☆, Chapter 3: The Car Accident
Hao Ren had also considered filming Auntie Mei’s people in the act and then exposing her, but on second thought, for a father who would rather see her dead than pay a sum equivalent to one of that woman’s necklaces, doing so would only make him despise her more, with no benefit whatsoever.
Even for Auntie Mei, if Hao Ren didn’t die, the most she could be charged with, even with conclusive evidence, would be attempted murder. It might even push her to become desperate and resort to even more vicious methods against Hao Ren, which wouldn’t be worth the risk. It was better to continue pretending she knew nothing, bide her time and build her strength, and wait until she was powerful enough to reclaim everything from her.
The series of events was simply too taxing on her nerves. After washing up and lying in bed, Hao Ren was frustrated to find that she had insomnia. The questions from the upcoming college entrance exam kept flashing through her mind. Not just the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, but even entire English reading comprehension passages appeared in her head.
This wasn’t some special ability; it was just memory. The memory of the girl who had been confined to a wheelchair for six years, with only the internet and a pen and paper for company. After the accident, she had been utterly despondent and had considered ending her own life. Each time, her online friends had vigilantly noticed and, through their persuasion and Daizi’s mournful cries, she had given up the idea.
She had once requested to repeat a year of school from Hao Weiguo, but was refused. The reason was simple: since she was already crippled, she should just stay at home obediently and not go out and embarrass him. After her request was heartlessly rejected, for a period of time, her favorite thing to do was to take out the exam papers from that year and do them over and over again. She did them until the answer would pop into her head the moment she saw the question, until the exam questions themselves were imprinted in her mind as clearly as a photograph.
Many years later, she would often wonder: if she had taken that exam, if she had achieved a good score, if she had had the chance to go to university, what would her life have been like? Now, that “if” was a reality right in front of her, and she simply couldn’t help but be excited…
Her thoughts churned, and after tossing and turning for an entire night, Hao Ren finally managed to fall into a difficult sleep around three in the morning. But just as she did, she dreamt of her past life, of the kidnapper slitting her throat, and of watching Daizi die tragically in her arms. When she woke up startled from the nightmare, it was only five in the morning.
The exam site was only a fifteen-minute walk from her house, so there was no need to get up this early. But she didn’t dare to fall back asleep, afraid that she would accidentally miss the exam.
After washing up and sharing a steamed bun she had secretly saved from yesterday with Daizi, Hao Ren sat by the window with Daizi in her arms, staring intently at the newly risen sun behind the tree shadows, quietly watching it climb higher and higher, replaying the exam questions in her mind over and over.
She had originally considered going to the exam site early to avoid the car accident, but she desperately wanted to confirm if the car was indeed the one she remembered. After struggling with the decision for a long time, she finally left the house at around the same time as in her previous life.
The car accident arrived right on schedule.
As she had expected, the vehicle that made the move was indeed the one she had anticipated. The car belonged to a distant relative of Auntie Mei’s, and Hao Ren had seen it once by chance. Auntie Mei probably never imagined that Hao Ren’s memory was good enough to remember the license plate after just one glance, which was why she had so boldly sent the car out.
The location they had chosen for the attack was very clever. There were no security cameras, and it was shielded by trees, making it difficult for eyewitnesses to see. If Hao Ren hadn’t been lucky that year and been pulled aside by a boy who suddenly appeared, she might have lost more than just her legs.
Just as Hao Ren was staring blankly at the car’s license plate, the vehicle suddenly slammed on the accelerator and charged toward her. She wanted to dodge, but she found that she had overestimated the reaction speed of her sleep-deprived body. Just as she thought the tragedy of her past life was about to repeat itself, a startled cry suddenly rang out in the air.
“Watch out!”
Then, she found herself being forcefully pushed to the ground by a young man.
The way she fell was different from her previous life. The excruciating pain she had anticipated never came. Hao Ren turned her head and looked coldly at the car that had nearly taken her life. The car seemed to want to turn around for another go, but seeing both Hao Ren and the young man staring at it coldly, it finally hesitated, then slammed on the accelerator and sped away, leaving a cloud of dust in its wake.
“Classmate, are you okay?”
The young man’s voice sounded by her ear. Hao Ren quickly struggled out of his arms. Just as she was about to answer, she was so shocked by the face so close to hers that she fell back onto the ground.
It was him! It was actually the leader of the kidnappers who had slit her throat!
At this moment, the kidnapper was not the vicious criminal he would become six years later. He was wearing the summer uniform of No. 2 High School, his smile was shy, and his features were handsome. In terms of looks, he could even compete with the most popular boy at Hao Ren’s No. 1 High School.
The fact that the car accident that had changed her life was man-made was shocking enough, but she never expected an even greater shock to follow. The one who saved her was the very same kidnapper who had killed her in her past life!
Only now did she vaguely recall seeing a news report back then about a boy from No. 2 High School who had missed his college entrance exam to save her. It was said that her old man had later compensated him with a large sum of money. She didn’t know the details. Other than the moment right before the accident, she had no memory of it at all. When she woke up, she was already lying in a hospital bed.
Back then, she had fantasized countless times about what the boy who had given up his exam to save her life looked like. She had never dreamed it would be him!
She finally understood why the kidnapper’s expression had been so complicated when he moved to kill her. She had thought he owed her a life, but it turned out they owed each other nothing at all. Hearing the coldness in his tone when he mentioned Hao Weiguo, she wondered if, in his past life, he had ever regretted saving her.
“I’m… I’m fine…” Seeing the boy looking at her with concern, Hao Ren quickly scrambled up from the ground, shaking her head repeatedly.
“That’s good!” The boy smiled faintly, didn’t say much more, and turned to leave.
Hao Ren was left standing there, watching his retreating back with a flood of mixed emotions. What could have turned such a boy with such a clean smile into a murderous kidnapper?
“Woof!”
“Let’s go, Daizi.”
Hao Ren continued on the journey she had not completed in her past life. The rest of the way was covered by surveillance cameras, so she didn’t have to worry about the car reappearing.
The rest of the way was uneventful, until she found a dog on the road that had been run over by a car. The dog probably hadn’t been dead for long; a pained expression was still frozen on its face. Its wound was on its stomach, and its intestines were exposed. A thick smell of blood filled the air, but there was no stench of decay.
“Wooo wooo…” Seeing one of its own kind dead on the road, Daizi, perhaps reminded of its own past experience, drooped its ears and let out a mournful whimper, like a fox grieving for a dead rabbit.
Hao Ren had originally intended to walk past the dog’s body, but after taking a step, she found she couldn’t bring herself to go on.
How pitiful…
The sanitation workers probably wouldn’t find it until tomorrow morning. It was so pitiful to be lying here so desolately in such hot weather.
An image of Daizi from her past life, lying at the kidnappers’ feet on the verge of death, flashed through Hao Ren’s mind. She didn’t know how the kidnappers had disposed of her and Daizi’s bodies, or if Daizi had been left lying there alone and uncared for, just like this unlucky dog. At this thought, her nose suddenly tingled, and tears began to fall.
“Daizi, let’s bury it!”
After saying this, Hao Ren took off the old shirt she wore for sun protection and spread it on the ground. Ignoring the nausea, she reached out and moved the dog’s body onto the shirt. Then she took out the Swiss Army knife that Hao Yi had gotten tired of and given to her, and scraped the intestines and severed limbs that were stuck to the ground, placing them together with the body and wrapping them up.
After doing all this, she struggled to carry the poor dog to a nearby park and buried it in a small grove of trees. The vegetation in that grove was very well-preserved; it was a good place to rest in peace.
The Swiss Army knife didn’t have a shovel function, so it took her a long time to dig a shallow pit big enough to bury the dog. After filling the pit and washing her hands in the park’s pond, she was horrified to discover that the exam had already begun. She immediately broke into a sprint toward the exam site.
Fortunately, it wasn’t far from the exam site. By the time she arrived, panting, there were only three minutes left before the fifteen-minute deadline for entry. Just in time! Hao Ren let out a long sigh of relief, wiped the sweat from her face, and calmly entered the examination hall under the curious gazes of the others, before collapsing into her seat.
She glanced at the exam paper. Sure enough, it was identical to the one from her past life, word for word.
After finally catching her breath, she was ready to begin answering the questions.
“Huh?!” She felt her pocket, and her heart skipped a beat. Her pencil case was in the pocket of her shirt. By a strange twist of fate, she had buried her pencil case along with the dog’s body!
After a moment of internal struggle, she could only raise her hand with a wry smile.
“Teacher, may I borrow a pen…”
The proctor probably hadn’t expected such a request, and his expression was a bit stiff. However, he eventually took two spare pens from his desk and handed them to her. The proctor was a teacher from No. 2 High School, so he didn’t know Hao Ren. He subconsciously assumed she was a delinquent student and felt he had done more than enough. Students who didn’t take the exam seriously deserved a harsh lesson, so he didn’t hand her an eraser as well.
Hao Ren didn’t care whether she had an eraser or not; she knew every correct answer anyway. Not wanting to be too obvious, she picked up the exam paper and began to answer the questions one by one at a speed only slightly faster than an average person. It wasn’t until waves of drowsiness began to wash over her that she started to answer the questions frantically.
Seeing Hao Ren yawning repeatedly as she answered the questions, the proctor shook his head with a wry smile.
So sleepy…
By the time she got to the essay section, Hao Ren’s head was already nodding from the intense sleepiness. She bit down hard on her left hand several times before she managed to become a little more alert. Fortunately, she had written this essay several times in her past life. She chose the version she remembered best and scrawled it out. Finally, she could hold on no longer. The pen slipped from her hand, and she slumped over the desk, fast asleep.
The proctor thought she had fainted and rushed over to provide first aid. When he got closer, he realized she was just asleep and was at a loss for whether to laugh or cry.
Hao Ren was sleeping soundly, her breathing even and long, her expression peaceful, as if she were having a wonderful dream.
The proctor, having preconceived notions that she was a delinquent student, was surprised to see the clear row of teeth marks on her left hand. An image of a stressed-out, hardworking student flashed through his mind. He shook his head and reached out to wake her.
It had only been thirty minutes since she had entered the exam hall. In the proctor’s opinion, she definitely wouldn’t have had time to finish all the questions. Since she wasn’t a delinquent student, the proctor couldn’t just watch her sleep through the exam. But when he saw the exam paper under her arm, his outstretched hand suddenly froze in mid-air.
Finished! She had actually finished!
This proctor also happened to teach Chinese at No. 2 High School. Not believing it, he checked a few questions against the answers in his head and was surprised to find that the child in front of him wasn’t just guessing randomly.
How is that possible?
Thirty minutes. Even if she had finished the multiple-choice questions, there was no way she would have had time to write the essay. Although the essay topic for this exam was simple, it had a hidden trap. It would definitely take a considerable amount of time to analyze the prompt. It was impossible to finish it in such a short time. He secretly flipped over the paper under Hao Ren’s arm and was stunned to find that the essay was already finished.
After reading through it, he was shocked to find that although the handwriting was messy, with a few characters even written half outside the box, the essay’s structure and theme were impeccable. By his standards, it was definitely a rare masterpiece.
He had been standing by Hao Ren for so long that the other proctor noticed something was amiss. Thinking he had discovered something, she hurried over. After they quietly exchanged opinions, the other proctor was also shocked. With her hair tied in a ponytail, wearing only a T-shirt and shorts, and even flat sandals, Hao Ren didn’t look like someone who could cheat. Yet, what was happening before their eyes was simply too fantastical.
This proctor was female, so she carefully inspected Hao Ren, even using a detector to scan the Patek Philippe men’s watch—originally Hao Yi’s—that Hao Ren was using to keep time.
The proctors scanned and touched her for a long time, but Hao Ren showed no signs of waking up. Looking at Hao Ren, who was sleeping soundly on her desk as if no one else was there, the two proctors finally came to a conclusion: the students of No. 1 High School were truly full of hidden talents.
She slept very soundly and was finally woken up by the bell signaling the end of the exam. That’s how it is for hardworking students; the best alarm clock is always the bell for the start and end of class.
Feeling that the way the two proctors were looking at her was a bit strange, Hao Ren knew that her behavior had been a bit too shocking. Unfortunately, she had been too sleepy and simply couldn’t hold on.
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