A teenage boy, about sixteen or seventeen, strutted proudly into an alley near the school. A night cat leapt onto a wall, staring at him. He glanced at it, then continued talking to someone on the phone.
“I’ve got it all figured out. Xia Fengguang comes here every day to feed the cats. Usually Ji You’s with her, but today’s Friday—Ji You has a date with her mysterious boyfriend, so it’s just Xia Fengguang alone. When she shows up… heh heh heh. You don’t know, do you? Xia Fengguang is the school’s most famous beauty. Her face is stunning—and just imagine what’s under—”
His words were abruptly cut off.
Someone had grabbed his collar from behind. A pale, elegant hand wrapped around his neck, along with a scalpel.
It all happened in an instant.
The boy collapsed to the ground, clutching his neck as blood gushed out. His carotid artery had been severed, and blood quickly pooled beneath him. As he lay there, he looked up at the man standing against the light and saw his calm, refined smile.
Like the Grim Reaper announcing the end of a life.
The boy’s body twitched once, then went still. Only his eyes remained wide open, filled with panic and disbelief.
From the ground, his phone crackled with a voice: “Hello? Fu Qing, you still there?”
The phone was crushed underfoot, and the voice was gone.
The man in the white shirt and black suit pulled out a white handkerchief. He calmly wiped the blood from the scalpel, tucked the blade back into his pocket, and tossed the bloodstained cloth into a corner.
Every movement he made was so graceful, it was hard to look away.
The cat on the wall meowed.
At the mouth of the alley, a girl stood frozen. The bag of cat food in her hand slipped from her fingers and hit the ground with a soft thud, the only sound in the otherwise silent alley.
The man slowly turned around, and for the first time, the calm on his face cracked.
He stood in the shadows; she stood in the sunlight. It was as if an invisible boundary split them into two different worlds.
And suddenly… he didn’t dare to step across that line.
Fengguang stood there for a long, long time. Finally, she reacted. She looked around to make sure no one was nearby, then ran into the alley. She bypassed the man she hadn’t seen in so long and stopped at the body on the ground. Slowly, she raised her hand to cover her mouth.
“He… he’s dead?”
Ji Mian’s eyes looked even darker in the dim light. He answered her emotionlessly, “He’s dead.”
“Did… did you kill him, brother?”
“I killed him.”
Fengguang stared at him in shock for a few seconds, then suddenly bent down and began trying to drag the body. She struggled with it—her strength was limited—and managed to move it only slightly.
Ji Mian remained where he was, confusion flickering across his usually composed face. He genuinely didn’t understand what she was doing.
She looked up at him with a hint of irritation. “Brother, don’t just stand there—come help me!”
He blinked. “Help you?”
She gave up dragging the corpse and stood straight, speaking hurriedly, “It’s almost dismissal time. More and more people will be around soon. We need to hide him in that trash bin and clean this place up before someone sees!”
“Fengguang… what are you saying?”
“Brother, don’t be dumb right now! If someone sees you, the police will—”
Before she could finish, he yanked her into his arms. Above her, she heard his delighted, musical laugh. She felt the tremor of his chest as he laughed and tried hard not to smear the blood on her hands onto his clean shirt.
Looking up, she asked softly, “Brother, what’s wrong?”
He didn’t answer directly.
He had simply made up his mind—
To go completely insane.
Sam Williams On TYMIMA Chapter 152