“Twenty years ago, Chen Liang beat my father to death.”
“Twenty years later, I worked hard and became a police officer, just to arrest him with my own hands.”
“However, just after I caught him and before I could interrogate him, the case was taken over by other departments. Because, according to the regulations, as a relative of the victim, I had no right to participate in the case.”
“Soon, Chen Liang was released from the police station due to insufficient evidence. He even provocatively said to me, ‘Kid, I not only killed your father, but also fucked your mother.'”
“At that moment, I just wanted to kill him with my own hands.”
“‘Brother Shen, calm down.'”
“My colleagues in the bureau rushed forward and grabbed me because I had drawn my gun at Chen Liang.”
“I admit that at this moment, I really forgot that I was a police officer.”
“I only remembered the misery and pain when my father was beaten to death; only remembered the solemn and desolate scene when our house exploded; only remembered the panic and fear when my mother was chased and fled; only remembered the pitiful cries of my younger brothers and sisters.”
“I shouted furiously, ‘I’ll kill him, kill him.'”
“I struggled and said, ‘Let me go…'”
“Someone tightly wrapped their arms around my waist.”
“Someone crawled on the ground and grabbed my legs.”
“Someone tried their best to control my hand holding the gun.”
“Someone pried my fingers one by one, hoping that I would let go of the gun that was about to cause a huge disaster.”
“Someone also hurriedly dragged Chen Liang out of my sight.”
“But he didn’t seem to want to leave. He gave me the middle finger and said, ‘You little brat, do you think you can do anything to me just because you became a police officer?'”
“‘Even if I admit it myself that I did everything, you can’t do anything to me if you can’t find the evidence. You can only watch me live happily.'”
“‘Are you in pain? Are you suffering? If you can’t bear it, just shoot yourself and go to the underworld to cry to your parents.'”
“He laughed wildly and crazily. When he saw the car coming to pick him up, he proudly stretched out his arms.”
“His wife, children and even several grandchildren all rushed to his side as if welcoming a hero, enjoying the joy of reunion.”
“‘I’m going to hold a big banquet at home. I’m even going to dance in front of your parents’ graves!'”
“He continued to provoke me. However, I had completely calmed down. No matter what he did or said, he couldn’t stir up my emotions anymore.”
“Uncle Rong slowly got out of the car and walked unsteadily to my side. He said earnestly, ‘Ah Shen, I know you’re very sad, but people have to move forward. If the police say he’s guilty, the village couldn’t accommodate Chen Liang and his family anymore. But now there’s no solid evidence. As long as he’s alive, he’s still a member of our New Village. As an elder and the clan leader, I have the obligation to protect him, just like how I protected your whole family back then.'”
“Uncle Rong is the big clan leader in the village. Everyone in New Village respects him very much.”
“Because of his high seniority, his strong ability and his noble character, he has really brought benefits to the villagers of New Village.”
“When my parents died, if it hadn’t been for Uncle Rong’s care, my siblings and I would have died long ago.”
“I thought I was very strong, but at this moment, I still couldn’t help but shed tears.”
“The pain and sense of powerlessness were like two poisonous snakes tightly wrapping around me, as if they were trying their best to perish with me.”
“I still looked at Uncle Rong helplessly as I did when I was a child and asked him, ‘Why?'”
“‘Why?'”
“Even though I didn’t finish my words, Uncle Rong understood me.”
“His wrinkled hand gently stroked my head and said, ‘People should look forward. If you don’t think for yourself, you should also think for your younger brothers and sisters.'”
“Then, he also left.”
“Before I could adjust my emotions, Chief Chen sternly ordered, ‘Yan Shen, a police officer who is swayed by personal emotions can’t solve cases calmly. Hand over your ID and your gun and suspend your duty to reflect on yourself.'”
“Many colleagues wanted to plead for me, but I knew that if I had really fired the gun just now, the whole police station might be implicated because of me.”
“Chief Chen had already shown mercy outside the law. I didn’t resist and calmly handed over my police ID, put down my gun and then took off my police uniform.”
“Because I had already made up my mind. Since the law couldn’t punish him, I would punish him myself.”
“Officially, I was a police officer. It was only natural for a police officer to arrest criminals.”
“Personally, he had ruined my family. It wouldn’t be too much even if I skinned him alive and tore his tendons out.”
“Chief Chen probably noticed that something was wrong with me and winked at Zhou An.”
“Zhou An understood and came over to put his arm around my shoulder and comforted me, ‘You’ve done your best. Your parents in heaven will understand you. Come on, I’ll buy you a drink.'”
“I knew that he wanted to keep an eye on me to prevent me from doing anything extreme.”
“However, Zhou An and I had worked together for many years. I knew his abilities very well. Even if he wanted to keep his eyes fixed on me, he couldn’t do it.”
“The next morning, Chen Liang’s horrible death was on the news.”
“The entry of ‘Dog Looking at the Moon’ became a hot search topic.”
“But when you clicked on it, you couldn’t find anything, neither pictures nor words.”
“Because it was too horrible, it was blocked.”
“But because too many people were paying attention to and talking about it, the entry couldn’t be taken down.”
“People couldn’t discuss it online, so they could only talk about it face to face. The morning tea shops were very lively.”
“The so-called ‘Dog Looking at the Moon’ means that a man was stripped naked, knelt on the ground and looked up at the moon in the sky.”
“‘This isn’t the worst part,’ people said with relish. ‘A thick steel bar was stabbed directly into his mouth…'”
“Another person added, ‘And it came out from his anus.'”
“Someone objected, ‘Not from the anus, but from that place.'”
“Someone asked, ‘Which place?'”
“‘Which other place could it be? That place… was cut off.'”
“Everyone burst out laughing as they talked, without any sympathy or pity for the loss of a life, nor did they feel the horror and cruelty of the murderer.”
“‘It’s said that the police had a hard time transporting the body away,'”
“‘There was a long bloodstain on that street. Now it’s all cordoned off.'”
“I calmly carried my breakfast and went home. Zhou An was already awake.”
“He stared at me angrily, then took two deep breaths. There was a look of reluctance in his eyes. Then he took out handcuffs and said to me, ‘Brother Shen, don’t make it difficult for me.'”
“I calmly stretched out my hand and said, ‘I didn’t kill him.'”
“I got Zhou An drunk.”
“I even expected that there would be others in the bureau watching me, so I pretended to be drunk and lay on the table.”
“Unfortunately, people outside the window could only see the silhouettes.”
“They would mistake the drunk person for me, while Zhou An was still sober and watching me.”
“In fact, I was the sober one, and what they saw was just a sober projection of me.”
“‘I did want to find Chen Liang, but I didn’t plan to kill him.'”
“The person interrogating me was a stranger because all the people who knew me had to avoid suspicion to avoid being accused of favoritism.”
“‘If I wanted to kill him, I could have shot him dead the moment I found him after going through so much trouble.'”
“‘Officer Yan, don’t you have a good memory? Have you forgotten how you handed over your gun?'”
“‘The scene where you vowed to kill Chen Liang is still vivid. Otherwise, why would your chief send people to watch you?'”
“I said indifferently, ‘Just talking. It can’t be regarded as evidence of a crime.'”
“The person was so angry that he slapped the table hard and said, ‘Then tell me, why did you get the police officer who was watching you drunk? Why did you play tricks to make the police officers monitoring you outside have an illusion?'”
“‘But this can’t prove that I’m the one who killed the person.'”
“I don’t know how many criminals I’ve interrogated. Now that our positions have changed, the initiative is still in my hands.”
“That person couldn’t say anything again. After all, interrogating a police officer is definitely not easy.”
“‘Didn’t you find anything on the body? Didn’t you find any doubts at the crime scene?'”
“‘If I were to investigate this case, I would definitely start with the body and the crime scene. You directly interrogated the suspect without mastering anything. This is really showing your weakness.'”
“‘Don’t say it’s me who knows the way of interrogation well. Even a suspect with a slightly stronger mentality would understand that you don’t have any evidence at all and would be even more calm. You can’t get any useful information at all.'”
“The more I said, the angrier that person became. He coldly shouted, ‘Then tell me, where were you during the time from when Zhou An got drunk to when the victim died?'”
“‘The presumption of innocence. I don’t need to prove my innocence.'”
“‘Who asked you to prove your innocence? Chen Liang’s genitals were cut off. Do you dare to say that the reason you drew your gun at him wasn’t because of what he said?'”
“Sure enough, as an experienced police officer, he knew best how to attack the suspect’s weak points.”
“He pointed at me and continued to attack, ‘Tell me, what kind of hatred could make the murderer do this?'”
“Even though I subconsciously held back, I still shouted emotionally, ‘Shut up. If I were the murderer, I would make him die a million times more horribly.'”
“In the interrogation room, there was silence.”
“The person opposite had sharp eyes and a serious expression, but he didn’t continue to ask questions, as if he was waiting for me to calm down or waiting for me to state the case.”
“I took a deep breath. I felt very sorry and ashamed for my behavior just now.”
“I said, ‘Don’t mention this matter. Everyone has a mother. No one can bear to hear such words.'”
“That person knew that he couldn’t get anything by asking questions, so he started to play the emotional card. ‘Yan Shen, I’ve heard a little about your family’s affairs. You worked so hard to become a police officer just to bring the people who harmed your family to justice. But you found that even being a police officer might not be able to achieve this. So…'”
“He couldn’t say the following words, and he didn’t even dare to say them because it was against the regulations. As long as I took it seriously, he might get a demerit.”
“‘If a police officer needs to use illegal means to defend the truth, what will the world become like?'”
“‘If you break the law, what qualifications do you have to punish those who break the law?'”
“‘Your parents and relatives were killed by criminals. And the way you avenge them is to become a criminal yourself? A hundred years later, how can you face your parents?'”
“My parents and relatives are the taboos in my heart that I can’t touch. Even though I knew that I didn’t have to answer this question, I still opened my mouth to explain, ‘Chen Liang really wasn’t killed by me.'”
“‘After I got Zhou An drunk, I did want to take revenge on Chen Liang. But soon after I went out, I met Fu Xinsheng.'”
“That person was shocked and said, ‘Fu Xinsheng, the famous lawyer from Chongli Law Firm.'”
“I nodded.”
“He’s been the undefeated general in the legal profession in recent two years, so he’s quite famous and everyone has heard of him.”
“‘Then why didn’t you say it before?'”
“I sighed and said, ‘Because he can’t be a witness. He’s Fu Xinsheng now, but twenty years ago, he was my third younger brother, Yan Jin.'”
“Twenty years ago, I already had two younger brothers. But my mother gave birth to a pair of twin sisters.”
“On the night when the two sisters were one month old, Chen Liang, drunk, knocked on our door. My father opened the door without any suspicion. Who knew that there were six villains hiding behind him.”
“They said that Chen Liang owed them gambling debts and he had mortgaged my mother to them.”
“At that time, my father was completely confused. ‘He owes you money. Why should he mortgage my wife to you?'”
“Those people said, ‘We don’t care.'”
“‘Either you pay back the money for him or we’ll take your wife away.'”
“They didn’t give any room for negotiation and were about to snatch my mother away without saying a word.”
“It was supposed to be a festive day. Our yard was decorated with lanterns and colored streamers. Who would have thought that there would be bloodshed?”
“Just like that, they beat my father to death.”
“My father endured their beating and struggled to grab one person’s feet and screamed at us, ‘Run, run…'”
“My mother held the younger sister in her arms. I held the older sister. The two younger brothers followed us and ran out aimlessly. We hoped to find someone to help.”
“The nearest neighbor’s house was only three or four meters away from ours, but their door was closed and no one was at home.”
“Only then did we remember that there was a party in the village. Our family stayed at home to clean up because we held a banquet during the day for my sisters’ one-month celebration and didn’t go to the party.”
“It happened so suddenly that we didn’t know how to deal with it at all.”
“Plus, it was night and it was pitch-dark, so it was very difficult to escape.”
“To protect us, my mother handed the younger sister in her arms to my second younger brother and tried to lead the pursuers away by herself.”
“However, my second younger brother was only seven years old at that time and didn’t fully understand my mother’s intention. He still held the younger sister and ran with my mother.”
“I took my third younger brother and the older sister and ran in another direction. Later, I found Uncle Rong and then felt relieved.”
“However, when I took the people from the village there, our house exploded. In an instant, the house collapsed in front of my eyes.”
“The originally dark night suddenly became bright.”
“The police came. I told them that it was Chen Liang who brought people to harm our family.”
“But Chen Liang firmly refused to admit it. He said that I was talking nonsense. He said that he was drunk and that’s why he didn’t go to the village party.”
“Based on the principle of presumption of innocence, the police couldn’t take any action against him.”
“However, soon after that, he left New Village and no one knew where he had gone ever since.”
“His family said, ‘It’s all because you wronged him without evidence. He couldn’t bear the rumors in the village, so he left.'”
“And my mother’s body was found in the water half a month after And my mother’s body was found in the water half a month after the incident. The DNA was matched, but actually the body had completely lost its original appearance.”
“The police didn’t allow us to see it. Later, probably because they thought it was too inhumane, they did a lot of psychological counseling for me before finally letting me see my mother for the last time.”
“My mother had become a bloated corpse. Even though I felt it was familiar, there wasn’t a single trace of my mother left.”
“Then, I decided not to let my younger brothers and sisters see our mother for the last time.”
“The second younger brother and the younger sister were missing, and their life or death was unknown. But everyone said that the chances of survival were slim.”
“I and the third younger brother and the older sister became orphans.”
“All the people in the village were related by blood or marriage. They couldn’t wait to seize our family’s fields and homesteads.”
“Because New Village was in the process of preparation for reconstruction at that time, and it was a huge fortune.”
“Everyone was blatantly competing for the custody of our three siblings. When luring didn’t work, they resorted to threats. There was nothing they couldn’t think of, say or do.”
“Chen Liang’s family even blamed his leaving on me and came to trouble us from time to time.”
“Our parents’ funerals were not peaceful at all.”
“Finally, Uncle Rong came to mediate. He gave us two options. First, the village would buy our family’s fields and homesteads at a price. Second, we could wait for the demolition compensation from the developers.”
“The village bought them at 10% higher than the market price at that time, while the demolition compensation was an uncertain amount.”
“If the village bought them, we could get the money immediately. But we didn’t know when we could get the demolition compensation.”
“And at that time, our parents’ graves hadn’t been settled yet.”
“So, I decided to choose the first option. After buying the public cemetery for our parents and holding the funeral, there was still 400,000 yuan left.”
“Then came the question of where the three of us minors would go. One option was to stay in New Village and be raised by the village collective. The other was to go to the orphanage arranged by the government.”
“I chose the orphanage. Although I was reluctant to leave the place where I grew up, I knew very well that without our parents, New Village would no longer be our home.”
“I was never reconciled, never.”
“I always felt that the police who handled the case back then didn’t try their best to investigate. They thought that it was the explosion of the house that led to the destruction of our family.”
“But they believed me when I said there were six villains. It was just that because Chen Liang firmly refused to admit that he brought those people, even though I could clearly recall the appearances of the six villains, the police still didn’t find any useful information.”
“Even after my mother’s body was found, they didn’t carefully search for the bodies of my second younger brother and younger sister in the water.”
“Although I knew that it might not be effective to salvage the bodies after half a month, I just couldn’t get over this hurdle in my heart.”
“And after Chen Liang disappeared, the police didn’t issue a wanted notice for him on the grounds that there was no evidence to prove that he was involved in the wrongdoing.”
“The destruction of our family seemed like a tiny speck of dust in the eyes of others, which could be easily brushed away.”
“So, I made a very important decision.”
“I agreed to let Yan Jin be adopted.”
“It was a couple who had achieved a lot in their careers and were very kind-hearted. They chose to be childless when they were young to focus on their careers. When they were old, they hoped to have children around them, but found that they were no longer able to have children.”
“That year, I earnestly told Yan Jin, ‘From now on, Mr. Fu and Mrs. Fu are your adoptive parents.'”
“‘Those who give birth and raise you can be repaid even with your life. Those who didn’t give birth to you but raise you are so kind that it’s hard to repay them even in a hundred lifetimes.'”
“‘You must respect, love and be filial to them and do your best to repay their kindness of raising you.'”
“‘But no matter what, you can’t forget our father and mother, and you can’t forget me and your sister. No matter what kind of person you become in the future, you must always remember how horribly our parents died.'”
“I told them, ‘Over the years, we brothers have been in touch, but to make Mr. Fu and Mrs. Fu feel at ease, we’ve been in contact very secretly.'”
“‘That night, I really wanted to find Chen Liang. I secretly swore that even if I had to use illegal means, I would force him to tell the truth of that year.'”
“But just after I went out, I met Yan Jin. He, like my leaders and colleagues, was afraid that I would go astray, so he stopped me in time.”
“The two of us talked for a long time on the vacant land not far from my home.”
“He’s a lawyer. He knows the law better than I do.”
“Our parents and our family had already been ruined because of Chen Liang.”
“If I ruined myself for revenge, it would really be a loss outweighing the gain.”
“As long as we’re still alive, Chen Liang can’t escape anyway. Not finding evidence today doesn’t mean we won’t find it tomorrow.”
“The person listening hesitated for a moment and asked, ‘So, you two can prove for each other that you didn’t have the chance to kill the person?'”
“He frowned and said, ‘But on the contrary, neither of you can prove where you were when Chen Liang was killed.'”
“Police officers always have some skills.”
“The police officers in charge of interrogating are even more formidable.”
“I nodded heavily and said, ‘Yes, that’s right. But the police can’t认定 that I’m the murderer just because of this.'”
“I firmly denied it and said, ‘I didn’t kill him.'”
“‘Even if the murderer is very skillful and didn’t leave any traces, I think that justice has long arms and the police will definitely be able to find some clues at the scene.'”
“I proposed, ‘If possible, I want to participate in the investigation.'”
“‘I want to know more than anyone else who killed him.'”
“The man slightly raised his lips and asked disapprovingly, ‘You participate? Yan Shen, did anyone tell you that there were no traces left at the scene?'”
“‘Why are you so sure that we don’t have any evidence in our hands?'”
“‘Why do you think we would lock you as the prime suspect for no reason?'”
“I have to say that his questions were really oppressive.”
“Even though I had years of interrogation experience, I still felt a little panicked.”
“I smiled calmly and said, ‘You need evidence to confirm whether I killed someone or not, but I don’t need evidence to confirm whether I killed someone or not. I didn’t kill anyone. So, when you use ‘revenge killing’ to reason and identify me as the prime suspect, I assume that there were no traces left at the scene. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be my turn to be the prime suspect.'”
“Obviously, I felt the complicated emotions in that man’s eyes.”
“There was admiration in it, along with a bit of fear.”
“However, he concealed it well. ‘There are traces at the scene – traces of cleaning the scene. As a police officer, you’ve investigated no fewer cases than I have. You should know how to clean up the traces.'”
“‘I certainly know, but you also know. Everyone knows that I have a feud with the deceased, so they suspect me. But how do you know that others don’t have a feud with him? How do you know that another person we don’t know who has a feud with him doesn’t have the ability to clean up the scene traces?'”
“‘You have a feud with Yang Liang. You threatened to kill him. You have the ability to kill and know how to clean up the scene. The most important thing is that you can’t prove your whereabouts. Do you want to tell me that all of this is just a coincidence?'”
“I said indifferently, ‘Whether it’s a coincidence or not, I don’t know. But I know that the law won’t sentence someone just because of ‘coincidence’. Besides, some things are just natural coincidences, so coincidental that they seem ridiculous, but that’s the truth.'”
“That man’s emotions fluctuated more. I knew that he was still restraining himself.”
“I decided to add fuel to the fire. ‘We’re all colleagues and doing the same job. You know what I know, and I know what you know. You know very well that I won’t stay here for long. Is it because the case can’t find a breakthrough at all, so you decide to put all the blame on me?'”
“‘When you can’t solve the case and apologize to the public, will you say grandly that you were misled by my family’s affairs twenty years ago, which led to missing the best golden period for solving the case?'”
“As a police officer, who could bear these words?”
“Sure enough, he got angry. He slapped the table hard and stood up. ‘Yan Shen, watch your words. Knowing the law and breaking it will make your crime even worse.'”
“‘Killing is easy, but it’s very difficult to leave no traces at the crime scene. Are you sure that Fu Xinsheng has the same strong endurance as you?'”
“I knew that when I mentioned the name Fu Xinsheng, he would be invited to the police station.”
“However, at this moment, someone rushed in and whispered something in his ear.”
“I could clearly feel his inner panic. Although his face didn’t change at all, his hands visibly tensed up.”
“I knew that something even bigger had happened.”
“Zhou An told me that Liu San, Uncle Rong’s right-hand man, was dead.”
“His death state was similar to Chen Liang’s. It was still the ‘Dog Looking at the Moon’. The difference was that after the steel bar was stabbed into his mouth, it didn’t go through his body, and he wasn’t castrated.”
“Zhou An said, ‘It was Captain Qin who applied for you to participate in the case.'”
“Captain Qin was the person who interrogated me.”
“Before I could react, Zhou An added, ‘But the chief refused. He said that you couldn’t completely clear your suspicion. If you were reinstated at this time, it would definitely be against the rules. So, you can only follow me and help out.'”
“I didn’t care about that.”
“I went to see Chen Liang’s body first. My colleagues in the forensic department said, ‘The steel bar was stabbed into the deceased when he was alive.'”
“‘That means the deceased opened his mouth by himself.'”
“I carefully observed the deceased’s face and indeed found no signs of being forced by violence. I concluded, ‘That means the deceased was threatened.'”
“At the same time, I was also confused. ‘However, Chen Liang could abandon his family for twenty years for his own sake. What could the murderer use to threaten him to open his mouth?'”
“The forensic doctor pointed at Chen Liang’s lower body and said, ‘It’s uncontrollable for the steel bar to stab in and come out from that place.'”
“‘It takes a lot of strength to make a steel bar go through a person’s body.'”
“‘It just happened to come out from this place…'”
“I asked, ‘Was the cut-off part found?'”
“‘No,’ the forensic doctor said. ‘After all, this thing is of limited size and it’s easy to destroy.'”
“I carefully observed the body and indeed found no traces.”
“Did the deceased voluntarily take off all his clothes, voluntarily kneel and crawl, voluntarily open his mouth, voluntarily face the huge impact of the opposite force and voluntarily choose death?”
“I asked, ‘Can it be determined whether the thing was cut off first or the steel bar was stabbed first?'”
“‘Judging from the smoothness of the wound, it should be cut off first…'”
“‘But I can’t figure it out. How painful that must be. How could the murderer still kneel obediently?'”
“I said casually, ‘Then there must be something more terrifying than the pain of losing one’s genitals and death that forced him to forget the pain and face death.'”
“Captain Qin examined the body of the second deceased and sighed, ‘The source of the steel bar can’t be found. It’s really ridiculous. So, this is definitely not a spur-of-the-moment crime. It’s premeditated murder, and it’s a long-term planned murder. It took so long that we can’t find the source of the murder weapon.'”
“‘But why did the murderer kill them?'”
“‘Liu San and Yang Liang didn’t have much intersection.'”
“I added, ‘They didn’t have an intersection, but it doesn’t mean they had no relationship.'”
“‘They were both from New Village.'”
“Captain Qin sighed and said, ‘The case in New Village is not easy to investigate. The deceased were related to Uncle Rong. Where to start the investigation and how to investigate, I’m afraid we all need to listen to Uncle Rong’s opinions.'”
“Uncle Rong was frightened. There were obviously a lot more bodyguards in his mansion.”
“He was still in shock and not in good health.”
“The female relatives in his family said, ‘When Chen Liang died, he was already scared.'”
“‘He always thinks that he’s still the head of the big family in New Village. As long as it’s someone from New Village, he feels responsible to take care of them.'”
“‘Chen Liang was brought up by him. For him, that’s like his own flesh and blood. It would be okay if he didn’t show up. But now that he showed up, how could he not care?'”
“She said while wiping her tears, ‘The old man is so old. Who would have thought that he would still be so frightened. Liu San was close to him. If the murderer could kill Liu San, it would be easy for him to kill an old man like him.'”
“‘He’s worked hard for New Village all his life. Who would have thought that he would still have to worry so much at this age.'”
“New Village used to be an ordinary village, but because of Uncle Rong, it has now become an economically prosperous area. The former poor villagers are now all living a prosperous life.”
“We went inside to see Uncle Rong. Someone helped him sit up.”
“When he saw me, his eyes were full of fear. But seeing that Captain Qin and other colleagues were there, he didn’t say anything to me alone. He just talked about the situation on the day when Liu San was killed.”
“‘Liu San was an honest man and didn’t have any enemies.'”
“‘He didn’t have much intersection with Chen Liang either. You all know that Chen Liang disappeared for twenty years. If it hadn’t been for Ah Shen bringing him back…'”
“‘Hey, you must catch the murderer quickly.'”
“Captain Qin asked, ‘Do you have anyone you suspect?'”
“Uncle Rong thought for a while and shook his head. ‘No. But I think it should be the same person who killed Chen Liang.'”
“Captain Qin said, ‘That’s not necessarily the case.'”
“‘The modus operandi is indeed the same, but there are also differences. Criminals are unpredictable. Some people just like to imitate murderers.'”
“‘Then I…’ Uncle Rong’s eyes involuntarily looked at me.”
“I asked, ‘Uncle Rong, do you suspect me?'”
“‘It’s understandable that you suspect me of killing Chen Liang, but I have no enmity with Uncle Liu San.'”
“Before I could finish speaking, Captain Qin said, ‘The police have already excluded Yan Shen’s suspicion of committing the crime. He can’t resume his post now because he was punished for drawing his gun publicly last time.'”
“Only then did Uncle Rong feel relieved and said, ‘I didn’t mean to suspect Yan Shen. He’s also a child from our New Village. I’m just afraid that this child will go to .
“I’m just afraid that this child will go to extremes because of the past events.”
“‘The hatred from twenty years ago is important, but the new life after twenty years is even more important. If you don’t think for yourself, you should always think for your younger brothers and sisters.'”
“‘They’re different from you. Back then, they were still young and had few memories of their parents. Especially Yan Yan, she was just a one-month-old baby at that time.'”
“Hearing the name Yan Yan, I couldn’t help but feel a pang in my heart and quickly said, ‘Thank you, Uncle Rong, for your advice. Don’t worry, I won’t be poisoned by hatred, nor will I let my younger brothers and sisters be infected by hatred.'”
“When we left, Captain Qin said, ‘Uncle Rong has made great contributions to the development of New Village and even to the whole city. Presumably, no one would dare to lay a hand on him.'”
“He seemed to be talking to me, but actually, I thought he was talking to himself.”
“Assuming Liu San had no enemies, then the murderer’s motive for killing him was most likely aimed at Uncle Rong.”
“‘Yan Shen, twenty years ago, your parents…'”
“I had already told him everything that should be told.”
“He already knew everything he should know.”
“‘Is it possible that killing your parents wasn’t the real purpose?’ he guessed. ‘The real purpose was your family’s fields and homesteads?'”
“I thought for a moment and said, ‘I don’t know. I was only ten years old back then. What I saw might not be the truth. What I said wasn’t believed by others. When I reported the case, the police didn’t believe me, and it couldn’t be used as evidence in court either.'”
“Captain Qin wanted to say something else, but I interrupted him and said, ‘The only person who knew the truth was Chen Liang, but he’s dead now.'”
“He seemed to sense my sadness and wanted to say something to comfort me, but I didn’t give him such a chance. I said, ‘Back then, the village bought our family’s fields and homesteads at a price higher than the market price, and the demolition compensation wasn’t much higher either.'”
“I didn’t want him to continue thinking in that direction.”
“He asked, ‘Then there’s no breakthrough for this case at all.'”
“I said, ‘When I first started working, I often followed my master to learn how to investigate and solve cases. He told me that the most important thing for a police officer is patience. When a case has no progress at all, we must be patient and wait.'”
“‘Wait for insiders, wait for new clues, wait for evidence, and also wait for the murderer to commit another crime.'”
“Captain Qin smiled at me and said, ‘You became a police officer not just to find the murderer who killed your parents, right?'”
“Yes!”
“I had wanted to be a police officer since I was a child.”
“I thought that police officers had the ability to protect the people. And as the eldest brother in the family, from the moment my younger brothers and sisters were born, I had shouldered the responsibility of protecting them.”
“But what had I done?”
“One younger brother and one younger sister were missing. Whether they were dead or alive, I couldn’t find them back.”
“One younger brother was given away by me.”
“Only Yan Yan was the one I took care of and watched grow up.”
“But she had already grown up and was destined to leave me.”
“When I got home, a delicious smell of food came from the kitchen.”
“I knew that Yan Yan was back, but I didn’t want her to come back. She should be studying at school.”
“As soon as I entered the door, someone covered my eyes from behind. She asked coquettishly, ‘Guess who I am?'”
“Normally, if anyone dared to stand behind me like this, I would definitely give them a shoulder throw. But only she dared to do so.”
“‘Who else could it be?'”
“‘It’s so boring. You can always guess right.'”
“She let go of her hands and dragged me to the dining table. I asked, ‘Why did you skip class again?'”
“‘I didn’t skip class,’ she said seriously as she sat opposite me. ‘I asked the teacher for leave. I’m going to work in the procuratorate in the future. How could I mess around?'”
“She was studying Anatomy and wanted to come back after graduation and enter the procuratorate to work as a forensic doctor.”
“Before we started eating, the doorbell rang. She hurriedly went to open the door. It was Zhou An and Yan Jin.”
“As soon as they came, I probably understood why Yan Yan had come back.”
“Sure enough, at the dinner table, she took out a stack of materials and said to us, ‘This is the information we’ve collected.'”
“‘I think the steel bar murder can be traced back to the dock gangs decades ago.'”
“I randomly picked up a few cut-out old newspaper pages and looked at them, but didn’t see anything special.”
“Yan Yan explained, ‘The Shark Gang.'”
“‘They used iron hooks shaped like fishhooks to stab into people’s mouths. The hooks would directly damage human tissues inside the mouth. People would die, but not immediately. Before death, they would endure long-term pain and torture.'”
“‘It was a means used by the Shark Gang to punish traitors within the gang.'”
“‘They would voluntarily open their mouths because if they resisted, the position of the hooks might not be so precise and the pain would last longer.'”
“‘When the steel bar enters from the mouth and goes through the whole body, people will completely lose their ability to move. The victims can only kneel and crawl, unable to ask for help or escape. They can only wait quietly for death.'”
“Zhou An carefully read the materials and praised, ‘Little Sister Yan, you’re really amazing. We didn’t find these things.'”
“Yan Yan said proudly, ‘Of course. We who study Anatomy will encounter all kinds of strange corpses.'”
“I asked coldly, ‘Who asked you to get involved in these things?'”
“Zhou An subconsciously moved a little away from me, and Yan Jin also unconsciously looked away.”
“But Yan Yan wasn’t afraid of my authority at all. Instead, she said righteously, ‘Our parents are not only your parents, but also my biological parents. I can’t just watch our enemies go unpunished. I can’t watch you, Big Brother, being wrongly suspected. We must find out the murderer. Otherwise, even if you’re not sentenced, you’ll still live in the days of being suspected.'”
“Zhou An quickly said, ‘I believe you.'”
“I gave him a disdainful look, thinking of how he had handcuffed me without hesitation before.”
“Yan Jin said, ‘If we follow this line of thought, then it’s very likely that Chen Liang was killed by someone in the gang.'”
“We told Captain Qin our speculation about the gang, but he didn’t seem to believe it. He just said faintly, ‘I’ll hand over the relevant materials to the colleagues in charge of combating gangs.'”
“I asked suspiciously, ‘Aren’t we going to investigate?'”
“‘It’s already very difficult to deal with the affairs in New Village. If it involves gangs, do you think this case will still be ours to investigate?'”
“He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to solve the case anymore, and he seemed to have something else in mind.”
“I asked, ‘You still think that the probability of me being the murderer is relatively high, right?'”
“‘Only I have the ability to kill like this and handle it so seamlessly.'”
“Captain Qin said calmly, ‘Yan Shen, don’t be impatient. It was you who told me that when a case has no clues at all, what we should do is wait.'”
“‘When the police are not in a hurry, the criminals will be.'”
“‘We criminal police spend our whole lives studying three questions – who killed the person, how the person was killed, and why the person was killed.'”
“‘Now we only know how the person was killed. Obviously, in this case, killing is not the criminal’s purpose. As for what the purpose is, only he himself knows.'”
“I knew that he was implying something, and I was very angry inside. I tried my best to control myself and said, ‘Don’t worry. I will definitely catch the criminal. I’m not trying to prove my innocence. I’m telling you that I’m better at investigating cases than you are.'”
“Although I said some tough words, actually I wasn’t sure at all.”
“I just believed that killing Liu San was not the criminal’s purpose. Uncle Rong was the real target.”
“But it was too difficult to kill Uncle Rong.”
“Not to mention the bodyguard group around him, just the people in New Village would be willing to die for him.”
“Two days later, the murderer finally showed up.”
“His target was indeed Uncle Rong.”
“It was night, and the scene was very chaotic.”
“Besides Uncle Rong’s bodyguards, there were also me and Zhou An hiding in the dark, as well as the police officers led by Captain Qin.”
“But the murderer was very agile and wore black night clothes, and his face was completely covered. In the dark night, he was almost invisible.”
“Everyone’s vision was greatly restricted, but we were all professionally trained. As long as there was movement, we could track it.”
“We were all familiar with the nearby terrain, and he didn’t seem to be a stranger either. Soon, everyone entered the alleys in the residential area.”
“In order not to affect the civilians, we didn’t fire our guns, and the murderer was also in a hurry to escape and didn’t get entangled with us.”
“Zhou An said, ‘This guy is like a loach. He escapes so smoothly.'”
“I signaled him to turn into another alley. ‘Block him from both sides.'”
“So I separated from Zhou An.”
“Who knew that after Zhou An left, that person didn’t run away anymore. Coincidentally, there was a dead end in front of him, so he simply stopped. He raised his hands and said, ‘Don’t shoot.'”
“He said, ‘I’m Yan Xing.'”
“Yan Xing is the name of my second younger brother.”
“Shen Xing Jin Yan. Therefore, the names of our three brothers are Yan Shen, Yan Xing, and Yan Jin.”
“Therefore, our parents also hoped to have a fourth child. They hoped it would be a daughter, but they didn’t expect it to be a pair of twin daughters.”
“I was immediately stunned.”
“He said, ‘Big Brother, it was Uncle Rong who really killed our parents. Chen Liang was just his pawn.'”
“I pointed my gun at him. I couldn’t see his face clearly, but since he could tell the story of our family twenty years ago, I didn’t even doubt his identity too much. I was just too shocked.”
“I had never thought that Yan Xing was still alive.”
“Because we had never found the bodies of him and our younger sister, I firmly believed that they were still alive back then.”
“So, I sent Yan Jin away.”
“Because I couldn’t take care of two children at the same time.”
“Later, I took Yan Yan and left the orphanage. I searched along the downstream of the river for five whole years, just hoping to find a little bit of clues, hoping that someone could rescue the children who fell into the water at a certain opportunity, but found nothing.”
“Until Yan Yan grew up on my back, until she held onto the railing at the entrance of the kindergarten and looked at everything inside with envious eyes, I realized that we couldn’t go on like this anymore. Only then did I gradually accept that Yan Xing and our younger sister had died in that cold river.”
“Seeing that I still didn’t put down my gun, Yan Xing directly knelt down on both knees in front of me and said, ‘Those six people were all from the gang. They were desperadoes. Uncle Rong’s purpose was to kill our whole family. Father supported the reconstruction of New Village, but he opposed Uncle Rong’s dictatorship, so he wanted to kill our whole family.'”
“‘Uncle Rong just didn’t expect that you would directly ask him for help. Since then, he couldn’t harm you openly anymore.'”
“He cried bitterly and shouted at me, ‘Big Brother, I’ve always wanted to come back to you all these years, but I knew that I couldn’t come back. They didn’t kill me. They turned me into a criminal. I killed people. I did evil. I can’t come back anymore.'”
“‘I’m glad that you became a police officer, but I’m also afraid. I also hoped that you would use the right way to avenge our parents, but the fact proves that the law has no deterrent effect in front of the powerful. I could only use the underworld way to solve the problem.'”
“I didn’t say a word all the time, but I knew that what he said was true.”
“Back then, although I might not have been very sensible, I still had the ability to distinguish right from wrong.”
“If I hadn’t sold our family’s fields and homesteads to Uncle Rong, if I hadn’t taken my younger brothers and sisters to the orphanage, I didn’t know how long we could have survived. I didn’t know if we would suddenly die one day.”
“I tried my best to catch Chen Liang, just hoping that he could tell the truth of that year.”
“‘How can you prove that you’re Yan Xing?'”
“Finally, I opened my mouth, but I still held the gun tightly in my hand, and the muzzle was still pointed at him.”
“‘When I was a child, I was naughty and climbed a tree. I accidentally fell down. You saved me by using your own body as a cushion. Who knew that there was a sharp stone on the ground, which left a scar on your back. You were afraid that our parents would blame me, so you endured the pain and didn’t tell anyone. You said that protecting your younger brothers and sisters was what you should do.'”
“Only I and Yan Xing knew about this matter.”
“‘Mom fell into the water and died. What about our younger sister?'”
“Hearing this question, Yan Xing cried even more bitterly. ‘I’m useless. I was afraid of death. I begged them not to kill me, so they made me…'”
“He was sobbing so hard that he could hardly speak. ‘They said that as long as I killed someone, I would be like them and I would never expose them again.'”
“I had a bad feeling in my heart. Yan Xing cried sadly and said, ‘I threw our younger sister into the water in order to survive. I don’t deserve to be your younger brother. I don’t deserve to be the son of the Yan family. I’m too afraid of death.'”
“‘Big Brother, let me go. If I’m caught by the police, I’m doomed.'”
“‘Big Brother, if I had run after you like Yan Jin back then, I wouldn’t be like this now.'”
“‘Big Brother, for the sake of my avenging our parents, forgive me this time. I’ll hide abroad and never show up in front of you again.'”
“He said while kneeling and crawling towards me. I didn’t know what to do.”
“I hesitated.”
“I forgot that I was a police officer again.”
“I only remembered that I was the eldest brother. It was because I didn’t protect him well that he became like this.”
“The crime he committed indeed deserved death.”
“He knelt in front of me, grabbed my legs with both hands and cried bitterly. ‘Big Brother, I can be caught, but I don’t want you to catch me with your own hands. Why? I just wanted to avenge our parents. Why should I be sent to the trial stage by my own eldest brother?'”
“At that moment, I was shaken.”
“The hand holding the gun finally loosened. I thought about letting Zhou An or Captain Qin catch him.”
“I thought that I shouldn’t bear such a cruel thing either. After all, he had already avenged our parents. Why should I send him to the trial stage with my own hands?”
“But I didn’t even have the ability to avenge our parents myself.”
“However, just in that instant of slackening, Yan Xing immediately fought back against me.”
“I just felt a pain in my hand, and the gun was snatched away. Then he took the gun and smashed it hard at my temple.”
“I just felt dizzy and had no ability to fight back. I fell to the ground.”
“In a daze, I heard gunshots. Between the flashes of fire, I seemed to see his face clearly.”
“He smiled slyly at me and said, ‘With such a soft heart, how can you be a police officer? Go find a woman and have children.'”
“When I woke up again, I was in a hospital ward.”
“It was Zhou An who heard the gunshots and saved me. I felt very guilty.”
“Firstly, after all, the deceased died because of the hatred of my family.”
“Secondly, the police gun belonged to Zhou An.”
“He was worried about me, so he lent me his gun. But I let others snatch it away and even made them fire it.”
“Fortunately, Yan Xing didn’t want to hurt me. The bullet just hit my left shoulder and didn’t even hurt the bone.”
“The doctor said that after stitching it up, I could live a normal life in a few days.”
“Captain Qin didn’t quite believe my words. He asked, ‘How old should your second younger brother be this year?'”
“‘Twenty-seven years old. He was seven years old when he disappeared.'”
“‘Back then, six adult men chased after your mother who was holding the baby girl. Your mother fell into the water. How did he survive?'”
“I told Captain Qin what Yan Xing had told me. I was in great pain, and Captain Qin also felt very sorry. ‘Then what’s his identity now?'”
“I shook my head and said, ‘I don’t know. He didn’t say.'”
“‘How can you be sure that he’s your second younger brother?'”
“I said, ‘The thing that I got a scar on my back to save him, no one else knows except him.'”
“Before I could say anything more crucial, the news that Uncle Rong embezzled the public funds of New Village directly became a hot search.”
“The clan concept in New Village was still very strong. The villagers had always respected Uncle Rong and listened to him. But in the face of interests, everyone was self-centered.”
“Uncle Rong had indeed brought them a good life. But if Uncle Rong hadn’t embezzled, their lives would have been even better.”
“Therefore, from the initial obedience, to the silence when the incident happened, and then to the counterattack when the situation developed, all these didn’t need anyone to deliberately guide them.”
“After all, the evidence exposed on the Internet left Uncle Rong with no chance to refute at all.”
“Uncle Rong naturally had to try his best to protect himself. And the means he used were nothing more than luring and threatening. Those who were lured might still be able to calm down, but those who were threatened were like springs that had been stepped on. They would rebound to the extreme.”
“Chen Liang’s family jumped out and said, ‘Back then, Uncle Xingguo didn’t agree with Uncle Rong’s dictatorship, so he was killed. Our man was just an executioner. We thought that hiding outside would be okay. But for so many years, the children of the Yan family have never given up looking for him.'”
“‘Now that he’s dead, Uncle Rong doesn’t even want to care about us anymore?'”
“‘How can there be such a cheap thing? Everything Uncle Rong has today should have a share of our man.'”
“Liu San’s family also cried and said, ‘Our old Liu had always done things according to Uncle Rong’s orders. He also died for Uncle Rong. But Uncle Rong could still be so heartless as to embezzle our money. That’s our hard-earned money.'”
“Since things had come to this point, it was impossible for Uncle Rong not to accept the investigation.”
“But this was just the beginning, not the end.”
“Uncle Rong firmly refused to admit his guilt and said, ‘It’s slander. It’s all slander.'”
“‘I’m just used to being the head of the family. This large sum of money was prepared by me to build hospitals, schools and nursing homes for the village and to bring benefits to the villagers. I just hadn’t had time to inform everyone. It’s all a misunderstanding.'”
“Regarding the tragic incident of our family twenty years ago, he pushed it away completely and said, ‘It’s nonsense. It’s completely nonsense.'”
“‘Where’s the evidence?'”
“‘If I wanted to harm Yan Xingguo, how could I have taken care of his children for so many years?'”
“‘Yan Shen took his sister and ran away from the orphanage. I sent people to look for them for five whole years before finding them back…'”
“I definitely couldn’t listen to these words in person. However, it wasn’t difficult for me to hear these news.”
“Uncle Rong looked calm and composed on the whole because in his view, this matter wouldn’t cause much trouble.”
“As long as the villagers recognized his statement and believed that he didn’t embezzle, everyone would still stand behind him.”
“As long as he gave enough money, whether it was Chen Liang’s family or Liu San’s family, whether it was luring or threatening, they could always change their testimonies.”
“But he didn’t expect that there were also others in the village who wanted to be the dictator of New Village like him.”
“After all, times had changed. Uncle Rong was old and his way of doing things was too old-fashioned. The young people had their own ideas.”
“They didn’t want to always live under the protection of the clan. They longed to become eagles and fly freely, enjoying the vastness and height of the blue sky.”
“Therefore, during the police investigation, it was surprisingly easy. Almost whatever evidence they wanted to find, they could find.”
“Even later, Uncle Rong’s family members began to turn against him.”
“Uncle Rong became an outcast.”
“At first, he was still struggling, but when he went to court and even his family members could stand on the witness stand and testify how he had bribed Chen Liang to persecute our parents back then, he completely broke down.”
“He finally admitted it and said, ‘Yes, it was me.'”
“‘Your father was out of his mind.'”
“‘Everyone could listen to me. Why couldn’t he? Just because of his nonsense, the reconstruction plan of New Village was delayed again and again. He blocked the villagers’ way to get rich. He deserved to die.'”
“He also said, ‘I really don’t understand. The Yan family had so much land and could get a lot of money. Why wasn’t he satisfied?'”
“I was relatively calm in the spectator seats, but Yan Jin couldn’t hold back. He directly stood up and shouted loudly, ‘Because your wealth is built on the blood of countless people. Now the villagers have become rich following your reconstruction plan. What about those villagers who didn’t get rich? They didn’t even have the chance to live until now. They didn’t have the chance to stand here and listen to your nonsense.'”
“‘They left, got sick, died, and had no descendants. They became one tomb after another, carrying your dirty secrets and leaving forever.'”
“Uncle Rong regretted it deeply and said, ‘I should have been ruthless at that time. I should have wiped out the roots.'”
“‘That’s not being ruthless. You just couldn’t do it.'”
“‘You couldn’t openly not save people. You couldn’t righteously take our lives away.'”
“Yan Jin’s words were too intense and disrupted the court. Later, he was dragged away by the bailiffs.”
“I and Yan Yan didn’t say anything. Uncle Rong’s eyes fell on me. For a moment, he seemed to realize something.”
“At first, he glared angrily. Then his brows furrowed. Then he covered his chest with one hand. Then he fell painfully onto the trial bench.”
“However, he couldn’t escape the trial by dying.”
“At the most critical moment, with multiple crimes combined, the judge pronounced the sentence and sentenced him to death.”
“With that final judgment, he couldn’t bear it anymore. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got. The angrier he got, the more he thought about it. He was very unconvinced and didn’t believe that he would be defeated by the young man in his eyes.”
“Finally, he was sent to the hospital by ambulance and was rescued. But it was said that he had a stroke and his whole body was numb. He lay on the hospital bed with a crooked mouth and a slanted tongue and couldn’t do anything.”
“Later, if his family members were willing to help him apply for medical parole, perhaps the last period of his life would be a little easier. But unfortunately, there was no one.”
“His children and grandchildren only wished not to be implicated by him.”
“They wholeheartedly packed up their property and left New Village to start a new life.”
“This was his retribution. A cold-blooded and cruel person couldn’t teach his descendants to be kind and filial.”
“When the case was closed, Captain Qin said somewhat incredulously, ‘How did the case suddenly become so smooth?'”
“I didn’t answer his question. Instead, I asked, ‘What measures will the police take against Yan Xing? I…'”
“I said with difficulty, ‘After all, he’s my younger brother.'”
“‘Since it involves gangs, it’s naturally the responsibility of the anti-gang group,’ Captain Qin replied faintly. Then he said, ‘You were swayed by personal emotions, drew your gun publicly, and violated professional ethics and let the criminal go. You probably can’t be a police officer anymore. Zhou An will also ruin his future because he lent you his gun and caused serious consequences.'”
“He asked me, ‘Do you regret it?'”
“To be honest, I really regretted it.”
“If I had known this would happen, I should have shot Chen Liang dead directly. Then things wouldn’t have become so complicated.”
“That day, I did want to find Chen Liang, but I really didn’t plan to kill him.”
“I just wanted to tie him up. Whether it was to torture him to force a confession or to vent my anger, what I wanted was never his life. I wanted him to tell me the whereabouts of the six villains and to testify against the mastermind behind the scenes.”
“Unfortunately, when I found him, he had already become a skinned dog.”
“Under the moonlight, I saw Yan Jin’s face clearly.”
“I had no choice.”
“I couldn’t arrest him and bring him to justice as a police officer. I could only stand with him as an elder brother and use my professional knowledge to help him clean up the traces.”
“After that, we smoked cigarettes on that vacant land. He said, ‘Even if I didn’t kill him, Uncle Rong wouldn’t let him go. Since he was doomed to die, he must die in a valuable way.'”
“‘We must make this case so big that the powerful can’t cover it up. We must make everyone start talking about this matter so that our parents won’t have died in vain.'”
“I was suspected, which was expected. The presumption of innocence. As long as I held my ground, I would be able to walk out of the interrogation room with my head held high sooner or later.”
“However, Yan Yan killed Liu San in order to clear my suspicion.”
“So, she couldn’t cut off Liu San’s lower body, nor could she stab the steel bar through his body.”
“To mislead the police, I had to use Zhou An.”
“The person who snatched the police gun and injured me that night wasn’t Yan Xing, but Yan Jin.”
“Yan Xing was just a smoke bomb that we came up with after discussing.”
“We didn’t believe that the gangsters would let him go.”
“We also couldn’t imagine what means he had to escape from the devil’s clutches.”
“We let the dead bear all our sins because our lives still needed to move forward.”
“We also needed to tell our parents when we commemorated them that we were living well.”
“All the evildoers had been punished. They could rest in peace knowing this in the underworld.”
“Yan Jin also gave up being a lawyer because his adoptive parents hoped that he could inherit their family business.”
“They also hoped that he could marry the daughter of an old friend’s family.”
“He had been resisting before, but after taking revenge, he thought that it was time to repay their kindness. So no matter what requests his adoptive parents made, he agreed.”
“From now on, he was no longer Yan Jin, but the real Fu Xinsheng.”
“Fortunately, his adoptive parents were very reasonable. They didn’t stop Yan Jin from continuing to associate with us. On their wedding day, they even specially invited me and Yan Yan to attend.”
“Yan Yan wanted to marry Zhou An. She felt guilty inside. She had deceived Zhou An’s feelings, used him, and ruined his career and beliefs.”
“But Zhou An refused. He said, ‘It’s too dangerous for a girl to marry a police officer. Your life in the past twenty years has been hard enough. I don’t want you to live in fear and worry every day for the rest of your life because you married a police officer.'”
“So, she decided to go abroad for further studies after graduation. They all asked me about my plans.”
“I didn’t know.”
“But I should stay farther away from them. In case something happened in the future, I hoped that I could bear all the responsibilities by myself.”
“Although we didn’t say anything, we all knew clearly in our hearts that after the great joy of the wedding, there would be the great sadness of our siblings being separated from each other.”
“So, we drank a few more glasses at the wedding.”
“However, at this wedding, an unexpected guest came.”
“Someone shouted, ‘Miss Yan, your elder brother is over there.'”
“I turned around following the voice. I saw a girl who looked pure and innocent, like a confused little deer that had strayed into a thick forest.”
“She was a little flustered, but also seemed to be looking forward to seeing the person she wanted to find.”
“Yan Yan stood up in surprise because that girl looked exactly the same as her.”
“I and Yan Jin were also shocked. She was our younger sister. She didn’t die. She had survived that year.”
“She said a little shyly to us, ‘I saw the report on TV. My adoptive parents encouraged me to come to find you.'”
“In an instant, I didn’t feel the joy of reunion with my relatives after a long separation. I only felt endless regret and self-blame.”
“Why didn’t I keep looking for her back then? As long as I didn’t find the body and confirm the death, I shouldn’t have stopped looking.”
“She survived. Was Yan Xing also alive?”
“But what had we done?”
“We had pushed all the sins onto him.”
“Soon, we got the news that Yan Xing had killed Chen Liang’s whole family and then committed suicide in front of our parents’ graves.”
“Zhou An said, ‘Do you know why you could clear your suspicion so quickly? It wasn’t because of Liu San’s death, but because Captain Qin found some traces that hadn’t been cleaned up at the scene.'”
“‘The DNA test didn’t match any of us, but there was a kinship.'”
“No one knew what he had gone through all these years. But according to the information obtained by the anti-gang group, Yan Xing should have got the help of the gang back then and killed the six villains.”
“So, no matter how hard I had looked for them all these years, I couldn’t find any trace of them.”
“Therefore, he had been struggling in the dark until the end of his life.”
“Each of us could continue to move forward, but he was forever trapped in the disaster twenty years ago.”
“Twenty years ago, he chose the wrong path.”
“But twenty years later, we joined hands and killed him.”
“Fortunately, he finally returned to our parents’ side.”
