Rong Xiu’s fingers with distinct knuckles trembled slightly: “I’m quitting. I used to smoke because of work pressure, but now I haven’t touched it for a long time… I rarely drink alcohol either.”

His voice grew weaker as he spoke.

Fan Xia smiled gently, as if soothing his uneasiness: “It’s good that you’ve quit. Smoking is bad for your health after all. Over time, it makes your voice hoarse, and the smell clings to your clothes, impossible to wash out.”

“You seem to know a lot about it?”

“Because I used to smoke too,” Fan Xia said lazily, leaning back on the sofa and randomly selecting a movie.

“You?” Rong Xiu was somewhat surprised.

Fan Xia smiled carelessly: “What, are you surprised to know that I smoked too?”

Rong Xiu nodded. Although it was normal for women to smoke, he had known Fan Xia for so long and had never seen her smoke.

The movie screen slowly lit up, seemingly a romance film.

Fan Xia spoke slowly, her eyes carrying a faint bitter smile: “After my parents passed away, the huge shock left me depressed for a very long time. My studies plummeted, from being first in the grade to last in the class. Not only that, I also fell in with those unruly students. It was then that I learned to smoke, drink, and fight. You can imagine all the things bad students would do, I did them all. Even the teachers gave up on me and stopped caring.”

Rong Xiu looked at her silently, not knowing how to comfort her. He could only sense from her few words the suffering and torment she had endured back then. He mustered up the courage and held her slender white hand.

Fan Xia’s eyes held a smile, and she didn’t push him away. She continued: “At that time, the good students all stopped talking to me, except for Wen Lan Sheng. He would bring me milk every morning during self-study, but I poured the milk over his head.”

“Did you know then that the Wen family was responsible for your parents’ death?” Rong Xiu tightened his grip on her hand.

Fan Xia shook her head: “I didn’t know.”

“Then why?”

“I just didn’t want anyone to save me,” Fan Xia lowered her thick eyelashes, her voice slightly bitter: “I hated myself. If it weren’t for me, my parents wouldn’t have died.”

On the day of the accident, Fan Xia was participating in a city-level mathematics competition, where she won first place.

Xie Ying was very happy and prepared a big table of dishes, waiting for Fan Yun to return from work.

The factory had overtime that day, and she didn’t get home until eight o’clock.

Hearing the good news, Fan Yun happily picked up the young Fan Xia and said she would give her a reward, asking what she wanted.

Little Fan Xia said: “I want blueberry ice cream.”

Fan Yun immediately went out to buy it. Xie Ying said: “It’s too late, let’s go tomorrow.”

But Fan Yun said: “It’s only eight o’clock, not late. If Xia’er wants something, we should buy it for her.” She kissed Xie Ying’s forehead, her eyes gentle: “You’ve worked hard tutoring Xia’er. The supermarket should still have the wax apples you like. I’ll buy some back too.”

Fan Yun put on her coat, smiling and saying she’d be back soon.

But she never came back.

When they learned about Fan Yun’s accident, it was already late at night. Xie Ying pulled Fan Xia along with the neighbors to run towards the road where the accident happened. That dim stretch of road felt like an eternity of torment.

She stumbled forward, not knowing how long she had run. She accidentally fell, her hands covered in blood, but it wasn’t her own.

She heard Xie Ying’s heart-wrenching cries.

She looked at the glaring blood on the ground, raised her head in confusion, and saw her mother’s mutilated body.

The mother who had just lifted her high, smiling and praising her as the smartest child in the world, was now just a cold corpse, so brutally damaged that she could only be identified by her clothes.

Xie Ying screamed her name, holding her cold body. The body, crushed who knows how many times, was broken in two.

Xie Ying went crazy, crying hysterically. The neighbors forcibly pulled him away. Xie Ying was covered in blood, crying until he passed out.

Fan Xia stood there dumbfounded, her eyes full of tears. She called out softly, “Mom.”

No one would ever respond to her gently again.

On the day of the funeral, Xie Ying looked shockingly haggard. By this time, he no longer cried.

Fan Xia knelt before him, crying and apologizing, saying that if she hadn’t wanted ice cream, her mom wouldn’t have died.

Xie Ying hugged her, comforting her.

He said, “Good child, this isn’t your fault. Don’t blame yourself.”

But that night, he hanged himself in the closet.

He used the tie Fan Yun had given him to hang himself. There was enough space in the closet for self-rescue; if he had just straightened his legs a little, he wouldn’t have died. But he was so determined, dying in that narrow, dark closet.

When Fan Xia found him, his body was already cold.

But Fan Xia didn’t believe it. She cried and rushed forward, hugging Xie Ying. Large tears rolled down as she apologized hoarsely: “Dad, I’m sorry, I was wrong. I shouldn’t have asked for ice cream. If I hadn’t asked for ice cream, Mom wouldn’t have died. I was wrong, I was wrong. Dad, come back, please, come back.”

The tie broke under the pressure, and the cold, heavy corpse fell helplessly, heavily crushing Fan Xia.

The corpse’s dilated, empty pupils stared straight at her.

Fan Xia closed her eyes in despair, tightly hugging Xie Ying’s body, crying uncontrollably.

“I always felt that my dad blamed me, and I blamed myself too. Why did I have to want that ice cream? Why did I have to get first place? If I hadn’t gotten first place, if I hadn’t asked for that ice cream, would Mom still be alive?” Fan Xia’s eyes were slightly red: “So I smoked, drank, skipped classes, messed around, all to punish myself.”

“Wen Lan Sheng was very kind to me at that time, but I wasn’t moved. I didn’t want anyone to be kind to me anymore, I didn’t want to be saved, I just wanted to fall deeper.”

Fan Xia tilted her head back and smiled bitterly.

“But later, I learned the truth about the car accident from an eyewitness. Only then did I know that the person who killed my mother was Wen Ming Yue, and at that time, Wen Lan Sheng, Xie Cen, and Wen Jing were all in the car. They watched my mother die!”

“The whole Wen family are murderers. Why do they get to be a happy family while mine is broken? Wen Lan Sheng even pretended to be nice to me, wanting to save me, make me fall in love with him. Fine, I’ll satisfy him then.”

“A man offering himself, might as well take advantage. Let me tell you, that person who helped Wen Jing cheat, I found him too.”

“I heard she wanted to find someone to help her cheat, so I deliberately had that person leave flaws in the homework that the school could easily discover. Wen Ming Yue spent nearly two million on her studying abroad, all wasted. It’s great, one step closer to my plan.” Fan Xia smiled, both vulnerable and smug.

Rong Xiu listened quietly, his eyes filled with pain and hatred. The Wen family deserves to die!

As the sky gradually darkened, Fan Xia stood up. It was time to go back and see Wen Lan Sheng’s crazed state.

She had never told anyone about those events from years ago, always keeping them to herself. But today, perhaps because Rong Xiu’s home made her feel so relaxed, she had vented it all out. Her heavy heart finally found a moment of relief.

She prepared to leave, but Rong Xiu held her back, his slender yet strong hand grasping her fingers.

Fan Xia watched as he slowly stood up from the sofa, his chest almost touching hers. She could faintly see the outline beneath his shirt.

His eyes were deep and dark as his fingertips slowly slid from her waist to her chest, stopping at the first button.

His voice was low: “I know you want to go back and provoke Wen Lan Sheng. This outfit is perfect, it looks like you’ve been out having an affair.”

Fan Xia smiled. Sometimes she was amazed at the tacit understanding between her and Rong Xiu, that kind of understanding where even if she said nothing, he would immediately comprehend and quickly cooperate.

His cool fingers caressed her shirt buttons. Rong Xiu’s hot lips pressed against her slender neck as he said, “If your body had marks left from lovemaking, Wen Lan Sheng would surely be even angrier.”

Fan Xia’s gaze fixed on him. After a moment, she curved her lips into a smile, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him softly behind his ear.

Rong Xiu’s entire body trembled. His fingertips shook as he unbuttoned her shirt, sucking on her fair neck, leaving distinct kiss marks.