Siheyuan: Hang Jia Dongxu, smash Banggeng to death!

"Brother! Hero! Spare my life!"

Liu Guangqi began to beg for mercy, his voice trembling with tears, "I have money, I'll give you money, let me go, I'll give you anything."

"Foolish! If you die, your money will be mine."

Liu Guangqi froze.

That voice... sounds familiar, but I can't quite place it.

"Liu Guangqi, what you said in the morgue just now was quite interesting."

"Who...who are you?"

Liu Guangqi asked, trembling, "How did you know...?"

"I heard you. You spoke so loudly it was hard not to hear you."

Liu Guangqi's brain was working at lightning speed.

Inside the morgue?

There were only two police officers and... those corpses.

Is this person a police officer?

No, the police wouldn't use a sack to put someone in.

"Good sir, I was just talking nonsense."

Liu Guangqi quickly explained, "My parents just died, I was traumatized, and I'm not thinking straight..."

"How could someone so mentally unstable explain severing ties so clearly?"

Lin Tian's voice held a hint of sarcasm. "You're the most 'clear-headed' delirious patient I've ever met. A wise person knows when to yield, I understand."

Who doesn't want to live?

Liu Guangqi was speechless.

"You say you want to protect yourself and preserve the Liu family line. Do you think the Liu family will die out if you die?"

"No...don't kill me..."

Liu Guangqi's voice trembled uncontrollably, "I was wrong, I was really wrong..."

"Wrong?"

Lin Tian chuckled softly, "Too late."

"It's not too late! It's not too late!"

Liu Guangqi struggled desperately, spouting nonsense with a straight face, "Let me go, and I'll tell you a secret."

I know who committed the serial murders recently reported in the newspapers. You can take this information to the police station to claim your reward.

"Oh?"

Lin Tian's interest grew even stronger.

"Who is it?"

"You haven't promised to let me go yet."

Lin Tian stepped on his fingers and sneered, "You really think you're so great?"

"Aaaaaah!!!"

Liu Guangqi screamed, cold sweat pouring down his face, and insisted, "It was Lin Tian, ​​that little beast from the Lin family."

How did you know it was Lin Tian?

Lin Tian became somewhat curious.

Logically speaking, Liu Guangqi has never returned to the courtyard house, so why is he so certain?

"Is that even a question?"

Liu Guangqi seemed to have grasped at a straw, speaking rapidly, "All those who died were people related to the Lin family... As clever as I am, I could tell at a glance that it was Lin Tianqian."

He paused, then added, "And I heard that Lin Tian was kidnapped by thugs. They must be his accomplices, hiding in the shadows."

There was silence for a few seconds outside the sack.

Lin Tian: "You're very smart."

Liu Guangqi was overjoyed, thinking that the other party had been persuaded: "So, hero, if you let me go, I promise to pretend that nothing happened."

"but,"

Lin Tian interrupted him, "You know too much."

Although it's unclear how Liu Guangqi became so certain of himself, he had already laid a path to his doom.

Liu Guangqi's heart sank.

"Liu Guangqi, do you know what I hate most about you?"

How would I know?

Liu Guangqi was cursing a hundred times over.

If you want to kill me, just say so.

"Liu Guangqi, do you know what? People like you disgust me more than those who directly commit evil."

At least they are honest and straightforward in their wickedness, while you—want to protect yourself while also wanting to stand on the moral high ground.

They dare not seek revenge, yet they must pretend to be victims; they want to sever ties, yet they hope others will praise them as good people.

You want everything, yet you're unwilling to give anything in return. You want both, but you can't have it all. There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Liu Guangqi was speechless, his clothes soaked with cold sweat.

He finally recognized the voice...

"You...you are Lin Tian?"

A soft laugh came from outside the sack.

"You are indeed very smart; no wonder you got into a vocational school."

Then, Liu Guangqi felt himself being lifted up.

"I'll take you somewhere."

Lin Tian glanced into the distance, where several beams of flashlight beams were flashing.

It seems that Liu Guangqi's screams were a bit loud just now, after all, the police station is not far away.

"No...no..." Liu Guangqi began to struggle frantically, but to no avail.

Spirit Spring Space.

Liu Guangqi was thrown onto the black soil, dazed and confused, with the sack lying to one side.

He struggled to his feet, and the first thing he saw was Lin Tian, ​​who was dragging an axe that was disproportionately large for his height.

The axe blade was stained with dark red dirt, which looked particularly glaring.

"Grandpa Lin... Grandpa Lin Tian..."

Liu Guangqi almost instinctively knelt down, his knees hitting the ground with a dull thud.

"I was wrong, I was really wrong, please forgive me, I'm innocent."

Lin Tian tilted his head, as if pondering some interesting question, and did not take action immediately.

"innocent?"

Lin Tian repeated the word, his tone carrying a childlike curiosity, "Who is innocent? Isn't my Lin family innocent?"

"My father, Lin Jianguo, was murdered. Wasn't he innocent?"

"My mother is just a housewife. She does the laundry, cooks, and takes care of my sister and me every day. She has never offended anyone. Isn't she innocent?"

"My little sister Tangtang is only three and a half years old. She deserves to be bullied. They even planned to sell her for money when she gets older. Isn't she innocent?"

"And I, who almost got burned at the crematorium, am I innocent?"

With each question, Lin Tian's voice grew colder.

In the end, the voice no longer sounded like a child's, but like something crawling out of an abyss.

Liu Guangqi was trembling all over, and sweat streamed down his forehead and into his eyes, stinging painfully.

I want to speak, I want to defend myself.

But there was no way to explain it.

"As for you," Lin Tian stood up, looking down at him, "you say you're innocent?"

He smiled.

"Liu Guangqi, your parents are living off my family's wealth, and my second brother beat me to death. You say you have money, but you haven't even graduated yet. Have you ever thought about where this money came from?"

That's my Lin family's money. You're spending my family's money, and you say you're innocent? Hah…

Liu Guangqi's face turned pale instantly.

"I...I don't know what you're talking about..."

He tried to argue his case.

"You are the one who enjoys it."

Lin Tian tapped the ground lightly with his axe, making a soft "tap, tap" sound. "Liu Guangqi, you've enjoyed all the benefits that my family's tragedy brought you, so you're guilty."

"Now you're telling me you're innocent?"

Lin Tian shook his head, his gesture revealing a compassion beyond his years—not compassion for people, but compassion for some pitiful creature.

"There are no innocent people in the courtyard house."

"You are either the murderers, or accomplices, or silent bystanders, or vultures taking advantage of the chaos."

During an avalanche, no snowflake is innocent, but when an avalanche really comes, there will always be a pool of blood on your hands.

The axe was raised.

Under the soft light of the Spirit Spring space, the axe blade reflected a cold luster.

The dark red stains on it, I don't know whose blood it is, maybe it's Xiong Da's, maybe it's Xiong Er's, maybe it's one of the children's.

As Liu Guangqi watched the axe blade getting closer and closer, he suddenly screamed, "Lin Tian, ​​don't do anything stupid! If you kill someone again, there will be no turning back!"

Put down the axe and turn yourself in. You're young; you still have a chance to start over.

These words were spoken with heartfelt sincerity, full of concern for "your own good."

If the scene and the audience were different, it might actually touch people's hearts.

But Lin Tian just sneered.

"Liu Guangqi, you're full of moral blackmail. I really wonder if you're Liu Hai's son or Yi Zhonghai's son?"

Liu Guangqi was stunned.

Moral kidnapping?

Yi Zhonghai?

That old, childless man who's already dead?

The people at the police station said it was deep-fried.

"That's what Yi Zhonghai said too."

Lin Tian continued, his tone sarcastic, "'Little Lin, let bygones be bygones,' 'Those who are alive should look forward.'"

"You have to learn to forgive," sounds so nice, as if a victim who doesn't forgive the perpetrator is narrow-minded and immature.

"But guess what happened to Yi Zhonghai afterwards?"

Liu Guangqi certainly knew.

Do you know what Yi Zhonghai's last words were before he died?

"He was begging for mercy, but not from me. He was begging Sha Zhu and Yan Bugui, who were even more wicked than me. They deep-fried Yi Zhonghai alive."

The axe was pressed down a little further.

"You see, that's how perpetrators are. They're righteous when they're harming others, but when they're retaliated against, they start talking about reason, morality, and persuading people to do good."

How interesting! The butcher becomes a Buddha when he puts down the knife, while the victim becomes a demon when he picks up the knife.

"I'm not..." Liu Guangqi tried to explain.

"Who you are doesn't matter anymore."

Lin Tian interrupted him, "The important thing is that I'm not standing here today to listen to your reasoning, nor am I here to debate who is right and who is wrong."

The axe was raised to its highest point.

"I'm here to collect debts."

"Lin Tian! Wait!"

In his final moments, Liu Guangqi displayed a fierce will to survive: "If you kill me, the police won't let you off the hook. They're already suspicious of you. You can't escape!"

"Oh?"

Lin Tian raised an eyebrow. "So what?"

"I can help you!"

Liu Guangqi spoke rapidly, "I know a lot of things. I can cover for you, I can cooperate with your act. You don't want your sister Tangtang to live in the shadows forever, do you?"

He spoke until his mouth was dry, his eyes fixed on Lin Tian, ​​hoping to see a hint of wavering on the other's face.

But Lin Tian just looked at him quietly, and in the eyes of that eight-year-old child, there was a kind of indifference that saw through everything.

"Are you done talking?"

"I...I can testify!"

Liu Guangqi continued to escalate the situation, saying, "I can help clear your name and let you and your sister live in the open. My girlfriend's family has a lot of influence."

Lin Tian smiled.

"Liu Guangqi, do you know what? Your biggest problem isn't being bad, it's being stupid."

The axe fell.

There was no howling wind, no dramatic slow motion.

It was a clean, decisive strike, a diagonal slash across the neck from the upper left to the lower right.

"puff--"

A dull thud.

It wasn't the crisp sound of bones breaking, but the sticky sensation of flesh and blood separating.

Liu Guangqi's eyes widened, and his mouth was slightly open, as if he wanted to say something.

But his head had already slipped off his shoulders, rolled a few times, and his eyes were still open.

Perhaps he never understood until his death.

Why could an eight-year-old child kill so calmly? Why were all his "bargains" useless?

Don't they want to live an upright life?

The headless corpse swayed a few times before collapsing forward, blood gushing from its severed neck, staining a large patch of black earth red.

Blood seeped into the soil.

Lin Tian stood there, axe still raised, blood dripping from the blade, silently watching Liu Guangqi's corpse.

"In the next life, be a real human being, or don't be human at all, be an animal."

……

P.S.: I helped out with the work today. They were butchering the pig, and I was eating it (˵¯͒〰¯͒˵). I even helped remove the pig hair.