The photo I opened showed him waiting at a red light. His bus was in front of him, and then a white sedan with a very noticeable license plate, which appeared to be another person following him.
Yan Heqing knew that these people wouldn't do anything to him for the time being.
Cheng Jian's ultimate target is Lu Muchi, and he won't make a move against him now to alert him.
But he kept his eyes glued to Lu Lin's chat window.
Lu Lin was showing him through the photos that he was no longer alone.
Yan Heqing only put away his phone, picked up his plastic bag, and got off the bus with the flow of people after the bus arrived at the stop.
After getting off the bus, there was an old road. Yan Heqing knew this road all too well. He walked straight, turned left, and went through an alley before finally arriving at the residential area.
When I returned, there were still old men playing chess in front of the community gate, but I no longer recognized Yan Heqing.
No one would associate this handsome young man with the malnourished adopted son from last year.
Strangers would glance at it once or twice, then focus back on the chessboard.
Zhao Huilin was the same. She was sitting on the sofa with her head down. When she heard the knock on the door, she looked up and saw Yan Heqing standing in front of the door, dressed neatly. She didn't recognize him at first.
But they didn't seem like they were there to collect a debt.
She had just finished crying, and her voice was terribly hoarse. "Who are you looking for?"
Yan Heqing looked at Zhao Huilin.
Zhao Huilin was beaten; his left eye was blackish-purple, and his eyeball had turned red. There were bruises all over his cheeks and the corners of his mouth, and his hair was disheveled and hanging down his shoulders, with a clump of it still clotted and knotted, probably stained with blood.
Yan Heqing knew it wasn't the debt collectors who hit him, but Yan Shengbing.
Yan Shengbing becomes violent when drunk. Before, when he was alive, he would beat Zhao Huilin; now that Zhao Huilin is gone, Yan Shengbing can only beat Zhao Huilin.
Although Zhao Hui was fierce, Yan Shengbing was strong, and once he stopped her, she couldn't fight back at all.
"It's me," Yan Heqing Yan Heqing said softly.
Zhao Huilin was immediately jolted.
She stared blankly at Yan Heqing. After experiencing so many changes in the past six months, seeing Yan Heqing again felt like a lifetime had passed.
Her eyes welled up with tears.
She was beaten by Yan Shengbing again last night.
Penniless and burdened with high-interest loans, Yan Shengbing went out drinking every day, always returning home completely drunk. He blamed her for forcing him to borrow 100,000 yuan, leaving him with a mountain of debt, and in a fit of rage, he beat her to a pulp.
None of the neighbors came to help. In the end, Yan Feng knelt down crying, and only then did Yan Shengbing go back to his room to sleep, cursing all the while.
When Yan Shengbing woke up in the morning, he knelt down in front of her, weeping and apologizing. He slapped himself and promised never to drink or hit her again.
Zhao Huilin remained silent.
Yan Shengbing was like this when he was young. During the period when he was infertile, he would get drunk and beat her, calling her a hen that couldn't lay eggs. Later, he adopted Yan Heqing and had a son named Yan Feng. Yan Shengbing was better for a while, but after he was laid off and unemployed, he started drinking again. But with Yan Heqing around, Yan Shengbing would beat and scold Yan Heqing instead.
This led her to forget that Yan Shengbing was abusive.
Yan Shengbing knelt and cried for a while, but when he saw that she didn't react, he simply took Yan Feng out and said he would buy her tofu pudding. She sat in the living room with the door open. Anyway, she was already the laughing stock in the neighborhood, so she wasn't afraid of anyone seeing her. As she sat there, she started to cry. Then, she stopped and stared blankly.
Life is too hard, and there's no hope for the future.
If it weren't for Yan Feng, she would have loved to die and end it all.
" Heqing..." Zhao Huilin choked out, as if she had found a pillar of support. She stood up abruptly, rushed to the door, hugged Yan Heqing, and cried loudly, "Why did it take you so long to come back!"
Yan Heqing didn't push her away; the people following him would film this scene and send it to Cheng Jian.
He wasn't carrying anything in his right hand; he simply raised it and gently hugged Zhao Huilin back, saying, "Let me wash your hair first."
During the first year after being adopted, Zhao Huilin often helped Yan Heqing wash his hair.
She offered to help him bathe, but Yan Heqing was too shy to let her. She smiled and gently pinched Yan Heqing's cheek, "I'm your mom and you're still shy? Okay, okay, Mom will only wash your hair. You're so tiny, if you get shampoo in your eyes, it'll hurt you to death."
Then she placed a small stool in the bathroom, had Yan Heqing sit down and bend his head, and then she held the showerhead and half-squatted beside him, patiently and gently washing Yan Heqing's hair.
Yan Heqing's skin was thin and delicate, and she was worried about scratching his scalp.
In the bathroom, Zhao Huilin sat on a stool. Yan Heqing adjusted the showerhead temperature and wet Zhao Huilin's hair. The shampoo bottle was empty, so he used laundry detergent. He poured it into his palm, rubbed it well, and patiently helped Zhao Huilin wash her hardened hair, producing reddish foam.
Zhao Huilin kept crying.
Yan Heqing washed her hair, wrapped it in a dry towel, and then picked up a broom to clean the messy, smelly room.
Another kettle of water was boiled. Yan Shengbing, in his drunken rage, smashed all the cups. Yan Heqing found a bowl to collect the water, carried it to the living room, unwrapped two small bread rolls, and handed them to Zhao Huilin, saying, "Have something to eat."
Tears streamed down Zhao Huilin's face. Before she could even tear open the small bread roll, Yan Shengbing and Yan Feng returned.
Yan Shengbing, carrying a small bag, stared wide-eyed at Yan Heqing, "Son!"
Yan Shengbing was ecstatic, Yan Heqing was worth 5 million! He rushed in excitedly, his cloudy eyes gleaming, "Son, you're back! Dad missed you so much!"
He grinned, revealing a set of yellow, smelly teeth, and dangled the small bag. "Dad bought tofu pudding. Sit down quickly, Dad will go get you a bowl."
He quickly winked at Yan Feng, "Hurry up and close the door, come and call me 'brother'!"
They were afraid that Yan Heqing would run away.
Yan Feng looked timid. Hearing Yan Shengbing's words, he closed the door, went inside, and secretly glanced at Yan Heqing. His legs were trembling violently, and his pants were visibly getting darker. He had wet himself again. Yan Shengbing slapped him on the back of the head and muttered, "Useless thing. This is your own brother. What are you afraid of?"
Zhao Huilin started crying again.
Yan Feng was terrified by the debt collectors. She took him to the hospital, where they diagnosed him with panic disorder and said he needed immediate treatment. However, the family was broke and owed a large sum of money to loan sharks, making treatment unaffordable.
Yan Shengbing also started crying. Suddenly, he knelt down in front of Yan Heqing, grabbed his trouser leg, and wouldn't let go. "Son, please help your dad. For the sake of the 13 years we've raised you, lend us 5 million to get through this difficult time. I promise I'll pay it back! Don't worry, I'll work like a slave and earn the money to pay it back."