Chapter 146 - The Weight of Betrayal
As Pei Cangyu watched Bai Shi walk toward Proffice, a visceral, unsettling sensation surged through his chest. His throat felt constricted, as if blocked by an invisible weight, and a restless irritability gnawed at his nerves. For reasons he couldn't quite fathom, he instinctively felt that this burgeoning emotion was something shameful, a secret that needed to be hidden. He stood up and shifted his position, retreating into the dim shadows at the corner of the bar where the crowd thinned into nothingness.
From this vantage point, he watched Bai Shi and Proffice standing together. They moved through the gala with practiced ease, greeting guests with polite, hollow smiles. To any casual observer, they looked like an inseparable, intimate couple.
Pei Cangyu couldn't be blamed for the thought.
Bai Shi had visited Proffice’s home earlier, and upon his return, he had looked Pei Cangyu in the eye and told him they had been mistaken—that Proffice was innocent. As Bai Shi spoke, Pei noticed his eyelashes fluttering just a fraction slower than usual. It was a tell, a subtle rhythmic shift that occurred whenever Bai Shi was attempting to rationalize a lie or indoctrinate someone with a specific narrative.
Perhaps Pei Cangyu could only articulate it this way now, in hindsight. At the moment, it had simply been an instinctive prickle of unease. Maybe he was an animal at heart, possessed of a primal sharpness, or perhaps he had simply spent too much time orbiting Bai Shi. He had been so focused, so intensely observant, that the slightest deviation in Bai Shi’s tone or the minute tremor of his eyelids was etched into his memory with agonizing clarity.
Bai Shi was lying to him.
He was lying to his face, right there in the open. Pei didn't know what kind of deal had been struck with Proffice, nor did he understand the motivation behind the deception. At the time, he hadn't even reacted; he simply didn't want to argue. He couldn't wrap his head around why, after everything they had been through to reach this point, Bai Shi would still choose to deceive him.
Now, watching the two of them weave through the throng of socialites, Pei Cangyu didn't know how to feel.
When he first arrived at this town, he had harbored a flicker of hope that the Mayor might be a man of integrity, someone he could confide in to find a way out. But Proffice did not look like a good man. Pei had left a trail of clues for Fei Zuohua and the others—every breadcrumb he could manage to drop without alerting Bai Shi. He hoped they would see the signs and coordinate an intervention from the outside. If they arrived, at least neither side would be completely helpless.
But the Mayor had proven himself untrustworthy, and for the moment, Pei Cangyu was devoid of a new plan.
He sat in the shadows, nursing his drink, until Bai Shi noticed him and began to approach. It didn't surprise him. Even if Pei were to vanish into a crowd of thousands, Bai Shi would always find him. It was as if the man possessed some supernatural radar specifically tuned to Pei’s frequency.
Bai Shi sat with him, sipping a light cocktail and listening to Pei’s aimless rambling. He leaned his chin on his hand, watching Pei with a shimmering, affectionate gaze. In that fleeting moment, Pei Cangyu felt truly loved, despite the fact that Bai Shi had never once uttered the words.
Eventually, Bai Shi was called away again. Pei Cangyu sat up, his head spinning slightly from the alcohol, and watched Bai Shi follow Proffice out of the room. His heart felt heavy, like a block of lead hanging in his chest. With a start, he realized what the feeling was: jealousy.
He was jealous.
The realization made him let out a self-deprecating laugh as he shook his head. Years ago, when he had a crush on the Class Monitor, his greatest wish had been for her happiness. Now, he had devolved into a man consumed by petty envy. *You’ve really outdone yourself, Pei Cangyu,* he thought bitterly.
His gaze fell upon the glass Bai Shi had left behind. He slumped onto the bar, staring at it with glazed eyes. A bartender approached, offering to clear it away, but Pei shook his head. He remained fixated on the vessel. A single bead of condensation was tracing a slow, curved path down the side of the glass. As he watched its trajectory, his mind filled with the memory of Bai Shi’s fingers gripping the rim, the shape of his lips, the flash of his teeth, and that singular, haunting smile.
Pei Cangyu sat up abruptly and slapped his own cheeks. His face was flushed hot. He needed to wash up. He stood, oriented himself, and headed toward the area behind the grand staircase.
As he rounded the corner, something small dropped from above, fluttering down from the second floor. He walked over and picked it up. It was a hair clip, tangled with a few strands of vibrant red hair.
After a moment’s hesitation, he pocketed the clip and ascended the rear staircase. He suspected it belonged to Vanessa.
The atmosphere upstairs was a world away from the gala below. It was eerily quiet. The music from the ballroom reached this level only as a muffled, rhythmic thrum, accompanied by a faint vibration in the floorboards. Most of the doors were shut tight, and only a few dim lamps illuminated the hallway.
Clutching the hair clip, Pei moved forward. He kept his footsteps light, yet they still produced a faint, hollow echo in the corridor. Suddenly, the silence was shattered by the sharp, discordant scrape of a chair being moved. Pei didn't stop to think; he sprinted toward the sound.
He reached a locked door. A sliver of light bled out from the gap at the bottom.
Pei pounded on the wood. "Vanessa? Are you in there?"
The room went deathly silent. No answer.
He took a breath to steady himself and knocked again, softer this time. "Are you there?"
A series of frantic, rustling sounds came from within. Pei pressed his ear to the door, trying to make sense of the noise, but it ceased abruptly.
Minutes passed in agonizing silence. Just as Pei began to wonder if he had imagined the whole thing and prepared to leave, the lock clicked. The door creaked open just a fraction, revealing Vanessa’s face—pale, slick with sweat, and etched with terror.
Her eyes searched his. "It’s... it’s just you, right?" she whispered.
Pei nodded.
She released her grip on the door, allowing it to swing open further. She stepped aside to let him in, then quickly bolted it behind him.
The first thing Pei Cangyu saw was the corpse of a man, sprawled on the floor and bathed in the cold, unforgiving moonlight.
"Who... did you do this?"
"It wasn't me!" Vanessa hissed, tugging at her hair with a manic energy. "I came in... he... I didn't want to turn on the lights. I didn't hear anything when I entered. I thought he was just sitting there, but when I got closer, he..."
She spun around, staring at the door, her nerves frayed to the point of snapping at the slightest sound. Once she was certain no one was coming, she continued, "I wanted to jump from the window, but there are people on the lawn. I was going to leave through the hall..." She looked at Pei with a flash of accusatory desperation. "But then you started knocking."
Pei realized that the long silence had been Vanessa gauging whether there was more than one person outside.
Suddenly remembering something, Vanessa tore off her outer jacket. She dropped to her knees in the moonlight and began frantically scrubbing at the floor.
"What are you doing?"
"Wiping away the footprints," she said without looking up. "I can't be found here. Everyone will think I'm the killer." Her hands moved with terrifying speed, her movements so forceful they made a harsh, grinding sound against the floor. "They won't let me go. *He* won't let me go. I’m dead... I’m as good as dead..."
Pei grabbed her and hauled her up. "You can't wipe it all away. Do you even remember everything you touched? The police aren't idiots."
Vanessa didn't look afraid so much as she looked volatile—a mixture of rage and panic. She threw her jacket to the ground and shoved him. "This has nothing to do with you!"
Pei staggered back but caught her arm again. "Did you do it?"
Vanessa’s eyes widened, her blue irises swimming with agony. "It wasn't me! It wasn't me! It wasn't me!" She began clawing at her hair again. "It’s not my fault... it’s not..."
As she yanked at her hair, Pei’s eyes caught something. Her roots weren't red. They were blonde.
He reached out, stopping her self-destructive fidgeting, and gently lifted a strand of hair to inspect it.
"So that’s what it meant," Pei said, letting the hair fall. "You said you weren't her."
Vanessa stared at him warily, like a cornered dog ready to bite. Pei knew that look all too well; in a way, they were cut from the same cloth.
"The real one?"
"Dead."
"And you’re a body double?"
"He demanded it."
"The Mayor?"
"The *City* Mayor."
"Did he touch you?"
"They all did."
Pei fell silent. Vanessa turned her gaze back to the corpse.
In the heavy, macabre silence that followed, the moon shifted across the sky. The only opening in the dark room was a single window where the curtain fluttered like a ghost. The moonlight spilled over the body, draping it in a silver shroud, while the two of them—innocent in their own ways—stood in the darkness, burdened by their own secrets.
Vanessa’s brow furrowed deeply. She reached a decision. "I have to run."
Pei agreed. "There’s no way to explain this."
She moved to pick up her clothes, but Pei caught her hand. "I have an idea."
Vanessa looked at him. Pei stared at the corpse, a look of near-physical pain crossing his features. Slowly, his gaze hardened into something resolute.
"Wait for me here."
Pei hurried back downstairs. In the quiet corner of the bar, the two glasses—his and Bai Shi’s—remained exactly where they had left them, untouched.
He grabbed several napkins, carefully selecting an angle that wouldn't smudge existing prints, and picked up Bai Shi’s glass. He carried it back upstairs.
"What is that?" Vanessa asked as she watched him approach the body.
Pei placed the glass on the table, right next to the one the City Mayor had been drinking from.
"A frame-up."
Pei walked to the window, opened it wide, and used the curtain to wipe the dust from the sill. Vanessa moved to help, but Pei stopped her. "Don't touch anything."
"You’ll leave fingerprints," she whispered.
"Even if I do, they need something to compare them to. They don't have my prints on file. There’s no way to match them." He paused, turning back to her with a faint, bittersweet smile. "And if they actually do... then I suppose it’s time for me to go back."
Vanessa watched as Pei finished his grim work and led her out of the room. When they reached the corner of the hallway, Pei stopped. "I don't know how long it will take for them to suspect him. If they can't find a clear suspect, the police might demand fingerprints from everyone at the gala. That’s when the match will happen. After tonight, no one is leaving this place. If the police start looking at us, we’ll have to run. I’ll give you an address later—find us there. I’ll find a way to hide you. That Mayor... something about him isn't right."
Vanessa stared at him, her voice trembling. "Who are you trying to frame?"
Pei didn't answer.
"It’s the man you’re with, isn't it?" she pressed.
Pei straightened his back. "Let’s leave it at that."
"Why?" Vanessa followed him. "Do you hate him?"
Pei stopped and turned to look at her. He opened his mouth to speak, but the words died in his throat. After a long hesitation, he simply said, "It’s complicated."
"If they suspect him, what happens? Extradition?"
The weight of Vanessa’s question hit Pei with the force of a physical blow. He felt the strength drain from his limbs. He slid down the wall, sitting on the floor, and Vanessa sat beside him.
Pei clutched his hair, muttering to himself, "I don't know what to do either..."
Vanessa looked at her hands, her mind drifting. "Have you ever considered... what if it really *was* me?"
Pei leaned his head back against the wall. His hands were shaking. His mind was entirely consumed by thoughts of Bai Shi; he could only spare a fraction of his consciousness for her question. "Whatever."
A slight tremor ran through his body. He bit his lip so hard it nearly bled, feeling as though he couldn't draw enough air into his lungs. His head throbbed with a dull ache. He felt a profound sense of apology, a suffocating grief that tightened around his chest whenever he pictured Bai Shi’s face. Yet, he knew the truth: no one could catch Bai Shi. No one ever had. Bai Shi was a criminal.
Where did they go from here?
*Bai Shi.*
*Bai Shi.*
***
