The Truth from Five Years Ago

"Are you short on money? I can help you." I looked at him as I spoke.

"I know you're loyal, Boss, but I'd rather earn the money myself." Wu Yong looked at me, his eyes reddening. "Yesterday, I confessed to the girl I've had a crush on for years, but she looked down on me and said I was poor."

"But I know her boyfriend is a scumbag who flirts with girls everywhere. He's rich, though. And me? I came from the countryside and don't have any money at all."

"I've had a crush on her for seven years, from middle school through high school. But I got nothing in return. These days, student couples are renting rooms at hotels outside every day. I'm envious, but there's nothing I can do."

I patted him on the shoulder and comforted him. "I understand how you feel, but what we do is extremely dangerous."

"No matter how dangerous it is, it's fine as long as it makes money." Wu Yong looked at me pleadingly.

I still didn't agree to let him join. Instead, I quietly took out WeChat and transferred a large sum of money to him. Wu Yong froze. His eyes were red as he looked at me and said softly, "Boss, thank you."

"It's nothing." I smiled faintly.

At noon, I took him out to eat again and deliberately told him that what we did was a pyramid scheme. I warned him not to become like me. It was illegal.

Wu Yong believed me and looked at me gratefully.

That afternoon, I received a call from Li Tongtian. He told me he had found an important clue.

When I found him, he was in a pavilion. The first thing he said when he saw me was, "I found Han Qianqian's home."

"What!" I froze for a moment, my eyes lighting up with excitement. "That's great! How did you find it?"

"Although what happened five years ago was covered up, there were still traces left behind. I tracked down the funeral parlor that accepted Han Qianqian's body, then found her parents through the funeral parlor's contact number." Li Tongtian looked at me as he spoke.

The Truth from Five Years Ago

"That really wasn't easy. Now that we've found Han Qianqian's parents, we can finally learn the truth about everything that happened five years ago." I looked at him as I spoke.

"Yeah." Li Tongtian nodded, his eyes filled with excitement.

We immediately set off for Han Qianqian's home.

We arrived in a shantytown and turned left and right until we reached a secluded bungalow. When I knocked on the door, a middle-aged woman opened it.

She glanced at us and asked, "Who are you?"

Li Tongtian said, "I'm the person who called you. We're here to investigate what happened back then."

"Come in." The middle-aged woman glanced at us. Her face was weathered. Although she looked only to be in her forties, she seemed like an old woman.

The room was dim, but I immediately saw Han Qianqian's photograph on the table. In it, she was wearing her school uniform and radiating youthful vitality. Her face was not yet pale like a corpse's.

I unconsciously sat down on the sofa nearby and asked softly, "I want to know how Senior Han Qianqian died."

"What good will knowing do? She committed suicide." The woman gave a bitter laugh, shook her head, and looked at us. "What exactly do you want?"

"I heard that a scumbag got Senior pregnant back then," I said softly.

Unexpectedly, the woman's expression changed immediately. She gritted her teeth. "It was all that Li Yang's fault. He killed my daughter. If not for him, my daughter would never have done something so extreme!"

"But I heard about something else." Li Tongtian suddenly spoke, looking at her. "After your daughter committed suicide, something very strange seemed to happen."

"Hahahaha!" The woman suddenly burst into wild laughter, her face becoming horribly twisted.

The sight made my and Li Tongtian's hearts pound. We both shuddered involuntarily.

"I wondered why you came. As expected, it's because of my daughter." The woman looked at us with a gloomy expression. "Whatever she did, it was all because of people like you. If you hadn't forced her so relentlessly back then, she wouldn't have killed herself."

"Unfortunately, the person who harmed my daughter is still living well even now. Heaven truly is blind!"

"But it doesn't matter. Sooner or later, she'll kill every last one of you!"

As she spoke, she pointed at us, her eyes filled with madness.

Just then, a man entered. He hurried over, embraced the woman, and continuously comforted her. After a while, when she had calmed down, he turned to us and said, "I'm sorry. Ever since our daughter passed away, her mental state hasn't been very stable."

"Is that so?" My expression remained unchanged, but waves surged inside me.

The woman had sounded completely lucid just now. She hadn't seemed mentally ill at all.

Could it be as she said? Would Han Qianqian kill every one of us?

Li Tongtian took the opportunity to ask, "Could you tell us what exactly happened to Senior Han Qianqian back then?"

The man sighed, his gaze gentle. "My daughter had always been obedient and adorable. Who would have thought that after she entered high school, she would become absent-minded all the time? She told me that a boy had been pursuing her, but I didn't pay much attention."

"Because I knew my daughter. She had always put her studies first. But at some point, she became sensitive and fragile, as though she were on the verge of a breakdown. It was only then that we discovered she was pregnant."

"Her mother beat her and made her take us to find that Li Yang. She refused no matter what. But her mother went anyway, only to find that Li Yang flatly denied everything. Her mother wanted to report him, but Li Yang's background was simply too powerful. There was nothing we could do."

"Later, Qianqian had the baby aborted, but after that, she became withdrawn. Her grades plummeted as well."

"Just when we were preparing to transfer her to another school, she suddenly broke down and chose to commit suicide."

At this point, he covered his face, his expression filled with pain and despair.

I froze and looked at him. I wanted to ask something, but I didn't know how to begin.

Li Tongtian, however, asked, "Then did anything else happen after your daughter died?"

"There was one thing. A monk suddenly came to our home and took some of her belongings." The man recalled the incident.

There was no doubt that this person was Master Du Mo. I wasn't surprised, but after hesitating for a moment, I looked at him and asked, "But I heard that after Han Qianqian died, something strange seemed to happen at the school."

"I don't know anything about that." The man's attitude suddenly turned cold. He looked at me with a trace of hostility in his eyes.