Li Xiumei, Silenced for Good

By then, I had gradually calmed down.

I noticed that Li Xiumei was cooperating with us, which meant she had a terrible injustice she wanted to tell us about.

But for some reason, she couldn't speak.

That strange sound kept coming from her mouth.

Perhaps she was trying too hard to speak, because a huge mass of cement inexplicably gushed from her mouth, pouring out in a steady stream.

Meng Yifan and I nearly jumped out of our skins. Even the Seventh Master, who had been chanting scriptures, widened his eyes.

Although Xiao Qing was possessed by a ghost, she was still only possessed. Her body was still alive.

How could a living person spew cement from her mouth?

I remembered what the Seventh Master had said earlier: a ghost was actually just an energy field. It had no physical form, and it harmed people by using that field to affect their brain functions, making them hallucinate.

So the "cement spewing from her mouth" we were seeing had to be an illusion.

Meng Yifan was badly frightened by the sight. He turned and asked, "Seventh Master, what's happening to her?"

The Seventh Master stopped chanting and hurriedly told us, "Someone must have cut out her tongue and filled her mouth with cement before she died. They wanted to shut her up for good."

Meng Yifan and I sucked in sharp breaths.

Li Xiumei might have deserved to die, but whoever had killed her was vicious beyond belief.

Killing her hadn't been enough. They had actually cut out her tongue and poured cement into her mouth.

This was a textbook case of silencing a witness!

"Li Xiumei, if you can't speak, don't force yourself."

"I'll ask you questions. Just nod or shake your head."

I hurried to soothe her, afraid she might lose control. "Tell me, was the person who killed you Lü Zhengxian?"

Lü Zhengxian was the prime suspect, which was why I asked.

To my surprise, that name seemed to set her off.

With the living room's doors and windows shut tight, a wind suddenly sprang up out of nowhere. It felt like a midwinter blizzard, chilling me to the bone.

Meng Yifan and I were terrified, once again unable to suppress our fear.

The Seventh Master hurriedly reminded us, "Keep asking questions! Distract her!"

But I was so frightened that I could barely think. I stumbled over the next question I had prepared and blurted it out far too bluntly. "Did he kill you because of the family massacre fifteen years ago?"

The moment I finished asking, "Xiao Qing" fixed those bulging, lychee-like eyes on me.

"Did Lü Zhengxian force you to commit that massacre?"

I quickly rephrased my question, but she kept glaring at me.

This time, she reached out, grabbed me by the neck, and hurled me away.

I slammed into the floor so hard that I nearly lost my breath.

I'm taking her side here! I said Lü Zhengxian forced her to do it, so why the fuck is she hitting me?

"Xiumei, you've misunderstood. I wasn't trying to blame you."

"You did the right thing. That whole family deserved to die. You can kill my whole family too, if that makes you happy."

I cried. She had frightened me to tears.

No one had ever scared me into crying before, but I was truly terrified of her.

Meng Yifan had been about to come over and help me up, but with "Xiao Qing" blocking his way, he didn't dare approach.

The Seventh Master snapped at me in a low voice, "You're the one who misunderstood her!"

I froze.

I misunderstood her?

Could it be that Lü Zhengxian hadn't forced Li Xiumei to commit that massacre?

Even if he hadn't, I was still speaking in her defense. There was no reason for her to attack me.

Was it the question before that?

"Lü Zhengxian didn't kill you because of the family massacre fifteen years ago?" I asked in disbelief.

At that, "Xiao Qing" began jerking her neck again. She nodded at me as that clicking sound rose from her throat once more.

I was confused.

Li Xiumei, the ghost of the victim herself, had admitted that Lü Zhengxian had killed her. Not only had he killed her, he had cut out her tongue and filled her mouth with cement. Surely such a blatant attempt to silence her had to be connected to that horrific family massacre?

But now Li Xiumei was saying it wasn't because of the massacre.

What else could have made Lü Zhengxian treat his own wife so cruelly?

I looked at Meng Yifan, hoping he could help me figure it out.

But that useless bastard did nothing except burn joss paper, cry, and tremble.

With no other choice, I turned once again to the seasoned Seventh Master for help.

But the Seventh Master was frowning too. He couldn't come up with an answer either.

I was utterly frustrated. I simply couldn't imagine what could be more important than the massacre, important enough to drive Lü Zhengxian to silence her.

Suddenly, I remembered that photograph-the family portrait.

There was one easily overlooked detail in it.

Three people were in the photograph: Lü Zhengxian, Li Xiumei, and that little girl.

In the photograph, Lü Zhengxian's right hand rested naturally on the girl's shoulder. That showed he was fond of her.

If he hadn't been, he wouldn't have adopted her.

But Li Xiumei's hands hung at her sides, and her posture looked very unnatural. Although she stood close to the girl, the photograph made it seem as though she didn't want to touch her.

Her body language conveyed one thing: she loathed that girl.

"You and Lü Zhengxian adopted a girl. She was the only survivor of the family massacre."

I gathered my courage and ventured, "But you didn't like that girl... And the reason Lü Zhengxian killed you had something to do with her too..."

The possessed Xiao Qing suddenly froze. She seemed to be remembering something.

I pressed on. "In your original plan, you weren't going to leave anyone alive. But Lü Zhengxian spared that girl and even adopted her..."

"You were the mastermind behind the massacre..."

It was a bold deduction, but it wasn't groundless.

If Li Xiumei hadn't been the mastermind, she wouldn't have hated the girl so much simply because Lü Zhengxian had spared her. Unless, in their original plan-or rather, in her plan-the girl was supposed to die too. Lü Zhengxian had gone against her wishes, and that was why she had come to loathe the girl.

But if that were true, Lü Zhengxian wouldn't have needed to silence Li Xiumei just because she hated the girl, much less use such a cruel method.

Something seemed wrong with my deduction.

But before I could work it out, something unexpected happened.

Without any warning, a figure darted out of the master bedroom, knocked the chanting Seventh Master unconscious with a club, then swiftly kicked over several command flags and more than half the candles.

After doing all that, he turned to flee.

I reacted quickly, grabbing one of his legs and tripping him to the floor.

But his reactions were just as fast. He kicked at me with his other leg, knocking me down too.

By the time I got up, he had already run off.

I stared dumbfounded at his retreating back, with no idea how he had appeared inside the master bedroom.

I wanted to chase him, but the situation gave me no chance.

Because the possessed Xiao Qing had completely lost control...