Sister-in-law Xu listened, her mind in a whirl. Why was this getting so complicated? “Sister-in-law, do you know that person’s name?”
Cheng Yinghe shook her head. “I didn’t have time to hear. My uncle came back, so I left quickly.”
“Can you help me ask Cheng Yinglan to come out?” Xu Ying asked.
Cheng Yinghe nodded. This was easy for her. Xu Ying gave her a grateful smile. Around six in the evening, Cheng Yinglan was pulled out by Cheng Yinghe.
Cheng Yinglan followed Cheng Yinghe, walking farther and farther. When she saw the place was remote, she suddenly felt a chill of fear. “Cheng Yinghe, where are you taking me?”
“Cousin, you’ll definitely be surprised when I take you to meet someone,” Cheng Yinghe said, her voice full of dark secrets.
Cheng Yinglan suddenly felt a surge of panic. She looked at her cousin, angry. “Who are you taking me to see?”
“Do you know Xu Shengshun?”
It was evening, and the winter day was already very short. The road was empty. Cheng Yinghe had led her down a lonely path. The cold wind howled. The sky was a gloomy grey. Silence pressed in from all sides. The trees on both sides made rustling sounds. Adding the name she feared most, Xu Shengshun’s name , made Cheng Yinglan’s heart clench violently.
“Cheng Yinghe, what are you talking about? I don’t understand. I want to go back now. Please get out of my way!” Cheng Yinglan said, reaching out to push Cheng Yinghe.
Cheng Yinghe squeezed her hands tightly, anger burning in her eyes. She yelled, “Cousin, it’s already this late! Why don’t you just tell the truth? Do you know how badly you hurt Xu Shengshun back then?”
After all, he was someone she had once truly liked. Cheng Yinglan’s heart skipped a beat. She couldn’t help but look at Cheng Yinghe, her voice shaky. “What’s wrong with him?”
“What’s wrong? You made him a fool, and now he’s gone. Are you happy now?” Cheng Yinghe sneered, her voice dripping with ice.
Cheng Yinglan was shocked. Her body went limp, her lips turned white, and she whispered, almost to herself, “How could it be? No, how could he be gone?” She shook her head. “Cheng Yinghe, stop talking nonsense! His family was so kind to him and always took care of him. How could he be gone?” Cheng Yinglan simply couldn’t believe it.
Cheng Yinghe raised her eyes and looked at her with pure disgust. “But he’s a fool, and he doesn’t understand anything. Even if his family watches him every second, there are times when things go wrong. A few days ago, Xu Shengshun was tricked by some children in the village. He ran out and fell into the river. When they pulled him out, he had already drowned.”
Cheng Yinglan’s eyes widened suddenly, her face twisted in horror. Slowly, she reached out and touched the tears on her face. Her eyes were filled with terror.
Cheng Yinghe wasn’t finished. “You’ve caused Xu Shengshun so much pain. Aren’t you afraid he’ll come back for revenge?”
“You and Xu Shengshun know each other?” Cheng Yinglan was still sharp. She quickly realized something was very wrong.
Cheng Yinghe laughed, a chilling, bitter sound. When she turned her head, her face glowed strangely, and there was blood at the corner of her mouth. In the deep darkness, a crescent moon hung alone in the black sky, and a few distant stars flickered with cold light.
A terrible female voice, sharp and cutting, rang out: “Yinglan, didn’t you say you liked me? Why are you helping Zhang Guoqing to hurt me? I’m so sad. Why did you hurt me like this? Why!”
“Ah! Ghost!” Cheng Yinglan screamed, her legs shaking so badly she couldn’t even stand. She looked at the ghostly face in front of her, so scared she had no strength to run.
“Yinglan, I died so miserably. Please come down and keep me company,” Cheng Yinghe said. And then, countless echoes of her voice seemed to repeat around them.
Cheng Yinglan had never seen anything like this. At first, she hadn’t believed it, but now she was scared out of her mind. “Just come down and keep me company!” “Just come down and stay with me!” “Yinglan, I died so miserably!”
“It wasn’t me! It wasn’t me who hurt you!” Cheng Yinglan covered her ears, screaming.
“Why did you and Zhang Guoqing want to hurt me?”
“Then why didn’t you marry me?! I loved you so much! Why didn’t you want me? What’s the difference between me and Zhang Rubi?!” Cheng Yinglan collapsed onto the ground, unable to fight back. She looked up at Cheng Yinghe, her face desperate.
“What’s the difference? If it were Zhang Ru, she would never harm me with others. But you, you kept saying you loved me, but why did you hurt me?!”
“No! I never wanted to hurt you at all! I just wanted to see you one more time that day! It was Zhang Guoqing! It was him and Wu Zhengyi who hurt you! You know, Wu Zhengyi liked Zhang Ru, but you stole Zhang Ru. Even though he didn’t say it, he always hated you deep down. His father is also the deputy director of the meat factory. He promised to give Zhang Guoqing and us jobs, and then kill you! But I had no intention of hurting you at all. It was Zhang Guoqing who harmed you! If I hadn’t stopped Zhang Guoqing, you would have died that day! How could you still be alive today?” Cheng Yinglan sounded angry by the end. “You should go to Zhang Guoqing for revenge! Why are you coming to me?” she cried, feeling wronged.
A sharp slap echoed, and two more figures appeared in the night. Cheng Yinglan covered her face. Her breathing suddenly came in short, desperate gasps, as if her whole life was being squeezed out, choking her. “You all teamed up to lie to me?! Cheng Yinghe, you are so cruel! I am your cousin!”
Cheng Yinghe curled her lip, her face filled with disgust. “You only remember you’re my cousin now? You always loved to steal my things since we were little, and you even helped outsiders bully me. Now you have the nerve to call yourself my cousin?”
Cheng Yinglan’s face turned green and white. She looked at Xu Ying and the others with hate burning in her eyes. She raised her head and smiled, a chilling, bitter smile. “So what if you know the truth? But you don’t have any proof! What can you do to me? Let me tell you, Wu Zhengyi’s father is the factory director. How can you group of nobodies stand up to Factory Director Wu?!”
“Who said we have no proof?” Xu Ying pulled out a tape recorder and pressed a button. Soon, the voices of Cheng Yinglan and Cheng Yinghe filled the air from the machine.
When Cheng Yinglan saw this, her face instantly turned pale. She struggled to snatch the recorder from Xu Ying’s hand, but Xu Ying kicked her to the ground.
The faces of Cheng Yinghe and Sister Xu changed. They hadn’t expected Xu Ying to have such a fierce side. Sister-in-law Xu was suddenly touched. Although her sister-in-law had not been very good before, she had never hit her. It seemed that after all that time , her sister-in-law had been seem patient with her. Before, she thought her sister-in-law was bad, but now it seemed she was good. Xu Ying didn’t know that her simple kick had given Mrs. Xu so much to think about.
“Sister-in-law, your cousin went too far! She even stole your things and helped outsiders bully you! You should stay away from her in the future. They actually thought about killing people before! How cruel they were!” Sister-in-law Xu said, a little scared.
At that time, sharing information was very hard. It wasn’t like the internet we have now. There were very few murderers around. Even if there were killers far away, the news wouldn’t reach them. It was the first time Sister-in-law Xu had faced someone who was part of a murder, and she couldn’t help but break out in a cold sweat. This girl, Cheng Yinglan, looked normal, not cruel, so how could she be so mean to others?
After this shocking event, Mrs. Xu spent some time wondering if she might have killed anyone herself. On the other Hand after XuYing took few of them back, she put the recorder into her special space and had the system make many copies before she can finally fell asleep.