The police found Tian Ke’s body an hour later.
When Shen Kui arrived, the long police cordon had already sealed off the scene. The crowd surged around her, but she stood in the center like a wandering spirit adrift on a solitary island, staring blankly ahead.
The class monitor, mostly sobered up, was actively cooperating with the police, providing clues. Many female classmates were also sobbing as they recounted what they knew.
Shen Kui’s gaze drifted over the moving crowd to the center of the cordon, where a white cloth covered the familiar figure.
Forensic experts and police officers moved around, conducting their investigation. On the ground where Tian Ke had fallen, a white outline of a human shape had been drawn. Inside the outline, bloodstains were everywhere, with red and white fluids mixed together. It was a scene eerily similar to the night Lu Ting fell to her death.
The familiarity of the sight made Shen Kui physically nauseous. She felt her stomach convulsing violently, the intense spasms forcing her to bend over. Yet, her muddled mind registered no emotion.
Grief, confusion, fear… all of it seemed to have been stripped from her body along with that phone call.
Tian Ke had been one of the few anchors in Shen Kui’s drifting, rootless life. Now that the anchor had been torn out, flesh and blood, she felt as if she had been thrown into an endless tunnel through time and space, or transformed into a rootless soul floating in the River Styx1The River Styx is a prominent, mythical river in Greek mythology that serves as the boundary between the world of the living and the Underworld (Hades). Often described as a cold, dark, and swampy river, it is guarded by the ferryman Charon, who transports the souls of the dead across to the afterlife. for millennia, unable to see where she came from or find her way back.
All her previous suspicions about Tian Ke vanished in that moment. All Shen Kui could recall now were the twenty years of intimate companionship Tian Ke had given her.
That round, sunlit smiling face melted into the mottled light and shadow, vanishing in the blink of an eye.
*** ***
It was already midnight by the time she returned home.
Shen Kui collapsed onto the sofa, motionless.
Only a few hours remained until 3 a.m., when a new round of unknown challenges might begin, yet her heart remained utterly calm.
Her mind empty, she lay on her side on the sofa. The lights were off inside, but streetlamps outside filtered through the curtains, casting irregular shadows on the wall.
Shen Kui stared blankly at those shadows, her thoughts a chaotic mess. But as she watched, she suddenly felt the shape of the shadows looked familiar.
A memory flashed through her mind. The day she visited the museum. She seemed to have seen this before.
Could that shadow have been Ji Xun back then?
At the thought, she laughed mockingly to herself. What did it matter now?
Lu Ting was dead. Tian Ke was dead. Perhaps it wouldn’t be long before it was her turn…
What was the point of investigating any of this now?
Tian Ke’s sudden death was like a mountain, crushing Shen Kui’s path to uncovering the truth, leaving her with no will to continue.
Just then, the sudden ringing of her phone interrupted her thoughts.
Shen Kui flinched instinctively, too afraid to answer.
The call with Tian Ke before her death still echoed in her ears. Now, the sound of the ringing phone was more terrifying than any nightmare.
She didn’t even dare to take out her phone to check who was calling.
She closed her eyes, forcing herself to ignore the sound. But perhaps the night was too quiet, or perhaps her fear amplified the ringing.
It only seemed to grow louder and louder, like swarming insects burrowing relentlessly into her mind…
No, no… stop!
Fear shattered Shen Kui’s psychological defenses. Instinctively, she grabbed her phone and hurled it against the wall!
With a loud bang, the ringing abruptly ceased. Shen Kui let out a huge sigh of relief, only then realizing that cold sweat had long since soaked through her clothes.
But before she could even catch her breath, the relentless ringing started again!
And what was most shocking was that this time, the sound was coming from Tian Ke’s phone!
A surge of inexplicable anger instantly overwhelmed her fear. Furious, Shen Kui snatched up Tian Ke’s phone, not even glancing at the caller ID, and pressed the answer button, holding it to her ear:
“Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Is Shen Kui with you?”
Ji Xun’s flippant voice came through at the most inopportune moment. His uniquely crisp and cheerful tone was like a pair of hands parting the fog, clearing Shen Kui’s muddled mind.
“Hello? Anyone there? Why no sound?” Ji Xun chattered on. “Is she with you? I need to talk to her urgently.”
“…It’s me.” After a long pause, Shen Kui finally found her voice.
“Oh, finally found you! Why hasn’t your phone been working? There’s something I need to tell you.” Ji Xun said excitedly, “User 412L just replied to me!”
Shen Kui responded with an emotionless “Oh.”
“Your reaction is way too calm…” Ji Xun complained. “I bombarded him for ages using your method before he finally replied. He even said he’s going to sue me!”
“I think this guy is pretty stubborn. He insists I violated his family’s portrait rights and kept pressing me for my info. I told him if he wants to sue, fine, but we have to meet in person. He just agreed to meet me tomorrow.”
“Sis, how did you know that bombarding his DMs with the forum’s group photo of seven would force him out?” Ji Xun was in awe of Shen Kui, unconsciously switching to a more respectful address.
Shen Kui felt as if her soul had split in two. One half was still grieving over Tian Ke’s death, while the other half had already instinctively responded to Ji Xun: “What was your first reaction when you saw the group photo of seven posted by the forum OP?”
“Huh?” Ji Xun thought for a moment. “My first reaction was fear, I guess? After scrolling through the whole thread, the post felt really eerie. Suddenly seeing my mom’s photo gave me goosebumps all over.”
“Me too,” Shen Kui said calmly. “I think most people would react that way if they suddenly saw a photo of themselves or their family in such a bizarre post.”
“But User 412L’s reaction was strange. He didn’t seem scared or curious at all. If you look at his posts, he doesn’t care about anything the OP said. He just wants to defend his and his family’s rights.”
“So that’s why you told me to…” Ji Xun mused.
“So that’s why I told you to keep sending him that group photo of seven in his DMs. As long as you sent enough, he’d eventually come looking for you.”
“I see,” Ji Xun said, suddenly understanding. After a moment, he realized something: “Wait, if it’s that simple, why didn’t you just contact him directly from the start?”
Shen Kui paused for a moment. When she had chosen to tell Ji Xun the method instead of trying it herself, it was partly to test him and partly out of a selfish desire to avoid being entangled by him. Originally, it wasn’t convenient to tell Ji Xun directly, but perhaps at this moment, she desperately needed some conflict to divert her attention. She said bluntly, “Because I’m also afraid of being sued by him.”
“Wow! You’re such a wicked woman! And I just called you ‘sis’!” Ji Xun was hopping mad on the other end of the phone, his voice filled with frustration.
Listening to his chattering complaints, Shen Kui’s tightly wound nerves finally loosened a little.
This fleeting sense of relief made Shen Kui instinctively want to hold onto it. She waited quietly for Ji Xun to finish venting.
After a long while, seeing that Shen Kui remained silent, Ji Xun couldn’t hold back anymore: “Hey, hey, where are you? Don’t tell me you’ve disappeared again?”
“No, go on,” Shen Kui said calmly.
“Forget it, it’s no fun. I’ve figured it out. No matter how much I condemn a heartless woman like you, it’s useless.” Ji Xun pretended to be angry and said, “What about you? What’s going on with you? Why didn’t you answer the phone earlier? And why are you hanging out with Tian Ke again in the middle of the night?”
This time, Shen Kui remained silent for a long time.
So long that Ji Xun grew impatient and urged her repeatedly. Only then did she gaze out the window at the thick, dark night and whisper, “Tian Ke… she’s gone.”
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Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152