Mad Dog

Chapter 3: Unusual Person

Zhi Qi and Jiang Qi were found in the outskirts of Shimada, far from the downtown area where the police station is located.

Zhi Qi’s uncle happened to be nearby and arrived first. By the time her parents rushed over in a hurry, Zhi Qi was sitting with Jiang Qi in the corner, the two children leaning their heads against each other. Zhi Qi’s mother, Mei Ran, had gone through a night of extreme anxiety. When she ran over, her hair was not properly combed. Upon seeing her daughter safe and sound, she sobbed and hugged her.

Most women are most worried about their children getting into trouble.

For this reason, after understanding the situation, Mei Ran and Zhi Minglin were very grateful to Jiang Qi. They even wanted to repay him with money. However, when they tried to contact Jiang Qi’s family, they were stopped by the boy’s indifferent and distant voice –

“No need.” Jiang Qi shook his head, decisively refusing the kindness of Zhi Qi’s parents. “Thank you, uncle and aunt, but I don’t need it.”

Zhi Minglin and Mei Ran couldn’t help but feel puzzled. The boy in front of them was young, not very tall, and almost skeletal. He looked pale and malnourished, with tattered clothes…

He clearly appeared to be in need of money, yet he said he didn’t need it?

This surprised the adults who were accustomed to measuring society with money. After Jiang Qi finished speaking, he went with the police to explain how he found Zhi Qi. Mei Ran and Zhi Minglin only understood the whole story when they listened to the account.

It turned out that the place where Zhi Qi was kidnapped and thrown into the truck happened to be a wholesale market for vegetables.

Various vegetable vendors would go there to restock in the early morning. Jiang Qi happened to accompany his uncle, who was a vegetable seller, to collect vegetables early in the morning. Coincidentally, Zhi Qi’s hair tie fell outside that rundown truck.

There was a faint sobbing sound from inside.

Jiang Qi had an extremely keen sense of danger. In that moment, he instinctively felt something was wrong. He lifted the curtain and took a glance – only to see the little girl tied up like a bundle. If he told his uncle, he would surely say not to interfere with other people’s business. So, Jiang Qi had to escape with Zhi Qi on his own.

He had grown up in a world full of ‘devils and monsters,’ and his sensitivity and adaptive abilities were beyond what a flower like Zhi Qi, who had grown up in a greenhouse, could compare with.

Just as people living in peaceful times couldn’t understand the pain of the people during the war, the ‘ordinary’ people in the police station were stunned by the series of timely actions taken by a ten-year-old boy.

Even more astonishing was that in such a perilous situation, Jiang Qi could still remember the license plate number of that truck!

This undoubtedly provided the police with a significant lead for solving the case. In the eyes of the bewildered crowd, the boy remained calm, and his sapphire eyes showed no emotion.

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Jiang Qi only asked one question: “Can I go now?”

…

An inexplicable silence filled the police station.

It was Zhi Qi who broke the silence. She ran to Jiang Qi, holding his hand. Clearly unwilling to let him go, her watery eyes shimmered with reluctance. “Big brother, where do you live?”

Jiang Qi frowned but didn’t answer.

“Come on, tell me.” Zhi Qi, raised in a sheltered environment since childhood, was not good at reading people’s expressions. She continued persistently, “I want to play with you. How can I thank you? I really want to.”

“Uh, Qiqi.” Mei Ran, as an adult, could already see that Jiang Qi was uncomfortable. She embraced Zhi Qi and whispered, “Don’t force the big brother to answer questions he doesn’t want to answer.”

Not willing to answer? This keyword undoubtedly made little Zhi Qi to feel a bit heart-wrenching. But at this moment, if she doesn’t ask where Jiang Qi lives, how will she find him in the future? Doesn’t it mean she won’t see him again?

Zhi Qi unconsciously turned red around her eyes, looking pitiful on her porcelain-like doll face.

It seemed like the next second, tears were about to fall. Zhi Minglin and Mei Ran couldn’t help but feel a bit awkward, hurriedly comforting their daughter in a low voice.

Jiang Qi furrowed his brows, and after a while, he finally spoke: “Sixth Primary School.”

Briefly speaking, he revealed that he attended the Sixth Primary School.

Mei Ran was overjoyed and quickly whispered to Zhi Qi in her arms, “Qiqi, look, the little brother is from the same school as you!”

…

It turned out she was also from the Sixth Primary School. Jiang Qi regretted telling her a bit.

“Really?” Zhi Qi suddenly looked up, staring at Jiang Qi with excitement, “Little brother, which class are you in?”

Though he didn’t want to answer, her tearful excitement made it irresistible. After a while, Jiang Qi, sparingly with his words, said, “Third class.”

At that time, the boy didn’t understand. For someone usually indifferent to be ‘irresistible’ to someone was destined. Similarly, Jiang Qi didn’t expect that in his subsequent life, the brief appearance of Zhi Qi, this little follower, would forcibly bring sunshine into his life, regardless of his indifference.

At first, Jiang Qi resisted, with inner conflicts raging. But like everyone in hell unable to resist the existence of heaven, he couldn’t convince himself to resist Zhi Qi. For Jiang Qi, Zhi Qi was the only color in his entire gray childhood. But for Zhi Qi, Jiang Qi was the most special ‘friend’ she had ever encountered.

A ten-year-old girl was still in an age where she didn’t understand everything, but she could instinctively judge a person. A child’s preferences are much clearer than those of hypocritical adults. Like or dislike is straightforward.

And Zhi Qi, at that time, clearly knew that she liked Jiang Qi.

*

The case of Zhi Qi’s kidnapping quickly unfolded with the license plate number provided by Jiang Qi and the surveillance at various intersections of Lin Lan. The reason for the swift progress was that the man who kidnapped Zhi Qi was already a wanted criminal, specializing in trafficking and kidnapping children.

The middle-aged man who threw Zhi Qi onto the truck in the video surveillance was tall and robust. After using facial recognition systems to identify him as a human trafficker, the police mobilized a special forces team to raid the criminal gang overnight.

In the end, they uncovered a long chain of the industry—turns out, these scum specifically abducted children and sold them to remote mountainous areas.

Even though these criminals realized the situation was bad after noticing Zhi Qi’s disappearance and had begun planning their escape, the long arm of the law eventually caught up with them, and they were apprehended.

However, no one expected that the key clue to solving this case would come from a young boy.

It’s really a twist of fate.

If Jiang Qi hadn’t gone to the outskirts to collect vegetables with his uncle that morning and hadn’t unintentionally discovered Zhi Qi, this girl’s life might have been ruined. The girls sold to the deep mountains were calling for help in vain, and not many could escape their fate.

After the truth came to light, Zhi Minglin and Mei Ran couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat just thinking about it. They spent sleepless nights in fear. They couldn’t help but be even more grateful to Jiang Qi, almost treating the boy as a lifesaver. They repeatedly wanted to visit or express their gratitude with money…

But Jiang Qi remained unmoved, flatly rejecting everything.

The young boy stuck to his words: “Thank you, uncles and aunt, but it’s not necessary.”

Although the boy was small, he was quite stubborn. Zhi Minglin and Mei Ran gradually had to give up. They vaguely felt that Jiang Qi was a bit strange, but they couldn’t pinpoint why.

Perhaps a ten-year-old boy with the hands bearing traces of long-term labor, injured on his body, going to help his family with chores early in the morning, and calmly saving a girl from certain danger—all these things seemed somewhat peculiar from any perspective.

Moreover, since Jiang Qi arrived at the police station, not a single call had been made to this young boy, making him seem quite lonely.

Mei Ran speculated that Jiang Qi’s family conditions might be very poor. However, the strange thing was that even though it was evident that Jiang Qi’s conditions were not good, the boy still refused their rewards and assistance. Unable to do anything, she could only earnestly advise Zhi Qi to take care of and help Jiang Qi more at school, thinking that perhaps only children could heal each other’s hearts.

And this advice resonated with Zhi Qi. Even if her mom didn’t say it, she subconsciously wanted to find Jiang Qi, to stick around him.

At school, Zhi Qi willingly became the boy’s little companion, indifferent to Jiang Qi’s indifference and the confusion of the surrounding classmates. She was wholeheartedly eager to repay the kindness. Unfortunately, Jiang Qi’s popularity at school was not good, and Zhi Qi soon noticed the rejection from his classmates.

In theory, elementary school students of this age should not understand terms like ‘cliques’ and ‘bullying.’

But since she got to know Jiang Qi, Zhi Qi could hear classmates calling him the ‘son of a murderer’ everywhere.

A murderer…

The naive girl couldn’t help but shudder at the mention of this word, her jet-black pupils clouded with a layer of misty confusion.

Even Zhi Shuang, her desk mate who played with her, couldn’t help but ask in a hushed voice when she saw her going to the next class to find Jiang Qi, “Qiqi, are you really playing with that Jiang Qi?”

A vivid expression of fear and disdain crossed the innocent eyes of Zhi Shuang Shuang: “I heard boys in their class say he’s the son of a murderer.”

Most children are not as hypocritical and worldly as adults. At this age, their emotions are mostly natural.

Like, fear, dislike, disdain, and so on…

But it was precisely these ‘subconscious’ emotions that gave Zhi Qi, who still didn’t understand much, a faint prickling sensation in her soft heart. She puffed up her fair and tender face, her voice crisp and tender, “Jiang Qi hasn’t killed anyone. Why are you afraid of him? Why don’t you play with him?”

The little girl who excelled in studies couldn’t help but feel that this was too unfair. But in the world of children, where is there any ‘fairness’? The more innocent and pure, the more cruel the reflected facts.

Zhi Shuang seemed not to understand what Zhi Qi was saying. She blinked her eyes and casually said, “Of course, the son of a murderer will also kill people. Everyone says so.”

“You’re talking nonsense!” In an instant, Zhi Qi, like a startled kitten, stood on end. “Jiang Qi won’t kill anyone. He saves people. He’s a good person!”

After saying that, Zhi Qi, ignoring Zhi Shuang’s stunned face, picked up her backpack and ran away with her short legs. This was the first time she didn’t wait for Zhi Shuang to leave the school together after school.

The little girl felt extremely frustrated, inexplicably wanting to cry.

It wasn’t until many years later that Zhi Qi understood her feelings at that time. It was called ‘heartache.’

She felt sorry for Jiang Qi. Clearly, he hadn’t done anything wrong, was a person who saved others, yet he was burdened with a heavy shackle from his family background. And Jiang Qi had to keep striving to break free from this unbearable shackle.

Because a person can be destroyed, but not defeated.