Chapter 9: 9

Unedited

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Ren Chenbai smoked two cigarettes on the rooftop.

The reason why he left the phone is because Ren Chenbai knew this girl who was spoiled by the Luo family very well.

Luo Cheng didn’t have the courage to admit it.

…but to admit it, what would it mean?

It means that when Luo Cheng left, she knew that Luo Zhi’s condition was wrong, but she didn’t contact the doctors and nurses, and didn’t tell anyone.

It means that the well-behaved and sensible pearl of the Luo family can really do such a cold thing. Everyone has to get to become reacquainted with her again, this time knowing that she still has such a side.

It means that Miss Luo, who is about to make her debut to become a big star, turns out to have this kind of black material that is fatal enough to destroy her whole person once it bursts out.

And the selfish and cold-blooded nature of the Luo family, which was probably hereditary or passed on due to family education, was of course displayed vividly at this time.

On Luo Cheng’s scale, there has never been even the most inconspicuous half-point position that belongs to Luo Zhi.

Having heard Ren Chenbai ask about this, Luo Cheng would be terribly frightened, apprehensive and anxious. She would have countless concerns on her mind.

The fear of revealing her shameful thoughts, the fear of being pointed at by others, the fear of her own image being completely destroyed…

The only thing she did not think about was that if time dragged on longer, Luo Zhi’s physical condition would continue to get worse, and get to the point where Luo Zhi’s would be in danger.

If Ren Chenbai really believed her as he said on the phone, he would come back later.

Would Luo Zhi die?

…

This is ridiculous.

Ren Chenbai returned to the ward from the rooftop, his mobile phone still lying quietly beside Luo Zhi’s pillow.

There were no missed calls, not even a single message.

Instead, the doctor on duty who came to check the ward mentioned something suspicious. The doctor said that someone using a hidden number called the front desk two minutes ago, and hurriedly asked about the situation of ward 1503 before hanging up again without saying anything.

Ren Chenbai glanced at Luo Zhi’s ward number.

He suddenly became interested, and turned on the recording function of his mobile phone:

“If someone only comes to check now, would they still be able to save the patient?”

As soon as the doctor on duty finished the examination, he was taken aback and glanced at Luo Zhi hesitantly.

He didn’t know why Mr. Ren would suddenly ask this question, so he struggled to choose his wording: “It’s hard to say…”

Ren Chenbai said for him, “It’s probably too late.”

The doctor on duty has never been so straightforward. After choking for a long time, he can only admit truthfully: “Yes.”

Ren Chenbai nodded and put away the phone in satisfaction.

After the doctor left, the ward became quiet again, except for the beeping of the instruments running as usual.

Luo Zhi was lying on the hospital bed.

It seems that he hasn’t moved since Ren Chenbai went out, or maybe he had been lying motionless and quietly like this since Ren Chenbai and Luo Cheng called.

Ren Chenbai was also not in a hurry to speak. He lowered his head to look at his mobile phone, saving the recording he made just now to a special folder and renaming the file to “387”.

The more than 300 materials saved in the folder are all materials that were agreed to be provided to Director Gong Hanrou.

Luo Cheng didn’t know enough about it. The reason why this documentary became popular before it was broadcast was because it not only reproduced the experiences of the victims of abduction and trafficking during that period.

For victims who are willing to face the camera, the producers will go deep into every detail, continue to track their lives after they are rescued, and dig out the buried truth.

The documentary was prepared very early, and the source of inspiration was a story that Ren Chenbai’s mother once told Director Gong.

The protagonist of the story is a boy named “Little Flame” who came back after being lost for three years and found that there is no longer his place in the family.

“Flame” was supposed to be the first unit of the documentary. Because of the unexpected death of Ren’s mother, Director Gong has never been able to escape the sadness caused by the untimely death of his friend, and this has been shelved until now.

Now Luo Cheng actually wants to fight for the role of the scene recurrence part in “Flame”.

Ren Chenbai thought it was very interesting.

If this unit is really filmed in its entirety, it will not only be a simple matter of shame for the Luo family.

How would the Master Luo react?

Luo Zhi will probably be cut alive.

After all, not everyone has the ability to face guilt. There are always people who use resistance, indifference, self-deception, and even hatred to distort it.

Who can bear to face those bloody truths?

…Like Luo Zhi who clearly killed his mother, he always behaved like a normal person, and even dared to make snacks for him.

Ren Chenbai put down his mobile phone and his gaze fell on Luo Zhi.

Before he could catch the coldness in his eyes, Luo Zhi seemed to have sensed something and suddenly opened his eyes.

Because of the lack of strength, his eyelashes moved slightly twice before finally slowly opening.

Those eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of fog, the pupils were a little dilated, there were no spots, and they were clean and pure black as if washed.

Ren Chenbai frowned unconsciously.

Luo Zhi recognized it for a while, and then said softly, “Brother Chenbai?”

He hasn’t spoken for a long time. He may have hurt his throat when he went down the breathing tube. He was a bit hoarse when he opened his mouth.

It was reminiscent of the sea water that has been boiled for so long time that it no longer had it’s original clarity. After the dense water vapor evaporates, only the dull and rough crystals remain.

“Why on earth do you hate me so much?” Luo Zhi seems to be asking him, and also seems to be asking himself, “Did I do anything particularly excessive?”

Ren Chenbai laughed sarcastically.

His laugh was low and cold: “You asked me? Luo Zhi, you came to ask me?”

Luo Zhi was not too surprised by this answer.

After a few people left, he was alone in the ward, watching his vision dim a little bit.

The heartbeat gradually engulfed everything, and finally even those rapid and irregular heartbeats weakened. When everything was silent, the experience of time would be stretched infinitely long.

In the seemingly infinitely long seconds, Luo Zhi was thinking about two things.

The first question is what kind of feelings Xiao Cheng still has for him.

The second question is why Ren Chenbai hates him.

Ren Chenbai helped him answer the first question, which was very clear and detailed. Perhaps the purpose was to make him feel sad, hopeless, or devastated by the truth.

Luo Zhi had to admit that during the time when Ren Chenbai put down his mobile phone and left the ward, the mobile phone that never made any movement was indeed like a cold hammer.

One after another, he slowly smashed his bones. After that, he replaced them with cold ice picks and stuck them into his bone marrow.

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It doesn’t hurt, or maybe he can’t remember the feeling of “pain” anymore.

It’s more of a kind of bone-penetrating cold that is almost paralyzing. It’s so cold that the frost can cut people’s skin to pieces.

…As for the second question, at the moment when his eyes were completely silent, the hallucination he had of Ren Chenbai answered like this.

He could guess so accurately, probably because Luo Zhi knew Ren Chenbai too well.

He grew up with Ren Chenbai. He spent a large part of that rare and warm experience watching Ren Chenbai. He used the memories of the Ren family to build strong armor for himself little by little.

It wasn’t the first day the Luo family didn’t want him.

Luo Zhi had beaten Jian Huaiyi because of this, and contradicted his elder brother, father, and even Mrs. Luo because of this, but never had he been so afraid and desperate.

Because he’s always been confident.

He always knew that it didn’t matter if the Luo family didn’t want him.

Because he also has-

“That’s right.” Ren Chenbai suddenly said, “What were you looking at when we came before?”

Luo Zhi stopped thinking and raised his eyes.

Ren Chenbai has returned to his usual appearance. The coldness is gone, but it seems to be lurking at any time under the gentle appearance to choose someone to eat.

Ren Chenbai seemed to be very interested in torturing him like this… Just like in the summer when he was a child, Luo Zhi sat under the big locust tree, holding a bowl of brown sugar ice powder that was so cold that the walls of the bowl were frosting, watching Ren Chenbai play chess against an opponent who came to challenge him.

It was clear that he could’ve won the chess game in a few steps, but Ren Chenbai always likes to go around in circles, let his opponent seize the chance of life, and then kill this chance by himself.

Xiao Luo Zhi always forgot to eat ice powder.

He looked fascinatedly at Ren Chenbai, who was still a teenager in front of the chessboard. With a calm expression in his eyes, he gently knocked down those chess pieces one after another.

The chess pieces were left to fall on the chessboard in vain, making a crisp sound.

It was if he held the absolute power to decide someone’s life and death.

“… Do you have a picture of my car?”

Ren Chenbai said, “You don’t need to look at it.”

Ren Chenbai continued, “It was damaged so badly that it was directly towed to be destroyed.”

Luo Zhi seemed to have failed to understand his words, and frowned slightly.

Ren Chenbai took the jacket that was on the side, searched in his pocket to find the crumpled Certificate of Destruction1, and put it in front of Luo Zhi.

Ren Chenbai has actually been investigating why Luo Zhi treasured his car like this.

He didn’t allow anyone to go inside even for a bit, and had the interior of the car remodeled so that if he didn’t want to go home or work overtime, he could sleep in the car alone.

This matter was closely concealed by Luo Zhi, and neither Ren Chenbai nor Jian Huaiyi were able to find out anything about it. It was just because Jian Huaiyi planned to do something to Luo Zhi’s car, and even before it could be implemented, Luo Zhi found out that he didn’t know what was so special about the car. On the night of the birthday party, he blocked people who were heading to his car and beat them to death.

Luo Zhi sat up slowly and reached for the vehicle destruction certificate.

He fumbled for the first time, and moved his fingertips to reach the certificate. He picked it up and carefully read it, word by word.

“…Brother Chenbai.” Luo Zhi said, “You called the police, not to save me, but to destroy my car.”

Ren Chenbai originally wanted him to know about this, so he didn’t hide it and nodded. : “I really didn’t expect that you would make it so easy.”

Ren Chenbai was actually the same as everyone else, thinking that Luo Zhi only had a fever occasionally and passed out in the car, so he didn’t pay much attention to it.

It wasn’t until Luo Zhi was dragged out and taken to the ambulance that he knew how dangerous the situation was.

Luo Zhi didn’t know whether he was listening or not, so he gave a soft “um” and looked at the certificate again.

The ringing of tinnitus pierced through his mind, reminding him of how he got so startled after honking the horn the first time he got in the car.

Everything in front of him became distorted, spinning quickly and slowly, turning into blurred patches of color.

“…Don’t be afraid.”

“Don’t be afraid, Xiao Huomiao.”2

“The surnamed Luo doesn’t like you, and we don’t like him either!”

“Auntie will give you a car, and when you grow up, you can drive it around the world. You can go anywhere you want.”

“In the future, we will live in the car. This time, no one will be able to drive our little flame out this time.”

“If you are afraid, sad, or homesick, just hide in the car.”

“Okay, we’ll get the most sturdy car, so it won’t break down in a hundred years.”

…

Luo Zhi always knew that even if the Luo family didn’t want him, it didn’t matter.

Because he still had a home.

His home is that car, and if the world doesn’t have a place for him, it’s the last place he can escape to.

“Why?” Luo Zhi asked softly, “To make me more desperate?”

Ren Chenbai didn’t deny it, so this was the correct answer.

Luo Zhi nodded.

He said something that he couldn’t even hear, and the color block representing Ren Chenbai stood up suddenly and grabbed his collar tightly.

His tinnitus was so bad that he couldn’t hear what Ren Chenbai was saying, but he could only sense that Ren Chenbai was probably crazy.

The hands trembled violently, shaking him vigorously.

But it doesn’t matter, everything in front of him is already spinning, and he won’t be more dizzy anyway.

Luo Zhi’s face was pale as if it would disappear at any time. He rolled his eyes, smiled obediently, and repeated what he had just said.

“Brother Chenbai, that’s Aunt Ren’s relic.”

—

T/L

When you think RCB couldn’t do anything else to make an even bigger as*hole of himself.

…

Mrs. Ren: *Gives car to LZ out of love and concern for him.*

LZ: *Still takes good care of car many years after Mrs. Ren’s death and considers car as his last remaining home in the world.*

RCB: *Destroys everything.*

…

1

A Certificate of Destruction proves that a car has been disposed of correctly (having been handled by a registered ATF) and that it’s no longer on the road.

2

Xiao Huomiao means Little Flame

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