Chapter 11 Burial

Outside, Zhou Ze smoked a cigarette while Tang Shi stood beside him, chewing on a milk candy.

Inside, the corpse on the wall slumped down, its face frozen in a terrifying and shocking expression, as if a murder and body-hiding case had just occurred.

All dead.

Not one left.

Xu Le was dead.

The person who killed Xu Le was dead.

The hit-and-run driver was dead.

His cousin was dead.

Every point on the line was dead.

Even Zhou Ze was, in fact, dead.

As Tang Shi said, sometimes it wasn't that you deliberately avoided trouble, but that trouble really wouldn't come looking for you again.

A pocket had been open for a long time, and whether you wanted to or not, whether you liked it or not, you were already in this pocket.

"Everyone's dead, so the clues are probably cut off, right?"

Tang Shi looked at Zhou Ze with a smile. She seemed to enjoy seeing Zhou Ze in this emotional state.

In a wolf pack, all the wolves were bitter and resentful, their faces gloomy all day long, but then a husky appeared, only wanting to lie there and be cute.

It was really annoying.

Why should we all be heavy-hearted,

While you're the only one innocent and carefree?

The problem isn't scarcity, but inequality, and that's not just reflected in the distribution of money.

"It certainly seems that way for now."

Zhou Ze reached out and rubbed his brow.

"And I have to worry about something else, whether the police will eventually investigate me."

The mastermind, the one who paid the money, was Xu Le.

The driver was dead, and the middleman, his cousin, was also dead.

The reason Zhou Ze had been holding back from seeking revenge was this: he didn't want to expose himself, because that would ruin his current life.

Modern society is so different from ancient times. Even though ancient times also had a household registration system, it wasn't difficult for someone without an identity to really hide and live in seclusion.

But in modern society, a person's identity information label is very important. Of course, Zhou Ze could hide if he wanted to, but the price he'd pay would be a rapid decline in his quality of life, constantly dodging and hiding.

Right now, Zhou Ze didn't kill the people, but he would naturally have to bear the possible fallout from their deaths.

He didn't get to enjoy the satisfaction of revenge,

And he still has to take the blame.

How annoying!

Taking out his phone, Zhou Ze dialed the number for the police station.

"Hello, I want to report a crime."

Tang Shi didn't accompany Zhou Ze to the police station, but instead went back to the bookstore first. Accompanying Zhou Ze to inspect the murder scene in the rain, wearing a raincoat and stepping through the muddy road, was already the most she could do. She couldn't possibly go with Zhou Ze to face the complex records and questioning in the police station.

As for Zhou Ze, he had no choice. He had to do this. After all, he had just called the police station to inquire about the deceased's residence. If he didn't report it now, his suspicion would only increase when the body was discovered later.

As for secretly disposing of the body, Zhou Ze didn't want to do that. Before he had figured out who was manipulating everything behind the scenes, Zhou Ze didn't want to be clever and help others clean up.

He might accidentally dig a hole and bury himself.

…………

The investigation and questioning continued until after eight o'clock in the evening. Several waves of police officers rotated, and it was clear that they were treating Zhou Ze as the murderer.

Don't assume that murderers won't actively report crimes.

In fact,

According to police statistics, more than 80% of murderers in murder cases disguise themselves as "onlookers" and return to the scene of the crime to take a look.

Most murderers want to disguise themselves and check the information, while a few have a perverted mindset of wanting to admire their artwork after they've killed someone.

If the deceased isn't discovered for a long time, it's undoubtedly a waste of talent for the murderer, like the Mona Lisa's smile being covered with a black cloth, itching their hearts, so they simply call the police to have the veil lifted.

In the end, an old detective with half-white hair sat in front of Zhou Ze, closed his notebook, and said to Zhou Ze:

"Mr. Xu, you can leave, but please don't leave Tongcheng for the time being this month. We may still need to ask you about some things."

"Okay."

Zhou Ze got up, left the interrogation room, and walked to the entrance of the police station.

Looking back, he looked at the police officers going in and out behind him and the row of police cars parked inside, and inexplicably felt a sense of pressure.

Perhaps, before long, the truth about the manufactured car accident would also surface, and what he would face then might be a real storm.

The victim was actually himself, but the real culprit,

Was also himself.

Zhou Ze prepared to return to the bookstore. He was a little tired and wanted to rest first, but his phone rang at this moment. It was his sister-in-law's call.

"Hello, Xu Le, that uncle of yours is here again. He's sitting in the stairwell. I asked him to come in and sit down, but he doesn't want to. He just says he's waiting for you to come back."

Uncle?

"Just tell him I won't be back, and don't tell him the address of my new store." Zhou Ze didn't want to bother with irrelevant people at this time.

"Bang!"

The sound of knocking on the door came from the other end of the phone.

Zhou Ze frowned slightly and asked, "What's wrong?"

"Uh, your uncle is banging on the door. He said that if you don't come back today, he's going to send you to jail."

Hearing this,

Zhou Ze raised his head, gritted his teeth, and said, "Tell him I'll be right back."

…………

No one wants to live like a punching bag, no one wants their life to be restricted, everyone wants to be free, but that's life.

When you're a few months old, you can pee everywhere, you can wet the bed at will, and your elders and relatives will greet you with smiles.

But when you're over ten or twenty years old, you can't just pee whenever you want.

It's hard to imagine the scene of a forty-five-year-old elder with a young man in his twenties:

You peed again, you naughty thing.

That scene is too much to bear.

Therefore, when Zhou Ze appeared in front of Xu Dachuan,

Xu Dachuan looked gloomy,

And Zhou Ze also looked depressed.

Everyone was unhappy,

Everyone was not happy,

But everyone still had to meet.

Xu Dachuan didn't harm the people in the house. When Zhou Ze arrived, he was squatting there smoking a pipe. When he saw Zhou Ze coming, he stood up and patted his trouser legs.

"Come out for a walk with me."

This time, Xu Dachuan didn't bring any local specialties. He came empty-handed.

Zhou Ze and Xu Dachuan walked out together. He didn't even say hello to his sister-in-law and Doctor Lin in the doorway.

The two walked outside the residential complex.

It was completely dark.

There weren't many people under the streetlights.

Xu Dachuan walked for a while, then squatted down again, "chomping and chomping" as he smoked his pipe.

Zhou Ze stood next to him.

"Little Chuanzi has already been cremated," Xu Dachuan said.

Little Chuanzi should be his cousin's nickname.

"Yeah," Zhou Ze replied. "I wasn't in Tongcheng at the time."

"It's okay."

Xu Dachuan tapped his pipe and raised his head. His face was full of vicissitudes and ravines. He was an honest old man who worked hard to support his family. Xu Le, this college student, was actually supported by him.

"Ah Le, you didn't come to Little Chuanzi's funeral. It was really a bit unkind."

Xu Dachuan's eyes were moist. He squatted there, wiping the tears from the corners of his eyes with the back of his dry, chapped hand.

"I told you, I wasn't in Tongcheng at the time."

Xu Dachuan suddenly stood up, grabbed Zhou Ze's collar with one hand, and pushed Zhou Ze against a telephone pole.

"Ah Le, tell Uncle the truth. Did you get rid of Little Chuanzi!"

Zhou Ze's eyes narrowed slightly. There was a lot of information in what Xu Dachuan had just asked.

Before, Zhou Ze had some good feelings towards Xu Dachuan;

Right and wrong, good and bad, had nothing to do with him, and Xu Dachuan was the first stranger who had really cared about him since his rebirth.

He could endure the Lin family's contempt and bring local specialties to see him,

Even on the hospital bed, he would still smile at Doctor Lin, his niece-in-law, with satisfaction,

And he said that if he couldn't continue as an adopted son-in-law, he could go back and farm with him.

In Zhou Ze's view, he should have been simple, kind, and a pure land.

But now, it seemed that this pure land was not as pure as he had imagined.

"It wasn't me."

Zhou Ze reached out and grabbed Xu Dachuan's wrist.

"Don't think I don't know about Little Chuanzi's business with you. I also know that Little Chuanzi has been coming to you often these days to ask for money. He's ignorant, he's useless, he has a thousand faults and ten thousand mistakes.

But he's still your brother after all!"

Xu Dachuan's eyes began to turn bloodshot, and he seemed to be going crazy.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Zhou Ze suddenly hated the man in front of him,

This honest man.

"Don't know what I'm talking about?"

Xu Dachuan put his face close to Zhou Ze's and said, word by word:

"That driver, is he dead? He's from the village next to mine. Who do you think Little Chuanzi knows, who do you think knows how to keep his mouth shut?

He's just a kid, what qualifications does he have to talk to others?

That driver, I was the one who found him, the one who talked to him.

Uncle wants you to live a good life, your wife has fallen for someone else, you're living a frustrating life, so Uncle helped you kill that mistress!

Uncle wants all the children in our family to live comfortably, not to be bullied, not to be looked down upon.

But,

Ah Le,

You can't kill Little Chuanzi to silence him,

Your father died early, and Uncle supported you in your studies. Uncle has always treated you as his own child!

Tell Uncle the truth from the bottom of your heart,

Little Chuanzi, did you deliberately have someone hit him like you did last time?

Did you want to silence him?"

Zhou Ze took a deep breath.

Xu Dachuan asked the wrong person.

In fact,

Every question he asked was like adding fuel to the fire.

He should know that the person in front of him,

Was not his nephew Xu Le,

But the real victim in that incident!

"Bang!"

Zhou Ze kicked out, knocking Xu Dachuan to the ground.

At this moment, Zhou Ze felt an urge to self-destruct;

He regretted it, deeply regretted it. If he had known it would be like this, he should have taken the initiative to surrender to the police when he was first reborn.

Xu Le's cousin,

Xu Dachuan,

That driver,

Let them all accept punishment from the law together, even if he was implicated in Xu Le's identity, it didn't matter.

Taking this second life he earned to avenge his first life seemed like a joyful revenge.

At least,

It was much better than the current dilemma.

But now,

His cousin and the driver were both dead, and the person who killed Xu Le was also dead. They died cleanly, making Zhou Ze's revenge impossible.

You have strength, you have power, but punching cotton is always frustrating.

Xu Dachuan, who had been kicked to the ground, immediately got up and shouted at Zhou Ze:

"Ah Le, you're the one who turned your back on us,

I'm going to report you to the Public Security Bureau,

You're a murderer,

A murderer!

I want you to be buried with Little Chuanzi, buried with him!!!"

Zhou Ze looked at Xu Dachuan,

Looking at this old man who still looked weathered and honest,

His left hand behind his back,

Slowly grew black fingernails.

Zhou Ze curled the corners of his mouth,

As if savoring the word:

"Burial?"