Chapter 525 - 539: Story
An Ning didn’t answer, but Tao Quan didn’t need a reply. He began to speak. Beside them, Shen Weidong turned on the recording equipment and began taking written notes.
"Like I said, my father was a closeted gay man who got married to hide it, and my mother was a woman abandoned by her ’one true love’."
"At first, they would argue, but they were still very good to me back then."
"You probably know what happened next. My father’s sexual orientation was exposed. My mother became volatile and unbearable, her pent-up resentment making her physically ill. Both of them needed an emotional outlet."
"No one told me why something like that would happen, but I remember my mother smiling. It was the first time I had seen her smile in years."
Tao Quan paused, his gaze calm as he looked at An Ning. "You must be wondering why I didn’t fight back, right?"
An Ning nodded.
Tao Quan answered, "Who said I didn’t? I just failed, that’s all."
"The first time I fought back, I tried to run away. I told my story to the people who were closest to me, the ones who were supposed to protect me. But no one believed me. They all said I was crazy."
"Because I had the ’perfect’ parents. They loved me, took me out to play, waited up for me every night, and granted my every wish. They never raised their voices and were always gentle with others. Such perfect parents... who just happened to have a lying child."
"My first escape attempt failed because no one believed my story. For a moment, I didn’t even believe it myself."
"But I refused to give up. I deliberately saved evidence for the housemaids to find. That was my first taste of true human evil."
"By then, however, I couldn’t feel pain anymore. After all, what they did paled in comparison to what my parents were doing."
Tao Quan’s account continued, revealing the identities of the other four housemaids and describing how they had ignored his pleas for help and joined his parents’ side.
"Later, they made me drink ’special’ soups for years. My strength slowly drained away until I completely lost the ability to fight back."
"It was in that moment I finally realized something: I was never going to escape."
"It made sense. My soul was already rotten. What was the point of my body escaping?"
"Since I couldn’t escape, I decided I would just take them all down with me."
Tao Quan turned his gaze to An Ning, his expression earnest and seemingly sincere. "I apologize. I used you."
"Abusing cats and dogs was an emotional outlet for me. That first time we met, I memorized your scent."
"When we met again at Beijing University, I didn’t have a new plan yet. Or rather, my only plan was to take everyone down with me. University was the first time I could genuinely escape their control, even if just for a few days."
"But after you helped Jiang Xia, the speed at which the Xiao Family collapsed told me you weren’t an ordinary person."
"Someone with your unique status... I knew that if you were connected to a case like this, even in a small way, your personality wouldn’t let you just stand by and do nothing."
Without hiding a thing, Tao Quan explained truthfully how he had used drugs, money, and other methods to hunt down and kill the five housemaids who had colluded with his parents.
"I don’t regret killing them one bit. Really."
"Then what about Lin Wanwan?"
An Ning’s sudden question made Tao Quan freeze for a moment.
"If I told you I didn’t actually kill Lin Wanwan, would you believe me?"
An Ning shook her head honestly. "I don’t know. I can’t find anything trustworthy about you."
Her honest, direct words made Tao Quan visibly brighten.
"You know, An Ning, what I envy most about you is your bluntness. Your thoughts and your actions are one and the same."
An Ning ignored his comment. "Perhaps you didn’t kill Lin Wanwan with your own hands, but her death has a great deal to do with you. At the very least, you psychologically manipulated her, didn’t you?"
Tao Quan admitted it.
"You’re probably right about that. I wanted to use Lin Wanwan to get your attention, but she got too invested. Plus, she was so two-faced. You should know, I hate people like that more than anything."
"I just told her I didn’t like her anymore. She’s the one who went and hanged herself."
Tao Quan showed not a hint of remorse, shattering whatever complicated feelings An Ning had started to develop.
Tao Quan’s story was finished. Shen Weidong had gotten the answers he needed.
"An Ning, are you going to make this public?"
"Yes."
An Ning’s firm, one-word reply made Tao Quan happy, but her next sentence snatched that happiness away.
"I’m publicizing this story for one reason only: to warn people in the future. If something happens, go to the police. Don’t be a fucking idiot and try to handle it yourself!"
Shen Weidong covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. Tao Quan could only watch as An Ning walked away.
’A fucking idiot? So she was calling *me* an idiot?’
Shen Weidong wheeled Tao Quan away. His story was tragic, but Shen Weidong wasn’t particularly moved.
After leaving the police station, An Ning was surprised to see Jiang Xia waiting for her outside.
She ran over and took the water bottle he handed her.
The interrogation room had been damp, dark, and gloomy. She’d been putting on an act to maintain her cool for a while now.
"What are you doing here? What’s this?"
"Ooh—soda! Perfect! I was dying of thirst. It was so stuffy and hot in there."
Jiang Xia gazed dotingly at the top of An Ning’s head. Even the little swirl of hair there was adorable.
An Ning chugged half the bottle in one go before she heard Jiang Xia say, "Slow down. There’s more in the car."
"I heard you were at the station again, so I figured I’d come see the show."
"Get lost!"
She punched Jiang Xia’s shoulder, screwed the cap back on the bottle, and let out a long sigh. She had drunk the soda too fast. A loud burp echoed up from her chest.
"HAHAHA! No need for such a heartfelt thank you. You don’t have to sing my praises."
Jiang Xia took another punch from An Ning. Playfully bickering, they walked toward his car.
"Tao Quan must have experienced real love from his parents at some point, which made it hard for him to let go. That’s why he endured it silently for so many years. By the time he wanted to fight back, he realized no one was there to help him."
"While being abused, he started plotting. He happened to discover that I was powerful enough to help him expose his parents, so he tried to drag me into his scheme. And that brings us to now."
An Ning summed up Tao Quan’s life in a few sentences. Jiang Xia, in turn, said he would publish the story, purely as a warning to others.
"What a coincidence, that’s what I said, too. Considering Tao Quan’s family background, he had plenty of other options. I just think that deep down, he still craved his parents’ love. He didn’t know what to do, or maybe... he couldn’t bring himself to act against them."
Jiang Xia opened the car door for An Ning. "A child who still had some morals met parents who had none."
"Maybe."
An Ning glanced back at the police station. "I don’t know why, but I feel like this isn’t over. His revenge can’t just be about exposing them."