Hidden Shadow – CH 019

Chapter Nineteen: An Jiu’s Memories

Mei Jiu dared not speak again, closing her eyes but tossing and turning, unable to fall asleep.

She lay on the bed until she was utterly exhausted, and just as she was drifting off to sleep, a strange emotion slowly engulfed her like a rising tide.

Lightning flashed, and thunder illuminated a still childish face; it was immediately recognizable as a girl.

The girl was very beautiful, with naturally snow-white skin, well-defined features, long, jet-black hair, and clear, bright eyes. Her long eyelashes, like the delicate petals of a mimosa flower, cast shadows in her eye sockets.

A woman in a beige dress frantically rummaged through the room, stuffing various items haphazardly into a suitcase in front of the bed. The woman’s hair was long, but patches of baldness were visible on her head due to unhealthy hair loss; her pale, bluish face was lifeless, like that of a dead person.

She pulled two thin booklets from the bottom of the cabinet, clutching them tightly in her withered, bony hands. Her body trembled with excitement. She staggered back to the bedside, hugging the little girl. “Ann, we will be home soon, back to China! Look, I got your passport! We will see your grandma soon!”

Blood began to trickle from her nose, a horrifying sight on her pale face. She wiped it haphazardly. “She’s a very good person. She will definitely love you.”

The girl gently pushed her away, her voice sharp. “Mom, why did you not tell anyone? You do not have a drug addiction! Father ruined you! He used you as a guinea pig!”

“Ann, I told you, but the public will not believe me.” The woman slumped against the bed, her eyes vacant and lifeless. “Ever since I revealed this a year ago, he’s been injecting me with morphine. Ann, he’s a madman…promise me, stay away from him…”

“Mom, what’s wrong?” The girl jumped off the bed in a panic, reaching out to wipe the blood from her mother’s eyes. “I will call an ambulance!” Ann climbed to the head of the bed, quickly dialed the emergency number, and gave them her address.

“Mom, hold on a little longer; they are coming soon.” The girl, barefoot, knelt beside the woman, tears streaming down her face, clutching the phone, her thin body trembling uncontrollably.

The woman laboriously raised her hand and shoved the passport into her daughter’s. “Ann, promise me, go back to China.” Ann shook her head desperately. Her mother seemed to use all her remaining strength to grip the passport and her daughter’s cold hand tightly. “Ann, leave, now, immediately, I beg you!” Her mother’s eyes were blurred with blood, unfocused, yet fixed on An’s direction, murmuring, “Promise me.”

“I promise, I promise.” Ann nodded repeatedly.

She breathed a sigh of relief. “Daughter, I am sorry.”

I am sorry I could not raise you.

I am sorry I could not hold on until you left.

I am sorry to leave you alone to face the unknown future…

“Mom!” A piercing scream accompanied by booming thunder, the rapid patter of raindrops, and the faint sound of an ambulance siren.

The lightning flashed a white light through the room. The woman’s emaciated body, wrapped in a wide dress, revealed limbs as dry as firewood. She leaned against the bed, her thin, pale face stained with blood from her nose, her eyes filled with a murky, bloodshot glint. Her sparse, disheveled hair was loose and draped over her shoulders.

Ann slowly moved forward, burying her head against her mother’s chest, trying to hold onto her fading warmth.

She did not cry out loud, but tears streamed down her face like the rain outside, until her whole body went numb and her mind went blank.

The paramedics rushed in and pulled her away. She struggled desperately. “Sancho killed my mother! It was him! He’s the murderer!”

The physician confirmed the woman was dead. Everyone looked at her with shock and pity.

At that moment, Ann thought someone was finally on her side, someone who finally believed the truth. However, a month later, the physician and police told her, “I am sorry, but I must tell you, Ms. Mei overdosed on morphine. Her mental state…” The scene faded, and what gradually came into focus was another night.

It was utterly quiet.

Ann’s slender figure increasingly resembled her mother’s. With a resolute expression, she loaded a bullet, gripped it, and kicked open the master bedroom door.

The man in bed was startled awake by the loud noise. He glared angrily at the doorway, but when he saw the dark muzzle of a gun in the thin girl’s hand pointed at him, his face immediately changed. “Ann, what are you doing?”

“How could you lie on this bed so comfortably?” Ann stared at him coldly.

“Listen to me, Mei’s death saddened me greatly, but it was her own doing…”

Bang! Before he could finish speaking, a gunshot rang out, striking the bedside lamp. “Stop your tricks! I know everything! Go to the police station and turn yourself in right now, or I will kill you. Don’t think I won’t shoot!”

The man adopted a fatherly authority. “Ann, I am your father! How could you do such a thing?”

“With a beast like you as my father, how could I be any better? Go to the police station right now!” Ann’s eyes were bloodshot; the image of her mother’s death was deeply etched in her mind, waking her from nightmares every night.

“Ann, calm down; take a deep breath.” The man got out of bed and slowly approached her, trying to calm her down.

“Stop.” She took a few steps back uneasily.

The man seemed certain Ann would not shoot, so he lunged forward and tackled her to the floor in the hallway.

“Bang!” A muffled thud. Ann’s eyes widened as she felt a warm rush against her chest, a sweet, metallic scent filling the air.

Mei Jiu suddenly opened her eyes, seeing the gentle morning sunlight streaming into the room.

Her breathing paused for a moment before becoming rapid and labored. She tried to sit up but found her temples throbbing, her whole body feeling drained, as if she had just been pulled from a bathtub, her hair and clothes sticking to her skin.

“An Jiu,” Mei Jiu called out in a trembling voice.

The only response was silence.

“Those are…your parents?” Mei Jiu asked tentatively.

“Yes,” An Jiu finally replied.

From the words in her dream, Mei Jiu could guess the general course of events: An Jiu’s father used her mother to experiment with drugs but told others that she had taken poison, ultimately causing her death. An Jiu witnessed everything, had no way to seek justice, and could not get over the trauma, so she used a weapon to force her father to turn himself in but accidentally killed him in the struggle.

“This is not your fault.” Having learned the details, Mei Jiu felt less fear and more sympathy for An Jiu. “It was just an accident.”

An Jiu chuckled, her voice hoarse. “I had murderous intent. I never shy away from my mistakes.”

That was not the bloodiest and most horrific scene she’d ever witnessed, yet it had affected her entire life.

Mei Jiu felt ashamed. Compared to An Jiu, her sadness and grievances seemed utterly ridiculous.

“I am clumsy with words; I do not know how to comfort you, but… you still exist in this world, even the heavens are compensating you,” Mei Jiu said.

An Jiu laughed. “Hah, come on, are you sure the heavens are not punishing me for my ruthless killing, forcing me to choose a stupid host like you?”

Her words were still sarcastic, but her carefree laughter was different from her usual cold sneer.

Mei Jiu said helplessly, “It’s good that you can think more positively.”

“I used to be unable to think positively, but since meeting you, I’ve gradually come to terms with it,” An Jiu said.

Mei Jiu said embarrassedly, “I… I am just a timid and ignorant person.”

An Jiu scoffed, “You are quite self-aware, are you not? I can tolerate your bottomless IQ now. What else can I not endure?”