“Wu Qi, do you know why your mother did all of this?” Shu Qiu didn’t let the boy’s tears stop him from pressing further. “Everyone in the neighborhood said Madam Liu was always a quiet, decent woman—kind and gentle, the sort who wouldn’t even dare kill a chicken. So why would she suddenly murder so many children?”
Wu Qi wiped his tears and choked out, “Mother said she felt sorry for me… that without a father, she couldn’t give me a complete home. But those other children… they had both parents, and their families were happy. Mother said… she was jealous. She told me… ‘Why should other people get to live such perfect, happy lives? It’s not fair.’ But I didn’t care about fairness. Even though I didn’t have a father, having my mother was enough for me…”
“So because of jealousy,” Shu Qiu said quietly, “Madam Liu killed those children?”
The reason sounded absurd—and yet, in a twisted way, it made a kind of sense.
Liu had been a widow for years, raising her son alone through hardship. Surrounded by families full of laughter and warmth, what began as envy must have slowly rotted into resentment.
And jealousy—it’s a terrifying thing. It can strip a person of their reason, twist their mind until they’re no longer themselves, driving them to acts they never would have imagined. The saying ‘a single spark can start a wildfire’ fits jealousy perfectly.
Fengguang lowered her head. She suddenly remembered what Shu Feng had once told her—
that he already liked someone. At that time, she had only felt sad and disappointed… but hadn’t there been jealousy too?
Wu Qi went on, voice trembling. “After I found out what she’d done… Mother wasn’t the same anymore. She wandered around in a daze, always muttering to herself, always telling me she was sorry… I was so scared those days…”
“Later, Madam Liu was killed,” Shu Qiu said.
“No…” Wu Qi shook his head, his voice breaking. “Mother—she wasn’t killed by anyone. She… she killed herself… right in front of me…”
By the end, the boy had crouched on the ground, clutching his head in agony. Watching one’s own mother take her life—
That kind of memory never fades.
“This is all my fault… If I hadn’t discovered what she was doing… Mother wouldn’t have… wouldn’t have—”
“It’s not your fault.” Fengguang stepped forward and held out her small handkerchief. “Wu Qi, none of this is your fault.”
“Miss…” The boy looked up at her through tear-filled eyes. “If only I’d noticed sooner—if only I’d realized what she was feeling—she wouldn’t have died…”
“Your mother’s choices weren’t because of you,” Fengguang said softly, placing the handkerchief in his hand. A deep sigh escaped her heart.
The child disappearance and murder cases that had plagued Tong County for so long were finally solved—but no one could feel any relief.
The truth only brought pain.
For the five families, the revelation meant the end of hope. They had once believed their children were simply lost, or maybe taken by traffickers—that someday they’d be found alive.
But death meant all hope was gone.
No one could have imagined that Madam Liu—the woman everyone praised as kind and gentle—was the culprit behind such horror.
Nor that she had taken her own life.
When she was first found, the deep cut across her neck had been so brutal that no one thought of suicide, especially since there’d been no sign she intended to end her life. If not for the discovery of that hidden cellar full of bodies, the truth might have remained buried forever.
Loveguy On CFRFGC Chapter 1