The third story, Greed (Part 1)
Following Sanyi's answer, the atmosphere in the car became strange.
Doctor Hu was the first to say that it was impossible, and his whole body suddenly tensed up.
"I don't know why you made up such a story, but I just said that Zhaoying was rescued shortly after the incident."
Dr. Hu spoke very quickly, and the coffee cup in his hand, which he had finished drinking at some point, was crushed.
She was very nervous, and I realized that she was not as confident as she said, but she had some important evidence that kept her holding on.
"—It's the little round-faced nurse, isn't it? I recognize that face."
Sanyi sneered, "The little girl you rescued through the Zhang family stayed by your side after she got out of trouble. She studied medicine and treated illnesses just like you. You watched her grow up and knew that she was alive. Except for the fact that she had no memory of that past, she is undoubtedly an ordinary person."
Dr. Hu also laughed, but it was a kind of subtle anger and resistance.
Sensing that the concerned family members might not have gotten over the nightmare of the past, Dr. Hu said word by word: "She was originally an ordinary person."
"The person who was rescued was indeed Li Zhaoying." I suddenly felt indescribably uncomfortable in my heart, "But it should be the real Li Zhaoying, not that fake person."
Doctor Hu's expression suddenly went blank. "Advisor, what do you mean, take a photo of her?" She paused before she finished her words. She had understood what was going on, and her eyes suddenly turned red.
"Like I said before, I'm dealing with a run-of-the-mill, hilarious kidnapping case."
On the other end of the phone, Yan Mo nodded, not showing any reluctance.
Now, the story is complete.
After Niu Biaoxi and Gou Biao went crazy, they left the horrible scene in the broken house behind them and wandered outside for a day and a night. Later, on the way of escaping, they met Li Zhaoying, who was out for a dentistry check-up. She was the good friend Xiaoying mentioned by the fake little girl.
The two people lost their minds and fell into great fear when they saw Li Zhaoying's face. They didn't realize that this was not the Tianyi dancing in pain in the raging fire of the broken house, but a little girl who knew nothing about everything. She just lost a baby tooth and felt a little pain, so her parents took her to the clinic to have a check-up.
"When our guys found their whereabouts, Gou Biao had just lost control and attacked Li Zhaoying. He was holding a pair of small scissors wrapped with a red rope, and when he pounced on her, he was blocked by Li Zhaoying's parents. When he stabbed again, the scissors were blocked by Niu Biaoxi, injuring the aorta."
"Niu Biaoxi was stabbed more than a dozen times by the crazy Gou Biao, and his injuries were terrible. At that time, the situation was urgent, and the guys did not hold back Gou Biao. Niu Biaoxi witnessed the scene and began to cry and laugh. He collapsed several times. When we took him back for rescue, he kept talking nonsense intermittently."
According to Yan Mo, the only story he knew was that Niu Biaoxi was on the emergency table, crying bitterly due to the direct fear of heavy bleeding, while he tightly grasped Yan Mo's arm and stared into his eyes as he explained every word.
No matter how much regret and doubt the unconscious man expressed in his last words, Yan Mo was not overly moved. He asked his men to protect the rescued Li Zhaoying's family, while he took his men to the dilapidated house in person.
Upon arrival, the fire had been extinguished.
The guys who conducted the search and investigation told Yan Mo clearly that they did not see any corpses that had come back to life, nor did they detect any blood reactions.
"There is indeed a hole in the wall behind the sofa," the guy said confidently, "but there is no body or blood, and there is no suitcase to hide the body. There is only dust and cement debris inside."
"Boss Yan, it is normal for people who are undergoing a surgery to speak nonsense. It is not enough to completely believe it. At least based on the current traces, there is not much that can be said about his words. The only thing that can be confirmed is that the fire should have started from the inside. They set the fire themselves."
But considering that the thieves were idle all day and almost all of them were addicted to alcohol, it was possible that they could not tell the difference and their brains would go bad one day. It seemed more in line with the actual situation found out that the two drunk thieves had delusions in a state of mental disorder and then set fire and fled.
The house was burnt beyond recognition. Yan Mo took a sniff and found that besides the bitter smell of burning, there was only a very faint smell similar to ketchup, which was a bit sour and sweet.
The guy asked: "Should we escort Li Zhaoying and her family home as soon as possible?"
"No rush." Yan Mo thought about it.
"Although it was a false alarm, let's have our people talk to the girl's parents and ask them if they are willing to keep the child. If there is a possibility, she can be dealt with in time at the Zhang family and be protected and grow up safely, without causing any sudden disaster to her family or innocent people. Weigh the pros and cons and talk to them nicely, and they will make up their minds."
Although it is called asylum, Yan Mo is more concerned about controlling this potentially uncertain factor.
"Didn't my deputy bring back a doctor? After the negotiation, let them report to the broker together, which will also put the doctor at ease. You can just say... it was a misunderstanding, the little one was rescued, and let her take care of him from now on."
What happened after that, we all know now.
Li Zhaoying had no idea what the fake friend she met by chance when she was young had done for her, and she had no idea of the secrets of the past. She grew up in the Zhang family and practiced medicine with Dr. Hu. They had the fate of a master and an apprentice, and also the friendship of sisters.
During this process, for more than ten years, Dr. Hu always thought that she was the child who called for help late at night, and was happy that she was rescued.
Thinking back to the first time I woke up in Zhangjia Hospital, I was taken care of by Li Zhaoying, a round-faced little nurse. At that time, I would never have thought that she had such a past, and that I was only a hair's breadth away from Pingping's clues.
This is probably how unpredictable the world is. Even for Yan Mo, from his perspective back then, the conclusions he drew were inevitably biased.
If it weren't for Sanyi's shocking words that confirmed the truth behind the story, my heart would have tightened and I would have suddenly felt the same way as Dr. Hu, who was worried about gains and losses.
How can “plus two” be the same as three changes?
Basic logic immediately protested and told me that it was impossible for me not to recognize my biological brother, and my parents would not treat him as a stranger.
Moreover, he had already come to our house at that time, and was studying in a boarding school outside. We would see each other every Saturday after school. How could he be living outside alone, so miserable and full of resentment?
And there is that ominous Nian Huairen.
I felt a genuine sense of anxiety and was a little reluctant to continue thinking about it.
But the thinking instinct that I have cultivated for so long has already been proposing possible hypotheses, reminding me that this seemingly surreal situation can be easily achieved.
Because Zhang Tianyi existed at that time.
If Sanyi had completely entrusted his identity and name to Zhang Tianyi during that period, he could have secretly left home, used some means to change his appearance, and waited outside as a homeless child to ambush a target.
In this way, even if something went wrong, his true identity would not be exposed and we would not be implicated. For our family, "Zhang Tianyi" is still there and has never left. We will not know that we have lost a child forever.
This is a desperate plan with the implication of mutual destruction.
I got goosebumps all over my body and asked in a choked voice, "Are you going to kill Nian Huairen?"
Sanyi looked at me deeply and said softly, "And you."
And...what? I was stunned.
"I'm not here to play with you, and every time I follow you I'm not here to escort you home." I couldn't understand a word Sanyi said, and my ears began to buzz. "Your time outside is always too short, and mom and dad will come to pick you up soon. I can't hurt you in front of them and make mom and dad sad."
"When I asked you to go to the broken house that day, I thought that if you came, I would get rid of you as well. That was my last chance."
He exhaled slowly, somewhat self-deprecatingly, "My injuries were not caused by those bad boys. They couldn't even touch the corners of my clothes. Some of those injuries were disguised by me, some were from Nian Huairen, and some..."
I asked blankly, "There is another part?"
"It was caused by a fight with that lunatic Zhang Tianyi."
Sanyi shook his head and laughed. "He doesn't allow me to kill you. What a joke. He really thinks of himself as your good brother. Didn't you hear the prophet reconstruct a similar conversation in the mine? I wanted to kill you, but he didn't agree. It's been so many years, and every time he talked nonsense like this."
"He warned you time and again, reminding you that he has been working with your enemies, reminding you that 'Zhang Tianyi' will hurt you, and creating a suspicious and volatile image. He is simply afraid that if he gets trapped one day, I will appear in front of you and take advantage of the opportunity to attack you, and you will be unprepared."
Sanyi made every word very clear. He pointed at Yan Mo on the other end of the video chat and said, "I cleaned the dilapidated house before they arrived. I saw the fake Li Zhaoying's final dance in the fire. Because of her, I came into contact with the hidden world and learned about the existence of the prophet and the strange story."
But I was completely confused, the muscles in my throat were knotted, and all I could say was, "Why?"
Sanyi didn't answer and looked at me coldly.
No, it's not just Sanyi, Yan Mo must have something else he hasn't told me yet. My reaction was unprecedentedly fast, and I immediately shouted:
"No, there is a detail of the story that has not been mentioned! Yan Mo, the power that you mentioned, which is more arbitrary than the banyan tree's wish, must not be just those manifestations. What is the example of 'enemies reconciled' that you mentioned?!"
Yan Mo must have wanted to tell me all these things, which is why he did not hide anything at the beginning.
It was the change in Sanyi's identity that stopped Yan Mo. The moment he knew that Sanyi was Jiaer, he must have realized something and just passed over the ending of the story.
What, why, for me?
But why did Sanyi want to kill me? Why so early in the morning?
I originally thought that if Sanyi had any grudge against me, it was probably because of Pingping. After all, even I often felt indebted, and felt that my sister's death while I was alive was an invisible and despicable theft of my fate.
But Sanyi now told me clearly that his hesitant murderous intentions first sprouted when I was only five or six years old. At that time, Pingping had just been exposed to those bizarre ultimate secrets and had not shown much signs of decline.
That doesn't make sense.
So, when he decided to kill me, everything hadn't even officially started yet. If he wanted to hate me, what reason could he have?
My headache was splitting, and I tried hard to think of any clues, but all that flashed through my mind was Sanyi taking care of me and looking helpless towards me.
Whether it was when we were in the hide-and-seek team, when I was disguised as Zhang Tianyi, or in front of the rat in the wall and the banyan tree. I don't think that kind of concern was a disguise. Our feelings for many years were real. He hesitated and tried to let go of his knot, so that he had no way to do anything to me. The annoyance and tiredness were also real.
So, what did I do that made Sanyi, after countless struggles, even after he was willing to live and die with me, even after he risked his life for me... unable to forgive me?
It is said that people tend to be extremely resistant when faced with unbelievable facts.
I don’t know why, but at this moment I didn’t have any argument or questions. There was only one voice in my heart saying very calmly, it’s over.
I don’t know where it ended or why it ended, and I don’t want to think about it.
"It's quite funny, brother." I said, as if I just heard it wrong. I looked at Sanyi and then at Zhang Tianyi, "You take care of him."
"Don't move." Zhang Tian said.
I don’t know who I said this to, but my eyelids started twitching and I felt like I was about to face a disaster.
"Sanyi, don't move." Zhang Tianyi said calmly, "Although you may not be confused... No matter who is in the car, I will attack you if you attack anyone. I will kill you in the same way you hurt others. Do you understand?"
In the car, it was suddenly so quiet that you could almost hear a pin drop.
My hair stood on end when I saw that the two people's seats were side by side, one on the left and one on the right, with their shoulders only a palm's distance apart.
Only then did people suddenly realize that, given their skills, this almost intimate distance was a small space where they could risk their lives at any time along the way.
Sanyi remained silent, still staring at me, as if waiting for my reaction.
After a few seconds, he asked Zhang Tianyi in a hoarse voice: "So in the hospital, it was actually you who secretly pushed Yan Mo and Xu You to take the opportunity to kill me."
"It's me."
Zhang Tianyi did not shirk his responsibility. He reached out and touched the obedient little fat cat on Sanyi's knee. Although his words were still incoherent, his expression was unusually solemn and dignified:
"When Ranzi came out to stop them and protect you, how did you feel? Did you miss him? Did you hide away and cry? I have to make sure you are willing before I can let you take Ranzi out for adventures. I told you before that you have inner demons."
Sanyi was silent.
"Since I promised to bring you and Ranzi home to meet mom and dad, I have to sort out everything on the way and try to reunite the family. I can't bring two moody idiots back to act out a murder case. That would be very troublesome."
Zhang Tianyi was undoubtedly serious and not joking at all.
My mouth started to feel bitter, and I saw him smile and say to Sanyi: "You should know that this is how I do things. I am a bit nervous, so I ask you to bear with me."
"You are still injured, but I am not. So you'd better continue to sit there and listen to the third story. I say, just listen, and don't make any unnecessary movements."
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