Chapter 4
Chapter 4
After I finished the call with my cousin, I saw that my best friend, Kang Yu, had sent me several WeChat messages.
“Nana, where are you?”
“I’m already at the residential area, but I don’t see you.”
“I’ll head up first and get your pajamas and some hot water ready. Come up on your own in a bit.”
I messaged Kang Yu back:
“I was on the phone with my aunt just now.”
“Do you want a late-night snack? I’ll go buy some wontons.”
Kang Yu replied quickly:
“Food from outside isn’t clean. Don’t buy anything. I’ll make you something.”
My nose stung. I typed back, “Then I’ll go to the supermarket and buy some fruit, and some underwear to change into these next few days.”
After I bought everything, I carried my bags into Xingfu Residential Area, entered Building 6, and took the elevator up to the seventh floor.
I knocked on the door.
Within seconds, Kang Yu opened it. She was wearing an apron and still had a spatula in her hand.
The moment I saw my best friend, tears poured down my face. Like a child who had suffered some terrible wrong, I threw my arms around her and sobbed.
“It’s okay, babe. I’m here.”
Kang Yu rubbed my back with her arm and comforted me softly. “Everything will pass. Come inside first. We’ll talk it all through tonight.”
I gave a muffled hum.
After I entered, I noticed two pairs of women’s shoes by the door. One pair was the sneakers Kang Yu wore every day. The other was a pair of black high-heeled sandals. I had seen the same style on Tmall before, priced at over ten thousand yuan.
I frowned. “Do you have a guest?”
Kang Yu smiled. “When I came in, I happened to run into a friend from yoga class at the entrance. She twisted her ankle, so I helped her up here to ice it.”
I didn’t think much of it and walked inside, only to freeze in shock when I saw a young woman in her twenties sitting on the living room sofa. She had an oval face, delicate features, and when she smiled, two small dimples appeared in her cheeks.
It was her. Duan Kai’s mistress! The murderer who had removed my organs and dismembered me!
My scalp seemed to explode with a buzz, and all the blood in my body instantly ran cold.
Kang Yu smiled as she introduced us. “Nana, this is Shen Zhiqiu.”
“Hello.” Shen Zhiqiu set down her glass, stood, and walked over. She took the initiative to extend her hand to me. “Xiaoyu said your name is Anna Qiao. Such a pretty name, and you’re beautiful too. Your boyfriend must be very lucky.”
Facing my murderer, my first reaction was not revenge. It was to turn and run.
Terror, fear, and anger surged up all at once. I trusted Kang Yu so much. How could she secretly collude with the person who killed me? How could she comfort me on the surface, only to set a trap and wait for me to walk right into it?
But…
Our friendship had lasted more than ten years. We weren’t family by blood, but we were closer than family.
After my parents died in a car accident back then, Kang Yu had stayed by my side the entire time and helped me make it through that painful period.
There was no way she would hurt me.
If Duan Kai and Shen Zhiqiu had plotted to kill me, then it was entirely possible they had secretly contacted my family and friends. That meant Xiaoyu was in grave danger too.
I didn’t have time to think. I turned back.
As soon as I reached the tenth floor, I ran into Kang Yu coming out of her apartment. She was putting on her sneakers as she looked at me in surprise. “What’s wrong, Nana? Why did you run?”
Confused, she turned to look back at her door. “Do you know Shen Zhiqiu?”
I grabbed Kang Yu’s arm and dragged her into a run.
But just then, the elevator opened with a ding. Duan Kai stepped out, his face dark and grim.
At the same time, the stairwell door was pushed open. A burly man with a fleshy face walked out, holding an iron rod. He blocked the doorway and smiled at Kang Yu and me.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Kang Yu instinctively stepped in front of me and glared at Duan Kai. “Nana said you cheated on her. What, you trying to snatch her away right in front of me?”
Duan Kai spat. “Shut the hell up!”
Behind us came the sound of high heels. Shen Zhiqiu leaned alluringly against the doorway, cast Duan Kai a flirtatious glance, and covered her mouth as she laughed. “I’m clearly the other woman, but your wife reacted to me like she’d seen a ghost. She ran faster than a rabbit.”
Kang Yu stared at Shen Zhiqiu in shock. She understood in an instant and pointed at Shen Zhiqiu, cursing, “You deliberately got close to me? You bullied my childhood friend?”
I tugged Kang Yu and shook my head at her, signaling for her not to speak.
“Honey.” I looked at Duan Kai, secretly slipped my hand into my pocket, grabbed my phone, and pressed the power button repeatedly, trying to make an emergency call. At the same time, I tried to persuade Duan Kai with my words. “I wrote my own ID number on the back of the lottery ticket and put it somewhere absolutely safe. When it’s redeemed and the taxes are paid, it’ll be forty million in hand. We can get divorced and split the money half and half. After that, we’ll never have anything to do with each other again. You can be with whoever you want.”
My body was already trembling. “But if you insist on hitting me and doing something illegal, not only will you never get the money, you’ll definitely go to prison! Think it through.”
Duan Kai’s brows furrowed slightly. He was clearly wavering.
Kang Yu didn’t know the full story. “Nana, what are you saying? He’s the one at fault. Don’t be afraid of him. It’s just a fight. I’ve never been scared of anyone!”
She rolled her wrists and looked at Duan Kai provocatively. “What? Want to go inside and practice?”
Duan Kai laughed in disdain. “Sure.”
Just then, Kang Yu suddenly kicked the man by the stairwell, grabbed my arm, and ran. As she ran, she cursed, “There was something wrong with the milk tea that bitch gave me! Run!”
I hurriedly took out my phone and realized I had somehow dialed the wrong emergency number. I had called 120.
The operator on the other end was still asking, “Hello, can you hear me?”
I immediately hung up and quickly dialed 110, shouting at the top of my lungs, “Fire! Help!”
It was then that I saw three men standing guard at the ninth-floor stairwell. They were holding clubs.
My phone was snatched away at once, and the call was ended.
From the moment Kang Yu and I started running to the moment we were caught, less than ten seconds had passed.
A few minutes later, Xiaoyu and I were sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered. It lasted for hours.
The ceiling was bloodred. The darkness was endless.
Their laughter still rang vividly in my ears.
In the end, our kidneys, hearts, and other organs were removed. Part of our bodies was flushed down the toilet. The rest was packed into suitcases with stones and sunk into the bottomless river and sea.
…