Chapter 125 The Singer, Oh, the Singer 58

Lin Xiangjun casually stuffed the dirty rag on the floor back into his mouth and wiped the dirty tip of her knife on him.

She then grabbed the rope twisted into a strand behind his back and lifted him up as if performing a dumbbell row.

Although Lin Xiangjun didn't speak, from her actions, Hou Yongcheng understood: Tied up, easier to carry.

Upstairs, Zhang Minxian had been searching for a long time. Aside from the box containing that rag, she had also found some very interesting things.

When Lin Xiangjun carried Hou Yongcheng up to the second floor, she saw the box Zhang Minxian was holding in her arms.

"What is this?" Lin Xiangjun asked.

Zhang Minxian placed the item on the floor with great indignation, producing a dull "thud." She gritted her teeth and said, "This whole family, not a single good person among them!"

The lid of the box was flung open.

Inside were some things, including obviously worn-out dolls, old clothes that clearly belonged to a young girl, pens, used-up notebooks, and exam papers with perfect scores...

On the exam papers, the slightly immature yet neat characters for "Hu Zhengzheng" were particularly conspicuous.

Lin Xiangjun threw Hou Yongcheng to the side and lowered her head to start rummaging through this box of items.

Hu Zhengzheng's.

The more she rummaged, the more alarmed Lin Xiangjun became.

This entire box was full of Hu Zhengzheng's things, most of which had been thrown away because they were too worn out to be used anymore, with some parts still bearing stains that couldn't be washed off.

Moreover, the items inside were very complete. Besides ordinary clothes, there were undergarments, leftover lollipop sticks, and loose hair ties.

Hu Zhengzheng actually had quite a good sense of precaution; she had cut all her undergarments into pieces with scissors before throwing them away, but she couldn't stop some psycho from actually sewing these things back together.

"This..."

Zhang Minxian pulled a notebook from her pocket, filled with righteous indignation.

"No wonder that Old Lady was so kind, even gifting Hu Zhengzheng a pearl brooch. It turns out that Old Lady is rotten to the core! She was basically treating Hu Zhengzheng as an easy-to-manipulate child bride!"

Lin Xiangjun sat cross-legged on the floor, covering her mouth with her hand in a thinking pose.

"So, the situation is this: The Old Lady felt from early on that since Hu Zhengzheng had no parents, did well in school, was diligent, and was pretty, she was very suitable to be a daughter-in-law. So, she wanted her to marry her youngest son, who was nearly thirty and still unmarried, when she grew up. That's why she took such good care of Hu Zhengzheng.

"And her youngest son who couldn't find a wife—that is, you, Hou Yongcheng—also took a fancy to Hu Zhengzheng. Because she was too young to make a move, you spent all day rummaging through her trash cans, picking up her garbage to collect? Bro, do you think you're some kind of dark, damp yandere?

"Ah, no, you're at least twenty years older than Hu Zhengzheng, right? Hu Zhengzheng was just born when you graduated from college, right? You're looking at an elementary school student and you actually... You're a beast!"

Lin Xiangjun casually grabbed the sharp knife and gave Hou Yongcheng two stabs before continuing to piece it together.

"As it turns out, your nephew, Hou Pan, also took a fancy to Hu Zhengzheng later on. You were furious, thinking Hu Zhengzheng was loose and flirting with people, so you followed her for two days. Then you discovered she was actually working at a bar, which made you even more convinced she was a loose woman—wait, what the hell does where she works have to do with you?

"Then you decided to teach Hu Zhengzheng a lesson and deliberately told Hou Pan about her part-time job. With leverage on Hu Zhengzheng, Hou Pan called her on the day of the incident, threatening her to come home early.

"Unexpectedly, a dispute broke out between Hou Pan and Hu Zhengzheng, and Hu Zhengzheng was killed by Hou Pan. Afterward, this place turned into an instance.

"You needed Hou Pan's power to guard these items so they wouldn't be discovered, and Hou Pan needed you to keep this object safe—the one that provided him with power but would be discovered by Hu Zhengzheng if he carried it with him. You two toads looking for frogs, birds of a feather, hit it off immediately, and that's how it was settled, right?"

Hou Yongcheng played dead on the floor.

This time, perhaps the shock of social death was too great. Even though Lin Xiangjun was stabbing him with the frequency of someone needle-felting, causing him to twitch from the pain, he resolutely refused to open his eyes.

Lin Xiangjun didn't care whether he responded or not; her hands didn't stop.

"Have you checked your family's ancestral grave? Is there something wrong with the feng shui of the old grave? Why does everyone in your family love rummaging through people's trash cans? How was this hobby passed down?

"I'm telling you, your family shouldn't be surnamed Hou; you should be surnamed Li. King Shou and Emperor Xuanzong, Emperor Taizong and Emperor Gaozong, Hou Yongcheng and Hou Pan—do you and Hou Pan secretly think you have the countenance of emperors, laughing and stroking your beards while playing chess, thinking that as long as the two of you join forces, the world is nothing?"

Having ranted enough, Lin Xiangjun spun the knife in her palm twice, made two holes in Hou Yongcheng's body, then put away the sharp knife and climbed up from the floor.

"Zhang Minxian, you take the box. Patrick Star, you take this dirty thing on the floor, and follow me."

Zhang Minxian hugged the items in her arms and casually helped adjust Hou Yongcheng, who was in Patrick Star's hands, into the most uncomfortable position possible.

"Miss Lin, where are we going?"

"To clear this instance." Lin Xiangjun put the rag in her pocket and suddenly asked, somewhat abruptly: "Zhang Minxian, do you know why this instance is called Songstress?"

Zhang Minxian was stunned: "Because... Hu Zhengzheng loved singing the most when she was alive and always wanted to be a singer. Even after death, she kept singing, trying to use her singing voice to resist the injustice she suffered and kill the real murderer?"

"Not only that."

Lin Xiangjun's voice echoed in the supermarket, sounding exceptionally calm.

"Have you heard a saying? To kill a bird, you only need to say that she is singing whenever she is in pain or crying.

"Tell me, if the family living next to you has an Old Lady who is exceptionally kind to you, a son who looks at you every time he meets you with a strange gaze as if looking at something already in his pocket, and a grandson who doesn't even bother to act and is just a straight-up pervert—do you think Hu Zhengzheng, who grew up as an orphan, really couldn't feel their malicious intent?"

Orphans, left-behind children, children with innate physical defects—these people are the most sensitive. Even the slightest hint of malice would prick them like needles, making them restless.

Especially when it's a whole family with twisted intentions.

Could Hu Zhengzheng possibly not have felt it?

Hou Yongcheng would go through her trash bags every time after she threw them out, from when she was a child until she was in high school—did Hu Zhengzheng really not notice at all?

It's impossible.

But Hu Zhengzheng had no one to tell, and in all likelihood, even if she had gathered the courage to say something, no one would have believed her.

The Old Lady was so good to her, and the Old Lady's family was so wealthy; what could they possibly want from an orphan like her?

Besides, the Old Lady's family was so rich; even if they did take a fancy to her, marrying into the family would be her good fortune, right?