Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
Not one of Mu Yang's friends had been arrested.
Of course. They had power and connections. Why would they sit around waiting to die?
They must hate me.
Outside the police station, I looked up at the lazy sun and smiled.
Of course they hated me.
Just as they'd hated Su Jiarui.
18
Back in my neighborhood, I bought dinner at the convenience store and slowly made my way upstairs.
Several shadows trailed behind me.
Unaware, I took out my key and slid it into the lock.
The next second, a wet cloth clamped over my mouth and nose. A pungent smell filled my nostrils.
Once more, darkness engulfed me.
When I woke, I was in a dilapidated warehouse.
Several rough-looking men stood around me, their faces twisted in the same way.
“You're Qin Huan?”
I coughed twice and nodded.
A heavy slap struck my face.
“Fucking bitch! Nothing better to do than stick your nose into other people's business?”
The blond man spat, then viciously pulled a knife from his waist.
“What did I ever do to you? It's been over five years, and now you decide to play hero?”
I clenched my jaw. After a moment, I slowly began to smile.
“You're scared.”
Shame turned instantly to rage. He slapped me again.
Smack.
“You're asking to die!”
His chest heaved. He was about to rush at me with the knife when the man beside him stopped him.
“Hey, hey. Why be so rough with a pretty girl?”
His voice was lecherous. Rubbing his hands, he grinned.
“We have to get rid of her anyway. Why don't we let the boys...”
The blond man's eyes moved, finally settling on my face.
“True.”
He laughed and tossed the knife aside.
“Come to think of it, Qin Huan came first in that campus beauty poll, didn't she? You were the one I wanted to fuck most back then. All these years, and you've finally landed in my hands.”
Fighting my nausea, I edged back and shouted.
“Don't you dare! Aren't you afraid of prison?”
“What the fuck do I have to fear?”
He spat.
“What can a few lousy cops do to me? My uncle's a vice governor!”
Enough.
At last, I relaxed and let out a heavy breath, watching them with the faintest smile.
The blond man noticed the change.
“What are you trying to pull?”
Before his words had faded, the warehouse door was kicked open.
“Don't move!”
Officers shouted as they rushed in.
Before the men could react, they were handcuffed and led away.
As they took him out, the blond man turned back and shouted at me, his face full of furious disbelief.
“How did you do it?”
I quietly leaned into Li Meng's arms. She'd come with the police.
I didn't spare him another glance.
A young officer saw us out. I gave him the recording of the blond man boasting that his uncle was a vice governor.
He solemnly promised that they would deal severely with the men.
I only nodded.
“All right.”
We were all waiting.
19
I knew the blond man and his friends would come after me. They might even try to silence me by killing me, just as they'd done to Su Jiarui.
I was gambling that in their fury, they wouldn't be satisfied with simply stabbing me to death.
They would choose to abduct me.
The rest was up to Li Meng.
During her five years abroad, she'd studied information engineering.
She'd made me a tiny custom tracking device with recording and communication functions.
After I went to the police, she could monitor my location around the clock.
That night, when my location suddenly shifted to the outskirts, she called the police at once.
Then I waited.
Only when the tracker at my waist vibrated twice did I begin provoking the men, again and again.
Until they exposed the protection behind them.
After the blond man went to the station, I went to the hospital.
At the sight of the blood on my face, Li Meng burst into tears and scolded me.
“I told you to think of something else. This was far too dangerous.”
“They're lunatics. What if they'd really killed you to shut you up?”
She cried until she could hardly breathe, her fingers clutching the blanket beside my bed.
“I was scared out of my mind...”
With my face covered in gauze, speaking was difficult.
“I really couldn't think of another way.”
“They hid too well, and they clearly had powerful backing. Otherwise, we couldn't have found it.”
I patted the back of her hand and smiled faintly.
“Don't cry. I'm all right. They wouldn't have been satisfied with killing me straightaway.”
She looked up, puzzled, then scolded me again.
“But you can't gamble on a maybe!”
I said no more. I only shook my head.
There was a secret from five years ago that I'd never told anyone.
20
In the spring five years earlier, I'd come first in the campus beauty poll. Everyone at school called me a goddess.
Mu Yang had seriously confessed his feelings to me.
To be more precise, I'd received plenty of love letters from the blond man and his friends too.
I'd rejected them all.
After his rejection, Mu Yang had grown humiliated and angry.
“You've got a decent face, that's all. You're not even as good as your roommates.”
“You're nothing special. I'd do better going after your friends.”
“I'll make you regret it sooner or later!”
I hadn't taken it to heart.
The auditorium rehearsal was for the arts festival. Apart from Li Meng, who wasn't participating, all three of us were supposed to be there.
I'd only missed it because Su Jiarui had asked me to submit some papers at the office for her.
Later, while Jiarui was falling apart, I'd run into Mu Yang again.
His venomous gaze had coiled around me like a snake. Before leaving, he'd said only one incomprehensible thing.
“What a shame. The main attraction didn't come.”
It took me years to understand.
I was supposed to have been his real prey.
Su Jiarui and Sun Lin had suffered a disaster that should never have fallen on them.
So what did it matter if I risked my life to catch the blond man and the rest?
This was the last thing I could do.
21
A month later, the court delivered its judgment.
Professor Mu was sentenced to three years for shielding the offenders.
The blond man and his friends faced much more serious charges. Already implicated in rape and murder, they'd then refused to confess, planned to flee, and tried to abduct and silence a witness. Even their lawyers could do nothing.
In the end, the blond ringleader was sentenced to death, to be carried out immediately. Most of the others received life sentences. Only two lesser accomplices received terms ranging from the teens to twenty years.
The vice governor uncle was removed from office and investigated. He later went to prison too—for exactly twenty years.
When Li Meng told me all this, I was at home sorting through Su Jiarui's belongings.
Back then, grief and terror had left me no chance to examine them properly.
I'd stacked the books and papers on the desk while I crouched on the floor, arranging the small things.
The curtain stirred. Evening air brushed my face and turned the pages of a little notebook.
I happened to look up.
It was Su Jiarui's diary.
22
[February 23, Year XX
The cafeteria made braised pork today. So, so good!
But that Mu Yang is such a nuisance. Looking like a no-good layabout and still trying to pursue my Qin Huan.
March 17, Year XX
Rehearsal in the auditorium tomorrow. I hear Mu Yang and his crowd will be there too. It's infuriating. All they do is pester my girl.
If I have to, I'll make up an excuse to send Qin Huan somewhere else. Then they won't keep bothering her.]
It felt as though a sledgehammer had struck my heart. Beneath the shock was overwhelming pain.
She'd deliberately found an excuse to send me away?
Trembling, I turned the page.
The entry for the eighteenth was blank.
An invisible hand tightened around my breath. My chest kept closing up.
I turned more pages.
[April 28, Year XX
My first operation. It hurt quite a bit.
May 3, Year XX
Qin Huan wants to take me to the hospital. I know we probably won't get there. My baby's been gone for a while already.
But I wanted to try anyway. Sure enough, the guard stopped us.
May 10, Year XX
Sun Lin and I have collected some evidence. But I feel as though someone powerful is backing them. What do we do?
What are we supposed to do?
What can I do?
...
May 17, Year XX
Sun Lin's about to act.
I can't settle. It feels as though something's going to happen.
I've put everything on the USB drive, but I can't get to the police. Mu Yang and the others keep watching me.
Should I tell Qin Huan? Maybe she could go to the police for me?
...]
I hurried through the pages, scarcely breathing.
[Forget it. What if she gets dragged into this? This evidence probably can't touch whoever is behind them anyway.
I'm already like this. She's still safe.
]
The diary stopped abruptly. Hollow inside, I kept turning pages without thinking.
When my fingertips reached the last page, writing appeared again.
Unlike the neat, delicate hand of the earlier entries, this was a chaotic scrawl, as though she'd written in extreme fear. There wasn't even a date.
[I can't take it anymore. I can't spend my whole life trapped in their hands. I have to go to the police.
I'm going now. I... I...
...
Mu Yang still has designs on Qin Huan. Says he wants all four girls in our room.
He can dream!
He's going to die soon anyway. He deserves it...
Sun Lin promised me she'd make sure nothing happened to her. It should be all right, shouldn't it?
I'm going to the police this afternoon...
My stomach won't stop hurting. I wonder if something was wrong with the clinic that operated on me.
...
...
I was just reading my old diary. Being little was better.
If only time could have stopped on page eight.
There's nothing good about growing up.]
I froze, hurriedly wiped my tears, and turned back.
Page eight.
[September 5, Year XX
It's the fourth day of school. I'm getting along pretty well with my classmates.
The teachers are nice. Middle school doesn't seem bad at all. It's more fun than primary school.
Mom made sugar-filled steamed buns this morning! So delicious!
...
...
...
I made a new friend today. Her name is Qin Huan. She looks so sweet, like a little rabbit.
She's funny when she talks, though she seems a bit timid.
That's okay. I'll protect her from now on!
...]
At last, all my strength left me. I slid down beside the desk and collapsed onto the floor. I couldn't hold back the sobs anymore. They filled the room with empty, desolate echoes.
Outside, peach blossoms bloomed in the sunshine, knowing nothing of sorrow.
“You were right.”
I gripped the edge of the notebook. Tears kept falling, beyond my control.
“If only time could have stayed on that day forever.”
— The End —
Ten Miles of Blossoms