chapter 4
Jiang Xiaoxiao flipped the bathroom light switch.
The light didn’t come on.
After hesitating a few seconds, she turned on the faucet.
After washing her face, she looked up at the mirror.
Moonlight streamed through the window.
It illuminated a dense row of blood-red characters scrawled across the mirror.
She let out an instinctive scream.
She recognized those words.
They were Jiang Ye’s love letter.
Back in high school, Jiang Ye had been brought back home.
Her adoptive mother arranged for Jiang Ye to attend her school, and told her to look after her.
Everyone asked her who this girl was.
She thought.
Why did she have to come back and take her place?
So she sent a boy to get close to Jiang Ye.
Jiang Ye was timid, cowardly, unpresentable, startled by every kindness.
Gradually, she let her guard down.
The love letter meant for the boy—she pasted it up on the bulletin board.
The boy was her boyfriend.
She’d just hidden it from Jiang Ye on purpose.
And so, she became the adopted daughter whose boyfriend had been stolen.
Jiang Ye became the scheming girl who was jealous of her sister and stole her sister’s boyfriend.
“An illusion! It’s all an illusion!”
Jiang Xiaoxiao shouted.
She scrubbed desperately at the blood-red words.
As if wiping them away could hide these secrets.
I tilted my head.
Since blood kept flowing from my neck wound, I’d done a crude stitch-up for convenience.
It was a bit crooked.
But that didn’t matter.
I pressed close to Jiang Xiaoxiao’s face.
And looked into the mirror alongside her.
“Ahh!”
Jiang Xiaoxiao screamed.
She fled the bathroom.
She ran to the bedroom and bolted the door behind her.
I drifted lazily to the door and began knocking.
One knock. Two. Three.
The sound of my knocking echoed through the silent night.
Jiang Xiaoxiao’s trembling voice came from behind the door: “Don’t come near me!”
“It wasn’t me!”
“Go after them—none of them like you either! Don’t come near me!”
When people are terrified, they always like to shift the blame.
We ghosts generally call this behavior: talking tough even when death is at your doorstep.
My knocking gradually faded.
The voice inside the bedroom also slowly calmed down.
“Is it gone?” Jiang Xiaoxiao’s voice carried a note of joy.
“No.” Because my vocal cords were cut, my voice came out hoarse.
But to me, it sounded lovely.
Because revenge never needs to be beautiful or graceful.
I passed through the wall.
“Just kidding.”
Jiang Xiaoxiao backed away step by step.
“I was wrong! I was wrong!”
“It was all my fault back then. I framed you on purpose. I didn’t want you to come back.”
“I was wrong. I really was wrong.”
“Please…”
My body didn’t pause for a single moment.
When people are terrified, they also like to beg for forgiveness.
As if they believe that as long as they admit fault, they can be forgiven.
The System’s voice rang in my mind.
[Remorse value of the fake daughter, Jiang Xiaoxiao: 80%.]
See? She regrets it.
But I know it’s not because her conscience woke up. It’s because she’s afraid.
I spread my arms and lunged at Jiang Xiaoxiao.
“Ahh!”
With a twisted scream, Jiang Xiaoxiao ran backward.
Crack.
The glass shattered.
The apartment was on the third floor.
I looked out the window. Jiang Xiaoxiao’s fingers were twitching.
In the living room, Jiang Xiaoxiao’s phone rang.
The caller was Jiang Zhiheng.
He was the older brother of Jiang Xiaoxiao and of the original body’s owner.
I remembered.
He had a secret too.