“Over here.”
Was death painless? In that instant, Chen Xijian did not feel much pain. She merely stared in a daze as the heavy axe swept through the air, clutching her throat and abdomen, until even her senses vanished.
The devil before her collapsed like sliced building blocks, weightless. He fell to the ground like a sheet of paper torn in two, without making a sound.
Perhaps it was because she could no longer hear anything.
Chen Xijian was like a fish scooped out of deep water by a hand, only to be slammed heavily back onto the shore.
The air in her chest squeezed into a tiny knot. Her breathing was shallow and rapid, carrying the metallic taste of rust.
Her ears were still ringing, and the world felt separated by a thick film of water. She wanted to move, but her limbs felt deboned, unable to lift even a single fingertip.
She slowly raised her head.
Dried blood on the woman's skin formed a dark red river, winding from her temple down to her jaw. Extensive burns crawled across most of her face, diving beneath her tattered clothes and extending all the way to the hand holding the axe.
Drenched by the rain, those scars appeared even more distinct, as if a devil was crouching on her face.
Light could not enter her eyes. Covered in blood from head to toe, she looked like a god of slaughter.
The light that had been flickering continuously finally went completely dark. The silhouette of the figure before her was swallowed by the shadows, leaving only the sound of rain and other liquids dripping onto the floor.
Chen Xijian couldn't explain the feeling. She was terrified—utterly petrified.
It was a terror far more intense than facing Zhou Shen. Every hair on her body screamed, and every inch of her skin instinctively warned her.
Lin Mo wedged the axe into a gap in the floorboards and reached up to push back her sticky hair, revealing an even more gruesome forehead.
She liked this weapon.
Seeing that Chen Xijian remained still as if turned to stone, Lin Mo bent down in front of her, her shadow casting from above and completely enveloping her.
Chen Xijian tilted her head up and could only see Lin Mo's face, which held little expression.
It was a strange feeling—conflicting emotions entangled and tore at each other on that single face, yet miraculously fused into a deeply terrifying expression.
“Why aren't you talking?” Lin Mo tilted her head slightly.
Upon realizing Zhou Shen had disappeared, Lin Mo had jumped down to save her. Yet Chen Xijian didn't seem grateful in the slightest; her eyes held only fear.
Now, it seemed only the two of them were left alive.
Chen Xijian's lips quivered. “Y-You scared me.”
“S-Sorry, I was too scared, so I ran away. I'm really sorry. I should have faced the danger with you, but I was just too terrified.” She wiped away the tears that had unconsciously welled in her eyes.
“I didn't expect Zhou Shen to kill Yuan Ying too. When I left, I saw Zhang Qiumin's body. It seems... it seems only the two of us are left now... We have to escape, even if we braved the rain. I really don't want to stay in this godforsaken place anymore.”
She babbled incoherently, pausing almost between every single sentence.
“Now I'm a bit curious about what you did,” Lin Mo said as she set the axe down, slowly stepping back, then turned around to walk out at an unhurried pace. Her voice drifted over leisurely. “Care to tell me?”
Chen Xijian's face turned even paler. Supporting herself against the ground, she crawled out from between the pried-open wooden boards.
“What's wrong with you? Lin Mo, you don't seem like yourself.” Chen Xijian felt a sense of strangeness. Lin Mo's personality was so... soft(?), so how could she ask again about the crime Chen Xijian had committed after she explicitly showed resistance? Crawling up, Chen Xijian dragged her weak legs to follow her, asking, “Are you really scared too?”
Lin Mo caught the knife attacking her from behind with her bare hand and kicked her away.
The kick was delivered with such immense force that Chen Xijian was sent flying along with the weapon in her hand, crashing straight through her former hiding spot and sinking deep into the debris.
Before Lin Mo could even interrogate her, Chen Xijian's weeping rang out first.
“I'm sorry, I'm so truly sorry,” she sobbed, coughing up blood. Her internal organs felt as if they had ruptured, and she looked as though she was going to cough them all up.
Blood trapped in her throat made her words muffled and slurred. “Cough... ah... I brought this upon all of you. The person the broadcast... the broadcast was looking for is me. I killed him. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to kill so many people, but I was so scared. I didn't dare say anything.”
She had realized it: as long as she pretended to know nothing, as long as she insisted on saying nothing, even if Lin Mo knew she was deeply suspicious, Lin Mo would still let her off the hook.
As long as... as long as she hadn't attacked her...
“But Lin Mo...” Chen Xijian lay flat on the floor, tears streaming down her face.
“I can't figure it out. I really can't figure it out. Why are you so uniquely good to me? I believe if the person standing here right now were Zhang Qiumin or Yuan Ying—anyone other than me—you would have killed them on the spot, rather than waiting until I attacked before taking action.”
“You're definitely not the type to spare me. You fear just as many things as I do, and your heart is just as cold-blooded as mine. You confuse me so much.”
She couldn't die. She didn't want to die!
From the very beginning, she had known the person the broadcast was looking for was her. She could never, ever let herself be found out, nor could she be killed.
All of this—all of it was her fault...
She was the culprit who drove the man on the tape to play the recording. He lived in such a remote place, with no family or friends, so no one would notice even if he died in a corner.
She was the one who had administered the slow-acting poison accumulated in his system. Perhaps having sensed an intruder, he had panicked.
Unexpectedly, the poison had taken effect at such a coincidental time. He died right when everyone was trapped in this old manor—how wonderful. And the time the others spent discussing in the hall was just enough for her to tamper with the staircase.
The middle-aged man fell at a very opportune time too, she thought. As fear spread through everyone's hearts, causing them to suspect and harm each other, no one had the time to search for the real killer.
Just buy a little more time, just a little more...
Unexpectedly, accidents arrived faster than her plans.
At first, she indeed hadn't known whether the broadcast knew she was the killer, thinking only of acting covertly, but the broadcast soon exposed everything she had done.
It revealed everything everyone had done in the past, as well as the real killer.
As it turned out, the person on the other end had known all along, taking pleasure in watching her fear, watching her commit murder on her own initiative. He resented her, revenged himself upon her.
Once he had had his fun, it was time to let the others, enraged by being dragged into this mess, band together and kill her.
Perhaps the mastermind behind the scenes even thought he was ridding society of an evil, considering everyone he brought here had sinned...
In truth, everyone here who heard the broadcast, everyone who heard the truth, deserved to die.
Let it end like this...
Being alive wasn't anything special anyway.
Rate on N.U.
