Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

Bo Jinyan was struggling.

Rays of soft white moonlight shone down on the kitchen’s worn-out windowsill,  the light swaying to and fro. The girl was keen and ruthless as she strangled him from behind . Her arms weren’t thick, but the strength that she used wouldn’t lose to a man. Bo Jinyan was caught off-guard by her sneak attack.

She made no sound, as she tenaciously wrapped her arms around Bo Jinyan tightly, strangling him, wanting to kill him. The phone in Bo Jinyan’s hand fell. He smiled coldly, backhanding her face hard.

After she was met with such a big loss, she groaned, but she still wouldn’t let go. Instead, she began to strangle him tighter. It was clear she didn’t have much experience because she did not try to use any fighting skills. She completely relied on her toughness and willpower to kill people. However, Bo Jinyan was much taller than her, and he was extremely calm. Even though he didn’t have the agility to get her off of him, he had his brains. When he saw that he couldn’t shake her off, and she wasn’t flustered in the slightest, he calmed his breathing and fiercely tried to fling her off, in an attempt to make her crash into a long table.

She crashed into the table extremely fiercely so that even Bo Jinyan’s waist had suffered from hitting the table. But she was still extremely persistent and still did not let go. Her two hands were now just clutching at his neck. Bo Jinyan was angry, and yet he laughed. Now he was able to turn his head around, but when he saw her grizzled hair he was slightly startled.

“Why?” Bo Jinyan pressed her tightly against the table using his back, while the two of them panted and said quietly, “Why is there so much despair… And resentment?”

She did not speak.

Bo Jinyan elbowed her hard in her stomach, finally freeing himself from her. She lowered her head and smashed it onto his body. Bo Jinyan had some real skill, but when met with an opponent who didn’t care about her life, he could not gain an advantage.

In the dark room, the two stared at each other silently.

“What kind of suffering have you gone through?”, Bo Jinyan whispered, “Parents? Men? Kids?”

She wailed.

Bo Jinyan softly said, “Oh.”

“What kind of harm have people done to you?” This time, with one fluid motion , he grabbed her hand as she  was about to attack him again in the dark, “Abuse? Lies? Rape? Murder?”

“You don’t know anything…” She said in a shaky voice, “You guys… don’t know a single thing!”

“No, it’s the exact opposite, I know everything.” Bo Jinyan replied, “My name is Bo Jinyan. I will not let go of any sins when I encounter them.

She said nothing in the dark. But Bo Jinyan could clearly feel that she was crying.

“You…” He had just began to speak when suddenly she pushed a nearby cabinet onto him and raced out of the room.

Bo Jinyan pushed away the debris on his body and ran after her. Just then two waiters came into the hall, and they cried out “Miss Tong, what happened?”

That Miss Tong didn’t reply. She turned and disappeared from view. Bo Jinyan was hindered by the two waiters  but when he finally ran over, he saw the end of a little path. Miss Tong’s silhouette flashed and disappeared. And at the end of the path, was the Yao courtyard.

——

After about twenty or so minutes, Jian Yao, Fang Qing and some others arrived at the inn. Many police car lights flashed under the formerly calm night sky.

Jian Yao had a premonition in her heart that something had gone wrong.

……

Some people whispered quietly:

“Someone died, I overheard that someone died. The police came really quick.”

“I heard that person was killed by the murderer from a few nights ago”

“Quick, pack your stuff- who dares to stay in the inn anymore.”

……

Fang Qing, who led the line, frowned and exchanged glances with Jian Yao. Jian Yao’s face was paler. She was silent, her head down, looking straight to the front.

It wasn’t hard to find out where the second murder took place. Because right now, a lot of people were gathered outside of the courtyard where the Yao family lived. Inside, everything was brightly lit and busy with people, but with the faint sounds of people crying.

——

In front of their eyes, was the “Fourth Missus” of the Yao family, Zhao Xia’s corpse. That day, she had been the only person who gave Jian Yao a good impression. She seemed like a kind-hearted person.

The cops went into Zhao Xia’s brightly lit room. Yao Yuange wore only his pajamas, as he stood with a wan face and a few bloodstains on his clothing. The legal wife, Ming Lan, stood beside him, supporting him with one hand, while covering her own face with the other. The other “concubines” of the Yao family stood outside  the door, every single one of them with a bad look on their faces.

The moment Jian Yao entered, she saw Zhao Xia lying down near the doorway, a bloody hole on her back. A bloody knife was on the ground next to her, and the ground was covered in blood.

“What happened?” Fang Qing said this in a low voice as he took Zhao Xia’s pulse to confirm  that she was no longer breathing and was indeed already dead.

“Tong.. Miss Tong barged in and killed her.” Yao Yuange replied.

“What about Bo Jinyan?” Jian Yao quickly asked.

“Jian Yao, I am here.” A voice came from the back. Jian Yao quickly turned around, and saw Bo Xinyan walking towards her through the crowd. The strands of hair on his forehead were moist with sweat, and his shirt had drops of blood on it. But his eyes were still as dark and sharp as always.

Jian Yao’s heart clenched. She had too many questions. But when she saw the marks on his neck, the words all stopped in her throat. On the contrary, he was extremely calm, and he grasped her hand, and lowly said, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Bo, I’m fine.”

Every single time, he always answered like this, but this time Jian Yao couldn’t laugh.

“The criminal went uphill, in the southwest direction.” Bo Jinyan told Fang Qing bluntly, “She knew the way very well so I wasn’t able to catch up.”

Fang Qing told his men, “Chase after her!”. The entire police department immediately went into action. However, the sky was already very dark and the mountains in the background seemed like dormant monsters. No one knew whether they would succeed tonight.

The scene became lively  very quickly.

Fang Qing brought two veteran criminal police officers along, and they squatted on the floor  to continue investigating the corpse. The inspectors also arrived, and thus their work began. Yao Yuange was brought to the side to be placated, and also to prepare him for interrogation. The other family members were also isolated. They would all have to go through police interrogation.

Zhao Xia, who lay on the floor, had died extremely brutally. A knife had made her meet a violent end, and it was stabbed straight through her heart. Only the people at the scene knew what had happened before Bo Jinyan had managed to pursue the culprit over here.

Bo Jinyan and Jian Yao looked at Yao Yuange. His face was a little white, and a bit red, but he didn’t seem to have completely lost his head out of fear either. He nodded at the police officers in front of him and his eyes were full of both sadness and anger.

——

“…Dark sky, no lights, unfamiliar paths. After I got to the Yao courtyard, I was already some ways behind her,” Bo Jinyan said, as he took a sip of his tea.

Fang Qing nodded. “Did you see which room she ran towards?”

“I couldn’t see that clearly. By the time I got there, she was already in a room.”

Bo Jinyan began to recollect the scene at that time.

In the dead of night, when he came the walls outside the courtyard, the trees and the house blocked his view. Miss Tong’s tracks had already disappeared. He made the prompt decision to knock at the door, and for a while, no one answered the door. The evil dog outside the door barked at him crazily. At that moment, he really had missed Fang Qing a bit. After he thought of a way to deal with the dog, he slipped into the residence, only seeing that some of the rooms were still bright with light, while other rooms were pitch dark.

Miss Tong definitely wouldn’t return to her own room- that would practically be sitting and waiting for death to come to her. Bo Jinyan first went towards the innermost main room- Yao Yuange’s bedroom as well as Ming Lan’s bedroom, which was right beside that. If Miss Tong was driven by desperation to recklessly retaliate, her most likely targets would be the two masters of the house. But who could have guessed that after he got closer, he saw that Yao Yuange’s door was shut and everything inside was pitch dark? His heart shivered, as he carefully went closer and slowly opened the door, discovering that no one was inside.

At that moment, a woman shrieked from Zhao Xia’s room. Bo Jinyan immediately turned around and saw that the door was pushed open with a bang, as someone slowly stumbled out of the room. Her face was entirely covered in blood, and from her figure, he saw that it was Miss Tong.

Bo Jinyan immediately broke into a run.

As he passed by Zhao Xia’s door, he quickly glanced inside, and that scene was what the police officers would see later. She was on the floor, and Yao Yuange was standing next to the corpse, his face completely flushed. When he saw Bo Jinyan, he was shocked. Bo Jinyan softly touched Zhao Xia, finding that she was no longer breathing. He yelled at Yao Yuange, “Hurry up and call the police and the ambulance!” After he finished speaking, he ran in the direction in which Miss Tong had gone.

After he chased her out of the Yao courtyard, he followed her into a small winding alley. The pitch darkness of the foot of the mountains made him helpless. Miss Tong’s silhouette flashed, as she ran into the forest, and no more traces of her were visible. After Bo Jinyan finally caught up, he only saw bits and pieces of clues. There were many little roads on the mountain and the weeds were as high as a person. How was he still supposed to find her?

……

Bo Jinyan lifted his head and said, “We’re back to another beginning. If we dig up her secrets, we will know why she killed people.”