It was the phone Pei Zhou had been using when the accident happened.
He turned on the screen.
The wallpaper was still our wedding photo.
In the picture, I was wearing my wedding dress, lying on his back and smiling without a care in the world.
Pei Zhou opened the photo album.
There were no pictures of Lin Wantang.
It was all me.
There was one of me drooling in my sleep.
One of me with my face covered in a mud mask, trying to scare him.
And one of me being chased all over the house by Yuan Bao because I had tried to steal its canned food.
My face turned green.
“Pei Zhou!”
“Why didn't you delete that last one?”
“I need to have some dignity even after I'm dead!”
Of course, he didn't respond.
He only scrolled slowly through the photos, one by one.
Until he stopped at a video.
In the video, I was curled up on the sofa, eating potato chips.
Pei Zhou was sitting beside me, reading documents.
I suddenly stretched out my foot and kicked him.
“Husband.”
“Mm.”
“After I die, will you marry someone else?”
Pei Zhou looked up in the video.
“No.”
“Liar.”
“Then I'll die with you.”
I immediately sat up and covered his mouth.
“Don't say things like that.”
“Pei Zhou, you have to live.”
“Even if you fall for someone else someday, you still have to live well.”
He took my hand and lowered his head to give it a gentle kiss.
“Jiang Sui.”
“I won't fall for someone else.”
The video ended there.
The study was frighteningly quiet.
After a long time, a drop of water fell onto the phone screen.
Pei Zhou lowered his head.
His shoulders didn't move at all.
He was crying without making a sound.
Just like in the first year after my death.
Just like every day over the past six years.
I stared at him in a daze.
From outside the study, Lin Wantang suddenly called out loudly.
“Pei Zhou, are you still awake?”
Pei Zhou raised a hand and wiped away his tears.
When he looked up again, every emotion had disappeared.
He exited the album and turned off the phone.
Then he locked all six phones away in the deepest part of the drawer.
His movements were so practiced, as though he'd done it countless times.
The study door opened.
Lin Wantang walked in wearing her pajamas.
Pei Zhou turned around, his expression indifferent.
“Why are you awake?”
“I can't sleep when you're not there.”
She walked over and wrapped her arms around him from behind.
“The wedding invitations have all been sent. You won't change your mind, will you?”
Pei Zhou lowered his eyes to look at the hand she had placed around his waist.
After a moment, he gently covered it with his own.
“No.”
Lin Wantang smiled.
But I noticed that the hand covering hers was clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
“Wantang.”
He suddenly spoke.
“Mm?”
“Six years ago, on the day my wife had the accident, where were you?”
The smile on Lin Wantang's face immediately stiffened.
8
8
“Why are you suddenly asking about that?”
Lin Wantang quickly regained her composure.
“Six years ago, I was still studying abroad.”
Pei Zhou looked at her.
“Which country?”
“France.”
“Which university?”
She paused for a second.
“Pei Zhou, are you interrogating me?”
“Just asking.”
His voice was too calm.
So calm that even I almost believed he really was only asking casually.
Lin Wantang let go of him and deliberately turned away.
“You still can't forget her.”
Pei Zhou didn't comfort her.
She waited for a while, then could only redden her eyes herself and continue acting.
“If you regret it, we can call off the wedding.”
“After all, I don't want to marry a man who has someone else in his heart.”
I floated beside them and couldn't help reminding him,
“That's right, that's right.”
“Hurry up and call it off.”
“You two aren't compatible. Even if you get married, you'll end up divorced.”
Pei Zhou was silent for a few seconds.
Then he wrapped his arms around her from behind.
“We're not calling it off.”
Only then did Lin Wantang's voice soften.
“Then promise me.”
“I promise.”
She turned around and leaned into his arms.
Pei Zhou lowered his head and kissed her forehead.
I thought I would feel uncomfortable.
But strangely, this time, I felt nothing.
Because although Pei Zhou was holding her, his gaze passed over her shoulder and landed on the wall behind his desk.
A gray-and-white decorative painting hung there.
In the lower-right corner of the frame was a tiny red dot, almost impossible to notice.
A camera.
I froze.
This was our home.
Pei Zhou hated having cameras installed in the house.
He said cameras would make me uncomfortable.
But now, there was one in the study.
There was another hidden behind the bedroom curtains.
There was even one concealed inside the large vase in the living room.
I suddenly remembered the first day Lin Wantang moved in.
She said she wanted to replace all the furniture.
Pei Zhou agreed to everything.
But every item the contractors brought in had to be personally inspected by Pei Zhou's people before it was allowed inside.
And when he asked her where she had been six years ago—
His tone had been far too calm.
It didn't sound like a man remembering his deceased wife.
It sounded more like an interrogation.
Lin Wantang hadn't noticed.
She returned to the bedroom, satisfied.
After the door closed, the gentleness on Pei Zhou's face immediately disappeared.
He walked over to the desk and turned on the computer.
The screen displayed surveillance footage from the entire villa.
One of the video feeds was pointed directly at Lin Wantang's bedroom.
She sat on the edge of the bed, complaining under her breath.
“You scared me to death.”
“Why did he suddenly ask about six years ago?”
The system answered:
【The male lead has always been suspicious about Jiang Sui's death.】
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