Ten minutes later, Lin Shuyue found a barbecue stall and sat down. She ordered a plate of grilled oysters, a plate of fried rice noodles, and a bottle of water. While eating, she recalled the memories she had just received from the Good and Evil Detection System.

The original owner, like her, was named Lin Shuyue and was twenty years old, the same age as her. However, she had skipped two grades in elementary school and was now a soon-to-be graduate of the journalism department at Yangcheng University, currently an intern. She was interning at the Pengcheng Metropolis Daily.

Her family consisted of her mother, an older sister, and a younger brother who had been kidnapped as a child.

Her older sister, Lin Shuxing, had started working after finishing elementary school. Half of her monthly salary went to their mother, Lou Fengqin, to fund the search for their younger brother. A small portion was used to support the original owner’s studies, and the rest was her own spending money and savings.

Now that the original owner was working at the newspaper and earning a salary, her sister’s burden had lessened somewhat. She had finally dared to consider her future and, at the end of last year, had started dating Luo Zhengjun, a cook at the factory cafeteria where she worked. Their relationship was stable, and it was likely they would be discussing marriage by the end of the year.

“You said you loved…” The phone in her pocket rang again. This time, Lin Shuyue didn’t hesitate. She took out her phone and pressed the green call button. A gentle female voice came from the other end.

“Xiaoyue, what time is it? Why aren’t you home for dinner yet?”

Lin Shuyue had barely touched the food on her table. She glanced at it and said, “I’m already on my way back. You go ahead and eat.”

Lin Shuxing, on the other end of the phone, ignored Lin Shuyue’s words and said, “Your Brother Zhengjun will be here soon, too. Hurry up.”

With that, there was a sizzling sound—Lin Shuxing was stir-frying vegetables—and the call ended.

Lin Shuyue asked the owner for a plastic bag, packed up the food on the table, and ordered another plate of stir-fried snails. Then, following the original owner’s memory, she headed home.

The original owner’s family was local to Pengcheng, but their old home wasn’t in the bustling city center but in a remote fishing village under Pengcheng’s jurisdiction.

In the year the original owner’s younger brother was three and she was five, her father, Lin Jianxin, had an affair with a woman in the city. Later, that woman came to their door, and after learning the truth, the original owner’s mother resolutely divorced her father. The whole process, including all the wrangling, took almost half a year. Not long after their divorce, the younger brother, who had been awarded to the father in the custody agreement, was abducted by human traffickers.

The original owner’s mother couldn’t bear the blow and fell ill. After recovering, she sold the house and land her father had given her in the divorce and moved to the city with her two daughters. She worked to support her two daughters while saving money, and every year, there were always a couple of months when she wasn’t home, joining other parents who had lost children in a nationwide search.

It was now May, and they had received news that there might be information about her son in Shanxi Province, so she had set off, and had already been gone for almost half a month.

The house where Lin Shuyue and her sister lived was bought by their mother when she first came to Pengcheng to settle down. At that time, this place was still a small village, and houses were cheap. A single-story house of about 100 square meters, with a small courtyard of about 20 square meters, costs only a little over a thousand yuan.

Later, Pengcheng developed rapidly. Small factories had been built around the former small village, and a large shopping mall was being planned. The villagers suddenly became landlords. The original owner’s small house also increased in value. At the end of last year, someone came and offered to buy their house for ten thousand yuan.

The original owner’s mother refused. This house was the foundation of her and her two daughters’ lives, and she was unwilling and afraid to sell it.

Lin Shuyue stood at the entrance of the Lin family home for a while, took a deep breath, and pushed open the unlocked iron gate.

Lin Shuxing was a person who loved life. When she was a child, she had gotten a grape vine cutting from a classmate’s house and planted it in the southwest corner of the courtyard. Now, it covered the entire courtyard. The other corners were also filled with flowers. Pengcheng was warm, and the flowers in the courtyard bloomed year-round.

A lamp was installed in the grape arbor. Under the dim yellow light, there was a square table with two dishes on it, steaming hot. Lin Shuxing came out of the house, carrying a bowl of soup. Behind her was a young man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, wearing an apron and holding bowls and chopsticks. Both had smiles on their faces.

“What are you standing at the door for? Come in quickly!”

Perhaps it was the gentle evening breeze that night, warm on her skin. Perhaps it was the dim light under the grape arbor, casting a warm glow on the rising steam from the food, that made Lin Shuyue feel a bit dazed, her nose stinging slightly.

In Lin Shuyue’s previous life, her mother had passed away early. Her father was a criminal police officer, and he was home for less than a week out of the entire year. The father and daughter spent little time together, but during those times, her father always put her first. Therefore, even though they spent little time together, their relationship was very deep.

In the year she was sixteen and starting high school, her father had sacrificed himself in the line of duty. In the summer of her first year of university, her grandparents passed away one after another. From then on, there was no one waiting for her at home for meals.

She responded, closed the courtyard gate behind her, and walked step by step toward Lin Shuxing and the young man. She felt a renewed sense of the reality of her transmigration.

She felt that transmigration was actually quite good. Even though her profession was vastly different from her previous life, she had a family again, and that was already very, very good.

Lin Shuyue placed the food she had packed on the table, adding two more dishes for everyone. In the original owner’s memory, Lou Fengqin had to find her son, and Lin Shuxing had to support a university student and shoulder the responsibility of supporting the family. Barbecue was almost non-existent in their home.

Before Lin Shuxing could scold her, she quickly said, “Today, the newspaper distributed bonuses, and I got one too. This is the first time I’ve received a bonus since I started working, so I bought some barbecue to celebrate.”

Lin Shuyue’s words made the nagging that was on the tip of Lin Shuxing’s tongue get stuck in her throat. Her eyes became a little moist. She had always been the one giving in the family, and the three women had a very close relationship. But the fact that Lin Shuyue had remembered something she’d said in passing and had taken it to heart touched her deeply.

Her boyfriend, Luo Zhengjun, glanced at his future sister-in-law and then at his silent girlfriend, and immediately said, “Well then, today is a good day. I’ll go to the corner store and buy some beer. Let’s have a drink tonight.”

Without waiting for either of them to speak, he headed outside.

Leaving the Lin house and turning left, there was a shop.

Lin Shuxing didn’t say anything more. Lin Shuyue opened her backpack. In the inner compartment were ten brand-new hundred-yuan bills—the reward from the system. She thought for a moment, then pulled out one and gave it to Lin Shuxing.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to give more, but salaries in this era were what they were. Like Lin Shuxing, who worked in a garment factory and had been doing so for over ten years, was a skilled seamstress. Her monthly salary was calculated based on piecework, and even at her best, she could only earn a thousand yuan a month.

The original owner’s base salary at the newspaper was 400 yuan, and the rest was based on the popularity of her published articles and bonuses. Like the original owner’s mentor, Huang Qiang, a famous paparazzi in Pengcheng, could earn one to two thousand yuan a month. Sometimes, those celebrities would give them hush money, which was even more. Sometimes, if the photos were good, he could make twenty or thirty thousand yuan in a month without any problem.

The Lin family was short on money, and the original owner, this newly graduated young woman, desperately wanted to make a lot of money. So, when she joined the newspaper, she had unhesitatingly chosen the entertainment part. But after half a year, she had captured plenty of gossip, but not much that was exclusive. As a result, she basically received only her base salary every month, and the highest it had ever been was less than seven hundred yuan.

If she suddenly gave a thousand yuan in bonus money, Lin Shuxing would worry that she’d gotten herself into trouble and would be killed for it.

Lin Shuxing’s eyes lit up when she saw the money. She took the money, hugged Lin Shuyue’s head, and kissed her. “My little sister is so amazing! Our family’s savings have increased again. Mom can travel around for a few more days.”

Lin Shuyue felt a little embarrassed, the tips of her ears turning red. Hearing the last part, she sighed inwardly.

The original owner was twenty years old this year, and the original owner’s younger brother, Lin Shuyang, was three years younger than her. He was lost when he was three, that was fourteen years ago. How slim was the hope of finding him? Among the children who were abducted, the probability of being found was less than one-third.

But even so, batch after batch of parents continued to embark on the journey of searching for their children, willing to bankrupt themselves in the process!

It was precisely because she had seen so many such reports and knew the importance of a child to a family that Lin Shuyue had so fearlessly stopped the human trafficker before her transmigration!

“Human traffickers should be sentenced to death,” Lin Shuyue muttered. Lin Shuxing hummed in agreement. Her mood, which had been lifted by the extra savings, plummeted.

She was twelve when Lin Shuyang was abducted. This little brother had practically grown up on her back. His disappearance was no less painful for Lin Shuxing than it was for Lou Fengqin.

Luo Zhengjun returned, carrying three bottles of beer. Lin Shuxing composed herself and went inside to get three glasses.

Everyone sat down to eat. Lin Shuxing loved seafood. She was particularly satisfied with the grilled oysters with garlic and chili. Lin Shuyue and Luo Zhengjun consciously left the oysters for her to eat, eating the fried rice noodles and the dishes Luo Zhengjun had cooked instead.

The dishes weren’t very fancy. Luo Zhengjun specialized in Hunan cuisine. There was a dish called “Nong Jia Yi Wan Xiang” (Farmer’s One-Bowl Fragrance), with lots of chili, lots of eggs, and a little meat; a plate of hand-torn cabbage; and a bowl of tofu and winter melon soup. The taste was excellent. The “Nong Jia Yi Wan Xiang” was fragrant, spicy, and flavorful, especially the eggs, which he had fried until they were crispy and fragrant. The essence of this dish was in the eggs. The hand-torn cabbage was crisp, refreshing, and flavorful, and the winter melon and tofu soup was savory with a hint of sweetness.

Apart from playing games, Lin Shuyue’s greatest hobby was eating. Luo Zhengjun’s Hunan dishes could rank in her top five. She ate while giving Luo Zhengjun a thumbs-up.

Luo Zhengjun was extremely happy, drinking glass after glass of beer. Soon, one bottle was empty.

Lin Shuxing glared at Lin Shuyue, asking, “Don’t you know he’s a fool? Why are you flattering him like that?” Then, turning to Luo Zhengjun, she snatched his glass. “Alright, alright, we know your cooking is delicious. You don’t need to drink anymore; you know your limit.”

Luo Zhengjun didn’t get angry when his glass was taken away. He just looked at Lin Shuxing and grinned foolishly. Lin Shuxing couldn’t help but smile too.

As the two gazed at each other, it was as if pink bubbles were floating around them.

Lin Shuyue silently picked up her glass and took a sip of beer, then burped. Nothing else, just stuffed from the “dog food.”

Luo Zhengjun didn’t sleep over at Lin Shuyue’s house. He stayed to sober up for a while, then went home a little after nine o’clock.

Lin Shuxing closed the main gate and fed the large dog chained by the gate before going back to her room to sleep.

Before going to bed, she went to Lin Shuyue’s room next door. Lin Shuyue had already showered and was fast asleep in her pajamas. Lin Shuxing turned off the light for her and returned to her room. Soon after, the last light in the Lin family home was also extinguished.

She slept soundly through the night. Early the next morning, Lin Shuyue was woken up by the urge to urinate. When she got up, she was startled to find a newspaper on her pillow. Lin Shuyue looked at it sleepily, and her drowsiness vanished instantly.

Serial Rapist/Murderer Apprehended After Eight Years on the Run: Found to Have Ten Lives on His Hands

The bold, black headline was accompanied by a photo, clearly showing Duan Taoyong’s arrest scene. In the photo, his hair was long and messy, his clothes were dirty and tattered, and he looked like the legendary “wild man” of Shennongjia. His eyes were even more bloodthirsty and ruthless than when she had seen him at the police station, and he seemed to have bulked up…

And at the top of the newspaper, it clearly stated: June 10, 2012, Sunday!