Chapter 61: He Had Amnesia
“No…”
It wasn’t that; Ruan Zhimian simply didn’t remember who the other person was at all. He tried to explain, “Last time, I didn’t do anything.”
Shi He was clearly right there, yet he still asked him in return, “What did you want to do?”
Like an obedient little baby, he answered very, very meekly, “I didn’t want to do anything. A-Yu was in a bad mood, so I was just keeping him company.”
The elevator doors opened and closed. No one dared to step inside. Ruan Zhimian slightly tilted his beautiful eyes up as they gradually filled with mist, condensing into teardrops. The S-grade Alpha completely gathered the person into his embrace, showering him with dense, lingering kisses.
“From now on, you can only look at me.”
Drinking made him even more prone to jealousy, getting jealous over absolutely everything. What a bad Alpha.
When Ruan Zhimian got into the car with Shi He, his eyes were completely red. He hugged his own clothes and buckled his seatbelt. Sitting in the corner, his tear-glistening eyes lowered in grievance, and he reached out to bite the back of Shi He’s hand.
Pitiful little bunny.
Ruan Xubai glanced at the rearview mirror and turned the steering wheel, driving them home first.
Shi He was rather easy to coax when he was drunk. After drinking the hangover soup, he quickly fell asleep.
At eleven o’clock that night, Ruan Xubai’s car parked in the garage. Leaning against the car door, he picked up his phone, only to see Ruan Zhimian coming downstairs wrapped in a coat over his loungewear.
Ruan Xubai pulled out a document file. He opened it and handed its contents to Ruan Zhimian one by one. “These are the medical admission records from ten years ago, along with the newspapers from that time, and Shi He’s recent medical records.”
It was clearly written on the pages: The patient suffered a severe concussion from a car accident, resulting in partial amnesia, mental instability, and deafness in both ears…
“I couldn’t find anything after that.”
“The Shi family encountered quite a few incidents back then.”
Ruan Zhimian quickly put the papers back and pulled open the car door. “Let’s take a trip to the Shi residence.”
Ruan Xubai didn’t ask any questions. He opened the map navigation on his phone and drove Ruan Zhimian to the Shi family estate.
Along the way, Ruan Zhimian repeatedly read through the contents of the file, refusing to miss a single detail.
Once he finished reading, he pulled out his everyday notepad and pen. Flipping past several thick pages, he began to write. The very first two words on the page were “Shi He.” He wrote with intense concentration.
Over the past few days, whenever he had a spare moment, he had been writing letters, hardly taking any time to rest.
Qiuqiu called out to Ruan Zhimian several times before he finally heard it.
[Qiuqiu: Mianmian, there are only four days left. Don’t give up.]
[I’m not going to give up. Why did Su Ning appear early? Is he a task-doer too?]
Qiuqiu vanished in a flash and reappeared just as quickly, affectionately rubbing against Ruan Zhimian’s palm.
[Qiuqiu: No, no. In this world, Mianmian is the only one.]
It was too strange. Su Ning’s actions and expressions made it seem entirely as if he possessed foreknowledge.
[Let me think about it.]
It was the dead of night, and there were very few cars on the road, significantly reducing their usual travel time.
In the early hours of the morning, Ruan Zhimian and Ruan Xubai stepped out of the car. The Shi residence was built in the architectural style of traditional Suzhou gardens. It was beautifully constructed, though at night it gave off a rather eerie, somber vibe. Ruan Zhimian knocked on the door, and someone quickly came to answer it. “May I ask who you are looking for?”
“Old Master Shi.”
“Our Old Master is already resting. Tomorrow…”
Ruan Xubai stood to the side while Ruan Zhimian pressed his hand against the closing door. “Please inform him that Ruan Zhimian is here to speak with him regarding matters concerning Shi He.”
Ten minutes later, Ruan Zhimian and Ruan Xubai were escorted into the Shi residence.
Old Master Shi sat in the grand hall, a woolen blanket draped over his shoulders. “What is a junior like you doing looking for an old man like me in the middle of the night?”
“What exactly happened to Shi He back then?”
“Go ask him yourself.”
Ruan Zhimian didn’t even bother to sit down, walking directly up to Old Master Shi. “When he and his mother were in that car accident, what was the part of the memory that he lost?”
“This is our Shi family’s private matter. What is there to discuss with an outsider like you?”
Old Master Shi leaned on his cane and stood up, clearly not intending to continue the conversation with Ruan Zhimian. He raised his hand. “Butler, see our guests out.”
“You’ve known all along that he hasn’t been living well.”
“He suffers from insomnia, has nightmares, and endures other painful physiological reactions.”
Ruan Zhimian blocked his path. Though he was usually gentle and accommodating, he was utterly uncompromising when he went on the offensive. “How did your Shi family treat him during the ten years before the accident? After the accident, it only got worse.”
“Shi Zhengsheng, don’t you have a guilty conscience?”
Old Master Shi slammed his cane heavily against the floor. “What did you just call me?”
For so many years, no one had dared to speak to him in such a manner.
Yet today, a mere junior was acting this audaciously.
Ruan Zhimian reached out and grabbed the Old Master’s cane. “Why can’t I call you that?”
“Do you really think of yourself as some kind, benevolent elder?”
Ruan Xubai extended his arm to block the advancing butler, his demeanor incredibly cold. “Let my brother finish speaking.”
Ruan Zhimian’s icy gaze locked directly onto the elderly man before him. “I won’t leave until you tell me.”
His time was running short, and all he wanted was for Shi He to live a slightly better life.
If they couldn’t understand Shi He’s past, Shi He’s illness would never be cured.
“I know you don’t care about him, but I do. His friends care.”
Shi He had two very good friends, and after he was gone…
“You…”
The person Shi He loved was cut from the exact same cloth as Shi He himself.
Old Master Shi sat back down heavily on the rosewood chair and ordered the butler to dismiss the servants. “When my son went missing back then, my daughter-in-law, who was away on a business trip, rushed back. We searched for a very long time, and finally, we found the clothes his father was wearing on the day he left hidden in Shi He’s bedroom.”
“I had someone investigate privately. The last person my son saw before he left was Shi He. I questioned Shi He, but he said nothing. He only claimed that his father had come to check his exam grades.”
“My son was a perfectly healthy, living person. How could he just vanish into thin air?”
“The police searched for a long time as well, but they found absolutely no trace.”
Half a year later, on a night with a torrential downpour.
On the very day of his grandson’s birthday, the grandson and daughter-in-law were in a car crash. The daughter-in-law died on the spot, not even making it to the ambulance.
“The next day, the butler brought me a security tape. Right before they set off that night, Shi He walked into the garage. He stopped in the vehicle’s blind spot, and no one knows what he did.”
An hour later, the accident occurred.
One dead, one injured.
Old Master Shi leaned on his cane, glaring furiously. “With a person like that, how do you expect me to treat him well? When he woke up, that specific segment of memory was the only thing he lost. Other than him, no one knows what truly happened.”
“He was only ten years old, yet he was already a highly intelligent S-grade Alpha.”
“There is simply no evidence to prove that he committed murder.”
Ruan Zhimian stood before Old Master Shi. He tilted his head, a stroke of pitch-black darkness surfacing within his beautiful, pure eyes. “Are you trying to tell me that he’s a highly intelligent murderer?”
“Old Master, if he truly killed someone out of hatred for his parents, why are you still alive right now?”
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