Chapter 1
Edward Quan ·
My older brother had a severe mental illness.
In the middle of the night, he lost control, killed our parents with a knife, then jumped from the fifth floor to end his life.
I escaped the tragedy because I was working the night shift.
Afterward, though, the police asked me:
“What exactly did you say to your brother last night?”
1
The question stunned me.
After a few seconds, I asked in confusion:
“What do you mean?”
The officer taking my statement was surnamed Tôn. He was plainly quite young, with untidy stubble.
But his eyes, their corners softly upturned, were piercing, as though they could see straight through a person.
He gave a faint smile.
“Routine questions. Please cooperate.”
In truth, I could no longer remember exactly what I had said.
My brother had severe schizophrenia. Whenever I worked nights, I called to remind him to take his medication, stay indoors, and keep himself covered in bed.
Last night had been a little different.
It was his thirtieth birthday.
Since I couldn’t go home, I ordered him a cake.
Even over the phone, I could hear his excitement.
“Ngôn Ngôn, I’ve saved you the best part from the middle. Come home and eat it after your shift.”
I laughed at him.
A cake wasn’t a watermelon. It tasted the same wherever you cut it.
He stubbornly disagreed.
Only the middle was the best.
We talked about that for a while.
Suddenly, my mother screamed at the other end.
I quickly asked what had happened.
He was silent for a few seconds, then said:
“Nothing. Mom cut her hand by accident. Dad’s bandaging it.”
I wanted to speak to her and ask how she was.
But a new patient had just arrived in the emergency department.
I only had time to say:
“Happy birthday.”
Then I hung up.
“That was about it. Nothing unusual.”
The officer murmured acknowledgment and continued.
“Did you notice anything strange about Lý Trạch during the conversation?”
Lý Trạch was my brother.
And the perpetrator of this family massacre.
I shook my head.
“No. He sounded very gentle. Nothing like he was about to have an episode. I never imagined he would…”
“Oh? Really?”
Officer Tôn looked up, his voice cooling.
“The records show two calls between you and Lý Trạch.”
“The first began at ten twenty p.m. and lasted about three minutes.”
“After hanging up, he went straight into the kitchen, took a knife, and struck your mother seventeen times. Your father heard the commotion, came out of the bedroom, and struggled with him. Without a word, Lý Trạch struck him thirteen times.”
“The entire attack lasted seven minutes.”
“Then he called you again.”
His eyes remained fixed on me.
“Was the conversation you just described the first call or the second?”
“The second. Because the first…”
Then I understood.
I stared in disbelief.
“You mean he killed our parents, then called me and pretended nothing had happened?”
“Impossible! That’s impossible!”
“Your neighbor, Ms. Vương, witnessed the entire incident,” Officer Tôn said.
“The moment he ended the first call, he attacked your mother. He didn’t hesitate for a second.”
“So…”
He paused, stood, and moved closer.
“What exactly did you discuss in that first call?”
My heart tightened.
Did he suspect me?
I quickly dismissed the thought.
My brother had lost control and killed our parents. Nothing could change that.
Whatever he asked was a waste of time.
Still, as the only surviving relative, I had to cooperate whether I wanted to or not.
Officer Tôn handed me his phone.
“This is rather bloody. Watch it, and you’ll understand.”
The screen showed my brother killing them.
Apparently, Ms. Vương had accidentally filmed it while watering flowers on her balcony.
I had imagined the scene countless times.
Seeing it with my own eyes, I still couldn’t contain my excitement.
I instinctively covered my mouth.
Afraid I might laugh aloud.
Ms. Vương had been stunned with fear. Only after the fifth or sixth blow had she remembered to record.
I regretted missing my mother’s first reaction.
The footage was very clear.
I could even see my brother’s expression.
No wonder Officer Tôn was suspicious.
Facing my mother’s agonized pleas, he merely frowned slightly and continued without hesitation.
But when he killed my father…
His face was clearly furious.
Thirteen blows.
Every one potentially fatal.
Those emotional changes really didn’t resemble someone in a psychiatric episode.
The video ended.
Tears were pouring down my face.
“It’s all my fault.”
“When he called the first time, I could faintly hear Mom scolding him.”
“She was always like that. I didn’t pay attention.”
“If I’d noticed more and gone straight home, perhaps this wouldn’t have happened.”
Officer Tôn seized on the point.
“Did your mother often verbally abuse Lý Trạch?”
I nodded.
Verbal abuse was the least of it.
She wished he would die sooner.
He was diagnosed with mental illness at seventeen.
It had been an utterly ordinary summer day.
A teacher called my father to say my brother had attacked a schoolmate.
Similar things had happened before.
Boys fought. That was normal.
But when we arrived, we were all stunned.
The boy he had attacked was so badly injured he had been taken into emergency surgery.
The teacher said my brother had hit his head dozens of times with a rock.
By the time the teachers arrived, his skull was smashed open, exposing his brain.
Surgery lasted five hours.
In the end, the doctor only said:
“We’ve done everything we can.”
He had survived.
But the brain damage was severe.
He would spend the rest of his life in bed.
In a vegetative state.
At first, my parents felt fortunate.
At least my brother wouldn’t have to pay with his own life.
They soon stopped smiling.
The enormous medical bills almost crushed them.
Then my brother was diagnosed with a severe mental illness and admitted for treatment too.
Our family had been fairly comfortable.
The incident emptied our savings.
And the other boy’s treatment was a bottomless pit.
More than once, my mother cursed:
“If only he’d killed him and paid with his own life.”
“Now he’s neither properly alive nor dead, just dragging us all down.”
After six months of treatment, my brother’s condition gradually stabilized.
My parents didn’t want him back.
To them, bringing him home meant inviting disaster.
Better to let him suffer to death in hospital.
But Grandma refused.
She said he was the Lý family’s only male heir. If they didn’t bring him home, she would kill herself in front of them.
In the end, after half a year, he returned.
Life at home was worse than the hospital.
He was confined to his room.
Our parents beat and cursed him daily.
Denied him food at the slightest excuse.
He had resisted.
Each time, my mother screamed hysterically:
“Human rights? Do you even count as human?”
“If it weren’t for you, would this family be in this state?”
“Keeping you alive this long is more mercy than you deserve!”
Gradually, he stopped resisting.
Became silent and withdrawn.
Our parents still wouldn’t leave him alone.
He became an outlet for their anger.
Sometimes the neighbors couldn’t bear it and tried to intervene.
It was in the past, they said. He was grown. They shouldn’t keep beating him.
My mother snapped back:
“Feel sorry for him? Take him home and feed him.”
“If you won’t, shut up.”
That was why I disliked going home.
“And you?”
Officer Tôn interrupted.
“Did you hate him for ruining your family’s life?”
I hadn’t expected the question.
After a stunned pause, I gave a bitter laugh.
“I’m twenty-seven.”
“I’ve never been in a relationship.”
“The moment men find out I have a mentally ill brother, they avoid me like the plague.”
“But he treats me well.”
“He’s protected me since we were children.”
“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t hate him.”
“But mostly, I feel sorry for him.”
“Sorry he had to get that illness.”
“And how did your parents treat you?”
Me?
Very well, of course.
At least, that was what outsiders saw.
After my brother’s trouble, they devoted everything to me.
“Lý Trạch’s useless now.”
“You must do well. Study hard.”
“We’re depending on you for the rest of our lives.”
Afraid I would end up like him, they changed my university choices without asking and forced me to stay in the city.
They paid someone to arrange a job for me at the local hospital.
They even found a way to break up my relationship with a boyfriend from elsewhere.