Chi Xiaochi ran far away, borrowed a phone from a small newsstand that sold magazines, and called an ambulance.
When it was difficult to clarify the location of the Tongzilou, Chi Xiaochi, who had already exhausted his physical strength, grabbed the little strength he had and ran everywhere.
Years later, he still remembers the part of the road he ran.
In summer, the asphalt road exudes a thick smell of coal tar, which becomes even more unbearable when it is scalded by the hot air, mixed with the bloody smell of grinding sand in the throat.
This breath enveloped Chi Xiaochi's 14-year-old July.
Later, whenever he thought about this day, the smell revolved around him like the wind.
Along the way, he stopped two or three motorcycles, but he was wearing a small vest and shorts, and he could see at a glance that he had no money on him. The few cars that stopped also asked him if he had any money.
As soon as they heard it was a major event related to human life, they ran faster.
They are all small businesses, and if you delay a day, you will earn less money for a day.
Everyone calculated it clearly.
When Chi Xiaochi ran back downstairs again, Lou Ying and Zhu Shoucheng disappeared. There were fresh wheel marks on the ground, a pool of dark red blood, and a few blood-stained stones.
He ran to the hospital.
There is only one small hospital in the urban-rural fringe, so Chi Xiaochi has only one destination.
Chi Xiaochi rushed into the humble emergency building.
He asked the nurse at the consulting office: "Which operating room is the patient who just came in?"
The nurse raised her head: "Four patients came in in just half an hour. Which one are you talking about?"
"Lou Ying."
"Don't say names. None of the four have been registered in detail."
With that said, the nurse spread out the incompletely registered critical condition record book, and pushed up her glasses: "Two drivers, one suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and one fell from the upstairs. Which one do you ask?"
Chi Xiaochi: "It fell from upstairs."
"Who are you?"
Chi Xiaochi said, "I'm his younger brother."
"biological?"
Chi Xiaochi lied: "My own."
"That's okay." The old nurse put down the register and looked at him from above her glasses, "...So your parents still have something to think about."
Chi Xiaochi looked at the nurse, his heart was full of wood.
He seemed to understand what the nurse said, but he didn't.
"Turn right at the end of the second floor. Hurry up," the nurse said. "A few minutes later, it will be taken to the morgue."
Nurses have been in the hospital for a long time, and are used to seeing death, and they are used to seeing the reaction of family members when they learn of the death of their relatives, especially children of this age, which are nothing more than weak legs, crying, or anger.
But Chi Xiaochi's reaction was different from anything she had ever seen.
Chi Xiaochi grabbed the trundle bed that was pushed out of the emergency room, and directly blocked the bed in the corridor that was not very spacious.
He asked the doctor, "Where are you taking my brother?"
The doctor is more euphemistic: "The weather is too hot, his body has to find a place to stop first, and then take your brother home when your parents come, okay?"
Chi Xiaochi stubbornly said: "His hand is still moving, where are you taking him?"
The doctor didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Young man, you are wrong. The ground is uneven, and the roller bed is rolling on it, so it is inevitable that it will be a little bumpy."
Chi Xiaochi grabbed the trundle bed and tried his best to prove to the doctor that what he saw was believing: "Uncle, listen to me, my brother is really moving... We don't go to the morgue, we don't go."
The doctor sighed: "Please forgive me."
Chi Xiaochi said, "What am I sorry for, he is still alive."
The doctor said, "Young man, if you stop here, it will affect our normal work."
Chi Xiaochi didn't dare to let go, for fear that if he let go, Lou Ying would be pushed to that place by them.
He grabbed the corner of the bed and shouted to the silent person on the bed: "Brother Lou... Brother Lou, wake up. You tell them, we are not going to the morgue..."
Small local hospitals, even sedatives are out of stock.
Chi Xiaochi was so awake that he was forcibly separated from the bed by two strong security guards.
When the sound of the rolling wheels resounded, the body covered with the white sheet began to tremble again.
Chi Xiaochi was pressed against the wall and watched from a distance as the car turned a corner in the corridor and disappeared.
He thought, it's only two floors, how could it be.
He felt that this was impossible, and that he might have stopped the wrong car and recognized the wrong person. After all, he only saw half of his hand exposed under the sheet.
So he followed up the morgue as a family member after lying that he had calmed down.
The confirmed result is that he really knows Lou Ying very well.
He has seen the hand holding the pen, the game console, the bowl, the chopsticks, and the screwdriver, and he has also seen that hand flattened out after falling asleep.
like now.
He fell into a long dream.
Chi Xiaochi held that hand and sat down slowly on the cold concrete floor along the edge of the bed.
The person guarding the corpse was an old man. He looked at it from a distance, shook his head, and turned his back.
Chi Xiaochi found that Lou Ying's fingertips were very cold, and the tips of his fingernails were strangely blue, so he held his hand in the palm of his hand and breathed lightly.
Chi Xiaochi began to feel cold when the cold air that had been in the morgue all year round reached him.
He felt a lot of pain on his body, but he couldn't tell where the pain was.
Chi Xiaochi let go of Lou Ying's hand, tightened his shoulders with both hands, and tightened them inwardly.
His jaws were clenched tightly, and there were intermittent moans of pain between his teeth.
The old man was a little worried when he heard the sound, and came over, speaking in a strong Shaanxi dialect: "Baby, what a lie."
Chi Xiaochi said inarticulately: "...It hurts."
"Then grandpa took you to the doctor?"
"Don't see a doctor." Chi Xiaochi buried his face in his arms and took a deep breath, "Grandpa, I want to make a call."
"Okay, okay, call your parents. Let a baby of yours see this..."
Chi Xiaochi raised his eyes: "No, I want to call the police."
However, as soon as he was helped out of the mortuary by the old man, two police officers from the police station, a man and a woman, came towards him. The man was in his early forties, and the woman was young and capable with short hair and ears.
The male policeman looked at him and saw some clues from his pale face: "Are you Chi Xiaochi?"
Chi Xiaochi also stared at him, silently, neither nodding nor shaking his head.
He said, "I have business with you."
"We also have something to ask you about." The policewoman asked him, "How old are you?"
Chi Xiaochi said dryly, "14."
"Hey, I really can't tell, you're very tall, I thought you were sixteen or seventeen." The male policeman glanced at his partner approvingly, and then said, "Then we have to go through the procedure well. Well, you first Hang up the phone with your parents and tell them to wait here. When your father or mother arrives, we will ask you something... "
"I have a situation to report." Chi Xiaochi interrupted him, "It's Zhu Shoucheng. Zhu Shoucheng hurt Brother Lou, and he let Brother Lou fall... He also treated me—"
To his surprise, the attitude of the two police officers was very calm: "We know about this matter. We are also here to investigate."
"Investigate what?"
"It was reported by Zhu Shoucheng, the resident of No. 207 on the second floor of No. 17 Anding Road." The male policeman said, "It is related to a burglary case, and other details cannot be disclosed. We will discuss in detail when your parents come."
Chi Xiaochi thought that when he lifted the sheet and saw Brother Lou's face, it was the darkest moment in his life.
He still underestimated how fucked up life was.
After taking Lou Ying to the hospital, Zhu Shoucheng used the hospital's phone to call the police, saying that a thief had entered his house.
The thief was called Lou Ying, and the one who assisted in the theft was called Chi Xiaochi.
Chi Xiaochi came to his home to remediate his homework and do the questions. He was so sleepy because he stayed up late last night to write the lesson plan. He went back to the bedroom to sleep, and planned to wait for Chi Xiaochi to finish the whole set of questions before explaining it to him.
He was awakened by rustling voices outside.
He said that at first he thought Chi Xiaochi was talking to himself, but after listening for a while with pointed ears, he realized that something was wrong.
… There was another person in his living room.
Zhu Shoucheng said that he got out of bed, walked to the door, and bumped into Lou Ying who was about to enter the bedroom.
Lou Ying was guilty of being a thief, so she turned around and ran away. After being caught from behind, Lou Ying actually scuffled with him, breaking Clivia and knocking several pieces of furniture in the house. Chi Xiaochi also rushed up to fight him, and after being pushed away by him , turned out to be messing around, ran out and shouted that there was a fire.
During the scuffle, Lou Ying wanted to escape from the window, but Zhu Shoucheng wanted to stop him, but whoever wanted to shove, actually caused him to fall from the building.
After Chi Xiaochi heard this, he immediately stepped on the table in the interrogation room and almost kicked the table over: "Fuck him!!"
Ma Chi, who was on the side, snorted and slapped him on the head: "Keep your mouth clean! How do I usually teach you?!"
After that, she bowed respectfully to the two police officers in charge of the questioning: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, this child has a bad temper, and he is so rude to us at home, he's used to it."
Chi Xiaochi's eyes turned black with anger, and a mouthful of stagnant qi stagnated in his chest, only to feel that all the blood in his body was gushing out of his throat: "No!! No!!! Why do you only listen to one side of his words? What about the other neighbors? Our building Poor soundproofing, someone can always hear something, right?!"
The short-haired policewoman's name was Ziyu, she saw that Chi Xiaochi was too excited, so she deliberately softened her voice: "At that time, there were only an old man with a back ear, a hangover, and two Children in elementary school. The first two people didn't hear anything at all, and the two children couldn't remember the events clearly. They had their own explanations about the timeline of what happened. It's unclear, the testimony cannot be trusted."
Saying that, Ziyu leaned forward slightly and reassured him with a gentle tone: "Don't get excited. Zhu Shoucheng's statement belongs to him. I want to hear your description of this matter now."
Chi Xiaochi's face turned pale.
The smell of a man's head oil filled his mouth again, and the fermented stench of food and saliva filled his nostrils.
Chi Xiaochi unconsciously clasped his hands under the table tightly, and said softly, "He... wants to do that to me."
Ziyu didn't understand for a while: "What does he want from you?"
Chi Xiaochi gritted his teeth and cut open his hidden wound with a knife: "... He, Zhu Shoucheng, is going to violate me."
For a while, the atmosphere in the conference room froze.
Chi's mother widened her eyes and pinched his leg under the table: "Are you crazy? What nonsense?"
Zi Yu and the middle-aged policeman Lao Dai exchanged a look of astonishment and said, "Can you tell us the details?"
Chi Xiaochi recounted his experience word by word. When he said that he was crushed on the bed, his body shook violently, and his stomach was nauseous, as if an invisible big hand was pulling out his stomach.
After listening to his story, Ziyu attached great importance to it and immediately decided to take him to the hospital for an examination of his injuries.
But Mother Chi had been sitting on the side, looking at Chi Xiaochi with weird eyes.
After the injury examination, it was already dark.
Ziyu drove and sent Chi Xiaochi and Chi Ma back to Tongzilou, and told Chi Xiaochi to take a good rest, don't think about it, and don't run around, they will start an investigation as soon as possible.
Chi Xiaochi listened without a word, looking straight out of the car window.
Zhu Shoucheng stood in front of Lou Ying's house in a suit and leather shoes, holding a huge fruit basket in his hand.
From his jacket pocket, a thick red envelope appeared.
He was talking to the sobbing aunt Lou Ying with a sad face.
Seemingly aware of the sight behind him, he turned his head and saw Chi Xiaochi in the police car.
Zhu Shoucheng was a little guilty, so he quickly turned his eyes away and said something to Aunt Lou Ying, who then moved out of the way and let him enter Lou's house.
Chi Xiaochi wanted to kill.
At this time, he extremely wanted Zhu Shoucheng to lie in the morgue coldly and alone like Brother Lou.
After Chi Ma and Ziyu said goodbye, their faces quickly turned down, pulling Chi Xiaochi and dragging him upstairs all the way.
There is a cold pot and a cold stove at home, and Dad Chi is sitting at the table, not in a good mood.
He asked, "I heard a little bit of wind. What's going on?"
As soon as Chi Xiaochi was about to speak, Chi's mother scolded: "What's the matter? Isn't that a good son you gave birth to?! When you grow up so big, you can't learn anything else. Jing learning will cause trouble!"
She turned to Chi Xiaochi: "Didn't I tell you, don't interact with Lou downstairs, he is good at studying, but his character is not good. Look, how is it now? Has it been fulfilled?"
Chi Xiaochi argued fiercely: "Brother Lou is not!!"
"Oh, he's not. Then why did he go to someone's house in the daytime? He still has other people's money in his pocket?"
Chi Xiaochi's voice was full of tears: "Brother Lou is here to save me..."
"Just be nonsense." Chi's mother turned to Chi's father, "You know, your good son, saying that Mr. Zhu touched him and touched him... Listen, it's absurd or not, ah? You should be What kind of pastry are you? Teacher Zhu is a man, a big man. What does he want to do with you? It's a joke."
... Chi Xiaochi doesn't want to talk anymore.
Even if he opened his mouth, he was tired.
The parents would not admit that their decision to send Chi Xiaochi to Mr. Zhu's home for tutoring was wrong, so it must be Chi Xiaochi who was at fault.
In that case, there is nothing to say.
He wanted to go out to breathe, but was stopped by Chi's mother, saying that he didn't want to go anywhere tonight, so he explained everything clearly at home.
Chi Xiaochi pursed his lips and silently laughed twice.
He made the bed on the ground, fell straight down, pulled the quilt over his head, and didn't say a word.
No way, Chi Mama Chi Dad also turned off the lights early to fight the rumors that had spread throughout the building.
Chi Xiaochi was not sleepy, under the stuffy quilt, opened his eyes and listened to the couple's conversation on the bed.
Dad Chi said, "Why did someone die? He still died near our house. Even if we have to move in the future, the house price will also fall. Who should I reason with?"
"Whoever you like, don't look bad for us." Chi Ma said angrily, "Your son will give the keys to the outsider casually. Now that's it, we have to eat melons with the Lou family."
"It's not impossible. But speaking of it, it's really a shame that the Lou family lost his life." Dad Chi said, "Death is the biggest thing, and peace is the most precious thing. Teacher Zhu will not worry about Xiaochi's affairs with us. "
Chi Xiaochi opened his mouth and bit the quilt.
When he had a little strength to loosen his teeth, he realized that his mouth was full of blood.
…
Ziyu stayed in the downstairs of the tube all the time, observed the surroundings, and confirmed that there was no trace of surveillance coverage in this area.
It was not until Zhu Shoucheng said goodbye from Lou's house that she got out of the car and stopped Zhu Shoucheng: "Mr. Zhu, let's talk about it again?"
Zhu Shoucheng's expression was unnatural for a moment, but he quickly regained his spring-like smile: "It's so late. Going to the police station?"
"Just two or three sentences, just talk in the car."
After closing the door, Ziyu turned her head: "Can I ask some questions."
Zhu Shoucheng in the passenger seat: "Well, you said."
Ziyu: "You said that Lou Ying used the key of Chi Xiaochi's house to enter Chi Xiaochi's house, and then turned into your house to steal?"
Zhu Shoucheng: "That's it."
"And Chi Xiaochi is the inner responder?"
"It's just conjecture. Because he doesn't seem surprised at the existence of Lou Ying."
Ziyu looked into Zhu Shoucheng's eyes: "Do you think that since Lou Ying has Xiaochi as an inner responder, why didn't he go directly through the door, but chose to go through the window?"
Zhu Shoucheng didn't even blink his eyes: "My door is old, and the sound when it opens and closes is very harsh."
Ziyu thought: "Do you think that Xiaochi was afraid of waking you up, so he let Lou Ying go through the window?"
"Probably."
"Then he and Lou Ying's theft plan must have been planned in advance. But how can Xiaochi be sure that you will fall asleep when you execute the plan?"
"I don't know about that." Zhu Shoucheng shrugged, "They stick together all day, so what is the special way to communicate."
During the whole questioning, Ziyu was paying attention to the changes in Zhu Shoucheng's expression.
But disappointingly, she found nothing.
Although Zhu Shoucheng was a little nervous and anxious, the level was still within the normal range, and there was no special abnormality.
She asked the last question: "Do you have any other comments on Lou Ying?"
"This child's studies are not bad, he is very spiritual, but his conduct is..." Zhu Shoucheng shook his head regretfully, "It's not that I spoke ill of the deceased, you can inquire, upstairs and downstairs, who doesn't know about Lou's children There is always money to spend, all kinds of second-hand goods can always be obtained, and all kinds of good things can be bought for Chi Xiaochi. As for the source of his money, sigh, maybe only God knows. "
…
In July, Chi Xiaochi started his war without gunpowder.
He ran to the police station every day and sat there, waiting for an explanation.
Mother Chi still has to go to work, so how can she spend all day with him, so Dai Dai, who was in charge of this matter, moved in flexibly and packaged the "inquiry" as a "heart-to-heart talk", so as not to let the Chi parents Followed every time.
Lao Dai didn't trust Chi Xiaochi very much.
Every "heart talk" he asks the same question: "You repeat all the details of what happened that day."
Therefore, Chi Xiaochi had to tear open the scar again and again and show the bloody wound to others.
But the same thing, said upside down, will inevitably be mixed with flavor.
Lao Dai took a few transcripts and compared them back and forth: "The timing of Lou Ying entering the window... You didn't say that last time."
Chi Xiaochi covered his forehead, his body felt weak from exhaustion: "What did I say last time?"
Lao Dai closed the pen cap, leaned back on the back of the chair, and said perfunctorily, "You think."
Chi Xiaochi stopped talking.
In the past few days, Chi Xiaochi's words have dropped sharply.
Because he found out that it was wrong to say too much.
Lao Dai also felt that it was boring, closed the notebook and told him to wait here.
As soon as he left, Chi Xiaochi carried his bag on one shoulder and followed silently.
Lao Dai returned to the office, and Chi Xiaochi also sat down silently on the plastic bench at the entrance of the office, wanting to hear some useful news.
A young policeman asked from inside, "That kid is here again? How is it, are you okay?"
"He's all right." Lao Dai flicked the inspection report loudly with his index finger, "All the red wounds on his body were caused by his own fall, but there are some bruises on his wrists and waist, which are obviously traces of scuffing and pushing. It also matches Zhu Shoucheng's confession, and also, he was neither bound nor had any signs of being violated, not even a spot of sperm."
Speaking of which, Lao Dai sighed, "...It's as if it's true."
Chi Xiaochi's head rested on the cold tiles to cool down the scalding head.
He thought, if he had known it earlier, it would have been better if Zhu Shoucheng succeeded at that time.
"Children of this age can tell lies and don't even need to type drafts." Lao Dai said, "My son does it like this. I know it too well."
Ziyu: "He's not necessarily lying. I always think this is weird."
"Little comrade, do you 'think'? If you say this, you are not afraid of others' jokes? We have to look at the evidence, the evidence."
Several confessions in the hands of old Dai Yangyang: "Here, open your eyes. The context is inconsistent and the details are wrong. You told me that he didn't lie?"
He took another puff of cigarette: "Also, did you see his feet?"
Ziyu: "...What happened to his feet?"
Chi Xiaochi outside the door also looked down at his feet.
Lao Dai said: "On his ankle, the boss has a black twill. Good guys, it is said that the body is affected by the parents. Whose serious children will make themselves garish?"
The tattoo on the inside of his ankle, as cold as a snake, climbed up along his trousers.
Chi Xiaochi stopped and stopped looking.
Ziyu didn't take Lao Dai's words again, and flipped through the document by herself: "I suggest identifying the fingerprints on the coins in Lou Ying's pocket."
Lao Dai lit a cigarette: "Oh, that money, I paid it back."
Ziyu: "...What? Have you paid it back?"
Lao Dai: "It's Mr. Zhu's money, and there's a slip of his shopping in it. Of course, it has to be returned to others."
"It's not..." Ziyu said, "this is evidence, how can you casually—"
Lao Dai stretched out his hand and waved away the smoke in front of his eyes: "Xiao Zi, you are still too young and don't understand the world. That money is not a small amount, it's a few hundred or so. If we deduct it as evidence, someone will definitely say that we are ignorant of the common people. money I'm so busy every day that I can't finish my work, and I still have to do a fingerprint test? It's not enough trouble. Besides, the Lou family said it's okay, and they plan to cremate the child early, so let's not follow that idle mind-"
Snapped.
Moments after the sound of something falling to the ground, a continuous running sound suddenly sounded outside.
Ziyu felt something was wrong, and stuck her head out of the office, only to see Chi Xiaochi's black schoolbag falling on the ground, and the desperate figure of the young man disappeared at the end of the corridor in a flash.
"… Koike?"