Forbidden Zone of Deception

Chapter 134 Knife and Bloodstains

Xu Yinqiu felt extremely powerless at this moment.

Jiang Jin had once brought in intelligence that something might be amiss in the Korean horror instance recently. However, the specifics of the anomaly were uncertain. But now, upon entering… even Jiang Jin and Liu Yan had vanished!

Fortunately, we bought a large quantity of cakes and put them in the refrigerator, so they can still eat them when they get back!
"Namiko's words are unreliable. In the original movie, she killed five people! But the poisoned wine she gave in the movie took effect immediately, and none of the students here died..."

not only that……

And there's Liu Zhengyuan.

In the movie, Yoo Jung-won is a fictional character, a split personality created by Yoo Jung-won, the real culprit who used the alias Nam Mi-ja.

Jiang Jin later said that after watching the movie, he thought about it repeatedly and came to a conclusion:
Jung-won's feelings for Teacher Park are very complex; it's definitely not just simple hatred.

After poisoning five classmates, she told the police this fabricated story not to escape punishment, but because Ms. Park was only unconscious at the time, not dead, and she had no intention of continuing to live.

Jiang Jin believes that Zhenyuan originally planned to wait for Teacher Park to wake up, tell the truth, and then be arrested by the police in front of the teacher, awaiting the death penalty.

But to her surprise, the teacher didn't wake up. So, in front of the unconscious teacher, she told the police this story that was three parts true and seven parts false.

Telling this story was a spur-of-the-moment decision for her, or rather, it reflects her long-held wish: to be the student whom Teacher Park recognized and even favored, while those who were abused and humiliated were the students who were favored by Teacher Park in reality.

Jiang Jin said that he minored in criminal psychology when he was studying at the police academy. In the movie, Yoo Jung-won was always in a complicated state of love and hate towards Teacher Park.

Therefore, in her story, she herself splits into two people, Nam Mi-ja and Yoo Jung-won, who respectively project their love and hate towards Teacher Park.

She must have truly loved and respected Teacher Park, even showing no fear in the face of his deformed son, which is why she was in even more pain.

Despite how much she hated Teacher Park, in the story she told the police, Nam Mi-ja was as close to the teacher as a mother and daughter, and was the only student who did not resent the teacher at all. She even said that the teacher took her in when she was desperate, and the two were as close as mother and daughter.

Her hatred for Teacher Park was projected onto another character, Jung-won, a gender-swapped psychopathic killer. The reason for the gender swap was that women couldn't directly kill those students (Kang Jin believes that Jung-won actually longed to directly kill and torture these classmates, a subconscious projection into the story). And clearly, the fictional Yoo Jung-won hates his classmates on one hand, and hates his teacher on the other.

In this fictional story, all of Ms. Park's most beloved students hate her to the core, but Nam Mi-ja is the only one who has no unpleasant memories and is willing to help her with her bodily functions.

She was able to enter the teacher's house and brew poisoned raspberry wine, which shows that the teacher must have trusted her immensely. It's highly likely that she genuinely had been taking care of Teacher Park all along. Is this something someone who hates someone could do? This involves caring for a paralyzed elderly woman who is partially paralyzed, incontinent, and requires daily bathing and wiping!
She was bullied, humiliated, and mocked by her favorite teacher when she was a child, and eventually even her mother died...

Even so, she still didn't kill Mr. Park, but instead directed her deeper hatred towards Mr. Park's five most beloved students. Although the story is fictional, the torture suffered by the five students was real, and they were all posthumously whipped!
Jiang Jin asked, "Is this a subconscious jealousy? Why are you all so loved by the teacher, but I'm the only one being bullied by the teacher?"

"In the movie, the deformed child Young-min goes missing, and Jiang Jin speculates that he might have been abandoned by Teacher Park. But in this alternate world, Young-min has been murdered..."

Everyone here, including Teacher Park and several students, looks exactly like the actors in the movie, even the houses and the nearby beach are identical.

However, the copy has deviated significantly from the movie's plot, which is clearly due to meme contamination!
In the afternoon, after having a good meal, several former classmates went to the beach to play in the water.

Not long after Minghao sat on the beach, Shihao walked over and sat down next to him.

"Minghao, do you remember when we used to come here to play when we were little?"

Minghao was silent for a moment, then nodded: "I remember, Teacher Park used to bring us here to play all the time."

“Yes,” Shihao sighed, “It seems to have been around here. Back then, the teacher was heavily pregnant but was still teaching students when she had an emergency delivery and was rushed to the hospital… Then Youngmin was born. We were probably only a few days old at that time.”

Minghao's expression was somewhat complicated: "That was a nightmare for Teacher Park. Her scumbag husband only ever abused her."

Shihao did not answer immediately, his gaze drifting towards Teacher Park's house in the distance.

“I remember back then, a few of us mischievous kids always liked to peek through that semi-basement window,” Shihao said in a low voice. “Yingmin always wore that rabbit mask and sat alone inside, not saying a word, often drawing with crayons.”

Minghao frowned: "Yes, we weren't very sensible back then, which probably made Yingmin even more afraid of seeing people. I heard he refused to leave the basement no matter what. There were also ridiculous rumors at the time, saying that the ghost of Teacher Park's husband was still in that basement..."

Shihao was silent for a while, then suddenly spoke up: "To be honest, although this may sound a bit harsh, Youngmin's death... may be a relief for the teacher."

Minghao turned his head sharply, his eyes blazing: "Shihao! What nonsense are you spouting?"

Shihao shrugged: "Think about it, Yingmin... he wasn't a normal child to begin with. The teacher almost exhausted all her energy taking care of him. She had raised money to take him for plastic surgery, but he became paralyzed instead. The money could only be used for his medical treatment first, and she still had to take care of him. Although he's in pain now, at least..."

"Enough! Let's not talk about this anymore."

Shih-hao pursed his lips and didn't continue.

Not far away, Dafeng and Shunxi were playing. Dafeng scooped up seawater and splashed it at Shunxi, causing her to scream and dodge.

“Soon-hee was very pretty even in elementary school,” Ming-ho said. “Everyone said she could have been a child star. I never thought she would actually be acting now.”

"When Teacher Park heard that her parents wanted to send her into the entertainment industry to make money, he tried his best to persuade them, saying that the child was too young and that entering the entertainment industry at an early age would be bad for her physical and mental health. He said she should focus on her studies first."

"Back then, Dafeng loved sports, but everyone said that he was too fat to be a baseball player. It was Coach Park who encouraged him... When we were in elementary school, what adults said was the truth to us, let alone teachers. If it weren't for Coach Park, Dafeng wouldn't be the home run king in sports news now."

"Oh, yes. By the way, what kind of drama is Soon-hee going to act in after entering the entertainment industry?"

"It seems to be a daily drama co-produced with MBC. I heard I play a villainous supporting character who steals the man from the female lead."

Shihao looked at Minghao and said, "Minghao, do you like Shunxi?"

"Huh? Is it that obvious?"

"I manage several thousand employees, so I have the ability to read people's expressions."

"Speaking of which, where did Zhengyuan go?" Minghao quickly changed the subject.

Shihao looked around and realized that Zhengyuan wasn't on the beach. Shihao stood up and looked around: "He was just here..."

Zhengyuan strolled alone along the coastline.

His thoughts drifted back to his childhood, when he and a group of children often built sandcastles and collected seashells here, and Teacher Park always watched them with gentle eyes.

Suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

Not far ahead, a long and sharp boning knife was deeply embedded in the soil, with what appeared to be dried dark red bloodstains remaining on its surface!
Zheng Yuan's breath hitched, and his heart began to pound violently.

He slowly approached, squatted down, and carefully examined the knife.

The blade gleamed coldly in the sunlight, a sight that sent chills down one's spine.

"This is……"

He quickly recalled the rooster that had been cruelly tortured and killed, its neck slashed open and its abdomen ripped open...

The knife in front of us perfectly matches the characteristics of the murder weapon.

Zheng Yuan's fingers trembled slightly, but he still wrapped the hilt of the knife with a handkerchief and pulled the knife out of the soil.

This knife is truly sharp; even up close, you can still seem to smell the strong stench of blood.

"Could it be... that someone is deliberately abusing animals nearby?"

He looked around and saw that the beach was deserted, with only the waves rolling in.

Jung-won wrapped the boning knife in a handkerchief, put it inside his coat, and hurried back to Teacher Park's house.

He found Miko in the kitchen, where she was preparing tea and snacks.

“Miko,” he lowered his voice, “I have something to show you.”

Miko looked up in confusion: "What's wrong?"

Zheng Yuan cautiously looked around to make sure no one was there before taking the knife out of his coat.

Miko gasped as she looked at the bloodstains on the blade, her face turning deathly pale: "This...this is..."

“I found it on the beach,” Zheng Yuan’s voice was tense. “There was blood on it, and it had dried.”

Miko's fingers trembled, afraid to touch the blade: "Could this... be the murder weapon used to torture and kill that rooster?"

Zheng Yuan nodded: "Very likely."

Miko's eyes widened in terror: "But...who would do such a thing? And why would a knife be left on the beach?"

Zheng Yuan was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "I don't know why, but I feel a little uneasy. If they were just killing a chicken, it wouldn't be a problem, but..."

Miko's pupils contracted sharply: "You...you mean..."

Zheng Yuan didn't continue speaking, but his expression said it all.

The two looked at each other and saw deep fear in each other's eyes.

This knife may have killed more than just one rooster...

The perpetrator who murdered Young-min has still not been arrested.

There is a high possibility that a serial killer is lurking in this area.

Of course, Yingmin was killed by being hit by stones, not stabbed to death.

Maybe I'm overthinking it?
"Put this knife away for now, don't let Teacher Park see it and scare her." Miko bit her lip, then continued tidying up the kitchen.

"Okay then. Where's Teacher Park?"

"She's asleep. It's rare for the teacher to look so well lately."

"You said it's rare, but has the teacher still not been doing too well lately?"

“After all, long-term paralysis will inevitably affect one’s health. I bathe my teacher two to three times a day on average, try to help her with rehabilitation, and also try to massage her legs. I’m considering finding a Korean doctor to take a look…”

"It's traditional Chinese medicine, not Korean medicine."

A voice came from the kitchen doorway, where Xu Yinqiu was standing.

"So-called Korean medicine is actually a continuation of ancient Chinese medical techniques!"

“It seems so,” Zhengyuan said immediately. “I remember in Dae Jang Geum, the female lead practiced medicine based on Zhang Zhongjing’s Treatise on Febrile and Miscellaneous Diseases from ancient China.”

"Traditional Chinese medicine is profound and extensive, it's not just about... wait, where did you get this stuff!"

Just now, Zheng Yuan turned around, and Xu Yinqiu saw at a glance... the boning knife he was holding!

(End of this chapter)