Chapter 2

We'd parted on good terms, and I'd never deleted Chen Mu from my contacts.

In the passenger seat, I carefully angled my phone and sent him a WeChat message.

【Sorry, this is a rude question, but does your best friend have a criminal record?】

I regretted it as soon as I hit send.

Who asked something like that?

Even if the man really had killed someone, they weren't going to admit it to me.

But in my situation, I couldn't think of another way to check.

Perhaps Chen Mu was busy. Or perhaps my question had left him speechless. Either way, no reply came.

The car radio was still reporting on the disappearances.

"The whereabouts of the nine missing women remain unknown. Police are pursuing all leads. Residents in the area are urged to remain vigilant and take care..."

Song Yu, who'd been concentrating on the road, suddenly spoke.

"The police are pretty useless, aren't they? All this time, and still nothing. Don't you think?"

"Huh? Oh... I suppose... ha ha."

Maybe it was all in my head, but in my heightened state, everything he said seemed to carry a hidden meaning.

"Investigators have identified a common factor among the nine victims: before disappearing, each had arranged to meet someone they'd met online. The accounts belonged to different users. It has not yet been established whether they were operated by the same person..."

Song Yu silently changed the station.

My heart missed a beat. Instinctively, I clutched the seat belt across my chest.

"What's wrong? You've been acting strange since dinner."

He turned toward me with a slightly peculiar smile.

"Don't tell me... you think I'm the serial killer?"

My breath caught. I fought to control my expression.

"Of course not... The news just seemed like a coincidence. I wasn't feeling well at the restaurant, either."

Song Yu chuckled.

"Why so nervous? I'm joking."

Just then, WeChat notified me of a message.

Anxiously, I opened it.

Chen Mu had replied.

"Did you lose at truth or dare? What kind of question is that?"

I typed at once.

"Sorry, sorry. This is important. I need to know."

The typing indicator lingered for a long time. Then a paragraph appeared.

"Wang Yan's been my best friend since we were kids. Don't you think I'd know if he had a criminal record? I don't know why you're asking, but he's never done anything evil. I can vouch for that."

His message reassured me a little.

As I remembered him, Wang Yan had always seemed honest and unassuming. Even a rat in the street could make him jump.

I couldn't really believe he'd killed anyone.

I glanced at Song Yu beside me. That baffling 9 still hovered over his head.

Maybe I was overthinking.

Two matching numbers, and I'd invented an entire horror novel.

Real life didn't have coincidences like that.

As I let my guard down, the car no longer felt as tense as I'd imagined.

Song Yu's handsome face stopped merging in my mind with that of a monstrous killer.

We drove steadily for quite a while. Then a small truck nearly hit us head-on.

Song Yu rolled down his window and shouted at the driver.

"Do you know how to drive? You're going the wrong way!"

The driver merely glanced at us, said nothing and sped off.

"Sorry. Did that scare you?"

Song Yu turned to reassure me.

But I'd noticed something else.

In the instant I'd met the truck driver's eyes...

The number above his head had changed from 0 to 1.

7

What had happened in that moment to change it?

I was growing more and more curious about those strange numbers.

Yet no matter how hard I thought, I couldn't find an explanation.

The prolonged tension had left my throat dry.

"Is there any water in the car?"

"One second. I'll get it."

Song Yu pulled open a compartment in front of the driver's seat and reached for a bottle. A sudden hard brake sent everything tumbling out.

At my feet lay a collection of suspicious syringes and vials of unidentified liquid.

Alarm bells rang in my head.

"Don't misunderstand. I'm a doctor. I keep medical equipment and medicines in the car."

Calmly, he gathered the vials and shoved them back into the compartment.

I hadn't said a word. Why was he so quick to explain?

Unless he'd noticed my suspicions and was making excuses out of guilt.

Besides, would an ordinary doctor keep medical supplies there?

Something was definitely wrong with him!

Traffic had been motionless for a long time. Song Yu opened his door.

"Wait here. I'll see what's going on."

He was out of the car. A perfect chance to escape.

Then, in despair, I discovered he'd already locked the doors. I couldn't get out.

He soon returned.

"An accident up ahead. Someone was hit and killed. The driver fled."

An accident? Someone dead?

A terrible premonition rose inside me.

He continued, "Apparently it was a small truck. Could it be that idiot who was going the wrong way?"

My blood seemed to freeze.

The driver's number had changed from 0 to 1 because, at that very moment, the person he'd hit had died.

Perhaps my theory about the numbers had been right all along.

I stopped doubting myself and reached for my phone to call the police.

The battery was dead.

The navigation system's female voice announced that we were approaching our destination.

But this wasn't any neighborhood I knew.

The destination on the map wasn't the address I'd given him.

Why had Song Yu deliberately brought me somewhere unfamiliar?

What had happened to the nine missing women?

8

I couldn't bear to think any further.

The only thing that mattered was getting away, whatever it took.

Carefully, I pressed the seat-belt release.

Nothing happened. If anything, it tightened.

Song Yu seemed to notice.

I caught a barely visible, strange smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Don't rush. We're almost there."

Knowing I'd been exposed, I abandoned all pretense. I yanked at the belt and pounded on the window.

"Stop! Stop the car!"

Song Yu merely glanced at me without speaking.

Worse still, my body was slowly going numb.

Perhaps he'd put something in my food.

Despair swept over me. Why hadn't I trusted my first instinct? I'd missed so many chances to escape.

The car raced along a muddy mountain road. Other cars and pedestrians grew scarcer.

Finally, it slowed to a stop on a deserted patch of wasteland.

Slumped in the passenger seat, I watched Song Yu get out, expressionless, and walk around to my door.

Without a word, he unfastened my seat belt and helped my apparently helpless body toward the dark woods.

The moment his guard dropped, I whipped out my arm, pulled the silver hairpin from my hair and drove it toward his eye.

"You... how—"

He hadn't expected me to have any strength left. He tried to dodge, but the sharp point sliced his face. He cried out.

I hadn't hit anything vital. But the instant he let go was enough.

I'd been wary since the mall, afraid there might be something in the food.

Before leaving, I'd secretly gone to the restroom and made myself throw up.

Some of the drug remained in my system, but its effects weren't too severe.

That helpless act had been just that.

An act.

I ran faster than I ever had in my life, away from Song Yu, shouting for help.

But everything was pitch-black. Not even a streetlight.

Not a soul along the road.

With Song Yu almost upon me, I had no choice but to duck into the nearest old factory and hide.

To keep him from hearing which way I went, I took off my shoes and moved slowly, carefully.

His heavy breathing came from a distance.

Then closer.

Had he found me?

The layout was complicated, and I hadn't made a sound. He shouldn't have known where I was.

As his flashlight drew nearer, I suddenly realized what I'd overlooked.

Water.

I'd been soaked in the rain outside.

Everywhere I went, I left a trail.

All he had to do was follow the wet marks on the floor.

I was finished.

Cowering in a corner, I watched the beam sweep over the shelves in front of me. In another moment, it would reach my hiding place.

I was still trying to think of a way out when a familiar voice came from the main entrance.

My best friend, Ye Miao.

"Qingya! Are you in there? Are you there?"

9

Her voice echoed through the empty factory.

Before I'd known what was happening, I'd sent her Song Yu's license plate as a precaution.

I hadn't expected her to actually track me down.

But her timing couldn't have been worse.

I watched Song Yu switch off his flashlight, change direction and move toward the main entrance, step by step.

Unaware of the danger, Ye Miao stood where she was and called out.

"Qingya, is that you? I can hear footsteps!"

Armed or not, she was about to face a cold-blooded serial killer.

If I stayed hidden to protect myself, she could die!

My phone was dead. I couldn't message her a warning.

But I felt inside my pocket. A few lipsticks were still there. I could throw one to distract him.

Before I could, a piercing scream tore through the factory.

I rushed toward it and reached the entrance.

Ye Miao stood there, stunned and at a loss.

The scream had come from Song Yu.

Apparently, he'd fled in panic.

Ye Miao had a little spray can in her hand. The moment she saw me, she threw her arms around me.

"Jiang Qingya, do you know how worried I was? Why weren't you answering?"

Guiltily, I said, "My phone died."

She sighed.

"If Chen Mu hadn't told me, I might not have realized."

Chen Mu?

Only then did I notice the man behind her.

My ex-boyfriend, whom I hadn't seen in years.

Ye Miao explained.

"When you sent me the plate number, I didn't think much of it. I thought you were just checking in because you were traveling at night. Then Chen Mu contacted me and said something seemed wrong. I couldn't reach you by message or phone, so I knew something had happened. We located your phone and came out to this middle of nowhere together."

Chen Mu spoke calmly.

"Those questions you asked seemed strange at the time. I didn't think something had really happened. Thank goodness we got here."

Faced with my ex arriving just in time to rescue me, I didn't know where to begin. Guilt and gratitude tangled together.

But I hadn't forgotten the more urgent problem.

"We can talk later. Call the police and let's get out! That man could be behind the serial disappearances!"

Both their faces changed.

10

Ye Miao looked incredulous.

"How do you know? He didn't have a weapon just now. Wasn't he just trying to force himself on you?"

Chen Mu wasn't convinced, either.

"Did he tell you that himself? Don't panic and make a false police report."

The numbers were my secret. I didn't want to tell anyone, and they probably wouldn't believe me anyway.

I pulled them out of the factory and through the rain toward Chen Mu's car.

"This isn't the time. Let's get in first. I'll explain on the way."

But none of us had expected what we found.

Every tire had been deliberately punctured.

The windows were smashed, too. Even sheltering inside wouldn't keep us safe.

There was nobody else around. The only person who could have done it was Song Yu, whose whereabouts we didn't know.

Chen Mu's expression darkened.

"He doesn't want us to leave... What is he planning?"

Ye Miao shook my arm.

"Qingya, you said he was behind the disappearances. What proof do you have? Tell us. Stop hiding things."

Neither of them would let it go. Afraid Song Yu might come back for revenge at any moment, I gave in and told them everything.

"Because I can see numbers above people's heads. They show how many people someone's killed. Song Yu has a 9. Exactly the number of women who've disappeared!"

Ye Miao didn't believe a word.

"Are you joking? Numbers above people's heads? Is this science fiction? You actually believe that?"

I'd expected the reaction. Helplessly, I said, "I'm telling the truth. What would I gain by lying now?"

But Chen Mu's expression grew grave.

"So you asked about Wang Yan's criminal record because you saw his number and thought he'd killed someone?"

I nodded.

"Yes. His number's 1."

Ye Miao was speechless.

"That has to be wrong. Wang Yan's such a good person. How could he have killed anyone? Chen Mu, you know him best. You must know."

After a few seconds, Chen Mu answered.

"Yes. Wang Yan is a good person. He was even commended for an act of bravery."

"But when he saved a child who was being threatened, he used a knife he was carrying to defend himself."

"The criminal bled to death."