Chapter One — Repaying a Debt of Gratitude
On a bridge spanning a great river, a young woman stood at the edge.
She was tall and heavily overweight, with a body so large that her proportions seemed almost exaggerated. She was dressed in a pink lace dress, and behind her stood a group of police officers who had been trying desperately to persuade her to step away from the edge.
“Have you managed to contact any of her family members or anyone who knows her?”
“We’re still trying.”
The officers continued speaking to her, hoping to calm her down.
But the young woman seemed completely lost in her own thoughts.
Her name was Yulan.
She was a medical student—a young woman who had once believed that if she became a doctor, if she could help enough people and save enough lives, perhaps others would eventually stop judging her by her appearance.
But that hope had gradually been crushed.
Her mother, the only family she had left in this world, had suddenly passed away from a serious illness before Yulan could even graduate.
The loss left her devastated.
Then, on Valentine’s Day, she finally gathered the courage to confess her feelings to a male student from another college whom she had secretly liked for a long time.
She had made the chocolates herself.
She had held onto them nervously, imagining that perhaps he would at least accept them with a smile.
But he did not.
He did not even open the box.
He simply threw it onto the ground and stepped on it several times.
He did not say thank you.
He did not give her even the smallest bit of consideration.
For Yulan, it was the final blow.
The grief she had been carrying since her mother’s death, the insecurity she had always felt about her body, and the humiliation she had just endured all came crashing down at once.
And so she came to the bridge.
She wanted to end everything.
Fortunately, the police arrived in time.
But before Yulan could even understand what was happening, another figure came rushing toward her.
It was Xiaomei.
Her closest friend and roommate.
Xiaomei had known Yulan since their freshman year. She knew better than anyone that beneath Yulan’s intimidating appearance was someone extraordinarily fragile.
She had come on the motorcycle Yulan loved so much.
The moment she reached her, Xiaomei slapped her hard across the face.
“Are you out of your mind?!”
Tears were already streaming down Xiaomei’s face.
“You think your mother would want to see you like this?”
Yulan said nothing.
Xiaomei’s hand rose again, but before she could strike her a second time, the police stopped her.
“That’s enough. Calm down!”
Both women were eventually taken to the police station so they could calm down and talk things through.
Xiaomei stayed beside Yulan.
“You have to go back to school,” she told her.
“Your mother is watching over you from heaven. Wouldn’t you want her to be proud of you?”
Yulan lowered her head.
She knew Xiaomei was right.
She had worked so hard to become a doctor.
She could not simply throw everything away.
The next day, Yulan returned to class.
It was an anatomy and dissection class.
The body prepared for their class that day belonged to a young police officer who had died in the line of duty.
He had been killed in a gunfight while confronting criminals.
Xiaomei quietly told Yulan about him.
“The police saved you before I got there,” she said. “So be kind to their colleague.”
Yulan nodded.
But when the class began, she found herself unable to look directly at the body.
She was afraid.
Even though she was a medical student, standing face-to-face with a dead person was still something she struggled to accept.
Xiaomei gave her a stern look.
“Go on.”
Under Xiaomei’s watchful gaze, Yulan finally gathered her courage and slowly uncovered the man’s face.
She froze.
He was young.
Tall.
His skin was slightly dark, and his features were deep and striking.
There were gunshot wounds beneath one of his eyes and near his left temple.
Xiaomei looked at him and sighed.
“He’s actually pretty handsome.”
Yulan did not answer.
She simply stared at him.
Such a young man.
Such a good person.
And yet his life had ended here.
After class ended, Yulan remained behind.
She looked at the young officer’s face.
For some reason, she wanted to do something for him.
Before his remains were returned to his family, she wanted to make sure that he looked as dignified as possible.
She stayed behind to help take care of his injuries.
But before long, several male students entered the room.
They began making jokes about the dead officer.
They mocked him simply because he had been a police officer.
One of them even reached out and manipulated the dead man’s face as though it were some kind of toy.
A female student pinched his nose and spoke in an exaggerated, high-pitched voice.
“Look! The police ghost is here!”
Something inside Yulan finally snapped.
She picked up a scalpel.
The students immediately backed away.
Yulan’s expression was frightening.
“Get out.”
No one dared to laugh anymore.
They hurried away.
Once they were gone, Yulan put down the scalpel.
She returned to the body.
Her hands became gentle again.
She carefully cleaned and tended to the wounds on the officer’s face, doing everything she could to restore his features.
“I’ll help you take care of your wounds, okay?”
She spoke to him as though he were still alive.
When she had finished, she covered him carefully with a blanket.
Only then did she leave.
That night, Yulan told Xiaomei what had happened.
Xiaomei listened in disbelief.
“We were lucky the teacher had something urgent to deal with and had to leave early,” she said. “Otherwise, those students would have been in serious trouble. You could have all received disciplinary punishment.”
Yulan remained silent.
She was exhausted.
Eventually, she went to sleep.
But sometime during the night, as her consciousness slowly drifted between wakefulness and sleep, Yulan sensed that someone was standing at the foot of her bed.
She opened her eyes.
A figure stood there.
It was the same police officer.
But he was no longer lying on the dissection table.
He was standing upright, dressed in his police uniform.
He was tall and dignified, just as he had been in life.
Yet there was nothing frightening about him.
His eyes were gentle.
His expression was warm.
Yulan stared at him in disbelief.
The young officer looked at her and smiled faintly.
“I’m here to thank you.”
Yulan could not speak.
“Thank you for everything you did for my body.”
He paused.
Then he continued softly.
“If you don’t mind... I hope you can come to my funeral.”
Yulan’s eyes widened.
“Wait...!”
But the figure had already disappeared.
The room fell silent once again.
Yulan sat there, staring into the darkness.
She had no idea that the kindness she had shown to a dead stranger would become the beginning of a completely different fate.
