Chapter 22: Murder, Motives
“Juncheng…?”
Damn, she found me! What should I do!
My teeth were chattering. After seeing those things, how could I possibly remain calm…
Would Xueqing gouge out my eyes, pull out my nails, chop off my fingers, break my wrists, and finally become one of them?
I should have known… I should have run away long ago… I shouldn’t have followed her here!
I didn’t dare to look back at all.
I was afraid that if I turned around, I would see Xueqing holding a blade, staring at me with blood-red eyes, wanting to kill me.
“Juncheng…”
Is it my imagination? I feel like her voice has become so much lower. No, Xueqing never had much vocal inflection when she spoke. She was like a character who could only express emotions with background colors.
Now it sounds more like a demon’s whisper.
Am I going to be killed! Just like the protagonist in a horror movie who sees something they shouldn’t and is killed in the most brutal way, I’m in the same situation now.
My waist hit something hard!
It’s over! It’s over! This time it’s really over!
“Here.”
“Huh?”
What is she giving me? Is she giving me the knife? Is she going to make me fight her? But based on how Xueqing wielded the knife before, she’s definitely countless times better than me. Forget holding a knife, even if she held a gun, I don’t think I could beat her.
So, does that mean she wants me to end myself?
She doesn’t want to dirty her own hands, so she wants me to commit suicide, and then she’ll handle the aftermath?
That’s how people are. Once they start thinking negatively, they can’t stop. They keep thinking of worse scenarios and dare not open their eyes to reality…
It’s just scaring myself.
Why do I say that? Because Xueqing immediately proved with her actions that she didn’t intend to harm me.
“Clothes, for you.”
“Ah?”
When I first heard it, I really didn’t understand what she meant. Giving me a weapon would be one thing, but giving me armor? Then I immediately thought, what clothes was she going to give me? I remember Xueqing was only wearing…
Indeed, when I turned around, I saw Xueqing take off her shirt. The white panties I personally put on her were exposed to the air. One arm covered her flat chest, and the other hand held my shirt, handing it to me.
In this cold storage room, she actually took off her last piece of clothing and handed it to me.
“It’s cold here.”
“You! If you give me your clothes, what will you do! Aren’t you wearing even less than I am!”
I was only exposed from the waist up, but you’re completely naked! Panties? They’re for modesty, not for warmth!
“I’m not cold.”
She said this very seriously.
Even though her body was trembling slightly, she insisted on saying ‘not cold,’ a lie that was obvious to anyone.
“Heh…”
I let out a bitter laugh and suddenly felt how stupid my previous guesses were.
After taking the shirt from Xueqing’s hand, I put it on, fastening only the bottom two buttons.
Then, without asking for Xueqing’s opinion, I directly picked her up and held her in my arms, letting her wrap her legs around my waist like a sloth hanging on a tree, and then I closed the shirt to cover her.
She didn’t refuse, wrapping her arms around mine and pressing her body close to mine to warm each other.
“Xueqing, what is this place…”
“This is… the cold storage.”
Cold storage… It was the same as I guessed. As for what needed to be refrigerated, it goes without saying, it must be those human body parts.
“To prevent…”
“To prevent the corpses from rotting?”
She nodded.
So that’s how it is. The reason I felt so cold wasn’t psychological; the temperature of this storage room was really low.
To prevent these body parts from rotting, they deliberately created a low-temperature environment, similar to the cold storage in a hospital morgue or funeral home.
After I calmed down, I wasn’t as scared anymore.
Or rather, I was already used to seeing these things. My dad’s workplace, the hospital, had all sorts of specimens, and I had seen fresh corpses in my mom’s workplace, the funeral home.
It was only because I saw these things in a place where they ‘shouldn’t be’ that I felt panicked.
If Lianbing saw this, she might get excited (laughs)… Ah, no, maybe she’d be angry? After all, this is a violation of the corpse’s integrity.
I didn’t know the purpose of the person storing these parts, and I was afraid of the unknown.
And now, to dispel this fear, I had to ask her!
“Did you… do all of this?”
Once I asked this question, there was no turning back. No matter what answer Xueqing gave, I couldn’t pretend I didn’t know.
“Just… specimens.”
Xueqing turned her head to look at the eyeballs and fingernails, without showing any excitement or fanaticism.
This reaction felt strange somewhere. It was too calm.
Like that time in the cemetery, when I encountered zombies, Lianbing acted as if she were possessed. I couldn’t convince her, and she wouldn’t listen. I dare say, if I hadn’t rushed into the zombie pile headlong again to scare Lianbing, giving me a chance to take her away, she would never have willingly left the cemetery with me.
For fanatics like them, that kind of reaction should be the ‘normal reaction’. But Xueqing didn’t show any similar emotions and had no obsession with these severed limbs and broken arms. It wasn’t because Xueqing’s expression changed little, so she didn’t reveal that emotion. I can say she was indeed not interested in these body parts.
Then, as I had guessed, Xueqing expressed her own view on these body parts.
“All…”
All what?
“Excessive.”
Excessive?
“Mhm.”
And then she said no more.
I still didn’t quite understand what Xueqing meant by ‘excessive’. Did she mean these severed fingers, palms, and eyeballs were the excessive parts?
If they are excessive, then why are they being stored here?
What kind of logic is this? She dislikes these excessive things, yet she collects them?
Xueqing seemed unwilling to stay in the cold storage any longer. She rubbed her cheek against my neck and whispered into my ear, “Let’s go out.” But I didn’t take a step.
I felt that if I didn’t clarify Xueqing’s values here, I would never have the chance to understand.
“I don’t quite understand… Xueqing, why are you refrigerating these, uh, body parts?”
As usual, I directly asked the question in my heart.
Xueqing was silent for a moment. Seeing that I had no intention of leaving, she finally answered my question.
“I… killed them.”
First, she admitted what she had done.
“They… deserved to die.”
Then she stated her motive.
“Leaving their… hands and eyes.”
Xueqing looked up and met my gaze. Her deep blue pupils seemed to have started to turn red.
“Washing away… sins.”
It was to wash away their sins that she left their eyes and hands.
This statement had a familiar ring to it… It should be something very well-known.
Right… this statement is like ‘punishing sinners on behalf of God’. Or ‘executing justice’, which is to punish those who she considers bad people with her own judgment.
Has she always been killing with this concept in mind? Then, by what criteria does she distinguish between good and bad people?
Without me asking, Xueqing continued to speak into my ear.
“Those who kill, will be killed by others.”
“…”
A very familiar saying that answered all my doubts.
The people Xueqing killed were murderers, perhaps she was commissioned by someone, or perhaps she did it voluntarily.
In any case, I could confirm that she was not the dismembering serial killer rumored online.
Regardless of whether she was lying to me or not, I wanted to believe her. I had always doubted Xueqing before, but this time I didn’t want to doubt her anymore.
I believed that the people she killed deserved to die…
But, but this shouldn’t be something you do… I suddenly felt a pang of sympathy for her.
How could such a small girl do this kind of work… It’s too cruel.
I hugged her tightly with pity and quickly walked out of the cold storage, not wanting her to feel the cold anymore.
Back in her bedroom, I put Xueqing on the bed and covered her with a blanket. She had been in the cold storage for quite some time, and her skin was cold. She needed to warm up quickly.
Then I opened the wardrobe and looked at the school uniforms. I asked Xueqing,
“Xueqing, don’t you have any other clothes?”
“Other… clothes?”
“Like clothes other than school uniforms… Ah, never mind. Judging by your reaction, you don’t. Then let’s wear school uniforms for now.”
I casually took out a set of school uniforms, then took out a pair of black thigh-high socks from a drawer. I went to the bed, put them under the covers, and said to her.
“Ugh, are we going out?”
Xueqing tilted her head in confusion, but she still took the school uniform I gave her and quickly put it on. There was a rustling sound from under the covers, like the sound of clothes being put on.
“Does that need to be asked? Of course, I’m going to buy you clothes!”
“Buy clothes?”
“Yes, we can’t wear school uniforms all the time, can we? I’ll buy you some homewear, and some other things… In short, we need to buy a lot of things.”
This house doesn’t lack furniture or appliances, but it barely has any daily necessities. Besides Xueqing’s clothes, we also need to buy some daily necessities.
Especially a lamp! Using candles at night is too primitive! I absolutely cannot accept it!
A moment later, Xueqing had finished dressing, and I took her hand and walked out the door.
A strange feeling suddenly arose in my heart.
Is it like a brother leading his younger sister? A father leading his daughter? Or, a master leading a pet?
It’s probably the third one… Like a pet girl from Sakurasou, do I need to take care of her?
No, Xueqing isn’t incapable of taking care of herself; she just lacks some common sense.
If that’s the case, then I’ll teach her this common sense.
It’s also a way to repay her for letting me stay here… Hmm… And, cough, cough, for letting my hand have a great night…
Although, it was indeed very satisfying… But!
There is one thing I need to declare solemnly!
I’m really not a lolicon, ahhhhh!
