BUZZ—
The phone vibrated twice in a row.
Jiang Ye took it out of his pocket and tapped the screen. The black display lit up, and two WeChat notifications appeared on the lock screen.
One was from his mother.
Mom: My boy, Mom wants to see you. Will you answer the phone?
The second was from someone named Candy-Loving Witch.
Candy-Loving Witch: Done with school? I’ve been waiting forever.
He did not reply. Instead, he turned his head and looked at the electronic sign at the bus stop. The Route 302 bus he was waiting for was still three stops away.
The college entrance exam had just ended. Students were filing out of the exam site one after another, and outside, parents had gathered in ring after ring. Jiang Ye was one of the examinees too, but no one had come to pick him up.
He did not care. With both hands in his pockets, he waited for the bus alone.
The road in front of the school was jammed full of cars, horns blaring from every direction. The road was narrow to begin with, and now the entire stretch looked like an intestine suffering from a severe blockage, bicycles, electric scooters, and private cars all tangled together until not a drop of traffic could pass through.
The LED screen at the bus stop was playing the news. The reporter’s chirping voice said that a mirage of a city had appeared inside the aurora over Antarctica, a rare spectacle said to occur only once in a hundred years.
Jiang Ye opened his calendar and checked the date.
By his count, it had been a year since he moved out.
It was not that he refused to go home. It was that someone there did not welcome him.
His family situation was somewhat complicated. It was a remarried household. His biological father had died early, and his mother had raised him alone until he was eight.
His mother, Jiang Ruochu, was a famous archaeology professor. Her academic achievements were outstanding; her published works could fill shelves. She was also beautiful. The people who admired her could probably line the entire hallway of her department.
When Jiang Ye was eight, his mother met a man. One spark caught, and there was no putting out the fire.
One night, eight-year-old Jiang Ye woke up to hear a man’s low growl and a woman’s sobbing from the room next door. Calmly, he dialed 110.
Three minutes later, the police arrived. His mother glared at him while apologizing to them.
Not long after that, he had a wealthy stepfather. He also gained a younger stepsister, Li Miaomiao, who was two years younger than him.
When he was ten, eight-year-old Li Miaomiao stole honey. The jar had been placed high up, and as she poked and nudged at it, it fell with a crash and split her head open.
Children had no moral integrity. When they were afraid adults would blame them, their first instinct was to shove the blame onto someone else.
She told his stepfather and mother that Jiang Ye had stolen the honey.
Without asking a single question, his mother rushed into his room and slapped him across the face while he stood there utterly bewildered.
In truth, the matter was very easy to investigate. The small footprints on the stool obviously belonged to a little girl.
He pointed those footprints out to his mother.
His mother froze for a long while, then turned around and blamed him for not watching his sister properly.
In that moment, Jiang Ye finally understood.
To his mother, the truth did not matter at all.
If someone had to get hurt, then the correct way for things to happen was that he got hurt while Li Miaomiao stayed safe and sound.
Similar things happened every year. Drop by drop, water wore through stone, beating against his heart.
On this very day last year, his stepfather called him over and circled around the subject for a long time before finally getting to the point. On the surface, he was telling Jiang Ye to study hard. In reality, he was warning him not to covet the family’s company shares or properties. Jiang Ye was not his biological son, so none of it had anything to do with him.
Jiang Ye found him ridiculous.
But the man was still his stepfather, so he gave him face. He did not argue. He merely said, in a flat voice, that he would be in his third year of high school next year, his studies would be busy, and he wanted to rent a place near the school.
His stepfather transferred him tens of thousands of yuan. Jiang Ye returned every cent.
He stayed up late taking boosting jobs in games. The pay was not much, but added to the part-time wages he had slowly saved over the years, it was enough for him to rent a run-down apartment outside.
He was seventeen, with pride in his bones, as if pride alone could fill his stomach.
His mother called to complain, saying he had never treated his stepfather like a father.
He said nothing.
There was no point.
He was unwilling to disturb his mother’s loving new family. After all, from beginning to end, the only person who did not fit in was him.
From then on, he rarely went home, and he never again opened his mouth to ask the family for money.
Someone patted him on the shoulder.
He turned around and saw a slender girl standing in front of him.
She wore a pure white silk scarf embroidered with uniquely designed floral patterns. Below it was a blue-and-white school uniform skirt, white socks, and white sneakers. A faint jasmine perfume lingered around her.
It was a blazing hot day. Jiang Ye was wearing only a white short-sleeved shirt, yet she had wrapped a scarf around her neck.
When she saw him turn around, her cheeks flushed at once, like jasmine flowers brushed by sunset.
He took off his earphones, his eyes showing a trace of confusion.
She asked, “Hello. You’re Senior Jiang Ye, right?”
“I am,” Jiang Ye said. “What is it?”
“I’m Li Miaomiao’s best friend, Liu Bei.” She tucked her hair behind her ear, her voice soft and delicate. “Li Miaomiao asked me to come ask when you might be able to go home. She said if you’re free, you should go back and visit. Your mother really misses you.”
“I understand.” His answer was cold and distant. “Thank you.”
She stood beside him, nervously twisting the corner of her skirt. With nothing else to say, she forced out, “You’re waiting for the 302 too? What a coincidence. I take this bus too.”
Jiang Ye knew she was lying.
She did not need to take the 302 at all.
Back when he still lived at home, he heard Li Miaomiao ask her father for money every day to buy the newest designer bag, because Liu Bei already had that model. Even Li Miaomiao had a private car to pick her up and drop her off, let alone Liu Bei.
Recently, he had been running into her all the time. He guessed she rode four stops on the 302, one stop farther than him, then got off and took her family’s car home.
He did not answer.
The air fell into awkward silence.
She asked again, “Senior, when are you going home?”
He said, “Please tell Li Miaomiao that I’m not going back.”
“Oh…”
She seemed to gather a great deal of courage before finally asking the question she truly wanted to ask.
“Senior, do you have a girlfriend?”
“Yes,” he answered simply.
She thought he was lying. Wringing her hands, she said, “You don’t have to worry. I’m just asking. I won’t bother you.”
Jiang Ye opened WeChat and raised his phone for her to see.
She froze.
On the screen was a WeChat conversation. Jiang Ye and someone called Candy-Loving Witch were using matching couple avatars—both were big-faced cats, one cold and indifferent, the other making a ridiculous face with its teeth bared.
Just then, the screen shifted, and another new message from Candy-Loving Witch popped up.
Candy-Loving Witch: Baby, when exactly are you coming back? I’m so lonely and empty without you!
Liu Bei realized that Jiang Ye truly had not been lying.
Her eyes reddened all at once.
The Route 302 arrived. Its bright headlights illuminated the dim bus stop.
Jiang Ye stood in the light, and his face became sharp and clear, as if a spotlight had fallen across it. His brows and eyes were naturally cool, carrying a kind of ruthless edge. At this moment, with the headlights blazing like torches and light and shadow crossing over him, the lines of his face looked even cleaner and more defined.
He stood there with both hands in his pockets, his posture one that refused anyone’s approach.
The first time Liu Bei had gone to Li Miaomiao’s house, she had noticed him.
He was always wearing earphones. Alone, he would come downstairs to pour coffee; alone, he would go back upstairs, close the door, and read. Outside the noise of that family, he formed a world entirely his own.
She had asked about him before.
Everyone said he did not have many friends. He slept in class and went home after school. His family relationships were not very good either. When girls confessed to him, he rejected them all. He did not join the basketball team or the track team. He came and went alone, kept to himself, and never fought anyone for anything.
His only hobby was playing shooting games. She had heard he once won a trophy from the school’s esports club.
She had never imagined that someone as cold as him would actually have a girlfriend.
On the phone screen in front of her, several more messages popped up one after another.
Candy-Loving Witch: Ignoring me again. I’m going to get mad! I’m not playing with you tonight!
Candy-Loving Witch: I’m going to explode!
Liu Bei envied that girl very much.
She could act spoiled with Jiang Ye as much as she wanted, without restraint.
Jiang Ye slung his black canvas bag over one shoulder and prepared to board the bus.
Liu Bei instinctively moved to follow, but he suddenly turned back and said, “Go home. You keep getting home late. Your family will worry.”
After saying that, he put his earphones back on and boarded the 302. His figure disappeared behind the closing bus doors.
His phone buzzed and buzzed without stopping. It was his mother calling.
He hung up directly.
He returned to the old apartment building he rented, rounded the stinking garbage heap, and entered the narrow stairwell plastered with all kinds of ads for locksmiths, fake documents, and other shady services.
He went straight up to the sixth floor and opened his door.
Many little cards printed with busty women had been stuffed into the crack. He did not even look at them, throwing them all into the trash.
The apartment was a little over fifty square meters, with one bedroom, one living room, and one bathroom. Its square shape made it look like a coffin.
He passed through the living room and entered the bedroom. Once a bed was placed inside, there was hardly room to turn around, so his desktop computer had to stay in the living room.
He tossed his schoolbag onto the small sofa, turned on the computer, and logged into the game.
As soon as he came online, a team invitation popped up on the screen.
He clicked accept and was automatically pulled into the map. A pink-haired woman appeared beside him.
Candy-Loving Witch wore a baseball cap, a cropped leather jacket that exposed her waist, hot pants, and white sneakers. She carried a rocket launcher taller than herself and hopped left and right without stopping.
Candy-Loving Witch: You’re finally online! You’re more than half an hour later than usual. Tell me, was some little vixen pestering you?
Argos: No.
Candy-Loving Witch: Hmph. You always ignore me. I’ll really get mad, you know.
He was already used to her affectation and typed back carelessly.
Argos: Sorry.
He and Candy-Loving Witch had known each other for a year. They had only confirmed their relationship a month ago and had never formally met in person.
They had first encountered each other on the game battlefield.
At the time, he had been carrying a sniper rifle and moving silently through the jungle. By coincidence, he ran into a man and woman fighting ahead of him. They had probably run out of ammunition and had only daggers left to stake their lives on.
Her eyes were sharp. She saw him first.
Her sweet, cloying voice sounded in the voice channel.
“Handsome, help me kill him and I’ll be your girlfriend.”
He chambered a round, aimed at the man, and finished him with one shot.
Her laughter rang like little bells.
“Thank you. Why don’t we team up—”
Before she finished speaking, he had already blown her head open and stepped over her corpse to continue deeper in.
From then on, for some inexplicable reason, that girl stuck to him.
No matter when he came online, he would receive an invitation to team up from her. At first, he ignored them. Later, he clicked accept once by mistake, and from that point on, he had boarded the pirate ship.
Candy-Loving Witch: I heard someone from your school went missing.
WeChat vibrated.
She sent him a news article. It said a headless female corpse had been found on the riverbank beneath Shahe Bridge.
The photo had been blurred with mosaic, but the blue-and-white school uniform skirt on the body was still faintly recognizable.
He frowned as he looked at it.
That uniform skirt looked very familiar.
Argos: From our school? Who?
Candy-Loving Witch sent another image. It was an obituary.
The black-and-white photo on it showed a gentle, adorable girl. When she smiled, she looked like a jasmine flower.
Every word of the obituary was heavy with grief, lamenting the death of a young girl in the bloom of youth.
Jiang Ye’s gaze froze.
Candy-Loving Witch: I think her name was Liu Bei. First-year Class A. She was your junior.
He fell silent.
Then he dialed Li Miaomiao’s number.
The call was answered quickly, and a clear young girl’s voice sounded.
“Hello, Brother? Why are you suddenly calling me?”
“Did you ask someone today to come ask me when I was going home?” Jiang Ye asked.
“No. Why would I ask you that? Forget you, even I want to leave this house. There’s this weird smell at home. It’s disgusting.”
Li Miaomiao paused, then said, “Speaking of which, there’s something I need to tell you. Do you remember a friend of mine named Liu Bei? She used to come to our house a lot. Recently, she... sigh. Anyway, she’s gone. Can you go to her place and burn a stick of incense for her? She had a crush on you when she was alive...”
Her voice seemed to pass through a pane of glass, growing more and more indistinct.
In Jiang Ye’s mind appeared the girl he had met that evening.
She had been wearing a scarf.
Was it because her head had been cut off, and there were wounds on her neck?
Had he encountered a ghost?
His fingertips went cold.
He remembered that she had patted his shoulder. Her voice had been soft and delicate. Her right arm had brushed against the schoolbag slung over his shoulder.
The schoolbag.
He stood up and picked up the bag from the sofa.
In the side pocket, there was an extra slip of paper.
Written on it were the words:
Senior, don’t go home.