“You went to Feng Tong's house to deliver donations?”

“Yes, her family's situation has always been bad. This semester, she even had to take a break to treat her younger brother. As classmates, we wanted to help. I'm a class committee member, so I organized the class to donate some money. It's not much, but we help as much as we can.”

“Her father has a mental illness, her mother has been in jail, and it seems her brother inherited some mental issues too.” Xu Shuo and Zhang Xin, as the reporters, were giving their statements.

Zhang Xin added, “Her father is the second child, everyone calls him 'Er Zhuzi'. He was the fool of our village, couldn't find a wife, but a shaman cured him. The shaman was a great benefactor to their family, so in our village, no one believed in the shaman more than their family.”

“Shaman? She dares to write prescription for eating human flesh, what's divine about that?” The policeman frowned.

“Yes, indeed, officer. We just said it out of habit. But Feng Tong's father's mental illness was really cured back then. Feng Tong's mother came to our village, she was an outsider with no one to rely on. The matchmaker set them up, and then they had Feng Tong and Feng Qing. Feng Tong's mother seemed quite kind, who would have thought she was a murderer...”

“Murderer?”

“Yes, she just got released this year. I heard she killed someone in another place before fleeing here. Otherwise, why would she marry a mental patient?”

Zhang Xin kept rambling.

Xu Shuo added, “Anyway, their family was doing okay at first. Feng Tong was good in her studies. I even recommended her as a class representative. But then her mother got arrested, her father's mental illness relapsed, and he later died in an accident. The family fell apart. These past two years, Feng Tong and Feng Qing have been surviving on the villagers' aid. Maybe people pitied them, so their mother got an early release this year. But she had killed someone; her mind wasn't like normal people's. She even killed her own daughter...”

Early release? Intentional homicide, it's impossible to get an early release just out of pity.

The policeman waved his hand, “Their family seems well-known. You kids know so much about it.”

Xu Shuo didn't respond.

“Of course, the village is small, and everyone knows their business.” Zhang Xin was still eager to speak more. “Officer, mental illness is hereditary, right? There's no reason it would pass to the son but not the daughter. Feng Qing says he has asthma and can't go out, but we all know it's because he was expelled for mental illness. Feng Tong probably has it too. She had no friends at school, but secretly, she seduced our class monitor, right, class monitor?” Zhang Xin elbowed Xu Shuo.

Xu Shuo was startled and simply replied, yes.

The policeman muttered, “Okay, if you have nothing more to add, you can go now.”

Xu Shuo and Zhang Xin asked again, “Officer, isn't it said that once a murderer kills, they won't stop? It must be her mother who killed her. Who knows what happened between them, killing her wasn't enough, she even dismembered her... I get it, she went mad. Can madness be contagious? It was clearly her who killed the shaman, even put the body in a jar, but she insists it was Feng Tong. Feng Tong is dead; did she become a ghost and kill? The entire family is crazy!”