Chapter 1 - 1: She Died 1
Suzanne Saunders had been killed by someone.
On a dazzling starry midsummer night, she was pushed off the boat. She didn’t even have a chance to cry for help before she was dead.
Her corpse sank to the bottom of the river, swollen and rotting, while her husband was nowhere to be found. The boat that dredged her body only worked for one night before they left.
Suzanne couldn’t come to terms with it.
But she had no choice…
She could only watch as she slowly decayed, her belly bloated, her eyes bulging and her pale skin covered with patches of rotten green.
And the big and small fish in the river eagerly nibbled and gnawed at her, leaving her body even more shattered and tattered.
It’s a pity that ghosts don’t have tears, or she would’ve cried her eyes out at the sight of her own miserable state!
…
Her lonely spirit floated above the river, watching the sun set and the stars rise, the days and nights changing endlessly. Occasionally boats passed by, but no one ever discovered her.
She was like a person abandoned by the world, lonely and desperate.
Some days later, a fleet of boats appeared on the boundless river.
Suzanne saw a man sitting steadily on one of the boats, wearing a diving suit with his features unclear and his voice low and hoarse.
The man instructed the crew to dive for the corpse, and then jumped in himself, causing ripples under the moonlight.
Suzanne found it strange. She had no parents, so who other than her husband would be willing to dredge her body?
The group searched the river for three days and nights before they finally found her, entangled in water weeds.
On this beautiful midsummer night, a disfigured dead woman’s body finally floated slowly to the surface…
…
Suzanne couldn’t bear to look at herself.
She admired the psychological endurance of the crew members, as none of them vomited.
Her bloated body was like a sack full of rotten mush, while her skin was filled layer upon layer with shells or snails. Apparently, they had used her corpse as a breeding ground!
The man stared at her body for a long time without saying a word.
Just as Suzanne was trying to figure out his intentions, the man made a move that left her dumbfounded!
— He bent down and kissed her!
Oh my God!
He kissed her swollen, rotting face!
Suzanne was shocked!
How deep must his love be to kiss such a face?!
How could she not know that a man loved her so much in this world?!
If only she knew there was someone like him back then, she wouldn’t have married Nathaniel Summers just to fulfill an old man’s dying wish!
Suzanne couldn’t help but regret and lament.
When she thought that there was someone who loved her so deeply in this world, she felt it was incredible and found strange satisfaction in it.
This satisfaction was untimely, strange, absurd, yet very real.
— After her tragic death, Suzanne found the last consolation in her failed life…
But alas, it was still too late…
She was already dead, and nothing…could ever be redeemed.
Suzanne drew closer to the man, almost pressing her face against his—
Even this close, she still couldn’t make out his features, which were shrouded in a hazy fog.
What a pity, she finally found a man who loved her so deeply, yet even in death, she didn’t know who he was.
She felt a twinge of regret in her heart.
The man took her body away from the city and to a desolate rural area—
Suzanne thought: Maybe he loved me too much, so he prepared to bury me in a place where no one would know and remember me alone.
Tsk, this possessiveness, she felt thrilled just thinking about it.
If there were an afterlife—
Today’s kindness in burying my body, I shall repay with my devotion in the future.
…