Oops, sorry, this part was supposed to appear in the previous chapter.
But Bai Lixin’s gaze fell on Cao Jiyun, who had been unconscious this whole time.
“Her posture looks a bit strange and she seems stiff,” the young man observed thoughtfully, looking at the woman with her head drooping on the rattan chair.
Ran Jingjing: “It’s probably because of the structure of the rattan chair. Its design doesn’t fit ergonomics, so it feels awkward. Isn’t there a bed inside? How about we move her onto the bed?”
Bai Lixin pursed his lips and walked up to Cao Jiyun. He reached out a hand, and gently placed it under her nose, then on her neck where the carotid artery was.
Two seconds later, the young man withdrew his hand and said calmly, “There’s no breath, she’s dead.”
With a clatter, Zhang Li’s chopsticks fell to the ground.
Chapter 569:
The scene became chaotic. A person who was alive and well just moments ago is suddenly dead, and everyone reacted differently.
Wang Tou rushed over to check Cao Jiyun’s condition, while Ran Jingjing stood quietly beside Bai Lixin.
Mrs. Shen subconsciously hugged Xiao Xin into her arms and covered the child’s eyes.
Zhang Li’s chopsticks fell to the ground, her eyes widened, and her face was full of fear.
Li Chongming reacted similarly to Zhang Li, though not as dramatically.
Everyone stared at Wang Tou, waiting for the authoritative verdict.
Finally, half a minute later, Wang Tou’s expression turned solemn: “She’s dead.”
There was a gasp, and Li Chongming staggered up, knocking over the bowl on the coffee table.
The sound of the bowl crashing to the ground made Zhang Li shiver uncontrollably. She exclaimed, “It’s Xiaohua, it must be Xiaohua seeking revenge. She wants to kill us all. Her vengeful spirit has come to haunt us. We can’t escape, just like Old Su and Lian Lian, none of us can escape!”
S419M: [The Lian Lian she is talking about is her and Su Hong’s son.]
Ran Jingjing asked Wang Tou, “Can you tell the cause of death?”
Wang Tou opened Cao Jiyun’s eyes. They were dull, with dilated black pupils.
Because the death was recent, Cao Jiyun’s body hadn’t completely stiffened. Wang Tou adjusted her position, tilting her head up for better examination.
He checked every corner meticulously— nostrils, mouth, fingernails, neck. When his eyes came to Cao Jiyun’s feet, Wang Tou noticed something unusual.
There seemed to be water stains on the gaps of her black leather shoes.
He wiped it with his hand, and his fingertips were immediately stained red.
Wang Tou’s expression changed slightly. He quickly removed Cao Jiyun’s shoes and discovered her right foot was missing a little toe.
The little toe seemed freshly cut, with fresh red blood still uncoagulated.
Seeing this eerie scene, everyone present was at a loss.
They were fearful and helpless.
Fearful of the eerie oppression closing in, helpless in the face of the baffling situation.
Everyone seemed to have something on their minds, and their expressions were a bit off.
“Officer Wang,” Ran Jingjing reminded Wang Tou, “There seems to be something in Cao Jiyun’s pocket.”
Upon hearing this, Wang Tou focused on Cao Jiyun’s clothes pocket. He reached in and pulled out a small square box.
The box was the size of a headphone case. When he opened it and saw what was inside, his expression became even more complex.
Inside the tiny box lay a piece of dried meat.
The dried meat was shriveled and blackened. Although it was extremely dehydrated, it was vaguely recognizable as human-shaped.
It had a disproportionately large head and tiny limbs, and one could still see a grotesque black thread attached at the navel area.
“Ugh!” Ran Jingjing suddenly covered her mouth and ran to the wall to retch.
The room had now split into two groups: one group had Wang Tou, Bai Lixin and Ran Jingjing centered around Cao Jiyun’s body, and the other group had Mrs. Shen and the others near the sofa.
Due to the distance, Mrs. Shen’s group could only see the box in Wang Tou’s hand but not its contents.
However, Ran Jingjing’s retching was plain for all to see, and they were both curious and fearful.
In the end, Li Chongming was unable to resist his curiosity and walked over and took a look. After seeing it, he exclaimed uncontrollably, “It’s a small dried up baby.”
Ran Jingjing’s retching grew louder.
There was a piece of paper on the back of the box lid. Wang Tou took it out and unfolded it, revealing only three words.
[Crime and Punishment.]
Looking at the dried baby in the box and at Cao Jiyun, who had lost her life lying on the rattan chair, Li Chongming’s eyes wandered for a moment before he said somewhat absentmindedly, “Could this child be Xiaohua’s?”
Wang Tou quickly caught a trace of something from his words: “What do you know?”
Li Chongming’s gaze seemed distant, as if recalling a distant memory: “When Xiaohua rented a house from me before, I secretly filmed her. At that time, her boyfriend was Cao Ji’an. Cao Ji’an was obsessed with Xiaohua and often came to the rental house to find her and even stayed overnight.”
“Then, for a while, I noticed that Su Xiaohua would vomit at times. At the time, I even wondered if she was pregnant.”
Wang Tou: “…”
“Then one day,” Li Chongming pointed at the woman on the rattan chair, “if I’m not mistaken, this woman went to see Su Xiaohua.”
Wang Tou: “Are you sure it was her?”
Li Chongming: “It should be her. I remember Xiaohua’s matters quite clearly. And this woman is quite striking and distinctive. Standing in front of Xiaohua was like a lioness confronting a fawn. She had such a strong aura. It’s hard not to remember her.”
“She was like the wealthy parent in TV dramas sending away the poor girlfriend. She arrogantly wrote a check to Xiaohua and asked her to abort the child.”
“At first, Xiaohua refused, saying she wanted to keep the baby.”
“But this woman insisted, saying Cao Ji’an was the only son of the Cao family and that her brother was young and ignorant. Cao Ji’an had a suitable match for marriage, and they wouldn’t allow Su Xiaohua to enter the Cao family, let alone let her give birth to a child of the Cao family.”
Ran Jingjing’s eyes were red with anger: “She really dares to say that. Cao Ji’an is young and ignorant? But isn’t Xiaohua even younger?! Her brother is her treasure, but other people’s children aren’t human?!”
Wang Tou: “What happened next?”
Li Chongming swallowed and continued, “Xiaohua still refused at first. She said this was her own child and she wouldn’t disturb the Cao family. Finally, Cao Jiyun threatened Su Xiaohua with her studies, saying if she didn’t agree to abort the child, she would report her to the school, get her expelled and unable to graduate.”
“In the end, Xiaohua agreed and took the money to the hospital to have the child aborted.”
“Because of this, Cao Ji’an had a fierce quarrel with Su Xiaohua. Cao Ji’an seemed unaware of Xiaohua’s pregnancy, let alone her need for rest after the abortion. He only knew that Xiaohua hadn’t slept with him for a long time. Plus, there were extra supplements at Xiaohua’s home, so he thought Xiaohua was seeing someone else.”
Ran Jingjing interjected, “So then Cao Ji’an’s true colors came out, and he started beating Xiaohua from that time?”
Li Chongming nodded after some thought, “It was around that time.”
Mrs. Shen asked, “Why didn’t Su Xiaohua tell Cao Ji’an that she had been pregnant with his child?”
Li Chongming: “Cao Jiyun told her not to. She said her brother is very sensitive mentally, and if he knew about this, he would become emotionally unstable and might want to kill someone. She said all this to protect Su Xiaohua.”
The group exchanged looks of disbelief.
Mrs. Shen: “Isn’t that outrageous? The perpetrator actually said she did it to protect the victim. And this is someone who was once a law student? How absurd.”
Li Chongming stared at the small piece of dried meat, “But this happened ten years ago. How did this thing appear here? Was it just in her pocket earlier?”
Silence fell over the scene, as no one could answer his question.
“What does the note say, Officer Wang?” Mrs. Shen asked on the other side of the coffee table.
Wang Tou: “Three words: Crime and Punishment.”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Li sighed bitterly, “Sure enough, it’s revenge, Xiaohua’s revenge.”
“Officer Wang,” Bai Lixin, who had been silent all along, pointed to Cao Jiyun’s body, “There seems to be something else in the other pocket.”
Wang Tou felt Cao Jiyun’s other pocket and indeed pulled out another note.
This note had even fewer words on it, just one: Repentance.
“Repentance…” Mrs. Shen carefully chewed on this word, “If this space is really created by Su Xiaohua’s ghost, did she pull us in here and show us these notes to make us repent for what we’ve done?”
Li Chongming: “Is repentance useful?”
Mrs. Shen: “I don’t know if repentance is useful. But if you don’t repent, you’ll surely die, just like Cao Jiyun. The baby’s corpse was found on her, along with the ‘Crime and Punishment’ note. It’s clear that forcing Xiaohua to abort was her crime, and death was her punishment.”
The group fell silent.
“I… I repent. Xiaohua.” Zhang Li raised her hand in panic, and with a “thud,” she knelt down, shrinking as she looked up at the ceiling. “Auntie is sorry to you. Auntie also wanted to help you back then. Have you forgotten the two years you lived at Auntie’s, where Auntie cooked for you? Auntie did wrong, but Auntie was also good to you.”
“Su Hong is a gambler and couldn’t save any money. But how could your younger brother go to school without money? And with an extra mouth to feed in the family, I had no choice. Ever since your uncle made that film of you, our financial situation at home improved a lot. Auntie isn’t a good person, but I didn’t do this for myself. I just wanted everyone to have a better life. Auntie really didn’t have any bad intentions.”
Her words of repentance fell on everyone’s ears without missing a single word, and once again, everyone’s faces showed expressions of incomprehension.
Sacrificing one person for the sake of the family’s well-being.
No bad intentions yet subjecting a young girl to such inhuman torment.
Not forgetting to absolve herself while repenting.
It was really quite ridiculous.
Mrs. Shen sneered mockingly, “Are you done? Then it’s my turn.”
“I previously mentioned my actions that harmed Xiaohua. I saw Su Hong and Shen Shukuang’s sinful behavior towards Xiaohua but remained indifferent.”
“Xiaohua.” She hugged Xiao Xin and lifted her chin, looking up at the ceiling. “If you really created all this, then listen to me.”
“At most, I just turned a blind eye to death, but there are plenty of people in the world who do that. If you insist on sentencing me for this, then from your perspective, I am indeed guilty. I am a selfish person, and if you want to punish me, I can only accept it. But my daughter is innocent; she shouldn’t suffer any harm. You almost became a mother once too. My child has already lost a father, does poor Xiao Xin have to lose another parent and become an orphan?”
“Hahaha.” Zhang Li burst into laughter. She pointed at Mrs. Shen and mocked, “Idiot.”
Mrs. Shen, who was speaking confidently, became displeased upon hearing this. “What did you say?”
Zhang Li: “Don’t think I don’t know what you’re thinking. You just want to use the child to gain Xiaohua’s sympathy and make her go easy on you.”
“Do you really think Xiaohua will let you off?”
“My son used to call Xiaohua ‘sister.’ In the end, wasn’t he killed by Xiaohua’s vengeful spirit?”
“You’re too naive, you really are an idiot.”
Mrs. Shen’s face changed color, and suddenly she lost her earlier composure.
A hint of panic flashed in her eyes, and when she spoke again, her voice was cautious rather than confident: “Xiaohua, I’m sorry. I really realize my mistake now.”
“I shouldn’t have been so selfish back then, only thinking about using you to control Shen Shukuang. If I had been brave enough to stand up and help you at that time, you wouldn’t have ended up like this.”
“Xiaohua, I sincerely apologize to you. I repent for the harm I caused you before, and I hope you can forgive me.”
Zhang Li watched in astonishment.
Seeing two people repenting one after another, Li Chongming also quickly clasped his hands together, “Xiaohua, it was wrong of Uncle Li to secretly film you. Uncle Li apologizes to you.”
“But Uncle Li only watched those videos himself and didn’t sell them online.”
“You must forgive Uncle Li!”
After they finished speaking, all eyes turned to Wang Tou and the others.
With this side done, only the other side was left.
Wang Tou, Rang Jingjing, and this somewhat strange young man—how did they harm Xiaohua before?
