When Lin Shuyue arrived at the hospital, Ah Qin was about to be discharged. Her illness had worsened again, and the doctor said to let her eat whatever she wanted and do whatever she wanted.

She wanted to see a ballet performance. Her Nana loved to dance ballet the most. It was a pity that she had just signed up for classes when she passed away. Ah Qin had never had the chance to see her daughter perform even once in her life.

Ah Qin didn’t have much strength to speak anymore. Compared to the last time they met at the police station on the day Deng Ling and Yang Hao’an were arrested, she was much weaker. Wang Guiquan had been sent out by her to handle the discharge procedures.

She had asked Lin Shuyue to come because she wanted Lin Shuyue to help them take a couple of photos. She knew they were troubling Lin Shuyue too much. Many people could take photos, and there were countless photo studios outside, but Lin Shuyue’s significance to her was different.

“Reporter Lin, I know you do big things. Something like taking photos for us would be demeaning to you. But for us, your significance to our couple is different.” Ah Qin took a full minute to say this sentence, speaking intermittently, saying a few words and then stopping to catch her breath.

The car accident back then had damaged her lungs. Being able to live until now was already thanks to Wang Guiquan taking very good care of her.

“How could that be? It’s my honor to take this photo for you.” Lin Shuyue sat on the stool in the ward, talking to Ah Qin, who was sitting in a wheelchair.

Ah Qin smiled and looked at the sky outside the window. The sky today was surprisingly blue, with wisps of white clouds floating above, and the sunlight was particularly bright.

“My parents loved my brother and didn’t love me. When I came of age, he told outsiders that he wanted 500 yuan as betrothal money. Whoever could come up with it could marry me. Ah Quan used all his savings from working for several years to marry me.”

“Ah Quan’s parents passed away when he was young. He was raised by his grandmother, who also passed away early. After I married him, we were husband and wife and also each other’s family.”

“The children are gone, and I’m about to go find them soon. In this world, only Ah Quan is left.” Ah Qin said, “I know that after I’m gone, Ah Quan’s only reason to live will be to wait for the outcome of Deng Ling and Yang Hao’an. I heard from the police that Deng Ling and Yang Hao’an have too many cases on their hands, and the only thing waiting for them is the death penalty.”

“Once they die, Ah Quan won’t be able to live either. I was thinking, when the time comes, please help us and bury us together. We don’t trust those people in our hometown.” After Ah Qin and Wang Guiquan lost their children, their relatives had repeatedly brought their own children to visit them, wanting them to leave their property to their children after they passed away.

Ah Qin was unwilling and didn’t want to give it to them. She still remembered the faces of those people after their Nana had just passed away, and she would never forget them.

It was laughable to say, but she wasn’t without parents, and her Ah Quan also had close relatives, but in the end, the only person they could entrust their final affairs to was this reporter they had only met a few times.

Ah Qin couldn’t explain why, but she just trusted Lin Shuyue. She had trusted her from the first time they met.

This wasn’t a big deal, and Lin Shuyue agreed.

Ah Qin smiled. “It’s not for nothing that I’m asking for your help. Our small fishing village has been developing better and better in recent years. Ah Quan and I bought a piece of land near the sea. The land isn’t big, just two fen. We’ll give that piece of land to you.”

Lin Shuyue wasn’t ignorant. Ah Qin’s small village had beautiful scenery and was close to tourist attractions. There were already many tourists who came spontaneously. In a few more years, with the further development of tourism, even more people would come. Land in the seaside tourist area was worth its weight in gold.

Two fen of land, converted, was more than one hundred and thirty square meters.

“Sister-in-law, this is too valuable. I can’t accept it. Helping you is something I should do as a reporter. If you give me the land, the nature of the matter changes. I won’t help you with what you just asked me to do.”

No one in this world didn’t love money, and Lin Shuyue also wanted the land by the sea that was over a hundred square meters.

However, a gentleman loves wealth but acquires it in a proper way. If she accepted Ah Qin’s two fen of land today, what she would lose was the integrity and kindness she should have as a reserve police officer and a reporter.

If she could accept Ah Qin’s land today, she could accept the murderer’s hush money tomorrow. She wasn’t taking the path of entertainment journalism. If she really accepted the murderer’s hush money, then she would become the same kind of person as the murderer.

In the future, when she did reports again, her heart wouldn’t be pure anymore. Lin Shuyue didn’t want to become that kind of person, so she had her bottom line.

She wanted the mission completion rewards given to her by the system, she wanted the commendation for bravery given to her by the Public Security Bureau, and she also wanted the bonus given to her by the newspaper office. Those were rewards she deserved.

She couldn’t touch the victims’ thank-you money and items, as well as the murderer’s money and items, in this lifetime. This was her bottom line as a person and as a reporter.

Ah Qin smiled particularly happily. She sincerely wanted to give this piece of land to Lin Shuyue. She would be very happy if Lin Shuyue accepted it, but she was even happier that Lin Shuyue didn’t accept it.

“Reporter Lin, you’re a good reporter. The people need good reporters like you.”

Ah Qin’s words were undoubtedly the best praise for Lin Shuyue.

“Your words make me even happier than if you gave me the land.”

The two women chatted leisurely. The cicadas on the trees outside chirped tirelessly, bringing a hint of inexplicable restlessness to those who heard their calls.

The ballet performance was in the evening. Lin Shuyue and the couple Ah Qin went to have a meal. Along the way, she would always take photos of them inadvertently, in corners where Wang Guiquan and Ah Qin couldn’t see.

In many photos, the couple looked at each other tacitly, sometimes smiling knowingly, sometimes Ah Qin glared at Wang Guiquan. Every photo was very natural.

The ballet performance lasted a total of one and a half hours. When the actors took their bows, Lin Shuyue stepped back a few steps and took a photo of Ah Qin and Wang Guiquan.

The background of this photo was a blurry fifteen or sixteen-year-old ballet dancer, and under the refraction of light and shadow, it looked very much like a family of three.

When Lin Shuyue printed out this photo the next day, Ah Qin cried.

She thought that if it hadn’t been for what happened back then, her daughter would also be as radiant on the stage as those ballet dancers yesterday.

The place where Ah Qin and her husband rented was not far from the hospital. The weather was very good today. When Lin Shuyue arrived, Ah Qin and Wang Guiquan were taking a walk downstairs.

Lin Shuyue sat on a stone and asked Ah Qin, “Did Zhengjun come to see you after he got out?”

Ah Qin shook her head. The taciturn Wang Guiquan said, “He came to see us with gifts, but we didn’t see him.”

Ah Qin said, “I know what happened back then. They were also victims. Their family’s situation isn’t much better than ours. We were even good friends before the incident. But now, I can’t help but hold a grudge. I can’t meet them peacefully.”

“During my most vicious years, I even thought, why did my daughter die and not his?” Everyone had a dark side. When Ah Qin missed her children and was struggling in the abyss of pain, she couldn’t help but be vicious.

Now, she was much calmer, but she still didn’t want to see Zhengjun.

Lin Shuyue didn’t sit with her for long. Ah Qin told Lin Shuyue that Wang Guiquan had bought two graves in the Pengcheng cemetery. When she passed away, he would place the ashes of their two children in front of her. When Wang Guiquan also passed, their family would be reunited.

And the cemetery would sweep their graves, so they wouldn’t have to worry about their graves being overgrown with weeds after they went down.

On the way back, Lin Shuyue became increasingly sad. She couldn’t control her emotions and walked to a place where no one could see her and cried bitterly.

The frayed rope breaks at the thinnest point.

Ah Qin’s family was too tragic.

Originally, two unloved people had come together as a couple and worked hard to live their lives. Their lives should have been very good, but because of Yang Hao’an and Deng Ling, Ah Qin and Wang Guiquan’s family had suffered a devastating blow.

After so many years, the culprit back then had finally been brought to justice, but Ah Qin couldn’t wait for the day of the verdict.

This world, why were some people always so miserable?

Lin Shuyue hadn’t walked far from the alley when a jeep across the street drove away in the opposite direction.

Zhao Youcheng looked at Lin Shuyue’s departing figure. “Team Leader Hang, aren’t you going up to take a look?”

Hang Jiabai focused on driving. “What’s there to see? Tell the girl, ‘I saw you crying, why are you sad?’ Are you stupid?”

Zhao Youcheng, scolded but not angry, pouted as he looked out the window.

Hang Jiabai wasn’t stupid either. He had seen it, so he said, “Alright, I’ll treat you to a meal. Anything under twenty yuan.”

“Team Leader Hang, you’re so stingy. I want to eat pig trotters rice.”

–

Lin Shuyue didn’t expose Lin Jianxin’s selling of his son, but she told Wang Mingzheng about Zhang Zhenfa poisoning the competitor’s restaurant back then. Her family’s relationship with Zhang Zhenfa wasn’t a secret, and anyone who wanted to investigate could easily find out, so Lin Shuyue had to avoid suspicion.

Huang Qiang took over this news story. Without Yang Baozong’s constraints, he was full of energy every day. He unleashed all the writing desires he had suppressed over the years.

During the days when Lin Shuyue wasn’t publishing reports, he and Li Weisheng supported the newspaper’s sales like they were in a competition.

Wang Mingzheng was walking on air now.

Three days after sending the photos to Ah Qin, Lin Shuyue received another call from Wang Guiquan. She rushed to the hospital, and the lights in the emergency room were still on.

Wang Guiquan sat on the bench outside the emergency room door, holding his head and waiting, his hands trembling involuntarily.

Lin Shuyue didn’t know how to comfort him. They waited from morning until afternoon. At two o’clock, the lights in the emergency room went out. The doctor came out and regretfully announced to Wang Guiquan and Lin Shuyue that the resuscitation was unsuccessful, but the person was still conscious, and the family could go in to see her one last time.

Wang Guiquan staggered over. Ah Qin held his hand, staring intently at him. He nodded repeatedly at Ah Qin. Ah Qin smiled and touched his head. “I’ll go first and scout out the way for you.”

Wang Guiquan sobbed uncontrollably. Ah Qin’s gaze searched the emergency room. Lin Shuyue stepped forward. Ah Qin looked at her earnestly. Lin Shuyue took her hand. “Before I came, I asked Team Leader Hang of the Criminal Police Team. He said the cases of Yang Hao’an and Deng Ling have basically been tried and will go to court in August.”

It was already July. There was still one month left. Ah Qin smiled. “But… unfortunately, I won’t be able to see it. That’s good. They’re coming down to atone for my… children.”

Ah Qin passed away with a smile on her face. She could finally see her children. She missed them so much.

Lin Shuyue felt her hand slowly fall and become cold. Wang Guiquan cried until he fainted. When he woke up, he silently cremated Ah Qin and then took Lin Shuyue to see the cemetery he had bought.

The cemetery was on a mountain, halfway up. After Wang Guiquan placed Ah Qin’s ashes, he also placed the ashes of their two children inside.

There was also an empty grave next to it. The tombstone had been ordered in advance. It was very large, and the words on the empty grave side had also been engraved. The photo on the tombstone was a previous group photo of the family of four, as well as a photo Lin Shuyue had taken of an empty ballet stage and a sticker of Sun Wukong.

Wang Guiquan said, “My son liked Sun Wukong the most.”

Lin Shuyue’s eyes felt like they had been raining for days.

After coming down from the mountain, the two separated at the entrance of the cemetery. Wang Guiquan thanked Lin Shuyue.

Lin Shuyue looked at his back. She wasn’t even sure if Wang Guiquan would contact her again as Ah Qin had hoped.

But she sincerely hoped that Wang Guiquan could look forward. Even if it was impossible, she hoped Wang Guiquan would live on. It was always better to be alive than dead.

–

Ah Qin’s departure didn’t have much impact on Lin Shuyue’s life.

She still went to work and got off work every day. Then she followed the other reporters in the team, running all over Pengcheng.

Whether it was a car accident somewhere or residents in a certain residential area arguing and fighting, they would rush over.

One day in August, Lou Fengqin felt cold all over when she got up in the morning. After Lin Shuyue took her temperature with a thermometer, she took her to a nearby clinic to see a doctor.

The clinic was particularly busy today. Most of the patients who came for treatment were young children aged 0-3.

And their symptoms were highly similar: vomiting, diarrhea, and severe abdominal pain.

Lin Shuyue asked the nurse who was giving Lou Fengqin an IV drip, “Pretty girl, why are so many young children here to see the doctor today?”

The nurse skillfully inserted the needle into Lou Fengqin’s arm and replied casually, “I don’t know what the reason is. Young children have been coming one after another since the afternoon before yesterday, and their symptoms are almost the same. And they’re all young children. There isn’t such a pediatric infectious disease going around on the market right now. It’s very strange. Several children have already been sent to the hospital.”

“Such young children, even if it’s food poisoning, they shouldn’t all be poisoned together.” A child cried again over there. The nurse picked up the tray and hurriedly went to work.

Lin Shuyue looked at the anxious parents and the young children crying in distress. In her previous life, a famous food safety case flashed into her mind.

Lin Shuyue asked the mother of a child who was receiving an IV drip beside her, “Sister, what has your child eaten recently?”

The child’s mother, who had been struggling for half a month, raised her haggard face, her eyes bloodshot. “My baby is only one year old. Besides my milk, I only give him some rice cereal. We haven’t given him anything else to eat.”

[Ding! Keyword ‘rice cereal’ triggered, limited-time mission: Children experiencing unexplained diarrhea, pain, vomiting? Please find the cause. Time limit: 105 days.]

[Children are the future of humanity, the flowers of the motherland. Please pay attention to children’s food safety and safeguard their growth.]