It’s Him – Ch26

Showdown

Li Xun had stayed at the Happy Community for over three hours. With the help of the kind-hearted elderly people, she had collected more fragments belonging to Teacher Zhao.

These included the most important fragments that formed the twisted and contradictory personality of Teacher Zhao.

This part was the core that Li Xun had been searching for all along.

The high school student who had rarely faced hardship had finally grasped Zhao’s critical vulnerability and pieced together his entire life.

No one is invincible. Once you know everything about a person, you can set traps specifically for them.

Li Xun walked back with her backpack, waving at the elderly people. The sun was setting, and the evening wind rushed past, howling through the banyan trees above her head.

Li Xun was calculating in her mind where to begin.

It was as if she was holding a venomous snake, gripping its fatal spot, thinking about how to strike.

Then, a call from Sun Ning came—

“Where have you been? The class teacher noticed you were missing and almost called the police.” Fortunately, Sun Ning had managed to cover for her with just a few words.

“I’ve found more important clues,” Li Xun said. “I’ll explain tomorrow at school.”

“Then come to school tomorrow. I’ll tell the class teacher that you’re not feeling well and went home to rest.”

Colleagues are easier to deal with, they won’t ask too many questions.

Li Xun thanked her, then hurried home.

By the time she arrived, it was already dark. The lights in the house were off, and her key wouldn’t open the door—it had been locked from the inside.

Li Xun found this strange and knocked on the door.

“Mom? I’m back.”

“Mom, you’ve locked the door from the inside, I can’t open it.”

It was eerily quiet inside.

Li Xun took out her phone and called Li Yugui.

“Sorry, the number you have dialed is out of service, please try again later.”

Out of service?

In the basement?

Had the door been locked from the inside while she was in the basement?

Li Xun immediately sensed something was wrong and began to bang on the door.

Bang… bang… The door made a loud sound but still wouldn’t open.

People upstairs stuck their heads out.

“What’s going on?”

Li Xun, feeling a bit flustered, quickly smiled and said, “It’s nothing, I just can’t open the door. It’ll be fine soon.”

She then took a few steps back, gathering all her strength, and with a powerful sprint, she crashed into the door. The door, being part of an old community with cheap fittings, opened.

The darkness and silence inside were terrifying.

Li Xun didn’t bother to drop her backpack and rushed straight to the basement.

After running a few steps, she quickly turned around to close the door behind her.

The lock was broken.

Li Xun quickly looked around, dragging a table to wedge against the door to make sure it was secure.

Once everything was done, she rushed to the basement.

From the basement came the sound of struggling, and she could hear her mother’s voice.

“If you won’t speak, then we’ll die together.”

“Mom!” Li Xun rushed over, hugged Li Yugui, and loosened the rope around Teacher Zhao’s neck.

Teacher Zhao gasped for air, his face turning red under the faint light.

“Crazy—crazy—Li Xun, your mom has completely lost it! Let me go now, the most I’ll get is prison. But once someone dies, your mom will either rot in prison or be shot.”

Li Xun ignored him, pulling her mother aside. “Listen to me. He’s a psychopath. The more angry and broken you are, the happier he gets. Calm down first.”

Meanwhile, Teacher Zhao was still coughing violently, taking a long time to recover.

Once he did, he said, “Now I’m the victim. It’s your mom who’s trying to kill me.”

“Stop with these ridiculous words,” Li Xun replied. “We both know you’ve taken at least ten lives.”

Teacher Zhao sneered. “Do you have any solid evidence to prove that I’m the killer? You don’t. You’re just assuming I am.”

He was genuinely curious as to why he had been targeted.

Li Yugui, hearing his voice, started dry heaving, feeling dizzy and nauseous.

Teacher Zhao paused for a moment.

After being locked up, he had been mostly silenced, and he had always thought this was a tactic used during interrogations.

But at this moment, he suddenly realized something. He spoke again, “I’ve also seen the reports about that case. You were the last family member of the victim, the only one who actually met the killer face-to-face.”

“Is it because I resemble the killer?”

He laughed. “Is that really the reason? That’s such a ridiculous reason! You’ve locked me up for half a month? After all these years, do you still remember it clearly? Could you be mistaken?”

Li Xun, having calmed her mother, said, “Teacher Zhao, no need to keep pretending. There are only the three of us here.”

She added, “There are no cameras here either. When you were committing crimes, did you record any videos?” Her mother had originally installed cameras but had removed them later. Li Xun suspected her mother had not only dismantled the cameras but also destroyed the footage after discovering she had gone down to the basement.

Teacher Zhao said, “No matter how many people are here, I really am not the killer. When I told you to kill someone before, I actually wanted you to understand that killing is not as easy as it seems.”

Hearing this, Li Yugui almost went mad again.

Li Xun watched the scene and suddenly understood. The more Teacher Zhao maliciously exposed himself in front of her, the more he emphasized to her mother that he wasn’t the killer, stubbornly denying it, all while playing mind games.

Li Xun pressed her mother down and said, “You’re not the killer? Which one of these murders wasn’t done by you?”

She began to list them: “Slashing your sister’s belly with a kitchen knife? Oh, to the outside world, that wasn’t you.”

“You learned early on that reputation is very important, didn’t you? In the eyes of the public, you were just a primary school student, and your father had a history of domestic violence. Even when the police figured out it was you, they still couldn’t find a time for your father to have committed the crime. People still thought it was your father.”

“That time, when the police figured it out, you didn’t get punished. You were so happy, right?”

Teacher Zhao’s face darkened, and the vibrant energy he had earlier faded. No one is truly invulnerable.

The hidden things deep within him were now being thrown right in his face by a high school student a few years younger than him.

Li Xun looked at him and continued, “No, you didn’t stay happy for long. Because your mother and sister left. Your father must have beaten you badly, and you hated your mother and sister. The last victim in that case was connected to them.”

“You wanted to kill your mother and sister from back then.”

Li Xun felt no sympathy for him. As far as tragedy goes, no one in the world could compare to her.

But had she killed anyone?

No.

Had she vented her anger on innocent people?

No.

In front of Teacher Zhao, Li Xun even felt a sense of superiority. She even felt entitled to judge him.

“Teacher Zhao, this life of being controlled by emotions—how pathetic. I remember you always emphasized to your students that one must remain calm. Have you achieved that yourself? Have you realized that you’ve been controlled by your emotions?”

This statement hit the mark. Everything Teacher Zhao had done was full of contradictions because, on one hand, he derived pleasure from others’ pain, yet on the other hand, he couldn’t truly escape the crowd and be a full psychopath.

“Shut up!” Teacher Zhao yelled.

Li Xun’s aim was simply to drag him back into his childhood, to make his mental defenses crumble.

“You must have wanted to be a good person, right? When that aunt took you in… what was her name again?”

“Her home must have been very warm. She must have felt that you were really pitiful and should be helped. You could feel the care from others. Doesn’t that feel great?”

“Did you swear to yourself that you would be a good person in the future, control your emotions, and never be like your father?”

Li Xun’s terrifying ability lay in her deep understanding of human nature. She had never realized Teacher Zhao was a murderer before.

Because his social group traits were so strong. He wasn’t like other ordinary psychopaths—he was a walking contradiction, seeking approval from the group. Most of the time, this was the side he showed.

Teacher Zhao no longer looked at Li Xun; he turned his gaze to Li Yugui.

Li Xun’s theory was correct: when you know everything about someone’s life, you can pinpoint their vulnerable spot.

At this moment, Teacher Zhao was no match for Li Xun because he knew nothing about her.

His anger desperately needed to be released.

He looked at the middle-aged woman, who had been calmed by Li Xun, and saw the helplessness of the woman who had been grasping at the murderer yet had no way to fight back.

He spoke, “Li Xun, everything you’ve said is just your speculation. Do you like to guess other people’s thoughts because you want to be a police officer in the future?” During a class meeting, Li Xun had filled out a career plan and written “police.”

“Li Xun’s mom, look at what your daughter is doing for you. She’s even willing to sacrifice her future. Are you going to let this continue? If you really kill me, Li Xun will be an accomplice. What happens to her future as a police officer?” He looked at Li Yugui.

Li Yugui had already made up her mind, but she wouldn’t tell him.

Teacher Zhao noticed she hadn’t gone mad yet and added, “Li Xun’s mom, as a parent, you’re ruining your child’s future because of some baseless accusations. Can you still smile after this?”

The next moment, the woman, who had been calmed, suddenly lifted her head. Her eyes were full of uncontrollable anger. She charged forward—

“It’s you! It’s you! You admitted it! You remembered!”

—”Can you still smile after this?”

It’s him! It’s him! She would never forget those words!

She wanted to kill him.

Kill him!

Li Xun quickly dragged her mother outside, not letting her kill him.

Li Xun wasn’t directly involved in the case back then, but she understood her mother.

Her mother was just overwhelmed with emotion now.

After searching for so many years, the most important thing was finding her child.

If they really killed him, once they calmed down and realized that they might never know where her child was, her mother would completely collapse.

“We’ll go out first.”

“He will definitely die.”

“I guarantee he will get the punishment he deserves. Didn’t you say I’m the smartest?”

Li Xun dragged her mother out, not letting her stay in the basement any longer.

At this moment, she didn’t know that less than 300 meters away from their house, another person had also collapsed.

“It’s impossible! Li Xun couldn’t be lying to me! Her mother couldn’t be a victim’s family member from back then! I have to find her!”

Qin Li couldn’t believe it. She had just finished making the call and rushed over.

“Why is it impossible? How long have you known her? And that other person is her mother! Her mother!”

“Do you think everyone has no feelings for their own mother?”