Chapter 24 Liu Liu’s Hatred
My head was a mess of confusion. I soon arrived at the express cabinet. Liu Liu stood under the dim streetlight, her face pale yet smiling.
I stared at her in a daze. After a few seconds, I spoke first. "Are you sick?"
Liu Liu paused, then laughed. "How strange. The first words of concern come from the person I hate the most."
"Yes, I'm dying soon." She said calmly. "Late-stage cancer. I don't have much time left."
She had lost so much weight.
I couldn't help blurting out, "You made so much money from dealing drugs. Didn't you ever think about going to the hospital—"
"Made money?"
Liu Liu's smile faded until it was completely gone. "Do you know how much money my family spent on me from childhood until now? I calculated it. Less than a hundred thousand. But do you know how much I've sent home since I started working as an adult? Five hundred thousand. And more."
"They are always so greedy. As long as they're alive, I can never live only for myself. Do you get it?"
I looked at her cold face, and my heart trembled uncontrollably.
"Lu Xiaoning, you know? Actually, from the day I first met you, I've hated you."
Liu Liu stood under the streetlight. The light illuminated her in a pure yet shadowy way. "You had good grades, a good family, you were beautiful and popular. Everyone in the club revolved around you. Next to you, I wasn't even an ugly duckling. I was like a speck of dust that no one noticed."
"At first, I tried to catch up to you. But no matter how much money I earned or how hard I tried to improve, you were always ahead."
Liu Liu smiled bitterly as she spoke. "I thought about taking a shortcut, so I seduced that old man Li Sheng'an. Even if I couldn't become his girlfriend immediately, even if I could only be his mistress, as long as I got what I wanted, I was willing."
"But then I ran into you at the bar."
"The bottle of wine you casually opened back in university was something I couldn't get even after half a year of part-time work, something dozens of nights with Li Sheng'an wouldn't buy me."
"Lu Xiaoning, your starting line was too far ahead. I could never catch up."
My lips moved, but I couldn't find a single comforting word.
"Later, I discovered the people in the kitchen were dealing drugs. I knew it could bring in money, and money was what I loved most."
Liu Liu let out a soft breath, but her expression twisted into something ferocious. "Things were already getting better. I was making more and more money! But then I was diagnosed with liver cancer. Late stage."
"Do you know what I thought the moment I received the pathology report?"
"I wanted to kill. So many people. My parents, my brother, Li Sheng'an, and you."
In the dim light, Liu Liu's cheeks were pale and cold, her eyes gleaming darkly. "So when Li Sheng'an discovered the drug dealing, I immediately came up with a nearly perfect plan. I would kill him, and I would kill you too. Even if you survived, I would drag you down from your lofty pedestal!"