Chapter 108
Chapter 108
Back in the car, I called my dad.
He picked up almost immediately. “Hello, Chen Mo?”
Hearing his voice, for some reason, it felt like he wasn’t my father anymore. He sounded like a complete stranger.
I couldn’t hold back my tears. I opened my mouth, but I couldn’t bring myself to say the word “Dad.”
“Chen Mo? Why aren’t you talking? Is there no signal?”
“Where are you?” I asked, still refusing to address him.
The other end went silent for several seconds.
“At the factory…” my dad finally said.
I took a breath, struggling to suppress the grief in my heart. “I told you not to go to the factory. Why did you go back?”
He gave a sheepish laugh. “It’s just been so busy lately. There are so many accounting matters at the factory waiting for me to handle. But don’t worry, Uncle Huang arranged for two extra security guards. Nothing will happen to me.”
Of course nothing would happen to him.
Because he was the killer.
“I need to talk to you about something. Wait for me at the factory.”
With that, I hung up.
The car soon arrived at the factory. Song Xiaotian had truly gone above and beyond for me. He stayed in the car with Meng Yifan and waved me off. “Go on. We’ll wait for you out here.”
I nodded, signed in at the security room, and headed toward my father’s office.
This was perhaps the longest walk of my life.
My heart felt even heavier than it did the day my mother passed away.
After today, I might not even have a father left…
When I reached his office, I didn’t knock. I pushed the door open and walked straight in.
My dad must have sensed something was wrong; his expression looked incredibly unnatural.
I closed the door, locked it, and sat down across from him.
“What’s the matter? Why the rush?” My dad smiled, looking at me.
I stared back at him and asked, “You’ve never been a particularly brave man. Now that you know there’s a killer at the factory-one who’s targeting the people around me-how did you have the guts to come back to work?”
The look on my father’s face went beyond being unnatural; it turned stiff. One look was enough to tell he had a guilty conscience.
“I… I just… felt bad about leaving. After all, Uncle Huang and I are friends. You don’t need to worry about me.”
“I don’t need to worry. How could a killer possibly kill himself?”
My dad began to tremble with visible nerves. “Chen Mo, what are you saying? I don’t understand.”
“Do you know Fang Man?” I asked him.
“I don’t-oh, no, I do. I know. You mentioned her, she’s your girlfriend. Something happened to her.”
“Who killed her?”
“Huh?”
“Who gave the driver two hundred thousand to run Fang Man over?”
“I… I don’t know. How could I possibly know that…”
Seeing my father playing dumb, and then thinking of how Fang Man looked when she died, a spark of nameless rage suddenly surged in my heart.
Like a mental patient pushed over the edge, I snapped.
“How could you not know? How could you possibly not know! You gave him the money! You’re the one who had him kill Fang Man! And you say you don’t know! Who was the one who went to see Lv Zhengxian? Was it you?!”
“No, it wasn’t…”
My dad was scared witless, frozen in his chair. “Son, what’s wrong with you today? What are you talking about?”
“Who killed Wang Shujun? Who pushed Wang Shujun into the river?” I roared, my eyes bloodshot. “Was it you?!”
He suddenly fell silent, sitting there with a vacant expression.
“In this entire factory, someone who can hold their liquor, who can brazenly turn off the surveillance, and who can steal car keys from Wang Hua… I can’t think of a single person other than you.”
Tears streamed down my face as I looked at him. “Fifteen years ago, I fell gravely ill. It was incurable, and I was on the brink of death. To keep me alive, you used the Seven-Deaths Life-Exchange Technique to extend my life. But you were a coward; you didn’t dare to kill anyone yourself. So you hired Lv Zhengxian and Li Xiumei to act as your executioners. Whoever you marked for death, they killed.”
“I survived because of that, but seven people died for me. Their families were destroyed, and they’ve lived in agony ever since.”
The first victim that came to mind was Du Yuwei.
It turned out that I was the true culprit.
It was me. Because of me, her family was ruined, she was claimed by Du Ruhai, and her entire life was destroyed.
“I could never understand it. Before I got sick, my mother loved me so much. She couldn’t bear to scold me, let alone hit me. But after I recovered, she became a different person. She stopped loving her son; she began to resent him. Eventually, without a single word, she abandoned the flesh and blood she had carried for ten months and vanished without a trace.”
As I spoke, I broke down into uncontrollable sobs. “I always thought she ran off with another man. I always thought she was a bad woman. But she was actually a good person-a kind person. She couldn’t accept that her son’s life was bought with seven innocent lives. Her conscience couldn’t take it. Every time she looked at me, she was reminded that you killed seven people. That’s why she left. I never saw her again. I never saw my mother again.”
My father kept his head bowed, remaining silent. The surface of the desk was covered with his tears.
“A few days ago, when I performed the Soul Summoning for Li Xiumei, you were afraid she would expose you. You were afraid I would find out that the refined, gentle father I looked up to had done those things. You hid in the master bedroom of that house and sabotaged the ritual.”
“But you still worried about your son. You’re clever; you even deduced that my next step would be to investigate Du Ruhai’s home. You stole Wang Hua’s motorcycle to wait outside the villa and back me up. You saved your son yet again.”
“Then you were threatened by Du Ruhai and hired a hitman to run over a girl. You didn’t know then that she was the woman your son loved most. And you certainly didn’t expect that your son would trace the investigation all the way to the factory just to find out who killed her.”
“You were terrified of being exposed, terrified that your son would find out you were the one who killed that girl. You made one mistake after another, eventually killing Wang Shujun by pushing him into the river and cutting out his tongue.”
When I finished, I started to laugh. In the depths of my grief, I had lost control of my emotions. I simply laughed through the pain.
My father looked up at me, his eyes already bloodshot.
“What right do I have to judge you? After all, you did everything for me. How am I even fit to live in this world!”
“I’ll give my life back to you. Go turn yourself in. Go atone for your sins.”
With that, I grabbed a pair of scissors from the desk and lunged them toward my throat.
I couldn’t stop myself; I only knew that I had to die.
My father’s eyes widened. He suddenly lunged forward, slapped me hard across the face, and wrenched the scissors from my hand.
He stared at me, dazed.
I stared blankly at the floor.
After a long silence, he spoke. “Give me a little time. Two days. In two days, I will tell you the whole truth. I will turn myself in and give those victims the justice they deserve.”