Zhou Chunhua turned her head and looked coldly at Lu Ming.

His older brother!

In other words, Lu Ming was also involved in Nini's matter!

"Why are you looking at me like that? I haven't been involved in your daughter's affairs at all. Do you think just anyone can be a peddler like they're talking about?"

"Let me tell you, only people from their own village are allowed to pick through the goods. Even if I begged to do it, he wouldn't let me get involved. They only trust their own people. Don't let my years with him fool you; to him, I'm just an outsider."

There was a hint of relief in Lu Ming's voice.

"Then how did you and him..." Zhou Chunhua didn't know where to begin her question.

Lu Ming twitched the corners of his mouth, a half-smile playing on his lips.

"How did we meet?" Lu Ming turned to look at the darkening horizon.

Zhou Chunhua also looked into the distance uncomfortably. At this moment, the sky was like a black dome, slowly pressing down from above, giving people a sense of oppression from which there was nowhere to escape.

Through the faint blackness, one can occasionally see a glimmer of light.

"Do you remember when I said I accidentally killed my father?"

Zhou Chunhua nodded.

Lu Ming didn't look at her, but continued, "I was going to turn myself in, but my mother wouldn't let me. She said she hadn't worked for so many years and was already out of touch with society. She couldn't earn money to support the family, let alone hire a lawyer for me."

She even said that the family had relied on my odd jobs to support them, and if I went to jail, she and her grandmother would only have one way out: death. I disagreed at the time, because I couldn't bear to see her suffer because of me…

Lu Ming's voice choked up.

"My mother held a knife to her own neck and said that if I didn't obey, she would die right there. My grandmother cried and pleaded with me to listen to her. I had no choice but to agree."

My mom called the police, and she took the blame for everything over the phone. When the police brought my mom back, I didn't dare tell the truth, because my mom always keeps her word.

I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I tell the truth, she will really die in front of me. Or perhaps... it's a deep-seated fear within me—a fear of admitting my mistake, a fear of facing the future.

Later, my mother was taken away. Before she left, she told me to take good care of the family and my grandmother. At that time, my family not only lost my mother, but also had no money and no rice.

I started doing odd jobs, anything and everything. But I'm too old, no one dared to hire me. To make a living, I could only work as a porter at the train station.

But there are so many porters there, I can only earn ten or twenty yuan a day. That little money can barely feed me, let alone pay for Grandma's medicine.

Grandma's condition worsened day by day because she had no medicine. Later, I discovered that scalpers could make a lot of money by reselling train tickets.

So I decided to try and learn from them how to make scalper meat. But that kind of meat isn't something just anyone can eat. On my first day, I was surrounded by people.

That day, seven or eight men cornered me in a dead-end alley next to the train station.

That same day, I emerged from that dead-end alley, covered in blood, and collapsed at the alley's entrance due to excessive blood loss.

When I woke up, I was in the hospital, and he was right next to my bed.

I initially thought he was just a kind passerby, but he told me he was the leader of those people. He said he thought highly of me and wanted me to follow him, promising I would never have to worry about money again.

At the time, I thought they were just scalpers at the train station, only doing business reselling train tickets, so I immediately agreed.

That day, when he left, he gave me a thousand yuan. He told me to go to the train station to find him after I was discharged from the hospital.

At this point, Lu Ming suddenly stopped, turned to look at her, and asked, "Do you know how heavy those three thousand yuan are?"

Zhou Chunhua did not answer.

"That three thousand yuan was like a mountain that weighed on me for the rest of my life. Even now, even though I've earned more money for him, I still can't forget the weight of that three thousand yuan."

After speaking, Lu Ming turned to look into the distance.

By this time, it was completely dark.

On the viewing platform, there was only one street lamp, all alone.

In the distance, the city lights shimmered and blazed brightly.

"With that three thousand yuan, my grandma was able to get her medicine, and I even hired a lawyer to fight the lawsuit. Haha... it's ridiculous."

Lu Ming suddenly laughed, but his voice was cold and full of sarcasm.

"Even now, I still don't understand why men who beat their wives to death in domestic violence cases are only sentenced to a few years if it is proven that the wife cheated on him."

Women whose wives are innocent usually get a sentence of ten or so years. But women who kill their husbands who commit domestic violence often get sentenced to death. Fortunately, I hired a lawyer.

My lawyer told me that if my grandmother wrote a letter of forgiveness explaining that my mother had been supporting her and the children all these years, my mother might receive a lighter sentence.

After I told her that day, my grandmother immediately wrote a letter of forgiveness and even personally called the police handling the case to explain the situation. That's how my mother was spared from death.

That's why the three thousand yuan felt even heavier to me! Later, to repay his kindness, I did my best to earn money for him.

Perhaps my loyalty moved him. He started letting me take on some other businesses, like lending money and debt collection. At that time, I truly regarded him as an older brother.

Even so, he still didn't let me know about their selection of goods. I didn't find out about it until our seventh year together.

So, perhaps I aided and abetted evil, but I truly never participated.

"So what is your relationship with him now?" Zhou Chunhua asked.

Lu Ming smiled and shook his head: "He was like an older brother in the past! Do you remember that crackdown a few years ago? Many of his brothers went to jail."

Some were sentenced to death, some to life imprisonment, and some were released after serving a few years. But after the crackdown, many businesses could no longer operate.

For example, picking out goods, distributing water, and so on. He called us together and gave each of us a large sum of money. That's all for our brotherhood in this life.

We haven't been in contact since that day. Last year, I heard he retired from his life of crime and went back to Sha Tin Tsui to retire.

After saying that, Lu Ming lost his previous sadness and returned to his usual carefree demeanor.

It's as if what he just told was just a story.

Or perhaps he was talking about something that happened to someone else, not himself.

"So, if I say I'm going to see him, going into Sha Tin Tsui is no problem at all. But if it's you, if you inquire about him there, you might not only fail to find your daughter, but you yourself could also disappear there."

"On the hills surrounding Sha Tin Tsui, I wonder how many people like you are buried."