Chapter 14: Dagger
The sky was about to brighten, and the darkness of the night was slowly fading. The daylight was seeping down, and he could vaguely see the horizon undulating at the end of his vision.
She had run out of the villa, which was filled with the smell of alcohol. The cold and raw air had rushed into her body, and it had dispelled the alcohol in her blood. The throbbing nerves were hindering her. She didn’t care and was searching for the lost traces in the long and narrow sea street on her left.
More than half of the street was filled with small taverns with lanterns and cloth curtains. The candlelight in the oil-paper lanterns had burned out, and only the blurry and dim white incandescent lights above her head were illuminating. The deeper she went into the alley, the darker it became, as if a monster with bared fangs and brandished claws were entrenched. A rustling sound was in her ear, and an unknown fear was like a vine, slowly wrapping around her uneasy heart.
He Mu Qing had braced herself and had walked past the wine street. Her helpless gaze had been captured by the light not far away. She remembered that there was a 24-hour convenience store there when she had come.
She had subconsciously walked towards the light. She had walked past a corner, and before she could adjust to the suddenly darkened environment, she had seen something in the shape of a human lying on the side of the road. Her precarious reason had suddenly tensed, and her body temperature had risen, and the atmosphere had instantly become uneasy.
She was about to scream. She had almost gritted her teeth and had forced herself to open her eyes to look at that thing. It was only after she had come back to her senses that she had realized that it was indeed a person.
He had a strong smell of alcohol, and his body was bloated… it was not him. The deadline of her collapse had been forgiven. In the end, she had still stubbornly and completely seen the other party’s face, and only then had she let out a sigh of relief.
The drunk man, who was unconscious, was lying on the side of the road with his hands and feet wide open, without any image. His face was flushed with wine, and he was stammering and talking nonsense. He had just happened to have blocked a corner of an alley.
He Mu Qing had raised her head, and her gaze was as if it had been pulled. It had extended to the dead end at the end. A small pool of bright red blood was flowing there, and it was particularly eye-catching in the dim light. The blood was bright, and it was probably still warm with a lingering body temperature.
Further away was a dagger. It was stuck in a pothole on the side of the road. Half of the blade was in the sand, and the exposed arc of the blade was beautiful. The blade was crying with blood, and it was a beautiful and desolate color. Even the tip of her heart was trembling.
“Hey, the person over there… what are you doing?”
A rough voice from a distance had woken her up from her daze. A fierce light had pierced the darkness. She had subconsciously raised her hand to cover the light, and a rushed sound of footsteps had come from a distance.
Two men had run over with a flashlight. A red armband of a patrol was on their shoulders. The dark and thin one had a straight face, and his words were not very clean. “What are you doing wandering around outside at this time? You young people are really something. Don’t you know that the seaport is not safe at night…”
The fatter man had noticed the drunk man and had informed the dark and thin man. “There’s another drunkard. In this cold weather, he deserves to freeze to death outside…”
She had bitten her lower lip, and her face was pale. She had taken a few steps back with some wariness and was about to turn and leave.
Behind her were the man’s cursing words again, and they were discussing something. With the help of the wind, they had vaguely drifted to her ear, and they had held her steps.
“This must be what those two left behind. What are these little couples up to? They’re even playing with knives, and they’ve even gotten hurt. How sinful. I hope nothing happens.”
“I still want to finish work early. If you want to get involved, you can go yourself. Why are you so worried? It’s just a small fight. The hospital is nearby…”
…
She had lied.
Whether it was wanting to go home with him or not caring who he loved, it was all fake. She was born like this, as cunning as a wolf. The more a person had nothing, the more greedy they were. They would abuse lies to gain everything, and they would outline her gentle and kind skin.
There was no turning back when she had held the dagger. She had used lies to coax him, to let down his guard, and then she had killed him, and she had not lived alone.
Xia Qiange had once thought that death was the end. But when the fresh blood had gushed out from the wound, the panic of losing had suddenly enveloped her, and she had suddenly regretted it.
But even if she had thought about it a lot afterwards, she thought she would have done the same. She could not accept the fact that the prey had lost control, and she could not imagine how much she would lack the desire for security in such a future. She would be drowned in the unease caused by the sense of crisis.
She did not regret this decision. The already-incurable and morbid thought had controlled her to become a devil.
She could barely remember what it was like. There was no feeling before the knife had gone in. She had just closed her eyes and had stabbed down without even knowing where she was stabbing. After the knife had gone in, she had finally felt a sense of obstruction, but her whole person was light and airy, as if her feet could not touch the ground. There was clearly no emotion in her heart, but tears were constantly falling from the corners of her eyes.
A huge sadness was gripping her trembling heart, and the blood was washing her eyes. It was a release and also a pain.
She had not heard a sound for a long time, and then she had opened her eyes.
She couldn’t figure it out.
How could her so-flawed stab have just happened to have hit? He had not dodged or avoided. She remembered that the corners of his lips were still slightly raised, as if… he were smiling.
Why?
She looked at him in a daze. The blood was seeping out of the wound and was on her hand. The red was shocking, and it was flowing along her arm, and it was extending out. It was going from her hand to her heart, and it was pressing on her incurable and serious illness.
The knife had not gone deep into the flesh. It was stuck in the middle of his chest. It was not fatal, but the wound was frightening. The blood was gushing down, and it was flowing warmly over his skin, and it was seeping into her pores.
The plan had been built in her heart too suddenly. She had never thought that so much blood would flow out after the knife had been stabbed in. So much, so much that it couldn’t be stopped.
She inexplicably remembered the appearance of her mother, whose body was cold, lying in front of her.
Clearly, she had once been the most disgusted with the woman’s humble and fawning actions, and she had hated the woman’s incompetence and cowardice. So she had stood by and had watched the woman’s situation, and she had become a cruel executioner.
It was she… who had killed her mother. The few people she had loved. But now… she was about to kill the last one.
She stood there in a daze, lips parted but unable to speak. Panic and bewilderment clouded her face—like a child who had done something terribly wrong, lost and helpless.
“I’m sorry…”
The knife had slipped from her fingertips, and half of the blade was in the ground. The blood was reflecting on the tip of the blade.
Xia Qiange had turned around and was about to take off her clothes to bandage the wound. But her legs were soft, and she had fallen to the ground with a thud as if she had lost her strength. The gravel and sand had scraped her knees, and they were embedded in her flesh. She didn’t care about the pain. The pain was not comparable to the speed at which her heart was dripping with blood. She thought he should be in more pain.
She had torn off a piece of cloth and was wrapping it around his wound, but it was too late. The blood had quickly soaked the gauze-like cloth. She was trembling and was constantly saying sorry, and her hands were always wanting to bandage the wound.
Su Yu shook his head, his face pale and without a trace of blood. The pain in his chest had gone from numb to cold, and then it had started to burn. The fiery and stinging pain was taking away his warm blood.
“It doesn’t hurt.”
“But you’ll die…”
For the first time in her life, she was completely flustered. The bandaging of the wound was also slowly and poorly done. She felt that she had never been so tormented.
He held her hand and let the blood flow freely. His lips were as white as transparent, and his eyes were lowered and were looking at her. There was no resentment in them. It was as if he had long since seen through her and had understood all her despicable means and her sinful nature.
“I’ll take you to a place.”
