Chapter 143: Chapter 126.2

Sun Chenxin’s mother woke up after lying in the hospital bed for a short period.

“Pardon me for asking, but do you mind explaining the conversation you had with your son? He and the girl never revealed their motive for the crime. The family of the deceased is still waiting for an account in the police station.”

An account of why their daughter was killed.

“That incident with Xinxin… It was all our fault… We… We…”

Sun Chenxin’s mother choked and sobbed, her face tinged with pain.

“You should calm down first. Let me do the talking.”

Sun Chenxin’s father sighed and wrinkled his nose. Then, he wiped away the tears at the corners of his eyes.

“When Xinxin was young, both of us were very busy with work. Xinxin was a little slower than other children at the time, but he was very hard-working. We often had to travel because of work, so we hired someone to take care of Xinxin’s daily life and help him with his studies.

“But… But… That person…”

Sun Chenxin’s father clenched his fists, his hands trembling in anger.

“He…is a pervert, and Xinxin suffered immensely at his hands.”

Sun Chenxin’s father struggled to continue speaking.

“Xinxin was only in sixth grade at the time. He was molested, raped, and threatened by that man. He was already introverted at the time, so he didn’t say anything to us, and we didn’t know anything that was going on. What’s even more outrageous was that even when we were at home in the living room, he was in Xinxin’s room… When we suddenly entered the room, we saw Xinxin gagged with his eyes wide open and a numbed expression on his face.

“We were so angry at the time that he wanted to kill that man. I beat that man close to death and dragged him to the police station. When we took Xinxin to the hospital and hugged him, he didn’t cry or make a fuss. It was as if he couldn’t perceive anything at all.

“How much despair must he have felt… Even knowing his parents were at home, he still… We even handed Xinxin over to that monster with our own hands… With our own hands, for two whole…two whole years…”

Sun Chenxin’s father gasped for air, a pained expression on his face. Meanwhile, Sun Chenxin’s mother covered her mouth and cried, her face colored in remorse.

“We tried to console Xinxin, but he refused to talk to us. We begged him. We also resigned from our jobs to accompany him and make up for our mistakes.

“When Xinxin was finally willing to talk to us again, the first thing he said to us was to ask what happened to that man.”

“In the case of boys, it cannot be considered rape, only molestation,” Jun Zishu spoke up, stating the truth that made the couple hated.

“Yes. We couldn’t get the law to sentence that man to death. We hired a good lawyer to try to keep him in prison for a few more years. However, that man’s lawyer was just as capable, and he ended up with only a two-year sentence.

“Only two years! That scumbag got out after only two years!”

Sun Chenxin’s mother gnashed her teeth, her eyes filled with hatred when she mentioned that scumbag. She also hated that the law wasn’t sufficiently comprehensive.

At this time, Jun Zishu remembered the words Liu Qianqian said to Yang Tianxiao and the girl’s disdain for the law.

The law? What use was it?

Of course it was useful, but only sometimes. It still wasn’t perfect, and there were many gray areas that criminals could use to skirt around.

“When Xinxin learned of the result, he grew even more reticent. We tried many methods to help him recover. We took him out to sightsee and keep his mind distracted. We also took him for counseling.

“Later, Xinxin seemed to have gotten better as he no longer cried when he slept. He also stopped staring into space absent-mindedly. He even talked to us, smiled at us, and started studying hard again.

“At the time, he said something to us that I will remember for the rest of my life.

“He said that had he been smarter and more reliable in the past, we wouldn’t have had to go looking for someone to take care of him to begin with.”

If that person hadn’t appeared before him, he wouldn’t have suffered so much.

“When he said those words, my heart felt like it was stabbed. I wanted nothing more than to go back in time and kill myself. How could I have let my son become like this!”

When bringing up the past, Sun Chenxin’s mother felt like a blade was cutting through her flesh and blood with every word she spoke.

“It turns out that he never forgot about the incident. He was never able to let go of it, and we, his parents, failed to notice this. We never realized that he has only been behaving himself to reassure us…

“Officer, I feel very guilty for the crime my son has committed this time. It is our fault. However, I can’t bring myself to feel guilty for the victim’s parents. My son said that he could feel that girl’s pain. In that case, that girl must’ve also been mistreated terribly. Scumbags deserve to die.”

Sun Chenxin’s mother gasped for air as she spoke. Near the end, though, her voice sounded a little joyful.

“Every life should be respected. But as you said, some people don’t deserve to be respected. So, it is our job to catch those people and make them pay the appropriate price,” Jun Zishu said.

Sun Chenxin’s mother remained silent. Then, she wiped her tears and asked, “Officer, will my son be given the death sentence?”

“Sun Chenxin had instigated a murder. He is the main culprit of this crime. However, he didn’t participate in the dismembering of the corpse, so if you find a good lawyer, he may only be sentenced to prison for a few decades.”

“A few decades… Wouldn’t he still be ruined by the time he comes out… If he still can’t find that person, he will still live with hatred… His behavior might become even more excessive in the future…”

Sun Chenxin’s mother looked at her husband at a loss.

What made them feel even more powerless was that their son desired death.

Jun Zishu didn’t know how she should comfort the couple. The only thing she could do was leave her contact information so that they could contact her if they needed anything.

After exiting the hospital, Jun Zishu stood at the entrance.

The sky was blue with passing clouds, and the streets were filled with pedestrians. Everything was going on just like normal.

After looking around idly for some time, Jun Zishu touched her pockets before wandering off to a nearby store to buy a pack of cigarettes.

Jun Zishu didn’t smoke, but the original owner did.

It was very stressful to work in this line of work. What made the job daunting wasn’t the constantly changing ways criminals committed crimes but the dirty and rotten hearts of humans instead.

When faced with a depressing case or a problem that troubled her, the original owner would take a puff to distract her mind.

Jun Zishu held a cigarette in her mouth and lit it with the lighter she had just bought.

As the white smoke dissipated in the air, Jnu Zishu clutched the cigarette between her fingers and straightened her trench coat.

Perhaps some people were born bad. Hence, they would try to use all kinds of moral and external means to bind themselves and others and try their best to present their good side.

However, darkness always existed.

After finishing the cigarette, Jun Zishu extinguished it and threw it into the nearby trash can. Then, she waited for the smell of smoke to disappear before she drove back to the police station.

…

Jun Zishu visited Liu Qianqian. Liu Qianqian sat in her prison cell curled up in a corner.

Jun Zishu opened the cell door and closed it again. Then, she stood in front of Liu Qianqian and asked, “Did Chen Yin molest you?”

Liu Qianqian’s body shuddered. Then, she looked up at Jun Zishu and asked, “How much do you know?”

“Just the reason why Sun Chenxin helped you.”

Perhaps the person Sun Chenxin hated wasn’t “Chen Yin” but the “abuser” instead. Meanwhile, when he saw his past self in Liu Qianqian, his hatred resurfaced, and he might have shifted his hatred for his abuser onto Chen Yin. Hence, he had proposed to kill Chen Yin.

Liu Qianqian fell silent for a long time before saying, “I don’t know what happened to him. No, I should say that I probably know because he told me that he was the same as me.”

Inside the narrow and dimly lit prison cell, Liu Qianqian began talking about her past little by little.

She talked about her hidden, unknown, and painful past.

“I grew up not being liked, not by my mother, nor by my father. The only one who took care of me was my grandmother.

“In grade school, because the most popular boy in my class complimented me on looks, the girls in my class started bullying me. Because of it, I got used to enduring and obscuring myself.

“In middle school, my form teacher liked to put his hands where they didn’t belong. I was scared and disgusted when he touched my butt. To make matters worse, someone started maliciously spreading rumors about me, saying that I slept with the form teacher. The rumors also got worse as they got passed around.

“I was timid and used to being cowardly. I thought that everything would be fine so long as I studied hard. I thought that I would be free of it all once I grew up.

“However, cowardly people don’t seem to deserve good luck. The people who hated me in middle school got into the same high school as me.

“When similar rumors started spreading in the high school I attended, I hopelessly thought that I might have to repeat my life in middle school again. However, it didn’t matter since I was already used to it.”

Liu Qianqian’s expression was indifferent and gloomy as she spoke.

“But outside of my expectations, I met Chen Yin. I once thought that I had met the sunshine of my life, but although she had given me light, she had also pushed me into deeper darkness.

“Chen Yin was the most popular student in our class at the time. When I started getting bullied again, she spoke up to help me. I was very grateful to her for that. Later, she even applied with the form teacher to become my deskmate. I couldn’t believe it at the time. It was like being hit by a truckload of happiness.

“I had a friend, and this friend of mine treated me very well. We ate together, went to the toilet together, and shopped for clothes together. We even slept in the same dormitory and watched horror movies under the same blanket. That period was probably the happiest time of my life.”

Chen Yin had rejuvenated her life, bringing her beauty and confidence.

“However, Chen Yin was sick. I’m not saying it as an insult. She truly is sick.

“During our second year in high school, she got drunk in front of me for the first time. She became another person when she was drunk.”

Brutal, cold, and forceful. That was how Chen Yin appeared that night.

That night, Liu Qianqian was raped by the close friend she liked and trusted the most. She was put into unpleasant positions and berated with vicious words.

“However, the next day, she forgot about everything. She couldn’t believe she had done what she did to me, and she apologized to me.

“But things grew more and more out of control later on. The other her would keep on appearing. Then, once the other her was done with me, she would look at me with the same apologetic expression.

“However, no matter which Chen Yin it was, both of them had one thing in common: they did not allow me to leave. Chen Yin threatened me with the many pictures she took. She could have ruined my life, just like how the others had done in the past, only more thoroughly this time.”

Liu Qianqian laughed miserably, her heart colored in despair.

Liu Qianqian loved and hated Chen Yin. She wanted to escape from Chen Yin, yet she didn’t have the courage nor know-how to do so.

“At one time, I laid in her room tied up and shivering while her parents were in the living room. Although I tried to ask her parents for help, I got discovered.

“I cried and begged her that time. I had to make myself look like a dog without dignity before she let me go.”

Oh, how ugly and pitiful she looked at the time.

“She made me attend the same university and department as her. She told me not to try to run away from her. If I dared to go anywhere else, even if it was a bad school, she would follow me there.

“I thought that she would leave me alone after entering university and falling in love. Yet, why wouldn’t she let me go? Even though… Even though she had a boyfriend… But the other her refused to acknowledge it. The other her said that she was fond of only me.

“Fond of making me suffer?

“One time, the other her hugged me in the corner of the school. I saw Sun Chenxin, and he saw me, too.

“He simply stood there and watched. Then, he quietly left.

“I felt embarrassed when I met him afterward, but he simply talked to me as if he hadn’t seen what had happened that day.

“Until one day, he asked me if I was being forced.

“I was surprised, but he said that he could see my pain and that he, too, had gone through a similar experience in the past.”

Liu Qianqian hugged her knees, looking as if she was feeling cold.

“I would talk to him occasionally after that, but I dared not get too close to him. I would also delete my messages with him since Chen Yin would check my phone.

“One day, he asked me…asked me if I wanted to get rid of it all. He asked me if I wanted to…kill her.

“I said, yes.”