Siheyuan: Hang Jia Dongxu, smash Banggeng to death!

He said he would not kill women and children, and that he and his daughter were women and children, and he would not kill them.

Yang Ruihua secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She was about to say "thank you," "really?" and "then can you let us go?"

"Pfft!"

A flash of silver light streaked past my eyes.

Lin Tian's axe traced an arc, the movement so fast that it left almost no visual afterimage.

The axe blade flashed, and a bloody gash appeared on Yan Jiedi's neck.

Yan Jiedi didn't make a sound; her eyes were still open, and her small mouth was slightly agape.

Then her small body went limp and she fell to the ground.

Yang Ruihua looked down at her daughter lying on the ground, watching the thin red line on her daughter's neck rapidly widening and turning redder.

She froze, her mind going completely blank.

"Aaaaaah!!!"

"Jie Di, my good daughter... don't die! Look at your mother, Jie Di, Jie Di..."

Yang Ruihua fell to the ground, picked up her daughter, and covered her daughter's neck with one hand, trying to stop the wound.

Blood gushed from between her fingers, scalding her palms until they went numb.

She tried desperately to cover it with her hands, to block it with her sleeves, and to press it down with her handkerchief, but she couldn't stop it.

Yan Jiedi's eyes were still open, but there was no light in them.

"Waaah... Jie Di, don't sleep, look at Mommy, look at Mommy, Jie Di..."

Yang Ruihua sat on the ground, holding her daughter, sobbing uncontrollably, her hateful gaze fixed on Lin Tian.

If looks could kill, Lin Tian would surely be torn to pieces.

"Didn't you say you wouldn't kill women and children? Why did you kill my daughter? Why did you kill Jie Di? She was only seven years old...she was only seven years old..."

Lin Tian lowered his head, looking somewhat embarrassed, his innocent expression making it believable that he had been wronged.

"Third Aunt, Yan Jiedi wasn't a woman, she was just a little girl. I didn't do anything wrong by killing her."

Yang Ruihua: ? ? ?

Not a woman.

She's just a little girl.

Therefore, she is neither a woman nor a child, so not a single word in the phrase "do not kill women and children" can save her daughter's life.

From the very beginning, he had no intention of letting any of them go.

Yang Ruihua gently placed her daughter on the ground and took off her own coat to cover her daughter.

She stood up, her eyes now filled with a burning rage replacing the sadness in them, and pointed at Lin Tian, ​​launching into a tirade of curses.

From beast to bastard, from bastard to being struck by lightning, from the Lin family's ancestors for eighteen generations to why the King of Hell won't take this monster.

She had never uttered such vile words in her life, using every curse word she had learned in her forty-plus years of life.

Lin Tian listened.

superficial.

It's normal for someone to vent their anger by cursing when they're about to die.

When Yang Ruihua finished cursing and stopped panting, Lin Tian raised the axe.

僵！

All of Yang Ruihua's hatred and anger transformed into fear the moment he raised the axe.

She instinctively took a step back, her heel hitting a piece of broken brick, and almost fell.

"Lin Tian, ​​what are you trying to do? Murder is illegal. Please...please don't kill me."

"Didn't you just say you wouldn't kill women and children? I'm a woman... I'm a woman... Please don't kill me..."

Her earlier arrogance vanished, replaced by fear.

"I didn't want to kill you either."

Lin Tian stared at her mockingly, "Ah! It's a pity you're not a child, otherwise you wouldn't have to die."

What?!

Yang Ruihua's brain went blank.

Am I not a child?

But I am a woman.

Eh!

This evil spirit is just toying with them; it won't let her go.

"Be more careful in your past life."

The axe fell.

Clean and efficient.

It's quiet again.

Lin Tian shook the blood off his axe, bent down to wipe the blade on Yang Ruihua's clothes, and straightened up.

He glanced at the two corpses on the ground and sighed softly.

"I said I wouldn't kill women and children."

Lin Tian muttered something, then shook his head, "But you two just happen to be neither a woman nor a child, so how can you blame me?"

...

The phone booth is located outside the courtyard wall of the subdistrict office, its metal shell rusted and mottled.

On the sheet metal were a few crooked words written in chalk: "Li Gou Dan is a bastard".

Li Zhaodi stood in the phone booth, and it took her three turns of the dial pad to dial all the numbers.

The receiver emitted a busy tone.

Busy.

She hung up the phone, leaned against the glass of the phone booth for half a minute, and then dialed again.

This time it connected; it rang four times before the other end answered.

"Hello, who is this?"

"I am Liu Guangqi's mother. I need to see him urgently. Could you please call him for me?"

"Wait."

The receiver was placed on the table.

After a while, the faint shouts were heard, followed by footsteps approaching from afar, and someone picked up the receiver.

"mom?"

Liu Guangqi's voice came through, mixed with static, sounding somewhat distorted.

"Guangqi, listen to what your mother has to say."

Li Zhaodi got straight to the point: "You absolutely must not go home. No matter what happens, no matter who tells you to go back, even if it's the police."

"Don't go home. Stay at school and behave yourself, you hear me?"

"Mom, what's wrong? What happened?"

Liu Guangqi's voice tightened, "Has something happened at home?"

"Your younger brothers, Guangfu and Guangtian, are both dead."

quiet!

"Mom, what did you say? What happened to Guangfu and Guangtian?"

"He's dead."

Li Zhaodi's tears still flowed down her cheeks and into the corners of her mouth, salty and bitter, but she didn't cry out.

He simply wiped his face with the back of his hand. "They died last night. Not just them, eight people died in the yard."

Jia Dongxu is dead, Banggeng is dead, all three Yan family boys are dead, Xu Damao is dead, and the deaf old lady is dead too. They all died between last night and today.

"This...how is this possible?"

Liu Guangqi's voice began to tremble; his fear could be felt even across the telephone line hundreds of miles away.

"Mom, what happened? Who...who did it? Was it poisoned? Or...?"

"An evil spirit has appeared in the courtyard."

Li Zhaodi interrupted her son, saying urgently, "The police have been investigating all day but haven't found anything."

More than thirty police officers surrounded the courtyard; the special task force had arrived.

The investigation has continued for so long, but we haven't even caught a glimpse of the killer. It's not something a human could do; no human could do such a thing.

It's quiet again.

Then came a swallowing sound, and Liu Guangqi said tremblingly, "Then...what will you do? What will you and Dad do?"

"Your dad and I are fine. We're staying at the Red Star Guesthouse now. Your dad and your Uncle Yan went to see the master. They'll be back in a bit."

As Li Zhaodi spoke, her voice suddenly choked, and she covered the microphone with her hand, taking a deep breath.

"Guangfu and Guangtian's bodies are still at the police station. The special task force is still collecting evidence and investigating. They said they would be able to retrieve them in the next few days."

"After your brothers are buried, your father and I plan to leave Beijing and go back to our hometown. We can't stay here any longer; we can't stand it for another day."

……