Translator: AlfredoPoutineSoup Editor: DesTheSloth
While sitting on a bench in Riverside Park, Shen Meihuan was speaking of the past to her son.
Long ago, she always took her boy here for a stroll as well as to enjoy the night scene of this city after supper. Of course, Gu Feng accompanied her during those times.
Ironically, those days were the happiest moments of this step-family. Although she was unwilling to remember anything about Gu Feng anymore.
Shen Meihuan wore a sunbonnet in order to hide her appearance. However, the wind today was exceptionally strong so her hat was blown away.
“Wait for me”. She stood up and said.
Her son, who was sitting straight on the bench, nodded. He still didn’t say anything, but at least he had a reaction. It was a good sign that he could understand what she meant, wasn’t it?
Not long after Shen Meihuan left, a man— the club boss sat on the bench. It seemed that no one noticed him.
“What are you thinking now?” He spoke, as if to himself, while looking at the river in front.
Of course, the boy sitting here wouldn’t reply to him, and the club boss didn’t ask anymore.
Luo Qiu tried to feel the boy’s thoughts through what he was looking at. Even if he knew better than anyone else that this boy was far from a real person.
It had been a long time since the boy had fallen down from a tall building and sent to the morgue.
He was saved as per Shen Meihuan’s expectations. However, what she could afford was at most allowing him to regain his physical functions, and perhaps a faint sense of consciousness.
“Any obsessiveness? Will you hate your mother?”
Luo Qiu stopped observing and looked at the boy. He saw boy’s eyelids flickering slightly and wondered if this was an answer to his question.
Luo Qiu nodded, and stood up. It was time to leave.
Shen Meihuan was coming back with her hat. And Luo Qiu, was merely here to see the boy who should have been dead.
Shen Meihuan didn’t see or realized that anyone had been here with her son. She scurried over and tugged at the boy’s hand to leave after looking at the sky.
Luo Qiu gazed silently at the receding figures of the mother and child. With hands behind his back, He suddenly looked into the other corner, where there was also a set of eyes, silently watching them.
With a mask and hat, and a pair of sunglasses, it was hard to see his appearance clearly. But for sure, he had started to take action and followed Shen Meihuan.
HIs head was low, looking very suspicious. What was he thinking about?
Knowing that the suspicious-looking man had left, the club’s boss turned back and disappeared into the crowd… Did anyone know he had been here?
The answer was, NO.
…
…
Lizi put a pencil between her nose and upper lip, balancing well and keeping it from falling down. This was the only thing she could do in this boring class.
Otherwise, she thought she would fall asleep at her desk. After all, staying here couldn’t be more attractive than eating a fantastic meal.
Actually, if it hadn’t been for the mission assigned by Sister Ren, Lizi had never imagined that she would attend a class one day— the last time she had a class was the 31st year of Showa.
“Sixty years passed?”
Lizi sighed. Time sure flew.
Listening to the lectures in class was really tedious for her, but she was more interested in the root cause behind this mission.
Sister Ren’s plan, negotiated by Ma Houde and herself, was simple.
Though they narrowed the range of the “mysterious teacher”, it would be an awkward situation if the teacher took no further actions. Of course, Ma Houde didn’t intend to give up the investigation among the targeted suspects; on the contrary, he planned to draw a snake out of its hole.
Because the five deceased were all high school students, the “teacher” would not be interested in the adult tutorial class, which Madam Ren and he attended.
So they needed someone who could pretend to be a student.
Sister Ren thought Lizi was the most suitable person as she had a baby face. And she looked so young that people wouldn’t believe she was 23 years old as her ID card indicated.
And if she would be in a danger?
After thinking it over and combing over the info discovered by Ma Houde, Sister Ren speculated that this mysterious killer kept in touch with students via cell phones rather than face to face communication. So it can be explained why nobody knew what the mysterious teacher looked like.
Then if anyone sent strange text messages to Lizi, she would inform the police at first instance. What would happen next was the interaction between the police and “mysterious teacher”.
Of course, Ren also ordered two plainclothes policemen to protect Lizi as much as possible.
“It’s alright if there is no protection.”
Lizi thought in mind. She didn’t think that ordinary people could hurt her. Of course, she was not going to reject any protection by the police.
“As expected, working with Sister Ren is really fun.”
Lizi was beginning to be curious about this “mysterious teacher”. ‘Who was he and was he delicious?’
Lizi had forged her personal information after combing through the dead’s background and profiles. However, nothing happened until the end of the third day.
“It’s so boring…” Lizi held her cheek and yawned. Later, she secretly nibbled on a snack in the toilet with the doors closed.
Two other girls had also entered the toilet. She just listened to their topics without much attention, like clothes, handbags and so on.
She found that the students in this school seemed to have a lot of pocket money from the girls’ conversation. Girls here used designer bags, wore nice jewelry. And boys here often discussed some expensive products during the break.
“$4500! It’s a little bit expensive. I can’t afford it. I am going to be penniless!”
“Well, how about looking help from Teacher Xu?”
The topic went in a strange direction. Lizi felt subtly that something was wrong in their conversation. Mr. Xu was the manager of this tutorial school, rumored to have messy relationships with girls, who was named Xu Zhao.
And he was the only one whose surname was Xu in this cram school.
But why would the girls seek help from Xu Zhao when they didn’t have enough money?
Some inappropriate transactions occurs in Lizi’s mind.
“Was it possible that he developed relationships with even students?”
Thinking of this, Lizi was disgusted and looked back on the days when the man passed by the hall in his suit and tie. How beastly.
Maybe this is not the first time for the girls to contact that bad guy as they had said to borrow money again.
Perverse people.
Lizi shook her head and lost the interest to their conversation. At the moment, the girl who was going to be penniless said, “Eh… Aren’t you afraid?”
“You mean… about the people who jumped from buildings and died? The other girl’s voice dropped a little.
“Yeah… didn’t they also participated?”
“Probably not…”
“I don’t want to do it anyway. The more I think about it, the deeper I regret…”
They wanted to talk more, but stopped talking when someone came in the toilet. Lizi heard the footsteps and the door closed. Nevertheless, she couldn’t hear the voices of girls anymore.
Lizi scowled, putting the snack into the mouth quickly, and then dialed, “Hello, Sister Ren, there is some progress here. It’s about…”
…
Black Water came back to the hotel with a large bag of snacks. This was not the first time the hotel owner had seen the thin woman with heavy bags.
And she had no trouble in carrying them.
Usually, Black Water would not stay at the reception. But today she walked straight to the front desk in the hotel. The uncle felt overwhelmed.
She asked,” Have the mother and son on the third floor checking out?”
“Oh, yes, the room was just returned today… Miss Black Water, do you want to contact that lady?” The uncle tried to strike up a conversation as much as he can.
Black Water just nodded and then went upstairs… No wonder she felt the smell of the dead became much lighter here.
It seemed that Shen Meihuan was not going to talk to her.
Black Water opened the door, and the piglet, which was the greediest one among the little monsters, rushed to her bags… Black Water smiled and began giving out food to the monsters.
Looking at the innocent looks of these little monsters, Black Water wondered if one day, would any one of the little kids leave her. Would she also do what Shen Meihuan has done?
Black Water suddenly roused herself…She had followed Shen Meihuan for short period to make sure that the woman was just an ordinary person.
Ordinary people couldn’t have the ability to make the dead look like a real human… People living in the Western area of the Hunan Province were good at refining corpses. However, with their limited abilities, it was impossible for them to make Shen Meihuan’s boy alive again.
“Was it…”
She subconsciously thought of the mysterious shop and the boss she met only once.
The mysterious shop could provide everything you want. If Shen Meihuan bought something to save her son, then it was reasonable that her son could be resurrected.
“Sister Black Water, won’t you eat anything?” said Lingling.
The little rabbit with round and red eyes walked to Black Water, and asked, “What are you thinking about, Sister Black Water?”
Black Water looked down, stroking Lingling’s head, and whispered, “I’m thinking, no matter what happened, I won’t let any of you get hurt. I will never let you go.”
‘And never go to that mysterious shop.’
