On a clear day, Lang Ru received a letter. She looked at the address on the envelope and suddenly felt a chill down her spine. The letter was sent from a remote border town in the desert, where Lang Ru only knew one person—Lin Yu.
Lin Yu was her college classmate, a handsome young man who excelled at basketball. In college, whenever he was on the court, Lang Ru was always the most faithful spectator. Lang Ru was a shy girl, and before she could confess anything to him, they graduated. They both left Beijing and lost contact ever since.
Three years ago, by a stroke of luck, Lang Ru heard that Lin Yu had been transferred back to his hometown, working at an international travel agency in that remote border town. She wrote him a letter, but he never replied. Lang Ru thought he might have changed jobs, and she couldn't help but feel disappointed. She was in Hainan Island, and he was in Inner Mongolia, worlds apart. Lang Ru didn't want to force this connection any longer.
However, she couldn't help but feel restless. A few months later, she decided to give him a call. First, she researched the area code for long-distance calls, and then through directory assistance for that small town, she found his workplace's phone number.
A middle-aged woman answered the phone. "Could you find Lin Yu?" Lang Ru asked.
The woman seemed surprised and asked, "Who are you?"
"I'm his classmate."
"He's dead."
The woman went on to tell Lang Ru that a few months earlier, Lin Yu left the office with a letter that had been sent from Hainan Island. While reading it on his way home, he was struck by a speeding car.
Lang Ru was stunned. While it couldn't be said that Lin Yu's death had anything to do with her, it couldn't be said it had nothing to do with her either.
She put down the phone numbly and sat on the couch, as if she had just heard a grating screech of brakes that came to a halt in her ears.
Afterward, she often had the same nightmare. In the dream, the letter she had written turned into a pale paper figure pulling Lin Yu toward an oncoming car.
During that period, she was tormented by this nightmare to the point of mental exhaustion. She couldn't sleep, staying up every night watching TV until dawn. Time is a great healer. Days passed, and Lang Ru gradually forgot this inexplicable event.
One day, she was watching a documentary on China Central Television about a Beijing store selling pirated VCDs, and she suddenly saw a familiar face in the crowd—Lin Yu! The face appeared briefly on screen and then vanished.
This was a secret; Lang Ru realized that she was likely the only one in the world who had noticed this secret. Her heart once again plunged into darkness. She consoled herself, saying that the fleeting face on TV was not Lin Yu, just someone who resembled him.
Soon after, Lang Ru received unexpected news: Lin Yu had never left Beijing after graduating. The person who died in the car accident, also named Lin Yu, was a namesake.
She got excited—Lin Yu was still alive! She decided to find him. Through several classmates working in Beijing, she eventually located Lin Yu. Not long after, Lin Yu left Beijing and joined Lang Ru in Hainan Island. Six months later, they held a beach wedding.
At first, they occasionally talked about the unfortunate Lin Yu from Inner Mongolia, the mysterious letter, and the strange events. But as time passed, they stopped mentioning them. Their life seemed quite happy.
Recently, they were preparing to have a child. Lang Ru realized she had been writing to that Lin Yu for three years, and she couldn't believe that she had received a letter from him now. The Lin Yu in the letter was a complete stranger to her. She had a feeling that something ominous was about to happen.
She slowly left the mailroom, anxiously opened the letter and read it:
"Miss Lang, We have never met, so why did you write to me? Miss Lang, You took away my life. Miss Lang, Why don't we become pen pals? You must write to me regularly. My mailing address is—The asphalt road in front of the International Travel Agency. Lin Yu"
Lang Ru suddenly looked up and found herself standing in the middle of the road, with a speeding car coming right at her. Her vision went black, and she fell into another world.
The Lin Yu who had died in the accident had never remarried. Her grief slowly turned into a desire for revenge. Finally, she responded to Lang Ru's letter using the address provided. What happened next, though, was beyond her wildest expectations.