Demons Beside You

The FDD Commercial Building was a well-known landmark. When Chen Zhao entered, he was almost stopped by the security guards.

This building was mainly used for work offices, but it also had some luxury suites that could be rented. Judging from the security, the monthly rent for a suite would be at least $20,000.

Chen Zhao’s client lived in one of the suites. He reached the 40th floor and rang the bell after confirming the room number. He remembered that the last time he came to this kind of suite, he’d met two beauties.

He wished that his client this time was also a beauty. Of course, it would be best if she wasn’t a murderer.

The door opened. It was a 30-something-year-old woman. She was beautiful with some makeup on and wearing fashionable clothes.

However, her stomach was bleeding. She hadn’t pulled out the knife yet.

She looked down at the pets around Chen Zhao. “You are?”

“Were you the one that called a doctor?”

“You’re a doctor?”

“Yes.”

“Are you sure you’re not a vet?”

“It’s my habit to bring my pets out. I’m worried if I leave them at home.”

“Alright... Come in.”

Chen Zhao entered and saw that the living room was in a mess. He turned to look at the woman. “Are you sure you don’t need to call the police?”

“This is from my daughter and I fighting. How can I call the police?”

“Then you’re injury...”

“Also her masterpiece.”

Chen Zhao didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know this mother and daughter pair, so he didn’t know their conflict.

“Uh...how old is your daughter?”

“Fifteen.” The woman lay down on the sofa.

Chen Zhao lifted her shirt. “Bear with me. I need to take the knife out.”

Judging from the wound, the knife hadn’t gone in too deeply. It was evident that her daughter didn’t use a lot of power.

Woof, woof—

Walter suddenly started barking at the bedroom. Chen Zhao looked over and saw blood flowing out from the crack under the bedroom door.

Expression changing, he turned to look at the woman—to see her stabbing him with the knife.

“F*ck!” Frightened, Chen Zhao quickly grabbed the woman’s wrist, but he was still a step late. The knife had already scraped his palm.

He was so scared that he flipped over the sofa. The woman raised her knife again. Chen Zhao lifted his foot and kicked the woman’s wound that he’d just stitched up.

The woman clutched her stomach in pain, while Chen Zhao was covered in cold sweat from fear.

He’d been learning how to fight these days, but he realized that not everyone could perform what they’d learned when it was actually necessary. This was the difference between him and Gaia.

Gaia had actually been on the battlefield before. Chen Zhao was confident that his strength and speed were both above Gaia. However, if it was Gaia here, she definitely wouldn’t be in a pathetic state like Chen Zhao.

He looked at his arm. There was a scratch left by the knife, but it wasn’t that serious. He looked at the woman on the ground and opened the bedroom door.

A girl was lying on the ground in a puddle of blood. Chen Zhao hurried over to check. She wasn’t dead yet.

He carried the girl out of the bedroom. She’d been stabbed in the chest and suffered blood loss. Her injury was very grave. Her breathing was weak.

The woman stood up, holding onto her stomach, and looked at Chen Zhao with an ugly expression.

“She’s your daughter?”

“Stepdaughter.” Hatred flashed past the woman’s face.

“I’m calling the cops.”

“Don’t...don’t call them.”

“No, I must. You tried killing your daughter.”

Chen Zhao couldn’t ignore this. If the girl died, he would be in trouble too.

“I didn’t!” the woman explained anxiously. “She tried to commit suicide. It’s not my fault.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Chen Zhao interrogated the woman while performing first aid. “Walter, give me the kit.”

Walter dragged the kit over. Chen Zhao carefully pulled the knife out. Blood spewed out of the girl’s chest immediately. Chen Zhao quickly covered the wound.

He took out a bottle and spread the sticky thing across the girl’s injury. This was the saliva of the swamp souleater frog. It was apparently great at stopping bleeding.

Chen Zhao couldn’t help it. Acupuncture wasn’t enough to stop the girl’s bleeding. He could only use demon medicine.

He also had to multitask and be wary of the woman. Who knew if she would go crazy again and try to stab him?

“She wants to frame me, frame me with her death,” the woman explained in panic. “Please don’t call the cops. If you do, I’m done...”

Chen Zhao’s eyes flashed. He wasn’t sure if the woman was speaking the truth or not.

“You stabbed yourself, right?”

After hesitating, the woman nodded. “Yes.”

“What happened? If you make me feel like you’re still hiding something, I’m gonna call the cops immediately.”

“Ville is my stepdaughter.”

“You told me.”

“Her father died from liver cancer ten years ago and she’d always hated me. Understandably, I don’t like her either. We’ve had countless big and small fights before.”

Chen Zhao listened quietly while thinking about whether the woman was telling the truth or not.

“Recently, I heard that she’s hanging out with a group of hooligans, so I fought with her again.”

The woman hated her stepdaughter to the extreme. After all, they weren’t blood-related and not everyone was responsible. To this woman, Ville was just a burden.

“I grounded her, telling her that she can’t step out of the suite for ten days. She said that if I don’t let her out, she’ll kill herself. And I said that even if she dies, she can’t die in the suite. Then she hid inside her room. An hour ago, I opened her door and saw that she’d stabbed herself. I was scared, so I...”

“So you stabbed yourself too?”

The woman nodded. “I thought that if I didn’t do anything, the police will definitely say that I killed her. Everyone knows that we have a bad relationship.”

“What’s the logic behind you stabbing yourself?” Chen Zhao didn’t understand at all. Could stabbing herself erase her sin?

“I...I was going to make it look like an armed robbery...” The woman’s expression was pained. Her stomach was still bleeding.

Chen Zhao tossed over a bottle. “Smear some of this on your injury.”

The woman continued. “I was going to call the cops... But then I remembered that there’s a surveillance camera. If they look at the security footage, they’ll know there was no robbery, so... I had to get a doctor to treat me. Then you came...”

“What about her?”

“I thought she was dead. I really thought Ville was dead. I never wanted her to die. Believe me. I hate her, but I would never kill her.”

“You were going to dispose of her body when you recovered, right?”

The woman hesitated for a beat but finally nodded.

“You never thought about killing your stepdaughter, but you wanted to kill me.”

Chen Zhao raised his hand. The blood reminded him that this woman was crazy enough to do anything.