Chapter 1

A year ago, four boys from our village took my six-year-old daughter, En'en, away and tortured her until she nearly died.

She was saved, but the doctors thought she might need a urinary drainage bag for the rest of her life.

The boys escaped punishment because they were minors.

They weren't responsible.

Their parents didn't even apologize. They simply moved away.

Then, a little over a month ago, my innocent En'en could no longer bear her disability or the thought that she'd become a burden to us.

She took her own life.

My husband and I were so devastated that, for a time, we wanted to die too.

In the end, though, we decided...

Before we died, there was still something we had to do for our daughter.

Later, I successfully obtained a diagnosis of an episodic psychiatric disorder.

So, from today onward, whatever I might do...

I, too...

I wouldn't be responsible.

Late at night.

In the living room of a remote country house, Liu Ziyi and his parents were slumped with drowsiness after a drugged late supper.

Liu was one of the boys who'd tortured En'en.

He'd been nine then. He was ten now.

After the incident, his family had moved to an isolated rural area in the neighboring city.

The house had been hard to find.

There was no one nearby.

Even if someone made a noise, chances were no one would hear.

Once Mr. Jiang found the address, we'd spent half a month preparing.

All for today.

The three had eaten the food he'd brought.

Now they were limp and weak.

I told my husband and Mr. Jiang to leave first.

I would make sure their presence here remained hidden.

They couldn't stay away from home too long.

They couldn't be discovered.

They weren't mad.

I had to be.

The family's drugged stupor wouldn't last forever.

That was part of the plan.

I began.

I'd brought two knives.

One was a very sharp fruit knife.

I killed Liu's father in a frenzy of stabbing, then left his severed head on the dining table.

Mother and son watched, terrified out of their minds.

Liu wet himself.

That was part of the plan too.

I silenced his mother and left her on the floor, drugged and unable to move, though she remained conscious.

She could still understand what was happening.

She could still feel.

But she couldn't move or cry for help.

I did nothing to ten-year-old Liu.

I waited for him to become fully alert.

All of that had only been preparation.

Real revenge would never be as simple as killing.

After all, I was mad.

After En'en left me, I'd gone completely mad.

Liu shook at what he'd seen.

But I could tell he was gradually becoming clearheaded.

I held up the knife.

“You don't want to end up like your father, do you? You want to live?”

He didn't even dare sob. He only nodded desperately.

“You know who I am. I'm En'en's mother. I've come to avenge her.”

He kept shaking.

I looked at his mother on the floor.

Her eyes were wide and fixed on me. There was nothing she could do.

That helplessness...

I knew it far too well.

“But I don't think this is your fault. You're only a child. Children can't control themselves.”

I was mad.

So I began talking nonsense.

Liu looked up at me as though he'd glimpsed a light.

“Your parents should take all the blame. They failed to teach you properly, and that's why you hurt my daughter. Don't you agree?”

I didn't know whether he understood.

He kept nodding.

I pointed at his mother.

“She ruined you. Do you understand? She ruined your life!”

Then at his father's head on the table.

“If it weren't for him, you wouldn't be going through this now.”

“Didn't he hit you? Shout at you?”

“Didn't he always put the blame on you?”

“Didn't he call you a burden?”

“Didn't he refuse to take responsibility for anything himself?”

“He made you what you are. Don't you hate him?”

“You do hate him. You just never dared fight back.”

“Don't be afraid. I'm here to help you fight back.”

“I don't have to hurt you.”

I could see my words beginning to reach him.

“But I have to know you're truly sorry.”

Again, that frantic nodding.

“You have to stand up to your mother.”

“You have to kill her. Then you can become your own person!”

He froze.

But he didn't show much resistance.

Perhaps he was too frightened.

Perhaps...

I'd struck something inside him.

For the past year, his parents must have been constantly scolding him.

In a rotten family like this...

Of course they had.

I looked at his mother again.

Horror and disbelief had entered her eyes.

“Kill your mother, and I'll let you go.”

I threw the other knife toward him.

A clean knife.

He sat on the floor. It lay only a short distance away.

He would pick it up.

And what I wanted...

Wasn't merely for him to kill her.

I wanted more.

Sure enough, he picked it up.

I spoke gently.

“Tell me when you're ready.”

He trembled from head to foot.

But he still nodded.

This boy...

A demon, all right.

We hadn't found the wrong person.

“Good. But you can't simply kill her with the knife.”

“That might set you free. It won't set me free.”

He couldn't possibly understand what I meant.

So I explained.

“If you hadn't been born into this family, with parents like these, you would never have...”

“Done that to my daughter...”

Even saying En'en's name still hurt.