The Fairy Tale of a Murderer - Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The next day, when my mom came to wake us up, I clung to the bed for dear life and refused to get up.

I had a feeling that no matter how many times I was reborn, my habit of sleeping in was never going to change.

By the time Ji Xingrui finished washing up, I was still sprawled in bed, half-asleep.

He poked me with a finger. “We’re going to be late.”

I cracked one eye open and glanced at the alarm clock. “It’s still early.” I could still sleep for one more minute.

No sooner had I said that than my mom came in again.

“Still not up? Ding Qiaoqiao, are you asking for a beating?”

My mom’s voice was so loud that every time she shouted, it felt like an earthquake was coming. I was so scared I sprang out of bed and hid behind Ji Xingrui for dear life.

“I’m up, I’m up, I’m up!”

Let me add this: besides my habit of sleeping in, my fear of my mom was also never going to change.

As for my dad, there was nothing worth saying.

It was about a fifteen-minute walk from home to school, with four traffic lights along the way.

I yawned as I walked toward school. Ji Xingrui followed behind me, looking just as listless.

“You didn’t sleep well either?” I asked casually.

Ji Xingrui gave me a resentful look but said nothing.

I had no idea what that was about. Then someone behind me called, “Qiaoqiao!”

I turned around. It was Skinny Monkey.

He shot past me with a whoosh and yelled, “Run already! We’re going to be late!”

Oh no!

Add one more thing to the list of things that would never change: my fear of teachers.

I immediately broke into a run, not forgetting to drag Ji Xingrui along behind me.

The moment I stepped into the classroom, the bell rang. A surge of accomplishment filled me, and I bragged to Ji Xingrui behind me, “Impressive, right? If it weren’t for me, you would’ve been late!”

The System sneered. “If it weren’t for you sleeping in, he would’ve been here ages ago.”

Flushing with embarrassment and anger, I snapped, “Shut up!”

Ji Xingrui said nothing and walked straight to the back of the classroom.

He sat in the very last row, without a deskmate. He barely spoke on ordinary days either. Strangely enough, his grades were excellent-he had been first in class for years.

A child’s body really did get sleepy easily. I spent the first two periods dozing off. During the break, I was just about to get some proper sleep when I heard what sounded like someone bullying Ji Xingrui.

“System, if I don’t step in now, that’d be hard to justify, right?”

The System said, “Doesn’t matter. You’re going to embarrass yourself.”

Me: “…”

The ones bullying Ji Xingrui were the school’s notorious Little Bully and his gang: a tall, heavyset fat kid at the head, with his two henchmen trailing behind him.

The fat kid viciously threw Ji Xingrui’s pencil case onto the floor, sending pens scattering everywhere.

“You bastard without a mom or dad!”

The System got angry. “Why are kids these days so awful? Hurry up, go beat him up!”

Mm. This time, we were actually in agreement.

I rubbed my fists together, warmed up a little, locked on to my target, and launched a flying kick.

The fat kid staggered and fell flat on the floor.

The System was shocked. “You’re that good?”

I said calmly, “I learned a bit of taekwondo in my last life.”

Speaking of which, I had my dad to thank for that.

Because he was always seeing news about girls getting hurt, when I started middle school, my dad insisted on sending me to learn taekwondo.

At first, it was exhausting, and every day felt endless. But after I got used to it, I actually found it pretty fun.

From middle school until I graduated from college, I studied it for a full ten years. Unless I ran into some strong, trained fighter, most ordinary people really couldn’t beat me.

Let alone these little punks.

That one kick not only knocked the fat kid stupid, it also stunned the entire class.

The surroundings fell silent. The fat kid glared at me for a while before suddenly coming back to his senses. “You dared to hit me?!”

“You’re exactly who I hit!” I gave a cold laugh. “Bullying people is bad enough, but you bullied one of mine! I’m going easy on you by only hitting you!”

Hearing me say that, Ji Xingrui suddenly raised his head and looked at me.

I didn’t understand what his gaze meant, and I didn’t have time to figure it out, because the fat kid and his henchmen charged at me again.

“System, watch this big bro show off.”

System: “…”

In less than two minutes, the three of them were lying on the floor, wailing.

I proudly puffed out my chest and declared in a domineering voice, “Look carefully. From now on, anyone who dares bully Ji Xingrui will end up like this!”

Kids were easy to intimidate. I figured no one would dare bully him again.

“System, if he doesn’t feel any malice at school, but instead feels his classmates’ care, won’t that greatly reduce the chances of him becoming a pervert in the future?”

The System said, “Yes.”

“Unless someone is born with antisocial personality disorder, every pervert can actually be reformed with love. Change the environment he grows up in and let him live somewhere full of love and a sense of safety, and he’ll definitely become a normal person.”

The System said, “…Maybe you should stop talking for now?”

“Huh? Why?”

“Your homeroom teacher is here.”

Me: “…”

Which little bastard called the homeroom teacher?!

Under the admiring gazes of the whole class, I lowered my head and went to the office with the Little Bully trio.

After the teacher got to the bottom of what had happened, she told us to call our parents. I thought about it for a moment, then chose to dial my dad’s number.

On the phone, I solemnly told my dad, “Remember, you absolutely cannot tell Mom about this!”

“No way. If I hide it from your mom and she finds out, I’m dead!”

I brought out my trump card. “Is this the first thing you’ve hidden from Mom? I know about your secret stash of money-”

“Hey, hey, hey, daughter, we can talk this out! There’s nothing we can’t discuss as father and daughter, right?”

Hah. Old man.

By the time my dad and I came out of the school, the sun had already set.

All the students had left, and the campus was empty. My mom had already made countless calls that felt like death warrants. My dad lied and said he’d taken me out to play and that we’d be back soon.

“Tell me, do you think your mom will believe it?”

I sighed worriedly. “I don’t know.”

“But, girl,” my dad said, his eyes lighting up, “did you really beat up those three all by yourself?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s my daughter, all right. Your teacher may say fighting is wrong, but as your dad, I think you did the right thing!” He chuckled. “My daughter is kind and outstanding. Best in the whole world!”

With the mood already built up like that, it felt wrong not to say something back. “My dad is the best too! He’s not afraid of anyone, including my mom!”

My dad hesitated for a moment, then declared with absolute conviction, “Me? A grown man afraid of her? What a joke!”

System chimed in right on cue. “Every profession has its own specialties. This one’s hard to judge. I’ll just wish him success.”

Me: “…”

As we walked, I kept feeling like someone was following us. I whipped around and actually saw Ji Xingrui.

“Have you been following us this whole time?”

Ji Xingrui nodded.

My eyes suddenly misted over. “System, sure enough, effort always pays off. I fought for him, so he must have been worried about me and waited for me this whole time…”

System: “…Have you considered the possibility that he still wants to eat dinner at your house?”

Me: “…”

My dad looked at the tiny child standing in the street with a schoolbag on his back, and his bleeding heart overflowed on the spot.

“How could we forget Xingxing? Come on, let’s go home! Your auntie already made dinner…”

When we got home, my mom began her rapid-fire interrogation.

“Where did you go? Why didn’t you tell me beforehand? Why didn’t you answer any of the calls I made?”

My dad had just established his fearless-of-his-wife persona in front of me. If he backed down now, it would be too embarrassing, so he braced himself and said, “Why is a woman worrying about so much? Hurry up and bring me dinner!”

My mom stopped talking.

The atmosphere froze.

Based on years of experience, I knew my dad was done for.

So when my mom grabbed my dad by the ear and dragged him into the bedroom, I immediately pulled Ji Xingrui into my room and locked the door behind us.

Ji Xingrui looked at me in confusion, so I explained, “I told my dad not to tell my mom about the teacher calling a parent in. Based on what I know about him, he’s definitely going to confess in a bit. I have to hide in advance, or my mom will beat me to death.”

Ji Xingrui lowered his head. I couldn’t see the expression on his face. After a long while, I finally heard him ask, “Then why did you do that?”

His question left me a little baffled. “Huh?”

“You said your mom will beat you if she finds out. Then why did you help me?”

Oh, so that was what he meant.

“Me getting beaten is a small matter. You getting beaten is a big matter.” My mom hitting me was no big deal at all, but if you got bullied by classmates, you might turn into a psycho, man!

But he asked again, “Why?”

I was speechless. “System, you only said he was a psychopathic serial killer. You didn’t say he was also a human question machine.”

System said coldly, “Don’t bother me. I’m playing ranked.”

I said offhandedly, “Didn’t I tell you before? We’re friends. Friends are people who are happy and sad together. If you got hurt, it would make me even sadder than if I got hurt myself.”

Ji Xingrui seemed lost in thought.

Meanwhile, I keenly picked up the sound of my mom’s footsteps.

I quickly grabbed Ji Xingrui’s hand. “We’re friends. I protected you earlier, so this time it’s your turn to protect me!”

Ji Xingrui looked at me blankly, so I explained, “Meaning if my mom tries to hit me in a bit, you have to shield me!”

As soon as I finished speaking, my mom’s voice came from outside the door. “Come out. I won’t hit you this time.”

I felt like this woman was trying to lure me out with false promises, so I asked distrustfully, “You’re really not going to hit me?”

My mom laughed, her tone relaxed. “Why would I hit you? My precious daughter did such a wonderful thing. I haven’t even praised you enough yet. Come on out. Mom made your favorite braised pork ribs. Oh, right, Xingxing, what do you like to eat…”

I had not expected things to develop in this direction at all.

But dinner smelled amazing, and I ate very happily, so there was that.

Unfortunately, I had no idea what my dad had gone through. He looked completely wilted, and even when he picked up food, he had to check my mom’s reaction first.

System: “Achievement unlocked: a world where only your dad got hurt.”

The more I looked at him, the more I wanted to laugh. Afraid that if I really laughed, my dad would hold a grudge, I forced it back down.

Knowing that Ji Xingrui was a clean freak, I didn’t serve him any food. When my mom was about to, I hinted at her too.

My mom probably understood, because she said, “Xingxing, help yourself to whatever you want.”

Ji Xingrui nodded.

He seemed to speak very little. Most of the time, he just nodded or shook his head obediently. I couldn’t imagine at all that a child like this would become a serial killer in the future.

But I supposed there had been signs…

In truth, in my last life, I had interacted with him before.

At the time, we were in first grade. I was seven, and he was probably seven too.

Because of my family, I had a very cheerful personality, so the first time I saw a child who always kept to himself, I was curious and really wanted to play with him.

So during a certain PE class, I walked over to Ji Xingrui, who was sitting by the wall in deep thought, and greeted him enthusiastically. “What are you thinking about?”

Ji Xingrui looked up at me. I still remembered the look in his eyes.

Calm and dark, neither sad nor happy, like a lonely ocean in late autumn.

“I’m thinking about how I can kill my mother,” he said with extreme calm, as casually as if he were talking about what to eat today.

As a naive little girl, when had I ever heard anything like that? My hair stood on end, my legs went weak, and I staggered away.

From then on, I never dared to speak to him again. Whenever I saw him, I would take a detour around him. We had no contact at all.

And now, I had been reborn at eight years old, which meant that incident when we were seven had actually already happened, right?

I just didn’t know whether Ji Xingrui still remembered…