Chapter 5
Edward Quan ·
“Don’t know her. Never heard of her.”
He seemed to expect that.
“Let’s use another name.”
“Ms. Vương, across the hall?”
My heart tightened.
I kept my face composed.
“What are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
He dropped a stack of photographs in front of me.
“I know everything.”
“Stop pretending.”
Two utterly different faces appeared in the pictures.
One young and innocent.
One mature and alluring.
The second was Ms. Vương.
The first, Thẩm Viên.
The same woman.
“To pay for plastic surgery, she worked three jobs a day.”
“Eventually, she managed to get close to Lưu Giang Hạo.”
“But he was a suspicious, twisted man.”
“He tortured her until…”
“There wasn’t an uninjured patch left.”
Officer Tôn’s voice caught.
“You never saw her in shorts or short sleeves, did you?”
“The scars on her body were unbearable to look at.”
I knew her life hadn’t been easy.
I hadn’t known it was that hard.
Whenever I asked, she smiled and said she was fine.
I truly hadn’t known how much pain that “fine” had cost.
So that was it…
My vision blurred.
I struggled to control myself.
But it was all right.
Everything was over.
Unconsciously, I looked at the ceiling.
Her plane must have landed on that beautiful island by now.
Wait.
No.
How did Officer Tôn know about her scars?
I jerked my head up.
His bloodshot eyes met mine.
Under my despairing gaze, he slowly nodded.
“Yes.”
“She’s gone.”
I couldn’t bear any more.
I burst into sobs.
Why?
We had agreed.
I would stay to deal with the consequences.
She would leave.
We had promised.
When I came out of prison, she would collect me.
We would visit Hứa Giang Thụ together.
Why?
Why?
Officer Tôn rushed over and held me.
Before I lost consciousness, I heard him shout:
“Lý Kiều! Calm down!”
I first met Thẩm Viên on the third day after I got to know Hứa Giang Thụ.
We had arranged to do homework at the library.
When he arrived, a girl followed him.
Thẩm Viên.
Back then, she had a straight fringe, long black hair resting on her shoulders.
Nothing like the wavy blond curls she always wore now.
Hứa Giang Thụ introduced us.
“Meet each other. Hứa Kiều, Thẩm Viên.”
“From now on, we’re the physics trio!”
We were schoolchildren under strict teachers, so I didn’t spend much time with Hứa Giang Thụ.
But Thẩm Viên and I became close as sisters.
Whenever she saw him, she seemed to have eyes for no one else.
I teased her:
“Secret crush? Tell him after graduation!”
She waved a hand.
“You’ve got it wrong.”
“He saved my life.”
“We promised to be friends forever.”
Only then did I learn she had once fallen into the water.
Hứa Giang Thụ risked his life to rescue her.
It even left him with lasting health problems.
You see?
That was how good he was.
To everyone.
After he was hurt, I was confined at home for a long time.
Thẩm Viên came looking for me repeatedly.
My parents always drove her away.
Only when they went to visit Lý Trạch did we get a chance to talk.
Her eyes were red as a little rabbit’s.
She choked out:
“Hứa Kiều, everyone says Hứa Giang Thụ raped you.”
“I don’t believe it.”
“What really happened?”
I pushed her toward the door.
I had already harmed one person.
I couldn’t harm another.
She rushed into the kitchen, seized a knife, and held it to her pale throat.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll die right here.”
I will never forget her face that day.
Stubborn.
Resolute.
At last, I told her everything in broken sentences.
She asked only one question.
“Will you take revenge?”
“Of course!” I shouted.
I already had a plan.
After leaving the hospital that day, Lục Ca had teased me:
“Hứa Kiều, honestly, I do like your type.”
“Dad says I don’t have to go to school anymore. He’s sending me away.”
“Why don’t you drop out too? Come with me. Have my children.”
I hadn’t objected.
If I could be with him, I would have a chance to kill his whole family.
Thẩm Viên immediately rejected the plan.
“No.”
“If you go to them, they’ll suspect you.”
“Just look after Hứa Giang Thụ.”
“You owe him that.”
“You can’t abandon him.”
After that day, she left school.
She was right.
If I left, my parents would stop paying his medical bills.
A little longer, I thought.
Once I could earn money, I would take revenge.
That night, I copied the recording from the MP5 onto my MP3 player.
During dinner, I played it for my parents.
“As long as you keep paying Hứa Giang Thụ’s medical bills…”
“I won’t let Lý Trạch hear this.”
I don’t remember how long they beat me that night.
But the result was good.
They agreed.
Still, that wasn’t enough.
Lý Trạch had to be brought out for the threat to work.
So I went to Grandma and embellished every grievance he had suffered.
In the end, she traded her property deed for my parents bringing him out of the psychiatric hospital.
He didn’t dare go outside.
He feared the Lưu family would find and kill him.
So he began tormenting me.
My parents did too.
I could only endure it.
Because there was still Hứa Giang Thụ.
When I graduated from university, I thought I would soon earn money.
Leave this family.
Find the Lưu family and take revenge.
Then Thẩm Viên, out of touch for years, contacted me.
She sent a photograph of herself with Lưu Giang Hạo.
And one sentence:
“Don’t worry. Everything’s going well.”
To avoid raising their suspicions, we rarely contacted each other.
She was in the Lưu household.
I was in my own.
Each quietly planning revenge.
Until one day, I saw the Lưu family on the news.
A few days later, Thẩm Viên moved into the apartment opposite.
She no longer looked as she once had.
Wavy curls.
A cigarette in her right hand.
“Long time no see.”
When I woke, I was in hospital.
Officer Tôn stood outside, discussing my condition with the doctor.
I knocked to ask him in.
“Did she leave a message?”
His stubble was untidy. One look told me he hadn’t rested for a long time.
“Yes.”
“She asked me to tell you.”
“Everyone who caused Hứa Giang Thụ’s death is dead.”
“No.”
“There’s still me.”
Officer Tôn and I said it together.
I looked at him in confusion.
“She guessed you would say that.”
“So she went ahead of you.”
“She said she’d been too tired all these years.”
“Revenge was all she had left.”
“Once it was done, she found nothing in life to look forward to.”
“The island was beautiful.”
“But she was too tired.”
“She only wanted to rest.”
I could almost see her face as she said it.
Perhaps that was all right.
On the other side, we could be the physics trio again.
The first night after our reunion, I asked:
“Ten years in hiding, making yourself into this. Do you regret it?”
“Do you?” she asked.
Then we both laughed.
The next day, we visited Hứa Giang Thụ together.
Perhaps he had been waiting for us all along.
After our visit, he quietly passed away.
We took his ashes to his hometown and buried him beside his mother.
On the way back, I told Thẩm Viên my plan.
I knew Lý Trạch too well.
If I revealed the recording immediately, he would be suspicious.
First, he had to feel something was wrong.
I contacted my second uncle and aunt, pretending to let slip that Grandma’s lost property deed was actually in our home.
They came to make a scene.
Grandma came too.
Shaking with anger, she snapped at my father:
“If you hadn’t used A Trạch to threaten me back then, I wouldn’t have…”
She stopped.
Lý Trạch questioned me many times.
I deliberately evaded him.
Finally, I stopped going home.
On his birthday evening, Thẩm Viên went to our apartment.
My mother hated her and drove her out after a few insults.
She didn’t know Thẩm Viên had already been in contact with Lý Trạch.
His eyes reddened with anger.
He fought bitterly with our parents.
That was when I sent him the MP5 by same-city courier.
He called to ask what had really happened.
I pretended I couldn’t bear his questioning and told him everything.
I said our parents had had no choice.
They owed too much.
If they didn’t pay, they would die.
Those people said they would hack them to death.
I kept repeating:
“Kill them.”
“Hack them.”
“Make them die.”
Lý Trạch hung up without a word.
Afterward, he called again.
He was excited.
Our parents were dead, he said.
They had deserved it long ago.
They had ruined so many years of his life.
He was terribly drunk.
He didn’t notice the empty beer cans beneath the balcony.
He stumbled.
Fell.
Died.
Only the homeroom teacher remained.
I had planned everything.
Thẩm Viên would pretend to be the online source.
Create an uproar.
Attract the police.
At the same time, I sent a copy of the recording to the teacher.
I deliberately gave Officer Tôn reason to suspect me.
Made him follow me.
The aim was to draw every eye to myself and give Thẩm Viên time to leave.
But…
The plan failed.
Thẩm Viên died.
I was the one who should have died.
As her only close friend, I attended her cremation.
Three times in a single year, I had come to this place.
Once for Hứa Giang Thụ.
Once for my parents.
Once for Thẩm Viên.
I handed her urn to Officer Tôn.
“I’m sorry to trouble you.”
“There isn’t much money left in my account. Please find her a decent place to rest.”
“If possible, I’d like to be buried beside her.”
He told me not to talk nonsense.
My stomach cancer had spread, but with proper treatment, there was still hope.
I said nothing.
At last, I understood what Thẩm Viên had meant by having “nothing to look forward to.”
As a prisoner, I was handcuffed and shackled.
Even killing myself wasn’t easy.
Just outside the funeral home, a stabbing pain seized my stomach.
Unable to bear it, I doubled over.
Large beads of sweat fell from my face.
Officer Tôn and the others panicked.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you all right?”
The two men fumbled anxiously.
Now.
There was a car ahead.
At that very moment, both had loosened their hold on me.
I had thought I wouldn’t be able to reach it.
I hadn’t expected my will to be that strong.
A collision sounded.
I seemed to see Thẩm Viên and Hứa Giang Thụ.
In blue school uniforms.
Schoolbags on their backs.
They turned and called loudly:
“Hurry, Lý Kiều!”
“The library will close!”
I ran toward them.
“Coming!”
— THE END —