Chapter 31

“Come here.”

The words hit Lu Shimiao’s ears, and her heart slammed violently against her chest.

The pressure traveled along her spine, turning into blood pressure rushing to her scalp at her carotid artery, a wave of numbness washing over her. It pressed against her chest, making it heave for a long while.

She used to think only Qiu Wen possessed this three-second soul-summoning ability.

Now, Xue Tong had become the second.

Her brain habitually started analyzing. Had she done something wrong? Had her physical training scores dropped? Or was it the physical contact she hadn’t controlled well last night, was she still angry about that? If she was truly angry, then she would apologize properly. It was just that this atmosphere was unbearable, she didn’t like it.

The unlit room amplified Lu Shimiao’s anxiety of self-reflection. Obediently, she took her hands out of her pockets, let her shoulders droop, and slowly closed the door behind her. Then she changed her shoes.

Her slippers scraped lightly across the floor as she dragged her feet.

Step by step, Lu Shimiao walked to the edge of the sofa.

Xue Tong’s police uniform collar was unbuttoned, her black hair coiled on top of her head. A crumpled tie was draped over the back of the sofa. On the table, unusually, sat an ashtray, though it held no cigarette butts, only a lighter next to it.

Clearly, she hadn’t started smoking yet before the person returned.

Xue Tong pointed to the floor right beside her feet, just a few dozen centimeters away from her, and dropped a cold command: “Stand properly.”

She couldn’t detect any emotional fluctuation. But the tone was even colder than what Lu Shimiao had heard before, like the ice shards in her own veins during that typhoon, so cold it made her entire body stiffen.

“What’s wrong with you? I—”

“Stand properly. Did you not understand?”

Xue Tong had no intention of giving her a chance to explain. Sitting immovable on the sofa, her tone was like the weight of a mountain pressing down, completely pinning Lu Shimiao to the spot beside her feet.

With a Police Cadet’s instinct, Lu Shimiao reacted immediately upon hearing the command. She stood still, hands unconsciously moving to clasp behind her back, head lowered, shoulders curling inward, a posture of somewhat aggrieved obedience.

“When I told you to sleep, you should have slept. When I tell you to stand properly, you stand properly.”

“When I told you to call me Instructor, told you to move out of the penthouse—do I always have to say things three times for you to hear me?”

Although Xue Tong was suppressing her voice, she couldn’t suppress the speaking manner cultivated over years in the Police Force. A piercing reprimand, an undisguised interrogation, drilled into Lu Shimiao’s ears with overwhelming force.

Lu Shimiao snapped back to attention, raising her head to meet Xue Tong’s gaze.

She was so cold.

Those words, coming from her mouth, held no warmth at all.

Lu Shimiao didn’t know where this storm had come from—whether there was a trigger or if it was without cause. She remembered the text message Xue Tong hadn’t replied to last night. She remembered Xue Tong going out drinking last night.

Had she done something wrong?

But she didn’t want to call her Instructor. So she remained silent, accepting the baptism of the storm.

Xue Tong found the scent of the kid, so close at hand, made her breathing uneven. She reached up and undid another button of her collar. Her mood was growing increasingly agitated. Just then, she turned her head and saw the pillow on the sofa, and the neatly folded blanket. It stabbed at her, so painfully.

“I gave you many days to settle the penthouse matter, Lu Shimiao.”

From the very first reminder in the corridor.

To the fever during the typhoon.

Even from this Monday to Friday, she had given her countless opportunities.

At first, she just thought the other party didn’t want to bring it up. She didn’t think much of it. After all, a wound needed time to heal before one could analyze how to prevent falling a second time. So she waited, eyes wide open.

Waited for Lu Shimiao to mention the penthouse matter to her. Even if she had just said one simple extra sentence—”Instructor, help me, help me deal with the penthouse matter, help me find a place, let me live in your home”—then Xue Tong would have gone to buy a bed without a single complaint. How much could a bed cost? Even if a year later this place no longer needed that bed, she would still do it.

Just as she would contact the school, contact the Equal Rights Organization, personally contact the legal department, personally follow the case’s progress. Even if Lu Shimiao hadn’t asked, she would do it.

But what she absolutely couldn’t accept was Lu Shimiao acting as if nothing had happened.

As if everything in the penthouse was a stream swallowed by the ocean, and with the legal report the school had produced, everything had returned to calm. She wouldn’t allow it. Just as she wouldn’t allow the Ah Zi incident to repeat itself. She wouldn’t allow Lu Shimiao to return to that place.

“I am handling it.” Lu Shimiao’s reply this time was very quick, her tone even carrying urgency.

But Xue Tong unexpectedly found the answer sounded more like defiance.

“Sam, turn on the lights.”

Xue Tong pinched the bridge of her nose. Her eyes, sleepless from the night before, were trying to self-rescue, causing her to lose focus on Lu Shimiao’s face after just a few seconds of staring. Last time, she had been kneeling on the bed, huffing and puffing air onto her wrist. It had only been a few days, and now the hands behind her back had moved to rest against the seams of her pants.

More than hearing her explanation, Xue Tong now wanted to confirm whether Lu Shimiao’s nervous expression was still there.

The living room lights habitually brightened to their dimmest setting.

Xue Tong looked up at her.

—All that was on her face was grievance and defiance.

Xue Tong lowered her gaze. She hoped to find a small opening to relax her taut nerves. Taking a deep breath, she asked again:

“Tell me, then. What did you do in Central today?”

Entrapment.

Whether applied to Xue Tong or to Lu Shimiao, the term was now fitting.

Lu Shimiao froze at the question, thinking for half a second.

She wanted to tell the truth, but she held it back.

Entrapment—in terms of investigative strategy, it was indeed a method. But in reality, it was a bit too black and white.

She had gone to ask An Xi’er for help. It was like targeted inducement, luring someone to take the bait. It wasn’t illegal, but it was far from honorable. Though she hadn’t committed the crime herself, the lure was indeed something she had cast.

Lu Shimiao had never told anyone this. She wished those people in the penthouse would die, or spend a long, long time in prison reflecting on what they had done to her.

But why? She also felt guilt. She felt something inside her spilling out brutality and malice. They had only cursed her a few nasty words. They had only locked her outside. She could have gone to the police the first time she saw the footage.

But she had waited.

She felt that the camera she had installed was like the brush of a hellish judge. She was writing a contract. Her divinity was waiting to explore human nature’s revealed evil. Just like her imprisoned desire for revenge and her strangled silence—these were secrets she wanted to bury deep in her heart. No one could touch them. No one could decide whether they were good or bad.

Especially, Xue Tong could not be allowed to see her ugliness.

Xue Tong watched her opponent sink into contemplation, her expression still relatively calm.

She hoped Lu Shimiao would come over, admit her mistake, tell her personally that she would keep her distance from the people upstairs. She wanted to hear, from her own lips, her stating that she needed her.

So Xue Tong asked again.

“I asked you a question. What did you do in Central today?”

Lu Shimiao snapped back. She reached into her pocket and carefully pulled out a gift box.

The bow on top of the box was something Lu Shimiao had carefully re-tied. It represented her feelings. Just a moment ago upstairs, she had opened the box to look at them again. The cufflinks shimmered silver. They would definitely look beautiful with Xue Tong’s silver-thread sleeve garters.

“I went to buy you a gift.” Lu Shimiao looked at the gift box, momentarily forgetting she was being scolded.

Now she looked at Xue Tong.

Xue Tong was sitting on the sofa, arms crossed over her chest, eyes completely cold. She didn’t seem to have any intention of reaching out to take the gift. It seemed she didn’t need her gift right now. The tone that had originally carried joy and anticipation was beaten back by the oppressive atmosphere the moment it left her mouth.

Lu Shimiao didn’t dare place the gift box directly into Xue Tong’s hands. She just gently set it down on the table.

Sadness blanketed her body.

I spent a long time choosing it. It wasn’t for any other reason.

It was simply because I wanted to give it to you. I thought you would look beautiful wearing it. I wanted you to wear something on your body that belonged to me, something I gave you.

But Lu Shimiao truly couldn’t say it out loud. She had to replace it with something else.

“Thank you, Instructor, for taking care of me all this time. I’ve troubled you a lot recently—”

“How much do you hate living here with me?”

Xue Tong’s eyes were fixed on the orange-gold box. Her dark expression was beginning to slip from her control.

What was this?

A farewell gift?

So Lu Shimiao had still decided to move back to the penthouse.

Before Lu Shimiao could speak, Xue Tong opened her mouth urgently, her voice full of anger at her refusal to fight, so cold it began to tremble.

“Do you think you can just spend a little money and buy peace? You’re twenty-three years old. Can’t you grow up?”

Xue Tong braced her hands on the sofa. The look in her eyes as she stared at the box was one of unwillingness and disappointment. She didn’t want to hear Lu Shimiao speak at all. Her thoughts could no longer support her speaking Mandarin. And so, by instinct, she launched into large chunks of English:

“You like living in a place like that with them, is that it?”

“Was that rain that day not enough for you? Is getting sick very comfortable? Didn’t you get enough of their insults?”

“Everything I said to you that time in the corridor, was it all useless? You’ve cried in front of me twice now, Lu Shimiao. How many more times do you have to cry for them? Could it be you won’t sober up until the very end, until you’re jumping off a building?”

Sentence after sentence.

Like fists falling from the sky. Lu Shimiao felt her heartbeat plummeting downwards. She was clearly not a mute, but her Instructor blocked every word she tried to say, leaving her speechless. Everything was trapped in her throat, including her sadness and her anxiety.

Across from her, Xue Tong kept talking, her eyes still pinned on the gift box.

She didn’t even know what she was doing herself. It was just that during these days of contact with Lu Shimiao, her own emotions had become like a ticking time bomb, ready to detonate at any moment. Her politeness, her upbringing—all of it could be dismantled into a scattered mess by this person.

To the point where Xue Tong was starting to doubt herself.

She even felt that this gift was the leftover result of Lu Shimiao’s attempts to appease those others. That it was what she had been reduced to after a week of taking care of her.

“You’re spending your parents’ money to suck up to them. Can you sleep at night?”

“Lu Shimiao, what kind of person do you take me for? Am I the same as them, needing your flattery?”

“You have the free time and money to buy random things. You’d be better off spending that money finding a place to live.”

The anticipation Lu Shimiao had felt that afternoon buying the gift, the wholehearted joy she had felt carrying the gift downstairs—it was all defeated, just like that, blunt and direct.

All she felt was a stinging sensation on her body, like a wound suddenly oozing pus. Xue Tong had easily peeled back her scar and doused it with a layer of alcohol, ruthlessly grabbing her by the neck, plunging her head into the deep water, forcing her to see her own blurred reflection on the water’s surface.

Cowardice. Disillusionment.

Xue Tong was so cruel, making her see what kind of nature she had in Xue Tong’s heart.

The value of what she had strived for was negated so easily.

—You have the free time and money to buy random things. You’d be better off spending that money finding a place to live.

Lu Shimiao suddenly sobered in that moment of drowning. She couldn’t face Xue Tong’s dislike. Humiliated and furious, she wanted to flee.

“I’ll move out of Equator right now.” She grabbed the laptop bag beside the table. She didn’t even pack her clothes, didn’t take her pillow. She turned directly and headed for the door.

Xue Tong hadn’t had time to replay the cruel words she had just spoken. Seeing Lu Shimiao about to leave, she couldn’t help but stand up.

She asked: “Where are you going now?”

Lu Shimiao didn’t speak. Tears fell the moment she turned her head. She didn’t care, letting the tears fall one by one. But she absolutely could not make a sound.

She could not cry in front of Xue Tong a third time.

Xue Tong stood in place, watching Lu Shimiao start putting on her shoes, pulling the floor access card and door code card out of her pocket and placing them on the table. Her whole demeanor was numb yet composed. She hadn’t even walked out the door yet, and Xue Tong was already starting to get frantic.

“I’m asking you, where are you going now?”

Lu Shimiao still didn’t speak.

She felt there was no need to speak. Because saying anything more would be superfluous.

“The moment you walk out that door, I will never care about you again.” Xue Tong spoke furiously, although the words twisted her motive for wanting to hold her back.

Lu Shimiao’s body froze. Her hand was on the door handle.

These familiar words. Qiu Wen had said them to her too.

She looked down at the water stains on her clothes. She realized that in just a few short steps, she had already cried so many tears.

The hedgehog, poked repeatedly, finally began to choose to break free recklessly.

“Instructor Xue, take care of yourself.”

“Wearing a condom during sex—that’s the most basic common sense.”