Chapter 2225: Love Trapped in the Fate Cycle 24

Time passed, Zhousan.

Jin Chen and Shao Huai lay in wait ahead of time in the corridor beside the convenience store.

Sure enough, not long after, Han Dong in a heavy raincoat came rushing down, dragging his lame leg, his expression nearly panicked as he ran out.

But it seemed someone was still upstairs.

"Split up, Chenzi, you go up and chase!"

Shao Huai bit into the strong mint candy in his mouth, instantly becoming half-sober, and chased after Han Dong downwards, saying, "I'll pay attention to safety."

Jin Chen quickly went up in pursuit.

But when he reached the 6th floor, the figure suddenly vanished.

Jin Chen stopped, feeling annoyed.

Playing hide-and-seek at dawn!

Just as he was preparing to search room by room, Jin Chen caught sight of a fresh sheet of paper pressed under a brick.

He picked it up and opened it, his expression slightly changing.

—Seeking the truth by force will only make you lose everything you cherish!

Damn.

Jin Chen went over a few steps and detoured toward 301.

The Main Gate was slammed open hastily.

Xie Guan, holding a bowl, walked out of the kitchen in surprise, then Jin Chen, striding in, grabbed his shoulder and turned him around a few times.

Xie Guan: "..."

Xie Guan broke free, "What are you doing?"

Jin Chen let out a breath, "... You scared me."

"I had just chased the suspicious figure upstairs when I saw this note left behind."

Xie Guan took it, glanced at it, his anger instantly subsiding, and in silence peeled the freshly fixed egg and stuffed it into Jin Chen's mouth.

"... Mm."

Jin Chen choked and leaned back.

Truly a "fulfilling" love.

"I'm fine, but……are you sure this note was left for you?"

Jin Chen swallowed the egg, paused, then said: "Who else in this building is looking for the truth? Xu Yi… no, that's not right, he's still in 306, others can't get in."

After half a second of silence, Jin Chen and Xie Guan locked eyes, "Wu Mei Ling!"

"Damn, that person disappeared from the 6th floor, probably climbed out the window to the 7th floor." Jin Chen clicked his tongue, took a sip of water, and prepared to go up to look for them.

Xie Guan held the note, in a flash several images flickered in his mind, "It's Uncle Wang's handwriting."

He glanced at the computer, "The surveillance had caught Uncle Wang writing."

"The killer hasn't had a chance to act yet, but that bunch couldn't hold back."

Jin Chen only felt his head swell with multiple problems, having to guard against the killer and also against that former group of "killers."

Both of them brought daggers and rushed to the 7th floor.

At a corridor corner, they once again saw Xiao Jin in a white dress.

Xiao Jin just stood silently in the corner, the dark circles under her eyes deeper, her hollow gaze meeting Jin Chen's perceptive look for a moment, then she watched them run upstairs.

In a vague way, Xiao Jin seemed to want to speak but held back.

But when she lowered her head and saw the white dress, she silently turned around, clutching a piece of chalk, and went downstairs.

Zhao Chun Mei was holding a kitchen knife, large patches of her black apron soaked by an unknown liquid, blocking the 5th-floor stairwell waiting for them.

The knife, still stained from chopping fish and not washed clean, dripped with blood threads and fish scales, the damp fishy smell shooting straight up their noses, making them nauseous.

In the hallway, Grandma Chen was burning paper money in broad daylight, palms together, squatting by the fire basin murmuring, her back to the corridor.

Jin Chen and Xie Guan stopped.

Jin Chen gripped the knife reverse-handed, step by step approaching with an almost overwhelming aura, "Move."

But for those who aren't afraid of death, when they go all-in, they often toss fear to the back of their minds.

Their minds now hold only anger and accusation.

"It's all because you won't let go! It's been so long, it's all you, it's all your fault……"

Zhao Chun Mei gripped tightly, her eyes almost bulging as she stared at them, veins swollen with blood.

"Why did you come in? I'll kill you! I'll kill you all!"

She raised her arm, the fish-chopping knife came down violently.

Jin Chen seized the knife in three moves, caught Zhao Chun Mei's arms behind her back, and pressed her against the stair railing.

"You keep making mistakes, only wanting to kill and silence—who else can you blame?"

Zhao Chun Mei, though captured, still shouted curses; seeing Xie Guan made her anger even more apparent, an emotion bottled up for years.

She denounced Xie Guan as the son of a black-hearted ghost.

Even though Xie Guan had guessed before, these residents learned of his identity.

But when it was truly exposed, Xie Guan still couldn't suppress the feeling of helplessness rising from his heart.

When his father jumped off the building, all the sounds around him were so distorted and filled with hate.

But he didn't dare resent them—those people… these people, were all victims.

But since everyone is a victim, someone must inevitably become the "perpetrator" to vent the hatred.

Xie Guan had been spat upon in this role for two years.

"You never end!"

Jin Chen's patience was exhausted, and he spoke in a deep voice.

You insist on finding the killer? I'll tell you plainly: the mastermind behind everything back then is right in this building. He ruined the real-estate company boss, stole the money and fled, driving you close to homelessness—he's the killer!

It's not Xie Guan, it never was!

Zhao Chunmei heard this, paused only briefly for two seconds, then began struggling madly again. Though strong, she only truly fell silent when she saw Grandma Chen approaching with the brazier holding the unburned paper money.

Don't argue…

Grandma Chen's hair and clothes were covered in paper ash; her whole being exuded the scent of rotting old wood, lacking the vigor she'd shown scolding people a few days earlier.

She bitterly brushed aside her graying hair, stepped in front of Jin Chen, and said, "Young man, you're a policeman, aren't you?"

I will be one in the future. Jin Chen said.

Never mind, if you want a life, trade lives—just go, don't worry about it…

With a thud.

Jin Chen frowned and retreated half a step.

Grandma Chen knelt before them.

Xie Guan clenched his hands, watching her.

Grandma Chen pressed her palms together, pleading pitifully, "Old woman, I return my life to you…"

Jin Chen, quick-eyed and quick-handed, grabbed her shoulder as she tried to jump downstairs, his anger growing fiercer: "What do I want your life for?"

He didn't bother with much, reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out two ropes out of thin air, binding the two of them.

"Xiao Guan, keep up." Jin Chen pushed off the railing and leapt up, leaving the fifth floor in a few bounds.

The door of Room 705 was kicked open violently.

Aunt Li and Fang Ru were escorting Wu Meiling, just one step away from carrying out the deed.

Uncle Wang stood guard at the doorway, stunned for a moment, never expecting them to arrive so quickly.

He held a sharp blade used for dissecting corpses, his expression fierce, and charged forward to slash.

Jin Chen reversed his grip, seized the blade, and with a palm strike slashed the back of Uncle Wang's neck, instantly felling him, then flung the blade from his hand.

A hum.

The blade embedded itself in the wall between Aunt Li and Fang Ru, its tip still emitting a humming sound.

Fang Ru was startled, and in that very pause, Xie Guan rescued Wu Meiling.

Wu Meiling had been choked for a long time, her complexion deathly pale; upon inhaling fresh air she coughed violently, nearly collapsing again.

Jin Chen shouted sternly: "Upon discovering Wu Meiling knew a bit of the truth, you wanted to kill her to silence her—who else knows? How many more will you kill, and until when?"

Fang Ru's lips moved a few times, unable to speak; the built-up breath drained completely, and she collapsed to the ground.

Aunt Li, however, looked toward Xie Guan, her tone still as kind as ever.

"Little Xie, little Xie, Aunt Li hasn't been stingy with you, has she?"

"When you first moved in, I kept bringing you vegetables, but then one day they told me you were the son of that black-hearted devil!"

Aunt Li suddenly lunged forward, her eyes filled with utter hatred: "Your black-hearted father, guilty, jumped off the building—why don't you go die! How many families have you ruined! You…"

Jin Chen eased his grip, also laid the fainted Aunt Li on the ground, then quickly stepped forward and pulled Xie Guan into his embrace.

"Don't listen to them, be good—you can't die, you shouldn't die, you must live."

Jin Chen repeatedly whispered low in his ear.

Xie Guan's stiff body finally reacted, slowly raising his hand to grab Jin Chen's back clothing; his held breath gradually eased, clinging like driftwood to a drowning person, he drew a deep breath in Jin Chen's embrace, his throat emitting a sound akin to a drowning sob.