Back in the days, people often used blue silk to symbolize sadness and nostalgia. Qi Yan wanted to use Aunt Zhang’s hair to amplify her sadness and longing for her child. Sometimes spiritual power was just a conductor, while emotions produced the greatest miracle.
Soon there was more and more smoke in the house, which was more than what three sticks of incense could produce, but the smoke was still increasing, and gradually the whole house was enveloped in smoke.
“Aunt Zhang, close your eyes and call out your child’s name.”
“Sun Long, Sun Long…”
There was expectation and sincerity in her voice, as if her son would come back as long as she called his name.
This method was actually very common among the people. Some children would get frightened and cry at night. The parents would take the clothes they usually wore and called them by their names in the place where they often played, to guide their souls back. This was commonly known as “guiding the soul.”
His method was similar to that, but it was more complicated and required more energy.
“Sun Long…” Qi Yan focused his spiritual energy in his eyes and looked towards the incense burner, but all he saw was darkness, “Sun Long.”
There was no response from Sun Long’s soul, Qi Yan’s heart sank, and he turned to look at Aunt Zhang who was still screaming for her son. He didn’t know how to tell her the truth.
Sun Long’s soul did not respond, indicating that he was… dead.
The incense quickly burned out, and the smoke dissipated little by little. Aunt Zhang looked at Qi Yan uneasily, “Mr. Qi, did you find him?”
Qi Yan met her eyes, lowered his head after a while and said, “I’m sorry…”
Aunt Zhang’s body shook and she waved her hand weakly, “I don’t blame you…” Although she didn’t know what Mr. Qi did, she saw what happened in the room. Even if there was no result, she was still thankful.
Qi Yan put away his things and walked out of Aunt Zhang’s room with Cen Baihe.
Cen Baihe followed behind Qi Yan. Seeing that he looked down and was quiet, he asked, “Is her son’s situation not good?”
“Well,” Qi Yan’s voice was a little low, “it’s bad.”
Cen Baihe paused for a while, thinking of how much she missed her son when she called out his name, and understood why Qian Qian’s mood was so low. He took a few steps forward, walked to Qi Yan’s side, and slowly stretched out his arms to wrap his arms around his shoulders, “It’s not your fault, don’t let this bring you down,”
Qi Yan smiled reluctantly and said, “I just feel sorry for Aunt Zhang.” The son she missed so much was dead. When the truth was revealed, how would she react?
A mother’s love for her child moved him but made him feel heavy.
He didn’t have a mother, but he understood the love they have for their child.
“Don’t think too much, take a bath and get a good night’s sleep,” Cen Baihe rubbed his hair, “I will ask someone to help you find out. There are many things in this world that can be solved with money.”
“Do you know that you shouldn’t touch a man’s head?” Qi Yan glared at him.
“Then do it to me and we call it even.” Cen Baihe laughed and buried his head in front of Qi Yan.
Qi Yan stared at Cen Baihe’s hair for a few seconds, then stretched out his hand and rubbed his head. It felt surprisingly good, “You asked for it.”
Cen Baihe raised his head and smiled helplessly, “Are we even now?”
Seeing Cen Baihe’s messy hair like a chicken coop, Qi Yan’s mood suddenly improved by a lot. He stretched out his arms to make his hair even messier, and then nodded with satisfaction, “Well, that’s more like it.”
Third Master Cen opened the door and came out and saw his younger brother’s messy hair. Just as he was about to ask, he saw his brother’s cold eyes. He silently retreated into the room and closed the door, knowing that he would be a third wheel. He would not have come back to live if he knew Baihe was going to be annoyed.
“What is he doing?” Qi Yan watched Third Master Cen open the door, only to close it again and went back in, in confusion.
“I don’t know.” Cen Baihe pretended like he had nothing to do with it.
“Oh,” Qi Yan showed a slight smile on his face, “then I’m going to bed, rest early, good night.”
“Well, good night.” Cen Baihe took the opportunity to rub Qi Yan’s head again.
Qi Yan held his head and stepped back: “If I go bald in the future, it must be your fault.”
Seeing him like this, Cen Baihe couldn’t help but laugh softly. It was not until Qi Yan returned to the room that he looked down at his palm. The smile on his face remained for a long time.
When Qi Yan got up in the morning, he happened to bump into Tuan Tuan who was about to go to kindergarten. He glanced at Aunt Zhang who was holding Tuan Tuan and asked with a smile, “You are sending Tuan Tuan today?”
Someone else usually sent Tuan Tuan to school. Aunt Zhang’s responsibilities did not include sending the children to kindergarten.
“Yeah, Aunt Yao has an upset stomach today, so I’ll help her,” Aunt Zhang looked down at Tuan Tuan with a haggard look on her face, “Why did you get up so early today?”
“I woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep, so I got up,” Qi Yan patted Tuan Tuan’s head, “Let me do it.”
“I can’t let you do that!” Sister Zhang said hurriedly, “You are a distinguished guest, how can I let you do such a thing?”
“I’ve never sent a child to kindergarten, it should be interesting,” Qi Yan stretched out his hand towards Tuan Tuan, “Tuan Tuan, what do you think?”
“Yeah!” Tuantuan nodded heavily, obviously looking forward to Qi Yan sending her to school.
“Mr. Qi, that’s…” Seeing Qi Yan taking Tuan Tuan away, Aunt Zhang wanted to grab her hand, but Qi Yan picked her up.
“Aunt Zhang, you’re not in a good mood recently. Why don’t you take a few days off? I’m sure they’ll understand your situation.” He didn’t wait for Aunt Zhang to respond and immediately told the butler.
There were many people in the Cen family who could help out, so it didn’t matter if there was one person not working. Besides, Qi Yan had requested it, so the butler agreed without hesitation.
“Qi, Mr. Qi…” Aunt Zhang followed them to the door, but she could only watch as Qi Yan held Tuan Tuan and put her into the car.
“Zhang Fenglian,” the butler called Aunt Zhang’s name, “Mr. Qi has already told me about your situation, your current mental state is not suitable for work, I will give you a month’s leave, and I will not deduct your pay, you can deal with the matters at home first.” He took out an envelope from his bag, “This is the salary advanced to you.”
Aunt Zhang looked at the envelope, took it with trembling hands, and said with a trembling voice, “Thank you, Mr. Qi.”
“Where did the money go?” Cen Baihe walked downstairs and glanced at the housekeeper and Aunt Zhang, “I see that his room door is open and no one is there.”
“Fifth Master, Mr. Qi sent Tuan Tuan to kindergarten.” Seeing that Aunt Zhang was still crying, the butler coughed dryly, indicating that she should go back to the room to clean up, and not show this to Fifth Master Cen.
“Kindergarten?”
“The person who was supposed to send her to kindergarten is sick today, so Mr. Qi offered to help,” the housekeeper thought for a while, and then added, “Mr. Qi said that he has never sent a child to kindergarten, so he is very curious.”
Cen Baihe laughed and said in a low voice, “He really likes children.”
“Fifth Master?” The butler didn’t hear what Cen Baihe said, and looked at him puzzled.
“Nothing.” Cen Baihe shook his head, “Since he is sending Tuan Tuan, then don’t worry, it’s okay.” He looked at Aunt Zhang, who looked a little uncomfortable, “Aunt Zhang, you don’t look very well, go back and rest.”
“Y-yes.” Aunt Zhang wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes, turned around and hurried away with her head lowered, not daring to look into Cen Baihe’s eyes.
Cen Baihe frowned, why did something seem wrong?
“Good morning.” Tuan Tuan greeted the guard at the kindergarten and received a loving smile. The children who went to this kindergarten were from rich families. The guards were all carefully selected, so they were very popular and familiar with children.
Seeing that the person who sent her looked unfamiliar, the guard squatted in front of the Tuan Tuan and asked her who this was. After learning that it was an uncle, he was relieved to let Qi Yan lead her into the classroom.
“Morning Tuan Tuan,” the teacher who was standing by the door of the classroom waved at Tuan Tuan, “How are you feeling today?”
“Morning teacher,” Tuan Tuan showed a big smile at the teacher, then looked at Qi Yan, “This is my uncle.”
“Hello, sir.” The teacher smiled at Qi Yan, “Everything is fine at school, don’t worry.”
Qi Yan could see that the teacher really loved these children. He smiled and handed Tuan Tuan to her, “Thank you for your hard work.” The teacher crouched down and patted Tuan Tuan’s head, “Bye, I will be here in the afternoon. I’ll pick you up with your fifth uncle, okay?”
Tuan Tuan pulled on Qi Yan’s sleeve reluctantly, “Bye, you have to come early in the afternoon.”
“Okay,” Qi Yan stretched out his little finger and made a pinkie promise, “I promise.”
“Yes!” The smile on Tuan Tuan’s face suddenly brightened.
Tuan Tuan’s teacher looked on with a smile. There were more than 20 children in their class, and Tuan Tuan’s family came to pick her up the most. When there were parent-child activities, the adults in her family were very cooperative. It was clear that the family cared about her very much.
Although she had never seen this uncle of hers before, he was very attentive. Instead of helping Tuan Tuan with her small school bag, he held her hand gently, and squatted down to look at her when she spoke instead of using a condescending attitude towards her. Some like this must be a good parent.
“Great,” Qi Yan stood up and smiled at the teacher, “I’ll leave her to you.”
“This is what we do.” The teacher smiled and led Tuan Tuan into the classroom. When Tuan softened Qi Yan’s heart.
After walking out of the classroom, Qi Yan admired the building of the kindergarten and was tempted when he saw a spiral slide not far away. He didn’t go to kindergarten when he was a child. Instead, he started primary school after one year of preschool. The town didn’t have many facilities, so there were not many places for children to play. Seeing the facilities that he didn’t get to use in his childhood, he felt a bit of pity.
There were all kinds of luxury cars parked outside the school gate, any one was worth many years’ of hard work for ordinary people. Qi Yan took two steps out of the school gate, and accidentally bumped into a man in a black suit, “I’m sorry. “
The man glanced at him without speaking. He just lowered his head and hurriedly walked towards the gate of the kindergarten. The security guard at the gate seemed to know him and greeted him.
“Mr. Lu, you are not sending your child today?”
The man was stunned for a moment, looked at the guard and said, “He is sick today, I’m here to tell the teacher.”
“Is he okay?”
“Yes, it’s just a minor cold.”
The guard looked at the back of the man leaving in a hurry, and felt a little strange in his heart. Why did he have to come to school to tell the teacher? Wasn’t it sufficient to call them?
“The gentleman in front, please wait a moment.” Qi Yan took a few steps to catch up with the man who was walking forward, blocking his way, “Excuse me, are you Mr. Lu?”
The man in the black suit glared at him irritably, “What do you want?”
Qi Yan glanced at the briefcase in his hand and said with a smile, “Nothing, I just wanted to ask what’s in your bag?”
When the man heard this, his face changed, “Go away, mind your own business.”
“There is a child from my family in this kindergarten, so I’m minding my business,” Qi Yan deliberately raised his voice, “I won’t let you go if you don’t clarify what’s in your bag.”
The dispute between Qi Yan and this man aroused the attention of other people, especially when they heard Qi Yan ask about what’s inside the man’s bag. The people who sent their children became alert and carried the children away.
Seeing that something was wrong, the security guard clenched the electric baton in his hand and walked to the two of them, “Gentlemen, what’s going on?”
The man in the black suit saw several security guards surrounding him, and suddenly took out the thing inside his bag. It turned out to be a large knife. He viciously walked towards a child who was the nearest to him and flung the knife at him. The child must have broken free from his parents, so when the man in the black suit pounced towards him, he stood there, frozen in place.
“Ah!” Screams erupted from the crowd, and the adults ran away with the child in their arms, fleeing the man in horror.
Qi Yan, who was closest to the man, kicked the man’s calf. The man staggered, but he didn’t fall down. He turned his head and glared at Qi Yan, raised his knife to slash at Qi Yan viciously.
Qi Yan dodged the knife sideways, but his arm was still slashed. When the man saw blood, he became even more excited. He turned his head and looked at the place where the child was standing before. But the parent took the opportunity to take him away.
Seeing his prey had run away, all the man’s negative emotions were transferred to Qi Yan. At this moment, he was like a mad cow who’d gone out of control, desperately chasing after Qi Yan.
While running, Qi Yan baited the man to a place where no one was around. After confirming that there were no other children around, Qi Yan took out the phone in his pocket and threw it at the man’s face.
“Pa!” The phone hit the man’s eye, he blinked in pain, and at this moment, Qi Yan ran over and kicked the man’s stomach. The tall man crashed onto a tire swing, which wrapped around his neck like an umbrella lizard lying on the ground.
Qi Yan was not like the righteous male protagonist in the TV series who would wait for the villain to get up from the ground before fighting. When he saw that the man’s neck was wrapped in a tire, he stepped on the man’s hand holding the knife, and before he could react, he grabbed the man’s neck and threw the knife that was stained with his blood away.
“Let go of me! Let go of me!”
“Pa! Pa!” Qi Yan slapped the man’s head a few times, which stunned him. He pulled out his tie and tied the man’s hands and feet together. He tried to struggle, but was tased by the security guard who came later.
His body spasmed twice, and finally calmed down.
“You wanted to hurt children?” Qi Yan gasped, scolding the man on the ground, “You are also a father! How could you?”
The principal rushed over out of breath, looking at Qi Yan like his hero, “Sir, thank you, I thank you on behalf of all the teachers and children in the school.”
This man was a parent, so no one would suspect him when he entered the kindergarten. If he took out the knife when he was close to the teachers and children in the class, the consequences would definitely be disastrous. Fortunately, someone realized that something was wrong with him. The situation was too dangerous.
“It’s alright, as long as the children are not injured,” Qi Yan covered his arm and grimaced in pain, “Have you called the police?”
“Yes, yes,” the principal saw that Qi Yan’s arm was injured, and hurriedly called an ambulance. He turned around and asked the school’s medic to give Qi Yan emergency care.
Qi Yan looked at the left sleeve of his shirt that was stained with blood, and sighed, the tonic soup that he had been drinking for half a month had gone to waste. Thinking of the expression on Cen Baihe’s face after returning home, and the steady supply of various kinds of tonic soups, he couldn’t help shivering.
Baihe is just like a brother to him, why is he so afraid of him being angry?
Has he gotten used to being cared for by him?
“What?!” Cen Baihe received a call from his third brother in the middle of the meeting, his face changed greatly, “How’s Tuan Tuan?”
“I see, I’ll go over immediately.” Cen Baihe hung up the phone, closed the document in his hand, and said to the senior management present, “I’m sorry, there is an accident at home, I have to go to deal with it. Today’s meeting will be presided over by Liang Feng and the general manager.”
Seeing that the boss’ expression did not look good, he wondered what happened
“Please be quiet,” Liang Feng stood up and glanced at everyone, “The meeting continues.”
“Assistant Liang,” a department manager who had a good personal relationship with Liang Feng suddenly said, “Does the boss have a niece who goes to Jinhuaguo Kindergarten?”
Liang Feng frowned. The manager of this department was usually a very attentive person. How could he talk about the boss’s private affairs on this occasion?
“There is news that someone attacked Jinhuaguo Kindergarten with a knife. The casualties are unknown. The police and medical staff have arrived at the scene.” The department manager raised his mobile phone and pointed to the page, “If I read it correctly, Jinhuaguo Kindergarten is well-known.”
There was an uproar in the entire conference room. Are these people crazy? They risked children’s lives to take revenge on society, they’d lost their humanity.
“Officers, if it weren’t for this parent of one of our students, the children in our kindergarten would be in danger,” the headmaster led the head officer to the ambulance, where Qi Yan was having his wound stitched.
Qi Yan didn’t want to see the police at all, especially since they were acquaintances.
In fact, the police who came in a hurry after receiving the report were also a little surprised when they saw Qi Yan. In the previous human trafficking case, Mr. Qi was the victim. Although there were doubts, the leaders of the National Security Bureau came to get him personally. They thought that Qi Yan was from the National Security Bureau, so he was able to catch the traffickers in one fell swoop.
“Mr. Qi?” The captain looked a little surprised when he saw Qi Yan, “Your child…goes to the kindergarten here?” He didn’t expect Mr. Qi who looked so young to have children.
“No, I’m just here to send my friend’s child to school today, I didn’t expect this kind of thing to happen,” Qi Yan smiled bitterly, looking down at the doctor who sutured him, “I must be quite unlucky to keep encountering situations like these.” In fact, if he hadn’t got some of Cen Baihe’s purple mist, he wouldn’t be able to dodge the knife and only get a few stitches.
The captain fell into a suspicious silence. He had to admit that this Mr. Qi had a special fate with the police. He was always involved in major events.
“Hello, principal, we are reporters from Time Daily, is this gentleman the hero who fought the man bravely?”
“Hello, officers, we are reporters from Menghuo Web. May I ask what the man’s motive is? Are there any children injured?”
He didn’t know how many reporters came, but they kept firing questions at the principal, the head police, and Qi Yan for a while. The reporters also took several close-ups of Qi Yan’s arm. If it weren’t for the police guarding the door of the ambulance, Qi Yan thought that these reporters would probably have rushed into the car, pulled away all the medical staff, and filmed him in all angles.
“Dear reporters, please stop filming for a moment,” the head police remembered that Qi Yan might have a special status, and opened his arms to block the cameras. “The victim needs to rest, please understand.”
“Officer, we are also concerned about the hero’s injury,” a reporter from Menghuo Web said unhappily when the police refused to let them take pictures, “I believe many people are very concerned about this brave man, and as reporters, we should inform the citizens.”
“When the injured are dealing with their wounds, they need a quiet environment, so they cannot be filmed or interviewed.” The head police almost shouted at the reportes. Looking at the excited faces of these reporters, they didn’t seem to be concerned about him. They looked more like wolves who’d seen blood.
“Yes, yes,” the principal blocked the ambulance with a smile, “please go to the conference room for a rest…”
“Mr. Principal, may I ask if this kind of thing happened before at the kindergarten, is there a problem of poor management?”
“I heard that this school charges very high fees. How much of the fees you charge is invested in security?”
“Did a staff member in the school have a conflict with the man which caused him to hurt others?”
These reporters saw that they could not interview the brave person, so they all turned to the principal. Before they came, they had found that the school charged a very high tuition fee. It was the kindergarten for the nobles. There was a lot of info to be dug.
“Mr. Principal, I heard that since the kindergarten was established, there are high requirements for the children to be enrolled. Have you ever thought that the man did such a thing because he was poor and resented the injustice? “
When the principal heard this question, his face suddenly sank, “First of all, our school is indeed a kindergarten with high tuition fees and we invested a lot in it. I do not deny this, but I do not agree with your so-called social injustice, because the suspect’s child is also studying here. Secondly, even if there is injustice in society, this is not an excuse for him to hurt children. Some of you might have children, I want to ask if you think they did something wrong? Just because they are weak and naive, they should be the targets of those who failed?!”
