I brought my sixteen-year-old daughter to the temple to pray for blessings.
My daughter knelt on the ground and was very pious: "May the Bodhisattva bless mommy, bless daddy, and bless grandpa."
Only grandma was not mentioned.
I asked, "Why don't you say bless Grandma?"
My daughter replied calmly, "Because it would be useless even if I said it.
The next day, Grandma died.
1.
After I finished her grandmother's funeral, I thought it was evil, but I just thought it was a coincidence.
However ...
The next year, I once again took my daughter to the temple to pray.
Again, my daughter said something similar: "May the Bodhisattva bless mommy and bless daddy."
This time, she did not mention her grandfather.
The day after my daughter and I returned home, Grandpa died.
I could no longer sit back and watch.
After the funeral, I pulled my daughter aside.
"Sugar, how did you know Grandpa was going to die?"
My daughter replied with a look and tone of voice that did not belong to her age,
"Don't worry, it's not over yet!"
Another year passed, and this year, I didn't take my daughter to the temple again.
Because I really didn't dare anymore.
When I came back, my daughter told me, "Mom, people will still die tomorrow."
I was shocked: "What are you talking about? Go to bed now."
I got Sweetie to her room and put her to sleep, but I lost sleep myself for the whole night.
Before dawn, I urged my husband to stay at home and not to go anywhere today.
2.
Although my husband did not understand, but see me very serious, also agreed.
I went to work as usual.
However, sitting in the office, I was nervous and alert every minute.
I felt that the coworkers wandering around me, the pen on my desk, and the glass windows could all kill me at any time.
I kept looking at my watch while chanting:
"Ten more hours and I'll be fine."
"Eight hours and I'll be fine."
"Six more hours and I'll be fine."
At six o'clock in the evening, I got off work.
The first thing I did was to call my husband.
Fortunately, my husband was still alive and answered.
In order to prevent any traffic blunders, I didn't take the subway and walked five kilometers hard.
When I arrived home, I saw that my husband was safe and sound, and my lifted heart dropped a little.
"Wanjie, nothing happened today, right?" I asked tentatively.
"Accident? No, I didn't! I've been watching TV at home."
My heart was more or less at ease.
But as I looked around, Sugar wasn't in the room. My suspicions were raised again.
"Where's Sugar?"
Hubby immediately got nervous. His eyes began to wander.
At that moment, my daughter came out of hubby's room, wearing only a single pair of thin underwear, and sat down next to hubby without saying a word.
3.
The time came to eight o'clock, but I had by now forgotten the dangers that might befall me today.
Instead, while I was cooking, my mind kept playing back to Sugar coming out of my husband's room, unclothed.
All sorts of possible, dangerous thoughts repeated themselves in my mind.
Just as I was bringing up the finished mushrooms, I realized that my husband was lying on the couch with a purple face and blue lips.
My mind went blank, and the little bit of fading terror instantly filled my entire body.
I recklessly rushed to my husband and tested for pulse, heartbeat and breathing.
Nothing, no response.
I sat paralyzed on the floor as despair, grief and powerlessness disintegrated me.
I cried beside my husband's body for a long time.
I don't know how much time passed before I lifted my swollen eyes.
The moment I looked up, my gaze fell to the face of my daughter next to me, who had nothing but a smile on her face.
A strong connection instantly creeped me out, and I trembled as I pointed a finger at my daughter.
"Dad, did you kill her?"
4.
Soon, my daughter and I were taken to the local police station by Chief Zhang, who lived in the same building.
A gloomy and secluded interrogation room, Bureau Chief Zhang sat across from me.
In a grave tone, Bureau Chief Zhang said, "For three consecutive years, three people died in your family, your husband, Wan Jie, and his parents, and this kind of extermination is not common."
My heart 'thumped', unconsciously remembering my daughter, Sweetie, and her smile as she sat next to Wan Jie's body.
"I don't know, my husband usually didn't mess with anyone."
Bureau Zhang asked me back with sharp eyes, "Fanny, do you usually have a good relationship with your husband?"
I was enraged by the subtext of Bureau Zhang's words.
"What do you mean? Bureau Zhang, do you suspect that I killed them?"
"No, I am certain that you killed them. Although the evidence is still being collected now. But I live in the same building as you, I know something about you, and I have a motive for your killings."
Bureau Zhang lit a cigarette and continued, "The scratches on your daughter's body were left by Wanjie, right?"
This, I did not deny.
5.
As Sugar began to slowly grow into a young girl, I noticed from time to time that Sugar would leave some scars on her arms and shoulders.
When I inquired about Sweetie, Sweetie would only touch my face and reply with the phrase, "It doesn't hurt."
What made Sweets suffer injuries but still deliberately hide them?
At first, I thought Sweetie had suffered from school violence.
So I secretly contacted a few of Sweetie's best classmates, trying to get some information from them.
But her classmates all told me that Sugar got along well with her classmates and no one bullied her.
Not school violence? Then where did the wound come from?
I tried a thousand ways to get Sweets to tell me the truth.
But Sugar always responded with, "It doesn't hurt."
Until I came home from work one day.
After I got home, the leader suddenly sent me a tweet asking me to go back to work overtime.
I clearly remember that before I left, there was only a small cut on Sweets' face.
When I came back, Sweetie's face had two more small wounds.
The problem came that during the four hours I was away, Sweets only stayed at home with Wanjie.
With anger, I went to Wanjie's room.
He had a tense look on his face.
Immediately after, a scene that made me extremely sick to my stomach and devastated appeared: Sugar's coat and Wanjie's coat were mixed together and lying on the floor.