Three

The pitch-black night cloaked the silent highway as the car sped along, brisk and unimpeded; inside the cabin, the warmth of familial love enveloped them, binding the family together in harmony.

“Momo, you’re finally home! You insisted on going to university in England—your parents must have thought of you hundreds of times every single day. I said I could pick you up myself, but these two just couldn’t wait another minute and had to come along!” Her sister, seated in the back, glanced at the face so identical to her own reflected in the rearview mirror, the features etched with longing.

“Yes, my daughter has returned.” This was her mother’s voice—so gentle it made one want to weep. “Now both my girls have graduated from university! From now on, you’ll stay at home obediently until you marry. Isn’t that right, your father?”

Momo’s father’s expression was a little awkward, unwilling to show the tender warmth reserved for women as he stiffened his face; but with just a slight turn of her head, she caught the faint, shy smile at the corner of his lips, barely noticeable beneath his usual gravity.

Time froze in that moment: her mother’s tenderness, her father’s smile, her sister’s concern… Everything was unchanged; in that second, it became eternity—until it was violently shattered by a blinding flash of white, the shrill screech of brakes, the heart-stopping blare of horns, and a collision so immense it defied description.

Silence! Utter silence!

An expanse of white, stretching beyond sight.

Two beds, white sheets.

A trembling hand—whose hand, she could not tell—took what seemed like an eternity to reach out and touch the sheet. Beneath it lay her parents…

Behind the transparent glass, her sister lay; beautiful, gentle, eyes closed, never to awaken…

“Zhang Nianqing? Is your name Zhang Nianqing?” A handsome, upright man, so calm he was impossible to resist. “If you’re willing, perhaps we can get to know each other better…”

A man as steady as stone, so imposing it unsettled her; his gaze pierced her, his hands on her shoulders were impossibly steady and strong.

“Nianqing, let’s get married!”

That day, a late autumn evening; the hills ablaze with red maples.

“Nianqing, don’t worry about the printing factory; your sister will wake up, and everything else—I’ll handle it!” His eyes burned with resolve, all the consequences held in that single glance.

Yet before any of her calm could be released, the world had already become overwhelmingly bleak.

“Nianqing?” His eyes were sharp and intimidating; his smile cold…

“My Nianqing is right here!” Suddenly, from behind him emerged a woman identical to herself—her sister! She smiled, radiant and blissful.

She tried to call out “Sister,” but the word refused to leave her lips, as if a demon had gripped her throat.

He grew colder still.

“Who are you? Do you think just because you share her face, you can fool me?!”

He approached step by step; behind her, a bottomless abyss!

Save me! You said, with you, there was nothing to fear! Save me…

Yet he only smiled coldly.

“Zhang Momo, you’re still alive? Didn’t you say you’d become a vegetable?”

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a madman appeared—it was Lou Keyu; the once elegant and composed face now twisted in insanity. His eyes were bloodshot, his hand pointed directly at her face. “You fickle, opportunistic woman! For money, you’d do anything, wouldn’t you?!”

“President Zhang!” A lively call interrupted Lou Keyu’s hysterical shouting; beside her appeared Dong Fei, the new designer at the company—a young, likable face. Zhang Momo finally exhaled in relief; only this innocent, pure child could save her!

“What President Zhang?! What kind of president are you anyway?! You owe me three months’ salary, lost all the company’s orders! Is this all you’re capable of, running a business?!”

A disdainful, contemptuous smile surfaced on that likable face, tearing all her hope and anticipation from the previous moment into shreds.

She looked around frantically; in the distance, her parents stood, quietly smiling.

She wanted to run to them, but her feet could not move. Her heart howled desperately: “Your printing factory, the one Grandfather left behind, I saved it! The city government never took the land! The factory is still there!”

But the words wouldn’t come; they couldn’t hear, they only smiled.

“Mom, Dad, don’t listen to her! If not for her, how would you have died?! Dad was supposed to drive, but she insisted on doing it! She’d just flown for over ten hours and still wanted to drive; she did it on purpose! She meant to kill you! Kill me! She stole my lover! She took the man I cherished for so long!” The gentle sister’s voice erupted in hysterical venom, so unfamiliar…

No, Uncle Hu knows, where is Uncle Hu?

“I don’t know! It has nothing to do with me! I don’t know why she did it!” Suddenly, an older man appeared beside her parents, wearing a kindly yet icy smile. “I had no idea about any of this.”

Anxiety swelled within her, as if about to explode, but she couldn’t speak a word.

No! It’s not like this! Xiang Zuo, Xiang Zuo! Tell them—it’s not like this! We have nothing—come tell them, Xiang Zuo, where are you…

“Who are you?! You’re a fraud!”

A voice sounded suddenly at her side, calm, poised, ruthless, and cruel. She turned to see Xiang Zuo’s handsome face, now cold as winter.

“You liar! Liar!”

That voice echoed everywhere! She retreated step by step, but behind her was the precipice! Lightly, she fell; the wind howled past her ears, and below, the abyss yawned wide…

Before her eyes, still his cold smile, her sister’s accusations, Lou Keyu’s scorn, Dong Fei’s demands, Uncle Hu’s indifference… and her parents, far away, silent and unmoving.

Zhang Momo suddenly bolted upright from her bed; her chest heaved violently, both hands clutching her sweat-soaked nightwear, twisting it into knots, her fingers pale.

Sweat streamed down her cheeks, mingling with tears. She touched her face, not knowing if it was cold or hot, a mess of confusion. The pillow behind her was drenched, the marks of her tears still radiating chill.

She threw off the covers and fled to the living room, all the lights blazing, yet she had no idea what she was doing.

The arched decorative partition was strung with rows of bright red crystal beads; long and short, short and long, swaying and colliding with delicate, fragile sounds as the bedroom door slammed open, sending gusts of air through. She sank to the floor, exhausted and helpless; all numbness and terror slowly replaced by the cold transmitted through the solid, smooth floor beneath her. Her consciousness returned to her body.

It was only a dream! Just a dream!

But why did it feel so real…