Right on the third year of my brother’s disappearance, eighteen skeletons were dug up underground in Everbloom. One of them was the worst — 180 stab wounds, each one piercing the bone.
In his hand, he held a slip of paper tightly.
[Don’t be afraid, I’m just going home. If you can’t hold on, go back home too.]
The system sounded an alarm in my head.
[The value of family and affection strategy has dropped to 10%. Host, please perish and return to the original world as soon as possible.]
That evening, I put on my wedding suit and sent the suicide note to the family group chat.
My fiancée, who accompanied my adopted brother, replied, “Are you out of your mind?”
My mother, Miranda Muller, a movie queen, kept calling me, urging me to take off my suit and go over to apologize to my adopted brother, Santiago Muller.
My older sister, Megan Muller, who was a police officer, also scolded. “You knew, Santiago couldn’t accept that you were going to marry Briella after he lost his memory, yet you still wore your wedding suit to irritate him, trying to make him sicker, didn’t you?”
No one cared about the suicide note. No one knew I put on the wedding suit not to marry Briella, but — to bring out the serial killer who murdered my brother, to completely break free from this world that had trapped me for twenty-five years.
Only my younger sister, Margot Muller, a lawyer, sent several voice messages.
“Sergio, do you know anything?”
“Is that corpse Timothy? Is the note left behind meant for you?”
I didn’t reply to any of them, just holding my brother’s photo.
Under the escort of numerous plainclothes police officers, I headed toward the hotel.
——
I sat in the wedding car and the policemen disguised as bridesmaids and groomsmen had complicated expressions.
“Have you really made up your mind? To lure out the psychopath, you might end up losing your life.”
“Although this case concerns whether Ms. Muller will be dismissed, you don’t have to gamble your life ….”
I responded softly, “I did this and Megan has nothing to do with it.”
They had no comment and just assumed I was still angry with Megan.
Someone said, “I’ll call Ms. Muller. She should be there to watch over you in such a dangerous situation.”
I watched him start dialing and just curled my lips.
As soon as the call was connected, he said, “Ms. Muller, Sergio Muller is going to be a bait to catch the psychopath right away, I’m afraid it’s going to be a dangerous mission, you ….”
Before he could finish his words, the call was abruptly disconnected.
And right at that moment, my phone rang. I pressed the answer button with a blank expression and Megan’s angry curses were heard from the other side.
“I originally thought you were just selfish and ignorant because we spoiled you.”
“I never thought you would even abandon your bottom line in order to force a marriage.”
She gritted her teeth and questioned me word by word.
“Not only have you driven your own brother’s condition worse, but now you’re shamelessly having my colleague lie and say you want to be the bait. Do you want to deceive us into pitying you and softening our hearts to agree to your marriage with Briella?”
“Sergio, you’re just like your adoptive father, a shameless bastard who dares to use such a big case to satisfy your selfish desires!”
Her words were harsh and sharp like a knife.
“Get over here and get down on your knees to apologize to your brother!”
“Make it clear in front of everyone — Briella has nothing to do with you and it’s you who’s being shameless and foolish, trying to steal your brother’s wife!”
I listened as my grip tightened bit by bit.
When she compared me to my adoptive father in that tone, I went blank.
When she investigated the records, she found that my adoptive father had drugged me to please his lover and sent me to her bed.
I was struggling to escape, but he struck me on the head with a vase, leaving a permanent scar on my forehead.
That time, she trembled, her eyes red, as she stroked my scar and she swore in anger and determined tone.
“Sergio, I won’t let any of those who wronged you go.”
I let out a bitter laugh and spoke calmly.
“My adoptive father is Santiago’s biological father.”
“As you say, he is the one who inherited his father’s bad character.”
“He did try to steal his brother’s marriage by acting crazy after all.”
“Aren’t you also accomplices?”
There were a few seconds of silence on the other end of the phone and then I heard my younger brother’s, Santiago Muller, frantic crying.
“Sergio, I really didn’t mean to … I was sick and I couldn’t remember some things. I didn’t know you and Briella ….”
“Mom, Megan, Briell. I never thought my illness would make my brother unhappy. I might as well die.”
Soon, Miranda’s furious roar came. “Enough, Sergio! If you still have any conscience, come and apologize now! Otherwise, we’ll sever ties with you from today!”
I heard a commotion on the other end of the phone, as if someone had snatched the phone away.
It was Briella Landau.
Her voice was cold and impatient.
“Sergio, cancel the wedding immediately and come over here to kneel down and apologize to Santiago.”
“Otherwise, I’ll break off our engagement.”
I lowered my eyes and replied calmly, “Alright.”
Then she hung up the phone.
The police officers exchanged glances. No one mentioned asking my sister to keep me company again.
The wedding car stopped at the hotel entrance.
Just as I opened the car door, a fishy smell hit me in the face. Egg peels and even the fishy liquid splashed onto my suit.
I was pushed backwards and almost missed a step.
“Bastard! You stole your brother’s girlfriend and you still have the nerve to force her into marriage! You even dared to use the psychopath case to act pitiful. I have to teach this bastard a lesson today!”
“Even the gentle mother of him, a former Best Actress, was driven to tears by him! Such a son is better off dead!”
I just realized, my phone call with my family was live-streamed by Miranda.
Some people pulled my hair, kicked my body and forced me to kneel down and bow, while the others were tearing my suit and holding up cameras to record my miserable state.
“Kneel and apologize to your brother and mother!”
“And this suit! Is a worthless man like you worthy of wearing it? Tear it off!”
I was so in pain that my fingers were trembling, yet I still raised my head and shouted.
“I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Why should I apologize?”
The crowd was in an uproar, then Megan and Miranda’s bodyguards rushed over and forcibly pushed the crowd away.
Megan was so angry that her voice trembled.
“Still dare to say you did nothing? I told you not to use your relationship with Briella to provoke Santiago. So why did you insist wearing a suit for the wedding? Why did you have to stage such a forced marriage farce?”
However, when she rushed over and saw me clearly, she froze.
The suit on my body was tattered and barely covered my body, with injuries all over. My forehead and body were covered in foul-smelling liquid.
She instinctively rushed over and tried to wipe the stuff off me.
She asked Miranda in a low voice, trying to keep her voice steady, “Mom, how could you broadcast live while we are on the phone? And also bring these people here?”
“What if this incident drags Santiago into it again?”
There was a hint of reluctance in Miranda’s eyes. But upon hearing Megan said that, she replied sharply, “Who made him do wrong? He deserves it.”
I took two steps back, avoiding my sister’s hand and spoke calmly, “I’m not here to force a marriage. Briella’s decision to cancel her engagement with me and marry Santiago instead has nothing to do with me.”
“I’m here to be the bait to catch the psychopath.”
Miranda’s face turned pale in an instant.
Before she could say anything, Megan slapped me in the face. Her expression was complicated, with a hint of panic mixed in with anger.
“I warned you not to use a major murder case involving dozens of innocent lives as a trick to manipulate our sympathy!”
She took a deep breath, her face regained its coldness and her voice became even more ruthless.
“You’re just like that brother of yours — heartless and immoral!”
“He betrayed Margot and ran away with the money.”
“Afraid of being wanted, he secretly gave false testimony, slipped a note into the victim’s hand and faked his own death.”
“I’ve already told you, that person is definitely not that bastard Timothy, but that idiot Margot, really took it seriously. She was so drunk that she didn’t even bother investigating the case!”
The crowd cheered up.
“Isn’t Timothy the scumbag who ran away with the money back then? His passionate videos were all over the second-hand websites and you don’t even need a dollar to watch them, hahaha!”
“A despicable man like him disrupted the investigation of a murder case. He deserves to die.”
I clenched my hands as my heart ached as if it was being torn apart.
Three years ago, Timothy Arnaut discovered that Santiago was faking amnesia and acting insane.
However, Timothy went missing before he could hand over the evidence to me. Before he went missing, he was drugged and bullied for a whole night. The passionate video of the incident was put on a second-hand website and sold for less than a dollar.
At that time, he begged Margot, his fiancée, with red eyes, to help him with the lawsuit.
But on the day of the trial, Margot, a top and zero-defeated lawyer, sat in the plaintiff’s seat, playing with her manicure from beginning to end, without saying a word and soon — declared to have lost the lawsuit.
On the day she came out of the court, she put away her attitude and sneered, dropping a sentence, “This is what you get for bullying Santiago.”
“This time we’re just showing your video. Next time, we’re going to sell you on the black market to be the Afronia people plaything.”
That day, Timothy, who had never shed tears before, hugged me and cried for a long, long time.
The next day, he disappeared.
I spent three years searching for him, but Margot always faced it with ridicule. “He’s just playing missing and wants me to find him. He wants to play as he pleases. I wonder how long he will last.”
Until … the victims of the psychopath dismemberment case were discovered in an abandoned basement in Everbloom.
In my mind, the system finally reported Timothy’s death.
My brother died at the hands of a psychopath.
And the system also determined my ending.
For ten years, I had been trying to conquer family and love, but failed every time. So, the system asked me to perish and leave to the original world.
But at least, I wanted to use my death to seek justice for that poor victim.
***
Briella walked over with a sullen face and warned me. “Since you insist on going against us, then as you wish, I will cancel our engagement.”
I nodded, pulled my phone out of my bag and made a statement.
[I, Sergio Muller, cancel my engagement with Briella Landau.]
I raised my phone and showed them.
“Is this okay?”
Miranda, Megan and Briella were shocked to see my behavior and stood there in a daze.
Briella looked at me in disbelief, then she gritted her teeth and continued. “Okay, then I’ll have to abort the baby in my belly, so you don’t have to use the baby to bother me later.”
I glanced at her flat belly and gave a bitter smile, “Fine.”
She never wanted the child anyway.
That day, I saw her message page and saw her complaining to her best friend that she hated the child. She had even scheduled an abortion surgery and was planning how to deceive me.
If that was the case, then forget it.
As soon as the words fell, Briella’s face turned red and she looked broken and aggrieved.
She rushed over and grabbed my shoulder. “What nonsense are you talking about! How could you have the heart to ask me to abort this baby? Don’t you treasure the baby in my belly the most?”
It was not surprising that she was so shocked. She saw how much I was looking forward to the birth of this child.
In order to take care of her pregnancy with peace of mind, I resolutely gave up the invitation from the research institute to hire me as the person in charge and resigned to become a househusband.
Briella liked to eat raw vegetables and meat. So, I drove for three hours into the village before dawn to buy vegetables picked that day.
Even though I was a scientific researcher who spent most of my time in the laboratory and in the field, I was willing to take the time to pray for the safety of the mother and baby every day.
However, I knew, the child was born in unwanted and disgust situation.
Such a life was sure a torture for him.
Her eyes were full of brokenness as she held onto my hand — completely ignoring her purpose of coming here.
She insisted on me taking back what I had just said.
Just then, a cry came from behind.
It was Santiago, his voice was trembling and sharp. “Briella, didn’t you promise to marry me? Why are you holding his hand? Why is he wearing a suit?”
“Sergio, did you ask me to come here just to let me see Briella betray me? I hate you!”
He turned and rushed to the road, crying.
Megan yelled and Miranda slapped me in the face.
“Why did you call Santiago here? You have to drive him crazy to be happy, right?”
“If anything happens to him today because of you, I’ll never let you go!”
“Briella, stop him!”
Briella suddenly shook off my hand and I fell backwards.
My trousers were torn by stones and my knees was scratched, leaving bloodstains.
I sat on the ground, smiling bitterly, watching their backs as they ran towards Santiago. I had seen such a back view too many times.
I did have a good time when I first came back to this home.
It was a time when Miranda smiled and cooked for me and Megan would take me to play video games after school while Margot would drag me to play with her favorite doll.
But everything changed the day I started dating my neighbor’s Briella.
Santiago began to go crazy.
He cried and shouted — saying I was scaring him, I was going to send him back to his biological parents’ house.
He pointed at me, tears streaming down his face and shouted hysterically, “He said, why does he have to live that kind of life? Why does he have to be beaten and scolded, but I can live a good life in his place? He doesn’t accept it, he wants me to live a miserable life too!”
At first, Miranda, Megan and Margot would reason with him.
Miranda whispered. “That’s impossible! Sergio wouldn’t say that.”
Megan also explained. “He’s a good kid. He wouldn’t say that.”
Margot said, “Santiago, you must have misunderstood Sergio.”
But over time, Miranda and Margot finally sided with Santiago.
They would scold me with a cold face when Santiago cried.
“Are you done yet? You have to bully Santiago. You’re only happy when you see him scared like this, aren’t you?”
“If I had known earlier, I shouldn’t have taken you in. You’ve brought our Muller such a disaster.”
At that time, Megan would still rush out to defend me.
She said I was volunteering, helping those who were suffering from domestic violence.
“How could a kind-hearted boy like Sergio say such words?”
“Mom, don’t be too biased.”
She took me away from home and went on a trip to relax.
Later, on my birthday, Santiago went crazy and refused to let me celebrate my birthday.
My sister picked me up directly. She ordered a birthday cake for me and bought me a new sportswear with her own salary.
She said, “Tomorrow is your birthday. I’ll take you to watch a game. Don’t think about those messed up things.”
She patted my head and said with a smile, “I’ll always believe in you and stand by your side.”
But everything stopped on the second day.
That day, I took a leave of absence to go home, thinking of giving Megan a surprise. But I was blocked at the entrance of the alley by my adoptive father, Jack Olsen, who had just been released from prison.
It was a dark old alley with peeling paint on the walls and a damp, musty smell.
He dragged me into the corner and cursed, “You little bastard, how dare you call the police to arrest me? I’ll teach you a lesson!”
I struggled and he kicked me down.
He snatched the cake from my hand and stomped it hard on the ground. The cream mixed with mud looked like a pool of dirty blood.
I was dizzy from the beating and my clothes were torn.
At that moment, I felt like I was back in that old hell.
When I woke up, I covered my wound and ran to find my older sister.
She was sitting at the door of the ward.
I rushed over and cried to her. “Megan, help me ….”
But before I could finish my words, she slapped me in the face.
That was the first time she hit me.
She grabbed me and dragged me into the ward, making me kneel in front of Santiago’s bed. She gritted her teeth and scolded me, “I didn’t expect you to be so good at pretending! You actually had the guts to bribe that old bastard to bully Santiago!”
My face was full of tears and I cried and shook my head. “It’s not me… It’s really not me ….”
However, she didn’t believe it. She just looked at me disappointedly and said coldly, “I never thought that scumbag would teach you such a shameful thing.”
“Now Santiago has gone crazy because of you! Sergio, you’d better feel guilty forever and spend the rest of your life apologizing to him.”
My mother stood aside, looking at me expressionlessly.
Even Briella had a cold expression, saying, “You’ve disappointed me.”
Later, she spent almost every day with Santiago, saying it was to apologize on my behalf.
I had always assumed my adoptive father was lying and seeking revenge against me. Until I overheard Santiago talking on the phone with a friend.
He laughed proudly.
“Haha, I’m fine. Just one act and he’ll be finished. That old bastard, just give him some money and he’ll cooperate.”
“I told you, who the hell is he to steal my family? As long as I cry a few times, the whole family will believe me.”
I felt completely numb when I learned the truth.
I came back to my senses.
I propped myself up against the wall, stumbled to my feet and turned to walk to the hotel. But before I could take a few steps, Megan ran over and grabbed my arm.
She roared in anger. “You deliberately called Santiago here, which made him sick again! He almost got hit by a car just now and he’s scared out.”
“You must come with us to the hospital and kneel down in front of his bed to apologize!”
“Wait until he wakes up and then we’ll decide whether to let you go!”
I struggled as Megan dragged me into the car.
The voice of the police came from the earphones. “The person suspected to be the psychopath has disappeared. You’re on standby. You don’t need to go into the hotel.”
I let out a long sigh.
She responded, “Got it,” and turn off the earphones.
Then she grabbed my arm and dragged me to the hospital’s emergency room.
The moment the door closed, I whispered.
“Megan, I didn’t tell anyone about me wearing a suit to the hotel.”
“I also didn’t call out to anyone to go over, much less intentionally call out to Santiago to go over.”
“Do you believe me this time?”
Megan frowned and impatiently pushed me. “Alright, there’s no point in arguing. Just admit your mistake. As long as Santiago forgives you, Mom and I won’t pursue your issue.”
I gave a wry smile, the last shred of hope in my heart swallowed by bitterness. I turned and went into the emergency room.
As soon as the door closed, I felt a sharp pain in my neck, lost my balance and fell to the ground.
When I woke up, I found myself tied up in a warehouse. The light was dim and the air was musty and next to me lying Santiago.
He opened his eyes and cursed angrily. “Jack, you old bastard, is your brain getting old and not working well? I clearly told you to just catch him, why did you catch me too?”
He tried to get up, but found himself unable to move. He then yelled. “I told you to just act! Just tie him up! Why are you tying me up too? I just bought some trendy, limited edition clothes and they got stained. Can you, an old man, afford to pay for it?”
Just as he was shouting and cursing, something was thrown in. He looked closely and screamed like crazy.
It was a chopped-to pieces corpse. It was my adoptive father and Santiago’s biological father, Jack Olsen.
A hunched figure walked out from the corner, grinning sinisterly.
The system coldly reminded me in my mind: [This man is the psycopath, Randall.]
Just as Santiago was crying and begging for mercy, a group of armed police rushed in from outside the door and shouted. “Release the hostages, or we will shoot!”
My older sister, with her eyes red, rushed to the front, shouting. “Let my brother go! I can leave you a whole body!”
Briella heard Santiago’s cries and yelled through the door.
“I can give you fourty-two million dollar, release Santiago!”
The cold-blooded murderer’s smile was filled with chilling emotion.
“I didn’t want to kill anyone at first. But someone killed someone and framed me and I just couldn’t accept it. So, I’ll kill another one. You guys can watch out this time, this is the one I killed.”
Randall said slowly, “I’ve kidnapped two people this time. You can choose. Whoever you choose will live. One is the boy whose name you just called out and the other is—”
Before the psychopath could finish his words, Megan and Briella shouted at the same time. “We choose Santiago! I choose Santiago!”
I smiled bitterly and closed my eyes.
He laughed heartily and threw Santiago towards them.
Santiago threw himself into their arms, crying and begging them to take him away.
Without waiting for Megan and Briella to breathe a sigh of relief, Randall suddenly pulled a spherical object from his pocket, grinning and threw it toward the police and the crowd.
“I can’t escape this time anyway, so I might as well take a few more people with me before I die!”
Megan had her pupils trembling violently and she immediately shouted. “Retreat! He has a bomb!”
Screams, shouts and sobs echoed alongside the man’s shrill laughter. “Die, everyone, hahaha!”
The next second, everyone watched in horror as a thin figure struggled out from the corner.
I rushed over, threw myself upon the bomb and pinned it firmly against Randall’s arms.
The bomb buzzed between us. The sound was like a knife, piercing into my chest and soon there was a loud tearing sound.
Dark heat wave pain.
Glass shattered, sawdust splattered and ears seemed torn apart.
Amidst the scorching pain, a pair of gentle hands grasped mine.
It was Timothy.
His voice was as light as the wind, yet it rang clearly in my ears.
“Sergio, don’t be afraid. We’re going home.”
I choked up and struggled to hold his hand.
“Timothy.”
“I finally found you.”
The warehouse was engulfed in flames after the explosion. The officers involved in the arrest rushed forward, but were forced back by billowing smoke.
Someone cried out. “Ms. Muller! Sergio is still inside!”
“He saved us!”
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