My daughter’s eyes widened. Her fingernails scraped across the floor, leaving several long, bloody streaks as she clawed desperately toward the phone.
I kicked the phone hard under the sofa, then turned up the TV. The midday news drowned out their pained moans perfectly.
I leaned back against the sofa, arms crossed, and watched the two of them struggle as they died.
It was… so satisfying to watch.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang.
“Mrs. Li, I heard your daughter’s back!”
Mrs. Wang poked her head inside. “Goodness, why do you have the TV so loud?”
I bent down to block the gap in the doorway, my expression unchanged, while I planted my foot firmly on my daughter’s hand as she tried to reach outside.
“That’s right. A Yao even bought gifts for the neighbors. I’ll bring them over tonight.”
“Oh, she really is such a good girl.”
After I closed the door, my son-in-law, Phùng Cương, suddenly sprang up, grabbed a paring knife, and charged straight at me.
Calmly, I grabbed my daughter and pulled her in front of me.
Swish!
The blade plunged straight into my daughter’s chest.
That final attempt to fight back drained Phùng Cương of his last strength. He crumpled to the floor.
I tossed my daughter’s body on top of him, then used a handkerchief to wipe the blood spattered across my face.
Looking at the food strewn everywhere and the broken pieces of bowls on the floor, I couldn’t help grumbling, “Why flip the table? Now I have to clean all this up.”
I have an obsession with cleanliness. I can’t stand a messy house.
After cleaning up the mess, I laid the two bodies side by side in the middle of the living room, just like when my daughter was little and liked lining up her dolls.
“110? I want to turn myself in.”
“…What?”
“I said I killed my daughter and son-in-law. The address is XX Garden, Building 8, Floor 9.”
Police sirens rang throughout the apartment complex, and neighbors crowded downstairs.
As they led me to the police car, the crowd buzzed with talk. “They must have the wrong person.”
“Mrs. Li loves her daughter more than anything!”
“Exactly! She wouldn’t even kill a chicken. How could she kill a person?”
“Officer, there’s definitely been a mistake!”
Suddenly, a little boy rushed out of the crowd and clung to my leg, tears and snot streaming down his face. “Mrs. Li is a good person! Don’t take her away!”
I wanted to reach out and pat his head, but my hands were cuffed behind my back, so all I could do was smile at him.
Seeing everyone stand up for me, I suddenly felt a weight in my heart…
But not for my own sake.
They took me to the interrogation room.
Officer Lục pushed open the door, crime-scene photos in hand, his gaze sharp as a knife.
“Do you know how painful it is to die from cyanide poisoning?”
“Good. I was only afraid they’d die too easily.”
“Why did you put poison in their food?”
I smiled. “Officer, I’m an old woman. If I didn’t use poison, was I supposed to fight them with a knife?”
Officer Lục’s expression darkened. “I’m asking why you had to kill them. Trần Diêu is your own daughter!”
I smoothed my hair, though it wasn’t even out of place.
“If there’s one thing I’ve spent my whole life trying to do… it’s kill Trần Diêu and Phùng Cương. I’ve already confessed to every detail. Two lives—sentence me however you see fit.”
“There has to be a motive for murder. I’ll ask you one more time… why?”
I pondered for a few seconds, then replied, “I did it to rid the people of evil and uphold justice, even at the cost of family.”
After saying that, I couldn’t help laughing.
Officer Lục and the officer taking notes exchanged a glance that seemed to say, “This woman’s crazy.”
When he saw I wouldn’t tell the truth, he tried a different approach. “Can you hear them outside? They’re all neighbors who came to testify on your behalf.”
“I’m old. My hearing’s a little bad—I can’t make it out.”
The officer beside him added, “There’s an old man crying outside the gate. He says you often watch his grandson for him. No one believes you’d kill your own daughter. If there’s more to this… tell us, and we’ll help.”
I was a little surprised, and the wrinkles on my face relaxed. “You mean… I can kill two people and still avoid the death penalty?”
Officer Lục slammed the table. “Lý Xuân Mai! This is a police station. Show some seriousness!”
“Sorry, Officer Lục. I’m just so happy.”
I let my smile fade and looked him straight in the eye. “I can tell you the truth. But I have one request.”
“Go ahead.”
“I want to visit my husband’s grave.”
Officer Lục frowned. “At a time like this, you still… why?”
“Consider it a death-row inmate’s final wish. Besides, don’t you want to know the truth?”
Just then, the interrogation-room door burst open. “Captain Lục! The forensics team found something unusual!”
Officer Lục took the report, his face instantly changing. “Lý Xuân Mai, besides your daughter and son-in-law, has someone else been living in your home for a long time?”
“They say there are traces of this person everywhere—in the bathroom, the kitchen, even your bedroom…”
My fingers clenched involuntarily.
“Maybe it was the cleaner who came by, or my personal doctor…”
“You’re lying!”
Officer Lục slammed his hand on the table and shot to his feet. “The fingerprint comparison shows this person lived there for at least six months!”
I didn’t answer his accusation. I simply raised my head slowly. “Officer Lục, first…
could you take me to see my husband?”
When they led me out of the police station, the crowd outside fell silent at once.
The old man standing on the steps stopped crying, too. He staggered toward me, but the officers held him back.
“Xuân Mai… what on earth happened…?”
As he spoke, he tried to press a lunchbox into my hand. “Is there any food in there? Here, take it…”
That was ông Tằng. The boy who’d clung to my leg earlier was his grandson, Tiểu Chí.
His wife had died twenty years ago, and his son and daughter-in-law worked far away. It was hard enough for an old man to look after a child, especially at his age. So I often helped him take care of Tiểu Chí, and before long the boy became very attached to me.
Tiểu Chí often ran over to my house, calling, “Grandma! Grandma!” over and over.
After the police checked the lunchbox, I accepted it.
“Go home, ông Tằng. Don’t leave Tiểu Chí home alone. It isn’t safe.”
An hour later, Officer Lục’s car pulled into an outlying cemetery.
He and a young police officer walked on either side of me, close behind.
I could feel his watchful gaze fixed on my back.
A thin layer of dust covered the headstone. I knelt and slowly wiped it clean, bit by bit, with my sleeve.
“I’ve come to visit you.”
I gently stroked the face of the headstone, unable to stop my tears from falling onto the blue-gray stone.
Officer Lục took a moment before speaking. “I’ve granted your request. Do you want to give your statement here, or at the station?”
“Thank you.”
I pushed myself up from my knees. “Let’s go.”
As soon as they turned their backs… I lunged toward the headstone.
A powerful arm clamped around my waist and yanked me back.
My forehead struck the edge of the headstone, but Officer Lục got his hand between us. I clearly heard his knuckles crack.
“Lý Xuân Mai!”
He threw me onto the grass. “Have you gone crazy?!”
Blood from the scrape on my forehead trickled down to the corner of my mouth. What a shame…
Watching Officer Lục’s hand twitch with pain, I felt a little guilty.
“Let’s go. I’ll tell you everything.”
On the way back, the young officer drove while Officer Lục sat beside me in the back seat.
His gaze bore into me like a nail driven deep.
“Why did you try to kill yourself?” he asked abruptly.
“I told you, there was only one thing I wanted to do in this life. Now that it’s done, I don’t want to live anymore.”
“You have a lot of secrets.”
I tilted my head. “What do you mean?”
“You were perfectly calm when you killed your daughter and son-in-law. But when you got to your husband’s grave, it was like you became a different person.”
I stayed silent for a long time, watching my reflection in the car window.
“Because someone very important to me is buried there…”
As I spoke, I casually straightened the fold in his collar.
Officer Lục’s gaze faltered, but he said nothing more.