Crimson Instinct

Time: 5:40 PM. Six hours and fifty minutes remaining.

The situation came to a standstill.

Zhang Chao realized it was fruitless to keep any pretense in front of her. But, he wasn't in any situation to provoke her either.

"Xiulan, please understand...Ning was fragile at that age. She would have gone worse if we had forced treatment on her. Didn't she already hate Qiuyue for that?"

Zhang Xiulan took out her gun, which almost made him jump in a scare. "So, you handed your sane daughter over to them? For one daughter, you sacrificed another."

He felt his breath stuck in his throat.

"Of course, it's not like that! Y-you are my daughter too? How can I differentiate? Xiulan...Dad loves you too..."

She chuckled. "It surely didn't feel like that to me in my 'growing up' years. But, let's not talk about me anymore."

He silently let out a sigh of relief.

She smiled. "Let's talk about Mom."

He froze. 

Zhang Xiulan's gaze turned cold and sharp. "'It's unfortunate.' Those were your words when I came to you crying that day about Mom. Just that."

Zhang Chao internally frowned.

Did I say that?

Honestly, any matter related to Zhang Qiuyue was so insignificant to him that he used to forget it just after almost half a day had passed.

Marriage to her was pure business. He didn't bother with her most of the time.

"Your wife was dead and murdered, but that was the only reaction I got from you. It's unfortunate."

Zhang Xiulan pointed the gun at his temple, and he jumped back, terrified.

She giggled. "Now, it's my turn to say that about you."

As he understood her context, her irises slowly widened.

"X-Xiulan...you must have remembered it wrong! Yes, yes! Qiuyue was my wife. I can never be so harsh to her! You are misunderstanding!" 

Beads of sweat were trickling down his forehead.

"Zhang Chao."

She dropped all her act and stared straight at him with her razor-sharp gaze that could slice anybody in half.

He felt the chills creeping upon his skin. She called him by his name with a voice that could instill pure fear in anybody.

"I can never misunderstand when it's related to Mom. Never ever. I remember every single thing just as it happened."

"Xiulan, Qiuyue-"

"Don't take her name from your filthy mouth!"

This was the first time that she burst out like that.

Startled, he stopped talking.

"She is only my Mom. Neither she is that bitch's Mom, nor she is your wife. Not like you treated her as that either."

Her body was slightly quivering as all the memories came flooding in. All those happy memories with her came to an end that night; she laid dead on the bed with her throat slit.

Her eyelashes trembled as she felt her eyes sting with tears, but no. She wouldn't cry in front of this monster.

She had promised to herself that she would never break down in front of him. She would stay strong for herself and her mother.

"I can forgive you for not loving her," she slowly spoke, "because I know that your marriage was business for you to boost your political career."

Then she suddenly leaned and grabbed his throat. 

Zhang Chao widened his eyes and looked at her in horror. Her fingers tightened their grasp on his neck ever so slowly, and with each passing moment, the feeling of suffocation increased. He felt the lack of oxygen.

"But I can never forgive you for not even giving her the respect she deserved. You don't love her? Okay. But, you should have had the basic decency to at least treat her better. As a human and not just a tool you discarded as soon as it's use got over."

Then she just as suddenly released his neck.

Zhang Chao coughed hard. He inhaled a mouthful of breath a couple of times.

"Xiulan! I am your father! How dare you treat me like that!"

He glared at her and his teeth ground against each other.

She blinked her eyes and laughed. "Father? What is that? Never heard of it before. And this is nothing. You are going to see something much worse."

Suddenly, he heard a knock on his window side.

Zhang Chao thought it was some help for him, but to his utter shock, it wasn't anything like that.

"Open the window, Zhang Chao."

"B-B-Bai Li…"

His face paled to a whole another degree. Bai Li was smiling at him without a care in this world, which made him feel even more cornered.

"Bai Li! Save me! She is Zhang Xiulan! She is the one you were searching for! She is trying to kill me now! Save me, Bai Li! She killed everybody, and now she wants to kill me too! She is crazy and dangerous. Please help me get out of here!"

Zhang Xiulan raised her brow in amusement.

Bai Li smiled. "Sure, I will save you. But, open the window first. No, it's better to open the door and have some talk."

"Sure~~" she smiled.

Bai Li got in. But Zhang Chao wasn't thrilled because he understood that they were in this together. 

Otherwise, why would she listen to him so easily?

"How was your day? Busy? After all, you are a politician and have to govern so many things for citizens' wellbeing. One of which is killing off people and freeing them from all their worldly worries, isn't it?"

Zhang Xiulan chuckled.

"Then there is a huge task upon you to hide your daughter's noble work, too, because after all, she is also helping the poor souls let go of their sad and depressed lives to live happily ever after in their afterlife. Like father, like daughter."

Zhang Chao's heart jumped in his chest.

He knows...He knows about Ning. It's not just Xin Lei!

He couldn't say or retort anything.

"But I think it's time for you to give up on your sad life too. Your lovely wife is dead, and one daughter turned crazy. Is this even a family? It must be so hard living for you, right? Don't worry. We are here just for that."

Zhang Chao panicked. "Bai Li! What the hell are you saying! How can you think of killing me!? Do you know who I am!?"

Bai Li tilted his head. "Piece of shit? No...even shit is better than you. My bad."

"Bai Li! Y-you…you killed all my guards, right? You murdered them! Now you are threatening me! This is a felony!"

Bai Li held his wrist and squeezed it hard until his bone broke. It didn't even take a second for him to crush it.

"AHHHHH!!!" His eyes popped out of his sockets.

Zhang Xiulan was thoroughly enjoying the show. This much pain was nothing compared to what she and Zhang Qiuyue suffered.

Bai Li said, "NOW, you feel that this is murder? Where did this feeling disappear when you let your daughter torture and kill hundreds of people?"

Then he narrowed his eyes.

"And where was this fear when you crushed Zhang Qiuyue with a car?"

"She was already dead!" 

Zhang Xiulan's aura turned even deadlier, and she punched a fist straight at his face. The blow was so heavy and lethal that his head rolled back in that sheer pressure.

"Aahhh!"

The most affected part was the bone in his nose that broke with a crisp sound. Blood started streaming out of his nostrils, and the pain almost made him black out.

"How could hit me Xiulan! Is this what Qiuyue taught you!?" He flared.

"Better than what you taught Ning. And Mom didn't teach me this. I learned this myself after realizing that she should have broken every bone in your body a long time back. Unfortunately, she didn't."

Zhang Chao panted and said, "That's why I never liked you! You are just like that bitch Qiuyue! Always interfering in what you shouldn't. She was always against my work methods. She was against Ning. She was so fucking irritating! Her job was just to give me benefits as my wife and then keep her fucking mouth shut. But she babbled on and on about how this is wrong, how this and that shouldn't be done and all nonsense! Hah! She was teaching me politics! The nerve of her!"

Zhang Xiulan clenched her fist.

He madly laughed. "I was so happy to know that Ning killed her! That's my girl! I didn't have to dirty my hands, yet I was freed! Haha! That's how a daughter should be. You should have been like Ning, and I would have loved you so much. Don't blame me for neglecting you."

"After Qiuyue was gone, you began to irritate me with her death and standing up for some fucking justice. I had no choice but to leave you with those doctors. Or what? Let you ruin everything for me if the truth had gotten out? I am not insane!"

Bai Li grabbed his head and banged his head on the window so hard that it broke into pieces. The shards pierced his skin, and blood trickled out.

"You are not insane. You are beyond that. Do you know why we brought you here?"

No answer.

"Zhang Qiuyue was dead, yet you were merciless to kill her again by crashing her with a truck."

Silence.

Zhang Xiulan coldly smiled. "Now, it's your turn to know how it feels to be crushed by a truck."