Once the door closed behind them, Song Qingchun spoke. “It was Big Sister who gave me this purse, so does that mean it was her who was behind the recording? But why would she do that?”
Su Zhinian didn’t answer any of Song Qingchun’s endless questions. He continued to study Song Qingchun’s phone.
“Big Sister treats me and Dad very well; there’s no reason for her to do this… Su Zhinian…”
“Tingting.” Su Zhinian interrupted Song Qingchun by raising her phone to face her. “Take a look at this.”
Song Qingchun quieted down and obliged. What Su Zhinian showed her was a picture, and she managed to discern almost immediately that it was a picture of Tang Nuan’s arm.
“Do you still remember that night when you spent a lot of time looking at this bangle on Tang Nuan’s arm? At the time, I even asked you what was wrong. You shook your head and said that you couldn’t be sure, but you just know something was off. After that, I took a picture of it. Now, take a closer look at it, does it belong to Fang Rou?”
Song Qingchun didn’t answer instantly, but she used her fingers to enlarge the photo on her phone. She stared at the bangle and started to examine it closely. That day, due to a lack of direction, she had been unable to connect it to Fang Rou, but now that Su Zhinian brought it up, Song Qingchun suddenly realized why the bangle look so familiar to her.
She passed the phone back to Su Zhinian and walked to a dresser. She pulled open a drawer to take out a photo album. She flipped through it for a long time until she stopped before a picture. It was a picture taken during Song Cheng and Fang Rou’s wedding day. The picture showed an elderly woman handing a jade bangle to the bride, Fang Rou. The bangle was identical to the one worn by Tang Nuan on the day of her death.
“This originally belonged to my grandmother, but she passed away not long after Fang Rou married into the house. Grandma was so happy the day Song Cheng got married. She gifted this expensive jade bangle to Fang Rou on the day of their wedding.” As Song Qingchun explained, she compared Tang Nuan’s picture to the picture in the album. Her instinct was right; it was really the same bangle. “Grandmother didn’t wear this bangle often, but Fang Rou definitely did. As you know, even though we live in this same house, I wouldn’t spend the whole day focusing on her accessories…”
Song Qingchun paused to think before continuing. “…No wonder yesterday morning, during breakfast with Fang Rou, I felt something was off. I kept staring at her but couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Perhaps she noticed I’ve been staring at her, so she purposely spilt the bowl of soul on her and left in a hurry. She was probably afraid that I might spot something…”
Song Qingchun, who had not been able to catch up to Su Zhinian’s train of thought earlier, had completely seen through the whole thing.
“Therefore, the real reason behind that last message from Tang Nuan was to tell me that there was a hidden problem inside my purse? That was what she was trying to tell me, right?”
Following that inquiry, Song Qingchun’s heart twitched with pain. Without waiting for Su Zhinian’s answer, she continued. “And this bangle, she purposely wore it on her wrist because she knew she was about to die and left this as a clue for me, right?”