chapter 134
Luo Jia Bai was very pleased with himself. “I’ve got one more hour than you. I can experience forty‑nine hours. We are not the same.”
Mirella clapped in approval. “Very impressive.”
Perched on her shoulder, Fenny imitated her and smacked its two wings together. “Meow meow.”
In Luo Jia Bai’s eyes, it was just a Black Cat doing some snide, mocking little move. He pointed his index finger through the air at Fenny’s head. “What are you copying her for?”
A gust of wind swept by, and a layer of frost suddenly formed on his fingertip. Luo Jia Bai hurriedly shook his hand. “So cold!”
Mirella heard Fenny’s soft laugh right by her ear and couldn’t help smiling as well. She reached up to stroke Fenny’s head. “Don’t bully him.”
The frost on Luo Jia Bai’s hand vanished instantly.
Pingping and Anan came striding energetically out from inside the building. Their owner was still holding the medical report, repeatedly checking all the numbers to make sure every item was within the safe range.
Luo Jia Bai and Mirella followed behind them, walking to the entrance of this pet hospital. They watched as the two pets’ footsteps stayed light and relaxed, heading off to the left.
A noise came from the right. They turned to look and saw a man in a black cap, handing out flyers, arguing with two young women.
“You say we just need to scan the code and pay nine ninety‑nine, and you’ll ship imported cat and dog food for free. Is what you printed on here actually true? Do you really work for this pet hospital?”
“What brand of food is it, anyway? You’ve just got this one flyer, hyping it up to the heavens. Who’d believe that?”
“I’m standing right outside the door. Of course I work here. If you don’t believe me, you don’t have to buy.” The man gave vague answers, but out of the corner of his eye he saw the real staff from the pet hospital coming out. He hurriedly snatched the flyers back from the two women’s hands. “Forget it! Give those back to me!”
Not only did the two women keep hold of their flyers, they joined forces to grab the man who was trying to bolt. “You’re not going anywhere! The hospital staff are here-what are you running for?”
“You’re clearly trying to steal this hospital’s reputation to trick pet owners into buying your food, aren’t you? You’re not allowed to scam people here!”
In the scuffle, the man’s mask fell to the ground, and he was recognized at once.
“You’re the person in charge of that pet hospital that just got busted a couple of days ago! The one that did false advertising and misled customers into doing insanely expensive, completely unnecessary tests. You’d only been open a month, and there were already four or five disputes because you killed people’s pets! Your photos were in the newspaper! Everyone in this city’s pet community knows you now. That’s why they banded together to sue you, and you still have the nerve to come out here and scam people again?”
“It was one of the victims who started the joint rights‑defense action. She’s amazing, and really brave. Even when that hospital threatened her, she refused to back down. She found several other owners who lost their pets in the same month, and they submitted over a hundred pages of evidence. They finally exposed that place!”
“Your name’s mud now. No hospital or institution would dare take over your business. All that food you spent money on-if you don’t offload it fast, it’s going to expire, right? How many pets died because of you? You really deserve what you get!”
“I wasn’t the one who treated them!” the man was still trying to argue. “I wasn’t the attending doctor. That doctor who caused the malpractice, I’ve already proven he was just a temp! And I paid compensation, didn’t I?”
He spoke through gritted teeth, like each word cut into him. “The hospital got shut down and I paid over a million in fines. All those people who came to raise hell and sue me, I compensated every single one.”
“Serves you right!”
“Record him and post it online! And these flyers of his-we need to let everyone know they’re fake so he doesn’t make another cent off pet owners!”
“Even if you go to another city, you can forget about scamming people again!”
The man fell backward in a pathetic heap, using his hands to shield himself from the camera flashes. He scrambled to pick up his mask. “I just wanted to make a bit of money!”
“My hospital was only open for a month before it got investigated. I haven’t even gotten my investment back yet!”
His mask was kicked far away.
“Stop yelling. Save it for when you’re at the station.” A staff member from the pet hospital stood in front of him. “We’ve warned you three times already not to run your scams at our door. Today a Good Samaritan finally caught you, and I’ve already called the police. You’re not getting away this time.”
Luo Jia Bai looked to the left.
The three figures walking away were huddled together, their voices as light and happy as their footsteps.
“Anan, Mom won the lawsuit against that hospital that almost killed you before, and the compensation money just arrived today.”
“Congrats on the windfall! Chirp chirp!”
“I’ll take you two to buy something tasty.”
“I heard there’s a pet adoption event on the First Floor of the mall on Central Street today. They rescued a lot of stray animals from that meat truck Mom stopped last time, ones that didn’t have owners. After we buy snacks, we’ll go take a look!”
When Luo Jia Bai heard the words “Central Street,” he hurried to follow.
He had just messaged Lu Li.
Lu Li said he was near Central Street.
But Luo Jia Bai hadn’t even taken two steps when the world around him suddenly spun.
When he came back to his senses, he and Mirella were suddenly standing inside a very familiar house.
The house had two stories.
They were on the First Floor, with a staircase in front of them and the front door of the home behind them.
An old lady with a head of white hair was roughly grabbing a little boy, trying to shove a bowl of scalding hot soup and rice into his mouth. “Open up! Look at you with that dead face again! I worked so hard to cook this, why aren’t you eating? You’re eating whether you want to or not!”
The boy’s whole body of fat was trembling. He was so chubby his features were squeezed together. The heat made him wail, tears streaming, as he reached out to push her away. “Grandma! I’m your grandson! You’ve got the wrong person!”
The old lady threw both him and the bowl to the floor. “You dare push back?”
Rage rushed to her head. She dropped to her knees without a care for appearance, grabbed the boy by the hair and smacked him with a loud crack. “How dare you push me! Your parents are on a business trip, I’d like to see who dares stand up for you!”
The boy took slap after slap, his face swelling up high.
Mirella lifted her gaze and saw murky black qi tainting both their eyes. When they spoke, thick black qi coiled around their teeth.
The evil on them was so dense it wouldn’t disperse.
The door the old lady had come out of quietly opened a crack.
A white Rabbit was stealthily hopping out of the room. She hugged the wall, moving with cautious little steps. When she reached the next room over, whose door was half ajar, she stood up on her hind legs like a person and reached out to push it open.
The door suddenly swung inward, and a girl gently scooped the Rabbit up in her arms.
There were bloodstained bandages wrapped around her wrists.
She stroked the Rabbit’s back and kissed its ear, then turned and went back into the room.
She completely ignored everything happening in the hallway.
Behind Luo Jia Bai came the sound of a Key turning in a lock.
A man and a woman walked in and were startled by the chaotic scene.
“Mom! Snap out of it!”
“Here we go again! Mom’s really gone senile-she can’t tell anyone apart anymore. She can’t even see us when we’re right in front of her! Yesterday the neighbor came to me saying Mom hit their kid just because she was a girl. I had to pay a pile of medical bills and apologize before they’d drop it. It’s insane!”
“Back when your mom forced us to divorce because she favored sons over daughters, I already suspected something was wrong up here.” The woman tapped her temple, frowning. “She acts so good at pretending-one face when we’re home, and a completely different one when we’re not.”
“You should cut down on out-of-town trips for work from now on. Look at the mess the house is in. Good thing we found out in time.”
“I already made arrangements. We’re taking Mom to a psychiatric hospital today. We’ll visit when we can every month and hope they can cure her.”