Si Teng (Rattan) – Five Years Later – CH05

Qin Fang watched Kong Jinghua and her daughter walk away, then turned to look at Yi Ru, who was still frantically rummaging through her belongings. “They’ve already left.”

Yi Ru slowly came to a stop, but she seemed unable to recover from her recent emotions. She was frozen and unable to relax.

“That’s your mother?”

Yi Ru said nothing, but her vision gradually misted over. Qin Fang sighed softly and handed her a tissue. “Your condition was unstable before, so it was understandable that you didn’t see her. Now you’ve recovered well, so why haven’t you seen her?”

Yi Ru sneered, “You’re neither human nor ghost, and you call that a good recovery?”

“A severed limb, like spilled milk and spilled water, can never go back to the way it was. If you compare yourself to the past, and you’ll never be satisfied. But if you can accept even the worst of the present, the future will only get better.”

Yi Ru seemed to be gritting her teeth as she said, “What if I don’t accept it?”

Qin Fang shrugged and smiled nonchalantly: “That’s up to you. It’s not me who’s hurting.”

Yi Ru glanced at him, feeling a hint of disappointment. What Qin Fang said certainly made sense, but deep down, she hoped for a gentler response. Did he have to be so harsh? How difficult could gentle comfort be? He treated the ordinary Yan Furui much better than he treated her.

She asked tentatively, “What about you? Have you accepted it?”

She knew Qin Fang had two girlfriends. During Qingming Festival, she had accompanied him to pay his respects. One was named Chen Wan, the other An Man. They were buried in the same cemetery. She had been with Qin Fang for nearly two years and had never seen him show any interest in a woman or accept any advances from the opposite sex. He was always distant when they were with her, so she couldn’t help but wonder who those two people were.

Forever separated by life and death, two graves. Qin Fang must have suffered the same misfortune as she did. He asked her to accept it, but what about him? Had he accepted it?

Qin Fang said, “Yeah, what else can I do if I don’t accept it?”

Yi Ru was silent for a moment. “Mom has accepted it, too. In her mind, I’ve long since died, my hands and feet chopped off. It was my fault. Mom tried to persuade me back then. She said those people weren’t good people and told me not to hang out with them…”

Her voice gradually choked with sobs, but then she suddenly stopped, paused, and smiled through her tears. “It’s good this way now. Just let Mom treat me as dead. Besides, Mom should have accepted it; she’s adopted a new daughter. As for me…”

At the end of her words, a sudden rage flashed in her eyes. “As for me, I’m back for revenge.”

“Are you so sure the person who hurt you was one of those people?”

“Yes.”

She looked up at Qin Fang. “You saved me, and you’re the only one who fought him. You really didn’t see what he looked like at all?”

Qin Fang said nothing. He lit a cigarette, took a deep drag, and his gaze, seemingly unintentionally, fell on his left arm.

He told Yan Furui that it was inevitable that he’d meddle in other people’s affairs when he saw injustice.

Of course he had the ability to do so; after all, he was no longer a pure man. While he couldn’t move the needle like Si Teng or Chen Yindeng, he could easily deal with thugs and even violent criminals.

But the night he rescued Yi Ru, he collapsed in a ditch. If it weren’t for the special physique Si Teng bestowed upon him, his arm would have long since been discarded.

Did he really not see what he looked like?

He remembered grabbing the man’s arm during the struggle. The man’s arm felt as hard as iron… But whether he remembered it or not, whether he saw it or not, didn’t really matter. The man should have already…

“That girl should be called Xizhu.”

Yi Ru’s words brought Qin Fang out of his reverie. “How do you know? Have you looked it up?”

Yi Ru was a little dazed. “I used to be called Xizhu. Mom said it was a pact with a good friend: East, South, West, North, Plum, Orchid, Bamboo, Chrysanthemum. My mom was the third oldest, so her child would be named Xizhu.”

Really? Parents were quite self-serving, loving to play games with arranged names. It was fine to name a daughter Xizhu; that was a nice name, but had she ever considered what it would feel like to name a son Dongmei, Nanlan, or Beiju?

Xizhu was watching TV in the living room when she heard the noise and came running over. Frowning, she rummaged through the bag of vegetables. Her serious expression made Kong Jinghua want to laugh. “It’s not the national leader who’s deciding the state banquet menu. What are you trying to do by being so cautious, Xixi?”

After a while, Xizhu brought out a bundle of okra: “This.”

Kong Jinghua was a bit perplexed about this. She’d never actually made it, nor had she eaten it before. It was the enthusiastic vendor at the market who had eagerly recommended it to her: “It’s called okra. It’s delicious, cancer-preventing, and just stir-fried at home. It’s very convenient.”

However, since Xixi loved it, she had to make it anyway. Kong Jinghua smiled and agreed. She searched for the recipe on Baidu on her phone and followed the steps on the countertop. As the hot oil sizzled in the wok, it suddenly struck her: After all this time together, she still didn’t know what Xixi really liked to eat. This kid seemed to have no habit of learning. Everything would lose its appeal after the first try.

During the meal, Xizhu, as expected, only picked at the okra. She quickly devoured the huge plate, along with the vegetables and rice. Kong Jinghua was worried and kept asking her to eat slower. She even touched her belly midway through, and sure enough, it was plump and bulging.

“Xixi, go slow. No one’s trying to snatch it from you.”

She had already finished eating and stretched with a satisfied look, her smile sweet, a strangely contented glint in her eyes.

Xixi was so adorable at this time. Kong Jinghua couldn’t bear to scold her. She patted her head and let her play in the living room while she cleared the dishes and went to the kitchen to wash. Halfway through, she glanced back at the living room: Xizhu wasn’t sitting quietly on the sofa watching TV. She was standing at the bedroom door, frowning as she measured her height against a height tape stuck to the door.

It was no secret that Xizhu loved measuring her height. Kong Jinghua had tracked her, and she’d probably spent more time lingering over the tape in a single day than eating and going to the bathroom combined. This child was just too eager to grow taller.

Before bed, Kong Jinghua told Xixi a fairy tale and kissed her forehead. “Xixi, be good and eat well, and you’ll grow taller. You’re only four; don’t rush.”

Xizhu remained silent, staring at the ceiling. Kong Jinghua tucked in the quilt for her, turned off the light, and left, gently closing the door.

In the darkness, Xizhu continued to stare at the ceiling, her eyes bright. After a moment, she murmured something.

“Damn it, I’m already four or five years old.”

Qin Fang stayed with Yan Furui for a while and smoked a cigarette. He wasn’t in the habit of confiding in someone who was unconscious. Whenever he visited Yan Furui, he would close the door and smoke in silence. Once, a nurse came in and said to him unhappily, “Oh, don’t smoke. It’s bad for the patient’s health.”

Qin Fang replied, “He won’t get any worse. I’m not sure I can give him lung cancer.”

The young nurse was furious and slammed the door on her way out. She probably told her friends about his bad behavior. After Qin Fang came again, no nurse came in.

That was good. It was quiet.

After finishing his cigarette, Qin Fang walked to the window and opened it. A car was parked downstairs, and he could vaguely see Yi Ru inside.

Saving her then was truly a coincidence. He’d thought it would be a piece of cake, but who knew the man would prove so formidable? That man was probably dead, though: just as his machete nearly severed his arm, Qin Fang thrust his free hand into his chest, unceremoniously breaking a rib.

The snap of bone rang in his ears, but at that moment, he almost forgot he was fighting a life-or-death battle. He strangely thought of Bai Ying.

Yan Furui had told him that Bai Ying’s final blow against Si Teng was with a broken rib.

The man struggled with his last strength to escape, then plummeted down the hillside. Qin Fang paid him no mind. He lifted up Yi Ru from the pool of blood. This poor girl, only fifteen or sixteen at the time, had lost both arms and legs, and was covered in blood. When he lifted her, she felt so light, like the half-demon Si Teng from long ago…

Si Teng was light, with only half of her demon bones remaining. Yi Ru was also light, with only half of her body remaining.

It was hard to explain why; perhaps it was because of this momentary resemblance that he decided to save Yi Ru.

Initially, Yi Ru had no will to live. Qin Fang didn’t particularly try to persuade her, simply saying, “You can die, but are you just going to let the person who hurt you go?”

Yi Ru was saved by these words.

It took her a long time to adapt and accept her prosthetic limb, from clumsy use to gradual mastery. The last time she saw Yan Furui, her movements were still labored and awkward, but this time, she was much better. If one wasn’t paying attention, one wouldn’t have noticed she was disabled.

She was ready, so she decided to take revenge.

Qin Fang had never cared about or inquired about the aftermath of the murder. That was Yi Ru’s own business. Perhaps she would soon realize that there was no revenge to be had. Not far from where her limbs lay was the body of the murderer.

Yi Ru sat in the car, staring at the page on her phone screen, five words already typed into the search bar.

Phoenix Mountain Murder Case.

Her heart was pounding. She was finally about to uncover the most awful chapter of her life of over twenty years. Over the past two years, she had countless opportunities to search, just as she had countless opportunities to return to see her mother, Kong Jinghua. But she resisted. She wanted to wait until she was ready, at least, to return to a normal state.

She might have recovered physically, but mentally, was she truly ready?

She gritted her teeth, reached out her touchscreen-gloved hand, and clicked “Search.”

She searched through countless entries and a variety of comments. Her eyes gradually turned red as she clicked on a post titled “8-18 The Horrifying Phoenix Mountain Dismemberment Case Two Years Ago.”

—”Hello, OP! That was so freaking scary! I haven’t been to Phoenix Mountain since it happened.”

—”I live nearby. I remember there were over a dozen police cars and a crowd gathered at the foot of the mountain watching.”

—”I heard the body was a 15- or 16-year-old girl. Only her arms and legs were found. Her mother identified the body by the shoes she was wearing. I heard she fainted at the scene…”

—”I know. My mom knew the girl’s mother. I heard she was sick for a long time because of her daughter. So pitiful…”

—”I heard the case is still unsolved. I don’t dare go to Phoenix Mountain after dark. I have a strong feeling it’s a serial killer who’ll strike again every few years. I’m so scared…”

—”Hey guys, I opened a Taobao clothing store. Tons of beautiful clothes, and there are discounts…”

—”Do you have any humanity left in this post? You’ve got the nerve to sell clothes after such a tragic incident…”

T/N: Xixi/Si Teng is so cute wanting to get older fast before looking for Qin Fang.