Chapter 4

He slammed his head against the carriage wall with a dull thud.

“Ye Tingxue… get up…”

At last, he dared touch my body. He shook my stiff shoulders hard.

“I was wrong. I shouldn’t have made you give up your seat. I shouldn’t have made you stand as punishment.”

“Where did you hide the medicine? Please stop scaring me.”

I hovered above him, watching coldly as tears and mucus streaked his face.

Pei Chuan, devotion that came too late was worth less than weeds.

You had smashed my life with your own hands. Who were you begging to come back now?

The announcement suddenly sounded.

“We are approaching the next station. Please collect your luggage and prepare to leave the train…”

Outside the doors, flashing police lights and forensic equipment waited for this train full of crimes.

The train braked into the station with a piercing screech.

As soon as the doors opened, a large contingent of armed police rushed aboard.

They quickly put up yellow tape and cleared away uninvolved passengers.

Two forensic examiners strode toward the vestibule carrying their cases.

“Everyone not involved, step back. Preserve the scene.”

The officer in charge signaled his subordinates to pull Pei Chuan away from my body by force.

“Don’t touch her!”

Pei Chuan struggled desperately, his fingers clamped around the metal doorframe.

His nails bent back and bled from the force. He didn’t seem to feel it.

“She’s just exhausted. She’s asleep. You can’t touch her!”

He screamed at the examiners like a madman guarding his food.

“She can’t sleep in an unfamiliar bed. She won’t sleep well here. I have to take her home!”

The examiners ignored his frenzy.

They put on gloves and began a preliminary external examination.

Their expressions darkened when they saw my deformed fingers and the terrible impact wounds on my head.

“The deceased has multiple crush fractures in the fingers and clear evidence of blunt-force impact to the head.”

One examiner made notes and reported to the officer.

“There is also an extensive second-degree burn on the back of the hand.”

“The deceased was subjected to inhumane treatment before death. I recommend opening an investigation immediately.”

At the words *opening an investigation*, Bai Meng went white as paper.

While everyone’s attention was on my body and Pei Chuan, she lifted her skirt and edged along the carriage wall, trying to slip into the stream of passengers leaving.

“Stop!”

Two stern-faced officers immediately blocked the exit.

“Police operation. Everyone at the scene, crouch down with your hands on your head!”

The officer’s sharp gaze swept the carriage.

“Until we establish what happened, no one leaves this scene!”

The word *homicide* exploded through the carriage like a bomb.

The colleagues who had agreed with Pei Chuan and mocked my plight turned pale with terror. One after another, they crouched with their hands on their heads.

“Officer, this has nothing to do with us!”

A manager who usually flattered Pei Chuan most eagerly now stepped forward to accuse him without hesitation.

“It was Mr. Pei! He ordered her mistreatment!”

“He wouldn’t let us help Ye Tingxue up. He even crushed her fingers!”

“Bai Meng poured the boiling water on her. We never laid a hand on her!”

Everyone pushed when the wall began to fall.

The words they had once used to hurt me and please Pei Chuan now became hard evidence against him.

Pei Chuan sat on the cold platform.

His once-obedient staff exposed his wrongdoing one by one.

He didn’t argue. He merely raised his hand mechanically and slapped himself hard.

The sharp blows echoed across the platform.

“I didn’t mean to kill her… I really didn’t mean to kill her…”

He repeated it over and over.

“I only wanted to prove I was fair. That I didn’t play favorites. I didn’t want anyone saying I protected her…”

I watched the examiners open a black body bag.

They placed my battered body inside.

As the zip slowly closed, the last light was shut out.

My final trace in this world faded completely.

Questioning began in a temporary station office.

Pei Chuan’s hands were cuffed to a heating pipe. His statement to the police came out in disjointed bursts.

“She had heart disease… She always kept fast-acting heart medicine in her bag.”