Fire
After taking a shower, Tao Chu changed into her pajamas and returned to her mother's room to start packing her belongings.
She put all the files on the desk into the drawer, thinking she would order a few storage boxes later.
In the middle drawer was her mother's passport photo, which she stared at intently. In the photo, Xu Weirong had medium-length straight hair, wore a black suit, and had a determined look in her eyes.
Tao Chu gently stroked the photograph with her hands covered in tiny scars, thinking that she would enlarge it and make it into a memorial portrait for offering incense and worship the deceased the next day.
The bottom drawer has a combination lock with a four-digit number.
Tao Chu sat cross-legged on the ground, picked up the lock, and turned the code—"0128," her birthdates arranged in ascending order.
Click, the lock is open.
Since arriving in Wanghu City eight years ago, Xu Weirong has made her daughter memorize the passwords for everything, from opening a new bank card to adding a lock.
At the time, she felt happy because her mother finally treated her like an adult, and the two of them depended on each other and shared everything without reservation.
But now that she's all alone, she can't help but wonder if her mother had foreseen this day...
She opened the drawer and frowned—there was only a cell phone and a charging cable inside.
The cell phone was a Nokia 5300 that Tao Chu used when he was in junior high school. After it was phased out, he didn't know where it was thrown away.
I never expected that it would be in my mother's hands, and even locked up so carefully.
She picked up her old phone and pushed it upwards. The phone didn't have much battery left, and the feel of the slider phone was both strange and familiar.
The homepage shows an unread text message signed "HP".
Upon seeing this abbreviation, a name suddenly popped into her mind—"Harry Potter"?
Harry Potter was a book she had read since she was a child, so it was understandable that this thought would pop into her head first. However, she then realized that she was thinking too far ahead and shook her head.
She opened the text message—
"Do not return to Jianglin, be careful!"
Tao Chu's heart pounded. He checked the time again: 8:03 AM on January 17th.
It was the morning of the day my mother had the car accident!
At this time, Mom and Uncle Zou Ming had already gotten on the highway, but the old cell phone was left at home.
I wish Mom would see this text message...
Tao Chu's legs were getting numb from squatting, and her head was buzzing with pain. So she simply sat on the floor, leaned back against the foot of the bed, and stared at the light on the ceiling.
The car accident was definitely not an accident. Who was this person? How did they know there was danger?
Tao Chu picked up her old phone again, wanting to look through the messages her mother had exchanged with the other party, only to find that they had all been deleted.
She slowly sat up straight, copied and pasted the phone number into the browser search bar, and sure enough, it was a number from Jianglin City.
My mother died on the highway back to Jianglin.
Tao Chu stared at the small red and white cell phone, continuing to flip through it with unwavering determination, but to no avail.
This message is the only clue left.
She hesitated for a moment, but finally pressed the call-back button, her heart pounding, hoping to get an answer.
The connection is working, and the other party's phone is not switched off.
But after waiting for several tens of seconds, no one answered.
Her heart plummeted from the peak back to the bottom.
She opened the text message again—six short words that could have saved her mother and Uncle Zou Ming's lives.
If Mom had brought her old phone, if the other party had sent the text message an hour earlier, if the other party had noticed something was wrong sooner...
These thoughts, like ocean waves, surged up one after another, impacting her heart.
But she knew—there were no "what ifs," her mother would never come back.
She clutched the old phone as if trying to hold onto the regretful feeling she was experiencing, pressing it firmly against her heart.
Mom was just a hair's breadth away from escaping this disaster, just that one tiny bit more...
The sound of the truck crashing into her, and the dark red color of the blood after it congealed, kept replaying in her ears and before her eyes.
She was unwilling to accept it.
Tao Chu sat with his knees drawn up, lost in thought for a long time.
Until she turned her head and glanced at the deep night outside the window, she realized that the once bright and cozy home was now empty except for her.
It was late at night. She took a deep breath and decided to send Uncle Zou Ming's ashes back first—he lived in Building 5 in front of her house, and she had a spare key to his house.
She stood up, took out her phone to check the time, and just then a call came in.
It was Wen Yunsheng again.
He's been calling and texting nonstop since last night, but she really doesn't want to pay attention to it.
Wen Yunsheng and she were childhood sweethearts. His father, Wen Tao, was one of the people who committed perjury and drove her mother and Uncle Zou Ming out of Jianglin City.
In the eight years since she left, Wen Yunsheng has never given up trying to contact her, even though she has never replied with a single word.
He seemed to know nothing, still treating them as before, wishful thinking, and stubbornly clinging to their own opinions.
The fact that he's contacting me so urgently right now probably means he's found out about the car accident.
Tao Chu did not hang up the phone. She took her phone and keys, turned off the lights and closed the door, and carried the urn into the elevator.
After stepping into the elevator, she thought for a moment and pressed B1—going through the underground parking garage should prevent her from running into any of her neighbors, so as not to scare them.
Upon entering Uncle Zou's house, she placed the urn in the center of the living room table, bowed, and said, "Uncle, I will come to pay my respects to you again tomorrow after I have bought an incense burner and fruit."
After saying that, she walked towards the study, intending to find Uncle Zou Ming's ID photo so they could get it enlarged tomorrow and see if there were any other clues.
But when Tao Chu turned on the study light, he was stunned.
The room was a mess. Books and notebooks that were originally in the bookshelf were scattered all over the floor. The computer tower was lying on its side on the table, and the side case cover had been opened and thrown aside.
Tao Chu's mind went on high alert—those people had been here!
It looks like even the computer's hard drive has been removed.
That's true, they're willing to take a life, so what's a burglary to them...
Tao Chu instinctively turned her head to run away, but as soon as she turned around, she suddenly thought of her own home—those people probably hadn't searched the place yet, otherwise her mother's old phone would definitely have been taken.
Old cell phone!
She touched the pocket of her loungewear top—thankfully, she had put it in there earlier, which put her at ease.
She swallowed hard. Those people probably wouldn't let her family go. She had to go back to get her ID card and immediately go to a hotel!
She turned around to turn off the study light, but noticed the curtains were tightly drawn, probably because they had pulled them shut when they came to steal the things.
This study faces south, and you can see your home through the window.
A question popped into her mind: Why did those people spare her family for the time being?
As she was thinking this, she walked toward the curtains as if possessed and quietly pulled them open a crack.
Uncle Zou Ming's family lives on the 7th floor of Building 5, and my family lives on the 15th floor of Building 6.
She unconsciously looked up to count: 13th floor, 14th floor, 15th floor—
The lights were on in her house.
But she made sure to turn off all the lights before leaving the house.
Her heart pounded as she stared at the light streaming through the curtains in the living room, vaguely seeing figures inside.
Tao Chu trembled all over as if he had fallen into an ice cave, unable to move—they were here!
If I hadn't coincidentally gotten out of there, then now...
No, it's not a coincidence.
Tao Chu's hands, gripping the curtains, trembled, and even her breathing became cautious.
They must have seen the lights were off and assumed she was asleep before barging in.
If I hadn't gone through the underground parking garage but instead taken the elevator to the first floor, they would have caught me red-handed.
What made her even more breathless was that someone walked to the floor-to-ceiling window in the living room, and their figure became clearer and clearer through the curtains.
The next second, the person suddenly pulled open the curtains and looked down directly at Tao Chu's location.
Tao Chu was so frightened that he immediately squatted down, but it was too late—the lights were on!
They had searched this place before, so they knew the Zou family's address clearly.
So when they found out she wasn't home, their first reaction was to check if she was in Building 5.
Hurry! Get out of here!
A voice inside Tao Chu screamed, and she gritted her teeth, clutched her coat collar, rushed out of the room, and pressed the elevator button.
Fortunately, the elevator was still stopped on the 7th floor, so there should still be time to go to the underground parking lot to drive. After all, my apartment is on a higher floor, and they will take longer to come down.
But the moment she stepped into the elevator, she felt uneasy—
In such a confined and cramped place, if someone were to ambush you on the first floor and press "up" or "down," you would have nowhere to escape once the elevator doors opened.
She thought for a moment, then stepped into the elevator, pressed "1," and immediately stepped out, rushing downstairs through the fire escape.
She took two or three steps at a time, the "thump-thump" of her footsteps accompanied by the flickering motion-sensor lights, as if silently urging her on.
She ran with all her might to the underground parking garage, jumped into her car, stepped on the gas, and sped out of the garage.
The tires screeched as they rubbed against the rubber pavement, a sound that sent chills down one's spine even through the window.
She was breathing heavily, her throat felt like it was on fire.
Speed bumps couldn't stop her at all; the car lurched and swayed violently, just like her anxious and fearful mood.
After rushing out of the side gate of the residential area, she glanced at the rearview mirror and, finding that no one or any car was chasing her for the time being, breathed a slight sigh of relief.
She forced herself to stay awake and drove aimlessly for more than ten minutes before turning onto a side road and pulling over to think about what to do next.
If those people were looking for evidence, they could have acted much earlier when I wasn't home, just like when they broke into Uncle Zou Ming's house.
But they didn't seem to be in a hurry, and instead of alerting the enemy, they chose to wait patiently.
Why?
—Oh, anyway, the evidence is right there at home, it can't escape. Once she gets home, they'll kill her and then ransack her house, making it look like a home invasion robbery and murder.
Tao Chu stared out the car window at the deserted road with only a few dim lights.
If I were to die, no one in this world would ever bother to investigate the hidden truth behind the car accident.
By a twist of fate, she narrowly escaped death.
But since they failed tonight, they certainly won't let me off the hook.
what to do?
Should they call the police and then continue to hide in Wanghu City?
Just then, my phone rang.
It's so late, it shouldn't be Wen Yunsheng, Tao Chu felt a little uneasy.
She took it out and saw that it was from the Wanghu City Public Security Bureau.
She stared at her phone until the screen went dark again—most likely the security guard in the complex had reported it, but how could she dare go back now?
The power behind those people is not to be underestimated. My mother has lived in Wanghu City for so many years, and she probably has never escaped their surveillance. That's why she died on the way back to Jianglin from Wanghu.
So... is the Wanghu City Public Security Bureau still trustworthy?
What if this phone call is a trap to lure her back into the trap?
Tao Chu felt a chill run through her body. She tightened her collar and looked up at the rearview mirror.
Originally, she was trying to be wary of people or cars coming from behind, but instead she saw herself in the mirror with a buzz cut and a cream-colored fur collar, her eyes full of fatigue and confusion.
She stared quietly at this unfamiliar and comical version of herself, and the light in her eyes gradually gathered.
The panic and helplessness of being chased gradually dissipated, leaving only resentment and hatred settling in his heart.
She clenched her fist and slammed it on the steering wheel, cursing, "What a fucking coward!"
He killed her mother and then tried to kill her, forcing her to flee in panic in the middle of the night, looking like a "stray dog" in a miserable state.
She will never sit idly by and wait to be slaughtered.
She immediately started calculating, glancing at her phone's battery level, which was still at 13%.
I didn't bring my ID card, and my phone was almost out of battery, but luckily I still had a lot of gas left in the car, enough for about 600 kilometers on the highway.
No, no, she has one more thing.
She reached into her left pocket—her mother's old cell phone!
Her heart pounded; the “HP” who sent the alert must know the secret behind the car accident.
Tao Chu looked down at the small phone, which, like himself, was the last remaining spark of hope.
Since it is a spark, it should spread like wildfire.
She made three phone calls using the last bit of battery power she had left.
The first call was to Tao Guohua.
"Dad..." Tao Chu's voice trembled with tears as soon as she opened her mouth.
The other person seemed to have just woken up, mumbling in response, "Hmm... Ah? Chuchu, what happened?"
"Dad, Mom died in a car accident yesterday, and the house has been ransacked! I'm so scared, I want to go find you..."
"Huh? Wait a minute, what... what happened? Let me think... where are you now? Are you safe?"
"I ran away from home, I don't know where I can go, Dad..."
There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone before there was any response.
"Chuchu, listen to your father, find a hotel to stay in first, make sure you're safe. Get a good night's sleep, um... I'll contact you again tomorrow."
Listening to his stammering, meaningless nonsense, Tao Chu sobbed and agreed, "Okay, Dad, you have to come pick me up, I'm so scared..."
After hanging up, she glanced at the top right corner of her phone and saw that 9% of the battery was still left. She felt bad about the wasted battery power.
For her second call, she made a call to her friend Cen Le.
Upbeat background music played on the other end of the phone, and a sweet female voice came through: "My dear fans, please wait a moment while I take this call—hello?"
“My phone battery is low, so I’ll tell you what to do. I’ll arrive in Jianglin City around 3 a.m. You need to bring a reliable person to pick me up at the highway entrance. It’s a black SUV with the license plate ending in 9208.”
The music stopped abruptly, and the fans in the live stream saw the female streamer nod with a smile: "Okay."
For the third call, Tao Chu used his old phone to dial "HP," but still no one answered.
She turned off both her old and new phones to conserve battery, and the black SUV sped through the night, navigating curves, bridges, and tunnels, following the route her mother had taken not long ago.
In the quiet night, she could only hear the sound of the wind, mostly blocked out by the glass, while the neat rows of streetlights stood on both sides, silently seeing her off.
She had no time for sentimentality, no time for tears.
The shotgun was already raised; she dodged one shot and was about to return fire before the next one was fired.
Drive her into a corner, leaving her with nowhere to escape?
Then she rushed towards the hunters' lair, to let them taste the taste of being caught off guard.
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