Blood dripped densely onto the ground as Sun Ye, pale as a ghost, scrambled backward on his hands and knees.
“Sh-she… how…” His teeth chattered, unable to form a complete sentence.
Seeing Sun Ye recoil, the girl’s hopeful expression darkened. Her raised hand dropped limply, blood rolling off her fingertips like rain.
Just then, the school bell rang.
The girl suddenly covered her face with both hands, smearing the blood across her scarred skin as she let out a few hollow, meaningless laughs. “Let’s play a game, okay?”
She straightened up, her nails scratching anxiously at her face until thin trails of blood surfaced. Swaying slightly, she stepped toward Sun Ye, pulling down her lower eyelid to reveal a murky, bloodshot eye as she leaned in to glare at him.
Sun Ye’s eyes widened, his breath trapped in his throat. His body felt rooted to the spot, incapable of reacting.
“You wanted to know Chu Shiyu’s preferences, didn’t you? Sit up there, and I’ll tell you everything.” The girl pointed to the ledge beyond the rooftop railing, her voice coaxing, almost hypnotic.
“Don’t you want to be better? Sit there, and I’ll help you.”
A drop of blood splattered onto his glasses, blurring his vision with a crimson haze.
“I…” Sun Ye was stunned, his mind blank.
The girl pressed her face so close their noses almost touched, her voice dropping to a whisper. “Or… do you not actually like Chu Shiyu that much?”
At this moment, Sun Ye had two minutes left before his fatal fall.
Tong Yang pulled a screwdriver from her backpack, tossing her jacket and bag onto the ground.
“Sun Ye, I never do anything without expecting something in return. So, remember this debt—you’ll work your ass off to pay me back later.”
She strode toward the two, coldly eyeing the girl’s grotesque face. “Where do you come from?”
The girl’s lips split into a grin. “Kill him for me, and I’ll tell you.”
“Is it related to the time loop?”
Tilting her head, her twisted features oozed malice. “The time loop… wanna take a guess?”
Tong Yang studied her for a few seconds. “So, it’s connected, but you won’t confirm it?”
The girl giggled, a deranged sound. “Who knows? You’re so curious, aren’t you? Too bad—I don’t feel like telling you.”
Tong Yang tightened her grip on the screwdriver. For some reason, it felt more natural in her hand than a knife or any other sharp weapon. “You’ll disappear in about two minutes, won’t you?”
The girl stared blankly—then, before she could react, the cross-shaped tip of the screwdriver plunged toward her eye.
Darkness swallowed half her vision, as if a hand had covered one eye. Warm liquid trickled down her cheek, something heavy weighing on her left socket.
Confused, the girl lowered her head. Something dangled loosely from her left eye. A figure loomed closer—instinctively, she looked up just as a girl in a white school uniform grabbed the object embedded in her eye and yanked it out.
Blood and mangled flesh clung to the screwdriver as it was ripped free, staining the uniform with thick, glistening red.
Only then did she see the blood-soaked tool in Tong Yang’s hand.
Sun Ye was frozen in horror, trembling uncontrollably as he stared at Tong Yang. He tried to scramble up but found his limbs useless, forced to watch the gruesome scene unfold. He couldn’t decide who terrified him more—Tong Yang or the girl with a gouged-out eye.
“What… are you doing?” the girl muttered, dazed.
Tong Yang strode to Sun Ye, wiping the bloody screwdriver clean on his clothes before answering, “If you’re not even from this world, killing you shouldn’t matter, right?”
The girl lifted a shaky hand, catching the blood pouring from her face like rain. Her head tilted in disbelief. “You’d dare kill me?”
Tong Yang scoffed. “Don’t underestimate the rage of a high school senior. Weren’t you the ones who came after me first? Whatever’s happening on June 7th—you’re behind that too, aren’t you?”
The girl remained stunned, as if she couldn’t feel the pain. “You’d kill me… I’m your classmate!”
“Really? I don’t remember having a classmate like you.”
The girl’s shock twisted into fury. Her lips pressed into a thin line, eyes burning with hatred as she lunged at Sun Ye, fingers tangling in his hair as she dragged him up.
“Damn you! Damn you! Die! Die! Die!”
“Worthless trash! All of you—just die!”
Sun Ye seemed catatonic, his gaze vacant as she shoved him toward the railing, pinning him against it.
“You claim to love her, right? Then die for her!”
“Filth! Scum! You deserve this!”
Her movements grew frenzied, pushing him over the edge. Sun Ye, eerily passive, didn’t resist.
Tong Yang stabbed the girl from behind, but it did nothing to stop her. Like the home invader that night, her focus was solely on Sun Ye—she wouldn’t rest until he was dead.
“Sun Ye!”
As he teetered on the brink, about to topple onto the narrow outer ledge, Tong Yang roared. She seized his collar, yanking him back—only to realize his pupils were dilated, his mind seemingly trapped elsewhere.
“Get off!”
The girl shoved Tong Yang away, baring her teeth. “Once he’s dead, you’re next! Anyone who gets in my way dies!”
“You’re the one who’ll die!”
Tong Yang clenched her jaw. If Sun Ye fell onto that ledge, the commotion would draw attention—and with this unnatural girl vanishing, she’d be blamed for his death.
Cursing under her breath, she yanked the screwdriver free. One hand gripping Sun Ye’s shirt, the other drove the tool upward through the girl’s jaw.
A wet squelch—warm blood sprayed Tong Yang’s face. The girl staggered back, clutching her chin in shock before collapsing to her knees, blood pooling rapidly around her.
Tong Yang didn’t waste a second. An injury like that was fatal. She hauled Sun Ye back, throwing him onto the rooftop floor.
Sun Ye curled into a ball, his face ghostly pale, sweat beading his forehead. His body trembled violently, eyes wide but unseeing—as if his consciousness was locked away somewhere.
Frowning, Tong Yang slapped him hard across the face. Twice.
No response.
Seeing this, she didn’t waste any time and turned to look at the girl kneeling on the ground, her eyes wide with fury. The wound was gruesome, blood drenching her like a bucket of water poured over her body.
“You dare kill me…”
Tong Yang kicked her in the shoulder and snapped, “Why wouldn’t I dare? You’re not some invincible monster with three heads and six arms. Did you really think you could do whatever you wanted?”
The girl’s eyes were bloodshot, one completely obscured by blood, the other filled with venom as she glared at Tong Yang. Gradually, her body lost all signs of life, and she collapsed backward.
At the same time, the pool of blood on the ground began vanishing at a visible rate.
Tong Yang couldn’t help but sigh in relief. It would’ve been a disaster if the corpse didn’t disappear.
“Ahhh!!!”
Just then, a terrified scream erupted from behind.
Tong Yang turned to see Sun Ye sitting up, drenched in sweat, his pupils slowly refocusing. His hands clutched his clothes in a death grip, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
“Well?”
Tong Yang wiped the blood from her face and walked over to him.
Sun Ye looked up at the sound of her voice, his glasses long shattered during the struggle. Two clear tear streaks marked his cheeks, his expression one of deep horror, as if he’d just endured an unimaginable shock.
Only when he recognized Tong Yang’s blood-streaked face did his breathing begin to steady.
Gasping for air, he stammered, “I—I died! Someone pushed me off the building…”
Tong Yang raised an eyebrow and stepped aside, pointing at the nearly vanished corpse nearby. “Her?”
Sun Ye followed her finger and shuddered at the gruesome sight, memories of what had happened flooding back.
“Tong Yang… what’s going on? I remember dying! Right in front of you… I was pushed! How could—”
“I was just wondering how to make you remember so you could repay me. Good thing you do.”
Tong Yang glanced down at her blood-soaked clothes in disgust and said casually, “That’s right. You fell to your death, right in front of me. Your brains were splattered everywhere. Your parents cried their hearts out at the police station when they heard the news. By sheer luck, I went back ten minutes before you died. To make sure you’d work your ass off repaying me later—and to ask these people where the hell they came from—I decided to save you.”
“Got it?”
Sun Ye shook his head dazedly. Her explanation was too absurd, yet the memory of his own death was vivid—no way it was a hallucination. If anything, this felt more like an illusion conjured after dying.
Tong Yang clicked her tongue impatiently, strode forward, and slapped him across the face.
The sharp crack and the burning pain that followed made Sun Ye widen his eyes. “This isn’t a dream?”
“Stop wasting my time.”
Sun Ye touched his stinging cheek. “But what you said to her earlier… about the time loop…”
“You remember, don’t you?” Tong Yang rolled her eyes. “The time loop is how I went back ten minutes before you died.”
“I saved you, so from now on, you’ll work like a dog to repay me. Clear now?”
Sun Ye nodded numbly. “Y-yeah… but what about her? Will we go to jail…?”
“No. She’s not human.” After a pause, Tong Yang added, “At least not from this world.”
For Sun Ye, it had all happened in an instant, but Tong Yang hadn’t rested for hours. She grabbed her backpack and slumped against the wall. “We’ll leave once her body’s completely gone.”
Sun Ye picked up his shattered glasses and finally saw the girl’s body slowly fading away.
Tong Yang opened the “Gossip Squad 007” group chat and tagged a few members.
[Is the suicide incident from June 3, 2024 still there?]
[Huh???]
[Let me check]
[I still can’t fully accept that you’re from 2024, help meeee]
[Gone! The news is gone again!]
[No way! It’s really gone!]
[Sis, what did you do this time?]
Studying to Get Rich: [Guess]
[Come on, don’t keep us hanging!]
[Pleeease!]
[Give me something wild to see, sis]
[Spice up my boring life!]
Tong Yang thought for a moment, then snapped a photo of the not-yet-vanished corpse and sent it to the group.
