Chapter Ninety-Two: The Haunted House, Part 25

"My dad really is not a bad person."

Rongrong could not help repeating it, her eyes red.

"I also had no idea this was the very family he handled back then."

She had only heard her father speak of it with guilt. She had only seen how deeply he had kept the matter in his heart all these years.

So after she came into her own strength, she began searching everywhere he had once worked, hoping to find that family. Now she had finally found them, but reality was far harsher than she had imagined.

"I was always so jealous of my brother. I knew he was adopted by my dad, so I was jealous from the start that once he came to our home, he took all of my father’s love." Rongrong seemed to sink into her memories as she spoke. "Now I understand. So this was how Dad tried to atone. He thought Qianji and Aiji were both children of this family. He tried to protect the last bloodline of their house and gave him the very best treatment, never imagining that..."

Rongrong gave a bitter smile. The one her father had tried to make amends to had been the wrong person.

By Su Man's account, her father had even helped the murderer.

In his ignorance, he had made yet another mistake.

"No wonder Dad’s health started going downhill after bringing Brother Hu Chai back. Maybe that was also the unwilling curse of Madam Jinghua."

Rongrong could understand it easily. If not for her father, with Qianji still so young after killing so many people, the truth would sooner or later have come to light. But because of her father’s intervention, the truth had been buried for a full ten years.

"My dad really never meant to do it. He only wanted to make amends."

Rongrong truly felt heartbroken. For one unintentional mistake all those years ago, her father had paid for it with his entire life, and in the end it was still wrong.

"He went to such lengths to treat him well. Tell me, how could he have the nerve to accept it all so calmly?"

As she spoke, tears welled in her eyes again. "Do you think he enjoyed all the kindness Dad showed him while secretly mocking him at the same time?"

A tear fell onto the floor, darkening the carpet even more. "But Dad truly treated him with sincerity..."

Would he have mocked him? If Su Man were to say, a man like Qianji would definitely have been sneering at Hu Nian's foolishness. Strictly speaking, he was also the chief culprit who had ruined Hu Nian's life. To raise an enemy in the palm of your hand and cherish him as if he were your own—if Su Man put herself in his place, and she were Qianji, she would have been delighted beyond measure.

But she did not say any of that to Rongrong.

She only replied lightly and ambiguously, "Sincerity may also be met with sincerity. They are already dead, so even if we talk about it now, there is no answer left, is there?"

"If you want to help your father, then you should be the one to make the truth here public." Su Man admitted that there was a selfish motive behind her urging, but what she said was also the truth. "If your father were still alive, he would probably want to see this family finally set free."

Rongrong's gaze drifted around in confusion, then slowly steadied. "You mean, as long as I reveal the truth, everything here will return to normal?"

Su Man nodded. "In theory, yes."

But she added, "That said, if you personally do not want to report it because of your own feelings, or because you have grown attached to Hu Chai, I will not force you. You do not have to report it. But you also cannot distort the facts for the sake of personal sentiment."

That was her warning.

Rongrong gave a bitter smile. "I said I was professional. A reporter cannot bring private feelings into it..."

That was what she said, though she was crying herself apart.

After collecting herself, Rongrong once again asked to see Madam Jinghua.

"I want to apologize to her for what my father did."

Su Man did not say no. She only mentioned, almost casually, "Madam Jinghua met with your father, but she did not show any unusual reaction. It was when she saw you..."

She left the rest unsaid.

Rongrong understood the implication, and forced out a difficult smile. "You met my father too, didn't you? At first glance, you probably didn't think I looked much like him."

At that, Su Man nodded. Indeed, they did not look very alike. In fact, thinking back now, they did not seem very similar at all.

"Time passing is part of it. Another reason is that what happened back then hit him so hard. Saying he became a different person is not an exaggeration. And when my dad was young, he and I looked extremely alike."

Sometimes Rongrong herself found it uncanny. Looking at old photos felt like looking into a mirror.

She suddenly sighed, "It was all thanks to how much my dad and I resemble each other. Otherwise, I would never have known this was the place I was looking for."

Later, Rongrong and Madam Jinghua spoke for a long time, most of it full of apology.

In the end, she also promised Madam Jinghua that she would expose everything that had happened here, and that even if it cost her life, she would restore this place to its innocence.

Madam Jinghua sat by the window listening to her, surprise and shock flickering in her eyes. When she finally heard of Hu Nian's ending, she seemed to let go of something at last, though a complicated look remained in her gaze. "So that is how it was... In the end, fate plays cruel tricks on people."

The scenery around them trembled for an instant. Su Man looked around and sensed something fading away. Rongrong called out to her, "Madam Jinghua is disappearing."

Su Man looked over, and sure enough, the chair was already empty, with only that seat swaying faintly in the breeze.

"It's over," Su Man murmured. The domain of obsession had vanished.

The livestream chat began to explode with comments.

[Did the domain of obsession just disappear? This is the first time I've ever seen one vanish.]

[A little underwhelming, wasn't it? It just disappeared like that?]

[I thought that lady or whatever she was would go on a killing spree.]

Su Man only glanced at them once and did not read any further.

But the screen still gave no prompt that she had completed the mission.

She thought: could it be that she had to go out with Rongrong and have the matter fully reported in the newspapers before it would count?

After waiting another two seconds and still receiving no notification, she decisively took Rongrong by the hand and headed for the exit.

"Come on. Let's go public with this right now."

Rongrong did not object and followed her out.

Qingnian, who had been wandering restlessly around them the whole time, could not help but follow along as well. Though he did not know what had happened, he was extremely excited. "Are we going out? Can we leave now?"

"You've solved everything here?"

"I should be calling you bosses, honestly. You're the real deal, living masters. When we get out, how about we work together? You take the jobs under my name, you make the moves, and we split it fifty-fifty—"

He chattered on and on, but Su Man did not spare him a single look.

At last, they reached the gate.

She pushed it open.

It did not budge.