Chapter 10

Although it only hit his foot, this sequence of events still effectively prevented Xu Fu from pursuing Mu Qin. Mu Qin dragged Han Li and ran to the entrance of the church unobstructed, and Qiu Zijia followed Mu Qin outside in a flurry. It was raining heavily outside, and the several of them rushed into the downpour. Mu Qin was a bit disoriented and couldn’t discern the directions. The sound and water from the rain pounding down blurred his senses. He could only rely on his vague instincts and drag the stumbling Han Li into the pitch-black courtyard.

Xu Fu, who had been left behind by them, didn’t chase after them because the chandelier that smashed down was holding down his right leg. Moreover, it even dragged open a long wound on his calf. Although Xu Fu could not care less about this degree of injury, it would still impact his mobility.

Xu Fu lifted the candle chandelier with a single hand and rescued his leg from the chandelier’s weight. Soon after, he turned his head back and glanced at the open doors of the church. It was also the direction Mu Qin and the others had fled toward.

After looking for a while, Xu Fu revealed a thoughtful expression. Following, he bent over and forcefully tore a few strips of cloth from his pant leg. He then found a wooden plank and used it to clamp his injured leg, tying the plank and his leg together with the strips of cloth and creating a durable layer of protection.

His motions were practiced. You could tell with a glance he was experienced with treating injuries. When he finished dealing with the wound on his leg, he turned around and walked over to Cheng Guoxu, who had fallen to the ground.

Cheng Guoxu was stiffly collapsed on the floor. His head was leaning against a bench’s chair leg. He was currently desperately covering the bloody hole on his neck with his hands and clothes, wishing for his blood to flow a little bit slower, but his blood continued to rapidly drip over his whole person. It pooled into a bright-red, bloody puddle under his body.

Xu Fu examined Cheng Guoxu for a while and then slowly squatted down in front of him.

Xu Fu spoke to Cheng Guoxu, “Earlier, you charged very quickly and attacked very ruthlessly, proving you urgently wanted to kill me.”

Cheng Guoxu glared at him with wide eyes but couldn’t speak. The gash on his neck damaged his vocal cords. The blood flowing backward prevented him from breathing. He thoroughly understood that he was on the verge of death, and he felt utterly terrified toward this. His eyes staring at Xu Fu were filled hysterical fear. He repeatedly opened his mouth, wanting to say a few things to Xu Fu, but each time his mouth opened, large quantities of blood would bubble out from his mouth. It accomplished nothing other than accelerating his death.

“You want me to die.” Xu Fu repeated this sentence. Then, he suddenly let out a vaguely malevolent shallow smile at Cheng Guoxu, “Urgently so.”

“But for what reason?” Xu Fu began a soliloquy, asking and answering his own questions. “If you and I have no grudge and no animosity between us, why do you urgently want me to die? Is it because of my conversation with Han Li just now?”

Xu Fu’s words caused Cheng Guoxu’s eyes to widen even bigger, and his pupils violently contracted and shook. Xu Fu noticed this and then started laughing, “I guessed right. You heard what I said to Han Li and wanted to kill me.”

“Therefore… it’s you, right?” Xu Fu leaned in his face toward Cheng Guoxu. In addition, his hand reached out and touched Cheng Guoxu’s neck, letting his hand get covered in Cheng Guoxu’s blood.

Immediately after, Xu Fu lowered his head and looked at his blood-covered hand. His smile became even happier, “I’ve constantly been tracking down the child serial-killer at Iris Orphanage from ten years ago. Because among the few children who died, one of them was, abducted by human traffickers a few years ago… my little sister.”

“Pa’r sbe, gluta!?” We Me’r nblmf revvfcis gbrf. Lf ragfamtfv bea tlr tjcv jcv mieamtfv Jtfcu Xebze’r ojmf. Llr olcufgr vffqis qlcmtfv lcab atf oifrt bc Jtfcu Xebze’r mtffxr. We Me erfv j iba bo ragfcuat, ab atf fzafca atja tlr olcufg pblcar aegcfv ktlaf jcv yief nflcr yeiufv bea bcf ys bcf.

Cheng Guoxu was pinched by him until his whole face was distorted and his eyeballs were about to burst out. More blood oozed out of his mouth and nose. He recklessly struggled under Xu Fu’s grasp.

“Really unresigned.” Xu Fu spoke in a mild tone, but his face was full of malevolence and hatred, “I searched for so many years but never found you. For a period of time, I even went to jail for negligent homicide, and later was shot to death by the police for breaking out of jail. Yet, in the end, you could still live so freely and so happily outside! You could live until today! But now, in return, you can simply and easily go die in front of my eyes!”

Xu Fu’s state of mind was somewhat unstable. He pulled out the knife and stabbed more wounds, cut after cut, on Cheng Guoxu’s body. In the end, he had only stabbed a few times when Cheng Guoxu could no longer hold on. His eyes rolled back, and he lost all vital signs. This angered Xu Fu. He brandished the blade more savagely, almost skewering Cheng Guoxu into a badly mutilated hornet’s nest.

“The heavens really are blind.” Xu Fu hacked the corpse for a long time. Finally, he held the knife and stood up while gasping for breath. His body was covered in the blood that spurted out from Cheng Guoxu. The salty, fishy odor caused Xu Fu to feel disgusted. It made Xu Fu furious, but he had nowhere to vent, “Why do good people never live long, but scum can live for an eternity!”

“Mu Qin! Wake up, are you alright!?” Mu Qin heard Qiu Zijia’s urgent call ringing next to his ear. He hazily opened his eyes. Right after opening his eyes, his whole body uncontrollably shivered a bit because the surroundings were really too cold. The pouring rain had yet to stop coming down, and the rainwater crashed onto Mu Qin and Qiu Zijia, scouring their bodies.

For safety purposes, Mu Qin chose not to bring Qiu Zijia to enter the building. Instead, they directly crouched among the flowerbed in the courtyard.

After the orphanage was abandoned, this flowerbed was also left unmanaged. Lush weeds grew wildly, growing even taller than people. Mu Qin and the others crouched in the grass, and towering weeds became their natural barrier. In addition, the courtyard didn’t have lights, and moonlight couldn’t be seen in the rainy night. There wasn’t the slightest amount of brightness. The place was completely pitch-black, reaching out a hand and fingers couldn’t be seen. Hiding in such a dark place was, on the contrary, safer than hiding in a building.

There were even rows and rows of trees planted next to the flowerbed. Although some trees had withered, there were still some trees that survived and grew very naturally. Dense branches and leaves turned into a tree umbrella. Mu Qin and the others could take shelter from the rain under the trees. Fortunately, even though the rain came down fiercely, there was neither thunder nor lightning in the sky. Mu Qin thought there likely wouldn’t occur the calamity of lightning striking a tree and lighting it on fire.

It was just that it was freezing outside, unlike in the buildings where it was warm and they could hide from the cold weather. Mu Qin estimated the temperature was below ten degrees celsius. Under this temperature, the human body could already distinctly feel the cold. Add on the ice-cold dampness from the rainwater, in that instant, even Mu Qin, who previously thought his body was sufficiently healthy and robust, almost seemed to pass out.

On the contrary, Qiu Zijia was still able to remain conscious. He hugged Mu Qin’s arm and huddled toward him to keep warm. His voice contained uncontainable fear, “You’d better not have any problems!”

Mu Qin reached out and rubbed the wet hair on his forehead, replying, “I’m fine. My body probably can’t take it anymore, so earlier I unexpectedly lost consciousness for a few minutes.”

After hearing this, Qiu Zijia unexpectedly reached out and hugged Mu Qin’s shoulders, attempting to maximize the body heat he transferred to Mu Qin. He asked Mu Qin, “Are you cold? We won’t be cold anymore if the two of us huddle together.”

Mu Qin patted Qiu Zijia’s arm and inquired, “What about Han Li?”

Qiu Zijia answered, “I moved her next to a tree and leaned her against it. She’s still alive, just passed out.”

Mu Qin pondered briefly and spoke to Qiu Zijia again, “We can’t stay here for too long. We need to find a safe place.”

“Where… where is it actually safe?” Qiu Zijia was at his wits’ end. A series of terrifying encounters and a murderer’s oppression already caused his mind to be on the verge of collapse. He appeared both frightened and fragile. He clearly wasn’t like Mu Qin, who had a kind of strong and heroic psychological quality.

“I don’t know either… where is a safe place.” Mu Qin faintly let out a sigh and continued, “Forget it. Let’s not think of this for now, and rest a little here.”

After he finished speaking, Mu Qin didn’t speak anymore, and Qiu Zijia also didn’t know what he should say. Thus, the two people stayed quietly under the trees’ shelter, enduring the raindrops that from time to time penetrated the small gaps in the tree leaves, bearing the chilling wind that randomly blew from all directions, and watching the twinkling lights coming from various buildings not too far from them.

After waiting silently for a while, Mu Qin spoke all of a sudden, “Qiu Zijia, there’s one thing you said very correct.”

Qiu Zijia failed to understand, “Which thing?”

“Didn’t you say earlier, the few of us and this orphanage have connections?” Mu Qin replied.

Qiu Zijia nodded, “Indeed, I did say that.”

Mu Qin started laughing, letting out laughter, “Not only do we have connections with this orphanage, I even think that all of us here have criminal records.”

Mu Qin’s words made Qiu Zijia blank out. Not only did he blank out, even his body stiffened. After a long time, Qiu Zijia asked Mu Qin, “How can you be certain all of us here have criminal records?”

“Think about it. Didn’t Xu Fu himself admit he is a murderer? In addition there’s Han Li. She confessed in the chapel just now that she has black history of abusing children.” Mu Qin took a deep breath and slowly exercised his arms and legs to warm up his body back up, “Moreover I discovered Cheng Guoxu. He is a serial killer trash of society who sadistically kills and sexually assaults children.”

“Hold on!” Mu Qin’s sentence scared Qiu Zijia. It scared him so much his hands started shaking, “You said Cheng Guoxu… he… he!?”

“Ah, that’s right.” Mu Qin patted Qiu Zijia’s arm again, indicating for him to release the arm hugging his shoulders. Then, Mu Qin started explaining the whole sequence of events, “I felt peculiar about some of his behaviors. Added on to just now when he hurriedly rushed up to Xu Fu to attack him so impatiently, it makes me even more certain of this point.”

From the first time Mu Qin saw Cheng Guoxu, he at once thought this man had killed people before.

Mu Qin was able to differentiate it. He was in the army for so long, so Mu Qin could distinctly distinguish veteran had killed a person before.

Previously, he had encountered a group of soldiers who constantly struggled, fighting on the frontlines, fighting against terrorists, and catching running drug traffickers. These people were always on the battlefield, protecting the peace of the borderlands. Their hands have all more or less taken human lives. After being in contact with these people for a period of time, Mu Qin became vaguely able to sense that a killer’s gaze was different from a normal person’s gaze.

Mu Qin was unable to use any words to concretely describe this kind of keen sense he had, but he really could distinctly recognize it.

And as a result, when he first saw Cheng Guoxu, he felt odd. Why did the self-proclaimed ordinary factory worker, Cheng Guoxu, have that kind of look in his eyes?

Perhaps it was a misperception.

At the start, Mu Qin still comforted himself this way because he was unable to verify if this intriguing sense of his was one-hundred percent accurate. Maybe it was because his eyesight was blurred, or maybe it was because he judged incorrectly. In short, Mu Qin chose to remain taciturn and silent, calmly waiting for things to change. However, the following things that happened on the contrary let Mu Qin increasingly confirm that it wasn’t his misperception. The guy called Cheng Guoxu really had killed a person before.

First of all was his expression when he saw the deceased corpse in the stairwell. Normal people… at least a person who has never been in contact with a dead body, someone whose identity isn’t a doctor, a forensic scientist, or any other normal person whose identity doesn’t require him or her to deal with corpses, when they suddenly see a corpse of the same kind covered in blood corpse with a completely destroyed face, disgust and nausea are common conditions. Even if it wasn’t the first time Cheng Guoxu saw this sort of dead person dripping and covered in blood, under a normal state of mind, he would still not be able to help but move his gaze away quickly. This point was the same regardless of males or females.

Yet Cheng Guoxu nevertheless was unusually calm. Other than his face paling for a second, he didn’t have any other reactions. Mu Qin even found that he stared at the corpse for a very long time.

The gaze he used to attentively watched the corpse looked like he was investigating something.

Mu Qin, who discovered this, thus began to harbor some doubts about his self-proclaimed “worker” identity.