Why are you laughing?

Madam Luo sat stiffly, her face deathly pale. The expression on her face at that moment was quickly engulfed by terror, and her look became dazed once again.

She shook her head desperately. Her eyes, which had just regained a bit of clarity, were about to fall back into the madness of an episode. She pushed the crowd away with all her might, about to flee in a panic, but her arm was suddenly grabbed by the nurse behind Xun Zhen.

The people Xun Zhen had brought were long accustomed to dealing with all kinds of patients. They controlled her without much effort and put her back on the hospital bed.

The nurse skillfully disinfected the crook of Madam Luo’s elbow and flicked the needle twice.

“You…” Luo Cheng trembled. She was so scared she couldn’t stand, and she stammered, “What… what are you going to inject her with?”

Xun Zhen raised his head and exchanged a look with Ming Lu behind the crowd.

He turned the label of the saline bag into his palm. “A new drug. After the injection, it can make people tell the truth.”

As soon as his voice fell, the color drained from Madam Luo’s face in an instant.

She looked as if she had seen something particularly terrifying, staring at the needle, curling her body backward.

The nurse had just bent over when she suddenly began to struggle with even more hysterical terror than before. “Don’t… don’t!”

Luo Chengxiu pushed through the crowd and went over to hold her down.

His steps were staggering, and his whole body seemed to be soaked in a cold sweat. He was panting heavily, but he still clamped down on his wife’s shoulders with his own hands.

Madam Luo struggled constantly. She clearly couldn’t recognize people again. Her wildly flailing arms were surprisingly strong, and she desperately kept hitting her husband.

“Patriarch Luo,” Xun Zhen reminded him. “You should probably go to the hospital. There’s an ambulance downstairs.”

Luo Chengxiu’s condition was clearly not good. Xun Zhen didn’t want a death to occur here. “If you have chest tightness, chest pain, and heavy sweating, it could be a heart problem…”

“Make her tell the truth,” Luo Chengxiu interrupted with a rough gasp. He seemed to have heard nothing, just staring at his wife, his voice low and hoarse. “I want to hear the truth.”

Xun Zhen sighed softly.

He asked Luo Chengxiu, “Will this make you feel better?”

Luo Chengxiu shivered.

Xun Zhen’s words were inexplicably out of context. He shouldn’t have understood, yet he clearly knew what the other was saying. A chill even emanated from his very bones.

He suddenly raised his head, his bloodshot eyes staring at Xun Zhen.

“The culprit is here.” Xun Zhen gestured for the nurse to inject Madam Luo with saline, then looked at Luo Chengxiu. “But the perpetrator is here. Does deciding who is more heinous, who is more unforgivable, make you feel better?”

People with hysterical personality disorder experience very large emotional fluctuations, are highly self-centered, treat a large number of fantasies as reality, and are extremely susceptible to the verbal and behavioral suggestions of others… That’s why Xun Zhen deliberately said the saline was a truth serum. Madam Luo might really believe it.

But the other people in this family should at least be considered normal people. Shouldn’t they have the most basic logical thinking and discernment?

Since they had these abilities, why would they believe such a lie?

Taking a thousand steps back, even if they really believed that lie, was it really so heinous and unforgivable for a seven-year-old child?

“Patriarch Luo, I also have a son. He’s ten this year. When he’s being mischievous and fooling around, I’ve even thought about spanking his bottom until it blossoms.”

Xun Zhen said, “But if my son was lost for three years, even if he ran away on his own, even if it was really because he was willful… as long as I could get him back.”

“As long as I can get him back,” Xun Zhen said. “Even if he wanted to tear down the house, I would be the one helping him.”

Luo Chengxiu stared at him, his breathing so heavy it seemed he could choke on blood at any moment.

His throat moved with difficulty for a long time, but he couldn’t say anything, only his chest heaved laboriously.

“Patriarch Luo,” Xun Zhen still couldn’t help but ask. “You should have known long ago that Madam Luo’s emotions are often unstable, right?”

This matter was not difficult to deduce at all—under what circumstances, when a mother takes two children out and the children get lost, is it the seven-year-old brother who is held responsible?

There was only one answer: at that time, the seven-year-old boy was already very mature and steady, so steady that it made everyone subconsciously feel at ease.

Because he was already a particularly great, particularly reliable little man, everyone defaulted to the idea that the child should take care of his mother and younger sister.

Because that child was sensible far beyond his years, even though he was still at an age where he should be taken care of, he had already subconsciously made everyone around him feel that he should be the one to take care of others.

That day, it was Luo Zhi who took his mother and younger sister out.

So when Luo Zhi and his younger sister got lost, it was Luo Zhi who had to be responsible.

“You should go to the hospital quickly. I will get the truth from your wife and inform the Ming family.”

Xun Zhen said, “If you want to know, you can just go to the Ming family and ask when you’re better.”

“Fortunately… Mr. Luo didn’t grow up in your family at all.”

Xun Zhen lowered his head and turned to organize his medical kit. “My wife doesn’t let me have too much contact with you. She’s afraid that if I deal with your family, I’ll also become a cold-blooded monster.”

Luo Chengxiu felt as if he had been hit hard on the head by this sentence.

This time, he really felt the taste of blood in his throat. He slowly let go of his wife, stood up shakily, and walked out step by step.

He stared at Luo Cheng. He didn’t know how ferocious and terrifying he looked. In any case, Luo Cheng’s face was as white as if she had seen a ghost. She retreated two steps in panic and suddenly ran out without looking back.

The door of the living room downstairs slammed shut. Luo Cheng stumbled and fled out of the house.

Luo Chengxiu stopped the butler who was rushing to chase her. “Isn’t she an adult?”

“Yes,” the butler said in a panic. “But—”

“Let her go. Isn’t she afraid we’ll sell her?” Luo Chengxiu said in a low voice. “If you drag her back, she will hate you.”

The butler stood frozen in place.

Luo Chengxiu pressed his chest and walked out alone.

…He was thinking about the day Luo Zhi was found.

He was overwhelmed by business problems and extremely annoyed when he suddenly heard that the child who had been lost back then had been found, and it had even made some minor news.

Outside the office, someone, not knowing he was inside, made a rotten joke to the extreme: “The Luo family is no good… A child can even find his way back on his own, and the Luo family looked for three years and couldn’t find him? Did they look or not?”

“Maybe they just didn’t look at all? I haven’t seen their family care much about this matter.”

“Isn’t President Luo very capable? Who could tell, his son is lost, his wife is crazy?”

“He can’t even look after his own son. Never mind not being able to look after him, after he’s lost, he actually can’t find him, and let his son find his own way back.”

“Tsk tsk, you can’t judge a book by its cover…”

…

He was enraged by those words and fired the gossiping people on the spot, but a poisonous weed that could not be pulled out was still planted in his heart.

Luo Zhi’s very existence was proof of his failure, proof that he had failed to be a qualified father, failed to protect his family.

If Luo Zhi hadn’t gotten lost, everything about him, his career, his family, would have been perfect.

If Luo Zhi hadn’t come back, when people talked about the Luo family, at most they would only sigh for a mother who had lost her son, and a family that was a victim itself.

Luo Zhi came back to the Luo family on his own, turning everything into a joke full of mockery in the mouths of others.

So he just wanted him out of sight, out of mind.

…

He certainly achieved that.

He threw Luo Zhi far away where he couldn’t see him and never paid any attention to that son.

Luo Jun truly believed his wife’s words, believed that it was Luo Zhi who had led his sister away and gotten lost.

Luo Jun was studying abroad and had only seen his biological younger brother a few times. Instead, he had spent three years day and night with the adopted brother. Unconsciously, a sense of closeness and distance had formed… Coupled with this claim, the prejudice became even deeper.

According to Luo Jun, his wife had even secretly swapped Luo Zhi’s gift, making Luo Jun think all along that the gift was from Jian Huaiyi, making Luo Jun think that his biological younger brother would only cause trouble and make a mess, finally creating a rift that was difficult to cross.

Luo Cheng… Luo Cheng probably also truly believed her mother’s words, otherwise Luo Cheng wouldn’t have been so righteously mean to Luo Zhi.

Or maybe she didn’t need to. Luo Zhi had said that Luo Cheng’s temper was like her mother’s, and he had seen it for himself.

Without needing to know this matter, just by relying on the “misdeeds” of Luo Zhi that came from the mouths of her family, Luo Cheng could also be very mean to Luo Zhi.

…And him?

He certainly believed it, otherwise, for so many years, he wouldn’t have used this trumped-up charge to suppress Luo Zhi—he had even believed this claim eagerly.

So how could he be expected to analyze it, to verify it?

He wished these were all true.

Madam Luo might be ill, but his illness was more severe than Madam Luo’s.

The stone pressing on Luo Chengxiu’s chest grew heavier and heavier. He desperately opened his mouth to breathe, but no matter what, he couldn’t suck in any air. He shivered as he reached for the handrail of the stairs.

He suddenly heard his own angry rebuke.

Luo Chengxiu turned his head in a daze. He saw himself standing not far away, scolding a Luo Zhi whose hand had been stabbed through by his wife with a dinner fork.

He was questioning Luo Zhi, asking if he could ever be as worry-free as Huaiyi.

…Was he crazy?

Luo Chengxiu shook his head hard in disbelief. He opened his mouth but couldn’t make a sound. He watched as Luo Zhi spoke to himself and Luo Jun, word by word.

Luo Zhi said, it wasn’t him…

His wife suddenly rushed towards Luo Zhi.

Luo Chengxiu’s heart jumped heavily. He remembered what would happen next. He staggered and lunged forward, but couldn’t stop his wife’s shadow.

Luo Zhi was pushed down from the second floor right before his eyes.

His legs gave way, and he fell heavily to the ground. He rolled a few times, and the sharp pain that suddenly exploded in his chest finally engulfed him.

“Father,” Luo Jun’s voice said to him. “We deserved it.”

…

Director Gong’s documentary finally had the most suitable pilot trailer.

Luo Cheng woke up from the carpet.

Her head ached terribly. She sat up in a daze, looking blankly at the unlit room.

Memories returned intermittently. She gradually remembered what had happened before—she had finally learned that her mother had been lying all along, and her father had fallen ill from anger.

She was completely terrified, her mind a blank. When she came to her senses, she had already fled the house in a panic.

She found a hotel and hid inside, not daring to watch the news or go out. She only learned from the butler that her father had been rescued and was out of danger, then turned off her phone.

She hid in a daze for she didn’t know how long, maybe three to five days, maybe a week. The money in her card was almost gone. She still didn’t dare to go home, wandering outside blankly…

“Miss Luo,” someone suddenly spoke. “Are you awake?”

Luo Cheng was instantly seized by fear. She stared with wide, terrified eyes, but found she was so scared she couldn’t even make a sound, only trembling uncontrollably.

Where was she?!

Why was there someone else in the room?!

Luo Cheng stiffly turned her body. Finally, with the help of the dim light from outside the window, she vaguely made out some figures in the unlit room.

“I don’t know if you still remember me,” the other party said. “We met at Huaisheng Entertainment. I’m the manager of the artist department. My name is Fang Hang.”

“Huaisheng Entertainment is in a bit of trouble,” Fang Hang turned on the light. “President Jian would like to ask Miss Luo for a favor.”

Luo Cheng was blinded by the glaring light, her vision a blank.

She spoke several times before she managed to make a sound intermittently. “Help… help with what?”

Fang Hang was silent for a moment, then suddenly, slowly said a name: “Li Weiming.”

Luo Cheng seemed to have suddenly realized something. Her pupils shrank in an instant.

“Whatever favor Li Weiming helped with, President Jian asks Miss Luo to help with the same,” Fang Hang said. “That’s what President Jian instructed.”

Luo Cheng felt as if a hand was choking her throat.

She couldn’t understand at all how everything had become like this. Her mind was a mess, only the increasingly cold and deep fear pressed down on her, making it hard to breathe.

Jian Huaiyi… was going to harm her too?

No, Jian Huaiyi had been plotting against her from the very beginning.

Only now, she finally, bit by bit, figured this out.

Her father must hate her. Her mother was crazy. Big Brother… Big Brother now seemed to be able to listen to nothing but Luo Zhi. It was absolutely impossible to go back to school.

She couldn’t escape anywhere. Jian Huaiyi had finally tricked her until she had nothing left. Now it was her turn…

Luo Cheng trembled in terror. She kept struggling, trying to stand up, but her legs were too weak to obey her.

Fang Hang stood up and walked over. Luo Cheng dodged backward in despair, her trembling hands clutching the hem of her clothes tightly.

She stared at Fang Hang, her whole person almost completely submerged in fear, but then she was stunned by what the other person placed in front of her.

…

It was a tablet computer.

On it was the chat history with Gong Hanrou’s film crew, and an electronic contract.

Ren Chenbai had actually already signed the contract for her. As long as she said yes, she would be taken away for closed-door interviews, filming, and recording. If she wanted to quit again, she would have to pay a high penalty for breach of contract, otherwise the crew had the right to sue according to the contract.

“Please rest assured, this is not the room President Jian requested,” Fang Hang said. “We won’t do that. President Luo would probably come knocking on our window.”

His voice was very low. Luo Cheng was stunned for a long time before she finally reacted to who the “President Luo” he was talking about was.

…And connecting it with the inexplicable cold treatment from these people, Luo Cheng suddenly became flustered.

But Fang Hang had no intention of continuing this topic, just continuing to speak, “We have received the contract from Director Gong’s crew. We need your final consent.”

“You can continue to consider,” Fang Hang said. “Leave, or—”

Luo Cheng blurted out in a panic, “I’ll do it!”

She was even afraid the other party would go back on their word. She lunged forward and snatched the tablet, signing her name on the final electronic contract.

She just wanted to escape as soon as possible. She couldn’t hold on anymore. As long as she could escape from these terrifying nightmares, it didn’t matter where she escaped to—she did strongly fear coming into contact with what Luo Zhi had experienced, but those things were, after all, just filming. Could they be more desperate than these absurd nightmares she was facing now?

Luo Cheng signed that contract in a panic. She watched as Fang Hang took back the tablet and found that although the other party’s expression did not have the greed and malice that made her heart pound, it was not gentle either.

…A kind of extremely ominous, strange fear and unease quietly crept up her spine.

“In that case,” Fang Hang asked. “Miss Luo, would you like to see the pilot trailer?”

A cold chill flowed into Luo Cheng’s body, freezing her hands and feet.

…What pilot trailer?

Fang Hang turned off the light again and picked up the remote control. Only then did Luo Cheng realize that in front of them was a whole wall that was a projection screen.

A beam of light pierced through the dust in the room and hit the somewhat yellowed screen.

“Hysterical personality disorder,” Fang Hang held his phone, reading out the popular science explanation that the film crew had released along with the pilot trailer. “At least three of the following must be met.”

“High suggestibility, easily influenced by others,” Fang Hang read slowly. “Exaggerated expressions, posturing, shallow emotions.”

“Self-centered, only wanting others to conform to their own needs and will. Strongly dissatisfied at the slightest displeasure, publicly embarrassing the other party, even feeling that the other party is heinous.”

“Boasting about oneself, showing off oneself, not allowing one’s perfect image to be damaged.”

“Confusing imagination with reality, full of lies…”

The manifestations of hysterical personality disorder were of course not limited to these. The popular science explanation given by the film crew was sufficiently objective. This was also just a disease.

But this inexplicable artist department manager deliberately read a passage and then stopped, picking and choosing, which made it sound extremely sarcastic.

Luo Cheng finally couldn’t listen anymore and interrupted in a flurry, “That’s enough!”

Fang Hang looked up.

“Manager… Fang.”

Luo Cheng clenched her fists tightly, gritting her teeth. “I am very grateful to you. You saved me.”

She spoke with difficulty, “My mother is ill, but she is my mother after all. You can’t talk about her like this…”

“Miss Luo,” Fang Hang frowned and put down his phone. “Have you misunderstood something?”

“I don’t know any mother of yours.”

Fang Hang looked at her. “I was talking about you.”

Luo Cheng froze in place.

She was almost instantly shamed and angered to the extreme by this insult, on the verge of losing control and pointing at the other party to retort fiercely. But for some reason, she couldn’t make a single sound.

The light beam kept changing. The pilot trailer had already begun to get to the main point.

…

A boy held his sister’s hand with one hand, following behind his mother, coming out of the aquarium.

This pilot trailer was filmed based on the results of the Xun family’s treatment of the patient, using a large amount of blurring and long shots.

The actor was well-chosen. The boy’s figure was blurred, looking almost identical to Luo Chi.

This family, after coming out of the aquarium, seemed to have already had a rather unpleasant time.

—To be more precise, it was the little girl who was having a spoiled tantrum, and had clearly made her mother unhappy.

The boy was left in the middle of the two, and it seemed he was long accustomed to this situation. He skillfully bent down to coax his sister in a gentle voice, then led his sister to coax their mother.

As for why the tantrum… Madam Luo couldn’t say, and no one remembered.

How big of a deal could it be? A child of a few years old, it was nothing more than wanting something and not getting it bought, or not having had enough of some amusement park ride, unreasonably making a scene regardless of the occasion, and annoying the parents.

Fortunately, with the older brother in the middle coaxing, it didn’t get too out of hand. The family even went into a coffee shop.

Looking at that coffee shop, Luo Cheng’s face suddenly turned deathly pale.

The nightmares that had been relentlessly entangling her these days, that she had completely forgotten for so many years, climbed up from the depths of her memory bit by bit.

The boy sat at the table, a small cake in front of him, and a paper birthday crown placed on his head by his sister.

He looked very happy, even his earlobes were slightly red. He stroked his sister’s head and said thank you softly.

Luo Cheng stared fixedly at the shadow of the boy on the screen.

…She remembered what had happened at that time.

That day was Second Brother’s birthday.

That was of course not a proper birthday cake. The birthday was to be celebrated at home in the evening… the whole family would celebrate together.

She just had a whim, insisting on wishing Second Brother a happy birthday separately again, so her mother took them to the coffee shop.

But she wasn’t satisfied with the cake at the coffee shop. She liked the white one decorated with roses that she had seen at a street stall just now, so she kept grumbling and complaining in the coffee shop. Later, her mother was finally angered by her, and the two of them started arguing again. She always argued with her mother at that time, over anything. She ran out of the coffee shop in a huff to buy the cake she had chosen herself…

Luo Chi bought desserts for his mother and younger sister. He came back with the plates and found his sister was gone.

…

“The discussion is very heated. Many people find it ridiculous,” Fang Hang paused the video. “Just because of such a small thing.”

Just because of such a small thing, the child was lost.

But it was also because it was just such a small thing that the child was lost, so she had to lie to hide it.

…Otherwise, such a mistake was simply too absurd, too derelict in duty, and would be too much mocked and criticized by others.

Luo Cheng looked at the paused frame.

That frame was frozen on the cake and the paper birthday crown.

Luo Chi couldn’t persuade his mother to go find her, and was worried she would get lost on her own, so he ran out to find her himself.

“What can be done? The person involved is ill, after all.”

Fang Hang returned to the previous popular science explanation and read slowly, “Self-centered—especially when she is angry. Anyone who does not go along with her wishes is heinous in her eyes.”

He seemed to be reading the popular science explanation, seemed to be talking about Madam Luo.

But as Luo Cheng listened to him speak like that, her whole person seemed to be slowly dissected, and along that inconspicuous crack, something was being forcibly stripped off bit by bit.

Luo Cheng hid from the light of the projector. She was flustered and uneasy, pricked by the overly bright light, but she couldn’t escape it no matter what.

She felt as if she had been stripped of a layer of skin by that light.

“Miss Luo,” Fang Hang finally couldn’t help it. He put the remote control aside and looked at Luo Cheng. “Can I ask, what did President Luo do to you that was so excessive?”

He really wanted to understand this matter. “How excessive was it, for you to treat him like this?”

They had no idea that President Luo and Luo Cheng had this kind of relationship. That day, they were squatting in Luo Zhi’s office, helping the young boss snatch tickets. The few managers were all around thirty years old, all single-handedly promoted by Luo Zhi. They had accompanied Luo Zhi, burning the midnight oil to revive Huaisheng Entertainment. It was a friendship forged through staying up all night with dark circles, drinking coffee with goji berries.

Because Luo Zhi changed his mind in the last ten minutes, they were all dejected and silent.

“I asked you to come and help me snatch tickets for myself to go out and play.”

Young President Luo, free from the burden of snatching tickets, turned off a row of alarms and curled up on the sofa to play games. “Your reaction, it’s as if I just stood up our company’s employee benefits.”

They didn’t know what their reaction should be. They had watched Luo Zhi excitedly tell them a few days ago that he wanted to buy a cruise ticket to go out and play, staying up all night to have them help him snatch the tickets.

In the end, Luo Zhi nonchalantly gave up this birthday wish and spent money to buy a script for Luo Cheng.

…

Shortly after, so-called shareholders suddenly came to the company. Suddenly the sky changed, and suddenly Luo Zhi became the one everyone was denouncing—they couldn’t get in touch with Luo Zhi at all. The calls they made were inexplicably blocked.

They were actually ashamed to face Luo Zhi. They thought Luo Zhi was angry with them.

They had wanted to leave, but everyone had elderly and young to support. They didn’t have the qualification to do that kind of thing out of chivalry. They felt that Luo Zhi had every right to be angry with them.

Even if Young President Luo blocked each of their phone numbers, it was what they deserved.

Later, they finally heard that President Luo had been taken back by his childhood friend and was being well taken care of in a private hospital. They were finally, barely, relieved.

But where was the person?

Where was he taken care of?

Why was Luo Zhi sitting alone in the rain later?

Why was Luo Zhi pushed down in the live broadcast, and didn’t even have the strength to stand up?

“Why did you apologize to Li Weiming for him?” Fang Hang asked her. “On what grounds did you apologize for him? Do you know what he did?”

“What on earth did he do that was so heinous?”

“You all hate him so much. Can one of you clearly tell us what’s going on, and make us believe we followed the wrong person?”

“Can you explain this matter clearly? We don’t understand—”

Fang Hang forcefully pressed the remote control.

In the blurred long shot, the boy’s throat was hoarse from shouting his sister’s name.

He had looked everywhere but couldn’t find his sister. The sky was getting dark quickly. He looked at the last dark and remote alley, gritted his teeth, and ran in.

…The screen went dark here.

A title appeared on the pitch-black screen. It was a deep red flame, framed by a mourning border.

“Where is the person?” Fang Hang stared at him. “Miss Luo, your family found the lost child thirteen years ago.”

Fang Hang asked her, “Where is he?”