Free Web NovelAlthough two innocent young women embracing each other intimately greatly shocked Grandpa He, he could actually understand it. freeωebnovēl.c૦m
He was not some stubborn old-fashioned man.
He might not like some new-era things, but he would not oppose them.
In his opinion, his dislike was his freedom, and as long as young people did not do anything illegal or unruly, that was also their freedom.
He and his former comrades had risked their lives and fought in bloody battles precisely so that everyone could have this freedom.
Watching quietly from the side, Grandpa He slowly approached after Lu Yibei and Jiang Hao separated, pretending he hadn't seen anything, and waved at them.
"Come here, sit over here. This Old man will tell you slowly."
Jiang Ge looked at Lu Yibei, exchanged glances, and then both walked forward together with Grandpa He to a long bench not far away, sitting on either side of him.
The scene had a distinct flavor of bringing a small stool, sitting obediently, and preparing to listen to Grandpa tell stories of the past.
And this story, much like Grandpa He's "stories of the past," would likely reveal cruel truths upon closer examination.
Grandpa He looked at the two of them, narrowed his eyes slightly, and recalled for a moment. What he knew about Tan Qiuming was unexpectedly revealed the moment he spoke.
"Actually, that kid surnamed Tan, I, this Old man, watched him grow up. They say you can tell how someone will be at three years old. You tell me, how did a child who was so well-behaved when he was little turn out like this?"
At this point, he suddenly wanted to light a cigarette again. In a trance, it was as if a hand gently patted his shoulder, whispering in his ear, "It's okay, this doesn't count. I'll pretend I didn't see it."
He knew it wasn't an illusion, but that the illness was truly speaking to him.
This situation had started ever since he had contact with Tan Qiuming's paintings.
As Grandpa He fell silent, Lu Yibei's gaze bypassed him and met Jiang Hao's eyes.
【Now I understand why Grandpa gets so angry whenever Tan Qiuming is mentioned, even more so than with other patients in 202 Ward.】
Jiang Hao nodded, 【Yes, pitying his misfortune, angry at his lack of effort.】
"Grandpa, please relax. It's not your fault." Lu Yibei comforted him, "People change."
Not only can they turn bad, they can even turn into urban legend! Lu Yibei added in her heart.
Immediately after, her gaze inadvertently swept over Jiang Hao, finding that Jiang Hao was looking at her, her eyes clearly saying, "They can also change from a boy to a girl."
Hearing Lu Yibei's words, Grandpa He shook his head noncommittally, "Forget it, you probably don't want to hear about these old, rotten matters. I'll just tell you directly what he did, okay?"
"No, no." Lu Yibei said, "If possible, we'd like to hear about his childhood, the more detailed the better."
Some say that a person's current appearance is the superposition of all their past experiences. The process of Tan Qiuming transforming from a "good child" into a cruel perpetrator with multiple identities might hide a lot of useful information.
Grandpa He used to be neighbors with Tan Qiuming, living in different units of the same row house. He could be said to have watched Tan Qiuming grow up.
However, Tan Qiuming's family didn't originally live in Qixinggang Lower Lane; they moved there with his mother when he was four years old.
In that era, neighborly relations were much closer than they are now. New neighbors moving in was considered a big event. Grandpa He even went to help move things, and that's when he first met Tan Qiuming.
He was a very quiet little boy. While the adults were busy, he sat obediently in the passenger seat of a small truck, flipping through a picture book. He didn't cause any trouble. Aside from looking a bit strange, his first impression was quite good.
"Very fair skin, slightly curly chestnut-colored short hair, silver-gray eyes..." Lu Yibei asked, puzzled, "Are you saying Tan Qiuming is a foreigner?"
Important information, isn't this it?
"Just when he was little, he looked like that," Grandpa He explained, "When I first saw him, I thought he was some foreign devil!"
"But his mother said he had some kind of illness, which made him look a bit abnormal. Later, I don't know when it was cured, but he just grew and grew, and then he was like us."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yibei looked at Jiang Hao and gave her a meaningful glance.
【Do you think Tan Qiuming was sick, or...】
【Hard to say, but at least Grandpa He is telling the truth.】
Lu Yibei, "..."
That is to say, it was a real occurrence that Tan Qiuming looked very strange when he was young and gradually became "normal" over time.
Could it have been caused by some urban legend Power?
Or perhaps the black night disease?
Although the name black night disease was coined after the night grew long and the number of people afflicted by the night increased dramatically, it doesn't mean that no one suffered from black night disease before; it's just that the number was very small, so small that when people went to the hospital for treatment, the illness would be named after the patient.
The arrival of new neighbors was, after all, just a small interlude in the ordinary lives of the residents of the Qixinggang Lower Lane row houses. After the excitement, life continued as usual.
In Qixinggang Lower Lane, there are both European-style buildings built during the Republic of China era and Soviet-style row houses. Buildings of various eras and styles cluster together on the undulating terrain, hidden beneath lush banyan trees, like an ancient maze where time seems to stand still and the world remains unchanged.
Although Grandpa He often encountered the newly moved-in neighbor's child downstairs and occasionally brought him home for meals, he only knew that his mother was often not home. He always went to school and came home alone, ate at the noodle shop at the alley entrance alone, and played alone, giving people a very quiet impression.
In that era, quiet, non-mischievous children were often considered well-behaved.
"Wait, Grandpa, what about Tan Qiuming's father? You don't seem to have mentioned his father?" Halfway through, Jiang Li couldn't help but interrupt.
"Look at my memory!" Grandpa He lightly slapped his forehead and explained, "I forgot to tell you, his father passed away long ago. It was just the two of them, mother and son, who moved here."
"Passed away?" Lu Yibei pressed, "Do you know how he passed away?"
"How would I know that?" Grandpa He pouted, "I, this Old man, am not one of those gossiping women who like to chew the fat and listen to rumors."
"However, I did occasionally hear some rumors from my wife. Some said his father was a foreigner who got his mother pregnant and then ran off, others said his father had an accident, and some even said his father was involved in illegal activities and was arrested and imprisoned."
"In short, there were all sorts of stories, and no definite one. I just listened and couldn't be bothered with other people's business."
"Illegal activities?" Jiang Hao tilted her head, "How did they know that?"
Grandpa He pouted, "It's all because some strange people always appeared at their door."
Tan Qiuming's mother not only always left early and returned late, leaving the child alone at home for long periods, but she also frequently brought strange people back home.
Moreover, among them were not only Z Country people with foreign accents but also many foreigners, both old and young, whose movements were somewhat suspicious when they arrived.
They would often gather at Tan Qiuming's house and stay for several days. During these days, Tan Qiuming's house not only had its doors tightly shut, but strange sounds would also often emanate from within.
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The sound was like the sharp whistling of wind through window cracks on a windy day, vaguely mixed with fragmented sounds resembling human roars.
This situation, coupled with the fact that they were an orphan and a widow, easily led people to associate it with illegal activities. Before long, busybodies contacted the relevant authorities and reported Tan Qiuming's mother.
But when the police arrived and knocked on the door, they found nothing suspicious in Tan Qiuming's house.
"Then do you know what Tan Qiuming's mother did?" Lu Yibei interrupted.
Grandpa He thought for a moment and said, "She seemed to practice qigong? Or was she a small leader of a qigong sect? In those days, wasn't it popular to practice that stuff? Many people were practicing it."
"However, I don't believe it. Practicing that stuff is not as effective as practicing two sets of the boxing taught in the army. It can also strengthen the body!"
Lu Yibei, "..."
Goodness! I didn't expect his mother to have such a background!
So, scamming patients was their family's "hereditary skill"?!
Although nowadays, when "qigong" is mentioned, many people's first reaction is "swindler" or "feudal superstition," in the 1980s and 1990s, there was indeed a "qigong craze." At its peak, hundreds of millions of people participated, and those like Grandpa He who practiced "military physical boxing" were the anomaly.
Many people believed that practicing qigong could strengthen the body, treat diseases, and even develop special abilities. At that time, there were not only various related books circulating in the market but also ubiquitous qigong medical centers, qigong performances, and so on.
Then there was no later.
Such things, which foster the growth of crime, can become a breeding ground for urban legend, and are tools for Psychic to profit—all harm and no benefit—even if the Night Watch could tolerate it for a short time, the relevant departments could not.
However, combining what Grandpa He said about someone hearing strange sounds from Tan Qiuming's house, and Tan Qiuming's current actions, it seems that what his mother was involved in was probably more than just simple fraud.
Ever since Tan Qiuming's mother was reported once, she spent even less time at home. Besides returning at fixed times to give Tan Qiuming living expenses, she often disappeared for several days or even more than ten days at a time.
But even so, Tan Qiuming still took good care of himself. He didn't cause trouble at school, and his grades were quite excellent. Aside from being a bit reclusive, there were no flaws to pick, making him entirely "the child of someone else's family."
It was also from that time that Tan Qiuming's time alone became longer, and it was then that he began to like painting.
At first, like all children who love to draw, he just drew some doodles. Later, he underwent systematic study, drawing sketches, quick sketches, watercolors, and so on. Even later, he became an art student and was admitted to an art academy.
"Oh!" Grandpa He suddenly slapped his thigh, as if he had thought of something important, and added, "I almost let something slip again."
"You don't know, that kid's mother initially supported his painting, but when she heard he got into that art university, she suddenly had some kind of breakdown and started arguing with him. I could hear his mother scolding him from several floors away, even across a unit."
"And his mother also took that kid's admission letter and all the paintings he had drawn to the yard, found an iron bucket, and set them on fire, burning them all to ashes."
At this point, Grandpa He paused, then shook his head and said, "That woman was also very strange. She usually ignored her child, didn't even attend parent-teacher conferences, and then when her child worked hard and got into university, she came back and went crazy. I don't even know what to say."
"What about Tan Qiuming?" Jiang Li asked, frowning, "What was he doing then?"
Grandpa He glanced at Jiang Li, recalled seriously for a long time, and his expression changed slightly. "He didn't do anything then. He just stood by and laughed. That laugh... ugh, it was really scary, like he had gone mad."
For an old man who had experienced war to find it scary, one can imagine how eerie Tan Qiuming's laughter was at the time.
"I, this Old man, was thinking at the time if that kid was driven crazy by his mother. Looking at the messed-up things he's doing now, maybe he was already abnormal back then."
"From then on, until I moved, I never saw that kid again. I heard he eventually went to that art university to study. He didn't even come back when his mother passed away. What a scoundrel."
"His mother passed away? How did she pass away?" Jiang Hao asked.
Upon hearing this, Grandpa He's expression suddenly became somewhat complex. He held it in for a long time before finally uttering two words: "Lung cancer."
Lu Yibei, "..."
Jiang Li, "..."
They had vaguely guessed before that Tan Qiuming could, in some way, cause healthy people to develop cancer in a short period of time, but...
To use that ability on his own mother, wasn't that too deranged?
After a brief silence, Lu Yibei felt that she had learned enough about Tan Qiuming's past. It was time to return to the main topic. After exchanging glances with Jiang Li and seeing her nod, she asked, "Grandpa, what happened after that?"
"Do you know when he returned to Mountain City? After he came back, did you..."
"How did I meet him again later?" Grandpa He waved his hand and said, "Just ask if you want to. Don't be secretive. Since I promised to tell you, I won't mind these things."
"Actually, I haven't seen him °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° yet. My wife has seen him."
Mid-sentence, he paused, looked at Lu Yibei and Jiang Li, and said gravely, "What I'm about to say might be a bit outlandish."
"As long as you say it, we'll believe it." Lu Yibei said.
Jiang Li glanced at Lu Yibei from the corner of her eye and also nodded.
Seeing this, Grandpa He sighed and said, "Actually, I wasn't the one who got sick first; it was my wife. The day she was diagnosed, she met that kid surnamed Tan at the hospital entrance. Then, without telling anyone in the family, she bought a weird-looking painting from him and hung it at home to look at every day. Later..."
"Later, as you can see, she mysteriously got better, and I suddenly got sick!"
"If it were just that, it would be nothing. If I could suffer for my wife, I, this Old man, would be willing and even happy. You don't know how much my wife fears injections, only..."
The Old man spoke, gazing in the direction of 202 Ward, his eyes deepening.
"Do you know? The patients in our ward were all healthy at first, it's just that someone around them got sick. But after they came into contact with that kid, they suddenly got diagnosed with problems. Do you think this is a coincidence?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Yibei's pupils trembled slightly. She abruptly looked at Jiang Li, seeing the same answer in her eyes.
【This is definitely not a coincidence!】
Healing people, making people sick—it's all fake!
Tan Qiuming merely transferred the illness to healthy people through some means.
The woman with tumors all over her body, Tan Qiuming's former assistant whom they met in Qixinggang Lower Lane, was probably a chosen "vessel," an unlucky sacrifice!
