Poisoned Love: What Happened on July 9?

(A short writing exercise)

After arguing with her mother, Zhirou leads a summer camp into the mountains and spends half a month without internet. When she returns home, her mother has hanged herself...

The police inspect the scene and the suicide note, then officially rule it a suicide.

But no matter what, Zhirou can't believe her mother would kill herself. The following month, her parents were supposed to travel to Shanghai with a tour group. Zhirou had signed her mother up, and her mother was so excited that she had already made a list of everything to bring.

And at the end of this month, she would turn twenty-two. She and her mother had agreed to take photos together in matching qipao dresses with floral hairpins. They had carefully picked out two identical dresses online well in advance.

How could Zhirou believe her mother had suddenly taken her own life?

So she decides to retrace her mother's steps over the past half month on her own.

All the traces are there, except for July 9. Her mother disappeared for that entire day. No one knows where she went or whom she met, or what led to her suicide in the early hours of July 10...

It's as if an invisible eraser wiped away every trace of that day.

What terrifying truth lies behind it all? A horrifying love?