Siheyuan: Hang Jia Dongxu, smash Banggeng to death!

"There are too many of them, and they're in the yard, so it's not easy to take action against them. Let's find a lone little mouse instead."

Lin Tian turned away from the window of the deaf old lady's house and went into the house of Xu Damao, which was two doors down.

Inside, the door was tightly shut, and a table had been moved in to block the doorway.

This is quite in line with Xu Damao's personality; he's the first to hide at the slightest sign of trouble.

With so many people dying one after another in the hospital, Xu Damao has no choice but to hide himself very well.

Lin Tian focused his mind slightly and searched carefully for Xu Damao, but he wasn't on the bed, in the kitchen, or in the cabinet.

What about people?

Lin Tian stood in the center of the room, slowly scanning his surroundings. He frowned slightly, bent down, tilted his head, and looked under the bed.

A figure was curled up under the bed.

Xu Damao.

You've made me search so hard!

Xu Damao, on the other hand, was fast asleep, a trace of drool hanging from the corner of his mouth. He had tossed and turned in fear all night, and his mental and physical strength were completely exhausted.

His body entered a semi-sleep state, somewhere between wakefulness and coma, and he murmured as if talking in his sleep.

Listen carefully, and you can hear a few indistinct syllables: "Don't kill me... Don't kill me..."

Lin Tian's lips curled up slightly, revealing a silent sneer. Goodness, you really know how to hide your true colors.

This method of hiding is something most people really can't find.

Who would have thought a grown man would crawl under the bed?

But it's no use, it doesn't matter where you hide.

Lin Tian silently walked to the bedside, squatted down, and stretched out his hand. "In my previous life, my death was not largely due to you, Xu Damao."

Although he wasn't directly involved, he was beaten to death by Sha Zhu and Yan Jiecheng if he hadn't falsely accused him of stealing their chickens.

Since that's the case, if you have to do it all over again, you should just sleep peacefully and stop harming respectable women.

Lin Tian placed his palm on Xu Damao's neck and pressed gently. Xu Damao's body stiffened abruptly and then went completely limp.

Lin Tian threw Xu Damao directly into the spiritual spring space, left the room, left the courtyard, and came to the crooked tree.

The old, crooked locust tree was still so graceful. Lin Tian took out a hemp rope from his sleeve.

The rough hemp rope was covered with tiny burrs. After coiling it twice in my hand, I skillfully tied a lasso knot.

The rope swayed slightly in the night breeze. With a gentle toss, it landed on a thick branch, strong enough to support a person's weight.

Lin Tian tied one end of the hemp rope firmly to the horizontal branch, pulled it twice to make sure it was tight.

Then he lowered the noose and adjusted its height, making it just a fist's distance above Xu Damao's neck.

Back on the ground, Lin Tian pulled Xu Damao out of the space. Although he was thin, he still weighed about 100 pounds, but in Lin Tian's hands, he was just so-so.

The noose was put around Xu Damao's neck. He carefully adjusted the position and then released his grip.

Xu Damao's body dropped an inch.

The noose tightened suddenly.

The hemp rope cut into Xu Damao's neck, the rough bristles digging into his flesh, immediately leaving a thin ring of blood.

The trachea is compressed, and the breathing passage is instantly cut off.

While unconscious, Xu Damao felt suffocated and began to struggle unconsciously as the lack of oxygen became more and more severe.

His brain was forcibly awakened from his coma. When he opened his eyes, all he saw was a swaying gray-white sky.

The outline of the tree branches swayed blurrily in his field of vision, and the noose around his neck made it hard for him to breathe.

He tried to scream for help, but his vocal cords were blocked.

He tried to pull the noose around his neck with his hands, but his arms were too weak due to lack of oxygen.

He flailed his fingers wildly in the air, but caught nothing.

His legs started kicking wildly, his feet flailing in the air, his toes barely a foot off the ground.

But that distance of less than a foot is the distance between life and death.

His vision began to blur, and his consciousness gradually faded. Xu Damao saw his great-grandmother waving at him.

But in that blurry state of consciousness, something caught his eye out of the corner of his eye: a small figure standing under the tree.

contour.

That figure... why does it look so familiar?

Where have I seen him before?

Narrow shoulders, a slightly tilted head, and eyes that gleamed faintly in the darkness.

He was looking at himself.

He just stood there quietly, admiring his own dying struggle as if he were appreciating a work of art.

Xu Damao's pupils suddenly contracted.

This face...it looks...it looks like Lin Tian?

Lin Tian in the back room.

Lin Jianguo's eight-year-old son.

He doesn't talk much and doesn't play with the other kids in the yard much; he seems like a very honest child.

I didn't have much interaction with him; we'd barely exchanged a few words.

How could it be him?

Why would he kill himself?

In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Xu Damao's increasingly blurred consciousness.

What did I say a few days ago?

When you were chatting with people in the alley, did you mention the Lin family?

They say the Lin family's kid doesn't look like a good person?

Or was it earlier, when I spoke ill of the Lin family in front of Sha Zhu?

He doesn't remember.

These are trivial matters that I would never normally take to heart.

Could it be these things?

Just because of these things?

How did I offend him?

When did you cause this?

Why would you kill yourself?

He wanted to ask.

Xu Damao desperately tried to speak, to question, to explain, and to beg for mercy.

But the noose around his neck was so tight that he couldn't even breathe, let alone make a sound.

My consciousness became increasingly blurred, and the scene before my eyes began to fade.

The shadows of the trees, the sky, the figure of the eight-year-old child standing under the tree—everything was slowly fading away, slowly disappearing into the distance.

All I could hear was the increasingly faint sound of my own heartbeat, one beat, two beats, three beats, slower and slower, softer and softer.

The legs stopped kicking.

His arm hung down.

The fingers stopped scratching.

It hangs loosely on either side of the body.

My eyes completely lost focus; my eyeballs felt like they were going to pop out.

Xu Damao died.

Lin Tian stood under the tree, not moving an inch from beginning to end. He just stood there quietly, looking up at Xu Damao's struggle.

"Look, you like swinging too..."

When Xu Damao stopped struggling, Lin Tiancai smiled calmly, turned around, and disappeared into the darkness.

On the crooked tree, Xu Damao hung alone on a horizontal branch, swaying gently in the morning breeze.

Round and round it goes, like a pendulum that never stops.

The courtyard was quiet.

The sound of a rooster crowing came from afar; dawn was approaching.

……