Chapter 15 (1/2)

“I figure life’s a gift and I don’t intend on wasting it. You don’t know what hand you’re gonna get dealt next. You learn to take life as it comes at you…… to make each day count.”

In the darkness of the movie theatre, the young Leonardo DiCaprio was reciting his lines fluently on the silver screen. The 3D gla.s.ses successfully hid Chen Nian’s eyes from view.

—

A few hours ago.

Bei Ye swiftly shut the shutter doors and hastily drew the curtains before turning back to Chen Nian, “What happened?”

“Yesterday, they hit me, they scolded me, and they stripped me of my clothing. Several times, they took photos, and recorded videos of me. She told me, to retrieve it from her today. I went to the hill behind the school building, but she wouldn’t give it to me. She said she’d show the video to me. She even said that she would upload it on the Internet, and that since so many people recorded it, it’s useless even if I report it  to the police — She told me that she’d never let me off the hook. — That what happened yesterday, would happen a second time, and a third time… She threatened me and started to beat me. I tried to resist her, so I shoved her back…… I knew that I had to meet her today, so I brought a knife, thinking that maybe, just maybe, I could scare her, into leaving me alone. But she wasn’t scared in the slightest, I warned her not to come over, but she wouldn’t listen…… We began tussling…… we rolled around on the field. I didn’t know what happened next, I wasn’t thinking, I really wasn’t thinking, she just……

I’m wrong, I shouldn’t have gone to meet her by myself.”

But because of the series of incidents that occurred after she exposed the truth of Hu Xiao Die’s suicide, she no longer trusted Zheng Yi nor the law. Raising her head to gaze at Bei Ye, tears began to form in her eyes,

“I’m sorry, please save me. Please send me to the police station, I’m scared, I don’t dare to give myself up to the police. I’m afraid my mum would find out about it.”

“We’re not going.” Bei Ye said firmly.

“…….”

“Why do we have to?” Bei Ye’s eyes reddened, “Why?!”

“Why do we have to hand you over to the police? Do you want the police to continually a.n.a.lyse the video recordings they took of you, repeatedly asking you about your feelings over and over again, interrogating your motives – whether you truly injured Wei Cai as a form of self-defence, or whether you’re simply using self-defence as an excuse to commit murder? Do you want to come face to face to those who have hurt you, and be forced to confront them about what happened to you? Do you want to get into endless squabbles and tussles with the parents of your perpetrators? Do you even hope to sit for your graduation exams?!”

“……”

Mum is going to hear about this, she’ll definitely learn about the inhumane torture and hurt they inflicted on her. Her mum will definitely cry.

After his temporary outburst, Bei Ye collected himself swiftly, “Are you sure she’s dead?”

“……” Stunned, Chen Nian stared at Bei Ye blankly before shaking her head slowly, “I ran away immediately after I hurt her.”

“I’ll go and take a look. But no matter what happens, this can wait till after your exams are over. Now, hand the knife to me.”

The blood on the knife had dried. Bei Ye strode over to Chen Nian, and wrenched the knife from her tight grip.

“Take off your clothes.” Bei Ye instructed.

Chen Nian remained unmoving.

Bei Ye stripped Chen Nian of her clothing, and dragged her to beneath the shower head. Turning on the shower, the water began to pour down on Chen Nian’s body, slowly cleansing the dried blood stains on Chen Nian’s body.

Bei Ye gathered Chen Nian’s clothes and shoes, and was about to place them into the was.h.i.+ng machine when he discovered his own s.h.i.+rt amongst Chen Nian’s clothes. It turned out that just this morning, Chen Nian was unable to locate a unders.h.i.+rt whilst she was wearing her uniform – thus, Bei Ye had pa.s.sed her one of his unders.h.i.+rts to her for her use. Turning back swiftly to glance at Chen Nian, Bei Ye saw that Chen Nian was still staring at the wall, blank and confused.

Angling his body such that he completely blocked Chen Nian’s line of sight, Bei Ye hastily removed his s.h.i.+rt from the pile of clothes and stuffed it into the drawer beneath the basin. As he opened the drawer, he discovered a special object that his mum had previously bought.

Glancing at that foreign object, several ideas formed in his head. Bei Ye shut the drawer carefully.

Returning to the was.h.i.+ng machine, he was about to switch the machine on when several thoughts crossed his mind once again. Retrieving Chen Nian’s clothes from the was.h.i.+ng machine, he began to remove every single item from her pockets, and stored them carefully in a huge plastic bag.

The soft yellow light shone on the two quiet youths. Chen Nian had already removed all traces of the bloodstains from her body. Bei Ye squat on the ground, his gloved hands holding a brush and a bottle of detergent as he began to scrub every nook and cranny of the toilet meticulously.

“Chen Nian, go out.” Bei Ye told her gently.

Chen Nian remained rooted at her original spot.

“I’m done for.” Chen Nian’s voice trembled, “Bei Ye, I’m done for.”

—

Chen Nian felt the popcorn box by her elbow. Turning her head to look at Li Xiang, she grabbed a handful of popcorn from the box and stuffed it in her mouth.

It tasted like wax.

—

“You’re not done for.” Bei Ye removed his gloves and straightened his body, the warm water drenching the hair of the two youths, trickling down their faces. Bei Ye strode over to Chen Nian, and cupped her face in his hands. His black eyes blazed with determination as he stared into her eyes, “Nothing’s going to happen to you, I promise.”

“Tell me, you……” Bei Ye paused, scrambling for an appropriate word, “Where did you hurt her?”

Chen Nian shook her head, “……I forgot.”

“How many times did you stab her?”

“……I forgot.”

“How deep?”

“I don’t know……All I know is that I hate her, and that I really hoped that she would disappear – but despite all that, I never wanted her to die.” Chen Nian began trembling once more, “Youths like them — why aren’t they disciplined, why does n.o.body care about them……It shouldn’t be like this……It never should have been like this……”

Bei Ye tightened his hold on Chen Nian’s face, and stared into her eyes. “Did anyone see you on your way back?”

“No.” Aside for the alley nearby the abandoned steel mill, the areas surrounding the rest of the steel mill were all abandoned.

“Where is she now?”

Chen Nian gazed at him.

“I’m going to go take a look. Your strength is rather small, so it’s likely that she merely suffered a small injury. It’s not so easy to die.” Bei Ye was abnormally calm and collected.

“I’ll go with you……”

“No, I’ll go by myself. If something truly happened, I’ll notify you immediately.”

“But……”

“There won’t be a problem. Don’t you trust me?”

“I do.”

Bei Ye strode forward, gently grabbing Chen Nian’s drenched hair and pressing her into his arms. Lowering his head, he pressed his cheeks tightly against hers.

All of a sudden, Chen Nian’s mobile phone rang. The two youths separated in shock. Turns out, it was Li Xiang on the other end of the line:

“Chen Nian, t.i.tanic 3D is currently screening in the theatres. I managed to obtain two movie tickets – do you want to go catch the movie together?”

“I……want to revise.” The moment Chen Nian completed her sentence, she saw a frown forming on Bei Ye’s face.

Undeterred, Li Xiang continued his persuasion, “t.i.tanic 3D will no longer be screening by the time we finish our graduation exams. Such a cla.s.sic movie is rare to come by – just take it as a short period of relaxation.”

Bei Ye grabbed hold of Chen Nian’s shoulders, his gaze encouraging her to accede to Li Xiang’s request.

Chen Nian’s lips trembled, and she gently shook her head. She wasn’t stupid – she knew that Bei Ye was simply being too cautious and wary, that he had already begun to prepare an alibi for her, to prove that she wasn’t at the crime scene.

At the other end of the line, Li Xiang was still trying his best to persuade Chen Nian, “Chen Nian, t.i.tanic is such a cla.s.sic movie. I’m sure you’ll enjoy the movie as well……”

In the narrow and dilapidated bathroom, the dim yellow light bathed the two youths in its glow. The two youths stared at each other, their gazes interlocking with each other’s, each knowing full well what the other party was thinking. Grabbing her by the shoulders, Bei Ye nodded slowly, and firmly.

——

The movie felt like an eternity.