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In the afternoon, Ruan Hongmei participated in the Preliminary Selection and passed smoothly. However, she didn't expect that a girl named Qin Yu would rank 119, placing her ahead of Ruan Hongmei. What surprised Ruan Hongmei was how beautiful Qin Yu's singing was; for a moment, she felt defeated by her. Chu Feifan sat nearby, watching, but he was not a judge.
When she walked out of the office, the sun was still shining brightly outside. Su Jin'er stood in the shade, waving at her. She happily ran over and hugged Su Jin'er.
"Ha ha, Jin'er, I passed!"
"Yeah, I knew you would."
"But—"
Su Jin'er tilted her head to look at her.
"That annoying Qin Yu is ahead of me, and she sings so well. I feel like I have no hope of winning in the end." She said dejectedly. Qin Yu's voice was crisp; from the very first word she sang, it felt as if it could take one's soul away, but it wasn't terrifying at all—instead, it was comforting to follow along with her song.
"Come on, the competition hasn't even started yet, and you're already losing confidence? Of course, you'll lose! Besides, I think what's important about participating in a competition isn't the result but the process—the effort you put in for your dreams, right?"
"While the process is important, the result matters too! After working hard for so long, wouldn't it be frustrating to fail in the end?"
"It might be a bit sad, but think about it: as long as you've put in the effort, you won't regret it, right?"
Ruan Hongmei thought for a moment and said, "Maybe! But even if I lose, I want to lose gracefully."
"That's more like it! Come on, let's go back to the dorm and continue choosing songs."
"Wait a minute; Chu Feifan said we should wait here for him for a bit. He seems to have something to tell you." In the latter part of her sentence, Ruan Hongmei's tone became ambiguous as she winked at Su Jin'er.
"Please be serious!" With that, she sat down on the grass.
"Hehe!" Ruan Hongmei laughed and sat down too. "Are you two going to get married?"
Ruan Hongmei was taken aback by the sudden question from Su Jin'er. She had never thought about marriage; it felt like something far away, especially since she was just a freshman who had just entered university. It seemed too early to think about such things.
"You really are nosy. We're only in our first year, and you're already thinking about marriage. Aren't you overthinking it?" Su Jin'er poked her finger at Ruan Hongmei's forehead.
"Alright!"
The two of them sat on the grass and chatted about trivial matters, both tacitly agreeing not to mention that incident again, as if it had never happened.
About half an hour later, a woman's scream suddenly echoed from the Student Council Office. The scream lasted for only a moment, abruptly cut off as if someone had choked it off, causing nearby students to look toward the office in fear.
When the scream rang out, Su Jin'er felt her heart start racing, cold sweat appearing instantly.
"What happened?" Ruan Hongmei stood up, anxiously looking in the direction of the office.
Her heart continued to race, and a sense of dread washed over her, feeling even more terrifying than before. She told herself not to think about it, but when she prepared to stand up and leave, she realized her legs had lost all strength.
"Hongmei, let's go!" she said with a pale face, sweat streaming down her cheeks.
Ruan Hongmei turned back and was startled by Su Jin'er's appearance; wasn't she fine just a moment ago?
"What's wrong? Are you sick?" She squatted down to support Su Jin'er's shoulders.
"No, can we just go back to the dorm?" Her voice was weak, as if she might faint at any moment.
"Okay!" Understanding that Su Jin'er didn't want to deal with this anymore, Ruan Hongmei put away her curiosity and helped her up. The two slowly made their way back to the dormitory.
Until evening, they heard no news about the scream, which made Su Jin'er even more anxious. Not knowing what had happened only fueled her fears; she struggled to control her thoughts but found that the scream replayed in her mind like a movie on loop.
She was about to go crazy!
"Jin'er, are you sick? Why are you sweating so much?"
"I'm fine, maybe it's just a bit hot!"
She didn't quite understand why just hearing a scream made her feel so upset. Or was it that she couldn't escape this situation after all?
This situation? Why did she feel like something would go wrong again? It must be because she was overly stressed and tired; a little rest would fix it.
She comforted herself.
"Hongmei, I feel really tired. I want to sleep for a bit."
"But you haven't even had dinner yet!"
"I'm not hungry. I'm not eating anymore. You can go eat with Feifan and the others! Also, please ask him what he wanted from me this afternoon. It's rude for us to leave suddenly like this."
Ruan Hongmei thought for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll bring you something to eat. You can have it when you're hungry."
"Alright!"
Listening to Ruan Hongmei's footsteps fade away and then the sound of the door closing, even though it wasn't dark yet, Ruan Hongmei was afraid that she wouldn't be able to find her way back if she woke up. So she turned on the light when she left. Looking at the incandescent bulb above her, she suddenly felt dizzy, as if she wasn't lying in bed but on a leaf floating on an endless sea, her body light as a feather, as if she no longer belonged to this world.
To alleviate the dizziness, she closed her eyes and slowly cleared her mind, letting her brain become completely blank. Gradually, she lost consciousness and fell into a deep sleep.
Ruan Hongmei stepped out of the dormitory and called Chu Feifan.
"Hey! Where are you?"
"I'm still at the Student Council Office. What about Jin'er?"
"Did something happen? We just heard a scream, and then Jin'er suddenly looked pale as if she was sick. I took her back to the dorm, and she should be asleep by now."
There was a moment of silence on the other end, but she could hear a lot of commotion, as if many people were talking. Despite this, she could still hear Chu Feifan's heavy breathing.
"Why aren't you speaking?" she asked again.
Chu Feifan sighed and said, "Someone committed suicide at school. Don't tell Jin'er about this! I'm afraid she won't be able to handle it."
"Suicide? No way! Why?"
"I don't know. The police are investigating, but I've heard from classmates that it might be due to a breakup."
"A breakup? Seriously! That's so dramatic! I've only heard about people committing suicide over breakups but never seen it myself. This is quite an eye-opener," she said with a laugh.
Chu Feifan paused for a moment and asked, "Are you coming?"
"Yes, I'll head over shortly."
After hanging up, Chu Feifan exhaled. Earlier in the afternoon, he had intended to ask Su Jin'er to be a judge for an event, but he never expected such an incident to occur. He had no choice but to call Captain Xing. The body had already been taken away, and initial assessments indicated it was a suicide; the specifics would have to wait for the autopsy report.
When Ruan Hongmei arrived, Chu Feifan was questioning Captain Xing at the scene of the incident. There were many witnesses present at the time of the event.
The scene of the incident was behind the Student Council Office building, where there was an empty lot. The school had plans to turn that area into a lawn, but before any changes could be made, this tragedy occurred.
"Wow! This building is only three stories tall. Can someone really die from jumping down? Unless they land headfirst," Ruan Hongmei said, looking at the top floor.
"You’re right. She did fall headfirst, but it’s strange—if she wanted to jump, why did she scream so pitifully?" Chu Feifan said, puzzled.
"She screamed?" Captain Xing asked.
"Of course! It scared us at the time, and Jin'er even got sick from the shock! Her face was as pale as a sheet of paper; it terrified me," Ruan Hongmei replied.
"You all heard it?" Captain Xing asked again.
"Yes, many people heard it," Chu Feifan answered.
Captain Xing looked at the shape drawn on the ground. She had indeed fallen headfirst, and there was quite a splatter—some of it reached as far as two meters. Such a distance didn't seem like something that would happen from a three-story jump. Would someone who wanted to commit suicide really scream so tragically? While it wasn't impossible, it still seemed a bit hard to believe.
Captain Xing glanced at the students still gathered around and asked, "Does anyone know this girl?"
A frail girl slowly stepped forward, her shoulders trembling slightly and her face streaked with tears.
"She was my good friend. Her name is Zhuo Xiaoman," Jiang Jie said as she wrote Zhuo Xiaoman's name in her notebook.
"Come with me!" Captain Xing instructed.
A few of them walked to the front of the building, and then Chu Feifan opened the student council office door, and they all entered together.
"Tell me everything you know, don't be afraid."
The girl nodded and said, "Three days ago, Zhuo Man suddenly came back to the dormitory crying. I asked her what happened, but she just kept crying and wouldn't say anything. No matter how much I asked, she refused to tell me, only saying not to ask and to let her be alone. After that, I didn't press her anymore. Her emotions were very unstable; she didn't go to class or eat, just lay in bed, either staring blankly or crying. I couldn't do anything about it, so I just brought her some food every day. This morning, she suddenly told me that she had broken up. In the afternoon, I thought that since she had talked about it, everything would be fine, so I went with my classmates to participate in the Preliminary Selection. She said she wanted to sleep in the dormitory, so I didn't bother her. Around three o'clock, she came out alone, but her expression was very strange. When I called her, she ignored me and slowly walked upstairs. I wanted to follow her, but she shouted at me to go back and not follow her. I was scared by how she looked, so I didn't follow her. As a result, she... she jumped off the building."
After finishing her story, the girl started crying again.
"You said her appearance scared you. What did she look like at that time?"
The girl's body trembled slightly, as if filled with fear: "Her eyes were wide open, as if her eyeballs were about to pop out of their sockets. Her teeth were clenched tightly, and even her lips were bleeding from being bitten. Moreover, although her eyes were wide open, they didn't look like the eyes of a living person."
Her words made everyone gasp in shock. Eyes that didn't look like those of a living person?
That was simply too unbelievable.
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