“Keep an eye on Wei Zhenzhu!” Huo Ranyin ordered sharply.
This was probably the first time Ji Xun had seen Huo Ranyin so anxious. Two stories wasn’t high, but it wasn’t low either. It would only take a few seconds to run down quickly. As Ji Xun started running towards the stairs, Huo Ranyin jumped directly over the railing!
And by the time Ji Xun rushed to the entrance, Huo Ranyin’s car was roaring and speeding away in the dark night, outside the villa’s window.
His forward running speed gradually slowed down, and finally, he stopped.
Of course, every able-bodied adult must love and protect young children.
Huo Ranyin must also… love and protect them very much.
“Ji, Teacher Ji…” Wen Yangyang’s voice came from behind.
Ji Xun turned his head and saw the pale-faced Wen Yangyang looking at him with bewilderment.
“I… we should also hurry up and catch up with Captain Huo.”
“What’s the rush? Can you catch up with your Captain Huo’s driving skills?” The more critical the moment, the clearer Ji Xun’s mind became. “Quickly call the police station, the hospital, and the fire department. Explain the situation clearly, quick!”
His sharp command dispersed the fear that had enveloped Wen Yangyang’s face.
“Don’t get distracted, we’re racing against death!”
By the time Huo Ranyin arrived at the scene, driving like the wind, the Yuejing residential complex was already in a complete uproar. Ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars were all there.
He took the stairs two or three steps at a time. The firefighters were already using a battering ram to break down the door. After a few loud and rhythmic bangs, the door was broken open. Huo Ranyin rushed in. He heard someone behind him shout, “Be careful of the gas.” He did indeed smell a strong gas odor, but he still rushed in. He held his breath and came to the door with the little rabbit nameplate. The red-eyed white rabbit was holding a sign that said “Wee,” facing him.
His hand gripped the doorknob. The doorknob was metal, with a characteristic piercing coldness in winter. The coldness pricked Huo Ranyin’s palm like a needle.
He had his back to the crowd.
The crowd had not yet caught up to him.
No one saw him suddenly stop holding his breath. In the gas-filled space, he opened his mouth and nose and took a deep breath.
Then he pressed down on his wrist and pushed open the door.
He looked inside.
It seemed to be a moment of daze. He saw two people lying on the bed, a man and a woman. They were lying neatly on the bed, their faces had turned a cherry red, the color of magma about to erupt.
He looked, and looked, and looked inside. The surroundings began to become grotesque. The room became tall and wide, and Huo Ranyin walked up, step by step, to the bed.
He took off his shoes, got on the bed, and lay down between the man and the woman.
He closed his eyes… his skin also turned red, the color of a cherry…
Time froze at this moment.
After a moment of freezing, everything backfired. Huo Ranyin’s arm was suddenly grabbed, shaking him. Then, a gas mask was handed to him. A firefighter he didn’t know shot a concerned look at him. “Captain Huo, be careful of the poison gas.”
Huo Ranyin belatedly realized that he was still standing at the little girl’s doorway, just a little dizzy.
He took the gas mask and slowly put it on his face. Just as the mask was about to close over his face, he looked forward.
There was no one else on the bed, only Changchang.
The little girl was lying on the bed, curled up like a sleeping white rabbit.
More sounds arose, more people rushed in from behind him. Doctors in white coats with professional instruments came to the bedside. They skillfully reached out to touch the child’s nose.
An invisible hand appeared and squeezed Huo Ranyin’s heart. This hand was cold, as cold as the metal doorknob, as cold as the frost hanging under the eaves outside the window.
Until he heard the voice of the medical staff in front.
“Still breathing, the child is still breathing!”
Huo Ranyin followed the ambulance to the hospital. After Changchang was admitted to the hospital, more detailed information came in: there was a large amount of sleeping pill residue in the girl’s stomach, and they were currently performing a gastric lavage on her. But there was no gas poisoning. Given the timely treatment, there would be no sequelae.
He sat down at the entrance of the emergency room.
Wei Zhenzhu had definitely turned on the gas and had really wanted to take her daughter with her. So why wasn’t Changchang poisoned?
This question was not difficult to answer. The police officer at the scene told Huo Ranyin the answer in his ear: “A window on the balcony was open. Although it was relatively small, it still achieved air convection. So even though the carbon monoxide concentration indoors was high, it was not enough to be fatal.”
Huo Ranyin didn’t speak. He leaned against the back of the chair. The incandescent light of the hospital shone on his face, illuminating a face whiter than the wall. He was silent, then suddenly remembered something and finally spoke. “Have the girl’s family been notified?”
The police officer answered affirmatively, “They were notified from the beginning. The hospital also called to urge them just now. They said they were on their way.”
“No, they’re here.”
Huo Ranyin said faintly. He was no longer looking at the police officer beside him. He was looking at a man and a woman standing five steps away, on the other side of the emergency room entrance.
The man and woman were in their fifties and sixties. The man looked to be in his fifties, with a stout build, a beer belly, and dark, shiny hair. The woman looked to be in her sixties, as thin as a stick, with her hair full of frost.
In fact, their ages were the opposite.
The man was sixty, the woman fifty. Like Wei Zhenzhu and Duan Hongwen, the man was well-maintained, while the woman was overworked. So their ages were the opposite of their appearances.
These were Changchang’s maternal grandparents, Wei Zhenzhu’s parents.
The reason Huo Ranyin recognized them so easily was because he had seen their photos while investigating Wei Zhenzhu’s social circle.
“Did the police make a mistake? How could Zhenzhu kill someone? From childhood to adulthood, she was always the most honest one.” Wei Zhenzhu’s parents saw the uniformed police officer standing next to Huo Ranyin, and they rushed over, surrounding the uniformed police officer and speaking, pleading.
“You must have gotten the wrong person. Please release her quickly. The child is already in the hospital. How can she be without her mother?”
Facing the two elderly people, the police officer who had just been talking to Huo Ranyin put on a stern face. His square, guó zì (character for “country”) face immediately looked imposing without being angry.
“What are you all arguing about? The police will not wrong a good person, nor will they let a bad person go. Not to mention that the case is not yet closed. Even if we police close the case, there is still the court trial process. If there is really a case of wrongful arrest, you don’t need to say anything, the court won’t convict!”
“…” The two elderly people were momentarily stunned.
Huo Ranyin, who was not wearing a police uniform and was sitting on a chair, was completely ignored by them.
Huo Ranyin remained silent, just watching these two people.
Having failed to get any leeway from the police, the two elderly people walked to the side again. They looked reluctant, but as they walked, they accepted the situation that their daughter was about to become a murderer.
“It’s all your good daughter!” Wei Zhenzhu’s father spoke first, his voice quite loud, as if the louder his voice, the more reasonable he was. “She actually killed someone. How can I hold my head up in the future!”
“What do you mean, my daughter? Isn’t she your daughter too?” Wei Zhenzhu’s mother was not to be outdone and replied just as loudly.
Even though this was a noisy and crowded hospital emergency room, their conversation attracted many gazes from the surroundings.
Facing so many gazes, the two finally felt embarrassed.
They sat down on the adjacent waiting chairs, their voices lowered to a normal level.
“What do we do now? Zhenzhu’s side…” Wei Zhenzhu’s mother asked again.
“I don’t know. What can we do if she killed someone? We’ll just have to see what the court decides! I don’t have a murderer for a daughter!” Wei Zhenzhu’s father said angrily.
“What about Changchang then?” the woman asked again.
Huo Ranyin looked at them.
They looked like ordinary people on the outside. Not particularly beautiful, not particularly ugly, their clothes not particularly fashionable, nor particularly plain. They were two people who would not attract any attention in a hospital or on the street.
They were indeed anxious.
Huo Ranyin evaluated them objectively. He saw the sweat on their foreheads that had not yet evaporated, the clear anger and anxiety on their faces. All of this indicated that at this moment, they were worried about Wei Zhenzhu in the police station and their granddaughter in the emergency room.
But this was just the beginning.
“Changchang…” Wei Zhenzhu’s father began, ignoring the “No Smoking” sign in the hospital. He took out a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag. “What about her dad? What’s the situation?”
“Who knows,” the woman muttered. “Zhenzhu called tonight and said to let the child stay with us for a while.”
“Then let her stay!” the man said.
“You say it so lightly! Where will the child sleep? What will she eat and wear? Where will she go to school? The hearing aid for her hearing impairment, the special school, how to teach her to speak, how to get along with her—don’t all these things need to be considered? You? The two thousand yuan you give me each month is barely enough for food. You just say a few words, then go off with your teacup to go fishing, and I’m the one who has to do the rest. Why is my life so bitter, to be stuck with you two troublesome things!”
As she spoke, Wei Zhenzhu’s mother seemed to be overcome with sorrow and started slapping her thighs forcefully.
Wei Zhenzhu’s father, who was initially full of anger and arguing with his wife, fell silent when his wife said, “You give me another five hundred yuan a month to raise the child.” After smoking half a cigarette, he finally said, “Call the in-laws.”
Wei Zhenzhu’s mother made the call. The call went through, but after a few words, the other side hung up.
Wei Zhenzhu’s mother put down her phone and spat, “They said Duan Hongwen is also in police custody, and they’re in a mess. They asked us to take care of Changchang for two days first. What take care of her for two days? I think they just want to dump the money-losing baggage on us. They won’t want a hearing-impaired girl at all!”
The man’s cigarette had burned down to the butt. Thick smoke swirled around them. The people in the corridor all avoided them.
Huo Ranyin heard that sentence.
What Wei Zhenzhu’s father said.
“This child has a murderer for a mother, and she’s hearing-impaired. She’s hard to raise, and when she grows up, she’ll be looked down upon.”
Huo Ranyin tilted his head slightly. He looked through the open door and saw Changchang, who was already awake and coughing.
The little girl was awake, bent over, her face flushed red, coughing her heart out.
A murderer’s child is looked down upon, and the most scornful looks probably come from her relatives.
Huo Ranyin gently closed his eyes. His long eyelashes cast a shadow below his eyes.
The police officer standing next to him was still chattering. Huo Ranyin became impatient. The pain in his back began to ache again. The wound that should have long since healed suddenly began to ache faintly. The pain was like a snake, cunningly burrowing under his skin.
“Can’t you see I’m thinking?” he said coldly. “Be quiet.”
“…” The square-faced police officer took a step back. He looked at Huo Ranyin’s face, opened his mouth as if to speak, but didn’t dare to. In the end, he quietly walked away.
But not long after the square-faced police officer’s footsteps faded, they slowly approached again.
The dizziness in Huo Ranyin’s mind turned into pain. Something was struggling inside him, wanting to break free. He pressed his head and turned, saying softly, “Can’t you understand human language? I said, get lost.”
Ji Xun stopped in front of Huo Ranyin.
He saw a Huo Ranyin who was completely different from usual.
At this moment, Huo Ranyin was hunched over, his head lowered, and his eyes lowered. He turned his face, but there was no expression on it. His face was blank, as blank as a white sheet of paper.
And his eyes.
Those eyes, hidden under his hair, looked up gloomily, like a chasm about to devour a person, dark and terrifying.
Ji Xun had the illusion that he too was about to be devoured by these eyes. The hair on his arms stood on end.
And it was precisely this feeling, so different from usual, that allowed him to grasp a fragment in the palace of his memory.
He seemed to… have caught a glimpse of the Huo Ranyin of the past.
