Chapter 50. During her university years, Cheng Shiyun... laid an egg for him.
Xie Shijin was holding the USB drive in her hand.
Guo Renyi nodded: "You're right."
"Killing you to silence you is indeed a good idea."
The man was indeed tempted by this offer.
During his nine years teaching at Yichuan No. 7 Middle School, he sexually assaulted so many female students that he couldn't even remember them all. Xie Shijin handed the USB drive over to the police, and at the very least, he will be sentenced to life imprisonment.
"Come here." Xie Shijin raised his chin slightly, his voice cold and dry, and gripped the knife in his hand tightly.
A ruthless glint flashed in Guo Renyi's eyes. He picked up the knife from the ground, gritted his teeth, and stood up: "I'm just trying to save my own life."
Before he finished speaking, he raised his knife and charged at Xie Shijin. The snake venom had paralyzed his limbs, making his movements slow, but the brute force unleashed in his frenzy was not to be underestimated. Xie Shijin dodged to the side, and Guo Renyi, unable to stop his momentum, crashed heavily into a pile of metal clotheslines in the corner of the rooftop.
With a loud crash, Guo Renyi fell to the ground, the broken metal clothesline piercing his abdomen: "Ahhh!"
He was in so much pain that he couldn't stand up. Xie Shijin went over, grabbed him by the back of his collar, and lifted him up.
Amidst the flashes of lightning and thunder, the boy's shadow was reflected on the wall. Guo Renyi saw Xie Shijin raise his right hand high, about to stab him with a knife!
Driven by his survival instincts, Guo Renyi quickly came up with a clever idea. He grabbed a clothesline pole and swung it back, striking Xie Shijin on the temple and knocking off his hearing aid.
Xie Shijin felt a brief dizziness and his vision went black. Guo Renyi took the opportunity to pry open his fingers and scrambled backward. Behind him was a wall, and if he went any further, he would only be able to jump over the wall and fall down the building. He had nowhere to retreat: "Xie Shijin, do you really want to kill me?"
Shaking his head to calm himself down, Xie Shijin bent down to pick up the hearing aid from the ground and put it back on. He looked up at Guo Renyi, approaching step by step, rain splashing at his feet.
Guo Renyi's stomach was bleeding, and his knife flew out during the fall, only to be kicked to the other side of the rooftop by Xie Shijin: "Whether you want to live or not is up to you. Call the police now and confess to them how you hit and killed Cheng Shiyun, and I may let you go."
Without hesitation, Guo Renyi said, "Impossible."
His current situation proved his earlier guess was correct. Xie Shijin wanted to use the USB drive to force him to confess that he killed Cheng Shiyun. Xie Shijin had definitely made a backup of the USB drive, and regardless of whether he was related to Cheng Shiyun's death, Xie Shijin would hand the video over to the police. He cursed himself for being stupid enough to believe Xie Shijin's lies!
Rape is not punishable by death.
If he is sentenced to life imprisonment, he can try to get a reduced sentence while in prison. If he behaves well, it is possible that he will be released in twenty or fifteen years.
Intentional homicide.
He admitted to premeditatedly running over Cheng Shiyun and staging it as a car accident, and fled for two years. With multiple crimes combined, he will undoubtedly face death.
Xie Shijin wanted him dead!
He can't die, he can't die!
Guo Renyi began to crawl to the side. His hands and legs were completely numb, and he could only move his body. He barely managed to crawl two or three steps before he was grabbed by the shoulder and slammed against the wall. Xie Shijin knelt on one knee and pressed down on his bleeding abdomen.
"Hmm!"
The excruciating pain caused the man to curl up in a ball. Xie Shijin held the knife to Guo Renyi's throat with her other hand and clenched her fist, repeatedly pounding it on the man's face.
The dull thud of fists hitting flesh was almost louder than thunder.
...
Upon reaching the fifth floor and searching Feng Yue's home, the police found no trace of Xie Shijin or Guo Renyi. Feng Yue's father said that Xie Shijin had come and gone.
The power bank's location tracking was inaccurate, but Xie Shijin's location hadn't changed for a long time.
"On the rooftop," someone said.
There were sounds of fighting.
The criminal police officers who had come to provide backup also arrived. A large group of them, armed to the teeth, were preparing to head towards the rooftop. Yang Shengnan gestured for them to stop and turned to ask, "Has Xiao Liu arrived yet?"
"Here I am!" Little Liu, carrying a cat carrier, pushed through the crowd. "Master, I'm here."
"You guys guard the stairwell. No one is allowed to go up to the roof without my instructions." Yang Shengnan's gaze swept over the criminal police officers, her tone leaving no room for argument.
The detective asked, "Captain Yang, are you going up alone? Both suspects might be armed with knives; it's too dangerous..."
Yang Shengnan said, "There is only one suspect!"
“Xie Shijin will not kill Guo Renyi.” She turned to look at Xiao Liu and gestured with her eyes, “Xiao Liu, come up with me, the rest of you step back.”
"Captain Yang..."
Yang Shengnan roared, "This is an order!"
She then removed her headset, walkie-talkie, and body camera, saying, "I'll take responsibility if anything happens."
The rooftop door was not closed.
Guo Renyi's teeth were knocked out, his mouth was full of blood, and his cheeks quickly became red, swollen, and bruised. Xie Shijin's knuckles were scraped and bleeding, but he didn't feel any pain. He looked at Guo Renyi as if he were looking at the rabbits and chickens that he had once skinned and pulled out of the pool.
After beating the other party until they were unable to fight back, he took out his phone, which was recording, and held it to Guo Renyi's mouth: "Say it, you killed Cheng Shiyun."
“Apologize to Teacher Cheng and tell her that you are worse than an animal, that you caused their family to be destroyed and that Cheng Shiyun died with her eyes wide open in anger.”
"You separated them from their family, causing him and Teacher Ran to suffer the loss of their child, forever separated by death, never to be reunited."
"You deserve to die."
"No...it wasn't me..." Guo Renyi spat out the broken teeth in his mouth, blood dripping down the corner of his mouth, his eyes filled with stubborn madness, "If you have the guts, then kill me. If you don't kill me, I will never admit it even if I die."
The sirens were blaring downstairs; the police had arrived.
Fear vanished from Guo Renyi's face; instead, a near-relief-like elation surged forth. Just wait a little longer; as long as the police arrive, they'll take him to the hospital. The snake venom will be neutralized, and his life will be saved.
He won't die.
He looked up at the boy, whose face was so sinister it was almost ferocious, and a mocking smile curled at the corner of his mouth: "Did you hear that? The police are here! If you kill me, you'll go to jail too. Is it worth it for that meddlesome girl?"
"I will not go to jail."
Xie Shijin did not move the knife away; instead, he pressed it down forcefully. The sharp blade pierced Guo Renyi's throat and skin, and blood seeped out from the cut, dripping down the blade.
"You charged at me with your knife first; you were the one who wanted to kill me."
His voice was clear and resolute, penetrating the sound of rain and sirens.
"I acted in self-defense."
He slapped it with his backhand.
This cut will sever Guo Renyi's throat.
In that instant, Yang Shengnan kicked open the rooftop door and shouted, "Xie Shijin! Stop!"
Xie Shijin turned his head and saw Yang Shengnan running up to the rooftop. Her sidearm was already tucked away at her waist, and she was holding nothing in her hands. She raised it slightly to signal Xie Shijin to calm down.
"Officer Yang."
Xie Shijin remained calm, showing no surprise at the arrival of the police, and appeared to be the same composed and self-possessed young man as always.
Beneath him lay Guo Renyi's bloodied and mangled face; the man's chest was still heaving, so he was probably not dead.
But Xie Shijin's knife was still pressed against his throat. Yang Shengnan slowly, slowly approached them: "Xie Shijin, I know what you want to do! But if you slash him with this knife, it won't be self-defense, it will be intentional homicide! Are you going to ruin your whole life for a scumbag?"
"You just got into university, your future is bright and promising, you deserve a better life, it's not worth dying for him!"
Xie Shijin said, "I have no future."
"I took the college entrance exam in order to get a government scholarship."
He wanted to use that money to bury his grandmother, and give whatever was left over to Cheng Shiyun's parents.
Half of him died in the instant Cheng Shiyun's car accident.
The other half died on the same day her grandmother passed away.
What future or prospects does someone who is already dead have?
“What do you mean no?!” Yang Shengnan retorted. “Guo Renyi has been subdued by you, we’ve caught him! Put down the knife, and I guarantee you, you can still go to university, your life won’t be affected in any way!”
"Too slow," Xie Shijin said softly.
"You're too slow."
More than 700 days and nights have passed since Cheng Shiyun's death, but justice has been slow to arrive. He can't wait any longer, and he doesn't want to wait any longer.
When justice fails to prevail, he steps in to bring it upon himself.
“It’s not too late!” Yang Shengnan said. “Hand him over to me, and I’ll pry the truth out of him. I’ll get justice for that girl, and he’ll definitely be sentenced!”
"How many years will he be sentenced to? Seven years, or life imprisonment?" Xie Shijin looked at the man on the ground, barely alive.
"How can that be? No matter how many years he's sentenced to, he'll live a good life."
Cheng Shiyun is dead, so why is he still alive and well?
Why are people like this still alive?
He doesn't deserve to live.
"Execute the death penalty immediately!" Yang Shengnan roared.
She clenched her fists, stared into the boy's lifeless eyes, and roared through gritted teeth: "Intentional homicide, hit-and-run with cruel methods and heinous circumstances, multiple crimes combined, death penalty to be carried out immediately!"
Xie Shijin was stunned for a moment.
Seeing this, Yang Shengnan quickly pressed her advantage, saying, "I promise! I promise you! I will apply to the court for the maximum penalty!"
"How can you guarantee it?" Xie Shijin's voice remained calm, yet carried a deep sense of sarcasm. "What guarantees do you have?"
"Feng Yue! We've caught Feng Yue!" Yang Shengnan exclaimed urgently. "Feng Yue confessed everything. She told us in detail how Guo Renyi hit someone and how he fled that night."
Standing behind, Xiao Liu was dumbfounded. Feng Yue was clearly terrified and in an extremely unstable mental state, saying she didn't know anything when asked. But suddenly, Xiao Liu's intelligence exploded, and he immediately realized that Yang Shengnan was trying to calm Xie Shijin down first.
Xie Shijin then asked, "Guo Renyi denies it, do you have any evidence?"
Yang Shengnan was stunned.
Those were the words she had said to the boy countless times.
"What evidence do you have to prove this was premeditated murder?"
"Speech alone cannot be used as evidence. None of us know the true circumstances at the time, and we cannot characterize the case based on speculation..."
"Can you prove that this keychain belongs to Cheng Shiyun?"
...
A single piece of evidence is not enough to convict a criminal; witness testimony alone is insufficient to convict a criminal.
...
"There's evidence!"
Xiao Liu shouted excitedly, "Master! It's recovered! The recording is recovered!"
The technical department sent the audio of the sunflower toy to his phone. He opened the audio and turned the speaker to the maximum.
The static from the electrical circuits mingled with the sound of the rain, making it difficult to hear clearly. Yet, Xie Shijin felt as if Guo Renyi's sinister voice was right next to his ear, as he recounted how he had knocked Cheng Shiyun down, how he had smashed her phone to destroy evidence, and how he was certain that the car accident would leave no one to testify against him.
Hearing him admit it with his own ears intensified the hatred simmering in the young man's chest. Xie Shijin's eyes turned bloodshot, and he pressed down harder on the hilt of the knife, the blade sinking deeper into Guo Renyi's throat. Blood dripped down the blade even faster. The man gasped for breath, letting out a dying gasp.
"Xie Shijin! Don't be impulsive!" Yang Shengnan shouted. "With the recording, I will definitely convict Guo Renyi! I know you want him dead, but judging bad people is the job of the law and the police. If you kill him, you can avenge Cheng Shiyun, but what about yourself?"
"Put down the knife for the sake of those who care about you and love you..."
Xie Shijin shook his head: "Nobody's here."
Nobody loved him, nobody cared about him, he had nothing.
"Where's your pet?" Yang Shengnan suddenly asked.
Xiao Liu immediately realized what was happening and hurriedly turned the cat carrier on his back to the front. The zipper was half open, and a small snake could be seen curled up inside: "Is this little snake your pet? It's so beautiful and so obedient. If you go to jail, who will take care of it?"
The little snake was coiled in the cat carrier, flicking its long, thin tongue.
Xie Shijin closed his eyes briefly and said in a hoarse voice, "You're not allowed to bring her here!"
Xiao Liu protested his innocence, saying, "It followed me here on its own."
He hadn't planned to bring the cat carrier, but the little snake had unzipped the bag and crawled into his shirt pocket. When Xiao Liu went to the internet cafe to check Xie Shijin's location, he reached into his pocket and suddenly pulled out a snake, almost scaring him out of his wits.
Looking at the boy's tense profile, Xiao Liu cautiously added, "You take such good care of it, you must really like it and love it, right? It can't live without you..."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than the little snake in the cat carrier stirred.
Cheng Shiyun unzipped the zipper and darted out like a silver lightning bolt. Xiao Liu instinctively reached out to catch her: "Xiao Bai!"
Yang Shengnan pulled Xiao Liu aside and shook her head.
A shallow layer of rainwater had accumulated on the rooftop, and Cheng Shiyun swam on the surface, creating ripples.
Seeing Xie Shijin like this, Cheng Shiyun suddenly realized that it was as if she was meeting him for the first time today.
He was a stranger, obsessive, and insane man, no longer the restrained, gentle, and humble boy she remembered.
But when she got close to him and smelled the scent of his tears, she realized that Xie Shijin had never changed.
He was just...
...I desperately wanted to save her.
Cheng Shiyun climbed up his leg to his shoulder and saw a cut on his temple: "Xie Shijin...you're injured..."
Blood slid down his cheek to his neck, and Cheng Shiyun felt a pang of heartache: "Does it hurt a lot? Will it leave a scar?"
She used her forked tongue to lick the blood off his face.
Xie Shijin's heart began to pound again in his chest. He reached out and grabbed her, scolding, "What are you doing here?"
Cheng Shiyun wasn't afraid of his current disheveled and ruthless state at all: "I came to find you."
"I told you, we won't separate."
"You abandoned me, so I came looking for you."
Xie Shijin's throat tightened. He wanted to say, "Don't come looking for me," he didn't want to see him transformed beyond recognition in his quest for revenge. It was too ugly.
Cheng Shiyun tilted her head and looked at him. Where was he ugly? She couldn't see it. "I know why you cried in the kitchen that day. You couldn't believe I was back, could you? You almost didn't see me again."
"Actually... I lied to you back then." She revealed a secret she had kept hidden in her heart for a long time, "I didn't just happen to pass by to see you, I came here specifically to find you."
“Nobody wanted to adopt me. I was starving for days. When I saw you downstairs, I wanted to scam you.”
“After you went downstairs, I kept chasing after you until I was so tired. You weren’t wearing your hearing aid, so I called your name so many times but you couldn’t hear me.”
“I really wanted you to take care of me, but I was dirty and ugly at the time, and my ears were injured. I was afraid that you would throw me out too.”
But Xie Shijin not only didn't drive her away, he also gave her a home.
She didn't understand why Xie Shijin was so good to her before, but now she understands and is certain.
Xie Shijin liked her.
He continued to love her even after she died.
Xie Shijin has liked her for a very long time.
“You know I died young. I didn’t take the college entrance exam, and I never went to university.” She hissed as she spoke in words only he could understand, filled with regret yet also with anticipation. “University should be better than high school, right? Xie Shijin, you should go to university.”
"I want to see you live well, carrying my share with you."
Go see the world she never saw, and make up for the regrets she could never make up for.
Cheng Shiyun said, "Let's trust the police one more time, okay?"
She was like a key that unlocked his rusty lock.
Xie Shijin stared at her blankly, raindrops dripping from his eyelashes, blurring his vision.
He remained silent for a very long time, so long that Yang Shengnan and Xiao Liu held their breath, before slowly nodding.
Yang Shengnan breathed a sigh of relief and patted Xiao Liu on the shoulder: "Well done."
Just as Yang Shengnan was about to ask Xiao Liu to notify the criminal police downstairs to come up, the situation on the rooftop reversed in an instant.
"If I'm going to die, you'll die with me!"
Guo Renyi shouted, "I'm going to die anyway, so I might as well take someone down with me before I go!"
Suddenly, with his last ounce of strength, he forcefully pushed the knife that Xie Shijin was holding to his throat toward the boy's heart!
"Watch out!" Yang Shengnan shouted sharply.
The two men grappled again, and after Xie Shijin and Guo Renyi both fell to one side, half of their bodies were hanging in the air by the wall.
At the critical moment, Cheng Shiyun darted away from the boy's wrist, her forked tongue shooting out, and bit Guo Renyi's hand as he pushed the knife.
She remembered how Guo Renyi used those hands to choke her neck, cover her mouth, and how he drove the steering wheel over her body. Her sharp fangs pierced the man's flesh, biting down hard, grinding and tearing wildly!
Guo Renyi seemed determined to die together with Xie Shijin, and even after Cheng Shiyun bit off a piece of flesh from the back of his hand, he wouldn't let go.
Yang Shengnan drew her sidearm and fired a warning shot: "Guo Renyi!"
With the second shot, Yang Shengnan aimed, pulled the trigger, and hit Guo Renyi directly in the arm.
"Bang--!"
Upon hearing the gunshot, the criminal police officers downstairs rushed up, and the scene descended into chaos.
...
August 21, 2018.
Xie Shijin has been in the hospital for three days. He suffered a severe blow to the head and has a mild concussion.
Ni Jiaqi suffered a second leg fracture and a broken rib. He was transferred from the intensive care unit to a regular ward but has not yet regained consciousness.
Cheng Jinghua returned from Beijing with Ran Hongyin. They visited Xie Shijin at the hospital once, and then she has been busy cooperating with the police investigation.
In the ward, Xie Shijin lay on the hospital bed, his hair on his right temple shaved off and wrapped in several layers of gauze.
Yang Shengnan, dressed in a police uniform, sat on the accompanying chair next to him and said, "Guo Renyi's left arm is necrotic and has been amputated. His right arm was shot and is probably beyond saving."
After the shooting ended, Guo Renyi was rushed to the hospital. Although it took more than an hour, he was in good physical condition due to his years of exercise and the absence of antivenom for the spotted snake, and he was fortunate enough to survive.
The shot Yang Shengnan fired later shattered the ulna and radius of Guo Renyi's right hand, severely damaging the nerves and tendons. Even if he managed to save his right arm, he would be completely unusable afterward.
Xie Shijin raised his eyes, his eyelashes were dark, and his eyes were calm: "I should kill him."
Aside from cooperating with the police in taking a statement, he hardly spoke, and his throat was extremely dry.
Yang Shengnan repeated: "...Kill him."
"That's what Cheng Shiyun's father said too."
Yang Shengnan stopped calling her a victim, her feelings were complicated: "...The first thing he said to me when he saw me was this."
Cheng Jinghua said, "Officer Yang, please let me kill him, I want to kill him."
"My daughter is dead, so why is he still alive?"
Why did you save him?
"Who will save my daughter?"
"My little cloud... my daughter will never come home again..."
Yang Shengnan raised her hand and quickly wiped away the tears welling up in her eyes. What they, as police officers, feared most was not the corpses, but the eyes of the family members.
The municipal bureau has already issued its disciplinary action against Yang Shengnan. She was given a major demerit for losing her communication equipment during a mission. Once this case is closed, she will be transferred to a county-level unit, demoted from deputy captain of the criminal investigation team to deputy director of a police station.
"I went to the rooftop again today to look for it, but I couldn't find it."
Guo Renyi was struggling to survive on the rooftop when he suddenly went mad. Xie Shijin's pet snake bit his hand, and then disappeared after the gunshot.
Yang Shengnan almost suspected... that she had hit it with her own shot: "I'm sorry."
Xie Shijin turned his head away.
Two years have passed, and his features have lost their youthful immaturity, becoming more mature.
He gazed out the window.
His gaze was calm and distant, like water beneath a frozen lake, untouchable.
The rain outside the window is still falling; it's been three days and shows no sign of stopping.
Yichuan also experienced a lot of rain this year, with only a few drops falling for half of August.
The year Cheng Shiyun left, it rained a lot.
She encountered both rainy seasons.
"Didn't you buy a train ticket to Beijing tomorrow, August 22nd?"
Yang Shengnan said to him, "Go to university and take a look for her."
The boy closed his eyes, and Yang Shengnan had nothing more to say to him. She got up and prepared to leave the ward.
"Knock knock knock—"
Someone knocked on the door. Yang Shengnan glanced at the nearly empty IV drip above his head and assumed it was a nurse removing the needle: "Come in."
"Master, have you finished talking?" Xiao Liu pushed open the door and tiptoed in.
Yang Shengnan raised an eyebrow: "We're done talking, what are you doing here?"
"I've come to see Xie Shijin," Xiao Liu said. "I have something to give him."
Yang Shengnan: "What is that?"
"Well... that day I brought his snake to see him, and then his snake crawled into my pocket. I only found out when I was about to do the laundry today..."
Xiao Liu walked to Xie Shijin's bedside, reached into his pocket, carefully rummaged around, and then opened his hand.
"She...it seems she laid an egg for you."
-----------------------
Author's Note: That's right, just like you all thought, I'll raise my own wife! [Laughing]
Little Cloud didn't get killed, she didn't fake her death; you could say she gave birth to herself. [Glasses]
The Little Cloud Chirp version is now available!
It'll all be sweet from here on out, I promise. [Glasses][Glasses][Glasses]
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com