Secret Past (8)

Li Ming and Li Ying stayed in front of their door for almost ten minutes. The voices of the two people behind them became very low, and Jiang Yingying could only hear a rough outline of what they were saying.

Jiang Yingying couldn't figure out what the dirty money they were talking about was. She had a feeling it was connected to the basement of the orphanage. Later, she only heard about opening a shop and choosing a location. Later, Jiang Yingying also heard a man's name, Uncle Guo.

Judging from Li Ming's tone, he seemed to respect Uncle Guo very much.

Ten minutes later, Li Ming and Li Ying disappeared. Jiang Yingying listened and heard that they seemed to be heading upstairs. Fortunately, they didn't open the door at all, which made the three girls feel relieved.

The three girls huddled together tightly, and when everything finally quieted down, Jiang Yingying looked at her mechanical watch and found that the hands were almost pointing to five o'clock.

Jiang Yingying spoke to Qu Qing in a low voice:

"It's not even daybreak yet, go get some more sleep, Zhu Zhi and I will stay here."

Qu Qing was indeed a little sleepy. He nodded, closed his clothes and lay back down.

With Zhu Zhi's company, the following time was not so difficult, and soon Jiang Yingying found that it was dawn outside the window.

After Qu Qing woke up completely, Jiang Yingying and Zhu Zhi dozed off for a while. Finally, they were woken up by the noise outside the house.

It was already daybreak. After the three of them had tidied themselves up, they came to the yard and saw that the remaining five children had gathered together, carrying bags on their backs. There were also some outsiders wearing red vests, who looked like they were from an orphanage. The small yard was suddenly filled with a large number of people.

Li Ming saw them coming out and walked towards the three of them.

"The welfare home you're going to will arrive later, so come with me and have something to eat first."

On the old coffee table in the living room were food that Li Ming had bought at some unknown time. The three girls sat together eating bread, and in tacit understanding, none of them drank the milk on the table.

Li Ming sat opposite them and said that the welfare homes in G City were a bit busy. He contacted two of them. The three of them would go to one, and the other five boys would go to another. The three of them might have to wait until the afternoon.

"There will be someone at the school to help you arrange it, so you don't have to worry about that."

The three of them looked at each other and nodded in response. Jiang Yingying even buried her face in the packaging bag and didn't look at Li Ming at all.

But Jiang Yingying knew that Li Ming was watching her.

Sure enough, before Jiang Yingying could swallow the bread, Li Ming's voice rang out again.

"Jiang Yingying, when you finish eating, come find me at the back of the yard. I have something to tell you."

When Jiang Yingying heard this, she almost choked on the bread in her mouth. She quickly patted her chest and swallowed it.

“Okay, okay…”

The three of them rested for a while and came out just as the five kids were about to leave. Two of the boys were close to them. They had previously gone to a black internet cafe in town and secretly created a □□ account. The two boys handed the three girls a piece of paper with their contact information.

"Please keep in touch in the future!"

After saying goodbye to each other, Jiang Yingying slowly moved to the back of the yard, taking three steps at a time.

There was no way Qu Qing and Zhu Zhi would let Jiang Yingying go alone, so they were less than two meters away from Jiang Yingying, hiding in the corner of the small building, watching Jiang Yingying walk in.

"Sister Yingying, if he tries to do anything to you, just scream! We'll rush in!"

Zhu Zhi clenched his fists and waved them in the air.

"The three of us can always beat him alone!"

Jiang Yingying picked at her nails and walked towards the backyard little by little. She saw Li Ming with his back to her, looking up at the tree outside the wall, not knowing what he was looking at.

Jiang Yingying walked behind him and spoke softly from a distance:

"You...what do you want to say to me?"

Li Ming put his hands in his pockets, turned around and looked at Jiang Yingying, his eyes surprisingly became a little softer.

"Jiang Yingying, are you... willing to stay?"

"Stay, stay?"

Li Ming walked towards her, but his hands were still in his pockets.

"Yes, stay with me."

"You should continue studying. If you get into university, I will support you."

"I plan to open a store in the commercial street at the foot of the mountain. When you graduate, the business should pick up."

Li Ming walked towards her again, took his hand out of his pocket and spread it out in front of Jiang Yingying.

Jiang Yingying saw it clearly. It was a silver ring that looked a little old and had a diamond on it.

"Then we'll get married and live a good life. Are you willing?"

Only after Li Ming finished speaking did Jiang Yingying realize what she had heard.

Li Ming, a murderer who has killed countless people, is actually...confessing to himself at this moment?

At this moment, all the past experiences with Li Ming suddenly appeared in Jiang Yingying's mind.

If I hadn't secretly poured out the drink one day, I would never have known that the tall man standing before me had the blood of countless people on his hands. If I hadn't accidentally overheard their conspiracy, I didn't know how long I would have been kept in the dark.

Do I want to spend my whole life with this kind of person?

No, don't!

Jiang Yingying concealed her feelings well; in Li Ming's opinion, she just looked a little shocked. So, with a sincere look in his eyes, Li Ming walked straight towards Jiang Yingying, trying to take her hand, but Jiang Yingying stepped back to avoid him.

"No, I don't want it!"

"Li Ming, I...thank you for liking me, but, but I feel...we are not suitable for each other."

"You'll meet someone more suitable for you."

After being rejected, Li Ming smiled self-deprecatingly, put the ring away, and distanced himself from the other person, his voice adding a touch of self-mockery.

"Well, we've known each other for so long, do you like me?"

Jiang Yingying avoided Li Ming's gaze, lowered her head and looked at her toes without saying a word.

The trees outside the small building were dense, dark clouds floated in the sky through the gaps between the branches and leaves, and the air began to become stuffy.

The stuffy and humid air stuck to Jiang Yingying's breath, and Li Ming's questions just now made her feel a little breathless.

Maybe Jiang Yingying liked him before, but even if she liked him a little bit, after seeing Li Ming's true face, the little bit of love she had left disappeared.

Seeing Jiang Yingying remained silent, Li Ming knew the answer was obvious. He smiled and spoke first:

"Forget it, there's no point asking this now."

"It's going to rain, let's go inside first."

Jiang Yingying fled as if relieved, and trotted all the way back to Qu Qing Zhu Zhi.

During this process, Jiang Yingying, who had her back to Li Ming, seemed to hear a cell phone ringing, and then the sound of Li Ming answering the phone. But Jiang Yingying no longer had the mind to think about who it was, she just wanted to leave quickly.

Seeing Jiang Yingying running back covered in sweat, Qu Qing looked in the direction of Li Ming. After seeing that Li Ming did not follow, he took Jiang Yingying back into the house.

The three of them returned to the room they had stayed in last night. Qu Qing and Zhu Zhi saw that Jiang Yingying looked unhappy, so they quickly asked her:

"Yingying, what did he say to you? Why are you so pale?"

"Yeah, yeah! He didn't do anything to you, did he?"

Jiang Yingying shook her head without saying anything. She drank some water before telling Li Ming what he had just said. After hearing this, Qu Qing and Zhu Zhi were both dumbfounded.

"He...he's going to marry you?!!!"

Zhu Zhi was so angry that he almost jumped up and said angrily:

"No! How can you get married if you are as old as him? You can't agree to it!!!"

Qu Qing glanced out the window and quickly covered Zhu Zhi's mouth.

"Keep your voice down! Are you trying to kill yourself?!"

"Yingying definitely didn't agree, otherwise why would she come back!"

Qu Qing pulled Zhu Zhi back to his side, then turned to ask Jiang Yingying:

"What else did he say besides this?"

Jiang Yingying shook her head and took another sip of water before she finally calmed down.

"Then he asked me if I liked him, and I ran back without saying anything."

Qu Qing frowned, feeling that it was too dangerous to continue staying here. If Li Ming got angry and planned to attack Jiang Yingying, the three of them would probably be unsafe.

We still have to leave quickly.

Qu Qing held their hands together and said seriously, "From now on, no matter where we go, we must be together. No one can act alone!"

"We have to stay together until the people from the new welfare home come to pick us up!"

Jiang Yingying and Zhu Zhi nodded frequently. The three girls huddled together in a corner, using Jiang Yingying's mechanical watch to wait for the afternoon to come.

The three of them leaned against each other, and suddenly Li Ming's voice was heard outside the house again, as if he was calling Li Ying to come down from upstairs.

The girls looked at each other and held each other's hands a little tighter.

The noise outside the room continued. Jiang Yingying leaned against the wall, trying to hear clearly what Li Ming was saying.

There was a sound of footsteps coming from upstairs to downstairs, followed by Li Ying's voice.

"What's wrong, bro?"

"Uncle Guo sent a photo of that man's brother. We have to go quickly."

"So soon?"

"Stop talking nonsense and hurry up! Uncle Guo is urging us to leave!"

As soon as the words fell, two footsteps hurriedly walked out of the small building, and finally there was the sound of a car starting. After a commotion, the small building on the mountainside returned to peace again, with only three girls left huddled together.

After a long time, Zhu Zhi moved his numb legs and asked:

"Are they really gone?"

"So... then can we just wait until someone comes to pick us up and leave here?"

Qu Qing nodded, but his expression did not relax.

"It should be like this, but I always feel that it may not go so smoothly."

"Especially Jiang Yingying, I always feel that Li Ming won't let you go so easily."

Jiang Yingying hugged her legs and sighed, "I think so too..."

Zhu Zhi squatted back down beside Jiang Yingying, leaned on her shoulder, and said:

"It's okay, no matter what he does, we won't leave you anyway!"

Seeing this, Qu Qing also stepped forward to appease him:

"Zhu Zhi is right, we will never leave each other."

With the comfort of the two, Jiang Yingying felt a little better and responded to them with a smile.

"Well, thank you."

Time passed slowly, a drizzle began to fall outside the house, and the sky suddenly became dark.

The three people waited in the room, but until the afternoon, there was no one outside the building.

No one came to pick them up.

Zhu Zhi was a little anxious and paced back and forth in the room.

"What's going on? Why hasn't anyone come in such a long time?"

"Didn't they say someone was coming to pick us up?"

Jiang Yingying and Qu Qing also felt something was wrong. They looked at their mechanical watches and saw that it was already five o'clock in the afternoon.

The rain outside the window was getting heavier, and the three people were becoming more and more uneasy.

Qu Qing also became anxious, and pulled the other two people to the eaves to look around, and found that there was only heavy rain and big trees around, and there was no one to pick them up.

"What's going on?!"

The hands on the clock moved slowly, and it was already seven o'clock in the evening. The sky was completely dark, and there was no light in the house. The three girls squatted under the eaves in the dark, and the heavy rain had soaked their hopes.

No one came at all.