Youth is their most precious treasure.
At their age, even without any skincare, their skin is as fair and delicate as a freshly peeled egg, packed with collagen and not a wrinkle in sight, their bodies carrying a pleasant scent, untouched by the adult body odor that comes from accumulated metabolism.
Xu Jia’s treasure was just a little more special than theirs—her voice.
Ever since her voice changed, she discovered many things were different about it.
More than one person had praised her voice for being pleasant to the ear; boys in her class would even deliberately provoke her just to hear her curse at them.
Gradually, she became filled with confidence, pride, even arrogance in her own voice.
Someone had suggested she become a singer, saying her singing sounded much like Wang Fei, but Xu Jia had long since made her own plans.
She wanted to become a News Host.
The reason lay in a very special person to her—the local late-night news channel’s News Host, Zhong Wen.
She met Zhong Wen during a lecture held at school.
He sat on the stage, animatedly educating the students on safety accidents.
He was so handsome, with broad shoulders, a proud chest, hair neatly parted, thick brows, and, not to mention, his voice… it was simply a perfect match for her own.
Xu Jia felt like it was love at first sight.
Unlike those lovestruck girls in her class who went wild at the sight of a good-looking guy, she believed her own infatuation was thoughtful, destined, full of a sense of fate.
She felt that she was indeed different from everyone else.
Though born into a poor family, she possessed a proud heart.
After the lecture, she secretly found Zhong Wen, asked for his autograph, and confided her dream of becoming a News Host.
It seemed Zhong Wen, too, was captivated by her angelic voice and left her his contact information on the spot.
The next night, Xu Jia secretly used her mother’s phone to call Zhong Wen for the first time, and so, this ill-fated relationship began on an ordinary evening.
After that, Zhong Wen became her vocal Teacher for free.
Her honest, simple parents naturally thanked Zhong Wen profusely.
As a result, Xu Jia gained many more opportunities to interact with him.
She believed she had completely bewitched Zhong Wen.
She’d caught him more than once looking at her with hazy, wandering eyes, flickering with veiled desire, like a flame behind a lampshade.
Her youth, her innocence, for a News Host who drifted through the world of fame and fortune, was like a drug—addictive.
What began as pure appreciation and mentorship gradually mutated into ** and possession.
Xu Jia, however, took delight in all of it, believing it to be a testament to her own charm, a sign of how she was unlike anyone else.
And then, it finally happened.
Realizing she was, in fact, a minor, Zhong Wen began to panic.
His anxious demeanor gave Xu Jia the illusion that she could control him, that she could use the claws of her charm to keep him in her grasp.
Between Teacher and student, an illicit relationship grew and spread in the shadows of human nature, until both parties were tightly bound together.
In this relationship, Zhong Wen was actually the weaker side.
He feared the fact that Xu Jia was underage, afraid the relationship would be exposed, and the only thing that could protect him was Xu Jia’s girlish, fragile yet sweet love.
With Zhong Wen’s support, Xu Jia began to change.
She started to look down on the group of immature boys in her class; even the school heartthrob she once coveted no longer caught her eye.
Her clothes and belongings became more and more expensive, she learned to put on makeup, and she stopped looking like a student.
When teachers and parents raised questions, she brushed them off by saying Zhong Wen introduced her to part-time jobs to earn money.
Out of trust for a public figure, her lies were never exposed.
In her ever more extraordinary life, Xu Jia gradually forgot who she was.
She felt as though she was truly a cut above the rest.
Vanity.
The most terrifying demon of adolescence arrived right on schedule.
It gnaws away at every young child; this is humanity’s first lesson—the sin of vanity from which no one can escape.
She became even more greedy.
She no longer compared herself to the students at school, but to people in society.
She demanded more and more from Zhong Wen.
Zhong Wen would try to refuse, but she would use every method to force his agreement.
At first, it was just pouting and acting cute, but then it became threats, the degree of which kept escalating, until one day, her words finally stepped on the wolf’s tail.
“If you don’t transfer the money to me, I’ll call the police!”
Zhong Wen snapped awake, nodding his agreement on the spot.
That night, as he tossed and turned in bed, he realized that the innocent girl he’d been so addicted to was already killed by his own hands.
The Xu Jia before him was no different from those women he encountered in the world of fame and fortune.
No… The only difference was that Xu Jia held his fatal evidence.
An evil thought quietly sprouted in his mind, but he didn’t have the courage to put it into action.
It was just a tiny seedling, and without someone to nourish it, that evil intention might never have borne fruit.
But Xu Jia happened to be that very source of nourishment.
Her increasingly rampant greed finally made one particular thought in Zhong Wen’s mind take shape.
He began to appear and disappear unpredictably, haunting various hidden corners, as if searching for a place, or perhaps for a method.
Yet Xu Jia noticed nothing at all.
Those close to gambling will steal; those close to lust will kill—this is a truth our ancestors have proved countless times.
After school one day, spurred on by provocation from a girl in the neighboring class, Xu Jia headed to the teachers’ office.
She said she needed to call her Teacher, so the teachers didn’t stop her.
Only after they all gradually left did she actually make the call to Zhong Wen.
“I want to buy a car.”
“You’re not of age, you can’t get a driver’s license, and there’s too much of an age gap—I can’t pull any strings for that, either. Be good, don’t buy a car.”
Zhong Wen’s tone today was different from usual, devoid of emotion, but the young girl didn’t notice.
“Do you not love me?” she demanded. “Are you tired of me? After playing with my feelings, do you just want to kick me aside?”
Zhong Wen was unusually calm: “I understand. Get your documents ready one day—the original ID Card, Household Register Book, and the Credit Card I gave you. I’ll take you to buy a car.”
Xu Jia replied, “Let’s do it today. My parents are working the night shift, they won’t be home, and I can stay over at your place tonight.”
Zhong Wen asked, “Aren’t you going to contact them?”
Xu Jia said, “It’s fine, they’re too busy anyway.”
Zhong Wen was silent for a long time: “Alright then, come over now.” He paused: “I’ll wait for you.”
Xu Jia was overjoyed.
In her heart, she’d already rehearsed how she’d slap that ** in the face tomorrow.
She had to show them she was no longer in the same world as them.
She returned home, gathered all the documents Zhong Wen had given her, told no one, and quietly headed to Zhong Wen’s Apartment.
She thought it was her palace of wishes, never imagining that today it would become her slaughterhouse.
She rang the doorbell and saw Zhong Wen’s handsome face.
Suddenly, she noticed he looked a bit older: faint wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, rough skin, a dull complexion.
Was he even worthy of her youthful beauty anymore?
“Did you bring everything?”
“Yes, I brought it all.”
“Let me check. Go inside and sit for a while. I’ll take you to buy the car soon.” Zhong Wen’s tone was utterly flat, like an emotionless machine.
Xu Jia was dizzy with the joy of getting a car.
Or perhaps, she never really cared about Zhong Wen’s feelings at all?
She cheerfully entered, and only after Zhong Wen checked all the documents at the door, making sure he’d missed nothing, did he slowly close the door.
“Zhong Wen… When will you take me to buy the car?”
“Soon, let me change clothes.”
“Why are you putting on a raincoat? It’s not raining outside.”
“There’ll be a heavy rain soon.”
“Why are there so many Newspapers spread all over the floor? What are you doing?”
“The Carpet’s being washed, this is just temporary.”
“The Generator outside is so loud, I can’t even hear you.”
“The power’s out today, so we’re using it for now.”
“Oh my god, you’re even wearing Rain Boots? Don’t be ridiculous, haha.”
“I’m afraid my shoes might get dirty later.”
“Are you stupid or something, haha… Wait, what’s that in your hand?”
“This is the Credit Card for buying the car, darling, don’t you recognize it?”
“That’s an Axe, how is that—ah—”
A brief scream was swallowed by the prolonged roar of the Generator outside.
Zhong Wen had prepared for this day for more than a month.
Xu Jia clutched the stump of her arm, running frantically through the Apartment, blood spattering across the thick Newspapers.
She had nowhere to run and could only flee upstairs.
She couldn’t understand why the Zhong Wen who once was mesmerized by her, who did anything she said, had suddenly changed so drastically.
“Help, help!” she screamed with all her might.
But the Generator’s noise drowned out everything.
There were few people passing by here anyway, and she’d deliberately picked a time with little foot traffic to visit Zhong Wen.
Zhong Wen’s heavy footsteps sounded at the door, his voice deep and resonant—not as if at a murder scene, but as if recording his show: “Sweetheart, where are you?”
Xu Jia was terrified, desperately looking for a place to hide.
“Are you upstairs, sweetheart?”
She pulled open the wardrobe, gritting her teeth against the agony of her severed arm, and crawled inside.
She knew it was futile, but survival instinct drove her.
“Are you in my room?” Zhong Wen’s voice came from outside the door.
She was petrified.
Seeing a Suitcase inside the wardrobe, she frantically tried to crawl inside the Suitcase.
Step by step, Zhong Wen approached the wardrobe: “My darling, are you in the wardrobe?”
He opened the wardrobe and saw the Suitcase that wouldn’t close, and grinned maniacally: “Where could you be? Where could you be? Are you… in the Suitcase?”
Inside the Suitcase, Xu Jia trembled.
The lid above her was yanked open, and Zhong Wen’s handsome, deranged, blood-splattered face appeared.
He gripped the Axe, eyes wide and fixed on her, his smile reminding her of: New Year, when villagers gathered around the pig, watching the butcher kill it.
Laughter.
Loud, gleeful laughter.
Liberating laughter.
“Please, please, don’t kill me, don’t kill me, don’t kill me…” She hugged her former lover’s leg with her only remaining arm, repeating those three words over and over, unable to form any other sentence.
Tears, snot, saliva, urine—all flowed out at once.
She looked up in utter despair: “Please, don’t kill me, please… I was wrong, I was wrong…”
Zhong Wen laughed, “My darling, how could one Suitcase be enough to hide you?”
“No, no… no…”
Zhong Wen kicked her aside, swung the Axe, and brought it down, severing her other arm.
Blood sprayed everywhere, as if it might drown the world.
The flesh of the young woman, abandoned by its master, fell helplessly to the ground.
For the first time, Xu Jia clearly heard her own scream.
Suddenly, she realized—in that scream, her voice was no different from anyone else’s…
Zhong Wen tossed aside the now-blunted Axe, pulled a second, freshly sharpened Axe from the pouch at his waist.
He looked at Xu Jia, frozen by absolute terror, and mercilessly raised the Axe again, and brought it down.
Raised it, brought it down.
Raised it, brought it down.
Raised it, brought it down.
Until she could no longer make that angelic, beautiful sound; until she could no longer breathe; until she could no longer move; until she was small enough, broken enough, to be hidden in the Suitcase.
Blood flowed, covering the heels of Zhong Wen’s Rain Boots.
In a neglected corner, unnoticed by him, a purple flower slowly bloomed in the void.
This was planted by his own hands, nourished by Xu Jia’s blood…
The Evil Flower.
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