At this moment, Xing Jifu turned to look at her. You Mingxu noticed but ignored him.
“Mingxu,” he spoke, his voice hoarse, “Father has brought trouble upon you.” He hadn’t even realized that looking at You Mingxu, his face showed a tender yet pained expression.
You Mingxu said, “You’re not my father. Don’t be so presumptuous. I’m not here because of you—I’m here to arrest you.”
Xing Jifu was quiet for several seconds, then said, “Back then, I wronged her. But in my heart…” He stopped speaking. You Mingxu, utterly disgusted, snapped, “Shut up!”
Guo Feirong heard their exchange. He raised his head, his gaze turning incredibly cold as he stared at Xing Jifu.
“Didn’t you hear her tell you to shut up? What right do you have to speak of her?” Guo Feirong said.
Both Xing Jifu and You Mingxu were shocked.
Guo Feirong smiled and said, “I’ve recorded every crime you’ve committed over these years, one by one. When I carry out your punishment, she’ll surely be happy to know about it in the afterlife.”
You Mingxu’s heart was in turmoil. What was he saying? How could this leader of the Punisher Organization speak of that person in such a way?
Xing Jifu stared at Guo Feirong’s beautiful, dark eyes, suddenly widening his own. Despite the differences in appearance—the man before him was far less handsome and youthful than that person from years ago—the features were similar, and those hate-filled, stubborn eyes were the same.
“You’re… that boy who used to hang around her! It’s you!”
You Mingxu was startled.
Guo Feirong snorted a laugh, not denying it.
“You’re…” Xing Jifu seemed to be searching deep in his memory for a name he’d heard only once or twice. “You’re… Yin Chen!”
You Mingxu was shocked, looking up at Guo Feirong again, and indeed saw some resemblance to Yin Feng’s features, especially in the eyes.
Yin Chen? He was Yin Chen?
Why did Xing Jifu know Yin Chen?
And why… did Xing Jifu only recognize him when he mentioned her mother?
That boy… who used to hang around her back then?
You Mingxu suddenly felt cold sweat on her back.
Guo Feirong burst out laughing, as if he’d encountered something incredibly amusing, pressing his hand to his forehead, continuously chuckling.
Then, You Mingxu witnessed an extremely bizarre scene.
Guo Feirong peeled off something gel-like from his cheeks, took out a wet wipe from his pocket, wiped his brow bone, then peeled off two more things, and finally, starting from his neck, removed a very thin, almost transparent layer from his entire face.
The police force had people skilled in disguise who could transform a gentle-looking young man into a rough-looking bearded fellow, or turn men into women. However, Guo Feirong’s disguise technique was superior. After removing everything, he slowly raised his head.
By age calculation, Yin Chen had to be at least 40. But the man before them looked only thirty-four or thirty-five. It was still Guo Feirong’s facial structure, but the skin was much fairer, the cheeks slightly thinner. The originally thick black eyebrows, once removed, revealed refined features. This face looked even more like Yin Feng.
You Mingxu had seen photos of Yin Chen in his youth, and now she could be certain that the man before her was indeed Yin Chen!
Her thoughts raced—
Yin Feng had once hinted that the leader of the Punisher Organization shared his blood. And their purpose wasn’t just to destroy Yin Feng, but to challenge his moral beliefs.
The brothers were born with evil blood, yet took completely different paths. They both wanted to prove that their pursuit was life’s true meaning.
If all these years, Yin Chen had been using the alias Guo Feirong, infiltrating Xing Jifu’s organization, hiding within a deep criminal organization, everything made sense. It explained why he could remain hidden for so many years; how he had the financial means to maintain a group of guilty killers; and how being in such an organization made it easier to find, train, and organize the Punishers’ operations.
Perverted evil hiding within human evil. How could darkness hidden within darkness be easily found?
You Mingxu looked at the man before her.
This man was more than ten years older than Yin Feng. He was Yin Feng’s brother.
All these years, he had been manipulating evil, human nature, and even criminals at will.
Back then, he had some deep, unspoken relationship with Xing Jifu and her mother.
You Mingxu suddenly remembered the wall full of the photos she’d seen in the Punishers’ hideout, and a strange thought occurred to her—were they only taken by Gu Tiancheng?
Yin Chen seemed quite satisfied with their shocked silence. He first looked at You Mingxu, his voice undeniably gentle: “I should call you sister-in-law.”
You Mingxu remained silent.
Yin Chen didn’t mind, turning to look at Xing Jifu. Despite the differences from the young man in his twenties years ago, Xing Jifu immediately recognized that this man was indeed that boy.
It was more than ten years ago, when that person was still alive, and You Mingxu was only 8 years old.
That year, she was still working as a detective, exhausting herself on cases daily, working without rest, as if trying to work herself to death on duty.
That year, he had already married and had children as per his family’s orders. She would never agree to see him.
He secretly had people watching her. She either didn’t know, or knew but never acknowledged it.
One day, his subordinate reported that she was investigating a serial murder case, working undercover on the streets. That area wasn’t under his control, and it wasn’t easy to insert his people there, so he frowned.
The subordinate also mentioned that a young man living in the same poor apartment building was always hanging around her. She seemed to take care of that boy quite well.
That boy was called Yin Chen, in his early twenties, several years younger than her. He was reportedly tall and handsome but had no proper job or income, just a street vagrant. He was hiding in that building, apparently from debts. In short, he was an insignificant person.
After seeing Yin Chen’s photo from his subordinate, Xing Jifu’s frown deepened, and he told his subordinate: “Kill that boy.”
At that time, Xing Jifu had just dealt with enemies both inside and outside the family, his hands stained with blood. After giving this order, he didn’t even remember to follow up on whether it had been carried out.
Because not long after, she met with misfortune.
…
Xing Jifu pulled back from his memories and said coldly, “What exactly do you want?”
Yin Chen said, “Nothing much. Publicly, you should atone for your accumulated crimes over these years. Privately, the hatred of stealing someone’s wife is naturally a matter of life and death. What I want, you’ll slowly find out. We have plenty of time.”
You Mingxu’s temples throbbed as she listened.
Yin Chen’s words revealed several layers of meaning: With plenty of time ahead, given their perverted methods, it seemed they planned to torture Xing Jifu slowly.