In dissection class, the corpse on the table turned out to be my ex-girlfriend...
I still remembered my last dissection class of junior year. The room had been thick with the stench of formalin.
My professor asked me to make the first incision. As a medical student, I agreed without hesitation.
But when I lifted the white sheet and saw the corpse on the dissection table, I froze in shock.
My ex-girlfriend was lying there, perfectly still...
Her name was Bai Xiaoyu. We'd met at a bus stop.
It had been raining that day, and when she saw I didn't have an umbrella, she held hers over me.
She was beautiful and kind, so I asked for her WeChat.
Once we got to know each other, we met up many times, and before long, we were together.
When we first started dating, she was in poor health and looked pale. Even her lips were almost white.
But she had a wonderful personality and was gentle.
We'd never had a single argument, but we'd never been particularly intimate, either.
It wasn't that I didn't want to. She was strongly against it.
Every time, she said she wasn't ready and asked me to wait.
Seeing how cautious she was, I stopped thinking about it.
But we only ever met at night, and never before ten.
I'd asked her about it.
She told me she had to work during the day at a research institute.
Her job was demanding, she wasn't allowed to use her phone at work, and she barely had any days off.
She was only free to go out at night.
I had to admit, my ex-girlfriend was impressive.
She'd started working at a research institute in her early twenties, while I was still in college.
I figured I should treat her well.
A girl who was so kind and accomplished was hard to find.
Still, my ex-girlfriend had some unusual habits.
She absolutely hated having her picture taken.
Whenever I asked to take a photo with her, she'd refuse outright and get strangely angry.
She was also very antisocial. We never went shopping or saw movies on dates. Instead, she'd either drag me around a park or take me for a walk along the road.
She especially hated cats and dogs, and dogs seemed to love biting her.
On several dates, stray dogs or pets we passed would bark at her like crazy.
They sounded utterly furious, as if they were sworn enemies.
Once, I tried to chase away some dogs that wouldn't stop barking, and one of them bit my hand.
Xiao Yu was terribly worried when she saw it.
Seeing her concern, I pulled her into a tight hug.
That was when I noticed how cold her body was, and that she had a faint, strange smell about her.
It was a little like the smell in the corpse storage room at our school.
I didn't think much of it.
I just told her I was fine and not to worry.
But she insisted on taking me to the hospital.
By the time we got there, the staff had gone home. The only option was to go to the disease control center.
It was already past one in the morning, and she had work the next day, so I told her to go home first.
I'd go to the hospital myself the next day. As long as I got vaccinated within 24 hours, it would be fine.
Xiao Yu made me promise several times before she finally left.
But when I headed out to get vaccinated the next morning, I found a handcart piled with dead stray dogs by the roadside.
A sanitation worker nearby told me someone had poisoned the dogs on several blocks of Xuefu Road the night before.
What I'd seen was only a small part of them.
After that, Xiao Yu and I never came across another stray dog on our dates.
Even the few dogs at our school had been poisoned.
But after that incident, Xiao Yu started asking me for money.
She never asked for much, just one or two yuan at a time—not even enough to buy a cup of milk tea.
I didn't think much of it and told her I'd send it through WeChat.
But she refused. She only wanted coins.
And they had to be the kind minted in 2018. She wouldn't accept coins from earlier or later years.
I asked what she needed coins from that year for, and why she was so particular.
She stammered and wouldn't tell me.
I kept asking, but all she finally said was, "To buy a life."
I wondered what kind of life a few lousy coins could buy.
Even the little goldfish sold outside our school cost five or ten yuan each.
She clearly didn't want to talk about it, so I stopped pressing her.
After that, though, she started making some strange requests.
She insisted on seeing me on the first and fifteenth of every lunar month.
And every time we met, she forbade me from wearing anything red—not even red shoes or underwear.
She had to inspect my clothes, too. It was mortifying.
On top of that, Xiao Yu would return the coins I'd given her the previous time.
She made me spend them within a day.
She said that once a coin had been blessed, it lost its good fortune, so I had to use it up.
She also insisted that I film myself spending it and send her the video.
I'd heard long ago that people in research had all kinds of quirks.
Clearly, my ex-girlfriend did, too.
Our happy relationship went on for over a year.
Every time we met, I'd give her one or two coins minted in 2018, and then I'd take back one or two and spend them.
We did this every month for a year.
But then, a week ago...
We went on a date as usual. Afterwards, I took back one of the coins to spend.
But I had a packed schedule the next day, so I ended up putting it off...
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