Chapter 3

She only scolded me for being inconsiderate, for making my parents go out in such heavy rain.

Then she hung up too.

My sister texted to ask whether they'd picked me up.

I didn't want her to worry, so I said I'd met them.

She said all right and promised to bring me a late-night snack.

I didn't reply.

I opened my umbrella and walked home alone.

There were very few people on the road.

Every time I heard footsteps behind me, my heart tightened.

Only when I was almost at the entrance to the alley beneath our building did I breathe easier.

Then someone rushed up behind me.

He clamped a hand over my mouth and dragged me deep into the alley.

...

After it was over, I tried to remember the name his accomplices had called him.

A Zheng.

I also tried to preserve anything that could be used as evidence.

Once they left, I forced myself to my feet, straightened my clothes, and went home through the rain.

Our parents were startled when they saw me.

They asked whether I'd fallen.

I shook my head and told them what had happened, crying as I explained that the police would be able to find him if we reported it.

They fell silent.

There was no pity in their eyes.

Only irritation.

Dad shouted:

“It's already happened. Now you want to call the police? Do you want the whole world to know?”

Mom scolded me too.

“Luoluo, why can't you think? Don't you understand how important a girl's reputation is?”

In the end, they decided not to report it.

They told me to pretend it had never happened.

I refused.

“I didn't do anything wrong. Why should I be the one who has to bear it? I'm going to the police.”

But I was too naive.

They wouldn't listen.

They forced me to bathe and change into clean clothes, destroying every trace that could have served as evidence.

They said that if I reported it, I would no longer be their daughter.

My sister still hadn't come home that night.

I lay in bed thinking for a long time.

However hard I tried, I couldn't understand.

At last, I left my sister a letter and quietly walked out into the rain.

She didn't return until dawn.

She'd even bought the late-night snack she'd promised.

Afraid of waking me, she didn't knock on my door.

In the morning, when I still hadn't come out, our parents stood outside my room calling for a long time.

Only then did she learn what had happened the night before.

She hurriedly opened the door.

My letter lay on the desk.

At the end, I'd drawn A Zheng's face and written his name. All I hoped was that after I was gone, she would report him for me.

Her hands shook as she picked up her phone.

Our parents stopped her.

Finding me was more important now, they said.

The police were called in the end.

But not to find A Zheng.

Only to find me.

After I died, our parents told everyone that the pressure of studying had driven me to take my own life.

My sister couldn't accept their hiding the truth and preventing a police report. She argued with them repeatedly.

Then, one night, she saw my spirit in the house.

She wasn't afraid.

Instead, she cried so hard she could barely speak.

She couldn't touch me. All she could do was look at me and whisper:

“I will get justice for you.”

After that, she started dressing more provocatively and coming home late.

Our parents had lost me. Afraid of losing her too, they tried everything to stop her.

She went on doing as she pleased.

I didn't want her to sacrifice herself for me.

But she said she wanted more than for A Zheng to face the law.

She wanted to take years from his life in exchange for a chance to bring me back.

I didn't understand.

She explained that she had a friend who practiced Taoist arts. He knew a special ritual. Once she and A Zheng were legally married and had completed a traditional wedding, the final ritual could begin.

Now the wedding was over.

Only the last step remained.

I looked at A Zheng.

He'd just finished recounting what had happened three years earlier.

He'd spoken so casually.

He said he'd been drinking that night, had a moment of bad impulse, and done what he did.

He said he'd never thought I would die.

To him, it was such a small thing. Not worth dying over.

He even thought I should be grateful to him, not seeking revenge.

His shamelessness almost made me laugh.

I cursed him silently.

All those flattering things my sister had deliberately said—he'd actually believed them.

When he finished, the young man turned to my sister.

“It seems he remembers everything now. The conditions for the ritual have been met. We can begin.”

She smiled faintly.

“All right.”

Only then did A Zheng realize that the young man had been on our side all along.

He panicked.

“We live under the rule of law! You can't do this! You just said it was against the natural order. Why are you helping them now?”

The young man laughed.

He pointed at the young woman who had been sitting silently in the corner.

“Not when it comes to someone like you. Was Lin Luoluo the only person you hurt over the years? There's another spirit who's been following you all this time.”

A Zheng couldn't see her.

But she had already lunged at him.

He clutched his head and shook in pain, as though something invisible were tormenting him.

The young man stepped forward to stop her and spoke gently.

“His remaining years will go to Luoluo. As for you, I'll help you find a new beginning.”

She stared at A Zheng for a long time.

Then she looked at my sister and me.

At last, she nodded.

He was bloodless with terror now.

I quietly looked away from his wretched face.

My sister didn't want to delay any longer either.

If our parents woke up, things would become complicated.

She urged the young man to begin.

He told me to go back to my room, lie on the bed, and put on the red thread my sister had prepared.

Before closing the door, he warned me:

“No matter what you hear, don't open your eyes. You mustn't wake until daybreak.”

I nodded and did as he said.

Soon after closing my eyes, I felt my awareness sink into a vague emptiness.

A jumble of sounds surrounded me.

Crying.

Calling.

Someone kept coming close to my ear, as though trying to wake me.

Several times, I wanted to open my eyes.

But I remembered what my sister and the young man had said and held on.

At some point, I lost consciousness completely.

...

The next morning, a shaft of sunlight came through the window.

Its warmth slowly woke me.

I opened my eyes.

The first person I saw was my sister.

She smiled gently.

“Luoluo. You're home.”

We had done it.

Overwhelmed, I sat up and threw my arms around her.

“I'm back. I'm really back.”

She nodded.

Then she took my hand and led me into the living room.

Our parents were making breakfast in the kitchen.

They didn't seem surprised to see me.

I looked at my sister in confusion.

She explained quietly.

“After the ritual, time went back to before everything happened. You never died.”

I froze.

If time had gone back, did that mean A Zheng was still alive?

Did it mean that rainy night would come again?

She seemed to read my thoughts.

Her grip tightened on my hand.

“Don't be afraid.”

“This time, I won't let anyone hurt you.”

She kept her word.

When that rainy night came around again, she canceled all her plans and personally hired several people to come with her to take me home.

Sure enough, A Zheng appeared at the entrance to the alley.

But this time, the moment he tried to approach me, the people with us rushed forward and restrained him.

I went home safely with my sister.

Afterward, she proposed renting me a room near school.

She would move in too, so she could look after me.

At first, our parents refused.

But when she said she would pay all the expenses herself, they finally agreed.

With her beside me, I got through the university entrance exam and earned a place at the university I'd always dreamed of attending.

The day my acceptance letter arrived, she hugged me and burst into tears.

She said that for the three years after what happened to me, she had lived with constant guilt.

She kept thinking: if she'd only canceled that social engagement and picked me up herself, I would never have encountered A Zheng. I wouldn't have gone through any of it, or lost my chance at university.

Now, seeing me hold the acceptance letter I'd longed for, she was truly happy for me.

And I was more grateful to her than to anyone.

Without her refusal to give up, I would never have had a chance to start my life again.

Three years later, we were watching the news when a report appeared about a drunken man who had accidentally fallen into a river and drowned.

His image was blurred.

We recognized him anyway.

A Zheng.

His remaining years had already been used for me.

My sister's Taoist friend had said that A Zheng had originally been destined to live a hundred years.

Since I'd received those years, I would have a full lifetime ahead of me.

She looked at the television and said coldly:

“Dying like that was far too easy on him.”

I nodded.

“I just wonder whether he'll have to pay for what he did once he's down there.”

“Perhaps,” she said. “Whatever you do, sooner or later you have to face the consequences.”

I am A Zheng.

I was just a thug who lived as he pleased.

I'd hurt plenty of girls.

Most were afraid of the shame and never reported me.

Some couldn't get over the shock and took their own lives.

I never thought I'd done anything wrong.

I thought it was all chance.

Anyone who ran into me was simply unlucky.

Until that rainy night.

I was about to approach another schoolgirl when several burly men suddenly appeared behind her.

They rushed forward, restrained me, and beat me up.

After that, I discovered I hadn't come through it unscathed.

It made me miserable.

Three years later, I got drunk, slipped, and fell into a river.

When I opened my eyes again, I was standing somewhere completely unfamiliar.

I silently followed the stream of people ahead.

At last, I stopped before a judge.

He ordered me to kneel.

Then everything I'd done in life was recounted, one act after another.

I kept protesting my innocence.

I said I hadn't done anything wrong.

But no one listened.

On the judge's orders, I was taken away to be punished.

After that, I had to face the people I'd hurt.

They appeared one by one.

Every gaze was full of hatred.

One after another, they came forward and made me pay for what I'd done.

Then came more punishment.

One torment after another.

Only after a very long time did I think I'd finally earned a chance to be reborn.

I even dreamed of a good family and a peaceful life.

But the judge said coldly:

“Don't even dream of it.”

Before I could understand, I was pushed onto another path.

When I opened my eyes again, I still had all the memories of my previous life.

But I was no longer human.

I was a boar on a livestock farm.

Day after day, my life repeated itself inside a pen.

That was the punishment I would carry into my next life.

The End.