554: Crazy Dream (1) 554: Crazy Dream (1) Editor: TheSloth Before noon, Kuck came back to the tofu shop once again.
When he walked in, he saw that San Er and Xiao Zhi were both sitting at the dining table.
The dishes on the table seemed a bit richer than usual.
But Xiao Zhi kept gripping her spoon, staring at the spread of food, clearly having craved it for a while.
Xiao Zhi immediately darted over to Kuck, who didn’t dodge, letting her pull his hand and lead him to the table, “Let’s eat!”
San Er spoke up at that moment: “Xiao Zhi, you go watch TV for a bit, I have something to discuss with Uncle Mark.”
“I want to listen too!” Xiao Zhi protested, raising her hand.
“Xiao Zhi!” San Er glared at her.
Xiao Zhi pouted and, frustrated, carried her rice bowl to the TV, turning up the volume loudly, not looking back once.
San Er sighed at the man before her, then whispered, “Did you…find out anything?”
Kuck shook his head, replying coolly, “I asked around at the hardware store, I’ve got a good idea who bought the crowbar.”
“Who was it?” San Er tensed immediately.
Kuck said, “Don’t know them, but I’ll swing by quietly this afternoon and have a look.”
For him, a whole morning couldn’t have yielded just this.
In fact, he’d also visited the hospital; last night he’d seriously injured a guy, and it wasn’t the kind of wound you just patch up and forget.
But the town clinic hadn’t taken in any patients with severe injuries… So that meant the badly wounded guy was likely sent somewhere else overnight—maybe to a neighboring town.
Also, since the clinic was small, Kuck easily noticed that someone who should’ve still been hospitalized inexplicably checked out, looking fully healed.
“Did anyone e by while I was gone?” Kuck asked next.
San Er shook her head and added, “How about you…sit down and have something to eat?
It’s nearly one.”
Kuck nodded, scooping some food onto his bowl from the table, “I’ll eat in my room.”
San Er turned away, “You…could just stay here too, right?”
Kuck replied coolly, “No need.”
San Er didn’t protest further, just sat down, feeling upset, silently shoveling plain, white rice into her mouth without any side dishes.
Before heading upstairs, Kuck suddenly said, “Xiao Zhi, catch, something I bought for you on the way.”
A small trinket flew toward Xiao Zhi, landing softly in front of her.
Xiao Zhi, previously upset, broke out into a broad smile, “Mom, Uncle Mark gave me a doll!”
San Er glanced over, suddenly cheered up, and laughed, “Silly girl, that’s a keychain, not a doll.”
…
About an hour later, Kuck finally came downstairs.
He mentioned he was heading out, then left.
“Mom, why is Uncle Mark out and about all day today?”
“He’s busy with something.” San Er crouched beside her daughter, speaking gently, “Don’t ask anymore, okay?
Your Uncle Mark is protecting us.”
Xiao Zhi thought for a bit, “Really?”
“Really.”
“Really really?”
“Really really.”
“Like daddy protects Xiao Zhi and mommy?”
San Er only stroked Xiao Zhi’s head.
Suddenly, she rolled up her sleeves, “No daycare today, mommy isn’t working either.
Let’s make something good together and wait for Uncle Mark to e home, okay?”
“Okay!
Last time mommy was sick, Xiao Zhi learned how to make porridge!”
San Er smiled, saying how good Xiao Zhi was… When had she stopped looking forward to someone ing home, stopped wanting to cook a lavish dinner for someone?
Then the sound of knocking came—not on the front, but the rear gate in the yard.
San Er knew Mark always preferred the back… back door.
She suddenly shook her head hard, her cheeks flushing.
“Back so soon?
Forget something?”
“Is Uncle Mark back?
Xiao Zhi will open the door!”
“Hey, Xiao Zhi, don’t rush!
Xiao Zhi… honestly.”
…
…
Finding a foothold beaten into the old wall, Kuck tapped it with his toes, easily hoisting himself into the back yard.
The landing made almost no sound at all.
Going by what the hardware store owner said, Kuck easily located the home of the man who bought the crowbar.
The culprit lived alone, so Kuck had just vaulted right over the wall.
But he found no one there, only some faint clues suggesting that someone had been there as recently as a day ago.
“Not here… So he’s gone off somewhere to heal, huh.”
Still, Kuck couldn’t be sure if this was the guy he’d hurt the worst last night, so he wanted to check the homes of the other three men before making up his mind.
So he came and went swiftly, leaving not a trace behind.
Kuck was increasingly unsettled by himself—the way he handled the pole, his ease at scaling walls, his knack for tracking… All these seemed like second nature to him.
“Who am I, really…”
Again, he felt something on the verge of bursting from his mind, but for some reason, it was always just out of reach.
That massive mess of thoughts seemed blocked away.
He suddenly touched the thing in his pocket—the hairpin he’d bought from the old lady’s stall.
To give it, or not—the question was where emotion and reason collided, and still, he hadn’t decided.
Time slipped by in this chase and contemplation, and before long, it was dusk.
Kuck gathered from the nearby neighbors who the suspect usually hung out with, so he went through those men’s homes one by one.
Found almost nothing… Just learned that two hadn’t been home all day, and two had gone out early this morning.
The only halfway useful lead… was that the four men were tight with Zhang Kun, treating him as their ringleader.
He finally circled around Zhang Kun’s home as well, but found no one there.
“At least I can narrow it down now.”
Even Kuck himself noticed… a flash of murderous intent glinting in his eyes.
Right then, a thought surfaced in his mind: The best way to deal with trouble is to erase it… permanently.
Taking advantage of the emptier streets at dusk, Kuck circled the alleys near San Er’s home, then arrived at the tofu shop’s back gate.
He confirmed there was no one suspicious nearby… He just had to see if anyone else might show up tonight.
While lost in thought, Kuck’s brows suddenly furrowed as he stopped in front of the back door.
He reached out, gently testing the door… It slid open slightly—unlocked!
Kuck’s head snapped up, and his body shot into the backyard like a predatory feline.
Some flowerpots had toppled, no telling when, with signs of a struggle—and… a lone discarded shoe.
Xiao Zhi’s shoe!
Kuck quietly picked it up, squeezing it tightly in his fist, his gaze blazing with icy fury.
On the courtyard wall, a message had been scrawled in red paint.
…
…
Here, outside the town at an old mill, beside a dilapidated waterwheel.
Zhang Kun and his two thugs stood looming over two females—one grown, one small—bound up tight… Zhang Kun’s eyes were full of darkness, lost in his own thoughts.
“Boss, you wanna have some fun first?” one thug whispered in Zhang Kun’s ear, “We’ll keep watch outside for you.
When that foreign bastard shows up and sees us screwing his woman, he’ll blow his damn top!
Heh!”
Zhang Kun’s eyes grew even more twisted and hungry, suddenly barking, “You two, get out.”
“On it!”
The door opened and closed.
Blindfolded, hands tied behind her, dropped to the ground, San Er trembled violently in terror… Her daughter sobbed uncontrollably beside her, crying for her mother.
“You…what are you trying to do?!
Let me go!!
Let me go!!
Bastards… Let go… You fucking animals!!”
Zhang Kun, like a rabid dog, lunged at San Er, crazed, “Why don’t you like me?!
Why?!
I’ve always told you to be my woman!
I never forced you!
But you ignore me!!
You hooked up with that foreign bastard?!
You fucking bitch!!
Bitch!!
Bitch!!”
He gripped this woman’s throat—one he had always wanted—”I’ll fuck you to death!”
Riiip…!
“Mom!
Mom!
Mom!
Wah!!”
Xiao Zhi wailed in hysterics.
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