Chapter 54
Li Sang squatted on the ground. Compared to a few months ago, he was much taller and thinner. The little bit of baby fat left on his face had dwindled to almost nothing, and his cheeks were sunken. Although he was a child, he was filled with an aura of death.
Like willow branches drained of their moisture, they stood straight and motionless in the ground.
The people around Zhou Mo didn't recognize Li Sang and thought he was just a child begging. They waved their hands and tried to drive him away.
Li Sang slowly raised his head and saw Zhou Mo. He didn't react much, as if he didn't recognize who Zhou Mo was.
He was being driven by the man, his eyes darting around, but his body remained motionless like a weight.
The man couldn't bring himself to kick Li Sang away.
Zhou Mo stopped the man's actions.
"Miss Zhou? The kids here are the best at playing the victim and lying."
“I know him.”
Upon hearing Zhou Mo's words, the man stepped aside, but maintained a protective distance so that he could pull Zhou Mo away in time should any unexpected situation arise.
Zhou Mo knelt down in front of Li Sang. "What's your name?"
The man was completely confused. Didn't Miss Zhou just say she knew this little boy? Why was she asking for his name now?
"Li Sang".
"Very good." Zhou Mo nodded in satisfaction. She didn't want to hear the name Yu Xi had given him from this child's mouth.
It wasn't that Zhou Mo lacked compassion or pity for Li Sang; it was simply that she understood even more the meaning of the saying, "There is always something hateful about a pitiful person."
Is there a man named Yu Songjing here?
Li Sang stared blankly at Zhou Mo, his eyes vacant, and said nothing more.
Zhou Mo pointed to the man behind her, "He is one of He Ru's men. You know He Ru, right? He's the local bully in Ming'an. If he just flicks his finger, your life will be in danger."
The man: "..." This is pure nonsense. What era are we living in? Who would work so roughly now? If Zhou Mo hadn't been specially instructed by He Ru, he would have punched an ordinary person long ago.
Li Sang remained silent.
Zhou Mo raised her hand, and Li Sang instinctively made a dodging motion.
"Actually, it's not that I can't stand you being around Yu Xi, but if you had any conscience at all..."
Li Sang laughed as if he had heard a joke, "Conscience? I was born without knowing what conscience is. Just because Yu Xi is good to me, does that mean I should be grateful?!"
"I'm just a child, I'm just a little kid. Why can other kids snuggle in their parents' arms and be pampered, but I can't?! I have to endure that man's beatings and scoldings, endure this life that doesn't belong to me?"
“I’ve said it before, your pitifulness is not a reason to persecute others. When you approached Yu Xi for your own life, you didn’t feel guilty, did you?” Zhou Mo stood up. “I hate chatting with a child like you. It feels like you already understand the whole world, but the whole world just happens to let you down. You’re so naive.”
"What do you know?!"
“I know your presence here is no coincidence.” Zhou Mo looked down at Li Sang. “I don’t like a life that’s been pre-arranged for me.”
Tears streamed down Li Sang's small face. "I don't want to either... but I'm always being abandoned. I have to find a home for myself."
"Whatever."
Zhou Mo walked past Li Sang and forward, and the man immediately followed her.
Li Sang remained squatting in the same spot behind him, crying silently.
Men also climb up from the bottom, so they have a subtle feeling towards people from the bottom, a mixture of rejection and recognition.
"Miss Zhou, that child."
"He's just a misguided kid who's gone astray without proper guidance. Once he goes to school and does a few more senior year exams, he'll know what the world is really like."
"Go to school? Nobody cares here, and many children can't go to school."
Zhou Mo frowned. "Knowledge is power. How can you not go to school?"
The man wanted to ask who would take care of the child's schooling, but before he could finish, he realized that Zhou Mo meant she would be responsible for the child's education.
They had long heard that Yu Xi, that troublemaker, had actually gone to high school and scored an unbelievable number on his first weekly test. Now that another little brat had arrived, Zhou Mo was going to send him to school too.
Is Zhou Mo really that passionate about education?
The man scratched his head, completely baffled as to what Zhou Mo was trying to do.
He complained about it, but secretly he was planning to send people to school.
"Is the message referring to that side?"
The man snapped out of his thoughts and looked in the direction Zhou Mo was pointing. A wisp of smoke drifted from the roof of the dilapidated wooden house. He took out his phone and compared the smoke to the roof. "Yes, this is it, Miss Zhou. How did you know?"
"Because this is the only place on fire."
"on fire?!"
The man looked closely and realized that the wisp of smoke wasn't coming from a chimney. Although the area was remote, the single-story houses had already been renovated, and chimneys and such had long been removed.
The man instinctively ran forward to check on the situation, but turned back halfway. "Miss Zhou, stay here and don't move. I'll go take a look."
Zhou Mo waved her phone. "I've already called 119. I suggest you stay here with me; it's safer that way."
"But what if there are people inside?"
"If it's Yu Songjing, then burn him to death."
The man was stunned, staring at Zhou Mo in disbelief. What had he just heard? In his eyes, Zhou Mo was just a good-looking, temperamental academic star, but now, he felt a chill run down his spine.
Zhou Mo met the man's shocked gaze, then casually tugged at the corner of her mouth, "I was just joking. Yu Songjing is Yu Xi's father, of course I want him to be well."
Yeah, right.
The thought that her father, who had set fire to the house and killed her son, might interfere in her relationship with Yu Xi's family if he were still alive, made her incredibly agitated.
The fire department arrived quickly. Because the house was located in a relatively remote area with no flammable buildings or materials nearby, the fire was quickly extinguished.
Zhou Mo: "I want to go in and take a look."
Man: "Wait a moment, I'll go and negotiate."
Zhou Mo watched as the man took out a cigarette from his pocket and started chatting with the firefighter who was putting out the fire. The firefighter didn't take the cigarette from the man, but the two heads got closer and closer. She saw the firefighter turn around and glance at her, and then the man waved to her.
Zhou Mo walked over.
"The location of the fire is still under investigation; we can only take a quick look inside from here."
"This used to be a window, so you could see the layout inside, but you didn't necessarily have to go in." The firefighter glanced at Zhou Mo, his tone not very polite, but Zhou Mo didn't seem to care. She glanced at him from afar.
See, I can't figure out anything.
From the moment she stopped to talk to Li Sang, it was clear that she wouldn't get any useful information on this trip.
"Let's go."
Man: "Okay, then I'll take Miss Zhou home first."
"No, go to Zhenghai."
"Zhenghai? Isn't that a mental hospital?" The man was puzzled, but he still obeyed Zhou Mo's instructions. "I understand."
The man went to get the car first. As Zhou Mo was about to leave, the firefighter next to her spoke up again, "Zhou Qinian's daughter is really something. If your father finds out that you're hanging out with these gangsters, he'll probably be furious."
"You know my father?"
“Your dad is a legendary figure; everyone who’s met him remembers him. But if we’re talking about acquaintances, I’m not even in the running.” The firefighter took off his helmet and tucked it under his arm, revealing the face of a middle-aged man bearing the marks of time. “My name is Xing Ke. I used to work with Zhou Qinian. Your dad is pretty fierce.”
Xing Ke deliberately covered his mouth with his hand when he said the last sentence, as if he was afraid someone would report him.
Zhou Mo felt a mix of emotions. It was always like this, always so unexpected, that she was made to know more about her father.
She is clearly Zhou Qinian's daughter, but these self-righteous people know things she doesn't.
"oh."
"How cold-hearted." Xing Ke straightened his expression. "I heard from them that your parents are gone. I know that's a painful thing, and I also know that I don't seem to have any right to say these things. It's kind of disgusting for an old man to suddenly say something heartfelt to you. But I still have to say, don't hang out with these people. Just live an ordinary life."
"An ordinary life?" Zhou Mo murmured to herself. She nodded to Xing Ke, then bowed. "Thank you for your advice. I've taken it to heart. Goodbye."
Xing Ke watched Zhou Mo leave, sighed helplessly and shook his head. A new team member next to him saw his bitter and resentful look and asked him what was wrong.
"It's alright, people get old and just like to reminisce about the past."
"You're old in your forties? What do you expect the political commissar to think?"
"While burying you, I'll be thinking about how to take you with me." Xing Ke gave the team member a sharp rap on the head. "Hurry up and finish the work, send the remaining evidence to the fire investigation department, and issue a fire analysis report as soon as possible."
"yes!"
Zhenghai is a well-known sanatorium in Ming'an, but ordinary people don't call it a sanatorium. Instead, they call it a mental hospital. They assume that the people living there are mentally ill. Most of the people living there are on lifelong contracts, and some never leave the hospital from the moment they enter until they die. This shows how strict the management at Zhenghai is.
Men are all sorts of people, and they naturally have their own ways of getting into Zhenghai. As soon as the vehicle entered the gate of Zhenghai, they saw a police car parked in the yard.
He has a natural wariness of police cars. "Ms. Zhou, I'll get out of the car and ask."
"No need, let's get off together."
“Zhenghai is a mental hospital. There are frequent incidents of patients wielding knives and injuring people here. If you are accidentally injured before the perpetrator is caught, I will not be able to explain myself.”
"I can roughly guess who called the police."
As Zhou Mo pushed open the car door and landed, the high-hanging sun was obscured by dark clouds blown in by the wind, and the sky instantly darkened, looking like it was about to rain.
Seeing Zhou Mo get out of the car, the man had no choice but to get out as well and follow her.
Inside the ward, police officers were taking a statement from the on-duty doctor. "Is this a special ward?"
No, not exactly.
"No? Normal wards usually have windows or ventilation systems to protect patients' health. This place has walls on all four sides, and the door is an iron door. You call this a normal ward? I hope you can tell the truth. Once we find out, this won't be a record, it will be a confession."
The on-duty doctor looked troubled. "This ward was normal at first, but then the higher-ups said it was going to be renovated, which is why it became like this. However, we haven't used this ward for any other patients."
The police officer taking the statement was a young woman. She winked at her partner and then looked at the on-duty doctor, saying, "Then you can pray that no biological traces other than ours are detected here."
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