She had stepped onto something that made her slip slightly. The soles of her slippers were still damp with blood after all. Xue Ning pointed a flashlight at the offending object, only to choke out a horrified gasp.
Beside her, Jingwei let out a hastily muffled shriek.
Illuminated by the flashlight, was a severed fingertip covered in blood. Xue Ning bit her tongue in her attempt to stop herself from screaming in fear.
"Fuck fuck fuck," Jingwei muttered frantically, his eyes focused on the severed body part. "Holy fuck. How did this happen? Where did this even come from?"
"You didn't know?" Xue Ning asked as she took a shaky step back. "Weren't you here the whole time?"
"No! I was annoying the first man as a form of interrogation." Jingwei said. "Your father was the one with them the whole time!"
"Oh," Xue Ning said quietly. The puzzle pieces were falling into place, and the picture they formed was damning indeed. "So. My loving father apparently hacked off this man's finger. For no good reason!"
Jingwei opened his mouth, wanting to defend him, but no words emerged.
"See, you can't even deny this!"
"He might have had a good reason?" Jingwei tried anyway. "Maybe he was doing this to scare them!"
Xue Ning scoffed. "If so, it definitely worked." It was scaring her already, and she wasn't someone that got frightened easily. How did her father have the nerve to slice off a finger as a form of intimidation? That was just sheer ridiculousness! No normal person would think of doing that!
"Or it could be your father's finger all along."
"It's definitely not," Xue Ning had seen her father, and he was miraculously unharmed despite the blood on his clothes. Well, now she definitely knew how the blood got on him! "My dad was fine!"
"Let's go back anyway, if someone finds us here with the bodies, we're done for!" Jingwei said, pulling her away from the two fallen. Xue Ning seemed to be warring with herself, her feet rooted determinedly to the floor.
"Wait, I want to check something." Xue Ning reached into the pockets of the first man, feeling for something that could be useful.
"What are you doing? Looking for souvenirs?" Jingwei asked curiously. Xue Ning rolled her eyes.
"Of course not, I'm trying to see if they have a phone or some form of ID… got it," she said, triumphantly digging out a phone from his back pocket, trying not to think of the fact that she was effectively robbing a corpse.
She then did the same for the second man and pulled out his phone too. "Now we can go."
"Good," Jingwei heaved a sigh of relief, holding her hand tight. Xue Ning would have found his sweaty palms funny, if not for the fact that her palms were equally sweaty. "Let's go then."
They made their way back to the house, now with two extra phones. When the house came into view, they realised there was one extra truck that wasn't there before. Beside it, Li Tai Cheng and Li Tai Xuan were busy lifting one of the tied up men and putting him at the back of the truck.
"Wow! Your father really did it!" Jingwei said, impressed.
"Yes. He did." Xue Ning muttered quietly to herself, defeated. She wondered if she truly knew her father at all.
"Hurry up and grab your things," her father said once he caught sight of them. But he faltered when he saw the wooden look in his daughter's eyes. "What's wrong? Did something happen?"
"Dad. Can I talk to you for a second? Alone?" Xue Ning asked, barely keeping herself together.
"Sure. Of course." Tai Cheng said, immediately feeling worried at the look of uncharacteristic sullenness on his daughter's face. "We can go back into the house. Jingwei, help my son."
He gave Sun Jingwei a warning look - did this man try to do something with his daughter that she didn't like? Why else would she behave like this?
Meanwhile, Jingwei only let out an awkward laugh at her father's death glare. It looked a lot more terrifying now that he knew it belonged to someone that could probably kill him in his sleep.
"Yes Sir, I will!" Jingwei said, quickly helping Tai Xuan with one of the men. Tai Xuan glared at him too, but compared to his father, he was as scary as a newly born cub. Jingwei only smiled sheepishly in response.
"Bastard. This is all your fault. Now I have to leave my house…" Tai Xuan complained as the both of them lifted Luo Lan to the back of the truck. To Jingwei's surprise, there were multiple beady eyes staring at him, blinking warily.
Baaa…baaaa….baaa…
"Oh my god," Jingwei's smile widened in joy. It was like a petting zoo because there were sheep in the truck! This was the best thing ever!
Unfortunately, he was the only one with that opinion. Wei Yan, Luo Lan and Zhong Qing all had various looks of dismay on their faces as they were forced to share an enclosed space with multiple curious sheep. They swarmed around them, their hooves delicately stomping all over their bodies as they sniffed them all over.
"Go away, you bloody sheep!" Wei Yan cried out, trying to get away but only succeeding to attract more of the sheep to him. He tried to stifle a sneeze as their woollen coats tickled his nose, but it was impossible.
He sneezed, and was forcefully reminded that his nose was still broken as pain wracked through his nose and traversed down his spine. Tears welled up in his eyes, both from the stupid wool flying around and from the pain!
"Sun Jingwei…" Wei Yan cursed fitfully as he continued to sneeze, "go to hell!"
=====
"Daughter, what's the problem? Did Jingwei bully you? Tell your father, he'll take care of it!" Tai Cheng declared, looking worriedly at Xue Ning.
"Take care of it, how? Are you going to take care of it the same way you took care of the three men at the restaurant?" Xue Ning demanded, upset.
New novel 𝓬hapters are published on (f)reeweb(n)ovel.com