The Real Awakening

Midnight. The twilight enshrouded everything in silence. The bustling metropolis from the daytime was now a city of sleep. Clouds slowly floated through the night sky, stealthily concealing the half moon.

The rush of water from inside the steaming bathroom came to a sudden halt.

After finishing his shower, Su Mu strode out in a bathrobe, his wet, pitch-black hair dripping water.

He grabbed a towel and began to rub his hair as he pulled out a drink from his refrigerator.

With a pop, he pulled open the tab and a thin stream of foam immediately gushed out.

He lowered his head to take a sip. Just as he was about to take a seat on the sofa, he heard an earth-shaking banging on his front door.

Knock, knock, knock! Knock, knock, knock!

The person outside seemed to be in a great urge, striking the door non-stop with their fists. They did not seem to care at all about how shocking it was to suddenly hear this loud of a sound cut through the silence of midnight.

“Tch, every single time. Does that guy not know that something called doorbells exist?”

Su Mu furrowed his brows as he glanced at the clock on the wall. He then dropped his forehead into his hand with an annoyed expression.

If it were not for his concern about the noise disturbing his neighbours, he really would have pretended to not hear it.

Knock, knock, knock! Knock, knock, knock!

The bangs on the door continued on.

Su Mu let out an exasperated sigh and strode over. When he opened the door, he was met with the sight he had expected. The person standing outside in the corridor was none other than Ye Xiao, sweating and gasping for breath.

Immediately, an unconcealed look of loathing for being disturbed showed on Su Mu’s face.

“What, did your landlord cut your electricity again?” He sneered as he shot the other person a look of disdain.

Ye Xiao was bent over at the waist with one hand gripping the doorframe and one hand pressed against his chest. He was completely out of breath with no way of speaking. He lifted his head to gaze up at Su Mu, his expression somewhat heavy.

Su Mu remained aloof as he mocked, “Or was it your gas that was cut?”

“…”

“Ah, it can’t have been your water again, can it?”

“No…that’s not it…”

Ye Xiao panted as he shook his head.

Su Mu raised a brow and coldly stated, “Sorry, my home is not a hotel.”

Right after saying this, he tried to close the door. However, he was grabbed by Ye Xiao.

“Wait…wait a minute…”

He kept a death grip on the doorframe and took a few deep breaths, forcing himself to calm down. However, there was still some shakiness in his tone as he spoke in a hoarse voice. He swallowed hard and said, “There might…be a fourth murder case.”

Darkness.

A darkness where it was impossible to see one’s outstretched fingers.

It was impossible to see anything, impossible to hear anything.

Both her hands were tied behind her back and there was a wad of cloth stuffed in her mouth. She was unable to move and unable to speak. All she could do was make helpless whimpering sounds from her nose.

The chills and fear seized her completely.

She cowered back as she anxiously glanced left and right. However, her eyes only saw pure black. It was as though there was a thick curtain blocking everything off.

What is this place…Where am I…Xiao-gēge…

Shivering, she wriggled backwards a bit and attempted to stand.

Suddenly, she heard a chuckle.

The instant the match was lit, the weak glow of a fire lit up the pitch-black space.

The flicker flame swayed back and forth in the darkness, illuminating her face with a hazy glow.

The light entered her eyes, irritating her pupils. She unconsciously closed her eyes. When she reopened them, the face of a male stranger jumped into her vision.

She started abruptly, her eyes widening as she stared in terror at the man.

The man squatted down in front of her with a hunched back. He was like a giant shadow about to swallow her whole.

The flame eerily shifted, magnifying the creepy grin on his face. As he smiled at her, his face neared hers, his gaze focused on her bright black eyes that looked like glittering grapes.

“Wei Wei, this jiějie’s eyes are very beautiful…”

The man spoke, though it was uncertain who he was talking to.

“Wei Wei, this is the last thing…With eyes, you’ll become a whole person…You can come with Daddy to buy roses at the florist. Wei Wei, are you excited?”

For some reason, the man seemed extremely elated. His strangely high-spirited voice spreading out in all directions and naturally becoming faintly indiscernible echoes sounding from both nearby and far away.

Wei Wei? Who’s Wei Wei? Who in the world is he talking to?

She fearfully turned her head around to scan the surroundings, but there was only a void of darkness.

Right then, a frail voice of a girl rang out.

“Mhm…happy…Wei Wei is very happy…”

Her head whipped around in shock and she immediately gasped sharply.

Heavens! What am I seeing?

That-that’s a coffin? There’s a coffin behind me?

And that voice…just came from inside the coffin!

She shook her head in horrified panic and curled her body up into a ball…

No, no…someone, come save me…someone, come save me…

Xiao-gēge! Xiao-gēge! Save me!

“Ling Dang!”

Ye Xiao awoke with a start, shooting up into sitting position on the sofa, his body covered in cold sweat.

He gasped for breath, glancing around in lingering trepidation.

Cool-toned walls and furniture surrounded him. Accompanied by the chirping of birds, the slightly chilly breeze from the early morning flowed in from the open balcony door, rippling the curtains…

A dream? So that was a dream?

Good thing…good thing it was just a dream…

He had dreamed of Ling Dang collapsed in front of him, mutilated flesh ripped to pieces as her blood-filled mouth continued to murmur: Xiao-gēge, save me…save me…

He let out a long exhale and closed his eyes as he weakly let his head fall into his hands.

“You’re awake? You’ve barely slept thirty minutes.”

A familiar frigid tone rang out nearby.

He lifted his head to see Su Mu sitting at the table, currently pattering away at his keyboard looking up something unknown. Ye Xiao did not respond, only rubbing his brow tiredly. The dizziness in his head was still there.

Yesterday, he and Su Mu had run around searching the streets and alleyways the entire night. They had thoroughly searched every nook and cranny of every location he knew of, both likely and unlikely. However, they had not found any clues. Finally, after being outside in the cold for so long, the two had returned to the apartment in extreme exhaustion at half past five in the morning

“Are you not going to rest a bit?” Ye Xiao looked apologetically at Su Mu.

Su Mu’s lips curled upwards as he indifferently commented, “Hmph, don’t put me on par with you.”

He stood and took a sheet of data from the printer. After skimming it, he recited, “Ding Ling Dang, female, twenty-years old. Second-year student at S-University’s finance department. Parents unknown, taken in at age two by a children’s social welfare foundation.”

At this point, Su Mu shot Ye Xiao a look. “Didn’t you previously mention that she’s your younger sister?”

Ye Xiao lowered his head, his expression muted as he sighed. “Ling Dang and I grew up in the same orphanage. In my eyes, she’s no different from my biological sister.”

“Orphanage?” Su Mu’s brows arched upwards in surprise. Seeing how Ye Xiao was wavering, he did not ask any further.

Ye Xiao pinched his face to wake himself up more. Then he jumped up from the sofa and strode over to the door as he said, “Let’s go and find Curtain of Dreams. She might know where Wu Chang is.”

“Wait, let me first print these few pages of data out.” Su Mu remained seated by the computer.

“What are you investigating?”

Ye Xiao walked over to see a black-and-white photo of Shen Guo Zhong on the computer screen.

He was stunned for a moment, then frowned and asked, “Things have already progressed to this point, yet you’re still pursuing that case from forty-nine years ago?

Su Mu did not even lift his eyes, his tone steady as he replied, “I want to see if I can find out where exactly Shen Wei’s corpse went back then.”

“You…” Ye Xiao couldn’t help but feel angry. “You won’t capture the criminal right in front of you, instead only blindly investigating the things that interest you. I don’t get it, what exactly are you thinking?”

Su Mu expressionlessly shot him a glance as he coolly answered, “What I investigate has nothing to do with you.”

“You…!”

Ye Xiao glared at him, then furiously stamped his feet as he left without looking back.

When they arrived at Curtain of Dreams’ residence, it was eight in the morning.

The girl, whose real name was Xie Jing Yun, lived on the twenty-third floor of a high-grade apartment. When Ye Xiao rang the doorbell, the one that opened the door was Xie Jing Yun’s father, Xie Shun He.

Upon learning the visitors’ identities, Xie Shun He invited the two officers into the living room.

“May I ask if your daughter, Xie Jing Yun, is here?” Ye Xiao asked.

“She is.” Xie Shun He pointed at a tightly-shut door and replied, “Jing Yun is inside that room. But she’s refused to come out this whole time, only sneaking out in the middle of the night to eat a bit before immediately returning to her room. I haven’t seen her face-to-face in a very long time now.”

“Do you not have the key?” Su Mu asked.

“I do, but she locked the door from the inside.”

“Why does she refuse to come out?”

“I don’t know either.” Xie Shun He shook his head and sighed. “Ever since her mother died, no one has been able to deal with her. I don’t understand a girl’s thoughts. Some time ago, I heard that she had fallen in love with a man. But I don’t know what happened afterwards, and the two broke up. Since then, she’s just been absent-minded.”

“Did Jing Yun go anywhere two months ago on December 11th?”

“Two months ago?” Xie Shun He thought for a moment before answering, “Oh, yes. She said she was going out on a trip to lift her mood. She also mentioned something about possibly being gone for a very, very long time, and that I shouldn’t look for her. I asked her how many days she would be away, and she said that she didn’t know either. I was worried, so I kept asking her. But she found me annoying and ended up leaving that day without even bringing luggage. I have no idea where she went either.”

“And then?”

“Then I received a call from a police station saying that she had gotten into a car accident. Only after rushing to the hospital did I find out that, while there was no permanent damage, she…” Xie Shun He helplessly sighed. “She had a miscarriage, two months in. I figured it had to be that man’s child.”

“Then what about after returning from the hospital?” Ye Xiao urgently asked.

“After returning, she shut herself in the room and never came back out.”

Ye Xiao glanced at the locked door and said, “Can I borrow the key to try it?”

Xie Shun He was taken aback. “Sure, you can. But the door is locked from the inside, so it’s definitely impossible to open.”

At the moment, Ye Xiao couldn’t care less. He grabbed the key and turned it in the hole. As expected, the door did not budge a crack. Su Mu stood next to him, watching with a frown.

With his impatience burning, he began to bang on the door and shout, “Xie Jing Yun! I know you’re in there! Hurry and open the door!”

It was followed by a thud, as though something had been smashed into the door.

“No! Don’t! Don’t come in! I don’t want to die! Don’t want to die!”

A hoarse wail came from inside.

Su Mu looked at Xie Shun He in confusion and asked, “What’s going on?”

Xie Shun He smiled bitterly. “For some reason, she keeps saying that someone wants to kill her.”

“Who? Who wants to kill her?” Ye Xiao’s head whipped around as he asked.

“I don’t know. She’s been terrified this whole time, as though hiding from someone.”

Ye Xiao was momentarily dumbstruck. Then he immediately turned back to face the door and shouted, “Do you know where Wu Chang is? Xie Jing Yun, answer me. Where is Wu Chang?”

“Scram! Go away! All of you, get lost!”

The woman inside grew more hysterical, as though losing her mind. Anguished screams ripped from her throat, followed by a series of thuds from things being smashed.

“No! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! I beg you! Let me go…just let me go!”

The intense sobs seemed to vibrate the thin door. The woman inside continued to shriek wildly.

Ye Xiao still refused to give up. He knocked the door a few more times, then frantically said, “Xie Jing Yun, where is Wu Chang? Hurry up and tell me where the hell Wu Chang is!”

However, the woman inside seemed to have long since lost her rationale, completely incapable of listening to his words.

Su Mu grabbed Ye Xiao’s hand to keep it from knocking again. “Enough. You won’t be able to get any results asking like this.”

“Let go!”

Ye Xiao shot him a glare.

However, not only did Su Mu refuse to let go, but his grip turned even stronger.

Ye Xiao was unable to free himself. He could only lower his voice as he fiercely warned, “How I investigate cases is none of your business.”

Su Mu ignored him as he told Xie Shun He, “Sorry for the disturbance. If Xie Jing Yun’s condition changes, please contact us immediately.”

With this, he began to forcibly drag Ye Xiao out.

“Let fucking go of me!” Ye Xiao furiously ripped his hand free, his emotions starting to slip.

Su Mu coldly eyed him and asked, “Could you calm down a bit?”

“Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?”

After roaring this you, Ye Xiao’s face immediately fell as he dropped his head in his hands and murmured, “It’s already been over eight hours…I don’t even know if she’s still…”

He could not say the word “alive”.

His unconcealable worry and nervousness poured out from his dim, anguished expression.

Su Mu stared at him for a moment, then silently turned to walk towards the elevator.

Ye Xiao did not speak again along the way.

For once, he was silent, causing the inside of the car to instantly become significantly more empty and quiet.

It did not take long for them to return to the police station. Before they could even sit down at their office desks, they heard that a colleague from another unit had just fished up a girl’s corpse from the river in District C. The approximate time of death was last night somewhere between 11 PM and 2 AM. There were cuts on the girl’s wrists, and it was suspected to be homicide.

Upon hearing this news, Ye Xiao immediately went rigid. Then he pounced over to grab his colleague by the collar as he shouted, “Where is the body? Where is the body?!”

The colleague was startled and stared at him in bewilderment.

“Tell me, where is the body right now?” Ye Xiao’s voice trembled from anxiousness.

The coworker scratched his head and replied in a perplexed tone, “Oh, it was just-just sent to the morgue. What is wrong—”

Before he had even finished speaking, Ye Xiao had already dashed out of the office without sparing a glance back.

“What is wrong with him?”

The coworker blankly stared at Su Mu. The latter only maintained an aloof expression and wordlessly left to follow Ye Xiao.

“Tch, they really are a freak duo.” The colleague shook his head in annoyance.

In the ice-cold morgue, there was a corpse laying on the steel countertop that had not yet been placed in the freezer cabinet. The corpse was stored inside a black plastic bag, silently laying there.

With a crash, Ye Xiao practically rammed open the morgue’s door with his shoulder. However, the instant he stepped into the room, he came to a sharp halt, firmly nailed in place.

He stared blankly at the black plastic bag on the countertop, his body growing cold. It was as though a buck of ice water had just been dumped over his head; even his teeth were staring to clatter.

Honestly, Ye Xiao was not a timid and cowardly person. Nothing in his entire life up until now had ever made him feel this panic-stricken.

However, at this very moment, he felt as though his heart was enshrouded by fear.

He silently stared blankly for a moment. Then he took a deep breath to curb his inner anxiety and unease and walked over step by step. Yet when he arrived before the body, he simply could not gather the courage to reach out and open the bag to reveal the truth inside. He was afraid of seeing a reality that he did not wish to see.

Ye Xiao closed his eyes, a trembling hand suspended in mid-air for a long time. However, before his hand could lower itself, he heard a whoosh.

The metallic resonance from undoing the zipper was like a piercing needle that cut through his nerves.

He reeled in shock, his eyes hooting open to see Su Mu standing across from him.

Su Mu glanced at the contents of the bag, then blankly looked at Ye Xiao and stated in a frigid, mocking tone, “If you don’t even dare to look, why did you even come in here?”

“Who said I didn’t dare to look!”

Ye Xiao shot him a glare, then girted his teeth and reached out to open the bag.

His breathing stopped in that instant as he stared motionlessly at the pale face in the bag. After pausing for a solid ten seconds, he stumbled back like a taut string that had suddenly snapped. He bumped into the freezer cabinet behind him and then weakly slid down.

“Thank goodness…thank goodness it wasn’t her…”

Ye Xiao exhaustedly plopped down onto the ground, his eyes revealing a hint of his near-breakdown.

Su Mu wordlessly watched him.

Soon after exiting the morgue, Ye Xiao was summoned to the group leader’s office.

Inside the office, the group leader thoughtfully studied Ye Xiao for a long time. After taking a sip of water, he deliberated to himself for a moment longer before asking, “It’s already been over a month since the serial killing case [started]. How’s the progress in your investigations?”

Ye Xiao honestly replied, “It’s still ongoing.”

“Do you have any new trails?”

“At the moment, not yet.”

“I heard that there might be a fourth victim?”

The group leader tapped his second finger against the table, his gaze burning from behind his glasses as he peered at Ye Xiao.

Ye Xiao was silent for a moment before responding. “Currently, it is only a missing person. It isn’t certain yet.”

“That missing girl is someone you know?”

“Yes.”

“Are you very close with her?”

“She’s an old friend.”

The group leader considered this for a moment before making a decision. “How about I give you a few days of vacation?”

“What?” Ye Xiao took a step forwards and asked in astonishment, “You mean you want to suspend me?”

“Don’t make it sound so serious. It’s just a few days off.” The group leader smiled.

Ye Xiao shook his head and urgently said, “No, I want to continue—”

“Alright, no more discussion. We’ll just go ahead like that then.” The group leader waved his hand, cutting Ye Xiao off.

“Group leader!”

Ye Xiao emotionally took another step forwards.

The group leader’s face turned solemn as he said in a heavy tone, “Ye Xiao, as a member of the police, you should know that there are rules. Officers participating in investigations must not have any intimate relations with the people involved in the case!”

“I…I don’t have any intimate relations with her!” Ye Xiao’s eyes widened in bewilderment.

“But from my knowledge, weren’t you living together with the missing girl?” The group leader looked at him.

“Huh?” Ye Xiao was instantly dumbstruck, freezing in place with a blank look. After a long while passed, he abruptly turned, his complexion ashen as he returned to the office.

Inside the office, Su Mu was currently focusing on typing something at his computer.

Ye Xiao silently walked over, then suddenly grabbed Su Mu by the collar and threw a punch at his face.

With a crash, the unguarded Su Mu tumbled out of his chair, colliding into another colleague’s desk behind him. Documents immediately fluttered through the air and scattered all over the ground.

“You were the one that told the group leader about Ling Dang, weren’t you?”

Ye Xiao strode forth to grip the front of Su Mu’s clothes with a glare, beyond enraged.

Su Mu coolly met his gaze, then used the back of his hand to wipe the blood at the corner of his mouth as he calmly answered, “Yes.”

“Why did you do that? You clearly know what kind of relationship Ling Dang and I have!”

“I was merely doing things in a strictly professional manner.”

“Strictly professional manner? Did you not consider my feelings at all?”

“If I had to consider the feelings of the victim’s family members for every case, then I would never need to collect testimonies.”

“You—!”

Ye Xiao’s hands were tightly curled into fists as he viciously hissed through tightly clenched teeth, “Su Mu, no matter what, I am your partner. Can you stop going off and doing unreasonable things on your own all the time?”

Su Mu shoved Ye Xiao away and stood up from the ground. He patted off some dust and tidied his clothes as he indifferently stated, “I’m very sorry, but I’ve never said once that I need a partner. Your existence is nothing but a burden to me.”

“What did you say?”

Ye Xiao was struck speechless.

Su Mu picked up the knocked-over chair, then calmly sat back down as he bluntly declared, “Impulsive nature, reckless conduct, simple-minded, and loves acting on a whim. A person like you would only cause trouble for anyone, regardless of who you partnered with.”

“I…” Ye Xiao stared blankly, asking in disbelief, “So…so your impression of me was always that poor?”

Su Mu shot him a glance, but did not speak.

Ye Xiao stood still and painfully closed his eyes. Under everyone’s gazes, he silently turned and left the office without any protest.

A spark of candlelight flickered in the gloomy darkness.

The bean-sized flame made puttering sounds as it braved the damp air.

All that surrounded her was silence. She could occasionally hear the sound of droplets falling, accompanying her gasps for breath that gradually grew more urgent.

Ugh…it hurts…it hurts so much…

She struggled to lift her head and saw that her right wrist that was tied to the metal rack was bleeding.

Before leaving, the man from earlier had seemingly made a swift cut along her wrist with some sharp object. She had not felt it much at first since his action had been very smooth. With just a light swipe, a certain warm fluid had started leaking out, pouring down her arm and dripping onto the ground. She knew that it was her blood.

The man had grinned foolishly at her as he had used his rough, ice-cold fingers to gently caress her eyes that quaked in fear. As though coaxing a child, he had said, “Be good and don’t move. I’m going to go buy flowers. What colour do you like?”

She had let out quiet sobs, tightly shutting her eyes while fearfully shaking her head.

The man’s mysterious smile had widened a few centimetres. With his gaze focused on her, he had seriously contemplated this and said, “Why don’t I buy a purple rose for you? My Wei Wei loves purple roses the most.”

He had scrutinised her for a while, then suddenly lowered his head. Using his cracked lips, he had kissed her eyes and quietly said in suppressed tone, “Your eyes are truly beautiful. My Wei Wei will definitely like them. Thank you.”

Then he had turned and slowly strode out.

She was now the only one remaining in the dark space, along with that pitch-black coffin. She did not know who lay inside it, as up until now, she had not once witnessed the person come out before.

Fresh blood continued to drip down. It seemed to carry her life force with her, leaving her body bit by bit.

She could feel her head growing dizzier, her consciousness beginning to blur.

Was she about to die? Was there no longer anyone that could save her? However, she still had so many things she hadn’t yet done and so many words she hadn’t yet said. Before dying, at the very least…at the very least, she really wanted to get one last glance at the person she had liked for a long time…even just hearing his voice would be enough…

She stared at the coffin nearby in despair, her pained tears slowly rolling down her face.

In her daze, she seemed to hear the person inside the coffin speak.

“Jiějie…”

“Jiějie, Daddy seems to like you quite a lot…because you’ve stayed alive longer than the others…”

“Jiějie, don’t be scared. I will take your eyes and live on properly in your place…”

Thud!

Ye Xiao finally lost all control of his emotions as he kicked over an innocent garbage bin in the alley.

With a clatter, two empty cans tumbled out.

“Damn it! Where the hell is he?!”

He furiously cursed out.

According to the investigation, the phone signal during Ling Dang’s final call to him for help had been from around this area. However, he had already searched in circles for over three hours, yet had not seen even a hint of life. He had gone as far as checking the places where homeless people and prostitutes gathered, yet had received no results.

Moreover, now that he had been forcibly suspended from his duties, he could not return to the police station. The only thing he could do was wait for the conclusion.

However, just waiting in absolute torment was more painful than anything else in the world. Plus, with Ye Xiao’s character, how could he possibly do nothing and willingly wait?

After struggling internally for a while, he ultimately decided to go find Xie Jing Yun again. His instincts told him that this Curtain of Dreams person definitely knew something. In addition, she was likely the last trail remaining for Ling Dang to be rescued.

However, Ye Xiao had not imagined in his wildest dreams that someone had actually reached the Xie household before him.

Ding dong—

The melodious doorbell only rang once. Then he quietly waited.

He seemed like someone that had gone through a very good upbringing.

Xie Shun He put on his slippers and slowly walked out from the house. After glancing through the peephole, he opened the door.

“Officer Su?” He suspiciously looked at the unexpected visitor outside the door. “May I ask—”

Before he had even finished speaking, his vision went black. Then his body involuntarily slid down against the wall and collapsed by the front entrance.

Su Mu lowered his outstretched palm, then silently stepped over the body and entered the living room.

The living room was slightly messier than it had been during his last visit. The table had some leftover food on it and several fashion magazines scattered around the floor. There was also an orange basketball lying in the corner of the wall.

“Dad, who’s here?”

A boy’s voice came from the room.

Su Mu turned his head to see Xie Jing Yun’s younger brother walk out with a bowl of instant noodles in his hands. When he noticed the stranger standing in his living room, he first froze for a moment, then spotted his father collapsed at the doorway.

“Who-who are you? What are you doing?!”

He warily watched Su Mu.

Su Mu still did not speak. He calmly walked over step by step.

“Free-freeze! Don’t come here!” The boy instantly began to panic, hurriedly retreating while stammering “If you-you come any close-closer…I’ll call the—”

Before he could even say “police”, the instant noodles fell from his hand with a clatter. The steaming hot soup spilled all over the ground, emitting a rich fragrance.

However, three seconds later, his body weakly collapsed before he could cry out in shock.

Su Mu’s expression did not change as he surveyed the two fainted people. He slowly stepped over the mess around the Xie household’s living room to arrive in front of the tightly shut door. He then came to a halt and pulled out a pair of white gloves from his pocket, slowly slipping them on.

He grabbed the handle of the door and lightly jiggled it.

One shake, two shakes. Then, there was a click.

A crack appeared next to the door frame.

He silently pushed open the door.

It was dark and quiet inside the room. The only two windows inside were securely shut, the thick curtains staunchly covering the glass. There was the smell of mould coming from the messy bed and he saw cobweb-like cracks on the dressing table mirror. The lamp next to the bed had been smashed, the shards of the glass lampshade covering the floor…

Su Mu stood in the doorway, coolly sweeping his eyes around. Eventually, his gaze focused on the wardrobe next to the bed.

He slowly strode over to stare at that wardrobe.

There was an open crack on the top of the wardrobe from being closed improperly. A soft sobbing sound came out from the crack.

The wall clock ticked onwards without stopping.

The sobs were nearly nonexistent.

Su Mu halted in his tracks and calmly glanced at the finger-width crack.

Time passed, one second, two seconds, three seconds…

Suddenly, there was an ear-splitting scream like a blade slicing through the tranquillity. A woman with messy hair wildly slammed the wardrobe door open, pouncing towards with him with an object in her hand that glinted coldly.

At the very last second, Su Mu lifted his arm and easily caught her throat, then firmly secured her against the wall.

With a clatter, the weapon fell.

It was a sharp piece of glass.

“No…Don’t kill me…Don’t kill me…Ahhhh…Don’t kill me…”

The woman whimpered like she was being choked. She struggled to resist, her hair and face messy and covered in tears.

“Look at me,” Su Mu commanded.

However, the woman frantically shook her head under his grip, crying as she lost control entirely.

“Xie Jing Yun, look at me!”

Su Mu raised his volume, his tone carrying a force that made it difficult to defy.

The woman was startled, staring at him blankly as she involuntarily stopped crying.

“Very good, just like that. Look into my eyes.”

He forcibly lifted her chin, compelling her to look at him.

Gradually, Xie Jing Yun calmed down completely. She stared at Su Mu unmovingly like a puppet. As she peered into his deep pupils that were as black as the evening sea, a lost expression slowly formed on her extremely haggard face.

“Tell me, who wants to kill you?”

The low voice hovered around her ear, occasionally coming closer and occasionally moving further away…

Xie Jing Yun dazedly shook her head and murmured, “I…I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?”

“I…I don’t recognise him…I don’t know who he is…He-he wants to kill me…”

“Why does he want to kill you?”

“No…I don’t know…I don’t know anything…”

“Think back again. What did you see?”

“I…I…I saw…coloured…glass…”

“Coloured glass? What else?”

“And…and…ugh…I’m so scared…”

“Answer me. What else was there?”

“And…and…a cross…”

“Aside from these, did you see anything else?”

“No…no…He wanted to kill me…I saw…saw him tie me up…”

“And then?”

“No! Don’t! Don’t kill me! Ahhh!”

Xie Jing Yun’s mental state collapsed once again, fiercely shaking her head as she wailed in anguish.

Su Mu added more force to his grip, staring straight into her tear-filled eyes. His cold expression held absolutely no intent of mercifulness. With a stiff face, he pressed on, “And then? Answer me!”

“No! No!” Screams ripped out from Xie Jing Yun’s lungs. As though trapped in some extremely painful memory, she cried out tearfully, “He…He…”

“He what?” Su Mu continued to push further.

“He-he wanted to kill me…He…he used a knife to cut off my hair and…scalp…Sa-save me…save me…ahhh…ahhh…”

Xie Jing Yun used all the strength in her body to suddenly ram into Su Mu, knocking him away. While screaming and crying, she ran towards the window in panic.

Clang.

She smashed headfirst into the glass, then immediately lost her centre of gravity and tumbled out of the smashed window.

Su Mu hurriedly raced over the windowside, but Xie Jing Yun had already fallen directly from the twenty-third floor.

A few seconds later, there was a dull thud. Then came the shrieks of pedestrians.

The entire matter had happened so suddenly that he could not help but be stunned for a moment. However, he quickly recovered his calm and, after standing there and contemplating to himself, he turned around. But unexpectedly, he was met with the sight of Ye Xiao standing rigidly at the doorway.

Ye Xiao was staring at him with a stupefied look, the expression frozen on his face filled with shock and disbelief.

He gaped for a long while before finally stammering out a broken question.

“What-what are you doing?”

Su Mu softly clicked his tongue in impatience. Then he strode over and lifted a hand, furrowing his brows as he said, “You really are such a troublesome person. I’m always being seen by you…”

The moment he spoke, Ye Xiao’s vision went dark. Somehow, his body uncontrollably collapsed.