The car arrived at the prearranged location with the reporters. Li Chu got out, a red scarf Tang Congnan had wrapped around her neck making her face appear even smaller within the layers of clothing.
Qian Duoduo got out after Li Chu and, standing to the side, couldn’t resist snapping a quick photo. The winter sky was overcast. Although there was no fog or snow at the moment, the entire street still seemed to be enveloped in a leaden gray. Li Chu, in her coat and red scarf, was a splash of color, both striking and harmonious.
Qian Duoduo admired the photo she’d taken before hurrying to catch up with Li Chu and Tang Congnan.
Li Chu, oblivious to her assistant falling behind, looked over the interview outline, mentally preparing her responses. The interview questions were all within her acceptable range, and Tang Congnan was still giving her reminders.
“I’ve already communicated with them during our initial contact,” Tang Congnan said. “We won’t answer any questions about differentiation or anything related to Zhong Yue. If they suddenly ask, you don’t answer, or you ask them to stop. We’re not going to give them anything to exploit.”
Although Tang Congnan really wanted to publicly criticize Zhong Yue, it wasn’t in line with the industry’s way of doing things. Even though Zhong Yue had done those things, and the fan war had started, and everyone knew both sides were involved, they still maintained a superficial politeness online. If Li Chu was asked about Zhong Yue and misspoke or was caught out by malicious editing, it could easily lead to negative consequences.
“Okay.” Li Chu nodded, looking at the interview outline, feeling prepared.
Just as Tang Congnan predicted, they did ask about differentiation. Li Chu steered the conversation to another topic, and the interviewer, understanding, didn’t press the issue, naturally moving on to the next question.
The question was: What’s the biggest difference after differentiation? This question wasn’t unanswerable, and it was quite easy to answer, but as Tang Congnan said, they hadn’t made that deal with the magazine.
Li Chu thought to herself, the biggest difference is, of course, being able to smell pheromones. And also going into heat because of pheromones, becoming a total pervert.
However, from Li Chu’s personal experience, it was quite lovely. Li Chu thought of Ning Manqing’s face and thought, who isn’t a pervert?
While her mind was racing, Li Chu quickly and expertly answered the reporter’s questions, occasionally throwing in a joke. The interview ended in a relaxed atmosphere. Li Chu put her scarf back on after the interview, took the hot water Qian Duoduo handed her, drank a few sips, put on her mask, and waited for her agent to finish exchanging pleasantries.
Li Chu initially thought Tang Congnan would leave after a few days, just coming for the event and to visit the set, but unexpectedly, he booked a place and stayed.
“It’s the end of the year, Brother Hu is extremely busy and can’t take care of you, so everything has been handed over to me. You’re not popular yet, there’s nothing to manage, your endorsement was snatched, so I’m just twiddling my thumbs here.” Tang Congnan set up his small folding stool on set, spreading his hands towards Li Chu.
Because of his job change, some of his previous connections were no longer usable due to conflicting interests. He felt that no matter how much effort he put in now, it wouldn’t be useful. He just had to wait for this drama to finish filming and then make further preparations.
Looking at her dejected but resigned manager, Li Chu’s passion for acting intensified.
However, a few days later, Li Chu learned the downsides of having her manager on set. Under Tang Congnan’s watchful eye, she couldn’t get too close to Teacher Ning.
“Teacher Ning, it’s okay, just pretend I’m not here, you two continue rehearsing, I won’t make a sound!” Tang Congnan sat in the lounge, smiling as he watched Ning Manqing come to rehearse with Li Chu, settling onto the sofa and cheering them on.
Ning Manqing’s grip on the script tightened, using the paper to hide her momentarily frozen expression. Li Chu initially felt it was a bit disruptive, but when she sensed the emotions conveyed in Ning Manqing’s pheromones, she couldn’t help but smile mischievously.
Seeing Li Chu smile so happily, Tang Congnan sighed internally, thinking, what a harmonious scene of a teacher and student getting along!
Ning Manqing, looking at Li Chu’s smiling face, poked her cheek with the rolled-up script and began to rehearse seriously.
The current filming progress was at the point where the past of the case had been mostly revealed. A week after the third man’s death, a fourth victim appeared. It was a female omega, Li Sudong’s lover.
Li Rui didn’t even know about this woman’s existence, but he felt she looked familiar. Later, he learned that this woman resembled his birth mother somewhat, but there was no relation between them. She was just an omega who looked a bit like his mother.
With the four deaths, some past events were also unearthed, including some matters between Li Sudong and Li Rui’s birth mother—his unrequited love—and between Li Sudong and Fang Ying.
Unlike Li Rui, who was step-by-step cornering his adoptive father, Xi Yiyun was investigating the clues hidden within these events, following the trail to find the connection between these events and Qin Mu.
Even at this point, the emotional progress between Qin Mu and Xi Yiyun had reached an ambiguous and unspoken stage. There was genuine affection between them, but those feelings couldn’t stop Xi Yiyun from searching for evidence of Qin Mu’s crimes, nor could they stop Qin Mu’s revenge.
They were just two straight lines that intersected once and would never meet again, their pasts and futures completely different. Even at this point of intersection, they were natural enemies. One was a criminal, the other a police officer. In this life-or-death game, Qin Mu was burning herself, while Xi Yiyun was unstoppable.
Even though they had once escaped together in the dead of night, watched the sunrise and sunset together, and played in the water together, they were always wary of each other, ready to deliver a fatal blow.
Li Chu and Ning Manqing recited their lines, feeling an inexplicable sense of melancholy and reluctance in their hearts. For the end of this story. But every story has to come to an end.
In early December, a light snow fell on the city, stopping after half a day. The sky cleared, revealing a bleak, cold whiteness.
Taking advantage of this light snow, Ji Yun and San Qiu quickly revised the script, moving some of the later scenes forward.
Li Chu had several heating pads stuck to her clothes to prevent her face from stiffening during filming. The original plan was to film the bed scene first, then the death scene, but now with the perfect setting, Li Chu had to rush to film the death scene first.
In the story, Qin Mu never forgot who her target of revenge was. Although she let Li Sudong suffer the fear of being exposed bit by bit by his most beloved child, she didn’t intend to let Li Rui send Li Sudong to prison.
She hid crucial evidence that could incriminate Li Sudong, a recording of her and her mother confronting the hit-and-run driver, containing the driver’s true confession. Of course, this evidence wasn’t particularly strong. It would be better to have the witness testify in person, but just as Qin Mu planned, she didn’t intend for Li Rui to send Li Sudong to prison, and there was no need for her to keep this witness alive for seven years.
That person had long been killed by Qin Mu and Qin Zhiyuan. Even if Li Sudong was the true culprit, Qin Mu and Qin Zhiyuan couldn’t forgive the person directly responsible for Fang Ying’s death.
Qin Mu used this evidence to lure Li Sudong out. Because he was under investigation and police surveillance, Qin Mu couldn’t go directly to him, but she could make Li Sudong escape to meet her.
Qin Mu didn’t intend to waste time like a villain, rambling on and on, nor did she want to watch Li Sudong repent. She very efficiently killed him.
She didn’t want to waste time because she sensed her own exposure was imminent. Her actions weren’t entirely flawless, Xi Yiyun was hot on her trail, and with Fang Ying’s case being brought to light, Qin Mu anticipated she couldn’t escape.
Since she couldn’t escape, Qin Mu decided not to run. After calmly dealing with Li Sudong, she left his body on the ground, went to the bathroom to shower, washed the blood off herself, placed the video evidence next to Li Sudong’s body, locked the door, and left.
She drove to Xi Yiyun’s house and knocked on her door. She wasn’t going to turn herself in. Before knocking, Qin Mu injected herself with a drug. This drug would intensify the scent of her omega pheromones several times over, fatally attracting alphas, but it was harmful to the omega herself and also a banned substance.
As soon as Xi Yiyun opened the door, she was hit with the overwhelming scent of freesia pheromones.
—Please mark me.
—Xi Yiyun, hold me.
Alphas are inherently unable to resist the scent of omega pheromones; they become animalistic, acting purely on instinct.
Even though Xi Yiyun was an alpha with strong resistance, she succumbed to the amplified pheromones. Freesias are not heat-tolerant, yet they still yearn for and need sunlight.
She was captivated by the scent of Xi Yiyun’s pheromones. After Xi Yiyun marked her, she didn’t let things progress but, as pre-planned, used a drug to stop Xi Yiyun and left her house.
When Xi Yiyun regained consciousness, she was undoubtedly furious, but beyond the anger, she had a more dangerous, more ominous premonition.
Li Rui discovered Li Sudong’s body in another apartment Qin Mu rented. Qin Mu was nowhere to be found, but Xi Yiyun, as if sensing something, drove to a certain place.
It was the cemetery where Fang Ying and Qin Zhiyuan were buried. When Xi Yiyun and Li Rui arrived, Qin Mu was there. She saw them but continued with what she was doing.
She swept Fang Ying and Qin Zhiyuan’s graves, kowtowed before each of them, and finally stopped in front of Qin Zhiyuan’s grave. She softly told her mother that their plan was complete.
Her voice was light, as if free from shadows. Not a sense of relief, but the joy of a task perfectly accomplished.
After Qin Mu finished, she ignored Li Rui’s questioning. She didn’t care about him at all; he was merely a tool for her revenge.
She looked at Xi Yiyun and spoke her last words.
“Don’t worry, officer, I injected myself with KR.”
She wore a faint smile, just like when they first met. Seemingly clear and pure, yet a flower of ultimate evil.
Her love was poisonous, as if in her world, the word ‘forgive’ didn’t exist.
Qin Mu was the most beautiful and delicate freesia. San Qiu and Ji Yun had a soft spot for her, so even in her death scene, they let her leave beautifully and cleanly.
All the foreshadowing was in the title, including Qin Mu herself, Xi Yiyun’s love, and Li Rui’s self-deceived happy life, all dying at dawn and dusk.
Qin Mu collapsed in front of Qin Zhiyuan’s grave, the cause of death being poisoning. Surrounding her was the light snow, a world of white.
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