The Phantom Classmate

"On the last bus of the night during the Ghost Festival, I saw my ex-girlfriend who died in a car crash eight years ago."

"She's sitting to my right as I type this line on my phone…"

One

Do ghosts really exist? Everyone probably has their own answer.

The Ghost Festival, when a hundred ghosts walk the night and the living should keep their distance—it sounds like a ridiculous old wive's tale.

But if I could turn back time, I probably wouldn't have chosen to work so late on the night of the Ghost Festival.

And I wouldn't have boarded this very unusual Route 702 bus.

That night, I should have gotten off work early, but I unexpectedly got a call from a colleague asking for help. Not wanting to be difficult, I ended up working until midnight. Seeing it was almost 10 PM, I quickly grabbed my briefcase to catch the bus.

At the bus stop, there weren't many cars on the road. A few streetlights in the high-tech district were broken, and along the roadside were several basins left over from people burning paper money for the dead. Following the light of the basins, I peered toward the end of the road, but it was pitch black.

Suddenly, in the instant I looked down at my phone, the Route 702 bus appeared beside me like a phantom. Before I could react, the door creaked open.

If I remembered correctly, the normal operating hours for Route 702 ended at 8 PM… Maybe it was an extra run for the Ghost Festival? I wasn't sure. I groggily stepped onto the bus. The driver's face was sallow, his features indistinct. There weren't many passengers, most of them dozing in the front seats, their faces blank.

I found a seat near the rear door, took off my backpack, and placed it on my lap as a pillow, preparing to nap. Ever since that incident, I've suffered from severe insomnia and migraines.

In my sleep, I kept feeling a chill on the back of my neck, as if someone was leaning close and blowing cold air on me.

When I woke up, I saw a pair of eyes beside me, staring straight at me—eyes I was once so familiar with. For a moment, I felt a wild joy, followed by a bone-chilling fear.

That's right. It was my ex-girlfriend, Du Xin, who had died in that accident eight years ago.

Du Xin seemed to see through me. She placed a hand on my mouth, signaling me not to scream. She then grabbed my hand and asked, "Don't be afraid. Is it cold?"

Her palm was warm. I said it wasn't cold.

She stared at me and silently mouthed three words:

"Look behind you."

I glanced at the back row. Three people with faces as pale as paper were sitting there, having boarded at some unknown time, silently occupying the middle of the last row. Their clothes looked new and were exceptionally clean. So clean it was as if… they had never been worn by anyone. But their hair was greasy and shiny, as if it hadn't been washed in days.

She took out her phone, typed a line in her notes, and showed it to me.

"I was on the bus when you got on. Do you remember seeing those three people in the back row then?"

That question jolted me awake. I gently shook my head and couldn't help but look back again. Just then, a night breeze silently lifted their pant legs, and I saw they were all wearing the same style of old-fashioned, flat-soled Beijing cloth shoes.

What kind of people would wear such shoes on the night of the Ghost Festival?

At this point, I started to strategize how to handle the situation:

First possibility: all four of them are ghosts. I have to wake everyone on the bus and figure something out together.

Second possibility: the three in the back are ghosts, and my ex-girlfriend isn't really dead. I have to find a way to escape the bus with her.

Third, and worst, possibility: this is a ghost bus, a vehicle that shouldn't exist, filled with vengeful spirits. I have to find a way to jump off!

After thinking it over, I decided to pretend to follow her lead for now, my hand secretly fumbling in my pocket for something to defend myself with, waiting to see what would happen.

The bus moved slowly, the silence inside was terrifying. The passengers in the front were dozing, and those who were awake stared out the window, waiting to get home.

Then, from the back row, Du Xin suddenly grabbed my arm and stood up.

"It must have been you, you pervert! It was definitely you!"

The other passengers looked on, bewildered by this sudden spectacle.

I was completely baffled. "What on earth are you talking about?"

Du Xin's face was full of anger. "I was listening to music on my phone, and I felt a pig's hand on my butt."

"It's just the two of us back here. If it wasn't you, who could it be? A ghost?"

The three pale-faced people stiffly raised their heads to look over but said nothing.

I righteously pointed toward the back row. "I swear to God, everyone can see, I'm not the only one back here."

Eerily, none of the other passengers reacted to my words, as if they couldn't see what I was pointing at.

Du Xin snapped, "Don't try to fool me. It was you who just touched my butt, it had to be."

"The police station isn't far from here. We'll sort this out at the station!"

No matter what I said, she was relentless. The ticket conductor came over to mediate, but it was no use. She insisted on going to the police. The other passengers, annoyed, told us to just get off and go to the station. The driver let out two cold laughs and stomped on the brakes.

The bus slowly came to a stop, and we hurried off.

The bus started up again, continuing on its way.

After we got off, Du Xin released her tight grip on my hand and let out a long sigh of relief as she watched the bus drive away.

I was completely confused. "I didn't know there was a police station around here. And what was with those people?"

Du Xin took a deep breath. "Jiang Lai, do you know I just saved your life?"

"Didn't you notice how strange those last three people who got on were? I watched them closely and realized… they aren't human!"

"After they got on, maybe it was a coincidence, but the wind blew their long clothes up. Through the window's reflection, I saw they didn't have any legs."

Just as she finished speaking, a cold wind swept over me, and I shivered deeply.

"It's the 21st century. You're not trying to trick me, are you?"

Du Xin smiled faintly. "Why would I need to trick you? Didn't I get off the bus with you?"

I forced a laugh and pulled out my phone, which was looping the Core Socialist Values: "Prosperity, Democracy, Civility, Harmony…"

"It's okay even if you're tricking me," I said. "Even if it's a ghost, I'm just so happy to see you again."

Du Xin turned to look at me and smiled, her eyes curving like crescent moons in the moonlight. I had a million questions to ask her, and I steeled myself to keep up with her.

The night of the Ghost Festival was dark, the streetlights flickered, and occasionally a lost car would illuminate our faces. Every time this happened, I would turn to look at Du Xin. Her face had normal color under the light; nothing seemed wrong.

"You know how it is in school, right? Someone just disappears one day. Some say they transferred, some say they passed away. It doesn't really matter how, life just goes on for everyone else."

"I never thought I'd see you here. It's been so many years. You're probably married with kids now, right? In any case, I'm really happy I got to see you tonight."

"About seeing me, I hope you can keep it a secret. My father is having some business trouble, and I have to live under a different name. I hope you can promise me that."

I nodded numbly, staring into her beautiful amber eyes, trying to find a trace of the familiar love. The fear had subsided, replaced by a strange melancholy swirling in my mind.

Back then, she was the girl who clung to my arm like a koala every day. Now, she was politely walking a meter away from me, shoulder to shoulder.

We were once lovers in love, but after eight years apart, we were as courteous as strangers.

I thought of ancient warriors crawling back from piles of the dead on the battlefield, only to return home years later to find their wives had remarried. Fate really does like to play jokes on people.

Du Xin didn't seem to notice my mood. We had just reached a brightly lit intersection. She pointed in a direction.

"My home is just up ahead. Well then, until we meet again…"

Before I could agree, she had already started to jog, quickly disappearing into the shadows of the streetlights.

I watched her leave, feeling like something was vaguely wrong, but I couldn't put my finger on it…

Two

When I got home, somewhat dazed, my wife had already drawn a bath for me and prepared red wine and a late-night snack.

Because she's afraid of the dark, my wife always leaves all the lights on when I'm not home. The house was as bright as day, making me feel a bit disoriented.

Seeing my state, my wife couldn't help but tease, "Coming home so late, and looking like you've lost your soul. If I didn't know you so well, anyone would think you were having an affair."

I thought for a moment and decided to be honest with her.

"Do you remember Du Xin from college?"

My wife's face inexplicably darkened. "Of course, I remember. Your old flame. What? You came home so late because you went to the cemetery to see your old lover on the Ghost Festival?"

I waved my hand and downed the glass of red wine. "It sounds crazy, but I don't think she's dead. And she lives not far from my office. We ran into each other on the bus and chatted for a bit."

My wife, unconvinced, placed a hand on my forehead. "Are you running a fever from being out in the cold? Or have you been possessed by a ghost, you poor thing?"

Feeling the warmth of my wife's hand on my forehead, I inexplicably thought of the warmth of Du Xin's hand. That hand was soft and warm, not like a ghost's at all. What was going on? I couldn't figure it out.

I shook my head, deciding not to dwell on it. I quickly ate, showered, and went to bed. My wife said she had to clean the dishes and told me to sleep first. It was already past 1 AM, but I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

Why did that intersection feel so familiar? What was the reason?

I searched my memory carefully.

Minister Zhang? Yes, Minister Zhang! I went there last time because of a wedding or a funeral in his family!

A jolt of excitement went through me as I thought I'd found a clue to my ex's address, but it was immediately followed by a chill that crept up my spine.

Minister Zhang… a few months ago… he died of a cerebral hemorrhage, so…

I pulled out my phone and, based on memory, searched for the approximate location of that intersection. Sure enough, the place where Du Xin had disappeared, the place she said her home was, I had been there before—

Phoenix Mountain Crematorium.

In an instant, I felt a coldness crawl from the base of my spine toward my heart, like an icy hand sliding under my pajamas, determined to dig out my heart.

Just then, I heard my wife's hushed voice from outside. She seemed to be talking to someone.

Strange, there was no one else in the house. And it was past 1 AM. Who could she be talking to on the phone? A ghost?

I tiptoed to the door and peeked through the keyhole. I could only see my wife pacing back and forth, whispering into her phone.

I could catch snippets of the conversation:

"What do you want?"

"That's all in the past…"

"I don't have any more money. Please stop harassing us…"

Who was she talking to? Who was harassing us?

As I was thinking, the voice outside suddenly stopped, and the lights went out.

I looked through the keyhole again and suddenly found my view blocked.

It was an eye. A bloodshot eye. My wife's eye.

"AH!!!"

A scream pierced the silence. I immediately opened the door. My wife's phone was on the floor, and she was sitting there, terrified. I rushed to help her up.

"What are you doing? I heard a noise in the room and thought it was a burglar. What are you doing peeking through the keyhole in the middle of the night! I looked through and saw an eye staring at me, it scared me to death!"

I couldn't see anything unusual in my wife's expression and quickly apologized. "My fault, my fault. I heard a noise too and thought it was a burglar. Why were you on the phone outside without the lights on? I was wondering about that."

My wife was crying, out of breath, her chest rising and falling rhythmically. "I was afraid the light would disturb your sleep. And at this time of night, it was that life-sucking best friend of mine asking for money again. How many times have I turned her down? I can't believe she'd use a strange number to call me in the middle of the night. I'm going crazy."

Only then did I remember that my wife had a very close best friend from college. They used to travel together all the time. In recent years, it seemed her family's business had failed, and she was in debt. She would call my wife every few months to borrow money, which was a big headache for her.

It seemed I was just being overly anxious. I silently scolded myself. What could be wrong with the wife I'd spent all these years with?

With that thought, I coaxed my wife to bed. She fell asleep quickly, and soon I could hear her steady breathing beside me. But I tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

For some reason, my mind kept replaying the three strange people on the bus, my ex's face flickering in the headlights, and that bloodshot eye in the keyhole.

You see, a person's eyes show emotion. That eye looked cold and full of killing intent. Was it really my wife's eye?

Without realizing it, I felt as if someone had hit me on the back of the head with a wooden club, and I fell into a deep sleep.

In my dream, I saw my ex-girlfriend.

To be precise, it was the Du Xin from eight years ago, still the beautiful belle of the humanities department. She was wearing a school uniform, driving silently, half her face cloaked in shadow. I could hear soft sobs from time to time.

"Slow down, Xinxin. You've had too much to drink, slow down!" I murmured, half-asleep in the passenger seat.

The road was a mountain path, not in bad condition, leading to a scenic spot near our school. It was late at night, and the road was silent. The speedometer showed we were going over 140 km/h, but Du Xin showed no signs of slowing down. Her red high heels kept pressing on the accelerator, and the car let out a worrying roar.

The scenery outside blurred as it flew by. The car was losing control.

I tried to protest, but it was useless. She wasn't listening to anything.

"Slow down, are you crazy! We're all going to die if you keep this up!"

In that moment, I saw by the faint light of a distant streetlight that there was a fork in the road less than 100 meters ahead, with a concrete barrier waiting for us.

"Stop the car! You psycho!"

The moment the car hit, time seemed to stand still. I could see the concrete barrier deforming the front of the car, and I could see the whole car being crushed into a pile of scrap metal by an invisible giant hand.

A sharp signpost flew in through the window like a guillotine, heading straight for Du Xin's head!

With a massive impact, I lost consciousness again.

In the second before I blacked out, I saw Du Xin's face in the shadows. It was a terrifying face.

Half of Du Xin's face… the skin was completely gone, revealing raw, red flesh and stark white bone. It was an injury that could only have been caused by something shearing off half her face with immense force.

She looked at me with a faint, chilling smile and silently mouthed two words:

"Save me!"

Three

When I woke up, my wife had already left for work. She had thoughtfully left breakfast on the table for me—an omelet rice with a big heart drawn in ketchup.

But I had no appetite. My mind was filled with images of the car crash.

Why was she asking me for help? Why was she so sad in the dream? Was there something more to it?

"Save me"? Did she mean someone was trying to harm her? Or that she didn't want to die?

The thought sent a shiver down my spine. If this really wasn't a simple accident, then didn't I have a duty to find out the truth?

"I can't keep going on like this. I have to investigate that car crash from eight years ago!"

The incident itself wasn't complicated. Eight years ago, my ex-girlfriend and I went to a hot spring in the mountains near our school. We both drank too much and got into a car crash on the mountain road on the way back. The road curved around the mountain at a sharp one-hundred-and-twenty-degree angle, with a cliff over ten meters high below. Our car broke through the guardrail at the turn and plunged off the cliff. When I woke up later, the police told me my ex-girlfriend had died on impact, her body in a horrific state, while I had miraculously survived, but with a severe head injury that left me with chronic migraines.

The police wouldn't make a mistake about something as important as a death, would they? But I had definitely seen Du Xin just hours ago. The warmth of her hand still lingered on mine.

Taking a deep breath, I scrolled through my contacts and dialed a number that had long been dormant.

"Hello?" a lazy voice answered on the other end, sounding like he was smoking and eating instant noodles at the same time.

I suppressed my excitement. "It's me, Officer Huang. It's Jiang Lai! Do you remember? The car crash case from eight years ago, the one you were in charge of. You told me to contact you if I remembered any strange clues!"

"Yes. A pitiful young girl. Have you remembered any new clues?"

"Please listen to me calmly. Everything I'm about to say is true."

"Heh, you're looking down on me, kid. We're professionally trained. No matter how crazy your story is, I won't be surprised."

"It's like this… I… I saw my ex-girlfriend yesterday…"

After a moment of silence, I heard the sound of a cigarette butt falling into a bowl and being extinguished, followed by the sound of instant noodles spilling.

"Shit! Shit shit shit shit!"

"Meet me at the entrance of the police station in ten minutes. And make it quick!" Officer Huang's voice suddenly became magnetic and urgent, like a hungry wolf that had caught the scent of its prey.

Ten minutes later, I took a taxi to the Chunjiang Road Police Station. Before the taxi had even fully stopped, Officer Huang yanked the door open, grabbed me like a hawk snatching a chick, and dragged me towards a nearby park. I noticed a distinct stain on the crotch of his police uniform, clearly the result of the spilled noodles.

He led me to a gazebo in the park, first looking around, then carefully checking my pockets, confiscating my keys, wallet, and a piece of fruit candy that a restaurant had probably given me. He even took my phone and placed it on a bench at the other end of the gazebo.

I was confused. "What's… what's going on?"

Officer Huang gave me a "you're such an amateur" smile. "This is an eight-year-old cold case. Reopening it isn't simple. If there's really something more to this case, I can't guarantee you haven't been bugged. You'll understand once you've seen enough of this stuff."

"By the way, do you usually eat candy?"

"I never eat candy."

"That figures."

He bit into the candy, breaking it, and examined it carefully against the sunlight. The crack in the candy revealed a strange, metallic texture.

In that instant, the sunlight felt like countless short swords stabbing at me. I felt a prickling on my back.

Even though I was an amateur, I could see it clearly now. Inside that piece of candy was a tiny listening device!

Four

Officer Huang seemed pleased with my reaction. He lit a cigarette and gestured towards my phone. "Don't be surprised. You said on the phone you saw someone who's been dead for eight years. That means this old case could be upgraded from an accident to a homicide. It's normal for the mastermind hiding in the shadows to want to know the next move of a key pawn like you."

He gazed into the distance, his eyes piercing through the air towards the other side of the city, as if he were locking eyes with someone in the darkness.

"So? Any ideas about this little gadget in the candy, Jiang?"

I shook my head. My mind was a mess. Du Xin's face flickered in and out of focus, but I had no clue. Who would plant a bug on me? I was just an ordinary state-owned enterprise clerk with a monthly salary of eight thousand, commuting by bus every day. Other than my ex-girlfriend dying eight years ago, there was nothing special about me.

And she was asking for my help in my dream, but I couldn't do anything? What have I been doing for the past eight years? Why am I even alive?

A sense of dejection washed over me. I shook my head. "To be honest, these years haven't been easy for me either. Migraines and insomnia have been a constant struggle. And whenever I try to think about the crash, it's like my mind is covered in a thick fog. I can't remember anything, as if… as if a tape has been cut…"

"Post-traumatic stress disorder."

Officer Huang made his diagnosis based on my behavior and expression. "Your situation, Jiang, is typical for someone who has experienced or witnessed an extremely terrifying event or severe trauma. It can manifest as emotional numbness, slow reactions, and some people remain in a state of terror for a long time, uncontrollably replaying scenes and content related to the trauma. In severe cases, it can lead to depression, even suicidal tendencies."

He pulled up my left sleeve, and with his little finger, gently pushed my watch band aside. A horrifying row of scars was revealed underneath.

I had attempted suicide? But I really couldn't remember any of it.

"It must have been hard for you all these years…"

Officer Huang dropped his playful demeanor, sighed, and tossed me a yellowed file folder. "Take a look. This is the case file from the car crash eight years ago."

I excitedly opened the folder, my fingers trembling. The clues from eight years ago were inside. Clues to the mystery of my ex-girlfriend's resurrection!

The file contained detailed materials and numerous photos from the scene. The photos of Du Xin's body had probably been removed out of consideration for my feelings, but I could still see the horrific intensity of the crash from the wrecked car and the blood-soaked ground.

Officer Huang rested a hand on my shoulder and began to speak slowly. "Car crashes are usually accidents. It's rare for them to be premeditated murders. That's the experience I've gained from investigating accident scenes for many years."

"A moving vehicle is highly variable, making it very difficult to orchestrate a murder. You'd have to calculate all sorts of possibilities."

"And murders involving car crashes usually involve another vehicle. That is, using one car to intentionally hit another."

Officer Huang paused, as if reminiscing or questioning himself. "But according to our investigation, there were no signs of a collision on the road, and no paint scratches from another vehicle on the exterior of the car."

He continued, twisting the knife. "And the surveillance cameras at both ends of that mountain road didn't capture any other vehicles entering or exiting within thirty minutes before or after you."

"In short, it was a locked-room mystery on a mountain road. If there was a murderer, it could only have been a real ghost coming to claim a life!"

He took the cigarette from his mouth and tapped one of the photos with the lit end. "However, when we inspected the scene back then, we did find the brake marks to be a bit strange."

I looked at the photo he was pointing at. It showed the bend where Du Xin's car had gone over, just before the shattered guardrail. There was a very clear set of brake marks.

What was wrong with it? What was it?

I suddenly realized the problem: The brake marks were curved, in a serpentine pattern!

Normally, when a car approaches a bend, the driver steers into the curve. In an impending accident, the driver would instinctively slam on the brakes, creating brake marks. But a driver's steering wouldn't create a serpentine pattern; it would follow the curve inward.

Therefore, normal brake marks should extend into the curve, not snake outwards.

Unless… she did it on purpose? Or the steering failed?

A cold sweat broke out on my forehead. The more likely possibility was that she was struggling with something, and in the process of making a choice, she took me down the cliff with her!

Officer Huang, probably thinking I was daydreaming, tapped another corner of the photo with his cigarette. Only then did I notice the detail he wanted me to see:

Shoe prints! There were shoe prints on the ground!

"There are some between the two tire tracks, not very clear, but the shoe prints next to the tracks are very obvious."

The brake marks on the road extended all the way to the guardrail, but less than 40cm from the tracks, there was a faint shoe print.

The print was faint, like that of a common old Beijing cloth shoe.

This meant that, unseen by any surveillance camera, someone was standing on the bend, silently watching us brush past and plunge off the cliff.

This was the biggest mystery of the case. The car was going at least 140 km/h, it was night, and there were no streetlights. Who would leave a shoe print right next to where the car went off?

I closed my eyes, as if making a decision, then snapped them open. "Is there an autopsy report for Du Xin? I need to see the autopsy report!"

Officer Huang shook his head. "The deceased's family was very emotional at the time, and I heard they had a lot of influence. Our chief didn't dare to provoke them. And they probably wanted to avoid affecting their business, so after reviewing the surveillance, they had the body cremated and closed the case."

"So we don't actually know if the person who died was really my girlfriend, do we?"

This time, Officer Huang nodded. "A girl definitely died, that's for sure. But her identity couldn't be confirmed because the crash was so severe. That's the situation."

Unresolved? I gave a bitter smile. My girlfriend died an unresolved death?

For some reason, I suddenly felt a surge of strength. I summoned my courage. "Officer Huang, I have a bold request. I don't know why my girlfriend came back to find me, but I need your help. Let's find out the truth of this case together, okay?"

This time, Officer Huang didn't speak. He just stood there, frowning. After a long pause, he finally spoke slowly. "I'm sorry, investigating a closed case privately is against the rules. If it's serious, I could lose my job."

Just as I was feeling disappointed and about to turn away, I saw a police cap fly past my shoulder. It landed right next to my phone.

"But… my full name is Huang Shaotian. And right now, I'm just an old buddy of yours, eating and hanging out. From now on, you can just call me Old Huang."

I turned to look at my new partner.

Old Huang smiled, a smile like that of a wild, fearless child.

Five

After organizing the materials we had, Old Huang and I quickly clarified the current situation.

"Right now, there are at least two people in the shadows. One wants you to investigate this cold case by orchestrating the encounter with the 'ghost'."

I nodded. "And the other one, who put the bug in my pocket, knows the truth and wants to stop me from investigating."

"So, regardless of their motives, their next target will definitely be…" "To destroy or protect the existing evidence."

"Like Voldemort protecting his Horcruxes. For example… the last person at your university who saw you and Du Xin, the case file from the crash, and the last and most important Horcrux is…"

I gave a bitter smile and tapped my temple. "Me, the sole survivor. The lost memory inside this unlucky amnesiac's head."

There was no time to waste. Old Huang and I immediately split up. He went to the university to track down leads on the informant, while I headed to Phoenix Mountain Crematorium to find the 'ghost'. I had just realized while looking at the case file that the mountain where we crashed was Phoenix Mountain. And at the foot of Phoenix Mountain, there was a huge cemetery.

No matter why Du Xin appeared, she must have been trying to guide me somewhere. I believed her hint wasn't just a random act. I was so insistent because I knew that memory must be sealed somewhere in my mind. Once I found the key to unlock it, the truth would be revealed!

Half an hour later, I arrived at Phoenix Mountain Crematorium. It was a weekday morning, and besides the staff, there were no other people, only a rather unlucky-looking black cat lazing on the steps, basking in the sun.

"Can I help you?" The old man on duty looked drowsy, not really paying attention, asking without even lifting his eyelids.

"I'm looking for someone. Do you have a register here?"

The old man chuckled at my words. "Looking for someone? Hehehe, young man, there are no living people here, only people buried in the ground."

I nodded. "Yes, I'm looking for someone in the ground. Could you let me see your cemetery register?"

I made a pleading gesture, using my body to block the view of the camera behind me, and a few hundred-yuan bills slipped from my fingers onto the old man's chest. He froze for half a second, then quickly tucked the money under the counter. The old man knew the drill. He immediately stretched, yawned, and pulled a yellowed register from under the desk, pushing it towards me.

I didn't have time for thanks and quickly took the register and began to search. Rows of names of the deceased flew past my eyes. Time rewound at my fingertips, getting closer and closer, my heart beating faster and faster.

Finally, my finger stopped on a page. It stopped on that name I was once so intimate with.

She was dead. She was really dead!

I didn't have time to grieve. After noting the coordinates of the grave, I took off running, leaving the stunned old man behind. "That kid… his soul has flown away. Looks like his sweetheart died…"

I ran through the muddy mountain path, crossed a ditch, and ahead was a dense cluster of tombstones—the cemetery where Du Xin was buried. I didn't stop, weaving through the rows of graves, muttering the words Du Xin had said when she left:

"My home is just up ahead. Well then, until we meet again…"

"My home is just up ahead…"

"Up ahead…"

I ran until I saw a familiar photo on a tombstone to my left. In that instant, I felt dazed. My chest felt like it was clogged with something thick.

"Grave of Beloved Daughter Du Xin"

"Erected in sorrow by Father Du Wenzheng and Mother Song Mengqin"

I stood before the tombstone, looking at that familiar face, unable to speak. A switch flipped in my brain, something surfaced in my mind, and tears streamed down my face.

The moment a loved one passes away usually doesn't bring sadness. What truly brings you grief is opening the refrigerator and seeing the half-full carton of milk, the green plant swaying in the breeze on the windowsill, the soft blanket folded neatly on the bed, and the rumbling of the washing machine in the middle of the night.

Just then, an unfriendly voice came from behind me. "Jiang, what are you doing here?"

Before I could turn, a hand pushed me from behind, and my forehead slammed hard against Du Xin's tombstone.

THUD!

My forehead split open, bleeding.

"What right do you have to be here? Do you deserve it? She's dead, dead! And you're living a good life, married to a rich girl. What are you doing here, pretending to be sad? You're not needed here!"

I finally got a clear look at him. Eight years had passed, but it was him—the class president from college, Xu Peng. Strictly speaking, he was Du Xin's childhood friend and had a crush on her for years. He had even given up going abroad to stay at this university, supposedly for Du Xin. But Du Xin hadn't chosen the handsome basketball player; she had chosen me, who many saw as ordinary. After Du Xin's death, he reportedly dropped out and moved to another city. I never expected to run into him here.

I glanced back at the blood on the tombstone. It was trickling down Du Xin's forehead, my blood staining her memorial photo into a terrifying death mask. I reached out to wipe it, but the more I wiped, the dirtier and darker it got. My blood wasn't red, but a dark, almost blackish-red. Under my smearing, Du Xin's face became even more horrifying.

Why?

Why, why, why?

A sudden rage surged within me. I shot up and shoved him hard.

Xu Peng hadn't expected me to be so crazed. He staggered back a few steps and fell, his head hitting another tombstone. He was completely stunned.

I grabbed his collar, staring at him intently.

"What? You want to fight? You want to fight in front of her?"

He saw the demonic look on my face and panicked, shouting, "Are you crazy? You dare to hit me? You think you can kill me?"

Xu Peng threw my hand off and scrambled back a few steps on the ground, looking like he wanted to get up and fight back.

"Yes, that's right. I'm going to kill you!"

I roared and lunged at Xu Peng. He swung his fists wildly. I didn't dodge, just closed the distance. The next second, I had him by the throat. I grabbed a nearby incense burner and said coldly, "Guess if you'll survive today."

Six

THUD! THUD! THUD!

The dull, heavy sound of a blunt object hitting human flesh echoed through the warm, damp cemetery. One by one, I smashed the incense burner onto Xu Peng's hands and arms as he shielded his face. I avoided vital spots, but I was hysterical. After a dozen blows, seeing he was just cowering and trembling, I lost interest, dropped the incense burner, and stood up.

"In front of her? That's her tombstone. I don't know if I deserve to be here, but you certainly don't!" I spat at Xu Peng.

"I… I didn't mean to…" Xu Peng, seeing the blood on Du Xin's tombstone, knew he had crossed a line. He stopped resisting, got up, and scurried away.

I didn't chase him. I let him run. Although he started it and there were no cameras here, if we went to the police, it would be ruled a mutual fight. I needed time to investigate the case, not get tangled up in this. Besides, he was just another pitiful soul living in the shadow of Du Xin's death.

What was wrong with me? I patted my face, feeling like a stranger. Was that terrifying reaction really me? It felt less like anger over the desecrated tombstone and more like a vent for all my unresolved confusion and frustration.

I went back to the tombstone to look for clues. This time, I noticed the incense burner and the chrysanthemums placed before it. There were two bouquets. One was older, soaked and wilted from the rain. The other was still dry, its golden stamens gleaming. I remembered it had rained lightly on the day of the Ghost Festival.

The first bouquet was undoubtedly from Du Xin's parents. Xu Peng had come after me, and he was also carrying flowers, so it wasn't him.

My eyes narrowed.

The second bouquet was left by her—the ghost!

I carefully pulled out the bouquet and shook it. A key and a hair clip fell out. The key looked newly cut, with fresh brass filings still on it, no engravings or bloodstains—nothing to go on. But I recognized the hair clip instantly.

The Monchhichi's smiling face looked somewhat sad now. It was the hair clip Du Xin was wearing the night of the accident.

That moment I saw Du Xin's tombstone, I had remembered some things from the past. Not much, but crucial.

In college, Du Xin and I were deeply in love. Our relationship was great, and we had promised to get married after graduation. There were two discordant factors:

One was Du Xin's father, Du Wenzheng. He was a famous local tycoon, worth over a hundred million, and naturally looked down on an ordinary young man like me. But Du Xin comforted me, patting her chest and saying we could just have a shotgun wedding if worst came to worst, and I shouldn't worry. I rolled my eyes at her and didn't respond. Of course, I would never put her in such a difficult position.

The other factor was her inseparable best friend. The friend herself was gentle and polite; we'd even had dinner a few times. But she would always whisper poison in Du Xin's ear behind my back, badmouthing me and telling Du Xin to leave me. She said I looked gentle, but deep down, I was a violent maniac. She said this because she had once seen me, on her way back to the dorm after a late-night study session, straddling a nearly unconscious boy under a streetlight and punching him a good twenty times. Although the school administration later clarified that the boy had been drunk and was abusing his own girlfriend with a bottle, and I was actually acting heroically, she stuck to her opinion. She said she thought my expression at the time was one of pure enjoyment. Du Xin didn't understand why she was so insistent, but she was a close friend and didn't want to make things awkward, so she just let her spread rumors and would occasionally joke about it with me.

Sometime later, that friend disappeared. I don't know if she transferred or what. It's strange, people who crossed me often disappeared. It's been like that since I was a kid, like some kind of curse. The brat who bullied me, the high school thugs, the perverted teacher who liked to grope my female deskmate. They would just suddenly transfer or disappear after a while.

During that period, to prove I didn't have violent tendencies, I quit the taekwondo club, gave up smoking and drinking, cut my long hair, and diligently attended classes. But I still received the breakup text that day.

"I'm sorry, I don't think we're right for each other. Come to Phoenix Mountain Hot Spring Villa at 8 PM tonight. Let's part on good terms."

The night Du Xin broke up with me, she asked me to drive to the hot spring on the mountain. We both drank a lot, drinking and crying, crying and drinking.

I remember I might have driven the car. I remember the car hitting something.

When I woke up, I was in the hospital.

There were three mysteries here:

1. If she had decided to break up and drink, why did Du Xin insist I drive to a hot spring villa on a mountain road at night?
2. From the scene photos and the position of the body, Du Xin was driving. But why do I remember driving?
3. If Du Xin was truly and completely dead, then who was that ghost who looked exactly like her?

As I was thinking, my phone rang. It was Old Huang.

"Hey, Jiang, you need to get over to the university district. Something's happened."

"What is it?"

"Do you remember the counselor from your class back then? She was the last person to see both you and Du Xin."

"That's great! Stop her, I'm on my way…"

Old Huang's voice was laced with confusion. "She's missing. She's been missing for three days!"

Seven

When I rushed to the university district, Old Huang was hunched over a notice board next to the School of Economics and Management's administrative office, carefully comparing class schedules. He had changed into casual clothes, having clearly skipped work like me. He was wearing a grimy-looking pullover that hadn't been washed in who knows how long, looking just like a messy college student.

"Look, Jiang. According to the schedule, she should have had a mental health class for econ students at 3 PM the day before yesterday. Yesterday she had no classes, and today at 9 AM was her second class."

"Old Huang, what can you tell from this?" I asked, confused.

"You don't get it. I asked her colleagues. She called on Sunday night, said she had a family emergency and took leave…"

A bad feeling started to form in my mind.

"Then I pretended to be from the household registration office and called her family. They said she told them on Sunday night she had urgent work business and rushed out, and she hasn't been back since…"

I understood instantly. "Someone arranged to meet her on Sunday night, and they used the incident from back then as leverage."

Old Huang nodded. "I can even guess the content of the call. Don't tell anyone, request leave, change your classes, meet me somewhere right now. She never thought that if it was just a simple meeting, why would she need to take three days off? This is getting really complicated, Jiang. The situation isn't optimistic…"

On the way to the next scene, Old Huang made a lot of calls. From the sound of it, he was using his personal connections to check surveillance and look for a missing person. I couldn't help much at the moment, so I shrank into the passenger seat and got lost in my memories.

The missing counselor, Ye Lili, was technically a senior three years ahead of us and also our school's psychological counselor. She was smart, beautiful, gentle, and very popular with the students. When Du Xin and I were dating, she was the go-to counselor. Everyone was willing to confide in her, including Du Xin and me. Whenever we had a fight, she would be the one to mediate.

"You're both still young. A lot of the time, you don't know how precious the other person is," she would always say gently, her voice full of comforting power. "Sometimes, when you love someone too much, couples use little strategies to test if the other person still loves them. This kind of testing can easily lead to misunderstandings and suspicion. If you love each other, just say it out loud."

"Teacher, teacher, I'm reporting him! He never says it! I say it dozens of times a day, on the phone, on WeChat, and he never says it back, not once. He's a bad person!" Du Xin would complain to Ye Lili, and the two women would burst into laughter, leaving me speechless.

I remembered that on the last day, before going up the mountain, I had indeed gone to see her once and told her about Du Xin wanting to break up. She was silent for a few seconds and then said something that sounded very profound:

"Don't deliberately dodge what fate gives you. Don't deliberately try to get back what fate makes you lose."

After saying that, she stared at me for a short while, as if looking at a stranger, lost in thought. For a moment, I felt she wasn't looking at me, but at the junction of my face and neck. It was a strange gaze that made my skin crawl.

But now she was missing too… like smoke. People who got close to me always met with misfortune. Anyone connected to this case would meet with misfortune…

Coming back to my senses, I felt a bit thirsty. I pulled down the sun visor, wanting to use the vanity mirror to see my own ghostly appearance. I didn't expect that as soon as I opened it, a small photo of a girl would slide out, startling me.

The little girl in the photo had dark eyes, just like Du Xin's, like two deep wells. The girl wasn't smiling; she was looking straight at the camera, and her features faintly resembled Old Huang's.

"Damn it, so that's where it was. I've been looking for this at home for days. Give it back!" Old Huang snatched the photo while driving and clumsily stuffed it into his pocket.

I didn't know what to say because I noticed the photo was in black and white. It… it seemed to be a memorial photo…

Old Huang seemed to sense my mood and, to break the awkward silence, started talking. "I've been running around all these years, no time to take care of my family. The only one I couldn't let go of was this precious daughter of mine."

"It's been about ten years. I was in my prime back then. Don't look at me now, but I was a top investigator in the criminal investigation department. Worked day and night, ate instant noodles when I was hungry, slept in the office when I was tired. What can you do? Ordinary folks like us with no connections, we can only rely on ourselves to climb up, right, Jiang?"

"I solved several major cases in the city back then, all second-class merits. Besides not having enough seniority, I was close to becoming a captain."

"I know my wife didn't understand me. Nobody understood me. But Doudou said she wanted to study abroad, and that costs money. With our income, how could we afford it if I didn't climb up?"

"But then, after I finished a serial robbery case, I hadn't been home for a month. The moment I got back, I saw Doudou's… Doudou's memorial tablet… placed in the living room."

Old Huang's eyes turned red, and he took a long drag from his cigarette. "My colleagues said she was hit by a bunch of young thugs on motorcycles on her way home from school. She wasn't breathing at the scene… Damn those fucking bastards!"

"But in my heart, I knew it couldn't have been an accident. How could it be an accident? I had just put their gang leader in jail for life last year. But I couldn't say it, and I couldn't take the case. I had no evidence, and my superiors were afraid I'd get emotional."

"Later, my wife divorced me, and I became this wreck you see today. For ten years, I've been chasing the truth of this matter. I've never given up."

Old Huang spoke in fits and starts, as if pouring out a lifetime of words. Investigating Ye Lili's leads would take time, so we found a roadside food stall and continued talking while we ate. Old Huang said that when he first saw Du Xin's case, he felt a special connection, reminded of his own daughter. He felt it was strange that such a young girl should die so unclearly.

"It's an old detective's intuition, like a hunter smelling his prey. We can smell the hidden stench of blood beneath the corpse, tell which cases are accidents and which are murders."

I asked, "So what did you smell in Du Xin's case?"

Old Huang frowned. "A very dangerous smell. Dark and hidden. Whatever it was, it was definitely not an accident."

I drank glass after glass of liquor by myself. Old Huang said he had to drive and just ate peanuts while watching me. That old bastard was drinking fresh orange juice. My wife called in the middle of it, asking when I'd be home, saying she'd made a big meal. I told her I had to work overtime and brushed it off. Right now, I couldn't trust anyone. That was my gut feeling. And I was worried about dragging my wife into this nameless whirlpool. I couldn't afford any more losses.

When I regained consciousness, I was back on that mountain road from eight years ago. The scenery outside was flying by in the darkness. The speedometer showed we were going 140 km/h on a road with a speed limit of 60…

"Old Huang, Old Huang, are you crazy?"

Old Huang didn't answer, just kept driving silently, the car's interior lights off, the tip of his cigarette glowing in the dark. He didn't speak, but in that instant, I understood his intention. The sharp bend on the dark Phoenix Mountain road, a speed of 140 km/h, and me, the sole, intoxicated witness. He wanted to recreate the scene from eight years ago to see what really happened in that car.

At most, one kilometer ahead was that sharp bend!

"Old Huang, stop, someone's really going to die!"

"Old Huang, stop, I'm begging you!"

"Stop!"

As if a hidden switch had been flipped, I suddenly pounced from the passenger seat like a leopard and started grabbing for the steering wheel. The car began to swerve violently at high speed, like a drunkard.

It was moving in a serpentine pattern.

300 meters!

Old Huang slapped me across the face, making me see stars.

200 meters!

I stomped on Old Huang's foot, trying to force the brake.

100 meters!

Old Huang used a reverse grip to grab my left arm, trying to pin me to the seat.

50 meters!

I became ferocious, grabbing Old Huang by the neck, half-pressing him down while frantically braking.

10 meters!

5 meters!

2 meters!

At the last moment, Old Huang's car successfully stopped less than two meters from the cliff's edge. The two of us madmen gasped for air inside the car, not knowing whether to celebrate being alive or regret not going over.

"The serpentine brake marks. I think you understand how they were made now, Jiang."

When I looked up, my face was streaked with tears.

I remembered. I remembered everything!

Du Xin's eyes were dark, like deep wells. I used to joke that she was a girl I could never see through.

But the Du Xin I met on the Ghost Festival, the one whose palm was warm, the one who saved me from the bus… her pupils were amber.

Eight

A person's appearance can change, their voice can change, but their eyes cannot. Du Xin's eyes were a bottomless black, full of laughter when she looked at me. The ghost's eyes were a light, amber brown. Her smile was there, but her gaze was cold.

In that moment, I finally remembered who those eyes truly belonged to. But why? How did she become Du Xin? Hadn't she disappeared? And if she wasn't Du Xin, then the real Du Xin must have…

A dull ache started in my chest.

Old Huang quickly asked, "Jiang, do you know who the ghost is?"

I nodded weakly. "She's not Du Xin. Du Xin must have… she must have…"

I reached into my pocket, fumbled for something, and clenched it in my fist. I knew how they did it now. "Old Huang, let's watch that surveillance footage from eight years ago one more time."

Old Huang quickly pulled up the video on his phone. In the darkness, Du Xin's car sped by, a white streak of light on the mountain road. "We've watched this video several times before. We didn't find anything wrong."

I asked calmly, "Old Huang, think carefully. In the video, we appeared at the downhill camera at 11:50, right? At a speed of 140 km/h, which is 38.9 meters per second."

"That's right!"

"It's five kilometers from the camera to the crash site. But according to your on-site investigation and the damage to the parts, our estimated crash time was 12:02."

Old Huang finally understood. There was a gap of at least eight minutes! How could it take twelve minutes to travel five kilometers on an empty mountain road?

Unless… we stopped the car midway and swapped people!

"But then the question is, who could stop a car traveling at high speed on a deserted road at night and pull off a switcheroo?" Old Huang pointed at the camera footage, rewound it a few seconds, and paused. Although it was a bit blurry, you could clearly see Du Xin driving, and me asleep in the passenger seat. It was definitely Du Xin.

I slowly opened my hand. A Monchhichi hair clip lay quietly in my palm. This was the hair clip I had given Du Xin, the one the ghost had hidden at Du Xin's grave. And in the video, the so-called "Du Xin" wasn't wearing any accessories on her head.

"It wasn't that someone was swapped out. It was that the person I met at the villa… was a fake Du Xin from the very beginning."

I closed my eyes in pain. There was no ghost. The evil in this world has always been the human heart—those who harm others and fear the law.

Old Huang suddenly asked quietly, "Those shoe prints, do you know who left them? It couldn't have been a ghost, right?"

We both knew the answer in our hearts. Obviously not. The fake Du Xin wasn't alone. She had an accomplice. That accomplice was the one who met her at the bend, the one who left the shoe prints. The reason the 'ghost' had been guiding us to investigate the case was because she and that person had had an irreconcilable conflict.

I closed my eyes. In the depths of my memory, I felt a gentle gaze watching me across the river of time. A gentle gaze that seemed to want to peel back my skin and see my true face. I took a deep breath, putting myself back in that state.

In a trance, I saw a blurry figure approaching from the distance. The small figure carried a terrifying killing intent. She was the one who killed Du Xin.

The killer stood before me. Her face was originally a blank slate, then her features slowly emerged, becoming clearer and clearer… it was a face I was all too familiar with.

It was that person's face.

That vague hint echoed in my mind again:

"Don't deliberately dodge what fate gives you. Don't deliberately try to get back what fate makes you lose."

I snapped my eyes open. "Old Huang, let's go. Let's uncover the final piece of the puzzle."

An hour later, we returned to the deserted university teaching building. In front of a somewhat dilapidated psychological counseling office on the top floor, I fumbled for the last prop the 'ghost' had left me—the copied key.

I inserted it into the lock and turned. The door opened with a click.

I rummaged through a cabinet, and in a row of files in the deepest part, I found what I was looking for. That's right. The 'ghost' had led me to find the psychological counseling records left by Ye Lili.

Her own psychological counseling records.

The following was written on September 28, 2008. It was Zhong Yun's last counseling record:

Today, I finally see this filthy world for what it is. Everyone lives selfishly and cruelly. Just because I badmouthed her boyfriend to her face, her little clique has to exclude me, drive me out? They spread rumors everywhere, incite other students to shun me, humiliate me, mock me, treat me like a dog. They corner me in the bathroom, force me to kneel, slap me. They claim they're doing it for Du Xin's sake. But I know they're trying to please her by torturing me, to win her favor. Between them and me, who is more like a dog?

And the originator of all this, Xinxin. This is the last time I will call you Xinxin. Do you know how much I envy you? You have such a good family, such a delicate face, such a good boyfriend. I envy everything about you. I have always been by your side, protecting you, afraid you would be wronged in the slightest. Why can't you just give me a way to live?

Before today, I didn't truly hate you. All I had was grievance. But yesterday, under Teacher Ye's guidance, I finally saw you for who you really are. Teacher Ye told me you knew what they were doing to me all along, but you still pretended nothing was happening, letting everyone continue to misunderstand and humiliate me. Where is your conscience?

Du Xin, your ugliest side of humanity has made me completely despair. If even my best friend is like this, what is the point of living such a filthy life? I've made up my mind. You filthy people have made my decision for me. I hate you. I will become a vengeful spirit and curse you. Du Xin, my ghost will haunt you forever, so that you will never know peace in this life!

The record ended with a note in a different pen, Ye Lili's elegant handwriting:

"The student is extremely unstable due to massive external stimuli, showing signs of paranoid schizophrenia, with strong aggressive and self-destructive tendencies. Multiple suicide attempts have been unsuccessful."

The small line of text below was even more shocking:

"To better help her resolve her symptoms, I must assist her in clearing out the source of the external stimuli!"

Nine

Old Huang sighed and slammed the counseling record on the table in frustration, as if he had a lot of pent-up anger. "Do you get it now? These people who study psychology, they're like giant trash cans, accumulating too much negative emotion. They're the ones most likely to go crazy themselves!"

I was also a bit confused. This was far beyond my expectations. How could Teacher Ye be a bad person? And wasn't Zhong Yun Du Xin's best friend? What had really happened?

"According to this record, Zhong Yun must have gotten plastic surgery to look like Du Xin after being bullied. And the reason she did it seems to be because she was incited by Teacher Ye. As for why Teacher Ye would do that, I have no idea…"

I felt that this wasn't over yet. Teacher Ye and Du Xin had a good relationship; there must be something else behind this. I vaguely felt that besides the known clues, there was a hidden thread we had overlooked, but I couldn't figure it out for the moment. What could it be?

As we were looking through the records, we heard the faint sound of a scuffle from the rooftop.

Old Huang and I exchanged a look. "Go!"

Old Huang took three steps at a time out the door. I was half a step behind, quietly taking the next few of Zhong Yun's records and stuffing them into my inner pocket.

The rooftop door was locked with a thick iron chain. The sounds of fighting grew more intense, and a tragic scream spiraled into the night sky. Old Huang kicked the door a few times to no avail, then went back to the hallway, put on his leather gloves, smashed the fire extinguisher case with one punch, pulled out the fire axe, and came back.

"Where's your gun, Old Huang?"

"Shit! You watch too much TV. You need a leader's approval to carry a gun…"

Old Huang spat into his palms, raised the axe over his head, and swung it in a full arc.

CLANG!

The chain snapped.

By the time we reached the rooftop, one after the other, the fight was over. Ye Lili's face was covered in cuts from some weapon, and she was barely breathing. Both women were now standing on the outside of the ledge. Zhong Yun was holding onto Ye Lili with one hand and the railing with the other, staring at us fiercely.

"Don't come any closer! Drop the axe!"

Her bloodshot pupils reminded me of the eyes I saw on the night of the Ghost Festival!

Old Huang laughed contemptuously, tossed the axe aside, raised his hands to his chest, and then slowly walked towards them, taunting as he went. "Zhong Yun, oh, Zhong Yun. What the hell are you doing? Teacher Ye was protecting you, and you want to kill her? You kidnapped her? How pathetic can you be?"

Zhong Yun clearly hadn't expected us to find her here. Her eyes bypassed Old Huang and stared straight at me. "You don't need to tell me if she's innocent or not. As for you two, you're just a couple of dogs raised by Du Xin. Now that your master is dead, I want all of you to go down and keep her company!"

Hearing this, my anger flared up too. "Zhong Yun, can you stop blaming everyone else for everything? If someone bullied you, you fight back. If you can't win, you can call the police! If this started because of me, then come at me! What was the point of killing Du Xin? Some great sisterly love? People like you who kill but don't have the guts to kill themselves are the ones who deserve to go to hell!"

Zhong Yun seemed to completely lose control at these words. The utility knife in her hand began to swing wildly, slashing at Ye Lili's arms and hands, blood splattering, even leaving two terrifying cuts on her own beautiful face.

I was suddenly at a loss for words. Under the moonlight, that was still Du Xin's face. This might be the last time I ever saw it.

"Hehe, does it hurt your heart? Do you like this face? Does it hurt? Hehehehehe~"

"So satisfying, so satisfying…" Zhong Yun's throat convulsed as she swallowed. She looked like Du Xin possessed by a demon, her body hunched over like an old monkey, her face terrifying, fresh blood streaming down, carving two bloody tear tracks.

"She was your best friend, but you killed her in the most brutal way. Do you know how miserably she died?" I stared at her. "Good riddance, hehe, good riddance…" Zhong Yun was unmoved.

While we were talking, Old Huang, like a black cat, had moved to within ten meters of the two of them. Old Huang's face was grave, but his eyes held an inexplicable excitement. For an old detective, this was already within range!

Just then, Ye Lili suddenly broke free from Zhong Yun's grip and shouted, "Don't come over, Officer Huang, she has a gun!"

Hearing this, both Old Huang and I panicked. Looking closely, we saw a nail gun tucked into Zhong Yun's waistband, which had already silently slipped into her hand.

"You psycho!!! You want to kill me, don't you!!! Come on!!!" I reacted before Old Huang, roaring as I charged forward. At that distance, it was too late for Old Huang to dodge.

I had to gamble. I had to bet that my life was a more tempting target than Old Huang's. This was my fate. I couldn't let more people die because of me.

Sure enough, in that instant, Zhong Yun turned the gun and aimed at me. In the darkness, I couldn't see the nail, only her finger pressing the trigger.

In an instant, it felt like my right lower abdomen was hit by a block of ice. I reached down and touched it. It was wet. So much blood, so, so much blood…

An uneasy signal shot from my spine to my brain. Was I going to die?

By now, Old Huang had reached the railing. Before Zhong Yun could fire a second shot, he punched her in the jaw. Zhong Yun staggered, lost her footing, and fell backward. Her face was a mask of disbelief, as if she couldn't believe her fate would end like this.

That was the first time I heard the real sound of someone falling from a building. In movies, it's always someone screaming as they fall through the air, followed by a dull thud. But a real fall, if I were to describe it, sounds like this: first, the heavy "thump" of something hitting the ground; then, the sound of something soft and wet, like a water-filled rubber bag hitting the ground, "splat."

Thinking about it, it makes sense. The human body weighs dozens of kilograms and has hard bones. The tissues around the bones are mostly water; forty percent of human cells are water. First a thump, then the sound of water splashing everywhere.

Zhong Yun lay quietly on the ground, a spray of blood and brain matter beneath her head and body, more fluids gushing out, her life extinguished in an instant.

Ye Lili was trying to climb back over the railing. Old Huang stopped her with one hand, narrowed his eyes, and revealed a terrifying smile. "Teacher Ye, let me ask you a question first."

Old Huang spoke word by word, his tone decisive. "How did you know my last name was Huang?"

"The bug on Jiang Lai was planted by Zhong Yun on your orders, wasn't it? It completely exposed you. I think I've made myself clear enough. Teacher Ye, you have no more lies to tell."

Ye Lili was stunned for a moment, her expression changing rapidly. Her eyes became strange. She beckoned to Old Huang. "Officer Huang, you really want to know how Du Xin died, don't you? Come here, I only want to tell you." Old Huang leaned in close to her ear. Ye Lili suddenly opened her mouth wide and lunged to bite him. Old Huang reacted quickly. Seeing her strange movement in his peripheral vision, he dodged. Ye Lili suddenly became incredibly ferocious. "Hahahaha, I killed them all, I killed them all! They were all bad children! I'm going to kill you too, hahaha!"

Old Huang licked his lips and made a move I couldn't comprehend. He punched Ye Lili in the neck. Ye Lili froze, her hand loosened, and she fell too.

THUD!

In that instant, I suddenly understood why Old Huang was wearing gloves. No fingerprints, no surveillance, no one knew, except me!

I was the last Horcrux. If I died, no one would know what happened!

"Bad people deserve to go to hell, right? Jiang, am I right? Did I do the right thing?"

Old Huang walked towards me, step by step. His pupils were also bloodshot now. He came towards me, getting closer and closer.

His bottomless black pupils were identical to the little girl's in the memorial photo.

Ten

Long after that incident, I stopped going straight home after work. Instead, I would often take the subway to the last stop. The gentle wind swayed the light, and flocks of migratory birds streaked across the sky like kites. The wind swept over the gentle green slope of the railway line, crossed the tracks, and casually passed through the woods. It went through the deserted station overgrown with wild grass, and I would sit on the empty stone steps, gazing at the sea.

In these quiet moments, I would think of Du Xin's eyes. I remember Du Xin once smiling and telling me she was like a free kite in the sky, and Jiang Lai was the string that tethered her. Now the string was broken, and the kite, like a passing cloud, was gone without a trace.

Sometimes… not often… but sometimes I would think of the scene of Zhong Yun's death. She was lying on her back, her pupils fixed on someone, then finally dispersed into nothingness. I guess in her final moment, she was staring at me, confused as to why I wasn't dead. At the same time, all the evil she had done over the years vanished like a summer rain on asphalt, leaving no trace. A life for a life, I could accept that.

Luckily, the two thick counseling records I took had blocked the nail. Although I bled a lot, my internal organs weren't injured. And thanks to Old Huang, he gave me first aid at top speed and ran ten red lights to get me to the hospital, which saved my life. The doctor said I was lucky to have such a friend; if I had been a few minutes later, I might have died from blood loss.

Old Huang saved my life, so I swallowed what I knew about him. It was only fair.

This eight-year-long murder case eventually made it to the city's television and major media outlets, sparking much discussion. Some marveled at the fall of a psychologist, some lamented the demise of a young college student, and some "saints" prayed for Zhong Yun, calling her a victim of school bullying and urging people to pay attention to campus violence.

Old Huang and I got our story straight. What happened on the rooftop that night was that two murderers turned on each other, and in the end, Ye Lili killed Zhong Yun in retaliation and then accidentally fell from the roof herself. No one would plead for a murderer. Old Huang led a team and found the drugs used to drug Du Xin eight years ago and the ropes used to bind her in Ye Lili's home. Du Xin's DNA was found on the ropes, providing conclusive evidence. The case was quickly closed, and Old Huang finally got his long-awaited promotion to captain.

I heard the first thing he did after becoming captain was to reopen Doudou's case. Those two bastards were criminals with dirty records. According to Old Huang, when he was drinking later, he said he had kicked down the door of a bathhouse private room one night and dragged them back to the station. With multiple crimes combined, they would probably spend the rest of their lives in prison.

Everything was moving on a better track. I planned to have a child with my wife in a couple of years after my body recovered and live out the rest of my life in peace.

Until that phone call…

Yes, until that phone call…

It was a Sunday. My wife was out shopping, and I was at home cooking. Suddenly, the phone rang. It was Old Huang. I answered cheerfully. "Hey… what's up, my dear Captain Huang!" I deliberately dragged out the "captain."

Old Huang immediately laughed and cursed, "Get lost, Old Jiang. You're getting better and better with that slick tongue of yours, huh?"

I held the phone with my shoulder while flipping food in the wok. "What's up, Captain Huang? Missing my sorghum wine? Come over for a couple of drinks sometime?"

Old Huang didn't answer directly but lowered his voice. "Is it convenient for you to talk?"

I was a bit confused. "Yeah, I'm alone. Go ahead."

"I was bored a while back, right? Was going through old case files at the office during a night shift. I found those two counseling records you used to shield yourself in a corner. They were covered in blood, but I was curious, so I took a look."

"In college, did you know a girl named Gu Liang?"

Old Huang's question plunged me into silence. Gu Liang. Yes, there was such a person. She was in the same class as Du Xin and me…

Old Huang continued, "According to the counseling records, the reason Ye Lili went after Du Xin was apparently because this girl, Gu Liang, told Ye Lili a lot about Du Xin organizing school bullying. Of course, I know Du Xin wasn't that kind of person. I'm just saying, do you remember when we went to the rooftop that day, we found the door was chained from the outside, right?"

A bad premonition flashed through my mind.

"Think about it. They were both on the rooftop. How could the chain be locked from the outside? Who locked them in? And who left the key and the hair clip to guide us to solve the case? I don't think Zhong Yun had the ability. You saw her, she was crazy. It's even less likely to be Ye Lili; she was being threatened by Zhong Yun because she didn't want things to be exposed."

"Unless…"

"Unless there was a third murderer! She was the mastermind of this whole murder plot."

"Hello, hello, Old Jiang, are you listening?"

By now, I wasn't paying much attention to what Old Huang was saying. I made up an excuse to talk later and hung up. I stopped cooking, tossing the spatula aside.

I went to the pharmacy, bought something, and then came back, pretending nothing was wrong, and waited for my wife to come home.

At 11:30 AM, my wife came home on time. We ate and laughed together. She praised my cooking and said I would be a good father in the future. I didn't dare to look at her.

After the meal, my wife drank the hot milk I handed her. After drinking it, she fell into a deep sleep.

I sat alone in the living room, staring at our wedding photo on the wall for a long time. In the photo, my wife was wearing a white wedding dress, happily holding my arm, and I was smiling brightly, a carefree smile.

I poured myself a glass of milk too, sipping it slowly. As I finished, I started to cry softly.

I went into the bedroom and locked the door. My wife was sleeping soundly. I touched her palm. It felt completely different from Zhong Yun's hand.

Her hand was ice-cold.

I carefully tucked her in, lay down beside her, and my head started to feel dizzy. Soon, I too entered a black dream.

In the dream, I was back in that car at midnight. This time, I could finally see clearly. Du Xin's foot was tied to the car's accelerator with a rope. She was shouting at me for help. "Jiang Lai, Jiang Lai, wake up! Save me, please save me!"

And I, having just woken up, had no idea what was going on. I only saw the out-of-control vehicle and, out of instinct, started fighting Du Xin for the steering wheel. I didn't want to die. I didn't want to die yet. In my panic, I didn't notice the situation with her foot, and that fatal bend was just ahead.

At the last moment, Du Xin gave me a deep look. She turned the steering wheel half a turn inward. The whole car flew into the air like a white comet. That half-turn made her side of the car hit the ground hard, killing her instantly.

In the final moment, she left the hope of survival to me.

Destroy my eyes, I can still see you.

Block my ears, I can still hear you.

Without feet, I can still walk to you.

And without a mouth, I can still swear your name.

Then the scene changed. This time, it was downstairs from the campus study hall. I was humming a tune as I passed by and saw a drunkard hitting a girl I recognized with a bottle.

That girl was Gu Liang.

"Stop it!"

I rushed over and kicked the drunkard to the ground. "Are you okay?" I checked the wound on Gu Liang's forehead and suddenly felt a sharp pain in my back. I turned around. The drunkard had smashed the bottle and stabbed me in the lower back with it.

A surge of rage washed over me. I pulled out the bottle, turned, and knocked the drunkard down with one punch. I straddled him, my fists raining down like a storm.

"Stop! Stop it! Jiang Lai, you'll kill him!" Gu Liang was crying beside me but couldn't pull me off.

In the shadows not far away, Zhong Yun was holding her books, watching this scene with a shocked expression. Her amber pupils glowed in the dark.

Tear off my arms, and I will hold you

with my heart, as with a hand.

Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.

In the final layer of the dream, I saw myself. To be precise, it was myself after the car crash, wrapped in bandages, unconscious in a hospital bed. A girl was watching me by the bedside, her face haggard.

"Jiang Lai, don't die. Please don't die, I'm begging you."

"The people in our way are all dead now. All dead!"

"Now no one can stop us. No one!"

"We'll be together forever. We'll be together forever, promise me, okay?"

The girl looked up, her face streaked with tears.

This time, I finally saw her clearly. It was Gu Liang.

She had a pair of eyes, bloodshot, just like my wife's.

And if you cast my brain into the fire,

I will bear you up with my blood.