I really hadn't expected the woman in front of me to be Lü Qiaolan. She looked very different now, at least ten years older. Deep wrinkles creased her face, and a few strands of white had appeared in her hair. Most of all, she radiated the suffering of someone struggling to survive at the very bottom of society.
The Lü Qiaolan I'd seen before hadn't been like this.
Or rather, the Lü Qiaolan in the teddy bears' eyes hadn't been like this.
She'd come looking for people from Greenleaf, obviously because of those teddy bears.
After I said her name, I felt the skinny guy behind me tug hard on my arm twice. I also heard chairs and tables being pushed around farther back, followed by Guo Yujie's hurried apologies.
Lü Qiaolan raised her eyes, seeming confused by our reaction.
I didn't know what to say, but I knew we couldn't talk about Greenleaf right now, and I couldn't tell her about my own abilities.
"I understand. We'll contact you if we hear anything," I said, offering a useless platitude.
Lü Qiaolan thanked me again, then hobbled away.
She walked very slowly, and she seemed unsteady on her feet.
Director Mao, the head of the residents' committee, was like most middle-aged women who worked in residents' committees: her most notable trait was her warmheartedness.
Although Lü Qiaolan was a complete stranger to her, Director Mao still called after her and asked how she was doing.
"...If you don't have anything else to do, why don't you sit here for a while? I'll get someone to bring you a glass of water." As she spoke, Director Mao was about to call someone over to fetch it.
Lü Qiaolan hesitated for a moment, then accepted.
We still had work to do, so