Beijing, Lu Shufen’s phone fell from her hand, and she slumped onto the sofa in a daze, stupefied.
Jiang Conghe shifted his gaze slightly away from the newspaper, glanced down, and peered over the rim of his glasses, "What happened? Did Xiao Tian cause trouble again?"
Lu Shufen shook her head as tears began to stream down her face.
Jiang Conghe, startled, dropped the newspaper, sat beside her, and took her hand, only to find it ice-cold. He anxiously asked, "What’s the matter? What happened?"
Lu Shufen clasped his hand and murmured, "Something’s happened, Old Chiang, something’s happened!"
Jiang Conghe was beside himself with urgency and kept probing, "What in the world happened? You must tell me—are you trying to kill me with worry?"
"It’s Qingqing, Old Chiang. The thing I feared the most has still happened. Qingqing, she..." Lu Shufen looked helplessly at Jiang Conghe, her face deathly pale.
Jiang Conghe was stunned for a moment; his face slowly drained of color, "You mean?"
Lu Shufen nodded, and breaking into sobs, cried out, "Qingqing, she might have had an episode!"
Jiang Conghe drew a sharp breath and blurted out without thinking, "How could this happen; it’s impossible!"
"Xiao Tian just called, he said something was off with Qingqing, said she had a breakdown, said..." Lu Shufen was visibly terrified.
Jiang Conghe pursed his lips, locking eyes with her, both seeing the terror and the dread reflected in each other’s gaze.
His memory suddenly traveled back twenty-something years, to when... how long had it been, right, when Qingqing was five.
The child was clever from the start, could sing and dance, and was sweet-talking. He and his wife doted on her like the apple of their eye. Even her uncle and grandfather loved her dearly, calling her a little princess who was the apple of everyone’s eye was no exaggeration.
That year she was five, they were also living in a compound. The neighbor’s girl from the Lin Family, what was her name? He had forgotten, Lin Jinger, perhaps?
The child had received a puppy, a small dog just a couple of months old, all white like snow, without a single spot of any other color, very pretty indeed. Lin Jinger loved it immensely and was so proud.
Qingqing saw it and wanted it, but in their home, Lu Shufen was allergic to dog fur. They wouldn’t keep such pets nor allow their child to have one. But Qingqing insisted she must have it, and specifically Lin Jinger’s dog, claiming it was hers.
But it was someone else’s pet and they loved it too, so of course they wouldn’t give it away, and since they couldn’t keep one at home, they naturally didn’t entertain Qingqing’s idea. No matter how much Qingqing cried or threw tantrums, they wouldn’t agree.
So what happened? Qingqing suddenly stopped bothering them, but one day, Lin Family’s dog vanished, as did Qingqing. Both families searched together, finally finding them in a small park.
They were found in a small hollow in a tree at the park, Qingqing together with the puppy. But the scene at that time...
Jiang Conghe shuddered at the memory.
There sat Qingqing, her snow-white dress covered in fresh blood. At her feet lay the horribly disfigured little white dog, and her mouth was full of dog fur and blood. She smiled at them and said just one sentence, "Now this puppy will always be mine."
Lu Shufen fainted on the spot, and Lin Jinger, who was screaming nonstop, also passed out.
Afterward, the Lin Family was transferred to the South and moved away, and Jiang Conghe covered up the entire incident.
But after what had happened, they could not be at ease and took Chiang Qing to see doctors stealthily, visiting psychiatrists and psychologists, where she was diagnosed with acute intermittent schizophrenia, leaving them both dumbfounded.