Chapter 5: On the fifth day after quitting the circle, the one who drowned in the river should be someone like you who is ungrateful...
On July 16 last year, the weather was changeable, and the scorching sun burned all day long. In the evening, a thunderstorm suddenly broke out. The rainstorm lasted for more than half an hour, sweeping away the scorching summer heat.
Seeing that the weather was good, Zheng Hongyi planned to go out fishing.
Although his wife was away on a business trip, he still had a son to take care of. But the six-year-old was already very sensible. Zheng Hongyi had taken the child fishing before. He would fish while the child played his own games. The two got along very well, and there were no accidents.
At most, after a long time, the child will clamor to go home, but it is not completely impossible to coax him.
After making his preparations, he took his son to KFC on the street, bought a few toys the child had been longing for, and then drove to the Yu River. There, the child kneaded the rain-soaked dirt into a small castle, while he cast out his bait and waited for the big fish to bite.
At around 8:30, the child was tired of playing, so he took out the tent he had prepared long ago, set it up simply, and let the child rest in the tent.
During this time, he would look back from time to time to make sure that the zipper of the tent was tightly closed and the child was sleeping soundly.
Later, a figure appeared on the empty riverbank. It was a fellow angler who had argued with his wife and was out fishing. But he seemed to be sulking, so Zheng Hongyi didn't bother him.
The time soon came to 9:20. He remembered this time clearly because he received a work call. After talking to his colleague, he turned around and was horrified to find that the tent behind him was opened, and the child who was supposed to sleep in it was nowhere to be found.
At that moment, all the hairs on Zheng Hongyi's body stood up in fear.
Without a second thought, he dropped his fishing rod and ran, following the tracks on the ground. The riverbank was pitch dark, with only a sliver of light from the distant bridge glimmering inward. Zheng Hongyi kept praying that the child had simply wandered off. But as the distance closed in, the swirling spray of water on the river surface caught his eye, and all hope was dashed. Zheng Hongyi almost scrambled back into the water.
Fortunately, there was a kind-hearted person in the river who helped hold the child.
Zheng Hongyi didn't have time to say thank you, and hurriedly took the child from the other person's hands. When he put the child on the shore and looked back, he was horrified to find that the kind-hearted person was gone!
The originally undulating water surface was now peaceful and quiet, like a cold mirror, which could only reflect Zheng Hongyi's expression of astonishment and fear.
"I tried to go down and look for him, but I couldn't find him."
The nightmare from more than half a year ago was brought back to mind, and Zheng Hongyi's forced calmness finally broke. He sat on the sofa, his hands trembling as he covered his face. His shoulders were tense and shaking, and his voice was choked with sobs. "I was so panicked at the time and didn't know what to do. I drowned trying to save my child..."
"You couldn't bear the responsibility for this life, so you just left him to sink in the icy river and ran off?" Chen Xin gripped the pen tightly, the tip of the pen leaving deep scratches on the paper. He stared at Zheng Hongyi as if he wanted to cut him into pieces. "You said you were going to look for him, but you didn't mean you were just trying to fish him out from the river a few times, did you? Do you have any conscience?!"
The living room was so quiet that even everyone's heavy breathing could be heard clearly.
Zheng Hongyi's emotions had already collapsed, and he could only sob in response to Chen Xin's questioning.
He was also terrified at the time.
He thought about the lives he could not afford, the moral condemnation he would have to endure for the rest of his life, and how his wife had repeatedly told him to take good care of their son before she went on a business trip, but he had made such a mess of it.
His inherent weakness and evasiveness led him to make the wrong decision.
But he was also frightened for a long time, fearing that the police would come to his door one day.
As time passed, the police remained silent, and he deliberately tried to numb himself, his uneasy mood finally calmed down.
As a result, just when he thought everything was fine, the police showed up.
"Officer... I really wasn't standing by and watching him die. He had already sunk, and I couldn't find him... I was just scared, so I didn't call the police. I shouldn't have broken any laws, right?"
Before leaving, Zheng Hongyi looked at Kong Xingyan and his party with red eyes and a pleading expression.
Chen Xin now wanted to stab Zheng Hongyi twice when she saw him. When she heard the last sentence, her eyes almost rolled to the sky. She didn't care whether what she said was in line with her status. She only knew that the anger in her heart needed to be vented.
She said, "You're scared, but he wasn't scared being alone in the water? It should have been an ungrateful animal like you who drowned."
Zheng Hongyi's face turned pale and blue, and then blue and black after being scolded.
Kong Xingyan was tall, his eyes lowered as he glared at him coldly. After a moment, he said, "The boy who saved your son was only a recent college graduate. He experienced a flood as a child, and his parents and grandfather all died in the flood. Do you know what it meant for him to jump into the Yujiang River to save others? Not only are you ungrateful, you even concealed his death. Now that the truth is out, you only care about your own fate, without the slightest bit of guilt or regret. Calling you a beast is not an exaggeration at all."
…
Sang Qiqi repeated all of Kong Xingyan's words and added the possible responsibilities that Zheng Hongyi might face.
"Civil compensation is definitely necessary, but according to Captain Kong, it's not easy to determine Zheng Hongyi's criminal responsibility, but they will try their best."
When Sang Qiqi was speaking, Qu Shen lowered his head. Although his expression could not be seen clearly, his sadness and confusion were evident from the stillness of his seaweed wig that did not move at all.
After a long while, he finally raised his head and smiled at Sang Qiqi with difficulty, "I understand."
Sang Qiqi threw a rubber duck she'd picked up while buying snacks the other day into his pool and whispered, "Don't laugh if you don't want to. A normal person wouldn't be able to laugh when faced with such an ungrateful scum of society. I'll help you keep an eye on Zheng Hongyi; don't expect him to have an easy time."
Sang Qiqi had been a slave in the underworld for twenty years, and had seen all kinds of ghosts. She knew the different endings brought about by the sins they committed or the good deeds they received.
A ungrateful guy like Zheng Hongyi will suffer retribution in the rest of his life even if he cannot be convicted of criminal responsibility.
She thought for a moment and asked, "How about I take you to beat him up first?"
Qu Shen was stunned for a moment, then asked hesitantly, "Is it okay?"
He thought of how Sang Qiqi always reminded him not to appear in public and be careful not to scare others.
Although he didn't say it explicitly, Sang Qiqi knew what he was worried about. With a self-righteous look in her almond-shaped eyes, she put her hands on her hips and said, "Rules are dead, but ghosts are alive. What's wrong with scaring some of the scum of society?"
Without waiting for Qu Shen to answer, Sang Qiqi grabbed him and said in a hurry, "Let's go and kill him."
Sang Qiqi acted immediately, bringing not only Qu Shen but also her underworld minions. These minions had all sorts of strange looks, enough to scare anyone with their faces. To support their boss, one of them even brought a large rooster from Jinji Mountain.
In Zheng Hongyi's dream, the rooster chased him and pecked at him, forcing him to jump into a bottomless river. Zheng Hongyi originally wanted to escape the rooster by jumping into the river, but as soon as he entered the river, he felt something in the water tightly wrapped around his legs, pulling him deeper into the murky water with terrifying force, and he couldn't break free.
The feeling of dying was getting closer and closer. Zheng Hongyi's eyes bulged out, his expression was terrified, and he frantically paddled his arms and struggled to slap the water, but it was all in vain.
His chin was immersed in water, followed by his mouth and nasal cavity. Gurgling bubbles overflowed little by little, and the muddy water filled all his seven orifices. The terror of suffocation came over him. Zheng Hongyi tightly clamped his throat with both hands, his eyes rolled back completely, and just before he fell into death, his nasal cavity relaxed and a large amount of air was inhaled.
Just when he thought he was just having a nightmare, a hand suddenly pressed on his head and pushed him into the water again.
This time, he saw Qu Shen in the water staring at him without any expression.
Before he could react, the feeling of suffocation came over him again.
This cycle lasted for a total of six times until Zheng Hongyi had a mental breakdown. He lay on the ground crying, with snot and tears streaming down his face, and kept slapping himself to apologize to Qu Shen.
Qu Shen stood beside Sang Qiqi, pursed his lips, and said, "I don't accept it."
He had no regrets about sacrificing his life to save the drowning child.
In the flood that year, many rescue workers who lost contact sacrificed their lives while saving people. He witnessed everything and felt sad, but he also felt that they were extremely great. If possible, he wanted to be like them.
But he didn't. He was mediocre and had just graduated from college. He couldn't find a good job and became an ordinary otaku who was even looked down upon by some elders.
That day, he had a rare urge to go out. He wanted to buy some barbecue, then take a stroll around the neighborhood and think about his future. He wondered if he should change his personality, approach people, learn to socialize, and work hard to find a better job. But when he saw the drowning child struggling on the river, he abandoned all those thoughts.
He jumped down without hesitation, just like the rescuers.
Later, he sat up from the swollen and pale corpse, turned into a ghost, and burrowed into the bottom of the water. While pulling at the algae, he asked himself - had he become the person he originally wanted to be?
Then the last leaf of algae was plucked off, and the answer remained in that firm "yes".
Pulling at Sang Qiqi with his fingers, he no longer looked at Zheng Hongyi, but asked softly, "I want to go see my friend before reincarnating. Is that okay?"
Sang Qiqi nodded: "Of course."
However, things here are not over yet.
After giving her younger brother a look, Sang Qiqi took Qu Shenxian and left Zheng Hongyi's dream.
They arrived at Jiang Jiamu's residential complex. It was the middle of the night and Jiang Jiamu was still awake. He had just finished a game. He moved his mouse and the cursor landed on the friend interface on the right. Looking at the account marked 'Qu Shen', he pursed his lips, opened the dialog box, and started typing.
Jiang Ermu: I just met an idiot in the game. He played ADC like crap and he even had the nerve to criticize me, a support!
Jiang Ermu: I kind of miss the days when I was your dog.
Jiang Ermu: Hey, when can we conquer Summoner's Rift together again?
Jiang Ermu: When the time comes, we can kill all the enemies without leaving a single one alive. Do you think that's possible?
When you scroll the mouse wheel upwards, you see rows of dialog boxes that have not received a response.
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