Su Xiao sat on a stone bench by the roadside. Not far away, a homeless man lay wrapped in a torn piece of cloth. Most notably, his body occasionally twitched.
In front of the homeless man, a sturdy man wearing a short shirt of fine linen was crouching. He held a knife nearly forty centimeters long. Its edge had been sharpened extremely finely, and its handle was wrapped in bloodstained strips of cloth.
The sturdy man had been crouching there for a while. He seemed to be growing impatient. In front of him, the homeless man wrapped in the torn cloth twitched from time to time.
Suddenly, the homeless man sat up. After staring blankly for a moment, his expression twisted violently. He bared his dry, yellow teeth, saliva spraying through the gaps, while black lines appeared across his face and spread down to his neck.
Seeing this, the sturdy man grabbed the homeless man by the hair with one hand. With the knife in his other hand pressed against the homeless man's neck, he slashed hard.
With a swish, blood gushed out. Yet the homeless man, despite having his throat cut, seemed unable to feel pain. He reached for the sturdy man's face with one hand.
The sturdy man pinned the homeless man to the ground. There was no cruelty in his eyes, only numbness, as if he had long grown accustomed to scenes like this.
"Brother, I'll help you find release. It'll be over soon. My knife is very sharp."
As he spoke, the sturdy man stabbed the homeless man in the back of the chest.
"Bear with it a little longer. Just a little longer, and it'll be over."
As the sturdy man spoke, the homeless man, who had been struggling violently, gradually lost his strength. His