Neue Brücke der Hilflosigkeit

Kapitel 10

Feng Qi pulled her into a tight embrace. He didn't know why he was holding her; he only knew that if he didn't, he would probably run away. That would be very hurtful.

But she whispered in his ear, "Brother."

He froze, then heard her faint sigh.

"younger sister?"

"I shouldn't have left back then."

Mo Ran regretted it more than once, regretting leaving with that person.

He held her tenderly in his arms, and she curiously looked at the scenery outside the car window. He stroked her earlobe and said to her, "Little sister, shall I give you a name?" She nodded obediently and looked at him expectantly.

“Mo Ran, Chen Mo Ran”.

"What a strange name!" A woman standing nearby said sarcastically as she filed her nails with nail clippers. "I thought our great calligrapher was going to come up with some kind of earth-shattering, awe-inspiring name."

The man wasn't annoyed. He buried his head in Xiao Mo Ran's shoulder and chuckled, "I'm also very surprised that someone with your intelligence could utter such an idiom as 'earth-shattering and ghost-weeping.'"

The woman shot a vicious glare at him, not at the man, but at Mo Ran, who was glancing back and forth between the two. Mo Ran, caught off guard by the woman's resentment, stiffened involuntarily. The man seemed to sense Mo Ran's stiffness and said with displeasure, "Tone it down!"

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A strong, nauseating stench permeated the cold, dark room. The filthy sheets bore yellow stains, some new, some old. The only door was locked from the inside, and the light filtering through the dark blue curtains was weak, creating a stark contrast between the noise outside and the deathly silence inside.

She lay on the bed unable to move; any movement of her hand would aggravate the injury to her back, causing excruciating pain.

The dust in the air is clearly visible.

When did it all begin? Was it when he stopped letting her go to school in fifth grade? No, it was from the moment he adopted her from the orphanage. All that seemingly happy life they had before was an illusion, a prop for his facade! She understood why her "mother" hated her. She understood, but it was too late.

“Mo Ran…you’re so beautiful,” the man sighed, a mesmerizing smile playing on his lips as he approached her. He caressed her naked body with his withered hands, kissing every inch of her skin with lips reeking of death. He gasped, “In this world, no one is more beautiful than you.”

She closed her eyes, refusing to look at this ugly world.

He was old, but his hand holding the pen and knife still didn't tremble in the slightest.

New wounds cover old ones, bleeding with pus. Numb to the pain, the only fear is of one's own heart, slowly rotting, like a poisonous, dark plant growing in a damp swamp, bearing fruit overflowing with venom.

He was a renowned calligrapher in the city, proud of his work. Yes, she was his most outstanding piece. The characters were tattooed on his back, and strange, dark red flowers bloomed on his skin.

Perhaps this is why he so vehemently hates the pure An Hui. Her purity began to die the moment that man took her from the orphanage, slowly fading away, leaving only a heart riddled with wounds and a cruel longing. Day after day, she waits, without struggling, without resisting, eating when given food, doing whatever she is told. Like a quiet doll, silently enduring all the humiliation inflicted upon her, waiting for her to become strong, waiting for that man to grow old.

He said, "Mo Ran, I love you from the first moment I saw you. You know how excited I was when I saw you in the square that day. You smile like an angel. Come on, smile for Daddy."

So she smiled, looking at him with the most radiant smile and pity.

He said, "Mo Ran, do you love your dad?"

So she said, "I love you, Dad. You are the person I love most in this world."

Love. Dad.

She could only sneer inwardly. They had both insulted those two beautiful words.

On that day, she snatched the knife from him. He was filled with astonishment and helplessness; all he could do was watch as blood gushed from his body.

He's too old.

The man's blood was also bright red; murky liquid gushed from his withered skin, splashing onto her face and covering her naked body, covered in tattoos. She forgot how many times she had stabbed him; all she could see was the man's face contorted in pain, a crimson world before her. His piercing screams echoed in the room.

She was finally free.

When the police arrived, she showed them all the wounds on her body. Fifteen years old, a minor, committed murder in self-defense. As she walked out of the dark room, the bright sunlight outside stung her eyes. Her parents found her.

She then learned that she had actually been born into a wealthy family, that she had been trafficked, that the elderly couple who bought her had died shortly afterward and she had been sent to an orphanage, and that Chen Zhengxi had only been in a sham marriage with a prostitute when he adopted her. Her humiliating and sordid history was summarized in just a few words.

She once longed to return to normal society, but found herself unable to adapt to the outside world. She only completed fifth grade, was covered in tattoos, and was afraid of men.

murderer.

The doctor said regretfully to her well-dressed parents, "Your daughter has serious mental problems." Indeed, she had been mentally unstable for three years. She had been studying middle and high school courses alone in a mental hospital in another city. Then one day, her parents, whom she hadn't seen for three years, reappeared before her and said, "Mo Ran, let's go home." And then she was no longer mentally unstable.

She met her sister.

A carefree girl, a girl who lacked nothing, a girl who was charming and even a little spoiled. She stared intently at An Hui, her eyes almost welling up with tears. This girl, was she the child born to her grieving mother after losing her? She was the one who had taken everything that was rightfully hers. Her gaze was too fierce, frightening her mother. Later, after An Hui fell asleep, the woman who carried the word "mother" on her back slapped her mercilessly, forbidding her from uttering a single word to An Hui.

Yes, An Hui is a princess raised in a greenhouse, untouched by dust or dirt.

She snatched everything, everything An Hui had, without any reason. She thought An Hui would be angry and would complain to her mother. But she didn't; she looked at her with a pitying and compassionate gaze, which made Mo Ran hate her even more. But what was the difference?

It had been a long time since anyone had treated her like this.

No one has loved her for a long time.

It's been so long since anyone's been here...

Mo Ran smiled, a desolate smile, her arms wrapped around Feng Qi's waist. She loathed all men, but she couldn't bring herself to hate Feng Qi. He carried a scent she missed, a scent that brought her peace.

She said, "But the only person who loved me was also killed by her. Just because she couldn't let her precious daughter fall in love with someone like me. Just because the Ran family's reputation couldn't be damaged because of the two of us. She was unworthy of the title of mother. Since I can't expose it myself, why can't I help others reveal the Ran family's dirty secrets?"

"After all, that's your home. Why did you..." Before Feng Qi could finish speaking, Mo Ran's cold lips sealed his mouth.

"Brother... Qi... will you love me like this?" she asked timidly, unable to even look him in the eye. She had never felt so vulnerable since they met again. No matter how strong she was, she was still just a girl longing to be loved. Feng Qi sighed, gently kissed her forehead, and then swept her up in his arms.

Feixue and Xiaohei were calling out something nearby, and all his previous resistance to Mo Ran was thrown aside. He looked at her, remembering the lovely girl from his childhood, and tears fell onto the corners of her eyes.

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...

He threw back the covers, got out of bed, and walked to the only full-length mirror in the room. In the bright moonlight, his naked body was covered with dense patterns and words, like a magnificent blue robe.

She glanced at Feixue, who was huddled in the corner staring at her with hostility, and smiled seductively.

She told Feng Qi about her past, but only half of it. The other half was an experience he couldn't know. She walked to the bedside and gently stroked the sleeping young man with a smile. He looked almost exactly the same as when he was a child, but his temperament had softened. Sadly, she was no longer worthy of him. Her hands and soul were stained with too much blood.

When she was fifteen, her parents didn't find her the moment she left the police station. She lived alone for over a month. She had no skills and survived by begging. But who would pity a person with hands and feet? Those days spent with garbage and rats instilled in her a different kind of fear: the fear of survival. When that person locked her up, at least she had enough to eat and wear. But without the protection of others, she struggled even to survive.

She fainted. When she woke up, she was in the hospital. The doctor told her, "You're pregnant, two months along."

It's that person's child.

Strangely, she wasn't surprised by the news; in fact, she was overjoyed. She wanted to live, for her child. Who the father was didn't matter; what mattered was that she had someone to be with. From now on, she was no longer alone. She wanted to work, willing to try even the most difficult jobs.

But at this time, her parents found her.

She had almost forgotten what the two men looked like; they seemed like phantoms she could only see in her childhood dreams. They were dressed in fine clothes, weeping for her disheveled state. At that moment, she thought the nightmare was about to end, and she was filled with joy.

To her surprise, when her mother heard that she was pregnant, she was so shocked that she couldn't speak for a long time. She hesitated for a moment, then touched her daughter's face, whom she hadn't seen for more than ten years, tears streaming down her face. She said, "Little sister, you've suffered so much. It's all my fault for not taking good care of you."

Even then, Mo Ran was happy. Her parents seemed to be doing quite well. So, raising her and her child shouldn't be a problem. How naive she was to think that Ran Qilei and An Ying, as celebrities, would allow their underage daughter to have that man's child. Even if they hadn't done anything as parents for over a decade, they were still her parents.

They had a falling out over whether or not to have children.

An Ying couldn't understand why she killed that man, yet insisted on giving birth to his child. That filthy bastard.

Mo Ran escaped the hospital with nothing, but was quickly found. As she was knocked unconscious, she gave a sarcastic smile. Why hadn't they been this capable when she was abducted? They took her to the operating room. Her two-month-old baby was gone, and due to excessive bleeding during the surgery, she would never be able to conceive again. The doctor said her chances of getting pregnant again were only 10%.

When Mo Ran woke up in her hospital bed, a sharp pain shot through her lower abdomen. An unprecedented emptiness enveloped her. An Ying sat by her bedside, holding her hand. Seeing that she was awake, An Ying said happily, "Little sister, take good care of yourself. Once you're well, we'll go home."

She pulled her hand away and asked, "Who are you?"

The mental hospital, which is famous throughout the province, has a nice environment and is very green.

She opened her eyes to see a clear blue sky and people dressed in the same white clothes. She smiled at them, and they smiled back, seemingly without a care in the world. The world was terrifyingly simple. She closed her eyes, and the world turned blood red.

Until a woman came up to her and asked, "Do you have something you desire to gain, or something you desire to destroy? I can help you."

The woman, though sporting a chic short haircut, was pale. She wore layers upon layers of clothing. Her most striking feature was her earring; she wore it only in her right ear, a blue, teardrop-shaped gemstone. She wasn't a patient; Mo Ran had never seen her before. She claimed to be a water-elemental witch, and with a wave of her right hand, a blooming lily instantly turned into a pool of stagnant water.

She stared at the puddle of water and asked the woman, "Anything is possible? But what's the price?" She didn't believe in free lunches.

The woman smiled: "Your first child."

"Ha, that." Mo Ran suddenly burst into maniacal laughter. What a great reward! She didn't have to pay any price at all. She said, "Then, I'm going back. I'm going to destroy their peaceful lives and drag them down to the deepest hell with me."

She began to study elementary, middle, and high school textbooks on her own, learning to restrain her fierce and cold gaze, and learning to call home every Spring Festival. In the third year, her father said on the other end of the phone, "Little sister, we're coming to pick you up."

There is no past life or present life, only a slow-acting, hallucinogenic poison. Colorless and odorless, just a drop is enough to plunge her beloved sister into a dream. In that dream, there is a fabricated past, and a love that transcends life and death.

She didn't love Xie Siyan, but after seeing through the ambiguous relationship between them, she said to An Hui, "I envy you so much, receiving Xie Siyan's favor." She deliberately let An Ying see An Hui's infatuation with her. Her own mother never hid her dislike for her, not even offering a shred of feigned warmth. This only made the compassionate An Hui cherish her more. She lured An Hui to that building, and after seeing An Ying go upstairs, she called the newspaper. That drop of maddening liquid gave An Ying the courage to push her daughter off the building.

However, she neglected her own heart.

That warmth was given by An Hui, and lost with her passing.

Chapter Eleven: Epilogue

end

The provincial newspaper published Feng Qi's story as its front page. Even tigers don't eat their cubs; this man sent his daughter to her death for the sake of reputation—a sensational story. Following this social news, other reporters uncovered bribery allegations against Ran Qilei, implicating multiple departments including the Public Security Bureau and hospitals. Feng Qi was fired from the newspaper, but he immediately received a job offer from the provincial newspaper.

He decided to leave this place with Mo Ran.

Before going, he met Cao Xiangui. The old man was lying in his hospital bed and gave him a weak smile: "Why did you think of coming to see your old man?" He was in the late stage of lung cancer, and his wife was asleep on the bed with a towel in her hand.

"Old Master Cao..."

“When I was little, I thought being a policeman was very prestigious. But when I actually became a policeman, I realized it wasn’t like that at all. In my more than 30 years as a policeman, I’ve made many mistakes, but I’ve always had a clear conscience.” He smiled at Feng Qi: “If I become a reporter in the future, I will also work hard to do so.”

Watching Feng Qi's departing figure, worry appeared in his eyes. He saw the girl waiting for him. A girl shrouded in darkness was not a good choice. But he said nothing. He silently looked at his wife, who had fallen asleep from exhaustion, and gave her an apologetic smile.

...

Feng Qi and Mo Ran's train was scheduled for seven o'clock.

Watching Mo Ran walk towards him with a smile, Feng Qi felt a sense of unreality. He had finally achieved fame through his writing and found his long-missed younger sister. What he once thought would take many years of struggle had been accomplished in just three months.

In the crowded train station, he was drawn to a pink and blue figure. Short, neat hair, large but listless eyes, she walked briskly towards him and Mo Ran. Mo Ran gripped his arm tighter and tighter.

The girl stopped in front of them, smiled, and spread her hands to Mo Ran, saying, "I've come to collect my payment."

Mo Ran shook her head with a cold laugh: "I am destined to be infertile."

The girl smiled confidently: "I never do business at a loss." Then, she drew her right index finger across Mo Ran's abdomen, opened her hand, and a ball of azure light appeared in it. Within that blue light, there was a small, fleshy-like object.

"Isn't this my payment?"

Feng Qi felt Mo Ran stiffen beside him. He turned his eyes and saw her pale-faced, clutching her abdomen. Tears fell silently from her eyes.

She asked the woman, "...How...how old are you?"

"One month."

"Hehe, hehe, hehe..." Mo Ran laughed, biting her finger hard until it bled, refusing to let go no matter how Feng Qi tried to pry it open.

"My name is Yu Ye, and I'm a priestess. If you have any wishes you wish to fulfill, you can come to me." The woman handed Feng Qi a business card that smelled of fresh grass and said lightly, "Of course, the price is not cheap."