Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

The preliminary investigation results of the accident are out.

It was a dump truck driver who was suffering from uremia and resentful of society. He randomly selected targets and maliciously vented the pain in other people's lives, causing this tragedy.

The driver has been arrested and the evidence is conclusive. What awaits him will be the severe trial of the law.

The dust has settled.

To the world, this seems to be an acceptable, tragic end.

But for Ling Yu, this only pushed him into a deeper and colder abyss of despair.

Even if a murderer like this is sentenced to death...

...

He was silent.

Disappeared from school.

All the projects were thrown to others.

Drive away anyone who disturbs his peace.

I locked myself in an empty room, drew the heavy curtains, and blocked out all light and sound from the outside world.

In my mind, the only scene that kept repeating was the discovery of the dump truck and the onset of despair.

The last thing that stood out was the pure, dazzling, and defenseless joy on Liu Rusi's face.

That joy was like a flame, burning every corner of his soul!

Why? What was she laughing for at that moment? What news could have caused her, burdened with such a heavy darkness, to shine with such undimmed brilliance?

This problem, like a maggot on his tarsal bone, gnawed at him day and night.

In the abyss of losing all desires and being heartbroken, this became the only obsession that could drive the walking corpse.

He obtained the high-definition surveillance video of the accident scene that had not been made public.

Then, Ling Yu locked herself in a room at the deepest part of the apartment where only the dim light from a screen was visible.

He turned off all sounds and blocked out everything from the outside world.

On the screen, scenes more cruel than hell were played repeatedly.

He wasn't trying to relive the pain—the pain was already etched into his bones.

He wanted to capture that moment: the pure joy on Liu Rusi's face when she looked down at her phone, which was enough to light up hell!

High-definition lenses magnify every pixel.

He stared intently at the corners of her mouth, her eyebrows, trying to deduce from this blurry image what the light that illuminated her soul at that moment was. Was it a word? An image? A number? Like an archaeologist deciphering an ancient mural, he greedily yet futilely analyzed the blurry reflection on the screen.

Once, ten times, a hundred times... the scene looped, Liu Rusi's body was crushed again and again, and the bloodshot in his eyes became more and more.

The immense sadness and frustration almost buried the last glimmer of his soul.

He was caught in this futile cycle.

Just at a certain moment, his sight, as if attracted by a magnet, was suddenly nailed to an inconspicuous position in the picture.

After the collision, the crowd gathered and screamed in horror.

Amidst the chaos, a girl, her face as pale as paper, trembling violently. She stared in horror at Liu Rusi, lying in a pool of blood, her eyes filled with fear, but... one of her hands trembled as she reached for Liu Rusi's backpack, which had fallen not far away...

Her face was still pale and terrified, even tears welling up in her eyes. However, she unzipped her backpack and quickly searched for something inside... After a few seconds, she lowered her head, seemingly unable to bear the sight...

Ling Yu, from a bird's-eye view, could see she lowered her head to confirm what she had found... Then, her fingers pinched out a thin, paper-like object...

Her movements froze for a moment, her eyes quickly glanced at the screaming and chaotic crowd around her, and then - she quickly stuffed the piece of paper into her pocket!

Then, she zipped up her backpack as if she was scalded, hugged the backpack with the things already taken out tightly, and then burst into shrill cries along with the crowd!

The girl's movements were almost unnoticeable against the chaotic background. If Ling Yu hadn't watched the high-definition video repeatedly with an almost pathological concentration, it would have been impossible to discover!

But it was like an icy electric current that instantly pierced through Ling Yu's numbness!

The source of joy?

No! Perhaps the root of despair lies right here!

Ling Yu's heart seemed to be gripped by an ice-cold hand, and her blood seemed to have frozen.

He wasn't angry, he wasn't roaring, and his face didn't even show any expression. An extreme, icy calm instantly covered all his emotions, like a hard shell.

He became a machine that moved only for the truth.

He paused the video, zoomed in, and focused on the girl's face. The high-definition camera captured her clear facial features.

He knew this person. She was Liu Rusi's colleague, a junior medical student a year younger than her... She had appeared in a glimpse of Liu Rusi on the campus forum. This junior was also struggling financially and was looking for a part-time job. It was Liu Rusi who introduced her to Time Cottage...

This is the beginning of Liu Rusi's goodwill initiative...

This person even came to Liu Rusi's funeral...

Ling Yu's fingers tapped quickly on the keyboard, using more secret channels to find out the girl's current situation.

The information quickly came back: the girl had resigned from Shiguang Xiaozhu shortly after Liu Rusi's incident. Recently, her spending records showed that she had purchased a large amount of new clothes, shoes, and cosmetics, far exceeding her previous consumption level...

The cold clues were like puzzle pieces, automatically combining in Ling Yu's frozen mind.

An outline that was shockingly clear gradually emerged.

He didn't go directly to find the girl, he needed a more solid anchor.

Ling Yu personally arrived at the Time Cottage. It wasn't mealtime, so the restaurant was a bit deserted. He went straight to the manager. Without a word of greeting, his face held an inorganic, cold expression the manager had never seen before.

"Manager," Ling Yu's voice was calm, yet filled with undeniable pressure. "I want to ask you something. Around... around the Mid-Autumn Festival, did anything special happen in your restaurant? Like... a lottery or something?"

The manager was taken aback by his question, then his expression changed slightly, as if remembering something, with a subtle hint of regret and complexity: "Ah... lottery tickets? Yes, I did! It's Mid-Autumn Festival, and the boss wanted to celebrate, so he gave each employee on duty a lottery ticket. It's a small holiday gift, just a token of appreciation, just a lucky draw."

He sighed, "Ah, who could have thought... within two days..."

The truth from hell was getting closer. Ling Yu calmly took out a photo of that girl and asked without any emotion, "Was she with Liu Rusi during those two days?"

The manager nodded. "Yes. The next day, Liu and Xiao Chen were on the same shift. I remember... it seemed like Xiao Chen was the first to bring it up, saying the boss' lottery tickets had been drawn and asking everyone to check their numbers. Liu didn't seem to pay much attention at the time, but it was Xiao Chen who reminded her to check her lottery tickets..."

The manager tried to recall: "Later... Liu went into the back office. Her lottery ticket was in her backpack in the office, and Xiao Chen followed her in to check..."

Ling Yu could no longer hear what the manager said next.

All the clues suddenly closed at this moment!

Lottery tickets are distributed during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Reminder for prizes for the same shift.

Liu Rusi went into the office and took the lottery ticket from her backpack.

My colleague followed me in.

There was an unprecedented joy on Liu Rusi's face.

A colleague at the scene of the accident took advantage of the chaos to rummage through Liu Rusi's backpack and stole a piece of paper...

Colleagues resigned and their living standards rose sharply.

And the "random" murderer who killed Liu Rusi in revenge against society was also named Chen...

The truth is cold, cruel, dirty, and has a sickening stench of money, ready to be revealed.

The schoolgirl who was kindly introduced to the restaurant by Liu Rusi and who was also struggling at the bottom of society, the "kindred spirit" who had a similar difficult background to her...

Faced with the huge temptation of tens of millions of lottery tickets, the dark side of her soul, twisted by suffering, completely devoured her remaining conscience.

She saw an opportunity to completely change her fate. Her desire to escape poverty and her uncontrollable greed gave rise to a sinister plan. She contacted a distant cousin who also lived in the city. A man with no family, suffering from uremia, barely surviving by driving a dump truck, he had long harbored countless resentments and evil thoughts...

I don't know what she promised...

The murderer took on this brutal and vicious mission and rushed towards his target in a frenzied manner...

Then, in the chaos, when Liu Rusi's life was fading, the colleague stole the unlucky lottery ticket!

They are all people who have been hit by the hammer of life and are struggling to survive in the mud.

When Liu Rusi was climbing towards a peak that would make her parents feel ashamed, she had already seen a bright future!

But this schoolmate cut off the "benefactor's" path to light!

……

All the evidence, the cold chain of logic, the dirty motives, along with the name, photo, and related information of that colleague/schoolmate and distant cousin... were woven into a post that was so detailed it was horrifying using mechanically processed text by Ling Yu.

He did not choose to publish it immediately. Instead, he set a precise time to publish it on the campus forum that he had personally "cleaned up," removed his anonymity, and had a stern warning hanging on the header.

The time is set after everything he planned is completed.

This post will be his last "report" to the world, a belated and bloody statement of the truth.

After doing all this, he turned off all the screens like a machine that had completed its final instruction.

...

Empty underground garage.

There was dead silence and a strong smell of blood filled the space.

He finally pulled the handbrake and turned off the engine.

He got out of the black car, which was much heavier than it looked, closed the door, and went up from the elevator next to it.

Returning to the apartment, I carefully and almost ritualistically washed my hands and body, which seemed to be stained with the smell of blood...

The cold water rushed over the skin, but it couldn't take away the chill that penetrated deep into the bone marrow and the invisible, sticky texture that seemed indelible.

He changed into an expensive, black, haute couture suit, as if he were going to a funeral—which, in fact, he was going to.

...

The night was dark.

We drove to the quiet cemetery again.

He brought no flowers, only an indelible fatigue that seemed to seep from the depths of his soul and... a strange calmness.

He walked to Liu Rusi's tombstone.

On the cold stone tablet, the three words "Liu Rusi" appear particularly dazzling under the cold moonlight.

He sat down slowly, his back against the tombstone, just like he was leaning against the broken dream that he had only touched briefly.

The night wind blew through the pine forest, making a low whimpering sound.

He tilted his head slightly, his cheek against the rough and cold tombstone.

In the moonlight, you can see his slightly pale profile.

His handsome face and the name Liu Rusi on the tombstone took on a strange and sad color under the moonlight.

A bone-chilling wind blew over, as if it wanted to take away all the warmth that didn't belong here, but Ling Yu was unaware of it.

He looked at the blurred lights of the city in the distance, his eyes empty, yet seemed to penetrate time and space.

"I was wrong, Liu Rusi." His voice was very soft, as if he was whispering to a tombstone, or as if he was confessing to himself, "I was completely wrong."

"I thought 'only watch from afar' was a sign of respect, a sign of protection. I thought if I waited for the right moment, I could naturally approach... I thought rules and boundaries could protect you, and also protect my own ridiculous bit of 'purity'..."

He laughed softly, his laughter was dry and sad, revealing a weird and crazy aura, which seemed particularly creepy in the silent cemetery.

“It’s all bullshit!”

"I regret it... I regret being a coward, hiding in the shadows and watching from behind! I regret not being able to be there for you when you needed me most! I regret not being able to save you when danger struck!"

"Or...die together!"

"I regret! Until the very last moment! I couldn't let you get to know me, even just to see me face to face!"

The overwhelming regret was like a flood, sweeping him into a bottomless abyss.

He clenched his fists suddenly, his nails digging deep into his palms, but he felt numb.

He raised his head, his bloodshot eyes fixed on the bottomless night sky that swallowed up the dim light of the stars, as if he wanted to imprint his will into the rules of heaven and fate.

His voice was no longer deep, but instead spoke with a desperate, almost curse-like determination, each word clearly bursting out:

"Listen—!"

"If there really is reincarnation in this world! If there is a next time! If fate... allows me to meet you again!"

“Liu Rusi——!”

He called out her name, like a final battle cry.

"This time-!"

"No matter how much you resist! No matter how strong a fortress you build! I will tear this damn 'Distant View' apart! Smash all the ridiculous morals and boundaries!"

"I will force my way into your world!"

"I will use all means to keep you by my side! Never leave! Even if it means you hate me to the core!"

"I will protect you in my own way...even if that way means you and I will fight until my death!"

"I swear—!"

"I will never allow anyone! I will never allow anyone! Anything! to take you away from me again!"

The mournful oath and the sudden loud noise echoed in the empty cemetery, startling the birds roosting at night and finally dissipating into the boundless night.

...

The tall figure leaned against the tombstone and closed his eyes, as if he had exhausted all his strength.

A trickle of blood slowly and silently flowed on the cold stone surface of the tombstone, like a desperate and enchanting flower of the other shore, dyeing her name - "Liu Rusi" - into a deep dark red.

The moonlight was still cold, shining on the decadent figure and the tombstone beside him that was quietly stained with blood.

The world was silent, as if silently witnessing the final confession and sacrifice of this soul after its complete subversion.