The torment Mother Xu had suffered these past few days had already made her numb.

When she ran outside, the child followed her outside. When she ran back to the community, the child would already be in the house, as if he was waiting for her arrival.

In the beginning, she would scream, cry and beg for mercy from him, asking him to go and leave her alone, but after experiencing many such days, she had given up on this meaningless struggle, just like the way the child had given up on talking, running and asking for help after experiencing her daily beatings.

She had tortured him into a numb, half-dead child, and now, he tormented her in the same way.

Mother Xu opened all the windows that could be opened in the house. The TV, computer, tablet and mobile phone were all turned on and played programs day and night.

It was only in this way that she could make her home feel a little more lively, using this excitement to try and drive away her inner fear.

The day before yesterday, she tried escaping from the community once again, and was ready to leave the city itself by train. But after boarding the train carriage, she discovered that the quiet child was still beside her.

His skin was getting whiter, his lips were becoming more purple and his pupils were now black as ink, with irises that no longer reflected any light, while his whole body smelled of water weeds and dead fish.

The passengers on-board the train clamored, repeatedly asking who had dead mice in their bags, and even the police had been called, ready to perform a check on the luggage of all the passengers.

When she recalled how the child had been killed by her husband, Mother Xu ran out of the train. She had to take him away and hide him, or else her husband would be arrested by the police when the incident was exposed.

Yes, she still loved her husband. Loved him very much.

Even if she didn't receive his love and care when she was pregnant, even if she had been abandoned by him during a dangerous situation like this, she still loved him, and was willing to give everything for him.

She always remembered the tender words her husband had said to her on the day she had learned that the child had died.

The couple had already reconciled, and were even planning to give birth to another child— a child who was more well-behaved, cute, smart and quiet, and would not let their mother suffer from depression.

It was the only light of hope she had seen in all her years of depression. All she wanted was comfort, a promise, and a hug from her husband.

Mother Xu, who had returned to the Moon Bay Garden Community once again, then collapsed. She pointed a knife at her child and screamed hysterically—

"It's all because of you! Why do you keep coming back? You have ruined my life!"

The child raised his head and looked at her quietly, not even dodging the sharp point of the frosty light metal pointed in his direction.

He wasn't afraid of this kind of thing anymore. In any case, he was void of pain and life, so he was not afraid of being hurt.

She had stabbed the knife into the boy's body a few times, only to discover the tip of the knife was not stained with blood, but with a thick liquid as black as ink.

She had then fainted from fear.

She had lain on the ground for a long time, so long that her bones had turned cold, her limbs had gone numb, and her head, upon awakening, felt like it had been repeatedly crushed by wheels. The pain she experienced was simply indescribable.

That pain even affected her eyelids and eyeballs; every time she blinked, she would also twitch in pain.

She didn't have any strength left to get up. She could only stare at the ceiling numbly. The child seemed to know that she was awake, so he approached, bent down and looked at her with his usual pitch-black eyes.

In a trance, she remembered another scene— she had beaten the child until he was barely breathing, but she had been too lazy to clean him up and had directly thrown him into the bathroom. Because she hadn't wanted her clothes to get wet, she had ordered him to stand upright sternly and had then turned on the shower head before leaving to go and sleep.

But at that moment then, the child had dipped his finger into his own blood and had written onto a floor tile—【Mom, I stand up can't, blink eye hurt so much】

He had only been in first grade at that time and didn't know how to write many words, so he could only mix them up with pinyin.

Mother Xu frowned at the messy sentence, "What are you pretending for? I just hit you a few times, how much pain can you be suffering from? Get up, get up, you get up..."

Even as she had uttered those crazy curses, not once did she give thought to what had really happened to the child, and why he could say such words. But now, she finally understood what 'it hurts so much to even blink' meant.

What kind of pain was that? It was not the result of a few slaps at all, but it instead came about from being almost beaten to death. Those actions of her past self were actually beating her child to death...

"Ha, ha ha..." Mother Xu, who could no longer delude herself by saying that she was just 'educating' her child, grinned bitterly.

Seeing her distorted smile, the child tilted his head and seemed a bit puzzled.

An exclamation suddenly sounded out from the computer, the volume of which Mother Xu had set to the max. It was broadcasting a reality show, and someone was speaking in an exaggerated tone, "It's impossible! Fan Jialuo drew it. He actually drew all of them. He is a real psychic!"

Hearing the words 'Fan Jialuo', Mother Xu saw that the child's pitch-black eyes sparked with light.

How could it be?

There was a ray of light in this dead being's eyes. It was bright, clear, full of joy and endless dependency.

The child immediately lost interest in his mother. With his thin legs, he ran awkwardly towards the computer and looked intently at the people on the screen.

Mother Xu immediately breathed a sigh of relief upon encountering this unexpected stroke of luck. She then moved back little by little, hiding herself behind the door.

She now liked to drill into narrow, dim and cramped spaces, which were originally the places that the child would hide in, once upon a time. It was ironic how their statuses and situations had been completely reversed at present.

Just before hiding behind the door, Mother Xu glanced at the child nervously, only to find that the corner of his mouth was curving slightly as he showed a stiff but exceptionally soft smile.

He was looking up at the young man on the computer screen, staring at him as if he was the only light in his dark world.

The smile left her stunned for a while, for it seemed that she had never seen such an expression on that face before.

Her child was timid, always standing with shrunken shoulders and a bowed head in front of her, just like a rat hiding in a stinking ditch.

That was the reason she hated him so much. She thought she had given birth to a good-for-nothing child.

It wasn't until now that she realized the child could also smile, and it was such a lovely smile...

Her fingers dug into the crack on the wooden tiles, and she didn't even notice that they were bleeding. Her gaze was still focused on the unfamiliar child standing in front of the computer, as her thoughts fell into utter confusion.

It took her a long time to notice that the content being displayed on the computer screen was from a reality show, and it was that same young man who previously sent the child home, who seemed to be a psychic with extraordinary ability.

His name was Fan Jialuo!

Psychic, corpse, resurrection, revenge—these strange and terrible things finally connected together with this clue!

At the same time, Mother Xu remembered what the young man had said when he sent the child home— "Mr. Xu, Mrs. Xu, saving Yangyang took me a great deal of effort. The spot where he fell into the water was quite far from the shore, and he almost couldn't make it back. This time, you have to watch over him carefully, and you should not let him run into any danger."

Now, after thinking into it a little deeper, she finally discovered the message hidden beneath those words.

'Saving Yangyang took me a great deal of effort' meant: I worked so hard to get the body back;

'The spot where he fell into the water was quite far from the shore' was equivalent to: I know where you sunk him;

'He almost couldn't make it back' implied: But I could still bring him back into this world.

In other words, what he actually meant was: Accept his revenge!

This absurdly massive, terrible and shocking information dropped on Mother Xu's head like a bomb.

She finally understood where her tragedy originated from. It was Fan Jialuo! Everything had happened because of him!

Using all her strength, Mother Xu struggled to stand up, open the door and run upstairs. And then, she started to frantically pound on Fan Jialuo's door.

At the same time, Fan Jialuo was tossing fish food piece by piece into the aquarium. The frog had regained consciousness three days ago but was very thin and lacked energy. It needed to be fed.

The banging on the door made the floor vibrate, spreading to the aquarium and the frog, and angering Fan Jialuo.

He casually put the fish food aside and walked to the door. With a cold expression, he opened it and fixed his gaze down at the visitor.

His pitch black pupils, which resembled the pupils of that child, made the expression on Mother Xu's face solidify.

"He... did you bring him back to life?" Mother Xu summoned up the last trace of her courage and asked this question.

Fan Jialuo responded by raising his eyebrows.

"Take him away. I'll give you money. Is 100,000 enough?" She turned on her phone, preparing to transfer the money.

The thin but exquisite lips of the youth rose into a slight curve, revealing a smile that was not a smile.

"Let us go. We could have had a good life but it's all ruined because of you!

"Do you know that I was very depressed and had thought about committing suicide several times? But then, a while ago, I saw a ray of hope!

"My husband and I agreed to start over again. We were going to have another child and live a happy life. But you ruined me, ruined our future..."

Mother Xu slumped onto the floor and cried bitterly.

Fan Jialuo also squatted down and looked straight into her eyes. "Do you really think there is hope in your life? Let me tell you the truth.

"When your morning sickness was torturing you to death, your husband rented a house outside to live with another woman. All because he disliked your unpleasant smell and hated your bloated body, which would affect his mood and appetite.

"When you were giving birth, he was helping his lover celebrate her birthday. All because your safety was not as important as the other person's smile.

"When you were so tired from taking care of the child, he was rolling in bed with that woman.

"When you were suffering from depression, he was thinking gleefully – get sick and even sicker, your suicidal thoughts will save me the trouble of having to divorce and split my property with you.

"Whenever, after beating your child, you offered your husband an apology out of guilt, he secretly thought – hit him, beat him to death, it would be convenient for me to remarry without carrying this burden."

Fan Jialuo leaned forward slightly, whispering into the woman's ear like a devil, "This is the person you love. Now, do you still think that there is hope in your life?"

"No, it can't be! What you said is not true! I don't believe it! You're lying to me!"

Mother Xu couldn't even cry anymore, all she could do was hug her gradually cooling body.

The so-called 'like falling into an ice cave' originally meant this, and there really existed people who would fall into such a desperate situation with just a few words.

Fan Jialuo laughed softly. "He hid the child's body for several days but didn't throw it away, he was just waiting for you to come back.

"Do you think he was scared and wanted to find someone to rely on? No, that's not it. He was waiting for your return, just to frame you. You already have a record of child abuse with the police, so it wouldn't be strange if you beat the child to death.

"He asked you to lift the body by yourself, carry the suitcase by yourself, then to start and sail the boat. The boat only carried one person– you. You tied the stone to the suitcase and the one who sank it into the water was also you.

"From the start until the very end, he was only a bystander who didn't interfere in it at all. That was because he wanted you to leave enough biological evidence on the body and the suitcase.

"Don't you realize? Even the suitcase containing the child's body was selected by him, and it is the one you use most frequently."

Mother Xu's eyes widened as tears gushed down uncontrollably, but she continued to shake her head in denial.

Fan Jialuo continued, "If I hadn't sent the child back, he would have found an excuse to have a big fight with you, directing you to the most easily damaged pieces of furniture and appliances, so that you could thoroughly destroy them. Then, he would have found an excuse to run away from home."

"People would start thinking you were crazy and that your violent tendencies were escalating. So, that way, when the child's body was found one day, he could logically put all the blame on your head."

"Other people would think he had been driven out of his home by your violence and would assume that he would know nothing about things happening after he left. He would become a person who had no idea that you would beat the child to death."

"From the outsiders' perspective, would you have vented your anger on the child? The answer is yes. So is there a possibility you killed him by accident? That answer is also yes."

"How much bacteria is there in the lake during summer? The evidence of the large male footprints will rot and disappear from the body within a few days, leaving behind only the bleeding internal organs. Who, then, would have been responsible for the child's internal injuries? It was you."

"The police already have a report documenting the child's injuries and complaints of your abuse, and know that your beloved husband, who works outside, has never even touched the child's finger harshly. Everyone knows this."

Fan Jialuo leaned closer and murmured slowly, "What you consider as warmth is nothing but the bait thrown at you by the devil; what you think will be your new life is just a funeral requiem; and what you imagine to be hope is just another instance of despair. This is the whole truth of your life."

He stood up and stared at the extremely embarrassed woman with completely indifferent eyes.

Mother Xu looked up at him. Her mouth opened, but only a series of silent screams came out. It turned out that when one's fear reached a certain critical point, their throat would really become paralyzed.

In her view, even though the young man's sunny face was unbelievably holy, his words had plunged her down to hell. Her child had quietly walked around her to enter the youth's apartment, and was standing on his tiptoes to peek into a glass aquarium placed in the balcony area.

He stretched out his short fingers to depict a frog in the bathtub, and his mouth, that had never made any sound, opened, with a broken, shrill, but joyful laugh sounding out from it.

"Ka?" He looked back at the young man, his eyes refracting a little light. Here, next to the youth, he was a normal and lively boy, as innocent and lovely as all ten year old's would be.

The young man walked back to the balcony, picked up the fish food and continued to sprinkle it into the fish tank, sighing sadly, "It has not recovered its energy, so it is not willing to eat."

The child patted the fish tank with his little hand, pointed to the fish food, and then kept shaking his head, trying to express his opinion.

He was actually communicating with the young man, and his personality was very cheerful and lively. Such a side was something Mother Xu had never seen before.

She had begun to torture the child just as he started to walk, and ever since then, for the many years that followed, she had never seen a smile appear on his face.

But after his death, he actually learned to laugh, learned to communicate, and learned to express his emotions. How ironic was this scene to her?

She stared at the sunny child in a daze, as if looking at an illusory dream. The well-behaved, cute, smart, and quiet child that she dreamed about had always been by her side, but she had ruthlessly destroyed him herself!

She slowly hugged her aching head as she continued to look at the sunny balcony, at that intimate and happy silhouette with fear.

Hearing her heavy breathing, the young man looked back and added with a smile, "Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you that you met your husband's lover the other day, that woman who was also present in the pantry. They were already together when you were pregnant.

"If she hadn't been on a business trip a while ago, your husband would not have gone home every day, nor would he have committed murder after getting drunk."

Mother Xu screamed silently again, then started crawling on all fours. She headed straight to the elevator and pressed the down arrow button madly.

She had to ask her husband herself. Even if she wanted to die, she had to die only after confirming the truth!