Beyond the Rift (Campus 1V1) - 7.

7.

Yan Xue is in a foul mood. Everyone around her suffers for it.

The usual ways to cheer up the young lady all fail this time.

Until someone suggests, 

“Find someone to deal with Ling Jia?”

Yan Xue’s sitting on the gym bench. She lifts her eyes. Her hands are propped on the chair. She gestures for him to continue.

The person says, 

“Take away what she cares about.”

That’s interesting.

But someone curious asks, 

“She’s already so poor—what else could she care about?”

How could she not have something?

Yan Xue smiles.

For example, the person who brought her, in her poverty, into this harsh world.

Yi Chuan was right—someone has been lying in a hospital bed too long. It’s time to handle it.

–

The inpatient department at Li Jin Private Hospital is exceptionally busy.

A recent fight at a vocational high school sent over thirty students to the hospital.

The private hospital received a call and sent staff to admit them.

The ward is in chaos. The caregiving auntie’s holding a kettle. She searches for a nurse but finds none. As she heads to the room, she gets a call from Qianchuan International Academy’s admissions office.

After nearly an hour on the phone, she returns to the ward and sees Sun Huizhen’s vital signs flatline on the monitor.

–

“I’m very sorry—” 

Her tone is off. Yan Xue adjusts it and repeats, 

“We’re also sorry about your mother’s death. If there’s anything you need help with, just tell me.”

She thinks and can’t find anyone as kind as herself.

She asks Yi Chuan. He’s playing games in front of her, 

“Cousin, if she really comes to me for help, how much should I give? Ten thousand? Twenty thousand? Or round it up to a year’s salary for her mom?”

“Not a bad idea. Wrap it in a red envelope saying ‘All the Best,’ and write her mother’s cause of death on the back with black pen. She’ll thank you more.”

Yan Xue rolls her eyes.

She stands from the chair. She opens the door. And before leaving, she turns back to ask Yi Chuan, 

“You’ll handle things with Ling Jia, right?”

The game reaches its end.

The victory sign pops up. Yi Chuan looks up, mocking Yan Xue.

“Here’s some advice: If you’re stupid, hide it better. Being too obvious annoys people. Engaged this long and you still can’t enter Zong Du’s off-campus house. Yet someone else moves in. Yan Xue, what should I say about you?”

Talking to Yi Chuan is asking for humiliation.

But Yan Xue is in a good mood today.

The gloom lasting days clears with Sun Huizhen’s death news.

Living with Zong Du?

So what?

She’s really looking forward to the expression Ling Jia will make when she learns of her mother’s death.

At this moment, Li Jin Private Hospital is in utter chaos.

A big shot sits steadfastly in a private room. He refuses to leave.

Heart discomfort, body in pain.

Zong Min’en looks innocent as he says to the nurse knocking again, 

“Sister, did the doctor misdiagnose? How could I be fine? Check again?”

The nurse is no longer fooled by his innocent facade.

Last night, she saw him leash a visiting male classmate with a dog leash. He made him crawl on all fours and paraded him through the inpatient ward. She knows he’s a devil.

She avoids his eyes. She stammers that she’ll ask the doctor again. Her head’s down.

Once she leaves, Zong Min’en sighs in boredom.

He’s had enough of Li Jin Vocational High.

Starting a big brawl among them led to this mess.

How can people be so stupid? They can’t even stab vital spots?

Crematorium is easier to handle than ICU.

He pulls out his last candy from his pocket. He then unwraps it, pops it in his mouth, hands in pockets, and heads to visit the ward.

At the corner, he sees an interesting scene.

A girl in Qianchuan uniform stands in the hallway.

The doctor opposite her says impatiently, 

“Your mother’s condition was already poor. Her death isn’t what we wanted. Besides—”

He glances at the sloppy man smoking beside her and says, 

“Didn’t your father already take the compensation? It’s settled. What more do you want?”

“I didn’t see her body.”

“That’s a question for your father.”

“Body?” 

The man squints, thinks, then drawls, 

“Cremated, of course. What else for a dead person? It’d waste medical resources.”

“I didn’t agree. What right did you have to cremate her?”

Contrast.

That word pops into Zong Min’en’s mind first.

A gentle voice saying such things—it’s hard not to spark interest.

Their argument yields no result.

The doctor calls security to drag them away.

The man’s losing face. He frowns at his daughter: 

“Want to die with your mom?”

Ling Jia looks at the man who should be called her father.

As if not hearing him, she repeats,

“I didn’t see her body. What right did you have to cremate her?”

She looks at his face, then his pocket.

Smiling coldly, she asks, 

“Or did they pay you too much?”

Ling Dachang fumes. His curses are about to spill.

His grown daughter smiles and stops him.

“Stop barking like a dog. You look really stupid trying to act.”

Angry? Furious?

Ling Jia feels none of that.

Receiving the call about Sun Huizhen’s death, she was calm.

Took leave, took the bus to Li Jin, asked the auntie for details.

Conclusion: Sun Huizhen was murdered.

This confirms her long-held suspicions.

Something did happen to Sun Huizhen at the Yan household.

What’s the difference between a vegetable and a dead person?

She thought about this by Sun Huizhen’s bed before.

Besides breathing, seeing, touching—nothing else.

Now she’s a handful of light ashes.

“Think your mother was murdered?” 

The auntie asks her.

“Yes.”

“Then… who?”

Walking down the last step.

She gets a call from Yan Xue.

She stands at the hospital exit. She’s beyond the auto-opening glass doors a brilliant hibiscus tree.

Pink petals flutter down in the wind.

Yan Xue says softly on the other end, 

“Jiajia, I heard your mother passed away. I’m really sor—”

“I thought the regret you need is for something else.”

Ling Jia reaches out, catches a petal blowing toward her, and pinches it.

She then gently says to the person on the phone, 

“You know, Xue? The sounds your fiancé makes in bed.

—Are really pleasant.”

A few steps away, Zong Min’en stands smiling.

He takes out his phone. He stirs the pot by messaging Zong Du.

—“Bro, someone praised you.”

Send fails—he remembers Zong Du deleted him long ago.

Regretful, he forwards to someone else.

“Auntie, the atmosphere at Li Jin Vocational is really bad. Help me transfer to my brother’s Qianchuan.”

Such a lively Qianchuan.

How can it go on without him?