Chapter 3
Edward Quan ·
Xiao Xu, an intern who had joined the company less than a month earlier, finally couldn’t bear to watch.
Her eyes red, she quietly opened a bottle of water.
While Pei Chuan wasn’t looking, she bent down to try to give me a drink.
“Ms. Ye, have some water. Don’t keep fighting Mr. Pei…”
Drops fell onto my chin and slid over my cold skin.
Pei Chuan caught the movement from the corner of his eye.
He snapped his laptop shut, rushed over, and kicked the bottle from Xiao Xu’s hand.
It hit with a heavy thud.
Half the water splashed over my face.
“Who gave you permission to interfere?”
Xiao Xu trembled with fright. Tears spilled from her eyes.
“Mr. Pei, Ms. Ye’s breathing is really weak…”
“I told you she’s playing dead!”
He pointed at every employee in the carriage and announced loudly, “Anyone else who feels sorry for her can resign as soon as we get off!”
The entire carriage went silent.
Everyone retreated to their seats.
“Move! Everyone, make room!”
A male passenger with a backpack and an ID badge from a top-tier hospital pushed through the crowd.
He tried to clear a path for emergency treatment.
“I’m a doctor. The patient’s in trouble!”
Pei Chuan spread his arms and blocked him.
He stood up straight.
“Doctor, there’s no need. She’s my employee. She’s only pretending to be ill to get out of being punished.”
“We don’t need to waste valuable medical resources.”
The passenger looked at me on the floor, then at Pei Chuan.
“Pretending? You call this pretending?”
He shoved Pei Chuan aside hard enough to send him stumbling back.
Kneeling on both knees, he held my chin and opened my eyes to check my pupils.
One look drained the color from his face.
He turned and stared at Pei Chuan.
Then he roared, “Are you all blind? She’s already dead!”
With a crash, the laptop fell from Pei Chuan’s hand. Its screen shattered on the floor.
He froze.
His eyes fixed on the doctor, now kneeling on one knee.
“What nonsense are you talking?”
Suddenly coming to himself, he rushed forward and grabbed the passenger’s collar.
“You must be some extra Ye Tingxue paid to come here!”
“She’ll even stoop to this to force me to give in?”
Bai Meng emerged from the toilet.
Hearing *already dead*, she gripped the hem of her clothes.
Her voice shook as she tried to prove something.
“That’s impossible… I saw Ms. Ye blink ten minutes ago.”
“Yes, she moved a little just now. She definitely isn’t dead.”
The doctor flung Pei Chuan’s hand away.
He rolled up my sleeve, exposing my pale arm.
Pointing to the broad purple-red patches, he declared, “This is lividity! An irreversible sign of death!”
“It only appears after blood stops circulating. Tell me—can she fake this too?”
Pei Chuan stared at the large patches.
The color visibly drained from his face.
His legs gave way, and he dropped to his knees beside my body.
He reached for my face.
But his hands stopped in the air, shaking violently.
He couldn’t bring himself to touch that bloodless face.
As though, if he didn’t feel the cold, I might still open my eyes at any moment.
“No… That’s impossible…”
Like a madman, he tore at his formerly immaculate hair.
Then he broke down, muttering to himself.
“She told me this morning her heart felt really bad… I thought she was making another excuse to compete for my attention… Where’s the medicine?”
He spun toward the crowd and screamed.
“Where’s her medicine? Where’s Ye Tingxue’s bag?”
Pointing at Bai Meng, his eyes bloodshot, he shouted, “Bring it here! There’s fast-acting heart medicine inside. If she takes it, she can get right up!”
Bai Meng trembled all over and slowly handed him the bag.
He snatched it.
Like a rabid dog, he unzipped it and tipped everything onto the metal floor.
Lipstick. Tissues. Keys. A compact mirror.
Small belongings scattered everywhere.
Only the white bottle that could have saved my life was missing.
Pei Chuan fell flat on the floor, frantically searching through the scattered things.
“Where’s the medicine? Where did it go?”
He turned the bag inside out and even tore open its smaller compartments.
He searched more than a dozen times, but the familiar white bottle was nowhere.
“I saw her put it in before we left…”
He looked up blankly at the people around him.
“Which of you took her medicine? Who took it?”
No one answered.
They all looked at him as though he were insane.
Pei Chuan let out a terrible howl, like a dying animal.