coobybook Chapter 463 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (74)
Chapter 463 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (74)
"I... I understand, brother."
The fat man trembled, but inside he was filled with resentment: What does it have to do with me how you are? It's not like I forced you to do it. On the contrary, you were the one who suggested doing these things. Why are you blaming me now?
But he dared not say anything.
He never expected that the other party would know photos of his family members.
He had no doubt that the man was capable of any terrible thing.
"Brother, we're in this together, don't you trust me? If anything happens to you, how can I be okay?" His head wound was still hurting badly, and his vision was blurry.
The male homeowner remained noncommittal.
Lu Liruan's teeth itched with envy.
This person is completely trying to control everyone they know, hoping that everyone will be manipulated and influenced by them, as doing so gives them a sense of satisfaction.
He probably even planned out how to deal with his accomplices from early morning if they didn't obey him.
“This kind of person deserves to be punished!” Lu Liruan said in a low voice.
Liao Tingyuan frowned slightly, watching the male homeowner's actions.
"What are you thinking about?" Lu Liruan, who now had a good understanding with Liao Tingyuan, turned her head to look at his expression and quickly asked.
"Something feels off." Liao Tingyuan pointed to the male homeowner standing in the living room and tilted his head.
“Something’s not right?” Lu Liruan tried to analyze it, but couldn’t figure it out.
"What should he be doing at this time?" Liao Tingyuan asked in a low voice.
“Should be…” Lu Liruan tried to understand Liao Tingyuan’s meaning.
“Isn’t he just acting the same way he always does? He’s treating the mistress and the child the same way he’s trying to control this accomplice.” Lu Liruan didn’t sense anything unusual about the male homeowner’s behavior.
“That’s no problem.” Liao Tingyuan nodded. “What I mean is, the male homeowner just said that everything is over for him, so will he just let it all go?”
Lu Liruan vaguely understood something.
The male homeowner is just like his father; he tries his best to maintain his image in public and works very hard for what he wants, whether it's his studies or his job.
They do not allow anything to escape their control.
"Why do you think he just stays in this room and doesn't go out?" Liao Tingyuan asked softly.
Lu Liruan was stunned for a moment.
yes……
Although he is now a pariah, people know what he has done, both at work and in his personal life.
But it's not like everyone on the street will recognize him just because he goes out.
Even though it has a high profile on the internet, it's not to the point where he can't go out at all. But he just stays here and doesn't even step out of his room.
Moreover, judging from his current appearance, he seems to be increasingly unable to leave.
"Yes... Given his personality, it's very much in line with his thought process for him to harm the mistress."
Lu Liruan recalled seeing the mistress of the house with a knife in the bedroom, keeping a close watch on the child, and appearing unusually vigilant and hysterical. Clearly, the mistress also felt that he was very likely to come back to harm her or the child.
Lu Liruan originally thought that he was provoked by this incident, which completely shattered his self-esteem and revealed the hidden cowardice and incompetence in his personality.
But what he just said...
He definitely wanted to harm the woman; he also wanted to take the child back to himself and regain control of the child.
"He seems... completely afraid to leave the house."
"Ah."
Now he not only doesn't leave the house himself, but he also forbids his accomplices from leaving, which seems even stranger, especially given his strong reaction.
"He may have been affected by the space."
"Huh?" Lu Liruan recalled what Liao Tingyuan had once told her: how space influences different patterns of people.
The source of infection and the space formed are due to people or events.
Another possibility is that after the source of infection creates a space, that space, in turn, affects the people or things related to it, causing behaviors and consequences.
“If that’s the case…” Lu Liruan’s eyes darted around, “then the source of infection isn’t something like the knife the male owner used to kill the kitten?”
This is because it was the male homeowner's initiative, not an action he took after being influenced.
It wasn't because the knife was the source of infection that it influenced the male homeowner and caused him to act.
"That's a valid way of thinking," Liao Tingyuan agreed.
“The space may have started influencing the male homeowner’s behavior long before, perhaps before he was exposed online, or even earlier…” Liao Tingyuan recalled.
“The source of infection may have been in contact with the male homeowner a long time ago, and these subsequent events were probably influenced to some extent?” Lu Liruan didn’t know exactly when the male homeowner’s behavior started to become abnormal.
Even now, neither she nor Liao Tingyuan are entirely clear on what constitutes an abnormal situation for the male homeowner.
"Perhaps... the fact that the lady of the house and the child are safe is also due to the influence of the space." Liao Tingyuan's voice was calm, but when Lu Liruan heard it, it sent a chill down her spine.
"It's...really possible."
If the husband's behavior shows no abnormalities, the wife, the child, and even the wife's parents may already be...
Lu Liruan initially found the space terrifying, and this impression was partly due to Liao Tingyuan. Lu Liruan was terrified just seeing him on the stairs every night.
Later I realized that the space was dangerous.
But now Lu Liruan has a somewhat complicated feeling about this space.
If it's really as she and Liao Tingyuan guessed, then wouldn't the space also protect the mistress and the child?
If this space hadn't existed, would the male homeowner have remained hidden forever, or would the female homeowner and child have ultimately met with misfortune?
"Was the source of infection someone who had contact with the male homeowner? What other conditions might there be?" Lu Liruan pondered, trying to piece together everything she knew so far.
"Hmm." Liao Tingyuan looked at her expression and placed his palm flat on her forehead.
"What?" Lu Liruan asked, confused.
"I'm checking if your brain is overheating from thinking too fast."
Lu Liruan took a moment to realize that Liao Tingyuan was teasing her.
"Ah! Teacher Liao, aren't you being a little harsh on me now?" Lu Liruan grinned at him without any threat whatsoever.
"No..." Liao Tingyuan patted her head twice more naturally: "You're my only partner, I'm afraid you'll get too tired."
Lu Liruan pursed her lips, deliberately keeping a straight face, but an undisguised joy welled up inside her. She was inexplicably happy to hear Liao Tingyuan connect the two of them.
Like a child who has received a reward of candy...
"Oh." Lu Liruan pouted and whispered, "I have to work harder because I want to be your partner... so I can protect you!"
Liao Tingyuan lowered his eyes and obediently replied, "Okay, I'll wait for Ruan Ruan to protect me."
The living room over there quieted down a bit.
After cleaning up the floor, the fat man took his bloodstained clothes, which he had been using as a rag, to the toilet.
Lu Liruan breathed a sigh of relief. If Liao Tingyuan hadn't brought her out earlier, she probably would have run into the fat man in the restroom...
The male homeowner's eyes were terribly red, with bloodshot veins extending to every part of the whites of his eyes. When he looked towards the kitchen, Lu Liruan felt a chill run down her spine, as if he could see her.
“He looks like he’s going crazy,” Lu Liruan said, pouting.
"People cannot lack sleep for a long time, otherwise their condition will also be affected."
Lu Liruan had no idea how long the male homeowner hadn't slept while watching over the fat man.
He seems to have reached his limit.
"What is he doing?" Lu Liruan asked, puzzled by the man's actions.
The male homeowner pulled out several bed sheets and tied them together securely.
Then they tied one side to the door handle.
The fat man who came out of the toilet didn't understand what he was doing either, and just timidly backed away, asking, "Brother... what are you doing?"
"I'm going to take a nap... If you dare to run away..."
The male homeowner tied the other end to his wrist so that he could sense any movement from the front door.
The fat man quickly agreed, "I understand, bro! I definitely won't go out!"
The male homeowner entered the bedroom with a gloomy expression and lay down on the messy mattress.
Lu Liruan watched as the fat man cautiously moved around the living room, not daring to make a sound. The timid expression on his face faded, replaced by resentment.
The fat man wasn't a good person either; he was just terrified of the male homeowner.
He stared intently at the bedroom, and even sneaked to the door to check if the male homeowner was truly asleep.
Then I went to the gate and looked at the bed sheet tied there. I reached out several times, but I still didn't dare to touch it.
"Do you think he might take this opportunity to run away?" Lu Liruan asked Liao Tingyuan.
Liao Tingyuan shook his head: "This space has affected the male owner, and it may have affected him as well."
"Oh! Right, that's true!" Lu Liruan realized.
"Then what exactly..." Lu Liruan wanted to say, what exactly was the trigger that caused both of them to die?
Lu Liruan was very uneasy. She had no idea what would happen next. Everything was on the verge of getting out of control. She didn't know when or what would lead to the terrible ending.
She and Liao Tingyuan were like people forced to watch a suspense movie, waiting for the final curtain to fall.
The space really felt like it was staging a movie just for the two of them.
I don't know when it will end.
Seeing the fat man walk straight towards the kitchen, Lu Liruan quickly pulled Liao Tingyuan to squeeze into the balcony.
“If he really runs into us later, let’s climb up that pile of trash.” Lu Liruan pointed behind Liao Tingyuan.
"We probably won't run into each other, right?" Liao Tingyuan estimated the distance.
“He takes up too much space…” Lu Liruan watched as the fat man turned around and knocked a bunch of messy things off the kitchen counter to the ground.
The fat man rummaged through the kitchen, and Lu Liruan watched as he pulled out a knife that looked rusty from deep inside the cabinet.
He gripped the hilt of the knife and swung it menacingly in the air.
"I'll fucking kill you! Who do you think you are! I'll stab you to death!"
He muttered to himself as he took the knife and went back to his room.
He pulled the completely cold food out of the takeout bag, opened the box, and began to wolf it down. Occasionally, the movement aggravated the wound on his face, causing his expression to twitch.
He turned on his computer and started typing away on the keyboard.
Lu Liruan and Liao Tingyuan walked behind him and cautiously looked at his computer screen.
He was chatting with someone.
That must have been a hidden chat room, where everyone's avatars were black and their names were all strange.
"What, another video for sale?"
"Wait a minute...didn't you guys take this to the internet? How dare you still do it?"
"You haven't been online for quite a while!"
This is how he communicates online with those perverts who buy his videos.
"Damn! Don't even mention it!"
The fat man typed rapidly.
"He doesn't know about our chat room!"
He was referring to the male homeowner.
Clearly, the people in the chat room understood what the fat man meant.
"What? You're still in contact with him?"
The fat man seemed to know the people in the chat room quite well, and he spoke in a relaxed manner. He briefly recounted what had happened between him and the male host.
Soon, a message popped up below:
"Didn't you ever think about killing him? What would it feel like to kill someone? Why don't you record it and sell it to me? I'm willing to pay!"
"Yeah, he's at your house anyway, so what are you chickening out for?"
"Don't be a coward! What a great opportunity, hahaha!"
……
The conversation went further and further off track, making Lu Liruan feel uncomfortable watching it.
In this anonymous chat room, everyone was unleashing their most twisted malice, treating murder as if it were a trivial matter.
The thought of someone like this, always wearing their own disguise, mingling in society, could mean they're not necessarily someone's family member, lover, or neighbor...
Once you start thinking like that, you'll feel like you're surrounded by danger.
As if encouraged, the fat man also started saying terrible things in the chat room. He typed as he spoke, his expression filled with resentment.
"If he messes with me again, I'll chop him up!"
The fat man left behind his bold words, which received unanimous praise from below.
"what time is it?"
The atmosphere in the room was too oppressive, and Lu Liruan already wanted to leave.
Liao Tingyuan checked the time: "I'll go downstairs and take a look in a little while."
"Will it be alright if we open the door?" Lu Liruan looked at the bed sheet on the door.
"The male homeowner will probably wake up soon," Liao Tingyuan gestured for Lu Liruan to listen.
Sure enough, the sound of restless turning over came from the male homeowner's room.
Upon hearing the male homeowner get up, the fat man hurriedly left the chat room, pretending he was playing a game.
The man's expression hadn't improved much; he appeared at the door with a gloomy look: "What are you doing?"
"I...I was playing games out of boredom, why don't you sleep a little longer, bro?"
"I'm afraid you'll come up with bad ideas behind my back..." the male homeowner said sarcastically.