Mr Killer Next Door

Can't see.

Still can't see, can't see anything.

Dimly, Jiang Yu seemed to hear a child sobbing again, and the owner of that cry seemed to have suffered some great grievance, which made people heartbroken.

Following the rustling sound, he pushed aside the clumps of grass and found a boy curled up in the shade of a tree.

The child was crying with his head buried in his arms, but everything about him seemed to be shrouded in a shadow, and he could barely see a part of his body.

The boy was wearing a white shirt covered with dead leaves, with mud spots all over the cuffs and shoulders.

A pair of brown suspender shorts, Martin boots and calves form a sharp color contrast, his skin is fair, and this outfit is pushing his temperament to a new height, like a little actor in an old movie.

Jiang Yu took a closer look and found that the child's knee was red and swollen from the fall, and it was just scratched a little.

He stepped forward, bent down, and wiped away the little boy's tears with the back of his hand.

He remembered why he did this. He remembered the few messages Do Min Chan sent him before parting. The tutor asked him to find the child in the photo.

Although the memory of the photos has been blurred, Jiang Yu just has a feeling——

This child who was sent by fate and let them meet in this way is the person I am looking for.

"Kid, where are you going?"

The boy didn't look up, his shoulders twitched and he sobbed silently.

"...It's too late, I'm going to be late. It's too late now."

"Are you going to school or somewhere else?" Jiang Yu said with a smile, "I'll see you off."

"No." The boy stubbornly shook his head, stood up with difficulty on his knees, "I can do it by myself. I'm not a child anymore."

With his hands behind his back, he deliberately kept a distance and followed the toddling little boy, and asked with great interest.

"how old are you?"

"twelve."

"Twelve, it's quite young. Parents, don't worry about you playing outside alone? Look, your knees are hurt like this."

"I'm not young anymore, and I can take care of myself." The little boy turned his head angrily, not to mention whether he was angry or angry, his tone sounded as soft and cute as a baby animal with teeth and claws, " The knee is just careless, you don't follow me. I'm a little scared..."

Jiang Yu smiled unabated: "What are you afraid of?"

The child shrank his shoulders: "Don't come so close to me. I, I heard that there are many incidents of child trafficking near here."

"Very well, kids these days are quite aware of cheating. However, you misunderstood one thing. Why should I follow you? First, I don't like children. Second, I have enough money, so there's no need to sell it. You can earn extra money." Jiang Yu smiled, "I see that you are injured like this now, if you fall again and the wound bleeds again, then you will cry even worse than before."

The boy turned pale when he heard that: "Really?"

"Really." He nodded without guilt, and held out his hand to the child, "So where are you going? Do you want me to take you there?"

The boy lowered his head uneasily, and sneaked a few glances at Jiang Yu.

Not long after, the fingertips hesitated and clenched his little finger tremblingly.The kid also pulled his arm into his arms, wrapping it around obediently like a koala avoiding a natural enemy.

"The uncle promised me that he would not sell me to others."

"...You can, but why do you call me uncle."

According to the address provided by the little boy, Jiang Yu drove him all the way to the Federal District Court on a bicycle.

"This is not a place for eleven or twelve-year-olds to come." Jiang Yu whistled and kicked his feet, "Come down."

"I have a lawsuit." The child hugged his waist and got out of the car tremblingly. "Uncle, the court will start today. The lawyer has arranged everything for me. He said I'd better participate in it myself."

"Are you the plaintiff? For your age, it's really not an ordinary person to be able to sit in this seat." Seeing that he almost tripped over the steps, Jiang Yu quickly grabbed the opponent's arm and carried him all the way to the gate , "Your lawyer didn't send someone to pick you up? How could he let a child as young as you come here alone?"

The boy blinked blankly: "Is he going to send someone to pick me up?"

"Well, maybe it's your lawyer's negligence." Jiang Yu touched the skin behind his ears in embarrassment, "Go, it's not good to be late."

"Well! Thank you, uncle." The boy held the shoulder bag tightly, and happily pushed open the gate of the court.He suddenly remembered something, turned his head abruptly, his rosy lips murmured for a while, and called softly, "Uncle."

"what happened?"

"Uncle, can you wait for me to come back? Maybe it will be over soon. Ah, if uncle is willing, I will buy a bouquet of flowers for uncle as a thank you gift - I know a flower shop, and their bouquets are in full bloom." It is lush and beautiful, and there is a handwritten message. The uncle will definitely like it."

"I know. The flowers are free, I can't accept gifts from children." Jiang Yu laughed, "I'll wait for you, and don't make your lawyer wait too long."

"I'm going!"

Jiang Yu knew that the time from opening to closing of a lawsuit would never be too short.There's no way the kid's saying it's going to end anytime soon.

All of this is just an excuse made up by the restless child out of ignorance.

Jiang Yu dug out the chat records between himself and Du Mincan, clicked on the boy's photo and enlarged it, and checked the connection between the two facial features—of course, he still couldn't see the specific facial features clearly.

From the looks of it, he didn't find the wrong person.

[I found the child.What to do next? 】

Half of the cigarettes in his hand were almost exhausted, but Du Minchan still didn't reply.

He was smoking a cigarette, frowned and wanted to ask another question when the gate of the court suddenly opened.

Jiang Yu was surprised to see the little boy come out dejectedly, and sat down on the steps of the flower bed.

"What's wrong?" He hurried forward to be concerned, "Why did you come out so early?"

"They said I had misremembered the time and that the court was not due until next week."

"Oh, have you confirmed the exact time with them?"

The little boy nodded aggrievedly.

"Confirmed, they all said I came early."

"... No wonder the lawyer didn't come to pick you up. Come on, don't be sad, where is your home? I'll take you back first."

"I don't want to go home." He said disappointedly. "I have to go to the lawyer now. He must be busy, so he didn't contact me."

Jiang Yu picked up the child who hadn't had time to react, and took advantage of his arm strength to place him firmly on the back seat of the bicycle.

In the boy's instinctive exclamation, he said with a smile.

"Okay, don't be unhappy. Shall I take you to the playground to escape work?"

The boy grabbed him excitedly and timidly: "Then, if there are unhappy things after that, can you also play with uncle?"

"Of course, especially when you are scared and sad, calling my name may be more effective than magic."

***

In the light sleep state where the eyeballs were still twitching under the eyelids, Jiang Yu heard a dispute coming from around him.

He didn't know how long he had slept. Maybe after the effects of the anesthesia passed, his consciousness and body had slowly recovered.

"You shouldn't talk to him about these things, Jiang will be angry."

"No matter how angry you are, an adult has to face reality..."

Jiang Yu immediately recognized the owner of the voice, he raised his heavy eyelids and looked around.

Sure enough, Yu Sanhai was having a disagreement with Valentina, arguing about something in a low voice.

"Where's Se-hwan?"

he asked hoarsely.

"He's next door." Valentina hurried forward, "Don't worry, he's just exhausted and has some injuries on his body. I'm worried that he won't be able to hold on if he doesn't rest, so I let him go to the single room next door to sleep for a while .Do you want to meet him?"

Jiang Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

"No, it's fine. How's the kid doing?"

"The doctor said it's nothing serious." Valentina patiently peeled the orange and put the spiral peel on the table. "Except for an incision on the arm, there are only partial bruises on the knee and elbow. He compared You will protect yourself a lot. By the way, about... what you have experienced, Jiang, there are some things that cannot be explained on the phone, do you want to talk now?"

"Let me figure out where to start..."

The corners of Jiang Yu's eyes began to twitch.

The movement of the lips was extremely slow, and the breathing seemed to be convulsive.

Once he tried to think, tried to recall something, there would be an untimely sharp pain in the depths of his brain, like a steel nail knocked into the skull from the nasal cavity, stirring in the soft tissue.

"Damn, my head hurts. I think I need to take it easy..."

"You have some concussions, it's normal not to remember in a short time." Yu Sanhai took over the words in a timely manner, "Don't think too much, you should rest well during this period. We will come again——"

"Wait, Lao Yu. Tell me something, or it will be too boring."

"What do you want to say?"

"What's wrong with your head? Here." He pointed to a small scratch on the other's temple.

"It's nothing." Yu Sanhai lowered his head in a concealed manner, "I accidentally scratched it."

"Well, did anything happen during my absence?"

Yu Sanhai pulled a stool and sat down, he subconsciously wanted to light a cigarette.

When his fingers touched the cigarette case, he realized that it was not suitable to release nicotine in front of the patient, so he had to put it back in his pocket angrily.

"There's a lot worth mentioning. After you left, Valen was very busy."

"How to say?"

"She should be allowed to complain to you herself."

Valentina shrugged, and was happy to talk to Jiang Yu about this tormented time: "After I made public one-third of the evidence I collected, Crested Ibis Technology implemented time and time again on the overseas platforms we built. Attacks, the programs you left behind are almost irresistible. I think some of them are very familiar with your program loopholes, to the point of being scary. Jiang, do you have any clues?"

"I don't know who you're talking about." Jiang Yu shook his head lightly, "Maybe it's just pure technical suppression."

"Okay, let's continue. Taking advantage of this, he almost locked the IP of the firm—fortunately, after an anonymous email pop-up window appeared, the attack was resolved by external supporters."

"I guess it's the whistleblower group we originally envisioned."

"They don't call it that." She said, "The signature of the email is Yggdrasser, which is the World Tree--it is completely different from the concept of the World Tree Club. They have their own badges and the size of the organization. It's much bigger than originally thought, and even claims to help us get out of the Federation's control."

"It could also be a trap."

"I thought so too at first." Valentina ate the orange in her hand emotionally, "But no matter what, we got in touch with Yige. The other party seemed to think that in this situation, we should It was hard to build trust. So they held a secret party. The invitees were me and the little girl."

"You didn't let Lao Yu follow?"

"No," she said. "That party was full of girls who had suffered a lot. It would be too inappropriate for him to go."

"I hope it's not a trap of Crested Ibis Technology." The labor pains have subsided a lot, and the ensuing sleepiness made Jiang Yu tighten his grip on the quilt.He looked around wearily, but he didn't find the person he wanted to see the most, "——and then? Then what happened."

Valentina frowned, and reached out to support Jiang Yu: "Head hurts again? Do you want to stop here?"

"No, let's go on. Think of it as a bedtime story, and listen to it for peace of mind..."

She brushed the broken hair from her temples aside, observed Jiang Yu's condition hesitantly for a while, and then continued to speak slowly.

"Fortunately, I made the right bet. The meeting place is located in the old factory area, which is a scrap metal processing factory. There, we met Ig's guide in the Federal District. She is called Emu—"

"What did you say?" Jiang Yu woke up suddenly, "Who is this person again?"

"Emu... what, you know her?"

Jiang Yu seemed to have forgotten how to swallow, and even the trembling of his lips was unbelievable.

"She is the boss of my factory. In fact, I haven't seen her very much, but...it's incredible."

"So it seems that your boss doesn't know about your affairs."

"Even I was shocked. She is a cold woman with an extremely strong aura, and she can't connect with these things at all." Jiang Yu looked at the orange peel on the bedside table, unable to whet his appetite, "Go on, Valen , I'm sorry to interrupt you."

“…in the metal factories we met female victims across the Commonwealth. Contrary to what we first thought, the oldest of them was no older than 32, and the vast majority suffered irreversible harm. Some were opioid victims. Addiction, in a trance, with cut marks all over the wrists and necks; some have serious mental disorders, occasionally silent, occasionally roaring, occasionally holding other people's hands frantically, and asking where their children have gone; At the age of 11, one eyeball was amputated due to trauma, and some even could never speak. Two-thirds of us can have a normal conversation with us.”

Jiang Yu looked at the ceiling.

"how many people?"

"The emu told me that there are only more than 60 people who have the ability and courage to come here. The others either committed suicide or lost their function." Valentina sighed slightly, "From them, I know for the first time What absurd way they were controlled, drugs, a horrible drug. I remember it was called..."

"Buckwheat."

Yu Sanhai added on the side.

Jiang Yu's brows moved imperceptibly.

"Yes, Yu Du has already told me that it is the banned drug that you were looking for," she said, "—after the rally, the emu came to us and said she wanted to see you."

"I won't be able to meet her in a short time." Just as Jiang Yu was about to twitch his lips, his facial nerves suddenly ached, so he had to stop, "What's the next plan? I mean, she just wanted to chat with me. ?”

"She is willing to guarantee our safety and provide us with tickets to leave the Commonwealth," she said. "They plan to hold a final rally at the station and then bid farewell to the Commonwealth. She hopes you will also participate."

"You didn't tell her... I'm a man?"

"She doesn't mind." Valentina lowered her eyes and said softly, "She just wants you to know more about them, and she wants you to understand that everything she does is meaningful."

After receiving the reply, the three people who came to condolences told him a few more words, and left after making an appointment for tomorrow's visit.

After the nurse closed the curtains, Jiang Yu was about to fall into a drowsy sleep.

During this period of time, his sleep quality was not very good, and he was always awakened by overactive monsters in his sleep.

When he opened his eyes and looked at the clock, he realized that only two hours had passed.

Jiang Yu fell asleep exhaustedly, his eyelids were glued together, and he seemed to see the door being pushed open a small crack by someone.

A figure was reflected in the backlight of the corridor.

He opened his eyes, curious to see who could have such fluffy hair.

The visitor with a full head of curly hair seemed to be looking for an opportunity, he hesitated, and seemed to decide to leave.After a while, he stood still and slowly backed away.

Jiang Yu endured his drowsiness and hurriedly waved to the visitor.

"Come on, what are you waiting for? Come in quickly." He said with a smile, "I've been waiting for you, Shihuan."