Chapter 18

“You smashed my car window, and I’m supposed to thank you? Are you crazy?” the woman yelled angrily.

“Why do you only care about the car?” Zhu Lin retorted, displeased.

“What else should I care about?” The woman put her hands on her hips. “Let me tell you, this car is newly bought, worth over a hundred thousand! You must pay for it, or I’ll call the police!”

Zhu Lin ignored her. “No need to trouble you, I’ve already called the police.”

“Looks like she isn’t your biological daughter, but someone kidnapped by you,” Yun Xin nodded. “From now on, no one leaves. We all wait here for the police.”

Only then did the woman realize that Yun Xin was holding her own daughter.

She looked at her husband in disbelief. “Why is our daughter in the car?”

“I don’t know.” The husband looked innocent.

“In over 40-degree weather, with the windows tightly shut, and the car parked in a secluded corner? You didn’t know?” Zhu Lin sneered.

Although the woman found it a bit strange, she still shouted, “It’s not like we did it on purpose!”

“Right,” the husband nodded along. “It was just a moment of carelessness.”

Zhu Lin turned to Yun Xin. “It seems they didn’t do it on purpose. Should we just let it go?”

Yun Xin shook her head. “We should still wait for the police.”

“The police won’t blame us,” the woman insisted stubbornly. “She’s my daughter! If we were just careless, would they really lock us up?”

“You can’t be sure,” Zhu Lin thought for a moment. “There have been many new regulations recently that don’t allow harm to children. Parents can be legally responsible for neglect.”

“How is that possible? You’re talking nonsense!” The woman was so anxious that she started stomping her feet.

Zhu Lin rolled her eyes. “Who’s lying to you? Look it up online if you don’t believe me. They say too many kids have died in accidents in recent years, so they’re going to put more emphasis on protecting minors under 18.”

The couple exchanged a panicked look.

The more Zhu Lin looked at them, the more suspicious she became. She deliberately added, “I heard the police station recently got some lie detectors, with 100% accuracy. You can’t lie when you get there, or you’ll be found out.”

“She’s not my biological daughter, she’s an adopted daughter, okay?!” The woman finally admitted in a mix of anxiety and fear.

The husband looked evasive. “It was really an accident… I did think about adopting a boy, but I never thought of harming her… She’s my daughter! I couldn’t spoil her enough. I buy her all the best food and drinks.”

Zhu Lin was speechless.

What does it mean to confess without being pressured?

This was it.

At that moment, the police arrived. “Who’s the one who called the police?”

“I did,” Zhu Lin raised her hand and recounted the entire incident.

The police, noticing the couple’s suspicious expressions, asked, “You only knew the car window was broken, but not that the child was inside?”

“It’s our first time being parents, we were too careless,” the husband forced a smile, suppressing his urge to flee.

The woman, on the other hand, exclaimed, “We adopted her legally! We have the adoption papers! We’ve always treated her well, today was just an accident.”

“Save your explanations for the police station,” the officer said, taking the couple away and then carefully taking the baby into his arms.

“What will happen to the child?” Zhu Lin asked, reluctant to part.

“She’ll be sent to a welfare institute, where the state will cover her expenses and care for her until she’s 18,” the officer explained. “New regulations have recently been introduced, with funding from the Ministry of Finance to ensure children without guardians receive proper care. You don’t need to worry.”

“That’s good to hear,” Zhu Lin sighed in relief.

The police officer turned to Yun Xin, “You need to come with us as well.”

“Alright,” Yun Xin agreed.

Zhu Lin, feeling uneasy, wanted to follow them.

“The husband is lying; he won’t get away,” Yun Xin reassured her. “Zhou Rui will be overwhelmed alone. You should go back.”

Zhu Lin considered this and realized it made sense. She watched Yun Xin leave with the police.

—

**[Player has successfully saved a human in instance #115644 – “Child Suffocates in Car Incident.” Pass evaluation: C. Attribute rewards: Strength +0.1, Constitution +0.1.]**

Accident? This was clearly a murder.

As the thought occurred, Yun Xin suddenly realized that murder could also be treated as an instance.

The husband, likely committing a crime for the first time, quickly broke down under police questioning.

“When we first adopted, I wanted a boy, but my wife refused. She said daughters are more affectionate and fell in love with that baby girl at first sight.”

“Later, I brought up wanting a son again, but my wife said we already had a daughter, and too many children would be a hassle. She didn’t want a second child.”

“That afternoon, for some reason, the thought kept running through my head—if we didn’t have this daughter, we could adopt a son. So I…”

He trailed off, but everyone understood.

The woman looked at her husband in disbelief. “Why didn’t you just talk to me if you wanted a son? You mentioned it casually once and then said nothing. How was I supposed to know you were serious? To harm such a young child—are you even human?”

The husband insisted, “If you had agreed, none of this would have happened. Ultimately, it’s all your fault.”

The two began arguing right there in the police station.

Meanwhile, Yun Xin emphasized in her statement that she broke the window to save the child, who appeared to be in dire condition.

Given her clean record, she was quickly released without charge.

Before she left, the police gave her a verbal warning,

“Next time, remember to call the police for such matters and don’t handle it yourself.”

“I understand,” Yun Xin nodded obediently. But if she encountered another situation where a child had only a few minutes left and no ability to save themselves… she’d still dare to act next time.

Back at the shop, Zhou Rui looked at her resentfully, “You remembered to come back?”

“I went to the police station to cooperate with the investigation and give a statement,” Yun Xin explained.

“What happened to that couple?” Zhu Lin asked anxiously.

“The woman got a warning and education, but the man will probably serve a few years in prison,” Yun Xin replied.

“Serves him right!” Zhu Lin said angrily. “For what he did, he deserves to spend the rest of his life in jail.”

“It seems like a lot of new regulations have been introduced recently. If you hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have known,” Yun Xin said as she worked and chatted.

Zhu Lin sighed, “This year has been strange, with many new policies and a particular emphasis on safety education.”

“I was watching a series on a video platform, and after every ten minutes of the show, there was a one-minute animated safety education clip. You can’t skip it, not even with a subscription! It feels like I’m sneaking in some drama while being forced to learn safety tips.”

“It reminds me of the dread of safety education before school holidays. No matter how much they emphasized it, the reckless ones would still take risks, while the cautious ones wouldn’t, but everyone had to listen.”

“The most exaggerated part is that this time the safety education covered everything. From fires to floods, earthquakes to stampedes, food poisoning to falling objects, gas explosions to heatstroke… what to do in these situations? How to rescue yourself and others reasonably? How to wait safely for help? They covered it all.”

“It feels like they’re desperately teaching us knowledge that we might never need in this lifetime.”

“And ironically, I actually used it. When I saw that situation, I immediately thought of ‘high temperatures causing suffocation if children are left alone in cars.'”

“Meeting you was that child’s good fortune,” Zhou Rui remarked. He wasn’t really angry; he was just a bit grumpy since they went to throw out the trash and didn’t come back for a while. Hearing they saved a life, he let it go. “Finish up quickly, the night shift is here. Once we complete these tasks, we can call it a day.”

Zhu Lin teased, “I thought you said you were staying in the shop 24/7?”

“I wish,” Zhou Rui chuckled. “Commercial electricity is expensive. If we’re not open, running the air conditioner just for me would make the boss heartbroken.”

The three of them chatted and laughed, and the day passed quickly.

—

The next morning, Zhou Rui arrived at work with dark circles under his eyes.

“What happened to you?” Zhu Lin was stunned.

“I didn’t sleep well last night,” Zhou Rui looked exhausted. “It was so stuffy that I couldn’t sleep, tossing and turning in bed. Finally, I turned on the air conditioner.”

“Just when I was sleeping comfortably, the power in my rental cut off, and the air conditioner shut down, waking me up from the heat.”

“The power didn’t come back on for a long time. I was exhausted, hot, and stuffy, and eventually, I either fell asleep or passed out from the heat…”

“Oh my gosh,” Zhu Lin felt like she was listening to a disaster documentary. It didn’t seem real at all, like something that happened on TV or in a newspaper, far from her own life.

“Renting is more expensive than regular home electricity. And it’s bad enough that it cuts off,” Zhou Rui couldn’t believe this was happening in a modern city. “I’ll go buy a fan from the supermarket later. With a smaller power draw, it might be more reliable.”

“A fan uses less electricity and is less likely to cause a power cut, helping him get through the long nights.”

“You should go buy one now,” Yun Xin suggested. “I saw a lot of people rushing to buy fans this morning, and there was already a long line outside the supermarket. If the stock runs out…”

Zhou Rui felt a sense of urgency. He dashed off to the supermarket, calling back, “I’ll go now, you two watch the shop.”

“Go ahead,” Zhu Lin waved, then turned to Yun Xin and reminded her, “If the boss comes by, just say Zhou Rui went to throw out the trash.”

Yun Xin nodded obediently, “Got it.”