Chapter 1: The Winter of Destiny

In the cold winter of 2006, the cold wind cut like a knife, but it was not as cold as Yang Ming's heart. At the door of the funeral home, his body trembled, not because of the biting cold around him, but because of the great grief deep in his heart. His eyes were empty and lifeless, and the pain spread wantonly on his face like a raging tide, and every wrinkle seemed to tell endless sadness. Just an hour ago, the deadly phone call came like a thunderbolt from the blue. "Is it Yang Rui's brother? Your sister... committed suicide." The cold voice from the receiver, like an incomparably sharp dagger, stabbed straight into his heart, instantly stirring his world to pieces. "Impossible! Definitely wrong!" Yang Ming roared at the top of his lungs, full of disbelief. However, when the other party accurately reported his sister's ID number and school address, his legs instantly went limp, and his whole person fell straight from the scaffold of the construction site like a kite with a broken string. Memories came flooding in like a tide, and his sister's expectant smile a few days ago was still fresh in his mind. "Brother, when I come back from school this week, I will definitely make your favorite sweet and sour ribs for you!" How could that well-behaved and sensible, kind-hearted, and always smiling sister choose to commit suicide? In just a few days, what earth-shaking changes happened? Yang Ming clenched his fists tightly, his fingernails were deeply embedded in his palms, and blood slowly seeped out, but he didn't notice it. At this moment, there was only a voice in his heart that echoed wildly: "Xiaorui, tell brother, this is not true... please..." When he arrived at the door of the morgue, his body seemed to be frozen, and every inch of his skin was stiff. The tattered clothes on his body were covered with soil and sweat, like a heavy shackle. He tried to wipe the mud on his hands, but he realized that he couldn't find a clean place all over his body. He took a deep breath, endured the bitterness and bitterness in his throat, and staggered into the morgue. The pungent smell of disinfectant came to his face, choking him almost, but at this time he had no time to care about it. In the center of the cold room, a corpse covered in white cloth lay there quietly, like a heavy mountain, pressing Yang Ming's heartbeat to a halt, his legs seemed to be filled with lead, and every step was extremely difficult to move. He stood beside the corpse slowly, his trembling hands wiping frantically on his pants, but the stains became more and more obvious, and the pants became more and more dirty. But he didn't care at all. At this moment, all he could see in front of him was this white cloth, which hid the cruel truth he didn't dare to face but had to face. He took a deep breath again, stretched out his trembling hand, and slowly lifted the white cloth. In an instant, his breathing became rapid and heavy, and his hands trembled violently without control. Xiao Rui's originally fair skin was covered with shocking scars, as if it was a ferocious crack, which slashed his heart fiercely. On her wrists and ankles, obvious binding marks were clearly visible, and the dark purple bruises on her slender limbs were particularly dazzling, like the evil marks left by the devil. On her arms, several cigarette burns were even more appalling, as if silently telling the torment and pain she had suffered. "This... what the hell is going on..." Yang Ming muttered to himself, his voice full of shock and pain, and every word was full of endless confusion and grief. He carefully continued to lift the remaining white cloth covering his sister's body. When he saw the few stab wounds on his sister's abdomen that had been sewn but were still ferocious, he couldn't help but gasp for air, and his whole body was struck by lightning. Yang Ming suddenly turned around, his eyes instantly turned red, like burning flames, staring at the staff at the side, and roared: "You tell me, this is a fucking suicide?!" The staff member was scared by his sudden move and took a step back, looked flustered, and stuttered: "This... this is just a preliminary conclusion, and we don't know the specific situation..." Yang Ming rushed forward like a mad lion, grabbed the other party's collar, his eyes were red, and he roared hoarsely: "My sister's whole body is injured, but you actually told me it was suicide?" Just then, a person in uniform walked in and said loudly: "Please calm down! According to the autopsy report, it was indeed determined to be suicide, as for the injuries on her body..." Speaking of this, the other party hesitated for a while, and then said: "It is obviously an old injury, and it is said that it was left by herself when she had sex with someone else." "Fart!" Yang Ming gnashed her teeth in anger, "Xiaorui is only eighteen years old, how could she do such a thing!" Yang Ming let go of the staff and turned to the man, his voice trembling violently, "My sister... she was clearly abused... This can't be suicide, someone must have deliberately murdered her!" The uniformed staff sighed helplessly, silent. The entire morgue fell into a dead silence, as if everyone had turned a deaf ear to his words. At this moment, Yang Ming felt incomparably helpless and hopeless. Finally, he could no longer suppress his inner grief, lying next to his sister's body, he cried aloud, and the cry was heart-wrenching, as if to shatter the whole world. Memories of the past flashed in his mind like a marquee, and every picture was like a sharp knife, stabbing his heart fiercely. " Brother, in fact, you should have gone to college. Your college entrance examination results are much better than mine... and you are so smart... "" Brother, you must have worked hard on the construction site, right? When I graduate from college and find a job, I will definitely take good care of you... "" Brother, don't always give me all the meat, you have to eat more yourself... "" Brother, how did my parents die? "" Brother... "" Ah!!! "Yang Ming suddenly raised his head and used all his strength to let out a roar, which seemed to break through this repressive space. His eyes were bloodshot, full of endless pain and despair, which was a kind of sadness that went deep into the bone marrow, enough to make the world change color. Under the gaze of everyone, he gently wrapped his sister's body in a white cloth and slowly picked it up. Every step was extremely heavy, as if every inch of the ground under his feet carried the pain he could not bear, and every step seemed to be stepping on the tip of his broken heart. "Wait a minute... you haven't..." A person tried to stop him. Seeing this, the captain next to him sighed helplessly and said, "Let him go." Walking out of the funeral home, snowflakes suddenly floated in the sky, and the white snowflakes fell one after another, as if the sky was mourning silently for the lost life. In an instant, the whole world was covered with snowflakes, and snow, like tears of sadness, drifted all over the sky. Yang Ming held his sister's corpse in his arms and walked step by step on the cold asphalt road. His face was as pale as paper, and his eyes were empty and lifeless, as if his soul had dissipated with the departure of his sister, leaving only a walking corpse-like body, struggling to move forward in the ice and snow. "Hey!" Suddenly, a few well-dressed and fluent little thugs blocked his way. The leader, Yellow Hair, had a fierce look on his face and said viciously, "Are you Yang Rui's brother? Your sister asked us to pay the money we borrowed, but now that she's dead, how are you going to pay this debt?" Hearing the other party's words, Yang Ming slowly raised his head, a hint of doubt and pain flashed in his eyes, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Xiaorui asked you to borrow money?" "Nonsense!" Yellow Hair said with a grim smile, "Damn, don't even think about denying it! I tell you, your sister took fruit photos in order to borrow money from us! If you dare to cheat, I will post those photos to her school and let everyone see what kind of person your sister is!" At this time, another little gangster glanced at the corpse in Yang Ming's arms and said with regret: "What a damn pity, when I said that I would let her accompany me for one night and give her no interest, she had to do it, now it's fine, she's dead, and there's nothing left." "Grass, you're not afraid of getting sick." The third gangster interjected from the side, "Don't look at this girl's innocent face on the surface, but in fact she's very slutty..." "You know?" "How the hell didn't I know?" "Listening to their unbridled talk, Yang Ming's face became more and more gloomy. He stared at the leader's yellow hair and squeezed every word out of his teeth:" What did you just say? "" Are you fucking deaf? Lao Tzu said... "Without waiting for Huang Mao to finish speaking, Yang Ming slammed his forehead into the bridge of his nose. Only to hear a" click ", Huang Mao screamed, and the whole person fell backwards to the ground, his nose was skewed, and blood gushed out of his nasal cavity in an instant, flowing all over his mouth." Draft mother! "Seeing this, several other little thugs swarmed up. Yang Ming quickly turned around, protected his sister's body with his body, and let their fists and feet rain down on him like raindrops. Every punch and foot brought piercing pain, but compared with the pain in his heart, these were insignificant." Xiaorui... I'm sorry, wait a little longer, brother... " He whispered to his sister in his arms, as if she could still hear him. He carefully placed the corpse on the ground, and before he could stand still, he was kicked hard on his back. He staggered and almost fell to the ground. But he gritted his teeth and stood up again with tenacious will. When he stood up again, his eyes burned with crazy anger, a kind of despair and anger after losing everything, as if to burn everything in front of him. Almost in an instant, he was like an angry cheetah, and he grabbed the little gangster closest to him. The powerful strength that had been worked on the construction site for many years broke out completely at this moment. He broke it with force, only to hear a "click" sound, which actually broke the man's arm alive! The screams of the punks cut through the cold air, which was particularly harsh in the silent snowy night. Yang Ming's eyes flashed with a cold light, and in the snowflakes, the whole world seemed to change color because of his anger.