The ancients said that there is no place to be found even if one wears iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get there.
I was worried about where to find Li Shu, and while waiting for the traffic light, I casually looked to the side and saw the person sitting in the driver's seat.
Wearing a mask and following along, he stopped in front of an old house.
Xu Qingchan hid behind a big tree on the street corner and waited for him for half an hour, feeling confused in her heart.
Is this where he lives?
The houses are old and not in a good location. All the people living in this area are natives.
Is Li Shu a native of the Imperial Capital?
It was getting dark, and there happened to be an old man pushing a jewelry stall across the street. Xu Qingchan helped push him across.
"Thank you, girl."
"It's okay, it's easy."
The old woman looked at her kindly and stared at her for a few seconds, her eyes full of smiles and approval, "What a handsome girl."
Xu Qingchan raised her lips slightly, "Can you tell if you are handsome even if you are wearing a mask?"
"I have lived for 70 years and have seen too many people. Someone who stands out like this girl, who looks like a handsome girl just by looking at her facial features, is very lucky."
The old lady took out a jade necklace carved with the image of a Bodhisattva from the stall and said, "Here is this for you. The kind-hearted girl will definitely be happy in the future."
Xu Qingchan was slightly shocked, "I can't accept it. It's just a trivial matter. I can't afford you to take this..."
"It's a small business. This is an imitation, not real jade. It's not worth much."
"That's right, I can't even take the small business. Grandma, why do you go out to do business alone? Where are the children at home?"
"My son died in a car accident ten years ago, and my wife ran away with someone."
Xu Qingchan paused, "Do you have any grandchildren?"
"I have a 16-year-old granddaughter."
"Still in school?"
The old man shook his head, but his face was still kind and warm. He spoke slowly and unhurriedly, and each word flowed into the cochlea. "She is not very intelligent. She broke her leg in a car accident and can only stay at home."
When she spoke, her tone was very ordinary, and her expression was not lonely or sad at all. It seemed that she had said it countless times.
Xu Qingchan was silent for a long time.
The old man's silver hair floated slightly in the night wind. It was hard to imagine that such an old woman with gray hair and a stooped back was the backbone of a family.
At an age when her children and grandchildren should be enjoying family happiness, she has to go out to make money despite the cold wind of hunting. She has a disabled granddaughter waiting to be raised at home.
God seems to like to torture poor people the most.
The expression under the mask cannot even be sarcastic.
The jade necklace lay quietly in the palm of her hand, Xu Qingchan slowly held it with her fingers, her voice was faint in the night wind, "Can I come to your house to sit there?"
Seeing her taking the necklace, the old man smiled and said, "Okay, my house is right in front, not far away, and you can see the door from here."
The old lady's house happened to be diagonally opposite Liu Shu's house. From here, the situation on his side could be seen clearly, but his house could not see this side.
It's a good place for surveillance.
After unlocking the door and entering, the little girl in the wheelchair slowly moved over with an innocent smile on her face.
"Grandma is back!"
"Hey, dear granddaughter, grandma is late. Are you hungry? I will make you something to eat."
The conditions were difficult, but the two lived happily.
The girl was not afraid when she saw strangers, she just glanced at Xu Qingchan quietly with her small eyes.
There happened to be a few cheese candies in the bag, so he handed it to her, and she immediately smiled with joy.
He behaves like a seven or eight-year-old child.
The old man's back was hunched in the kitchen, and Xu Qingchan took the initiative to help make dinner.
She took off her mask while eating, and the little girl kept looking at her face.
The old lady brought some food to her granddaughter and asked with a smile: "My sister is very beautiful, isn't she?"
"Yeah!" The girl bit her chopsticks and timidly shouted: "Sister Fairy."
Xu Qingchan stared at her quietly. In fact, the little girl was very pretty. If her legs were healthy and her intelligence was normal, she would be a quiet girl who would be liked by many boys on campus.
The wooden table had uneven legs and contained two simple dishes and one soup. The smiles of an old man and a young child were reflected in the incandescent light in the dilapidated room. There was a hole in Xu Qingchan's heart.
Don’t they know that their lives are difficult and their fate is worse than others?
Isn’t the old lady worried about the day when she is too old to move or even passes away?
Don’t little girls know that they are different from their peers?
No, they know.
I once read a popular medical science article that said children with intellectual problems do not understand everything. They are aware of their differences.
Even if they are stuck in the mud, they can downplay their own misfortunes, cherish each other's relatives, and work hard to survive with goodwill.
This is what makes Xu Qingchan uncomfortable.
When I left, I gave money to the old lady, but she was rejected.
The cold wind at night blew into my eyes and made them dry and unbearable.
The lights in Li Shu's house are on, and it looks like he won't be leaving tonight.
Now that we know his address and license plate number, it will be easier to check him in the future.
It is not difficult to find a day when he is not around to sneak in, hack the computer system and install surveillance.
Before she even had time to change into her slippers when she got home, she received an unknown number. A man's deep voice came from the receiver, and Xu Qingchan paused for two seconds.
"Miss Xu."
"Mr. Qi?"
Qi Si called her?
"Well," he said, his voice filled with substance, "how are your teeth?"
"Dr. Jing has great medical skills. I only have a slight pain in my gums. It's nothing serious. It should be better tomorrow morning."
After a simple and polite greeting, we started talking about business.
"The Trojan horse you helped plant before is useless. I wonder if you have time recently, so I can trouble you again."
Xu Qingchan paused slightly, "It can't be useless. I checked it several times."
"There's nothing wrong with your program, but the other party's email address is fake, and his computer is no longer in use. Your Trojan horse program doesn't work. I'll provide you with clues and data again, and you'll have to worry about it again.
.”
"Ah, when do you need it? I won't be in the imperial capital in two days."
The car happened to pass by Jingli Garden, and a room on the sixth floor was brightly lit. Qi Si moved his lips, "Is it okay tomorrow?"
"Okay, I'll be free tomorrow, then when I get there..."
"I'll send you a message."
"Text message?"
Be silent for a few seconds.
Xu Qingchan bit her tongue, "Okay..."
The man's pronunciation was clear and low, like mellow wine in his mouth, "You can add me on WeChat with the same number."
There was a moment of daze, and the little girl in her arms stuck out her tongue and licked the back of her hand, feeling slightly itchy.
"good."
"Ms. Xu's work will not be in vain. We will pay you according to the highest price in the market."
"Um."
After saying what needed to be said, the phone hung up quickly.
He pursed his lips inadvertently, carefully saved the phone number in his address book, and searched for the number on WeChat, and a profile picture with black shadow on a white background popped up.
The friend request you sent did not go through immediately. The other party may be busy and the friend was added after half an hour.
The first thing you do after adding a friend is to click into his circle of friends——
Pure white.
Not even half a peep.
After looking at his profile picture in a daze for a while, Xu Qingchan turned on the front camera and planned to take some selfies.
But he hesitated when he saw the slightly swollen half of his face.