Love Me if You Dare: Pristine Darkness

Dong, dong. There was knocking at the door.

Derrick, who was sitting at the prow, turned his head to ask, “What is it?”

In a pained voice, Jian Yao said, “Derrick, my stomach hurts badly. I was injured just now at the town.”

Derrick stilled for a moment, then looked down and laughed before standing up and nonchalantly opening the cabin door. In the dim light of the night, he saw the brilliant eyes of that woman. He never expected that she would be such a rascal as to use such a substandard method to deceive him. He kept smiling as he looked down at her. 

Jian Yao noticed his tall, husky figure blocked the door almost entirely. Without the slightest embarrassment, she continued insisting, “I need medicine. Please look for some medicine for me.”

Derrick abruptly lowered his face so that it was almost touching Jian Yao’s. Jian Yao was startled and leaned backwards. He smiled even more widely and gazed at her with his clear, bright eyes as he said, “Jenny, I don’t have any medicine. I’ll look for a doctor for you when we get to Myanmar.”

Jian Yao bent her head slightly, exposing her pale neck, and said, “What about Luo Lang? Let Luo Lang come out, he will take good care of me.”

Derrick’s expression registered no change. He stood up straighter and said, “Luo Lang is dead. Have you forgotten? You refused to forgive him even up to the time he died, so he died of heartache.”

“Really?” Jian Yao raised her head to stare at him, her eyes like deep pools of water. “But I have forgiven him. I have been regretting it from the time he fell off the cliff. I want to tell him that I’ve forgiven him.”

Derrick pursed his lips tightly and remained motionless. 

Jian Yao took a step forward, her eyes on him continually, so that he would have no opportunity to evade her. “Derrick, call him out. I want to tell him what he most wants to hear.”

There was only darkness in Derrick’s eyes. 

He was silent for a long time before unexpectedly tilting his head and laughing. He said, “So moving! You, this woman, you’re too cunning. You want to trick him into coming out and supplant me? No, that will never happen. He can’t hear you anymore, Jenny.”

Jian Yao’s gaze remained tranquil. 

He turned to close the cabin door. Jian Yao was certain that it would not be easy to get him to open it another time. She immediately called out, “Derrick! Does Luo Lang know about this situation?”

Derrick’s hand paused. 

“Does he know that you, who originally hid in the shadows, have occupied his body, and have gone on to harm one innocent person after another, to stage one play after another featuring an alluring, overwhelming love, to lead a phony and ridiculous life? If he knew, I am afraid that he would rather kill himself, and also would be unwilling to let someone like you continue to exist. You’re very clear about this, aren’t you? He hates the evil in his body, just like he hates those filthy people. He hates you!”

Derrick looked up at her. 

But what he saw on her face was an icy, mocking smile. “You aren’t even someone who originally existed; you’re just a personality that came about because Luo Lang was trying to escape from his innermost being. When he’s clear-headed and conscious, when his will is in control, are you even able to see a glimmer of sunlight? It is only when his will is weak and he has lost himself that you are able to come out and frantically seize the moment to commit crimes, to take a breath of fresh air. All your frenzied and phony actions are only to service your own existence. But, Derrick, do you still not understand? From start to finish, you are not a real person, Derrick, you are just a figment of the imagination, so you will always, endlessly pursue imaginary emotions and love.”

. . . . . 

It was highly likely that he has a personality which enjoys ‘acting out’ his delusions, which is also to say, he has the first signs of schizophrenia. 

There is an aspect of timidity deeply hidden in his personality. Thus, he has never directly confronted me.

He is pursuing an earth-shaking love. He is fascinated by it because he has never possessed it, so he is deeply fascinated.

. . . . .

The inferences that Bo Jinyan had mentioned flashed across Jian Yao’s mind like lightning. It turned out that he was right. He nailed Derrick’s behavioural characteristics, as if he had personally met him. 

Hot blood surged in Jian Yao’s heart. She knew that this was the strength imparted by criminal psychology, the strength of her heart, enabling her to have the psychological upper hand when she engaged in mediation with this monstrously evil serial killer. 

Derrick stood where he was without moving, his fingers tightly clutching the door until his knuckles were white. His short hair obscured his eyes, making it difficult to see the darkness seething in them.

However, Jian Yao had been waiting for precisely this moment!

The moment of his distraction! The skilled expert was close enough to wrestle with, they were only centimetres apart, the opportunity was at hand!

Jian Yao grabbed the metal chair she had placed at hand earlier and threw it towards his head. His reflexes were amazingly quick and he dodged it neatly. Laughing lowly, he said, “Jenny . . .”

Who could have imagined what Jian Yao had aimed for was this instant. She was already standing by the door; when the metal chair left her hand, she naturally toppled over the side of the boat and fell into the water with a loud pu dong. 

The water here pulled frenziedly at her, and it roared indistinctly. For a split second, Jian Yao could not figure out where she was and kept turning around in the water; her only thought was to get as far away from the boat as she could. Unexpectedly, she heard another pu dong behind her and her heart turned cold. She had never in a million years imagined that Derrick would willingly abandon the boat in order to chase after her, and she could only use all her strength to swim away. 

However, the most terrifying thing for any escapee, bar none, is the sound of pursuit, far or near. The water undulated in violent waves; they were actually in a whitewater, and from behind them came an immensely loud rumbling – it sounded like a waterfall. Jian Yao felt a frisson of fear – what was Derrick planning to do? Could it be that he originally intended to bring her with him as he jumped off the precipice, to bring her down with himself?

Then, what Jian Yao most feared happened. 

An icy cold hand grabbed one of her ankles in the water. Before Jian Yao could even struggle free, he had dragged her backwards fiercely. After fighting against him for a while, she still ended up in his arms. He threw his arm around her neck and, following the flow, continued to tow her backwards. He chuckled in her ear, and then, after a slow exhale, he said, “You see, your Simon King is pursuing us. However, this time, he won’t catch us.”

This was probably the most sorrowful and despairing moment in Jian Yao’s life. In the dark water, being pulled along by a serial killer, she could only look at the high cliffs above her, and far in front of her where a lighted boat was heading in their direction. Perhaps, just ten more minutes, and Jinyan would have caught up with them, discovered them.

Jian Yao’s tears fell.

“Don’t be sad,” Derrick whispered into her ear, “love is eternal. And, I have never been fake. I really exist in this life and exist in history! I am the only one, and I am also the only complete one!”

The water beside them suddenly became very calm and fast-moving. Jian Yao felt as if her body had become weightless in the twinkling of an eye, and she started to drop rapidly. Then, all the water in the world rushed upwards and engulfed her, like a white beast.