Chapter 95: Slaying with Tears

At that moment, Li Jia already understood in her heart that her mother was beyond saving, that there was no turning back for her now.

What was more, she could not forgive her mother. She had decided to avenge her father and bring this terrible family tragedy to an end with her own hands.

Driven by rage, Li Jia walked slowly into the kitchen, chose a kitchen knife that felt right in her hand, then returned to the bedroom door. Holding the knife, she pushed the door open and went in.

Inside the bedroom, Liu Jiajia was entirely lost in the world brought on by the drugs. By the time Li Jia came to stand before her with the knife in hand, she gave no reaction at all. On her blood-streaked face rested an eerily blissful smile.

Seeing her mother like this, Li Jia felt both a piercing ache in her heart and an overwhelming loathing.

Her father’s body lay nearby, the blood still not fully dry, while her mother, not even in the grip of withdrawal, was sunk in the pleasure of her addiction.

She could not understand how the once harmonious, happy family she had known had come to this, and she did not want to understand anymore. Right now, she only wanted to bring it all to an end as quickly as possible.

Tears streaming down her face, Li Jia raised the kitchen knife in her hand.

One minute later.

Li Jia sat collapsed in a pool of blood, staring vacantly ahead, while intermittent laughter spilled from her lips.

“What was I just doing? Oh, yes, I remember now. I personally ended Liu Jiajia’s life. How many cuts was it? Five? Or eight? It’s over. Everything is over.”

As she thought this, she kept laughing softly.

Over the next half hour, she first moved her parents’ bodies side by side onto the bed, then covered them with a sheet. After briefly cleaning the blood from her hands in the bathroom at home, she returned to her own bedroom.

The moment she decided to end Liu Jiajia’s life with her own hands, she had already resolved to die as well.

She switched on the desk lamp for light.

A cool draft came from the air conditioner.

Peng Min was sleeping soundly on the bed, with no sign that she might wake.

Li Jia only felt that her mind was clearer now than at any other time, clearer than ever before. She sat quietly at the desk for a while, then took out paper and pen and began to write.

In the bedroom, the only sounds were the mechanical hum of the air conditioner and the rustle of Li Jia’s pen beneath the lamplight.

She wrote two farewell letters in all, one thick and one thin. The thicker one was for Huang Yu, and the thinner one for Peng Min.

If there were still anyone in this world worth her attachment, that person was Huang Yu.

Li Jia knew that what she was doing was unbearably selfish toward Huang Yu, so she put everything into the letter she left him: all her thoughts, all her longing, and all her regret.

By the time the sky brightened and sunlight poured through the window into the room, Peng Min gradually woke from sleep.

Perhaps because she had not been sleeping in a nightclub, she had rested deeply this time. She had not dreamed through the night, and when she opened her eyes, she simply felt refreshed and full of energy.

She rubbed her eyes and looked around, but did not see Li Jia. Instead, on the desk she noticed two letters, one thick and one thin, placed in a very conspicuous spot.

Peng Min remembered clearly that when she had gone to sleep the night before, that place had been spotless, with nothing there at all.

Then she suddenly realized something and hurried over to the desk.

The thinner of the two letters was on top. On the envelope were the words farewell letter, addressed to Peng Min to open, and signed at the end in Li Jia’s final hand.

Peng Min’s face changed in an instant. She did not open the letter right away, but turned at once and rushed out of the bedroom.

In the living room, there were bloody footprints, leading from Li Jia’s parents’ bedroom all the way to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Li Jia lay motionless in the bathtub.

The tub was filled with bright red bloodied water. In some places it had already begun to clot, and in others it had slowly turned dark.

“Li Jia, sister!”

Seeing the scene in the bathroom, Peng Min could not stop herself from crying out. She hurried forward to check on Li Jia. There was a bloodstained cut across the wrist of her left hand.

Peng Min kept calling Li Jia’s name over and over, but no matter how loudly she shouted, Li Jia in the bathtub gave no response at all. It was obvious that she was already completely beyond saving.

As she struggled to lift Li Jia out of the tub, tears blurred Peng Min’s vision and began to pour down uncontrollably.

It took her a very long time to get Li Jia out of the bathtub, largely because Li Jia’s body had already begun to stiffen.

It took her still longer to carry Li Jia’s body back to the bedroom. She tidied her appearance as best she could, dried the body, and only then laid her flat on the bed.

Only after all this did Peng Min open the letter Li Jia had left for her to see what it said.

“Peng Min, thank you.

Meeting you in my most desperate moment was the only ray of light the heavens granted me in all my darkness.

I have already decided to leave. You do not need to feel sad for me. I am merely going back to the place I came from. You do not need to worry that I will be lonely, because there, my father and mother are waiting for me... There, there is no harm, only love. Our family will be reunited once more and become a family forever.

I am very glad to have had you with me these past few days, to have had you as my friend, bringing me joy and smiles.

Though you will never see me again, do not grieve or miss me because of that. We are not truly parted forever. I will love you always, and I will always be with you, whether or not the flesh can be seen. I have never left. We will meet again when your curtain falls.

Sometimes I think about what we were in our previous lives. Were we close friends? Or perhaps a loving couple who grew old together and promised to continue our bond in the next life? Otherwise, why would we have felt so familiar at first sight and become such trusted friends?

In truth, we are all brave souls. Before choosing to be born, we forget the place we came from and all our memories from past lives. Perhaps it is only so we may better learn and experience a brand-new life, so that our lives can shine more brilliantly.

I have understood many things now. I am ready to return to that eternal home, and I no longer wish to go through another lifetime, because I feel I have experienced enough.

...

Today, I am about to leave.

Looking at this world again, I feel nothing but love and gratitude.

Please rejoice sincerely for my choice, rather than be sad.

...

Peng Min, there is one last thing I must ask of you: tell Huang Yu that I have died, personally hand him the farewell letter I left for him, and tell him that I love him, but I was never his one and only.

And please offer my apology to Huang Yu as well. The promise we made to one another was broken by me.

Your friend,
Li Jia”

Holding the letter Li Jia had written for her, Peng Min read every line, then turned her gaze once more to Li Jia lying on the bed, her expression peaceful and serene. She did not move for a long time. Only after several minutes did she let out a deep sigh.

A few days earlier, Huang Yu had finished eating with his parents at the famous Wangtaixiao restaurant in KM City. After seeing his parents off, he took out his phone and called Li Jia on the way back to the hotel.

But although the call connected, no one answered.

He thought perhaps Li Jia’s phone was temporarily not at her side, so after sending her a few simple messages through a social app, he set the matter aside for the time being.

After returning to the hotel, Huang Yu merely glanced at his phone and saw that he had received no reply from Li Jia. Though he found it a little strange, he did not think too much of it.

He still had a formal interview the next day, and after his conversation with Old Man Qian that morning, there were some things he needed to prepare in advance.

In the hotel suite, he first selected a few of the food photos and pictures of the restaurant atmosphere he had taken at lunch and sent them to Li Jia, thinking that he would come back and eat there with her someday. Then he put the phone aside and focused on preparing for the interview.

Several hours later, he would often pick up his phone to check it, and from time to time he would send a few more messages, but there was still no reply from Li Jia. This made him instinctively feel that something was not quite right.

He called her several times in succession. Each time the call connected, but still no one answered. Only then did he realize that something might truly be wrong.

But just then, Li Jia suddenly replied to him on the social app, saying roughly that there was something going on at home that needed her attention, and because the matter was unusual, her phone might be turned off for a while. She told him not to worry and not to overthink it.

After reading the message, Huang Yu immediately called her, only to find that her phone had already been switched off.

What on earth had happened? If she had time to send a message, why not simply call him and explain directly?

Huang Yu stared repeatedly at that message on his screen, pacing back and forth in the room, temporarily setting aside the matter of his interview preparations as well.

Upon careful reflection, he realized that when he had spoken to Li Jia on the phone that morning, her condition had seemed somewhat different from usual.

He searched through his phone for a long while before finally finding the number of Li Jia’s parents. After a moment’s hesitation, he dialed it.

The call was answered quickly.

Huang Yu did not directly say he was Li Jia’s boyfriend. He only said that he was Li Jia’s university friend and had some matter to discuss with her, but could not reach her no matter what, so he was calling her family to ask whether something had happened.

Li Jia’s parents gave roughly the same explanation as the message Li Jia had sent him at the end. They also said that once Li Jia finished handling the urgent matters on her hands, they would have her call him back immediately. After that, they hung up.

He stood there staring blankly at his phone, lost in thought, with a faint and inexplicable unease in his heart, as though something were gradually slipping away from him and would never return.

After that, once he had finished preparing everything needed for the interview, he even found time to eat dinner before beginning once more to send messages and make calls to Li Jia.

But the messages he sent were never answered, as though they had sunk without a trace into the sea. Her phone remained switched off the entire time, as if Li Jia herself had vanished from this world altogether.