Chapter 44: Little Jin

In the corner of the schoolyard, seven-year-old Jiang Huaiyu and Jiang Huairou crawled out from a dog hole. Jiang Huairou felt both excited and anxious; her second brother was taking her and Mingzhu to collect bird eggs while their teacher and older brother were distracted.

“Second brother, let’s go pick up Mingzhu from the kindergarten.”

“Okay, let’s go!” Jiang Huaiyu got up from the ground, brushed off the dirt from his clothes, and pulled his sister along as they ran toward the kindergarten. Song Mingzhu was in the big class at the kindergarten and would be starting school next year.

The two ran to the corner of the kindergarten and waited by the dog hole. After a while, Song Mingzhu, with her hair in two braids and a piece of grass on her head, crawled over.

“Second brother, sister!”

Song Mingzhu happily crawled over, and Jiang Huairou took her hand. The three friends had escaped from school.

When Jiang Huaijin returned from the teacher’s office, he noticed that the two children were missing and began searching frantically. The teacher was also worried about the situation and quickly notified the parents. Meanwhile, the kindergarten teacher discovered that one child was missing and was anxiously calling the parents.

Jiang Banyue and An Xiuxiu, the couple Song Shiyan, received the call simultaneously and immediately understood that the three children had sneaked out to play together.

Since the two families lived nearby, Jiang Banyue decided to forgo driving and took Song Shiyan’s car to the school, her face stern and angry.

“It must be that Jiang Huaiyu’s fault for sneaking out with his two younger sisters! That little rascal!”

An Xiuxiu advised, “Sister Jiang, don’t worry; they might just be playing near the school!”

Jiang Huaijin couldn’t find the two children at school and decided to look outside. He went to the corner, moved some dry grass, and calmly knelt to crawl out through the dog hole.

He first went to the nearby kindergarten, and sure enough, the kindergarten teacher was also anxiously searching for Song Mingzhu. He pressed his lips together and turned to leave, walking into a narrow alley when suddenly someone covered his mouth and nose, causing him to faint.

When he woke up again, he was resting on the shoulder of a man in black. The man looked nervous and was glancing around, heading toward a secluded place. Jiang Huaijin curled his lips into a strange smile; very good, he had encountered a human trafficker.

The trafficker carried him deeper into the wilderness, and Jiang Huaijin observed his surroundings, which were quiet and empty. He straightened up from the trafficker’s arms, gripping a blade he had found from somewhere, pressing it directly against the trafficker’s carotid artery.

The trafficker was startled, and Jiang Huaijin whispered ominously in his ear:

“Hold me tightly. If you drop me, my knife doesn’t have blind spots!”

“You… you…”

The trafficker stammered in fear, feeling the blade pressing slightly harder against his neck, as if it was about to draw blood. Seeing the blood flow out, Jiang Huaijin couldn’t contain his excitement; he felt like the blood within him was about to boil, and he gently bit his lip.

“Oh! It’s bleeding! What to do? If my blade goes in a little more, will you just die like this?”

The trafficker urinated in his pants from fear, and Jiang Huaijin looked at him with pity. “I’m sorry; something as disgusting as a human trafficker shouldn’t exist in this world!”

He tightened his grip on the handle of the knife and swiftly cut the trafficker’s throat, jumping down quickly. The trafficker fell to the ground, with an eyes wide open. Jiang Huaijin sheathed the knife, humming a strange nursery rhyme as he leisurely went to find those troublesome children.

“I have a doll. It doesn’t have eyes or a nose. Ah, ah, how strange, no eyes and no nose…”

Jiang Huaijin arrived ahead of the others and found them playing in the park, having caught a bird, and squatting on the ground. He walked over quietly with a faint smile on his lips, standing behind them.

“Got you!”

The three children were startled and sat down on the ground. Jiang Huaiyu and Jiang Huairou pleaded pitifully.

“Big brother, I was wrong!”

These siblings were not afraid of anything except for their big brother. Whenever he got angry, he was very different from usual, and it was truly terrifying. Jiang Banyue, unable to control them, would always let their big brother handle them.

The younger Song Mingzhu clung to Jiang Huaijin, acting cute.

“Brother, don’t be angry. Mingzhu knows she was wrong!”

“You’re filthy!” Jiang Huaijin said disdainfully, pulling Song Mingzhu away.

“Let’s go, we’re going back to school. Mom and Uncle Song and Aunt An are looking for you. You’re in trouble; when you get back, you’re going to get a spanking, hehe!”

Seeing their big brother’s strange expression, the three children huddled closely together. Their big brother was angry again, which was very scary.

A big brother like this was scarier than a ghost.

When they returned to school, the teachers and parents were in chaos. When they saw the children come back safely, they all sighed in relief.

Song Shiyan tightly hugged his dirty daughter, his heart racing from being scared by her earlier.

“Dad, Mom, I’m sorry! Baby was wrong!” Song Mingzhu said in a soft voice, apologizing.

“Baby, next time you want to go out to play, just tell Dad and Mom, and we will take you. You can’t go out to play by yourself, okay?”

“Got it!”

Jiang Banyue twisted Jiang Huaiyu’s ear lightly.

“You little brat, you’re causing trouble for your mom again!”

“Mom, calm down, calm down, Mom!”

“Calm down my foot! Ever since I had you, my temper has been rising, and I’m always angry. You’ve never given me a moment of peace!”

Jiang Huairou timidly pleaded for her brother.

“Mom, brother knows he was wrong; don’t twist his ear!”

Jiang Banyue pointed at her daughter and lightly scolded her:

“You were wrong too. When we get home, each of you must write a self-reflection and hand it in!”

After scolding her children, Jiang Banyue looked at the quiet Jiang Huaijin.

“Son, come here. We’re going home!”

“Okay!” Jiang Huaijin took his mother’s hand, and the four of them got into Song Shiyan’s car to return to the villa.

That night, after everyone had fallen asleep, Jiang Huojin got out of bed, opened the door, and went to the yard to sit on the swing. The round, bright moon hung in the sky as Jiang Huaijin softly murmured to himself,

“Dad will be back soon; Jin really misses Dad!”

Looking down, he held a broken doll in his hands. Its head had fallen off, and he tightly wrapped it with tape. One of its arms was broken, and its foot was tied with red thread.

“Be good, if you’re not good, I will…”

He gripped the doll tightly, and with a “crack,” the doll’s head fell to the ground, rolling into the grass.

Jiang Huaijin didn’t mind, holding the headless doll and gently stroking it.

Suddenly, a pair of hands appeared, holding the doll’s head. Jiang Huaijin looked up and obediently called out,

“Mom.”

Jiang Banyue chuckled softly as she squatted down to attach the doll’s head back on.

“Jin, isn’t this your favorite doll? How could you bear to hurt her?”

“But she’s not good!” Jiang Huaijin replied matter-of-factly.

“Things that aren’t good will be dealt with!”

Jiang Banyue looked at the true evil in her son’s eyes, her heart aching. A few years ago, she had noticed that her eldest son was not quite normal; there was a demon hidden within him.

He called himself Jin, and every time Jiang Huaijin got angry, he would appear. This was also her son, the one who made her heart ache the most. He had experienced such cruel things in his past life that his mind was already not normal.