My sister, whom I raised, has turned evil after faking her death for three years.

The impact happened in an instant.

Su Qing first heard a deafening metallic clang, then the roar of everything being crushed, and finally settled into a dull, buzzing silence, like being submerged in deep water where nothing could be clearly heard.

She lay on top of Jiang Ran, a tearing pain shooting through her back. Her left ribs felt like they were broken, and every breath felt like countless needles pricking her.

Her white dress was stained red with blood from the shoulders to the hem, and there was a deep wound on her forehead, with blood flowing down her brow bone and obscuring her left eye.

My left arm was hanging at an abnormal angle, probably because it was broken, and my fingers were covered with tiny shards of glass and scratches from metal.

After everything stopped, she heard a voice.

It wasn't a system announcement, nor the clicking sound of metal cooling down, but the sound of a person's footsteps, stepping on broken glass and twisted metal debris, one step at a time, neither too fast nor too slow, as if taking a stroll.

Su Qing struggled to lift her eyelids and, through her blood-blurred vision, saw a thin figure walking out of the rain.

The man held a knife in his hand, the blade gleaming a cold white light in the rain.

Her target is Jiang Ran.

Su Qing's mind cleared up in that instant, and her body reacted before her consciousness could.

She reached out, and her right hand, which was covered in blood from cuts from broken glass, gripped the blade aimed at Jiang Ran tightly.

The sharp blade pierced through her palm in an instant, the tip protruding from the back of her hand, glistening with bright red blood droplets in the rain.

But she didn't let go.

The system's voice rang in her mind, its tone still steady, but a few beats faster than usual: [The host's body has suffered severe trauma; pain shielding function has been activated.]

[Current injuries include, but are not limited to: multiple rib fractures on the left side, distal radius fracture of the left arm, multiple soft tissue contusions throughout the body, facial lacerations, and a penetrating wound to the right hand.]

[System reserve energy has been used to maintain the host's vital signs, but this state can only be maintained for a few minutes.]

Pain was blocked, so Su Qing felt nothing at all.

She gripped the blade tightly with her pierced right hand, while her other hand groped through the rubble beside her, finding a sharp piece of car door.

She picked up the shard and, with all her might, hurled it at the person in front of her.

  

The sharp edges of the shard struck the man's face with pinpoint accuracy, shaving off a large patch of festering skin along with dark yellow scabs, revealing the dark red, still-bleeding dermis beneath.

But there were no screams, no wails. The person just swayed for a moment, then slowly turned his head, turning his face back to her with an extremely slow and eerie speed.

She was smiling.

On that face where half of the skin had been cut off, the corners of the mouth were raised high in an arc that defied the natural movement of human facial muscles, revealing two rows of teeth stained with blood.

"Su Qing...you bitch, you're still alive..."

Her voice was hoarse and shrill, like fingernails scraping against a rusty iron plate.

Su Qing's pupils contracted sharply.

She recognized the voice, and the eyes that still shone with venomous light on the face that was almost unrecognizable as human.

"Cui Jiayi..."

Cui Jiayi tilted her head, like a praying mantis scrutinizing its prey.

She yanked the knife strapped to her wrist out of Su Qing's hand, the blade drawing a string of fine blood droplets that splattered onto Su Qing's white skirt as it was pulled from the flesh.

Then she grabbed Su Qing's loose hair, dragged her out of the twisted back seat of the car, and slammed her hard onto the road surface full of water and broken glass.

"Do you know how long I've waited for this day?"

Cui Jiayi crouched down and gently traced Su Qing's jawline with the tip of her knife. The only intact eyes on that festering face were wide open, the whites of her eyes filled with dense blood vessels. Rainwater streamed down her twisted nose and the dark red wound on her cheek where the skin had been cut off, cutting her face into a horrifying, fragmented image.

"Look at my face, look at how I look now! It's all your fault, all because of you, you bitch!"

Su Qing lay in the cold puddles, the rain washing away the bloodstains on her body, fading the large patches of dark red into light red streams that flowed silently along the cracks in the road.

Her head was spinning, and her vision blurred intermittently, but she still stared at Cui Jiayi's festering face so close to hers, and the corners of her mouth curved up very slightly.

That wasn't even a smile; it was just a slight upturn of the corners of his lips.

"You...are...dreaming."

Cui Jiayi's smile froze.

Then she raised the knife high in her hand and, with all her might, stabbed it into Su Qing's chest.

The blade pierced the skin, penetrated the muscle, and entered the chest cavity, making a dull, faint sound.

Blood gushed from the wound, flowing back down the blade and staining Cui Jiayi's hand holding the hilt red.

"You think you've won? You think you can save her?"

Cui Jiayi's face was very close, so close that Su Qing could smell the stench emanating from her festering skin. Her voice was very low, carrying a morbid, twisted excitement.

"Once you die, she'll be next. I'll send her down to keep you company, so you two sisters can be reunited in hell. How about that? I'm not bad to you, am I?"

Su Qing coughed up a mouthful of blood, the warm liquid dripping down her lips and into the puddles, where it was quickly diluted into a pale red color by the rainwater.

Her fingers twitched slightly on the cold pavement, then she looked up at Cui Jiayi's eyes, which were burning with excitement, and with her last bit of strength, she grabbed Cui Jiayi's hand that was holding the knife handle.

"you……"

Su Qing did not answer.

Using Cui Jiayi's wrist as leverage, she pushed upwards sharply, following the angle at which the blade was inserted.

The blade was pulled from her chest, arcing through the air before precisely slicing across her own neck, leaving Cui Jiayi stunned and unable to react.

The sharp blade cut through the skin, the throat, and the carotid artery.

Blood gushed from the huge wound like a dark red fountain, splashing onto Su Qing, onto the flooded road, and onto the scattered shards of glass, only to be quickly washed away by the torrential rain.

Cui Jiayi staggered back a few steps, clutching her neck tightly with both hands, but the wound was too deep, and blood gushed out wildly from between her fingers, and she couldn't stop it no matter what she did.

Her lips moved as if she wanted to say something, but only a few muffled breaths came out of her throat.

Her knees buckled and she knelt on the ground. She tried to stand up by bracing herself against the ground, but she fell to the side, half of her face submerged in the water.

Her eyes were still open, the whites of her eyes covered with dense blood vessels, and her lips moved as if she was still saying a name, but no sound came out.

The rain washed over the dark red wound on her face where the skin had been shaved off, flushing the blood and pus into the roadside sewer.

Those eyes were wide open, as if they were still wondering why in the last frozen moment.

Why is Su Qing still able to move despite suffering such severe injuries?

Why is it that all her meticulous planning ultimately led to her death here?