CHAPTER 589: CHAPTER 582: UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE CORPSE

In cases like Rong Ziqi’s, where no adult guidance is present, it’s certain that the child would be left with psychological scars.

If guided properly by their parents, Rong Ziqi might still grow into a bright and sunny boy, but if the parents neglect or misguide him, what his future holds is really hard to say.

He might still grow up healthy, or he might become self-deprecating, arrogant, develop psychological issues, and may even become a danger to society.

These outcomes are all possible, no one can predict them precisely, but as parents, it’s essential to take action, and it’s absolutely unacceptable to do nothing.

It seems, however, that Rong Ziqi’s parents might not even be aware of their child’s isolation in the courtyard. Rong Zhen Sheng is so busy he never comes home at night, and hardly even returns home, while Lu Yunfei is busy shopping and dating, almost as if there’s no difference whether she’s home or not.

According to the people in the courtyard, the Rong family’s meals are prepared by Rong Zhen Sheng’s oldest daughter, and Rong Ziqi spends more time with his sister than his parents, which is why their relationship seems quite good.

Sisi is speechless about Lu Yunfei, can’t she realize she’s no longer a single lady? She has no awareness of being a wife or mother. It’s no wonder Rong Ziqi would turn out wrong with a mother like hers.

Soon, it was late August, and school would start in just another seven or eight days. These past days, Sisi had been bringing Du Du back home every day so that he could spend more quality time with Tian Xinhua. The father and son hadn’t had much time together in the month since he came here.

One morning, Tian Xinhua had already made breakfast and gone to work, leaving Sisi lying dead in bed until nearly noon after a whole night of commotion. Under his father’s instructions, Du Du had had his breakfast on his own and was sitting obediently on the sofa, watching "Journey to the West", careful not to disturb Sisi.

The telephone rang, waking up Sisi. Du Du trotted over and picked up the phone.

"Shh, Aunt Mei, be quiet. Mommy is still sleeping. Don’t wake her," Du Du said in his sweet childlike voice, filling Sisi with tenderness. She wanted to hug and kiss him.

"Mommy, Aunt Mei has something to tell you," said Du Du as he saw Sisi getting out of bed and handed her the handset.

"Sisi, how can you still be sleeping? Du Du woke up earlier than you, how can you still be asleep?" Zhong Anmei nagged on the phone, she couldn’t comprehend why Sisi was sleeping in later than her own child.

Sisi couldn’t help but roll her eyes. Zhong Anmei was a true paragon of a good wife and mother. According to her, since marriage, she had made Shangguan Qing’s breakfast after getting up every morning except for the month before she gave birth. And after having Tie Dan, with the exception of one month for postpartum recovery, she never slept in later or woke up later than her child.

Thus, Zhong Anmei found Sisi’s sloth quite irksome, often nagging her about it. However, once Shangguan came into the picture, she stopped, because Shangguan was even lazier than Sisi and was someone who had never set foot in the kitchen.

Sisi actually admired women like Zhong Anmei, true embodiments of virtue, suitable for managing a family and household. But being that type of wife was simply too exhausting, and Sisi admitted she couldn’t do it. She preferred being a lazy lady.

After a few more words of chiding, Zhong Anmei finally remembered why she called and hurriedly said, "Sisi, I was watching the morning news just now, guess what I heard?"

"How would I know? I don’t have clairvoyance!" Sisi replied irritably.

"Yuncui Mountain had a discovery of an unidentified female corpse yesterday; she’s been dead nearly a month and is already badly decomposed. We were just barbecuing there a few days ago. Tsk tsk, how frightening!" Zhong Anmei seemed genuinely scared, her voice tinged with a hint of panic.

An unidentified female corpse?

Sisi felt a sudden chill run down her back, giving her the shivers.

Frightened awake by Zhong Anmei’s words, Sisi lost all inclination to sleep. She hurriedly finished breakfast and washed the dishes, feeling somewhat uneasy. Therefore, she left a note for Tian Xinhua and took Du Du to G city.

G City’s newspaper also reported the incident, and even published a notice for identifying the corpse, but the photo of the body was not printed. Was it probably because it was too mangled to resemble a human?

The next day, Sisi went to G City again, not knowing why, but she always felt that this murder case was not as simple as it seemed – it was just an intuition.

"Ah Qing’s comrade, Old Xu, came to my house for dinner last night. He is a criminal police officer in G City. He briefly mentioned the situation of the deceased. According to him, this woman died a terrible death, the murderer had removed her uterus, she was tortured to death." Zhong Anmei said with horror.

Sisi moved her stool further away from the fan, the wind was making her colder and colder.

The woman’s uterus was removed?

It’s clear that the murderer has psychological issues, but it’s unknown if the perpetrator is a male or a female?

Shangguan suddenly asked, "Sister-in-law, did your husband’s comrade mention where the body was found in the mountains?"

Zhong Anmei thought for a moment and said, "Old Xu mentioned it seemed to be in a cave at the bottom of the Yuncui Mountain gorge. Few people go there. It was discovered by a group of university students who were camping on Yuncui Mountain and happened to set up camp by the stream at the bottom of the valley."

A gorge?

A stream?

For some reason, Sisi thought of Mrs. Yang’s photo of the gorge.

After hearing this, Shangguan seemed thoughtful and suddenly she asked Sisi, "Sisi, do you remember that photo of my mom?"

It turned out Shangguan had thought of that photo as well. Sisi nodded, not understanding why Shangguan would bring up the photo at this time.

"Do you remember the man washing his hands in the photo?" Shangguan asked again.

Sisi nodded again, "Of course, that man is the Doctor Guo who dated Lu Yunfei, you’ve met him too."

Shangguan nodded with satisfaction, just about to voice the suspicions in her mind when Huahua rolled in like a ball, shouting loudly: "Mom, auntie, Aunt Sisi, the bad woman and the scoundrel are bullying Tie Dan, Third Brother, and Fourth Brother!"

Before Sisi and Zhong Anmei could react, Shangguan had already scooped up Huahua and strode out, with Sisi and Zhong Anmei hurrying to follow.

It was still the same soccer field, where it seemed all the kids in the courtyard liked to play on the grass.

From afar, Sisi could hear Du Du’s forceful shouting: "Rong Ziqi, what kind of a hero are you hiding behind a woman? If you’re brave enough, get out here fast!"

This was the first time Zhong Anmei had seen Du Du’s arrogance when he was behind others. Usually, Du Du, in front of people, was all sweet, obedient, and adorable – who would have known that this little guy could be such a hooligan behind their backs!

"Sisi, who does your Du Du take after?" Zhong Anmei was stunned.

Sisi touched her face awkwardly and chuckled dryly: "He was well-taught by his great-grandpa."

Zhong Anmei was even more puzzled: could it be Grandpa Tian usually acts like this at home?

The Old Man was accidentally implicated.