*Xin Lei*

There was a long stretch of silence after Zhang Chao said such shocking news. It was hardly believable.

Liao Huifang had her mouth dropped wide open. Yuan furrowed his brows while Bai Li and Tian Song seemed expressionless as if it was not much of a shock to them.

I looked at Zhang Ning, dumbfounded. I typed. "You said that you were twelve when Mrs. Zhang Qiyue died. By how many years is your sister younger than you?"

Zhang Ning nervously said, "Two…"

I blinked my eyes. I typed. "You mean to say that a ten-year-old girl murdered her own mother?"

Silence.

Zhang Chao said in a grim voice. "I knew that it seemed unbelievable. That\'s why we didn\'t want to tell you. But unfortunately, it is the truth."

Yuan said, "You understand that you are talking about a child, right?"

Zhang Chao gave a wry smile. "Trust me. Nobody understands it better than me, Mr. Kang."

It was hard to digest the fact. I couldn\'t picture it. How could a ten-year-old child be so ruthless to kill her own mother?

Yi Xiaosi told us that Zhang Qiyue\'s death was most probably murder and that her murderer was Zhang Chao. So how did Zhang Xiulan come in the picture?

Bai Li said, "Tell us everything from the beginning."

Zhang Chao looked like he was in a daze.

"Ning was born three years later into Qiyue and my marriage. Two years later, Xiulan was born. We loved them equally, of course. But Xiulan...ever since she started to grow older year by year, her behavior was turning odd."

I frowned.

"Odd how?" Bai Li asked.

Zhang Ning softly said, "We don\'t know. It was hard to pinpoint. But she looked like...she was always dissatisfied with something. She began to withdraw from us. We tried to talk to her, but she always looked like she was in a daze. She ignored us. Then one day...when I was seven years old, I saw her cutting up my favorite doll into pieces."

I raised my brow.

Zhang Ning trembled. "I was so horrified. Xiulan was tearing apart the doll\'s dress. She was cutting her hair and breaking her body, and the whole time, she had a weird smile on her face as if she was finally satisfied with something. I cried and went to Dad. But when he confronted her, Xiulan said, \'She was ugly looking. So I cut her up. She annoyed me.\'"

Zhang Chao said, "Ning was greatly affected by it. That doll was her favorite. When Qiyue came to know, she also scolded her, but Xiulan didn\'t respond. I asked her to apologize to Ning, but she didn\'t. She ran away. At that time, I didn\'t take her behavior seriously. She was only five years old. I thought that she might be mad about something, so she took it out on her doll. But then she started to target all of Ning\'s things. In a way, she started bullying her. But…"

He pursed his lips and looked guilty. "Qiuyue and my relationship were going downhill. We used to fight a lot so that I couldn\'t pay much attention to my daughters. There was my work too. I hardly got time for them."

"What were the arguments about?" Bai Li asked.

He sighed. "You know that I am a politician. My work methods are not always clean, and neither does other politicians have a clean background. Qiuyue didn\'t like my methods. She wanted me to stop them, but I couldn\'t. That was my work, and I had my own ways to do it. I couldn\'t change them. So we often argued a lot. My work and the arguments with Qiuyue made me neglect my daughters."

He paused.

"But then, one day, something serious happened. Ning was always fond of small animals, so Qiuyue brought her a small kitten as a pet. I didn\'t mind it. I thought that perhaps a pet would change Xiulan too. Perhaps, she would stop being so withdrawn. Things were peaceful for quite a few days. Even Xiulan seemed happy. But Ning came crying to me one day."

Liao Huifang asked, "Why?"

Zhang Ning closed her eyes. She seemed as if she remembered something painful. She slowly said,

"One day, I was trying to find the kitten, but I didn\'t see her anywhere in the house. I searched for it everywhere and in all corners. Through my bedroom window, I saw Xiulan. I could also see the kitten\'s tail. I felt relieved and ran towards the garden where they were. But when I reached there…" she choked, "I...I...saw her strangling the kitten."

I widened my eyes.

She burst into tears. Her chest was heaving up and down in breathlessness.

Zhang Chao immediately held her hand. "Ning. Are you alright? Should I call the doctor?"

She weakly shook her head. "I am fine, Dad." She looked at us. "I couldn\'t believe it. The kitten was...dead, and she was still strangling him. I puked right there because it was so horrific. I ran towards her and pushed her away. When I looked at Xiulan, she didn\'t feel remorseful at all. She had that same smile on her face when she broke my doll. That was the first time that I got so scared of her. She looked like a different person. I cried hard that day when the kitten died."

Zhang Chao slowly said, "This was something we couldn\'t bear. Qiuyue and I were so shocked. We didn\'t understand why she would kill an animal like that. Qiuyue was furious. She demanded an answer from her. In response, Xiulan said, \'Mommy bought a kitten for my elder sister but not for me. Mommy and Daddy don\'t love me. You only love my elder sister. That\'s why I hated him. I wanted my own kitten too. If I cannot get mine, then elder sister cannot have one either.\'"

I understood. By now, it was clear that Zhang Xiulan was mentally unsound.

Zhang Chao pressed his forehead. "Obviously, it wasn\'t like that. We loved both Ning and Xiulan equally. Qiuyue brought the kitten for Ning because she expressed her desire to have a pet. We would have listened to Xiulan too. And the kitten didn\'t just belong to Ning alone. Qiuyue brought him for both of them to play with. I didn\'t know how Xiulan believed that we loved only Ning. That was the incident where I couldn\'t ignore it. It was clear that Xiulan was...not well."

Yuan said, "For a child to develop that mental state is rare if there is no traumatizing incident that may have happened in the past. I mean, every mental state has a reason. It cannot form out of nowhere and without any reason."

Zhang Chao shook his head. "None of my daughters had any such traumatizing incident that happened to them. Yes, sometimes, Qiuyue and I fought, but we didn\'t let that affect them. I don\'t think that was a strong reason for her to develop such behavior."

"Do any of your family members, yours or on Mrs. Zhang\'s side, have a history of such behavior? Mental illnesses are hereditary, and they may run in families."

Zhang Chao said, "Actually, yes. Qiuyue\'s grandfather had bipolar disorder. After much discussion, we decided to call for a psychiatrist. We really didn\'t want to do that. I didn\'t want my daughter to be sick. I was afraid of the outcome, but I had no choice. The psychiatrist said the same thing as Mr. Kang. Since Qiuyue\'s grandfather had bipolar disorder, he was sure that it-it came in her genes."

We didn\'t say anything.

After a long time, he said, "We were devastated. But the doctor assured us that he would contact the best child psychiatrist for Xiulan. I immediately agreed. It was also because Xiulan\'s behavior was getting violent day by day. I didn\'t want to delay it any further."

I typed. "Then what happened?"

"The treatment began. Xiulan refused to speak or cooperate in the sessions. But we didn\'t give up. Qiuyue was also patient with her. She would gently try to explain it Xiulan was doing something wrong. We were cautious in not letting her feel that we loved Ning more. Qiuyue was very attentive to her those days. But Xiulan seemed to be more and more angry."

Zhang Chao turned silent.

"T-then came the night when Qiuyue was killed."

Bai Li asked, "What happened?"

"...That day Xiulan seemed normal. She was behaving nicely, and she didn\'t seem withdrawn. We were ecstatic. We thought that the treatment was finally working, and she was beginning to change. The day went by without anything happening much. We didn\'t find anything wrong with her. That night, she asked Qiuyue to sleep with her in her room. She happily agreed."

He stopped speaking, and he seemed as if he couldn\'t continue further.

Zhang Ning sobbed. "But the next morning, Dad found M-mom dead. Her…" Tears rolled out of her eyes, "t-throat was slashed, and Xiulan was holding the knife in her hands…"