"Phone..."
Her body lying prone on the floor, her mother-in-law stared wide-eyed, a distorted, choked sound squeezing from her throat. Her hands trembled violently as they stretched towards Qin Guan. "Ph...one..."
Qin Guan froze for a moment.
Phone. Yes, of course he knew he needed to make a call. An emergency call – his mother-in-law had always suffered from high blood pressure. After her serious illness, her body had been terribly weak. What was happening now was extremely bad.
He should immediately call for emergency help.
But Qin Guan didn't move.
He watched her calmly, his mind drifting back to that quiet afternoon, the image of that filthy, stinking old dog seeming to float before his eyes once more.
The young boy he had been, not strong, clutching a sickle, standing before the old dog. He looked around again: the wilderness was empty, only a gentle breeze softly brushing over his tense hands.
Then, he raised the sickle and brought it down with a steady, precise, and ruthless blow onto the dirty neck of the old dog.
The dog jolted abruptly awake from its sleep. Its two black eyes were moist, staring at Qin Guan in just such a plea for help.
The difference was, it couldn't speak human words. Blood gushed from its throat. It could only emit choked, strange sounds. That ugly, broken leg curled against its filthy chest, convulsing, twitching, trembling towards him a few times as if begging for mercy.
"Qin... Qin Guan..."
His mother-in-law's face grew increasingly pale. Her eyes bulged, her voice growing fainter.
She needed emergency help.
The direction her hand stretched shifted from Qin Guan's face to his hand at last – her phone was clenched in Qin Guan's grip.
She wanted the phone. She wanted to call herself.
Qin Guan held the phone, still unmoving. He only needed to extend the phone a few centimeters forward, and his mother-in-law could reach it.
But he remained utterly still.
The heart that had been surging violently moments before now settled into complete stillness.
Like that afternoon in his childhood, before he swung the blade, he had probably felt nervous and afraid. He couldn't remember. He only remembered that when the stray dog's neck gushed blood, pinned to the ground by the sickle, unable to rise or fight back, he became calm.
He just watched the stray dog quietly, watched its blood flow out continuously, watched it exhaust all its strength, watched its body gradually go limp until it was completely still.
His heart was calm, composed, and tranquil.
Only when it was all over did he calmly pull out the sickle, wash the blood off in the nearby river, then bundle the stray dog in a clump of wild grass and throw it into the cesspit behind a house at the village's end.
The dog was discovered the next morning. "Ah, this brainless stray! Must have been running around blindly in the dark and fallen in and drowned!"
No one suspected him.
He had completely escaped that humiliation. His life finally returned to the normalcy he desired.
"Pho... phone... give... it..."
His mother-in-law was practically summoning her last ounce of strength to demand the phone from Qin Guan.
She was crawling. Crawling towards Qin Guan.
Qin Guan looked at her. Looked at her calmly. Like... looking at that old dog.
He didn't move. The next second, he took a step back, gently placing the phone he held in his palm – his mother-in-law's phone – into his own trouser pocket.
"You—you—"
His mother-in-law understood. Completely understood.
Her mouth gaped open. She stared at Qin Guan in terror, as if something solid was blocking her windpipe. Her breathing became increasingly labored. Her eyes bulged wider and wider.
Her lips trembled. She wanted to speak. She wanted to stand up and slap this man hard across the face a few more times.
She wanted to tell her daughter. Her only daughter.
But everything before her was blurring, turning black. Her body felt like it was plummeting downwards. Finally, an overwhelming darkness, accompanied by endless regret, unwillingness, anger, pain... closed in on her from all sides, swiftly engulfing her.
His mother-in-law's head fell rigidly to the floor.
The entire process lasted only a few minutes.
Qin Guan stood beside her the whole time. His heartbeat steady, his pulse stable, his breathing calm. He watched quietly as his mother-in-law called for help, convulsed, fell, and finally, lay on her back, eyes wide open, motionless.
The whole world fell silent.
Just like those days long ago when he had cast off his shame.
Qin Guan waited quietly for a few more minutes. Then, cautiously, he walked over, felt for her breath, and finally confirmed it – although his mother-in-law's eyes were still staring fixedly, refusing to close; although her mouth was still open in agony; although the blood at the corner of her mouth wasn't yet dry; her entire face was covered with the bluish-gray hue of death.
She was truly dead.
Qin Guan let out a long sigh and slumped heavily to the floor – she could never inform on him now.
Jun Jun had to be cut off immediately, starting now – then Xu Ruyi would never find out.
His home, his future, were preserved.
As for the argument with his mother-in-law, his father-in-law and Xu Ruyi absolutely must not know about it.
Qin Guan rested his hand on the table. His fingers tapped rhythmically on the surface, just like when he pondered cases. His mind worked coldly through all the subsequent details – His mother-in-law hadn't spoken to anyone when she returned. Good. He had hurriedly greeted the neighbors. Well done. They hadn't argued loudly after entering the house. Excellent.
That way, the neighbors wouldn't gossip or speculate wildly. No one would have any suspicions.
Moreover, his mother-in-law had already been seriously ill, had high blood pressure, and went to the hospital frequently. For an elderly person, someone with health problems, a sudden accident was quite normal.
Besides, he hadn't laid a finger on her.
Qin Guan quickly ran through the scenario in his mind.
The only flaw was the spit of blood by the doorframe.
That had to be cleaned up.
He carried his mother-in-law to the bed, carefully wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and with effort, closed her eyes.
Then, he stared calmly at the doorframe – Scraping that spot would expose the dark gray concrete underneath, too conspicuous. The best way was to cover it.
So, methodically, he meticulously wiped the blood off the floor, threw the tissues into the toilet, and flushed them. Then, he opened the paint can and carefully painted over the bloodstain beside the doorframe with a brush.
The high-quality paint Qin Guan had personally bought worked well indeed. It spread easily and had little odor.
The newly painted section of the doorframe was noticeably whiter than the surrounding area, but Qin Guan reckoned his father-in-law and Xu Ruyi wouldn't notice it.
Sure enough, after receiving Qin Guan's call, his father-in-law and Xu Ruyi rushed home in a panic. The moment they saw his mother-in-law lying motionless on the bed, his father-in-law fainted dead away on the spot.
Xu Ruyi suffered threatened premature labor and was admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment to prevent a miscarriage.
The house was thrown into utter chaos.
Qin Guan handled all the arrangements for his mother-in-law's funeral. He was diligent and tireless, caring for the grief-stricken father and daughter while managing all the necessary affairs.
In just one week, he had lost significant weight. At the funeral, dressed in traditional white mourning clothes, Qin Guan wailed before his mother-in-law's spirit tablet until his voice was hoarse. He wept until he nearly choked, until his whole body went limp. Several times, he banged his head against the dark lacquered coffin, producing deeply moving, loud thuds. "Mom—Mom—Mom—How could you just leave us like this—Mom—I haven't even fulfilled my filial duties to you yet—"
His grief was raw and genuine, moving everyone to tears.
All the relatives witnessed it.
Touched, they wiped their tears and sighed. "That boy is truly devoted. Uncle Xu and Aunt Min didn't spoil him for nothing."
"Yes, even a real son could only do this much."