Chapter 761: The Legacy of the Jinx

Returning to the city, Xin Bai was still asleep on the bus. Chen Shi shook him awake. Xin Bai jumped up excitedly, saying, “Haha, I did it! I successfully controlled my dream!”

“Can you calm down? Stop trying these dangerous things and just focus on writing your novels,” Chen Shi frowned. “Haven’t you learned your lesson today? Do you want to end up in a mental hospital?”

“Well… it’s just really fun!” Xin Bai admitted sheepishly.

“Just go home. We have other things to do.”

Xin Bai wanted to tag along, but Chen Shi firmly sent him away. With daylight still on their side, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue decided to visit Du Zilin. Using the police residency database, they found Du Zilin’s address and arrived at a villa around five o’clock.

Through the iron gates of the villa, Lin Dongxue noticed the yard covered in leaves, as if it hadn’t been cleaned for a while. “This place feels a bit eerie,” she said.

“Probably because the windows are all boarded up.”

“Yeah, it looks like a haunted house.”

Not sure if anyone still lived there, Chen Shi tried the intercom. A face appeared on the small screen, eyes wide open. “Password?”

“Are you Mr. Du? We’re police officers, here to ask you some questions.”

“ID!”

Lin Dongxue held up her police badge. The person wanted the badge opened. Still not satisfied, they also wanted to see Chen Shi’s badge and asked them to name three police colleagues.

“Is this really necessary? We are genuine police officers,” Lin Dongxue said, exasperated.

“Fake badges are easy to make. Unless you prove you’re real cops, I’m not letting you in,” the person replied.

“Fine, fine…” Lin Dongxue rattled off three names.

“Now recite the police code for me.”

“Are you done yet?!”

“No code, no entry!”

Lin Dongxue gritted her teeth. It was ridiculous to go through this just to get in. She begrudgingly recited a few lines from the police code. The face disappeared from the screen, and with a click, the iron gate opened.

Entering the villa felt like stepping into a castle. The place was dead silent, furniture covered in dust. The hallway even had an iron gate. Lin Dongxue knocked, and a man wrapped in a blanket appeared, unlocking three locks on the gate.

He led them to a bedroom with no windows. The walls were thick, covered in fireproof insulation. The room had a computer, fridge, bed, sofa, and piles of trash emitting a foul smell.

“First of all, I’m not crazy. I’m hiding here because someone wants to kill me. I ran over thirteen people, but only served three years. The victims’ families are out to get me, so I bought this place and live in hiding,” said the man wrapped in the blanket.

“You’re Du Zilin?”

“Yes. What do you want?” he said, leaning on the sofa, picking up a half-eaten cup of instant noodles.

“How long have you been here?”

“Since I got out of prison, I haven’t left. I have enough savings to stay hidden forever.”

“Honestly, I don’t buy the acute transient psychosis defense your lawyer used,” Chen Shi said.

“What’s your problem!” Du Zilin flared up, spilling noodle soup everywhere. “I paid all the compensation. The court decided my sentence based on that diagnosis. The law is on my side. What more do you want!”

“Calm down. We’re not here about that. Did you attend Yin Xian Middle School?”

“Yeah,” Du Zilin was puzzled. “I graduated ages ago. Why ask now?”

“Do you remember a girl named Han Meng?”

“Han Meng?” Du Zilin sneered. “That girl who smelled like crap? What about her? Did she die?”

Judging by his reaction, Du Zilin was one of the bullies. Chen Shi went straight to the point, “We’re investigating a murder, but it’s not Han Meng. Do you know XX, XX, XX, and Lu Ming?”

“They were all classmates. What happened to them?” Du Zilin’s expression grew tense.

“They were murdered!”

“What?!” Du Zilin jumped onto the sofa, flailing. “I wasn’t the ringleader who bullied her. The whole class hated her. What could I do? Sympathy? Screw that! Bullying her was the right thing to do in our class. If I didn’t, the other boys would tease me, saying I liked her. That would be humiliating!”

Hearing this, Lin Dongxue frowned. Chen Shi asked, “Did all four of them bully Han Meng?”

“Who didn’t bully her!” Du Zilin sneered. “If you were in our class, you’d bully her too. She was born to be bullied. Once, I slapped her, and she kept apologizing, making me angrier. By the end, my hand was swollen… She deserved everything!”

Lin Dongxue couldn’t hold back, “You treated a defenseless girl like that? What a man!”

“She was a jinx! A jinx! Born to curse her parents to death, smelling like shit. Don’t talk about equality. She was a two-legged dog, living a miserable life!”

Chen Shi signaled Lin Dongxue to hold back and asked Du Zilin, “Were there any strange stories about Han Meng in the town?”

“Sure, everyone called her a jinx. Outsiders like you get all riled up about bullying, but it’s a tradition in our town! There’s always someone with a tough fate, ugly, or disabled, called the jinx. We bully them to transfer our bad luck. When one jinx dies, another appears. Han Meng was the new jinx after the old cripple died. Bullying her was justified! Once, during a heavy rain, my mom was worried sick about my dad being late. She told me to beat Han Meng to keep my dad safe… That’s our tradition. Outsiders don’t understand.”

Lin Dongxue was appalled.