QTIMP -Chapter 269 Character Persona – Vicious (Part 32)

“Of course it’s fake. But everyone except me will think it’s real.”

The two old folks had been moved into the room where Si Qiu used to live. The room was small and had no windows. Even with the door open, very little light filtered inside.

One had to let their eyes adjust before they could barely make out the interior. Both elderly people were emaciated, little more than skin and bones. Their hair and bodies were relatively clean, but shockingly, they were sleeping directly on a straw mat.

There wasn’t a single layer of fabric underneath them, nor a single blanket covering them.

The bedsores on their bodies were severe, raw flesh exposed and oozing blood and fluid.

The stench in the room was nauseating. The cracks around the door had even been sealed with strips of cloth.

Si Qiu had expected they wouldn’t treat the two elders well, but she hadn’t expected them to be this ruthless.

Zhang Wei wanted the old couple to die sooner so he could swindle the job assignment for himself. Si Bei’s wife was vicious by nature and had no intention of treating them kindly.

On top of that, Si Qiu had deliberately become increasingly neglectful herself.

So when she pushed open the door, this was the scene that greeted her.

She slammed a hand against the door and shouted,

“This is how you’ve been taking care of the elderly?!”

The door hadn’t been closed to begin with. At her yell, many people crowded in to look, followed by gasps and all kinds of shocked discussion.

Some of the bolder neighbors stepped forward to check on the couple. Father Si’s body had already gone stiff. Mother Si still had a faint trace of life left, but it was barely perceptible. The person checking her let out a frightened scream.

“Someone’s dead! Someone’s dead!”

Amid the ensuing chaos, Si Qiu immediately shouted,

“This is murder! Call the Public Security Bureau right now!”

The enthusiastic citizens sprang into action. Someone immediately ran off to report it to the authorities, while others gathered the courage to enter and inspect the room.

Someone suggested rushing Mother Si to the hospital.

The Si twins finally snapped out of their shock and hurried forward to move her. Whether from panic or something else, both of them fumbled, and Mother Si fell to the floor.

She breathed her last breath on the spot.

After a moment of stunned silence, the panic only intensified.

When the police arrived, they confirmed that both elderly people were indeed dead, and everyone involved was taken to the station.

Si Qiu cried bitterly, insisting on pressing charges against the siblings for elder abuse.

The two households—four people in total—were terrified and knelt down, begging Si Qiu for mercy.

Hidden in the embrace of an elderly neighbor from the same building, Si Qiu simply kept wiping away her tears.

Whether judged by morality or by law, the circumstances were appallingly severe.

When the officers who had investigated the scene returned, they specifically described the conditions in which the two elderly people had been living.

This only made everyone despise the two couples even more.

All four were detained.

The families of the twins’ spouses did come to ask about the situation.

But they truly only asked.

If the two had been favored by their families, their relatives would have tried to help them stay out of trouble. But neither was particularly valued at home, so there was little concern for their fate.

In fact, their families wanted to distance themselves as quickly as possible, afraid of being implicated.

Wu Jiaojiao’s stepmother was even dragged home by her father.

Soon afterward, the machinery factory handed down its own disciplinary measures even faster than the court.

The jobs belonging to the two convicted individuals were sold off by Si Qiu, and the factory reclaimed the house.

From the moment Si Qiu had taken control of the Si family affairs until now, every resource the family possessed had ended up in her hands.

The factory did not withhold either person’s wages for the current month.

With the help of the elderly neighbor, Si Qiu also searched the house and found several dozen yuan.

Using that money, she hastily arranged funerals for the two old folks.

The sentences for all four defendants were eventually announced.

Unexpectedly, the true masterminds behind the abuse of the elderly couple were Zhang Wei and his newly married wife.

Both were sentenced to eighteen years in prison.

Before the verdict, Wu Jiaojiao’s stepmother had even approached Si Qiu to mediate on their behalf.

Now that the judgment had been handed down, she was the one cursing them the most fiercely.

The twins tried to argue that they were exhausted from work and completely unaware of what had been happening, but each still received a ten-year sentence.

Later, when the testimonies were cross-examined, it became clear that the siblings did occasionally ask about the old couple.

But they had literally done no more than ask a question.

They had never once gone into the room to check on them themselves.

Hearing the outcome, Si Qiu felt a moment of relief. Only then did she realize that this was probably the original owner’s lingering obsession.

From the day she was born until she was twelve years old, the original owner had never lived a single good day. She had never eaten a full meal or worn a new piece of clothing.

Every day was spent in constant fear and anxiety.

The people in her family had been like towering mountains, crushing her beneath their weight and leaving her powerless to resist. But now, those mountains had finally collapsed.

A large hand patted her shoulder.

“Qiuqiu, don’t be sad.”

Si Qiu immediately composed herself and turned to look at Lan Qing.

“Sad? What do I have to be sad about?”

Everything she had planned and done wasn’t entirely for the sake of avenging the original owner. Someone as selfish as she was would never go to such lengths for that reason alone.

What mattered most was cutting that family out of her life completely—making sure they would never appear in front of her again, disgust her, or drag her down.

She turned and left the Public Security Bureau, walking toward home. Her footsteps crunched against the snow-covered ground.

“A home is supposed to shelter you from the wind and rain. But only after I left that home did I realize that all of my storms came from it. So everything happening now is exactly what they deserve. Since they created those storms, they should be the ones to bear them.”

“I’m glad you can think that way. Since you’re not upset, let’s hurry home. I’ll make pork rib soup for you.”

Si Qiu smiled sweetly at him. Although the scarf hid most of her face, the slight curve of her eyes was enough to reveal her good mood.

Lan Qing suppressed the urge to get closer to her. After all, they were still out on the street.

Si Qiu saw right through his thoughts.

On the surface, Lan Qing was refined, handsome, and elegant, but beneath that exterior lay a stubborn and domineering streak.

That much was obvious in bed.

Fortunately, no matter how unpleasant his true nature might be, he always concealed it well in front of Si Qiu. He understood that she only accepted things that suited her own preferences.

To her, other people’s personalities and tempers were irrelevant because she could discard anything—or anyone—at any time, as long as it wasn’t herself.

In the blink of an eye, it was 1976.

The afterglow of New Year’s Day had barely faded when one major event followed another. The darkness before dawn seemed even deeper than before.

It felt as though the entire world was sitting in a pot of water just about to reach a boil.

One day, while Si Qiu was organizing the contents of her space, she suddenly heard knocking at the window.

Accustomed to it by now, she climbed down from the heated brick bed and opened the door.

Lan Qing entered covered in snow and wind.

“Go into the bedroom first. I’ll stay in the living room for a bit and let the cold air off me.”

It was a simple, ordinary sentence.

Yet Si Qiu immediately sensed that something was different.

Instead of going into the bedroom, she poured him a cup of hot water.

“What’s wrong? In a bad mood? Did something happen?”

Lan Qing tossed his overcoat, scarf, and other winter gear onto the sofa before turning around and pulling her into his arms.

“Qiuqiu, the Zhou couple cornered me today. They threatened to expose our relationship unless I helped their nephew get a job and avoid being sent to the countryside. Things have been extremely chaotic lately. I really can’t afford to let them spread this around.”

Si Qiu stepped out of his embrace, picked up the hot water she had poured for him, and held it in her own hands.

Then she looked at him with a half-smile.

“Oh? Is that so? Things really have been quite chaotic lately. So how are you planning to solve it?”

Lan Qing instantly realized that she had seen through his intentions.

Embarrassed, he rubbed his nose.

What could he do? His Qiuqiu was simply too perceptive.

Every little scheme and hidden thought of his was completely transparent in front of her.

Afraid of annoying her, he grinned and squeezed himself onto the sofa beside her.

The two sat down together.

“Well… if people discover us like this, it won’t be good for your reputation after all. So I was thinking… if it comes to it, why don’t we just get our marriage certificate? That way we can shut everyone up.”