Liu Huaian knelt down with a thud, begging for mercy. "I didn't betray the organization, really, I didn't! Please, don't kill me!"
"I can spare your life, but I'm taking your chip."
"The chip? Okay, okay, you can take it."
As he spoke, Liu Huaian took off his clothes, revealing his back, and said, "Come on, take my chip. I've wanted to quit for a long time."
A loud croak came from above.
He looked up and saw a crow flying across the dark sky.
The streets were eerily empty. The firefighters were gone, the crowds of onlookers were gone, and only a row of charred corpses lay stiffly on the ground.
The wind around us was cold and howling.
Liu Huaian heard the person behind him say, "After you take the chip, you and we will have nothing to do with each other anymore. You don't know me, and you've never done anything for us."
"Yes, I don't know you, and I've never done anything for you," Liu Huaian murmured.
The crow Guagua and flew down, its sharp claws grabbing his shoulders and lifting him off the ground.
The crow's wings caught the wind, its neck bent, and it began to peck hard at Liu Huaian's back with its sharp beak.
Liu Huaian was in excruciating pain from the pecks, and he flailed his arms in the air, but there was nothing he could do.
He felt a hole being pecked through his back, and blood fell to the ground like rain, landing right on the charred corpses.
The Crow suddenly loosened its grip, and Liu Huaian landed on the ground.
He saw Crow land on the man's head, with a bloodstained chip in its beak.
The row of charred, blood-soaked corpses suddenly came to life, rising one by one and slowly walking towards Liu Huaian, stretching out their charred arms and shouting, "Give me back my life!"
Liu Huaian sat on the ground in terror, unable to muster any strength.
The zombies were all burned beyond recognition, yet he could still recognize them: his father, mother, second uncle, second aunt, aunt's younger sister, aunt's younger sister's husband, cousin, and older cousin...
Suddenly a gust of wind blew by, and the charred corpses turned into ashes and disappeared.
Liu Huaian suddenly collapsed to the ground and began to sob.
The next morning, as soon as Qingmu arrived at the community mental health counseling room, he saw Liu Huaian peeking out from the doorway, a crumpled old leather bag tucked under his arm.
As he opened the door, he asked, "What's wrong? Did you need something?"
Liu Huaian smiled sheepishly and said, "I'd like to ask you for a favor."
Qingmu entered the room and sat down, coldly looking at Liu Huaian who followed him in, and asked, "What is it?"
Liu Huaian kept his head down and didn't say a word. His eyes occasionally glanced at the cigarette on the Qingmu table, but then he looked back at his knees.
Qingmu tossed him a cigarette.
The cigarette fell to the ground. Liu Huaian bent down to pick it up, lit it, took a few puffs, put the old leather bag from under his arm on the table, and said, "I've sponsored the education of several underprivileged children in mountainous areas; the materials are all here."
Qingmu was taken aback and asked, "Where did you get the money?"
Liu Huaian said, "The government relief funds I received, the money I earned doing cleaning work in previous years, and the money I sometimes earned by collecting garbage—I haven't spent a single penny of it; I've saved it all."
"You don't use it yourself?"
"I mooch off people when I eat and smoke, and my clothes are all hand-me-downs," Liu Huaian said somewhat embarrassedly, glancing at his tattered shirt and the cigarette between his fingers.
"Then what do you want me to do?" Qingmu asked, looking at the large bag on the table.
Liu Huaian took a deep drag of his cigarette and exhaled. "Some of these kids have already graduated from university and can support themselves, so they don't need my help anymore. But many are still in school, some in primary school, some in junior high, and some in university. I don't have much money left; it's all here."
He pointed to the package on the table, "This money isn't enough, so I thought I'd skip giving it to the ones going to university; they're older now and can work to support themselves. Giving the money to the younger ones will be enough for them to finish high school."
He finished his cigarette, stubbed it out, glanced at the cigarette pack on the table, and finally refrained from taking it.
"I'd like you to help me send the money to them. I've written down their names, addresses, and how much to give each person," he said. "Don't send it now. Wait until school starts. If you send it now, the children might spend it recklessly instead of studying properly."
Qingmu said, "You won't spend money recklessly once school starts?"
Liu Huaian said, "It will get better, it will always get better."
Qingmu said, "Why don't you do it yourself? Why do you want me to do it for you?"
"I'm not working there anymore."
Which way?
"Over there, you know what I mean." Liu Huaian chuckled, flipping his hand over, palm up, then back to left. "Now it's one-sided."
"Why did you choose me? You can talk to Director Liu; she's a very kind person."
I only trust you.
As Liu Huaian spoke, he stood up, pushed the package on the table forward, bowed respectfully, and withdrew.
Qingmu leaned back lazily in his chair, watching the disheveled man, whose sins he could never atone for, leave, without feeling a ripple in his heart.
He didn't refuse Liu Huaian's request. One thing at a time, sponsoring students' education was, after all, a good thing. He felt that he rarely did good deeds, so doing it occasionally was fine.
Qingmu opened Liu Huaian's package.
There were several stacks of money inside, but Qingmu had no concept of money and didn't know how much it was.
He moved the money aside and saw a piece of paper and several envelopes.
The paper was filled with students' information, clearly categorized.
Qingmu glanced at the numbers; each child earned anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand yuan per year, for a total of seven children.
Liu Huaian must have done careful calculations; the money he left behind was just enough to support these children through high school.
Several envelopes were unsealed, and Qingmu took out the letters inside.
The handwriting on the letter wasn't good, but it was neat, showing that it was written carefully. The gist of the letter was that he could no longer give them money, and he hoped they would study hard at university, work part-time to support themselves, complete their studies through their own efforts, and become good people.
The letter was signed " Internet Person".
Qingmu was a lazy person, especially when it came to money; he was simply too lazy to think about it. He originally wanted to entrust this matter to Bi Shenghua, knowing her personality, he was sure she would be willing. However, she was too busy with the bar's renovation and opening preparations, and Qingmu, the absentee manager, couldn't help at all.
He had considered asking Hu Xing for help, but then thought better of it; after all, police officers aren't idle Tiantian.
So, this guy, who couldn't even figure out how much money six zeros represented, started biting his pen and drafting calculations to count the money, while a Crow kept cawing beside him:
"You've miscalculated! You've miscalculated!"
"Count them carefully, check for counterfeit money!"
That day, he was about to go to the bank to transfer money when Director Liu rushed in and shouted at him:
"Oh no! Oh no! Liu Huaian jumped off a building!"
Qingmu wasn't surprised by the news, so he just hummed in response and didn't say anything more.
Director Liu was displeased and said, "I asked you to counsel him before, but you just gave him nothing."
Qingmu said, "His jumping off the building has nothing to do with me!"
Director Liu said, "Alright, alright, I'm not blaming you. Nobody would have guessed that he was the one who started that fire twenty years ago! Hey, you asked me about this the other day, did you find out something from Liu Huaian?"
Qingmu smiled and said, "I was just asking casually, how did you all know?"
Director Liu said, "When Liu Huaian jumped off the building, they were scattering his suicide note like leaflets. Now everyone on the street knows about the despicable things he did back then."
Qingmu said, "He had guts to say it before he died! But now, no one will be willing to pay for his funeral, will they?"
Director Liu said, "What's the point of making funeral arrangements! The State Security has already taken the body away; who knows what will happen to it!"
" State Security?" Qingmu was taken aback and asked in surprise, "Even if we're investigating old cases, that's the police's job. What does it have to do with State Security?"
"I heard from Xiao Yang at the police station that Liu Huaian has something in his neck," Director Liu said after thinking for a moment. "It looks like some kind of chip, the kind the United States put on spies."