Chapter 3 encounter

We first met at the handball field at Hareton Park. I remember that day was a weekend, the weather was clear and cloudless, and the warm sun shone on my body, which made me feel very comfortable. When I arrived at the handball field, I found that he was already waiting there. He was doing warm-up exercises at the time, so I walked towards him. Although he didn't look back at me, I believe he must have known that I was coming. When he was done warming up, I walked up to him and said, "How about we play a game?" He looked at me and said, "Of course!" We didn't know how long we fought, maybe more than two hours. Although I was younger and taller than him, I always lost to him.

In the end, we were all tired from playing, so we sat on the courtside benches with sweat, and wiped the sweat off our faces and bodies with towels.It was already noon, and the sun was high in the sky, scorching the earth extremely hot. "Hey, what a fun day!" he said. "Never had a good game like this!" "My skills are much worse than yours. You must have been a professional athlete before?" I said shyly. "It's not professional, but I like to play and I am eager to win, so I often come to the court to practice." When he said this, there was a hypocritical smile on his face, "Don't take today's loss to heart , maybe you will beat me next time!"

"Haha, you're right!" I said with a smile, "I'm really thirsty after playing for most of the day. Let's go have a couple of beers? I'll treat you. Playing with you in the morning is not a small achievement. Let’s just count it as my tuition fee.” He nodded happily. We went to the restaurant near the stadium and sat down at a thick oak table.The top of that table was carved with many words, which he said were Greek characters, carved on it by young students. Soon, the waiter brought two glasses of beer, and we chatted while drinking.I apologized to him again and said my game was really bad.He smiled, put the wine glass on the table, took out a cigarette from the cigarette box and lit it, and said slowly: "It's just a few games, why are you so serious? Don't you hear that 'frustrated in the court, proud in love'" ?"

I smiled wryly a few times and said, "If I'm proud of what happened to me in love, then I'm afraid I'm going to be a disaster in other respects." "Why, have you encountered any trouble? Can you tell me about it, maybe I can help you share some worries." He said with concern. "Well, it might make me feel a little easier to say it." I paused, "I met a woman, and I loved her dearly, and she loved me dearly, but we just couldn't get together. " "Do you have a wife?" He frowned and asked. I shook my head. "So, she has a husband?"

I shook my head again and said, "We're both single and she'd love to get married..." "So you don't want to marry her?" "No, I really want to marry her and spend my whole life with her." "Oh, wait a minute," he looked very confused, "let me think about it, you just said that you are both single, both love each other, and both want to get married, so what is the obstacle? Could it be... ...Is she your sister or sister? You fell in love with your own sister? This is a bit outrageous!" "Hey, what are you talking about? I think you are the one who guesses more and more unreliably! The reason is... I am a divorced person."

"Divorce? I thought it was a big deal!" he said. "So what? There are a lot of people who get divorced and remarry now, and I am the same. Oh, by the way, is it because you have different religious beliefs? " "No." I shook my head again. "Then what is the reason? I don't think your divorce is the main reason?" "Oh! How can I tell you," I sighed, "I think it's mainly because of economic reasons. When my ex-wife divorced me, they took away all the property in the family, and I was almost kicked out. Now, I still have to pay alimony to her every month. I can only live in a small apartment at the moment, and I can only cook on a small stove. Now I have a girlfriend who wants to get married, but I don't have the money to get married... You know, if a marriage isn't based on a certain financial basis, then sooner or later the marriage will fall apart. You understand my situation now, don't you?"

"Oh, I see." He nodded and said, "It's unlucky for you to be involved in such a thing!" He motioned to the waiter and ordered two more beers. The waiter brought two glasses of wine, he lit another cigarette, took a sip of beer, and said, "Divorce is really tricky. As I said just now, I have also been divorced, and I also have an unreasonable ex-wife." "She blackmailed you a lot, didn't she?" I asked. "Yes, she was also a lion when she divorced me. Although I hired a famous lawyer to fight the lawsuit for me, in the end she got most of the property, including my house, Cadillac car and Some other property. Now she is living in style - she has no children and no burdens, but she can share 50% of my salary, and the government will deduct 40% of my taxes. Do you think Think, how much do I have left of myself?"

"There really isn't much left," I said sympathetically. "Although she and the government took a large part of my monthly salary, the remaining money can still make me live well. But you know, the problem is not the money, but why should I give her for nothing Money? Think about it, I have to pay her a large amount of alimony every month with my hard-earned money, but she is pampered like a queen, will this make me feel balanced? " I took a sip of beer and said humorously: "It seems that we are in the same disease!" "Actually, many men face the same problem as us," he said. "To be honest, if you married your girlfriend, how would you solve this problem?"

"Because of financial reasons, I really can't get married." I said, "Besides, I'm also afraid. It's enough for me to support my ex-wife. If my second wife also divorces me and asks for maintenance, then I will But I really can’t live anymore.” There was helplessness in my tone. "Come on, let me give you a trick. You can follow what my current wife and I did - sign an agreement before getting married and ask the relevant department to notarize it. The agreement stipulates that if you divorce because of emotional discord in the future, she Can't get a dime from you. Do you know what I mean? Get a well-known, reputable lawyer and ask him to draw up a legally defensible agreement for you and ask her to sign it. "

"But, is she willing to sign this kind of agreement?" I asked suspiciously. "I think she is likely to sign. Because she is eager to marry you, she will not refuse no matter what you ask at this time. In this way, your property will be as safe as putting it in a safe. If After marriage, the husband and wife are very harmonious, and the marriage is happy and happy. Naturally, everyone is happy. You only paid a mere one or two hundred yuan for legal fees; , am I right?" I pondered for a while, and said to him: "Your words make sense." "Of course, this is my experience from personal practice." He said triumphantly, "Now, I live happily with my second wife. She is young, beautiful, and understanding, although we There will be some bumps and bumps, but it's not a big problem. She never thought of divorcing me, because she knows that because of the existence of the prenuptial agreement, if she divorces me, she will not get a penny. arrive."

"It seems that your method is very effective. If I get married again, I will do as you said." I said. "Trust me, you're right!" "Unfortunately, I'm afraid I won't have the chance to get married again." I sighed again and said, "According to the extent to which my ex-wife is oppressing me now, I can only die in the end, and now I can only knock my teeth down. Liyan! Just because you and I are strangers, and we don’t know each other, let me tell you the truth, I really want to kill her! Because only by killing her can I have a chance to find my happiness." "Dude, there are a lot of people in this world who want to get rid of their ex-wife just like you, so you're not alone." "Unfortunately, I can only fantasize about having fun, and I will never be able to do it. Because if that woman encounters an accident, the police will easily suspect me." I said. "Isn't that the case for me?" he said. "If I get rid of my ex-wife, the police will come to my door soon. In my eyes, my ex-wife is no different from a corpse. But she's like a 'special corpse', naturally cold-blooded, you know what I mean?" "Yes, I can understand." I said.Then I called the waiter and asked him to bring two more glasses of beer.It seems that today is really a thousand glasses of wine to meet a bosom friend, I met a bosom friend. We were silent for a while.Then, I looked around and said to him in a low voice, "To tell you the truth, sooner or later I'll do it. I have to get my ex-wife out, or she'll suck my last drop of blood, even at the risk of being arrested." risk, I will kill her too." "I will too," he said empathetically. "I'm serious. I'm in a relationship now and I want to get married, but the existence of my ex-wife is the biggest obstacle on my way to marriage, so I have to get rid of her, there is no other way." "I will too, I can't bear it for another day." He said without hesitation. "real?" "Of course, I swear that I will kill her!" He said bitterly, "Maybe you think I killed her for money, but it's not true, money is only one aspect of it, the most important thing is that she cheated me, Think of me as a fool, I hate her! Originally, we both had a common cemetery, but when we divorced, the judge even awarded her the cemetery. Hmph! She wanted me to have no place to bury me after death, I First let her die without a place to bury her!" He took another sip of wine and continued: "If I can escape the punishment, then she should already be lying in that cemetery..." "If I can also escape the punishment..." At this point, I stopped suddenly, and looked at him slowly, and his eyes slowly looked at me, and our eyes met in the air.From the look in his eyes, I could see that he had a good idea, but didn't say it right away. We were both lost in thought, as if we were waiting for the other to speak first.After a few minutes of silence, he finally lost his composure and said, "I don't know you, do I?" I nodded knowingly. He continued: "Although we met on the pitch, we didn't know you, not even your name." "I'm……" He waved his hand at me, motioning me not to speak. "Don't tell me, I don't want to know, we don't know each other, we are strangers." "You're right!" I said. "Although we played ball together for two hours this morning, although we were drinking together, no one else saw us together except the waiter. Even if the waiter saw it, he would not remember it. So, We have the same goals, we're in the same situation, we both have people we want to get rid of, you know what I mean?" "You're right, so what do you mean?" I asked. He leaned close to my ear and whispered: "There is a movie called "Strangers on the Train". I wonder if you have seen it? They both had the same troubles. In the end, they decided to swap the troubles with each other. Now you see what I mean?" "Well, I can probably understand." I nodded and said. "Let me tell you this, you have an ex-wife, and I also have an ex-wife; if you want to kill her, I want to kill her too; if you want to escape criminal responsibility, so do I. Well, what I mean is..." He said, He moved a little closer and whispered just enough for me to hear, "Dude, I mean, we two help each other, you help me kill my ex-wife, I help you get rid of you ex-wife, in this way, the troubles of both of us are gone, and we are both free." Hearing this, my eyes lit up immediately, and I kept saying, "That's great! That's brilliant!" "Hey, don't flatter me, you must have thought of it yourself, the two of us are heroes who see the same thing!" Then, both of us lowered our heads again and remained silent, as if we were imagining the comfort after the event was completed.Suddenly he raised his head and said, "I think of a question, which of the two of us will strike first?" "I'll do it first!" I suggested, "After all, you came up with this good idea, so it's only reasonable for me to do it first." He smiled slightly, looked me in the eyes and said, "When you're done, don't you worry that I'll shrink back halfway because of timidity?" I froze for a moment, then said, "I don't think you are that kind of person." "Don't worry, I'm not that kind of person." He said, "However, in this world, even friends can't be completely trusted, let alone a pair of strangers like us? Well, let's guess who will win first by guessing coins." Do it, it's absolutely fair." After speaking, he reached out and took out a coin from his pocket, "You choose first, heads or tails? Whoever chooses the wrong one will do it first!" He said, and he threw the coin high into the air thrown away. "Heads!" I blurted out as I watched the coin tumbling in the air. The coin fell out of the air, landed on the table, spun, and finally it came to a slow stop—tails.This means that I will get rid of his ex-wife first. That afternoon, I went to see Mary, whom I hadn't seen for a long time.After a long period of lingering, I held her in my arms and said to her excitedly: "The matter between the two of us will come to an end soon!" "Really?" She was overjoyed. "Yes, soon we will be together legitimately." "Oh dear, that would be great!" she said. It's another Saturday. It was a fine day, with clear skies.The man and I met again at the handball court at Hareton Park, as agreed.This time we still had a great time, playing six games in a row.Then we dry off, change into our outfits, and head to another bar.Each of us asked for a glass of beer, and while drinking, we discussed what to do. "When are you going to do it?" "How about Wednesday or Thursday night?" I said. "Why these two days?" he asked. "Well," I explained, "every Wednesday I play poker with my friends. This is my habit for many years. I usually play until three o'clock in the morning the next day. In order to have dinner with another friend, after dinner we will play bridge for a while, maybe until twelve o'clock at night. So, I will choose one of these two days, and I will try to kill her early, and then Then return to the poker table quickly so that no one will be suspicious." "Nice! You're very thoughtful," he said approvingly. "Okay, now it's time to introduce your ex-wife." I said, "What's your ex-wife's schedule like?" "She has been living alone since she divorced me. She lives in a big house. I will write you the address of her home later." He said, "She is at home every night and goes to bed early. So, I think you'd better go early so you can get back to your table." After a pause, he continued, "I'll call the police after you've killed her and left the scene. An anonymous call to the police claiming a murder. That way, when the police find the body, you're already playing cards with your friends." I nodded and said to him: "Let's set it on Wednesday. I will sneak into your ex-wife's house at night and get rid of her. In this way, on Thursday morning, the news of your ex-wife's death will come. Your problem That's solved." "Great!" he said excitedly. "Oh, yes, one more thing..." "What's up?" A sly smile flashed on his face, and he whispered, "You can kill her! I mean, if she has any pain, I won't feel the slightest bit sorry." On Wednesday night, I played by my schedule. I sneaked into his ex-wife's house according to the address he provided, but to my surprise, she was not sleeping, but I still controlled her with a knife.I lied to her that I was a thief and that this trip was only for making money, not killing her. She actually believed it and went to withdraw money from me. The moment she turned around, I cut her throat from behind , she died quickly, with hardly any pain. After she died, I began to play the role of a thief, deliberately making a mess in the house.I pushed down the bookshelves, and the books were scattered all over the floor; I opened all the cabinet doors and turned them around in a mess.I found some gold and silver jewelry, but it was thrown into the sewer.I also found some cash, which I stuffed into my pocket... In short, I wanted to convince the police that the thieves had robbed the house of all valuables. After doing all this, I quickly left his ex-wife's house.On the way back, I threw the murder weapon and the blood-stained gloves into the ditch by the side of the road.Then I called the police station and said I heard a fight in a certain house and saw two masked men rushing out and they jumped into a black car and fled the scene. Finally, I The exact location of the house was also provided to the police. As for the car's license plate?Sorry, I didn't catch it; as for my name?Sorry, I never leave a name for my good deeds! The next day, I couldn't wait to call Mary. "Don't worry, everything will be fine!" I said to her. "Awesome! I'm so happy!" The following Saturday I was at the handball court at Hareton Park and he "happened" to be there, so we played a few more rounds. Like the previous few games, he easily beat me in the first game, but from the second game on, he suddenly became out of shape, and I won two games in a row. He offered to take a break.I thought, "Maybe he really had a bad day, or he didn't want people to notice that we were playing together so as not to arouse suspicion." So, the two of us went to the bar we went to last time and ordered two glasses of beer. "My ex-wife's murder has been reported in the newspapers, and your task has been successfully completed. I really didn't expect you to do it so neatly! Didn't the police suspect you?" He said, holding the wine glass in his hand. "No, never!" I said. "Besides, I have an alibi. I was at home waiting to play cards with my friends when the murder happened. Maybe the police didn't investigate at all, and they thought it was a murder." Robbery and homicide. You know, I disguised the scene so well that it could be mistaken for real." He looked at me, smiled slyly, and said, "Tell me, what did she look like before she died?" I shook my head and said, "It's a pity that you didn't get what you wanted. Her death was not painful." "Oh, yes, I remembered one thing." He said, "The news of my ex-wife's murder hit the newspapers, and her name was naturally known to the public. Anyone can know me through this information, and you can too. , so you took advantage of me. You can look up my name, but I don't know anything about you." "Don't worry, as long as you kill my ex-wife, you will know my name too." I said with a smile, then wrote an address in pencil on a piece of paper and handed it to him. "This address belongs to my ex-wife, and you might as well do it next Wednesday night," I told him. "Okay. I'll be there around eight o'clock at night, and I'll have the scene set up by nine o'clock, and then I'll leave your ex-wife's house, what do you think?" "That's not a bad idea!" I nodded and said, "I have another suggestion, you might as well go there with a knife, and set up the scene as a murder scene, so that the police will think it's a crime scene." For the same thief." "No! You can't do that." He shook his head and said, "In that case, the police will probably connect the two cases between us, and maybe both of us will be involved, which will arouse the suspicion of the police again." I thought about it, and then said: "Then why not do this, you create a fake scene of rape, so that the police think it is an attempted rape and homicide, and they will never be able to link the two murders together." "You're so smart!" There was an admiring smile on his face. "Of course, you don't have to actually rape her," I said, "you just have to rip her clothes off and arrange the scene after you kill her." "As an aside, is she pretty?" "It looks pretty good." "So, surely she'll be home at eight o'clock at night?" he asked. "I really want to rape her, but I can't." "She's definitely going to be home, and I can assure you, she's just home alone." "Great, then wait for my good news!" After finishing speaking, he carefully folded up the note with the address on it, put it in his wallet, and then took out a few more banknotes to pay for the drink.He drank the beer in his glass and stood up, "I will also do it clean and beautiful!" He said, "Your obstacles will also be completely removed." When I got home, I couldn't wait to call Mary again. "Be patient for a few more days, and our obstacles will soon be cleared!" I said. "Oh, you're awesome!" she said. "That's the best news I've ever heard, you're amazing!" "A nice golfer helped us a lot!" I said. "By next Wednesday night, it'll be all over." Wednesday is here. I left home in the afternoon, drove to the city to buy a few newspapers, and then went to a few clothing stores. Although I saw two sweatshirts, I had no choice but to give up because I didn't have the right size. I looked at my watch, it was past eight o'clock in the evening, so I drove back again.From a distance, I saw a car parked in front of my house, which belonged to that golfer.I parked my car at the door and opened the door with the key. When I pushed the door open, he happened to be standing in the living room. Hearing the sound of the door opening, he hurriedly turned around in fright. When he saw me, he was stunned, "You...why did you come here?" He asked nervously. I didn't answer him, but looked at my ex-wife lying on the sofa and asked, "Is she dead?" "She's dead, don't worry now." He was obviously a little embarrassed, "It's just that she resisted too strongly before she died, so I hit hard... But why did you come here? Didn't I let you Are you waiting for good news at home?" "You asked me to wait for the good news at home, but I forgot to tell you, this is my home." "What did you say? What's going on?" He looked confused. "George, I really want to explain all this to you, but unfortunately I don't have the chance, sorry!" As I said that, I quickly took out a pistol from my pocket and pulled the trigger at him... "The police said it was a pity that this happened," I said to Mary. "The police concluded that George had been distorted by the murder of his ex-wife. When I was alone at home, I murdered my wife... I happened to see this when I came home. In order to save my wife, I had no choice but to kill him, but my wife had already passed away..." "Oh, George and Manla are so pitiful!" Mary said, holding my hand tightly, "However, George is also asking for his own death. He played tricks and insisted on signing that hateful prenuptial agreement with me, otherwise, He and I can still get together and get divorced like everyone else." "Yes, Manla deserves her own fault. If she had agreed to break up with me peacefully, she wouldn't have ended up like this." I echoed. "We are also forced to do this." Mary said, "As for George's ex-wife, she died unjustly, but if she doesn't die, our goal will not be achieved." "Fortunately, she died without pain," I said. "It seems that our careful planning has not been in vain. As the saying goes: no hard work, how can there be harvest?" "That's right!" Mary and I hugged and kissed passionately, unwilling to separate for a long time. "By the way, Mary, we can't live together openly. It's best to avoid each other for a while." I said, "After all, your husband George died at my hands, and my wife Manla was killed by him. If If we openly match up, others will gossip, which is not good for you and me." "So, what should we do next?" Mary asked. "We sold our respective houses, and then went to other cities to get married and live happily together forever. But before that, our relationship must not be exposed!" "Okay," she said, "that's interesting, it's a lot like the plot of a movie - two people in a small town have a dysfunctional underground relationship, but in public they have to pretend to be strangers , I don’t know anyone, but there is no murder plot in this movie. Hey, what’s the title of the movie? Why can’t I remember it all at once.” "Is it called "Encounter"? Its original name was "We Were Strangers When We Met Met." I said.