Mindful

Sitting in the co-pilot, the lower half of Qiao Yuanlin's face shrouded in neon lights became more mottled, the blood stains were solidified, and the capillaries in the nasal cavity formed small lumps.

Liang Cheng tightly wrapped his palms, unable to move, his skin stuck to the inner side of Liang Cheng's wrist, and he could feel the fast beating pulse.

"I'm fine," he said.

Liang Cheng tightened his grip, he didn't care about what happened to others, he just wanted Qiao Yuanlin to check as soon as possible.But Qiao Yuanlin didn't listen, his fragile appearance made him unwilling to persecute him.

But he knew that Qiao Yuanlin was tougher than most people inside.That kind of stubbornness and stubbornness is completely like a puppy with teeth. Once it is identified and bitten, it will never let go.

The phone kept vibrating, and you didn't need to look at the caller ID to guess who it was. Qiao Yuanlin missed a call and simply turned off the phone.

Back at the apartment on the 52nd floor, Qiao Yuanlin went straight to the bathroom to wash his face. I don't know if it was the cold from running around all day, or what, his hands were trembling under the pure white water column.

Liang Cheng took off his coat and followed him in, turned him to face himself, rolled up his shirt cuff and took a cotton towel to moisten, and wiped him off bit by bit.

He drooped two eyelashes, and his hair, which had not been cut for a long time, hung down between his eyebrows, and said, "I, I have taken medicine at work."

"Yeah." Liang Cheng lifted his chin and helped him clean up the scab in his nasal cavity, "Nothing else is important, if you feel uncomfortable, you must tell me in time."

Qiao Yuanlin took half a step forward and asked, "It's cold. Does that count?"

Liang Cheng heard the faint smell of blood, and took off Qiao Yuanlin's blood-stained scarf, and said, "Take a hot bath to warm up, and I'll run you some water."

Qiao Yuanlin stood next to the dirty laundry basket and took off his clothes. He didn't change his slippers, and stepped on the floor tiles with bare feet after kicking them off.Liang Cheng held him with one arm, and poured bubbles into the bathtub with the other hand.

The bath towel she was wearing slid down, and Qiao Yuanlin hung half naked on Liang Cheng's body.The intimacy made him feel safe, saying: "I told her about our relationship."

Liang Cheng understood that this light-hearted sentence was actually a desperate declaration of war. Before Qiao Yuanlin knew everything, he had already chosen him, as heroic as when he went crazy and confessed.

He said, "I'll talk to Uncle Qiao and my mother after watching."

Qiao Yuanlin asked, "What are you going to say?"

Liang Cheng replied: "Just say that we are together."

"Not enough." Qiao Yuanlin demanded, "Add a sentence that you love me to death."

Liang Chengtang, a specialist in open heart surgery, was terrified by a nosebleed today, so he probably had nothing he couldn't agree to.He put Qiao Yuanlin into the bathtub, and pulled a small bench to sit outside.

The slightly scalding water softened all the limbs, and Qiao Yuanlin looked like a melted glutinous rice ball next to the edge of the white porcelain.

Not wanting to wait any longer, he said, "Tell me."

It's been too long, buried so deep that Liang Cheng had nowhere to start.He pressed the sponge cube into the foam, sucked up the water and stroked Qiao Yuanlin's shoulder.

After a while, he said, "Your mother and I have only met once, in the second prison."

Zhao Jianzhe has a wide network of contacts and many friends, Liang Cheng never cares about him, and has no qualifications, He Jie is the same as him.It was the interview 16 years ago that made him have an impression of Lin Chengbi, but it was limited to "Zhao Jianzhe's reporter friend".

Liang Cheng said truthfully: "During the interview, your mother didn't know the truth."

Qiao Yuanlin's lowered eyes were fully opened, combined with the vague answer in the morning, he asked: "You mean, she understood later? When?"

Liang Cheng replied: "It should be after Zhao Jianzhe died."

The murder case 11 years ago was unavoidable. According to He Jie's narration, she couldn't bear it anymore and secretly brought a scalpel home. Someone must have an accident that night.

Qiao Yuanlin firmly remembered: "Auntie said that it was because you accidentally touched Zhao Jianzhe's documents the night before, and he wanted to beat you to death, so she finally decided..."

"Yes." Liang Cheng recalled calmly, "The tip of the pen almost stuck into my carotid artery."

Zhao Jianzhe had abused him countless times, and that time was the most brutal, as if he was crazy, and almost wanted his life.

Qiao Yuanlin trembled: "Just because of that document?"

Liang Cheng clenched his fists, and the water drops from the sponge smashed out holes in the foam. He said, "That's the evidence that he and Chang Luobing committed crimes."

That document included the private "adoption" contract signed by Chang Luobing and the person in charge of the orphanage, the confidentiality agreement between Zhao Jianzhe and Chang Luobing, and the account records of the two.

Under the stunned gaze of Qiao Yuan and Lin Zhen, Liang Cheng talked about this matter again after more than ten years: "Chang Luobing's business is very big, and Zhao Jianzhe was his attorney. Back then, Chang Luobing had a purpose to adopt orphans. In fact, it is a transaction contract drawn up by Zhao Jianzhe himself for buying and selling people."

The overpayment was to prevent the incident from happening, and the person in charge would not be able to get rid of the responsibility at that time, and would certainly not testify for the victimized orphan.

In the whole incident, Zhao Jianzhe was not only the planner of the evil, but also the insider, and in the end he had to uphold justice shamelessly.

The document was very thick, and Liang Cheng didn't have time to read it. Zhao Jianzhe was probably more panicked than furious.

Liang Cheng was beaten so badly that he lost consciousness in pain.The next day, he went out before dawn, suffering from a headache and ringing in the ears, which affected the nerves of his brain, and spent the whole day at school in a daze.

On this day, something happened that night.

"I killed Zhao Jianzhe." Liang Cheng said, "I called the police, and then I couldn't find the document in the study until the police came and took me away."

Qiao Yuanlin couldn't imagine how calm the other party must be in order to continue to search for evidence after killing by mistake.It's a pity that with Zhao Jianzhe's method, he must have dealt with it first.

He asked eagerly, "Where did Zhao Jianzhe hide the documents?"

Liang Cheng seemed unable to bear it, instead of staring at the reflective tiles, he said, "He gave it to your mother."

Qiao Yuanlin was stunned: "What..."

Liang Cheng voluntarily surrendered and cooperated very well. He told the police about the documents in his confession, but neither his home nor his law firm could be found.The adoption case has been settled for many years, and other clues are hard to find.

After the accident, He Jie's spirit was stimulated, and she was hospitalized and recuperated. It was Cheng Liye who was busy worrying about the outcome of the trial.

During the detention period, the TV station requested interviews many times, and Lin Chengbi was one of them.Liang Cheng refused everything, and no one was seen.

Until the verdict came out, Liang Cheng entered the second prison.He Jie drove to see him dragging her illness, crying to the point of shock, that was the junction point where mother and son fell from one stage of gloom to another.

He Jie was so desperate that she wanted to kill. She blamed herself for being dizzy, talking nonsense that it was too late, and she should have killed Zhao Jianzhe when she returned home in the morning.

Liang Cheng distracted her attention and asked, "What return?"

On the morning of the incident, He Jie was a little out of her mind. On the way to work, she found that she had forgotten her mobile phone. She went home to get it, and said, "As soon as I got out of the elevator, I ran into that reporter named Lin at the door."

Liang Cheng confirmed: "Are they meeting at home?"

"It seems that Zhao Jianzhe asked her to come and get something." He Jie said confusedly, "She is stuffing a document bag in the bag, some materials."

Liang Cheng's heart tightened, and after careful questioning, he learned that Zhao Jianzhe had handed over the document to Lin Chengbi, whether it was temporarily stored or something, and it seemed that Lin Chengbi was the only person who had the evidence.

"I offered to see her," he said.

Qiao Yuanlin finally understood why there were no notes and recordings, because the meeting between Liang Cheng and Lin Chengbi was not an interview at all, but a negotiation about evidence.

Lin Chengbi's condition was not good, her face was facing the sky with her long hair loose, she spread out a notepad, and as a senior reporter, she was speechless for a long time.

It was Liang Cheng who spoke first: "Don't you want to ask me?"

Lin Chengbi said: "The case has been judged, and we have learned the ins and outs from the police clearly enough."

"No." Liang Chengdao, "Some things are not in the verdict."

Lin Chengbi asked, "What's the matter?"

Liang Cheng's tone was flat, but straight to the point: "Zhao Jianzhe wants to kill me."

Lin Chengbi pushed her hair back to her shoulders, and said in a low voice, "I know he abused you and your adoptive mother, but don't talk about it without evidence. It won't help your situation."

Liang Cheng continued: "I discovered his secret, about an adoption case, you reported it."

Lin Chengbi's pupils flickered, and she twisted the pen with both hands to restrain her panic. She said, "I don't quite understand what you said."

"You understand, otherwise you will ask me what the secret is." Liang Cheng stared at her, "The document that the police couldn't find, it turned out that Zhao Jianzhe had already changed hands."

Lin Chengbi stopped and said: "You are only a few years older than my son. As a mother, I sympathize with your life experience. But it is a fact that you committed a crime. Don't waste each other's time making up stories."

Liang Cheng said: "Your son is very lucky that he was not abandoned or hurt."

Lin Chengbi shared the notebook: "I'm here to interview you."

"The exposure of that evidence is far more newsworthy than interviewing me. You are a reporter and you know better than me."

"I don't know." Lin Chengbi yelled suddenly, "I don't understand what you are talking about!"

Liang Cheng was calm, but his eyes were full of unwillingness, and said: "Zhao Jianzhe will not hand over the evidence to irrelevant people. You reported it, and he wants to drag you into trouble."

"I believe you didn't know about it back then, and it's not too late to make amends now, and make the truth known to the public."

"The orphan was in this prison back then, and he and his sister needed justice."

"Holding this secret, can you sleep peacefully every day in the future?"

Lin Chengbi got up, and squeezed out a reply through his teeth: "I'm leaving, I'll take care of the interview draft."

Liang Cheng was behind her, and finally said: "Do you believe in retribution?"

Lin Chengbi has left, Zhao Jianzhe is dead, there is no evidence for the whole incident, and if there is no evidence, it is only Liang Cheng's side-view.And in the time gap after the incident, it was enough for Lin Chengbi to clean up the evidence.

That was the only time they met, needless to say, Liang Cheng had already determined Lin Chengbi's choice.

"I also imagined that she would change her mind."

"Obviously not." Qiao Yuanlin murmured, "She even made a distorted report."

The truth was beyond his expectations. From Zhao Jianzhe's exclusive interview to the suppressed manuscript to the evidence that has not seen the light of day, Lin Chengbi was involved in every case.

He seemed to be strangled by the throat, he stuck his neck and turned around in the water.

The thin shoulder blades shrugged, and the water droplets slid down the protruding spine, accompanied by Qiao Yuanlin gradually swallowing uncontrollably.

The water became cold, Liang Cheng turned on the switch to replace it, a pool of bubbles undulating, Qiao Yuanlin threw his fist and smashed it like waves, and let it go, crying loudly.

Liang Cheng leaned over and hugged Qiao Yuanlin from behind, sticking to Qiao Yuanlin's wet body and cheeks, and said, "Chang Luobing is dead, and Zhao Jianzhe is also dead. This is the greatest punishment. Brother Ying and I have avenged each other. It's over, it's all over."

Qiao Yuanlin shook her head vigorously: "There is no past... Others have suffered so much, why should she pass?!"

Liang Cheng tightened his arms: "It doesn't matter anymore——"

"It's not indifferent!" Qiao Yuanlin Guan screamed, "How can it be indifferent to accept it helplessly!"

Liang Cheng pressed his palms on his chest, comforting him over and over again: "Don't do this, Qiao Yuanlin, be obedient, don't do this."

The tragic cry echoed in the bathroom, and Qiao Yuanlin shed tears all over his face: "I'm sorry...I'm sorry..."

Liang Cheng tried hard to hide it, but the thing he was most worried about still happened.What he said to Lin Chengbi is coming true. The lucky child he said was first abandoned by his mother, and now he is suffering belated injuries.

Qiao Yuanlin cried until his hands were numb, his words were drowned in sobs, his love and admiration for Lin Chengbi vanished, and all was wasted in bitter tears.

Liang Cheng carried him back to the bedroom and kept kissing him, but he kept shaking, his nasal cavity was blocked and he couldn't breathe, he sobbed with his lips open.

For a moment, he thought he was going to die.

He is not afraid, he knows that Liang Cheng will save him.

Maybe Liang Cheng was saving him when his mother was pretending to be evidence.

Qiao Yuanlin opened his hazy eyes, as if offering a sacrifice, pleading guilty: "I..."

Just one word, Liang Cheng pecked at his ear.

The decision was made on the platform back then, and he told Qiao Yuanlin: "I don't care about other people's retribution, I can only be sure that you are my compensation from God."