Chapter 734: Epilogue (5)
Survivors
[Part 3]
“Mm, I understand.”
In the corridor, Wen Ya walked forward unhurriedly, a phone pressed against her ear.
“I’m already handling it.”
The shade from the trees fell, swaying like ripples in water.
“It’s already arranged, yes.”
“Yes, the follow-up processing fees for the accident have also been transferred, and the lawyers have all been contacted.”
She pushed open the door, responding methodically.
“Rest assured,”
Wen Ya’s voice was calm, her emotions as unrippled as still water.
“If anything happens later, I will take responsibility.”
“There won’t be any problems.”
The next second, hysterical, almost maddened screams came through the receiver, indiscriminately venting malice outward. Wen Ya frowned slightly and held the phone a bit further away.
After waiting like this for nearly a minute, she sighed as if helpless.
“Rest well, and remember to take your medicine.”
“…Mom.”
Chen Mo, at the desk, looked up.
It wasn’t until the very last word that it was finally revealed that this straightforward, indifferent-sounding conversation was actually a call from home.
“What, family matter?” Chen Mo asked, looking up at her.
“Mm,” Wen Ya replied, putting the phone back in her pocket, and said calmly, “My younger brother hurt someone, things at home need to be dealt with.”
“Do you need help?” Chen Mo asked.
Wen Ya: “No need.”
This wasn’t a lie.
As the eldest sister, she had been dealing with and maintaining this tangled mess since she could remember.
Mad blood flowed in the veins of their family.
As the only sane person among them all, she was already well-practiced at this.
Wen Ya looked at Chen Mo: “Did you get what I asked you for?”
Chen Mo paused: “Yeah.”
He opened a drawer and took out an envelope with a piece of paper attached to it.
“Thank you.” Wen Ya nodded, reaching out to take it.
“Do you want me to go with you…”
“No need.”
Thus, the office was silent for a moment.
Under the sunlight, fine specks of dust floated.
“Alright.”
Chen Mo’s voice was as light as a sigh.
“Have a safe trip.”
Outside the residential area, the trees provided lush shade.
The streets were bustling with traffic, and the air was thick with the lively atmosphere of daily life.
Inside the neighborhood, children chased each other, letting out excited squeals.
The little girl running at the very front laughed joyfully. As she ran, she turned her head back and, without paying attention to her feet, stumbled.
“Ouch!” She pitched forward and fell.
Instantly, tears welled up in the kid’s eyes, but before she could cry out, the sound got stuck in her throat.
A few steps away, a tall woman stood deep in the shadows. Her whole body seemed immersed under the shade of the trees. She possessed a strange, abrupt aura, entirely out of place with everything the little girl had known in her short years.
Not making a sound, not moving, like a shadow.
Seeing her suddenly gave one an inexplicable fright.
While she was stunned, the woman seemed to notice her and lowered her eyes to look over, revealing a pair of beautiful, serene black eyes.
Right at this moment, the friend behind her also caught up, sweating profusely. She was panting heavily, her face carrying obvious guilt: “Hey, hey, how did you fall? Are you okay!”
The woman leaned down and briefly checked the child’s scraped knee.
Her fingers were very cold, so icy they made one shiver.
“It’s fine,” she said. “Go play.”
After being pulled a few steps away by her friend, the little girl still couldn’t help but turn her head back.
That woman was still standing there.
For an instant, a vague thought inexplicably sprang up in her young mind.
This big sister…
Is so gentle.
Just like water.
Soft and accommodating, seemingly without shape, yet tough enough to make everything around her change with her.
Wen Ya stood in place, once again allowing herself to quietly blend into the surrounding shadows.
Not far away, the evening breeze brought the distant sound of the children’s laughter.
In her palm, she gripped the slip of paper she had gotten from Chen Mo. It had become somewhat crumpled during the rush of the journey. The handwriting on it was clear, concise, and to the point.
There was no superfluous information, only an address.
Specific to the street, building, and apartment number.
Wen Ya’s gaze fell on a lit window opposite her. She stared at it for a long time without looking away.
Finally, she took a step and walked forward.
Knock, knock. Bent knuckles rapped against the iron door, emitting a hollow echo.
A few seconds later, an exhausted voice came from inside the door.
It had the same accent as the children outside the window, very familiar. The enunciation carried a bit of a soft lilt, with only certain syllables connecting, sounding very sticky and round.
“Who’s outside?”
“I am…”
Wen Ya paused and continued,
“I am Lili’s friend.”
It was very quiet inside the door.
Standing in the dim corridor, the air felt stifling, and breathing seemed to become prolonged along with it.
Wen Ya lowered her eyes.
The next second, a series of loud footsteps came from inside the door, going from fast to slow, from far to near, sounding quite urgent.
Creak. Accompanied by a hoarse scraping sound, the iron door was opened from the inside.
A travel-worn face, looking somewhat puffy from exhaustion, appeared behind it. Her hair was combed meticulously. Following this, a pair of beautiful eyes, incredibly similar to Xu Lili’s, looked up. The emotion in those eyes was hard to tell whether it was sorrow or trance.
“…Oh my, it’s Lili’s friend.”
“Come, come in and have a seat.”
The bubbling sound of boiling water came from the kitchen.
Wen Ya sat on the brightly colored fabric sofa with her knees together, her posture unusually somewhat stiff and reserved.
The room was very neat, spotlessly clean.
Whether it was the knitted covers draped over the furniture or the lush, heavy green plants on the windowsill, all of it revealed the owner’s love for life and refined taste.
The only discordant part in the whole room was above the TV. The spot where a family portrait should have hung was empty, but the gray traces left by the frame still remained on the white wall, distinct and glaring, like a wound that couldn’t heal.
The sound of boiling water in the kitchen stopped, and footsteps sounded again.
“Auntie, please leave it, let me do it.”
Wen Ya stood up, quickly stepped forward, and took the teacup from the other’s hand.
“I really didn’t expect that after so long, Lili’s friend would still come to visit,” the woman smiled. “Quick, have a seat.”
“How did you two meet?”
Wen Ya held the teacup with both hands. The rising mist blurred the gentle, bright eyes opposite her. She lowered her eyes, watching the jade-green leaves bob up and down in the white porcelain cup, and slowly spoke the excuse she had prepared long ago,
“We met during university club activities, I was her upperclassman.”
“I happened to be on a business trip in your city this time, so I wanted to come over and visit you and Uncle, to see if you were doing well.”
“Oh my,” the fine lines around the woman’s eyes deepened. “Then, you and Lili must have been very close, right?”
“Yes, we…”
A tea leaf fell, twirling in the jade-green water, eventually sinking slowly to the bottom of the cup.
“We were very close.”
A year and three months ago, Xu Lili went missing.
No one could find her.
The unanswered phone was dialed over and over again. They ran back and forth between the police station and their home time and time again. They checked surveillance footage, asked friends, posted rewards, put up notices, accepted interviews, exhausting every means to find their missing daughter, but it was like a stone dropping into the sea, without a single clue.
The grand, vigorous search gradually died down, the dust settling.
The missing person notices pasted on telephone poles turned a dull yellow and faded. The girl’s bright, smiling face gradually dimmed and became mottled, covered by one new advertisement after another until her features were a blur.
The world turns, time flows, and attention shifts. At most, during casual conversation after dinner one day, someone might casually mention, “Did you know? A girl I used to know went missing.”
“Did they find her? It seems not.”
“But her father and I can’t give up,” the woman lifted those tired, gentle eyes, stubbornly repeating, “We can’t stop looking for Lili.”
In this massive city, they were like two busy ants, perseveringly printing out new missing person notices, tirelessly pasting them in every corner of the city, one by one.
Like blind people striding toward a cliff, like stubborn donkeys that won’t turn back even after hitting a wall.
“Recently, her dad said that in the neighboring city, a few people who had been missing for many years suddenly came back…” The woman’s dimmed eyes lit up slightly, the light of hope swaying in the depths of her eyes. “I wonder if one day Lili will…”
“…” Holding the teacup, even though the tea water in her palms was still hot, it couldn’t warm Wen Ya’s fingers.
She lowered her eyes as curling white mist rose before her.
Pretending not to see the woman sitting opposite her, she turned her head and wiped away a tear from the corner of her eye.
Wen Ya walked into Lili’s room.
Light blue fabric curtains were tied with ribbons of the same color. The afterglow of the setting sun spilled in from the window, illuminating a spotless desk and a neat, unwrinkled bed. Plush dolls of various colors lay on it, arranged properly from largest to smallest.
It was very quiet here.
Occasionally, the sound of traffic came from outside the window, very far away, making the room seem even more desolate.
She walked in slowly and stopped in front of the desk.
On the wall, certificates of merit of various sizes were neatly pasted. Ranging from large competition awards to small excellent class committee member certificates, they were all meticulously framed and hung on the wall.
Wen Ya lowered her eyes and picked up a photo from the desk.
The 21-year-old Xu Lili, wearing a bachelor’s gown, tilted up a bright, flamboyant face, smiling at her in the photo.
There was no demonic allure of alienation, nor the haze of death.
She put the photo down, her gaze naturally falling on a small golden pig in the corner of the desk.
“Sis Wen Ya, you’ve saved up so many points.” The 23-year-old Xu Lili stumbled to her feet after the instance settlement, her face mottled with fresh blood, tugging at the corners of her torn mouth to smile. “I can’t do it… I’ve never formed this habit since I was young. Even though my mom drilled it into my ears, my piggy bank from when I was a kid was never once filled up. It was always smashed by me after a few days to secretly buy snacks and comics.”
Wen Ya moved her gaze away and straightened the small potted plant next to it.
The devastatingly beautiful anchor Lilith rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought in the guild hall. “Sigh, since I entered the instance, I don’t know how the succulents I grew at home are doing… I hope my parents remember to water them.”
She took an envelope out of her pocket and pressed it under the photo.
Chen Mo had originally hoped she wouldn’t participate in this process, but Wen Ya refused him.
She insisted she must go deliver it personally.
“Auntie, then I’ll take my leave…”
Before she could finish her sentence, she was interrupted.
“Stay and have dinner.”
The woman hurried out, “I’ve already called her dad. He’s buying a roast chicken on his way back, he’ll be here right away.”
“Auntie, there’s no need to trouble yourself…” Wen Ya hurriedly declined.
“Oh my, why are you being so polite, child? What’s this about trouble or no trouble.”
Behind her, in the kitchen, the pot simmering on the stove bubbled. “You are Lili’s friend, Auntie can’t just let you leave on an empty stomach like this.”
“Auntie’s cooking is very good, you can try it in a bit.”
“…”
Looking at those bright eyes with fine lines, almost carved from the same mold as the ones in her memory, Wen Ya was struck dumb.
She could soothe her manic family members, handle frantic attacks, flying plates, and shattering tables and chairs; she could stop the bleeding from her mother’s slit wrists without changing her expression, and could rationally and calmly clean up the mess.
She could be peaceful when peace was needed, and strong when strength was needed.
But at this moment, Wen Ya couldn’t bring out any of her usual tactics. She could only stand blankly in place, like a puppet, letting the other party take her wrist with soft fingers and lead her to the table.
Watching the busy figure in the kitchen, Wen Ya’s gaze involuntarily trembled, and she lowered her eyes as if unable to bear looking any longer.
At the table.
Hiding the blood and slaughter of the instances, Wen Ya picked out and shared a few daily, interesting anecdotes related to Lili. Listening to them, Lili’s parents couldn’t help but smile. But the smiles paused almost as soon as they were formed, every fine line on their faces soaked with bottomless sorrow.
The woman turned her head away and wiped the corner of her eyes.
“Sigh, no wonder Lili could get along with you… You are a gentle, good child.”
Wen Ya opened her mouth, seemingly wanting to refute.
But those beautiful, bright eyes looked at her longingly, calling her: “Sis Wen Ya.”
She said: “Don’t come over.”
She said: “Thank you for being willing to come back to find me.”
She said: “Hurry up and leave.”
The woman raised her hand, looking at her with the same gaze, and softly stroked her head.
“Good child, eat.”
“Come, this is Auntie’s specialty dish.”
A piece of meat was placed into her bowl.
Rich with oil and red sauce, fatty but not greasy.
“Lili loved eating this, try it.”
She only felt as if her heart had taken a heavy blow, her spine cracking inch by inch.
“Is it good?”
Wen Ya buried her head deeply, her vision having grown blurry at some point.
The taste in her mouth was salty and astringent.
“Mm,” she suppressed the trembling in her voice, and answered slowly, “It’s good.”
Lili, your succulents are growing very well.
The braised pork is very good.
