In July, the mountain city was damp and sticky. After a night of torrential rain, even the soil three feet beneath one’s feet was warm and wet.
Shen Kui had barely slept all night. She went to work with two enormous dark circles under her eyes.
Her boss, who had just walked into the office in high spirits because the project was progressing smoothly, was startled by the eye bags that looked like they were about to drop to her feet. “Whoa, what happened to you? What have you been doing these past two weeks? How did you get so haggard?”
“Don’t even mention it.” Shen Kui waved her hand, half joking and half serious. “Something big came up.”
She had already been sleep-deprived to begin with. After staying up in shock and fear to read through the entire thread the night before, and then taking another blow from her best friend’s message, Shen Kui’s condition on her first day back at work plummeted. She felt utterly exhausted and dispirited.
Her boss had a youthful mindset and liked to joke around. Hearing that, he chuckled and said, “Sounds like you’ve suffered plenty these past two weeks. If I’d known, I wouldn’t have given you that leave.”
Shen Kui thought to herself, Exactly! Maybe if she’d been at work, none of this would have happened.
She smiled helplessly and gave her boss a weak, lifeless gesture of encouragement.
*** ***
The entire morning passed quickly in the midst of busyness.
Shen Kui had a serious personality and worked meticulously, with a bit of a workaholic streak. Once she entered work mode, it was as if she’d been injected with adrenaline—no fatigue, no drowsiness. Even the biggest matters could be cast aside. It wasn’t until a colleague reminded her it was lunchtime that she came back to herself.
“Yo, Xiao Kui, already so serious as soon as you’re back? Skipping meals, too?” Front desk clerk Lu Ting twisted her waist as she came over to greet her, holding up a package and shaking it slightly. “Here, this is yours. Not sure when it got left at the front desk. I just found it today.”
Shen Kui paused. Had she bought anything recently?
She thanked her and hesitantly took the package, her gaze landing on the box.
Most of the shipping label was obscured by a blotch of black ink, but she could vaguely see that the recipient’s name had half of the character “Kui” printed on it.
“I didn’t dirty it like this. It was already like this when we found it. No idea who stuffed it in the corner,” Lu Ting shrugged. “If we hadn’t cleaned today, who knows how long it would have stayed hidden.”
Maybe it was just a bonus from some previous order, Shen Kui thought absentmindedly.
She set the box on the desk. “Got it. Let’s go. Wanna grab some food?”
“Who’s going with you? I’ve got plans,” Lu Ting pouted playfully.
“Dating someone?” Shen Kui blinked, her dark eye circles making her curious expression even more teasing, which made Lu Ting burst out laughing.
Lu Ting laughed and said, “Ah, just an online romance. Keep it low-key, okay?”
“Never thought someone as gorgeous as you would be into online dating,” Shen Kui said sincerely, full of admiration.
“Just someone I met on a forum. We got along, so I thought I’d give it a try,” Lu Ting said casually.
“Forum? What forum?”
“Here.” Lu Ting tapped her phone a couple of times and handed it to Shen Kui. “This one.”
The familiar forum interface appeared again. Shen Kui even saw that the post she had scrolled through hundreds of pages of last night had been bumped back to the homepage, a red “Hot” badge floating next to the title. She opened her mouth, unsure how to respond, and could only manage a dry, “Oh.”
Fortunately, Lu Ting didn’t care about Shen Kui’s reaction. She tossed her long hair and gave Shen Kui a flirtatious wink. “Alright, enough talking. I’m off on my date. Remember, keep it a secret, okay?”
Shen Kui waved absentmindedly. Her mind, temporarily cleared by work earlier, was now once again crowded with everything that had happened last night. She rubbed her temples. A dull ache throbbed across her forehead. Probably due to her irregular schedule, the headaches had been happening more frequently lately.
She sat back down and opened the forum on her phone.
Since last night, no one had replied to that post. Before leaving in the morning, Shen Kui had even refreshed it once. By then, it had already sunk past fifty pages. Now that it had been bumped back up, there must have been new replies.
She opened the post she had bookmarked and refreshed it. But strangely, the last reply still showed the timestamp of 3:47 a.m. from last night. No new replies had appeared.
What’s going on?
She switched back to the forum homepage and started scrolling from the first page, flipping through over a hundred pages before finally finding the post, now close to sinking again.
Indeed, there were no new replies, so why did this post float to the top on Lu Ting’s phone?
Could it be a device issue?
She logged into the forum on the company computer and scrolled through again. Still nothing.
Had she misread it? Shen Kui hesitated. Could it be that she hadn’t slept well and her eyes were playing tricks on her?
After what happened last night, Shen Kui was somewhat jumpy. She hesitated for a moment before sending the message to her best friend. Although Tian Ke often jokingly called herself an IT worker, she was still a professional of sorts. Maybe she could have an answer.
At that moment, a WeChat notification popped up: a message in the classmates’ group.
Sweet K: “Speaking of which, we haven’t had a gathering in a long time. I remember there are quite a few classmates in City A. How about we organize something nearby? @everyone”
Organizing a class reunion had been the plan Shen Kui discussed with Tian Ke last night.
If the other party was really prepared, asking directly would inevitably alert them. Using the guise of a class gathering allowed them to fish around quietly and figure out the other side’s situation.
Tian Ke had a good temper, was well-liked, and had an outgoing, lively personality. She had been popular even in school and often organized gatherings casually. With her making the suggestion, it didn’t arouse suspicion while also ensuring a strong, responsive turnout.
Sure enough, classmates quickly started responding. Before long, twenty or thirty people had signed up.
Sweet K: “Alright then, let’s just roughly count the numbers. If anyone decides to come last minute, just show up. We’ll tentatively set it for this Saturday at six in the evening. I’ll post a poll in a bit about what to eat. Vote however you like~”
Shen Kui didn’t speak in the group. When the poll came up, she casually cast a vote for hotpot.
Starting a poll had also been something they agreed on beforehand. Those who participated would only have their profile pictures displayed. Unless someone paid special attention, it would be hard to notice.
Shen Kui was hoping to use this method to subtly send a message to the person in the shadows that she would be attending the gathering. Since that person had gone to such lengths to sneak into the classmates’ group, they presumably wouldn’t miss such a perfect opportunity as a reunion.
Of course, even if that person really didn’t show up, taking this chance to relax her taut nerves wouldn’t be a loss. Shen Kui comforted herself with the thought.
After Tian Ke finished dealing with the classmates in the group and saw Shen Kui’s private message, she quickly replied, “That post was already locked this morning. Are you sure you saw it bumped to the top?”
It was locked this morning?
Then why had it looked normal just now?
Puzzled, Shen Kui refreshed the page again. Sure enough, after the refresh, a line of small red text floated at the very top of the post: “Because this thread violated forum regulations, it has been permanently banned.”
The reply box below had already turned completely gray.
Could it really be a system bug? Shen Kui hesitated.
With the post locked, this source of information was temporarily cut off as well. If she wanted to learn more, she could only try sending a private message to the original poster or to Survivor 412L.
After weighing it over and over, Shen Kui decided to hold off for now.
There had been too much information last night, and she hadn’t fully sorted through it yet. It wouldn’t be too late to contact them after she had thought everything through.
Besides, if that extra “classmate” in the group was truly related to this matter, there would surely be some development by Saturday.
With things coming to a temporary pause, Shen Kui finally let out a breath of relief. She ordered herself some takeout, planning to rest her head on the desk for a while before lunch arrived. Out of the corner of her eye, she suddenly caught sight of the delivery box in the corner.
Right. There was still that.
That package that had appeared out of nowhere… could it be connected somehow?
After thinking it over, Shen Kui decided to open it first and take a look.
She picked up the scissors on the desk and sliced open the box.
Almost the instant the box was opened, Shen Kui recognized what it was.
Her body reacted before her mind did. The color drained rapidly from her face, and the tremble of her lips betrayed the shock she felt at that moment.
She knew what it was.
She recognized it at a single glance.
It was the black leather jacket her mother had once worn.
The worn leather jacket lay quietly inside the delivery box, waiting for its new owner.
If Shen Kui had still held onto a trace of wishful thinking about this series of events before, then this leather jacket in front of her was like irrefutable, ironclad evidence, severing every path of retreat she had left.
Yes, it was aimed at you.
A sudden wave of dizziness washed over her, and her vision blurred out of focus. Countless chaotic images surged briefly into her mind, then withdrew with lightning speed.
…What was that?
She nearly lost her footing and instinctively braced herself against the desk. The riot of colors in her mind was like butterflies gradually disappearing into the dark. Her gaze could only faintly catch the flutter of their wings, yet she could never quite reach them.
A powerful intuition suddenly surfaced in her heart. She seemed to have truly forgotten something very important.
“Oh my, what’s wrong? Are you alright?” Her boss’s exaggerated voice pulled Shen Kui out of her brief confusion.
Without even looking in a mirror, she knew she looked terrible. Shen Kui shook her head and forced a smile. “My low blood sugar is acting up.”
“You young people just don’t like eating properly!” Her boss helped her back into her chair while huffing as he lectured her. “Always thinking about losing weight, never eating properly when it’s time to eat. Now you’ve made yourself sick from hunger, haven’t you? If you ask me, we should add eating on time to your attendance record. Let’s set up some kind of mealtime check-in or something…”
Her boss’s surname was Xu. He was in his fifties, from the south, cheerful and young at heart. All year round, he wore a pair of flip-flops and carried a thermos cup as he wandered about. He was always gentle with his subordinates. His only flaw was that he loved to nag. From top to bottom, everyone in the company called him Uncle Xu.
His concern warmed Shen Kui’s heart. She took a deep breath, pulled herself together, and replied, “Thank you, Uncle Xu. I’ve just been busy these past couple of days and didn’t manage to eat properly. Please don’t worry.”
“Did something happen? You didn’t look too well even this morning.”
“Don’t worry. It’s nothing serious. I can handle it,” Shen Kui reassured him.
“As long as you’re fine. Even if the sky falls, you still have to eat properly. When I was young, I had low blood sugar, too. Once, I even fell into a ditch while walking down the road. I still have a scar on my arm from it.” He rolled up his sleeve. A long scar stretched from his elbow all the way to his wrist. At the very end of it was a snake-shaped tattoo the size of a coin.
For some reason, that tattoo gave Shen Kui a very uncomfortable feeling.
“As long as you were okay,” she said thoughtfully, looking at the tattoo. “You’re quite fashionable.”
“Ah, that was just me being foolish when I was young.” Uncle Xu’s expression stiffened slightly, and he unnaturally waved his hand.
Dizzy and muddle-headed, Shen Kui didn’t notice the fleeting oddness in his reaction. She chatted with Uncle Xu for a few more moments before her takeout arrived. Forcing herself to finish the meal, she asked for leave and headed straight home.
She needed a quiet space to properly sort out her thoughts.
Moonlit: Uncle Xu seems suspicious…
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152