Just when it seed like things were calming down completely, Nu Ying’s father entered the precinct. Hardly had any officer reached him when three fathers of different victims lunged at him.
Voices rose, accusations were hurled. A woman was screaming and soone was wailing!
Officers raced into action, separating the n. Nu Ying’s father was had a busted bleeding lip, twp swollen eyes, a torn shirt. One of his shoes was missing and he was holding his ribs. In so little ti, the three who attacked had done great damage.
Liwu made her way to her office, grabbed an bag and visited the bathroom to get a change of clothes. When she returned, she found Weijun waiting at her desk.
"Crazy, right?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I have seen crazier. The hatred the families of the victims have against the killer is usually transferred to the parents of the killer as well."
"Still, to attack an innocent man like that!" Weijun was still in shock.
Liwu sighed. "I have to address the press right now. You should go to city hall and prepare your own statent or press conference." She made it all the way to the door and paused, looked back and added, "Thank you for your help on this one."
Weijun smiled. "You still need to see a doctor and get your head looked at."
"After the press conference." She said.
They both knew she was lying.
In the next five minutes, the parents of the victims ford a wall of sorrow around Liwu and Chief Abby as they faced the press. They all carried pictures of their children, reminding the people of what mattered.
Not Liwu having diner. The dead children and only the children.
As the detective in charge of the case, Liwu was the one that spoke to the press. She spoke clearly, her voice carrying the weight of tragedy. "Nine children are dead. A host with a system prediction system told them that they were to die and drove them into a nightmare. These children decided to alter their fate. The tenth of that group, a desperate young girl who was angry that others were dodging death but not her, decided to kill her friends for that reason. We have investigated the case from every angle. We have arrested all the people involved in the tragedy, including the one that murdered the nine. We will continue to see this case through until justice is served."
The reporters pressed harder. "Detective Liwu, who is to bla here, the host or Nu Ying?"
"Has the bureau failed to regulate system hosts?"
"Is it true that the killer is only thirteen years old?"
"The human officers are blaming the parents for hiding information from them that could have led to an arrest. Is this true?"
Once again, it seed like soone had leaked information.
Liwu’s jaw tightened. "This is not the ti for bla gas. This is the ti for mourning. When the prosecution presses charges and the case goes to trial, bla will be distributed legally. Right now, is the ti for mourning. These families deserve compassion, not speculation."
Behind her, a father shouted at the caras. "You want to know who is to bla? Here’s who: the parents of that murderer Nu Ying. I am not afraid to give you their nas and address. Everyone should know about these sick people."
An officer pulled the man from behind. Caras flashed.
Chen Rong’s mother shouted, "This is my daughter. She was supposed to grow up. She was supposed to graduate. She was supposed to fall in love and have her own family. She always laughed at my silly jokes and cried when she saw a docuntary on girls suffering in rural areas. She said she would save them all when she grew up. Now she’s just.....gone." Her words silenced even the most hardened reporters.
Liwu stepped in, her voice steady. "We will examine the role of the system hosts in this matter. The Bureau wishes to make it clear that all hosts that predict fate illegally will be dealt with severely. There is a list of what can be predicted and what must not be said. It is a legal list, approved of by the governnt. Death and changing fate is strictly off limits."
Chief Abby leaned into a microphone and added, "The Bureau is going to propose a law forbidding children under eighteen from seeking the services of fate predictors. We will take hard asures to safe guard humanity."
Liwu sprung in. "But today, it is our hope that you will rember these children not as victims, but as lives cut short. They laughed, they dread, they mattered."
The press quietened. The air seed to still, Parents wept.
Liwu said softly, "If you, reporters, have any humanity do not release pictures of these children at their mont of death. We are already erasing them from the internet but it is our hope that all of you out there will delete these images from your personal devices too. Lastly, I hope that this will be a lesson to all parents. Pay attention to the emotional and ntal needs of your children. The thirteen year old child who ruined so many lives did not have to go down this path."
Liwu returned to her office, sorrow weighing down on her shoulders. She thought about the lilies and how she never wanted to see another one in her life ever again. She thought about the broken world were fate could kill.
She was still thinking when Weijun carried her through the backdoor, put her in the back of the car and had the driver send them to the hospital.
"I am fine." she mumbled as they waited for the results of the CT scan he had insisted she take. Liwu moved around on the seat, shifting from side to side. Hospitals made her uncomfortable.
Seeing patients in hospital gowns, wheelchairs or gauze wrapped around their heads made her uncomfortable. Hospitals were places that slled like death.
Besides, her brother Zhang Wu Ye had a chemistry system and he worked with a friend that had a cultivation system. Every month, he sent her pills which healed the body. She had already popped one.
In response, Weijun gave her a soda. "Until I see the results, we are staying here." He looked at her in a way that made her more uncomfortable than being at the hospital. It was as if he could see right through her. Then he said softly, "I don’t know how you are able to manipulate your bad luck to work in your favor but I am worried that one of these days, you will push it so far and it will kill you."
She clenched her jaw firmly and replied, "With my bad luck, nobody expects to live long anyway."
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