Actually, I'm a murderer too

The other children beside him all nodded in unison.

"My dad said his body was already stiff when they pulled him out. His family didn't even call the police. They just took him straight to town to be cremated. What normal family wouldn't hold a funeral? But that family acted like nothing had happened the next day. Shen Yuxing even came to school."

"My grandma said people with faces like Shen Yuxing's brother are the scariest. She never lets me take the road past their house. She says that house is full of sinister energy, and walking past it brings bad luck."

"Shen Yuxing's no good either. He didn't shed a single tear when his dad died. His eyes are always cold, too, just like his brother's. My mom says that's called being cold-blooded. He was born that way, and he'll never change."

The whispers went on. Duan Qizhao couldn't listen anymore and suddenly jumped down from the desk, startling the children gathered around him.

"I-I'm heading back." He brushed the dirt off his backside, his expression composed, but he walked several times faster than usual and nearly tripped over the threshold as he left the school.

The dirt road from the school to Shen Wangjing's house stretched for several li. Duan Qizhao covered the whole distance in half the time it had taken him to get there.

"Jiang Xun!"

Jiang Xun was crouched beneath the jujube tree, munching on a green jujube. The shout nearly made him drop it.

He frowned and looked up. Before he could speak, Duan Qizhao rushed over, grabbed his sleeve, and dragged him behind the jujube tree.

"What are you doing?" Jiang Xun stumbled as he was pulled along, dropping the jujube in his hand. Yellow Dog spotted it and snatched it up in his mouth.

Duan Qizhao turned to scan the area beyond the courtyard wall. The cameraman was crouched in his usual spot shooting cutaways, and the sound recordist was adjusting his equipment. No one was paying attention to them.

He leaned toward Jiang Xun's ear, breathing hard, his voice barely above a whisper. "Holy shit, Shen Wangjing killed someone! He pushed his dad into the river and drowned him! Everyone in the village knows!"

"No wonder I get creeped out every time I see that look in his eyes. Have you noticed his eyes? They're so dark and deep, like two wells. There's no feeling in them at all!" Duan Qizhao grew more agitated as he spoke, his eyes wide.

"Every time he looks at me, I get chills down my spine. I don't even dare speak loudly when I'm standing next to him! I didn't understand why before, but now it finally makes sense!"

"Wait, why aren't you reacting at all? Aren't you scared? We're living under the same roof as a murderer! What if he does something in the middle of the night-"

Jiang Xun bit into the green jujube with a crunch. When Duan Qizhao finally paused for breath, he spoke unhurriedly.

"Actually, I'm a murderer too."

Duan Qizhao was still leaning toward Jiang Xun's ear, his neck as stiff as if he had slept on it wrong. His pupils suddenly contracted.

He wanted to release his grip on Jiang Xun's sleeve but didn't dare move. Yet keeping hold of it made the back of his neck feel chilly.

Jiang Xun slowly swallowed the jujube, his tone casual. "Keep standing this close and spouting bullshit, and I will be any second."

Duan Qizhao's expression shifted from terror to bewilderment, then to embarrassed anger.

He abruptly let go and sprang three steps back, his back hitting the jujube tree trunk with a thud. Several leaves fluttered down and covered his head.

"You-you!" He pointed at Jiang Xun, his finger trembling. "How could you joke about something like that? I almost really-"

"Really what?" Jiang Xun smoothed the wrinkles Duan Qizhao had left in his sleeve, bent down to draw half a bucket of water from the well, and poured it into an enamel basin with a splash to wash his face. "Pissed yourself?"

"No!" Duan Qizhao's voice rose half a pitch. "But you almost scared a living, breathing person to death!"

"Then you're pretty easy to scare." Jiang Xun wrung out the towel and draped it over the clothesline, glancing back at him. "With nerves like yours, you wouldn't last three days in an orphanage."

Duan Qizhao leaned against the jujube tree for a good while to recover, his heart still dancing wildly in his chest.

He watched Jiang Xun finish washing his face, feed the dog, then collect the clothes from the line, his movements as leisurely as on any ordinary afternoon.

"Is there something unhealthy about your mindset?" Duan Qizhao finally found his voice again. "I ran all the way back to tell you about a major discovery out of the goodness of my heart, and you scared me like that?"

"You call that a major discovery?" Jiang Xun pulled the last dry garment off the clothesline, folded it twice, and draped it over his arm.

"You repeated some gossip you heard from the village kids and threw in a comment about how scary his eyes are. That's your major discovery?"

"It wasn't gossip!" Duan Qizhao grew anxious. "That kid said his brother saw it with his own eyes!"

"His brother saw Shen Wangjing push his dad into the river?"

"Yes!"

"Then what was his brother doing at the time? Standing there applauding?"

Duan Qizhao opened his mouth, stumped.

"There are only a few dozen households in Shiban Village. If someone loses a chicken, people talk about it for half a month," Jiang Xun scoffed.

"Shen Dayong's been dead for three years. If someone in the village had really seen Shen Wangjing push him in, the police would've arrested him ages ago. You think they'd leave it for you to hear about at school?"

Duan Qizhao's lips moved a couple of times.

There was indeed a slight flaw in the logic, but he would rather die than admit a few elementary school kids had fooled him.

"Not necessarily," he insisted, stiffening his neck. "Rural clan politics are complicated. What if the villagers are covering for him-"

"Covering for someone so poor he can't even afford enough to eat?" Jiang Xun raised an eyebrow. "Then they really are pretty kind."

Duan Qizhao had nothing left to say. Jiang Xun had left him utterly speechless, and he crouched beneath the jujube tree, sulking.

As Jiang Xun passed, he nudged the side of his shoe with his foot. "Weren't you going to sit in on their classes? Why are you back so early?"

Duan Qizhao turned his face away.

"Those kids crowded around me asking all sorts of questions. Once they were done, they started telling me Shen Wangjing had killed someone." He grew more annoyed as he spoke. "I almost believed them! It's all because they were such good actors. Each one sounded more convincing than the last!"

The corners of Jiang Xun's mouth lifted slightly. "All those years in a wealthy family were wasted on you, huh? Even elementary school kids can fool you."

"That's called being innocent!" Duan Qizhao declared without a hint of shame, jabbing a twig hard into the ground. "Unlike you. You've got an angel's face and a heart as black as a lump of coal."

Jiang Xun ignored him and turned toward the house.

But Duan Qizhao suddenly seemed to remember something and followed him, lowering his voice. "Seriously, though, don't you think there really is something a little... off about Shen Wangjing?"

"I'm not saying he's a murderer. Don't go trying to hit me again." Duan Qizhao covered his head with both hands to protect himself.

"I mean his personality. Isn't he a little too gloomy? Look at him. He barely says ten sentences all day, there's never any expression on his face, and he looks at people like they're wooden posts. Would a normal person act like that?"