Chapter 9

That man raped me, killed me, dismembered me, and took my phone.

Xu Ze didn’t realize this.

He just told our father with a cold face, “Xu Tao won’t even answer my calls. She had her boyfriend tell me that she finds our family disgusting.”

My father was furious.

He slammed his hand on the table and called me an animal.

It seems that business people are more superstitious.

He liked Xu Jiao because after she was born, his business grew rapidly, and his assets multiplied several times over in two years.

So, after I was born, his factory faced a crisis and almost went bankrupt.

It was only natural that he disliked me for this, thinking I was unlucky.

My father controlled the family’s finances.

That’s why Xu Jiao could attend a Sino-foreign joint university that cost over a hundred thousand a year.

And Xu Ze could have tutoring that cost 700 yuan an hour.

As for me, attending university in a first-tier city, I had a living allowance of one thousand two hundred yuan a month.

For the next few days, I stayed in this home.

Watching them live their normal lives with cold detachment.

Watching my mother call Xu Jiao, asking what she wanted to eat for her homecoming visit.

Xu Jiao said coquettishly that she wanted seafood.

When my mother went to the morning market, she happened to run into our childhood neighbor, who was out shopping with her daughter, Meng Meng.

Meng Meng and I had been classmates since we were little and later worked at the same company.

We weren’t very close friends, but we were at least familiar with each other.

My mother said with envy, “Having a daughter like Meng Meng is so sweet. As soon as she comes back, she helps you with the shopping. Not like our inconsiderate Xu Tao. She didn’t even come home for her sister’s wedding and even had a boyfriend curse us out.”

“Huh?”

Meng Meng was surprised. “Auntie, Xu Tao doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

My mother paused, looking at her.

“She’s in the marketing department next to us, always swamped with work. Where would she find the time for a boyfriend?”

She continued, “And Xu Tao cares a lot about you. Last month, after getting her bonus, we went shopping, and she bought a gold bracelet. She said she was going to give it to you when she came home for her sister’s wedding.”

A look of bewilderment flickered across my mother’s face for a moment, but it quickly faded into the familiar, cold sarcasm.

She said, “Xu Tao just puts on a good show for outsiders. You have no idea what her attitude is like towards us at home.”

Seeing this, Meng Meng and her mother couldn’t say any more and politely said their goodbyes.

My mother bought a lot of seafood that Xu Jiao loved and carried two full bags home.

Standing at the door, she took out her key to open it.

Her phone rang.

It was my number.

“Ms. Zhao Su? We have apprehended a suspect in a series of vicious murders. We found this phone on him. Based on the contact name, you should be the owner’s mother.”

“The suspect has confessed to the location of the burial site. Could you and your family please make a trip to Zhoucheng?”