Chapter 2 Cause of Death: Cremation
Of course, the farce was quickly stopped by the security guards who arrived at the scene.
They certainly don't care about emotional entanglements, but they can't stand idly by when young people "beat up" elderly patients.
Luo Wei and his "cousin" were taken to the security office looking dejected, while the old man was carried away on a stretcher.
As they were being carried past Xu Jing, the old man, who had been clutching his chest and groaning, quietly asked, "Can that brat's family come up with 100,000?"
Xu Jing was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "His house was just demolished."
The old man gave an "OK" sign in a very trendy way, and then lay down again, completely satisfied.
Xu Jing sighed softly, then suddenly thought of something and turned to look at the crowd, as if searching for something, but found nothing.
.
Just as Zhang Mo reached the subway entrance at the hospital, she suddenly heard a series of urgent "beep beep beep beep" sounds from behind her.
Zhang Mo subconsciously turned around and saw Xu Jing driving a MINI Cooper, poking half her head out and looking at her anxiously, tentatively asking, "Are you... Zhang Mo from Q University?"
Q University, a top-tier university in China, was Zhang Mo's alma mater.
"Who are you?" This surprised Zhang Mo a bit; she hadn't expected the girl to know her.
Xu Jing smiled shyly: "We went to the same university. I'm in the foreign languages department, and we took general education courses together before. Where are you going? I'll take you there."
Zhang Mo glanced at her, got into the car, and told her the location of her rented apartment.
Xu Jing searched on the navigation app; the distance was quite far. The two were very quiet for the first half of the trip, but it was clear that Xu Jing had a question she wanted to ask, but didn't know how to bring it up, and kept hesitating.
Zhang Mo scrolled through her phone for a while, and seeing that Xu Jing still hadn't spoken, she ran out of patience and said directly, "Forget it, don't ask anymore, I'll just answer directly. Yes, I was the one who sent those pictures."
Xu Jing was dumbfounded: "Is it really you? How did you do that?"
Zhang Mo: "Put the medical records right in front of me. They have my name, age, phone number, and address all in one place. Since you know what my profession is, you should know that with these documents, I can find anything."
You don't even need any sophisticated methods; you can find it simply by quickly searching the phone number on a few public platforms.
For Zhang Mo, this required absolutely no technical skill.
Yes, Zhang Mo studied computer science.
He was the top student in the Computer Science Department at Q University that year.
At that time, there were more female students in the Foreign Languages Department and more male students in the Computer Science Department. For some unspeakable purpose, the school leaders often arranged for the two departments to take common courses together.
Although Xu Jing had only taken a general education course with their class for one semester, she still had a deep impression of Zhang Mo. After all, there were few girls in the computer science department to begin with, and the male-to-female ratio in that year was an incredible 7:1. Zhang Mo, who was already good-looking, stood out so brightly among a group of men in plaid shirts.
“That’s true, after all, your major is one of our school’s top programs.” Recalling her own university days, Xu Jing couldn’t help but smile nostalgically. “I remember, you had excellent grades back then, and everyone thought you would continue your studies.”
Zhang Mo shook her head: "I want to make money."
Xu Jing paused for a second, then remembered hearing that Zhang Mo grew up in an orphanage, and even shared the orphanage director's surname. So she changed the subject: "So, which major internet company do you work for now? Or do you own your own company?" Most of the technical graduates from their school follow one of these two paths.
Zhang Mo mentioned a name, referring to a top-tier company that offered annual salaries of millions: "However, I resigned six months ago."
Xu Jing felt heartbroken that such a good job had been given up, and asked, "Why?"
Zhang Mo: "Because I'm going to die."
The atmosphere inside the car froze for a moment.
Xu Jing's voice trembled slightly: "How could that be? Medicine is so advanced now, it can treat almost any disease..."
Zhang Mo didn't speak, but simply pulled up her left sleeve a little, revealing the smartwatch inside.
I tapped it randomly, and the round dial now displays the wearer's heart rate.
Xu Jing then saw Zhang Mo's heart rate fluctuating wildly, sometimes reaching 100, sometimes 200, sometimes even 300, and then suddenly dropping to single digits!
Xu Jing was stunned: "You... your watch is broken?"
“The watch isn’t broken, but the heart is. He’s been a bit abnormal since he was little, and in the last six months he’s completely gone insane.” Zhang Mo spoke calmly. “The key point is that we can’t find the cause at all. In the last six months, we’ve spent over a million yuan on tests alone, and they still haven’t found anything.”
This was all the savings Zhang Mo had accumulated over three years of work. She was only doing so because she had a high salary; otherwise, an ordinary person would be heavily in debt.
"It goes fast sometimes and slow sometimes, and sometimes it stops abruptly, lasting from a few seconds to a few minutes. The doctor said that at this rate, I'll be going to the funeral home in six months at most."
"Do you have enough money? I can lend you tens of thousands." Xu Jing asked with regret and heartache.
Zhang Mo looked at her speechlessly: "Don't you understand? I'm about to die. I have no parents, no relatives, no money, and no job. If I really die, who will pay you back?"
Xu Jing, who had been holding back her tears all the way, finally let them fall: "Waaah, but I just wanted to borrow you." If she hadn't met Zhang Mo today, her life might have taken a completely wrong turn.
They were the same age; Zhang Mo was only 25, still so young. She really wanted to do something for Zhang Mo.
Zhang Mo smiled, her tone finally softening: "What a good girl. No wonder that scumbag lied to you. If I weren't on my way to the funeral home, I would have tried to scam you out of money too."
Xu Jing: "Waaah..."
Zhang Mo said sweetly, "Cry, cry more, and your brain will be less watery."
Xu Jing burst into even louder sobs.
Just as she was crying, Zhang Mo's phone rang. She answered, "It's me... I understand... I'm coming now."
After hanging up the phone, Xu Jing blew her nose and asked, "Where to? Changing destinations?"
Zhang Mo: "Yes."
Xu Jing: "Where?"
Zhang Mo: "Funeral home."
Xu Jing asked in horror: "...You're going to report for duty right now?"
Seeing that Xu Jing was about to start crying again, Zhang Mo explained, "It's nothing serious. My father, whom I haven't seen for 25 years, has died. I'm going to identify the body."
Xu Jing: ""
.
They didn't exchange another word the rest of the way. Zhang Mo got out of the car at the entrance of the funeral home.
The winter wind howled, stinging her cheeks.
There was already someone waiting at the door. It was a very withered old man, about sixty years old, with dry, yellow hair and a thin build. He wasn't even as tall as Zhang Mo, who was wearing boots. He had hunched shoulders and looked somewhat timid.
As soon as they got off the bus, I came over to greet them and hesitated before asking which one of them was Zhang Mo.
Zhang Mo got out of the car, her posture upright and her expression indifferent: "I am."
The old man claimed to be her father's assistant, and that she could call him Uncle Jiang.
Xu Jing looked at her with some concern from the driver's seat, but after all, this was someone else's private matter.
Zhang Mo turned to her and said, "Remember this: if you blindly go looking for scumbags again, after I die, I'll use chopsticks to take your pig brain to the underworld for hot pot."
Xu Jing shuddered, then drove off crying.
Zhang Mo followed Uncle Jiang all the way to the location where the body was stored.
Strictly speaking, this is not a corpse.
Because what was placed in front of Zhang Mo was an urn containing ashes.
The urn sits there quietly, bearing witness to the complete end of a life.
There was a middle-aged man in work clothes nearby who introduced himself as the director of the funeral home. For some reason, he looked very nervous. He was sweating profusely despite it being the dead of winter.
“…” Zhang Mo looked at Uncle Jiang indifferently, “Mr. Jiang, I believe that the premise for identifying a body is that there is at least a body.”
Regardless of whether the person inside is her biological father or not, their relationship was far from the point where they would "recognize each other even if the person turned to ashes."
After all, Zhang Mo had been left at the orphanage gate for less than a month.
As she spoke, Zhang Mo looked at a label next to the urn and read it out slowly and deliberately: "Wang Heng. Male. 52 years old. Cause of death: Cremation."
Zhang Mo: "..." She felt like her intelligence was being rubbed on the ground.
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