Chapter 42 Chapter 42 Rumors of Murder

Chapter 42

Old Mrs. Gu frankly admitted her crime.

She picked up the photo of herself and Liang Xiaoju from the coffee table, and gently stroked the frame with her dry hands like old tree bark, a loving smile revealed in her cloudy eyes.

"Xiao Ju is really a very, very good girl. It's a pity that people's words are so scary."

Old Lady Gu didn't look at Qin Ye, and was immersed in her memories. "Comrade Public Security, how can some people be so evil? How can they be so vicious?"

Liang Xiaoju is not as strong as Xiang Tian appears to be. The rumors spread by someone in the textile factory have a great impact on her life.

She had doubted more than once whether she had really done something wrong.

Perhaps, she is indeed an unruly girl as people say. Why else would everyone be talking about her behind her back?

Liang Xiaoju pretended to be calm and composed on the surface, but in fact, she would hide in her room every night and resort to various methods to torture herself.

It would be nice if I were dead.

She thought, if she died, would people stop saying bad things about her? The dead are greatest, that’s what we always say, isn’t it?

…

"What a selfish old fellow I am."

Mrs. Gu stroked Liang Xiaoju's face through the photo frame, and tears welled up in her eyes as she smiled. "I have always enjoyed Xiaoju's care and kindness, and never noticed anything wrong with her. Until last month, I wanted to leave all my property to her, as a token of my elders' love for the younger generation."

Liang Xiaoju naturally refused to accept it.

As the two of them were pushing and shoving each other, Mrs. Gu accidentally touched Liang Xiaoju's arm. Liang Xiaoju cried out in pain, and then she realized something was wrong.

Mrs. Gu recalled Liang Xiaoju's wound and her hands began to tremble more and more violently: "Xiaoju really wanted to commit suicide! There was a deep cut on her wrist, and you can almost see the bone."

The injuries described by Old Mrs. Gu matched the information Qin Ye obtained from Liang Xiaoju's body.

There was indeed a hideous scar on Liang Xiaoju's right wrist.

According to Hu Xuan from the laboratory department, the injury date was almost exactly one month ago.

"At first, I thought it was someone from the textile factory who bullied Xiaoju. I was so angry that I wanted to seek justice for her. Then she knelt down and begged me, telling me that she couldn't live any longer and wanted to die."

Old Mrs. Gu picked up a pill and swallowed it without drinking any water. "I know the feeling of being unable to live or die. I feel that she has helped me over the years, and now it is my turn to help her."

Her husband and daughter were framed with rumors during the movement. Unable to bear the humiliation, they chose to commit suicide by jumping into the river.

Old Mrs. Gu understood that vicious rumors were enough to kill people.

"So I told Xiaoju that if she really didn't want to live anymore, I could help her."

Old Mrs. Gu bent down, took out a medical record from the drawer of the coffee table, and handed it to Qin Ye. "I am seriously ill and will soon die. I have to take a lot of painkillers every day. I really can't stand it."

She was willing to help Liang Xiaoju end her relationship. This was to help Liang Xiaoju, and also to help herself who was suffering from a serious illness.

Old Mrs. Gu and Liang Xiaoju discussed for a long time. Liang Xiaoju finally hoped that she could die in the textile factory.

She naively thought that her tragic death would more or less awaken the guilt of the rumormongers, and that their malicious slander against her would end with her death.

Unfortunately, she was wrong.

Those people never cared about the harm they caused her, and even after her death, they started to get worse and worse, speculating about her with even more obscene and dark thoughts.

…

The doubts that had been lingering in Qin Ye's mind for many days finally had an answer at this moment.

No wonder there were no signs of violent struggle at the crime scene; no wonder Liang Xiaoju's remains looked so neat, as if she had been carefully dressed up by the murderer; no wonder Liang Xiaoju had a smile on her face when she died...

From the beginning to the end, this case could not be considered a murder in the true sense.

Liang Xiaoju wanted to commit suicide, but out of gratitude, Mrs. Gu chose to fulfill her wish.

She and Li Quan soon found evidence in Mrs. Gu's home, including the clothes and shoes she wore on the day of the crime, as well as dozens of torn stockings.

Old Mrs. Gu looked at him with longing, and touched the photo of her and Liang Xiaoju again. "In order to make Xiaoju die quickly, I used stockings to strangle the table legs every day to practice my strength. Unfortunately, I still couldn't strangle Xiaoju to death that day, causing her to suffer in vain."

Or perhaps, she really couldn't bear it, so she didn't have the heart to kill Liang Xiaoju in one go.

"Comrade Public Security, now that you are here, my suicide note will probably be of no use."

Old Mrs. Gu took out a cowhide envelope from her pocket, and her lips slowly turned dark blue, which was obviously a symptom of poisoning.

Qin Ye's heart skipped a beat, and he secretly cried out to Li Quan: "Li Quan, call an ambulance quickly, she seems to have taken poison!"

Old Lady Gu waved her hand and raised her arm, trying to grab Qin Ye's sleeve, but because her arm lost strength, it fell down weakly: "No, no need. Public Security Comrade, I have something to ask of you."

"You talk, I'm listening."

Qin Ye reached out and held Old Lady Gu's hand, clearly feeling the temperature of her body slowly dissipating.

Old Mrs. Gu nodded, her breath weak: "A few days ago, I heard that people in the textile factory were still talking nonsense, saying that Xiaoju's death was not innocent. I would like to trouble you to publish an advertisement in the newspaper to tell everyone that I am the murderer. I have made up the story and it is in this envelope..."

After saying that, she suddenly vomited a mouthful of black blood.

…

Rescuers from the hospital arrived quickly, including Xu Libai.

He didn't bother to greet Qin Ye and immediately checked Mrs. Gu's physical condition.

But after a moment, he took off the stethoscope hanging around his neck and shook his head at Qin Ye: "The patient took an overdose of pesticides. There is no hope."

Old Mrs. Gu took a highly toxic pesticide. No matter how big or small the dose was, she would surely die if she took it.

Qin Ye looked at Old Lady Gu lying on the bed. Her eyes were closed and her face was as pale as Liang Xiaoju's that day. It was obvious that she was dead.

She lowered her head for a moment and opened the cowhide envelope that Old Lady Gu had given her before she died.

In the letter, Mrs. Gu described herself as an old lady who had done a lot of evil.

She was jealous of Liang Xiaoju's youth and beauty. While enjoying Liang Xiaoju's care, she also treated Liang Xiaoju harshly. She forced Liang Xiaoju to take care of her every day. Once Liang Xiaoju didn't come, she would spread rumors that Liang Xiaoju was cheating on her with other men.

A big part of the reason why Liang Xiaoju has a bad reputation is because she gossips about her everywhere.

At the end of the letter, Mrs. Gu wrote:

[No matter who eventually reads this letter, I beg you to describe me as viciously as possible. Only in this way will everyone sympathize with Xiaoju and put all the blame on me. I don't care about my reputation, but Xiaoju does. I beg you to let her leave this world with a clear conscience. 】

"Will this help?"

Qin Ye murmured softly as if talking to himself.

Mrs. Gu’s approach may indeed be effective, and it may prevent those people from spreading rumors about Liang Xiaoju, and instead direct their attacks at the “evil-filled” Mrs. Gu.

But isn’t Mrs. Gu the next victim of the rumor?

When the storm is over, there may be another "Liang Xiaoju" who will also die from malicious rumors.

Xu Libai also saw the contents of the letter. He shook his head. While answering Qin Ye's question, he was also telling himself: "This is useless."

The one who should be damned is neither Liang Xiaoju nor Old Lady Gu.

It was the group of people who liked to spread rumors and gossip who used their tongues as weapons to kill "Liang Xiaoju" and others.

…

The murder of Liang Xiaoju ended like a farce.

When Qin Ye and Li Quan were carrying the evidence from Old Lady Gu's room downstairs, they met Xiang Tian at the entrance of the apartment building.

Xiang Tian stood beside the ambulance, and forced a smile at Qin Ye, finally revealing a pretty good smile: "Public Security Qin, you are still one step faster than me."

This morning, she received a letter Liang Xiaoju wrote to her before her death. The letter was sent the day before Liang Xiaoju's accident.

Liang Xiaoju expressed her desire to commit suicide in the letter and hoped that Xiang Tian could hand the letter to the police. She told the police that she was willing to die, and after her repeated requests, Mrs. Gu finally relented and agreed to help kill her.

"Xiao Ju also said in the letter that she hopes that if there is an afterlife, we can live in a very tolerant world. We will not be slandered because of our beautiful clothes, and we will not be stared at or talked about with malicious intent, and we can live the way we want."

As Xiang Tian spoke, his expression couldn't help but become a little gloomy.

Xiaoju thought that death would put an end to the rumors, but unfortunately it did not.

What’s funny is that someone cut off the tongue of the sewing team leader last night, and the rumors about Xiaoju gradually died down.

…

When Xiang Tian received Liang Xiaoju's letter, he thought that it would be better for her to go to the police station and confess her guilt.

Everyone in the textile factory suspected that she had killed Xiaoju, so she simply discussed with Old Lady Gu and had all the blame put on her.

Two years ago, she fell seriously ill and was kicked out of the house by her adoptive parents. She had no one to rely on, and it was Liang Xiaoju who raised money for her and secretly took her to the provincial capital to see a doctor.

Liang Xiaoju didn't want others to know that she helped Xiang Tian, ​​for she was worried that someone would take advantage of the situation and spread rumors that her money was dirty or that Xiang Tian had an unclean disease.

"I don't know, Qin Gongan, I didn't know Xiaoju was driven to suicide by rumors. I don't deserve it, I don't deserve to be her friend."

Xiang Tian squatted on the ground, covering her face with her hands and crying.

She was too careless. Xiaoju smiled and told her not to care about the rumors in the outside world. She thought Xiaoju was always open-minded.

Now that I think about it carefully, it was entirely because Liang Xiaoju didn't want Xiang Tian to stand up for her and be hated by others.

In Liang Xiaoju's heart, it was enough that she was the only one troubled by the rumors, and she didn't want Xiang Tian, ​​the only person willing to be her friend, to suffer the same pain as her.

…

Qin Ye also brought the letter that Liang Xiaoju sent to Xiang Tian back to the bureau as evidence.

Afterwards, she connected to the live broadcast room of the client Liang Bing and asked: "In your world, why was Xiang Tian shot as the murderer of Liang Xiaoju?"

Logically speaking, since Mrs. Gu left behind evidence and letters, it was impossible for Xiang Tian to be suspected of Liang Xiaoju's murder.

Liang Bing was silent for a moment, then said, "Because Xiang Tian also strangled the leader of their sewing group."

After Xiang Tian was arrested, she said that she chose to kill the sewing group leader because she was afraid that the leader would inform the police that she had killed Liang Xiaoju.

After extensive investigations, the police were unable to find conclusive evidence to prove that Xiang Tian killed Liang Xiaoju.

The crime for which Xiang Tian was executed was not the murder of Liang Xiaoju, but the murder of the leader of the sewing group.

But with Xiang Tian's death, many people blamed both cases on Xiang Tian and even made up a "reasonable" story.

In their mouths, Xiang Tian is a nasty woman with a heart as vicious as a snake. She was jealous that Liang Xiaoju was liked by the sewing group leader, so she chose to kill both of them.

"In our world, people are still discussing Xiang Tian's murder case."

Liang Bing's expression was indescribably sad. "Now in their mouths, the leader of the sewing group has been glorified into a suave and handsome man. They said something like my sister and the other party were in love, but unfortunately Xiang Tian killed them..."

As a relative of the victim, he did try to explain that Liang Xiaoju had no personal relationship with the sewing team leader, but no one was willing to believe it.

They are only willing to believe the truth of what they expect to happen.

Qin Ye was just about to ask who the victims of the "evil ghost" were after Xiang Tian's death when someone knocked on the door from outside.

"Qin Ye, someone from the textile factory has come to report a crime again, and her tongue has also been cut off!"