Queen Flower Lady rushed to her best friend’s doorstep, where a crowd had already gathered.

From the murmurs of the crowd, she learned that her friend had committed suicide by taking medication.

"She swallowed a big bottle of penicillin pills."

"I heard she also took a lot of depression medication."

"Isn’t this considered drug poisoning?"

"Did she have depression?"

"She usually seemed like a pretty normal girl, who would have thought she had this illness."

Listening to the chatter around her, Queen Flower Lady’s steps felt heavy, rooted to the ground, with no courage to move forward.

When her mother passed away, during her darkest days, it was her friend who helped her through.

Yet her friend had depression, and she didn’t know at all.

When did she get depression?

The sun set, and the crowd dispersed, leaving her standing alone at the spot.

Her friend’s mother returned after handling her daughter’s affairs and saw Queen Flower Lady standing downstairs.

She sighed softly, "You’re here."

Queen Flower Lady slowly lifted her head, "When... did she get depression?"

"Come inside, and we’ll talk."

"Okay."

...

The friend’s mother handed her a cup of tea and sighed, "Five years ago."

In disbelief, she said, "It’s been five years? How did I not know?"

"At first, I didn’t know either until I accidentally discovered her taking depression medication."

"How did she get depression?"

"She had a boyfriend who cheated on her with her then-school roommate. Heartbroken, she went to a bar to binge drink and passed out. She was taken to the hospital, where they found out she was pregnant, but because of the drinking, she lost the baby and became infertile, which led to her depression."

"How could this..." Queen Flower Lady covered her mouth, her eyes welling up, "Why didn’t she tell me..."

"At the time, you were preparing to study abroad, and she didn’t want to disturb you."

Back then, Queen Flower Lady didn’t have good grades, so she planned to study abroad to enhance her education. It was also through studying abroad that she met her current boss and joined the Special Department upon returning home.

The friend’s mother hesitated for a moment but decided to reveal the truth, "Actually, your ex-boyfriend didn’t do anything to hurt you; it was my daughter who falsely accused him."

"In the beginning, she was just trying to help you test the boy, but during the process, she saw that he was steadfast and began to feel envious. She thought that if her boyfriend had been steadfast back then, they might have already been married and had a child. The more she thought about it, the more extreme she became, leading her to do those irreparable things."

The friend’s mother took out a diary, "Many things she did and forgot, so she wrote them down. This was also a suggestion from her psychologist; it records the changes in her mindset."

The sky grew darker, clouds obscuring the starlit sky; tomorrow would be a rainy day.

Sitting by the window, Queen Flower Lady finished reading her friend’s diary, lingering on the last page, unmoving for a long time.

The worsening of her condition caused her friend to sometimes be clear-minded, sometimes extreme. When she was clear-minded, she saw the pills in her hand, realized she would do something irreversible, and felt regretful and sad, ultimately choosing to take them.

The last page was an apology letter her friend had written to her.

...

After a sleepless night, Queen Flower Lady arrived in front of her friend’s house early in the morning. The door opened—it was her friend’s mother, about to go out to buy paper money.

"Help me watch the candles inside, don’t let them go out."

Alone in the house, Queen Flower Lady looked at the photo on the altar; in the black-and-white photo, her friend smiled brightly and cheerfully.

But she couldn’t see it—next to the photo hovered a Ghost with entirely black eyes and disheveled hair.