sjar Chapter 382 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (93)
Chapter 382 Obedient and Clingy Younger Brother (93)
Even though Jin Shuhe had repeatedly imagined how the murderer would follow the footprints to find his own trail after seeing the picture of those footprints, he still couldn't understand why the murderer was still alive.
But instead of pulling himself out, he looked at himself with those viscous, evil eyes that seemed to be from an unfathomable abyss.
Jin Shuhe thought about it during the day and dreamed about it at night.
But no matter how he imagined it, it could never compare to the cruelty and horror of reality...
When Zhao Lizhu spoke those words again, a chilling aura, carrying with it a wicked thought as filthy as mud, traveled down his spine and entangled his nerves and thoughts.
Jin Shuhe bit down hard on the flesh inside her mouth to keep herself calm on the surface.
He wanted to intimidate and provoke himself.
For someone like him, a purely psychologically twisted person, the fear, pain, struggle, and pleas for mercy of others are his best nourishment.
Aunt Chen is the best example. She has been tormented to the point that she becomes hysterical at the slightest disturbance, living in constant fear.
Zhao Lizhu deliberately turned her into this...
He now wanted to control himself in the same way; Jin Shuhe couldn't fall into his trap.
Although he was uneducated and lived at the very bottom of society, he seemed to have a natural talent for tormenting people, and he was a stubborn believer who was always right and even the victim, despite committing numerous evils.
Just seeing this kind of person makes one physically uncomfortable; he is evil in himself.
"Uncle Zhao, are you starting to regret not killing me along with you back then?" Jin Shuhe interrupted him.
He may not even know what histrionic personality is, but he certainly is. He gets very excited when there is an audience, and he gradually shows anger when he is interrupted.
This wasn't the kind of performance he'd given to Jin Shuhe; it was genuine anger rising from his heart.
His lips gradually flattened, his aged face expressionless, his eyes embedded in his drooping, wrinkled eyelids, like two empty holes in the dim environment.
"I didn't mean to kill you."
"You were too arrogant back then, thinking it didn't matter if you left me, a child who didn't see anything, as a result. You just wanted me to remember this scene, didn't you?"
"You want someone to be with you, to remember what you did. You've been watching me all these years, and you must feel a great sense of accomplishment every time you see me. When you see me, you remember what you did that day, and you even relive the pleasure of killing someone by caring about me, right?" Jin Shuhe interlaced his fingers and placed them on the table.
This is a psychological posture that appears relaxed, yet conveys a sense of confrontation and defensiveness.
"But you didn't know at the time that even if I didn't see you, I would eventually find out that it was you who did it."
“Xiao He, I have no regrets. Over the years, every time I see you, I think of your mother and our childhood. Seeing you makes me very happy.” Zhao Lizhu smiled again.
But when he smiled, his dark, old face, covered with wrinkles, looked like a cheap, rough mask stuck to his face.
"Do you know how you were exposed? Because of your self-righteous actions back then, and your supposedly flawless confession."
“Your statement is almost identical to that from ten years ago.”
Jin Shuhe shook his head: "But I remember I didn't go back into the crime scene back then. How can you say you went in and carried me out after I ran in?"
Are you worried about leaving your footprints in there? Or are you worried about bloodstains on your shoes and trousers?
"So you deliberately went back in, trying to confuse the situation at the crime scene, and also told that lie to explain why your footprints appeared at the crime scene," Jin Shuhe said calmly and in a deep voice.
"That's unnecessary and you're being too clever for your own good. The crime scene had already been trampled and covered by many people, so you didn't need to do it again out of suspicion."
Zhao Lizhu is a person with a deep-rooted inferiority complex, yet he is extremely arrogant. When someone points out his mistakes or denies his self-perceived intelligence, he becomes extremely angry!
"You're wrong." He grinned, hastily denying Jin Shuhe's accusation: "What did you think I was going to do?"
"You've completely misunderstood! I wanted to see Miao'er one last time! Otherwise, I'll never see her again! Do you know how painful it was for me to feel that I would never see her again..."
"I won't kill you because you are Miao'er's child, and you should also be my child. Of course I won't kill you..."
He poured himself another glass of wine: "Xiao He, why don't you believe me? I really want to be good to you..."
"I've heard people say that parents worry about their children's future... I can't even come up with those fancy words, but I went to find Xiao Lu for you!"
The way he curled the corners of his mouth made Jin Shuhe's anger surge wildly. When he mentioned Sister Li Ruan, Jin Shuhe shouted wildly, trying to wipe that hypocritical and vicious smile off his face.
Smash his nose, rip open his mouth, so he can never say a word about his mother and Sister Li Ruan again!
Jin Shuhe had never been so angry and manic before!
When faced with evil, extreme madness and violence, the person facing it will inevitably be tainted by that aura.
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also beckons, devouring you.
Zhao Lizhu's smile remained unchanged: "I want to talk to Xiao Lu. Since you two are going to be together, I'll teach her how to take care of you and how to make you feel more at ease working outside."
"It's a pity she's not home these days." Zhao Lizhu didn't know whether he truly believed her or not.
But that doesn't matter anymore.
"You will never see her again," Jin Shuhe said calmly.
Zhao Lizhu did not answer.
"All you're saying is to cover up the fact that you're a deranged and insane murderer." Jin Shuhe suddenly relaxed and leaned back.
"Some people from your hometown still remember you. They all say that you used to be an unpopular cripple, Uncle Zhao."
Jin Shuhe mimicked him, a smirk playing on her lips: "I even asked them, 'You look perfectly fine, how come you're a cripple?'"
"Uncle Zhao... what do they mean?"
"Clang-"
The smile that had been on Zhao Lizhu's face disappeared. He was expressionless, as if he had finally torn off his disguise and revealed his true self beneath the performance.
"Why did you say you wanted me to be your son? Uncle Zhao, why don't you have your own son? You make it sound so nice—marriage, children, carrying on the family line—but how come you don't even have your own child?"
The most steadfast principle in Zhao Lizhu's heart lies here: he seems to possess an absurd, completely unrealistic, arrogant male chauvinism, believing in male superiority over females.
The idea that women should be virtuous, kind, and bear children, remain chaste and faithful to their husbands, and be used and driven by him like animals is the strangest thing about him.
Even before Zhang Jianhe's case was over, Jin Shuhe had already started investigating Zhao Lizhu with Qin Wen.
He did go back to his hometown, but not in the years he claimed, but a few days ago.
The unit's funding was approved very quickly; I flew there and back.
As the plane took off, Qin Wen exclaimed, "Wow! You get what you pay for. Trains don't give you this kind of push-back feeling!"
No one in his hometown recognizes Jin Shuhe anymore.
Very few people truly understand Zhao Lizhu. When an elderly villager heard Zhao Lizhu's name, he gave a strange look, as if he had something to hide.
"What's up with him?"
"We cannot disclose specific information at this time."
The old lady waved her hand: "He's a bad person, and a cripple! Years ago, nobody paid any attention to him, so he left. Who knew that last year... he came back and married a divorced woman in a big way. We even advised him that even if he was divorced, he wouldn't have a good life with such a scoundrel!"
"Those parents are despicable, they're scoundrels. They took the money and married off their daughter... saying she was going to a big city to enjoy a better life. Bah! What a load of rubbish! Did something happen to that girl?" The old lady shook her head.
"Before they left, the two families who had advised the parents had both had their houses and haystacks on fire. In this freezing weather, what else could it be but a fire started by someone?"
"But there's nothing we can do. Nobody saw when he did it. I remember many years ago, a group of kids went out to play, saying they were going to fish in the river, but one of them didn't come back. By the time it got dark and his family went to look for him, he had already drowned in the ditch... That ditch was only thigh-deep, how could anyone drown there? Some kids said he had a fight with that bastard from the Zhao family a few days ago, but nobody knows if he was the one who did it..."
As the old woman was speaking, two other old women passing by, one of whom nervously patted her and said, "Oh dear! Aren't you afraid that wicked son will come back next time and set your house on fire, or burn you to death!"
However, Jin Shuhe and Qin Wen were both quite authoritative figures, and Jin Shuhe even revealed his identity.
The old men's gazes softened considerably as they looked at Jin Shuhe: "Is he really Xiao Miao's child?"
"Ah."
"Sigh... No one has mentioned it for so many years. There aren't many people here who even know about Xiao Miao'er anymore. That's what they call karma. Have you ever met Xiao Miao'er's parents, your maternal grandparents, and your uncle?"
Jin Shuhe shook his head. In his memory, he had only ever met his grandparents.
"Nobody mentions it, nobody wants to bring it up. Oh dear, the three of them died in a car accident back then! The blood was so long..." The old lady still looks scared when she talks about it now.
"Xiao Miao also has an older sister. There are three siblings in the family. When Xiao Miao was a teenager, her sister was married off to a place quite far away. It is said that the reason she married was because the family paid more money. The girl married a cripple, and the following year, while she was pregnant, she was beaten to death by her husband's family!"
"I don't know if it's true or not, but that's what everyone's saying... but it's definitely related to that family!"
Another old woman chimed in quietly, "They didn't even take the ashes. They said once a woman is married, she's like water spilled from a cup, and it's bad luck for her to go back to her parents' home. They made that family give them another 20,000 yuan to settle the matter..."
Not to mention Qin Wen, even Jin Shuhe was hearing about this for the first time.
"Xiao Miao cried and wanted to find her sister, but her bastard brother kicked her from their yard onto the village road, where someone stopped her. A few years later, they wanted to marry Xiao Miao off to make money..."
"The Zhao family insists on marrying Xiao Miao, but they won't give him any dowry. The old couple in the Jin family are good people. Although their son isn't very successful, at least he's better than that cripple. The old couple in the Jin family really like Xiao Miao. They scraped together 30,000 yuan to make Xiao Miao their daughter-in-law."
"After Xiao Miao got married, she never contacted her family again. I guess she was completely heartbroken. That Jin family guy is a scoundrel. He must be happy to have married such a beautiful wife. He treats Xiao Miao fairly well. Her younger brother even came to ask Xiao Miao for money several times. Jin family beat him half to death, and he never dared to come back again."
"Later, Xiao Miao went out to work."
Another old woman lowered her voice: "Back in the day, women in the village would often lose their underwear... Everyone said it was that Zhao family guy who did it! He's the one who stole it!"
"Where exactly is his disability?" Qin Wen and Jin Shuhe exchanged glances, both having a vague idea in their minds.
“I already said no… then there!” An auntie who had been knitting nearby glanced at Qin Wen, who was standing bent over, “there.”
Qin Wen hurriedly squatted down, just like Jin Shuhe.
How did you know?
"How did they know? His parents told us! They said they noticed something was wrong when he was little, so they took him to a big hospital for a checkup. We don't know what they said, but it was basically the same thing: he could live, but he was going to die, and there was no cure."
"Otherwise, why wouldn't his parents spend money to get him a wife? What would they do with her? Just keep her as a decoration?"
The old lady said a few more vulgar things, basically saying that the child was like an old eunuch because he was impotent and therefore always wanted to do bad things!
Qin Wen thought to himself: For the past twenty years, he has been talked about and ridiculed every day. Everyone knows that he is a man with such a fatal flaw. Isn't this a breeding ground for psychological abnormalities?
"Then he finally left! He came back last year, and with great fanfare, he married a wife. No one can say anything to his face, but everyone knows what's going on behind his back. And now, he's gone again with his new wife!"
Jin Shuhe truly hadn't expected that there was such a long-standing entanglement behind it all.
Zhao Lizhu's obsessive and disgusted desire for women, coupled with his yearning for them and his murderous intent, was on full display in front of Jin Shuhe at this moment.
This person is a madman driven to utter madness by his own disability, his parents, his environment, and his own endless malice!
If he hadn't been exposed, Jin Shuhe believed that Aunt Chen wouldn't have lived much longer.
“I’m the real man. What can your dead father do besides gambling and being lazy?” Zhao Lizhu closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, his tone was no longer feigned kindness.
“He led that bunch of brats from the village, mocking me for so many years, and he even stole my woman! Miao’er should have married me! Miao’er is the most beautiful and virtuous woman, she should have married me! She’s not even worth two cows, how come I can’t have her?” He hissed out these words through gritted teeth.
“I came here to work with them. That idiot, I pretended to be his brother and said we were from the same hometown, and he believed me, hahahahahaha! How could he believe that I don’t hate him! I wanted to stab him to death, but I didn’t find the opportunity.”