She remained eerily silent on the other end of the line, patiently waiting as my screams of rage and terror gradually subsided into hoarse, broken cries.
At last, I fell silent, tears streaming uncontrollably down my face. Despair consumed me as my trembling fists pounded weakly against the wooden boards of the coffin.
"My daughter…" I choked out through my sobs. "Where is she? Is she safe?"
Her voice, cold and detached, sliced through the silence. "The password."
"Let me hear her voice! If I don't, you won't get a single word from me!" I screamed, my desperation pouring into every syllable.
There was a pause, and then, faintly, I heard the muffled sound of a child's sobs. My heart clenched. It was Tiantian—my daughter.
"Tiantian…" I called out her name, my voice trembling.
Her cries grew louder, more frantic, but they were muffled, as though someone was holding something over her mouth. My breath hitched, my mind spiraling with fear.
"Speak," Qin Yao's voice came again, calm, unyielding.
I shook my head helplessly, tears blurring my vision. None of it made sense. This was the woman who had been my dearest friend, someone who seemed to lack for nothing. How had she turned into this?
"Why, Qin Yao?" I whispered, my voice cracking. "Why are you doing this?"
She let out a soft sigh, her tone disturbingly composed. "Do you remember the woman your ex-husband fell in love with?"
Her words hit me like a punch to the gut. My breathing stopped as she continued, "That woman… was me."
"I've never been rich. It was all a facade. The expensive clothes, the jewelry—they were rented. A change of wardrobe here and there doesn't cost much." Her voice was eerily even, as though recounting an unremarkable story.
"I approached you with one purpose: to make you earn money off the dead."
"Why…" I stammered, my voice barely a whisper. My body trembled violently as hopelessness wrapped around me like a shroud.
She laughed softly, the sound chillingly cruel. "Because your ex-husband and I… from the very beginning, we were waiting for you to make the money. So we could take it all."
Her words struck me like a bolt of lightning, leaving me utterly paralyzed. In that moment, everything fell into place—the unanswered questions, the inexplicable actions. The truth hit me with such force that I could do nothing but stare into the darkness, shattered and undone.