Chapter 60: Sin
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Everyone sat on the couch in the living room, where An Xiaoning and Jin Qingyan’s wedding photos were hanging from the wall. Gu Beicheng began to feel a strange sense of sadness and uneasiness as he stared at the photo of her.
At that very moment, Jin Qingyue appeared at the door all of a sudden. “Mother, I called you so many times, why didn’t you answer?” asked Jin Qingyue upon the sight of the crowd.
“Your Sister-in-law had met with a mishap, do I look like I’m in the mood for any trivial matter of yours? We’re yet to know if your Sister-in-law is dead or alive, so don’t bother me with your nonsense,” Mrs. Jin chided bluntly.
Jin Qingyue let out a disgruntled humph and turned around to leave.
With an umbrella in hand, she hopped into the car and said to s.h.i.+ Shaochuan, who was in the driver’s seat, “See, I knew my parents would be here. They wouldn’t bother about us tonight, let’s go.”
s.h.i.+ Shaochuan was in high spirits and gloated in joy, “See that? This is An Xiaoning’s retribution for having done so much evil. She deserves every bit of it.”
“That’s enough, she’s already in such a sorry plight, there’s no point in criticizing her anymore. Even if she manages to escape unscathed, it’s only a matter of time before she and my brother end up in a divorce. Because she’s not the one my brother loves. Why is it constantly pouring today? It hasn’t stopped even now. How annoying,” lamented Jin Qingyue as she leaned back against the headrest.
“It’s the coldest when it rains in winter, much colder than snow. Are you feeling chilly?” he asked, one hand on the steering wheel and another on her thigh, which was covered in her stockings.
“I’m best at tolerating the cold. Besides, can’t you see how many layers of clothes I’m wearing? I even have boots on, I won’t get cold like this.” All of a sudden, an idea popped up in Jin Qingyue’s mind and she suggested, “Let’s go to your place.”
“Let’s go to a hotel instead. A hotel is much more convenient compared to my house. At least in a hotel, we can be as loud as we want.”
Jin Qingyue gave him a smack on his arm and said, “You’re naughty. But I’ve just changed my mind. Or could it be that you’re hiding a woman in your house and you don’t want me to find out?”
“Of course not. Fine, my place it is,” s.h.i.+ Shaochuan casually agreed.
They then drove along the roads towards his house, cooing and flirting with each other as if smitten the entire journey.
After making one last turn, they finally arrived at the door of his home.
s.h.i.+ Shaochuan was greeted with the sudden sight of w.a.n.g Fangfang, who was standing with an umbrella in hand, as the car headlights shone brightly at her face. s.h.i.+ Shaochuan was not expecting w.a.n.g Fangfang to remain rooted at that same spot for hours, despite the heavy storm.
There was no way he could allow Jin Qingyue to find out that w.a.n.g Fangfang was carrying his child. If she did, he would then be exposed for lying about An Xiaoning plotting a scheme and getting w.a.n.g Fangfang to ask him out on purpose.
The quick-witted s.h.i.+ Shaochuan was immediately reminded of the fact that w.a.n.g Fangfang was insistent on keeping the child and marrying him. At the thought of her clinging onto him like a leech, he decided to go all out and stepped on the accelerator pedal, as hard as he could.
Jin Qingyue’s jaw dropped in shock as the car accelerated quickly all of a sudden. Before she could even react, a figure appeared before her, which flew into the air after the car collided with it. The umbrella then landed on a spot not too far away.
Jin Qingyue was shocked speechless and robbed of her senses.
“Shao… Shaochuan, you’ve knocked someone down…”
He held his breath for several seconds before finally saying, “Wait here while I get down to have a look.”
Jin Qingyue nodded. Her face had turned pale as a sheet.
He got down from the car and saw w.a.n.g Fangfang sprawled across the ground, wincing in pain as she laid in a pool of blood. She kept her eyes fixed on him, no longer able to speak.
Squatting down, he said with an exceptionally soft voice, “You chose to force me to my wits’ ends, so don’t blame me for my ruthlessness. You’ve brought this upon yourself.”
As he was speaking, he reached a hand out to strangle her with all his might, and he did not stop until she showed no signs of breathing at all.
Jin Qingyue began to wonder what he was doing, squatting there with his back facing her, and thus she yelled, “Shaochuan, how’s she?”
s.h.i.+ Shaochuan stood up immediately and walked towards the window, a fl.u.s.tered look on his face. “Yueyue, she died. What do we do?” he said worriedly.
“How would I know…” said Jin Qingyue as she remained in her seat, dumbstruck upon hearing his words.
“Yueyue, it’s your car we drove.”
His words shocked her yet again, and she quickly asked worriedly, “Shaochuan, what now?”
“It’ll be alright, it’s already so late at night, there won’t be pa.s.sers-by. Let’s dispose of the body and clean up the mess. It’s the entrance of my house anyway, I’ll just replace all the surveillance cameras. No one is going to find out, rest a.s.sured. Don’t be afraid, I’m here.”
He tried to placate her with a gentle and soothing voice. The two then proceeded to move w.a.n.g Fangfang’s dead body into the trunk of the car, after which he continued to clean up the mess at the spot before heading to the entrance of a secluded area in the backyard together with Jin Qingyue.
“This is a house I bought some time ago and no one is living inside. Let’s bury her body in the backyard. No one will find out if we both keep mum about it.”
Jin Qingyue seemed to no longer have a mind of her own. She simply followed whatever instruction he gave her. Together, they dug a hole in the ground and buried w.a.n.g Fangfang, after which they disposed of her mobile phone in a river along the way. Jin Qingyue felt a huge sense of relief as they returned to the entrance of his house.
“Why don’t you go home first? I’ll tidy up the matters and replace the surveillance cameras.”
“Alright,” she agreed with a nod.
“Drive safe,” he said, after which he pushed the door open to alight and quickly sped towards shelter.
Jin Qingyue took an exceptionally slow drive home and finally arrived at the garage of her house. However, she still seemed to be overwhelmed with shock and anxiety.
At that point in time, her parents had still not returned, thus she decided to take a shower before waiting for them to come home.
——
It was past 11 o’clock at night when the police informed them of the latest news — while looking at the footage from the surveillance cameras along the other roads nearby, they had discovered a van following closely behind An Xiaoning’s car. The van had also moved even closer to An Xiaoning’s car when the car pulled up at the blind spot of the surveillance cameras.
In order to obtain more clues, the police spent the entire night observing each frame of the footage closely before finally deducing the location from which both the vehicles had set off from. It was XX Teahouse.
The police quickly made their way to the teahouse only to find that it was closed. After knocking on the door for an extended period of time, the person inside the teahouse finally opened the door upon seeing how persistent the police were.
“What are you guys here for…”
“Why did you take so long to open the door?” The posse of policemen quickly barged in.
“I must’ve been too deeply asleep to hear anything. Officer, what are you guys…”
“Show me the footage of the surveillance cameras in your shop.”
“We don’t have surveillance cameras in the shop, though we’re in the midst of installing some,” said the owner.
“Then, did this lady and these men appear here tonight?” asked the policeman as he showed the owner a screenshot of a surveillance camera footage.
“I think they did, from what I remember. But there are too many people here at night, I can’t fully recognize every single one of them,” he said with s.h.i.+fty eyes, seemingly afraid of making eye contact.
“This lady is the Young Madam of the Jin family. You will be faced with an additional charge if we find out that you were involved in this matter yet refused to report it. The consequences are going to be huge. You will be sentenced to prison. Of course, if you choose to come clean, your sentence will be lightened. I hope you will not conceal any bit of the truth about this matter, for it is rather serious, given the status of the Jin family, who are known to the world to be rich and powerful. We have to get to the bottom of this matter. So don’t try to get any funny ideas,” the policeman warned sternly.
The man’s heart began to race with fear, almost ricocheting out of his chest. Filled with fear, he confessed, “Officer, I went to my mother’s house tonight, when I returned…”