False evidence

Chapter 269 Diary (5)

I asked, "Is the Yin-Yang Fan your so-called lifeline?"

Seeing Lü Xin nod, I sneered: "Lying seems to be your greatest skill."

Lu Xin frowned slightly: "You mean I injured Liu Yi'er with the Yin-Yang Fan, right?"

I remained silent.

Liu Yi'er once said that he became this half-human, half-ghost because of the Yin-Yang Fan, and his descendants suffered greatly as a result. At that time, the Yin-Yang Fan was still in Lü Xin's hands, but Tong Jiawen had escaped from the brothel and was no longer quite lucid.

Lu Xin snorted coldly: "If I'm not lying, then you should understand why I don't like this woman, right?"

I was taken aback, and then a chilling feeling crept over me.

"Hehe, you're right."

Lu Xin sat back on the daybed. "At first, I was wondering how Liu Yi'er found me. Only after he told me about what happened back then did I understand what was going on."

It just goes to show you don't understand brothels back then. A woman escaping from a brothel? Ha, that's something you only see in movies.

"What's the truth?" I felt powerless.

"The truth is, she knew the Yin-Yang Fan could only be used twice a month. She deliberately staged a scene to lure Liu Yi'er to me. When I carried Liu Yi'er out onto the street, she took the opportunity to steal the Yin-Yang Fan!"

I shook my head: "Wouldn't you carry something this important with you at all times?"

Lu Xin shrugged: "The real Yin-Yang Fan is twice as heavy as your fake one. I'm just going to dump Liu Yi'er on the street, why would I bring the fan with me?"

Besides, the women I've slept with are all devoted to me until I get tired of them. With women keeping my fan safe, I don't have to worry about it being stolen by thieves.

"Ha, what a pity. I was too confident and forgot that there are always exceptions. Tong Jiawen didn't steal; she just walked into my house, killed that woman, and took the fan!"

Lu Xin leaned against the daybed, looking at me with droopy eyelids: "According to my calculations, from that time onwards, in another year, the Yin-Yang Fan will have passed another sixty years."

If it really could grant one wish like in the legends, perhaps I wouldn't have died so young, and after meeting Jin'er, I could have grown old with her.

So, all things considered, don't you think I should hate Tong Jiawen more? Ha, yes, I really do hate her.

Especially after being forced to leave Jin'er, if I had met Tong Jiawen again then, she would have died a terrible death.

But the most important thing in life is to face reality, and I've seen it all over time. Tong Jiawen and I are both dead, and Jin'er is dead too. What's the point of me hating her?

I paused for a moment, then asked, "Do you still believe that the Yin-Yang Fan can truly grant people's wishes?"

Lu Xin shook his head: "How would you know if you haven't tried it yourself? But now I do feel that the Yin-Yang Fan seems to be an ominous object. Zhao Boqing's entire family died because of the fan; Tong Jiawen took the fan, and didn't she suffer an even more tragic fate later?"

I scoffed: "It seems you were the one who wiped out Zhao Boqing's entire family."

Lu Xin curled his lip: "Say the same thing twice. If he hadn't forcibly taken Tong Jiawen back then, why would I have wiped out his entire family? Kid, everything has a cause and effect."

Liang Kaiyuan reminded me, "Let's study the diary first."

I continued flipping through the diary, sighing countless times along the way.

Xiao Huan's grandmother was truly bewitched by love. Her daily diary entries grew shorter and shorter, yet the longing they contained within them grew ever deeper.

She even named her daughter Lü Nian.

After turning another page, Liang Kaiyuan said, "The owner of the diary must be dead."

Without even lifting his eyelids, Lü Xin said, "Perhaps he's sick, too sick to write in his diary anymore."

I turned to this page, and there was still content, but the handwriting had changed, and it was written horizontally.

I asked Lü Xin, "This seems to have been written by your daughter. Don't you want to take a look?" "She seems to have died not long ago." Lü Xin's voice was tinged with sadness. "At first, I thought that when the time came, I would pray to the Yin-Yang Fan for immortality and eternal youth. Ha, now I realize that if I really could live forever, it would be a very sad thing."

Liang Kaiyuan sighed, "It is indeed very sad to watch your relatives and friends leave one by one."

The latter part is indeed a record by Jie Xiaohuan's mother, mostly about everyday family matters, and there's really nothing interesting about it.

I quickly lost patience and simply flipped through the pages from back to front.

So the first thing you see is the line I wrote without even realizing it.

Turn the page forward, and the font is different from the previous one.

Although it's a woman's handwriting, and it's neat, it gives off a very tense feeling.

Liang Kaiyuan said, "The handwriting reflects the person; this must have been written by Xie Xiaohuan."

I glanced at him, rolling my eyes. "Brother, shall we check the date?"

Liang Kaiyuan glanced at the date, somewhat embarrassed. "December 13th, the Great Cold. Isn't that today?"

— December 13th, the Great Cold; Meng Chao will be wronged tomorrow because of taking the train; he hangs himself on New Year's Eve.

—On the same day of the Great Cold, Pidan's mother was seriously ill and hospitalized. That same night, both mother and daughter died.

I gasped.

Now I finally understand why Xie Xiaohuan said, "The whole world has gone mad."

If you flip back further, you'll find it's Lü Nian's handwriting again.

However, the content gives people a very strange feeling.

Liang Kaiyuan said in a low voice, "It seems like I only remember some of these..."

“It wasn’t something that happened that day, but rather something that seemed to have been foreseen,” I interjected, turning to Lü Xin.

Before I could speak, Lü Xin waved his hand and said, "I only know a little about Taoist arts and the Book of Changes, I'm not a prophet. Your divination seems to only work when you see the person in question. This is the first time we've met Xiao Huan."

He got out of bed again and walked over, staring at the diary for a while before suddenly saying, "Tear off another page."

Liang Kaiyuan also said, "I remember Xie Xiaohuan saying that she also accidentally tore her diary on the train. I think she's quite dull and wouldn't lie. She probably only realized the diary was unusual after meeting Meng Chao and hearing Pi Dan's name. I wonder if she did what you did during the day, and unconsciously wrote those lines after tearing the diary?"

Remembering the smell I caught when I tore up the diary, I slowly tore open a page.

I leaned closer, but didn't smell anything special. I didn't feel anything particularly unusual either.

"Strange, why isn't it responding?" Liang Kaiyuan leaned closer. "Try changing to another page."

I shook my head: "I don't think it will work."

Lü Xindao said, "I think so too. Let's assume that this diary can indeed predict the future, and what it can predict must be people and events related to the person who recorded it."

I nodded: "Although Jie Xiaohuan had never met Mengniu and Pidan before, she did see them before the incident."

Liang Kaiyuan said, "It's not just about seeing her. If she hadn't mentioned the diary, Pidan's mother might have already been in trouble. At that time, who would have cared about her?"

Lü Xindao said, "So, what Sanqi and Xiaohuan wrote were all related to their own experiences. The diary has a predictive function, but if nothing special happens in the near future, it will naturally not work."

“Yeah, it’s not like bad luck just keeps happening.” I nodded and said, “Prediction has nothing to do with the diary being torn up. If that were the case, Lu Nian had written so many pages of notes, the notebook would have been completely ruined by now.”

Lu Xin suddenly stared intently at me, "Let's make a deal."

(End of this chapter)