chapter 6

After school, Zhou Jingxing came to pick her up.

“The ugly freak’s got someone picking her up.” Xu Zhao didn’t find a chance to intercept Qiu Rongrong. He flicked his cigarette butt to the ground and crushed it under his shoe. “Fuck. Go find out where she’s living now. Who’s in her family?”

“Brother Zhao, haven’t we always… never messed with girls before?”

Xu Zhao kicked his lackey in the ass. “Quit the bullshit. If I tell you to check, then go check!”

Qiu Rongrong sat in the front passenger seat and told Zhou Jingxing about how Zhou Huaiyuan needed treatment.

“With how things are right now, he needs to see a psychologist before there’s any chance he can return to a normal life.”

She’d been through a period of emotional collapse herself.

But she’d actively accepted treatment, and she’d already learned to keep moving forward.

Thinking of her own psychologist, a gentleness filled Qiu Rongrong’s eyes and brows.

She was deeply grateful that when she was trapped in the mud, someone had been willing to reach down and pull her up.

It made her understand that a wounded heart could heal.

That miserable year was only a small part of her life.

She still had the second half of her life ahead of her.

She couldn’t bury her entire future because of one tragedy.

Zhou Jingxing held the steering wheel, eyes fixed on the road ahead. “We can book him a doctor. Take him in for liposuction.”

He drove extremely fast. The navigation would constantly remind him to slow down, and only then would he hit the brakes.

“Liposuction? Binge eating is a psychological disorder. We can start with psychological intervention and let him lose weight on his own. If that doesn’t work, then we can consult about surgery later.”

Going straight to an operation was too terrifying.

“He won’t be able to. With him, you have to cut the stomach first. After liposuction, the skin will sag, and you’ll still have to cut away the excess skin.”

When he said it, his tone was so cold and indifferent it didn’t sound like he was talking about his own brother at all.

Qiu Rongrong felt something was off. “Something this serious should be discussed with Uncle Zhou.”

The curve of his lips was faint. “Sure. When Dad gets back.”

He sounded gentle, easy to talk to.

At that moment.

Her phone rang.

Qiu Rongrong answered, and her face drained of color inch by inch.

The results were back for the bloodstains left on the ground at Xinghui Plaza. After DNA matching, they confirmed the owner of the blood was her former psychologist.

Which meant that on the first day-the day she took the bus and ran into that man-the body in the burlap sack had been the corpse of her benefactor.

And she hadn’t known a thing.

She’d even walked with him the whole way.

The ringing in her ears that had been coming and going these past two days stopped abruptly.

The news hit like a gust of wind that swept every sound out of her world. She couldn’t hear anything-not even the sound of blood moving through her veins.

Her psychologist had been so happy when he told her she’d recovered-that she didn’t need medication anymore, that she could live a normal life again.

For three years, it had been her psychologist who never gave up on her, who helped her face the past and free herself from her nightmares.

Before she left, they’d even made plans-once Qiu Rongrong finished school, she had to go back often to visit him.

So how could he be dead?

Could it really be like Tan Song said-that the real killer was still out there, living free?

And she thought again of that very tall man on the bus.

It was him!

He was the killer!

He’d come for her!

“Little sister?” Zhou Jingxing noticed something was wrong. He pulled over to the side of the road, switched on the hazard lights, and frowned slightly. “What’s going on?”

Qiu Rongrong jerked her head up. Her lips trembled. Her throat felt blocked, like she couldn’t even speak.

After a long moment, she finally forced out a single syllable.

“Brother…” Her voice was so soft. Her body shook with unease. “Tan Song was right. The killer didn’t die. He’s coming for me.”

The next second, Zhou Jingxing wrapped his arms around her.

His body heat was warm, seeping through their clothes and into her. Her chin rested on his shoulder, and the tension in her body slowly eased.
She melted into his arms just like that.

“Don’t be scared,” he said. “You’ve got your big brother. I’ll protect you.”

Qiu Rongrong wondered if this meant she had a new family now, a new person to lean on.

She craved warmth-craved the feeling of being pulled into someone’s embrace when panic set in.

The world was so huge, and the wind outside was so cold. She’d once been locked in a tiny room, stripped bare. She’d screamed until her throat tore raw and still couldn’t get out. Back then, all she’d been given was a knife-never a hug.

So much unease and fear could be magnified endlessly in this empty world, but all it took was one embrace and the world became small again-small enough to fit inside one person’s arms. The wind outside quieted. She could rest there, so steady, listening to her big brother’s heartbeat in his chest, loud enough to drown out all the bleak winds and bitter rain.

She thought: I need family.

Blood didn’t have to matter.

Please… give me a new family.

That day, in the car, Qiu Rongrong told Zhou Jingxing about her past.

She spoke in broken fragments.

Her hands wouldn’t stop rubbing at her arms.

Zhou Jingxing unfastened her seat belt and wrapped an arm around her, trying to give her a little warmth.

She said her whole family had died right in front of her-each death agonizing. The killer had saved her for last. She’d been tortured the longest, and she’d also been the one who could endure the most.

So she escaped.

She said the killer was dead now. She wanted to live her life properly. She didn’t want to think about the past anymore. Three years-three whole years had already gone by. The past should let her go, too.

She wanted to live well. Make new friends. Have new family. Someday, find a boyfriend who wouldn’t look down on her. She wanted to be like an ordinary girl. As for the corpses, the blood, the instruments of torture-let it all rot back in the past.

A bullet had executed the killer.

Executed the past.

Leaving behind a living Qiu Rongrong, arriving in this brand-new Guixu City, watching the sun rise again from the east, letting its light fall on her a little more.

Zhou Jingxing was a very good listener.

At least, that was what Qiu Rongrong thought.

Her words came out in fits and starts, and she kept trembling, but he listened patiently until she finished. At the end, he even patted her head and told her not to be afraid.

It was supposed to be just a hug.

But Zhou Jingxing started looking into her eyes.

So intensely her breathing turned hot.

It was still raining outside. The wipers swept back and forth. The heat inside the car was turned up high. Qiu Rongrong had taken off her school uniform jacket-underneath, she only wore a long-sleeved white shirt.

Then she saw his face move closer.

His eyes were still open.

Why was he getting close to her with his eyes open?

In that instant, Qiu Rongrong felt Zhou Jingxing drawing nearer and nearer, until even their breaths tangled together.

Her fingertips curled slightly.

He… was he going to kiss her?

The absurd thought flashed through her mind.

She tensed immediately, like a small animal about to be violated, every nerve on guard.

This wasn’t right.

Her eyes widened, wary.

But when she met his gaze, she panicked and looked away.

Zhou Jingxing simply reached past her shoulder. His fingers landed on the seat belt at her waist, gave it a light tug, and clicked it securely into place.

That made her look like she’d been getting ahead of herself.

“Buckle up,” he said, still very gentle.

A proper big-brother act.

“Oh.” Qiu Rongrong tugged her white shirt down a little and sat properly.

She was a proper little sister, too.

“Or you’ll die in a crash.”

Zhou Jingxing looked ahead and added the vicious line with a smile.