It’s late in the evening, in a quiet city where one can see blood everywhere under the dim lights, creating a shocking scene. Not far away from the incident, in a five-star hotel, a woman with a determined look on her face stands firmly in the lobby, waiting for him to come back, waiting for him to stand in front of her. She will hug him tightly and tell him,
“Xia Mu, I love you, I really love you. I’m not pretending, I’m not forcing this, I just love you.” She thinks that when she tells him that, he will definitely smile. That precious and warm smile, she will definitely see it again. The lobby door opens and close, opens and close, the unfamiliar faces walking past her. She starts to turn anxious and walks out of the hotel to look around. Two ambulances drives by, their wailing sirens making her heart feel uneasy. She narrows her eyebrows and suddenly turns worried. The memory when she was twenty-two years old that she keeps on suppressing in her mind comes out. Her body starts to tremble uncontrollably, so she takes a couple of deep breaths, telling herself to not have any crazy thoughts, it’s alright, it’s alright. She paced back and forth restlessly in the hotel, looking at the distant road closely. She keeps on waiting and waiting, waiting until the horizon starts to show a hint of grey when she finally receives an answer. It is a phone call, from an unknown number. She looks at the vibrating phone, she don’t know why, but she’s afraid to answer the call. However at the end, she picks up the call. The voice from the other end sounds cold, and the words they tell her are horrifying.
“h.e.l.lo, this is the W City People’s Hospital calling. Your friend Xia Mu was sent to our hospital at 1AM for medical treatment, but because his head has been hit with hard objects repeatedly, we were unsuccessful in saving him. We declared his time of death to be 4:16AM.” Shu Yaw.a.n.g holds onto her phone as she listens with a blank expression. She didn’t give any reaction, just holding onto the same pose of holding onto her phone. She didn’t cry, didn’t fuss about. She didn’t hear it, didn’t hear anything. She must be too tired from waiting and this is all a dream, a dream where a crazy person called her and said Xia Mu died. How can Xia Mu die? She have so many things to tell him, so much to say. She wants to give the first biggest happiness to him, give him the second biggest happiness, she wants to give him everything. She will love him like how he loves her.
“Miss Shu, please come over to the hospital, there’s still some paperwork…” She frantically hangs up the call and takes out the battery of her phone. She don’t want to hear it, she don’t believe it! She runs back home and closes the door of her room, refusing to accept any phone calls. She ignores the knocking on the door, she don’t want to hear anyone talking about Xia Mu! Yuan Zhu shakes her shoulder, telling her calm down, telling her to face reality, telling her if she wants to cry, just cry. Shu Yaw.a.n.g screams at her, telling her to get out. She don’t want to hear it, she don’t want to calm down, don’t want to be strong, don’t want to cry! Xia Mu is not dead! Not dead, not dead, not dead! But even if she don’t want to hear it, don’t want to believe in it, facts will be facts. Xia Mu is dead, really dead. He’s lying in the cold morgue, his body covered with scars.