Chapter 6: Sui Yi, You're Almost Eighteen~~ (Asking for Votes)

Those four words alone—because every time, she managed to deflect all responsibility with flawless precision. So many coincidences, so many suspicions, so many impossibilities, yet never enough to be rejected by the law.

She was the one protected by the law: a seventeen-year-old high school girl.

With a clatter, the chair was shoved back as Sui Yi stood up, her hands curling ever so slightly. “What a pity. It seems you have no intention of questioning me, so I won’t waste any more time here.”

Interrogating Sui Yi was a thoroughly unpleasant task. From start to finish, you would glean nothing from her. Worse, you would be left with an intangible sense of humiliation, as if your own skills and dignity were being quietly shredded.

It was like a starved lion, driven to rage, yet rendered powerless before a hedgehog sleeping sweetly and snugly. One blow of the paw meant only a sharp, stinging pain. There was nothing one could do.

Of course, you could behave as those crude caricatures in novels and TV dramas—brutally, lawlessly mistreating her, forcing her hand, and she would endure it all, only to walk out of the station unaffected.

A few days later, those same police officers would inexplicably become the subject of disgraceful, illegal scandals, naturally discarded by the authorities, reduced to the lowest refuse of society.

She was the sort of person who would wound herself a thousand times just to ensure those who hurt her would suffer a fate worse than death.

The seasoned officers disliked dealing with Sui Yi, but they wouldn’t step aside either, watching for the thirty-fifth time as she walked calmly out before their eyes.

“Sui Yi, you’re almost eighteen, aren’t you…” Lin Quan looked at her, his face dark. “You’re a smart girl. You should know the law has its limits. Once you turn eighteen… you’ll find the law isn’t as gentle as you imagine…” (Author’s note: in this story, the legal age of majority is eighteen, for plot reasons.)

Sui Yi paused mid-step. Zhang Xiao was eager to see fear on her face, but all he saw was a pair of eyes, deep and still as an ancient well.

“Yes, almost eighteen…” She clenched her fist and walked on.

“But the law has never truly had limits. It is cruel to the weak, boundless and indulgent to the strong.”

“Regrettably… I have always been one of the weak.”

Her expression was indifferent, yet so intense it was unforgettable.

Zhang Xiao supposed it was simply that her features were not easily forgettable, rather than any unspeakable bitterness leaking through her words.

A weakling.

She paused between the words.

Isolated. Alone.

Lin Quan’s face darkened even further, but when he glanced sideways, the other officers—astonished and unwilling—made way.

Sui Yi left.

A moment later, Zhang Xiao bit his lip, unwilling to accept it.

“To let such a cunning criminal go? If she’s this slippery now, what will she become in the future…”

He, too, had trained in criminal investigation; he knew all too well what a dangerous adult such a watertight juvenile could become.

Thirty-five times!

The police squad in the ancient town of Nanxun weren’t incompetent, yet not once had they managed to put her behind bars! Even with her age as a legal shield, still… that number was terrifying.

Zhang Xiao glanced hesitantly at Lin Quan. “Captain, I remember that in criminal cases, some of the most dangerous offenders were very young. They’re usually called ‘criminal prodigies’—solitary, defiant, brilliant, deeply antisocial. People like that…”

Lin Quan didn’t look at him. He just muttered something under his breath, so low it was hard to catch, but it sounded like—

“This is the last time.”

He had a premonition—this Sui Yi would no longer skirt the legal borderline. Perhaps she would trample right over it. Or maybe…

As he was thinking this, Lin Quan’s gaze swept the room and suddenly froze beneath the chair.

There was a drop of blood.

Bright, vivid red!

Meanwhile, under the curious and suspicious stares of many customers, Sui Yi walked away at a measured pace, her face tense and cold—so different from the composure she’d shown in the private room.

As soon as she stepped onto the street, her pace quickened, and she blended swiftly into the crowd.

A short while later, in the shadows of an alley, she pressed herself against the wall and opened her hand. Her face was as pale as death. Lowering her gaze, she saw the tender flesh of her palm, a shard of broken mirror embedded in it, burning like a red-hot brand.

Blood seeped from her palm. Her forehead was slick with cold sweat, her lips nearly white as she bit them.

“What exactly is this thing… how did it…” Sui Yi truly felt she’d been swindled this time—swindled by two people, at that!

Blood dripped onto the stone slabs. Sui Yi dared not linger, she had to find a place to remove the shard!

After a moment, she melted into the darkness of the alley.

Around six or seven in the evening, a dilapidated bamboo tenement echoed with the clamor of its impoverished tenants. The lights were dim or sickly yellow, flickering, shadows lurking in every unseen corner.

In a room at the end of the seventh-floor corridor, Sui Yi sat on the floor, a pile of blood-soaked tissues at her side.

She opened her palm, staring at the fragment that had sunk completely into her flesh, the bloody edges oozing fresh red that would not stop.

She had tried several methods, and failed each time.

A basin covered a growing pool of blood on the floor, each drop falling into it with a soft plink. At the bottom, a layer of congealed, sticky blood, topped with a sheen of fresh crimson.

Sui Yi found the whole situation almost absurd.

Yet she could not laugh.

Should she go to the hospital?

“If I go, I’ll probably be quarantined on the spot, and then… Hah, the hospital is even more ruthless and domineering than the police station…”

Sui Yi sighed. Of all places, the hospital was the one she least wanted to see.

Just as she was at a loss, sounds of commotion came from her door.

It sounded like a key turning in the lock, and yet not quite. Either way, to her, it spelled mortal danger.

There was only one key, and it was on her. Whoever was outside… was breaking in.

Who was it? The police? Or…

Whoever it was, Sui Yi didn’t want to see them now!

With a loud bang, the door was flung open! The force was so great it seemed ready to rip the door off its hinges. The person standing there looked like a harbinger of death, a bloody knife gripped in hand.

He looked into the pitch-black room.

A shadow darted out, swift as the wind!

His eyes gleamed with murderous intent, and his blade came down hard!

He knew perfectly well who was inside, and he had every intention of killing her.

But the blade missed as Sui Yi twisted her body at the last second, the knife striking the doorframe with a metallic screech. In a flash, she slipped past her attacker.

With another wrench, the knife was pulled free and swung at her back!

Wham!

Sui Yi leaped onto the railing, one hand gripping a pillar. By the moonlight gleaming at the edge of the seventh floor, she caught a fleeting glimpse of her assailant’s face.

Twisted, streaked with blood, eyes ferocious.

She didn’t know this face well, but it was not entirely unfamiliar—she had seen it that very afternoon.

It was Blackie.

“Blackie, you want to kill me?” Sui Yi asked, her voice taut, eyes darting to the stairwells.

“You set me up, tried to kill me, and I can’t kill you in return? Don’t worry, you’ll be the first… but there’ll be others after you.” Blackie’s murderous rage was unmistakable, the blade spinning in his hand. Sui Yi knew his intent was deadly and unwavering. There must have been things that happened unbeknownst to her, leaving her as the unluckiest one of all.