I Was Admitted To The Villain School - Chapter 7.1

The staff hesitated.

Lin Xinghe simply upped the performance. She burst into tears and begged, “ …Sister, please tell me where his wife lives. I promise to take a look from a distance and never disturb her, I’ll just take a look and try to get over him. He’s married but he said he’s single and he played with my heart. Such a scumbag is not worth wasting my feelings. I’ll just take a look, from very very far, and give up on him after seeing his wife. ”

She cried, resembling a pear blossom in a spring shower.*

The staff member was also a woman, and women are the most empathetic. Seeing that Lin Xinghe was only a young girl and had been deceived emotionally, she gave her the address, murmuring, “Poor Sister Meng, just take a look from a distance and don’t disturb her.”

Lin Xinghe got the address and left the rescue center immediately.

There was a small village under the snow mountain. There were no high-rise buildings, the houses were all self-built, and most of the buildings were one-story high. The streets were also deserted—hardly anyone could be seen, the doors of every household were closed, and even the curtains behind the windows were drawn tightly. Only a few shops were open, and through the heavy windshields**, one or two figures could be vaguely seen inside. They were all women.

Every door of every house had a door god*** posted on it. Most of the ordinary door gods were Shentu Yulei, Zhang Fei, Guan Yu and the like. No matter how poor normal people were, their door gods would be made of red paper, but the door gods of this small town were all white paper, with a woman in a red cross-collar skirt painted on it. Ebony hair hung down to her feet, and she had a small, palm-size face without facial features.

Every household was like this at two o’clock, the busiest time in the afternoon. Lin Xinghe got goosebumps all over.

She quickly found Sister Meng’s house. Like all the houses in the town, the door was closed. She tried knocking on the door.

No one answered.

Lin Xinghe pondered this.

… Someone had to be home, or else the staff of the rescue center would not have told her the address directly. Instead, they would have said that Sister Meng was not there.

Lin Xinghe knocked on the door again: “Anyone home? Anyone home? Anyone home? I’m here to pay back the money.”

Before she finished speaking, there was finally a movement in the room. The window on the right side of the door was pushed open halfway. A woman stuck her head out and looked at Lin Xinghe vigilantly: “Who are you? What money do you have?”

She was her thirties or forties, and she seemed to be Sister Meng.

Lin Xinghe said, “You must be Sister Meng. A few years ago, your husband lent me some money. My financial situation was not good at that time, and I never paid it back. This year, my economic conditions are better, and I have saved enough money…” She patted her backpack, “I owed someone money, and I couldn’t get over that hurdle in my heart. I wanted to pay it back directly, but I couldn’t get in touch with him. I remembered the address he mentioned to me before and came here. Don’t worry, I’ve counted the interest for the past few years.”

She sneezed.

“…It’s very cold outside, can I come in and have a cup of hot tea? I’ll leave after paying the money and drinking the tea, so I won’t bother you much.”

Thanks to Lin Xinghe’s innocent face and her sincere words, Sister Meng gave her a few more glances before letting her in.

Lin Xinghe looked around calmly as soon as she entered.

Sure enough, the illusion created by Xiao Xue Ji happened here; that is, in the house of the deceased. The place where he was hanged was right in front of the entrance of the corridor.

There had been a pool of blood under the male corpse in the illusion, but that spot was now covered by a new-looking and rather untrodden carpet. The walls were also clean—there were no traces of blood, but a slight smell of paint pervaded the air.

Lin Xinghe looked over and asked Sister Meng, “Has your house just been renovated? The paint smell is a little heavy.”

“Things get old after a while. I repainted the walls a while ago.” Sister Meng brought a cup of hot water over and sat down on the sofa on the side. Her expression was haggard, and there were dark circles under her eyes that could not be covered. After she sat  down, she tightly clutched her clothes.

Lin Xinghe asked, “Is your husband at home? I want to thank him personally.”

“No, he’s on a business trip. How much do you owe my husband?”

Lin Xinghe said, “He lent me 5,000 yuan a few years ago; now I’ll repay you 6,000 yuan with interest…” She pulled out her backpack and moved as if to take out money. Just as she was about to take it out, she wrinkled her nose and asked, “Sister Meng, why do I seem to smell a bloody smell? I think it came from the carpet…”

Sister Meng’s face tightened as she replied, “No, I just swept the house.”

Lin Xinghe responded, “Oh, that may be my faulty nose. By the way, who is the door god of your village? Is it the Snow Maiden? I heard that there is a legend of the Snow Maiden in your town… I also heard him mention this a few years ago, saying that the Snow Maiden…”

Sister Meng, who had been uneasy the whole time, stood up suddenly, and her voice became sharp: “There is no Snow Maiden, you outsiders shouldn’t assume things are true when you hear them. I don’t want the money, you hurry up and leave.”

Lin Xinghe got the information she wanted, so she didn’t stay too long and left Sister Meng’s house obediently.

Footnote:

* A Chinese idiom referring to how a crying woman looks as beautiful as pear blossoms in the rain.

** Windshields here doesn’t mean the big layers of glass on the front cars. In many Chinese restaurants and businesses, the doors are always open, so they have long, thick strips of plastic curtains to keep wind and the bugs out.

*** Door gods are directly translated from the Chinese word “menshen”, and superstitious people stick them to doors to prevent monsters and bad luck from entering.