The Stranger at the Bar

The first time she saw him, he was smiling at a funeral. That smile floated lightly as a feather on water, the ripples散去 before they could form. Lin Wan stood at the back of the crowd, black lace covering her face but unable to hide her tears. She was the deceased’s closest person—at least in name.

The man, Shen Yanci, was the deceased’s fiancÉ. Two dead women in three months—one drowned in a private pool, one died in a car accident. Everyone said it was an accident. Only she knew otherwise.

Shen Yanci walked through the crowd toward her, his black suit’s hem spreading like bird wings. He didn’t open an umbrella, rain soaking his hair even as he approached.

“You must be Lin Wan,” he said. Not a question.

“And you must be the man who was engaged to my sister.” Her voice was steady. Calmer than she felt.

He smiled again—that same feather-light smile. “Shall we sit? I think we have much to discuss.”

They sat at the bar. He ordered whiskey. She ordered water.

“Three months ago,” he began, “your sister didn’t drown by accident. And one week ago, neither did the woman I was supposed to marry. They were killed by the same person.”

“And you know this because?”

“Because I was the one who found them both.” His jaw tightened. “And because I was too slow to save them.”

Lin Wan stared at him for a long moment. Then she raised her glass.

“Then let’s make sure no one else dies.”

They shook hands over the bar. Two strangers bound by the dead, beginning a journey neither would finish alone.