Chapter 313
Yang Haoran came here tonight after bidding farewell to Xu Meijing.
With his ability to sense Yin Qi, he naturally detected the presence of a ghost with ease. What he hadn't expected, however, was that this ghost was a little girl.
He had seen the little girl's corpse by the river earlier today, and had also seen her face, so he remembered her appearance.
Yang Haoran was both startled and curious as to why the little girl's soul was here. He then activated his Ghost Eye, clearly seeing every moment leading up to her death.
After learning who had killed the little girl, Yang Haoran's astonishment did not lessen; instead, it intensified. The killer, he realized, was the very person he had intended to help tonight.
This outcome left Yang Haoran truly speechless. He couldn't help but lament the irony of fate; he had intended to forge a good connection, but had almost ended up helping someone he shouldn't have, at least in his eyes.
After Yang Haoran appeared, the little girl instinctively sensed danger from him. She tried to flee, but with her limited abilities, how could she possibly escape Yang Haoran's grasp?
However, only after Yang Haoran revealed his identity and assured her he had no intention of harming her did the little girl calm down.
Yang Haoran didn't know why Wu Mei had killed the little girl, nor what her motive was. Even with his Ghost Eye, he couldn't discern that.
Due to her family's circumstances, the little girl's school was not in the city, but rather a small, utterly ordinary elementary school in a rural town.
Few parents of children attending school there dropped them off in the morning or picked them up in the evening; they simply didn't have the time, and moreover, most parents didn't see the necessity.
Thus, whether going to or from school, children usually walked together in groups.
Of course, there were also isolated children who didn't fit in, preferring to walk alone. The little girl was one such person.
That day after school, the little girl was walking home alone as usual when she encountered Wu Mei.
As Wu Mei was Lao Zhang's neighbor, the little girl not only knew Wu Mei but also quite liked her.
Wu Mei's appearance made the little girl very happy, and she became even happier when Wu Mei produced some candies.
Capitalizing on the little girl's joyous mood, Wu Mei told her that she had specifically come back to take her into the city, as the little girl's father had asked her to make the trip.
The little girl didn't doubt Wu Mei's words. After all, she was just a child and wouldn't think too deeply. Furthermore, Wu Mei was their neighbor and did work with her father in the city, so she completely trusted Wu Mei's words.
And so, the little girl left with Wu Mei.
Wu Mei didn't take the little girl by car, telling her that riding was too expensive and the money saved could buy a lot of candy. She promised that once they reached the city, she'd use the saved money to buy the little girl sweets and new clothes.
The little girl was overjoyed and readily agreed. For a child accustomed to mountain paths, walking truly meant nothing. If reaching the city meant getting candy and new clothes, her choice was, of course, to walk there.
Although the road to the city was long, she walked a considerable distance to and from school every day, and over time, it had become a habit. In her eyes, normal walking didn't make her feel tired, just a little time-consuming.
And so, the little girl followed Wu Mei along what she called a "shortcut," inching closer to her death.
The little girl never doubted Wu Mei, nor did she sense anything amiss, but the scenes Yang Haoran witnessed through his Ghost Eye revealed many disturbing issues.
Several times, Wu Mei harbored murderous intent towards the little girl. She looked around, wanting to dispose of the child when no one was watching, but ultimately she didn't act.
In Yang Haoran's view, it wasn't that Wu Mei was soft-hearted, but rather that the timing wasn't right. The naive little girl, however, had no idea of the wickedness in human hearts and paid no attention to this.
It wasn't until they reached the river that the tragedy unfolded.
At the location where Yang Haoran discovered the little girl's body, there was an ancient arch bridge nearby. This bridge had once been built to facilitate passage across the river for pedestrians, but as residents gradually moved away from both banks, the bridge slowly fell into disuse.
By now, the area was completely uninhabited. Coupled with its remote location and sparse pedestrian traffic, the unrepaired and unmaintained arch bridge had naturally become dilapidated and covered in moss.
Yet, it was this very stone arch bridge, once used for crossing the river, that became the scene of Wu Mei's crime that night.
Wu Mei took out a burlap sack she had hidden there earlier. When the little girl wasn't paying attention, she forcibly shoved her into the sack.
The little girl was terrified. All she could do was struggle and cry loudly, unable even to beg for mercy. But it was late at night, and the area was extremely remote; no one but Wu Mei could hear her screams.
Although Wu Mei could hear her cries and see her struggles, Wu Mei was determined to kill her. So, the little girl's struggles and tears did not make Wu Mei stop; instead, they made her quicken her pace.
After tying a pre-prepared stone to the sack, she threw the sack into the river.
The cries were replaced by the sound of choking water. The sack slowly vanished beneath the moonlit surface, while Wu Mei stood emotionless on the bank, watching it sink bit by bit.
Wu Mei had worked on construction sites for years; while not exactly burly, she certainly wasn't weak. Her strength was considerable, and combined with the little girl's emaciated state from malnutrition, throwing her into the river from the arch bridge was not a difficult task, even if the child had still been alive and struggling violently.
Wu Mei chose the burlap sack because it was large and sturdy enough that the little girl's strength wouldn't allow her to break free.
Furthermore, the spot she chose for the murder was very deep. If successful, the little girl would surely die and be difficult to discover.
After the sack disappeared beneath the surface, Wu Mei did not leave immediately. She then used another bag to wrap the little girl's backpack, tied a stone to it in the same manner, and threw the backpack into the river.
Only after confirming multiple times that there were no issues did she leave the crime scene. She believed her entire process was foolproof, but how could she have imagined that the sack would be hooked by a fisherman's rod?
Wu Mei had been very nervous during the murder, so she was somewhat hasty when tying the stone. Coupled with the little girl's constant struggling, the knot wasn't particularly secure, and after the fisherman's efforts, the stone actually came loose.
In truth, even without this coincidence, the matter couldn't have remained hidden with Yang Haoran present. He would still have used the fisherman's hands to retrieve the sack from the riverbed and investigate.
At this moment, Wu Mei was screaming and yelling inside the barrier as if she had gone mad. Desperate, she even picked up bricks from the ground and hurled them violently at the barrier.
However, when these bricks struck the barrier, every single one of them, without exception, bounced back.
Just then, the little girl transformed into a mass of Yin Qi and surged towards Wu Mei. Her Spirit Body suddenly solidified in front of Wu Mei, startling her so much that she stumbled and nearly fell to the ground again.
"Don't come near me! Don't come near me! Go away! Go away! " Wu Mei screamed, wildly flailing her hands, her face filled with terror, her voice laced with a sob.
"Auntie Wu Mei, why did you kill me? I trusted you so much."
The little girl spoke, but her voice was hollow, devoid of any emotion save for cold hatred.
"If you want to blame someone, blame your father! He promised to take me out to earn money, but what about now? The work's almost done, and I still haven't received my wages! That's money I'm owed! Why won't he give it to me? !"
"Your father promised time and again, but the result was always the same, disappointing me every time. I think he's in cahoots with the boss, deliberately withholding my wages so they can split my pay in the end!"
"And your mother! Just because your father's a foreman, she acts all high and mighty, looking down on everyone! What's so great about her? Isn't she also doing hard labor on the construction site? !"
Wu Mei was a mess of snot and tears, shouting hysterically at the little girl. Yang Haoran, at some point, had put away the smile on his face. He puffed on his cigarette, listening to Wu Mei's furious rant.
From Wu Mei's words, it was clear that she held a deep grievance against the little girl's parents. Though it hadn't shown during their usual interactions, her resentment had accumulated over time.
Wu Mei knew that the chances of harming the little girl's parents successfully were low, and it would easily expose her. That was why she decided to target the little girl instead, using it as a way to vent her dissatisfaction and pent-up resentment.
Yang Haoran had never met the little girl's parents, and naturally, knew nothing about them. Therefore, he couldn't determine whether Wu Mei was simply misunderstanding them or if her claims were true.
But in his opinion, none of that mattered. Even if Wu Mei had a deep-seated hatred for the little girl's parents, what did that have to do with a child?
He didn't know, nor did he care, what others thought of such matters. He firmly believed that "every wrong has its perpetrator, every debt its debtor. " If there was a problem, it should be directed at the person involved; there was no need to implicate the innocent.
The resentment and murderous intent in the little girl's heart did not diminish because of Wu Mei's words. She let out an angry ghost wail, her Spirit Body transforming into Yin Qi, and charged towards Wu Mei.
Earlier in the day, Yang Haoran had left a trace of Spirit Power inside Wu Mei's body. The primary purpose of this Spirit Power was for tracking; while it had some minor warding effects, they were very weak.
With the little girl's limited abilities, and the presence of that trace of Spirit Power, she wouldn't have dared to approach Wu Mei. That's why, before Yang Haoran appeared, she could only glare at Wu Mei from a distance, unwilling to come too close.
While Wu Mei was washing up, Yang Haoran had appeared unnoticed. Upon learning that Wu Mei was the little girl's killer, he withdrew that trace of Spirit Power, which was why the little girl's soul now dared to approach Wu Mei.
Although there was no longer any Spirit Power left by Yang Haoran in Wu Mei's body, the little girl's power was, after all, limited. It was clearly impossible for her to kill Wu Mei immediately, but filled with fury, she still charged angrily towards her killer.
At the same time, this construction site welcomed another unfamiliar guest.
"Such heavy Yin Qi. As expected, a ghost is at work!"
Comments