Hearing Shen Qiang's words, the breathtakingly beautiful Qian Shanxue not only looked tense, but her beautiful eyes were also fixed intently on the old man. Her fair and slender jade-like hands instinctively clenched into fists.

"Dad, I've told you so many times, I'm in high school now. Stop picking me up and dropping me off, it's so embarrassing if my classmates see it." The schoolgirl, who looked about sixteen or seventeen, said to the old man walking beside her.

The old man frowned: "It's perfectly natural for a father to take his daughter to and from school. Who dares to laugh at that? Besides, there are so many bad people in this world. I wouldn't be at ease if you went to school alone."

The schoolgirl pouted and said sweetly, "Dad, don't be like this, the Provincial City has good security. All these years, I've never seen a single bad person you've talked about."

"By the time you see them, it'll be too late!" the old man lectured unhappily. "Listen to your father: go to school on time, come straight home after school, and never walk alone at night. This is a rule for staying alive."

Listening to the faint sounds carried by the wind.

Shen Qiang sneered.

Watching him as he dropped off the unhappy, pouting schoolgirl at school, then stood idly at the school gate until she entered the school building before turning to leave, it was truly hard to associate him with the term 'serial killer'.

As he headed back, Shen Qiang followed in his car.

He seemed to sense something, quickening his pace noticeably, and after walking about a hundred meters, he dashed into a small alley.

Shen Qiang and Qian Shanxue immediately got out of the car.

"Are you sure it's him?" Qian Shanxue transmitted her voice.

Shen Qiang quickly replied, "I'm ninety percent sure it's him."

Qian Shanxue's eyes lit up instantly.

The two of them entered the alley, trailing the old man.

He seemed to have sensed something and crossed the road from the other end of the alley, heading directly to the park opposite.

It was the dead of winter.

And it was seven-thirty in the morning.

The morning exercise crowd had dispersed, and the leisurely wanderers hadn't arrived yet.

Thus, the entire park was silent.

Shen Qiang and Qian Shanxue followed the old man into the depths of the deserted forest in the park. Just as they rounded a corner, they clearly saw the old man standing coldly on the path, looking at them.

"Why are you following me?" the old man's gaze was icy.

Shen Qiang smiled and said, "To settle a debt."

The old man looked at Shen Qiang in surprise and said, "I don't owe anyone any money."

Shen Qiang raised an eyebrow and said, "A life debt."

Instantly, the old man froze, staring blankly at Shen Qiang and Qian Shanxue. "Are you police? You have no reason to find me."

Shen Qiang laughed, "Is it because you were born without fingerprints? Or because in your twenty-eight years of crime, with over four hundred cases, not a single person was left alive?"

The old man was stunned, and after a long while, he sighed and said, "I knew this day would come, just didn't expect it so soon."

Shen Qiang was surprised at this and said, "Soon? I think it's already too late."

The old man was silent for a moment, then turned and sat on a long bench beside the path. After a while, he said in a low voice, "I originally thought, after my daughter went to college, I would turn myself in."

Shen Qiang casually brushed the snow off a small flower bed beside the path and sat leisurely on the low cement wall, saying, "You wouldn't. Otherwise, in these fifteen years, you've had plenty of opportunities to surrender."

"I can't," the old man said seriously. "Because my daughter is too young, she needs care."

Shen Qiang smiled, staring into his eyes and said, "Do you escort her to and from school every day because you're worried about her meeting someone like you? Are you afraid she'll become a cold corpse? Throat slit, upper garments pushed above her breasts, lower body bare, and stabbed dozens of times?"

"Raping them in a pool of blood and watching them struggle helplessly until they die, isn't that your favorite thing to do?" Shen Qiang's tone grew angrier.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, the old man flew into a rage, "Shut up! If you dare to target my daughter, I'll tear you to pieces!"

Shen Qiang coldly raised an eyebrow, "Angry? Then have you ever considered the feelings of those you've harmed, how their families felt?"

The old man remained silent.

A moment later, he sighed and said, "Fifteen years ago, I had my eye on a young female worker at a cardboard box factory. Her family was from out of town, renting a place in the old mechanical factory's family compound. She lived alone, unmarried, and her life was simple: work, home, repeat."

"She was rather hermitic, not very sociable, unfamiliar with others at the factory, and generally didn't speak much with her colleagues."

Looking at Shen Qiang, the old man said, "It was perfect. No one knew her, no one was close to her, she was a stranger in this place—practically a meal served to me on a platter, because I knew that even if she died, it would take a few days for anyone to notice."

Shen Qiang frowned, wanting to speak.

Signaling with his eyes for Shen Qiang to keep silent, the old man sighed and said, "So that night, after her shift, I followed her home. As she was washing her hair in the living room, I crawled in through the front window."

"Then, as soon as I entered the house, I saw a little one, about seven or eight months old, staring at me with wide, curious eyes."

"I froze. I never imagined that the reclusive female worker wasn't alone; she had a child."

"But she was too small to stop me. However, just when I was about to hide behind the door to make my move when she finished washing, that little one smiled at me and reached out with her little hand."

The old man's eyes were filled with unspeakable satisfaction as he said, "Her smile made me feel like she liked me. Even if I was extremely sinful, even if my hands were bloody, even if I was ugly, and even if the whole world didn't care about me, she cared."

"And then?" Qian Shanxue said, her eyes cold as ice.

The old man smiled and said, "So I decided not to kill her. I left the way I came. As I left, the little one watched me unwillingly, and the moment I stepped out, she started crying. So I made a decision to work at the cardboard box factory."

"Every day, I brought tasty food to her mother, and I always saw her save some to bring home."

"Every time I thought of her taking the food back for the little one, I felt an immense satisfaction, greater than the thrill of killing. So I stopped killing."

"A year later, her mother decided to marry me, and so I became her father."

Looking at the calm-looking Shen Qiang, the old man said, "She's very exceptional. Even though her academic performance isn't great, she isn't particularly smart, nor is she very pretty, and she sings off-key, but in my heart, she's the whole world. So you came too early. I hoped to watch her go to college, fall in love, start her own family, and have her children..."

"So, you'll have to die here." he stated seriously.

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