Chapter 19 Photo Portraits

This is like a storage room.

There were a lot of things placed inside, various medicine bottles with different effects were piled together, pills were scattered on the bed sheets, under the table, and even in an inconspicuous corner of the house. The tables and chairs in the house had not been used for years, and the roots had long been deformed and cracked, revealing dark scars.

Pei Du turned on the light and walked in. Their figures were reflected on the glass surface.

The window glass seemed to have been hit by a heavy object, cracking into a spider web. Several cardboard boxes were piled together against the corner of the wall. Pei Du picked up one and threw all the medicine bottles and pills scattered in the room into it.

Sheng Shixian was standing outside the door. Pei Du saw his eyes flickering and smiled at him, "Don't worry, these are all toys. I won't tie you up."

Sheng Shixian remained silent.

This room looks like a detention room.

In addition to those strangely shaped medicine bottles, there were dozens of hemp ropes hanging on the back of the chair. Although the hemp ropes had rotted and broken due to a long time, Sheng Shixian was still sharp enough to notice the bloodstains on the ropes.

Handcuffs and leg irons of different materials were thrown on the ground. They were dark in color, and almost all of them were made of reinforced heavy metal. Sheng Shixian secretly observed them and estimated that these handcuffs were much heavier and rougher than the ones on his hands.

Sheng Shixian stood at the door without moving, and only walked into the room hesitantly after Pei Du collected all the shackles and ropes and put them into another cardboard box.

These are not toys, these are the real deal.

...How could Pei Du have these things in his house?

Pei Du did not explain too much to Sheng Shixian. He said casually: "Everything in this room is old. I will see if there is another room tomorrow. Where will you sleep tonight?"

Sheng Shixian didn't hesitate this time. He walked straight to the soft bed in the middle and lay down on the floor that Pei Du had just made with a blanket.

There were iron locks and pills piled on the bed before, and there might be a strange smell on it, so Sheng Shixian didn't dare to lie on it.

Pei Du had no objection. He fastened the iron lock on Sheng Shixian's wrist to the corner and covered him with a quilt: "Are you going to the toilet or not?"

Sheng Shi looked up with envy, but Pei Du's face was turned away from the light and became a shadow. He closed his eyes and said, "No."

"Okay." Pei Du once again confirmed the position of the iron lock on Sheng Shixian's wrist. He chose the fixing point at the foot of the bed. The iron lock of this length was sturdy and not easy to break free.

Sheng Shixian stretched out his legs uncomfortably. Pei Du saw this and pulled up the quilt on Sheng Shixian to cover his neck: "Go to sleep."

Sheng Shixian looked upwards intently, he turned his head away and closed his eyes.

Pei Du took out two soft ropes from the drawer, tied up the cardboard boxes that had just been filled, and then put them all in the corner of the house.

Gou Qie was floating in the sky. Seeing this, he exclaimed: "I didn't expect you to be such a bad person."

Pei Du was speechless: "This is not mine."

Gouqiu Tuosheng hummed twice: "I know, I know. No means yes, no means yes. Do you humans have any sense of shame?"

"..." Pei Du threw the cardboard box aside and raised his head, "What do you mean by whether you want it or not? These things were never mine. I am a law-abiding citizen."

Living a life of desperation: "Law-abiding citizen, you have a gun"

"I can't use it for self-defense," Pei Du said as a matter of course. He shook off the dust on the bed and took off his coat. "Besides, that's not a real gun. I bought it as a toy gun."

Survive and survive: "..."

Pei Du glanced at Sheng Shiyan and said, "Just trick him."

Survive and survive: “…6.”

Pei Du hung his coat on the hanger next to him. He passed by a long table where items were in disarray, papers were piled up and covered in dust, and broken glass that had fallen at some point was still on the surface.

Pei Du looked at it for a while and pulled out a yellowed photo from the waste paper.

The edge of the photo was curled up, and the plastic film on top was wrinkled into ripples. Perhaps because of the long time, the portraits in the photo were a little blurry. Pei Du could vaguely see the face of the person in the photo through the shape outlined by the lines.

They were exactly as he remembered them, a man and a woman. The man wore silver-framed glasses on his nose, and his expression was serious. When he looked at the camera, his expression was dull, revealing his alienation from work.

The woman standing next to him had a much gentler temperament. She sat beside him holding the man's hand, with the corners of her mouth raised and her eyes narrowed, revealing a shallow smile.

Pei Du inherited a lot of her looks, with soft facial lines that made him look approachable, but his personality was exactly like his father's, so he had few friends since he was a child.

Pei Du looked at the photo for a few seconds. The two people in the photo were leaning against each other, and the surroundings were warm and gentle. If you didn't know, you would think they got along well.

The person taking the photo didn’t know the marks on my father’s neck because he was wearing a long-necked sweater. The person taking the photo certainly didn’t know the shackles on my mother’s wrists and ankles because she was so cuddly that she wrapped herself in a long dress to hide them.

She is also a person infected with the virus.

Mutated and went crazy, often biting people.

Her father locked her in a room with iron chains, hemp ropes, a gag... lots and lots of other things.

When Pei Du was young, he often saw the two of them fighting. His mother's long and sharp nails dug into the ground, leaving a row of bloody marks on the wooden floor.

Her father's face was covered in blood as she scratched him. He dragged her backwards, and her mother was screaming all the way.

Pei Du hid behind a pillar and looked forward secretly. His mother's black hair was disheveled, like an unknown wild ghost. She wailed hoarsely, but when she saw Pei Du, she was suddenly stunned, and then she shed tears.

"Pei Du, don't be afraid of me, okay? I'm your mother..."

Possessing mutants is a crime.

As a senior researcher in the experimental area, my father understood this best. Despite this, he secretly built an underground laboratory, secretly made the rehabilitation drug, and hid my mother at home for nearly five years.

Five years later, my mother was exposed when she went out and was shot dead by the military on the street. In the same year, my father committed suicide out of fear of punishment after his secret laboratory construction was exposed.

It has been nearly ten years since these things happened. When Pei Du thinks back on them now, he can hardly remember their faces.

Director Gong Yuanshen burned everything related to his parents, leaving Pei Du with nothing but a photo. Pei Du could only remember their outlines from the photo in his hand.

Pei Du didn't think any more about it. He folded the photos and stuffed them into the paper box next to him, then put them together in the corner.

A faint sound came from the side. Pei Du turned his head and looked behind him. Sheng Shixian was still lying on the ground with his eyes closed, silent as if he had fallen asleep.

Pei Du withdrew his gaze, took off his clothes, and put on his pajamas again.

Sheng Shixian heard the sound. He deliberately waited for a while, and only opened his eyes again after Pei Du relaxed his vigilance.