Madness of the Heart

Han Province, Lanshui Township.

It was time to smoke the sausage stuffed a few days ago, but there are regulations in the village that it is not allowed to smoke in your own yard, and you can only go to the open area in the west of the village to collectively smoke.Every household has sausages and bacon to smoke, and there are only a few smoke barrels. If you go late, you have to wait in line for two or three hours.

In order to reduce the queuing time, the girls got up before dawn.

In winter, the sunrise is late. As the name suggests, Blue Water Township has a small river that surrounds most of the village. The water source is abundant, and the fog falls almost every morning.

Breathing the damp cold air, the girl shivered and put the sausages into the basket, then went to the kitchen to get a freshly steamed steamed bun, and walked towards the west of the village under the faint light.

When I arrived at the place, I realized that I was still late. Those elderly grandparents had arrived long ago, and they were chatting and adding dry branches to the smoke barrel.

"Xiaochen is here too!" said an old woman, "little girl, why don't you sleep in a little longer? Join us old bastards in the fun!"

The girl smiled shyly and stepped forward to help.

After dawn, it was time to officially start smoking.The girl yawned several times, and her eyes were wet with tears from the tiredness.As the sun rose, she wiped away tears and squinted at the illuminated mountains and the thinning mist.

She suddenly felt melancholy, not knowing when the fog surrounding her would dissipate.

There are more and more villagers, and there is a lot of voices. The girl is glad that she came early enough.

At around 10 a.m., a village cadre in his sixties rushed over and shouted, "Xiaochen, where is Xiaochen? Is Zou Chen there?"

The girl's sausage was only half smoked, and she hurried out of the crowd when she heard the sound, her hands and face were blackened by the smoke, "Uncle Wang, I'm here!"

The village cadre held the girl back, "Someone is looking for you, follow me."

The girl was startled, and her expression immediately became unnatural, "Who is looking for me?"

"police."

The girl's fear froze in her eyes, and she shook her head vigorously, "I, my sausage hasn't been smoked yet!"

"Why don't you care about sausages? You don't have a registered permanent residence. They might just come here to make up your registered permanent residence. Do you want to be a 'black household' for the rest of your life?" The village cadre shouted to the crowd after speaking, "The police are here to help Xiao Chen. Now that I have a registered residence, everyone help me look at her sausages!"

The aunt who talked to the girl earlier said enthusiastically, "That's great!"

The girl was almost dragged home by the village cadres.There was a police car parked in the alley where her house was located. Two men without police uniforms were standing beside the car. They had obviously heard the movement, and they all turned around and looked in her direction.

She suddenly shuddered, and when she was about [-] meters away from the door, she suddenly exerted strength, broke free from the village cadre's hand, and ran in the opposite direction.

The village cadre was stunned, "Xiaochen! Oh, what are you running, Xiaochen!"

Fang Yuanhang ran after him, but Mingshu still stood there and shouted, "Chi Xiaomin, don't run away."

The girl's footsteps paused slightly, and Fang Yuanhang caught up with him at an amazing speed, grabbing the girl's arm.

The girl was forced to turn around, and it was the familiar face in the system.

Mingshu stepped forward and looked at Chi Xiaomin.

Chi Xiaomin was very vigilant, her hands clenched into fists.

"Let's talk." Ming Shu said, "About you, about your elder brother Lin Jiao, and...'Ghost Card'."

Chi Xiaomin's eyes widened suddenly, tears accumulated inside, as if they were about to fall in the next second.

Mingshu took out a pack of tissues and handed it to her, "Did you see the news?"

A few seconds later, Chi Xiaomin nodded slightly.

"It's all over." Mingshu said, "The source of your fear and hatred has been eradicated."

After a pause, Mingshu said again: "Do you know who eradicated them?"

Chi Xiaomin raised his head, and he already had the answer in his eyes.

"It's the police." Ming Shu said: "The police are not as useless and weak as you think. We can protect you, and you can rely on and trust us."

Before he knew it, Mingshu frowned, and said very seriously: "The police will not work hand in hand with criminals!"

Tears fell from Chi Xiaomin's eyes, she hurriedly reached out to wipe them away, and said incoherently, "I'm sorry..."

The village cadres didn't understand why she had to apologize, but Mingshu and Fang Yuanhang did.

"Let's go." Mingshu said, "Go to your house and have a sit."

The two-story small building is a self-built building that can be seen everywhere in the countryside. The white walls and concrete floors inside are extremely simple.

Before meeting Chi Xiaomin, Mingshu had already learned from the village cadres that Chi Xiaomin - her name here is Zou Chen - came here in mid-July this year and has no registered permanent residence.

"Black households" are too common in rural areas, as long as they behave themselves, basically no one will care.Chi Xiaomin is an honest girl, and no one cares whether she has a registered permanent residence or not.

This house used to belong to villager Zhao Dongnan.At the beginning of the year, Zhao Dongnan and his family moved to the city, and the house was sold to a foreigner for 2 yuan. After half a year of vacancy, Chi Xiaomin moved in.

Chi Xiaomin went to the kitchen to boil water, and washed his face and hands along the way.

Fang Yuanhang wandered around the upper and lower rooms and saw a group photo of Chi Xiaomin and Lin Jiao.

Seeing that Chi Xiaomin's mood had calmed down, Ming Shu asked, "Lin Jiao arranged for you to live here?"

Chi Xiaomin nodded, and said softly, "Brother let me, let me hide for a while."

Saying that, Chi Xiaomin buried his head even lower, "We did something wrong."

Mingshu naturally wanted Lin Jiao to let Chi Xiaomin leave Dongye City to escape temporarily, but he didn't understand why it was July.

"They are all your targets. You pretended to be a female ghost and frightened them." Mingshu took out photos of Qiao Xuehua, Li Sijia, Lu Chao, and Yang Lilan one by one, and looked into Chi Xiaomin's eyes, "Because they all Bought a 'job card'."

Chi Xiaomin asked, "Don't they deserve to die?"

Mingshu said, "Lin Jiao asked you to do this?"

Chi Xiaomin's expression became complicated. She seemed to understand intellectually that she should tell all the truth at this time, but emotionally she was unwilling to let Lin Jiao bear the burden.

"What's wrong?" Mingshu asked, "Uncomfortable?"

Chi Xiaomin shook his head and beat his head with both hands.

She was really sick, a dull ache somewhere in her head, but she didn't know why.

Mingshu said: "You just need to tell me everything you know. I will find Lin Jiao to investigate again."

Chi Xiaomin seemed to be convinced, he hesitated to speak——

Chi Xiaomin can't remember clearly what happened before the age of 7.She only remembered that she grew up in a place called "Long'an Township" in the north. She had no parents, and an old man raised her. According to the old man, a man dressed in a city handed her over to her, and asked him to raise her temporarily. .

Later, the old man died.

Chi Xiaomin didn't have a registered permanent residence. After the old man passed away, she became a widow.

Soon, Lin Jiao came to Long'an Township.

From Lin Jiao's mouth, she knew the story that happened to her.

She was born in a place full of sins, where baby girls would be turned into "job cards" after birth, and those who were not killed would become "reproductive resources" and face a more cruel life.

Lin Zhongguo - a brave and fearless reporter - once wanted to expose the darkness, but eventually became a victim of the darkness.

And she was saved by Lin Zhongguo.

Without Lin Zhongguo, she would have already become a pool of blood on the "ghost card".

Lin Zhongguo probably died because of saving her.

"What can I do?" She asked Lin Jiao.

"Avenge my father." Lin Jiao said, "Are you willing?"

That year, when she was still young, she looked at Lin Jiao in confusion, "What is revenge? How to revenge?"

Lin Jiao rubbed her soft hair, "Don't worry, wait for you to grow up, wait for me to be able to protect you, then we can discuss it."

She ignorantly called "Brother"—after her grandfather passed away, she had been very lonely, and she wanted a relative so much.

Lin Jiao seemed to be taken aback for a moment, and said with a smile, "From today onwards, I will be your elder brother."

After that, Chi Xiaomin still lived in Long'an Township, and Lin Jiao often came to visit her, bringing her necessities for life, and telling her about Lin Zhongguo and the "ghost card".

As she grows older, she hates "job cards" more and more, and pity those innocent baby girls more and more.She asked Lin Jiao many times what we should do.Lin Jiao always told her that now is not the time.

Later, she was no longer a little girl, and Lin Jiao also became a consultant to the police.

She suggested, almost naively - why don't we call the police?My existence is the proof, you know so many policemen, the police must have a solution.

Lin Jiao showed a mocking smile, "If the police would help us, they helped us as early as the year you were born, why did you wait until now? Remember, the police are the most unreliable group of people in the world, they only think about them Our own interests. We will avenge ourselves."

Chi Xiaomin seemed to understand but half understood.

Subconsciously, she was still willing to trust the police.She had an almost instinctive fear of Lin Jiao's revenge.

Revenge means...to kill someone?

But she won't.

More than two years ago, Lin Jiao took her to Dongye City, gave her a fake ID card, and taught her how to avoid surveillance and hide in the crowd properly.

She gradually adapted to life in the city, worked part-time, observed girls in the city, and wanted to make friends at first, but Lin Jiao warned her not to contact people casually, let alone trust people casually.

Over time, she gave up the idea of ​​making friends and developed a hobby - reading.

She scoured a lot of second-hand books, and her favorite was crime themes.She still can't imagine how she will avenge her benefactor, is she committing a high-IQ crime as written in the book?

She's very self-aware and knows she's not smart.

Last year, Lin Jiao handed her a list and told her a plan.

She was horrified, "You, you want me to pretend to be a female ghost to scare them?"

"Can't you do it?" Lin Jiao said, "Or, you don't want to?"

She shook her head quickly, "Of course I would, it's just..."

"Just what?"

"Is there really no other way? You've established that these people have a 'joker', we can..."

Lin Jiao interrupted impatiently, "Are you still counting on the police?"

She just had to shut up.

"I told you, don't count on the police, they won't help us." Lin Jiao seemed to be angry, "We can only rely on ourselves! You just need to frighten them, don't worry about anything else. Don't forget, you are because Who survived!"

She complied, feeling terrified all day long for quite a while.

Lin Jiao just told her the plan, but didn't let her execute it immediately.While waiting, she saw that the newspaper was launching a series on rural folklore.The angle of the report is very objective, not only affirming the enthusiasm of some folk customs, but also discussing that some folk customs are really dross and should not continue in modern society.

The editor in charge of the report was named Wen Ling, who could be seen as a woman.

Chi Xiaomin suddenly had an idea.

The eldest brother always said that the police were unreliable.What about the media people?Isn't Uncle Lin a media person?If the editor in charge is willing to report on "Ghost Cards"...

She didn't dare to tell Lin Jiao, so she secretly found Wen Ling, told her about the crimes of "ghost card", and asked her to expose this "folk custom" that shouldn't exist in the newspaper.

Wen Ling agreed and took the list.She was fully expecting to see reports about "monkey cards" in the newspapers soon, but until the end of the series of folklore reports, Wen Ling did not do what she had promised.

Frustrated hopes can feel like being pulled overboard by a boulder.

She finally realized Lin Jiao's feeling first-hand—the police cannot be relied on, and neither can the media people. The only person she can rely on is herself.

No one saw their suffering, no one heard their voices.

She doesn't want justice anymore, she just wants revenge.

She concealed this episode, and Lin Jiao didn't know that she had asked the media for help.

The first target of revenge was Qiao Xuehua, followed by Li Sijia, and then Lu Chao.

They are all rich people in this city, living a decent life, and they are already "superior people", but they want to listen to crooked ways and use the baby girl's blood to lust for their careers and future.

When pretending to be a ghost for the first time, Chi Xiaomin was very nervous. She didn't know if Qiao Xuehua was frightened, but she frightened herself anyway.

But she soon discovered that she was very talented in playing tricks.Those who "saw" her were all terrified, thinking that she was the ghost of a dead baby girl who had appeared to claim her life.

If you were so afraid, why did you do evil in the first place?

She couldn't help thinking, those babies who died because of you, how scared and painful they were when they died, have you experienced it?

Lin Jiao taught her to call "Mom" to women and "Brother" or "Dad" to men, with a more childish and floaty voice, and asked them why they didn't love her anymore.

She learned quickly, and under her intermittent intimidation, Qiao Xuehua first developed mental problems, left Dongye City, returned to her hometown, and was hit to death on the road to her hometown.

What happened next was Li Sijia, this man who seemed to be extremely successful in his career was actually very timid. He had the experience of "going to hell" when he was a child, and he was more afraid of "ghost cards" than he liked them. Business to a higher level.

After learning about his childhood experience, Lin Jiao immediately decided to attack him.

It's easier to scare Li Sijia than Qiao Xuehua, but it's also possible that Chi Xiaomin is already familiar with it.

While doing these things, Chi Xiaomin made a friend—Li Hongmei, an English major at Dongye University of Foreign Studies.

Of course, she kept it from Lin Jiao.

Li Hongmei looks ugly and is hated by her classmates, but Chi Xiaomin likes her and pities her.

In Li Hongmei, Chi Xiaomin saw herself.

They are all vulnerable people who are rejected by this society, can't find a real place to live, are burdened with hatred, and are eager for change.

Li Hongmei has a household registration, and she is a "black householder", but when she stayed with Li Hongmei, she finally did not have that depressing and suffocating sense of loneliness.

They are of the same kind.

Only the same kind can comfort each other.

Li Hongmei told her about her unsatisfactory life. She distributed her favorite books to Li Hongmei and talked with Li Hongmei about the views in the books.

"Some people deserve to die—do you agree?" Li Hongmei asked after reading a book.

"I agree." Chi Xiaomin said, "Why do people who have done bad things survive?"

"But there are laws. Are laws really useless?"

"The law will not sentence every bad person to death, but what they have done has already 'killed' a person."

Li Hongmei thought for a long time, "Did my roommates die?"

Chi Xiaomin asked, "What do you think?"

Li Hongmei shook her head, "I don't know."

The confused Li Hongmei finally broke out, and used four lives to answer the bloody question "Did my roommates die?"

At the same time, Lin Jiao found out that she had made friends.

Lin Jiao has always opposed her making friends, she has always been obedient, but she also needs company.

Before Li Hongmei's accident happened, around the beginning of June, she noticed that Lin Jiao began to become restless.

She once thought it was because of Lu Chao.

Lu Chao was their third target, younger than both Qiao Xuehua and Li Sijia.It is not so easy to induce him to commit suicide by intimidation. She tried several times, but Lu Chao's reaction was not great.

Later, Lin Jiao asked her to concentrate on dealing with Yang Lilan and leave Lu Chao alone.

She suspected that Lu Chao was killed by Lin Jiao, and it was this unplanned event that made Lin Jiao uneasy.

Yang Lilan was a good target to scare. In July, Yang Lilan's spirit was on the verge of collapse, but Lin Jiao suddenly ordered her to leave Dongye City and go to Lanshui Township of Han Province to hide for a while.

She was very puzzled, and asked the reason, Lin Jiao just said that someone difficult to deal with came, and the plan might have to be changed.

"A person who is difficult to deal with?" Mingshu understood what was going on after a rough thought. The "ghost" Yang Lilan saw suddenly disappeared, Lin Jiao asked Chi Xiaomin to leave Dongye City, and Lin Jiao used Xu Yin to construct "Chi Xiaomin" The illusion that Min is dead" is all because of a major change in the serious crimes team—in June, when he returned from the special operations team, Xiao Yuan parachuted in to replace Liang Chao.

Lin Jiao was afraid of them, so he had to change his plan and let Chi Xiaomin go to Hanxing to hide.

"I don't know..." Chi Xiaomin buried his head very low, and his voice became smaller and smaller: "I don't know..."

Fang Yuanhang didn't understand for a moment, "What don't you know?"

"I don't know that the police are not as useless as you think." Ming Shu looked at Chi Xiaomin, "I didn't know that the police will do everything they can to bring justice to the victims."

Chi Xiaomin cried, tears pouring from his fingers.She choked up and said, "If I knew you would save us, I would definitely ask you for help."

Mingshu sighed.

Chi Xiaomin grew up in a deformed environment. When she was 7 years old, she met Lin Jiao.Over the past ten years, Lin Jiao has been instilling in her hatred, benefactors, revenge, and the uselessness of the police. It is inevitable that she will embark on the road of revenge with Lin Jiao.But from her seeking help from Wen Ling last year, it can be seen that even though Lin Jiao has influenced her for many years, she is still willing to trust the law and society.

until cornered.

"Wait, you admit that Qiao Xuehua and Li Sijia committed suicide after being insane after being threatened many times by you, guessing that Lu Chao was killed by Lin Jiao." Fang Yuanhang said, "What about Huang Yan?"

Chi Xiaomin wiped away tears, her eyes were very blank, "Huang Yan?"

Fang Yuanhang asked: "She is also on the list, you didn't do anything to her?"

Chi Xiaomin shook his head.

Fang Yuanhang said: "You said that you came to Lanshui Township in July this year and never returned to Dongye City. Is it possible that Lin Jiao killed Huang Yan? And you don't know?"

Half a minute later, Chi Xiaomin said worriedly: "Impossible. My elder brother said when he sent me here that the situation has changed now, and we don't want to think about revenge for the time being. He, he won't lie to me."

Mingshu stood up, took a few steps in the room, turned around and looked at Chi Xiaomin again, his eyes were slightly different from before.

"Why did Lin Jiao kill Lu Chao himself?"

Obviously, Lin Jiao's plan is to use Chi Xiaomin as a tool, using the illusion of ghosts and gods and the fear in people's hearts to create a terrifying atmosphere that is difficult to escape. If things go on like this, people's spirits will collapse, and people will collapse in a way that is difficult for outsiders to understand. way to end his own life.

They did commit suicide, but they were led by others.

Lin Jiao is a psychologist, and this is the way he is best at "killing people".

In this way, he can punish villains who buy "joker cards" without getting his hands dirty.

Then he has no reason to do anything to Lu Chao, let alone Huang Yan's way of dying.

"It's my fault." Chi Xiaomin sobbed, "I didn't do a good job, Lu Chao seems to have discovered me."

Mingshu nodded, it made sense.

Lin Jiao didn't intend to kill Lu Chao at first, but Chi Xiaomin was exposed. If Lu Chao was alive, their plan would be exposed, so he had to hurry up, get rid of Lu Chao, and use Lu Chao's long-term travel to make Lu Chao disappear. illusion.

But the possibility of Huang Yan being killed by Lin Jiao is not high.

Chi Xiaomin suddenly raised his hands and stretched them together, "Take me away."

It was a pose waiting to be handcuffed, and she knew she had committed a crime.

Fang Yuanhang looked at Mingshu.

Mingshu said softly, "Put it on for her."

"Wait a minute." Chi Xiaomin said suddenly, "Can I go upstairs to get something?"

Mingshu didn't ask what it was, "Go."

Ten minutes later, Chi Xiaomin came down with a box in his arms.

Inside the box are "monster cards".

Fang Yuanhang said, "These are..."

Chi Xiaomin said: "I stole it from the homes of Qiao Xuehua, Li Sijia, and Lu Chao. I... I am very good at doing this kind of thing."

The police had searched the homes of the three people, and the "ghost cards" were not complete.

Mingshu said: "So it was taken away by you."

"I want to post them on the forum to warn those who want to buy 'job cards' - this is the end of doing evil." Chi Xiaomin said: "But I dare not, you will find me."

Fang Yuanhang had mixed feelings in his heart.

Mingshu asked Fang Yuanhang to take Chi Xiaomin into the car first, and stayed in the room for a while.

Chi Xiaomin's confession just now has no loopholes, and his attitude is sincere enough, but he still has to care about some details.

It's like the gears are turning perfectly, but a small grain of sand is suddenly mixed inside, which doesn't affect the gears' rotation, and it can't be seen from the outside.

But with sand, it must not be as smooth as before.

Mingshu called Xiao Yuan.

"Brother, I suddenly have a guess. Chi Xiaomin may not be the baby girl Lin Zhongguo saved back then."