From beginning to end, Jiaqi’s parents never asked about my age. They just earnestly told me about Jiaqi’s shortcomings and asked me to be understanding.

I kept smiling and agreeing, feeling like I was floating in mid-air.

I thought it would be an embarrassing gathering for me, but the one who ended up embarrassed was somehow Jiaqi instead, which made me laugh out loud involuntarily.

His parents enumerated Jiaqi’s flaws, his sister roasted Jiaqi’s embarrassing stories—I saw an awkward expression on Jiaqi’s face for the first time.

I happily took several photos and posted them to my Moments feed that hadn’t been updated in three years.

Today was the beginning of my new life.

“Chenze, Jay Chou is coming to Chengdu in five days. We couldn’t go to Richie Ren’s concert together last time—shall we go together this time?” Jiaqi asked.

“Mm, if there’s time, of course that would be great.”

“Ring ring ring—”

Jiaqi’s phone rang. The caller ID showed it was the Qingyang District Public Security Bureau.

“Hello?” Jiaqi sat down beside me with a smile on his face and answered the call. “Yes, I’m Lawyer Sun. What’s the matter?”

A muffled voice came from the other end of the phone. Although I was very close to Jiaqi, I couldn’t hear clearly.

“What…? Alright, I understand. I’ll come find you first thing tomorrow morning. Let’s try to combine these two cases together.” Jiaqi’s smile slowly sank. “Yes, I understand. Although I feel sorry for that girl, at least we can thoroughly punish the bad person now.”

Jiaqi hung up the phone with a somewhat melancholy expression. A few seconds later, he turned his head and gave me a meaningful look.

I followed him to the balcony, looking at him without understanding.

“Chenze, I don’t know if this counts as good news, but since it’s related to you, I have to tell you,” Jiaqi said to me with a smile.

“What?”

“The police investigation discovered that there’s a female corpse buried in Butcher Ma’s backyard. After comparison, they found it’s a female college student who went missing many years ago.”

“Female college… student…?” Hearing these four words, my voice trembled slightly.

Female college students rarely appeared in our village.

“Yeah.” Jiaqi took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth. “Sigh… I don’t know if it counts as good news, but in any case, giving Butcher Ma the death sentence is now a done deal. Tomorrow I’ll go to the police to check the specific situation. I heard she’s been buried in his backyard for over ten years…”

I felt my head spinning.

“Jiaqi… that female, female college student… what was her name?” I asked.

“I think I heard the name just now, but I didn’t remember it. I heard she went there to teach,” Xiao Sun looked at me with some confusion. “What’s wrong? Chenze, do you know that girl?”

A female college student who went to teach… how could I not know her?

She was the most important light in my life.

Under the illumination of that light, I successfully left the village and spent the rest of my life constantly running toward a better life.

I never imagined that the bright light that illuminated my path forward would remain there forever.

All these years… she had been buried in Butcher Ma’s backyard…

How afraid must she have been?

How desperate?

My body gradually began to tremble.

In Butcher Ma’s little room, I had seen scratch marks all over the walls.

Those scratch marks were clearly quite old.

So this was how it was?

Teacher Ning Wan’er, in some space-time, were you once as desperate as I was?

No… you were even more desperate than me.

Because you knew that no one in this world could possibly come save you… you also knew you could never escape from that village.

You could only slowly accept your own death. You could only remain there forever.

My lighthouse, my life’s beacon, a woman who gave me all hope—on some day over ten years ago, she died as desperately as a pig in that narrow room.

“Jiaqi… I… I feel very unwell…” My eyes were red and swollen, feeling like my entire sky had collapsed. “I might lose my composure. I want to go home first…”

“Chenze… if something’s wrong, you can tell me,” Xiao Sun stared into my eyes and said. “I can solve all problems for you.”

Solve…?

The sad thing was… this matter no longer needed solving.

Teacher Ning Wan’er was dead, and now Butcher Ma would pay with his life. From every perspective, wasn’t this matter already resolved?

So why was I still so desperate?

“Ding—”

My phone, which hadn’t rung in a long time, suddenly received a WeChat message.

It was a message from Chengcai.

“Yo? Got a boyfriend?”

Probably because of my Moments post. Chengcai, who hadn’t contacted me in ages, actually took the initiative to talk to me.

But it didn’t matter. These people couldn’t affect me anymore. I would now block all their contact information.

I sighed and swiped left on the screen, preparing to delete the conversation, when another message came in.

I hesitated slightly but still opened it to look.

“Does your boyfriend know what you’re really like?”

Next was a screenshot of a chat record between Chengcai and Butcher Ma.

Butcher Ma: “A woman trained by city folk is really slutty. Let me show you.”

What followed were my photos.

Those photos I thought had been erased from the world now appeared before my eyes one by one.

There were even several videos afterward, trampling all my dignity underfoot.

It seemed I truly couldn’t escape this village… couldn’t escape this man-eating village.

Could you please let me go?

Could you please act like you’d never seen me?

Could you just treat me as if I were already dead?!

“Chenze, what’s wrong?” Jiaqi asked with some confusion. “Who sent you a message?”

“I…”

Just as he was about to lean over, I immediately locked my phone screen and shoved it into my pocket. In my panic, I even bumped my own elbow, but I didn’t feel any pain.

I was just too afraid. I didn’t want Jiaqi to see me like this. Even if everyone else in the world could see it… Jiaqi absolutely could not.

“Ah…?” Seeing me hastily put away my phone, Jiaqi didn’t get angry—his expression just looked somewhat awkward. “I’m sorry Chenze, I didn’t mean to pry into your privacy…”

“Ah no… it’s not…” I waved my hands somewhat frantically.

Ever since we established our relationship, Xiao Sun would sit beside me whenever he made or received calls. Perhaps it was to give me a sense of security, or perhaps to put my mind at ease—he always unconsciously made such gestures.

He never hid anything from me, yet this time I hastily put away my phone. That wasn’t fair to him.

“Jiaqi… it’s not what you think… I…”

I hadn’t thought through how to explain at all. I just felt like crying and wanted to curse this world.

But I couldn’t cry.

If I cried, Jiaqi would worry.

It was clearly my own problem, yet I was dragging others into it. This wasn’t right.

So at this moment, the optimal choice should be for me to quietly return home, find a place where no one was, and cry my heart out—just like every single day over the past ten years.

“I know… I know…” Jiaqi nodded earnestly. “Chenze, it’s okay. I don’t mean to blame you. Everyone has things they don’t want others to know. When you want to tell me, I’ll be right here waiting.”

That day, I felt like the entire world was spinning.

What should I do?

I don’t remember how I left Jiaqi’s house. When I came back to my senses, I was standing in my living room staring blankly at my phone.

Chengcai was calling.

If I didn’t resolve this matter, my life would never have a peaceful day.

I took out a voice recorder from the drawer, also turned on my phone’s recording function, pressed speakerphone, and answered the call.