The Mansion Collapses

Chen Nan did not have that ability. Among ordinary people, thugs like Ghost Head and his men all possessed a signature skill for survival.

That skill was using the muscles on their bodies to stop bleeding.

They would contract their muscles to compress severed blood vessels and keep the blood from flowing out, much like when someone desperately needed to urinate, contracting the bladder sphincter could keep the urine ready to burst forth from leaking even a single drop.

But this skill could not achieve its best effect everywhere. For instance, where Chen Nan had cut Ghost Head's carotid artery. The muscles there were too thin, their contraction too weak; moreover, the carotid artery lay too close to the surface, making it impossible for help to come from all directions when trouble struck one spot.

Yet Ghost Head did not dare move at all.

He was still holding his strength in, hoping to contain the surging blood pouring from his heart, unlike Chen Nan, who had been so carefree as to let his blood flow.

It was precisely like the difference between the poor and the rich in their attitudes toward money. It was not that the poor did not understand how to be carefree; it was that if they ever became carefree, it would cost them their lives.

But for Ghost Head, no matter how hard he tried, he could no longer save himself from this dead end.

He could not make any large movements. That would only hasten his death.

He knelt on the ground. Gouzi lay dead beside him, eyes bulging and tongue lolling out, while Rat had already fled.

Ghost Head asked Chen Nan, "Who taught you your knife skills?"

Chen Nan pulled the butterfly knife lodged in his left shoulder free and tossed it into the rain. He sucked in a cold breath from the pain before saying, "Life."

"Life?" Ghost Head did not understand. "How could life teach that?"

Chen Nan turned to look at Ghost Head. "Oppression."

Leaving behind those two words, Chen Nan gathered his things and swiftly departed the dead-end alley.

Raindrops struck Ghost Head's bald head, and more rainwater streamed down his cheeks than anywhere else.

"Ha ha ha..." Ghost Head laughed wildly, but blood sprayed furiously from his carotid artery, like a fountain amid the rain.

He collapsed onto the ground, one hand clutching his neck as blood continued to gush out. With great difficulty, he removed the ridiculous clown sleeve from his wrist. It appeared to be something used by a mischievous little girl.

The eyes washed by rain no longer held any savagery. There even seemed to be a trace of deep affection within them, and he no longer looked quite so detestable.

He brought the clown to his lips and gently kissed it. Then his hand suddenly fell to the ground, never to move again.

Chen Nan had left the alley, and the people who had hunted him down had all been killed by him instead. But that did not mean he was safe. What had happened today would surely cause a sensation, but before that storm arrived, he was still in danger.

His phone was nearly out of battery. He had to use this time to find somewhere safe immediately.

Thus, beneath an overhang sheltered from the rain, he saved the earlier recordings and made a call.

"Hello, who are you looking for?" A woman's voice came through the phone.

Chen Nan immediately said, "Auntie, do you remember me? I was your former tenant. That child."

After thinking for a moment, the woman exclaimed in surprise, "Oh, it's you! Where did you run off to? How did you suddenly vanish?

"Oh, right, I saw in the news that you were an orphan, from the Orphanage..."

Chen Nan immediately cut her off. "Those are all lies. I'm in great danger right now. Can you provide me with a safe place to stay? I'm injured.

"As for my situation, I'll tell you everything when we meet."

"All right, all right. Go to this place..." the woman said.

Chen Nan memorized the address, hailed a taxi, and headed there.

Naturally, Chen Nan got out only near the place. The taxi driver would not know his exact destination.

Following the directions, he entered a residential compound and then went into one of the buildings.

Only when he finally arrived in a comfortable, warm room did Chen Nan truly relax.

There was only one person in the room: Chen Nan's very first landlady.

She stared at Chen Nan in shock, covering her mouth before helping him inside, taking off his clothes and tending to his wounds.

Chen Nan had come to her because he was certain she was an exceptionally kind-hearted woman. Moreover, he knew that as long as he hid through this period, there would be no more danger, which was why he had sought her out with such peace of mind.

Previously, he could have asked her for help as well, but it would have been too easy to drag her into this, so Chen Nan had not done so.

After the landlady treated Chen Nan's wounds and wrapped him in a bath towel, she finally asked what exactly had happened.

Chen Nan knew that people would learn of his affairs sooner or later, so he laid everything bare before the landlady.

After hearing it all, the landlady's mouth hung open so wide it nearly dislocated. Her admiration for Chen Nan was so great that she felt that, if Chen Nan had not been a child, she would have been willing to stake her property just to marry him.

It had to be said that this landlady truly was a good woman, fitting the age-old pattern that good people rarely had good fates.

When she had been around twenty, she had fallen for a man. As it turned out, that man was an addict. After they separated, she had never sought another relationship.

The property her parents had left her was rented out, and she had a job of her own as well. She could be said to have no worries over food or clothing. As for men, she had long since lost heart, believing there were no good men left in this world.

Fortunately, Chen Nan's appearance had changed her view somewhat.

She cared for him as though he were her own child, cooking for him and constantly asking after his well-being, until Chen Nan felt embarrassed.

After all, he merely had the body of a child!

And so, he hid here for an entire day, while the news had already appeared in newspapers and on television.

Although Chen Nan killing so many people was already explosive enough as a news event, after the various media outlets embellished it, it became even more sensational.

"Mysterious child massacres enemies in every direction"; "Gang war, blood flowing through the streets." Some focused on the death toll, claiming that more than a hundred people had been killed or injured during the clash...

Naturally, some reports connected Chen Nan, the Orphanage, Immortal Realm, and other places, conducting deep investigations to write their stories.

They were a form of in-depth analysis, examining the street fight on Longhua Road from surface to core.

More importantly, what they wrote was fairly reliable.

Chen Nan could not help sighing. No matter where one went, media people were truly formidable.

They were like hunting dogs of some kind, or like certain women: able both to investigate matters ordinary people could never learn of and to gossip those matters until everyone knew them.

However, upon reading such reports, Chen Nan understood that they had definitely not been fabricated from some sudden flash of inspiration by journalists. Those people must have known some of the details already and had simply seized this opportunity to report them.

It was an excellent time to publish such reports.

Chen Nan then began contacting the Prefecture Office. At this point, he could be said to be overwhelmed and scorched from every direction.

When he received Chen Nan's call, he no longer made any excuses. He merely said that he would ensure the Wang Clan collapsed completely and that they would receive the legal punishment they deserved.

In truth, the Wang siblings and everyone involved in the case had already been taken into police custody.

Media outlets from every side swarmed in like flies that had found a feast.

Everything had settled down for Chen Nan, and there was nothing left for him to do. Driven forward by the media, the matter had become like an avalanche, with no room left for reversal.

The Wang Clan's evil deeds were dug out one by one, case by case.

Using the evidence Chen Nan had provided, the police also destroyed a massive human trafficking ring and a drug trafficking ring.

For a time, the exposure of Wu City's criminal forces and related matters shook the entire nation.

With the media and the internet fanning the flames, all of this happened within only a few days.

And amid all those explosive headlines, the most eye-catching figure was the mysterious child they spoke of.

Once Chen Nan's deeds were exposed, he swiftly became famous across the entire internet.

A child barely ten years old had actually relied on his own strength to report and expose such an enormous, intricately woven criminal network. Even more legendary was that he had hunted down dozens of vicious criminals all by himself.

For a time, Chen Nan became a young hero praised by ordinary people everywhere. Even the education department planned to include his deeds in moral education textbooks.

Many reporters and media outlets searched everywhere for Chen Nan's whereabouts, hoping to interview him face-to-face.

Chen Nan naturally had no interest whatsoever in such things. He simply stayed hidden at the landlady's place, where no one could find him.

However, the reporters and paparazzi found Butterfly Loves Flowers and Little Black Ox, obtaining some information about Chen Nan from them. Then they fully displayed their professional spirit of blind men feeling an elephant and began writing lengthy accounts of Chen Nan's "heroic deeds."

Even Chen Nan himself would have been moved to tears and snot by such reports, let alone other readers.

Then an unknown person claiming to be a novelist began writing a novel titled "Chronicles of the Young Hero Sweeping Away Bandits," based on Chen Nan.

People had to seize opportunities. Famous novelists naturally disdained borrowing momentum to write such a thing; even if they succeeded, it would not seem like their own achievement.

But that unknown novelist had no such concerns. He simply wanted to ride this wave of popularity and promote himself.

The facts proved his decision was correct. Because of "Chronicles of the Young Hero Sweeping Away Bandits," he became famous from a single book, transforming himself from unknown to renowned in one stroke.

After a trial lasting half a year, the Wang Clan finally received the punishment of Qingyang Kingdom's law.

Among them, Wang Yifu and Wang Yide were convicted of murder, human trafficking, drug trafficking, organizing prostitution, and other crimes. With multiple crimes punished together, they were sentenced to death, to be carried out immediately.

Wang Yuan'e was convicted of human trafficking and aiding in criminal activity. She was sentenced to thirty years in prison and deprived of political rights for life.

Then there were various fines and so on.

Thus it was said: Glorious before men for decades, a mansion could collapse in an instant. If one wished to endure long in this world, one must keep justice in one's heart and walk steadfastly onward.