The cold, hard, rough pavement pressed against Mai Mingle's cheek.
She lay on her side by the road, eyes wide open, completely unable to move.
Hai Luwei's phone screen hadn't gone dark yet. In its faint light, she could see the tires on the other side of the taxi, the surface of the road, the dim white lane divider...
The screen went dark.
Even after her vision went black, even after she heard the taxi's rear door being quietly opened, her eyes remained fixed on the same scene.
After all, "completely unable to move" meant that even her eyeballs were frozen in place. Her fingers, still curled around her phone, maintained their grip, which was how she managed not to drop it.
The taxi's rear door swung open, scraping right past her body. It brushed against her shoulder, making her rock slightly.
