Serial crimes
Xu Leyan married a man from another place last year. After Wu Xin and Fu Jun were released from prison, they became homeless again. Their visit happened at a coincidence. Xu Leyan was back in her hometown to visit her relatives. Xu Leyan didn't seem to care about what happened back then. She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and said, "I don't even remember the name of the boy you mentioned. It was all in school. Why bring it up now?"
"Don't you remember? Then why are you dodging? Xu Leyan, although you often bullied others when you were a student, none of the times was as serious as Jiang Li. Do you still dare to say that you don't remember him after looking at his photo?" Han Ming's harsh voice attracted the attention of the people outside the courtyard. Xu Leyan's reputation here was not good to begin with, and he was even more ashamed when he was seen by them.
He was right, she would never forget this person, because her unscrupulous bullying ended with this person.
"Even if I remember, what's the matter? What do you want? If you don't have me, I'll show you off!"
"Jiang Li is dead, and we suspect the murderer is among you!"
Xu Leyan's pupils trembled when he heard this, and he was extremely panicked. In his guilty conscience, he didn't even figure out the timeline before he started to distance himself from the matter. "It has nothing to do with me. I didn't ask him out! I just teased him at school. I didn't mean to kill him!"
As soon as she finished speaking, she felt something was wrong. She clearly saw Jiang Li going to and from school as usual, and pretending not to know them.
"No! You're lying! He's fine." Xu Leyan calmed down a bit and defended himself, "We didn't bully him anymore, and he didn't take it personally. We even said hello. You're lying!"
Han Ming did not answer her, but instead questioned her about what happened in the boxwood forest.
"Zhao Fubai said that you agreed to meet in the boxwood forest, but it was you who pushed Jiang Li down. Is that true?"
Xu Leyan was extremely shocked and immediately slammed the table and stood up, "What does this have to do with me! I'm the victim!"
"Then tell me how you were harmed?"
"I……"
Xu Leyan has a deep impression of that day. They were all still in junior high school at that time. No one had ever experienced such a thing, so they were inevitably scared.
On Sunday, the area of the boxwood forest that had not yet been opened to the public was surrounded by a fence. Although it was called a fence, it was only a thin layer of green net with a sign next to it. Wu Xin and Fu Jun had already arrived and were punching and kicking Jiang Li on the ground. Xu Leyan was already accustomed to it and watched coldly.
They threw their bags to Jiang Li, and the three of them walked along the mountain road for a while. Jiang Li was injured and walked the slowest, and Xu Leyan was exhausted and behind. At this moment, her neck was strangled by the person behind her and she fell to the ground. She struggled hard, and her cry for help called back the two people walking in front. She didn't know where this malnourished guy got the strength to strangle her neck so tightly that she could not move.
Suddenly, she saw a sickle in her blurred vision. Seeing that the sickle was about to fall, the two rushed over and kicked Jiang Li away. Jiang Li showed a sinister smile that they had never seen before. Xu Leyan immediately suspected that he was possessed by a ghost, and pulled Wu Xin and Fu Jun away. However, the two men refused to leave and rolled up their sleeves instead.
Xu Leyan watched the three of them fighting each other. Jiang Li had a weapon in his hand, and the back of the sickle hit Fu Jun who was restraining him hard on the back. He fell to the ground in pain, and the bullying group was at a disadvantage. Xu Leyan didn't know where she got the courage from, she picked up a stone and wanted to go around behind Jiang Li and smash him to death, but before the stone left her hand, she was grabbed by Jiang Li, and the sickle was against her neck. She was so scared that she burst into tears and apologized tearfully, but Jiang Li didn't want an apology. He wanted to get rid of the people who abused him like before.
He turned a deaf ear to Xu Leyan's apology. Wu Xin and Fu Jun were frightened, realizing that Jiang Li was not someone to be trifled with. They tried to escape, but were scolded back by Xu Leyan. In the end, they decided to save Xu Leyan. Jiang Li led her back to the edge step by step, and he wanted to push Xu Leyan over. Realizing this, Wu Xin and Fu Jun came up with a plan and pushed them. The two of them slid down together. At the critical moment, Wu Xin grabbed Xu Leyan and they rescued Xu Leyan. Not long after, Zhao Fubai and He Zhengming arrived.
Xu Leyan looked at the bottom of the mountain in horror and suggested that they should go look for him. If Jiang Li was dead, they would be murderers!
But Wu Xin and Fu Jun refused to look back and just said that they would just treat Jiang Li as dead from now on. Anyway, no one would hold him accountable since this guy had no parents.
"Are you sure what you said is true?" Han Ming said.
Xu Leyan was furious. "Of course! It's been so many years, why would I lie to you? Besides, this guy is still alive. This is just self-defense. He was the one who tried to kill me first!"
"When did he return to school?"
"About... half a month later? I remember it was almost time for the high school entrance exam, and we saw him during the summer vacation."
Xu Leyan firmly believed that Jiang Li was not dead, so he thought it was okay to tell the story, and at most it was excessive self-defense. Little did he know that Jiang Li did not come out alive.
"You said they said hello?"
"Yeah. He has changed a lot. He has become taller, whiter, and... quite handsome." Xu Leyan was a little embarrassed.
Wu Xin, fearing Jiang Li's revenge, tried to test them several times, but Jiang Li proved quite friendly. Xu Leyan speculated that Jiang Li must have hit his head and lost his memory after falling. The others found this unbelievable; it wasn't a novel. But since Jiang Li had no intention of pursuing the matter, it was best to just let it go.
It is a fact that Jiang Li died on the cliff. Therefore, Wu Xin and Fu Jun are the murderers. That night, Han Ming led people to arrest them.
The two men shouted in the interrogation room, sometimes denying that they had pushed Jiang Li, and sometimes saying that Jiang Liming was not dead and the police were wrongly accusing them.
"They're fucking dead! Don't blame us if you die somewhere else!" Wu Xin's voice was so loud that the whole building could hear it.
Han Ming took a sip of water in his office and ignored their protests.
*
It was almost nine o'clock, and Shen Shiyu's phone was still ringing, with the other end waiting for his reply.
Less than half a day after we separated, everything ended unexpectedly.
He was exposed, completely exposed.
The appearance of Jiang Li's body pushed him into the abyss, but he still held on to a glimmer of hope, hoping that Chen An would not know so soon.
At half past five, Chen An called him and asked him in a normal tone if he had eaten. He really thought he could delay it any longer.
"Do you... have anything to say to me?" His tone contained a hint of expectation and a hint of heartache that could not be concealed.
Shen Shiyu's expression froze on his face, and too many explanations were drowned in the long silence.
What? Where to start? Say I've been lying to you from the beginning, that my father killed your mother, or how cruelly I killed so many people to get to you? He had no right to say either.
He dared to guarantee that Chen An would absolutely despise and hate him.
Chen Shiyu looked out the window. The sun had just set outside and there was still some afterglow. So let it end like this. Don't explain anything. Just treat it as a dream and go back to the path we should take.
"No, I don't have anything to say."
Chen An's throat rolled over, and he swallowed the sadness in his heart, "Okay, then I don't have it either."
Finally, Chen Shiyu hung up the phone. The wooden cabinet he was holding with both hands was a new piece of furniture. The two of them had been planning to put something in it a few days ago, but now it could only hold these few light tears.
Jin Mao and He Dou advised him to leave quickly. It was speculated that the task force already knew his identity, and with this phone call, he was almost certain that they would be separated tonight.
But he didn't want to leave. His mind told him to flee the house immediately, but his feet refused to obey. Nan Jia explained that the news had come from within their group, so even if Jiang Li's body hadn't been exhumed, they still had no choice but to go this far.
There are too many forces at play between them, both good and evil, and now he is at the end of his rope.
Am I going to be arrested like this and confess everything I know?
If he gets caught, maybe he'll come see me.
No, he wouldn't. He would hate me, hate me for deceiving him. But he also loves me. Can love and hate cancel each other out? If not, would it make him feel better if he hated me?
Will I be shot?
Chen Shiyu's fingers were inserted into his hair, and his painful struggle was all in this quiet night.
Don't I have things I want to do? Don't I want to end this life of bondage? Why shouldn't I keep going? I should keep going. Maybe we'll both feel a little better.
The door handle was pressed down, and Chen Shiyu suddenly looked up.
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