House Dad's Literary Life

Chapter 426: “WTF” After “WTF”

However, just as they began reading Chapter Two together, the mystery deepened again. A woman who appeared to be the victim’s mistress emerged. Her name was Xi Wendai, and she had a very cute and beautiful daughter named Xi Xuehui. Xi Xuehui was the daughter Xi Wendai had had with her ex-husband, and she had taken her mother’s surname.

Xi Xuehui was so sensible that it was heartbreaking, but her mother was not exactly reliable. The clues Officer Cao had uncovered gave Xi Wendai a motive for the murder, but Xi Wendai had an alibi…

However, at this point, another person appeared in the investigation—a driver who turned out to be Xi Wendai’s boyfriend. Could it be that he and Xi Wendai had joined forces to kill the victim?

“That had to be it!” After finishing Chapter Two, Mu Yucheng felt that he was already very close to the truth. However, at that moment, he did not want to discuss it with the other readers right away. After hesitating for a moment, he still turned to Chapter Three.

“I’ll just take one look. Once I know who the murderer is, I’ll stop reading!” Mu Yucheng decided to secretly break the promise they had made to one another. What he did not know was that the exact same thing was happening to the other readers.

However, that one look made Mu Yucheng want to vomit blood.

“WTF!”

Mu Yucheng couldn’t hold it in anymore and posted an exclamation on his SNS.

Someone replied quietly, “Old Mu, did you secretly read Chapter Three?”

“How did you know?” Mu Yucheng blushed.

“Because I read it too.” The person replied with a laughing-crying emoji.

And it turned out he wasn’t the only one. A whole bunch of guilty readers soon chimed in as well.

“I read it too…”

“+1”

“I wanted to say ‘WTF’ too!”

Counting them up, every single one of them had broken their promise.

Mu Yucheng laughed and quickly typed, “Since everyone has read a little of Chapter Three, how about we discuss it? Now that the driver is dead, could Xi Wendai have done it? Maybe she wanted to silence him!”

However, no one agreed with him.

The netizen who had asked him earlier replied, “Old Mu, you only read a little of Chapter Three?”

“Yeah!” Mu Yucheng replied matter-of-factly.

“Old Mu, you’re reading way too slowly. Hurry up and finish Chapter Three. I’ve already finished it, and I don’t think what you said is possible at all!” The other person had carefully chosen every word before typing the sentence out, trying not to spoil anything.

“……” Mu Yucheng replied with six dots. He quickly turned off his computer screen and seriously continued reading.

Mu Yucheng was really reading the book very slowly—much more slowly than he read online novels or other physical books. No wonder his friends had been teasing him about it.

Of course, it was all Great Yang Yi’s fault. Who told him to write something so mind-bending? Mu Yucheng already found the first read so difficult that he had to concentrate intensely. He might even have to read it a second or third time later. He felt that there were still many details he had failed to grasp.

However, after finishing Chapter 3, Mu Yucheng really had to say “WTF!” again!

Xi Wendai had died too!

She had died from gas poisoning, and every piece of evidence pointed to suicide!

But Mu Yucheng was a little confused. He couldn’t help but turn on his computer screen again, log onto SNS, and discuss the matter with the others.

“Xi Wendai didn’t commit suicide, did she? Why do I feel like it was Xi Xuehui who killed her?” Mu Yucheng asked.

“I think that’s possible too. Great Yang Yi had made it far too obvious here. Xi Xuehui asking the apartment manager to open the door—the intention to establish an alibi was just too obvious!” one of the netizens said with a sigh.

“But I find that really hard to accept! Xi Xuehui is such a sensible, adorable little girl. How could she have killed the mother she depended on for everything?” Mu Yucheng hammered his fists on the table and furiously typed out the words before posting them.

“Maybe she discovered her mother’s criminal acts?” the netizen replied with an answer that even he himself found hard to believe.

“That makes no sense!” Mu Yucheng naturally refused to accept it.

At this point, the other also joined the discussion. Everyone had their own opinions, but no one could convince anyone else.

At this moment, the “veteran mystery novel reader” from earlier popped up again and cut in, “Whether it was because Xi Xuehui was dissatisfied with her mother’s decadent lifestyle, or because she harbored resentment from being abused by her mother, the fact that Xi Xuehui killed her mother is an undeniable fact!”

His confident tone immediately drew doubts from many of the other readers, who demanded that he provide evidence.

“Turn to page 49, the third paragraph. See it? ‘Every time she moved, there was a jingling sound coming from her.’ Then, in the second paragraph on the next page: ‘She gently nodded, and once again, a jingling sound came from her.’ Do you know what that was?” The “veteran mystery novel reader” offered his evidence, then smugly kept them in suspense.

“What was it?” Mu Yucheng was very curious.

“They must have been keys. It was probably the sound of them clinking together. She was carrying keys!” the reader said.

“How could that be? Keys clinking together don’t sound like that.” Many of them expressed their doubts.

However, none of that mattered much anymore. After flipping through the last few pages of Chapter Three, Mu Yucheng was convinced that Xi Xuehui was the suspect. After all, the way the story was written made it just too obvious!

“The person who died shouldn’t be the murderer. The murderer must still be alive. Could the murderer be Xi Xuehui?” the “veteran mystery novel reader” asked.

“How could that be? How could a little girl who was only about elementary-school age possibly kill a strong, grown adult? Wouldn’t Tong Shiliang’s father have fought back?” many of the readers strongly argued against the idea.

“And I also don’t think Xi Xuehui could have killed her own mother.”

“The only possibility is that her mother and the driver conspired to kill the victim, then her mother killed the driver and then committed suicide out of guilt, not wanting to cause trouble for her daughter!”

Was that really what had happened?

Mu Yucheng couldn’t help but want to read the next chapter. He really wanted to know who the murderer was!

However, upon turning to the next chapter, Mu Yucheng let out another exclamation of “WTF!”

In the next chapter, the story jumped to several years later, and Xi Xuehui was already a middle school student! No, she should have been called Tang Xuehui now. She had been adopted by her biological father’s relatives and had taken their surname.

And the previous case had become an unsolved mystery…

Did it have to be this frustrating?

Mu Yucheng sighed. He was reminded of Yang Yi’s “Prison Break”. Although the style was completely different and Yang Yi had made significant changes, there was still a trace of Yang Yi’s signature style in the details—every time the truth was about to be revealed, he just wouldn’t let the readers have a moment of satisfaction!

Gradually, the discussion group fell silent, as everyone became engrossed in Yang Yi’s story.

Mu Yucheng no longer had time to discuss the plot either. He kept reading chapter after chapter, and it wasn’t until his stomach was growling with hunger that night that he remembered to order takeout.

But when the takeout arrived, he hastily ate a few bites and continued reading. He was so engrossed in the book that he forgot about both food and sleep, reading until very late at night before finally reaching the last page.

When he reached the part where Tong Shiliang leaped from the building without hesitation, when he read about Tong Shiliang plunging the pair of scissors—the murder weapon Officer Cao had been unable to find—into his own chest, and when he reached the part where Tang Xuehui, under Officer Cao’s relentless questioning, remained as cold and indifferent as ever, walking away as though she didn’t know Tong Shiliang at all…

Suddenly, tears welled up in Mu Yucheng’s eyes. His already bloodshot eyes were blurred by tears, and he could no longer make out the words on the page.

In fact, halfway through the book, Mu Yucheng had already figured out who the killer was. It was only in the final few chapters that he finally understood how ugly the truth behind everything was, ultimately changing the futures of two children who should have grown up innocent and carefree…

He also thought of the silhouettes of the boy and girl on the front and back covers of the book, as well as those words: “…I have never had the sun, so I am not afraid of losing it.”

It turned out that Great Yang Yi had already given them the answer long ago; they had simply forgotten it.

When his tears finally stopped flowing, Mu Yucheng found that he was still shaken.

Actually, he did not like the two protagonists at all, because Tong Shiliang and Tang Xuehui were too dark, and the way they acted was both hateful and frightening. But Mu Yucheng couldn’t help but admit that, throughout the story, even though they were the murderers, they were also victims.

At the same time, Mu Yucheng was also moved by the twisted love between Tong Shiliang and Tang Xuehui. No matter what, the sacrifices they made for each other had been wholehearted and profound…

On the final page of the book, in the author’s afterword, Yang Yi finally left a personal message of his own: “Given the complexity of people’s hearts in today’s society, and the lack of self-protection awareness and education about preventing abuse among children, I hope this book can serve as a wake-up call to protect children from abuse, so that every child can have a carefree, sunny childhood. —An Ordinary Father.”

“Great Yang Yi has written a masterpiece! It’s even better than ‘Prison Break’, better than everything else he had written before! Could a human being really come up with this kind of logic?” Mu Yucheng finally remembered that this book had been written by Yang Yi, and the shock in his heart took a long time to settle.

Looking back at the novels Yang Yi had published from last year until now, Mu Yucheng realized that Yang Yi’s skill had been steadily improving. Each book had been better written than the last!

“I’m really looking forward to his next book!” Mu Yucheng was a little reluctant to close the book.

Although he was already exhausted, and reading the book had been mentally exhausting as well, Mu Yucheng was still lost in thought. “I wonder when Great Yang Yi is going to hold a book signing. That guy is way too mysterious! It would be great if he could come to Yangcheng for one. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he looks like…”