石器盒子

After lunch, Granny Xu and Auntie Sun were watching a reality TV show in the living room. Before long, a group of unexpected guys visited their house and claimed to be Mu Sijue’s men.

The fierce-looking ringleader told Granny Xu, “All these years your granddaughter has been lying to you. She didn’t study abroad a few years ago. Instead, she was working for a evildoer in Southeast Asia!”

Although Xu Youning was a little rebellious, she was a good granddaughter to her grandmother. Lying, evildoer... Granny Xu could hardly imagine how those words would relate to Xu Youning.

Granny Xu remembered that someone had pretended to be a policeman to deceive her the other day. Subconsciously, she thought that the group of guys were also swindlers. She shouted angrily, “Get out of my house right now! Or I’ll call the police!”

“Oh, old lady. We will. But only after you have a look at these.” With that, the man threw her a stack of documents.

Granny Xu was old, so she couldn’t see the Chinese characters on those papers clearly. However, she could plainly see the photos.

Wearing undershirt and army trousers, Xu Youning appeared in those photos as she was trained to box, to shoot, fight with others in the mud and trekking in the jungle with weapons...

In those photos, Xu Youning’s deer-like eyes looked no longer innocent but fierce and murderous, like a deadly weapon.

“No. It’s not my Youning.” The person in those photos looked totally different from the Xu Youning in Granny Xu’s eyes; she didn’t want to believe it. “Take these faked photos! Go away!”

“You raised Xu Youning. Old lady, you know better than us if it’s her or not,” the man sneered and said, “Let me tell you one more thing. Xu Youning didn’t come back to City G last year because of her graduation. She returned because the evildoer asked her to work undercover around Seventh Brother.”

“No. That’s impossible!” Granny Xu stood up with agitation and shouted, “Don’t try to fool an old lady like me. My Youning is well-educated. She has a decent job. These must be faked photos! I’ll have to be rude if you don’t leave now!”

“How could an old lady like you, as you said, be rude to us?” The man laughed arrogantly and said, “Xu Youning thinks that she fooled Seventh Brother, but now she has been sniffed out. We’re here to find the evidence that she colludes with Kang Ruicheng. Seventh Brother won’t let her go!”

With that, the man waved his hand, and the other guys immediately began to rummage around, turning the house upside down.

Granny Xu was sophisticated; she wasn’t scared by their actions, at all.

However, those guys searched Xu Youning’s room and found a Swiss army knife, miniature bombs, and various sorts of self-defense weapons.

If the person who used those items wasn’t a police officer or a soldier, then it could only be...

Granny Xu breathed hard, wondering, “How could my Youning be a criminal?”

“All of these, along with those photos, should be enough to convince you. Right, old lady?” The man walked up to Granny Xu, then he placed his hands on her shoulders and said, “How dare Xu Youning lie to our Seventh Brother? Now she’s doomed.”

“...Please let Youning off,” Granny Xu pleaded, “I’ll give you anything you want if you do.”

“We want nothing but her life. Nothing can be exchanged for it.” The man applied an item in his hand to the old lady’s nape while saying, “If you’re unwilling to leave her, you can go now and wait for her in hell.”

With that, the man released Granny Xu and threw the item into the wastebasket.

Granny Xu lost her balance, and the discomfort in her chest suddenly intensified. She fell to the ground and said, “Xiao Sun, my medicine...”

Auntie Sun had been held down; she had just broken free at that moment. She ran over to get Granny Xu’s medicine and helped her take it, then she called the police and the ambulance.

After that, the group of guys left with what they had found in Xu Youning’s room. Not long after, the ambulance and the police arrived at the same time.

However, Granny Xu passed away on the way to the hospital, which caught the skilled ambulance doctor unprepared.

Those were the events of the previous noon.

After telling Xu Youning about that, Auntie Sun looked at her with distress and said, “Youning, your grandma passed away.”

“No, she didn’t,” Xu Youning shook her head repeatedly and said, “When I left home she was just fine. She couldn’t have passed away. She won’t leave me alone...”

Auntie Sun said, “We couldn’t get in touch with you yesterday. The police told me that you should go to the funeral home to identify her corpse when you returned.”

Xu Youning covered her ears to shield herself from Auntie Sun’s words. “I don’t believe it. Auntie Sun, you’re wrong. You have to be...”

She would rather die than believe that her grandmother had left this world. She even missed seeing her grandmother for the last time.

“Youning...” Auntie Sun wiped away the tears on Xu Youning’s face and said, “Come on.”

“I’m fine.” Xu Youning forced a smile with runny eyes and said, “Auntie Sun, I didn’t tell my grandma that I was coming back because I wanted to surprise her. She’ll be happy if she sees me. Could you please tell her to show up? Don’t tease me anymore, please...”

“...Your grandma passed away!” Auntie Sun suddenly shouted, “Youning, you should face the facts. Don’t fool others as well as yourself anymore!”

“...” Xu Youning looked at Auntie Sun, blanked out. She was an ordinary person with a simple ambition—to see her grandmother again.

“Before she passed away, your grandma asked me to tell you that she didn’t blame you, no matter what you’ve done, because she believed that you have your reasons. She wouldn’t want to see you blaming yourself if she were alive. Should you feel sad, just live on. Live your life, you see!?” With that, Auntie Sun shook Xu Youning violently as if she were trying to wake her up.

“Auntie Sun.” Xu Youning’s voice sounded as low as a mosquito’s. “I can’t see my grandma again, right?”

Auntie Sun made up her mind and told Xu Youning once again, “Your grandma has left this world.”

“...” Xu Youning felt as if she had been emptied. She froze there, stunned, as tears welled up in her eyes.

The gate of their house was open, and a gust of wind blew into the hall. Although it was midsummer, standing in the draft, Xu Youning felt a chill on her back.

She asked like a robot, “Auntie Sun, did those guys say that Mu Sijue asked them to come?”

“Yes,” Auntie Sun nodded and said, “They said that they had come here to find the evidence about you working undercover. They also said that once it was proven that you are a mole, Mu Sijue would not let you off. Youning, I have packed up for you. Go now, and never let Mu Sijue find you. Even if it is just to make your late grandma feel at ease, you have to live on.”

Xu Youning froze there, pondering and then asking, “After my grandma was taken to the ambulance, did anyone else visit our house except the police?”

“No. The police told me to keep the scene intact any anyone else outside.” Auntie Sun noticed that Xu Youning looked strange, so she asked, “Youning, what are you thinking about? Aren’t you going to leave?”

“Before leaving, I have to find out some facts.”

Xu Youning broke away from Auntie Sun, then she searched all around the house; not a corner was left out.

In the end, she turned and went out.

Auntie Sun followed her out and asked, “Youning, where are you going?”

“To the station.”

Xu Youning got in the car and wiped her tears, then she drove straight toward the police department.

After she identified herself, the police officer assigned to her grandmother’s case walked over and said to her awkwardly, “Miss Xu, we’ve surveyed the scene and questioned the witnesses. Your grandmother’s death was an accident. We found that she wasn’t murdered.”

Unexpectedly, Xu Youning’s eyes looked cold. She said, “I want to see the evidence from the crime scene and the autopsy report.”

“Pardon?“ For a moment, the police officer didn’t get her point. Generally, the families of the deceased would go to the police department for the results of investigations; few of them had asked for evidence.

“I want to see the evidence that you collected from my house after my grandma died.” Xu Youning stared at the police officer coldly. Then she continued to say, “I know it’s against the rules. But I heard that those guys who broke into my house were Mu Sijue’s men. Everyone knows that Mu Sijue is a rainmaker in City G. So, I have reason to believe that you declared my grandma’s death an accident because you fear Mu Sijue.”

“Miss Xu, I am sorry for your loss but you’re not supposed to question our professional ethics at will!” The police officer became angry and said, “Our detection skills are worthy of the badges on our chests!”

“Then let me see the evidence you have!” Xu Youning approached the police officer and stopped there. She said, “Or I will tell the press about it and threaten you with what you hate the most. Listen, I don’t care if I’m playing dirty tricks anymore!”

“...Why do you want to do this?” asked the police officer. “It is you who worked for Mu Sijue. You asked for trouble and caused your loved one to die. You should go and get even with Mu Sijue.”

“Because I need to know the truth.” Xu Youning stressed her words. “I just want to have a look at the evidence. It’s up to you to close the case. I won’t disturb you or make any trouble.”

The police officer thought she was ridiculous and said, “We found out that you betrayed Mu Sijue and his men went to your house. Your grandma was devastated so she died by accident. This is the truth.”

Xu Youning smiled coldly and insisted on seeing the evidence.

In the end, Xu Youning was taken into an office. The autopsy report, as well as the suspicious items that had been found in her house, all of it was placed on the table.

She carefully read the autopsy report, then she picked up a vial from the pile of items. The vial was exactly the item that had been thrown into the wastebasket by the man who had placed his hands on Granny Xu’s shoulders.

At that very moment, she learned the truth she was looking for.

As she crushed the vial, Xu Youning suddenly calmed down.

She realized that it was a trap, one that had been set right after she was kidnapped by Kang Ruicheng in Mexico.

She thought, “The police officer is right. My grandma died because of me.”