Chapter Seven Mutation

  Two people walked and talked, until they arrived at the entrance of Jing Cheng Medical Hall in Ri Zao Alley. They were shocked to see that the two doors had been smashed into pieces, with debris scattered all over the floor. The tables, chairs, and beds inside had all been chopped up. Cong Ye reached out to turn on the light, but no matter how many times he pressed the switch, it wouldn't turn on. He looked up to see that the lampshade was gone, the bulb had shattered, and only the lamp holder remained stuck in place.

  "This bunch of bastards."

  Cong Ye's face turned iron-green as he cursed loudly.

  "Don't be angry anymore, tomorrow we'll find a place to move."

  "No way, wouldn't that be giving in to them?"

  "It can't go on like this."

  "Sister-in-law, you'd better call the police first."

  Yan Qingcheng took out his phone, but before he could dial the number, he heard the ear-piercing sound of police sirens coming from a distance. In an instant, a police car flashing its lights stopped in front of the Yanqing Medical Hall. Three policemen got out of the car and asked Yan Qingcheng and Cong Ye, who were standing at the door in a daze:

  "Some people reported that you were fighting and beating someone up until they were seriously injured."

  "Who's the bad guy who reported first? Police comrades, I was just about to report it myself. You come and take a look at my clinic, see who smashed it up like this."

  Three police officers completely ignored Yan Qingcheng's words and casually glanced inside the medical hall.

  "One code for one case. We received a report that you were involved in a fight and injured someone. If you need to call the police, wait until we've finished dealing with the fight first."

  "Are you still people's police?"

  "Are you the one who beat him up? Come on, let's go back to the police station with us."

  "Officer, I reported a case last time where someone was beaten up, how did you handle it?"

  Yan Qingcheng was also angry, she didn't expect the police to ignore her report.

  "We've already dealt with the previous matter. Now we're dealing with your fight that injured people, don't mix them up."

  As he spoke, he was about to put handcuffs on Cong Ye. Cong Ye subconsciously took a step back and shouted loudly:

  "Are you the people's police, or the police for some particular people?!"

  "Stop chit-chatting with him and take him away."

  A policeman standing behind them was apparently their leader and gave a faint command to the two in front.

  "If you resist again, it will be considered as arrest."

  As he spoke, one of the police officers pulled out a handgun from his waist and instantly opened the safety catch, pointing the muzzle directly at Cong Ye's chest.

  Facing the muzzle of the gun, Cong Ye had no choice but to surrender and was handcuffed by them. They pushed him into a police car and drove away without paying attention to Yan Qingcheng who stood there in shock.

  Watching the police car with flashing lights turn around the corner and disappear, Yan Qingcheng could no longer hold back the tears of grievance in her eyes, leaning against the broken door frame, sobbing uncontrollably.

  Congye was taken to the police station and directly locked in a small room. The room had nothing except for a plastic spittoon. From over 10 o'clock at night until noon the next day, not a single person came to see him. Looking out of the only small window in the room, it seemed like he was in the backyard of the police station. The entire yard was empty and desolate, without even a shadow of a person. Congye, who had just entered society for the first time, really couldn't have imagined that reality would be like this. It was clear that those few policemen last night were colluding with the developer.

  It's okay, Cong Ye, who grew up in an orphanage since childhood, was not afraid of loneliness. Since no one paid attention to him, he stood in the corner and began to familiarize himself with the hot flow in his meridians. With his eyes slightly closed, he concentrated all his energy and guided the hot flow to come to his hands from time to time, and sometimes flowed to his feet. Although he had not eaten for two meals, Cong Ye did not feel very hungry by running the hot flow.

  One day without food, Cong Ye could still barely endure it, but after another night had passed, by the time noon of the second day arrived, Cong Ye was already so hungry that his stomach was growling, and he couldn't even focus his energy to guide the flow of heat in his meridians.

  It wasn't until the sun was setting in the west that Congye heard footsteps coming from a distance for the first time. As the footsteps got closer, through the small window, Congye saw that it was one of the two police officers who had handcuffed him last night. He came to the door of the hut, took out the key and opened the door without saying a word, turned around and left. Congye followed behind him, coming to the main hall of the police station in the front yard.

  "Thicket of leaves."

  As soon as he entered the hall, he saw Yan Qingcheng with slightly red eyes. Before Cong Ye could speak, a strange policeman said to him:

  "Considering you've just been discharged and were once a qualified soldier, I won't punish you this time. However, something like this can never happen again. You may leave."

  "Officer, are you saying that from now on I can only passively get beaten and cannot fight back?"

  The policeman didn't even respond and turned around to walk away.

  "Cong Ye, let's go."

  At this time, Yan Qingcheng walked over and actively hooked her arm around Cong Ye's, pulling him to the street outside the police station. Originally, Cong Ye was full of anger in his heart, but due to Yan Qingcheng's sudden action, it instantly dissipated. Both were wearing short-sleeved undershirts, and the feeling of Yan Qingcheng's delicate and soft skin on her arm, as well as occasionally touching Cong Ye's upper arm with her full chest, made Cong Ye's brain go blank for a moment.

  "Cong Ye, let's go find a house now and move tomorrow."

  "What?"

  Cong Ye didn't hear what Yan Qing Cheng said at all.

  "I said we're moving tomorrow."

  "No way!"

  Cong Ye said resolutely.

  "We can't just move out like this without any explanation, the developer and the police station must give us an account."

  "Clumsy, your arm can't twist over your leg. If I hadn't been holding your demobilization certificate and gone directly to the district armed forces department, they probably wouldn't have let you out."

  "Is it good to speak nicely to armed police and patrol officers?"

  "Of course it's not good. The armed forces department contacted the unit you served in, and they directly sent a letter to the police station, so this time they let you go."

  Congye didn't expect that he would actually stir up his old unit.

  "Logically speaking, I've already been discharged, so the army shouldn't be meddling in my affairs anymore, right?"

  "I don't understand this either, but the people from the armed department said they would try to contact them and it actually worked."

  Congye didn't know who on the troop side had received the message passed from the armed department, but he could still guess that this person must be someone he was familiar with, otherwise they wouldn't have come forward to deal with a retired soldier's affairs.

  Actually, Cong Ye still didn't guess correctly. This can't be blamed on Cong Ye, the key is that he was misled by Yan Qingcheng. The fact is that Yan Qingcheng, under the name of a military widow, directly contacted Cong Ye, who was in the same unit as Zhi Xiaokang, and obtained his personal belongings and condolence money from the team's political commissar, Lin Long. At that time, Lin Long had promised Yan Qingcheng that if she encountered any difficulties, she could contact the unit, and as long as the unit was able to help, they would not stand idly by.

  Returning to the Daylight Alley's Qingshi Medical Hall, looking at everything inside the smashed medical hall, Cong Ye's anger ignited again. After being persuaded by Yan Qingcheng for half a day, he slowly calmed down. But in his heart, he was thinking that he couldn't always be bullied like this and must think of a way out.

  "Sister-in-law, have you seen the developer?"

  "No, I just heard from neighbors that almost no one has seen him. It's just a rumor, but this person is said to have a very strong background."

  "Where is the developer's headquarters?"

  "Right across from City Hall Plaza. Congye, what are you doing here?"

  "Not doing anything, just casually asking."

  Yan Qingcheng apparently didn't believe Cong Ye was just casually asking, staring into Cong Ye's eyes for a moment before instructing:

  "The other side is too powerful, we can't afford to mess with them. From what's been happening recently, you should be able to see that. Let's just move out as soon as possible and not provoke them again."

  "Sister-in-law, wait a bit longer. It's not that we can't move out now, but the thing is, none of us have any money. Let alone renting a storefront to open a clinic, we don't even have enough for rent to live somewhere."

  If it weren't for the lack of money, Yan Qingcheng would have moved out long ago. She never thought about being a stubborn tenant. However, just renting a two-bedroom apartment costs over 1,000 yuan per month, and the rent is paid annually, so you need to have more than 10,000 yuan to rent a house.

  "Sister-in-law, I'm feeling better now. Tomorrow I'll go find a job and after two or three more months of saving up, we can move to a new place."

  "I've been wanting to go find a job for a long time, but I'm afraid to leave this place. Once I leave, I'm worried they'll demolish it and then I'll really have to sleep on the streets."

  "Sister-in-law is staying here, I'm going out to look for a job."

  At this point, Yan Qingcheng, who had no other choice, could only accept Cong Ye's suggestion.

  After dinner, the two went to a typing agency to have a personal resume printed for Congye, which they would use when looking for work the next day.

  When filling out the special skills column, Cong Ye thought and thought, only to discover that he was actually useless. After hesitating for half a day, the special skills column could only be left blank. As a result, Cong Ye's job options were limited to being a security guard or a construction worker.

  On the way back, Yan Qingcheng saw Cong Ye being sulky and understood her mood at this time.

  "Thick leaves, whatever you do, don't have a humble heart."

  "Sister-in-law, if I hadn't gone out into society, I wouldn't have known that I was so incompetent."

  "You're just lacking in experience, after all you've been to high school, with time, you'll definitely be able to learn a skill or two. Don't lose heart, take it slow."