The world went still.
The boning knife's blade was covered in blood. Thick beads of it fell to the floor. Pei Zhi stared in shock, his fingers spasming as they released the handle. The knife bounced off the floor and fell again, the sharp clang of metal against tile making him tremble uncontrollably. "It wasn't me, it wasn't me... he ran into it himself! He did it himself!"
Feng Wanting's heart stopped for a second, as though an icicle had pierced it. The air before him suddenly thinned. Gasping, he quickly pulled himself together and called for an ambulance. The ringing on the line overlapped with Pei Yang's increasingly faint breaths. Feng Wanting struggled to keep his voice steady as he explained what had happened and gave the address. The moment he hung up, he hooked an arm beneath Pei Yang's knees, lifted him, and rushed for the door.
Pei Yang was in too much pain to speak. His already pale face grew even whiter, and his beautiful, deep-red lips faded to a faint tint. He clutched Feng Wanting's arm and pleaded, "...Don't worry about me. Call the police, call the police. Feng... Wanting... call the police."
"Pei Yang! You're trying to get me killed-" Pei Zhi knelt on the floor, then suddenly lunged for the weapon. After picking it up, he frantically scrubbed the handle with his clothes, trying to wipe off his fingerprints. "I didn't do it, I didn't... he ran into it himself, he ran into it himself..."
He screamed into the air, repeating those words obsessively as his clean clothes grew redder and redder...
Holding Pei Yang, whose chest was still bleeding, Feng Wanting raced down the narrow stairwell, leaving traces of blood on the steps he passed.
By the time he ran out of the