Ya She

Chapter 8 The Silent Shop - Water Jade

Ning Qiqi was awakened by pain; the sharp pain in her lower back made her gasp.

She opened her eyes and saw laser lights spinning overhead, while Beyoncé's "Listen" played in her ears.

Oh, right, she was going to karaoke with her friends today. But why is she lying on the floor with such a sore back?
Ugh, the smell here is still unbearable. Besides the smoke, there seems to be another awful odor. Like the smell of blood.

Ning Qiqi tried to get up, but found that there seemed to be someone lying next to her. She turned her head naturally and froze. Because the person lying there facing her was herself!

Ning Qiqi saw that her eyes were wide open, but there was no reflection in her dilated pupils. Her face was pale, almost bluish, her hair was disheveled, and she looked lifeless... Strange, why was there a mirror wall in the private room? And why did she look so dead?

Was it because she rushed out today and didn't take good care of herself? Ning Qiqi laughed self-deprecatingly, but suddenly a chill ran down her spine.

She was clearly smiling, but the person in the mirror wasn't!
This is not a mirror!
Ning Qiqi sat bolt upright, her eyes immediately drawn to a fruit knife embedded in "her" chest. Her favorite white, ruffled blouse now appeared even more gruesome against the backdrop of the wound. Thick, still-dried blood slowly oozed from the wound, soaking the already deep red carpet. The laser lights illuminating the room ironically cast a chillingly beautiful glow upon "her" figure.

“Listen to the sound form deep within. It’s only beginning to find release…” Beyoncé’s voice flowed quietly inside the box.

Ning Qiqi wanted to scream, but she couldn't find her voice. Was she dead? Was she a ghost? But why did she still feel pain in her lower back?

Ning Qiqi mustered her courage and reached out towards the "herself" lying beside her, but stopped before she could touch the "herself's" face. Because what she reached out was a man's hand with distinct knuckles!
Ning Qiqi stared blankly at the hand in front of her, trying to move her fingers, and found that the hand moved its fingers in response. Ning Qiqi trembled, and the hand trembled along with her.

Ning Qiqi turned her head stiffly and saw a terrified, unfamiliar man's face reflected in a pane of glass in the soundproof wall... No, not completely unfamiliar, she had seen this man somewhere before!

The man wore a pendant around his neck depicting the crucified Christ. The body of Jesus Christ was carved from a piece of pale blue jade, and the expression of Jesus during his crucifixion was sculpted with lifelike detail, even down to the blood on his body…

Blood? Wait!
Ning Qiqi stared in horror at the long, slender, fair hand in front of her, which was covered in warm, bright red blood.

“There is someone here inside, someone I thought had died so long ago. Oh, I’m so creamin out…” The song “Listen” played over and over again in the private room. After who knows how many times it had been sung, Ning Qiqi finally reached out with trembling hands and placed them under “her” nose, desperately confirming that “she” was indeed dead.

She had no recollection of what had happened before. She only remembered going to the karaoke bar with her friends, going to the restroom, and when she came back, entering the wrong private room and seemingly seeing something… and then… and then she woke up in pain…

She knew nothing about how she died or how she turned into a man...

After calming down a bit, Ning Qiqi realized she was facing an even bigger mystery—the private room contained only her corpse and her current self, and her new body had been stabbed in the waist. She was certain she wasn't the murderer, so the only suspect was the man she was currently inhabiting! In other words, she was both the victim and the perpetrator?
Ning Qiqi sat there blankly for a while, mechanically took out a tissue from "herself's" pocket, carefully wiped the fingerprints on the fruit knife and the blood on her hands, then got up, picked up the long trench coat hanging on the wall, and didn't even have the courage to take one last look at "herself" lying on the ground. She put on the trench coat to cover the wound on her waist, and walked out with her head down.

She remembered that this KTV had a back door that led directly to a secluded alley... Ning Qiqi walked with her head down, feeling flustered and confused. The wound on her waist made it possible for her to move her feet slowly.

"Sir, have you seen a girl? She's wearing a white shirt, not very tall, and quite cute?" Suddenly, someone stopped her.

Ning Qiqi looked up in a panic and found that the person was none other than her good friend Luo Jia! It seemed that she hadn't been home for a long time, so Luo Jia had come out to look for her.

"Sir?" Luo Jia sensed something strange about the man's gaze. Although he was quite handsome, his complexion had a bluish tinge, giving off an unsettling feeling. And he looked somewhat familiar…

Ning Qiqi looked down at her, opened her mouth as if to tell her everything that had happened to her, but reason prevented her from speaking. In the end, Ning Qiqi shook her head and said with difficulty, "I'm sorry, I didn't see it." Her voice was a little hoarse, but deep and pleasant.

Luo Jia frowned, looking Ning Qiqi up and down in a man's body, clearly wary of the suspicious-looking man before him.

Ning Qiqi knew Luo Jia loved reading mystery novels, especially Detective Conan, so she wasn't sure if Luo Jia would notice anything amiss. Without hesitation, she pushed Luo Jia aside and rushed towards the back door of the KTV. Descending the dark stairs, she collapsed into a secluded alley. Lifting her coat in the dim light, she saw that blood had soaked through her clothes and trousers. Ning Qiqi knew her life was hanging by a thread; without immediate treatment, she would die a second time. But in her current condition, going to the hospital was absolutely out of the question!
Just then, her phone rang inside her trench coat.

"Listen, I am alone at a crossroads. I'm not at home in my own home..." The phone's ringtone was Beyoncé's "Listen," and the volume was so loud that the entire alley could hear it.

Damn it! She doesn't want to be found out!
Ning Qiqi fumbled for her phone to turn it off. Just then, someone seemed to squat down in front of her. She was delirious from blood loss, helplessly reaching out her hand and murmuring, "Don't go to the hospital...save me..."

The other person seemed to say something, but Ning Qiqi couldn't hear it clearly.

Before she lost consciousness, she seemed to hear Luo Jia's terrified screams, followed by the piercing sound of police sirens blaring in her direction.

"You've brought back strange things again," the shopkeeper said casually, looking up from behind the counter.

“It’s not an object, it’s a person! It looks like he was stabbed by thugs in an alley, but his wallet and phone weren’t stolen.” The doctor unceremoniously placed the man he had picked up on the table in the shop and examined the stab wound on his waist.

The shopkeeper frowned, not because he saw the gruesome wound, but because he was worried that the Ming Dynasty rosewood table with its inlaid gold and coiled patterns would be soiled and impossible to clean. "Why didn't you take it to the hospital?"

"He said he didn't want to go to the hospital when he was unconscious. Luckily, I had just returned from a round of house calls and had a first-aid kit with me." The doctor removed the man's shirt completely. "Boss, couldn't your shop be any brighter? How can I help in an emergency in this darkness?"

"If you're not satisfied, then take your leave." The boss glanced at them lazily, but his gaze froze for a moment.

"Oh well, I guess I'll have to make do." The doctor sighed, but suddenly noticed the boss standing in front of him, staring intently at the necklace pendant on the man's chest.

The doctor looked over curiously. "A Christ statue nailed to the cross? How come it's made of jade? That's strange... But I still wear a longevity lock..." As he spoke, his hands moved quickly and efficiently without being affected at all.

"This is no ordinary jade, it's aquamarine jade." The shopkeeper pulled out a fist-sized luminous pearl from somewhere, and the dimly lit room immediately lit up.

"What kind of jade is water jade?" The doctor was overjoyed and used tweezers to pinch the boss's finger and pull it in his direction.

"The color of the jade is as black as a mountain, mixed with patterns; as blue as water, mixed with patterns. This sentence contains the names of two types of jade: black mountain jade and blue water jade. In ancient times, princes and nobles wore black mountain jade, while officials wore blue water jade." The shopkeeper squinted and looked down carefully at the blood-stained Christ statue.

The doctor, watching the green light reflected from the luminous pearl in the shop owner's eyes, wondered if the owner really wanted to possess the Christ statue. No, the man wasn't dead yet! How could he kill and steal? The doctor coughed lightly, quickening his pace as he began stitching the wound, continuing to ask, "You're talking about ancient my country, right? But this is a Christ statue, isn't it? Could it be that the official had a taste for foreign things?"

“Daniel, Chapter 10, Section 6, the body of our God Christ is beryl… Heh, what an interesting antique. Beryl has the strongest ability to attract souls, often allowing wandering spirits to attach themselves to it… Hmm? This jade seems somewhat familiar…” The shopkeeper whispered something behind him, but the doctor didn’t hear a word. He was focused on stitching up the wound on the man’s waist.

The moment Ning Qiqi opened her eyes, she felt as if she had woken up from some vague nightmare.

She dreamt that she died, and that she possessed the body of a murderer!
"You're awake?" A cool male voice suddenly came, startling Ning Qiqi, who was in a daze, and she came back to her senses to see where she was.

The room was dimly lit, and the antiques in sight left Ning Qiqi speechless. If it weren't for the man behind the counter holding a newly published bestseller, she would have thought she had traveled back in time.

Ning Qiqi tried to sit up and then noticed someone lying on the recliner next to her, fast asleep and looking exhausted. It seemed to be the person she had met before she lost consciousness. Looking at the IV drip in her hand, she knew that he had saved her.

"Thank you..." Ning Qiqi started to speak, but was startled by her own voice. Although she had realized that she was no longer the same person she used to be, she still couldn't accept hearing a man's voice coming from her.

"Hello, this is Ya She, I'm the owner." The man sitting behind the counter stood up. He was wearing a black Zhongshan suit, with a lifelike red dragon embroidered on his right shoulder, its piercing dragon eyes seeming to be staring intently at her. A gust of wind blew by, and she realized that she was completely naked from the waist up. She gasped and quickly wrapped a blanket around herself.

Although it was disgusting to see a grown man acting like a little girl, even though she was now in a man's body, she still wasn't used to not wearing clothes on her upper body! Just as Ning Qiqi was wondering what to do, the boss suddenly said something that stunned her.

"Young lady, can you tell me what happened?"

Ning Qiqi quickly pulled back the blanket covering her and looked inside. She hadn't turned back! How could this person tell that she was actually a woman?

"Pfft, boss, where are your eyes? Calling a grown man a girl?" The doctor wasn't sleeping too soundly; he woke up when Ning Qiqi got up. He put on his glasses, examined the injured woman, and frowned, saying, "Although I've stitched up your wound, just to be on the safe side, you'd better go to the hospital."

Ning Qiqi ignored his words and stammered as she asked the boss, "How...how did you know I'm a girl?"

The doctor was changing the bandages on the other person when he saw the flat chest muscles and was struck dumb. "You...you're a girl?" He couldn't help but think that the person in front of him was a real man!
“I think it’s all because of this turquoise Christ statue you’re wearing,” the shopkeeper said calmly. “You can tell me what happened, and maybe I can help you.”

Ning Qiqi hesitated for a long time before finally telling the two people everything that had happened to her. Because the memory of opening her eyes to find herself dead was so terrifying, Ning Qiqi couldn't help but cry.

The doctor felt a chill run down his spine as he watched a tall, imposing man, over six feet, weeping uncontrollably, his fists clenched, rubbing his eyes with a naive expression. But after she finished speaking, he still handed her a tissue. "So, you're actually a murderer now?"

"I'm the victim! Wait, you believe what I said?" Ning Qiqi stopped crying and stared wide-eyed.

"Yes, I believe you." The doctor glanced at the boss standing beside him. He didn't believe her, but rather the boss. Although the matter of soul transference and possession was bizarre, he had seen even more bizarre things happen around the boss.

Suddenly, the doctor frowned. He noticed that the red dragon on the boss's clothes seemed to have moved! Ha! He swore, the dragon's tail had just twitched! That couldn't be, could it? The doctor took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. He must have just been sleeping poorly and his eyes were playing tricks on him!
"Excuse me, is there a mirror here?" Ning Qiqi breathed a sigh of relief. Although she couldn't be sure if these two really believed what she said, having someone to confide in made her feel much better.

The shopkeeper nodded and took an antique bronze mirror from the display cabinet next to him.

Ning Qiqi took a deep breath and turned the bronze mirror over. A handsome face appeared in the blurry mirror. He was refined and elegant, appearing to be in his early twenties, and he looked somewhat familiar.

Ning Qiqi suddenly remembered someone and put down the bronze mirror in surprise.

The doctor picked up the book the shopkeeper had just been looking at from the counter and handed it to Ning Qiqi. "That's right, if I remember correctly, this recently bestselling mystery novel, 'Listen,' was written by 'you.'"

On the back cover of the book was printed a handsome and dashing face, exactly the same one she had just seen in the bronze mirror.

Ning Qiqi stared at the mirror in front of her. The large floor-length mirror reflected a handsome but pale-faced man, so clear that even his eyelashes were visible, making it impossible for Ning Qiqi to escape.

It is said that the person in the mirror is named Xiao Ji. The famous mystery novelist, Xiao Ji.

Ning Qiqi is currently staying at the doctor's house. The kind doctor took her in, and the wound on her waist is starting to heal. The doctor goes to work during the day, leaving her alone in the small house.

However, she always felt that she wasn't alone in the room, and this feeling grew stronger when she looked in the mirror. Ning Qiqi looked at the face in the mirror as if she were looking at a stranger, but this stranger's face would change with her expressions.

Ning Qiqi couldn't help but touch the aquamarine Christ statue on her chest. The shopkeeper said that her soul possessed Xiao Ji's body because of this pendant, but the pendant looked very ordinary.

"I must be dreaming..." Ning Qiqi frowned and sighed.

"I'd rather be dreaming." A sudden voice rang out in the room. Ning Qiqi felt the Christ statue in her palm suddenly heat up. Looking closely, she was shocked to find that there was another person in the mirror!

"Ah!" she screamed, falling to the ground. When she looked in front of her, there was no one there! But when her gaze fell back on the mirror, a man with the exact same body as her was standing elegantly, leaning slightly forward, looking at her, who had fallen to the ground in a disheveled state.

"Sigh, I'm handsome enough as an arrow, don't waste my body!" the man sighed dramatically.

There are now two figures in the mirror, one real and one ethereal. The other has the same smile, the same features, and even wears the same clothes as the person in the mirror, but appears translucent, like a ghost.

"You...you are Xiao Ji?" Ning Qiqi felt that she was strong enough to calmly deal with any situation that might arise. So even if she saw a ghost in broad daylight, she wasn't too concerned. She just looked around to make sure that the ghost could only be seen in the mirror and not in the air.

"Yes, I am Xiao Ji, the rightful owner of this body. Hey, little girl, do you know what happened?" The semi-transparent Xiao Ji frowned, looking equally confused.

Ning Qiqi reluctantly recounted the whole story, hoping that Xiao Ji would tell her what had happened!
"The murderer!" Ning Qiqi said through gritted teeth.

Xiao Ji was stunned for a moment, then burst into laughter while clutching his stomach, saying, "You think I'm the murderer? Although I don't remember what happened, I know very well that I wouldn't be so bored as to go to a KTV room to sing alone."

Ning Qiqi was stunned. "You mean... the murderer is someone else? But I... I even wiped the fingerprints off the murder weapon..."

"I only remember that it was my first day in this city, and I don't remember anything after that." Xiao Ji stroked his chin, thought for a moment, snapped his fingers, and laughed nonchalantly, "It doesn't matter if you don't remember, let's go and see for ourselves!"

"The scene of death?" Ning Qiqi frowned, partly because she was afraid of returning to the scene of her death, and partly because... "Aren't you afraid the police will arrest you?"

“I write mystery novels, so I should be able to spot some clues. Let’s go, let’s go!” Xiao Ji squatted down in the mirror, looking Ning Qiqi in the eye. He patted Ning Qiqi’s head and smiled brightly.

Even though she shouldn't have touched anything, looking at the desolate smile in the mirror, Ning Qiqi really felt a thick, warm hand patting her head, giving her courage.

"Oh, right, shave before you go out, and also, change your clothes. Make sure you look handsome!"

Ning Qiqi stared at Xiao Ji's smiling face in the mirror, unsure of what to say.

The two people in the mirror look exactly alike. One has a gloomy face, and the other has a smiling face.

On the way to the crime scene, Ning Qiqi felt a chill run down her spine as she recalled the terrifying scene of seeing her own corpse the moment she opened her eyes. The little bit of courage she had just mustered had vanished.

Only the jade Christ statue on the chest still retains a trace of warmth.

She knew Xiao Ji was always by her side, but she couldn't see him. Only occasionally, when she passed by glass or a mirror, could she catch a glimpse of his profile with his brows furrowed.

It turns out she wasn't the only one at a loss. It turns out he wasn't as indifferent as he seemed.

Did he have parents? Did he have friends? Did he have someone he loved? And what about his readers? Now that he's dead, will all of them grieve for him?

She at least still had a body; she could speak, walk, and communicate with people. But he was left only as a soul; no one could see him, no one could hear his voice, and no one could prove his existence.

Thinking of her parents and her large group of friends, Ning Qiqi couldn't help but feel a lump in her throat... People can't come back to life, and she can't come back to life, but at least, she must find the murderer who killed her and ruined her life!

Ning Qiqi glanced at the figure reflected in the glass door and thought he looked somewhat lonely. She didn't know how to comfort him, so she could only cheer herself up and go into the KTV to book a private room.

Just as she was paying at the front desk, a familiar figure flashed past her and hurriedly walked towards the private room where the incident occurred—she couldn't be mistaken, it was her good friend, Luo Jia.

Why is Luo Jia here? What is her purpose in returning? Could she... be related to my death? A thought suddenly flashed through Ning Qiqi's mind. She always felt something was off when she met Luo Jia the night she was murdered... Now she understood! Luo Jia was a mystery enthusiast, and Xiao Ji was a famous mystery novelist. The reason she recognized Xiao Ji was because Luo Jia had even bought one of his novels! Then why didn't Luo Jia recognize "Xiao Ji" that night?

The deeper Ning Qiqi thought about it, the colder she felt—was she doubting her best friend?! Alone in the karaoke bar, Ning Qiqi broke out in a cold sweat. She shook her head—if there were doubts, she should find out!

She turned the music up to the maximum volume as Xiao Ji had instructed. Finding a quiet moment when no one was around, she stepped out, brushed past the passing waiters, and nonchalantly walked towards the private room where she had been murdered that day.

The door to the private room wasn't closed properly, as if someone had already been there. Pushing the door open, a blast of cold air hit me. The carpet in the room had been changed, and only a small overhead light was on, shining directly onto the black marble tabletop, where a vase of white chrysanthemums sat.

Ning Qiqi still remembers the scene she saw when she opened her eyes that night. Looking at the pure white chrysanthemums shimmering under the lamplight, she couldn't help but shudder.

"Look, it seems the police have thoroughly searched this place." Xiao Ji's voice echoed eerily in the empty, dark private room, a chill rising from her feet, adding to the eerie atmosphere.

Ning Qiqi rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Do you really think police officers are as useless as they are in your novels?"

"Sigh, I came here to see if I could remember anything." Xiao Ji's voice drifted around the room, sounding as if he was looking around.

Ning Qiqi stared blankly at the bouquet of white chrysanthemums on the table. After a moment, she suddenly said, "What should we do if we can only maintain the status quo?"

She didn't know why she said that. Perhaps it was because she subconsciously believed that Xiao Ji was not the murderer who killed her, so she naturally began to think about the future.

Could she live in someone else's body? Even if she wanted to, Xiao Ji, as the master, wouldn't allow it, right? But she was unwilling to die like this, without knowing why...

Xiao Ji's lighthearted laughter came from the darkness: "Silly girl, don't think about those useless things. Look at the upper right corner of the private room."

Ning Qiqi looked up and saw a small red dot lit up in the spot he had mentioned. She exclaimed in surprise, "That...that's a surveillance camera?"

"Yes, I think the surveillance cameras should have recorded what happened that night. Let's go to the monitoring room and ask."

"Easy for you to say." Ning Qiqi cursed under her breath and said, "Although I wiped the fingerprints off the murder weapon, there should still be the murderer's fingerprints left in the private room, right?"

Xiao Ji sighed, "How many people come and go in a KTV room every day? There are countless fingerprints, and they're all messy, making it impossible to collect evidence."

Ning Qiqi pulled the hood up over her head, and as she turned, the door to the private room opened. Luo Jia stood there, holding a bouquet of slightly wilted white chrysanthemums. "You've finally come, Mr. Xiao," Luo Jia said calmly. She looked at the chrysanthemums in her hand and said, "I'm... Ning Qiqi's friend, the girl who died here... I wait for you here every day, and change the flowers for you. Although Qiqi doesn't like white chrysanthemums, I... I..."

As Luo Jia spoke, she began to cry. Ning Qiqi felt a lump in her throat. It turned out that Luo Jia came to mourn her every day, and she had just doubted her good friend!
"You must be wondering why I'm waiting for you." Luo Jia calmed down a bit and continued, "I wonder if you remember, the day Qiqi died, you and I brushed past each other."

Ning Qiqi felt guilty. She remembered! Of course she remembered! She was terrified!
“I’m a huge fan of yours, but I didn’t recognize you at the time because you looked terrible, like a completely different person.”

"Haha...you're waiting for me here, not to get my autograph, are you?" Ning Qiqi was so nervous, she forced a joke.

“After you left, I…I found Qiqi’s body…” Luo Jia took a deep breath, her face pale, probably recalling the scene of seeing her best friend die, but she still insisted on continuing: “I screamed and ran to the front desk for help. At that moment, someone rushed out of the monitoring room on the side in a panic and bumped into me. I glanced at that person and then I remembered that you were Xiao Ji…”

"You saw the murderer?" Ning Qiqi excitedly stepped forward.

At that moment, a young, unfamiliar man walked in from the next private room. He took out an ID card and said, "My surname is Xiao, Mr. Xiao. Please come with me to the police station to assist with the investigation."

Ning Qiqi clenched her fists, seeing Xiao Ji's smug face reflected in the glass beside her, and felt an intense hatred that he had no physical form.

Otherwise, I would definitely beat him up!
This was Ning Qiqi's first time at a police station. She was taken directly to the interrogation room.

The interrogation room was just like in the movies, with only a table and two chairs, no windows, and pitch black. The only lamp on the table shone on her face, making her extremely tense.

"Relax, you're not a prisoner, why are you so nervous?" Xiao Ji's exasperated voice came from the side.

She felt guilty! Ning Qiqi really wanted to argue with him, but she couldn't speak in this situation, so she could only stare and listen to Xiao Ji nagging in her ear.

Just then, the interrogation room door creaked open, and the young police officer she had met at the karaoke bar walked in and sat down in front of her with a serious expression.

Ning Qiqi's nerves tightened as well. It wasn't until Xiao Ji urged her to speak that she pursed her lips, mustered her courage, and said, "Aren't there cameras in the KTV rooms? They must have recorded what happened. Can I see it?"

Ning Qiqi felt a chill run down her spine at the thought of witnessing that night again. Although she had experienced death once, she couldn't remember the specifics of what happened, not even the pain she felt before dying. She feared she couldn't bear the thought of seeing herself die again.

The other person hesitated for a moment, then nodded. Immediately, someone brought in a laptop. Officer Xiao opened a file, and the pop-up window was filled with static.

Ning Qiqi looked on in confusion as Officer Xiao sped up the video four times, only stopping at a certain point to play it normally.

After a brief, static-like sound, an image suddenly appeared. On the LCD screen, "Xiao Ji" swayed as he sat up, took a tissue from the coat of the corpse opposite him, and seemingly calmly wiped away the fingerprints on the murder weapon. He stood up, walked to the door, put on his coat, and quickly left. The door to the KTV room was still shaking, the laser lights on the screen continued to sweep, and Ning Qiqi's body lay quietly on the floor.

"Oh no, the tape has been wiped clean, but they deliberately left out the part that's bad for you." Xiao Ji's anxious voice came through, sounding as if it were coming from another world.

Ah, isn't that from another world?
"Then, what should I do..." Ning Qiqi muttered softly.

"Don't be afraid, tell the police what your friend said. The person she saw coming out of the surveillance room is more likely the murderer!" Xiao Ji's voice came close to her ear.

“I didn’t kill anyone. That Luo… cough… the deceased’s friend said she saw someone walk out of the monitoring room. Someone definitely washed the tape and framed me.”

"Miss Luo also told us about this matter."

Ning Qiqi and Xiao Ji both breathed a sigh of relief. However, Officer Xiao then added, "But I cannot rule out the possibility that you are accomplices."

Ning Qiqi and Xiao Ji were stunned. Officer Xiao said seriously, "Mr. Xiao, how much do you remember about what happened that night?"

Of course she doesn't remember any of it! Ning Qiqi composed herself, pressed her hand on the table, and said calmly, "I have the right to remain silent. You may ask questions only in the presence of my lawyer."

Xiao Ji paced back and forth in the interrogation room speechlessly. This girl must watch too many American TV shows... Where did she get a lawyer from...?

Ning Qiqi sat blankly by the roadside, watching the crematorium across the street, the ashes of the deceased rising slowly, her heart filled with mixed feelings.

Her body was cremated today.

Logically, given the involvement of a murder case, her body shouldn't have been cremated so quickly, but it seems to be due to her parents' intervention, wanting her to rest in peace sooner.

But she was perfectly fine and alive; she just had a different body.

Ning Qiqi pushed up her sunglasses, revealing stubble on her chin. No one would guess that this disheveled man was the renowned mystery novelist Xiao Ji.

But perhaps now he will become the murderer Xiao Ji.

Ning Qiqi smiled bitterly. Although the police hadn't publicly announced the suspect's identity, she had indeed been called in to give a statement, and people near the KTV recognized Xiao Ji's face. Not to mention, there was Xiao Ji's blood left in that private room. The reporters, jumping to conclusions, had already written all sorts of exaggerated stories in the newspapers.

But she couldn't help attending "her own funeral," watching her parents emerge from the mourning hall from afar. In just a few days, their hair had turned gray, and she longed to rush over and tell them that she hadn't actually died.

With her hands clenched into fists beneath her black trench coat, Ning Qiqi suppressed her emotions, afraid that someone would recognize her. She gritted her teeth and lowered her head deeply.

As she stared blankly at the pattern on the floor tiles in front of her, a pair of red high heels suddenly appeared in her line of sight. She looked up in surprise and was greeted by a doll-like face with extremely exquisite makeup.

Upon seeing her, the other person stomped their foot and said coquettishly, "Xiao Ji? What have you been doing missing for so many days? Where have you been? I can't get through to your cell phone! Do you even know that you missed your book signing at the bookstore the day before yesterday?!"

Ning Qiqi blinked in confusion, her eyes hidden behind her sunglasses. She naturally wouldn't dare use "Xiao Ji's" original SIM card, so she got a new one, which naturally prevented anyone from calling her. Meeting the expectant gaze of the beautiful woman, Ning Qiqi resorted to a very clichéd trick—amnesia.

"You...who are you?"

The beautiful woman gave Ning Qiqi a strange look, then told her that she was Sasha, Xiao Ji's beautiful editor. They had come to H City for a book signing, but unexpectedly lost him a few days ago. Sasha grumbled and dragged Ning Qiqi away from the crematorium, driving back to the city.

Sasha must know something, otherwise she wouldn't know to come to "Ning Qiqi's" crematorium, since the police hadn't released the victim's real name. But despite all the questions and refusals, Ning Qiqi obediently sat in the passenger seat, dutifully playing the role of someone with amnesia.

Sasha took her to a five-star hotel in the city. Ning Qiqi sat quietly on the sofa and took a sip of mineral water.

Sasha stared at her for a long time. Then she burst out laughing: "Young Master Xiao, I didn't believe you when you said you had amnesia, but now that I see you looking like a little bit like a wife, I'm starting to believe you a little bit."

Ning Qiqi smiled shyly. She knew what kind of person Xiao Ji was. While staying at the kind doctor's house, she had searched online for a lot about Xiao Ji. Xiao Ji had become famous at a young age, was arrogant, and spoke without thinking, offending many people in the industry, but still had countless fans. Ning Qiqi felt the azure jade Christ statue on her chest suddenly heat up. She knew Xiao Ji must have been unable to resist coming out again, but she couldn't see the mirror now, so she couldn't see him either.

Ning Qiqi touched the Christ image on her chest through her clothes, then took off her sunglasses and looked at Sasha. "Sasha, do you know what happened that night?"

Sasha's delicately drawn eyebrows furrowed beautifully. "I don't know. I went to the crematorium today just to try my luck. I didn't expect to actually find you."

Ning Qiqi stared intently at the expression on her face and said calmly, "I couldn't have gone to the karaoke bar alone that night, could I?"

Sasha's beautiful eyes sparkled. "That night you said you were going to have a party with your fans, so I went to see my friend. Who knew that something like that would happen later?"

"Oh?" Ning Qiqi drawled suspiciously, suddenly losing patience with her. She took out her phone from her coat pocket, pressed the call button, and said calmly, "Officer Xiao, come in. The murderer is right in front of me."

Sasha's expression changed drastically upon hearing this. At the same time, the suite door was flung open, and several police officers rushed in, restraining her as she tried to escape. Sasha's delicate face was filled with rage as she screamed, "Don't frame an innocent person! I have an alibi!"

Luo Jia peeked out from behind Officer Xiao, glanced at Sasha's distorted face, and said firmly, "That's right! The person I saw coming out of the monitoring room was her! She's the stalker who was clinging to Xiao Ji before, our fan club knows that!"

Ning Qiqi took a deep breath and smiled weakly, "Officer Xiao, I'd like to rest for a while. Could we go to the police station to give a statement later?"

The other person patted "Xiao Ji" on the shoulder sympathetically and led the still-noisy Sasha out. Luo Jia bowed deeply to "Xiao Ji" and followed them out.

A deathly silence fell over the room. Ning Qiqi walked to the full-length dressing mirror, looked at the unfamiliar man in the mirror, clutched the azure jade Christ statue to her chest, and sighed, "The murderer has been caught."

As soon as she finished speaking, a blurry figure suddenly appeared next to Xiao Ji in the mirror, which transformed into a semi-transparent humanoid figure that looked exactly like Xiao Ji a moment later.

Ning Qiqi still looked behind her, feeling uneasy, and just like before, there was no one there. The emptiness of her physical form could only be seen in the mirror.

"Hey, didn't we agree to tease her little by little until she reveals her secret? This is the climax of a mystery novel, how can you skip it!" In the mirror, Xiao Ji reluctantly grabbed Ning Qiqi's neck, but as a virtual being, he could only pretend and posed no real threat.

"What deduction? Sasha committed a perfect murder. But tell me yourself, how did you finally solve the case?" Ning Qiqi felt her temples throbbing even more. It was all because of those damn mystery fans that she was dragged into this mess.

Xiao Ji immediately lost his temper.

Actually, it was all absurd. It all started with Xiao Ji's comments online, in which he claimed that his new book, "Listen," was the perfect crime that no one could surpass, causing a huge uproar and countless fans arguing online.

Sasha was originally Xiao Ji's manager, but she was also a fan obsessed with him to the point of being pathological. She used her work to stalk him day and night, severely impacting his daily life. Finally, Xiao Ji and the company, unable to tolerate it any longer, fired Sasha. However, out of consideration for her mental state, they didn't make the matter public. This gave Sasha the opportunity to secretly arrange a fake fan gathering under the guise of being his "manager," luring Xiao Ji to a karaoke bar.

Sasha originally planned to execute a perfect crime based on Xiao Ji's new book, intending to kill him and then commit suicide so that the two could be together forever. However, Ning Qiqi happened to enter the wrong private room, and in her panic, the knife she was about to use to stab Xiao Ji missed its mark, piercing his waist instead. Thus, Xiao Ji escaped death, but Ning Qiqi, who witnessed everything, was murdered by the irrational Sasha.

Although she erased part of the videotape from the KTV room, Luo Jia's testimony shattered her pre-prepared alibi. Furthermore, police found a third person's blood on the blood-stained carpet. DNA testing confirmed the blood matched Sasha's. Later, police found blood-stained clothes and the murder weapon in Sasha's rented apartment, finally identifying her as the killer.

However, since they couldn't confirm Sasha's whereabouts, Officer Xiao proposed to cooperate with "Xiao Ji" to attend Ning Qiqi's funeral and lure Sasha out.

The idea of ​​a perfect crime is utter nonsense. Reality presents too many uncertainties, such as Ning Qiqi's intrusion, the hidden camera in the private room, and Luo Jia's witnessing—it's all just theory. It sounds perfect, but in practice, it's impossible to succeed.

Regarding Xiao Ji's act of wiping his fingerprints after waking up, Ning Qiqi explained that she had just woken up and knew she had been framed. She figured the murder weapon must have his fingerprints on it, so she did it. Officer Xiao was skeptical, but reluctantly accepted her explanation.

It seems this matter is over.

However, Xiao Ji's body was inhabited by a different soul, a fact known only to the antique shop owner, the doctor who saved her, and the real Xiao Ji.

"Sigh, still not enough! Look, Sasha is even pretending to be my editor, she clearly wants to do the perfect crime again! I wanted to see how she prepared! Why did you suddenly stop?" Xiao Ji continued to mutter to himself, looking disappointed.

"What do we do now?" Ning Qiqi glared at Xiao Ji in the mirror. The murderer had been caught, and her body had been reduced to ashes. So what was the next step? Ning Qiqi clutched the jade pendant to her chest, at a loss for words.

The antique shop owner said that if Xiao Ji wanted to return to his own body, he could help.

So, even if Xiao Ji can return to normal, is it still her who will eventually disappear?
"Let's... let's go to the Silent Shop." After struggling for a long time, Ning Qiqi finally decided to return her body to him. She might have died because of him, but that didn't mean she could shamelessly continue living in his place.

It was all a cruel twist of fate.

Although the sun was shining brightly outside, the inside of the Silent House was still gloomy and overcast, as if it had been forgotten by the sunlight.

"You've made up your mind? You want to return the body to Xiao Ji?" The shopkeeper looked up from behind the counter, his narrow phoenix eyes squinting as he looked at her.

Ning Qiqi clenched her fingers, nodded with difficulty, and said with self-deprecation, "Last time, I couldn't decide how I died. At least... this time, let me make my own decision."

"Oh? And what's your opinion?" The boss raised an eyebrow, his gaze passing over her body and looking behind her.

Ning Qiqi felt a chill run down her spine. Besides her and the shop owner, she knew Xiao Ji was definitely in the shop. But it seemed the shop owner could see Xiao Ji without a mirror? She suddenly wanted to see Xiao Ji, so she quickly pulled a mirror from her pocket and looked behind her.

Xiao Ji's pale face appeared in the mirror. His spirit seemed more transparent than usual, so transparent that she could hardly see what expression was on his face. She could even see his lips moving, but she couldn't hear what he was saying.

Ning Qiqi instinctively turned around in a panic, only to find empty air. When she turned back again, she realized that she was the only one left in the mirror, and no matter how she called out to Xiao Ji, he never appeared again.

"What's wrong with him?" Ning Qiqi looked at the shop owner behind the counter like a drowning person pleading for help.

The boss said sympathetically, "A soul that leaves the body can only stay in the world for a maximum of seven days. It will dissipate at noon on the seventh day when the yang energy is at its peak, and today is the seventh day."

Ning Qiqi was struck dumb, and after a long, long time, she finally managed to find her voice: "What...what did he say at the end?"

He said, "Take good care of his health."

After that, Ning Qiqi became Xiao Ji.

Xiao Ji's soul never returned. The days she spent with Xiao Ji felt so unreal that Ning Qiqi couldn't help but wonder if Xiao Ji had actually died long ago, and his soul was just a figment of her imagination.

The Christ statue made of turquoise never heated up again.

She stared blankly at the mirror every day, filling the room with mirrors, hoping to see that figure again, but she never did.

She returned to the Silent Shop many times, hoping to gain some inspiration from the owner, but the owner only glanced at her indifferently and advised her to forget the past and not to be attached to it.

Is forgetting the best option?
She stood there in that dark antique shop for a long time, lost in thought, and finally decided to give the owner the aquamarine Christ statue she was wearing on her chest.

Perhaps this is the right way... It's time to leave the past behind and start a new life.

Yes, Ning Qiqi is dead, but Xiao Ji must continue to live.

She wanted to live on in Xiao Ji's place.

As Xiao Ji, she naturally couldn't write any detective novels, but thanks to Xiao Ji's name, she became an editor at the publishing house that Xiao Ji worked with. She was originally a Chinese literature major and loved reading novels. Although her work wasn't smooth at first, she studied hard and gradually got on the right track.

Occasionally, when she looks in the mirror, gazing at her handsome face, she sometimes misses the proud smile that used to appear on it.

She just can't smile like that; no matter how hard she tries, she can't quite capture it.

She remembered him teaching her how to use a razor; although she always made mistakes and cut herself at first, she was now quite skilled at it. She remembered him teaching her how to tie a tie; she used to only know how to tie a red scarf, but now she could even tie the difficult Windsor knot. She remembered him telling her to take good care of his body.

She always remembered.

Then one day, the editor-in-chief suddenly handed her a manuscript, saying that the other party had specifically asked her to receive them.

Before entering the conference room, Ning Qiqi only had time to glance at the document cover and discovered it was "Listen II." Startled, she pushed open the door and saw a pretty girl standing gracefully.

"Hello, my name is Ning Qiqi." The other person smiled proudly, so radiant, and surprisingly familiar despite being an unfamiliar face.

"What?!" Ning Qiqi froze, mechanically looking down at the author's name at the bottom of the cover, which clearly read "Ning Qiqi." She looked up and glared at the other person. Was it all a coincidence? A coincidence, right?

At that moment, she noticed a very familiar aquamarine Christ statue hanging on the girl's chest.

The other person returned her a big smile, winked playfully, leaned closer, and whispered with a laugh, "Looks like you've kept my body safe quite well!"

"I'm more than what you made of me.I followed the voice you think you gave to me.But now I've got to find my own, my own..."

Faintly, the familiar melody of "Listen" drifted over again. Ning Qiqi smiled slightly and extended her hand: "Hello, my name is Xiao Ji. It's nice to meet you. Please take care of me."

The other person grasped her hand and shook it vigorously up and down. They looked at each other and smiled, everything understood without words.

(End of this chapter)