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He Ming glanced timidly at He Ying: "Big sister, things have already come to this point, what's the use of saying anything more?"

“Alright,” He Ying stopped crying, “No matter how many sins you’ve committed, you have to find him, right?”

2)

"Where might Lin Hong take them?" Sitting in the car, He Ying frowned and said to He Ming, who was also looking worried, "Think carefully about where she usually goes? What places is she particularly sensitive to?"

They had searched all around the house but couldn't find Lin Hong or He Zhenggang. This puzzled He Ying, who kept urging He Ming, "You have to think hard, you must remember! This is very important, it concerns the safety of our parents!"

He Ming gripped his hair tightly, trying his best, but to little avail. He sensed that Lin Hong had rarely left the house or spoken much since marrying him. Only twice had her whereabouts become shrouded in mystery. Once, he suddenly collapsed and Lin Hong took him to the hospital, after which she disappeared that night. The other time was similar. Suspiciously, both times she was with Qin Fangcheng.

Could this matter be related to Qin Fangcheng?

He Ming thought and thought, but just kept shaking his head.

It seemed unlikely that Qin Fangcheng would intervene in his family life in this way, and he… He Ming suddenly looked up: “I remember now.”

"Where?" He Ying immediately asked.

"The ruins of the International Convention and Exhibition Center!" He Ming said in a deep voice, "It seems like everything is mysteriously connected to that place!" As he spoke, he stepped on the gas, turned the car around, and sped off towards the International Convention and Exhibition Center.

“I hope you won’t make a mistake this time,” He Ying said worriedly. Suddenly, she remembered something: “By the way, with such a big thing happening at home, why haven’t we seen Xiaozhu? Xiaozhu was hired by Dad to take care of him. She should be with Dad.”

"Oh, did Little Pig go back to his hometown?" He Ming stammered, not wanting to talk about the topic.

But He Ying became suspicious: "Xiao Zhu could never leave Dad's side. Xiao Ming, tell me the truth, what exactly happened?"

"How can you be so sure that Little Pig will never leave Dad?" He Ming said angrily. "She's just a nanny we hired, an employee. Does she think she'll stay in our house forever?"

“Of course she’ll stay in our family forever!” He Ying said loudly. “Xiao Zhu is our half-sister, our father’s illegitimate daughter from the countryside. Making her a nanny is just a cover. Our father’s real wish is to take Xiao Zhu abroad, and then tell her the truth once we’re abroad.”

The news jolted He Ming, causing the car to veer off course and nearly veer off the road. Startled, He Ming broke out in a cold sweat and quickly steered the car back, his facial muscles twitching uncontrollably. Seeing his strange behavior, He Ying asked in surprise, "What's wrong? You seem so distracted. Should I take over driving?"

"No need." He Ming, still shaken, pulled his hand away and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "How did you find out about this? I've never heard Dad mention it before?"

“I started to have my suspicions because of Dad’s attitude towards Xiaozhu,” He Ying replied. “At the time, the whole family hated Xiaozhu and wanted to kick her out, but Dad got furious and kept her by his side every day. I was very puzzled. I thought, Dad is a worldly man, why would he deliberately make things difficult for his family over a nanny? So I went to the suburbs to inquire, and I heard that Xiaozhu’s background was a bit mysterious. Her father had been sent by Dad to a remote mountainous area to lead a construction project. He was gone for a year and a half. When Xiaozhu’s father returned from out of town, he found that his wife was heavily pregnant. He almost beat his wife to death. In the end, Dad gave his family tens of thousands of yuan and took Xiaozhu’s mother to a hospital in the city so that she could safely give birth to the child. Think about it, if this had nothing to do with Dad, why would he do this?”

Hearing He Ying's explanation, He Ming burst into laughter: "Second sister, stop joking. You know what kind of person Dad is. He has very picky tastes. Little Pig's mother is just a village girl. How could she possibly be worthy of Dad's attention?"

"You're incredibly stupid," He Ying said calmly. "Don't you even think about it? Little Pig is already twenty years old now. Twenty years ago, Little Pig's mother was a beauty. And according to the aesthetic standards of that time, how can you deny it just by imagining it?"

He Ming rolled his eyes at the scolding, remaining silent. His gaze shifted to his arm, and he suddenly felt a sharp pain in the wound. The car veered off course again, nearly veering off the road with a loud crash. His unusual demeanor filled He Ying with suspicion: "Xiao Ming, what's wrong with you? Why are you always so distracted?"

"Uh, it's nothing, it's nothing," He Ming stammered, not saying anything more, for fear that He Ying would see through his act.

The car rumbled as it sped along the road. He Ying sighed again: "There's something else we've all been kept in the dark about. It seems like Dad had already foreseen what would happen to him, so he sent Xiaozhu to a Sanda school to learn martial arts for three whole years. Actually, Xiaozhu working as a nanny in our house is just a pretext. Her real identity is Dad's private bodyguard."

This news shocked He Ming once again. He stared blankly at He Ying, even forgetting to drive, until He Ying nudged him. He then snapped out of his daze and swerved to avoid colliding with an oncoming car.

He Ying sighed, "Regardless of whether Xiaozhu is our father's illegitimate daughter or not, what our father did was really too much. He ruined Xiaozhu's life for his own sake. I'm sure Xiaozhu knows the consequences herself."

“That’s right, that’s right,” He Ming nodded immediately, like a chicken pecking at rice: “She knows exactly what she’s doing.”

As they spoke, their car stopped in front of the ruins. He Ying got out of the car first and carefully examined the massive ruins, and couldn't help but gasp.

The collapsed concrete pillars and slabs stood silently in the midnight wind. The wind blew through the holes inside the ruins, carrying a mournful cry, as if countless wronged souls in hell were desperately howling under the raging fire. Those cries were so real that they sent a chill down one's spine.

The chill, like icy water, seeped into the hearts of He Ying and her brother, and they shivered almost simultaneously.

Suddenly, He Ming let out a short gasp, turned around abruptly, and peered behind them. His eyes were filled with fear, and his body trembled involuntarily. He Ying looked at him in surprise: "What's wrong, Xiao Ming? What strange thing are you doing now?"

“A turtle.” He Ming’s lips moved slightly. “That terrifying turtle is behind us.”

"What did you say? A turtle?" He Ying raised her hand and waved it in front of He Ming's eyes. "Xiao Ming, it's just you and me here. Where did this turtle come from? Are you seeing things?"

"No, I just saw it! It's that terrifying giant red-scaled turtle!" He Ming grabbed He Ying's hand tightly. "I knew it was here. It's been following us all the way from our house to here. It knew we would come here sooner or later. It's the evil turtle that Sister Zhu kept thirty years ago!"

"Xiaoming, have you lost your mind!" He Ying was about to scold him a few more times when suddenly, a faint, ethereal crying sound came from the howling wind. The sound was elusive and indistinct, like a ghost of the night wandering in the wind, causing He Ying to stop talking: "What... what is that sound? It's so scary." As she spoke, she turned her head to look in the direction of the sound.

She seemed to see something, blinked carefully, and exclaimed in terror, "Oh my God!" She quickly covered her mouth with her hand in fear.

On the side of the ruins, a broken concrete pile stands alone. At the top of the pile is a long precast concrete slab. This slab had obviously fallen from a great height. During the fall, due to the combined forces of the various parts of the ruins, the slab was coincidentally lifted up by the concrete pile and suspended high in the air. When the cold wind blows, the precast concrete slab sways back and forth like a seesaw, and it may crash down at any moment.

Right there on this precast concrete slab, several moving figures were visible. Their faces were obscured in the darkness; only one figure could be seen clinging desperately to the slab at one end, while two other figures lay similarly sprawled on it at the other end. In the center of the slab, another figure was moving. Every time this figure moved, the slab lost its balance and swayed in mid-air, eliciting terrified screams and cries from the other three figures.

Hearing the screams of the three people, He Ming and He Ying's expressions changed drastically.

The three people on the precast concrete slab were none other than He Zhenggang, He's mother, and He Jing.

After staring blankly for a long time, He Ming suddenly covered his mouth, afraid that a scream of excessive shock would alert the people on the concrete slab and cause them to lose their balance and fall. He covered his mouth tightly with his hand, hissing and gasping for breath: "My God!" His voice was low as a whisper, but it couldn't hide the horror brought on by the shock: "My God, how did they climb up there?"

Looking at the terrifying sight high in the sky, He Ying was no less shocked than He Ming, and her voice was much lower than He Ming's: "The matter at hand is not to find out how they got up there, but to find a way to bring them down as soon as possible."

As they spoke, the small, thin figure in the middle took a step toward He Zhenggang. Instantly, the precast concrete slab tilted precariously. He Zhenggang screamed frantically, clinging tightly to the slab, desperately trying to avoid slipping. If he fell, his mother and He Jing on the other end would also lose their balance, and the scene below the concrete pillar would be utterly horrific.

Startled by the breathtaking scene, He Ming and He Ying cried out in alarm, closing their eyes and unable to watch any longer. But the figure in the middle moved a few steps towards He's mother, He Jing, restoring the balance of the precast concrete slab high above. He Ming and He Ying had just breathed a sigh of relief when they suddenly heard the figure in the sky chuckle twice. The voice was alluring and delicate, clear and melodious like a bell; even if it were burned to ashes, He Ming wouldn't mistake it—it was unmistakably Lin Hong's voice.

The figure constantly moving through the high school was indeed Lin Hong, but at this moment her voice sounded sinister and evil, which sounded so unfamiliar to He Ming.

Lin Hong chuckled as she walked to the balance point of the precast concrete slab beneath her feet. Instead of stopping, she smiled coquettishly again: "He Zhenggang, how come you're afraid too? Are you afraid of death? Don't you always say that struggle requires sacrifice, always urging and forcing others to sacrifice? Why are you so timid and cowardly when it's your turn? It turns out that what fills your heart isn't a strong will at all, but a desire and evil to harm the kind!"

As she spoke, Lin Hong deviated from her balance and walked towards He's mother and He Jing. In an instant, the precast concrete slab tilted and stood up again in He's mother and He Jing's direction. He's mother and He Jing screamed and desperately hugged each other. Seeing that their strength was about to run out, He Ming dared not delay any longer and hurriedly called out, "Hong Hong!"

Hearing He Ming's voice high in the sky, Lin Hong stopped, leaned down, and asked, "Who is it?"

"It's me, He Ming!" He Ming shouted, his face covered in sweat. "Hong Hong, stay there and don't move! Don't move!"

Lin Hong snorted coldly: "Who are you talking to? Hong Hong? There is no Hong Hong here."

He Ming said urgently, "Honghong, don't be angry. I am He Ming! Your husband, He Ming!"

Lin Hong suddenly burst into a sharp, eerie laugh: "He Ming? The little brat of the He family? My husband? Hahaha, how could you even think of that? I was just about to free up my hands to skin you alive, and you dare to claim you're my husband? Hahahaha!"

Lin Hong's sinister laughter, like a terrifying, foul night bird soaring through the air, made He Ming's face turn deathly pale, and he stumbled back a few steps. Before he could plead again, He Ying suddenly pushed him away, looked up at the sky, and asked, "If you're not Lin Hong, then who are you?"

"Who am I? Hahaha!" Lin Hong laughed so hard she could barely stand. "How ridiculous you blind animals are, you don't even know who I am! Fine, I'll tell you, I'm Sister Zhu, your family's nanny back then!"

"It really is you!" Hearing that the person above was Sister Zhu, He Ying felt relieved. "I'd like to ask, Sister Zhu, what irreconcilable grudge do you have against our He family that you keep harming us? You've ruined Xiao Jing, turning her into a ghost, and torn our family to pieces. Isn't that enough? Do you have to wipe us out completely to satisfy your desires?"

Sister Zhu burst into a gleeful laugh: "No, you're wrong. Even if I wipe out your entire family, it won't quell the hatred in my heart. I will make your entire He family fall into the deepest hell for eternity, suffer the torment of the fires of purgatory, endure countless tribulations, and never be reborn!"

"Sister Zhu, what grudge do you have against the He family?" He Ming shouted.

"Want to know? Why don't you ask your beastly father!" Sister Zhu said, then suddenly turned and walked towards He Zhenggang.

He Zheng was struggling to hold onto the precast concrete slab, fearing he would fall, when he suddenly saw Sister Zhu walking towards him with a menacing look on her face. He was terrified and involuntarily cried out, "No, no, please don't come any closer!" Before he could finish speaking, Sister Zhu had already crossed the point of balance. The precast concrete slab stood upright and, with a sharp whistling sound, slid down from the top of the pile. A series of terrified screams were heard, followed by several heavy thuds as the slab hit the ground. Suddenly, the darkness returned to silence.

He Ming and He Ying exchanged a pale-faced glance and rushed over. When they got closer, they found that the heavy precast concrete slab hadn't fallen at all, but had landed on the section of the rubble that jutted out from the ground. Only He Zhenggang and a few others had fallen from the height. Fortunately, the ground was covered with garbage and dust. Apart from He's mother, who was unable to move due to a spinal injury, and He Jing, who had a seizure and went mad on the spot, Lin Hong and He Zhenggang, although they had suffered head injuries, were both unharmed.

He Ming and He Ying immediately began to provide first aid. He Ying drove the two most seriously injured women, He's mother and He Jing, to the hospital. Afterward, He Ying drove back and helped He Zhenggang and Lin Hong, who were covered in blood and groaning, to go home to recover.

After sending Lin Hong and He Zhenggang to their respective rooms and watching them fall asleep, He Ming and He Ying sat down in the living room to discuss solutions.

“It’s all my fault,” He Ying said, pressing her fist against her head in anguish. “Lin Hong didn’t want to marry into our family because she had a premonition that this tragedy would happen sooner or later, so she tried her best to escape. But I went to great lengths to find her and brought her back. It’s all my fault.”

He Ming stared blankly, muttering to himself, "That painting."

He Ying asked, "What?"

He Ming continued to mutter, "It's that painting. Honghong ran away suddenly after seeing that painting. So after she came back, I hid the painting. Now it seems that the only way to resolve this feud and save ourselves is to start with that painting."

Lin Hong opened her eyes, her pupils suddenly contracted, she cried out, and then closed her eyes again.

"Please open your eyes," a calm and indifferent voice rang out slowly, like a sharp iron blade cutting into her nervous system: "Escape will not help. Open your eyes, look at this painting, look at it. This is the painting that once made your soul fly away. Escape from here and tell us, what do you remember?"

The repulsive voice sounded familiar. Lin Hong's eyelashes fluttered. She remembered that the speaker was Yang Sipeng, the Hong Kong psychologist who had developed a psychotherapy plan for He Zhenggang. That repulsive guy! She couldn't believe He Ming had brought him back home.

"Why don't you want to open your eyes?" Yang Sipeng's voice seemed to drift from another world: "Open your eyes. We all suffer from all kinds of psychological troubles, but closing your eyes will not solve the problem at all. Open your eyes, look at this painting, look at it, what does it remind you of?" Yang Sipeng said in a slightly provocative voice, while bending his index finger and tapping the surface of the oil painting.

"Bang, bang, bang," the rhythm of his index finger playing was dull and monotonous, giving people an extremely unpleasant feeling. "Bang, bang, bang," the sound stubbornly continued, making Lin Hong extremely angry. She felt that she had been betrayed. Why did she think this? But she didn't seem to have a clear reason. Out of her instinct to protect herself, she closed her eyes tightly, refusing to look at this guy and refusing to cooperate.

"Bang, bang, bang," accompanied by this monotonous rhythm, Yang Sipeng's voice vibrated: "The life we face always makes us unhappy, but we need to deal with it rationally, just like now. Open our stubbornly unwilling eyes, discard those thoughts that hinder our actions, and then we will find that the solution is actually very simple, just like now, we say it out loud, put it behind us, and understand that there are more important things for us..." Yang Sipeng's annoying voice echoed, and at the same time, the maddeningly monotonous playing never stopped: "Bang, bang, bang..."

Lin Hong had already made up her mind that she would never cooperate with this annoying guy, nor accept his clumsy hypnosis. She wanted to maintain her clarity and calmness, her peaceful and composed state of mind… With this resistance, she lay calmly, relaxed, focused, and resisted external influences. Time passed slowly, and gradually, her consciousness became clear, like a clear spring, sweet and refreshing, allowing life to feel endless hope and joy. It was as if in a distant land, accompanied by the gurgling of the spring, a faint nursery rhyme began to play:

The tortoise is thin and doesn't gain weight.

Skin covering hard bones

Four paws and one head

Three years to reach my doorstep

The nursery rhyme, like a clear spring, slowly seeped into Lin Hong's parched heart. Her eyes slowly opened, revealing a pair of breathtakingly beautiful eyes. Beneath her long eyelashes lay a slightly provocative and alluring charm. Gazing at Yang Sipeng, who was using his index finger to flick a crystal ball to hypnotize her, she smiled sweetly. Her pink tongue lightly brushed across her rosy and tempting lips, causing the Hong Kong hypnosis master to be stunned: "You... how come you weren't hypnotized?"

"Hypnotize? Hypnotize your mother's balls!" The stunningly beautiful woman uttered vulgarities, the stark contrast leaving Yang Sipeng speechless. Before he could react, Lin Hong had already reached out and grabbed his tie, yanking it forcefully, lifting Yang Sipeng up like a baby. The tie tightened around his throat, making it hard for Yang Sipeng to breathe, and he kicked his legs desperately.

Upon seeing this, He Ming and He Ying, who were hiding outside the door waiting for the hypnosis results, rushed in, trying to rescue Yang Sipeng from Lin Hong's hands. However, they heard Lin Hong chuckle sinisterly and suddenly kicked out from below. The poor hypnotist screamed as he was kicked in the groin. He was sent flying like a cannonball, hurtling towards He Ming and He Ying.

He Ying reacted quickly and dodged, but He Ming was a step too slow and was hit so hard that he screamed and fell into a heap with Yang Sipeng.

He Ying hurriedly tried to help her brother, but Lin Hong stepped forward and blocked her way. Seeing this, He Ying calmed down instead: "Sister Zhu, I've finally found you. So you were hiding in Lin Hong's second persona. You came out after she was hypnotized and fell asleep."

Sister Zhu chuckled: "Even if you knew now, what good would it do?"

He Ying gave a bitter smile: "Sister Zhu, if you want revenge, I might not be able to stop you even if I wanted to, but you have to give me an explanation. What is the purpose of all this?"

Sister Zhu's eyes suddenly filled with sorrow: "You ask me why? Why don't you ask your wicked father? Why?"

He Ying sighed, "My father has already been punished. Look at him now, he's living a life worse than death. No matter how many sins he committed, it's all compensation for you."

Sister Zhu slowly shook her head: "No, this is not enough, far from enough."

He Ying sighed again: "Tell me, what kind of ending do you expect?"

A fierce fire burned in Sister Zhu's eyes, which terrified He Ying. Sister Zhu said in a hoarse voice, "What I need is for the humiliation and suffering I endured back then to be exacted back on you He family members!"

Before He Ying could answer, Sister Zhu lowered her eyelids and said in a mournful voice, "Thirty years ago, my husband and I came to Taizhou to seek refuge with He Zhenggang, who was somewhat powerful at the time, hoping to make a living. Unexpectedly, He Zhenggang coveted my beauty. He first deliberately arranged for me to work as a nanny in his house, and then framed my husband, sending him to prison. After that, he used my husband's life to force me to submit. In order for my husband to come back alive, I had no choice but to let this beast in human form abuse and ravage me. At that time, I was pregnant, but that beast He Zhenggang experienced a perverted pleasure from it, constantly humiliating me. Countless times I was driven to the brink of madness by his evil humiliation. Countless times I brought a glass of water with poison to my face, but had to put it down. I endured the pain and tears, letting He Zhenggang abuse me, just hoping for a day when I could take revenge."

"But in fact, you already took revenge on the He family back then." He Ying raised an eyebrow and said, "You should remember, right? It was you who secretly put this hallucinogen in my..." As she spoke, He Ying opened a paper package and spread it out so that Sister Zhu could see the white powder inside. She said, "I've already had a pharmacist test it. This powder is called 'Ghost Face Green,' but the mountain people call it 'Jade Man Green.' It's the plant that Red Scaled Turtles love to eat because it contains high doses of hallucinogens. People who accidentally ingest Ghost Face Green will experience strong stimulation to their brains, producing all sorts of bizarre hallucinations, and may even do extremely strange things. Back then, you secretly put this hallucinogen into my..." In our family's food and drinking water, my mother's old friend, Aunt Xiao, experienced terrifying hallucinations from just one glass of water. She pushed my mother down the stairs and then crashed into a speeding car herself. After that, it was you who forced my second sister, Xiao Jing, to secretly put this reagent in the food and drinking water of Teacher Wang and her boyfriend, Shuang Dehui. This resulted in Shuang Dehui jumping to her death, and Teacher Wang's husband going insane due to hallucinations and killing his wife. Afterwards, my second sister was kidnapped by some thugs, but luckily she had the hallucinogen you gave her, so she escaped unharmed, only to have the thugs kill and devour each other.

As she spoke, He Ying stepped forward, her voice suddenly rising: "I never imagined your resentment ran so deep, that you'd planted hatred deep within your daughter's genes. Thirty years later, you've returned. Lin Hong is your daughter, yet you show her no love whatsoever. Instead, you resort to your old tricks, using this hallucinogen again. First, you made that trashy woman, Fu Xiuying, take it, so she'd cling to Qin Fangcheng, who deeply loves you. The so-called Guanyin that Fu Xiuying saw in her hallucination—was that you?" "That's right, it was me. For whom do I willingly sprinkle willow branches, widely cultivating human relationships? My Guanyin Bodhisattva disguise—is it passable?" Sister Zhu He burst into laughter: "What I did was not just this. I painted this picture of three buildings and sold it to your family. Sure enough, your family built the building that is now, imitating the structure in the painting. Then I used the Ghost Face Nightmare to haunt He Ming and Little Pig. Zhao Zhuo also suffered from paranoia and delusions because he took this hallucinogen and was stimulated by his wife's affair with the company chairman. I consciously used psychological suggestion on him. In fact, when you saw the red-scaled turtle that I hid in Little Pig's room, you should have known that I was back."

“Sister Zhu, I can apologize on behalf of my father for the mistakes he made against you back then.” He Ying stepped forward, glancing out of the corner of her eye at He Ming, who had been knocked down by Yang Sipeng. He Ming was getting up, but Yang Sipeng was motionless, with a large pool of blood beneath him. This psychologist had terrible luck; when Sister Zhu kicked him, a screwdriver lying on the ground pierced his heart. Judging from the looks of it, he was probably going to die. He Ying was secretly surprised by Sister Zhu's strength.

Upon hearing He Ying's words, Sister Zhu burst into laughter: "You apologize to me on behalf of my father? Do you think that deep-seated humiliation can be absolved with just a simple apology?"

"So what kind of ending do you want?" He Ying was finally provoked: "Sister Zhu, you've gone too far. Taking revenge on my father, or even my family, is somewhat understandable, but Qin Fangcheng and Zhao Zhuo are your most trusted friends. The way you treat them is truly chilling."

In response to He Ying's accusations, Sister Zhu sneered disdainfully: "What do you know? Back then, I fled your He family with my daughter Lin Hong, escaping to the Ji family compound, only to be tortured and abused by two thugs there. If it weren't for Lin Hong's father taking us in and giving my daughter a proper status, this world would be cursed by me. And those two thugs who took advantage of our misfortune were Zhao Zhuo and Qin Fangcheng's fathers. Tell me, shouldn't their descendants pay back this bloody debt?"

“Sister Zhu, it’s somewhat understandable that you’ve suffered unspeakable humiliation and are seeking revenge, but your methods and the targets you’re targeting make you one of the most evil people in the world. You will regret it,” He Ying warned.

"Regret?" Sister Zhu sneered and stepped forward. "In those shameful days, I hated you bunch of hypocrites so much. If it could bring you to justice, what would it matter if I fell into the deepest hell?" Sister Zhu smiled coldly and took another step forward.

He Ying held out a canister sprayer to stop Sister Zhu: "Sister Zhu, this is your last warning. Turn back from your wrong path."

“No,” Sister Zhu shook her head, “It’s too late. It’s really too late for you to say this now.”