original sin
"Jiang Li, you are first again this time." The person at the next table helped him collect the test papers. Jiang Li glanced at them lightly and put the test papers away.
The news of He Lili being taken away had spread from No. 2 Middle School to No. 1 Middle School. During the last break, he heard them discussing Liu Hanxiao's death. He seemed to be sleeping on the table, but he also listened to it all.
"Jiang Li."
Jiang Li was leaning on his chair, lost in thought, when the person at the next table nudged him and said, "Someone's looking for you."
Sure enough, Chen An came.
Jiang Li took out his cell phone from the hole in the desk and put it in his pocket. "I won't be attending the next class. Tell the teacher."
"oh."
When Jiang Li came out, he closed the back door and said, "Let's go."
It was still the same gymnasium. After making a three-pointer, Jiang Li finally calmed down. "I heard that He Lili was taken away by you."
Chen An nodded, "Yeah."
Jiang Li said: "Is she the murderer?"
Chen An didn't say anything, his eyes fixed on him. The venue fell into an inexplicable silence. After a long while, he asked an irrelevant question, "Why did you hide the fact that Zhou Fuyuan had a date with Liu Hanxiao?
Jiang Li rested his hands on his knees and looked down at the ground.
Chen An waited a moment. "Jiang Li, you don't want the police to investigate this company, or you don't want us to know you have anything to do with it, right?" He didn't seem to need an answer and continued, "Yuan Yi approached you and invited you to sign with their company as a trainee. You agreed and were considering joining after graduation. But why did you hide this after Liu Hanxiao's incident? I can't figure out if there's something wrong with you or with this company itself."
The more he talked, the further he deviated from Jiang Li's ideas. Jiang Li became more anxious and wanted to speak, but he didn't know how.
Chen An noticed his awkwardness and gave him appropriate time.
A long time later, Jiang Li said, "Yuan Yi and I met in a deep alley. I ran into him on my way home after getting my salary."
The restaurant paid him very little salary. Although the boss lady was nice to him, a minor working there would not make much money anyway, and there was also the risk of being caught. He counted his salary and found it was only 2,100 yuan. After deducting the cost of water and electricity, he had more than 1,000 yuan left for living expenses. He also had to save money for college. When he passed by the unlit alley, the drunk Yuan Yi accidentally bumped into him.
"You have no eyes!" the man cursed.
Jiang Li looked at him unhappily and turned to leave, but he stopped him, his eyes shining with golden light.
"Little brother, I think you're good-looking. Why don't you consider becoming a star?" As if sobering up, he pulled out a business card from his shirt and shoved it into his hand. "Our company is very user-friendly. As long as you work hard and steadily, I guarantee you'll become a big star!"
Jiang Li was the kind of person who wouldn't even come forward to look at a celebrity visiting the school, so he naturally wasn't interested in this. He handed the business card back and said, "No thanks, I'm not interested."
Yuan Yi didn't give up yet and forced his business card into his hand, saying, "You live in a place like this? Tsk tsk tsk, if you come to be a trainee, I'll make sure you live in a big villa and live a good life, counting money until your hands are numb."
Seeing the direction he was coming from, Yuan Yi guessed, "Your parents aren't home, right? Child labor is tough. The pay is low, the treatment is poor. You can make a living now, but what about later? What about when you go to college? You can refuse, but you have to think about it first. Take it, and contact me when you have an idea."
After saying that, he disappeared at the alley entrance, and the wrinkled business card was still lying in Jiang Li's palm.
The way home is not long. When I was young, this alley was full of people and brightly lit at night. Later, as everyone's lives got better, they all moved out of the alley, and he was the only one left in this dark alley.
Since he was a child, he didn't understand why there were so many laughters in other people's homes, but only crying in his home. Why other children could live happily and have a carefree childhood, but he had to struggle hard even to survive? If this business card could make his life easier, why wouldn't he accept it?
Jiang Li said: "I agreed to his proposal and planned to become a trainee after graduation. He promised that I could attend classes while being a trainee. I thought it was a good idea and didn't refuse."
Chen An frowned after hearing this, "Jiang Li, there is no such thing as a free lunch."
Yes, there is no such thing as a free lunch, and everyone understands this truth, but there is still no one who doesn't hope that the pie with a one in ten thousand probability will hit them.
Jiang Li said: "I regretted it later."
Chen An said, "Regret it?"
Jiang Li's nose twitched slightly, and he didn't know what he was thinking about. He fell into a kind of negativity. A disdainful smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He looked at him and said, "You don't think being a trainee is something glorious, do you?"
His attitude changed so quickly that people had no time to react, and Chen An clearly saw disgust in his eyes.
"Singing and dancing in front of others might seem glamorous and popular to most people, but I don't think so." His gaze swirled around the peeling paint on the plastic track. "My mom was also in a girl group, and my dad voted for her when he was still rich. But there are so many people in a company, hundreds or even millions of them waiting for fans to vote for their debut."
"My mom didn't make her debut successfully. She was tortured beyond recognition by the company and had no money to terminate her contract, so she had no choice but to drag it out until it expired. After she stopped being a trainee, she started a livestream. My dad was very fond of her at the time and chased her to the livestream room. He used all the romantic tricks he could when he was rich, but he still abused her even after they got married. I thought about my mom's experience and regretted it again, but when I wanted to find Yuan Yi to explain things, I couldn't contact him anymore."
"when?"
"April 10th, maybe."
"Since you know the inside story behind the artist company, why don't you stop Liu Hanxiao?"
Jiang Li laughed. "Stop it?" He looked at Chen An as if he were listening to a huge joke. "Stop her, and then let her grandmother die in her bed? Stop her, and then wait for her parents to abandon her completely and leave her on the streets? Officer Chen, tell me, how can I stop her from running towards her last hope?"
He was right. For Liu Hanxiao, this business card was her last hope.
Seeing him speechless, Jiang Li said, "It's all fate. She and I both have bad luck. Regardless of the situation of this artist company, he gave Liu Hanxiao 100,000 yuan for her grandmother to have surgery. This is a fact."
After a long silence, Chen An regained his composure and asked, "Why didn't you mention this after Liu Hanxiao's death? Do you know how much more difficult this made the case for the police?"
Jiang Li clenched his hands and said with difficulty, "I don't want others to know that I'm going to be a trainee. Besides, she's already dead. I don't think her death has anything to do with this. The college entrance examination is coming soon, and Zhou Fuyuan definitely doesn't want to be implicated."
Chen An became serious, "Jiang Li, she is your friend. You shouldn't be so indifferent to your friends."
Jiang Li seemed to have felt a pang of indifference, and his eyes darkened. "Cold, no one can be as indifferent to Liu Hanxiao as the people around her."
"She's dead, don't you want to find the real murderer and find out the truth for her?"
"The truth?" Jiang Li suddenly laughed out loud. "Is the truth useful? Can she be resurrected by finding the truth? Without this clue, you can't find the truth? Why should I reveal my pain to help the police tell the truth?"
Chen An’s brows were tightly knitted together. How could he be so extreme?
Afterward, Jiang Li seemed to wake up from a dream, composed himself, and said, "I'm sorry, I just, I just don't want too many people to know about my... I'm also very sad that Liu Hanxiao died. I obviously sympathized with her."
Chen An couldn't figure out Jiang Li's thoughts. His mental state was completely different from when he was seventeen or eighteen years old.
A few minutes later, a soft sob came from beside him. Jiang Li put his hands on his face, tears streaming down his face. "After she came back, she told me that she had passed the interview and was meeting Zhou Fuyuan in the abandoned teaching building. I thought that this path might lead to a better life for her, so I didn't tell her much. I didn't know she would die, I really didn't know. I just didn't want others to look down on me."
He seemed to have forgotten that Jiang Li was only eighteen years old at that time. He would be afraid when encountering things, extreme when encountering injustice, and selfish when encountering interests.
Chen An pinched the back of his neck and said, "No one will look down on you because of your past. Your future is always in your own hands. No matter what career you choose, as long as it is legal and legitimate, no one has the right to look down on you."
Jiang Li sobbed, "But don't you doubt me too?"
"That's because you've concealed too much. Remember to tell the police if you have anything next time."
Jiang Li raised his head and said blankly: "When can the police arrive?"
Before his eyes was a picture of a sea of fire. He was on one side of the circle of flames and the police were on the other.
Chen An said confidently: "The police will definitely arrive as soon as possible, as long as you need them."
On the way back to the bureau, Chen An felt that everything was getting more and more confusing and less and less clear.
Just at this moment a phone call came in.
"Hello, Chen An."
I knew it was Xun Muke from the voice, "I have submitted my resignation letter."
Xun Muke is the team's psychological consultant. He has been preparing to resign some time ago, so I called him now to let him know.
Chen An nodded, "Okay."
Xun Muke said, "How are you doing over there? I see you haven't been back for almost half a month."
Chen An sighed, "I'm in a mess." He only said this in front of her.
The other party laughed and asked, "What's wrong?"
"It's hard to say." Avoiding the details of the case, Chen An asked a question, "Do you think kids these days are all so thoughtful?"
Xun Muke said, "Indeed, it's normal for a 29-year-old like you not to understand the thoughts of young people nowadays."
“…”
Xun Muke was the only one in the team who would joke with him like this. There was nothing he could do because they were too familiar with each other. Chen An once refused to make friends with all the psychology students because they were too familiar with each other, jokingly saying that he didn't like the feeling of being seen through.
"I personally fully believe in the influence of past experiences on people. Our current personality, likes and dislikes can all be traced back to past experiences. Apart from pathological mental illnesses, the formation of extreme mental states after birth is mostly related to experience."
When Chen An heard this, he thought of Jiang Li's helpless and aggrieved expression just now.
“Is there any way to reverse or correct it?”
"Yes, he can see a psychologist and get psychological counseling, or have his family accompany him to make up for what he lacks and tell him what is right."
I'm afraid it's impossible to have relatives.
Chen An didn't speak for a long time. Xun Muke smelled something unusual. "Why are you asking this?"
"No, he's just a kid. I always feel like he's not mentally healthy."
The other person laughed and said, "When did you become so compassionate? I remember you used to be the impartial and just Justice Bao, who only cared about solving cases."
Chen An also laughed, "Am I cold-blooded?"
Xun Muke teased him deliberately, "Aren't you cold-blooded?"
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