Chapter 103 - Murder (2/2)

”Were you close with my mother?” she asked.

Lin Anni paused her meal, glancing up at her. ”Of course,” she said with a smile.

Qian Meigui felt some relief.

Most days she was bored, so Qian Meigui had learned to study each room and hall, and what each door led in every room. She walked into an old, neat room that appeared to be unused for years.

She entered quietly, trying to prevent the door from squeaking as the hinges have not oiled in years. She then slipped into the darkroom. She found a candle nearby; she pulled matches out from her pocket. After days of studying each room, this was one of last she had not scoped out yet. She figured that she wouldn't find anything in this room, but she wanted to give it a shot.

The room lit dimly, but it was enough to seek things she needed to see in the room. There were boxes old, worn out, water-stained boxes that appeared to be sitting for years.

It was easy to open them since they were falling apart, but she tried to keep it as preserved as possible; not making it evident that someone searched through them.

There were textbooks of biomedical practices and manuscripts written by Lin Aiguo that has never got the chance of being published. Furthermore, there were old pictures of her in her younger years.

She kept searching, but most of the boxes were full of assignments, school transcripts, first aid tools, and a stethoscope.

It was hopeless.

But at the corner of the near-empty room, there was a bookshelf with a slightly parted cupboard on the bottom. Qian Meigui approached the book-less shelves and bent down to reach down to open. She opened the box, but it full of books; she chuckled as she should have known. But she sat down on the dusty-cold floor.

She began to see what particular books her mother like to read. She smiled to herself as she read the titles. Her mother was also into fiction and fantasy like her, but she was particularly more interest in the genre of true crime, Qian Meigui learned.

As she kept taking out the books, she found a bookmark that stood out at one of them. It was a true crime novel about cold-cases, murder mysteries.

Qian Meigui was not surprised; it is most common. But she opened the book to find a photograph of her parents smiling, standing next to Lin Anni and a few other people she did not know. But it puzzled her; Lin Anni told her that her mother ran away with Qian Shanyuan. But why are all of them in this photo together?

She rose with the photograph towards the candle to view the photo with better lighting. As she looked through, she noticed one of the faces one of the acquaintances in the picture. Qian Meigui stumbled, trembling. Her hands shook uncontrollably; she began to pant nervously. She couldn't believe it. Who the f.u.c.k was this man in the photo?

But she recognized the face. It was a face she had seen in her nightmares for years.

It was the man who killed them. At least one of them.