chapter 8

Chapter 8

Back home, I opened the box Chen Suiyuan had given me.

A cell phone, and a length of hemp rope.

So, he had planned to smash my phone all along. I even suspected he had used the same trick on Xiao Min.

As soon as I turned it on, the phone rang. I knew who it was.

I hung up, and he called again.

After three rounds, he sent a text: “Xu Xin, think about your hands that play the violin. I can’t guarantee I’ll show mercy every time.”

I regretted it a little, regretted not throwing away this troublesome thing in the car earlier.

But if I had opened it then, he could have embarrassed me right in front of the driver, letting the driver know I was just like those girls who threw themselves at him.

“Call me first.” He sent another message.

I thought about recording the call, but my phone was destroyed, and there was no other device at home. This phone was surely under Chen Suiyuan’s surveillance.

Helpless, I had no choice but to call him, just to keep myself safe.

It seemed intentional-he took a long time to answer.

“Do you like my gift?” he asked. “That rope you saw in the photos is also Xu Min’s keepsake. I specially found it to give to you.”

I gritted my teeth and said nothing.

“Those photos, Xu Min wasn’t the only one who had them. I have backups here, enough to make Xu Min famous. As her sister, I’m sure you wouldn’t want to disturb her peace after death, or ruin her reputation in this world.”

He threatened me, using a new tactic.

From Liang An’s car, to my own hands, to Xiao Min’s reputation, he relentlessly pushed my bottom line, inch by inch, driving me nearly insane.

“Chen Suiyuan, since you’re so good at keeping pets, have you ever been bitten by one?” I was truly grateful he was mad enough to make me want to drag him down with me. “When you tease a cat and hurt it, it will scratch you, you know?”

Unexpectedly, Chen Suiyuan got even more excited after hearing this: “Xu Xin, you’re finally going to resist. Tell me, how will you scratch me?”

“What if,” I said, enunciating each word, “I die too?”

But I didn’t say the rest. If I really died, that knife would pierce him as well as me.

“Let me propose a deal, Xu Xin,” Chen Suiyuan finally sounded anxious. “One month. Let me do whatever I want for one month. If after thirty days you still haven’t fallen into this abyss willingly, I’ll let you go. From then on, there will be no more entanglement.”

This time, he didn’t press me; instead, he loosened the tension: “I’ll give you some time. Think it over, then call me.”

At the same time, he told me, “Just as you guessed, this phone is being tracked. I always know where you are. If you turn it off or throw it away, I’ll take it as your refusal of this deal. Of course, I can’t guarantee what I might do if I get angry.”

What I didn’t expect was that the thing I feared most finally erupted at this critical moment.

A day later, the moment I answered my mother’s call, I knew the truth couldn’t be hidden any longer.

“I’m at the train station.” Her forced calmness stabbed at my heart like a knife. “Xin Xin, I came this time just to visit Xu Min’s grave.”

My mother had found out after all. A mother’s intuition easily pierced through my concealment.

She said that one night at three in the morning, she woke up drenched in cold sweat, her chest tight and unbearable, and she sensed a sorrowful farewell.

So, as if driven by fate, she went onto Xu Min’s school forum, and the gossip there confirmed her uneasy premonition.

Holding back tears, I lowered my voice to hide my sobs: “Mom, wait for me. I’ll come get you, and we’ll visit Xu Min together.”

Just as I was about to reach the train station, the phone rang at the worst possible moment.

Chen Suiyuan-he was always lurking in the shadows, never willing to let me go.