How Can You Take Complete Revenge on a Scumbag Woman?

While I was buried alive underground, my best friend called and told me my husband had divorced me for her.

The air in the wooden box would only last half an hour. At that moment, there was just one thought in my mind:

“I want her dead.”

1

The year I divorced was the lowest point of my life. Seeing I was a single mother, the landlady suspected I worked in that profession. She said that if she discovered me bringing “men” home, she’d immediately call the police to arrest us.

I had less than five thousand yuan to my name. I rented a small bedroom in an old apartment and lived there with my daughter, who’d just started elementary school.

To save a hundred yuan in monthly rent, I bargained until I cried in front of my daughter.

When the elderly landlady suspected me and said those things, my daughter cried in my arms.

From that day, I secretly swore I would earn a great, great deal of money.

So much that no one would ever dare point at our noses and talk down to us again. For those years, I worked as if my life depended on it. After work, I continued at part-time jobs.

Every day, I was so exhausted that my steps floated and my heart raced, as though I might drop dead at any moment.

But I couldn’t stop. Each late night, returning to that cramped bedroom and seeing my daughter asleep, I told myself: You cannot stop.

Perhaps my luck had turned. During that time, I met the greatest benefactor of my life.

My best friend, Lu Lu.

She was a new dispatched worker at my workplace, employed under a labor-service contract. Yet her outfit alone was worth three years of my salary.

Everyone guessed that either her family was wealthy or her husband was.

We first met by chance while getting water in the kitchenette.

She walked over and suddenly asked, “You’re that divorced woman?”

I was startled. My husband and I had worked at the same place. He’d resigned after the divorce. Naturally, something like that couldn’t stay hidden.

But I barely knew her. Bringing it up immediately felt offensive.

She showed no intention of stopping. Standing there, she touched her chin and recalled:

“Your husband asked for the divorce, right? Everyone says he probably kept a mistress outside, but even you couldn’t find out who she was… He really knew how to keep a secret.”

“The point is, you didn’t take a cent, just custody. What were you thinking?” she said.

“Life’s not easy now, huh? Makes sense. You eat so much at the cafeteria at noon. Probably trying to save the cost of dinner.”

With my scars peeled open one by one, humiliation turned to anger.

“Have you said enough?!”

“Want to make money?”

As I turned to leave in fury, she suddenly asked from behind me.

“Enough money for you and your daughter to become people above people.”

2

Money was the most unreasonable thing in the world.

It could make you willing to listen to anyone.

Even someone who’d been tearing open your scars a second earlier.

A few days later, I treated her to dinner at a relatively upscale hotel.

The private room had a minimum spend. My hands shook as I read the menu.

That was when she told me how to make money.

“Do you know what kind of money is easiest to earn?” she said. “Dead people’s money.”

3

As it happened, my job was managing dead people’s money.

In this city, when an enterprise employee died, their relatives could come to my service counter and collect two payments.

A death benefit and funeral expenses.

That was the money I handled.

Only then did I learn from her that our workplace’s system had a loophole.

Simply put, by exploiting it, I could make someone who’d already died “die again.”

Of course, that meant at the data level.

Then I could issue the death benefit and funeral payment again.

After I’d tampered with the process, however, that money would eventually flow into my accounts, my parents’ accounts, or the accounts attached to multiple bank cards I’d bought online.

A cunning rabbit had three burrows. Neither gods nor ghosts would know.

“This system’s been used since the nineties. It’s ancient. Don’t worry about it detecting anomalies. It doesn’t even have a detection function,” she said. “Besides, manual approval has never been strict. Do the tampering properly, and no one will find it.”

“Also, those people are dead.”

As she spoke, she actually laughed.

“How are dead people going to discover any of this?”

4

I knew very clearly that this was a crime.

But that night, when I returned to the cramped bedroom, I discovered my daughter pretending to sleep.

Tears hung on her face. I repeatedly asked what was wrong. Was she unwell?

Finally, she sat up and found some paper.

She had congenital aphasia and couldn’t speak, only make “ah, ah” sounds. Usually, she communicated with me in writing.

In neat handwriting, she wrote:

“This afternoon, my hand touched my deskmate’s clothes. My deskmate said I’d dirtied them and had to pay.”

Tears fell onto the paper.

“My hands were clean. They weren’t dirty.”

Later, I coaxed her to sleep and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes.

I’d been that age, too. How could I not know the clothes were only an excuse?

Those children were excluding her. Simply because she was the easiest person in class to bully. Simply because all she had was an incapable mother.

That night, I buried myself under the quilt until I nearly suffocated, to stop myself from screaming.

Dead people’s money.

I’d earn it.

6

From then on, over roughly three years, I earned more than ten million yuan.

Even I was often astonished by that number.

Each transaction brought only tens of thousands, but I’d kept doing it intermittently over the years. Small amounts accumulated.

During that time, I bought a home in my parents’ names, transferred my daughter to the city’s best school, and bought her anything she wanted, even if it eventually became trash.

Actually, I knew that however cleanly I covered my tracks, earning this kind of money carried the risk of eventual discovery.

So, on my best friend’s advice, I’d long since converted most of it to cryptocurrency and set it aside for my daughter.

Even if I was arrested, even if I spent my whole life in prison.

As long as I stubbornly refused to talk, no one could take that money from her!

If she could live her whole life without worrying about food or clothing, surrounded by fine clothes and rich food, I’d accept any price!

But there was one thing I could never understand.

“Lu Lu, without you, I couldn’t have earned this money… I should give you a cut.”

One day, I told her that.

By then, we’d become best friends. As usual, she’d come to my home, cooked a tableful of good food, and played with my daughter.

“Don’t. Not a cent,” she said. “If you do, our friendship is over.”

“Why…?”

What I was asking was why she treated me so well.

“I wanted to help, so I helped. Why so many questions?”

She put some food in my bowl.

“Try it.”

I lowered my head and ate. Looking at her delicate face, I even wondered whether she might be a lesbian.

To me, she’d always been mysterious.

I only knew she had money, not where it came from. I’d seen her address on the staff roster, but it was merely a rented place that stood empty most of the time.

She treated me so well that I couldn’t think critically about anything concerning her.

As if it were only natural to have a best friend who was this good to me.

I didn’t truly understand who she was until half a year later.

That time, we traveled abroad together.

She buried me alive in the earth, only half an hour’s drive from my homeland.

Yes. She’d been laying this trap from the beginning.

She earned dead people’s money, too.

Only the person who had to die was me.

7

The year was 2015.

We took annual leave and agreed to travel to Myanmar together.

I didn’t yet know that she intended for both my daughter and me to die there and become “missing persons.”

9

I should say I’d grown used to my best friend handling everything. She arranged the entire itinerary.

Mong La, Myanmar.

She said it had the most efficacious temples, where we could pray for our daughter.

Booking flights, obtaining visas, contacting a driver. She handled it all.

We flew to Xishuangbanna, then took a private car to the Daluo border crossing.

After passing through the border gate, we were in Myanmar.

Some green peafowl wandered nearby. I photographed them and told my daughter they symbolized limitless prospects.

The private car could only take us that far. An SUV waited outside the border gate.

The driver was Burmese. When my best friend spoke Burmese with him, I understood nothing. I only marveled that she must have prepared so much for this trip.

The SUV took small roads and reached Mong La in just half an hour.

Strangely, however, it didn’t stop in town.

Worn out from traveling, my daughter and I dozed in the back.

I didn’t know how long we’d slept. When I woke, the car had already left town and turned onto a bumpy mountain road.

“Where are we going?” I asked my best friend uneasily.

“The hotel,” she said.

“Isn’t it in town?”

“You’ll know when we get there.”

Ridiculously, I still thought she might have arranged a distinctive mountain hotel, somewhere near a temple.

Until, gradually, I saw a settlement ahead.

But when I narrowed my eyes, what settlement was this?!

Armed soldiers stood on elevated wooden platforms!

This was a local armed group’s compound in northern Myanmar!

Farther along the road, on waste ground, a deep pit had been dug.

My unease reached its peak. What was it for? I wanted to ask my best friend, but she no longer answered. She only spoke Burmese with the driver.

Her expression was terrifyingly indifferent.

10

The car stopped. Two short soldiers approached.

They wore blood-red armbands and carried rifles with dark barrels. My best friend rolled down the window and said something to them in Burmese.

The door opened.

A black gun barrel reached inside.

With it pointed at my forehead, I was forced out.

My daughter trembled in my tight embrace.

I quietly reassured her that Mama was here and everything would be fine. But the instant I got out, someone kicked the back of my knee, dropping me to the ground.

Turning, I saw that the driver had also gotten out. He looked unsurprised, greeting the soldiers and smoking with them.

In an instant, I understood. It had all been arranged.

And the person who’d arranged it…

Was my best friend, standing before me.

Her usual smile was gone. Her gaze was indifferent, as if looking at livestock.

“Lu Lu… Why…?”

I looked at her in terror and confusion.

“The password.”

She didn’t answer. She only said that.

I knew what password she meant.

The dead people’s money I’d earned over the years had long since become cryptocurrency, prepared for my daughter.

She wanted the password to that money.

I gritted my teeth.

“I won’t tell you unless we’re somewhere safe.”

I was gambling. It was the only gamble I could make.

“You’ll tell me.”

That was all she said. She patted her knees and stood.

I heard her give a few instructions to a soldier nearby. Someone came and forcibly took my daughter from my arms.

Her legs kicked wildly in panic, and frightened “ah, ah” sounds came from her mouth.

She was begging me for help.

I lunged desperately, only to be tackled by a soldier. As I struggled, something struck the back of my head with a buzz. My vision went black, and I lost consciousness…

11

…

Stifling heat.

A weight on my chest. The feeling of lacking oxygen.

I abruptly opened my eyes and gasped.

Before me was absolute darkness.

Nothing visible. Only darkness.

Where was I…?

I felt around, my palms brushing many splinters. Beneath me was a rough wooden plank.

I tried to sit up and immediately hit my head. Feeling above, I found another hard board.

Then a light suddenly flashed on, accompanied by a shrill ringing.

A phone lay beside my hand.

By its light, I finally saw dimly.

I lay alone inside an extremely cramped wooden box.

I picked up the phone.

An old Nokia with a keypad.

All I could establish was that it wasn’t mine. The interface was entirely in Burmese.

When I answered, my best friend was on the other end.

I heard her laugh.

“How does it feel in the ground?” she asked.

A terrible premonition came over me.

“What do you mean…?”

“I watched while they buried you. I’ve calculated it. Including the can of oxygen I left in the box, you’ll suffocate in that coffin in thirty-five minutes at most.”

My god.

I couldn’t hold back anymore. I screamed wildly.

12

She simply waited calmly until my screaming ended.

Finally, I quieted little by little, crying and beating desperately on the wooden boards.

“My daughter…” I sobbed. “Where’s my daughter?”

“The password.”

That was all she said.

“Let me hear her voice, or I won’t tell you anything!” I shouted.

She was silent a moment. Soon, muffled sobbing came through the phone.

“Xiaoxiao.”

I called my daughter’s name.

The sobbing grew more frantic but remained indistinct. I guessed something was gagging her.

“Talk.”

My best friend’s voice.

I shook my head helplessly. I still couldn’t understand. She’d always been such a good friend. She clearly wasn’t short of money. Why had she suddenly become this?

“Why, Lu Lu? Why…?”

“Here’s the thing. The woman your husband fell in love with…” she said. “Was me.”

“The wealth was an act. Those outfits were rented. I changed them periodically. It didn’t cost much,” she said.

“I approached you to make you earn dead people’s money.”

“Why…?”

I still couldn’t understand and trembled helplessly.

She laughed.

“Because your husband and I were waiting for you to make money from the very beginning.”

I froze completely.

In that instant, I understood everything.

13

So that was it…

She’d planned what could be called a perfect crime.

Three years earlier, my husband had cheated with her and asked for a divorce.

But that had merely been the beginning of the grand performance. An insignificant beginning.

My husband had been my colleague.

While still at the workplace, he’d noticed the loophole.

The loophole for earning dead people’s money.

He’d been tempted. He knew earning more than ten million that way wouldn’t be difficult.

But he’d abandoned it. Once he did such a thing, if discovered, he would surely spend his life in prison.

Then, during a secret rendezvous with her at a hotel, he’d mentioned it.

That awakened her.

“Why do it yourself?” she’d said. “Isn’t there ready-made labor?”

And so, a perfect plan was born—

My husband asked for a divorce. The lawsuit dragged on. Finally, to keep my daughter, I chose to leave with nothing.

Impoverished, cramped in a tiny rented room, running myself ragged.

The desire for money grew wildly in my heart.

Then she appeared at precisely the right time.

She joined the workplace, approached me, stirred my longing, and handed me the method for earning dead people’s money.

They no longer had to fear exposure.

She’d only taught me verbally. Even if my crime came to light, where was the evidence? Who would know? Who could prove it?

And that money was merely being “stored” with me temporarily.

Once I’d earned enough, it would be harvest time.

Trick me into coming here, let me die here, and turn me into a missing person.

Get the password and easily take every cent.

Even if my workplace later discovered what I’d done and called the police.

Who would investigate them?

Only I, a dead woman, would be wanted. They could stay in China, use my money, and sleep peacefully as rich people. They could even put on an act in the media, calling for me to return and face justice.

“In the end, you’re just… a crop we carefully cultivated.”

She said, “Now it’s harvest time.”

She’d thought through every link. All that remained was for my daughter and me to die.

What a way to enjoy the fruits while remaining innocent to the end!

At the parts she was proudest of, she even laughed.

14

“I’ve told you enough. Your time is limited,” she reminded me again.

I gritted my teeth.

“Let me out. Let my daughter and me get somewhere safe. Otherwise, I won’t say anything!”

She gave a light, disdainful laugh.

“Your time is limited. So is your daughter’s.”

I froze.

“Back when I was studying, I was always curious about an operation… a frontal lobotomy.”

“You know, while they buried you, your daughter kept crying and screaming. It gave me a headache,” she said.

“I’ll find a sharp iron rod, stick it into her head, and mash up part of her brain. Then she’ll become an obedient dog.”

She laughed softly.

“Especially quiet. She won’t even resist if I sell her.”

“Of course, there’s no anesthetic here.”

“Wait…”

My pleading was cut off.

“Five minutes.”

My brain buzzed.

My whole body shook.

“Tell me or not. Your choice.”

Ignoring my frantic curses, she hung up.

15

I pounded this coffin like a madwoman.

It didn’t move.

Fuck…

Fuck!

She had my daughter hostage. That was why she’d dared bury me here without fear!

Fuck!!

The air in the coffin grew more and more stifling.

I dug my nails into my palms, forcing myself to think calmly.

One thing was clear.

I absolutely could not give her the password.

Once she got what she wanted, she’d never let my daughter and me live!

Feeling my way around the phone, I found the dialing screen.

I had no idea what Myanmar’s police number was. I dialed 110, then tried 86110. Both only produced a mechanical Burmese female voice, probably saying the number couldn’t connect.

Calm. I had to stay calm.

The embassy…

Yes! If I could find the Chinese embassy’s number and ask for help, even if I had to turn myself in, my daughter and I still had a chance!

But no matter what I did with this old Nokia, I couldn’t load a single webpage!

Of course… How could that woman leave me a phone with internet access?

Damn it, damn it…

I beat weakly on the board. Then the phone suddenly rang.

Thinking it was my best friend, I hurriedly answered.

Instead, a young man’s voice spoke Burmese.

Halting Burmese.

“မင်းရဲ့အေမ”

“ငါေနာက်ဆံးမာဖန်းကိအရင်ဆံးေဖာ်ြပခဲ့တယ်ဆိတာငါသိလိက်ရတယ်။”

I understood nothing. Checking the number, I saw it wasn’t my best friend.

“Help!”

I could only hope he understood English.

“Help! We’ve been kidnapped! Call the police!”

“မင်းရဲ့အေမ!”

A chicken talking to a duck.

Translator’s note: 鸡同鸭讲, a chicken talking to a duck: two sides talking right past each other.

The man on the other end didn’t sound like he could understand English at all. He kept speaking Burmese I didn’t understand. Remembering something, I quickly hung up and pulled up this phone’s call history. I’d try the numbers one by one. If even one person understood English, we had a chance of rescue!

But that number called again.

I hung up. I couldn’t find a block-number function, and it called again.

I answered impatiently. It was still the man, speaking incomprehensible Burmese.

Would he never stop?!

I lost my temper, too.

“Fuck your mother! What the hell do you keep calling for?!!”

Translator’s note: The original curse is 甘凌娘, a Hokkien-flavored version of “fuck your mother.” Keep it in mind; it comes back later.

There was a distinct pause.

“Chinese?”

The man spoke perfectly standard Mandarin.

I froze.

16

He gave a dry cough.

“Never mind which language we’re using…” he said.

“We have your child. You have one hour to transfer a hundred thousand US dollars to this account, or we’ll kill the hostage.”

He began reciting an account number.

I was completely bewildered. My child?! In his hands?!

I hurriedly interrupted.

“Wait! Are you sure?! She’s clearly…”

He clicked his tongue.

“Don’t believe me?”

Soon, a little girl’s crying came through.

It wasn’t clear, but at first listen, it really did sound like my daughter.

“Mama, save me… They’re all hitting me…”

The little girl’s plea remained indistinct.

I stared blankly for a while, then realized.

My daughter had aphasia. How could she say such complete sentences?

I’d heard of this scam. People overseas paid to record children calling for help. Their voices were ordinary, without distinctive qualities. Victims who didn’t listen carefully could easily mistake them for their own children.

This was only a scam call.

“One hour. If you dare call the police, we’ll kill the hostage immediately…”

He was still performing with all his might.

Whatever the case.

This scammer was my only hope!

17

“Y-you, wait! Money is negotiable! I can give you any amount!”

“Good. I won’t waste words. Money arrives, hostage goes free…”

“Listen to me!” I interrupted. “I know you don’t have my daughter! I know this is a scam!”

“My best friend has already kidnapped her. I don’t have much time. She could torture my daughter at any moment!”

I spoke in a panic.

“The problem is, I’ve been buried alive in a coffin near a military compound. I can’t get out.”

“So only you can save my daughter now! Do you understand?!”

“Are you in China or Myanmar? No, it doesn’t matter. Call the Chinese embassy in Myanmar for me. Call the Myanmar police. Both! Call them all! Tell them to rescue us! As long as my daughter is saved, I’ll give you everything I’ve earned over the years. More than ten million!”

I gasped. There was no reply for a long time.

“Please…”

“Hold on…”

He was clearly stunned.

“You’ve been buried alive, and your daughter’s kidnapped…”

“Yes!”

“And your best friend kidnapped your child…”

“Yes! I told you. It’s all true!”

He let out a long exclamation.

“You can really make up some fucking bullshit… Fellow scammer?”

Crying, I shook my head.

“You can check. My name is Cheng Yutong. In your line of work, you must be able to find my information. Please… Even just give me Myanmar’s police number…”

But the next second, he hung up.

Dead silence returned to the coffin.

I broke down, banging my head.

My chest was heavy. The oxygen in the air was dwindling.

But I didn’t have time to think about that.

Urgent ringing interrupted my thoughts, like a summons to death.

My best friend.

18

Trembling, I answered.

“Time’s up,” she said.

“No. Lu Lu, don’t…” I begged. “She thinks of you as her ganma—she thinks of you as another mother!”

Translator’s note: Ganma: godmother, literally “dry mom,” a sworn mom outside the family.

“And?” she said.

I froze.

“I gave you time.”

I heard metal striking metal.

On the other end.

My daughter’s muffled cries erupted in intense pain.

I knew she was drilling into my daughter’s skull with sharp metal.

I slammed against the coffin madly.

“Stop! Stop—”

“I’ll give you three last seconds! It’s about to go into her brain!” she shouted.

“Three.”

“Two.”

“One.”

…

“I’ll tell you! I’ll give you the password!”

I screamed through tears.

I had no choice left.

19

I gave her a string of numbers.

She operated something for a while.

“It opened.”

She laughed.

“You have what you wanted. Let her go… She’s his child, too. Don’t forget she’s his child, too!”

But she ignored me.

“Two things,” she said.

“First, the human skull is hard. Just now I was only pinching her fingers with the iron rods. I was bluffing you.

“Second, your ex-husband said to bring his daughter back to China. He’ll keep raising her.

“As for you… Sorry. You can’t live.”

I paused.

I no longer had a choice.

“Fine. Fine! As long as you let her live, Lu Lu. You know she’s good. When she grows up, she’ll forget all this. She won’t remember me as her mother.”

Tears filled my eyes.

“She has aphasia. She can’t tell anyone about us… She’ll be a good daughter!”

I cried.

“If you’re worried, give her the phone. I’ll tell her you didn’t hurt me. I’ll say I abandoned her. She’ll wholeheartedly accept you as her mother!”

How ironic. I hadn’t imagined these would be my final words to my daughter.

But my best friend interrupted.

“Then what would that make the child he and I have in future?”

She suddenly said that.

20

I froze.

She said something in Burmese to someone.

The music disappeared.

The sound of wheels jolting along a mountain road.

They were in a moving car.

“I changed my mind before coming here. I’ll tell him his daughter resisted violently and the compound’s people accidentally killed her. How’s that?” she said. “No one will find evidence.”

“How can a dead person tell tales?”

“Say one last thing to your daughter.”

The car stopped.

She removed my daughter’s gag.

“Ah… Ah…”

Those frightened sounds were still all she could make.

Crying, I begged my best friend to spare her and knocked my head hard against the wooden board.

“Ma…”

Suddenly, I heard her laboriously form a syllable.

“Ma… ma…”

She struggled so hard to speak, as if she knew this was her final moment and only wanted me to hear her call me.

“Ma… ma…”

It was the first time I’d heard her call me Mama.

A gunshot.

A small body was kicked out of the car and rolled helplessly along the road.

I could no longer hear my daughter’s voice.

21

She hung up.

I held the phone. Held it tightly.

How much time had passed?

I didn’t know. In the darkness, I seemed already a corpse in a coffin.

Until.

The phone in my hand rang again.

The scammer from earlier.

I looked at it for a long, long time.

My only attachment to this world no longer existed.

But I still had one thing to do.

That woman. I wanted her dead.

I didn’t have much life left. I also knew that trapped in this coffin, I couldn’t do much.

But I would try every possible means to make her accompany us in death!

Looking down, I saw the oxygen can she’d mentioned.

The mountaineering kind. One liter, enough for thirty minutes at most.

I stretched out with effort, reached it, opened it, and took a deep breath in this coffin nearly devoid of oxygen.

My bloodshot eyes narrowed, pupils contracting. Blood surged into my brain.

13

I answered.

I said nothing. I waited for him to speak.

I needed to know more about him.

He was the only person I could use now.

Before long, the man spoke hesitantly.

“Well… There’s news in China.”

“Someone reported three females missing overseas. Your name’s on the list… One of them’s a child.”

“They say your ex-husband reported it.”

If they put on a show, they put on the whole show. Just like them.

The question was why this man had called back.

“What do you want to ask?” I said.

“Well… Is there really more than ten million?”

14

I laughed.

Money was the most unreasonable thing in the world.

It could make anyone willing to listen to you.

Even if a second earlier, you’d exposed his scam.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“…Chen Yu.”

“Chen Yu, are you in China or Myanmar?”

“I’m right here in Mong La. In this trade, there’s no choice…”

I ought to count myself lucky that he was right here in this city.

A plan began taking shape in my mind.

A plan to leave her dead without a burial place.

“Chen Yu, does your phone record calls?” I said. “Turn on recording.”

“What?”

He was taken aback.

“Turn on the recording.”

There was silence while he presumably operated it.

“Done.”

“My name is Cheng Yutong,” I said.

“By the time you hear these words, I should already be dead in the coffin.”

I gave my identity-card number.

“My ex-husband and best friend tricked me into traveling to Myanmar, buried me alive, and forced me to surrender all my money.

“They killed my daughter.

“The evidence is my body.

“I’m buried outside a local armed group’s compound, less than a hundred kilometers from my homeland.

“I remember we left Mong La and drove south for about half an hour, all mountain roads. My body is there.

“As long as you find it, you can prove I’m telling the truth.”

I paused, then began the next part.

This was for Chen Yu.

“Chen Yu is the only person willing to help me.

“I’m grateful for his help. I voluntarily give all my lawful estate to this man, without compensation.

“At this moment, my mind is clear and I’m under no coercion. To prove it, I’ll repeat this three times.”

I repeated it three times. All my lawful estate, given freely…

I knew such words had little legal significance. But this was the only thing I could do now.

Chen Yu was completely bewildered.

“What do you mean… I haven’t helped you…”

“Next is when you help,” I said. “I need you to send what I said about my ex-husband and best friend to the media in China. As many outlets as possible.”

Once those words were reported, my ex-husband hiding in China would surely face punishment.

But that wasn’t enough. Far from enough.

That woman. The woman who’d shot my daughter…

“The second thing I need your help with…” I said. “Kill my best friend.”

15

He was silent.

I knew this request would be difficult for him to accept.

I knew this request would be difficult for him to accept.

This was my last bargaining chip—

“Do you know where that ten million-plus I mentioned is right now?”

I said, “In her hands.”

Yes. I’d long since converted my money to cryptocurrency.

The private keys were stored in encrypted form on a hard drive.

To take my money, she first had to open that drive!

Most crucially, after I gave her the password earlier, she’d operated something before confirming it was correct.

That meant she’d been trying to open the drive.

The hard drive holding more than ten million was in her hands right now!

“Killing her isn’t only helping me. Those tens of millions would all be yours. My small estate in China can’t compare.”

“More than ten million. Enough to live like a local emperor in Myanmar!”

16

He remained silent.

Silent for a long, long time.

“Please…”

At a time like this, what else could a desperate mother say?

“My daughter…” I said.

“My daughter had aphasia.”

I cried.

“Today was the first time in my life I heard her call me Mama.

“I still wanted to hear her talk to me. I still wanted to teach her songs and say so, so many things with her.

“I want so badly to hear her call me Mama once more.

“But I’ll never hear her voice again.”

He merely stayed silent.

Leaving only my desperate crying.

She’d killed my daughter and kicked her body to the roadside, then left so easily, as if nothing had happened.

17

“I’ll… give it a try,” he suddenly said.

I froze.

“But not because of the money… Because I have a child, too.”

He paused.

“I had a child, too.”

I immediately understood.

If he had a child, how could he have come alone to a place like this to earn such dangerous money?

Unless, like me, he’d lost his child.

Unfortunately, there was no time left to ask what had happened.

Murky air. An oppressive coffin.

I breathed oxygen from the can, my heart racing.

18

“The problem is… How do I kill her? I don’t even know where she is.”

“I’ll tell you where.”

My brain worked furiously.

I remembered that during my last call with her, I’d realized she was in a moving vehicle.

I’d been confused then. It made no sense. She should have stayed near my coffin.

Otherwise, if I suffocated early, who would give her the password? She’d get nothing.

Thinking further, she shouldn’t even have buried me alive. She should have tortured me, ensuring I stayed alive until I spoke…

But now I had a conclusion.

Only one possibility. It had to be this!

The armed group had no special relationship with her. They’d simply taken money to do a job.

Killing was everyday fare for them. Once the price was agreed, they could do it.

Since it was merely a financial transaction, naturally she didn’t dare stay!

If the armed group discovered she held such a fortune, she wouldn’t survive either!

That was also why, when the guns forced me out of the car, she said nothing beyond demanding the password.

So once she’d seen me buried, she must have taken my daughter into the SUV and headed back toward the border gate. The faster, the better!

“Chen Yu, she’s rushing for the border!”

19

But Chen Yu hesitated.

“But how could I get there in time now… Am I supposed to go back to China to kill her?”

“She won’t go back to China! Because I’ll make her come to you!”

Chen Yu didn’t understand.

I should say I’d never been so grateful that the man I’d encountered was a scammer.

“In your line of work, you must have that kind of call-bombing software, right?”

“Yes… I do.”

“I need you to call my best friend. I’ll give you the number. Tell her you’re from the compound. Say you’ve dug me up and want to renegotiate the price! If she refuses, you’ll let me return to China alive!”

I knew very clearly that letting me return alive was her greatest weakness.

“But if she calls the compound, won’t it all be exposed…?”

Chen Yu paused, seeming to understand.

“Exactly! So you need to bombard all the compound’s numbers with calls. Then she can’t call to verify it. In the end, she can only deal with you!” I said loudly.

“You decide where she goes!”

“Wait, wait… I don’t even know which compound. Only that it’s south…”

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to remember.

“I saw the soldiers wearing blood-red armbands, with crossed blades in the design…”

“I know which one. But… How can I get everyone’s numbers? At most, I can get a few minor leaders’…”

That was already far, far better than I’d predicted.

“We can only gamble!”

I spoke faster.

“She can’t have everyone’s numbers either. She must be dealing with some minor leader, and maybe the driver. We have to gamble that those two are among the numbers you bombard!”

“I understand… I understand…”

Chen Yu fully understood my intention now.

“And when you call, confirm whether she’s still in the car! Wait until the driver leaves before bluffing her, or she can verify things immediately!”

I added the last details.

“She has a gun. But near the border gate, she’ll have to discard it!”

“Fuck…” Chen Yu cursed. “If that armed group finds out I did this, I’ll have to run, too.”

He was right.

It couldn’t compare with my best friend’s three-year plan. This was a desperate gamble.

But if it worked, all Chen Yu had to do was wait for her to walk into the net.

“Fuck!”

He hung up.

“Wait for my call.”

Those were his final words.

20

Dead silence returned.

I lay in the coffin, breathing with difficulty. Each breath from the oxygen can left one less.

But I couldn’t die yet.

Before I heard her death with my own ears, I couldn’t die.

21

Time had never felt this long.

I forced myself to stay awake, thinking about anything I could think of.

My ex-husband’s indifferent face when he asked for a divorce.

My daughter’s warmth and softness in my arms in that cramped rented room.

The smile on her face when I told her fairy tales.

And Chen Yu.

22

Actually, there were many things about Chen Yu I couldn’t understand.

For instance, why would a scammer call Myanmar numbers instead of numbers in China?

I worked my brain and guessed at some possibilities.

Perhaps the SIM card I was using had been sold illegally online by him from the start.

To him, it was the perfect “zombie”—he could obtain the buyer’s information and target the scam precisely.

And when the card could be reached, that meant its holder was in Myanmar. Once scammed, they would naturally have nowhere to turn.

Foolproof.

Or perhaps.

Because of his remaining conscience, he didn’t want to scam compatriots?

Maybe.

If I survived, I’d ask him properly for answers.

Including about the child he’d once had.

How long had it been? Why hadn’t he called back?

Why…?

Ringing erupted in the darkness.

23

Chen Yu’s voice came through.

“ငါ့ကိမယံပါနဲ့၊မင်းသ့အသံကိငါနားေထာင်ခွင့်ြပမယ်”

I was stunned for a moment. Why was he speaking Burmese?

Then I understood. He knew I didn’t understand it.

There was only one possibility. He was speaking to someone else!

Who? My best friend?!

“ေြပာ!”

“ေြပာ!”

Chen Yu was clearly urging someone.

I dug my nails into my palms and lowered my voice to prevent an echo inside the coffin, while pretending to be weak after surviving disaster.

“P-please… Don’t bury me again. I’ll pay anything…”

In an instant, a woman’s Burmese came through. Judging by the tone, she was cursing.

Cursing them for breaking the agreement. Cursing the fact I was still alive.

My best friend’s voice!

24

Her voice wasn’t clear.

I knew Chen Yu couldn’t have caught her yet. They could only be speaking by phone.

Just like me.

Her voice disappeared again.

My call with Chen Yu stayed connected, but silence continued.

What had she gone to do? Call the armed group to verify things…?

Chen Yu was right. If she reached them, all our effort would be wasted.

I could only pray nervously.

25

After a long time, I heard ringing through the phone.

From the sounds, Chen Yu answered another handset. Sure enough, he was using a second phone to speak with my best friend.

I heard her voice again.

I didn’t dare speak. I waited.

Finally, their call ended.

“She took the bait,” Chen Yu said.

My back was drenched in sweat.

26

“You figured everything out!”

He spoke excitedly.

“She can’t get through to the armed group. She has to believe it and turn back to deal with me!”

From the sounds, he’d gotten into a vehicle and was starting the engine.

“She didn’t cross the border. She’s coming back!” he said. “I picked a deserted place. She found a local motorcycle taxi and is heading there. I’m going now, too!”

“I can intercept her in about ten minutes. As soon as the motorcycle leaves, I’ll act!”

He paused.

“How much longer can you hold on?”

“I don’t know… Ten minutes at most, maybe.”

“I…” he said. “I’ve already called the embassy… But I don’t know how long…”

“It’s all right.”

I smiled bitterly.

“You’ve done very well. How long I last is my business.”

He fell silent. Only the sound of the car jolting remained.

“Can I… ask one last question?” I said.

“What?”

“Your child,” I said.

27

“When I was working away from home,” he said. “My child lived with me at the construction site. He ran out to play. Passing a dump truck, he wasn’t paying attention.”

An accident…?

“He was killed,” he said.

“The driver was from my hometown. The night before, he’d stayed up playing cards. He could have avoided it. He could have… But he fell asleep. Just fell asleep while driving. I broke down, climbed up, and dragged him from the cab. His drool was still on his clothes.”

He gave a bitter laugh.

“Don’t blame me for not knowing how to talk. Actually, I envy you a little.”

“What…?”

“Tell me, can I blame him? I was the one who didn’t watch my child. I only thought about money, money, money, believing earning it for him was enough. I brought him to the site and let him do whatever he wanted,” he said.

“You still have someone to take revenge on. I want revenge and don’t even know whom to seek. The driver, or myself?”

“I’ve just been living in a muddle like this. From now on, I’ll keep living in a muddle.”

He stopped speaking.

The call remained connected. We were silent.

There was less and less air in the can. Almost none.

Every few seconds, I allowed myself only a tiny breath.

But the oppressive air in the coffin made me terribly sleepy.

I tried one last time to lift the oxygen can, but no longer had the strength to press the release button.

Futile attempts. Repeated failures.

My eyes gradually rolled upward. Before losing consciousness, I seemed to hear him shouting something.

28

…

“Let me go! I can tell you the password, too! Then you won’t have to kill anyone!”

After who knew how long, I dimly heard my best friend’s voice, distant as though an entire mountain lay between us.

It came through the phone, unclear.

But how could I ever forget her voice?

I forced my eyes open. My hands still couldn’t press the release.

Gripping the can, I knocked it against the board, knocking off the mouth-and-nose mask. I aimed the button at my teeth and bit down with the last of my strength.

That was the final oxygen in the can.

I inhaled deeply through my mouth, forcing my consciousness to hold.

“Kill her…” I managed.

“You woke up?!”

Chen Yu sounded surprised.

“Kill her… I’ll give you the password while I’m still conscious…”

“Don’t kill me! I can give it to you, too!” my best friend shouted. “You’ll get the money without taking any risk! Isn’t that the best choice?!”

“And! And! I don’t know if she told you, but there’s a loophole at my workplace. We can make money!”

She frantically searched for every chance to live.

“I’ll keep sharing the loophole and let other people earn money! Then I’ll bring them here, just like her. Once they’re dead, the money’s ours! I’ll give you half. No, whatever share you want! There’s no risk with this money. You can go back to China and live rich!”

“I really planned to do it! If you don’t believe me, check my phone and the chats with my husband. We really intended to keep going!”

“You won’t have to kill them either. I’ll handle it! I’ve got experience now! All you need to do is take your share!”

He didn’t speak.

It seemed we’d reached an irresolvable situation.

My best friend and I could only wait for his choice.

29

Strangely, at a time like this, I remembered something interesting.

When had it been?

I remembered it was just after the divorce. I’d taken my daughter to rent a room and bargained with that elderly landlady, who’d pointed at my nose and suspected me of that profession.

I’d finally negotiated the price down, but cried in front of my daughter.

Holding her, I sat in the empty little bedroom and wept sadly.

Suddenly, my daughter wiped my tears.

She found paper and wrote:

“Mama is a great hero.”

30

“Chen Yu.”

With my last strength, I said, “I only have a few minutes left…”

“When I get to the other side, I’ll find my child. I’ll find yours, too.”

“I’ll tell him you’ve been blaming yourself all along.”

“My daughter will tell him that his father is a hero.”

Chen Yu didn’t answer.

But I heard my best friend’s voice turn into struggling, muffled cries.

And the sound of something spraying out.

Like gas released from an oxygen can.

Her windpipe had been slit. Blood sprayed out.

31

The stifling coffin. The motionless boards.

On the other end, Chen Yu got into the car again. After starting the engine, he took another call. A few brief sentences, then he hung up.

“Once I found her, I arranged for the call bombing to stop. I gave those minor leaders’ numbers to the embassy,” he said. “They’ve just agreed on the money. They’ll release you.”

“I’m going to where you are now, to give them the hard drive.”

Rather ironic.

The money I’d left for my daughter ultimately saved only me.

“It’ll take me about twenty minutes,” he said. “But you don’t have to hold out that long. Someone’s already on the way to dig you up!”

Could I last?

I didn’t know. I could no longer see clearly. The phone sounded very far away.

My daughter was gone.

With vengeance accomplished, I couldn’t even gather the will to keep going.

“If you fall asleep now, it’s all over! You’ll definitely die!!” he shouted. “Don’t sleep! Don’t sleep!!!”

But my body had reached its limit.

I could feel every inch of my nerves going out like an oil lamp running dry.

“Do you know what I saw in her phone? Their chats! They really planned to keep doing this!”

“You saved those people!”

Did I…?

I felt the coffin tremble slightly, as though the heavy earth above was being dug away with shovels.

But my consciousness was already scattering.

My eyes rolled upward uncontrollably. Before me was only darkness, swallowing me little by little.

“Don’t sleep! Fuck your mother! I said fuck your mother! Don’t sleep!”

He shouted, returning my own curse.

“I still haven’t found your daughter’s body. If you fall asleep, I’ll take her back to China for burial!”

“You want me to bury you together, right? I’m telling you, no chance! Don’t fucking dream of it!”

“No embassy can change it. If you dare fall asleep, I’ll make sure you’re buried separately! You’ll never see her, even in death! I fucking mean what I say!”

Really…

“Fuck… your… mother…”

I spoke with difficulty, indistinctly.

My teeth clamped down on a finger until flesh and blood blurred together. Heart-piercing pain stimulated the nerves in my head.

The coffin’s shaking grew stronger.

When one finger went numb, I switched to another.

“Wait for me,” he said. “We’ll go find the children together.”

A faint light penetrated a crack.

I would wait for him.

—end

Extra: Going Home

1

After that day, I found my daughter.

She lay in a heap of grass beside a desolate road, a bullet in her chest and her blood dried.

She would never wake again.

2

A few days later, holding my daughter’s ashes, I moved into Chen Yu’s home.

It wasn’t large. A memorial portrait of his child, a chubby little boy, hung on the wall.

Downstairs was his “company,” filled with scam phones and several computers. Even upstairs, I could smell secondhand smoke and stale sweat.

I crouched on the ground, burning spirit money for the children.

The man beside me quietly said, “Sorry.”

Chen Yu.

Tall and thin, wearing a floral shirt.

He still felt guilty. If he’d believed me sooner that day, perhaps my daughter wouldn’t have…

I didn’t blame him.

Next, I would take my daughter back to China and turn myself in.

But before that, I had one more thing to do.

3

“Do you know that, to everyone now, I’m already dead?” I told him.

Yes. After I’d been dug out, the first thing I told Chen Yu was:

“Tell the embassy I’m dead.”

He didn’t understand, but did as I said.

Today, I would explain why.

“Because my death can frighten my ex-husband.”

“That fear is the bait that will hook him.”

4

I remembered being trapped in the coffin.

I’d recorded words exposing my ex-husband and best friend conspiring to murder me for money.

The intention was to expose them through the media in China, leaving my ex-husband nowhere to hide and making him face the law.

But as Chen Yu put it, “Time was tight, the task was heavy. I really couldn’t spare a hand.”

He hadn’t had time to send it to the media.

Back to that day.

After I was dug out, Chen Yu drove me wildly along mountain roads toward the nearest hospital.

Fresh air poured into the car. Blood surged through my brain, and I was so dizzy I nearly died.

“It’s okay. It’s all okay now.”

Pressing the accelerator, he comforted me.

“We’re almost at the hospital.”

Then his phone rang. He looked and answered.

He listened for a while.

“Yes, she’s in my car…” he said.

“Where’s the embassy? No, I have to get her to a hospital first…”

The embassy was calling.

“Yes, I know who buried her…”

“The whole story? Damn, it’s complicated. Let me sort it out… Oh, right! I have a recording. I’ll send it, and you’ll understand!”

It was then, through the haze, that I suddenly realized something.

It seemed the embassy still didn’t know.

That my ex-husband and best friend had planned everything.

An opportunity.

An opportunity to make my ex-husband repay his blood debt in blood!

Half-reclining in the back, I wanted to tell Chen Yu to wait.

But I could barely make a sound.

Finally, I struggled to release my seat belt and fell heavily from the seat.

Hearing it, Chen Yu looked in the rearview mirror, startled.

He noticed me shaking my head slightly.

He understood and hung up.

He stopped the car. I gasped for a long time.

“Tell the embassy… I’m already dead…”

Finally, I could make a sound.

He froze.

“And… the recording…” I said. “Don’t send it to anyone.”

After that, I lost consciousness completely.

5

Fortunately, Chen Yu did as I asked.

When I woke in the hospital, he told me he’d informed the embassy that I hadn’t survived the trip.

“Of course, they wanted to help return your body to China. They called me a lot. I’ve been stalling…”

“Don’t contact them for now…”

Weak though I was, something occurred to me.

“Will this cause trouble for you?”

“Not really… I’ve got heaps of phone numbers. They can’t trace me. But…”

He couldn’t understand.

“You don’t want them to know the truth? Why? Still trying to protect your ex-husband?”

I shook my head.

The answer was precisely the opposite.

Because that call had confirmed one thing.

When Chen Yu asked the embassy for help that day, he’d only had time to say a local armed group had buried me alive.

And tell them which group and how to contact it.

As for why I was buried and who was behind it… With time limited, he’d had to hang up hurriedly and use those final moments to intercept my best friend.

Fortunately, the arrangements I’d made before fainting stopped him from revealing everything in time.

Now, apart from Chen Yu and me, no one knew my ex-husband was the true culprit!

He was still free.

And his freedom was exactly what I needed!

6

Back to the present.

We were burning spirit money for the children.

I held my best friend’s phone. The latest messages were the conversation between my ex-husband and me.

Pretending to be her, I’d told him:

“Your ex-wife’s body has been handed over to the embassy by the armed group.

“China isn’t safe. Returning is a huge risk.

“Who knows? The armed group may already have revealed our deal.

“Run! The sooner, the better!

“Come here. I have the hard drive.

“We have enough to live like local emperors.”

He wanted a phone call, but I firmly refused, saying, “You’re in China. They may be monitoring you.”

He did have doubts.

But… Another interesting thing happened, just as I’d expected.

News of my death reached China through the media.

Then why hadn’t the armed group kept the secret?

Had they already named us?!

Those questions were enough to terrify him day and night.

Even more suggestive was the embassy’s stance. Unable to confirm or refute the report, they could only emphasize that whether I was alive remained unclear and they were working hard to find me.

But he was already panicking. From me, he received only a more frightening explanation.

“They’re trying to lull you before arresting you! Why else would they be so ambiguous?”

“If you don’t run now, it’ll be too late!”

The last message said he’d crossed the border.

He’d taken the local motorcycle taxi sent to collect him and was heading to our agreed meeting place.

The spirit money had burned away, leaving dry ashes.

“Because my death can frighten him,” I said.

The climate here was much more humid and hot than back home. Without realizing, I’d also grown used to sandals and floral shirts.

I got into Chen Yu’s car, and we drove toward that agreed place.

The place for killing.

7

The sky grew darker.

Our meeting place was an uninhabited, desolate road.

Chen Yu’s car was an old SUV. Now, we were parked beside the road, sitting quietly inside.

Waiting quietly.

It would be a lie to say I wasn’t nervous.

My hands trembled slightly.

Gradually, the local motorcycle taxi appeared ahead.

The driver had already taken our money. He urged the man on the back to get off, then drove away without looking back.

The man who got down clutching a bag was my ex-husband.

On this empty road, only the old SUV waited quietly for him.

“Turn on the hazard lights,” I told Chen Yu.

The lights flashed.

My ex-husband waved and walked toward us.

But this was destined to be a road he’d never forget.

Beside it was a deep pit dug in advance.

I saw him look toward it in alarm and uncertainty.

Once, I’d asked myself that same terrified question:

What was it for?

Beside the pit was another patch of ground.

Clearly turned over, as though something adult-sized was already buried there.

Lu Lu was inside.

Only a few meters from him.

The SUV’s hazard lights kept flashing.

My ex-husband finally grew wary. He stopped and called.

For the first time, I answered.

“Lu Lu, get out. Let me see you.”

I could sense fear in his breathing.

He was close now. Close enough.

Without speaking, I opened the door and got out.

His expression was as if he’d seen a ghost.

“Long time no see.”

I smiled at him.

Terrified, he dropped the phone and fled without choosing a path.

The light was dim. The whole sky seemed about to press down.

He couldn’t escape.

8

My ex-husband’s hands and feet were bound, his mouth taped.

Blood seeped from the back of his head, where Chen Yu had struck him after catching him as he turned to flee.

I’d checked his breathing. He was alive.

I searched everything on him. Documents, phone, wallet…

After taking it all, I slapped his cheeks hard.

Finally, he opened his eyes hazily.

In an instant, he struggled violently, making painful, muffled cries.

But it was all futile.

Tears ran from his eyes as he looked at me pleadingly.

He must have wanted to speak. At that moment, he had countless pleas for mercy and countless bargains to offer.

As long as I’d spare him.

“Do you know? Here, my daughter spoke for the first time,” I said.

“But no one cared what she said.

“No one would give her the chance to live.

“You caused it.”

Crying, he knocked his head against the ground, as though kowtowing to me.

I was silent for a long time.

“You are her father, after all… I did love you, after all… Lu Lu also said you intended to let our child return home alive…”

New life burst into his eyes. He knocked his head madly and whimpered with all his strength.

“If you sincerely repent, I can spare you…”

Perhaps he hadn’t expected me to tear off the tape.

After that, like a frightened animal, he shouted endless words of repentance until his voice strained.

He said he’d wronged us, that he wasn’t human, that he’d never intended our daughter to die, that he’d misjudged Lu Lu.

I simply waited calmly until he finished.

Finally, under his terrified gaze, I put the tape back.

“Shh. Shh. Quiet.”

I soothed him.

“You repented very well.

“Only my daughter can no longer hear it.

“Your repentance means nothing.”

9

I pushed his heavy body into the pit.

Holding the shovel, I began filling earth over him.

I deliberately kept every shovelful away from his face and eyes.

I wanted him to watch himself being buried alive, little by little.

At first, he struggled. But as the earth piled up, he no longer had the strength to break free.

Suddenly, it felt ironic.

This was the ending he’d originally arranged for me.

Chen Yu stood nearby smoking, thinking.

Earlier, he’d wanted to help, but I’d refused.

This was between my ex-husband and me. Only I could take the final step.

“Really going back to China?” Chen Yu asked.

He knew what awaited me there.

“Mm… I have to take my daughter home.”

“What if I went for you…?”

Then he realized, too. For a mother, accompanying her child on that final stretch was a road she had to finish herself.

He scratched his head and sighed.

“Let’s go back together.”

Still shoveling, I paused.

“I want to visit my child, too,” he said.

“I probably won’t keep my house either. It’ll surely be auctioned by the court,” I said. “But my wages over the years are legal. Added together, they’re some savings.”

“Why are we still talking about money?”

“It’s not all for you. I’ll give you an address—the small bedroom where my daughter and I used to live.

“The apartment’s out of the way and isn’t worth much. Help me buy the whole place. Pay extra if necessary.

“Clean it up. Let my daughter return there.”

As if time had returned to the starting point.

I was still working overtime, and she was still waiting there for me to come home.

One day, I would return.

Hold her.

She would have waited until I arrived, and I would be beside her again.

“If no one’s living there, it’ll collect a lot of dust.”

He scratched his head.

I looked at him.

Hesitantly, he said, “I’m… pretty good at cleaning, too.”

“Are you sure? With your company and home in that state?”

He laughed awkwardly.

“A bit more practice and I’ll be fine. Professional skills always take time to hone.”

Me: …

Chen Yu: …

We were silent a long time. I turned back and focused on shoveling the final earth.

Thick soil. No trace of my ex-husband remained.

Only the sound of the shovel.

“You’ll be waiting a long time, you know…” I said.

“Mm. I’ll wait for you there.”

Strangely, even as we buried someone alive, we talked about the future.

10

…

The deserted road. The buried pit.

Covered with dry grass. Known to no one.

We drove slowly along in the old SUV.

It was late. The road ahead was dark.

But the car’s lights illuminated what lay before us.

The end of the night didn’t seem quite so frightening.

—end