The cool midnight wind seeped into her bones like thin threads of ice.
Tong Yang silently typed a question mark into the group chat.
She stared at the screen, reading each word carefully. She recognized every character, but she couldn’t make sense of the meaning behind them.
[Uh, sis, are you living in a rural area with no internet? This thing was huge—it even made it onto CCTV news.]
[The two murder cases in Yaocheng in 2024: one was the bakery murder, and the other was the Dongyang Residential Area murder. The victim was Tong Yang.]
Studying is for Making Money: [So what happened to the college entrance exam?]
Tong Yang’s mind was in chaos. She had worked so hard for the exam, for a better life, to escape the beggar-like existence she had been trapped in. She sacrificed everything—no rest, no entertainment, no friends. She abandoned everything unrelated to studying. While others were terrified of the bizarre murder cases, she traversed the same routes every day, like a machine that only existed to study.
And after all her efforts, when she was just a few steps away from success, she died before the exam?
If she had to die, couldn’t it at least be after she took the exam?
Was this some kind of prank? Or had the pressure from studying driven her to hallucinate?
After a minute of silence in the group, someone sent a news link. The headline that appeared on the screen read: “Prodigy from a Humble Background, Tong Yang, Dies Ten Days Before the College Entrance Exam Due to a Home Invasion. Teacher Expresses Deep Regret: She Could Have Been the Province’s Top Science Student!”
Tong Yang’s heart skipped a beat. She clicked on the link, which led to an unfamiliar news website. Below the headline, the publication date stood out—June 1, 2024.
But in reality, it was still May 2024. This news report was from the future?!
“On May 28th, the Yaocheng police received a report about a murder in the Dongyang Residential Area in the old town. A young woman was brutally killed in her home, and the scene was gruesome… According to insiders, the victim was named Tong Yang, a third-year high school student at a nearby school. She was an orphan and excelled academically… Afterward, reporters visited her school. Her teachers described her as a diligent student, with exam scores consistently above 710, always ranking first in the district. The school had high hopes for her, grooming her to become the province’s top science student for 2024… It’s truly tragic and heartbreaking. We deeply regret her passing… To this day, the police have yet to find any clues, and the case bears striking similarities to the bakery murder in the Dongyang area on March 19th. The police suspect the same person was involved. Stay tuned for further updates.”
After reading the entire report, Tong Yang felt her hair stand on end.
The report included photos of her school and interviews with people she recognized, like the familiar playground and the principal with his ever-present green thermos cup. It all made her realize that this report wasn’t fabricated.
“May 28th…” Tong Yang lifted her head, staring at the calendar on her desk. It was May 27th. There was still one day left until the date of her supposed death… No! Wait!
The phone displayed 12:19 AM. The 27th was already over! It was now May 28th! And the exam was exactly ten days away!
At the same time, in the quiet hallway outside, a slow and deliberate set of footsteps echoed.
Tong Yang’s body froze as a chill ran from the soles of her feet up her spine to her head, leaving her shivering.
Dongyang Residential Area was an old housing complex originally allocated by the now-defunct water plant. The buildings were dilapidated and rundown, and the area was scheduled for demolition. Since the property rights weren’t individually owned, they wouldn’t receive any compensation after the demolition. Most of the residents had already moved out, leaving behind mainly elderly folks who went to bed early. It was rare to hear any sounds at this hour, let alone someone walking around.
Tong Yang instinctively clenched her phone, and the cracked tempered glass screen shattered further under her grip. Suddenly, a cold gust of wind blew through the window cracks, snuffing out the candle and plunging the room into darkness. The faint glow of the phone reflected off her face, and at the bottom of the news report, there was a blurred photo of the crime scene. A human-shaped silhouette lay on the ground, surrounded by dried, brownish blood.
Unfortunately, the angle of the photo made it impossible to discern the exact location.
The footsteps stopped right outside Tong Yang’s living room door.
—Call the police.
This was the only thought that flashed through Tong Yang’s mind.
She tried to stay calm, entering the phone dialer and typing in 110, only to realize that the once full signal bar had somehow turned into a “No Signal” warning.
Damn it, this must be a joke!
“Knock, knock—”
A knocking sound suddenly echoed through the room.
Tong Yang quickly moved to the window, opened it, and extended her hand through the security bars, trying to make a call. However, the Dongyang Residential Area was in a remote location, and the signal was always weak, almost nonexistent during power outages. Even with her hand outside the window, there was no improvement.
Come to think of it, the fact that her phone had full signal during the past two nights despite the power outages was far too strange.
“Click… click…”
After receiving no response to the knocks, she heard the sound of the lock turning from outside.
Tong Yang’s breath caught in her throat as a terrifying thought flashed through her mind: The person outside had a key? How could that be possible?!
“Click… click…”
After two clicks, the living room fell silent again.
Tong Yang pressed her back against the window, holding her breath. The phone screen went dark, and she didn’t dare make a sound. Her heart was pounding violently, as if it might burst out of her chest at any moment.
“Squeak—”
After a brief pause, the door to the living room creaked, as though the rusty hinges had given way.
Tong Yang scanned her surroundings, certain that her apartment was practically empty—no place to hide. It was so bare that even the only window in the bedroom, her escape route, was secured with welded security bars.
This building only had one other resident, an elderly lady in her seventies. Even if the neighbors in the other buildings woke up from their sleep, it would take them at least three minutes to get there. In other words, screaming for help wouldn’t save her; it would only provoke the intruder to act faster. And she had nowhere to run.
Her only advantage was that she was used to moving in the dark and knew every inch of the two-bedroom apartment. Maybe she could use this familiarity to avoid confronting the intruder and slip out to call the police.
Sweating nervously, Tong Yang grabbed a screwdriver from the desk and gripped it tightly. She quietly removed her slippers and cautiously moved toward the door in the darkness, slipping into the space behind her bedroom door.
At that moment, she felt an immense sense of relief that she didn’t have the habit of closing her door before sleeping, and that she had sent Tong Le to the school dorms.
Footsteps echoed in the living room. Tong Yang held her breath, trying to listen carefully for the direction they were coming from. The other bedroom was right across from her. Since Tong Le wasn’t home, she kept the doors and windows closed to avoid dust buildup.
Logically, in the middle of the night, a closed door would make it seem like someone was in that room. If the intruder entered the other bedroom to search, she could seize the opportunity to escape. Although she wasn’t much of an athlete, she had always ranked among the top in physical fitness tests for girls. As long as she got out of the apartment, she was confident she wouldn’t be caught.
The footsteps gradually approached the hallway outside the two bedrooms. Tong Yang pressed her ear against the door, straining to discern the direction of the intruder’s steps. In the quiet darkness, her heartbeat pounded in her ears. A shadow passed by the narrow gap under the door, stopping in the middle of the two bedrooms.
Tong Yang didn’t dare make a sound. Through the door crack, she could only see a pitch-black shadow, which then disappeared from view after taking a half-step forward.
Moments later, the figure moved toward the opposite bedroom, grabbed the doorknob, and gently twisted it. With a soft “click” the door lock was released.
Tong Yang breathed a sigh of relief. The curtains in the opposite room were tightly drawn, making it pitch black. If the intruder went inside to search, she would definitely take the chance to escape.
The person twisted the door lock, pushing the door open slightly. A small gap appeared at the entrance, but for some reason, the intruder suddenly stopped moving.
Tong Yang immediately noticed the change, and her heart jumped into her throat. It was as if the person outside was toying with her, deliberately provoking her. Then, without warning, they turned and started walking toward her!
Tong Yang was horrified. Why hadn’t they gone in? Could they have known that no one was in that room?
The shadow entered the room she was hiding in. As they passed by the open door, they held a sharp weapon, the tip of which casually scraped against the wooden door, producing a faint sound that gnawed at Tong Yang’s nerves. It gave her the eerie sensation that the blade was slicing across her skin.
“Knock, knock—”
The person walked to the door and knocked on the handle with the knife, standing right outside—just a door away from Tong Yang.
Tong Yang was so nervous that her mouth began to salivate, and the physiological response caused her to swallow. For a brief moment, a barely audible sound escaped.
In a normal situation, no one would notice such a faint noise. However, standing right on the other side of the door from a potential murderer, Tong Yang couldn’t be sure if they had heard it.
“Thud—”
The sound of the knife tapping the doorknob stopped abruptly. Tong Yang gripped the screwdriver tightly, her nails digging into her flesh as she used the pain to force herself to stay calm.
The shadow paused for a moment, then took a step forward.
The oppressive weight of death that had been looming over her finally began to lift. Her mind, which had been stretched to its breaking point, found a momentary reprieve.
—Great, they didn’t find me.
The space behind the door was so narrow that she couldn’t even turn her head. Tong Yang couldn’t see anything in the room and had to rely on her hearing. But after the intruder entered, there was no more sound. It was as if they had vanished into thin air, not even leaving behind the sound of breathing.
Had the person left without noticing her?
But she hadn’t heard any footsteps leaving.
What was going on?
Tong Yang struggled to turn her head. Her body had stiffened after maintaining the same position for so long.
Through the narrow gap between the door and the wall, she could see her desk in the dim moonlight coming through the window. Her study materials were scattered messily on top of it, and a cold breeze made the corner of her math worksheet flutter.
Tong Yang suddenly felt a warm, sticky draft against her ankle. Instinctively, she looked down.
A woman in a twisted posture was crawling on the floor, slightly raising her upper body. Half of her face was hidden behind the door, and the exposed half was covered by her hair, making her features unrecognizable. Her eyes were opened to the point where they seemed like they were about to burst from their sockets, staring straight up at Tong Yang.
Her dry, cracked lips curled slightly, and traces of blood seeped out.
“Found you.”
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