Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

We finally find out what happens to our Scooby Gang. If you thought the previous chapter was heart-wrenching (and nail-bitingly suspenseful), wait till you read this one. I was in tears by the end of the chapter . . . so much pain and sorrow, and that conversation between Bo Jinyan and Fu Ziyu . . . sob.

Warning! From Ch 53 to Ch 56 (end of Volume 1), the story will feature descriptions of violence and injuries, some of them graphic.

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In truth, if Bo Jinyan had been even one second later, Jian Yao might no longer exist in this world.

His cell phone cast a feeble light in the gloom. Despite the red-hot pain in his eyes, Bo Jinyan could definitely sense a hazy layer rising to envelop his eyes.

Then he ran to the pillar and saw that his wife was suspended by a rope tied to the pillar.

However, the rope had obviously been severed by someone wielding a knife, and only a few threads remained, which were almost about to give way. Jian Yao was suspended at least 15 metres above the concrete floor. If she were to fall, she would only escape death by the skin of her teeth.

Bo Jinyan felt as if his heart was in the grip of a viciously evil force. He grabbed the rope, exerted his strength to pull it downwards and tied it firmly to the pillar once more.

Jian Yao’s current appearance also became apparent to him. Her clothes were torn, and she was covered in blood and dust. A thick strip of cloth covered her eyes, and her face was smeared with tears.

“”Jinyan . . . Jinyan . . .” she sobbed.

By this time, Bo Jinyan could no longer see clearly, but his voice was as tranquil as water. “Don’t be afraid, I’m going to let you down now. . .”

He was unable to finish his sentence.

Below his feet, exactly where he was standing, came the sudden, sharp sound of something shattering and crumbling. In the instant that both of them looked at each other, his body was already plummeting.

“Jinyan!” Jian Yao exclaimed.

The only answer she received was a loud bang.

Something had struck the ground.

Then, silence.

“Jinyan . . . Jinyan?” Jian Yao hung suspended in the air, but she suddenly felt as if she were in a vast wilderness. An incredible sense of dread, as dark as night, descended upon her in a flash. Everything went black in front of her eyes and she fainted.

In this warehouse, this dark, secret room, silence was finally restored.

She is in the air, he is on the ground.

He said that she was a little bird, soaring freely above him.

And, he was a tree, whose roots were deeply buried in the darkness underground.

……

Bo Jinyan raised his head exceedingly slowly. Sharp daggers of pain were cleaving through his head and body. He could feel the blood gushing from the back of his head. He slowly crawled forward a little, wanting to get away from the cloying reek of blood. He had never liked his own blood.

However, it seemed to be futile. There was blood all around him, and he could not crawl out of it.

His vision, by now, was completely blurred. Through a damp haze of blood, he could only vaguely make out Jian Yao’s figure, still suspended above him, totally silent. He unconsciously tried to stretch out his hand to reach her, only to find that he could not move it.

An intense wave of drowsiness, as thick as his blood, swept over him. In his dazed state, he seemed to hear police sirens. Vaguely, he saw someone running frantically towards Jian Yao. Dimly, he heard people yelling, “Police! Put your hands up!” “Professor Bo, Professor Bo!”

“Jian Yao . . . Ziyu . . .” Bo Jinyan whispered these two names.

Then he sank back into the infinite darkness of pain.

  ……

On June 27th, the Special Cases Unit of the Municipal Bureau of Criminal Psychology Research Division was attacked by a group of thugs from the United States. Bo Jinyan, Jian Yao, An Yan and Fang Qing were seriously injured.

One of the criminals was burnt to death. The two criminals who were shot by Bo Jinyan were arrested by the police, but died of their injuries later.

   ——

The wind rustled the curtains.

In the corridor, in the ward, all was quiet. A criminal investigator on duty at the door smoked a cigarette desultorily.

Flower baskets from well-wishers stretched from the door of the ward all the way down to the end of the corridor.

They were all from the families of victims who had previously been rescued by them.

Suddenly, the wind blew.

Footsteps sounded at the end of the corridor. There was a buzz of activity, and a glint of lights. It looked as if quite a few people had arrived.

The criminal investigator on duty raised his head, and was transfixed.

A woman was walking at the forefront. She had a white coat around her shoulders, and a long dress which swept the floor. Her high heels clicked crisply on the marble floor. Following behind her was a posse of reporters, furiously snapping pictures of her non-stop.

“Miss Jin, why have you rushed to the hospital? Has someone you know been admitted?”

“Miss Jin Xiaozhe, has your mysterious sweetheart been hospitalised?”

   ……

Jin Xiaozhe completely ignored them. She walked forward single-mindedly with her face as cold as ice.

The criminal investigator on duty saw them coming closer and shouted in panic, “What are you all doing? The patient here is in critical condition, you are not allowed to come closer!”

The posse of reporters halted, suitably intimidated.

Jin Xiaozhe’s footsteps faltered, but she did not retreat. She slowly walked forward, lifted her chin and stared at the young criminal investigator. “Are you his subordinate?”

As the criminal investigator stared blankly at her, she pushed open the door to walk in.

“You can’t go in!”

Jin Xiaozhe looked at him.

The criminal investigator looked at her eyes, brimming with tears, and felt a bolt of panic strike him in that split second. By then, Jin Xiaozhe had already pushed the door open, walked inside, and shut the door again.

The criminal investigator stood dumbly at the door, with the posse of reporters behind him, as agitated as ants in a vat of hot oil.

The noisy voices and the vexing clamour of the city, were finally shut out.

Jin Xiaozhe removed her coat and walked, step by step, to the figure lying on the bed.

As a result of his injuries due to the explosion, it was almost impossible to recognise Fang Qing. Bandages covered his head, and there was no hint of the handsome man he had been. At that moment, the pale face before her eyes seemed to be nothing more than a skull. Only the instrument by his side was recording his faint heartbeat.

Jin Xiaozhe sobbed as she rested her upper body at the head of the bed.

“Fang Qing . . . Fang Qing . . .”

Didn’t you say that you would wait for me everyday?

Where are you thinking of going right now?

Where are you going, that you would abandon me once again?

   ——

Jian Yao was awoken by the noise from outside the door.

The minute she awoke, she saw the doctor by her side, as well as the criminal investigator. They both stood up.

“Teacher Jian, you’re awake? That’s fantastic. I’ll inform the bureau,” the criminal investigator said.

The doctor also softly said, “Jian Yao, look over here. Can you see clearly? You’ve been seriously injured, but nothing life-threatening, so you can rest easy. It’s good that you’ve regained consciousness.”

Jian Yao did not speak.

She did not say anything, or ask anything.

Accompanied by a nurse, the doctor quickly and quietly examined her. Jian Yao made no movement. Her eyes pierced through the door to the corridor beyond, but she was unable to see the room next to hers.

After a while, several criminal investigators came in. They all spoke softly and uttered words of comfort.

“Everything’s fine as long as you’re ok.”

“Teacher Jian, try not to move around for the next few months, as you’ve broken a few bones. They are all mending well.”

“That’s right, they will heal.”

Jian Yao looked at them and said lightly, “Thank you.”

One of the criminal investigators was younger than the others. His eyes were full of tears, and he gritted his teeth as he looked away from her.

Yes, how could anyone who had witnessed how she and Professor Bo looked at the warehouse hold back burning tears?

“How’s . . . Jinyan?” she finally asked.

The others said nothing. An older criminal investigator sat down by the bed, and said gently, “Jian Yao ah, something has happened to Professor Bo, but his life is not in danger. Don’t worry, he has already been rescued.”

From the time she had awoken until the present moment, Jian Yao had felt unsettled but now, it finally felt as if her soul and spirit* had been restored to her body.

*T/N 三魂六魄 (san hun liu po) – 魂 (hun) and 魄 (po) refer to types of souls in Chinese philosophy and traditional religion. 魂 is literally ‘cloud soul’, and 魄 is literally ‘white soul’. In this system of belief, every living human has both a 魂 i.e. spiritual, ethereal, yang (Chinese belief – ‘male’) soul which leaves the body after death, and a 魄 i.e. corporeal, substantive, yin (Chinese belief – ‘female’, as opposite to and balancing out the ‘yang’ influence) soul which remains with the corpse of the deceased. In this novel, Ding Mo is referring to the Taoist belief of a soul structure of 三 (san) = 3 魂 and 六 (liu) = 6 魄; it is more commonly said to be 3 魂 and 7 魄. Look here for more information.

A slight smile hovered around the corners of Jian Yao’s mouth. However, that smile clearly harboured both great grief as well as exultation.

“What . . . happened to him?” Her voice was very quiet.

Everyone was silent.

A while later, someone said, “Professor Bo is unable to see. His corneas were severely damaged. However, this is not the worst of it. The crucial issue is that he fell from a great height, which caused bleeding in his brain, and which in turn is pressing on the optic nerves. The possibility that this can be reversed is very small . . .”

Jian Yao struggled to sit up, but whatever part of her body she tried to move was hurriedly held down by the others. “You can’t move right now! You can’t let your broken bones pierce your internal organs! Don’t worry! Don’t worry! We have people looking after Professor Bo! He’s still in a coma; when he wakes up, we’ll let you know straightaway!”

In the end, since she had no way out, Jian Yao lay down.

After that, everyone left so she could recuperate in peace, leaving one criminal investigator to stand guard outside the door.

The sky slowly darkened, and, outside the window, life went on peacefully as if nothing had happened.

Jian Yao just lay there quietly. After a while, she turned her head and looked at the stars outside the window.

Can’t see anymore?

An image of Bo Jinyan took shape in Jian Yao’s mind. He was looking at her, with a slight smile. The look he had when he was working on a case, one of full concentration. When he read at night, his eyes seemed to glitter like stars.

With compassionate mercy and calmness, he carefully gave his attention to every victim and perpetrator.

Those eyes which could penetrate all the crime and evil in this world – those eyes would never open again?

This state, how is it different from those who wanted to kill Bo Jinyan?

He is such a proud person, when he wakes up, how is he going to live with himself?

Jian Yao turned her head and buried it in her blanket, refusing to let herself cry too loudly. She had not been able to witness the scene, but it always lingered in her mind, as if she had seen it with her own eyes.

Bo Jinyan falling silently.

His tall, slim body, blood-soaked shirt, short black hair, lying on the ground, barely moving.

   ……

Excellent weather, a house by the river. Location unknown.

The sky was blue, with clouds floating across it. The fish in the river were giving off streams of bubbles, and the crystalline water reflected the sunlight. There were several rocks in the clear and limpid river.

Fu Ziyu sat in a lounge chair, wearing sunglasses. Laughing, he said, “Jinyan ah, there’s fish again!”

Bo Jinyan turned to look at him, but said nothing.

Fu Ziyu then said, “You should be holding your wedding ceremony with Jian Yao this year, right? Unfortunately, I won’t be able to attend. You have to put a little more effort into making the various preparations for the ceremony. Make sure it’s more romantic, and don’t be too old-fashioned and conservative.”

Bo Jinyan stared at him and asked, “Why can’t you be there?”

Fu Ziyu was quiet for a while before answering, “Because I have to go someplace very, very far away. In that place, there is no longing, no joy, and also no disappointment or offence. Jinyan, it doesn’t matter. I have known contentment and happiness in this life. I have loved the best people, made the best friends, visited the best places, drunk the best wine. They were all the best, and I have been more blessed than most people.”

Bo Jinyan did not speak.

Tears slowly seeped from his eyes.

All this time, Fu Ziyu did not look at him, so Bo Jinyan was unable to discern his expression. He seemed to be simultaneously cheerful and sorrowful. He kept looking into the distance, looking in the direction that Bo Jinyan would never be able to take.

“Jinyan, don’t take it to heart,” he said. “I don’t blame you. I should have told you earlier, I just . . . Yumeng, she . . .”

Bo Jinyan smiled briefly, a self-deprecating smile that had not been seen on him before. “No, I was careless. If I had cared about you a little more, if I had invested just a little more energy to investigate Han Yumeng, you would not have died. Nothing would have happened to the others as well. It was my fault. Now, I have no way to make up for it.”

Fu Ziyu shook his head. “Don’t think this way. My life is just a life; are you saying that those students’ lives were not important? You were only rightfully giving priority to what was within the scope of your duties. Don’t let this matter keep weighing on your heart.”

However, Bo Jinyan remained silent.

“It’s almost time for me to go.” Fu Ziyu pushed himself up from the lounge chair and clapped his hands, as lively as usual. “What do you plan to do from now onwards? You can’t see anymore; which way will you go hereafter?”

Bo Jinyan was silent for a very long time.

Was he already unable to see?

The cicadas chirped softly behind the two of them. Which memory was this, which year, in the height of summer?

Bo Jinyan said, “I will leave for a while.”

“Leave? Where to?”

“I am the main goal of those people. The mastermind has not been caught yet, and I am unable to avenge you,” Bo Jinyan replied. “Besides, I can’t see anymore. If I stay with Jian Yao, I will be further endangering her. This time, I won’t be able to protect her properly.”

Fu Ziyu patted his shoulder gently.

Then, the sky gradually faded away, as did the river.

Everything faded, including Fu Ziyu.

   ……

Bo Jinyan slowly opened his eyes.

However, there was nothing but darkness.