue slippers had only hindered her during the crisis. One had fallen off the rooftop the moment she was thrown over the edge, while the other had become wedged around her ankle under the immense force.

Having exhausted her strength, Zhao Ke struggled in vain to pull it off.

Hahaha, this is hilarious!

Seriously, which female celebrity goes out wearing plastic slippers?

Dying of laughter!

She must be exhausted. She used up all her strength saving people.

After struggling with her slipper for several minutes, a crowd surged onto the rooftop.

Doctors, nurses, hospital security guards, and even Uncle Hat and firefighters, whom they had led up, swarmed the scene.

Zhao Ke sat on the ground, staring back at them with wide eyes.

On this ordinary weekday evening, dozens of trending topics flooded Weibo at rocket speed:

#ZhaoKeSavesLives

#ZhaoKeAndQiaoQingluHangingOffHundred-MeterBuilding

#ZhaoKeLeapsToTheRescue

#TruthBehindZhaoKeAndQiaoQingluFeud

#InsideStoryOfQiaoShuxue’s Repeated Attempts On Her Life

#ZhaoKeSuperwoman

The netizens were in a frenzy. Overwhelmed by the shocking visuals, dopamine surged, and comments flooded in at a rate of thousands per second.

Is this real or just special effects for a movie?

Hard to believe, but it’s definitely real.

Zhao Ke is insane! She’s a superhuman among superhumans!

Let’s be honest, no male celebrity in the entertainment industry could match that reaction time, emergency handling skills, or sheer strength.

Forget the entertainment industry—how many people in all of China could do that?

Reject disgraced celebrities! Stop wasting public resources! No more sensationalism for clicks!

Reject disgraced celebrities! Stop wasting public resources! No more sensationalism for clicks!

“Alright, explain yourselves. What’s going on between you two?”

It was the same Director’s Office from earlier that day, with the familiar mahogany desk. The only difference was that the person sitting behind it now was Uncle Hat, his face stern.

“Why would you two run up to the rooftop in the middle of the night? Don’t you know how dangerous that is?!”

“It was her! She pushed me!”

Qiao Qinglu, who had been sobbing in the corner of the sofa, suddenly burst out, pointing at Zhao Ke on the other end of the sofa and wailing to Uncle Hat.

Zhao Ke: ?!?!

Who just saved your life?!

“Qiao Qinglu, stop twisting the truth!” Zhao Ke quickly retorted, pulling out her phone to show Uncle Hat their chat history. “Qiao Qinglu asked me to meet her on the rooftop first. Here’s the proof.”

Zhao Ke had just narrowly escaped death, leaving her in a state of exhaustion and vulnerability. So when Qiao Qinglu suddenly lunged at her to snatch her phone, she didn’t react in time.

With a smash, Qiao Qinglu slammed the phone onto the ground with tremendous force.

The screen and body separated, and it was clear without closer inspection that the phone was beyond repair.

“Qiao Qinglu, are you insane?!” Zhao Ke roared.

Originally, Zhao Ke had tolerated Qiao Qinglu’s self-destructive behavior out of respect for the narrative’s power. But even after Zhao Ke had just saved her life, Qiao Qinglu remained relentless.

Damn it!

Without her phone, how would Zhao Ke leave the hospital, find a job, or pay her medical bills?

After smashing Zhao Ke’s phone, Qiao Qinglu’s expression shifted dramatically as she knelt before Uncle Hat.

Tears streaming down her face, she wailed, “It was Zhao Ke who tried to harm me! She… she’s jealous of me! She wanted to kill me!”

“Uncle, you have to save me!”

Qiao Qinglu’s own phone had shattered into pieces the moment she fell from the building. There was no evidence, none at all.

Uncle Hat frowned, refusing to be swayed by Qiao Qinglu’s performance.

“Get up first,” he said.

Qiao Qinglu shakily rose to her feet, her pristine white dress making her look like a bullied, pitiful victim.

In contrast, Zhao Ke’s dirty, tattered hospital gown gave her the air of a mental patient.

Zhao Ke spoke, a faint, almost imperceptible smile playing at the corners of her lips. “Qiao Qinglu, do you know why I saved you just now?”

“Why?” Qiao Qinglu replied, her voice trembling. Zhao Ke’s fiercely piercing gaze made a chill creep up Qiao Qinglu’s spine.

Zhao Ke smiled brightly, but the warmth didn’t reach her eyes. “Living is always more painful than dying. I think you’re just beginning to understand that, aren’t you?”

Without support, without reliance, everything had to be fought for alone.

Ever since her adoptive parents abandoned her, Qiao Qinglu had been constantly on the verge of being swallowed whole by an ever-present sense of loneliness and insecurity.

She retaliated against Qiao Shuxue with increasing ferocity, even sacrificing everything she had.

Yet no matter what she did, she couldn’t shake off the bone-deep emptiness that gnawed at her soul.

As her body hung exposed hundreds of meters above the ground, for a fleeting moment, Qiao Qinglu had indeed considered letting go, ending it all with a single, final act.

All the pain would simply vanish with the wind.

Zhao Ke watched her in silence.

Alone, without support, utterly isolated—these were the feelings Qiao Qinglu had known intimately since childhood.

If Qiao Qinglu were to simply die, it would be letting her off far too easily.

Online, the debate about the two women continued to rage.

So, did Qiao Qinglu set a trap to harm Zhao Ke, or did Zhao Ke, consumed by anger and shame, try to kill Qiao Qinglu but regret it at the last moment?

It’s obvious Zhao Ke lost control and tried to kill her. Why even ask? She’s always been violent—remember when she attacked Qiao Shuxue with a wooden sword?

I don’t think so. If Zhao Ke wanted to kill her, why would she go to such lengths to save her?

Regret, duh! What’s so hard to understand?

I disagree. I think Qiao Qinglu was setting this up from the beginning. How else could the camera angles have switched at such perfectly timed moments?

Agreed! And if you watch closely at 7:28, Qiao Qinglu tries to push herself back up, but the wall suddenly gives way. Zhao Ke, meanwhile, remains rooted to the spot, not moving an inch.

But why would Qiao Qinglu risk her life just to frame Zhao Ke?

Stop arguing! The police have issued a blue-background announcement. Everyone, go check it out!

Police Bulletin:

“On April 25th, at approximately 9:20 PM, Qiao (female, 22) recklessly climbed the outer railing of the rooftop at A City People’s Hospital, causing the outer foam layer of the rooftop to crumble. Zhao (female, 22), a public-spirited citizen, bravely intervened, using a hemp rope to rescue Qiao and prevent a tragic fall. Upon receiving the emergency call, municipal police, emergency services, and fire departments swiftly arrived at the scene to handle the situation. Currently, both Qiao and Zhao are out of immediate danger.”

“The police remind the public that the outer layer of rooftop walls is made of insulating foam, which lacks structural integrity. Citizens are urged to value their lives and refrain from unauthorized climbing of rooftop walls.”

After reviewing the livestream footage, the “Uncle Hats” (police officers) decided to focus solely on the incident itself, reporting only on the immediate circumstances.

As for the past conflicts between Zhao Ke and Qiao Qinglu, all evidence had been lost, leaving them powerless to intervene.