For my best friend

"Hello, Mom? It's me." Sha Chuan coughed softly, steadying his voice.

A stern voice came from the other end. "Don't call me that. I wouldn't dare be your mother! Sha Chuan, explain yourself right now. Are those things people are saying online true or not?"

"Auntie, you're a highly educated woman. Surely you know what people online are like? They jump to conclusions all day long. They could even talk a dead person back to life!" Sha Chuan's voice carried suppressed anger. "Have you forgotten? People even claimed Xuexue killed herself because her family was forcing her to marry a rich man twelve years older than her."

"Those clickbait accounts made all that up to get attention. You have to believe me. Over this past year, whenever you two needed anything, wasn't I always the first to arrive? You can't wrong me like this." As Sha Chuan spoke, he let a wounded expression show at just the right moment.

He had always liked twisting the truth. This stream of words actually left even the highly educated Auntie Xu momentarily stunned, wondering whether she really had misunderstood him.

But it lasted only a moment. Auntie Xu quickly said, "This time, it wasn't some clickbait account online. We saw that girl, Jiang Huaguo, on the livestream. She used to be our Xuexue's closest friend. I believe what she says."

"Closest friend? College roommates are only friends because they live under the same roof. After graduation, they drift apart without even needing a breeze. Besides, Auntie, think about it. After Xuexue died, she didn't even come to see her once. What kind of good friend is that?" Sha Chuan's expression turned scornful and mocking. "I heard she works at an entertainment company now. Maybe she's only speaking up this time to cash in on Xuexue's popularity and drum up publicity for her company."

[Hiss... When Sha Chuan puts it that way, it's not impossible.]

[Didn't Jiang Huaguo say she was trying to avoid facing the terrible news?]

[Sigh, speaking only for myself, if my best friend died, I'd definitely go to her funeral.]

[Me too...]

Seeing that the conversation was beginning to turn in his favor, Sha Chuan immediately seized the opportunity. "Anyway, there are plenty of people with ulterior motives these days. You two should read less news online. Once I finish filming this episode and get back, I'll explain everything properly to both of you."

Naturally, Jiang Huaguo was also following what was happening in the Investigating the Strange livestream. Hearing Sha Chuan say this, she immediately cast everything else aside, even at the cost of reopening her own wounds. "I didn't go to see Xuexue because I'm afraid of cemeteries. Very, very afraid... On the day my dad was buried, my mom held me, stroked my head, and said, 'Sweetheart, I'm sorry.' Back then, I didn't know why she suddenly said she was sorry. But by the time I realized what was happening, my mom had already smashed her head against my dad's gravestone... On the same day, I said goodbye to my dad and lost my mom too. It took me a long time to understand. My mom felt she couldn't support me alone, and she didn't want to live such a hard life afterward, so she..."

Jiang Huaguo gave a desolate smile. "She didn't have the courage to face life after our family lost its breadwinner. Maybe I should thank her for not choosing to take me with her. I think I've managed to make a reasonably decent life for myself now."

She had lost both parents as a child, and with no relatives willing to take her in, she had been sent to an orphanage.

Conditions at the orphanage were terrible. The older children bullied the younger ones and stole her food... But even so, she struggled on and survived. With the orphanage's support, she completed nine years of compulsory education, then earned a recommendation for admission to a leading local high school thanks to her outstanding grades. After that, she worked part-time and squeezed in studying whenever she could, earning admission to Q University, one of Huaguo's top two universities.

When she first entered university, Jiang Huaguo had been very apprehensive. Growing up, she had suffered bullying and contempt because she was an orphan. She didn't know whether her roommates here would look down on her background the way her high school roommates had.

But Jiang Huaguo soon realized she had worried needlessly.

Her roommates treated her very well. After learning that she needed to work part-time to earn her tuition, they often answered attendance for her in some courses outside her major. When they went out for meals together, they also chose places she could afford.

Xu Xue treated her best of all. Winters in the capital were blanketed in ice and snow, with bitter, biting winds. Having come from an island, how could Jiang Huaguo have known winter could be this cold? And she hadn't packed a single piece of clothing that could keep out the chill... Padded coats and down jackets were so expensive, too.

She had only just scraped together enough to pay that year's tuition. Where would she find more money to buy clothes?

Jiang Huaguo could only put on every piece of clothing she owned, layer after layer, trying to ward off the bitter cold. When Xu Xue asked whether she was cold wearing only sportswear, she smiled and said she came from an island where it was hot all year round, so she ran warm and wasn't cold.

Xu Xue didn't expose her lie. She only asked whether she had any part-time work that afternoon and whether she could accompany her to the mall to buy something.

She said she wanted to buy a down jacket for her best friend.

Jiang Huaguo still remembered Xu Xue's lilting voice and brilliant smile when she said those words. Four years had passed, and she hadn't forgotten a thing.

Jiang Huaguo went to the mall with Xu Xue, who smiled and asked her to help try on clothes, saying her friend had a build very similar to hers.

Jiang Huaguo awkwardly tried on that finely made, lightweight down jacket. But just as she put it on, Xu Xue smiled and wrapped her arms around her waist from behind, resting her head on her shoulder.

Xu Xue asked with a grin, "So, my best friend, do you like your present?"

"Xuexue said I was her best friend. I'm terrified of cemeteries. They hold the memories I find hardest to look back on in my entire life. But if you think everything I've said is a lie because of my fear, then for my best friend, Xu Xue, I'm willing to go to the cemetery in front of all of you and swear before her grave that every word I've said comes from my understanding of her relationship with Sha Chuan, and not from any other purpose." Jiang Huaguo spoke each word distinctly, her delicate, gentle face filled with resolve and seriousness.

Sha Chuan soon discovered that the live comments, which had already begun to favor him, were once again mostly insults. He grew anxious, unable to understand just how silver-tongued Jiang Huaguo had to be to convince the viewers to believe her.

His mind was in turmoil, with only one thought standing out clearly-so long as he said nothing, nothing would be discovered.

Yet just then, Qi Gu, who had been listening from the sidelines for a long time, finally moved. He tilted his head, clearly discerning the black threads on Sha Chuan's body and the connections behind them. "So that's it. No wonder this debt of a human life kept flickering in and out of view, too indistinct to see clearly."

"A debt of a human life? What debt of a human life?"

Auntie Xu on the other end of the phone and all the viewers in front of their screens cried out in shock at the same time.