Chapter 35: Completely insane

It sounded like someone was whispering a strange laugh in my ear, sending chills down my spine.

She quickly pulled her phone out of her suit pocket, her fingers already a little stiff.

The screen lights up, and the battery indicator shows only 3% remaining.

She struggled to unlock the screen, but the phone seemed frozen.

It's unresponsive; it doesn't react no matter how I tap it.

Snowflakes fell one after another on the screen.

It quickly melts into water droplets, which then freeze into thin ice.

Song Zhiwei's heart raced.

She kept pressing the emergency call button until her fingertips almost went numb.

The battery level jumped from 3% to 2%, and the screen suddenly dimmed.

Her hands began to tremble, and a wave of despair washed over her.

After a minute of fiddling, the phone screen finally flashed a message indicating a successful signal connection.

The call was made.

A faint beep came from the receiver, like the only hope in the darkness.

"Hello."

Finally, a voice came through the receiver.

Song Zhiwei gripped the phone even tighter against her ear.

Song Zhiwei's voice trembled and was urgent, as if it were being forced out from the depths of her throat.

"Zhiwei? It's you."

The other person paused.

Then came Qiao Yiqing's gentle yet distant response.

"He's taking a shower. What's wrong?"

Upon hearing that familiar yet cold voice, Song Zhiwei felt as if she had been doused with a bucket of ice water.

I felt cold from head to toe.

Her fingers froze, and the phone slipped from her hand with a "thud".

But the thought of being alone and trapped in the wilderness right now is unbearable.

My heart clenched suddenly.

Completely disregarding the heartache of being turned away earlier, he immediately knelt on the snow and reached out to grab the item.

"Auntie, I..."

She was rummaging through her fingers and shouting, her voice already trembling with tears.

Before he could finish speaking, the phone screen went completely black.

No matter how much she patted or rubbed the screen to heat it up, there was no reaction.

She seemed to have all her strength drained away.

His knees buckled and he landed hard on his bottom in the snow.

The icy snow quickly soaked through her trousers, and the chill spread throughout her body along her bones.

She hugged her legs and buried her head in her knees.

Finally, she couldn't hold back anymore and burst into tears.

Why is it always her who gets unlucky?

Why is it that no matter how hard she tries, the ending is always so miserable?

From childhood to adulthood, she has never had good luck.

His parents died early, and he lived under the roof of others, without even a single person to call "Mom and Dad".

When she first entered the Zhou family, Zhou Yunsheng always bullied her.

He would either secretly hide her schoolbag or deliberately trip her up at the dinner table.

She endured it all, until one day she could no longer bear it and finally pushed him.

But just then, my aunt pushed the door open and came in.

All we saw was her raising her hand and Zhou Yunsheng falling to the ground.

Everyone is fixated on this matter.

They criticized her for being unruly, petty, and difficult to get along with.

No one asked her why she did it, and no one cared about what kind of life she led each day.

After suffering many losses, she became too lazy to argue anymore.

She feared that if she resisted again, she would only implicate Qin Yunshu, the only person who cared for her.

So she learned to bow her head and to remain silent.

When she was in school, Zhou Xiaolu and a few other girls would target her every day.

Her desk was covered in graffiti, and her notebooks were torn to shreds.

Even the lunchboxes were dumped into the trash can.

She was driven to the point where she couldn't take it anymore.

On one occasion, I was stopped and verbally abused at the stairwell.

Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he reached out and pushed away the girl who was leading the group.

Unfortunately, the homeroom teacher happened to be passing by and only saw the moment she took action.

From then on, it became a consensus among classmates that "Song Zhiwei is actually a person with a bad temper".

No matter how she explained the situation or recounted how she was bullied, no one believed her.

She tried time and again to fit in and to change.

But reality always brings her back to reality time and time again.

Over time, she also learned to accept her fate.

Song Zhiwei huddled on the ground, tears streaming down her face.

The fabric on her chest was soaked, and a thin layer of ice formed.

The cold wind howled, tousling her hair.

It also chilled her last glimmer of hope.

The sky grew darker, dark clouds gathered, and night quietly fell.

No cell phone, no warm clothes.

The sub-zero temperatures felt like needles piercing to the bone.

It's a two-hour drive from the city center, and it's remote and desolate.

Not a single car passed by.

Her lips were turning purple, her fingers were stiff, and her consciousness was beginning to fade.

She truly didn't know if she would be able to walk back alive.

...

Feiyun Law Firm.

The office area was dimly lit, and the clock hands quietly slid toward seven o'clock.

My colleagues started packing up their things and preparing to leave.

Sheng Tingzhou straightened his cuffs as he walked out of the office.

As he passed by the open-plan office area, he habitually glanced at the workstations by the window.

That's Song Zhiwei's spot.

Right now, the workstation is empty, the computer is off, and the desktop is spotless.

It was as if no one had come all day.

He frowned slightly and stopped in his tracks.

He turned to look at Xu Xiaoting, who was packing her bag not far away.

Where did Song Zhiwei go?

Upon hearing the question, Xu Xiaoting immediately turned around, looking somewhat nervous.

"Zhiwei went to the Linshan Court today to represent the defendant in a divorce case."

She paused, then added.

"We originally planned to finish at 4 p.m., but she just sent me a message saying that she encountered heavy snow on the road, her car slipped and got stuck in a ditch, and the signal was not very stable."

"It should have been over by now, why aren't they back yet?"

Xu Xiaoting shook her head.

"I don't know either. They're not replying to my messages, and their phones are off when I call them. I tried several times just now."

She pursed her lips, her expression somewhat worried.

"Could something have happened after the court hearing? Or...did the phone run out of battery?"

Sheng Tingzhou nodded, said nothing more, and turned to leave the office area.

But I had a strange feeling that something was off.

The cold lighting in the corridor made his expression appear somewhat solemn.

He took out his phone and called the judge at Linshan Court directly.

His tone was calm but revealed his urgency.

"Hello, this is Sheng Tingzhou. I'd like to ask about the proceedings of Attorney Song Zhiwei today. She should have finished her hearing a long time ago."

On the other end of the phone, the judge began to recount the proceedings of the trial.

The moment Sheng Tingzhou hung up the phone, his heart sank.

Without further hesitation, he grabbed his car keys and quickly walked out of the law firm building.

The cold wind blew in his face, but he didn't feel cold.

Only one thought was in my mind:

We must find her immediately.

...

Song Zhiwei cried until she was too exhausted to stand up.

He rubbed his legs, which were numb from the cold, and continued walking forward, making a series of bumps with each step.

She knew she couldn't give up.

Even if you only have one breath left, you have to keep going.

If I keep sitting like this, I definitely won't make it through the night.

She cannot die here.

There wasn't even a streetlamp on this road; it was pitch black all around.

The wind howled like ghosts, its whistling sound lingering in my ears.

She didn't know how long she had been walking.

Time becomes blurred in the extreme cold, and every second seems to be stretched out.

My suit jacket was already soaked through.

My shoes were full of snow, which melted into water, and my feet were freezing cold.

She tried hard to recall which intersection she was abandoned at.

Suddenly, it felt like my leg was entangled by something.

Perhaps it was the tree roots under the snow, or perhaps it was a sudden spasm in frozen muscles.

She stumbled and fell hard into the snowdrift.