Chapter 896: A Change of Heart

Tao Yueyue pulled the knife out and furiously stabbed at Zhou Xiao, her mind filled with only one thought: avenging her sister Gu.

“Haha, you finally show some spirit, haha!” Zhou Xiao laughed as he stepped back to dodge. Tao Yueyue’s wild and clumsy knife strikes posed no real threat to him. He avoided her easily, taunting and mocking her.

Seeing an opening, Zhou Xiao slapped her hard across the face, sending her flying and causing her to drop the knife. He glanced at his wounded hand and then stepped on Tao Yueyue’s hand, grinding it under his foot. She screamed as her bones felt like they were about to snap.

After he felt satisfied with his revenge, Zhou Xiao lifted his foot, picked up the knife, and yanked her up by her hair, pressing the blade against her neck. Tao Yueyue’s face contorted in pain, her tears and snot mixing.

Zhou Xiao considered slitting her throat. All this talk about grooming a successor, to hell with it. Her slender neck pulsed with a vein, tempting him with the fantasy of slicing it open.

This reminded him of a parrot he once owned. It was colorful and smart, but one day, in a fit of depression, he killed it. There was a unique satisfaction in killing something beautiful, and he wanted to experience that again.

“I’ll plant a flower on your grave,” Zhou Xiao said.

As he prepared to cut her throat, Tao Yueyue begged, “Spare me!”

“What did you say?” Zhou Xiao couldn’t believe it. This girl who had been so fierce was now begging for mercy.

“Spare me, I was wrong. I’ll do anything to make up for it,” she pleaded, her voice trembling with humility.

“Even kill?” he asked.

“Anything,” she nodded frantically.

Zhou Xiao tapped her cheek with the knife. “I hope you’re not just saying this to save your life.”

“I promise!” Tao Yueyue’s eyes were filled with fear, like a timid little animal.

Zhou Xiao shoved the knife into her hand. “Go finish off that guy.”

Tao Yueyue nodded vigorously.

She found Lao Xie, who had tried to escape in the chaos but bled out quickly. He lay dead in a corner, his mouth slightly open, his pupils dilated.

Kneeling by his body, Tao Yueyue raised the knife, tears streaming down her face. She hated her own cowardice. She had intended to avenge Gu You with a death wish, but when Zhou Xiao threatened her, she shamefully chose to surrender.

But she wanted to live. Without life, nothing else mattered.

“Hurry up!” Zhou Xiao’s voice snapped her back to reality.

Tao Yueyue stabbed Lao Xie in the chest and pulled the knife out to stab again. Zhou Xiao came over, saw that the wound wasn’t bleeding, and said, “What? He’s already dead!”

Tao Yueyue just stood there, holding the knife. Zhou Xiao didn’t lower his guard. Instead, there was a strange calmness between them, like the calm after a storm.

“Drag the body out back and bury it. Clean up the blood,” Zhou Xiao ordered.

Tao Yueyue nodded and handed back the knife.

After the adrenaline wore off, Zhou Xiao felt drained. He sat at the dining table, smoking. The light cast shadows on his face, making him look mysterious and eerie like a temple statue.

Tao Yueyue emptied the dead man’s pockets and placed the items on a table. She then dragged the body outside. In the silence, she used a rusty shovel to dig a hole and pushed the body into it. Covering the body with dirt, she was overwhelmed with sorrow, thinking of Gu You. She cried uncontrollably.

It took until dawn to bury the four bodies. She knew that stray dogs would likely dig them up, a fact Chen Shi had once told her about the countryside. She imagined the police finding her clues, photographing them, and discussing them. It gave her a strange sense of achievement.

Maybe this was how murderers felt, their perverted desire to display their crimes as their legacy to the world.

Tao Yueyue knew she was a natural-born criminal. She recalled a foreign film she watched with Chen Shi. A devout Christian man despised the flamboyant male lead but ended up kissing him passionately one day.

Chen Shi had told her, “Yueyue, do you understand? What people fear most is often what they secretly desire.”

“What if I really desire those bad things?” she had asked.

Chen Shi’s answer was simple: “Transform it.”

As she looked at the dawn, Tao Yueyue realized it was Chen Shi’s words that had kept her from getting lost in the darkness.

Returning inside, she was surprised to find Zhou Xiao gone. Hearing water running, she saw his clothes at the bathroom door and found him taking a cold shower.

He looked exhausted, leaning against the wall as rusty water poured over him, resembling blood. When he saw Tao Yueyue, he turned off the shower and came out, drying himself with a jacket before collapsing against the wall, looking utterly spent. Tao Yueyue touched his forehead and found it burning hot.

He had a fever, likely from the infection in his hand.

“Get me a cigarette,” he ordered.

“Don’t smoke. Go to your room and rest. I’ll watch over you,” she suggested.

“Watch over me?” he sneered. “So you can lock the door and call the police with a dead man’s phone?”

“I… I won’t!” Tao Yueyue protested, though that had been her plan.

“Get me a cigarette!”

She brought him a cigarette and a cola. Zhou Xiao gulped down half the bottle and lit a cigarette, inhaling deeply. The caffeine and nicotine revived him but made him cough more.

“Get your things. We’re leaving.”

“You should rest here.”

“We made too much noise last night. It’s not safe. Let’s go while I can still drive.”

Tao Yueyue packed their things and helped the weakened Zhou Xiao. He could barely walk without support, yet he clutched his knife tightly. She knew she could escape now, and he couldn’t catch her.

But after what happened last night, her thoughts had shifted. Running away would only save her. Zhou Xiao would continue killing. He was like a rogue wolf, willing to do anything to survive.

She resolved to catch Zhou Xiao and bring him to justice.