By the time Seventh Master and I reached the entrance to Sun Yang's residential complex, Meng Yifan and Song Xiaotian were already there.
A crowd had gathered at the entrance, including residents of the complex and relatives of Sun Yang's family.
Gu An'an was there too. She was in a bad state and looked as though she had just been crying, her eyes red and swollen.
We went over to greet her and asked what exactly had happened.
"I... I'm not too sure either. When I got up this morning, I saw a farewell text from Sun Yang."
Choking back sobs, Gu An'an said, "He sent one to everyone in the family, saying he had taken his own life at home last night. He told everyone to take care of themselves and, after he died, to bury his ashes with Jiayu and Ruoning."
"I got up fairly early this morning. When I saw the text, I contacted the rest of the family and we came over together to check on him. But none of us dared go inside, so we asked the complex's security guards to go in. They found that Sun Yang was already dead. He'd burned charcoal."
Suicide by burning charcoal. Carbon monoxide poisoning...
Sun Yang had killed himself last night. Had he fallen into despair because we took Ding Ruoning away, then lost all hope and gone to extremes...?
If that was the case, hadn't we caused his death?
The four of us exchanged glances. None of us dared say anything.
I asked Gu An'an, "Sister An, what time did Mr. Sun send you the text?"
Gu An'an choked out, "Three twenty-five in the morning. By the time I saw it, it was already six thirty. Last night... if any of us had stayed up late, we