11
With the grudge settled and Tiểu Quái cremated, Tống Lưu Nhi carried the little urn of ashes home.
That evening, he insisted on cooking a meal for me. “You can’t eat, Mom, but you can still look.”
He was very deft in the kitchen. Before long, he’d set out three dishes and a soup, all so tempting I could hardly keep from drooling.
I knew he could cook, but I hadn’t expected his food to be this good. In all the corners of his life I’d never seen, he’d quietly grown up on his own, doing his best one little step at a time.
“These are all my favorite foods. How did you know?”
Tống Lưu Nhi’s gaze briefly slipped away. “I just paid attention.”
I was stunned. I hadn’t seen him once in a whole year, and yet he’d still managed to figure out what I liked to eat.
After the meal, he lay down on the mattress. He hadn’t slept at all the night before, and now he was utterly exhausted.
I thought he’d fallen asleep, but he suddenly opened his eyes. Seeing me still beside him, he closed them again, reassured. Not long after, he opened them again to look for me.
In the end, I had no choice but to sit and tell him stories. He could only truly relax and drift off to sleep with the sound of my voice beside him.
Just after six in the morning, Tống Lưu Nhi woke up. He couldn’t stop thinking about my wish, and he hadn’t slept well.
If we wanted to get the house and savings book back, we couldn’t possibly settle things with a lawsuit and a police report in just one day.
We arrived outside the apartment where I’d lived. I leaned close to Tống Lưu Nhi’s ear and whispered a few words. He pressed his lips together.
“Is this… really okay, Mom?”
I shot him a sideways glance. “Do you have a better idea?”
Tống Lưu Nhi sighed and composed himself. His usual cold expression suddenly turned into a terrifying, menacing scowl. Then he pounded on the door.
Tống Lượng had changed the lock code ages ago, to keep him from coming back.
I stood beside him, directing him. “Hit it harder! You’re not making enough of a scene!”
The door opened. It was Tiểu Thảo, the youngest girl in the family. When she saw Tống Lưu Nhi covered in injuries, she stared at him in fear.
“B-Brother… what happened to you…?”
Tống Lưu Nhi had once told me that Tiểu Thảo was the only person in the family who’d ever treated him gently. Tống Lượng and his wife barely paid any attention to their daughter. Caught in the middle, with an older sister above her and a younger brother below, she was the one who got the worst of it.
“Why are you still standing there? Who is it?”
Trương Huệ Anh shoved Tiểu Thảo aside. The moment she saw it was Tống Lưu Nhi, she flared with rage.
“Why’d you crawl back here? Are you deaf, or just shameless?!”
I immediately egged him on. “Punch her! She used to beat you when you were little, right? Hit her back!”
Tống Lưu Nhi hesitated for a moment, but in the end he didn’t hit her. He simply shoved Trương Huệ Anh aside with a cold expression and walked straight in.
The whole family was sitting down to breakfast. When they saw him come in, they all scowled, making no secret of their displeasure as they repeatedly told him to leave.
Without a word, Tống Lưu Nhi went straight into the kitchen and came back with a knife, pressing it to Tiểu Phúc’s throat.
12
The kid was as fat as a ball. Tống Lưu Nhi had to squint to figure out where his neck was.
Trương Huệ Anh shrieked, “You little bastard! What are you doing?! Let my son go!”
Seeing this, Tiểu Hoa secretly reached under the table, feeling around for her phone so she could call the police.
I hurriedly reminded Tống Lưu Nhi, “Someone’s calling the police. Say something, quick!”
“Who dares call the police? Let’s see whether they get here faster or my knife does.”
With that, Tống Lưu Nhi pressed the knife deeper into the boy’s folds of fat. Blood immediately welled up, and Tiểu Phúc screamed in terror like a ghost.
“Don’t call! Don’t call!” Trương Huệ Anh shouted at Tiểu Hoa, her voice breaking as tears streamed down her face.
“Lưu Nhi, let’s talk this through. Don’t do anything stupid…” Tống Lượng hastily chimed in, trying to calm him down. “Be good, Lưu Nhi. You’ll go to prison for murder. You just got out of prison, and you’re an adult now. If it’s a serious offense, they’ll execute you. It’s not worth it. Listen to your uncle and put the knife down.”
Tống Lưu Nhi looked at them coldly. “Where’s the savings book my mother left behind? Hand it over.”
Tống Lượng glanced at his wife. They exchanged a look, then he forced a smile. “Lưu Nhi, didn’t I tell you? When you killed someone that year, I had to pull a lot of strings before I could…”
“Shut up.”
Tống Lưu Nhi’s face remained expressionless. “You think I’m stupid? You think I don’t know how you’ve treated me all these years?”
“My mother sent you money every year. How much of it really went to me? You two know. If you hadn’t used that money to raise me, how could you possibly have opened a shop back in your hometown with your abilities?”
A flash of irritation crossed Tống Lượng’s face when he was exposed, but he forced himself to swallow it.
“How about this, then? I’ll give you thirty thousand. Thirty thousand, all right? Your aunt and I don’t have much left, and we still have three kids to raise. We have to live, too…”
This was dragging on forever. I grew impatient. “Act tough! Don’t let them catch on that you’re bluffing!”
Tống Lưu Nhi spun the knife, his expression shifting. Then he suddenly struck—bam! The knife plunged into the dining table, making the dishes rattle against one another.
The whole family of five fell silent at once.
“My solid-wood table!” I cried.
Tống Lưu Nhi’s eyelid twitched. He nearly lost his fierce expression.
“I’ve killed before. You know that. Don’t provoke me.”
He tore the bandage off his forehead. His rough movement made the wound start bleeding again.
Without changing expression, he lied outright. “See? I killed someone else a few days ago. The police couldn’t do a thing to me. I’m mentally ill. I’ve got too many lives on my hands already—one more won’t make a difference.”
The couple knew perfectly well that he’d killed Tần Đại Quý, his father in name only. If he’d dared to kill even his own father, what was a cousin who bullied him every day to him?
Trương Huệ Anh shook like a leaf. She frantically ran inside to rummage around, then brought out the savings book and set it on the table.
“Here, here. It’s the money your mother left you. Your uncle and I haven’t touched a cent. Now will you let Tiểu Phúc go?”
I looked closely and confirmed it was the money I’d entrusted to them.
Tống Lưu Nhi put the savings book away, his expression still that of a madman liable to snap at any moment.
“Now, get out of my house. Right now.”
“What?!” Trương Huệ Anh screamed, her voice going shrill. “Don’t push your luck!”
Tống Lưu Nhi gave a cold laugh. “Do I have to say it again? This is my house. If you’re still stubbornly refusing to leave, I’ve got some friends in the underworld… They’re not as nice as I am.”
The house was worth five or six million, and of course the couple didn’t want to leave. For the moment, neither of them dared make a move.
Tiểu Thảo said softly, “Mom, Dad… I heard there are people who specialize in driving out tenants. They come around every day to harass you, and even calling the police is useless… We don’t even have the deed…”
Tống Lượng swung his hand and slapped the girl to the ground. “Shut up! What do you know? Worthless girl!”
When Tống Lưu Nhi saw Tiểu Thảo get hit, he flew into a rage and pinned Tiểu Phúc down on the table with one hand:
“You’re not moving, huh? For every minute you drag this out, I’ll cut off one of his fingers.”
“Mom! Dad! Hurry up and move! Do you really want to watch me die?!”
Tiểu Phúc wailed and screamed like he was being castrated. His pants were soaked, and pale yellow liquid ran down from his crotch.
I grimaced and covered my nose. “Ugh, he’s so scared he wet himself.”
Tống Lưu Nhi raised the knife and made a chopping motion. Tiểu Phúc screamed until his voice went hoarse, shrieking like a pig being slaughtered.
“We’ll move! We’ll move right now!!”
13
After watching Tống Lượng and his wife carry the last bag of luggage downstairs, Tống Lưu Nhi kicked Tiểu Phúc out the door, then slammed it shut.
“You’re a real lunatic. Sooner or later, Heaven’s going to take your life…”
Trương Huệ Anh’s vicious curses rang out from outside. Tống Lưu Nhi grabbed the knife and opened the door, and they all scattered at once.
“Change the lock code first. Then tell the building management to delete all of that family’s face and fingerprint data.”
Tống Lưu Nhi did everything exactly as told. By the time it was all taken care of, it was already late at night.
Standing before the floor-to-ceiling window and gazing at the city’s countless lights, I suddenly felt hollow.
I’d put down roots here for fifteen years. I’d only finished paying off the house two years ago, and before I could even enjoy life, I was gone.
I never had a single day of rest, and I never truly got to live with my son. By the time I felt regret… it was too late.
The time to say goodbye was drawing near, and I suddenly found myself unable to bear leaving.
“Mom.”
Lưu Nhi came over to me. “Mom, is there anything else you wish for?”
I thought for a moment. “One more thing.”
Tống Lưu Nhi glanced at the clock on the wall, trying to sound casual. “Tell me, Mom. We… still have a little time.”
“We don’t have time to do it today, but I want you to promise me.”
I turned to look at my child. “Tomorrow, change your name.”
“Change my name…” Tống Lưu Nhi murmured.
“The name ‘Lưu Nhi’ was something I picked too carelessly.”
“From now on, your name will be Tống Niệm Nhất.”
“The only one in my heart. My one and only child.”
Tears glimmered in Tống Niệm Nhất’s eyes as he watched my spirit slowly fade away. He nodded with all his might.
“Yes.”
The End.