Chapter 382: Blood, Rain, and Tears

2022-05-20

From twenty-five meters up, life and death come down to a single instant. But with Gu Chen’s skill, grabbing Yang Ting mid-fall shouldn’t have been so hard. He’s done tougher things—I trust what Gu Chen can do.

All of this flashed through my mind in one breath, but life always finds a way to overturn our expectations. When the two of them crossed paths in the air, Gu Chen did reach out his hand. Yet he never caught Yang Ting. Both of them plunged downward. By the laws of free fall, it only would have taken two seconds for everything to end.

What can you do in two seconds? Take a breath—or watch someone fall from twenty-five meters, hitting the ground as a broken, bloody corpse. Screams tore through the air as everyone instinctively stepped back.

Yang Ting never even had the chance to say a word. I was standing in the front, and in that moment the metallic smell of blood rushed straight to my nose. Yang Ting, his hands and feet bound, never even got to lift a hand in defense. He crashed heavily to the ground.

Everyone held their breath. I stared at the body—Yang Ting’s corpse lying just meters from me.

He died with every limb twisted, unable to escape the punishment of Zhang Zijun and his wife.

Yang Ting was dead, but there were still people left alive. I looked up as high as I could, and caught sight of Gu Chen hanging from the wall. He hadn’t caught Yang Ting and was left dangling in midair. Thankfully someone was already hauling him back in; for now, he was safe.

“Stop!” I shouted.

Above Gu Chen, on the rooftop, someone stood outside the railing—it was Zhang Zijun, the one who’d let go just moments earlier. Facing everyone below, both hands clinging desperately to the railing to keep from falling. Zhang Zijun stared up at the sky, frozen.

We had no idea what he was thinking. We didn’t know when he’d let go. It was like watching him release Yang Ting so carelessly—ending another’s life isn’t the same as ending your own. Zhang Zijun hesitated, not letting go.

Whether it was fear of death or something else, it didn’t matter. He’d killed Yang Ting before us, so brutally, and now the rooftop was quiet while the crowd below burst into frantic motion. Some sprinted upstairs to get to Zhang Zijun, others started gathering tools to clean the ground below.

Gu Chen was already back through the window, probably racing up to the rooftop.

Down below, chaos reigned, but up where Zhang Zijun stood, everything seemed still. For two whole minutes, he didn’t move at all, like a figure locked in place. Then he glanced back, likely hearing Gu Chen and others at the door. Turning back toward the ground, he made his choice.

“Son, I’m coming.”

That’s what he shouted, letting go.

“Get out of the way!” someone yelled.

Another body fell from the rooftop.

Same spot, same way—only this time, one person had his life taken from him, while the other chose to end it himself. Yet it was the same hand behind both deaths. The two of them died in the exact same spot, body upon body, even parts of them mingling together.

“He’s still breathing!” a doctor shouted.

Several doctors rushed over to check on Zhang Zijun. Somehow, he wasn’t dead. Smiling, he looked at me—or rather, over my shoulder.

When I turned, I saw Ha Limin standing behind me. It wasn’t me he was looking at. It was his wife.

That wedding photo—Zhang Zijun always kept it spotless.

“He won’t make it, his pulse is barely there.”

“There’s no saving him… we can’t do anything…”

In the final seconds of his life, Zhang Zijun left a smile for his wife. Maybe, for these two, everything ended right there. There was a real sense of release in that smile. For some people, living is just endless suffering.

The doctors stood and shook their heads at us. Zhang Zijun was lost for good.

“Take both bodies back together. Contact Yang Ting’s parents.”

Before I could even finish my sentence, Ha Limin broke free from those holding her and lunged headfirst toward the van. Luckily, two quick-thinking people caught her just before she slammed into it.

But Ha Limin seemed out of her mind, still struggling desperately. Only this time, they wouldn’t let her break away so easily.

Inside, I felt strangely calm. It should have been a sad scene, but all I heard was chaos and noise.

“Why are you stopping me!” Ha Limin screamed, her voice raw. “Just let me die—why won’t you let me? This world is so fake, all of you so fake! Even if you drag me back, I’ll die in the end. Why not let me die now? I want to die with my husband!”

Sometimes, staying alive is the hardest thing in the world. But sometimes, dying is just as impossible—especially for someone like Ha Limin, who’s killed so many. She no longer got to decide her own fate.

With that, the case was finished. Driven by guilt for their son and rage against his tormentors, Zhang Zijun and Ha Limin spent half a year planning murder. In the early stages, Zhang Zijun purposefully misled our investigation while Ha Limin, the furious mother, carried out the killings.

Their plan worked: after killing two people, they realized the authorities were getting closer. Eventually, we’d find the child who’d bullied their son—Zhang Zuochen. So before they killed Guo Li, they made sure Zhang Zijun left a deliberate trail to be caught.

While we watched Zhang Zijun, Ha Limin had plenty of time to do whatever she wanted. Zhang Zijun intentionally exposed himself—and let us arrest him. In the interrogation room, the two played us with a classic bait-and-switch. The moment everyone rushed to chase down Ha Limin and find Hu Ningning, that’s when Ha Limin made her move.

Every word they spoke in interrogation had been planned. Zhang Zijun only pretended to be defending himself, but in reality, he just wanted to get out after the twelve hours to hunt down Yang Ting. Today’s heavy rain helped him—the streets were clogged with raincoats and umbrellas. Yang Ting never guessed that the person under the raincoat meant to kill him.

The principal glanced at me, looking defeated. “So many dead already. Just tell me, is there going to be another one?”

“Why won’t you let me die—why!”

Off in the distance, Ha Limin’s voice echoed on.

In an instant, everything quieted down again.

I stared at the ground. Where blood had been pooling seconds ago, it was now washed spotless. The heavy rain had thinned and swept away the blood, merging with Ha Limin’s tears and flowing down the sewers, never to be seen again. And those children who went home after school—when they pass by this spot tomorrow, they’ll never imagine what happened here today.

“I can’t keep doing this.” The principal shook his head and walked away alone.

Mary came up beside me. We waited for Gu Chen and the other two to come down so we could all leave together.

Of course, Mary heard the principal too. She shook the rain off her hood and said, “No more deaths—four in total. With Zhang Zijun, and Zhang Zuochen who died half a year ago, and now Ha Limin, that’s it. But aren’t you curious about what Yang Ting actually did?”

I shook my head. “Is it really over? As long as the children responsible haven’t faced justice, nothing’s really finished, don’t you think?”

Mary just looked thoughtful and stayed quiet.

We can dig out the reason why Zhang Zuochen took his own life, we could even save the next child like Wang Mai from being bullied. But what about all those kids who are still suffering? Can we really save anyone at all?