Players, Please Board the Train

”Then how is your family doing?” Professor Lin asked tentatively.

”My older brother is dead.” Xu Huo said coldly, ”He died from gunshot wounds. But right now I’m having trouble distinguishing what’s real and what’s fake. In my memory, he was killed by someone else, but memories can also be wrong, just like how all of you remember the Seventeenth Hospital, yet this hospital left no records behind.”

”Maybe the person who killed my brother in my memory is fictional.”

Professor Lin’s facial expression gradually stiffened, and tears finally flowed down his cheeks as he choked out, ”Ordinary people might confuse imagination with reality, but you’re not an ordinary person...”

Xu Huo watched him silently for quite a while before asking again, ”Which doctor originally brought me to the hospital back then?”

Professor Lin quickly pointed to the female doctor standing to his left in the photo, ”Her son came to see me a couple of years ago, but her situation isn’t very good.”

He spoke while cautiously glancing at Xu Huo, ”She has Alzheimer’s disease, and occasionally she suddenly mentions things about working at the hospital before, which is why her son came to see me.”

Xu Huo remained silent with a grim expression, so Professor Lin wrote down the address, ”This is all I can do.”

”Thank you.” Xu Huo took the address and prepared to leave, but at that moment the old woman came out from the kitchen, ”Stay for a meal before you go.”

Professor Lin quickly signaled to the old woman with his eyes, but she glared at him, ”What’s wrong with you? How can you let the child leave without eating?”Xu Huo turned back, and Professor Lin immediately put on a smiling face, ”Right, right, stay for a simple meal.”

So Xu Huo actually stayed.

The elderly couple’s financial situation wasn’t good - they only bought cheap, filling vegetables with no meat dishes.

”Eat more.” The old woman affectionately placed food in Xu Huo’s bowl while saying, ”Our family’s conditions aren’t good, so please make do with what we have. I still have a little private savings - you take it to buy food.”

Xu Huo looked at Professor Lin, who smiled bitterly and said, ”When you get old, you easily get scammed. The loan sharks weren’t something we borrowed from - my wife got her documents tricked away...”

That’s why everything in the house that could be sold for money had been taken away, and even then debt collectors would occasionally come knocking.

”Bang bang bang!” As they spoke, someone began forcefully pounding on the door, ”Professor Lin, please open up!”

The old woman grabbed a bowl and stood up, ”Those little bastards, I’ll smash them to death!”

Professor Lin quickly stopped her, ”Don’t throw it, don’t throw it! They cost five yuan each! Let’s just pretend we’re not home!”

The last sentence was directed at Xu Huo, but Xu Huo had already stepped forward and opened the door. The few young men standing outside still had their hands raised, momentarily stunned before asking, ”Are you Professor Lin’s relative?”

”He’s not,” Professor Lin said first, ”You should leave quickly. There really aren’t any valuable things left in my house. Go find Zhang Dong - he’s the one who borrowed the money, it has nothing to do with us.”

The yellow-haired young man said helplessly, ”Professor Lin, you know our difficulties too. If we could find Zhang Dong, we wouldn’t be coming to you. How about you tell us where he went?”

”We don’t know!” The old woman became agitated, ”Go report it to the police! Have the police arrest him!”

”Old lady, listen to what you’re saying. How can ordinary people casually bother the police officers? Same as before - we’ll wait here, you make the calls. We’ll leave after two hours, so don’t get worked up, alright?” The yellow-haired young man said as he tried to squeeze past Xu Huo to enter.

Xu Huo pressed down on his shoulder, and the yellow-haired young man cried out as he knelt on the ground. The two people outside immediately threw punches when they saw this, but Xu Huo deflected them and slapped each one across the face, then followed them inside.

”Instead of going after the actual debtor, you come to harass two elderly people. Do you have nothing better to do?” Xu Huo sat on a low stool while the three young men crouched before him with their heads in their hands. The yellow-haired one said, ”We didn’t mean to trouble Professor Lin either. Brother Jie went to find Zhang Dong - we just came here to try our luck. The old lady previously recognized Zhang Dong as her godson, and the loan used her documents!”

”Things aren’t very stable outside these days. Running around everywhere looking for someone over two hundred thousand yuan - aren’t you afraid you’ll run into trouble?” Xu Huo looked at the photocopied IOU, ”Brother Jie, he used to be an errand runner at the former Longxing underground market, right?”

The yellow-haired one cautiously raised his head, ”Big brother, do you know our Brother Jie?”

”We’ve dealt with each other before, had a good relationship.” Xu Huo thought for a moment, ”He even sent me gifts during the New Year.”

The three young men looked pleased upon hearing this, and the yellow-haired one quickly said, ”So big brother is friends with Brother Jie! Then we won’t hide it from you - actually, Zhang Dong robbed two bars and ran off. We heard he became an Evolver, so we couldn’t catch him. That’s why we’re out here looking everywhere for people.”

”Can you handle Evolvers?” Xu Huo took Zhang Dong’s photo and identity information, ”Alright, you can leave now. Don’t come back here again.”

The yellow-haired one wanted to say something more, but when he met Xu Huo’s icy cold gaze, he swallowed his words and left with his two companions.

”Won’t this cause trouble for you?” Professor Lin asked anxiously, ”Actually, these young fellows haven’t done anything too excessive. Everything in the house was emptied out before.”

”Move somewhere else.” Xu Huo said, ”The country’s regulatory measures for Evolvers aren’t complete yet. Living in places with mixed company isn’t safe.”

He took out a card, ”There’s several tens of thousands in here. I’ll leave you my phone number - send me the address after you move. I might need to trouble you again in the future.”

Professor Lin felt both grateful and afraid, hesitating before saying, ”I really can’t help you with anything else...”

”Just staying alive is enough.” Xu Huo left the Red Star Community and went to a nursing home in the suburbs according to the address Professor Lin had given him.

The female doctor’s son worked at this nursing home. After explaining his purpose, he brought Xu Huo to where the female doctor was resting.

”My mother doesn’t really recognize people anymore.” Liao Xu said, ”She did mention things about the Seventeenth Hospital before, but she spoke very little about it. I don’t know much either.”

”Everything she brought out when she was fired from the hospital was burned.”

”He’s not.” Professor Lin said first, ”You should leave quickly. There really aren’t any valuable things left in my house. Go find Zhang Dong - he’s the one who borrowed the money, it has nothing to do with us.”

”She burned it herself.” Liao Xu said, ”I remember she was very angry back then. After her outburst, she burned everything she had brought out.”

”Do you know if your mother had a lover at the Seventeenth Hospital?” Xu Huo asked.

Liao Xu was instead taken aback, ”Although my parents divorced very early, I’ve never heard her mention remarrying or having anyone she was involved with all these years. However, she was relatively happy during her time working at the Seventeenth Hospital.”

”She never mentioned other colleagues?” Xu Huo asked again.

”Occasionally she did, and she complained about another female colleague being difficult to get along with.” Liao Xu thought carefully, ”I don’t really remember anything else.”

Xu Huo walked up to the female doctor and bent down to look at her, ”How many doctors were at the Seventeenth Hospital?”