He Chuan Zhou thought that this friend Wang Yifei was referring to was herself, but after saying this, Wang Yifei fell silent. The rest of the introduction was lost in his hesitant silence.
He stood up and walked along the street. City D streets were lined with shops, and tourists from all over the country were everywhere. The bustling crowd flowed like an unending river, and the noise never paused.
He stopped by the roadside. When a red truck passed by and its roaring engine momentarily drowned out the surrounding noise, he casually said, "I got the report from the hospital today. No wonder they kept calling me to come over."
He said it lightly, but He Chuan Zhou heard it.
However, like a half-told story with no conclusion, he fell silent again.
Perhaps not wanting to speak further, he started using subtitles.
"Recently, I've encountered a lot of bad luck. I wanted to tell you all about it, but then I thought better of it, because I haven’t figured it out myself yet."
He got on a bus, then transferred to the subway, and eventually arrived at an unknown internet cafe.
The cafe owner pulled out a metal cage from behind the counter. Wang Yifei opened it, grabbed some cat food, and petted the cat's chin.
The kitten kept rubbing its head against his wrist. After playing for a while, he closed the door and took the cage outside to wait for a bus.
"I can't stay at my place anymore; the landlord took it back. I can't keep this orange tabby cat I adopted. A local fan offered to take it, so I'm delivering it now."
In the next shot, he was standing at an intersection, the cage gone, replaced by a black bag.
"I turned down the job. The employer just wanted my account, and I found out their boss is someone I really dislike, so I didn’t sign the contract."
He sat in the same spot for what seemed like a long time, as the next second, the sky had darkened. Neon lights flashed on the street, and red lanterns hanging on the trees outside the park were lit.
His scattered feelings had somewhat calmed, and he decided to find a place to eat.
"This noodle shop always has a long line. I’ve seen many ads on Douyin saying their beef noodles are really good, so I want to try it."
He walked in, and the camera pointed to the ground. Suddenly, large characters appeared in the center of the screen:
"Expensive, 38 yuan!"
The scene cut to an empty noodle bowl.
This time, the text was much smaller, trembling at the bottom:
"Quietly saying, it wasn't very good."
After leaving the noodle shop, he was once again lost on the streets, unsure of where to go.
He encountered a young man sitting in a daze outside a bank and paused, self-mockingly saying, "Haha, why do I look so pitiful?"
He found a quieter place, set down his bag, and instead of drawing, he turned the camera on himself.
He Chuan Zhou felt a sharp pain in her chest, a sense of emptiness and disorientation, and she dared not look further.
Wang Yifei silently moved his lips, looking up at the distant night sky. Blinking, his eyelashes fell, and in a soft, somewhat wistful tone, he said, "I seem to be sick, from not eating properly and staying up late. Even though I’m young, I can’t keep this up. The doctor said it can be treated, but I don’t see the point."
He sat there, lost, his eyes unfocused, looking lonely but not exactly sad.
The headlights of passing cars briefly illuminated his pupils before the darkness swallowed them again.
Accepting the news of one's impending death can be both overwhelming and tranquil. It's like a wave that cannot rise, wind that cannot be caught. The emotional control center seems to malfunction, unable to express any feeling.
The end of life comes with this sense of loss and futility.
"What should I do? My first thought wasn’t sadness, but that I don’t need to save money anymore." He murmured softly, giving a familiar smile, somewhat helpless, and sighed, "Life is really exhausting."
He Chuan Zhou didn't want to see his face anymore and quickly opened the comment section, where popular comments flooded her view.
"Liar, didn't you tell me you were going to start a new life? Are you planning to sneak into the underworld as a blogger?"
"Are you stupid? Don't smile when you say things like that!"
"Why don't you get treatment? Don't just give up like that!"
"Start a live-streaming fundraiser! This isn’t a society where you have to wait to die because of lack of money. Take more ads, we don’t mind!"
"Life is hard, but you have to fight. Don’t just give up. Go earn money, get treatment, buy food!"
"Aren't you going to see the people you always wanted to see? Are you going to leave your father like this?"
"What's so expensive about 38 yuan for beef noodles? Go earn money and eat 3800 yuan noodles!"
He Chuan Zhou closed the comments because these words made her feel just as uncomfortable.
The video ended and started again.
Wang Yifei's hoarse voice said, "I have a friend."
Hearing the same sentence now, He Chuan Zhou found it sharp and cruel. The guilt was so intense that she trembled, as if in a dark, stormy night.
Wang Yifei was someone who desperately needed companionship, always.
He was timid and sensitive, liked to follow behind He Chuan Zhou but feared disturbing her, so he rarely spoke first. He was good at reading people, occasionally, rarely, confiding a few heartfelt words to He Chuan Zhou.
Even eating alone made him feel lonely, and his greatest wish was to have a family larger than just one. But due to his father's history, he didn’t dare get close to others, most afraid of being asked about his background and name.
He longed for stability far more than freedom. He Chuan Zhou guessed he desperately wanted to return to City A, to be with them. She couldn’t understand how he had wandered through over a dozen cities in those seven years.
He Chuan Zhou paused the video, unwilling to hear Wang Yifei’s despairing words again.
Brother Huang had approached at some point, seeing her calm demeanor, handed her his phone. On it was a long, private post from Wang Yifei's WeChat Moments, published on the evening of the 17th, during the six hours he waited outside for He Chuan Zhou.
This message was specifically for He Chuan Zhou.
He said he was finally relieved that his father was released from prison, but he was too nervous to meet him in person, so he had Wang Gaozhan take the high-speed train to City D.
Reflecting afterward, he deeply regretted it because Wang Gaozhan wasn’t good with the subway, acting very awkward at the station, making a fool of himself.
Their reunion was uncomfortable, but he believed Wang Gaozhan was a good person, at least now. Though not talkative, Wang Yifei felt his father's love.
They cautiously reconnected, finding many shared interests, perhaps the wonder of blood ties. This was the most surprising thing he had felt in recent years, but sadly, he couldn't express these feelings to his father.
He took Wang Gaozhan for a health checkup. Wang Gaozhan's health wasn't good, and he struggled with modern life’s pace, feeling anxious about unstable environments. So, Wang Yifei decided to find a stable job in City D after careful consideration.
He passed the interview smoothly, only to discover later that the company's boss was Han Songshan. The company mainly wanted to use his account for promotion, which was included in the contract.
He couldn't hold back and had a huge argument with Han Songshan.
Han Songshan found out who he was and informed the community about Wang Gaozhan’s past as a murderer. That night, the landlord threw his belongings out.
Fortunately, they didn't have much, so they temporarily moved to a motel far from the community.
The next day, he received the hospital report. Feeling utterly devastated, he made a terrible mistake and said extremely hurtful things to Wang Gaozhan, who then left.
He Chuan Zhou read through the entire post haphazardly.
She should have read it word for word, but her eyes and mind couldn’t focus for more than a second, flitting among the black characters on the screen, capturing only key phrases and simple short sentences.
Even though Wang Yifei tried to appear optimistic and open-minded in his descriptions, He Chuan Zhou felt as if a knife was slicing her heart as she read. The wound was a chaotic mess, the torn edges bleeding profusely. She could see it herself, but her brain couldn’t process it, leaving her face numb and indifferent.
Wang Yifei said:
"I killed someone."
"It was me. I'm sorry. I took something nearly perfect and turned it into a disaster. I am a horrible person."
In the last few lines, He Chuan Zhou finally managed to read clearly.
"You are all on the road to the future, but not me. I’m stuck in a loop. I don’t know why this is happening, maybe I’m just not smart enough, I can’t break free."
"Especially seeing Han Songshan living so freely and without burden, enjoying family and happiness, I feel my life is absurd and laughable. He can still easily destroy my will. He is a deeper torment to me than fate itself."
He longed for stability, yet seemed destined to drift.
Sitting in the dim stairwell, waiting for someone who never came, he typed out a message to He Chuan Zhou.
"Sis, tomorrow won't get better, right?
"Bad things won’t just disappear, but people get hungry, tired, and sick.
"So I don’t look forward to tomorrow at all. I wish the night could be longer, that time could stay in today a bit longer."
After reading, the world felt very empty to her.
She seemed to hear Wang Yifei standing in the darkness, softly asking her what the future should be like.
There was no hysterical pain, only a mix of confusion and sadness. Without an answer, he would shrug and say, “Then forget it.” After all, there were so many things he didn’t understand.
He Chuan Zhou’s emotions were being pulled into a chaotic vortex, and she struggled to sort through the entangled thoughts when Captain Zhang asked, "Where is Wang Yifei now?"
"I don’t know," she said.
Her overly calm demeanor made Zhang feel something was off. He leaned closer, staring into her face, and asked, "You immediately had his father report him missing, did you notice something unusual?"
"He left his bank card with me, like he was settling his affairs, so I got worried."
Speaking of this, she felt a faint sense of reality. Her throat was dry and painful, her hands and feet felt light, and her rationality was like a thin thread pulling her along, making her function as normally as possible.
"Put out a warrant," she said.
Brother Huang’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he listened to her seemingly indifferent tone, growing more concerned. He bent down to take the phone from her, his gaze falling on her trembling fingers, which were violently shaking despite her calm exterior.
Captain Zhang asked from behind, "Do you think he’s the killer?"
"He can’t possibly kill anyone." He Chuan Zhou’s stubbornness was unshakable, but her eyes made her look like a very sober person. "But I need to find him immediately."
She provided several places Wang Yifei frequented. Captain Zhang and Brother Huang exchanged a silent glance.
After the record was completed, He Chuan Zhou stood up. As blood rushed to her head, her vision spun, alternating between black and white spots.
She closed her eyes tightly, and when she opened them, Zhang was already in front of her, extending his hand. As they shook hands, he hesitated and said, "Don't take what I said earlier to heart."
"I know. I’m a police officer too," she replied.
Turning to Brother Huang, she said, "I might need a day off. Tell Director Feng for me. I’m going home now. If I feel okay tomorrow, I’ll come back and cancel the leave."
Brother Huang nodded, clearly wanting to ask if she was okay.
Without waiting for him to speak, she walked out of the room.
She maintained a disturbingly calm demeanor throughout, a kind of abnormal indifference that seemed to conceal a torrent of underlying sorrow.
Captain Zhang watched her retreating figure and mumbled, "Has Captain He always been like this?"
"No..." Brother Huang glanced at him, wanting to say, "Of course this isn’t normal," but realizing that He Chuan Zhou never needed anyone’s comfort.
She had her own system for dealing with unresolved emotional issues, relying on prolonged time to dissolve them alone.
Brother Huang wiped his face, thoughtfully saying, "Both professionally and personally, I think Wang Yifei might not be the killer."
Zhang neither confirmed nor denied this, only stating, "Wang Yifei was definitely at the crime scene and is deeply connected to this case."