"I asked my father to find someone to do it. They are professionals and use overseas addresses. They shouldn't be traced so easily, although my father said there is a way to trace them." Mu Ke spoke to Bai Liu on the phone and coughed slightly guiltily. "There is someone involved who has a commercial competitive relationship with my father. Thus, he cut out some of the less credible facts, such as the blood ganoderma lucidum. He only vaguely exposed that these investors are conducting experimental treatment on children. Do you mind?"
Bai Liu used his computer to look for the hot search.
#Entrepreneur Group#Shocking Inside Story of the Poisoning Incident in the Welfare Home
"I don't mind." Bai Liu belonged to the type that didn't care much about the process as long as it achieved results. He leaned lazily against the chair. "Now, there should be crazy spending to remove the hot search?"
"Yes, but it won't be easy for them to withdraw it. We used money to maintain the hot searches, and the police have become involved. It won't be easy for them to suppress it," Mu Ke said.
"I troubled you, Mu Ke," Bai Liu said. "Take a break and recover. We will go back into the game tonight at midnight. I have to deal with something in the afternoon."
"Okay, Bai Liu."
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At 3 in the afternoon, Bai Liu brought a couple to the hospital again.
Liu Jiayi sat opposite the couple. They rubbed their knees a bit nervously. They looked at the little girl sitting on the hospital bed with anticipation. Soon, their eyes became wet. They looked at Bai Liu standing beside them with disbelief, their voices quivering. "Bai Liu, can we really adopt her?"
"...Are we qualified to adopt her?"
Bai Liu leaned against the door and glanced at Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua. "You meet the requirements for adoption."
Their only daughter had died miserably. They had a good family background and loved children. Moreover, the two of them had reached the age where they didn't intend to have more children. This fully met the adoption conditions. It was said that Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua had the best conditions for adoption and were much better off than Lu Yizhan, who had the relatively precarious condition of being a small policeman.
If Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua wanted to adopt someone, the children in the welfare home would probably compete for the opportunity. This was the best option and choice for them.
Liu Jiayi also knew this. She supported herself using the railing of the hospital bed and said, "Bai Liu, I told you I could be alone. You don't have to find me a good adoptive family. I won't be grateful to you. I also don't want to continue acting in front of others. You know that I am a game player. If they stay with me, then perhaps..."
"They are also game players." Bai Liu interrupted Liu Jiayi's words.
Liu Jiayi fell silent, her expression startled.
Bai Liu directly pulled out a chair and sat down, intercepting what Liu Jiayi wanted to say. "They know you are Little Witch. I let them buy and watch all the videos of your game. They know what type of child you are, and you can enter the game without pretending in front of them."
"I was previously going to sell you to Lu Yizhan because he likes you very much. Another reason was that your brother really hoped Lu Yizhan would adopt you. He also thought Lu Yizhan was a good person and would give you a perfect family." Bai Liu raised his eyes to look at Liu Jiayi. "However, you don't want this, so I will make other arrangements. This way, your activities will be more comfortable, and you won't have to worry about future troubles."
Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu were still a bit nervous.
Xiang Chunhua had been rubbing her eyes as she stared at the blind little girl. "My family also had a child, but... something happened. Old Liu and I are really not good. We aren't good in the game or outside the game. Otherwise, Guo Guo wouldn't have..."
She paused and lowered her head, wiping her eyes. "Jiayi, I know that you are an amazing little girl, and we can't help you much. However, Bai Liu said that you need a place to stay outside the game that is legal and reasonable. You are still a child, and you have no good place to go."
"We can help a bit with this." Liu Fu continued Xiang Chunhua's words. He leaned forward, stuttering nervously. "A-An adoption relationship is just a stopgap measure. If you dislike us and don't want us to be your nominal parents, the relationship can be dissolved after the game ends."
"If you need anything, you can always tell us. We will do everything we can. Do you think that is okay?"
Xiang Chunhua couldn't help saying, "Look at how thin you are. Stay with us. At the very least, you can have a hot meal outside the game. I can't compare to you in strength, but I am good at cooking!"
"I also make soup very well," Liu Fu added with embarrassment.
They were clearly two middle-aged people whose combined age was nearly 100 years old, yet when they spoke to an eight-year-old child, they were cautious as if afraid of scaring her away. They seemed to feel they had nothing to offer and couldn't keep her.
Liu Jiayi sat with her head lowered for a long time, silent and motionless. Only her thin fingers slowly grasped the quilt, and her toes curled in the air.
"Games, shelter, help, a safe place to rest and recover. They are also my people. I promise they won't harm you and will help take care of you. After all, you are still a minor, and many things are inconvenient. Two adults working for you will be more comfortable. Do you have any other questions?" Bai Liu spoke. "If you bring them up, I will find a way to solve them for you."
All the problems raised by Liu Jiayi were solved by Bai Liu. She had always been dodging and hiding. She was completely used to solving all problems by herself. No one had ever told her, 'Put forward the problem, and I'll help you solve it.'
Liu Jiayi finally raised her head. Her eyes were a bit red, but her words were cold. "Yes. How can I repay some of your things?"
Xiang Chunhua was confused. "Repay... what?"
"The shelter, hot food, and soup you mentioned." Liu Jiayi felt that repayment was natural. "How do you want me to pay it back? Money or points?"
Xiang Chunhua's eyes were red. She wanted to say that Liu Jiayi didn't have to repay these things, but Bai Liu spoke first. "I will let them list the money they spend on you every day. Once you completely exit the game, it will all be settled at once. Are there any other questions?"
Liu Jiayi slowly shook her head. She felt like she still owed something.
However, she didn't know what it was or what she could use to repay it.
Xiang Chunhua looked at Liu Jiayi with emotional eyes, as if she wanted to hug her. She hesitated for a long time before gently reaching out to touch Liu Jiayi's face. Her tone was choked up. "Why are you so small? When Guo Guo was eight years old, she was twice as big as you..."
Liu Fu's eyes were also red, and his voice was hoarse. "We will go back and feed you well. If we feed you more red meat and bone soup, you will soon grow up."
"Eat as much as Guo Guo and grow quickly. You will be a big girl."
Liu Jiayi didn't know what to say, so she remained silent.
Bai Liu glanced at her. "I found you the most suitable place to live. You don't have to think too much. I'll enter the game tonight. If you want to enter, then follow. It's fine if you don't. Things will be much more convenient for you after Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua adopt you. You don't have to hide everything like before."
There was a long silence before Liu Jiayi whispered, "Hmm." It meant that she understood.
—————————————————
After walking out of the hospital door, Liu Fu squeezed Bai Liu's arm hard. Bai Liu looked over and saw Xiang Chunhua and Liu Fu looking at him with tearful eyes.
"Thank you, Bai Liu, thank you very much." Liu Fu blew his nose. Not knowing what else to say, he could only talk about business matters. "You are entering the game at night, right? Shall we go too?"
They had been ready to die. They never thought they would gain another little girl as their daughter before they died. It wasn't that they hadn't considered it during their most painful moments. It was just that after entering the game, they didn't dare have this idea. They were very careful when contacting people for fear of influencing them to enter the game.
"Yes, you enter, and I'll have Mu Sicheng continue to guide you. It might be a level two game. Will that be fine with you?"
Liu Fu and Xiang Chunhua nodded decisively. "There is no problem."
—————————————————
After dealing with Liu Jiayi, Bai Liu went back to his small rental house.
Seeing that it was still early and feeling mentally tired, Bai Liu prepared to take a break before entering the game. He set the alarm clock, put on his pajamas, lay down on the bed, and closed his eyes.
Bai Liu was a person who slept well and rarely dreamed.
It wasn't known if it was because of excessive exhaustion, but this time Bai Liu had a very strange dream. He felt as if his body was covered with a layer of white frost from his fingertips. He couldn't resist being frozen. A cold body lay heavily on his chest, and Bai Liu felt like he was dreaming of a ghost pressing him down on the bed.
It was a ghost that looked quite good.
Tawil propped himself up and looked down at Bai Liu. There was no human emotion in his light-colored pupils. "Your bad luck is coming."
Bai Liu could feel Tawil's arm beside his ear. It was very cold to the touch.
He looked up at Tawil, half dreaming and half awake. He wanted to say that he had never had good luck and was used to bad luck.
However, Bai Liu's mouth seemed glued shut. He couldn't say a word and could only make strange sounds. He stopped trying to speak and motioned for Tawil to continue with his eyes.
Tawil leaned toward Bai Liu's neck and hooked the cross on Bai Liu's chest with his finger. He lowered his head and kissed the cross before placing it between Bai Liu's eyebrows, tapping it gently with his index finger.
"Once the clock on the wall reaches 9 o'clock, the avenger wrapped in hatred from another timeline will come to you with the fate of death. Thus, God will appear here to reveal to you, bless you, and protect you."
Tawil looked down at Bai Liu, who was frowning in the nightmare, with an indescribable tone of indifference and solemnity.
He said, "My evil believer, remember to avoid the hunter's suicide bullet. Don't use your right eye to release desire. Before real death comes, the time you have is unique and irreversible."
Tawil covered Bai Liu's eyes with his hand and bent down to kiss the reverse cross on Bai Liu's forehead. Then he spoke in a cold and sacred tone. "The key to everything is in the witch's hands. Poison or antidote is the key to your choice."
"God is forever, the soul is forever."
Tawil tucked the cross back into Bai Liu's clothes. He stared at Bai Liu, but his pupils reflected a light pink rose whose branches and leaves were gradually spreading and blossoming. "Be careful of the roses."
The moment he finished speaking, he turned into a pile of gorgeous rose petals that scattered over Bai Liu's body. A strong, stimulating rose fragrance filled the air, making Bai Liu uncomfortable. He rolled away from the rose petals before they burst into light pink smoke. The smoke hovered over Bai Liu's quilt before finally falling as burning ashes under his bed. They were blown away by the wind and disappeared.
Bai Liu abruptly opened his eyes.
There were no roses, petals, or Tawil. He was sleeping on an old bed with springs popping out in a rented house less than three meters high. Bai Liu sat up and pulled out the cross.
The cross had a strangely cold touch. Bai Liu brought it close to his nose and sniffed it.
There was a rose fragrance on the cross that made him uncomfortable.
"Bad luck and death are coming to me..." Bai Liu held the cross and squinted. "...Beware the hunter and the roses."
Tawil was God, since the identity Bai Liu had acquired with the cross was Tawil's believer. The suggestive message he received from Tawil was, in layman's terms, an oracle.
Since ancient times, oracles had been vague. This included the one Tawil gave him.
If this vague oracle were interpreted using Bai Liu's previous worldview, he would say that since gods weren't real, oracles were fabricated by believers. They would use vague words to allow for a larger margin of error in their predictions.
However, Tawil's oracle gave him a familiar feeling.
"It is the feeling that my words are being blocked because some things can't be directly said. Therefore, I have to use other words to express the same meaning." Bai Liu was thoughtful. "So it is possible that Tawil is being blocked by a higher level of existence. He can't tell me directly what to avoid, so he can only hint at it to make me vigilant."
The witch was easy to guess. It referred to Liu Jiayi.
Then what did the rose and hunter imply?
Bai Liu held the rose-scented cross and stared at the time on the old wall clock.
It was exactly 9 o'clock.
Bai Liu heard footsteps coming from the corridor outside his apartment. The soundproofing of the rental house was poor, allowing him to hear the continuous footsteps. They weren't clustered, and all walked directly past. They seemed to be normal occupants of the building.
Yet when the fourth set of footsteps reappeared at regular intervals, Bai Liu let out a breath and got up from the bed to put on clothes and shoes. He opened the window and looked outside to make a quick assessment. If he jumped from the fifth floor, he might only survive for a few minutes. He finally chose to give up the idea.
The building he lived in consisted of low-cost rental units from top to bottom. Bai Liu lived on the fifth floor, and there were only four tenants on that floor. This showed that some of the people in the building weren't normal residents. Bai Liu was also very familiar with those well-trained footsteps. He had only heard them from one person.
—It was Lu Yizhan.
The footsteps finally stopped in front of Bai Liu's door. The door behind him was kicked open, and a group of people shouted sternly at him with guns in their hands, "Police! Don't move! Raise your hands!"
Bai Liu quickly lowered his head. He took the coin from around his neck, put it in his mouth, and pressed it under his tongue.
As the night wind blew through the window, Bai Liu slowly turned around and raised his hands unhurriedly.
The wind blew the hair on his forehead. Although Bai Liu did nothing, there was a sense of calmness, as if he had long expected to be caught. He obediently let the policemen handcuff him. He didn't ask anything, nor did he seem very scared.
Bai Liu hadn't figured out why he was arrested, but these policemen were very afraid of him. All of them were heavily armed and wore leather gloves and protective clothing. Bai Liu visually estimated it might be 2–3 cm thick. He didn't know what metal it was made of, but it seemed to provide strong shielding.
The equipment made the police officers look like bomb disposal experts about to dismantle a powerful explosive.
Bai Liu, who was treated like a bomb threat, sat dozing off in a car.
The car he was sitting in looked unusual. The front and back were separated by a thick metal plate, leaving only a small 15 cm by 15 cm window. Through the window, he could see the nervous policeman. The policeman gulped and pointed his gun at Bai Liu, seemingly afraid that this young man with bound hands and feet would suddenly become violent.
The streetlights shone through the small window in the back compartment where Bai Liu was sitting. There was a red triangle symbol on the wall showing an octopus wriggling its tentacles. Next to it was a simple stick figure with scattered limbs and blood flowing everywhere, along with a big red cross over the octopus.
The sign read:
[This is an unknown, supernatural, dangerous entity. It has the tendency to harm people! Stay alert and maintain distance!]
The striped lights flashed over Bai Liu's blank face, startling the policeman watching him through the small window. The policeman almost dropped his gun, and the driver was also startled. "What's wrong? Has it changed?"
The young policeman cried out, "I-It is breathing!"
"Calm down!" The driver took two deep breaths. "This is the first human-shaped heretic monster captured by our sub-bureau. It is normal for it to breathe, so don't be surprised."