As for the family Zuo Xiaoduo had beaten into the hospital, from oldest to youngest, no one felt any sympathy for them. Instead, everyone roared that they had deserved it!
Scum like that deserved a beating!
Calls came from all sides: release Zuo Xiaoduo immediately!
That evening, the incident made the nightly news.
The entire city erupted!
"We need to know that being a good person isn't hard!"
"Please tell us that being a good person isn't hard!"
"Why are you still concealing that family's information? Everyone, dig up their identities!"
"I know! This family is..."
The incident was laid bare in its entirety.
The names of every family member were exposed to the world.
Facing the angry crowds that burst into their hospital rooms every day, the family lay trembling in their beds, utterly speechless. We've been beaten this badly. Can't you see? And the man who beat us has actually become a hero... What kind of world is this...
Countless furious people demanded, "Release the hero! Release the good Samaritan!"
"Punish that family severely!"
Faced with the tidal wave of public opinion, Zuo Xiaoduo was finally released.
When Zuo Xiaoduo walked out, he received a hero's welcome. Countless reporters and members of the public had gathered outside the Investigation Bureau to greet him, and everyone cheered in unison at the sight of him.
Justice had finally triumphed over evil!
The hero was out!
Zuo Xiaoduo seemed deeply moved, his face streaming with tears and snot. "I'm free? I'm not the culprit? My name's been cleared?" His face was filled with dreamlike disbelief.
The crowd's hearts ached, and they shouted together, "You're free! You're all right now!"
Tears and snot streamed down Zuo Xiaoduo's face, and his whole body trembled. Finally, his restraint stretched to its limit, he spoke. "I've been wronged for so long. Can I beat them up?"
Everyone fell silent in an instant.
He wanted to beat them again?
A reporter coughed awkwardly. "Student Zuo Xiaoduo, you... keep calm. Don't act rashly..."
Zuo Xiaoduo let out a furious roar of grief and indignation. "I have to vent this anger!"
Suddenly, he broke into a wild sprint.
He was heading straight toward the hospital where that family was staying.
His face was filled with urgency, grief, indignation, and impatience.
He knew the trial was about to end. He was terrified that if he arrived too late, he would not get to beat them...
Suddenly, the image froze.
The trial ended.
The frozen image showed Zuo Xiaoduo's face, still hungry for more, filled with impatience. And his fists, already clenched tight.
The trial ended.
The screen froze.
Li Changjiang and Hu Ruoyun looked at each other. Husband and wife both experienced a peculiar sensation.
It was the feeling of being endlessly tousled in the wind.
Chapter 11: An Unorthodox Path, a Demonic Heart
Zuo Xiaoduo had spent more than two months inside, but on the screen, only half an hour had passed from beginning to end. Yet that half hour left Li Changjiang and his wife with feelings they could scarcely describe, subtle sentiments that were rather difficult to put into words.
Even after quite some time had passed, they still had not emerged from their disarray!
This Zuo Xiaoduo truly was far too bizarre...
"He doesn't take the usual road." Li Changjiang sighed. "This boy's personality is genuinely unconventional, different from everyone else's. His vindictiveness is a little strong... He's the sort..."
Li Changjiang considered for a while before slowly continuing, "...the sort who thinks, 'If you make me uncomfortable, I'll make you even more uncomfortable. Even if I have to spend time and effort, I absolutely have to make you more uncomfortable'... That sort of person. This personality really is..."
He drew several breaths and spoke as though his teeth ached. "...hard to describe. In any case, this is my first time seeing it. The first in my life."
Hu Ruoyun coughed, leaving the words in her heart unspoken, and merely said, "But he did pass this stage in the end."
"The helplessness he showed at first, and his admission of fault, were actually groundwork for a more ruthless next step. I think he must have thought through every aspect and made use of everything. Whether it was public opinion and outrage, or the sympathy and empathy of the doctors, nurses, boss, coworkers, neighbors, investigators, and so on, he gathered it all in without letting a single drop escape. By the time the media got involved at the end, the outcome was settled..."
"In fact, it went even further than that. From the very beginning, when they first tried to extort him, he already had his entire scheme worked out. He offered no defense, not because he had no way to defend himself, but because he was worried their extortion would fail, preventing him from carrying out his established plan and making it difficult to exact thorough revenge."
Li Changjiang shook his head helplessly. "This sort of personality is uncanny. It has something of... the demonic path about it."
The demonic path.
Li Changjiang had spoken the words Hu Ruoyun had been holding back all along.
Hu Ruoyun sighed. "Perhaps he thought dealing with them by ordinary means would let that family off too lightly. Once the incident passed and circumstances changed, few people would remember it. But doing this could leave that family unable to hold their heads up from then on, unable to ever regain their footing in society... It really was a little too ruthless..."
Li Changjiang said flatly, "Don't you think people like that got what they deserved, that this was precisely their rightful retribution?!"
Hu Ruoyun sighed. "So your emotions have been influenced too."
Li Changjiang could only smile bitterly.
Together, they stared at the frozen screen. The Heaven and Earth Net's evaluation had yet to appear.
Both were eagerly awaiting it.
What evaluation would Zuo Xiaoduo's unconventional performance receive in the first touch of the Heaven and Earth Net's Three Touches, Five Evaluations?
Hu Ruoyun, in particular, began to feel faint stirrings of worry. Her earlier confidence had long since vanished, and she was even a little afraid to look.
This evaluation would follow Zuo Xiaoduo for the rest of his life.
A moment later, the Heaven and Earth Net's frozen screen began to change. Rings of ripples spread outward, advancing layer upon layer.
The evaluation was about to appear.
Li Changjiang felt a sudden tightness around his wrist. His wife had gripped it tightly enough that it actually hurt a little.