At the Daguan Mountain Police Station, the small interrogation room was crowded with officers in uniform. The male officer responsible for the transcript typed rapidly on his keyboard, while behind him stood the precinct chief and deputy chief, both with furrowed brows. Zhang Kaiyang sat beside the typing officer, leading the questioning. He stared intently at Weng Xiuyue, his expression solemn and focused.
"…When did you and Wei Zhi decide to join forces?"
"The day Ji Zhongyong received the real credit report," Weng Xiuyue replied.
The round clock on the wall hung silently, its second hand moving with a slow, heavy rhythm. Fragments of the past flickered through Weng Xiuyue’s mind, as if following the trajectory of that hand could transport her back to that familiar yet distant moment.
"That day, Wei Zhi came twice."
The first time, her hands were empty.
"What kind of mother are you, Weng Xiuyue?" Wei Zhi had asked her.
She had punctured Weng Xiuyue’s long-standing bravado, exposing the side of her heart she least wanted to face. Weng Xiuyue hadn't wanted to admit it, but she had to: she was the latter kind of mother—the one who couldn't understand her daughter. Mei Man had never sought her help because she was afraid of her mother's scolding.
A mist of tears clouded Weng Xiuyue's vision. She glared at Wei Zhi through the shimmering haze, her breath coming in heavy rasps like an agitated cow.
Wei Zhi met her gaze without blinking.
In that moment, there was nothing in their world but each other.
"Auntie Weng, Mei Man wouldn't want you to keep making mistake after mistake," Wei Zhi said.
Weng Xiuyue sensed something in her eyes. "…What was your relationship with Mei Man?"
"I am the high school student Mei Man sponsored. And just like you—" Wei Zhi said, "I loved her very much."
Inside the interrogation room, silence fell as Weng Xiuyue finished her sentence.
Zhang Kaiyang needed the precinct chief’s signature to pull bank records, and the results of the investigation had to be reported. Everyone in charge at the station knew that Wei Zhi was the student Mei Man had sponsored.
But at that time, before everything unfolded, it had merely seemed like a moral issue—a sponsored student falling for her benefactor’s ex-boyfriend.
Under normal procedures, they wouldn't have even discovered the problem. At that point, there were no clues pointing to criminal activity by Wei Zhi or Ji Qikun. Any further speculation was groundless conjecture. Investigating them without cause would have been procedurally difficult and, based on the likely outcome, a waste of effort. When Zhang Kaiyang had insisted on pulling the records, the others had seen it as nothing but looking for trouble.
Old Wu unscrewed his thermos and took a sip of water to mask his belated embarrassment.
"She said she wasn't seeking justice for just one person, but justice for all victims of emotional manipulation," Weng Xiuyue continued. "She wanted to use Ji Qikun to show the whole country that this behavior is despicable and will be severely punished by the law."
In that lightless attic of the water station, something far more brilliant and intense had illuminated her.
Weng Xiuyue had stood frozen, a profound sense of shock welling up within her.
The Wei Zhi standing before her had eyes more determined and fearless than anyone she had ever seen—the eyes of a survivor who had endured trials, shining with the light of unyielding courage.
Before those eyes, Weng Xiuyue felt only shame for her previous words and actions. She couldn't say no.
"The second time she came, she was wearing a diamond wedding ring. We put on a show to make Ji Qikun believe we had truly broken off our ties."
"Once Ji Qikun took the bait, he immediately tried to win Wei Zhi over, wanting to use her hand to get rid of me."
"How?" Zhang Kaiyang asked.
"He believed Wei Zhi had a talent for killing and disguising it as an accident without being caught." Weng Xiuyue let out a cold sneer. "He thought everyone was as depraved as he is."
"Go on," Zhang Kaiyang urged.
"On the second floor of the water station, Tan Jin and I faked a crime scene. We used chicken blood because we didn't want to actually alert the criminal investigators yet. With Wei Zhi and Tan Jin's help, I was packed into a suitcase. Wei Zhi took me back to the underground garage at Lüdao Mansion. To make the deception even more convincing for Ji Qikun, I hit my own head in the garage, slashed my face, and then had Wei Zhi wrap me in plastic wrap."
"Wrapping me in over a dozen layers of plastic wrap and activated carbon was Wei Zhi's idea. To survive in the trunk for at least forty-eight hours, we rehearsed many times," Weng Xiuyue said. "The plastic wrap and activated carbon obscured the view; the more layers there were, the less likely Ji Qikun would be to unwrap it. We intentionally left a corner of my face exposed between the carbon so he could confirm my identity."
"Once he was convinced Wei Zhi had killed me, our plan officially began."
Psychological pressure.
Physical torment.
Wei Zhi used the very methods she had learned from Ji Qikun to oppress him, shattering every attempt he made to struggle. She used rock-solid consequences to tell him that the only way to escape her was to kill her.
After Weng Xiuyue finished her long narration, the interrogation room remained silent for a long time.
The precinct chief went out to make a call. When he returned a moment later, his expression was incredibly grave.
"I have reported the situation to the Municipal Public Security Bureau. The Criminal Investigation Detachment will immediately organize personnel for a search and rescue operation outside the city," the chief said. "However, the signal is being jammed, and we can't track them. There's no telling how long it will take to search the mountains—"
"I know the location," Weng Xiuyue said.
"Then we go together. I'll contact Criminal Investigation immediately—"
"I have one request," Weng Xiuyue interrupted.
"What is it?" The chief’s eyes widened.
"I demand that Zhang Kaiyang be included in the investigation task force for this case."
With lives on the line, the chief agreed instantly.
A short while later, Zhang Kaiyang and Weng Xiuyue boarded a police cruiser. Old Wu and another young officer flanked Weng Xiuyue in the back, while Zhang Kaiyang took the driver's seat, flipped on the sirens, and slammed on the gas.
The rain poured down. On the wide avenues of the deep night, streetlights swayed and shimmered through the curtain of rain.
The piercing sirens shattered the stillness of the night. Lights flickered on in nearby homes as people poked their heads out of windows, staring in surprise at the rare sight.
Police cars converged like arrows released from bows, followed closely by ambulances just in case. Countless rotating sirens cast a dazzling glow, looking like a flowing river of red and blue light flickering through the rain.
Water splashed against the windows; the wind howled. Inside the oppressive car, however, there was only silence.
*What if we don't make it in time?*
The same question weighed on everyone's heart.
But only Weng Xiuyue had been given the answer in advance.
"It won't matter," Wei Zhi had said.
*If my blood can draw more people to pay attention to this 'boring' revenge, then it doesn't matter.*
*This isn't revenge against one person.*
*It is revenge against all emotional abuse.*
The moment she crawled onto the ground, Wei Zhi grabbed the entrenching tool Ji Qikun had dropped. She rushed toward the nearby signal jammer and struck it with all her might!
The black device shattered instantly.
She continued to bash the exposed circuit board with the shovel until the chips were deformed and destroyed.
Wei Zhi hurriedly pulled out her phone. Due to the dense forest and the torrential rain, she had only one bar of signal. She tried to dial the emergency number, but the call wouldn't go through.
She looked back toward Ji Qikun and Tan Mengyan. Ji Qikun was being completely pinned down by the latter. His face was contorted with extreme effort; though his hands pushed desperately against Tan Mengyan above him, it was as futile as trying to move a mountain with bare hands.
"Drive down the mountain first! Don't worry about me!" Tan Mengyan roared.
After a brief moment of thought, Wei Zhi decided to trust him. The dashcam had already recorded Ji Qikun’s attempted murder. There was no longer any need to feign a sprained ankle to lower his guard. She turned and ran toward the Bentley Bentayga.
The downpour streamed down her hair, and her eyelashes were nearly blinded by the curtain of rain. She finally made it back to the driver's seat, wiped the water from her eyes with the back of her hand, and started the engine without hesitation.
Just as she turned the steering wheel to head down the mountain, Tan Mengyan, who was pinning Ji Qikun down, suddenly showed a look of agony.
Ji Qikun seized the opportunity, knocking him over with a punch. He then drew a dagger hidden under his coat and stabbed Tan Mengyan without hesitation.
In a flash, Tan Mengyan rolled to the side, but the dagger plunged into his outer thigh. He let out a roar of pain.
Ji Qikun didn't stop after the first strike; he stabbed three more times in rapid succession.
Right in front of her and the dashcam, Ji Qikun yanked the dagger out, bringing with it a spray of crimson blood that splattered into the rain. The red mingled with the water, instantly staining the night.
His blood-stained face turned toward Wei Zhi inside the car. Gripping the dagger, he stood up and strode toward her.
The blood on the tip of the blade was washed by the rain, gathering at the bottom before dripping off like a broken string of beads.
Wei Zhi’s gaze darted between Ji Qikun and the wounded Tan Mengyan. Her right foot on the accelerator felt frozen, unable to move.
When Ji Qikun was halfway to the car, his pace was suddenly halted.
He looked down to see a deathly pale Tan Mengyan death-gripping his calf. Startling amounts of blood were spreading through the puddle beneath him.
Ji Qikun gripped the dagger tight and lunged with all his strength toward Tan Mengyan’s back!
*Thud!*
Having jumped out of the car at the last second, Wei Zhi struck the back of Ji Qikun’s head with the flat side of the entrenching tool. He swayed, staggering before falling to the ground.
Wei Zhi dropped the shovel and rushed to check Tan Mengyan’s injuries.
His face was as white as paper, and he was gasping for air as if suffocating. Blood gushed unceasingly from his upper thigh. Tan Mengyan pushed Wei Zhi away with force, his voice raspy:
"Forget about me, go!"
Ji Qikun stood up unsteadily, leaning against the front of the car, blood trickling down his head.
"Neither of you is leaving!"
He angrily thrust the dagger into the car tire. With a sharp hiss, the air inside the tire escaped rapidly through the puncture.
While he was sabotaging the tire, Wei Zhi used every second to help Tan Mengyan up. At the same time, she didn't forget to pick up the entrenching tool.
"I took the dashcam's memory card."
She used that one sentence to stop Tan Mengyan’s resistance, finally managing to drape his arm over her shoulder.
They stumbled into the mountain forest, the heavy rain compressing their vision to a few feet. The cold, damp air was thick with the scent of earth, and the rolling thunder in the distance brought a somber echo.
The ground was a mess of mud, littered with dead branches and rotting leaves. What looked like flat ground could be a hidden pit. With every step Wei Zhi and Tan Mengyan took, their shoes sank into the wet soil as if pulled by an invisible force. With Tan Mengyan’s leg injury, their progress was agonizingly slow.
Soon, the sound of Ji Qikun’s pursuit came from behind.
"Tan Jin, didn't you want to avenge your sister? Why are you running with your tail between your legs now?"
A heavy mist pervaded the depths of the forest. Ji Qikun’s expensive casual suit was soaked through. As he struggled through the underbrush, he looked like a beast that had lost its mind.
His dark eyes flashed with a manic light amidst the smears of blood.
His rapid breathing had a feverish rhythm, yet his mind, hunting its prey, was calmer and more precise than usual.
If Tan Jin had replaced Weng Xiuyue, then where was Weng Xiuyue?
He had no time to think about it, nor did he want to. He couldn't afford to face the consequences.
He had no choice but to see this through to the bitter end.
Tree roots hidden in the mud and protruding rocks threatened to trip him at any moment. Despite his obstructed vision, he pressed forward with a hunter's instinct.
In his heart, a voice warned him that things had spiraled out of control, reminding him that he had unknowingly crossed a line from which there was no return.
However, that voice was drowned out by a surge of adrenaline. The excitement of the hunt and the desire to eliminate the threat before him took over.
He gripped the dagger tight, the hilt slick with rain and sweat.
To break the resolve of the two fleeing ahead, he shouted intentionally, "Tan Jin, do you know how your sister died? She died of her own stupidity!"
Tan Mengyan’s footsteps faltered, but Wei Zhi immediately pulled him forward.
"I wanted to break up with her with some dignity, but she just wouldn't listen. She searched for my name on every social media app and even used the status of 'girlfriend' to sniff around for my whereabouts at the Jiangdu Academy of Fine Arts. She was so shameless—I never even admitted she was my girlfriend. Didn't she realize she was just a fleshlight that delivered itself to my door? She dared to ruin my reputation everywhere as my girlfriend, so I demanded she get to Jiangdu within twenty-five hours. It was just a small punishment."
The two figures supporting each other in the night rain did not stop, so Ji Qikun continued:
"The law can't convict me, can it?" He let out a boisterous, arrogant laugh. "It's not like I held a gun to her head. She got into a car accident on the way—shouldn't that be blamed on her being too stupid? Her school in K-City is a forty-hour drive from Jiangdu; she was never going to make it in time anyway!"
Seeing that they still wouldn't stop, he added more fuel to the fire, talking about how he had abused and manipulated those innocent girls, using sweet words to trick them into recording explicit videos to use as blackmail later. He even praised how enticing Wei Zhi looked in her video.
Initially, he was just trying his best to provoke Wei Zhi and Tan Jin into stopping. But gradually, he forgot his original purpose, becoming entirely immersed in the joy of boasting.
In his entire life, he would never find another opportunity like this to show off his "masterpieces."
Faint moonlight filtered through the rain-lashed forest, casting dappled shadows.
Wei Zhi held the injured Tan Mengyan tightly, carefully navigating the rugged mountain path. Behind them, Ji Qikun’s voice continued to drift over, intoxicated with his own ego.
Tan Mengyan’s breathing was shallow and rapid. The massive blood loss had drained the last bit of color from his lips. His body was failing, but to lighten Wei Zhi’s burden, he struggled to match her pace.
Suddenly, Wei Zhi’s foot hit empty air. she tumbled down a slope, the entrenching tool slipping from her hand. Tan Mengyan, who was leaning on her shoulder, could have avoided falling, but his instinctive reaction was to grab the rolling Wei Zhi, tumbling down the slope with her.
During the bumpy descent, one of Tan Mengyan’s hands stayed protectively behind her head, absorbing most of the impact.
On the final roll, Tan Mengyan pulled her into his embrace, using his own back to hit the cold mountain road.
A muffled groan of pain escaped his throat. Then, the hands that had used their last strength to hold her slipped powerlessly from her back.
Blood stained both of their clothes.
She didn't want to speak, nor did she know what to say. Everything was according to their plan—it was even the best possible outcome within the plan—but she felt no joy of success, only a bitter, unspeakable sorrow.
"If you want my help, leave the final cleanup to me."
"If my blood can draw more people to pay attention to this 'boring' revenge, then it doesn't matter."
In front of the only window in the water station attic, Tan Mengyan, wearing a white tank top, had said those words to Wei Zhi and Weng Xiuyue.
Her phone had disappeared somewhere during the fall. Wei Zhi reached into Tan Mengyan’s pocket, trying to find his phone to call for help, but she only felt more hot, wet blood.
Rain blurred her vision. Even the thin moonlight from the forest seemed to vanish once they reached the road.
The cold autumn rain beat down on the silent mountain road with a low, lingering thrum. The excess water the forest couldn't hold flowed down the path, merging into small streams that rushed toward the foot of the mountain, leaving only a monotonous and desolate sound of flowing water.
Wei Zhi sat on the wet road, her clothes soaked with rain and blood. She tried several times to help Tan Mengyan up, only to collapse back into the mud.
"Are you okay? You have to hold on… someone will be here soon, very soon…" she said, her voice trembling.
The sound of Ji Qikun sliding down the slope came from above, getting closer and closer.
Rain washed over Tan Mengyan’s face. His pale features held a serenity that transcended pain. His breathing was shallow and difficult, as if every breath was a struggle against an insurmountable fate. Though his consciousness was fading, he forced his eyes open to look at Wei Zhi, his gaze shimmering with complex emotions.
His voice fell from his lips like a withered leaf, faint and raspy.
"Go…"
Wei Zhi shook her head violently. She stood up again, sliding her arms under his armpits, trying to drag his heavy body. Compared to his weight, her strength was negligible. She fell into the puddles again and again, and again and again she stood back up. She tried in vain to move his body, just as she had struggled in vain in the toxic swamp when she was a teenager.
"Don't die…" After collapsing once more, she knelt in the freezing puddle, pleading desperately. "Please, don't die…"
In the distance, the wail of sirens echoed through the wind and rain.
A hollow smile appeared on Tan Mengyan’s face. That usually expressionless face looked at the weeping Wei Zhi with more tenderness than ever before.
"I was going to die anyway…" he said. "Don't cry."
But Wei Zhi’s tears wouldn't stop.
Rain hit his face, mixing with sweat and perhaps tears, dripping from his chin onto the cold mud. His voice was nearly drowned out by the rain, but to Wei Zhi’s ears, it was as clear as thunder.
"Xiao Zhi."
He called her name softly, his voice filled with endless tenderness and reluctance. Those two intimate syllables were like a faint starlight piercing through the clamor of the storm.
"Don't cry anymore… it's all over."
Ji Qikun finally slid down the slope, dagger in hand, and rushed toward Wei Zhi. A police car screeched to a halt right in front of her as she cradled Tan Mengyan. Then came more police cars.
Blue and red lights illuminated the dark mountainside.
"Ji Qikun, drop the weapon and put your hands up!"
After a sharp crack of a gunshot, Ji Qikun’s legs gave way, and he fell to his knees on the road with a thud. The dagger slipped from his hand.
Dozens of officers swarmed out, pinning Ji Qikun to the ground in an instant.
Zhang Kaiyang, arriving shortly after, saw something in Wei Zhi’s expression. His gaze fell upon the seemingly sleeping Tan Jin in her arms, and his footsteps slowly came to a halt.
Wei Zhi gently laid Tan Mengyan down and stood up. With her blood-stained right hand, she pulled a necklace from around her neck.
The sunflower pendant with its black center slid off the silver chain.
It was all over.
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 信号屏蔽器 | Signal jammer | A device used by Ji Qikun to prevent Wei Zhi from calling for help. |
| 工兵铲 | Entrenching tool / Shovel | A portable folding shovel often used by military or outdoorsmen; Wei Zhi uses it as a weapon. |
| 飞机杯 | Fleshlight | A crude, dehumanizing term used by Ji Qikun to describe how he viewed Tan Ling. |
| 江都美院 | Jiangdu Academy of Fine Arts | The prestigious art school where Ji Qikun studied or worked. |
| 内存卡 | Memory card | Specifically the SD card from the dashcam containing evidence. |
| 刑侦大队 | Criminal Investigation Detachment | The specialized police unit sent to handle the violent crime and rescue. |
| 活性炭 | Activated carbon | Used in the plan to mask scents and provide a realistic "body bag" appearance. |
| 保鲜膜 | Plastic wrap / Cling film | Used to bind Weng Xiuyue to fake her death. |
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