Qiming Chapter 63

Chapter 63

---

Wang Kun said that the deaths of the others had nothing to do with him.

This wasn't true. He was lying.

This was Xu Chengyue's first reaction.

But he quickly calmed down. Given Wang Kun's condition, he had already relapsed into his old illness and was physically weak at the time of the crime. After expending all his energy sawing off Jiang Yang's limbs, he cut Jiang Yang's limbs piece by piece in front of the other three. His hands must have been trembling badly at that time, so he used tools other than a scalpel.

The weapon used to kill the other three, a short spear gun from Jiang Yang's collection, had precisely pierced the hearts of the three victims. This gun was about two metres long, somewhat heavy, and required considerable skill to use.

Xu Chengyue ran through it in his mind. If Wang Kun had been the one using it, he would have needed a great deal of strength and skill to accurately pierce the heart and kill instantly. After coming to this conclusion, Xu Chengyue looked at the pale patient who was struggling to breathe and had to admit that Wang Kun's condition probably only allowed him to kill one person.

Wang Kun claimed he had only killed Jiang Yang, which implied there were at least two murderers, possibly one after another, or maybe they knew each other. Xu Chengyue sat silently beside him. Wang Kun's neck wound had stopped bleeding after a simple treatment, his hands were cuffed, and he hung his head, staring at the floor's pattern.

He found humans often difficult to understand. What was Wang Kun thinking when he committed the crime? Faced with all that blood, he might have thought of himself as a hero, securing a happy future for Lin Xiangrong before his life ended. But now, with no way to defend himself, there wasn't a trace of openness on his face.

If he had been honest and saw himself as a hero eliminating evil, he should have turned himself in after killing Jiang Yang. Instead, he had hidden at home, waiting for everything to blow over.

"On the night of the murder, did you go to Jiang Yang's house in his car?" Xu Chengyue asked.

"Mhmm, I told him that Xiangrong wanted Jiang Hai transferred to Ruihe Hospital for treatment. He got very angry and punched me," Wang Kun said, sitting on the hospital bed, his face grim, eyes slightly closed.

"That punch landed right on my nose, causing it to bleed, and Jiang Yang panicked a bit. Then I suggested we go to his house to discuss it and see if the others agreed."

"And then he took you to the villa, stopping by a bar on the way to get some medical supplies."

Wang Kun nodded, not denying it.

"How did you leave the villa?"

"I jumped into the river to leave. There were too many cameras there."

"There were other people in Jiang Yang's car that night, weren't there?"

From the surveillance footage of the neighbourhood, during that period, only Jiang Yang's car had entered the garage. The only way to enter and exit the villa without leaving a trace was to follow Jiang Yang's car.

"I don't think so," Wang Kun said after thinking for a moment.

"Then how did the other three people besides Jiang Yang die?" Xu Chengyue frowned, his gaze turning sharp as he looked down at Wang Kun.

"I... really don't know." He paused for a few seconds, then reluctantly raised his head to meet Xu Chengyue's eyes before looking into the distance again.

Maybe it was the intense emotions, but Wang Kun coughed several times. The low fever made his mind unclear, and he felt dizzy. After resting for a while, he lowered his head and insisted, "The other members of the Jiang family are innocent, I didn't kill them."

Xu Chengyue kept observing him. Wang Kun kept drinking water and trembling, and his statements were full of inconsistencies. Xu Chengyue understood that Wang Kun was not particularly strong-willed. He was close to death and feared it. When he killed Jiang Yang, he must have been flustered and left many flaws. But those flaws had been systematically erased, except for the scalpel he had taken with him.

He thought that killing Jiang Yang wasn't something Wang Kun could have done alone. How did he manage to avoid the surveillance cameras? How did he know that the Jiang household's power was cut off, causing their home surveillance system to stop working at that particular time?

It was as if someone was guiding Wang Kun, ensuring he stayed on the right path to achieve the desired outcome.

Xu Chengyue raised his hand to glance at his watch. This device, which constantly recorded his geographic location and vital signs, made him wary. If it weren't for Gu Yunfeng's insistence, he would have thrown it onto a truck heading for the border long ago.

"Why did you choose to do it on the 20th of August?" he asked.

"Because, Xiangrong went out to relax, and I wanted to wait until she was gone to do it," Wang Kun said, head down. "You know, during that time..."

He suddenly choked up. "It's all because of me that she's unhappy. I have a responsibility, a duty, to free her from this scum's shadow. As long as he's dead, she'll be free..."

"Alright, alright," Xu Chengyue quickly interrupted him. "Have you been to Jiang Yang's house before?"

"No."

"Then how did you know there was a hack saw in the house and find it so precisely?"

"I..." He was momentarily stunned, his expression darkening. "I originally intended to use the scalpel to finish off Jiang Yang."

"But the saw was in such a conspicuous place that I saw it at a glance. Then I thought, dying too easily was too good for him, he should suffer before going to hell."

"The money for your bone marrow transplant was paid by Lin Xiangrong, right? She found Jiang Hai for that?"

At the mention of this, the last glimmer in his eyes finally extinguished, his gaze becoming empty and distant, staring at the floating dust in the air.

"If it weren't for that money, she would have left the Jiang family long ago."

—————

Xu Chengyue felt he could live at the hospital.

A little over a month ago, he had been the one hospitalised; now it was Gu Yunfeng's turn. It was already evening by the time Wang Kun was taken away. Xu Chengyue bought two set meals from the hospital cafeteria and carried a bunch of daily necessities and a change of clothes to Gu Yunfeng.

The wound from the stab was quite fortunate, not too damaging to the nerves and bones, and the surgery had ended quickly.

When Xu Chengyue opened the door to the ward with the boxed meals, Gu Yunfeng was playing a game with one hand and had an IV drip in his foot.

"Are you a child? Why is the IV in your foot?"

"I only have one usable hand right now, one hand, I need at least one hand free to eat and answer calls."

That seemed to make sense? Xu Chengyue placed the boxed meals on the table, opened one, and handed it to Gu Yunfeng, keeping the other for himself.

"How long did the doctor say you'd be staying?"

"Two or three days," Gu Yunfeng took the meal and placed it on the bedside. He stared at his heavily bandaged left hand and then stretched out his right hand, palm up, catching the moonlight.

"The bones aren't damaged, so I don't need to stay too long." He looked pitifully at the scar on his right palm and said, "Why are my hands so ill-fated that they always have to endure cuts?"

The scar on his right hand was from when he shielded his father from a knife in his childhood. The scar on his left hand was from shielding a suspect from a knife.

Both scars were from protecting people who were hurting themselves. What kind of karma was this?

"Maybe it's to stop you from doing certain things," Xu Chengyue said seriously.

"Like what?"

"For example, masturbation."

"......"

Gu Yunfeng had already guessed what he meant but hadn't expected Xu Chengyue to answer so promptly and in such an educational tone when he asked in such a casual manner.

He couldn't even laugh at him.

"Do you think this injury will leave any lasting effects?" Gu Yunfeng gloomily tried to poke his bandage with his fingers. Before he could touch it, his right wrist was grabbed.

"Don't move." Xu Chengyue sat on the chair beside the bed, holding Gu Yunfeng's wrist, then turned his palm to face himself.

Xu Chengyue stared at the scar in his palm and finally asked the question that had been bothering him for a long time: "This scar, how did you get it?"

"When I was a kid, I shielded my dad from a knife," Gu Yunfeng said with a smile. "It was similar to what happened today."

"Your father hut himself too?"

"Yeah, because of what happened to my sister and my mom, he took a kitchen knife and wanted to chop his hand off." He shook his head, speaking as if it was someone else's story.

"Did it leave any lasting effects?"

"No, it was just a cut, a different kind of wound, it healed quickly."

"Fortunately, everyone's okay." Gu Yunfeng closed his eyes and sat relaxed, showing a look of deep pain. "It's a pity I've sacrificed the beauty of another hand."

Xu Chengyue smiled but didn't respond, his fingertips tracing the scar. Then his fingers circled in Gu Yunfeng's palm, lightly sliding towards his fingers.

In the next second, his fingertips were caught, fingers interlocked.

Xu Chengyue found himself enjoying these little gestures a lot, something he had never experienced or imagined in the past. A year and a half ago, when he woke up from a coma, he was unaware of the world, unclear about life and death.

He was like a blank sheet of paper, emotionally vacant, his future entirely dependent on who he encountered.

They gazed at each other, fingers interlocked, for a long time. Xu Chengyue tried to let go, but Gu Yunfeng held on tighter.

"Don't let go," he said.

Don't let go of my hand, hold on to me.

This voice lingered in his head. He wanted to stay like this forever, even if the other person only had one usable hand, he would still hold on to him.

"Hey, do you think it's okay for me to be discharged tomorrow? It's just a hand injury, do I really need to stay here? It's not like I'm crippled." Gu Yunfeng asked, frustrated.

"Just think of it as a break, otherwise, I might break your legs to give you a good reason to stay in the hospital."

Listening to Xu Chengyue's joke, Gu Yunfeng looked at him, unable to laugh or cry, and quickly changed the subject. He pointed to the boxed meal on the table, "Professor Xu, you must be hungry too. The meal's getting cold. Look, my hand isn't very convenient, so why not..."

"Just not eat?" Xu Chengyue released his hand and continued joking.

"Pei, where's your conscience? I fought against the dark forces for the people, the least you could do is provide some special service." Saying this, he pointed to the boxed meal, his face full of radiance, and slightly opened his mouth. Xu Chengyue had no choice but to open the meal for him, scooping a small spoonful of rice and putting it in his mouth.

"Why is it all vegetables? Where's the meat?"

"There isn't any."

"Does your meal have meat?"

"Yeah." Xu Chengyue opened his own box, full of food, then pulled out a drumstick, smiling vindictively. "You just had surgery, you need to eat light."

"I'll eat meat, watch me."

—————

The author has something to say:

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!!! Remember to enjoy the moon, everyone!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

Previous Chapter | TOC | Next Chapter

Translator Notes

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: August 1, 2024 by Angel

Edited: November 4, 2024 by Angel