Chapter 646 Qin
“How could they be dead?!”
Lun Heping’s adoptive parents had always been quite good to the orphan they had taken in since childhood.
It was just a pity that, being in the throes of rebellious adolescence, his interest in the opposite sex far outweighed any attention he paid to the two nagging old folks.
But rebellion was one thing; upon truly hearing the news of the elderly couple’s demise, Lun still felt deeply disturbed.
Especially since, for some reason, the killer had turned out to be him!
“Someone must have framed me.”
Before he could mourn his adoptive parents’ deaths, Lun Heping’s first thought was how to escape this situation unscathed.
The Directorate of Investigations had already issued a warrant, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, if he were caught, it would be a dead end.
While abundant free energy had popularized technology, it hadn’t brought about progress in the social system.
With the Emperor high above, nobles revolving around him like stars around the moon, it was a nation where inequality between people was explicitly enshrined in law.
Commoners accused of murder didn’t even require public trials; as long as the Directorate of Investigations consented, a death sentence could be directly handed down.
Such incidents frequently occurred, aimed at boosting clearance rates while maintaining fear among the populace.
...
“Who can I trust?”
With such a monumental disaster unfolding, he doubted any friend would dare to take him in. Imperial law stipulated that harboring a criminal was tantamount to being an accomplice.
“Relatives?”
As a war orphan, his so-called relatives were all his adoptive parents’ kin. Now that he was firmly branded with the crime of patricide, it would be incredibly generous of them not to apprehend him themselves.
“Right, there’s also her.”
Lun Heping suddenly remembered he had a so-called “older sister.”
Both had been adopted over a decade ago by the same couple, but the other child had been sent to a mental institution not long after, though his adoptive parents would occasionally visit her.
Thus, his memories of this “older sister” were largely limited to how scared he had been of her as a child.
...
“Driver, Ziluolan Hospital.”
Lun Heping quietly disembarked the bus, then flagged down a taxi.
“Ziluolan Hospital?” The driver frowned but said nothing.
After driving for nearly half an hour, the car slowly pulled up to the entrance of an old, yellow-walled hospital.
“Kid, this place is a bit creepy,” the driver couldn’t help but warn, telling Lun Heping to be careful.
“Uh, thanks, driver.” Lun Heping acknowledged, then opened the door and stepped out.
...
Everything he had just experienced, coupled with his adoptive parents’ deaths, had matured him significantly in the span of just one hour.
Standing alone before the hospital entrance, his heart was filled with profound confusion.
The hospital stood amidst a sparse grove of trees, a thin layer of fallen leaves carpeting the ground, with only a single road leading outside.
If there was anywhere news traveled slowest, this place was undoubtedly one of them.
The radiance of the Origin Stone seemed to have entirely bypassed this antiquated hospital. Through the gate, dotted with flecks of rust, one could clearly see the interior.
White-clad orderlies sat to one side, engrossed in gossip magazines, only occasionally lifting their heads to glance at the patients out for their “fresh air.”
Both orderlies and patients seemed utterly quiet, a silence that bordered on unnerving.
...
“Sign in.” The elderly receptionist, an auntie, wearily extended a small booklet.
Lun Heping looked at the blank for “Visitor Name” in the booklet, hesitated, then wrote down the alias Lun Ye.
“Are you Lun Qin’s family?” The auntie’s hand trembled slightly as she took the booklet, as if the name signified something ominous.
“Yes, what’s wrong?” Lun Heping was puzzled.
“What about the couple who used to visit every year? Why aren’t they here?” The middle-aged auntie seemed to remember Lun Qin’s affairs quite clearly.
“They... they passed away.”
“Such a jinx,” the auntie muttered under her breath, unrestrained by his reaction, paying no mind to Lun Heping’s expression.
“Fifth floor, the innermost Room 507.”
After a few grumbled words, the auntie pointed towards the old elevator.
“Excuse me... is there a staircase?” Lun Heping asked. After observing the elevator’s questionable condition, he decided taking the stairs would be safer.
...
Following the auntie’s direction, he cautiously made his way through the relatively clean corridor, arriving at a staircase littered with cigarette butts and trash.
Numerous piles of garbage were stacked in the stairwell, indicating it hadn’t been cleaned in a very long time.
“How come there’s nobody on the fifth floor?”
After finally navigating through the heaps of trash and reaching the fifth floor, Lun Heping found it eerily quiet, a deathly silence.
The only sound was his own footsteps.
Not even the dripping of water, a sound often used to set a creepy mood, could be heard.
But Lun Heping, burdened by his worries, didn’t pay much attention to these details. His adoptive parents’ deaths, his inexplicable transformation into a murderer, Hui’s last shout—these explosive revelations had long since churned his mind into a muddled mess.
Even if ghosts were truly present, fear would have been pushed aside by his overwhelming anxieties.
“Sis?” Lun Heping walked up to the door of Room 507 and gently knocked.
The door wasn’t actually locked, but he still knocked twice out of politeness.
He wasn’t sure what the point was in seeking out this older sister—not related by blood, and institutionalized in a mental hospital for so long.
Yet, a force within him seemed to be urging him to go find her.
The door opened by itself.
In the spacious room, a girl in a plain white dress sat quietly, playing on her phone.
A gentle breeze stirred her long hair, revealing half of her serene face.
The scene before him made Lun Heping disbelieve he was in a mental hospital at all.
However, the girl’s face, far prettier than Hui’s, didn’t stir a single trace of desire in the young man.
Instead, a faint chill crept up his spine.
...
“You’re here.”
Lun Qin said it so casually, utterly unlike someone speaking to a person she hadn’t seen in over a decade.
The astonished young man nodded stiffly.
“It seems they’re dead.” The girl spoke of his adoptive parents’ deaths in a tone of utter flatness.
The astonished young man nodded stiffly once more.
“Why do you act like nothing happened?!
And why do you act like you know everything?!”
Lun Heping’s hysterical howl completely shattered the deathly silence on the fifth floor.
Having endured immense psychological pressure, far beyond what someone his age should, the young man was on the verge of collapse.
He had followed an instinctive call, painstakingly making his way here, believing he might find a sliver of hope, only to be met with such a reply. Lun Heping simply couldn’t accept it.
His logic was now somewhat muddled.
The dilapidated building’s soundproofing wasn’t particularly good; sounds from the fifth floor could easily carry to the fourth. Yet, no one came to stop him..
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