It’s Him – Ch44

Mooching Off Food

Tao Feng had always considered himself a person with high intelligence, but he felt he lost out due to a lack of family support.

While other students had to fight tooth and nail to get into Pingcheng University, he only had to work hard in his senior year of high school, while the first two years were spent playing around.

Before others even realized the massive benefits behind the connections of past and present lives, he had figured it out.

If it weren’t for the lack of proper resources, he believed he could have taken down the Qian family.

With something so big happening in his family, others would have been panicking, but not him. He had responded quickly and taken measures to ensure his family wouldn’t fall into someone else’s trap.

As for Zhao Xin, he thought the other person was foolish. In reality, there was no solid evidence, and the police hadn’t arrested him. His situation was that netizens had started seeing him as a symbol to attack rather than an actual person.

If he were a bit smarter, he could have stood up. As long as he appeared in the public eye, there was a good chance he could turn things around.

These events made Tao Feng feel that the world was truly a mess, and he was one of the few who understood the rules.

This sense of superiority lingered as he faced Zhao Xin, a middle-aged man pushed to the edge by online pressure. However, his confidence vanished when Zhao Xin pulled him back to reality.

Zhao Xin was a murderer, someone who had killed people using cruel methods.

In the end, Tao Feng fled in panic.

Zhao Xin watched his retreating figure, the pent-up frustration in his chest finally dissipating.

He could imagine that every single day, every minute ahead, this young man would be struggling with whether to kill someone to secure wealth for the rest of his life or to stick to his principles.

However, Zhao Xin’s brief sense of relief didn’t last long.

When he returned to his apartment, he immediately noticed a large area of red paint on the door.

The words “Murderer, get out” were written on it.

They wanted to drive him out.

Zhao Xin opened the door and sat at his desk. When he tried to pick up a pen, his hand throbbed with pain.

The school was urging him to move out.

He replied, “I understand the school’s decision, but I have my difficulties. My hand is injured, and I have many things at home, so moving is inconvenient. If other teachers are scared, I can stay indoors for now. If I go out now, no one will rent me a place.”

Move out?

This was his home.

He ignored the school’s messages and got up to feed the fish in the kitchen.

The fish were ornamental fish, originally placed in the living room. But when the stand broke, he moved them to the kitchen, which had a larger kitchen island.

As he dropped the fish food in, the plump koi rushed to the food.

He watched them eat, then reached out with his left hand and caught one of the fish. The fish struggled, but instead of releasing it, he placed it on the island.

The fish, no longer in the water, began to struggle. At first, the noise was loud, and its tail slapped against the surface, constantly leaping around.

The tank was high, so the fish couldn’t jump back in.

Soon, the fish lost its vitality, its movements reduced to small twitches.

Zhao Xin watched all of this, feeling uncomfortable for the first time. He reached out and placed the fish back into the water.

Only after the fish was back did he feel a little better.

What should he do next?

Zhao Xin didn’t want to continue living like this. He needed to find a way to clear his name.

The best tool was still Li Xun and her group.

He returned to his study, planning to make a list.

He picked up the pen, but as his hand throbbed with pain, he remembered that his hand was still recovering.

So, he slowly wrote with his left hand.

Tao Feng was right about one thing. If he could clear this up, he would receive guilt from society as a whole.

The breakthrough point was—

They used the body of the victim from the old case to create this past-and-present-life story.

He only needed to prove that this victim wasn’t the person from the old murder case.

It was a crime imitation by the parents, which could break the connection between past and present lives.

Proving this was difficult. The police had done an autopsy, but there were no useful details left on the body. He couldn’t come forward as the murderer and explain that he hadn’t done it.

At that moment, Zhao Jing was returning from outside and immediately started telling him about what had happened.

“Dad, someone splashed paint on our door. What should we do?”

“Dad, are they trying to force us to move?”

“These people are crazy. What should we do, Dad?”

Zhao Xin had barely calmed down, barely gained any peace, when everything was disrupted.

He was already in the kitchen, and there were two knives nearby.

“I’ll call Mom. She’s in Hangzhou, and her house is vacant…”

“We won’t be staying for free; we’ll pay her rent.”

Zhao Jing had always been a filial child. The people around him often told him, intentionally or not—

“Your dad is such a good dad. He never remarried because of you.”

“Your mom is so heartless. She doesn’t even come to see you.”

“Better that she doesn’t come. If she did, with her bad temper, it would only make things worse for both of you.”

Society itself placed higher expectations on mothers when it came to raising children. Qin Li came once or twice, but she was criticized several times. Plus, she wasn’t someone who dedicated herself selflessly. Having never learned parenting skills from her parents, having a child was more about wanting someone to love her unconditionally. But when she ended up with a child who seemed like a debt collector, she initially tried to connect with the child, but after failing once or twice, she gave up.

She comforted herself by thinking she had done what most fathers would do in the world.

In this environment, Zhao Jing had always felt indebted to his father and naturally felt his mother owed him as well.

He also felt that Qin Li owed his father.

As soon as Qin Li arrived at her destination, she received a call from her son, saying the school was asking them to change places.

They had no place to stay. If she didn’t do anything, they’d have to sleep under a bridge.

What could Qin Li do in that moment?

She began to feel relieved she had left. Otherwise, they’d still be living together.

“Dad, Mom says we can stay at her place.”

Zhao Xin replied, “I’m not going. You go ahead.”

————————————

On the other side, Li Xun’s life was simple. Her classmates were waiting for the college entrance exams.

And she was waiting for something else to happen.

She was under a lot of pressure, and her way of relieving it was through running.

Every morning, students from Pingcheng High School could see Li Xun running around the track.

One lap, two laps, three laps… She ran ten laps every morning.

Her grades were slowly improving again, possibly due to the exercise. She also wasn’t as depressed as before.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief; this version of Li Xun seemed much more comfortable.

On this rare weekend with little homework, Guo Ying and a few other girls discussed—

“Let’s go out to eat, relax a bit.”

“Sure! It’s been so long since we’ve been out.”

“Perfect, we can also shop around.”

As soon as they started talking about this, the excitement was palpable.

“What should we eat?”

“Pickled fish. I heard from my sister that there’s a restaurant outside our school that has great pickled fish. She went there with her classmates.”

“That pickled fish is so expensive. My allowance is all gone. What should we do?”

“Yeah, I don’t have much left either. That restaurant is a private place, and it’s pricier than usual. How about we go for a self-service hotpot instead? It’s 25 yuan per person for all-you-can-eat fish.”

“The fish there isn’t fresh.”

The girls gathered around, their mood sinking.

Guo Ying said, “I have an idea. We can eat fresh and not spend money.”

Immediately, everyone turned to her.

“Didn’t it say online that the Qian family is looking for the reincarnation of their child? They have a buffet, and we’re all in the right age group. Why don’t we go check it out?”

“Really? There’s no requirement? We still have to take a taxi. What if there’s no food? We’d be wasting the fare.”

“I’ll check.”

Guo Ying searched and found other people sharing the news, giving a confident response.

As soon as she said that, everyone became excited. Not only could they eat, but they could also see the commotion. At this age, high school students seized every opportunity to have fun.

So, they looked at Li Xun.

Li Xun didn’t object.

Thus, they headed to the Qian family, all with the intention of just mooching a meal, never thinking of anything else.

None of them expected that when they returned, Li Xun would be claimed to be the reincarnation of their child.