Übeltäter

Kapitel 12

He treasured everything his son gave him.

Duan Lin didn't know if his younger brother grew up in such an environment, but he knew that he and his father would never have such a close relationship in their lives.

Duan Lin didn't remember how he left in the end. All he remembered was Jin Zi's smiling face when the boy named Xiao Bao ran towards his father in the distance as he left.

After this unexpected turn of events, in order to better take care of her son, Lu's mother moved in with him.

His wife is actually a good person. His son went to do an internship, and after finishing the internship, he vowed never to be a doctor again. Over the years, following his father's instructions, his biggest gains were probably firstly, getting a diploma from medical school, and secondly, finding a wife during his internship.

It's a pity that his wife is gone, but fortunately his son is still alive. It's just a pity for his two grandsons, who are so young and have lost their mother. Moreover, his son hasn't held them at all lately, so it's no different from not having a father.

Seeing his son like this, Mr. Lu tried to hit him several times, but Mrs. Lu stopped him each time.

Actually, my son's weak personality is partly due to my own actions. His father is that kind of person—he beats people when he's not satisfied—and I, as his mother, was too weak to stop him. Over time, my son has developed this timid personality; he can't handle setbacks and will become depressed for a long time after even the slightest setback.

But... this has been going on for far too long.

Lu Xianglai was still watching the recording. He had been watching it for the past few days, whether out of nostalgia or something else.

I've never been a very persistent person growing up, but now that I think about it... the only hobby that has lasted is photography. I like cameras and DV cameras; I like these things that can record people's traces, so my house is full of photos and videotapes.

The television across the street was showing all the videos I'd shot since I bought the DV camera, and in front of me were the photos I'd taken.

He met Weiwei during his internship. Back then, he was a carefree and irresponsible person, and didn't have anything that would attract girls. Even though he was interning at a hospital, he was always carrying around a camera and DV. Lu Xianglai knew that many doctors secretly thought he was being unreasonable. How did they meet...?

It was probably after Vivi told herself, "These photos are beautiful"?

Because of the trauma of a patient's massive bleeding during my internship, I developed hemophobia and could no longer hold a scalpel. It was Weiwei who accompanied me on my journey to where I am today.

Perhaps he secretly felt relieved about suddenly becoming afraid of blood?

I can finally start my own life.

However, this thought began to change. Weiwei was wheeled into the delivery room, but he couldn't be there because he was afraid of blood. He already felt guilty, but then he saw Weiwei go crazy because of the loss of her child... For the first time, Lu Xianglai hated his hands that couldn't hold a scalpel.

The image of Weiwei's death is still etched in Lu Xianglai's mind. He cannot forgive himself, cannot forgive himself for actually thinking about such a scene...

nausea!

Lu Xianglai could only look at the original photos, trying to replace the image of Weiwei in his mind that frightened and disgusted him with the cute image of Weiwei on the film.

With the television on, Lu Xianglai walked into the living room, where incense smoke curled. Looking at Weiwei's portrait hanging on the wall, Lu Xianglai thought: Tonight is the vigil.

It's not dark yet, but there's no one left in front of the mourning hall. No, there's still one person.

"Are you still here?" Lu Xianglai asked, somewhat surprised, as he looked at Bo Xiaoxue who had just come in from outside.

"Um... Cheng Rui and I decided to stay and help out. Cheng Rui will go and help Uncle and Aunt entertain the guests, while I originally came back to continue the incense offering."

Lu Xianglai nodded and softly thanked him.

"What about Da Guai and Xiao Guai?" After all, he was her father. Weiwei was gone, so he had to use her share to raise their children well.

"It seems he was with his grandparents, but sorry it was too messy for me to notice."

"Oh, it's alright, thank you so much. By the way, were you there when Vivi was giving birth? Thank you so much."

Not only during childbirth, but even when Weiwei died... if he remembered correctly, Lu Xianglai remembered that it was this woman who witnessed Weiwei's suicide.

"Um...it's nothing. I've added the incense. You can have some peace and quiet for a bit. I'll go downstairs and see if there's anything else I can help with..."

The woman seemed to feel quite embarrassed about her situation, so she fled as fast as she could.

Just be quiet. Heaven knows that the last thing I need right now is peace and quiet. This kind of quiet is too lifeless and makes me prone to overthinking.

"Hmm, ma! Ba!" A child's voice suddenly rang out, startling Lu Xianglai. It was Da Guai and Xiao Guai!

They're at home!

Lu Xianglai hurriedly followed the direction of the sound. He flung open the door, still searching for his sons, only to realize the sound was coming from the television. On the screen, Weiwei was holding her two children, smiling radiantly. Da Guai and Xiao Guai were babbling incomprehensible words, their chubby little faces incredibly cute!

Whether it's photos or videos, there's very little of himself in them, since he's the one taking pictures of others, not the other way around.

Halfway through the recording, Lu Xianglai suddenly felt a pang of sadness: Actually... at this point, Weiwei had already started to act abnormally.

The current scene shows them playing in the pool. Naturally, Weiwei is in charge of standing in front of the camera with Da Guai and Xiao Guai while she is filming. However, during this recording, Weiwei is playing with Xiao Guai and the others while also teasing herself. In Weiwei's mind, she has a son next to her while holding the camera.

That non-existent Erguai.

Weiwei's eyes were a little wet, and she was about to lower her head when suddenly... Lu Xianglai froze, stunned when he saw a certain corner of the screen!

Unable to believe it, Lu Xianglai quickly knelt down a few steps towards the television and pressed the pause button.

He was stunned... It was just an ordinary scene, a family getting ready to go home after playing in the pool. Weiwei was pushing Da Guai and Xiao Guai in their strollers, while he followed beside them with a DV camera. This was the scene they were filming.

In the picture, Vivi is smiling at her. Da Guai and Xiao Guai are dozing off in the stroller. The triplets' stroller is used by the twins, leaving the middle seat empty, which is normal, except that Vivi always thinks that her Er Guai is sitting in the middle seat.

This scene is really ordinary, except...

Lu Xianglai gripped the television and stared intently at the left side of the trolley!

Although it was just a faint shadow, Lu Xianglai clearly saw something unbelievable in the reflection on the glass!

From the reflection in the shop window, Lu Xianglai saw a child in the middle of what should have been an empty shopping cart.

It wasn't Da Guai, nor Xiao Guai, but a child who didn't look like his own child at all. He was dressed in black, and his bare feet were exposed. His thin, slender legs, much longer than a baby's, were sticking out of the car, revealing his bare feet, which were bright red. From this perspective, it looked like he was wearing a pair of...red shoes.

"No...no..." Lu Xianglai used his hands to support himself as he backed away. He started flipping through the photos, looking for any place where a shadow could be reflected.

This one, this one, and that one... In many places where there was a reflection, Lu Xianglai saw the child. Sometimes it was himself, sometimes it was Weiwei. The child nestled affectionately beside the two of them, a strange smile on his small, indistinct face.

No—

With a thud, Lu Xianglai involuntarily stepped back, knocking the coffee table behind him to the ground. The videotapes and photos on it were scattered all over the floor, and it seemed that he could see the child in every photo!

Lu Xianglai was terrified and didn't know what to do. Had Weiwei seen it all along? He hadn't believed it, and had even taken her to the hospital... No... actually, he had seen it all along too...

What on earth is going on? Someone tell me! Who?!

"Xianglai, what's wrong? That was a loud noise..."

The door was opened, and Lu Xianglai, who thought he had seen his savior, quickly looked up. Upon seeing the person who had arrived, he rushed over.

"Save me! Cheng Rui! Please save me! I saw that child..."

Before he could finish speaking, Lu Xianglai saw the person behind Cheng Rui and quickly threw away Cheng Rui's hand as if he had been electrocuted.

The second person to enter the room, blocked by Cheng Rui's tall figure, was Bo Xiaoxue, who was holding one of the twins in her arms.

"Don't come any closer! Get away! Stay away from me!" Lu Xianglai roared, his expression almost crazed. The look of déjà vu in his eyes sent a chill down the spines of Cheng and Bo, who had just entered the room, and a terrible premonition immediately followed...

That expression... I feel like I've seen it somewhere before...

On Xu Yao's face... on Mao Weiwei's face... Thinking of this, the two felt the hairs on their backs stand on end!

"Xianglai, we're not going over there. Stay away from the window!" Fearing that he would follow in Xu Yao's footsteps, Cheng Rui swallowed hard and tried to persuade Lu Xianglai to leave any place that might lead him to suicide.

The word "window" seemed to remind Lu Xianglai of something. Swallowing hard, Lu Xianglai tried to pull himself together and looked towards the window behind him.

The lights are on in the room, and if you turn around... you can see the reflection of anything inside...

Lu Xianglai felt he could hear the cracking sound of his neck twisting as he turned his head. He turned his head inch by inch with difficulty and opened his eyes, which he had closed out of fear.

The mirror showed herself, Cheng Rui, Bo Xiaoxue, and the child Bo Xiaoxue was holding, a child with red feet...

"No! Please let me go! What have I done to offend you? Please let me go! Please let me go..."

Lu Xianglai was breathing heavily. His tension had clearly reached its limit, and he could no longer bear this invisible mental pressure. Suddenly, he saw the coffee table that he had knocked over on the ground. Lu Xianglai grabbed the coffee table and threw it forcefully at the floor-to-ceiling window that occupied half of the wall.

It didn't shatter at first, and looking at the glass that still reflected his image, Lu Xianglai smashed it repeatedly, not letting anyone get close.

Cheng Rui started making phone calls, telling the police to prepare for a rescue operation downstairs, while he ran downstairs first, explained the situation, and asked the other party to let him go to the window.

Just as he ran upstairs, he heard a loud shattering sound of glass breaking. His heart sank, and Cheng Rui's eyes reflexively looked up.

Lu Xianglai's body was falling. He wasn't falling alone… As Lu Xianglai's body passed his floor, Cheng Rui clearly saw the extreme terror on Lu Xianglai's face, and…

The child clinging to him, tightly gripping his neck. The child with red feet.

In that fleeting second, the eerie scene was etched deeply into Cheng Rui's mind. Lu Xianglai's body was still falling, and Cheng Rui hurriedly clung to the windowsill to look down...

That shadow... that shadow clinging to Lu Xianglai...

Cheng Rui knew the child had seen him; the child smiled at him…

Standing on the balcony, Cheng Rui's mind went blank after a sudden "boom."

Lu Xianglai died on the night his wife kept vigil, and they were cremated together the next day.

He didn't die from falling. In fact, Cheng Rui's phone call was very useful. Police officers were already positioned downstairs before he jumped, and they would have caught him if he had jumped.

But he was already dead when he jumped.

His eyes were wide open, his mouth gaped open with his tongue sticking out—a typical sign of being strangled. Yet, there were no ligature marks on his neck, except…

The umbilical cord was wrapped around Lu Xianglai's neck; it was the umbilical cord that his wife had pulled out of his body before she died.

That kind of thing won't strangle a person, except for a fetus in the womb, of course. Many fetuses die before they are born because of umbilical cord entanglement. But that kind of force can't strangle a grown man.

Some say he committed suicide for love, while others suspect it was a serial murder case.

Bo Xiaoxue, who witnessed the couple's deaths, was summoned by the police, but Cheng Rui knew they wouldn't get anything out of them.

Because it wasn't done by a "human," it was the red-footed child, it was him...

With his little red feet, he danced the steps of death, determined to kill them all, one by one...

He came... He smiled at himself.

Chapter Nine Connections

Kill? Use a double?

Xin Nuo had a lot of questions she wanted answered...

Bo Xiaoxue sat in front of the police officer in charge of taking notes, looking uneasy.

"I've said I had absolutely nothing to do with this. I just happened to be near them when they died; it was purely coincidental!"

"Your wife committed suicide in front of you, and then your husband committed suicide in front of you? Isn't that a bit too much of a coincidence, miss?"

"..." Bo Xiaoxue was speechless; even she herself felt it was too much of a coincidence.

"What is your relationship with the deceased?"

"I was just an alumnus of Lu Xianglai's school and we didn't know each other well. We became acquainted after his wife gave birth at our hospital, when I was one of the midwives."

"Is that all? You..." The officer was about to ask when another voice came from the side.