With her wrist held, Xie Qiaoqiao couldn’t walk away. But the medicine box was under the coffee table.
She had no idea why Zhang Xueji was crying, or how people could have so many tears, just like he had so much emotion and energy.
She had no choice but to stand there and wait for Zhang Xueji to finish crying, let go, and then she could get the medicine.
But once Zhang Xueji started crying, he wouldn’t stop, sobbing as he spoke: “Qiaoqiao, I—I know—wuwuwu—I know what’s in the box—wuwuwu—”
Xie Qiaoqiao: “Ah………………ah?”
Zhang Xueji kept crying, “I know—wuwuwu—I know you must have had your reasons, wuwuwu—”
“Don’t be afraid, I—I’ll help you, Qiaoqiao, I really—wuwuwu—I looked up so much information—wuwuwu—it’s really hard to get acquitted—wuwuwu—”
Xie Qiaoqiao tried to pull her wrist free, because she really didn’t understand what Zhang Xueji was saying, except for the first sentence.
Zhang Xueji knew what was in the box.
How did he know? Was this reaction proof that he really knew?
She tried to pull away but failed; Zhang Xueji was holding on tightly, his tears soaking her hand. She gave up and just stood there watching him cry.
The last time Zhang Xueji cried like this in front of her was when he was terrified by the Clinical Ghost; why was he crying like this now?
He hadn’t even seen the corpse—there was no ghost here, either.
Zhang Xueji wiped his tears. “Qiaoqiao, don’t be afraid, I—I’m on your side, I’ve already made up my mind, I’m going to help you.”
“Can you tell me how the corpse in the box got there?”
Xie Qiaoqiao: “I killed her.”
Zhang Xueji, eyes full of tears, asked, “Why did you kill her?”
Xie Qiaoqiao thought for a moment and answered, “She tried to kill my colleague.”
Zhang Xueji looked like he was thinking ‘just as I thought’: “I knew it! Qiaoqiao, you didn’t break any laws; that was self-defense! The other party was a murderer, right? But I just searched, and since you didn’t turn yourself in immediately and even took the body with you, there’s basically no chance of being found not guilty… but, but! I think this isn’t your fault!”
His tears only stopped for a moment before flowing again: “I know it wasn’t right, but you had no other choice, wuwuwu—I checked the surveillance just now. We—we could dismember the body, then burn it, take it out in batches—”
Xie Qiaoqiao:
Zhang Xueji grabbed both her wrists now and wept. Because he was crying directly at Xie Qiaoqiao, she felt a strange illusion, as if Zhang Xueji were weeping at her grave.
He was already talking about disposing of the body—Xie Qiaoqiao finally realized what Zhang Xueji had misunderstood.
In his memory, he’d only seen the Clinical Ghost and just accepted that ghosts existed in this world.
He didn’t know that there were Monsters, and people who specialized in hunting Monsters.
Zhang Xueji was just an ordinary person. He didn’t know anything and had no evidence, but he trusted her, stood by her side, and wept for her.
Xie Qiaoqiao found it amazing; she had never met anyone like Zhang Xueji before.
She bent down a little, staring at his tear-streaked face.
He’d cried so hard his eyes were red, his wet lashes sticking to his eyelids—he had single eyelids, but his eyes were big, and his brows scrunched up in a mess from crying.
Xie Qiaoqiao asked him, “Zhang Xueji, why are you crying?”
Zhang Xueji sniffled, his voice thick and sticky: “Why? Of course it’s because you’ve had to bear so much by yourself, it’s so hard for you, and I feel sorry for you!”
“Did you carry the corpse back by yourself? Where’s your colleague? Why didn’t she help you?”
Xie Qiaoqiao paused for two seconds and replied, “He was hurt, so he went home first.”
Zhang Xueji’s eyes widened: “How could she do that!”
Because Xie Qiaoqiao carried the body herself, Zhang Xueji instinctively thought her colleague was female.
But since ‘he’ and ‘she’ sound the same, neither of them noticed the subtle misunderstanding.
Xie Qiaoqiao skipped over what she considered unimportant, only asking what interested her: “So you cried all these tears for me?”
Zhang Xueji answered without hesitation, “Of course!—But this isn’t the time to talk about that.”
He’d cried enough that his throat was hoarse and he’d calmed down.
“Let’s take care of the corpse first, Qiaoqiao, listen to me,” Zhang Xueji wiped his tears, his eyes still red, but now he radiated reliability, “what you’ve done can’t be found not guilty, but it’s not worth ruining your life over a murderer.”
“We have to bury this thing.”
He’d made himself an accomplice by default, even though it had nothing to do with him at all.
He didn’t even know if the corpse was male or female, what their name was, or what they looked like.
Zhang Xueji had plenty of tears, but plenty of intelligence, too. Even though he’d sobbed out those words earlier, he already had a plan in mind.
He rolled his sleeves up to his shoulders, took a deep breath, and went to open the kitchen door—the corpse that Xie Qiaoqiao had dragged out was still on the floor, not yet stuffed back in the box, sprawled in pieces across the tiles.
The abnormal arm from the back had also been chopped off by Xie Qiaoqiao; at a glance, it almost looked like a regular corpse.
Zhang Xueji looked at the bloody mess, and instantly felt dizzy, nauseous, and on the verge of tears, but started cleaning up the kitchen floor while crying.
Xie Qiaoqiao was still mulling over what Zhang Xueji had just said, and reached up to touch her own eyes.
She’d never shed tears herself, only seen others do it. There were so many people in the world, crying so many tears every day, but until now, Xie Qiaoqiao had never met anyone who cried for her.
Was she really pitiful?
Was she really suffering?
But now she had a place to live, fresh food to eat, and warm clothes. School was troublesome, work was troublesome, but she could learn things at school that she didn’t know before, and earn money through work.
Compared to living under Hua Ting before, this was a thousand times better.
Zhang Xueji brought her such conflicting emotions that Xie Qiaoqiao couldn’t understand.
She walked to the kitchen doorway and saw that Zhang Xueji had already cleaned all the bloodstains off the floor. He wrung out the cloth he’d washed over and over, and the bloody water was collected in a bucket, not poured down the drain.
He figured it must have been exhausting and hard for Xie Qiaoqiao to haul the corpse home by herself, so he never intended for her to help with the clean-up—she must be tired, and should take a hot shower and rest in bed.
But after counting the limbs on the floor, Zhang Xueji felt odd and asked in confusion, “Qiaoqiao, why does the murderer have only one head but six arms?”
Was it a mutant?
Maybe because he’d just seen a Ghost a few days ago, Zhang Xueji easily accepted the idea that the murderer could be a mutant.
Xie Qiaoqiao looked at the now tidy kitchen and calmly answered, “Because she’s a Monster—partly human…”
She hesitated a few seconds, then confirmed, “She’s a Monster.”
Even though she couldn’t smell Monster on the corpse, Xie Qiaoqiao still decided to classify her as a Monster.
Zhang Xueji had worked so hard he was drenched in sweat, his fever barely there anymore.
But hearing Xie Qiaoqiao say this, he froze, holding the now blood-red towel, face full of confusion: “A M-Monster? You mean, like, from TV shows?”
Xie Qiaoqiao shook her head, “Not like on TV. Monsters don’t date humans; humans are on their menu.”
“When they look at people, it’s like people looking at fried chicken… Are you hungry? I feel like having some fried chicken.”
Zhang Xueji had been doing hard labor, sweating and crying a lot, and was already hungry.
Even though talking about a late-night snack while standing in a kitchen full of corpses was strange, since Xie Qiaoqiao brought it up—Zhang Xueji said, “I’m hungry, but I’m sick now, so I can’t eat fried chicken. If you order some, can you get me some herbal tea?”
Xie Qiaoqiao took out her phone: “I’ll look for a delivery place that sells both fried chicken and herbal tea.”