Chapter 2

4

“Something on you? You were the one who testified she was suicidal. What could he possibly have had on our lofty Liang Bo to make him give false testimony?”

The mocking voice rang out again.

Liang Bo clutched his head and choked back tears.

“He had proof I'd cheated. I was waiting for a guaranteed university place. If it came out, my life would be over.

“I didn't want to. I had no choice.

“It was me... I caused her death. I wronged her.”

Someone stood.

“Enough, Liang Bo. If you really know something, go to the police. We were just high school classmates. We haven't got time to watch your performance.”

“Exactly. We finally have a reunion after all these years, and you start with this nonsense.”

One by one, they headed out.

Panicking, Liang Bo scrambled to block the private room's door.

“No one leaves!

“I'm telling you! I know you're in here. I'm not afraid of you anymore. I'll give you a chance. Come to me yourself, and we'll go to the station together. Confess. Otherwise...”

His eyes swept the room.

“We'll die together.

“This is all retribution. My wife left. My daughter's ill... It's my punishment.”

The room erupted into confusion.

He Ze and I stood at the back of the crowd. I signaled for him to check his phone.

“Did you do it?”

He turned toward me in disbelief.

Before he could answer, someone called my name.

“Old Lin, you're closest to him. Get this drunk out of here. We need to go home.”

I hurried through the crowd and led Liang Bo outside.

He was so drunk he could barely remain conscious. In the car, he kept muttering apologies.

As I drove, I thought.

His behavior tonight suggested he didn't know who'd threatened him back then.

Or that there'd actually been two perpetrators.

But if he traced it to He Ze, would He Ze hide my involvement?

Definitely not.

With his petty nature, he might already be figuring out how to make me the scapegoat.

No.

I'd worked too hard for what I had.

I couldn't let the fat bastard in my car destroy it all.

Was there a way to silence him forever?

Only if he never had another chance to speak.

The sudden thought startled me. Cold swept over my body.

5

I looked up and met Liang Bo's eyes in the rearview mirror.

He was quietly watching me.

For how long, I didn't know.

Cold sweat immediately covered my back.

I forced a smile.

“Awake?”

“Mm.”

Nothing like the drunken wreck of a moment earlier.

Another bad feeling rose inside me.

Given our relationship, though, I forced myself to comfort him.

“Don't be upset. I'll go to the police with you tomorrow. We'll catch the bastard who killed her.”

At Huo Ran's name, his face softened.

“I've never dreamed of her in all these years. Do you think she hates me?”

“Don't overthink it. Isn't there a saying? If you don't dream of the dead, they're doing well on the other side.”

I turned the wheel and asked as casually as I could, “By the way, did you get a clear look at him back then?”

He didn't answer.

The car was so quiet I could hear only the wind outside.

A film of sweat coated my hands on the wheel.

What did his sudden silence mean?

Just as I was about to change the subject, he spoke.

“Old Lin, I'll tell you the truth. I never saw anyone push Huo Ran.”

The reversal stunned me.

“But someone did. They told me everything that happened that night. Even the names of the two people who killed her.”

Two?

My throat tightened.

Someone really had seen us?

Who?

Why was Liang Bo telling me this?

My heart pounded, but I kept my face calm.

“So do you know who that person is?”

He suddenly leaned forward and put a hand on my shoulder.

“Old Lin... how long are you going to keep pretending?”

6

An icy chill spread through me.

I realized his story about a witness was only an excuse.

To keep himself alive.

He knew me too well.

He knew how hard I'd fought to get here. Anyone who tried to destroy my life, I'd destroy first.

Bastard.

If he knew everything, why couldn't he pretend he didn't?

When his daughter fell ill, I'd transferred all my savings to him without hesitation.

Instead of being grateful, he dared threaten me.

Fine.

Then I'd have to kill him.

My gaze slowly chilled.

To avoid traffic police, I'd deliberately chosen a rough side road.

No lights. No cameras. Hardly any passing cars.

Even if there were a fatal crash, there'd be no evidence.

I was already driving at a hundred and thirty kilometers an hour.

If I braked hard, Liang Bo, sitting in the middle of the back seat without a seat belt, would be thrown against the windshield.

Then I only had to pretend to panic and deliberately drive into a roadside tree.

A perfect accident.

Cars rarely exploded after crashes.

Afterward, I'd kneel before his parents and weep, blaming myself for failing to save him and promising to raise his daughter.

They were so fond of me that they wouldn't hate me.

They might even feel sorry for me.

I pressed the accelerator harder.

Before I could act, Liang Bo spoke again.

“Old Lin, stop pretending. I know you have your concerns, but it's just us now.

“You still won't admit... you sent me the evidence?”

My body slowly relaxed.

“What evidence?”

“It wasn't you?”

His surprise looked genuine.

He said he'd received an anonymous parcel half a month earlier.

Inside was a single printed letter.

It described everything that had happened when Huo Ran was pushed off the roof, and how to find the killer.

Even his performance at tonight's reunion had been planned by the sender.

If he followed the instructions, the sender said, he'd not only find the killer but receive a large sum to pay for his daughter's treatment afterward.

“I thought it was you. Apart from me, you were the only one who truly cared about her back then. And you're the only one who cares about my daughter.”

7

Back then...

His words took me fifteen years into the past.

He was right. I'd treated Huo Ran very well.

More precisely, I'd saved her life.

That was why I'd never felt guilty all these years.

I'd saved her, so her life belonged to me.

Killing her afterward only made us even.

It was the winter break in our second year of high school.

I'd arranged to play basketball with a few friends on a court outside school.

Halfway through, we heard screams nearby.

“Someone's in the water! Someone's fallen in!”

Seeing Huo Ran and a little girl in the lake, I jumped without hesitation.

Someone on the bank shouted that entering cold water while sweaty could cause sudden death.

The lake was bitterly cold. Sharp pieces of ice scraped cuts all over me.

I still dragged them both ashore.

The price was pneumonia and half a month in hospital.

Liang Bo and Huo Ran visited every day, bringing homework and explaining the lessons I'd missed.

Her parents even offered to pay my entire hospital bill.

Mine refused.

“They're classmates. Helping each other is only right.”

The day I was discharged, Huo Ran and Liang Bo took time off school to collect me.

We gradually grew closer.

She tutored me after class.

Whenever I nodded off in lessons, she threw an eraser at me to wake me.

She even asked to sit beside me.

I'd thought we were friends.

But that night, when I begged her not to tell the teacher, for the sake of my having saved her...

She refused.

“I'll give you three days to confess, Old Lin. It's not too late to turn back.”

On the roof, I tried the same tactic.

I reminded her I'd saved her and even lifted my shirt to show the scars, hoping she'd soften.

All I got was a mocking reply.

“I'm helping you. The teachers have begun a full investigation. They'll reach you sooner or later. If you confess first, they might be lenient.

“I can testify you never got to read the papers. That way, they won't expel you.”

She was wrong.

The investigation stopped.

Her death eclipsed everything.

For the first two nights afterward, I tossed and turned without sleeping.

Whenever I closed my eyes, I saw her coercive face.

He Ze comforted me.

“Think about it. If you hadn't saved her, she'd have died long ago. She should thank you for giving her another year. You did nothing wrong.”

Exactly.

I'd risked my life to save her, and she wouldn't cover for me even once.

Someone that cold-blooded deserved to die.

8

To prove he wasn't lying, Liang Bo took me home to see the evidence.

“The main reason I was sure you sent it was... the sender put it directly inside my house.”

He'd been busy caring for his daughter in hospital and had given me a key.

“If it was me, why go through all that? I'd just hand it to you. Evidence that points this directly to the sender could only implicate me.”

The idiot who sent the anonymous parcel claimed he'd seen two distant figures who seemed to push Huo Ran off the roof.

He'd been too far away to be certain and hadn't told the police.

Recently, though, he'd met a fortune-teller.

The man said a wronged spirit was following him.

He'd remembered Huo Ran.

For several nights, he'd dreamed she came to take his life.

That was why he'd sent Liang Bo the parcel and proposed using a reunion to observe everyone's reactions and identify the killer.

I couldn't help sneering.

“You believed that?”

“You don't?”

Looking at his foolish face, I realized I'd worried for nothing.

“Even setting aside whether he saw clearly, believing a fortune-teller about a vengeful ghost is absurd.

“I understand you miss Huo Ran, but you still need to respect the facts.”

When he remained bewildered, I asked, “Did you notice anyone acting strangely tonight?”

He shook his head.

“But he said he'd do the observing himself. I only had to wait for him to contact me.”

My heart tightened.

So that was it.

They each had a part.

Luckily, I'd only been nervous, without doing anything else unusual.

Still, I didn't need to worry too much.

Those two idiots couldn't find me on their own.

The real danger was He Ze giving something away.

Fine.

I'd call him when I got home.

I drove away.

Before I arrived, my phone rang.

He Ze.