It’s Him – Ch46

Suffocation

Tao Feng was waiting outside Pingcheng High School. Li Xun was a day student, and he had been watching her since the night before.

Li Xun came out with her classmates, holding books, walking side by side with two female classmates along the road behind the school.

She looked no different from the other high school girls, discussing the upcoming exam with the classmates beside her.

Tao Feng followed behind, not approaching to disturb them.

The other two female classmates split off at the next street, leaving Li Xun to continue walking alone.

As she passed a small shop, a shadow appeared in front of her, giving her a start.

When she looked again, it turned out to be an old acquaintance.

Tao Feng noticed this as well, standing at the corner, listening attentively.

“Now you’re called Li Xun?” The person seemed to be someone Li Xun had known before.

“We thought you would never dare to show up again after using our plan to scam money. You’ve been living a good life, but we, the rest of us, have been ruined because of you.”

Tao Feng overheard Li Xun impatiently replying, “You got what you deserved. I’m still surprised you dared to find me. Aren’t you afraid I’ll call the police?”

“If you call the police, you won’t be able to keep your own fraud a secret either,” the person responded. “We’re not here to catch up. Now that you have money, a little bit slipping out of your hands will be enough for us. We don’t want much—give us five million, and we’ll never bother you again, nor will we expose your secrets. If not, everyone will end up in the same boat.”

Tao Feng understood immediately. His earlier guess was right: Li Xun was indeed part of a scammer group, and she had betrayed her own gang. Now, her former group had come to confront her.

This was a breakthrough.

He was calculating whether he could use this opportunity to make contact with the group.

“Then go ahead and call the police,” Li Xun said. “I haven’t taken a single penny from home. You, however, are different.”

As she spoke, she continued walking forward, completely ignoring them.

Tao Feng frowned. This attitude of hers was only going to anger these two people. She was definitely going to be in trouble!

If it were him, he would never have acted this way.

In his mind, multiple ways of handling the situation flashed by.

As expected, the two people were angered.

“Wait! We’ll expose your little game to the public! Let’s see how you continue to scam people!”

Is that it?

Tao Feng thought these two were useless, even though they hadn’t made a move.

He had been waiting on the side, thinking that if the two tried to hit Li Xun, he would rush in to help—this could also be a good way to build rapport.

But these two weren’t fools.

There were cameras everywhere. How could they possibly make a move? They were just talking tough.

The next day was another weekend, half a day off.

The weather was sunny, and most of the boarding students were busy washing and drying their bedding, or basking in the sun on the playground.

Li Xun wasn’t at school. She was alone in a bookstore outside the school, reading.

Staying at school all the time wasn’t convenient for others to carry out their plans, and Li Xun was aware of this.

The bookstore wasn’t a library, and many people were chatting. Despite the environment, Li Xun was still able to focus on the book in her hands.

Leaning against a bookshelf, she was reading when suddenly a voice interrupted her thoughts.

“What a coincidence, I’m reading this book too.”

Li Xun looked up, and a young man stood in front of her. He looked at the book in her hand with surprise.

“Among Soviet writers, this is my favorite author. I’ve read all of his works.”

Li Xun didn’t respond. The man continued, “I’ve never met a girl who likes this kind of book. If you like, I can recommend two more.”

Li Xun finally spoke. “Go ahead.”

“If you like the style of Crime and Punishment, you could also check out his work The Idiot, which also delves into complex psychological activity and satirizes human pride.”

Li Xun replied, “Then I should take a look at this book.”

“By the way, what’s your name? Let’s add each other on WeChat. When I come across good books, I can send them to you.”

Li Xun answered, “My name is Li Xun.”

“Let me introduce myself then, I’m—”

Li Xun’s words cut through his sentence like a sharp blade: “Tao Feng.”

“Huh? Do you know me?” Tao Feng was momentarily unsure how to react. He had been quietly observing Li Xun. He knew she was normal, but how could she know him?

Maybe they had attended the same school before? He had been quite well-known at his old school.

Li Xun continued, “I’m a freshman at Pingcheng University.”

“You’ve been to our school?” Not middle school or high school, but university? By the time he was in university, he was no longer well-known.

“I’ve never been there. I know about you because your parents were the victims of that serial murder case,” she said in a lower voice.

She watched his shocked expression, then continued—

“When you investigated me, perhaps I was also investigating you.”

Tao Feng looked at Li Xun. She was still smiling, but at that moment, the way she made him feel was exactly the same as Zhao Xin.

Li Xun quietly said, “You want to be reincarnated as the child of the Qian family. I want that too. In the end, you failed, and I succeeded. Is it my gender that makes you think that even if I’m a fraud, I’m not worth fearing?”

Tao Feng felt a chill run down his back. He was stunned by the amount of information Li Xun seemed to know.

Li Xun added, “You came to me because you want to share the Qian family’s fortune with me?”

Tao Feng quickly regained his composure and said, “I can help you solve your problems. I don’t care if you’re a fraud. Everyone has their reasons.”

“You want to cooperate with me?”

“You can think about it.”

Li Xun thought for a moment and asked, “What’s the name of the author of this book?”

Tao… Tao Lao.

Li Xun replied, “Fyodor Dostoevsky. He died in 1881. The Soviet Union was established in 1917, so he was a Russian writer, not a Soviet writer.”

Tao Feng felt his face turn red with embarrassment. He looked at Li Xun, smiled awkwardly, and walked out.

In that moment, his pride shattered completely.

In other words, she had been watching him like he was a clown.

The anger from his bruised ego overwhelmed him, and then he thought with a sense of ironic retribution: Li Xun thought she had won, but what she didn’t realize was that he had only let her go this time.

Indeed! Tao Feng thought to himself, his injured pride swelling in a distorted way.

Li Xun didn’t know, but she was just communicating with him in a way that allowed her to survive.

But she hadn’t cherished it.

Now, she had made her choice for him.

Tao Feng’s anger broke through all reason.

All the things he had been through during this period, his adjustment to the adult world, all the pressure, pain, and fear, needed an outlet.

Li Xun was that outlet.

Tao Feng realized that he didn’t have to be so kind. Li Xun was a fraud to begin with.

As long as she was dead, he could get the address Zhao Xin had given him. He could become the reincarnated child of the Qian family, escaping the time bomb of his parents murdering their own daughter, escaping the looming lawsuit for his debts.

In his mind, he pushed all the blame onto Li Xun.

There could have been a better solution.

Now, it was all Li Xun’s fault.

She was a fraud, she was scamming people for money, and she couldn’t even tell the victim’s family the location of their child’s body.

But he, at least, could find the body and comfort the victim’s family.

She didn’t understand how to behave, mocking him when no matter what his family had done, it wasn’t his fault.

She would pay for it.

He couldn’t wait to call Zhao Xin, eager to escape the state of having his pride crushed.

“I agree with the terms you mentioned last time. Let’s meet in person.”

Zhao Xin’s life was getting harder and harder.

The once friendly people have all changed their faces now. The residents of the same neighborhood are forcing him to move, and even pretended to give him moving expenses.

“We know you’re not that kind of person, but this incident has become too big. Some strangers are bound to come to the neighborhood to watch the commotion. The more people there are, the more trouble there will be.”

“You’re sick right now, and you also need a quiet place to recuperate. Staying like this isn’t good for you.”

His son kept urging him every day, “Let’s move out. We can’t sleep properly like this. My mom’s place is empty. Let’s go live there.”

“Dad, please listen to me. I’m begging you.”

He still refuses to move. He is full of anger but has nowhere to vent it.

It was at this moment that Tao Feng’s message came in.

He looked at the message and immediately understood the other person’s choice.

Originally, he had just wanted to play a trick on the young man, to have him kill someone but not provide the address. He wanted to see this person fall into the abyss, never to climb out.

But now, he was crushed by his own life, and he couldn’t find any joy in such matters anymore.

When he saw the other person’s ruined life, he couldn’t help but relate it to his own. A feeling of uncontrollable self-pity arose.

He was fifty now, no longer young. His ailments had forcefully dragged him back to the real world. He had returned to reality.

He missed his peaceful life from before.

Now, there was an opportunity for him to return to that peace.

If he were younger, he wouldn’t have cooperated with anyone.

But now, he was truly tired.

At this moment, he decided to cooperate with the other person.

Such matters still needed to be discussed in person. This time, the two agreed to meet by the lake outside Pingcheng High School.

There used to be surveillance cameras here, but later, some students began to date here, and the cameras were destroyed. After multiple incidents, no one bothered anymore.

As soon as they met, Zhao Xin opened his equipment to check for any eavesdropping or recording devices. This time, the other party didn’t try any tricks.

Tao Feng said, “I’ve already chosen the person. Li Xun. I’ll kill her, and you give me the location of the victim from that year. After we finish the cooperation, I’ll give you five million and help you relocate to start a new life.”

Tao Feng was very sincere. He believed that sometimes, you had to give up small gains for bigger ones.

Upon hearing the choice of the victim, Zhao Xin’s first reaction was to reject it, “No, you can’t kill Li Xun.”

Didn’t he hate Li Xun? Of course, he hated her! He also hated his son, his wife, his mother, his sister…

If he followed this path and killed people, he would have been arrested long ago.

“Why?”

“She’s easy to trace. Right now, she’s the reincarnation of a child from the Qian family. If she dies and you reappear, claiming to be the reincarnation of that child, any normal person would suspect you first.”

Tao Feng: “I’ve already thought about it. We must not let anyone know she’s dead.”

He explained what happened when he followed Li Xun and encountered her breaking ties with her scammer gang.

“I found the place where the scammer gang lives. They’re all fugitives. Once we kill Li Xun, we’ll report them to the police, then expose their relationship with Li Xun. When she goes missing, people will naturally think she’s fled because she was afraid of being caught.”

Zhao Xin still felt it was not right. “No, it won’t work.”

Unlike Tao Feng, Zhao Xin wasn’t someone who would just impulsively decide to kill.

Things are different now. Everywhere there are cameras, and… Li Xun is a wicked person.

He instinctively didn’t want to deal with this person.

“Don’t kill Li Xun. Choose another person. The most important thing about killing is randomness. Once you prepare carefully to kill someone, there will definitely be flaws,” Zhao Xin shared his experience.

“Are you saying we should randomly pick someone off the street to kill?”

“No, not us. You. You need to show your sincerity to me. You just need to pick a suitable person.”

Tao Feng refused. “I won’t kill anyone at random.”

Tao Feng, unlike Zhao Xin, had a mindset closer to that of a normal person. He subconsciously believed he was a good person.

Li Xun was the best choice. She was a scammer, she offended him, and she knew their family secrets. He had given her a way out, but she refused.

If she died, he wouldn’t feel guilty.

Now, with Zhao Xin opposing it and wanting to kill someone chosen randomly, Tao Feng opposed it even more.

“I don’t agree with randomly choosing someone.”

He even had the feeling that he had saved a stranger from possibly being killed. This greatly reduced his fear and guilt about killing.

In his mind, he separated himself from Zhao Xin. He believed he wasn’t a killer who took pleasure in killing. He was at the end of his rope, with no other options. He had his bottom line.

This feeling made him not back down in front of Zhao Xin, who was a real murderer.

Seeing this, Zhao Xin immediately lost the desire to cooperate.

“Go play on your own.”

But as he was walking back, he ran into some students from his class.

From a distance, those students saw him as well.

The students who would usually greet him with laughter now, without exception, turned their heads and walked in the opposite direction.

There was still red paint on his door, and in addition to the words “Get out,” it now also had “Kill and pay with your life.”

The door opened to reveal his son, who was on the phone, arguing with Qin Li on the other end.

His hand still ached faintly.

The whole society felt like a water tank, and he was the fish that had escaped the tank.

Everything was suffocating.

Zhao Xin returned to his bedroom and sent a message to Tao Feng.

“The person doesn’t have to change. For everything that comes after, listen to my arrangements.”