It was past midnight when Xing Zhaozhao opened her eyes and sighed helplessly. She was having insomnia again. During the day, Grandma Wu next door, knowing that she often had trouble sleeping at night, taught her to count sheep, saying it was incredibly effective. She herself often fell asleep before counting 100 sheep, but just now she had counted more than 10,000 sheep, and instead of feeling sleepy at all, she was becoming more and more awake.
She got up, went out, and prepared to take a walk in the garden.
The nurse on duty at the nurses' station had seen her at this time before, so she wasn't surprised, but she still asked with concern, "Are you having trouble sleeping again, Ms. Xing?"
Xing Zhaozhao smiled and nodded: "Let's go for a walk."
Seeing that she was only wearing a white nightgown, the nurse said with concern, "It's getting a bit chilly at night now, you should wear more clothes, otherwise you'll easily catch a cold."
Xing Zhaozhao held up the white knitted cardigan she had casually picked up when she came out; her daughter-in-law had prepared it for her: "It's okay, I brought a cardigan."
"You didn't forget the bracelet, did you?" the nurse asked again.
Xing Zhaozhao rolled up her sleeves, revealing a smart bracelet on her wrist. Everyone who moves into the sanatorium has one; it has both location tracking and alarm functions to prevent unforeseen events.
The nurse was finally relieved and gave her one last piece of advice: "Come back soon."
"Okay." Xing Zhaozhao smiled and nodded in agreement, then left the sanatorium building.
A cool evening breeze blew by, and it was indeed a bit chilly.
Xing Zhaozhao quickly put on her coat and strolled onto the cobblestone path in the small garden.
The moon hanging in the night sky waxes and wanes, and now only a crescent moon remains. Another month is about to pass.
She thought back to when she came over, it was still summer, and now it's almost autumn. She also knows how Mingcheng and the three children are doing at home.
Xing Zhaozhao stood in the center of the small garden, looking up at the crescent moon in the sky, and her nose couldn't help but feel sore again.
Suddenly, she heard a rustling sound coming from not far away, and she turned her head to look in surprise.
Over there was a rose bush, nestled against the outer wall of the sanatorium, in a dark corner that the garden lights couldn't reach.
Xing Zhaozhao frowned and walked over.
Soon, she noticed a glimmer of light shining from within the dark rose bushes, like a cell phone screen. A young man dressed in all black was squatting there, speaking softly into the screen.
"I'm finally in, family. Next, we need to get through the sanatorium and reach the small building across the street. There's no other way; the guards on that building are too tight, so we have to take a roundabout route through here."
Xing Zhaozhao's heart skipped a beat. He was going to that small building? What did he want to do?
Xing Zhaozhao, still curious, continued to approach.
The young man was completely unaware that someone was approaching from behind, and was still muttering to himself while looking at his phone screen: "Many new viewers in the live stream may not know what we're going to do tonight, so let me explain it to you again."
Xing Zhaozhao then realized that he was doing a live stream. She had watched quite a few live streams recently when she was bored and playing on her phone.
“Many of you living in Lanyuan Town must know about Zhaohong Sanatorium. That’s right, it’s the sanatorium under the famous Zhaohong Group, owned by the richest family in China. It’s incredibly expensive; even if you have money, you might not be able to get a room there,” the young man said.
"However, even the locals in Lanyuan may not know that there is a mysterious little building next to this sanatorium. The security is even tighter than that of the ridiculously expensive sanatorium, but it has never been open to the public. Today, I will lead my family to uncover the evil hidden in that mysterious little building and expose the true face of the Gao family's pillar of strength, the renowned iron-blooded general."
Xing Zhaozhao paused involuntarily. Sin? The true face? What does that mean?
Xing Zhaozhao's heart skipped a beat when she recalled the room Gao Mingcheng had refused to talk to when she visited that small building a few days ago. Could there really be something hidden in there?
Although she was a bit far away, Xing Zhaozhao could still see the comments that kept scrolling through the live stream. It seemed that the gimmicks of "evil" and "true face" had indeed attracted a lot of viewers.
The young man's voice also became excited: "Since everyone is so curious about the inside story, let me tell you all about the other side of that old general that he has hidden."
"I believe everyone has read about the great deeds of that old general in history textbooks. He endured humiliation and hid behind enemy lines, and single-handedly went to the enemy's central government to end a war. His merits will last for generations."
"However, people may not know much about this old general's family."
"Back then, when the old general was about to go to the front line in the south, he sent his pregnant wife back to his hometown to be taken care of by his parents and family. Their two children also came back with him."
"His wife, everyone who knows her shakes their heads. She's incredibly demanding. She wants the best food, the best clothes, and the best living conditions. If anything doesn't go her way, she throws a tantrum at home, not stopping until the house is in complete chaos. Everyone in the family is exhausted, but there's nothing they can do. What can they do? She's pregnant, and she's the only successful man in the family's darling. They have to treat her like royalty. Everyone else in the family is as thin as a stick, but she eats like a 300-pound fat pig..."
Xing Zhaozhao: "..."
Xing Zhaozhao's face was so dark it almost blended into the surrounding night. Had she lost all conscience? How could she be so blatantly twisting the truth?
The young man continued before he could finish speaking, "If it were just being dramatic, it would be one thing, you could just put up with it. But do you know what happened next? After giving birth, she complained that the baby was crying too much, so she covered the baby's face with a blanket and suffocated the baby to death. Instead of reflecting on her own actions, she blamed her in-laws, saying it was because they didn't help take care of the baby. Isn't that ridiculous?"
"Oh, right, and her two sons are no good either. After returning to the village, they often formed gangs and caused trouble, fighting with other children. Several times they almost killed other children in the village. Fortunately, retribution came quickly. The younger one accidentally fell into the river and drowned, and the older one broke his leg."
"That woman blamed all the mistakes on her in-laws, saying they didn't help take care of the child properly, and that it had nothing to do with her being idle at home."
"Do you know how this woman died in the end? They brought food to her bedside, but she was too lazy to even pick it up. She starved herself to death."
"Do you know what's most ridiculous? After that wise and mighty old general in your eyes returned, he also shifted all the blame onto his parents and brothers, believing that they hadn't taken good care of his wife and children. He then began his revenge. He took his own parents away, and they've been missing for decades now, their fate unknown, and we don't know how much torture they've suffered. He suppresses his brothers, nephews, and grandnephews, giving them no chance to rise up, forcing them to forever remain at the bottom, living a life of barely making ends meet, a life of utter darkness."
"I'm lying? Everything I said is true. You don't know because all related information has been blocked. I know because my surname is Gao, and according to the family hierarchy, I should call that General Gao my second uncle."
"If you still don't believe me, I'll take you to that small building to see for yourselves later. If we're not mistaken, our great-grandparents, who have been missing for so many years, are very likely being held there."
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