After listening to the boy’s explanation, Nora and Marcus exchanged a glance.
There was a faint sense of foreboding.
One hour...
Anything could happen.
"Who were the people looking for him?" Nora squinted and asked coolly.
"I don’t know—"
Just as he was about to shirk responsibility, he suddenly noticed their chilly gaze, and the boy shivered, trembling as he reluctantly shared so information with them.
"They looked like people from society, maybe four or five of them, I really couldn’t see clearly, just noticed they had tattoos, pretty scary. They showed him a few pictures, and then he left with them. Really, I don’t know anything else."
Under their gaze, the boy’s psychological pressure surged, and he couldn’t hold it in, nearly breaking down on the spot.
Nora gave him a cold look and said indifferently, "Let’s go."
"Ah, oh."
Released from tension, the boy was montarily stunned, then snapped back to reality, let out a sigh of relief, and quickly made his escape.
"One hour..." Marcus paused slightly, turned his head to look at Nora, and said with furrowed brows, "We might need to check the mall’s surveillance."
"Hmm."
Nora agreed.
However, instead of letting Marcus handle it, it would be easier to directly use the mall’s surveillance.
Thinking this, Nora hadn’t yet decided on the thod when Pedro Langley’s call ca through.
"Did you find him?" Pedro asked.
Nora paused, succinctly explaining the situation to Pedro.
After listening, Pedro remained calm, his tone unwavering, "I’m here, wait for five minutes."
Then hung up the phone.
While arranging a eting with Nora, Pedro made another call, so as soon as he t with Nora and Marcus, they were led to the mall’s monitoring room.
This move saved both Nora and Marcus a lot of trouble.
The large mall had comprehensive surveillance facilities, and with the cooperation of mall staff, they quickly found Oliver Scott and his group through the arcade entrance’s surveillance.
Surrounding Oliver were five people, fairly young, but all wearing baseball caps and masks, covering their faces thoroughly, intentionally avoiding caras, not showing their full faces.
Seeing this, all three frowned deeply.
Damn, it was preditated and experienced.
Tracking through surveillance, Oliver followed them to the first floor, then exited through door number three.
The furthest surveillance cara showed them crossing the street without getting into a car nearby. However, their subsequent whereabouts were difficult to trace, and checking further would require police assistance.
"Map."
After watching this section of surveillance, Nora exhaled and turned her head, calmly speaking to Marcus.
Marcus, confused, instinctively pulled out his phone’s map app and handed it to her.
Her fingers swiped on the screen, zooming in or out, and about three minutes later, she raised her brows slightly, enlarging a certain location.
She said, "Let’s check out this alley."
Marcus and Pedro took another look at the map and suddenly realized—Nora was looking for places with less surveillance, remote locations with few pedestrians nearby.
Both looked at Nora incredulously.
—What kind of experience is this?
With no leads, and given that Oliver voluntarily went with them, it was hard to call the police, so they followed Nora’s suggested location for an initial investigation.
After asking the security in the monitoring room to keep a backup of the surveillance, Nora left the mall with Pedro and Marcus.
This ti, they took a special passage to avoid the mall’s bustling crowds.
*
The direction indicated by Nora wasn’t far, about a ten-minute walk away.
Lush and desolate, sotis, there may be only a street separating them.
Crossing a street, the bustling downtown vanished, the flow of people drastically reduced, and the streets beca instantly empty and remote, with few pedestrians.
The trio didn’t have ti to search.
At the entrance of an alley, Oliver appeared on his own.
He was wearing a white T-shirt and black pants, with mud and bloodstains on the tee, wrinkled, his left hand across the front, clutching his drooping right elbow, dragging his body, limping out of the darkness.
The entrance’s streetlight wasn’t on, distant lights were far away, the dim light cast his figure in a misty glow, tall and lean.
In a mont, seeing the three figures in his vision, he unconsciously stopped, raised his eyelids, and stared at them blankly.
"Sis, bro, brother-in-law." The gentle evening breeze tousled his hair, and he called out to each of them, his bruised face showing obvious confusion, "Why are you here?"
Shooting Pedro a glance, Nora’s gaze went past Oliver, landing on the dense darkness behind him.
She asked word by word, "Where are the others?"
"No one."
Oliver lowered his eyes, subconsciously reaching up to touch the back of his neck.
Taking a deep look at Oliver, Pedro turned and walked to the roadside to hail a passing taxi.
Nora Scott narrowed her eyes slightly, her tone cool, "No one did it to you? You fell by yourself?"
Over an hour had passed, and Nora was not surprised those people had left, but—
Oliver Scott’s current reaction was worth pondering.
Taking a beating for nothing and still covering for soone?
Oliver couldn’t help but lower his head, glancing at his own miserable state.
He lowered his eyes and remained silent.
At this mont, Marcus Shaw took a few steps toward him, and after scrutinizing him for a mont, he suddenly reached for Oliver’s hand.
"Ah—"
Almost as soon as Marcus touched him, Oliver couldn’t help but cry out in pain, quickly avoiding Marcus’s touch. Then, he swept his gaze at Marcus, eyes visibly glistening with tears.
Marcus noticed and turned his head, saying to Nora, "At the very least, a fracture."
"Impressive tolerance." Nora comnted lightly, ambiguously, her gaze lingering on Oliver for two seconds, then aningfully said, "Fell perfectly."
With that, she turned around.
Pedro Langley had just hailed a cab, and she strode over and got into the front passenger seat.
As she closed the door, the "bang" startled the driver.
Seeing this, Oliver looked sowhat worried and asked Marcus, "Is sis angry?"
Marcus glanced at him indifferently, "Remove the questioning tone."
Yes, she was angry.
But as to who she was angry at, that remained to be seen.
"... "
Oliver looked down at his toes.
He lifted a leg, stepped forward, and when he saw Oliver still standing there dumbly, Marcus stopped walking, "Aren’t you getting in?"
"Oh."
Oliver responded and then took a sharp breath; the intense pain left him pale, with cold sweat on his forehead.
He wanted to take a mont, but just as he breathed in, Marcus moved to his side, grabbed his left arm, wrapped it around his own neck, and then supported him by the shoulder, guiding him into the cab.
Nora sat in the front passenger seat, remaining silent.
Marcus, Oliver, and Pedro sat in the back, and after Pedro told the driver the hospital’s location, no one spoke again.
As for who had asked him out, what had happened, and who those people were, Oliver didn’t say a word voluntarily.
They remained silent all the way to the hospital.
Nora left all the matters of registration and seeing the doctor to Pedro, and only when she had so free ti, did she rember Ernesto Scott and called him.
"Hospital?!"
Ernesto, who initially thought Oliver was just throwing a tantrum, didn’t expect such an answer and was understandably shocked.
He asked, "What happened? Is he badly injured?"
"Right hand fracture, not too serious."
Nora replied nonchalantly.
The worst injury was the right hand. In Nora’s view, it was the only injury worth ntioning; the rest could be ignored.
"..."
Ernesto was stunned by Nora’s ’not too serious’ comnt.
Isn’t it serious?
The right hand... For a student, the right hand is almost like their lifeline.
Ernesto dared not say much more; he paused and just asked, "How did he get injured?"
"I don’t know." Nora replied calmly, "First, co to the hospital, then ask him if he wants to call the police."
"Alright."
Ernesto promptly agreed.
After hanging up, Nora stood at the entrance of the building, pinching her phone with a slight frown, her gaze falling toward the hospital’s entrance.
—Why isn’t Oliver saying anything?
—What reason could make Oliver willing to cover for soone after getting beaten up?
—Another point of concern, the other party was obviously aggressive; Oliver wouldn’t have gone with them recklessly. The reason should be related to the "photo" the boys ntioned. So, is the so-called "photo" the key reason for Oliver’s complete silence?
—But, what is this "photo"?
These kids, not even grown up yet, really have a lot going on.
A mont later, Nora picked up the phone again, swiped to the contacts, found the entry for "Boss Alex," and dialed the number.
If Oliver wouldn’t say, then so be it.
But she wasn’t happy... Things that needed handling still had to be handled.
Business is business.
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