SILENT READING: Chapter 48 – Humbert Humbert Fifteen

Chapter 48 Humbert Humbert Fifteen

TL: Cici, Editor: IsaLee

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Chen Chen was woken up by the cold floor digging into her body. She didn’t understand what was going on at first. She just remembered that she followed a girl from photography class home — her home was really close, right at the corner around the park. Although it looked utterly destitute, it was clean.

The phone was not in good condition and had poor connection. The girl vowed that re-plugging the line should solve the problem, and gave her a cold drink with ice.

Holding a straw in her mouth and sucking the mango juice, Chen Chen felt that she might be too troublesome. She was hesitating, about to say, “Let me go back to school.” Before she opened her mouth, however, she felt herself removed from her body. Her limbs lost control in an instant, swayed a few times, and she lost her consciousness.

Chen Chen’s braids were unravelled, her body was covered by dust, and her limbs were tied together. Apparently she had been violently dragged on the ground, most of the exposed skin was broken, giving her burning pain. The tape stuck on her lips smelled like rubber. She struggled to huddle herself and desperately tried to hide somewhere. Su Luozhan was looking at her a few steps away from the top!

Su Luozhan tilted her head and a lock of long hair fell from the corner. She rolled her hair beside her cheeks with her slender finger. Her cold eyes were like some kind of sinister cold-blooded animal.

Then she puckered her mouth into a smile towards Chen Chen: “You are really annoying.”

Chen Chen shivered violently.

“What I hate the most are people like you who don’t know anything. You bitches are all good at calculating. Already long in the tooth, but still always have someone to pick you up, always get whatever you want, easily treat yourself as a child, all only because you know how to act like a baby. It seems that the whole world has to accommodate themselves for you,” Su Luozhan said as she bent down and pulled out a curved chopper from the shoe cabinet at the door. The big metal guy was too heavy for her slender hands, so the blade rustled when it rubbed against the wooden cabinet.

Chen Chen struggled violently. Her mouth was sealed, and so she whispered a small and faint “hah” sound like a small animal. Her face reddened and she struggled to get out of the rope.

“I can do it without him!”

Su Luozhan suddenly lifted the chopper and dashed to Chen Chen.

Under extreme fear, human potential was probably unlimited. At the time, only god knew where Chen Chen’s strength came from — she actually succeeded in finding the ground with the soles of her feet, with her hands tied up behind her back. Before she could stand up, the chopper was approaching her. Chen Chen threw herself forward with closed eyes, and managed to escape the chopper by rolling and struggling. Her head hit the corner of the coffee table which was broken and started bleeding at once.

Chen Chen stunned herself and felt top-heavy. She just wanted to cry and shout for help, but she also knew that crying would not work. So, she had to struggle to use her shoulders to reach the coffee table and tried to stand up again.

Su Luozhan waved the chopper too aggressively and so it got stuck in a wooden cabinet in the corner. The chopper was heavy after all, she pulled hard but was not able to pull out the stuck blade. Utterly discomfitted, she dashed forward and grabbed Chen Chen’s hair from behind. Chen Chen felt herself being scalped, and was forced to bend down. The tears that had flowed down had already soaked the edge of the tape. She was just like a lamb that was about to be slaughtered.

It only stimulated the desire for abuse of the other person.

Su Luozhan slapped her, and Chen Chen, whom nobody had ever put a finger on, was shocked.

“Bitch,” said Su Luozhan, “You are a bitch!”

Influenced film and television drama, the word “bitch” had been popularized in middle schools and the higher grades of primary schools. Some children grew faster than their peers had begun to learn to use these adult words – even though they were all children who bit the ice cream at home.

Su Luozhan slammed Chen Chen onto the coffee table. The small of Chen Chen’s back hit it. In the old yellow photo under the crystal table, the already dead person smiled at the two live girls. It was a smile that looked intriguing. The tape that was soaked in tears on Chen Chen’s face was broken in this push and shudder. She cried at once: “Help!”

The first one was muffled and weak. Then, Chen Chen quickly adapted to the feeling of speaking, and the voice rang loudly: “Help! Help!”

Su Luozhan was startled by the screaming. Just now, she had a feeling that something was missing, which made the scene not satisfying enough. Only then did she realize that she did not hear screams. Chen Chen’s wailing for “help” inspired her. Like a child who just received a gift, she stared at Chen Chen with a surprised but pleasant face, lifted her foot and stamped Chen Chen’s fingers on the ground.

Chen Chen experienced so much pain that she was not able to howl. She opened her mouth and gasped silently.

Su Luozhan shouted: “Cry! Why don’t you continue to cry?”

Chen Chen was wailing so hard that she could not breathe. She used the only strength left in her to squeeze out a few words: “Su… oh sister… I like… you very much… admire you, you… you…”

Su Luozhan was indifferent in the beginning, only the word “admire” startled her. The hand grabbing the girl’s hair stopped in the air, and the black bean-like big eyes were staring at Chen Chen.

At this moment, the door was suddenly pounded a few times, and a man shouted in a gruff voice: “You are so noisy. Let us sleep!”

Both Su Luozhan and Chen Chen shuddered in the room.

The man roared: “Open the door, or I will call the police! Are you watching a horror film at home at midnight? Yelling and screaming. Do you think you are the only people living here?”

Su Luozhan muffled Chen Chen’s mouth by taking out a few napkins from a box beside them, which had not been cleaned for a long time, and curled them into a ball before stuffing it into Chen Chen’s mouth.

“I’m sorry, uncle,” Su Luozhan took a deep breath, cold-faced, and opened her mouth in a whisper. “The adults are not at home, so I can’t open the door for strangers. I will turn down the sound.”

The man at the door paused and said very harshly: “What? A kid? Come here, I will educate you for your parents!”

Su Luozhan frowned, and before she made a sound, the mental man at the door kept lecturing her: “A man needs to have morals, do you know what is moral? The minimum requirement is not to cause trouble for others. Look at you! Which school are you from? I will call your teacher later. How are they teaching the kids!”

Seeing his endlessness, Su Luozhan’s pretty little face was cold: “Uncle, I’m sorry. Will you please let me apologize?”

“What did you say? I can’t hear you! Your voice was very loud when you were noisy, wasn’t it?”

Su Luozhan only wanted to drive this unexpected stranger away. She stuffed the paper ball deep in Chen Chen’s mouth, stood up, and walked towards the door.

One step, two steps… Suddenly, when Su Luozhan was taking the seventh step, she stopped.

Although this old condo had been regularly cleaned and paid by that person, all the surrounding residents knew that no one lived here. It had been vacant for a long time. The person at the door heard that there was a child without parents at midnight. Why was he not even surprised?

Su Luozhan suddenly turned around and ran away. At the same time, the old wooden door was violently destroyed from the outside.

A few policemen dashed in immediately. Su Luozhan grabbed the chopper that was stuck on the cupboard just now. Under the great pressure of the moment, the chopper that she was not able to pull out just slipped out of the gap in the wooden cabinet. And the policemen were about to reach her in a moment—

Su Luozhan lifted the chopper and pointed it to the back of Chen Chen’s neck. The tip of the chopper cut the girl’s white neck immediately. She screamed: “Don’t come over!”

The door that was broken in was still trembling against the wall, but people in the room had solidified.

Su Luozhan squatted down, hid behind Chen Chen, held the teetering cumbersome chopper, circled Chen Chen’s neck rapidly, and finally stopped on the other side of the neck.

Her hands trembled, and the eyes looking up were like those of a little beast that was struggling, fierce and angry.

Tao Ran immediately stopped people from drawing near, and stood a few steps away gingerly: “Are you Su… Su Luozhan?”

Su Luozhan did not say a word.

Tao Ran quickly came up with various ideas in mind, and for a moment he did not know how to negotiate with such a young suspect. At that very moment, Fei Du appeared at the door.

He leaned to one side slightly to block his injured arm from sight, and scanned the room casually: “Where’s the man we need to catch?”

Su Luozhan startled, and turned to him unconsciously.

“Oh, a kid.” As if he just saw her, Fei Du asked her with no proper respect, “Where is the kidnapper?”

Su Luozhan’s eyes darted to the chopper in her hand, to the person under the blade, and again looked up to Fei Du as if she did not know what to answer.

“You can drop the chopper now, it’s okay, don’t be so nervous,” Fei Du looked around at the old house. The last owner was already gone, but the traces of their rotten life remained there. There were smoke marks on the wall, and a bunch of empty bottles in the corner. “That villain! Forced a kid to be bait, and hid himself. This is the first time I’ve ever seen such a cunning murderer. Little girl, you can rest assured, there are circles of police outside, he will not be able to run away. The policeman uncle and the law on the protection of minors will protect you… It’s so amazing you can hold such a huge chopper, isn’t it heavy?”

It was okay before he talked, but once he mentioned this, Su Luozhan immediately felt that her wrists were overwhelmed, and was almost unconscious of the weight of the chopper. At the same time, she thought she understood Fei Du’s words. The police thought that this whole thing was done by that person, and she was just a poor bait!

Su Luozhan was somewhat pleased with herself for fooling others. She forced her eyes sockets to turn red, which made her look even a bit more pitiful than Chen Chen, and looked at Fei Du with eager eyes.

Tao Ran immediately followed Fei Du’s words and stepped forward. Seeing Su Luozhan quiver and tighten the hand gripping the chopper warily, he squatted down, showing her his hands, keeping the line of sight with the girl parallel to the earth, and avoided looking at Chen Chen. He focused on Su Luozhan as much as he could: “Is it true? Is anyone forcing you?”

After only a few seconds of hesitation, Su Luozhan nodded decisively.

Tao Ran softened his voice even more, and inch by inch he stretched his open hand towards her: “Then could you give uncle the chopper, then lead us to catch the bad guys?”

Su Luozhan stared at his hand, seemingly at wit’s end. When Tao Ran’s hand was too close, she lifted the chopper in her hand nervously, and the trembling blade immediately left a few cuts on Chen Chen’s neck — she really could not hold the chopper anymore.

Tao Ran’s hand froze in the air as she wished: “Is the bad guy called ‘Xu Wenchao’? He used you to kidnap Qu Tong, and has he done anything bad to you?”

Fei Du said: “When your mother was alive, she often dressed you up and did your makeup like a doll in order to please him, is that true?”

Su Luozhan took a deep breath — it seemed to take all her energy to control her emotion.

“She’s getting old, and can’t keep the image of her young age, so she made use of the kid. She didn’t allow you to wear other clothes, neither did she allow you to cut your hair, did she?” Fei Du looked into her eyes, “Has she abused you? Has she ever beaten you before?”

Nobody knew whether Su Luozhan’s tears were real. Following his words, those tears suddenly fell down and obscured her sight. And all of a sudden, she felt that her wrists being held tightly. It turned out that Tao Ran had taken advantage of the moment and held her hand which was gripping the chopper. Su Luozhan struggled subconsciously. Tao Ran said: “Don’t be afraid, it’s okay, it’s okay now. Uncle knows that you are a good girl. All those things you did were forced by the bad guys. Don’t worry…”

His tone was soft, and the strength of holding her hand was great. Su Luozhan could not resist it. Stagnating for a moment, she finally relaxed her strength, letting Tao Ran take away her chopper.

A criminal policeman immediately stepped forward and picked up Chen Chen, keeping her out of Su Luozhan’s control.

Luo Wenzhou, who just arrived, heard a colleague’s voice in his headset: “Captain Luo, one of the suspects has been arrested and has identified Xu Wenchao as her partner. Can we apply for an arrest warrant?”

“Yes, notify the bros who are tailing him immediately, don’t let that guy run away,” Luo Wenzhou stepped sideways, helping carry Chen Chen onto an ambulance stretcher. Then he turned to Su Luozhan who was under police surveillance. “Where is Qu Tong? Is she still alive?”

Su Luozhan did not answer, just shook her head at him. This question seemed to remind her of something — her small and delicate mouth gently lifted up uncontrollably, and then she realized it and lowered her head very docilely.

Although Luo Wenzhou was already prepared when he saw the music box, he still felt a little suffocated.

His gaze passed over the girl’s tiny locks and her long, thick eyelashes, and he suddenly felt a bit of an indescribable, ridiculous sadness.

He signaled his colleagues to take Su Luozhan into the police car and turned his head towards the direction of the ambulance.

A few doctors were dealing with the wounds on Chen Chen’s forehead, asking her questions in a whisper at the same time. Chen Chen’s family had already arrived at lightning speed. The torture of losing and finding her again made Chen Chen’s mother’s legs soft and she almost fell on the ground. Her husband quickly picked her up, and the brief strife between them disappeared in a moment. They walked towards their daughter with each other’s help.

The time of Chen Chen’s being missing was close to eight hours. Although she was frightened, except for some minor injury, Zhang Yuchen was finally found in one piece. It was nearly a miracle.

After working busily for a whole night, they at least saved one.

Luo Wenzhou exhaled thoroughly, and habitually raised a hand. After waiting a long time, nonetheless, the partner who usually hit his palm did not do so.

Luo Wenzhou turned around and found that Tao Ran was standing next to Chang Ning. Chang Ning could not stop her tears. Tao Ran whispered something, took out a handkerchief from his pocket and handed it over. Apparently he had completely forgotten what a partner was.

Luo Wenzhou was speechless: “…”

How come there was still such a man in this world who would drop friends to be with girls!

At this time, the palm that had not been taken back was patted gently. Luo Wenzhou turned his head questioningly and saw the disabled President Fei Du who had a hand in a sling stroll to his side, and god knew for what motivation did he take such a condescending superfluous action.

After that, he slowly put his hand back into his pocket and grinned at Luo Wenzhou: “Heh, that’s really childish, Captain Luo.”

Luo Wenzhou was speechless, and could only watch when this non-staff member got into his car, crossed his legs and waited for the driver to drive.

With countless experiences with countless men, he was sure he absolutely heard flirting in Fei Du’s words.

Luo Wenzhou found it difficult to believe this idea: “Is he being insatiable?”

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