After My Death, I Became a Heartless Madman - Chapter 18

This was the scene when Mia arrived—

The entire hallway was filled with trembling waitstaff, the hotel manager stood frozen with wide eyes, someone was sobbing quietly in fear, and Zhao Yiqing leaned against the doorframe, barely able to stand steady.

Bai Ruowei sat at the center of the private room, her back straight against the chair, her pupils tinged red, her expression dazed.

The floor was a mess every dish had been shattered without exception.

Bai Ruowei’s younger sister was roaring through the phone,

“Jie, your excuse for rejecting someone is way too creative now. What do you mean you’re married??? Do you have any idea how badly you scared Zhao Yiqing?”

“My chance with Second Miss Zhao is completely ruined! You owe me! Even if you buy the Surveillance Institute and gift it to me, I’ll never forgive you!!!”

Bai Ruowei gritted her teeth.

“Shut up.”

Mia decisively ended the call.

Once in the car, Bai Ruowei refused to speak. Mia had no idea what had happened at the table, but Miss Bai’s condition was truly terrible her hands clenched tightly, nails digging deep into her palms, leaving behind savage, bloody marks.

After a long silence, Mia cautiously spoke up,

“Is it because of that Enigma from last time? I can look into her.”

“No.” Bai Ruowei rejected without hesitation.

“Why not? You’ve been acting really strange these past few days…”

Always distracted, always inexplicably gripped by chest pain, always.

Bai Ruowei shut her eyes tightly.

The pain was back.

She couldn’t pinpoint where it hurt, only that it was unbearable, so intense she could barely speak. Her mind was filled with nothing but that torn photograph.

Mia’s voice lingered in her ears, familiar yet somehow alienating, wave after wave of strangeness washing over her.

That torn photo, it felt like she had lost Song Shizhou all over again.

Why “again”?

Why did it have to be “again”?!

Miss Bai’s eyes burned with agony, her suffering unbearable.

…Had she lost Song Shizhou once before?

“I don’t know Song Shizhou at all.”

She trembled.

“I don’t know, Song Shizhou.”

Mia, unusually, seemed puzzled.

“Right, you don’t know Song Shizhou. None of us do, no one here knows her.”

“I don’t know her. I’ve never met her. I don’t even like her.”

She seemed desperate to prove something, but the more she tried, the more panicked she became, until it was nearly intolerable.

But if she didn’t know her, why did it hurt so much?

Her panic reached a point beyond words. She didn’t dare say she didn’t know Song Shizhou anymore because with every denial, every rejection, Bai Ruowei’s heart ached more, the pain growing more unbearable.

Blood began to seep from her palms, streaks of red staining her clothes.

She didn’t want this, this torment, this feeling as if she had lost the love of her life…

“Mia, help me find Song Shizhou. No matter what it takes, bring her to me… I need to see her.”

The residents of Flying Bird Town knew nothing of what had happened in the Inner City. Conflict, sorrow, and loneliness had nothing to do with this place. Song Shizhou had slept fairly well last night but woke unusually early.

Lan Chi accompanied her to the train station to retrieve her luggage. The owner there seemed to know Lan Chi, greeting her warmly and even gifting her two bags of oranges before they left.

The two of them returned to the small art gallery a little past nine. Business was slow, with hardly any customers all morning.

The girl who had helped out yesterday didn’t come, leaving just the two of them in the shop. Lan Chi played with the cat using some cat food, telling Song Shizhou to look around freely.

Most of the paintings on the walls were Lan Chi’s original works, while a small portion were her imitations of famous artists. She truly had considerable artistic talent, but in this small town, there was clearly no one who could truly appreciate her.

Yesterday, Song Shizhou’s attention had been solely focused on the painting of water lilies in the center, completely overlooking the other works. Now, she was admiring them with repeated gasps of amazement.

But it was only now that she realized many of Lan Chi’s paintings depicted stars.

A lonely little star, a small star rejected by the star clusters, floating in a deep, deep blue sky. That blue was profound, mysterious, lonely, and enchanting.

For some reason, Song Shizhou felt a pang in her chest.

“Sis,”

Lan Chi was currently teasing the cat with a homemade cat toy, if it could even be called that. Just a feather tied to a bottle, but it was enough to keep the plump cat endlessly entertained.

“Hmm?”

“Your paintings…”

Song Shizhou hesitated.

“Most of them seem to be of the night sky.”

“Is there a reason for that or do you just like it?”

Almost identical compositions, a single small star, skies of varying hues, all without exception lonely and desolate.

Lan Chi paused.

“No particular reason.”

Seeing her answer like that, Song Shizhou didn’t press further.

Perhaps due to the exhaustion of traveling these past few days, Song Shizhou fell asleep again in the afternoon.

First, she dreamed of Lan Chi, of a town event from their childhood, Lan Chi with half-finished stage makeup, her pale green eyes looking at her with something like amusement.

Song Shizhou couldn’t move. Soon, those indifferent green eyes gradually turned sorrowful, and the person before her seemed to change, shifting from adolescence straight into adulthood.

In an unfamiliar little room, a woman lay on the bed.

Song Shizhou held her breath, almost afraid to move, because she sensed something dangerous in the air. The woman had dazzlingly white hair cascading down her back, her beautiful shoulders carelessly exposed, rising and falling slightly with each breath, her lean lines like those of a panther.

Even though she tried her best to minimize her presence, her footsteps still disturbed the sleeping woman. The woman opened her eyes, her expression impatient.

She sat up, her face dark. Wearing only her undergarments, her back as pale as if dusted with lead powder, she got out of bed, stood on tiptoe, and hooked her fingers into Song Shizhou’s collar, scrutinizing her from head to toe.

Her gaze was first mocking, haughty and superior, then gradually turned panicked, distraught.

Song Shizhou’s palms were sweating.

She was dreaming of Miss Bai.

Even though she desperately wanted to escape the dream, Miss Bai still embraced her. The familiar scent of osmanthus enveloped her as Miss Bai kissed her urgently, as if she might vanish the next second. She grabbed Song Shizhou’s hand to undo the clasp at her back, lowering her head as she did so, her white hair brushing against Song Shizhou’s neck, her expression casual and dazed.

Song Shizhou grew nervous. She wanted to pull away, to flee, but accidentally tugged at Miss Bai’s shoulder strap instead.

The strap snapped up high, then fell back down, striking her.

The pale skin flinched, leaving behind a timid red mark.

Miss Bai turned her head,

giving her a reproachful look.

Very delicate, her eyes brimming with spring-like tenderness, though not truly sorrowful, merely feigning pitifulness to act spoiled. Miss Bai cried out in exaggerated pain, dragging her tone in a drawn-out “Ahhh,” saying how much it hurt, how could you hit me like that?…

In truth, she wasn’t saying “you can’t hit me,” but rather “you can hit me”, whatever you want to do, it’s all fine.

She had no idea how alluring her current posture was, humming proudly with a hint of inexplicable arrogance. Outsiders would never imagine their dynamic to be like this. The entire Inner City was convinced that Song Shizhou had used some despicable means to seduce Bai Ruowei, that she must be fawning and groveling before her, exhausting every trick in the book. But they had it backward. There was indeed someone doing the pandering, just not Song Shizhou.

Miss Bai kissed her with their fingers interlaced.

Dreaming of an ex-wife in a spring dream seemed rather awkward. Song Shizhou waved her hand as if to shoo her away, but the Miss Bai in her dream was just as persistent as the real one. Blood rushed to Song Shizhou’s head. She wanted to push her away, refusing to give in and sleep with her, yet Bai Ruowei kept clinging to her. After several rounds of this, even a clay figurine would lose its temper.

She bit Bai Ruowei, adjusted her position, and forbade her from moving, tying her hands with clothing. Miss Bai raised an eyebrow at her, as if to say, Is this it?

Song Shizhou laughed in exasperation.

Yeah, this is it.

Bai Ruowei refused to concede, finding every way to oppose her biting, kissing, only to have her chin gripped and teeth prodded. In short, she was all claws and fangs, nothing like the usually composed and restrained Bai the Inspector. After a while of fussing, she suddenly started crying, wailing as if her heart were being torn apart, begging for forgiveness, insisting she hadn’t meant it, pleading for a chance to explain.

Song Shizhou was utterly exasperated by her antics, then remembered this was just a dream. She covered Bai Ruowei’s incessantly chattering mouth, refusing to listen to her nonsense.

A beam of sunlight struck Song Shizhou’s face. Dawn was breaking, the curtains of the small room pulled open.

Light crept over her eyelids, gradually warming her entire body. The dream figure dissipated like foam, vanishing like the Little Mermaid. Song Shizhou slowly opened her eyes to find someone standing by the window, silently gazing outside.

The sun was fully up now. She glanced at her phone, she had actually slept until the next morning.

Lan Chi said coolly,

“You slept for a long time last night, so I didn’t wake you.”

Song Shizhou sat up abruptly.

Sleeping so late was one thing, but her dream had been so vivid, what if she’d said something she shouldn’t have? Flustered, she explained,

“Sorry, sis, I’ve been really tired these past few days, slept like a log…”

Lan Chi smiled.

“It’s fine.”

She was tying up her hair, her upturned eyes carrying a hint of coldness. The gesture made her resemble Bai Ruowei even more. Song Shizhou couldn’t bring herself to look at her.

“Did I,  say anything strange in my sleep just now?”

Lan Chi finally finished securing her hair.

“I didn’t really hear clearly.”

Hearing this, Song Shizhou let out a sigh of relief.

But then Lan Chi followed up,

“I heard there’s a young lady in the Inner City who looks a lot like me.”

“Is it true?”

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