Chapter 4
Edward Quan ·
The faces from past and present seemed to overlap.
Startled, I backed away several steps.
Wiping the cold sweat from my forehead, I continued upstairs.
“Old Lin!”
He Ze's hoarse shout came from behind.
“Do you really think saving Huo Ran once... erases every sin?”
Every sin?
My scalp prickled.
Tonight was like Pandora's box opening.
Every secret I'd buried was being dug up, one after another.
I lost control, rushed back, and grabbed his collar.
“Who told you? Fucking tell me! What else do you know?”
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I'd clearly frightened him.
His voice choked as though he were about to cry.
“Old Lin... even if you kill me, he won't let you go. Don't kill me. Let's work together, all right?”
I had no patience for evasions.
“What did you mean just now?”
“I... I just want you to spare me. Please, Old Lin.”
Fuck it.
Even if he knew about that, it no longer mattered.
He'd be dead soon.
The dead kept secrets best.
Without another word, I ran upstairs to search.
He Ze lived extravagantly.
Every one of the five upstairs bedrooms had a refrigerator.
It took me more than ten minutes to find it.
When I returned, he was unconscious.
All I had to do was guide his hand and inject the insulin.
Then everything would be over.
A sudden, savage pain struck my stomach.
I looked up in disbelief.
He Ze, supposedly unconscious, was staring at me with wide-open eyes.
I lowered my gaze.
He held a fruit knife.
Its blade was deep in my abdomen.
No time to work out what had happened.
Instinctively, I shoved him to the floor, clutched my stomach, and tried to flee.
He had no intention of letting me.
Grabbing a vase from the table, he smashed it at my head.
Knowing I couldn't escape, I gritted my teeth against the pain and grappled with him.
Luckily, I'd kept up my fitness training for years.
After a few exchanges, I pinned him beneath me.
The fierce will to live made me snatch the knife.
Then...
I drove it into his chest.
Once.
Twice.
A third time...
Hot blood splashed all over me.
Only when my right arm ached with exhaustion did I stop.
The room fell into an uncanny silence.
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Trembling, I held a hand beneath his nose.
No breath.
He was dead.
I slumped onto the floor and lit a cigarette.
After a few drags, my thoughts began to settle.
Regret followed.
I shouldn't have killed him this way.
No amount of cleaning could fix a scene like this.
Sooner or later, the police would find me.
Everything was back where it started.
I'd still go to prison.
No!
I couldn't.
Killing one person and killing two meant very different sentences.
I'd killed He Ze. His father wouldn't spare me either.
What if I was sentenced to death?
I began shaking.
And why had He Ze suddenly tried to kill me?
Had that other man betrayed me?
Or had He Ze noticed something himself?
I punched the floor.
“Fuck... I should've asked.”
Looking at the wrecked room and his lifeless body, I had a bold thought.
Run.
Transfer the money in his accounts into mine and flee to a country without an extradition treaty.
With money, I could live like a king anywhere.
My gaze settled on his phone.
I wiped the blood off his face.
The phone unlocked immediately.
There was plenty of money in his accounts.
Of course, I couldn't transfer all of it at once.
But together with my wife's bonus from last month, it would keep me going for a few years.
I began entering my bank details.
Then a click sounded behind me.
My blood froze.
Stiffly, I turned.
A familiar face smiled faintly at me.
Liang Bo.
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He raised his phone and waved it at me.
“That was quite a performance. I thoughtfully recorded the whole thing for you.”
My head buzzed.
Almost immediately, I understood.
“So... this was all you?”
Once the surprise passed, only contempt remained.
If it was him, this would be much easier.
“Someone's paid for Huo Ran's death now. This should be over, shouldn't it?”
A question, but my tone was certain.
His daughter was ill. I'd helped him so much.
That alone meant he had no right to kill me.
If he really wanted to turn on me, we'd go down together.
I'd already killed one person. One more wouldn't matter.
But looking at the phone in his hand, I couldn't help feeling uneasy.
I didn't know whether he'd sent the video to anyone.
He stood on a higher step, looking down at me.
“He Ze's dead. It should be over.
“But...”
His tone abruptly changed.
“I have a question. I'd very much like the answer.”
My eyes never left his phone.
The distance between us shrank.
I began calculating how to seize it.
Feigning friendliness, I stepped closer.
Suddenly, my body went limp.
I fell heavily to the floor.
Fuck.
What was happening?
I tried to stand, but my strength kept draining away.
“Stop struggling. I drugged the cigarette. You're not the only one who knows how.”
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Liang Bo tied me firmly to a chair.
Throughout it, I was like a dead dog, helpless to resist.
“Fuck! What do you want? Don't forget, when your daughter was ill, I transferred the money without hesitation.
“And I risked my life dragging Huo Ran out of freezing water!”
I tried to use what I'd done for him to awaken what conscience he had left.
But he was just like Huo Ran.
An ungrateful animal.
The farmer and the snake.
That story couldn't have fit them better.
Whatever I said, his face remained cold.
Just as I was about to faint, he finally asked his first question.
“I thought... we were friends. Why did you kill Huo Ran?”
At the same time, he drove a knife into my thigh.
Bone-deep pain dragged me back to consciousness.
“Friends?” I screamed. “I thought we were friends too!
“But when I knelt and begged her not to tell the teachers, do you know what she said?
“Yes! Exactly that look on your face now. She wore the same disgusting expression!
“She told me to confess. Said it was for my own good.
“Fuck! I risked my life to save her! She wouldn't even pretend she hadn't seen anything.
“You call that a friend?”
By the end, my voice was choking.