Spoiler-containing Warning Tags
Please refer to No.3 on ToC page.
Fang Chen stumbled as he hurried to chase after Xie Ying, but even when he reached the first floor, he couldn’t manage to find her anywhere.
Beads of sweat starting forming on Fang Chen’s palms as he clutched tightly onto the car key. Gao Cheng trailed behind him, firing off a series of questions, “What did Xie Ying tell you? Why did she run away? What about Nie Shi?”
Fang Chen couldn’t answer any of them. They stood in the lobby for a while until rain suddenly began to pour.
Exiting the hotel, they found the weather outside bright and sunny, with a gentle drizzle and a warm breeze caressing their cheeks. Still, not a single soul graced the deserted street.
Fang Chen gazed upward, spotting a bird gliding ever so freely in the sky, circling around for a few times before vanishing into the great distance.
Atop the building, the wind whipped fiercely, stirring dust on the ground and tousling Xie Ying’s long hair, which billowed around her shoulders as it danced in the wind. She glanced back calmly, as if heading out for work every morning with a satchel slung over her shoulder.
Within Fang Chen’s vision, a shadowy outline of another figure appeared; she leapt straight down, falling down and down continuously until she landed right in front of him.
Gao Cheng, initially facing away from Fang Chen, heard the sound and spun around. The scene that greeted him overwhelmed him with shock, prompting him to collapse straight onto the ground, wide-eyed.
Xie Ying was wearing the simplest of short sleeves and jeans. Yet, to Fang Chen’s eyes, she appeared as if she wore a flowing red dress.
The dress fluttered along with the wind in the air—its brilliance so captivating that it nearly grasped the tail of freedom. However, it plummeted instead, crashing down with a heavy thud, leaving her face smashed beyond recognition. Warm blood spilled everywhere, leaving only death in its wake, with nothing more to show.
Fang Chen still had many questions left unasked, yet Xie Ying had already committed suicide by jumping off the building.
Gao Cheng’s fingers trembled as he backed away, each step taking him farther and farther back, his rear scraping against the ground—almost wearing through his attire with each movement.
Standing close, Fang Chen’s sight drowned in a sea of red. Xie Ying was bleeding so heavily, dyeing her once-white half-sleeves crimson.
Beneath the dampened sky, the rain intensified. Fang Chen twitched his nostrils and sniffed, wondering what death smelled like.
Death came too suddenly; he wasn’t ready yet.
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“She jumped,” Fang Chen murmured, and Gao Cheng, seeing him take a step forward, thought the other party had gone mad.
Pain penetrated his bones, as if they were being crushed by something. Fang Chen nearly collapsed in agony, but he held on, fixating on the bloodied corpse before him.
Weird visions raced through his mind: shattered glass windows, mud, rainwater, the fragrance of lilies… followed by blood, brimming with bloody froth, as if it would spill out with the slightest movement of his lips, leaving him unable to utter a sound due to the pain.
Xie Ying said before she died that everyone here harboured sins and would have to face punishment, but what was her sin? Was this her punishment? Falling from a great height, broken and crushed into fragments? Fang Chen couldn’t fathom what kind of sin she had committed to deserve such punishment.
In a rare moment, he stubbornly clung to a single thought: Why did she jump?
His eyes got covered by a palm that was warm yet cool to touch. Fang Chen blinked in the darkness.
Gao Cheng’s legs went soft as he watched Nie Shi suddenly appear and pull Fang Chen away. Once far enough, Nie Shi pulled him into an embrace, resting his chin on top of Fang Chen’s head.
Gao Cheng initially intended to stay silent, but Nie Shi unexpectedly looked over to his direction. He gulped nervously as he called out, “Fang Chen? Fang Chen? Are you alright?”
Fang Chen’s ears felt muffled, and he still felt how the scene before him was a crimson sea. The blood appeared to resemble spoiled syrup, infused with a sense of decay, clinging thickly to Fang Chen’s retinas. And there, Xie Ying lay.
The rain persisted, soaking their hair and infusing it with an earthy scent.
Nie Shi pried open Fang Chen’s hand to retrieve the car key, passing it to Gao Cheng, who hesitated but ultimately accepted. He settled into the driver’s seat with Nie Shi and Fang Chen sitting in the back.
Fang Chen leaned his head against the window, appearing to be asleep yet lost in thought. Gao Cheng thought he was frightened, given how he was trembling all over, unaware that Fang Chen was actually in pain instead.
Gao Cheng was solely focused on leaving this cursed place, and it wasn’t until after a while of driving, that he cleared his throat and spoke to the two in the back, “Just what exactly happened back there, Fang Chen? Why were you outside the room?” He actually wanted to ask about Fang Chen’s conversation with Xie Ying, but the horrifying image of her fall flashed before his eyes, causing him to gag and swallow back.
Fang Chen seemed to just notice there was an extra presence in the car. He turned to look at Nie Shi; there wasn’t the slightest hint of fear in his heart, only a hollow void devoid of any emotion. His eyes were as calm as a puppet’s, and he simply uttered, “Xie Ying is dead.”
Gao Cheng jerked the steering wheel off-center, causing Fang Chen to lurch forward, his face nearly hitting the seat backrest—but Nie Shi managed to quickly pull him back in time.
The atmosphere grew even more solemn and quiet as the rain intensified, leaving streaks of water on the car windows upon impact.
Nie Shi seemed to be quite tired. Noticing Fang Chen’s reluctance to engage with him, he remained silent for a while before eventually falling asleep.
Gao Cheng breathed a sigh of relief at Nie Shi’s closed eyes, then glanced back at Fang Chen, who still looked as if he had lost his soul. Half-jokingly, he remarked, “I always feel there’s something following us.”
Fang Chen pressed his lips together and said nothing.
What should he say? Should he mention what he saw?
Because, as he had said, someone was indeed following them—they were even tapping on the rear window.
Fang Chen didn’t know how Qiao Ran managed to do it. Despite the pouring rain, he lay atop the car, dangling upside down and revealing a pair of eyes. His hands pressed against the window, waving to greet Fang Chen with his eyes curved, as if saying “good day.”
Fang Chen didn’t feel good at all.
Had Nie Shi been awake, he would have immediately yanked the person down and ground him to death without hesitation.
To Qiao Ran, falling from the sixth floor meant nothing; he was still alive and kicking, annoying as ever.
The car continued forward. Gao Cheng took out the handkerchief to dab his sweat, and all the while Fang Chen stared at the pink cloth in his hand. In truth, he wasn’t sure what he was looking at; he simply didn’t want to see Qiao Ran lingering outside the window, so his eyes simply settled on a random spot.
Unprompted, Gao Cheng took the initiative to boast. “This was given to me by a girl who likes me; you don’t envy it too much, eh.”
Fang Chen nodded, gazing at the handkerchief. Momentarily distracted, his gaze wandered out the window again, inadvertently locking eyes with that smiling face.
Fang Chen: “……”
He was genuinely startled. In that instant, his emotions returned, and his heart started pounding as he leaned back with widened eyes, bumping into Nie Shi and waking him up.
Qiao Ran’s smile faltered, and he swiftly retreated upward. Nie Shi didn’t see him.
“What’s wrong?” They were very close; Nie Shi’s low voice echoed in Fang Chen’s ears, and Fang Chen’s mind rapidly spiral—Xie Ying’s leap, Nie Shi’s sudden arrival, and now… to where were they heading for?!
Fang Chen abruptly sat up, his back pressing against the car door. But then, memories flooded back of Qiao Ran leaning against the window and staring at them, causing him to instinctively recoil.
Bloody hell, he f*cking felt like crying for real.
Taking several deep breaths, Fang Chen knew his behaviour just now seemed out of sorts.
Right then, Gao Cheng turned his head only to see Fang Chen trying to climb into the front passenger seat, and was taken aback. Catching a glimpse of Nie Shi with a serious expression hanging on his face, Gao Cheng held the steering wheel with one hand and used the other to press on Fang Chen’s shoulder, pushing him back. “Hey, Fang Chen, what are you doing?”
“I wanna sit next to you.” Fang Chen’s survival instinct asserted itself.
Gao Cheng, having just spent the time to wipe his forehead, found himself sweating anew.
In the end, Fang Chen managed to sit in the front passenger seat as he wished, but unfortunately, the driver’s seat was also changed—seated in the back alone was now Gao Cheng.
Previously, when Fang Chen got out of the car to change seats, he was worried about seeing Qiao Ran, but there was nothing on the roof of the car; he probably had already jumped down.
Fang Chen didn’t dare to lean against the car window or get close to Nie Shi, so he could only stare straight ahead.
“Fang Chen, what exactly were you and Xie Ying talking about? Why did she… after giving you the key?” Gao Cheng ultimately asked. He suspected that Xie Ying’s suicide was related to their conversation.
“She said… ‘Hurry up and escape’.” Fang Chen glanced at Nie Shi beside him, instinctively omitting the crucial half of the sentence, and instead offering inconsequential words. “‘…as far as you can if possible’,” he added.
“What does that mean? Does it mean we can escape? If we escape, we won’t die? Then why did she jump off the building?” Gao Cheng hurriedly asked.
Fang Chen tilted his head, bumping onto the window without realizing. “Perhaps she didn’t jump voluntarily?”
Nie Shi cast a glance at Fang Chen.
A shiver ran down Gao Cheng’s spine as he reached for the handkerchief again, now faintly emitting a sour smell from repeated use.
The journey dragged on, Gao Cheng murmured, “We should’ve reached City B by now, right?” But when he opened the navigation, he found they still had some distance to cover.
The rain continued, and the weather turned colder. Fang Chen couldn’t describe the state of turmoil he was feeling in his heart.
He couldn’t fathom why Nie Shi had reappeared. Qiao Ran claimed he was leading them towards their death, so was it the same for Nie Shi too?
Fang Chen had concealed too much. His nagging subconscious convinced him that these matters couldn’t be revealed. But was this the right thing to do? He didn’t know.
As the day dimmed, Gao Cheng feared that those malevolences that had managed to escape would suddenly show up. Scanning the streets, his gaze landed on a small inn, prompting him to suggest they spend the night there until dawn.
“But the sky hasn’t darkened yet…” Fang Chen said, but still got out of the car.
The inn proved to be less than ideal; the air in the room was heavy with mustiness. Seated facing each other, the trio fell into a silence, occasionally interrupted by eerie noises emanating from the outmoded inn.
“Well, let’s sleep. We won’t have anything to fear if we just sleep!” Gao Cheng proposed.
Who could even sleep? They had already taken several naps in a day, and now they felt more refreshed than ever.
Without a care in the world, Gao Cheng lay horizontally on the sofa, closing his eyes. “Time to sleep, time to sleep.” He wasn’t sleepy at all; he just couldn’t stand the rustling noises outside.
After a while, they heard a laugh drifted in from afar. Gao Cheng rubbed his arms, while Fang Chen tensed, subconsciously locking eyes with Nie Shi.
Gao Cheng was clueless, but Fang Chen knew exactly who the laughter belonged to… Clearly, it was Qiao Ran’s.
Nie Shi appeared ready to go out, and Fang Chen also took a step forward. Gao Cheng opened his eyes and asked, “Where are you two going?” His gaze bore into them, afraid they would run away.
Fang Chen stopped in his tracks and retreated. He shouldn’t follow Nie Shi.
After Nie Shi left, there were only Fang Chen and Gao Cheng in the room.
Raindrops from the eaves drummed on the window ledge, pitter-pattering.
Gao Cheng wanted to say he was feeling a bit cold and wanted to ask Fang Chen to throw the blanket to him, but Fang Chen suddenly spoke up, asking, “Have you ever committed any wrongdoings?”
Deep conversation mode
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thanks for translating!! <33
Thanks for reading and commenting~ (/≧▽≦)/❤️
Thank you for the translations!