A news report on television stated that a major fire broke out in a residential building in Y City today. The exact cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but after more than two hours of relentless efforts by the firefighters, the blaze was finally extinguished.
The residents inside the building had been evacuated immediately. Although the fire was fierce and consumed two whole floors, fortunately, the occupants of the upper floors were not at home, and no casualties had been reported. Just as everyone was breathing a sigh of relief that the fire was out, firefighters carried out a charred female corpse from the burning apartment. From the woman's protruding belly, it was evident that the victim was pregnant.
Time turned back two hours.
Song Xinxin, seven months pregnant, had just returned from a prenatal checkup at the hospital.
She looked very bloated now; not only was her belly high and prominent, but even her calves and feet were swollen, making walking a struggle. With no other choice, burdened by her heavy body, she trudged along with one hand supporting her aching lower back.
Standing before the elevator, she caught sight of her own swollen reflection, and a trace of imperceptible sorrow flashed through her eyes.
She used to be tall and slender with fair skin, looking lovely even without makeup when she went out. But now, she was dressed in a baggy maternity outfit and a pair of men's size-ten slippers. With her short hair barely reaching her neck and her bloated face, she looked unattractive even with makeup. To avoid affecting the baby's development, she had avoided using cosmetics almost entirely; even products marketed as safe for pregnant women filled her with distrust, and she refused to use them.
She had originally assumed that with her good natural features, she would look fine bare-faced and could pull through, but she hadn't expected that the longer the pregnancy lasted, the worse her skin would become. Not only was she bloated, but dark spots had also begun to appear, dotting and spreading across her fair cheeks like deep scars permanently etched into her skin.
Lately, she had avoided looking in the mirror almost entirely, but catching her blurry reflection in the elevator doors, she could no longer bear the sight of herself.
Stepping out of the elevator, she walked toward her front door, only to find it left ajar.
"Could a thief have gotten in?" she wondered as she slowly pushed the door open, picked up a broom from beside the entrance, and crept into the apartment with a surge of courage.
Not long after entering, she faintly heard a woman's voice. At first, it wasn't clear, but as she followed the sound toward the bedroom, it grew louder the closer she got. The bedroom door was also unlatched, leaving a narrow crack.
Only then did she clearly hear someone speaking inside.
"Yuan Lai, you've got some nerve, actually bringing me to your place. Aren't you afraid your wife will come back?"
Before the woman could finish speaking, a pair of seductive gasps rang out, followed by a man's rough voice: "As long as my dear is happy, I'd gladly go through fire and water..." The end of his sentence trailed off into several heavy breaths.
Amid their overlapping gasps, fragments of their conversation drifted through. "Didn't you used to love your wife so much? So now... whom do you love more?"
"I was young and ignorant back then, and thought she was pure and cute. But now she just seems clueless and utterly dull... To put it bluntly, her skills don't even measure up to one-thousandth of yours, my dear..."
"Hahaha... I heard she used to be a campus goddess at your university... ah... back in college... she even starred in several dramas... ah... darling, please be a bit gentler with me..."
"Gentle? Doesn't my dear like me rough and simple? If I serve you well, can you consider me for the male lead in your next drama?"
Hearing the conversation inside, Song Xinxin froze, her mind spinning into chaos. With a loud crash, the mountain of her beliefs suddenly collapsed. Her legs turned to jelly, and she collapsed heavily onto the floor.
She couldn't believe what she had just heard. The man who had sworn up and down that he loved her and would treat her well for the rest of her life was actually in their bedroom with an older woman while she was pregnant...
Looking up at the wedding photo hanging on the bedroom wall, she saw the two of them holding hands, gazing into each other's eyes with the corners of their mouths slightly upturned, radiating a happiness that seemed ready to overflow. But looking now at the joyful pair cavorting beneath that very portrait, the scene was agonizingly ironic.
Startled by the noise, the two people on the bed jumped. Yuan Lai hurriedly pulled away from her, hastily gathering his clothes while darting glances at the crack in the door and calling out, "Mom? Is that you?"
Fighting back tears, Song Xinxin tried to stand up from the floor. She didn't want to face this; how she wished she had never come back, never witnessed any of it.
Before she could push herself up from the floor, Mother Yuan pushed open the door, carrying a vegetable basket and humming a tune. The first thing she saw upon entering was Song Xinxin collapsed on the floor.
"What are you playing at? Who are you putting on this melodramatic act for?" Mother Yuan launched straight into cold mockery, refusing to even look at her properly.
Ever since Song Xinxin became pregnant, Mother Yuan had traveled from her hometown to take care of her. Since Song Xinxin had no job and no income, Mother Yuan viewed her as a lazy parasite.
Yuan Lai worked hard enough making money, yet still had to come home and take care of Song Xinxin—soaking her feet and reading stories to the baby in her belly. Sometimes, at the slightest sign of discontent, Song Xinxin would give Yuan Lai a cold attitude. Long-standing grievances had accumulated between the two women.
Still slumped on the floor and unable to rise, Song Xinxin felt tears of grievance stream down her cheeks at Mother Yuan's words. Almost in a cry, she shouted, "What right do you have to lecture me? Why don't you look at what your son is up to in that bedroom?"
*Crack! Crack!* Two slaps landed across her face. The one who struck her was none other than Mother Yuan. "Whatever my son does, he does for this family! But you—you don't earn a single penny, so how dare you criticize my son?" With that, Mother Yuan grabbed her by the hair and dragged her outward, cursing as she pulled. "Why on earth did my son marry a woman like you? You have zero talent, but a temper the size of the sky. Get out of this house right now..."
"Mom, what's going on?" Yuan Lai and the female supervisor walked out, already dressed.
"You stay out of this! Even if it kills me today, this old woman won't let her ruin your prospects..." Mother Yuan grabbed Song Xinxin's clothes and hauled her desperately toward the door.
Prospects? Song Xinxin's eyes widened. So Mother Yuan had known about their affair all along?
Song Xinxin's head buzzed. It turned out she was the only one being played for a fool. Her heart felt like a wall riddled with gaps, letting the cold wind howl inside, loneliness wandering through her chest like a homeless ghost.
"Ah... there's blood..." The female supervisor's shrill scream drew everyone's gaze to the trail of blood smudged across the floor where Song Xinxin had been dragged.
"Xinxin, are you alright? Does anything hurt?" Panicked at the sight of blood, Yuan Lai rushed over to check on her.
Song Xinxin was startled as well. She barely registered the pain in her abdomen; she only felt a violent wrenching in her chest, as if someone were stirring it with a knife.
"My baby, my baby..." Song Xinxin wept. Then, catching sight of Yuan Lai, a surge of overwhelming fury took over, and she struck him across the face. "You bastard, Yuan Lai, you absolute bastard!"
Mother Yuan couldn't bear to see anyone hit her son. Enraged, she hoisted Song Xinxin up and gave her a violent shove. Song Xinxin crashed directly into the stove where soup was simmering.
Her elbow knocked over the clay pot, spilling its contents across the floor. At the same time, her sleeve brushed against the open flame and instantly caught fire.
The searing pain wrung a series of agonizing screams from her lips. "Ah... ah... Fire... Help, fire..."
Having completely lost her mind, she wept as she flailed her burning arms and stumbled toward Yuan Lai, screaming, "The fire blanket, get the fire blanket..."
Seeing her clothes ablaze, with flames dancing across her body like demons until her entire upper garment became a playground for fire, Yuan Lai watched as Song Xinxin now appeared dressed in garments woven of raging, searing flames.
She ran straight toward him. Terrified by the sight of her engulfed in fire, Yuan Lai quickly stepped out of the way. As he dodged, he grabbed the female supervisor and kicked Song Xinxin, trying to force the "burning" woman to stay away from them.
"With a fire this big, Song Xinxin is dead for sure," Yuan Lai thought to himself, completely resigned to that outcome.
The mischievous fireball, the moment Song Xinxin was kicked to the floor, leaped onto nearby furnishings like the sofa, tables, chairs, curtains, and the TV cabinet. They all transformed into a playground for the flames, leaping and surging upward as if trying to climb to the upper floors to find new entertainment.
Swallowed by the flames, Song Xinxin had completely lost her reason. Her remaining primal instinct for survival urged her to seek help from those around her, but not a single one of the three people present was willing to offer aid. Some even wished she would burn to death sooner, because her cries for help were simply too piercing.
They seemed capable of piercing through every mist and reaching the temple of truth.
"Auntie, where's the fire blanket?" The female supervisor suddenly snapped out of it, having been too paralyzed by the moving ball of fire to speak until now. Sure enough, she liked taking advantage of male celebrities, but she had no desire to be a murderer!
Mother Yuan remained silent, boundless hatred gleaming in her eyes. Watching Song Xinxin writhe in the fire, she was reminded of slaughtering chickens during the New Year—cutting the bird's throat, letting it bleed out, and tossing it onto the road to struggle in its death throes, kicking and twitching until it finally fell still.
Song Xinxin truly resembled one of those drained chickens struggling in agony, twitching ceaselessly as she endured the searing heat of the flames and the chilling apathy of the one she loved most.
Seeing the fire grow larger and threaten to consume them, Yuan Lai quickly grabbed the two women and bolted outside. Once out the door, he didn't forget to glance back at Song Xinxin, who was too weak to struggle anymore and lay collapsed on the floor, twitching uncontrollably.
The indifference in his eyes was like looking at a dead dog by the roadside, and the cold smirk at the corner of his mouth seemed like appreciation for a masterpiece of his own creation. With a quick turn of his hand, he locked the door.
Most of the skin on Song Xinxin's body was burned, yet the flames continued to scorch her. The physical agony faded as she grew too numb to care; the pain of betrayal and abandonment was the most fatal of all. The boy who had once loved her most was now watching through the glass as she was swallowed by the fire—not only refusing to save her, but desperate to keep his distance.
She wanted to cry, but her tears had already been evaporated by the flames. She wanted to scream, but her vocal cords had been scorched, unable to produce even a sound, and even her eyes were melting away in the inferno.
"Yuan Lai... I won't let you go..." she thought to herself, curling quietly into a ball as she gave up the fight...
"Cut... Excellent... That performance was simply fantastic!"