Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Mom was dead, and Gu Huai stepped forward.

He mobilized online media accounts.

At first, there were only scattered comments. But soon, as several videos appeared, the topic began to heat up.

In those videos that had suddenly surfaced, my younger twin siblings spoke in childish voices about the happy memories Mom and I had once shared. Children didn’t understand life and death partings. They only blinked their big dark eyes and asked in confusion,

“Why haven’t Mom and Big Sister come back yet?”

“Is it because Cancan and Yuanyuan didn’t eat properly?”

“Cancan and Yuanyuan miss you so, so much!”

Under every comment, Gu Huai tirelessly replied:

“A mother and daughter died wronged and in misery, leaving helpless young children behind in this world.”

This time, the softest place in the hearts of netizens was touched.

People began to speak up, began to question, began to demand the truth.

…

If only life were a satisfying revenge novel where justice fell with one clean stroke.

Just as the incident was gradually fermenting and the school, under pressure, announced that it would call the police and reopen the investigation, Gu Huai collapsed on a foggy morning.

The back of his head struck the corner of a moss-covered step in the back street. The rescue failed. He became vegetative.

People sighed in pity. “What terrible luck. In weather this foggy, the ground’s slippery too. Such a fine young man. What a shame, what a shame.”

My soul had grown unbearably weak.

It was as if a chipped, blunt blade were cutting through my brain and heart every waking moment.

Again.

And again.

I sensed that I was about to sink into a long sleep, and a heavy sigh rose from the depths of my soul.

Until…

Two people came to my grave.

A man and a woman.

Jiang Yubai’s eyes were sunken, his face ashen.

He stood there with both hands in his pockets, silently looking at the tombstone for a while.

Then he reached out and yanked the girl in the rose-red dress beside him down to the ground.

The lovely girl knelt there, sobbing quietly.

His expression was numb. “Say it yourself.”

Through the girl’s choked account, I finally understood why they had come.

The girl’s name was Qu Xiaoyan. She was Jiang Yubai’s childhood sweetheart.

In the eyes of the girls, Jiang Yubai was an untouchable flower on a high peak, but he showed her alone a measure of indulgence.

Once, she pressed Jiang Yubai about what kind of girl he actually liked.

Badgered until he lost patience, Jiang Yubai tossed out, “Someone like Teacher Xu.”

My name was Xu Anzhen. Teacher Xu was me.

Because of that answer, Qu Xiaoyan’s tiny adolescent jealousy was triggered.

A month later, she fabricated a lie.

She cried to Jiang Yubai that because she felt inferior over coming from a single-parent family, she had come to me for counseling, but I had treated her coldly. I had even mocked her to other teachers, saying, “People like her grew up spoiled in a honey jar. She deserves to pay a price.”

She said that because of my words, she had been diagnosed with depression.

…

“Teacher Xu, I’m sorry.”

She wept beautifully, like pear blossoms in the rain. The roses on her dress trembled with her body.

“Back then, back then I was just angry that Ah Bai said he liked you, so I told a tiny lie. I only wanted him to hate you.

“Teacher Xu, don’t blame Ah Bai. He was only standing up for me and wanted to teach you a lesson. He never thought the consequences would turn out like this either.

“Ah Bai was later locked up by his father. He didn’t want this either.

“Everything was arranged by fate. Teacher Xu, please rest in peace!”

At this point, a trace of girlish sorrow surfaced on her collagen-rich face. “Ah Bai, what should I do? I probably won’t ever be happy again.”

Jiang Yubai did not say a word the entire time.

Suddenly, he stepped forward, dropped to his knees, and kowtowed three times heavily before my tombstone. Thin lines of blood seeped from his forehead.

Qu Xiaoyan cried out in alarm and reached for him, her eyes full of heartache. “Ah Bai, why do this? Your parents will be heartbroken!”

He flung her hand away, his voice hoarse. “This is what I deserve.”

Then his gaze focused, falling on my photograph.

“Xu Anzhen, I once thought of dying to atone to you, but… there are too many people around me who love me. I can’t be that selfish.

“The living have to go on. Xiaoyan and I are preparing to go abroad and leave this painful place behind. What I owe you can only be repaid in the next life.”

He closed his eyes, endless pain spilling across his face. “Xu Anzhen, from now on, I will live earnestly with your share as well.”

…

When the two of them left, they walked side by side, one on the left and one on the right, their steps much lighter than before.

Qu Xiaoyan’s red dress fluttered in the wind like a rose blooming against the breeze, exceptionally bright and beautiful in the afterglow of the setting sun.

From far away, her clear, pleasant voice drifted over:

“Ah Bai, you should finally let it go now.

“Promise me you won’t blame yourself anymore, okay?

“Teacher Xu would be unhappy too if she saw you like this.”

…

In the blood-red sunset, my soul let out a piercing scream.