ED Chapter 9

When Shen Kui woke up, she heard someone speaking in low voices. Her newly awakened mind was still muddled. She reacted sluggishly for a moment before realizing that the voices belonged to Tian Ke and Ji Xun.

How did those two end up together?

She thought hazily, trying to open her eyes.

“Oh? She’s awake!”

“Ah! Hua Hua! You finally woke up!”

Before she could even see her surroundings clearly, Tian Ke lunged over, nearly knocking Shen Kui unconscious again.

Tian Ke threw herself to the bedside and, before saying anything, dropped two tears first. “Hua Hua, you scared me to death, aoo wuwuwu… I thought you were never going to wake up again, wuwuwuwuwu…”

Shen Kui had originally felt that her condition was still okay, but seeing Tian Ke acting like this, she suddenly wasn’t so sure anymore.

“…What happened to me?” Shen Kui asked hesitantly.

“Y-you… hic.” Tian Ke looked at Ji Xun for help.

Ji Xun said helplessly, “Didn’t the taxi you two were riding in get into an accident? The scene of the incident was still dozens of meters away from you, so logically there shouldn’t have been much of a problem…”

At this point, Ji Xun paused subtly. “But, well, your luck was pretty bad. A piece of sheet metal flew right in front of you—”

Shen Kui continued naturally, “And knocked me unconscious?”

She subconsciously touched her head. But she wasn’t injured?

“Uh, no.” Ji Xun said awkwardly. “That thing didn’t hit you, but it seems like… it scared you unconscious.”

Shen Kui: ???

Tian Ke sniffled as she explained, “The doctor said you might’ve been under long-term mental strain, and then suddenly encountered a major shock, so…”

“But you were unconscious for way too long. Two whole days. I thought you were never going to wake up… wu…”

Tian Ke’s mouth puckered as she was about to cry again. Ji Xun immediately felt his head ache and quickly cut her off. “The doctor already said it. She was just too exhausted! Her body needed rest! That’s why she didn’t wake up for the time being! But you refused to believe it and kept saying your bestie was going to become a vegetable. Listening to you cry for two days straight, I’m about to get neurasthenia¹Neurasthenia is a disease that consists of increased fatigue or bodily weakness and exhaustion, plus pantalgia, dizziness, headache, and other symptoms..”

Shen Kui had been wondering when these two had gotten so familiar with each other, when she suddenly reacted. “Wait—two days?!”

Ji Xun replied naturally, “Yeah. These past two days, we were afraid something else might happen, so we stayed here guarding you every night. But luckily, nothing happened at all. Not even a single mosquito flew in.”

“But… why…” Shen Kui murmured in confusion.

The strange occurrences at three in the morning had already been going on for more than half a month. At first, Shen Kui hadn’t taken them seriously. But once she consciously began to observe them, the incidents had clearly started to grow more and more intense.

If Lu Ting’s death could still be understood as a warning, then the taxi accident was clearly directed at her. If Shen Kui hadn’t gotten out of the car midway, she would probably be lying in the morgue by now.

Just a moment ago, she had already been thinking about how to deal with the life-and-death crisis that would come at three in the morning every night from now on. Yet now, she was suddenly being told that nothing had happened during the two days she had been unconscious?

Why?

Shen Kui thought absurdly: Could it be that this thing also needed user feedback? Seeing that she was unconscious, it simply stopped for two days?

“Ji Xun and I also talked about this. I have a hypothesis. Listen to it, though it might not necessarily be right.” Tian Ke had calmed down quite a bit. She carefully observed Shen Kui’s expression and said tentatively, “Let’s not worry about whether this hypothesis is reasonable or not. I’m just saying—is it possible… that the more you think about this matter and the more attention you pay to it, the more serious it becomes?”

“What do you mean?” Shen Kui didn’t react for a moment.

“Think about it, Hua Hua. When did you first start noticing that something was wrong at three in the morning?”

“About half a month ago, I guess? I don’t remember the exact date. Anyway, one night I was sleeping perfectly fine when a wild cat downstairs yowled and woke me up. When I checked the time, it happened to be three o’clock. After that, almost every night, some sudden accident would wake me up, and every time the time was three in the morning.”

Tian Ke said with certainty, “At that time, you didn’t take it to heart.”

“Right. I was on vacation at home during that period. Maybe I was more relaxed, so I didn’t think about it in any other way. I just assumed it was a coincidence.”

“Then, when did you start realizing that this matter might have a problem?”

“After… receiving the leather jacket?”

Shen Kui recalled the afternoon when she received the leather jacket. After half a month of continuous sleep deprivation, she had finally gotten a full night’s sleep. With her mind clear again, she thought back over all the abnormal things that had happened during the past half month. Combined with the forum and the leather jacket, things she couldn’t explain, she finally decided to take action regarding the abnormal situation at “three in the morning”.

It was also that very night that Lu Ting fell from the rooftop of her building and died.

“Look, Hua Hua, there are actually many things here that don’t make sense…”

Tian Ke spoke carefully. “I remember you mentioned before that during your vacation, you were sleep-deprived and in really poor spirits. So, since something unexpected was disturbing your sleep every night, why did you never think about making up for the sleep during the day?”

Shen Kui subconsciously refuted, “Then wouldn’t I be unable to sleep at night?”

“But weren’t you in bad shape precisely because you hadn’t slept well for several nights in a row?”

“That’s because my daily schedule has always been very regular…”

“I know your routine is regular. You go to bed at eleven every night and wake up at seven in the morning on time. I also know that you’ve been smart since you were little, with an excellent memory. Back in elementary school, you were already the ‘little detective’ of our class.” Tian Ke’s expression turned sorrowful. “Hua Hua, you’ve always been a sharp and perceptive person. But why was it that before receiving the leather jacket, you ignored such an obvious abnormality for half a month?”

Shen Kui found herself unable to refute it for a moment.

Indeed, this was also the part she had never been able to figure out before.

“Hua Hua…” Tian Ke licked her lips and softened her tone. “Do you think… it’s possible that some of your own imagination interfered with your perception?”

“Impossible!”

Shen Kui immediately retorted, “Lu Ting’s death and the taxi accident were things you experienced together with me. Are those fake, too?”

Tian Ke soothed her, “Hua Hua, don’t get agitated first. Those things definitely aren’t fake, but some of the circumstances might not be quite the same as you imagined…”

“It’s like this,” Ji Xun picked up the conversation. “The investigation results for Lu Ting’s case have already come out. It was ruled a suicide. The police found the farewell message she left on her phone.”

“During the two days you were unconscious, some colleagues also tried to contact you. Lu Ting’s family has decided to hold the farewell ceremony for her remains tomorrow. We were originally planning that if you still hadn’t woken up by tomorrow, we would go in your place.”

“Suicide?” Shen Kui murmured in disbelief. “Why? She had no reason…”

“She took out a high loan on behalf of her online boyfriend. When the repayment date came, she couldn’t pay it back, and her boyfriend ran away, too. With no way out, she decided to commit suicide.” Ji Xun spread his hands helplessly. “Later, it was confirmed that the guy was a habitual PUA offender. If you ask me, people like that deserve to be hacked into a thousand pieces. I heard there might have been more victims than just Lu Ting.”

“Oh, right.” Ji Xun added, “The most crucial point is that the place the guy rented is right upstairs from your apartment.”

“So that’s why she happened to fall right outside my window,” Shen Kui said thoughtfully. “But why was it three in the morning?”

“We asked about that, too. The reason is pretty absurd. It’s because the first time Lu Ting met that scumbag in person, they arranged to meet at a bar called ‘Three in the Morning, You and Me’. Lu Ting thought three in the morning was a very special time, and she even mentioned this point in her suicide note.”

“Of course, just to be safe, we specifically checked it out as well. That bar really does exist.”

At this point, the thread regarding Lu Ting seemed to have become completely clear.

Although everything sounded reasonable and well-supported, Shen Kui still felt that something was off.

She suppressed the doubt in her heart and asked again, “Then what about the taxi? Was that a coincidence, too?”

Hearing Shen Kui’s question, Tian Ke and Ji Xun exchanged a glance. Both of them revealed a strange expression on their faces.