After My Death, I Became a Heartless Madman - Chapter 20.2

Mia stayed with her tonight because Bai Ruowei hadn’t been in good spirits lately, and the house was so unnervingly large that Mia worried she might struggle alone.

Bai Ruowei also clung to her sister, apologizing for what had happened last time.

Mia stopped the younger sister,

“Your sister isn’t in the mood. Let her have some peace.”

Mia had always been this considerate. Bai Ruowei neither refused nor agreed. The house was cold no matter what cold with one person, cold with two, cold even with three or four.

Mia and Bai Ruowei stayed on the first floor while Bai Ruowei retreated alone to her bedroom on the second floor.

She sat on the bed for a while before finally giving in, hailing a cab to a place she forbade Mia and Bai Ruowei from following her to.

It was a newly completed residential complex, with only a few households moved in and even fewer lights on at this hour.

Miss Bai wasn’t afraid of encountering criminals at night criminals were the ones who should fear running into her. She walked through the darkness until she found herself standing before a familiar unit door.

She stood there silently.

Because some residents were still renovating, the security door had been left unlocked. Bai Ruowei stepped inside and climbed the stairs,

one floor after another.

She stopped in front of a door she knew well, took a deep breath, and knocked.

No one answered.

She would’ve even welcomed a random resident scolding her for trespassing in the middle of the night, for knocking on doors like a lunatic.

But this was supposed to be her home.

Bai Ruowei returned to the Snow Pavilion in a daze, startling Mia and Bai Ruowei. The younger sister called out cautiously,

“Jie.”

She ignored her and went straight upstairs.

Bai Ruowei sat on the floor and pulled something from her wallet.

It wasn’t so much a single thing as it was a pile of fragments, because it no longer held any semblance of its original form.

It was Song Shizhou’s photograph.

Bai Ruowei took a deep breath.

Reassembling the photo proved harder than she’d imagined, she’d torn it to shreds. She cursed herself for ripping it so thoroughly back then, then cursed herself again for now being foolish enough to try piecing it back together.

She could’ve just printed a new one.

But she was fixated on this exact copy.

New clothes may be better, but old friends are dearer was the same true for photos? Bai Ruowei’s thoughts were a mess. Over half an hour passed as she worked, her hands trembling uncontrollably. One last piece just one last piece.

The woman in the photo smiled gently, yet the sight of it tasted bitter. That mild expression somehow made Bai Ruowei want to cry.

One last piece remained.

She frantically rummaged through her wallet, nearly driven to madness. A piece of the woman’s clothing was missing, a missing corner wasn’t a big deal, just like Song Shizhou wasn’t a significant figure in her life. Yet sometimes, the most trivial people and things could become the most important, the most unforgettable, the ones that haunted your thoughts.

Bai Ruowei felt like she was dying.

She searched through her wallet over and over, checking every compartment repeatedly. The expensive wallet was torn apart in her hands, its contents scattering across the floor but it wasn’t there. Nowhere. She had torn it too thoroughly, shredded the photo too completely, just like her heart. There was no way to piece it back together now.

She couldn’t put it back together. Never again.

She had never been this disheveled, never this terrified. She wanted to call for help, but she didn’t know who to call.

“Song Shizhou…”

“Song Shizhou…”

She was too afraid.

Bai Ruowei practically turned the entire bedroom upside down, the sound of furniture being moved echoing chaotically. Downstairs, Bai Ruowei listened with growing dread. Amidst the wreckage, she finally found the missing piece beneath the desk.

But it had drifted too far. Hunched over, Bai Ruowei couldn’t reach it no matter how she strained.

“Xiao Bai, my wife, my love…”

“I want to set the thirteenth of next month as our wedding date.”

“This makes it the third time Miss Song has proposed. The first was public, the second private, and the third…”

“Surely the Chief Inspector will agree this time.”

“If you insist on thinking that way, fine. Then our relationship was just one-sided delusion.”

“This ring… it’s so beautiful.”

“Xiao Bai, don’t cry.”

She remembered. She remembered everything.

She remembered how she had lost her lover in that once-in-a-century snowstorm, how she had refused to believe it, how she had screamed and raged, staggering in despair, nearly vomiting blood.

She remembered seeing Song Shizhou’s pale face in the hospital room, her stilled heart, and the group of murderers huddled in the ward, unsure what to do next.

There was too much pent-up emotion so much that when the time came to release it, nothing came out. Two streams of tears rolled down Miss Bai’s face as she clutched the photo with a death grip.

“Song Shizhou, why did you leave without saying goodbye?”

Anger, grief, pain all merged into an indescribable storm. Bai Ruowei felt as if all the blood in her body had turned to ice.

“I told you, if anyone ever bullied you, you had to tell me. If they treated you badly, why didn’t you say anything?”

Miss Bai smiled faintly, her tone eerily calm.

“If I just killed them all… wouldn’t that solve everything?”

A knock came at the door, Mia’s voice. Bai Ruowei steadied her own before responding.

“Come in.”

Mia hesitated, taken aback by her composed demeanor.

“Miss Bai, you’re better now?”

“Have I ever been anything but like this?”

Bai Ruowei laughed softly.

Her smile was as beautiful as ever, her face more exquisite than a caged songbird’s. Yet Mia couldn’t help but feel a chill.

“Miss Bai, what really happened between you and Miss Song? These past few days, you’ve been like a woman possessed…”

“Song Shizhou.”

Bai Ruowei closed her eyes.

“Is my wife.”

Wasn’t this the answer she had wanted in her past life? In truth, she had admitted it long ago. If she could hear herself saying this now, wouldn’t she be overjoyed?

Mia was stunned.

“When did this happen? I’m with you every day, how could I not know?”

“She’s been this way since birth.”

Mia froze briefly.

“Miss Song, we’ve found traces of your wife.”

Bai Ruowei’s eyes lit up.

“Where?”

“Thirteenth District.”

“But we don’t know exactly which town yet. Checking all the buses is too time-consuming, but Li Ningzhi is already searching.”

Bai Ruowei nodded.

“I understand.”

She tapped Song Shizhou’s face in the photo, then kissed it.

“Shizhou, do you know the consequences of leaving without saying goodbye?”

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