Something Went Wrong the Day of the Confession

A few days later, He Yu booked a table at Cloud Restaurant, asked Xie Xue to meet him there on Saturday evening, and intended to tell her how he felt.

Xie Xue answered his call without the faintest idea why he was inviting her, and the moment she heard there was food involved she lit up completely: 'Sure! I'll be there! I'll absolutely be there!'

'Then the twentieth, six in the evening. Don't stand me up.'

'Hm? The evening of the twentieth?'

'Something wrong?'

Xie Xue hesitated a little: 'I might be a bit late on the evening of the twentieth — the Hu First Hospital Emergency Department just called and said the Relief Station people are going that evening to collect old Mr. Zhuang and transfer him to Chengkang Psychiatric Hospital. I've already been in touch with Chengkang as well; I was hoping to speak with whoever's in charge there about bringing some students in for a visit...'

He Yu sighed. 'Then I'll change the time.'

'But this restaurant is so hard to get into — when I called last time they said you need to book at least three months in advance.'

He Yu laughed. 'It's fine. Whenever you want to go is fine. My family has a stake in this restaurant.'

Xie Xue: '...'

Capital was so exhausting. It drained everything of the joy of being hard to come by.

'Let's not do that — it's a bother to the restaurant manager, and I don't like it anyway,' Xie Xue said. 'Let's keep it on the twentieth. I'll try to wrap things up quickly, and if anything changes I'll let you know on WeChat beforehand.'

He Yu pressed a hand to his forehead, his smile broadening. 'All right. Whatever you say.'

Xie Xue hung up in high spirits.

Good food to look forward to!

The twentieth came around in what felt like no time.

Since Xie Xue was there to negotiate a project on the school's behalf and wanted to look appropriately professional, she put on the classic staff blazer from Huzhou University and accompanied the people from the Relief Station to escort old Mr. Zhuang Zhiqiang to Chengkang Psychiatric Hospital.

Unlike Wanping 600, Chengkang was a privately run facility — old, and showing every year of it. The moment they stepped out of the car, a thick, foul stench hit them: an orderly was directing a waste truck with visible reluctance, watching it haul away bed sheets and blankets soiled by patients. Nearby, two men responsible for refueling the truck had broken into an argument, their faces red and necks taut as they argued over whether the petrol had been shorted.

Old Mr. Zhuang shrank back, a little frightened, and reached for Xie Xue's hand. 'Miss, this...'

'It's all right, sir. You'll only stay here a little while, and then we'll come and move you somewhere else, all right?'

Only then did old Mr. Zhuang slowly shuffle in after Xie Xue.

The reception area of the psychiatric hospital was, at least, decorated with some attempt at warmth. The fixtures were all rather worn, but the air inside was clean, and the color scheme managed to feel calming.

'You must be Young Zhang from the Relief Station — here to arrange temporary guardianship services for the patient Zhuang Zhiqiang?'

'That's right.'

'Our director mentioned you. Right this way, please.'

Zhuang Zhiqiang's condition was relatively mild, so he had been assigned to the first floor. Xie Xue toured the room with a staff member accompanying her and felt somewhat reassured. Once old Mr. Zhuang settled in, a young orderly about Xie Xue's own age appeared beside him, smiling warmly, and struck up a gentle conversation; he promptly mistook her for his daughter and began talking her ear off.

'We'll leave him in your care, then.' The Relief Station staff followed the admissions coordinator back to the office to sign a series of agreements.

But the person Xie Xue was meeting with about the partnership was not down here among the reception staff — she needed to go upstairs. The receptionist had meant to go with her, but couldn't get away just then, so she pointed Xie Xue toward the third-floor round-the-clock duty office and told her to ask there for Director Liang directly.

The third floor of Chengkang Psychiatric Hospital was the acute ward. The moment the elevator doors opened, Xie Xue felt a chill settle over her instinctively — the atmosphere up here was nothing like the floors below.

Iron-barred windows. Cell doors. It felt like a prison. Screams and low, weeping moans filled the entire corridor, and the effect was so uncanny it could have been lifted from a horror film.

The hallway was brightly lit — incandescent bulbs burning around the clock — but under these conditions that light looked less like illumination than a dead, sickly white.

'Gonna die! Gonna die, hahahahahaha——'

'You're all crazy! You're the ones who are crazy!'

'I'm not a person, I'm a ghost — no wait, I'm not a ghost, I'm a person! ...Who am I, really? Am I a person or a ghost...?'

Every room was sealed behind a heavy iron door, and set into each iron door was a small pane of tempered safety glass, roughly the size of an A4 sheet, through which the interior could be seen.

Xie Xue crept forward, nerves strung tight, and at last could not quite suppress her curiosity. She stopped in front of one of the quieter rooms and rose onto her toes to peer through the window.

A woman sat inside, smiling vacantly. The entire room was padded — every surface softened to prevent the patient from harming herself or attempting suicide. No table, no chair; even the bed was a special design with no hard edges, and from it hung dark, slack restraint straps.

The woman was stroking one of the straps with both hands, cradling it with a lover's tenderness, tucking it against her full chest — all while giggling softly to herself: 'Serves you right for cheating on me with that slut. Look at you now... you've already been chopped into little pieces by me... who else is there but me to hold you like this, to touch you like this? My darling...'

Xie Xue moved on to the next room.

The next one was empty — the patient had probably been taken away for treatment.

The room after that held a man with a stooped back, seated in the corner facing the wall, pressing something onto it with slow, methodical movements. He looked perfectly calm, almost peaceful. Then Xie Xue looked closer and realized what he was smearing on the wall was his own feces.

Further along, the next room contained a young man who had apparently harmed himself so severely that he had been strapped entirely to a specially fitted bed. No one could tell how long he had been there, but he was still laughing and crying without any sign of tiring, throwing his head back: 'Fuck all of you! What gives you the right to tie me down? I want to die!! Is wanting to die not allowed!! If you won't let me die, the moment I get out I'll kill every last one of you... I'll make you all drop dead!! Let me out! Let me go!!'

The more Xie Xue looked, the more unsettled she became — and the more unsettled she became, the less she could look away.

Her eyes slid along the glass panels, moving to the next one——

'AHHH!!'

Without any warning, she found herself eye-to-eye with a face pressed flat against the glass from the other side. Xie Xue screamed and lurched backward across the corridor, pressing herself against the opposite door, panting hard.

The man inside was wall-eyed, his eyes grotesquely large and bloodshot. Seeing that he had frightened her, he burst into peals of helpless, delighted laughter, mashing his bulbous, reddened nose against the glass until the whole pane smeared with grease and grime.

Xie Xue's heart was hammering. She was just barely pulling herself together when she felt a sudden chill around her ankle.

She looked down——

'AAAAHHHH!!'

This time the scream was louder than before.

A hand. A hand!!

Below the peephole glass, the iron door had a hinged meal-slot panel she hadn't noticed at all!!

A pale little hand had pushed through the slot and locked around her ankle where it pressed against the door!!

Xie Xue nearly had a breakdown on the spot — she jumped, wailed, and stamped her feet until the hand withdrew. The patient retreated to the center of the room, positioning himself exactly where anyone looking through the outer glass could see him clearly. He was a young boy with albinism, every part of him bleached as though drained of color, his irises nearly translucent, and he was staring at her steadily now, his lips parting in a white, wide smile.

'Big sister... hehehe...'

Chengkang's soundproofing was poor. The commotion set off the entire corridor — every patient surged to their window at once to press their faces against the glass and stare at Xie Xue, releasing a chorus of strange cries, calling back and forth to each other, and half a dozen pale hands pushed out through the meal slots below the doors, waving blindly like sea grass in a current.

'A woman came to visit us!'

'Who is she? A doctor?'

'Like hell she's a doctor! She's here for visiting hours!'

'She's a female ghost!'

'Grab her feet!'

They couldn't actually reach her, of course — but their laughter was wild and unbridled, and for a moment Xie Xue felt as though she had stumbled into a jungle full of night-creatures, every shadow alive and cackling.

Xie Xue had reached her limit. She was about to flee back downstairs — never mind how long the receptionist was tied up; she would wait however long it took for her to finish before coming back up.

And then someone tapped her on the shoulder.

'HELP ME SOMEBODY——' That was it. Third time was enough. Xie Xue's last line of psychological defense collapsed entirely.

'Shh.'

Her face was drenched in cold sweat. Xie Xue spun around in a state of pure terror — and found herself looking at a very beautiful face.

It was a beautiful woman.

She wore a Red Dress of distinctly vintage styling, and Red High Heels. She was not young — somewhere around fifty — but you could still see clearly that she must have been breathtaking in her day. Even now, dried out and somewhat shrunken like an apple that has lost its moisture, she retained something of that old, ripe, irresistible appeal.

She wore a name tag on her chest: 'Liang Jicheng.'

Xie Xue's tension deflated all at once — she went limp with relief, practically hollow: 'Di— Director Liang...'

Liang Jicheng smiled, but there was something stiff about it, as though her facial muscles could not be fully engaged, and the expression stayed at the surface without reaching any further.

She said quietly: 'Whatever you do, don't shout in here. The more you shout, the more agitated these patients get, and the more they'll try to frighten you. Come — let's go to the office.'

.

Half past five.

He Yu received a message from Xie Xue out of the blue: 'I should be on time after all.'

He wrote back: 'How did things go on your end?'

'Very smoothly — they agreed to let a group of students come in for a visit, though they have quite a few conditions attached. I'm still negotiating.'

A moment later: 'Oh, by the way — the Director Liang I've been dealing with today is absolutely gorgeous. Such a striking woman. You really missed out not coming along.'

He Yu had no patience for that. He tossed his phone aside, got up, went to the wardrobe to pick out something to wear, and headed out to wait for her at the hotel.

He arrived early. The manager led him respectfully to the rooftop table he had reserved. There was a private room available, but He Yu had chosen the open terrace — you could look out over all of Huzhou from up there, and the evening breeze was pleasant, the horizon blazing with a vivid, stately crimson. He thought Xie Xue would prefer it here.

Six-oh-five.

No Xie Xue.

He Yu sent her a message asking where she was and whether she'd hit traffic. He had barely finished sending it when he heard a waiter's voice not far off: 'Ladies and gentlemen, mind the step, please.'

He glanced up — a large crowd of people was filing onto the terrace, the kind of group that suggested a corporate function or a senior-level company dinner.

He Yu was finding the noise slightly irritating and was already considering asking to be moved, when his gaze swept the group and caught on a man with a cool, indifferent expression.

He Yu froze. 'Xie Qingcheng?'

Xie Qingcheng's medical school had a major function scheduled months in advance, and the venue had been arranged at this hotel; the event had just concluded and the dinner following it was being held here now.

He Yu would never have imagined his luck could be this bad — that in coming here to ask someone out, he'd manage to run straight into Xie Qingcheng.

With this feudal patriarch present, how was he supposed to confess anything to Xie Xue? Xie Qingcheng would probably throw him off the roof and into the river below.

Xie Qingcheng had spotted him too. He said a few words to his colleagues and came over to greet He Yu. 'Waiting for someone?'

'...Yes.'

One of Xie Qingcheng's nosier colleagues drifted over, taking in He Yu with interest. 'My, what a handsome young man. Professor Xie, is he a relative?'

'Son of a client.'

'Ah... out on a date with his girlfriend, is he?' There was always someone in every group who had no concept of personal boundaries.

He Yu, with admirable composure, smiled pleasantly and said: 'I'm waiting for Professor Xie's sister.'

The colleague grew even more animated and turned to nudge Xie Qingcheng with a wink. 'Your brother-in-law is so handsome.'

One look at Xie Qingcheng's face told He Yu everything: if he dared to confess to Xie Xue today, Xie Qingcheng would dare to overturn the table and come at him right here.

...Maybe he should just let it go. Another time. Tonight he'd just have dinner with Xie Xue and leave it at that.

'There's been a misunderstanding,' he said aloud, with a cooperative smile. 'We're just friends.'

Xie Qingcheng still frowned. 'What are you meeting her about.'

'I haven't had a chance to treat her properly since I got back.'

Xie Qingcheng had just started to say something more when his own table began calling both of them over to sit. A colleague pulled him away; he had no choice but to go, though not before fixing He Yu with a look that was unmistakably a warning.

Six-fifteen.

The table of medical school professors had begun receiving their food. Still no Xie Xue.

Not only that — the message He Yu had sent her ten minutes ago still hadn't been read. He sent another. Still nothing.

He Yu felt the first real prickle of unease. He tried calling her on WeChat.

No answer.

He tried her regular number.

It rang for a long time, then went to nothing.

He called again——

Something was wrong.

'Hello, the number you have dialed has been switched off. Please try again later.'

She had gone from not answering to switched off entirely.

He Yu was certain now that something had happened. He stood up immediately and walked straight out of Cloud Restaurant. The manager, seeing the look on his face — cold-eyed, moving fast — startled and said in a slight panic:

'Young Master He, was there something wrong with the service?'

'No.' He Yu jabbed the elevator button, his expression going colder by the second. 'Have the lobby call me a car. Fast.'

'Yes, yes, of course, right away.'

He Yu's temper was fraying now. What the hell was the point of building a tower this high? You needed a transfer elevator just to get between floors.

'Ding——!'

The maligned elevator finally arrived at his floor. The dull gray mechanical doors slid open. He Yu stepped in and was about to press the close button when a hand slammed against the door and forced it back open.

He Yu looked up with cold irritation, ready to see whoever was wasting his time — and instead saw a hand wearing a wristwatch, long-fingered and well-formed, and tracing up the arm he found himself looking at Xie Qingcheng's face, expression set and hard.

'What's happened.'

.

Forty minutes later — the number of red lights the hotel car had run through having long since maxed out its demerit points — it pulled up outside Chengkang Psychiatric Hospital.

He Yu and Xie Qingcheng went in together.

By now it was fully dark. The lobby of Chengkang Psychiatric Hospital was lit up inside, and a few of the lower-acuity patients on the first floor were doing recovery exercises under the supervision of their orderlies.

'Who are you looking for?'

The nurse at the reception desk looked up in surprise at He Yu and Xie Qingcheng pushing through the door, and rose to ask.

Xie Qingcheng said: 'This afternoon a young woman came in — a teacher from Huzhou University — to speak with your Director Liang about a project. I'm her brother. Where is she?'

'She should still be on the third floor.' The nurse studied Xie Qingcheng, and then she blushed and smiled. 'Worried about your little sister, are you?'

She said warmly: 'You really don't need to be so tense. This is a proper hospital — nothing's going to happen. They've probably just been talking for a while. And our Director Liang is in their fifties, married with children — they wouldn't——'

'What did you say?!'

He Yu cut her off.

'Director Liang is married? With children?'

'Yes— yes, that's right.'

His expression shifted instantly.

What had been only an uneasy suspicion a moment ago was now a certainty. Something was wrong.

The last message Xie Xue had sent him was still on his phone. She had said——

'The Director Liang I've been dealing with today is absolutely gorgeous. Such a striking woman. So much elegance...'

Director Liang couldn't possibly be a woman.

He Yu broke for the stairs immediately.

.

Right now. This moment.

Inside the duty office of Chengkang Psychiatric Hospital, a soft voice drifted through the air, humming: 'Drop the handkerchief, drop the handkerchief, lay it gently behind a friend, don't let anyone tell her it's there...'

'Liang Jicheng' hummed along to herself, unhurried, a scalpel in her hand, bringing it down against the floor again and again in slow, deliberate strokes.

The ceiling fan droned above her head, chopping the light into chaos, but it still illuminated what lay before her——

A body. Recently dead.

Blood had soaked through the Huzhou University staff uniform... that Huzhou University staff uniform...

It was Xie Xue.

'Liang Jicheng' had finally hacked through an entire hand. She held the severed hand for a moment, looked at it with a blank expression, and then dropped it. It rolled to rest beside Xie Xue's already-cold body.