Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“At first, I was really caught by surprise!” Li Fei said quickly. “I don’t know how Tao Xiang suddenly woke up, nor do I understand why he attacked me! That heavy strike knocked me on the ground!”
“Then, Tao Xiang really started acting crazy!He slammed the shovel on my head and my body over and over again, while I rolled around in pain. I really thought that he was going to kill me!” Li Fei admitted.
“I was cornered, so I kicked him! He fell down, then we started hitting each other. Although Tao Xiang had been in a coma for a few days, he was still very strong. I couldn’t win against him, and in the end, I think I might have grabbed a vase and hit him on the head with it and knocked him out!” Li Fei recalled.
“After he fell on the ground, I suddenly realized that Tao Xiang had run over from the the North end of the house. I ran over and saw that he had opened the entrance to the storage pit. That explained why he had wanted to kill me! He must have seen those things that I left there in the past! Then, when he saw me coming back with his treasure, he thought the worst!” Li Fei rubbed his hands together anxiously and continued his story.
“Actually, to be honest, I don’t blame Tao Xiang, even though he treated me like that. Tao Xiang was my one and only relative after all! Besised, he wasn’t mentally prepared for everything, as it all happened so suddenly. So, it was totally understandable that he couldn’t accept it.” Li Fei truly didn’t seem angry about this.
Then, Li Fei switched the topic. “As I went back to explain to explain to Tao Xiang about what had happened, I never expected that he, who had just been lying on the ground a moment earlier, would be nowhere to be seen! He had just vanished into thin air!”
Li Fei’s eyes grew wide as he recalled that moment. “I was frightened to death! I quickly looked for him. At first, I thought Tao Xiang would take my car and flee, but my car was still parked right there! Then, I searched around the house, but couldn’t find him anywhere! Then, as it was already dark, I finally realized that I wouldn’t be able to find him!”
He shook his head. “So, I had to flee from there as well! Hence, I quickly headed back to the house and repacked the treasure.The first thing that I thought of was to run away with the treasure! But, I thought about it again and assumed that Tao Xiang must have reported all of this to the police. Once the police arrived and saw the heads and other things, I wouldn’t be able to escape!”
He exhaled slowly, then continued, “So, as I wanted to take care of those things, I decided to burn down the house!”
Li Fei was absorbed in his own memory at this point. “I always keep a container of emergency petrol in my car because I used to wander around and was afraid that I would run out in the middle of nowhere. So, I quickly brought out the petrol and carried it to the storage pit. I wanted to burn everything down!”
His eyes gleamed as he retold the events of that day. “When I entered the storage pit, the very first thing that I saw were the scattered cash notes on the ground! They had fallen out of a black plastic bag! Then, I saw that one of the urns where I had kept the heads had been opened!”
He took a deep breath, then added, “It was then that I understood that Tao Xiang had hid money in the storage pit as an emergency fund. When he suddenly woke up, he had wanted to take out his money. But, when he took out his money, he realized that there were many other things in the storage pit! Then, when he saw the heads, he was frightened.”
He shook his head. “He must have been so shocked that he threw away his money! Then, he definitely realized that I was the one who left the things there, and that I was the serial killer of the Headless Female Corpses Case! So, he left the money and ran away! Coincidentally, I returned home at that same moment, so he picked up the metal shovel and wanted to kill me! It was a misunderstanding… A cruel twist of fate…”
Listening to Li Fei trying to reason with himself, people who were listening couldn’t agree. After all, what’s to be misunderstood, as isn’t a murder just a murder? No matter who it was, they would have surely had the same reaction as Tao Xiang.
Li Fei jumped right back into his story. “At first, I poured out quite a bit of the petrol!, but I suddenly realized that, even if I set the all of the things on fire, the heads would remain! Plus, if I were to set the house on fire, I would attract attention. So,I realized that I couldn’t set the house on fire and would have to think of other methods.”
Li Fei smiled bitterly. “Suddenly, I thought of an idea! I started packing my things, including the heads, my equipment, and the cash notes. I then put them all in my car. Of course, I packed Tao Xiang’s treasure, as well as the Indian gemstone.”
He cocked his head to the side, then closed his eyes for a moment. “Then, I evaluated my life. I realized that I might be living an entirely different life from that moment onwards. Then, as I longed for a beautiful future, I drove back to Du Manting’s grave. This was because I had yet to bury the pit after I dug out Tao Xiang’s treasure, so the treasure box was still in the soil!”
He took a breath, then added, “Then, I opened the container and put all six heads in the box! Then, I locked the box and buried it in its original place. I did it very carefully, and I even found some dry soil to sprinkle above the ground so that no traces would be left behind. Then, I threw all of the containers away!”
Li Fei had a smug look of success on his face. “After I did that, I felt much better! I felt that, if Tao Xiang were to report to the police about me, I would just secretly report about the things that were now at the cemetery. If the police were to unearth those things, Tao Xiang would become the suspect instead of me!”
Then, Li Fei paused again. As Wu Xiumin understood criminal psychology, she immediately told Ran Tao to increase the temperature in the room secretly. She then told Cui Lizhu to pass him a warm glass of orange juice.
Li Fei took a few sips and steadied his excited emotions. He then continued, “Then, I had Tao Xiang’s treasure and the Indian gemstone. I thought that I had everything and could live a good life from then on! Unfortunately, that was not the reality of the situation.”
He shook his head. “I realized that, although Tao Xiang’s treasure was very valuable, the items within it were very difficult to sell, as they were all stolen goods. If I wanted to sell them, I had to go through the right channels.”
He sighed. “But, most of the people who were underground merchants would only deal with familiar customers! As I was a stranger, if I was to suddenly look for them to sell them a stolen item, they’d either suspect me as a police spy or steal all of my loot!”
He was clearly still a bit frustrated as he recalled the situation. “In order to change all of the items into cash quickly, I could only take the risk and visit Sixth Bro! His surname is Gao, but I had forgotten his name long ago. I heard from Tao Xiang when we were on the way to the capital to steal the gemstone that Sixth Bro was running an antique business in Bai Ling somewhere. He also said that he had many connections.”
Li Fei continued. “So, I thought that maybe Sixth Bro could help me. I found him according to the address that Tao Xiang had given me before. When I found him, he was walking on crutches and looked quite pathetic! Although he said that he had fallen down, I think he was really beaten up!”
Then, Li Fei sighed, “Although we were disciples of the same master, I had no choice but to sell the things that were worth a dozen million to him at a price of only one million! Because this was so, I didn’t sell him all of Tao Xiang’s things, but merely half of them!”
Li Fei recalled, “Still, one million was no little amount to me then! In fact, that was an amount that I’d never dreamed of! So, I took the money and left Bai Ling.”
He shook his head again and admitted, “I really thought that it would change my life! I figured that I wouldn’t have to live a tough life like before!”
Li Fei said bitterly, “But, reality gave me a tight slap across the face. A few years later, I was shocked that my life was still a mess, regardless of any amount of money that I had. Everything was just like before…”
