Mitternachtsböse

Kapitel 14

"Was it you who attacked me last time?"

"That's right."

"If your only goal was to kill me, why didn't you do it sooner? Why are you killing this man?"

“You should have died by my hand long ago. And this man, who so clumsily impersonated a ‘screwdriver,’ deserves to die even more!”

"So, you're the one who's been killing off those fake 'screwdrivers' all along."

"Finished your questions? I'll give you a quick death!"

"Screwdriver" held a screwdriver in each hand and quickly and accurately jabbed it at Liu Jiahu's temple.

However, it was held firmly in place by two hands, pinned in mid-air.

Now it was the "screwdriver's" turn to be surprised: "You!"

Liu Jiahu snorted coldly and slammed him to the ground. Then he took out two screwdrivers from his belt and hammered them into the man's left wrist. It looked like the tendons in his hand were severed.

The man screamed in pain, but Liu Jiahu snatched the weapon from his hand, inserted it into his left cheek, pierced his tongue, and exited from his right cheek.

Now, his voice could only linger in his throat.

Looking at his puzzled expression, Liu Jiahu grinned maliciously and said, "If those two patrolling cops hadn't shown up last time, I would have killed you already! You're one of the more capable people impersonating me..."

A Phillips screwdriver was driven into the imposter's forehead with tremendous force.

Hypnosis

"Are you having an affair?"

My sudden remark startled Fang Shiyang.

"What nonsense are you talking about!" he said righteously, trying to cover something up with his righteous attitude.

But I'm a woman who's seen it all, how could I be scared by his little tricks?

“Honey, don’t forget, everything you have now is a gift from my father. If you dare to cheat on me, you can expect to be left with nothing. I guarantee my lawyer will make sure you don’t get a single penny, believe it or not?” I said to Fang Shiyang with a forced smile, admiring my new nail polish. “I know you’re still holding a grudge about my one-night stand last time. But didn’t I tell you? You were away from home for a long time, and I got drunk, which is why it happened. In the end, it’s because you neglected me. Can you blame me?”

He was clearly at a loss, and glanced at me absentmindedly.

Suddenly, headlights flashed, and a Mazda6 went out of control and crashed into us.

boom……

I don't know how long I was unconscious. When I woke up, my limbs felt weak and my body felt like it was wrapped in bandages.

It's a hospital; judging from the layout, it should be an intensive care unit.

I wanted to speak, but my throat was terribly dry.

I was sleepy, and I drifted off to sleep again.

I don't know how many times I woke up and fell asleep. I felt people circling around me—a doctor, a nurse, and a familiar figure. My head was throbbing terribly. I couldn't remember anything for the moment.

It seemed like that person was whispering something in my ear.

Finally, when I woke up this time, that figure was sitting next to me.

That's Tong Bing. My husband's best friend, and we're also on pretty good terms. She's a psychologist at the provincial hospital.

He seemed pleased to see me awake, but his expression soon darkened.

"water……"

Tong Bing thoughtfully helped me raise the bed frame and then fed me water with a spoon.

I can feel a little bit in my hands, but my legs are completely immobile, like two pieces of wood. And my face, it's covered in bandages.

Tong Bing could see the question on my face. He gritted his teeth and told me the truth: "That night you and Shiyang were in a car accident. You have multiple fractures, and your face... I'm afraid you'll need some plastic surgery to restore your former appearance..."

"Then...where are my legs? Why can't I move them?"

“Song Ling…you are paralyzed from the waist down.”

"No!" I screamed through the gauze. The gauze stretched my face so tightly that I could hardly move, and the sob could only escape from my nose instead of my mouth.

I pounded my legs helplessly, but they remained motionless.

"Oh, right." Tong Bing's eyes suddenly filled with tears as he said to me in a low voice, "Shiyang is gone..."

It was then that I realized I seemed to have forgotten about my husband. When I heard the news of his death, my heart felt like it was being tightly gripped, and each beat was extremely difficult.

Yes, a pampered young lady like me, born into luxury, is selfish. But I'm not cold-blooded. I also have love and feelings.

At this moment, I calmed down. I told Tong Bing to go out first.

Then I lay on the hospital bed, slowly recalling every moment with Fang Shiyang, until tears soaked the gauze.

What else can I do right now but reminisce?

It's been three days, and I still can't feel my legs.

Is my life truly wasted...?

Modern people are restless; only when they are forced to be confined can they appreciate the beauty of stopping to think.

I started to reflect on myself, wondering if this was the consequence of my past carelessness. But is reflection even useful? Can reflecting on past mistakes truly make amends?

As the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly. Two blows in a row left my fragile nerves reeling. The news of my disability and disfigurement devastated me, while Fang Shiyang's death brought me back to my senses.

A few days later, I felt an unbearable itch on my face. The doctor told me it was a normal reaction as the wound scabbed over. He said I could have plastic surgery in a few more days.

"I want to see what I look like now."

My words surprised both the doctor and Tong Bing. But I persisted.

Tong Bing said, "Song Ling, you must trust the doctor's skills. He will definitely be able to restore your former appearance."

"If I can accept the fact that my husband, who is disabled in both legs, has passed away, then what in this world can I not accept?"

Tong Bing's voice gradually lowered: "But I really can't bear it... You should rest first, I'll arrange for a doctor to remove your bandages tomorrow... Rest."

After listening to him, I took the medicine and fell asleep peacefully. In my dream, I saw myself removing my bandages. I had no upper eyelids, no nose, no lips, no ears, no skin... I was just a bloody, muscular head. I was looking at it from outside the mirror, and it was staring at me from the mirror.

When I woke up, my face felt even itchier and had a noticeable foreign body sensation. My scalp felt stuffy and itchy, as if my sweat glands were blocked.

Tong Bing and the doctors and nurses were all there. They slowly removed the bandage from my head, and I could clearly see that the nurse's expression was strange.

Tong Bing slowly handed me a mirror: "Do you really want to see...?"

He still felt a little reluctant.

I didn't say anything, and slowly turned the mirror upside down to reflect my face.

My nose is still there, though there are obvious stitches; my eyelids are still there, but the rest of my skin is covered with dried scabs, like centipedes crawling across my face and embedding themselves in my skin. My hair is shaved off, and there are stitches and scars on my scalp, like scabies. My lower lip is swollen like a sausage, and it's black. No wonder I find it so difficult to speak.

Five seconds. That's the limit I can handle.

After they wrapped the bandages around my neck and left my ward, I burst into hysterical sobs.

I was the most beautiful girl in my department back then! Why do I have to suffer like this!

I've always wondered why my parents haven't come to see me. Tong Bing told me that to avoid worrying them, he told them I'd gone abroad. They haven't even held Fang Shiyang's funeral yet.

I nodded to show my understanding. This period of reflection has taught me to consider things from other people's perspectives more often.

I don't know why, but I'm missing Fang Shiyang more and more. Even though I always find fault with him, I just miss him.

That afternoon, Tong Bing brought a bouquet of bird of paradise flowers and a beautiful birthday cake to the ward. He said it was delivered to his home by courier, and he brought it directly to me.

I saw a birthday card on the cake; it was from Fang Shiyang: "To my dearest wife, I hope you are always carefree and always smiling."

It turns out he had ordered the cake and bouquet a month earlier.

The cake smelled sweet, but my mouth tasted bitter.

In a daze, I felt I saw Fang Shiyang's shadow behind the candlelight.

For several nights in a row, I dreamed of Fang Shiyang. He gently stroked my face and kissed my lips. He told me he missed me.

How could I not miss him?

When I woke up, I could even feel his presence in the room.

I feel like I can't keep going like this.

Longing is a dull knife, a rusty saw, relentlessly cutting into my heart.

That day, I wrote my suicide note and secretly slipped it under my pillow. Then I smashed the vase by my bedside and slit my wrists…

When I woke up, I still saw Tong Bing's face.

"Song Ling, how could you be so foolish? If Shi Yang knew what you did, wouldn't he be heartbroken?"

I'm still alive. The nurse on rounds found me.

A few days later, due to my emotional issues, the doctor suggested that I return to a familiar environment to recuperate. So Tong Bing took me home and took good care of me.

I don't talk much with him because every time I see him, I think of Fang Shiyang.

He cautiously put away all the glassware in the room.

They're afraid I'll do something foolish again.

I noticed that every time he brought me a prescription, one of the pills was half a pill. He told me that if I took an overdose of this medicine, it could be life-threatening.

So I secretly saved that half pill.

When I thought that dose would help me get rid of it, I swallowed it all.

It wasn't until the abdominal pain struck and I was rolling around in bed that I realized—my legs could actually move!

However, I no longer care.

I felt a large amount of foam gushing out of my mouth, and gradually I could no longer think...

Shiyang, I've come to see you.

Tong Bing put on shoe covers and gloves and appeared silently in Song Ling's room.

After checking Song Ling's pulse and confirming that she was dead, he took out his phone and sent a text message.

Then, he carefully removed Song Ling's gauze and took off her hood, revealing her face, as beautiful as ever. Next, he placed a suicide note and a gynecological examination report under Song Ling's pillow.

...

"Hmm..." Tong Bing kissed the man in his arms and said with a smile, "I really didn't expect it to go so smoothly. That woman really thought she was disfigured."