Chapter 26 Civilized Sinner 26

He slowly cut open his chest. Yuan Qing was in a daze, but after seeing his movements, his eyes suddenly widened. He stretched out his hand to try to stop him, and another mouthful of blood gushed out of his mouth.

The blocking action stops halfway.

Yuan Qing's mind was groggy and his soul was wandering as if he was about to leave the world.

Suddenly, a burst of cold air poured into his brain. His mind suddenly became clear, and under the stimulation, Yuan Qing opened his eyes, but what he saw was not the dark passage in the Yannan Factory where he had hidden, but a strange and sparsely populated city street.

He only took one look and knew that this was definitely what the city looked like before the zombie virus broke out. Although it was not quite the same as the city that Yuan Qing was familiar with in his memory, it could not be the scene that would appear after the end of the world.

Is he dreaming again? Yuan Qing wondered, this familiar feeling, is God trying to tell him something again?

It seemed that it was still a cold winter in the dream, but he was still wearing the thin long-sleeved shirt he wore before entering the dream. Occasionally, passers-by wearing plush coats walked by, but they all ignored the strange Yuan Qing.

So Yuan Qing became even more certain that this was a dream.

Just when he was at a loss and lost his direction.

A voice from far away entered his ears——

"Mr. Yan! Mr. Yan! I'm so glad you're finally here. The children are already prepared..."

Hearing the familiar surname, Yuan Qing turned his head suddenly and saw a low-key black sedan parked in front of a dilapidated welfare home.

There were two middle-aged men, one tall and one short, standing next to the car. The shorter man with sparse hair was talking to the car in an exaggerated manner. The loud shout just now must have been made by him.

After a while, a white, slender, bony hand stretched out from the car window. The short man immediately and quickly handed something to the hand, and then the two of them made way in unison.

The car slowly drove into the gate.

Yuan Qing did not hesitate and followed immediately. When he passed the two people who were hunched over at the door, he looked back and found that the two people seemed to be unable to see him at all and did not react at all when he entered the welfare home.

After entering the gate, he found that although the welfare home looked shabby on the outside, the space inside was actually not small.

In front of the gray-white building, a young man who looked like a teacher was standing in front of the stairs with two rows of neat and pretty children.

The black car stopped, and then a tall figure in a suit and leather shoes got out of the back seat.

With just one glance, Yuan Qing knew that this was definitely not Yan Nan.

He carefully looked at everyone else present, and none of them was familiar to Yuan Qing.

Yuan Qing was a little disappointed, but he soon noticed two dirty children hiding in the gap between an old tree and the wall.

He walked over and heard the children's conversation.

"Wow, is that the philanthropic entrepreneur the dean was talking about?"

"Oh, keep your voice down. If Teacher Lin finds out that we sneaked out, we'll be in trouble."

"Don't be afraid, they are all busy greeting that important person, so they don't have time to come to us."

"Oh no, I'm really hungry. Let's go find something to eat right now."

"Don't be impatient. Don't you want to go in and take a look? I overheard that the rich man wanted to adopt a child."

"It's funny, how could such a thing happen to you and me? Even if it's true, it should be someone as young and pretty as the lamb. I'll be thankful if I can eat two more pieces of meat every day..."

"That's right, let's go..." The two people slipped into the gap, and the scene distorted slightly. Yuan Qing seemed to sense something in his heart, and he turned to look to the other side.

The breeze blew the leaves, and amid the rustling sound, he saw a pale, thin and short child standing under the shade of the tree. The child was wearing a tattered white shirt, and because he was really thin, the pair of big eyes on his face stood out particularly well.

At this moment, he was tilting his head and looking in the direction of Yuan Qing, with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Is this the little Yan Nan? Yuan Qing was shocked. Can he see me?

But Xiao Yannan quickly looked away as if he saw nothing.

He turned his head and faced Yuan Qing with the back of his head. Only then did Yuan Qing realize that there were three adults standing next to him.

One of them was the short man he had just met. He was facing Yuan Qing with an embarrassed smile on his face.

The other two were closer, and one of them was Mr. Yan, whose back was very familiar to him. He was holding the child's thin arm with one hand.

"Mr. Yan, do you want to reconsider? We still have many smart people in our hospital..."

The assistant next to Mr. Yan interrupted him and said, "Director, my boss just carefully examined this child. He has been malnourished for a long time and has many unclear wounds on his body. I don't understand where the money funded by the boss has gone."

"Hahaha this... this all has a reason..."

The short man's head was immediately covered with sweat. He wanted to say something, but was interrupted by the assistant again.

"Stop talking nonsense. It's just a matter of going through the adoption process. I'm sure you can handle it quickly..."

…

The surrounding images suddenly began to spin.

When the scene in front of him became clear again, Yuan Qing was in a clean and empty room. Opposite him, a slightly older child who had changed into clean clothes was sitting at a desk. He lowered his head and stared intently at the professional book in his hand.

He looked up behind the child and saw two adults talking at the window outside the room.

"Mr. Yan, this child is really too withdrawn. Maybe it's a bit abrupt for me to say this, but I still suggest that you check him up as soon as possible and conduct psychological intervention in time..." The first person to speak was a professor wearing thin-framed glasses and with a serious expression.

"Isn't this kid very smart?" In front of him, Mr. Yan chuckled and suddenly said this without any context.

"Uh... you're very smart, for sure..." The professor choked him.

"Isn't that enough? Just do your own thing, teacher, and you don't need to worry about the rest."

"But, but..." Not intending to continue listening to his nagging, Mr. Yan turned around and left.

Yuan Qing withdrew his gaze from there, and just as he lowered his head, he suddenly bumped into the child's eyes that showed no emotion.

But he seemed to just stare at the blank space for a while, and then continued reading as if nothing had happened.

…

The scene that appeared again was a brightly lit corridor. The Yan Nan standing not far away looked very similar to the Yan Nan he was familiar with, but a little younger.

Yan Nanhuai held the folder in his arms and stared quietly at the person speaking opposite him.

"This is an order directly issued by the boss. The research and development of Life No. 1 drug was originally in the hands of people in the East District, but they have not been able to produce any results. Now the boss wants you to be directly responsible for this matter."

Yan Nan said nothing, but nodded slightly.

The screen changes again.

…

"This is really... my God, this is nothing short of a miracle."

The man with an exaggerated expression turned around abruptly, but to his surprise, the man who had created the miracle with his own hands was now frowning, with a serious look and no one knew what he was thinking.

"What's wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?" the man asked Yan Nan cautiously, but got no response from the latter. After feeling bored, the man quietly left.

Yan Nan still maintained the original action. After a long time, he suddenly spoke in the quiet room, "You said..."

Yuan Qing was also a little dazed. This scene lasted for a long time. Was there really something else going to happen?

But after Yan Nan said that, the room was quiet for a long time, and no sound of a third person talking was heard.

Just when he was confused, Yan Nan slowly turned his head around. This time, he did not hide anything at all. He stared straight at Yuan Qing and asked, "Can you talk to me?"

Yuan Qing was stunned. He asked, "Can you see me?"

Yan Nan nodded, "Of course I can see you."

"I have a mental illness, and I've always known it, so I've always just ignored you as a fantasy in my head."

“I have so many confusions in my heart…”

"What is death? What is eternal life? What is the meaning of all this I have done?"

"I... don't know whether this is right or wrong. I just followed his instructions. What else can I do?"

"Don't you want to talk to me?"

"I'm sorry," he said, "I'm sorry, but I don't know who else I can tell these things to if I don't tell them to you."

"Sorry." He was a little annoyed, hunching his shoulders and lowering his head.

Yuan Qing fell silent. In that short dream, he seemed to have witnessed the boy's entire life. He lived among the crowd, but life seemed to be a layer of glass that isolated him from the crowd.

He didn't know that his current situation was intentionally created by the people closest to him. He was just confused and felt that his existence was meaningless. To him, other people's happiness was like a flower in a mirror, which he could see but not understand.

Thinking it was an illusion, Yuan Qing slowly walked over. He stretched out his hand and passed through Yan Nan's body.

He froze in his tracks.

There was no sound in the room, only the sound of snowflakes falling silently outside the window.

A sudden wave of unprovoked sadness swept over me like a storm.

[How can a person who has never experienced the joy of life fear death and intentionally create death? ]

-

The scene was distorted again. This time, in a pool of blood, he saw Yan Nan, the man he was most familiar with, but he had closed his eyes.

The dream begins to collapse from here.

All around were scattered fragments.

Yuan Qing stood there in a daze, his heart filled with confusion. The scene had long since disappeared, but he seemed to still be able to see the last scene that Yan Nanhe saw.

In his short life, he lost his parents at a young age, was adopted, received education, entered the laboratory when he was a teenager, and later quickly became the general manager independently. It seemed that he was getting better. However, the man who changed the trajectory of his life actually only used him. Therefore, after helping Yan Qiusi to research the medicine he needed, he was treated as useless garbage and even took all the blame on him after preparing to get rid of him.

This kind of life is like a handful of fallen leaves in autumn, the journey is only the short distance from the branches to the last leaf inside. It is fleeting.

Yuan Qing seemed to have a synaesthesia with Yan Nan, but the sadness in his heart disappeared, and only a huge void enveloped him.