Goodnight, Beijing

Chapter 1
It was during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China.

It was April 18th 2020,

Khristina was sitting in her dead son’s bedroom, It was 10:00 pm, she was allowed to keep one thing from his body, his headband he wore, she gently brushed it near her fingers, she kept it because it wasn’t covered in his blood, she remembered seeing her son in the bodybag and had nightmares about it.

It had been nine months since her son was poisoned and murdered in cold blood.

She wrote something on a piece of paper, she wrote “晓玫.....渤海，我不能再和哥哥姐夫一起对待我，就像我谋杀了儿子小梅一样，请好好照顾美菱，好吗？” and “Сяомэй ..... Бохай, я не могу больше жить со своим братом и невесткой, обращаясь со мной, как будто я убил нашего сына Сяомэй, пожалуйста, позаботься о Мэйлин, хорошо?”, meaning “Xiaomei.....Bohai, I can’t live anymore with my brother and sister-in-law treating me like I murdered our son, Xiaomei, please take good care of Meiling, will you?“ in Chinese and Russian respectively,

She looked at the glass of milk and the five naproxen tablets, Her husband took naproxen due to an accident at work were broke his wrist.

”Forgive me.......Bohai.....” She said.

She took all 5 tablets with the milk in a minute and went to sleep, keeping the headband close to her.

——————————

In the morning, Xiaomei was getting ready for her online classes when she realised her mother wasn’t up, normally, Khristina would be up before either Bohai and Xiaomei.

She went into her brother’s room, it was the way it was since he died from the tainted Pocky sticks, she remembered it like it was yesterday.

“ (Mom?)” She asked in Mandarin.

There was no reply, so Xiaomei walked into the room.

” (Mom...)” She said again.

She turned her mother around, her reaction turned to grief minutes later.

”Mom!, What did you do?!, What did you do?!” She cried as she shook her mother‘s lifeless body.

Bohai went in.

“ (Xiaomei, what is going on?!)” Bohai said outside his late son’s room.

” (Dad, I think mom’s dead!)” She replied back.

Bohai looked at Khristina lying lifeless on her son’s bed, she still held onto the heart headband in her hands,

Xiaomei looked at the suicide note, she wept.

”They drove her to death!” She said to Bohai.