Chapter 80
Xiang Siling was rarely absent-minded. From the day she decided to kill Luo Hongmin, she was like an extremely narrow hardwood bow, taut day and night. The bow is her back, flexible and bendable; the bowstring is her heart, unbending and unbreakable.
But in the days before and after Qian Chengfeng was murdered, she rarely relaxed. Perhaps because he could foresee his own end, or perhaps because he was about to be separated from his beloved daughter, the strong bow slowly returned to its original natural and relaxed state.
That's why she discussed with Qian Chengfeng about taking her daughter camping.
Because for the daughter, this must be the last time in her life that she will recall that her parents are still alive and full of joy.
So much so that the smell of blood blown away by the wind did not attract her attention. It was not until the moment he opened the tent door that Xiang Siling realized what the smell was.
It was a familiar taste that she would never forget even if she had only experienced it once.
At a glance, she saw Qian Chengfeng tied up on the floor of the tent and the pot of blood. Qian Chengfeng's eyes were half open and half closed, and he was dying.
Xiang Siling grabbed her daughter and turned around to run.
But it was too late.
The female killer, who had been crawling at the door curtain, pounced forward. Xiang Siling's reaction was not slow. Years of training had made her agile and strong. She turned her head to avoid the female killer's fist and kicked at her. But the opponent was too fierce. He took the kick head-on without retreating at all. He held the dagger in one hand against Xiang Siling's neck. With the other hand, he strangled Qian Sitian's neck with one arm and lifted her up from the ground.
Qian Sitian burst into tears.
Xiang Siling's eyes were red with anger.
But the next second, the female killer retracted the dagger, holding Qian Sitian, and took a step back, her eyes indescribably cold.
Xiang Siling didn't dare to move.
The female killer pulled a drawstring out of her pocket and said, "First tie your feet, then your hands, and grit your teeth."
"Don't hurt her."
The female killer motioned for her to hurry up.
Xiang Siling did as she was told and sat on the floor of the tent with her dead ex-husband next to her.
The female killer tied up Qian Sitian neatly and pushed her gently. Xiang Siling quickly caught her in her arms. She felt relieved and kept comforting her, asking her daughter to close her eyes, not look at anything, and not cry.
The female killer sat down opposite, still holding the knife in her hand, and said, "I won't hurt you. You and your daughter will be able to leave safely today."
Even if it's hard to tell whether her words are true or not, hearing them will make people feel at ease. Xiang Siling then had the opportunity to take a closer look at the other person's appearance. She was shocked and hesitated for a moment, but did not ask.
Xie Xinrui: "You recognized me."
Xiang Siling didn't dare to answer. She simply could not connect the daughter of a wealthy family who was one or two levels higher than the Luo family with the cruel female killer in front of her, who killed her ex-husband.
Xie Xinrui smiled. Considering that she was wearing camouflage clothes, holding a dagger in her hand, and the smell of blood filled the tent. This charming smile is creepy.
"You can call me Luna," she said, "I'm not coming here for you, but I must kill Qian Chengfeng."
Xiang Siling began to believe it. Because if the other party wanted to kill people to silence them, there was no need to sit down and talk. He could have killed both mother and daughter with one knife. Moreover, Xie Xinrui looked so relaxed, giving people a feeling that she was in control of everything easily. She didn't have to lie to them.
But Qian Chengfeng died, and Xiang Siling's heart instantly turned cold - it meant that there would be no father to accompany his daughter to the United States, and that her daughter would soon become an orphan. She swallowed the bitterness in her heart and asked, "Why did you kill him?"
No matter how you look at it, Qian Chengfeng can't reach Xie Xinrui, and the two seem to have never had any intersection before.
But Xie Xinrui didn't answer this question. She even changed her sitting position, stretched her legs, and made herself more comfortable. However, her next words were like thunder, which stunned Xiang Siling.
"Xiang Siling, I know everything about you. On the day you killed Luo Hongmin, I was outside the window, in the forest on the hillside, remember? I stood there, watching you. You were wearing a disposable protective suit, splattered with blood. The swimsuit underneath was dark blue. I watched you stab him in the body, and you even cut into his body. I actually filmed the whole process with a camera. But don't worry, after I figured out what happened to you, I deleted the video."
Xiang Siling felt a chill down her spine when she heard this.
That night, as soon as she swam ashore, dried herself off, changed into all her gear, and headed straight for the villa without stopping at the small hill in the yard. But when she killed the person, she did have a strange feeling. She even looked out the window a few times, but only saw the dark shadows of the trees on the hillside. At the time, she just thought she was too nervous.
"Why...are you there?"
"Because I was still observing and considering whether to kill Luo Hongmin. But you took action first."
"But why didn't the police find you?"
"Before I take action, I usually observe for several days. Two days before you killed him, I took the company's truck to Mingya Lake, crossed the woods to avoid surveillance, and lurked near the villa. The afternoon after you killed him, I observed that everything around me was normal before leaving. Therefore, the time period of my coming and going completely avoided the surveillance time period on the day when Luo Hongmin was killed that the police might have screened - that is, the time period when you, the real murderer, came and went. And even if I was photographed by the police, I have no motive and I didn't kill him, so there is no need to worry."
"I see. But why did you kill him?"
"It's a long story."
"You... said you had figured out my case. Even the police can't figure it out, so how could you know?"
Xie Xinrui put the dagger back into her pocket and said, "I have seen your abortion report from high school. It was signed on November 12, 2016, at Yuan'an Clinic. The signatories were Sun Yuan'an, Ye Songming, and Li Meiling. I only glanced at it, but I have a very good memory and eyesight, so I remembered it all at once. Later, I used my connections to learn about the cases of Luo Huaizheng and Xiang Wei, and thought about the way you killed Luo Hongmin. Combined with his usual character, I roughly guessed what happened."
"How did you see... the report from that year? Li Meiling said the clinic had been destroyed long ago."
Xie Xinrui tilted her head, pursed her lips and smiled, revealing a bit of natural cuteness.
"That's a very complicated and dark story, and it doesn't have a happy ending. Do you want to hear it?"
As a woman, Xiang Siling actually felt bewitched at this moment. And she did want to find out what was going on with the abortion report. She suddenly thought that since she didn't have much time to live anyway, what was wrong with chatting with another murderer? Who is being bothered? Apart from her daughter, what else in this world is worth her concern?
"I want to hear it." She also smiled, and her tense mood relaxed. She raised her arm and let her daughter lean on her arms, "Tiantian, lean on mommy and sleep for a while. Auntie was playing games with us just now."
"Is it a game? So Dad is pretending to be sick too?" Tiantian asked naively and started crying again, "But I'm so scared, Mom, are you hurt? I, I'm not hurt."
Xie Xinrui sighed and said, "I'm sorry, I just had no choice but to scare the child. Honey, auntie and mom were just playing... a fighting game, it's okay, be good."
The two of them chatted with each other for a while. The little guy was probably too nervous before, and Xiang Siling blocked him from looking at the corpse on the ground, so he fell asleep in his mother's arms without knowing it.
Xie Xinrui lifted the curtain of the tent to let the bloody smell dissipate. The sun shines gently on the lonely tent on the grass. Xiang Siling held her daughter in her arms, seemingly oblivious to the body gradually cooling down on the ground.
Xie Xinrui spoke very calmly. In about twenty minutes, she slowly recounted the experience of seven years ago, but she did not mention the existence of Li Jincheng. This was unprecedented for her. Because in the past seven years, she has never mentioned it to anyone else, not even to the welfare home's director Song Hui or her adoptive father Xie Rongcheng. Because even just mentioning a word about them would make Xie Xinrui's heart tremble, her breathing become rapid, and she would feel nauseous. There was no way she could tell those things again.
But after Xie Xinrui guessed the painful experience Xiang Siling might have had and saw how she killed Luo Hongmin, Xie Xinrui felt like getting closer to her. And she could actually talk about that experience with ease. Seeing Xiang Siling's dead expression after she finished listening, and seeing the faint tears in her eyes, Xie Xinrui actually felt that she was finally truly understood.
Because they are the same. She thought. There are different kinds of hell on earth, and they have all been there.
After Xie Xinrui finished speaking, the two of them sat facing each other in silence.
Xiang Siling spoke first: "He deserves to be killed. You didn't give the police the video of me killing someone, and I won't tell the police a word about you. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
Xie Xinrui smiled: "Thank you." She took out a photo from her bosom: "This is Luo Long, the third person who imprisoned me back then, and the smartest and most ruthless person among them. Just say that it was him you saw in the tent. Buy me some more time."
"good."
"You really want to help me? This is a felony of murder."
"That's all I need."
Xiang Siling's decisiveness and determination were beyond Xie Xinrui's expectations, and made her want to confide more in her.
Xie Xinrui was silent for a while, then asked, "Do you know Li Jincheng?"
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