Volume 5: Days of Applying Makeup to Corpses
To Adopt or Not
This time, she absolutely wouldn’t be caught again.
Gong Lian was dead.
But the scene inside the house far exceeded Shen Maomao’s expectations.
Gong Lian was wearing the beautiful red dress she had on when entering the instance, a fruit knife plunged into her chest as she lay on the ground. Her pale calves bore the same purplish-blue bruises as Li Yaya’s, resembling a withered red rose. Not far from her lay a man, foaming at the mouth, his hands covered in blood. The man was tall with ordinary features, but his face was now pallid and blue, looking startlingly like a life-claiming vengeful ghost.
Numerous fragments of bowls and plates were scattered on the floor; the two seemed to have erupted into a fierce argument before their deaths.
Shen Maomao pressed Li Yaya’s head onto her shoulder, held her, and walked out of the house into the courtyard.
Lou Jingmo also stood beside her, waiting for the police to collect evidence.
A police officer came over and asked them, “Which of you was the first witness?”
Shen Maomao replied, “I was.”
“What was your relationship with the deceased?”
“To be precise, I guess… online friends?”
The officer: “???”
Lou Jingmo explained, “We received an online plea for help from one of the deceased—the woman. We came here thinking it’s better to believe it might be true than to dismiss it entirely1.”
The police uncle clearly didn’t believe them.
Lou Jingmo continued, “She said she had been trafficked here, watched closely by the man, unable to escape, and wanted us to rescue her.”
The officer’s expression turned solemn, and he quickly began jotting notes down on paper.
Shen Maomao’s eyes widened in surprise too; she hadn’t known where Lou Jingmo had deduced that Gong Lian was trafficked.
Being held by a stranger, Li Yaya showed no reaction, simply resting quietly on Shen Maomao’s shoulder, listening to them talk like a well-behaved cloth doll.
The little girl was pitifully light. While not quite skin and bones, she had no excess flesh anywhere on her body except for her face. Shen Maomao stroked her soft black hair and rode back to the police station with the officers.
During the journey, the long-silent girl suddenly spoke up, “Did my mommy take that bastard2 down to hell with her?”
Her words were startling.
Shen Maomao let her sit on her lap and asked softly, “How did you know that, Yaya?”
Li Yaya replied, “Mommy told me. She told me not to be scared and said she would drag that bastard down to hell with her. Where is hell? Can I go there to find Mommy?”
Shen Maomao’s eyes stung, and she pulled the girl into her embrace again. “No, your mommy didn’t go to hell; she went up to heaven. You can’t go find her right now, but maybe after you turn one hundred years old.”
Li Yaya said, “Then I’m four this year. What’s one hundred minus four? Our teacher hasn’t taught us that yet.”
According to the police investigation, the two deceased in the house died from potent rat poison and a fruit knife, respectively.
The man was Li Zhengyi3, thirty-one years old, an unemployed man with a middle school education. He owned a few mu4 of land and got by5 collecting rent.
Gong Lian, on the other hand, was twenty-four. Her registered residence was in Beicheng6, vastly distant7 from Nancheng. She was an undergraduate student at a 985 university8, someone who should have had a boundlessly bright future.
For two people seemingly poles apart9 to end up as husband and wife looked suspicious no matter how one viewed it. Furthermore, their documents both stated ‘unmarried’; they hadn’t even registered for a marriage certificate.
As the police continued their investigation, a policewoman brought them breakfast. Shen Maomao fed Li Yaya, who ate in small bites.
Traces of the potent rat poison were found in the food scattered on the table and floor, while only Li Zhengyi’s fingerprints were on the knife in Gong Lian’s chest.
After eating and drinking her fill, under the gentle questioning of a kind and pretty policewoman, Li Yaya recounted everything she had experienced, bit by bit.
Li Yaya was not a lucky child, having been born into such a family. Her mother’s indifference, her father’s beatings and curses, and bullying from her preschool classmates formed the entirety of her life experience.
Li Zhengyi was an alcoholic. Every time he drank too much, he would either beat or curse the mother and daughter. During these times, Gong Lian would just curl up, covering her head, ignoring how miserably her daughter cried.
This morning might have been Li Yaya’s happiest day. Her mother, showing rare tenderness, fed her sweet water with trembling hands, telling her she would drag that bastard down to hell with her. She told Yaya not to be afraid, and if two ‘big sisters’ came to take her away, she should go with them.
Her little head couldn’t yet comprehend the meaning of death, but she felt little reluctance about leaving her family.
—After all, things could hardly get any worse.
Li Yaya’s words, overlapping with Lou Jingmo’s account, largely cleared the two women of suspicion. The police explained the general situation to them, determining the nature of the case to be mutual destruction10 stemming from a marital conflict turned deadly.
The evidence, like the shattered bowls and dishes, gradually pieced together the complete sequence of events before them.
Gong Lian had indeed been trafficked, just as Lou Jingmo had surmised. However, there were details they hadn’t imagined, such as Gong Lian being abducted and sold in Nancheng by her own biological elder brother.
Her brother had brought her to Nancheng, supposedly to help her relax11, but returned alone, along with a sum of money for his medical treatment. Because he had requested sick leave from school for Gong Lian, no one suspected anything about her whereabouts. A girl in the bloom of youth vanished from sight just like that, without attracting any attention.
The brother, who had used the money from selling his sister for his treatment, suffered a sudden deterioration in his condition two years ago and died after resuscitation efforts failed.
Naturally timid and weak, Gong Lian was powerless to resist Li Zhengyi, who was in his prime. She was forced into sexual relations with him and subsequently kept under strict watch.
Later, she became pregnant and had a child.
For Gong Lian, Li Yaya was proof of what this man had forced upon her, and also the tie that prevented her from leaving without consequence.
During the five years she had been abducted, Shen Maomao didn’t believe Gong Lian hadn’t had a single chance to escape. But if she escaped, she would have had to abandon her daughter, who was just born. If she didn’t escape, she and her daughter would remain in hell together.
She must have resented Li Yaya, hence watching coldly as her daughter was abused by that scumbag; yet, at the same time, she must have loved Li Yaya, which is why she stayed by her side, no matter how much she suffered…
The subsequent investigation into the human trafficking ring was no longer their concern. The more pressing issue now was Li Yaya’s future placement.
Li Zhengyi’s parents were both deceased. Among his relatives, there was a distant female cousin who had married far away, but she lacked the means to raise a child. Therefore, Li Yaya could only be sent to an orphanage.
Shen Maomao held Li Yaya, reluctant to let go. The child was so well-behaved and heart-wrenching that she felt a desire to adopt her. However, firstly, she hadn’t reached the legal age for adoption; secondly, she lacked sufficient financial means; and thirdly, she was still living at Lou Jingmo’s place…
She looked at the little girl in her arms nibbling on bread, her heart filled with reluctance.
Lou Jingmo watched her. After thinking for a moment, she suddenly said, “Shen Maomao, you know very well, you’re not suited to raise a child.”
Shen Maomao fell silent too, slowly loosening her hold on Li Yaya.
How could people like them, living such precarious lives12, possibly give a child a bright future?
If they took the child back and developed feelings for her, only to die in the game, Yaya would lose her loved ones again and suffer further trauma.
She couldn’t be that selfish.
She gently touched Li Yaya’s small face, her nose tingling, and whispered, “Later, you’ll go with those police uncles and aunties. They’ll take you to a safe place where there will be lots of other children like you. We’ll find time to visit you too…”
Li Yaya nodded and said in her small, childish voice13, “Okay, I’m fine with that.”
Holding Li Yaya’s hand, Shen Maomao asked, “It’s already noon. Could we take her out for a meal?”
Eating out was permissible, but someone needed to accompany them. Led by a police officer, the two took Li Yaya out for a warm lunch.
Perhaps accustomed to being extremely cautious, Li Yaya ate like a little lady, chewing her food in tiny bites, taking a long time to finish even a small amount.
Shen Maomao was incredibly patient, reminding her to stop eating once she felt full.
Li Yaya obediently replied, “Okay, Shen-jiejie.”
While the little girl ate happily, Shen Maomao felt a knot in her stomach14. She glanced at Lou Jingmo, a thousand words wanting to spill out, but with Yaya and the officer present, she could only swallow them back down and hold her tongue.
After finishing the meal and returning to the station, the police officer informed them they had contacted an orphanage willing to take Yaya. It was far from Nancheng, requiring a bus ride. The police would escort her to the city proper, where someone from the orphanage would meet them.
Shen Maomao wanted to accompany her for this final part of the journey, so she simply looked at Lou Jingmo without speaking.
Lou Jingmo didn’t hesitate long before agreeing, “Let’s go together. We don’t have anything else to do anyway.”
The four boarded the bus heading back to the city. Li Yaya sat by the window, watching the familiar scenery recede, her face showing no trace of reluctance.
Shen Maomao sat beside her, speaking softly, “We’ll be at your new home soon. Are you scared, Yaya?”
Li Yaya shook her head. “I’m not scared.”
Then she fell silent again for a long time.
The bus swayed as it traveled from the highway onto the expressway. Countless mountains and ridges left the village behind, just as she was leaving her painful past behind.
This time, she absolutely wouldn’t be caught again.
The two escorted Yaya all the way to the orphanage entrance. Lou Jingmo also left a sum of money for the orphanage, essentially entrusting them to take good care of Yaya.
Shen Maomao didn’t say another goodbye to Yaya, afraid she wouldn’t be able to bear leaving her.
On the way back, sitting on the bus and looking out the window, she said softly, “Lou-jie, thank you.”
Lou Jingmo’s eyes didn’t leave her phone screen. Hearing Shen Maomao, she replied coolly, “It’s nothing. She reminds me of someone I know.”
Shen Maomao’s curiosity was piqued. “Who?”
Lou Jingmo shot her a glance. “That’s none of your business.”
Shen Maomao blinked, belatedly realizing that Lou Jingmo’s attitude towards her seemed to have undergone some kind of change she couldn’t pinpoint.
Was it because they had exited the instance, so the influence of Wutong on Lou Jingmo had faded?
But Lou Jingmo’s attitude hadn’t been this cold before entering the instance… This current situation felt more like when they had first met.
Having not been treated this way by Lou Jingmo for a long time, Shen Maomao found it momentarily difficult to adjust.
Could the influence of Wutong actually be an ability that overdrafts15 future enthusiasm? Had a portion of Lou Jingmo’s warmth towards her been used up, and would it return to equilibrium after some time?
It’s easy to go from frugal to lavish, but hard to go from lavish back to frugal16, ah.
Life isn’t easy; Maomao sighed.
The author has something to say:
I originally planned to have Yaya raised by Shen Maomao’s parents, but I didn’t think it through completely, so I changed it. I haven’t been feeling great lately, my discouragement meter is off the charts17 _(:з」∠)_
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