The sunlight danced on the mirror-polished blade, causing his pupils to glow with a cold, inorganic light.
"Go on." His voice was soft, gentle even. "I'm listening."
Wang Qiang's voice was stuck in his throat.
At this moment, he suddenly understood what true fear was - Duan Shuce's threat was concrete, but the horror of this young man was that you had no idea what he would do in the next second.
"That's enough." Ning Xiwan suddenly said, "He doesn't deserve it."
She walked up to Wang Qiang and squatted down, the hem of her Chanel jacket sweeping the ground.
This angle reminded her of when she was fourteen, she knelt on the ground like this, begging her adoptive father not to press the cigarette butt on her arm.
"Wang Qiang," she whispered, "Do you remember how your father died?"
Wang Qiang's pupils suddenly constricted. On that stormy night, when his drunken father had been chasing Ning Xiwan as she fled, a brick blown down by the strong wind had hit him squarely on the temple.
The police said it was an accident, but he would always remember the look of that little bastard standing in the rain sneering as his father fell to the ground.
"It's you...it's you who killed my father!" Wang Qiang suddenly jumped up.
Duan Shuce kicked him back against the tree and pressed his knee against his throat: "Try to move again?"
Ning Xiwan smiled. She was wearing TF Black Tube lipstick today, and her smile was like a poisoned rose. "You know what? I visit his grave every year."
She pulled a photo from her wallet. "Burn this."
The photo is a group photo of the Ning family's family recognition banquet. She is wearing a haute couture dress and standing under the crystal chandelier, surrounded by her real family.
Wang Qiang howled like a wild animal, but was pinned down by Duan Shuce. Ye Qingliu suddenly squatted beside Ning Xiwan, took out a wet wipe from his schoolbag and handed it to her: "Dirty."
This action inexplicably pleased Ning Xiwan. She took the wet wipes and wiped her hands, then suddenly said to Wang Qiang, "Is your mother sick again?"
Seeing the other person's sudden change in expression, she smiled even sweeter. "Mental hospital fees must be very expensive, right? What a pity..."
She leaned close to Wang Qiang's ear and said in a voice only the three of them could hear: "I just called the dean and all funding will be stopped starting today."
After saying that, she patted his twisted face gently and said, "Good luck to you."
Duan Shuce whistled, picked up Wang Qiang and threw him to the side of the road like trash: "Get lost, if I see you again..."
He made a gesture of wiping his neck and smiled harmlessly.
Wang Qiang escaped by crawling and rolling.
The sun sank behind the teaching building, casting a violet glow on the skyline. Ye Qingliu suddenly pulled a box of Haagen-Dazs from his schoolbag and said, "It's melted."
Ning Xiwan was stunned for a moment, her fingertips trembling as she took the ice cream. This was the luxury item she had been eyeing for a long time in the convenience store window the day she escaped at fourteen.
With her face covered in blood, she could never have imagined that one day someone would remember such a trivial matter.
Duan Shuce put his arm around her shoulders and said, "Come on, Daddy's treating us to hotpot."
Ye Qingliu frowned: "Who is your son?"
"Whoever takes the lead is the boss."
"childish."
Ning Xiwan watched the two bickering and suddenly felt that the dark past had become distant.
On the left is Duan Shuce who always likes to make her happy, and on the right is the taciturn but careful Ye Qingliu. The setting sun stretches the shadows of the three people very long, long enough to cover all the past that she can't bear to look back on.
She scooped a scoop of ice cream, and the sweet vanilla flavor melted on her tongue.
"By the way," Duan Shuce suddenly remembered something, "why don't we go mountain climbing next weekend?"
Ye Qingliu said calmly: "No..."
"Yes, yes!" Ning Xiwan's eyes lit up. "I ordered a star projector so I can look at the stars at night!"
"childish."
"Who are you calling childish?"
"...Except Sister Wan."
The laughter of the three startled a flock of white doves, which fluttered off into the darkening sky. Those scars will eventually scab over and fall off, and light will shine through the cracks, forever and ever.
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