Qiao Qingyu had seen her mother, Li Fanghao, furious before, but this time was unsettlingly different. Deep tear tracks etched themselves onto Li Fanghao’s face with alarming speed, her complexion as pale as if doused with lime. Before Qingyu’s eyes, her mother seemed to age rapidly.
“Mom…” Qingyu whispered.
“Where did you learn this?” Li Fanghao’s voice was devoid of warmth, freezing the air around them. “Well?”
Qingyu stood stunned.
“Bring me your backpack,” Li Fanghao demanded.
Qingyu’s expression shifted slightly. “Mom, what’s going on?”
“Feeling guilty?” Li Fanghao’s gaze cut like a knife. “Bring it here.”
The N95 mask lay hidden in a secret pocket at the bottom of the backpack, undetectable during a casual search. However, Li Fanghao was determined to turn the bag inside out. Sure enough, within a minute, she extracted the phone from the hidden compartment.
“Where did you get this?”
“I found it,” Qingyu replied, her face a mask of innocence.
Li Fanghao snorted. “How much did you pay for it?”
“I found it in the school library last week. I was—”
A sharp slap cut off Qingyu’s words as Li Fanghao struck her across the face.
“I’ll ask you one last time,” Li Fanghao glared at her daughter. “How much did it cost, or who gave it to you?”
Fighting back tears, Qingyu’s left cheek burning, she insisted, “I found it in the school library.”
“If you found it at school, it must belong to a classmate or teacher,” Li Fanghao nodded. “I’ll go to the school tomorrow and ask who lost their phone.”
It wasn’t until the shop closed that Qingyu learned why Li Fanghao had searched her backpack: a gold bracelet was missing from the safe.
The bracelet had been an engagement gift from Qiao Lusheng to Li Fanghao.
Undoubtedly, Qiao Jinyu had taken it, though he vehemently denied it when Qiao Lusheng confronted him over the phone.
Meanwhile, Qingyu steadfastly refused to admit she had encouraged her brother’s misbehavior. Enraged, Li Fanghao raised her hand to strike again, but Qiao Lusheng intercepted her.
“Don’t hit her…” he pleaded.
“If I don’t, she’ll end up just like Xiaobai!” Li Fanghao screamed hysterically. “I regret it now! When Xiaobai misbehaved, I couldn’t bring myself to punish her. I should have! I should have beaten her until she learned her lesson!”
Li Fanghao collapsed to the ground, sobbing uncontrollably. She violently pushed away Qiao Lusheng’s attempts to console her, the couple appearing to grapple with each other.
Terrified, Qingyu fled to her room. She had never seen her parents so out of control.
A vivid memory flashed through her mind: Li Fanghao recklessly charging onto the school’s main stage during a flag-raising ceremony. Qingyu did not doubt that her mother would bring the phone to school. Tomorrow would become her lifelong nightmare.
Li Fanghao had confiscated the phone and would surely examine it thoroughly. Apart from the side profile photo Jinyu had secretly taken last night, there was nothing to worry about—thankfully, Qingyu was cautious and habitually deleted messages and photos. Mingsheng’s homework was already completed, so he wouldn’t send any more messages. They had never communicated by voice call, and the contact list was empty.
In Jinyu’s candid photo, Qingyu’s long hair was casually tucked behind her ear, her eyelashes casting crescent shadows on her cheeks. Bathed in the warm glow of the desk lamp, her face appeared luminous and serene. Seeing herself this way for the first time, Qingyu was captivated by the tranquil detachment the photo conveyed. Jinyu had deliberately avoided capturing the clutter on the desk, using a blank wall as the background. The girl’s pure solitude shone like the moon in the night sky.
Tossing and turning in bed, occasionally touching the pale green notebook under her pillow, Qingyu secretly hoped Li Fanghao would burst into the room and demand to know who took the photo and where. She was prepared to confess everything. As consciousness faded and she drifted into oblivion, a fleeting thought crossed her mind: she wouldn’t go to school tomorrow.
But things never went as she wished.
When the alarm sounded, she reached out blindly to silence it, only to be startled by an unexpected touch. Her eyes flew open.
“Get up,” Li Fanghao said, turning off the alarm. “I’m accompanying you to school today.”
After hurriedly getting ready, Qingyu found her mother waiting by the door, purse in hand.
“We’ll buy two buns for breakfast on the way,” Li Fanghao said coldly, watching Qingyu’s every move. “Your father has gone to the sports school to find Xiaobai.”
Following her mother downstairs, Qingyu tugged gently at Li Fanghao’s clothes. “Mom, I didn’t take the gold bracelet.”
“You told Xiaobai to take it.”
The pale green notebook was in her backpack. Dawn had not yet broken. Suddenly emboldened, Qingyu stepped in front of Li Fanghao, blocking her path—she felt that if she could explain everything, the sun would rise.
“I did tell Xiaobai to search the safe,” Qingyu blurted out, “but not to steal anything from home.”
Li Fanghao’s eyes flashed dangerously as if she might tear Qingyu apart at any moment.
“I just wanted to know how my sister died,” Qingyu continued. “Did she have AIDS when she died? And also…”
Her hand brushed against the notebook’s hard cover through her backpack, but her words faltered. Across from her, Li Fanghao’s face suddenly turned ashen. The sharpness in her eyes disappeared, replaced by a look of devastation poorly concealed behind a facade of composure. Qingyu’s heart ached at the sight.
“What else?” Li Fanghao’s voice trembled slightly.
“I also thought Jinyu deserved to know the truth,” Qingyu said softly. “That’s why I asked for his help.”
“How could you do this as his older sister?!” Li Fanghao exploded. “I know Xiaobai—he’s always so carefree. How could he come up with something like this? It must have been you who dragged him into it! I’m the mother of both of you! Do you think I don’t know my children?!”
Qingyu felt as if she’d been struck repeatedly, her scalp buzzing. Two young passersby hurried by, casting glances at the mother and daughter standing in the middle of the path. Once they were out of earshot, Li Fanghao grabbed Qingyu’s wrist. “Come on, we’re going home first!”
Qingyu had never known her mother’s grip could be so strong or her pace so quick. Though she didn’t resist, she found herself practically dragged back into the house.
“Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on in your head,” Li Fanghao slammed the door shut and turned on Qingyu, shouting, “You think your little schemes can fool me? I’ve known something was off with you for a while now! Tell me, are you constantly thinking about that Mingsheng boy in your class? Do you want to be friends with him?”
Qingyu was stunned. “Mom, what are you talking about…”
“That Mingsheng—I’ve asked around about him from students who come to our restaurant. He looks decent, has good grades, and is like a celebrity at school. The girls all love him,” Li Fanghao continued. “Look at yourself, all distracted! Sending him messages as soon as school started—you’re a girl, for heaven’s sake! How old are you? Have you no shame?”
This was absurd.
“That Mingsheng is nothing but a good-for-nothing scoundrel! He throws money around, always getting into fights and causing trouble. Don’t think I don’t know!” Li Fanghao roared. “If you become friends with that kind of lowlife, your life is over, I’m telling you!”
Qingyu felt like laughing from anger.
“Tell me the truth, did you learn from that Mingsheng rascal how to corrupt your brother and steal from your own family?”
Truthfully, Qingyu didn’t believe Mingsheng was the type to steal money from home. Of course, there was no point in arguing this with Li Fanghao; explaining would only make it seem like she cared about clearing Mingsheng’s name. Given what happened to her sister, Qingyu understood that her mother’s greatest fear was her daughter becoming entangled in romantic relationships too early.
“Answer me!!”
Li Fanghao’s voice boomed like thunder. Qingyu spoke slowly, “Mom, it’s not what you think. I have no feelings for Mingsheng.”
“Then why did you message him as soon as school started? When have you ever willingly approached a boy before?”
It was for He Kai, Qingyu thought, realizing her mother’s intuition was accurate—she had indeed acted this way because she had feelings for a boy.
“I didn’t think much of it at the time, Mom,” Qingyu said. “I only remembered his number because it was simple and easy to memorize. It was unintentional.”
“Keep lying! Let’s see how long you can keep this up!”
“My asking Xiaobai to open the safe has nothing to do with Mingsheng,” Qingyu looked into Li Fanghao’s angry eyes, pausing as her heart raced. “I wanted to find Dad’s lawsuit documents or my sister’s medical records. I wanted to know how she died…”
“We’ve lived peacefully for two or three years, and suddenly you pull this stunt. Do you think I’d believe such nonsense? Why didn’t you care before?”
“Because,” Qingyu opened her backpack and took out the pale green notebook, turning to the pages with Qiao Baiyu’s fragmentary diary entries, “I found this back home.”
Li Fanghao snatched the notebook, held her breath as she read for a few seconds, and then suddenly slumped against the wall.
For a moment, Qingyu thought Li Fanghao might collapse—her lips were white, her face ashen, and she clutched her chest with a fist, breathing heavily and rapidly. “Mom,” Qingyu called out in panic, “Mom, what’s wrong?”
Li Fanghao whispered weakly, “Get me some water.”
When Qingyu returned from the kitchen with a glass, Li Fanghao had made her way to the bedroom and was sitting on the edge of the bed. After taking a few sips of the warm water, some color returned to her face. She gestured for Qingyu to sit down.
“Where did you find this?”
The pale green notebook was now closed, clutched tightly in Li Fanghao’s hand at her side. Qingyu suddenly felt this might be the last time she’d ever see it.
“During the National Day holiday when we went back home,” Qingyu answered, her gaze fixed on the notebook. “That, um, Crazy… Aunt Qin ran out and threw something down. It was my sister’s diary. Everything else was burned, only these few pages remained…”
Her voice trailed off as she looked up. Li Fanghao’s eyes were tightly shut, two large tears silently rolling down her pale cheeks. The sight was heartbreaking. Qingyu was too scared to breathe.
After a while, Li Fanghao waved her hand dismissively. “I see.”
“Mom,” Qingyu ventured cautiously, “what my sister wrote… is it true?”
Seeing no response from Li Fanghao, she gathered her courage and explained softly, “This is what’s been troubling me. My sister’s situation was so pitiful. I used to just blame her, but I didn’t know she had already…”
Qingyu stopped, observing Li Fanghao’s unchanging expression, and changed tack. “Now I understand her. I regret not communicating with her more before. I didn’t take her seriously back then… People outside have been spreading all sorts of rumors about her death. I know I shouldn’t listen to outsiders, but I was afraid to ask you and Dad… I just want to know what happened to her. I don’t want to be indifferent like before…”
“Your sister is dead,” Li Fanghao interjected quietly. “What good does knowing do now?”
“I just want to know the truth,” Qingyu bit her lip. “Mom, I’ve grown up. I’m not a child anymore. You don’t need to hide family matters from me. I can share the burden with you…”
As she spoke, Li Fanghao’s eyes opened, her pupils devoid of light, showing a despair Qingyu had never seen before.
“Actually,” Qingyu probed, “did my sister die from complications during appendicitis surgery because she had AIDS?”
“What complications? What nonsense is this?” Li Fanghao snapped. “Where did you read such strange things?”
“I already know that my sister died at Provincial First Hospital, not Weiai Hospital,” Qingyu pressed on, steeling herself. “And Dad didn’t win the lawsuit against Weiai Hospital.”
Li Fanghao’s pupils dilated rapidly, then narrowed with fury as she lashed out at Qingyu: “You think you’re so clever now that you know these things? Your sister—it doesn’t matter which hospital she died in. She was just a liar! An ungrateful wretch! Which one of your three children did your father and I not give our all to? How much effort did we put into your sister? When she was alive, didn’t we provide her with the best of everything every single day? Did we ever neglect her in the slightest? I might occasionally scold you two, but her? With that temper of hers, how could I dare say a word against her? No matter how I treated her, how did she treat me in return? She never let me see her diary, but she gave it to a madwoman! She never saw me as her mother at all!”
“Mom…”
“Don’t call me Mom! I’m not your mother!” Li Fanghao screamed hysterically. “And you’re no better! Finding your sister’s things and hiding them, teaching your brother to do bad things—you think you’re so capable now? How many more secrets are you keeping from me? Am I your mother or not, huh?!”
Qingyu was too shocked to speak.
“Fine, let’s say what you’re telling me is true, that Xiaobai wanted to take the gold bracelet on his own and it had nothing to do with you,” Li Fanghao suddenly changed tack. “Then what about this phone? You just found it? How convenient that you just happened to find a brand-new phone!”
“I…”
“No need to explain. I can figure it out myself,” Li Fanghao glared at Qingyu, her teeth clenched. “I’m your mother! You can’t fool me!”