Chapter 160: Flustered Su Yuqing
"Hello..." Su Yuqing’s voice trembled slightly as she answered the phone.
She was terrified that her guess would turn out to be true.
But after she answered, her mother’s voice on the other end sounded perfectly normal.
"Is that you, Yuqing?"
Hearing that name, Su Yuqing knew it was just her mom in her usual state of mind calling.
"It’s me, Mom," she replied, her voice still trembling.
"How are things going at Chen Mo’s place?" Li Fengzhi asked, checking in on her daughter.
She had run into Chen Mo earlier and only heard his side of the story; she still wanted to hear what her daughter had to say.
"They’re fine," Su Yuqing replied flatly.
"Chen Mo isn’t mistreating you, is he?" Li Fengzhi was quite direct.
"Of course not..." As she spoke, Su Yuqing stole a glance at Chen Mo. Seeing that he wasn’t watching her on the phone, she took a small step away and whispered, "He’s been wonderful to me."
Hearing the shyness in her daughter’s voice, Li Fengzhi could more or less sense Su Yuqing’s feelings for Chen Mo.
She could also tell that the boy hadn’t been mistreating her daughter.
That put her mind at ease, and she began to gather her thoughts, preparing to talk about what happened tonight.
"That’s good." After Li Fengzhi said that, she suddenly fell silent.
After a moment of silence, Su Yuqing curiously pulled the phone away from her ear to look at it, thinking her mother might have hung up.
But seeing the call was still connected, she put the phone back to her ear and asked curiously, "Mom, was there something you wanted to talk about?"
Seeing her mother fall silent so suddenly, Su Yuqing immediately asked out of curiosity.
By now, her panic had subsided considerably. Judging by her mother’s tone and condition, it didn’t sound like she was having an episode and about to demand that Su Yuqing come home immediately.
Considering her mother’s illness, Su Yuqing was still deeply worried that if her mother had an uncontrolled episode, she might do something to harm herself.
"Well..." Li Fengzhi hesitated before finally saying, "About what happened tonight... Your Uncle Li Gang wants to apologize to Chen Mo on behalf of your Uncle Li Tie."
Li Tie was now facing an attempted murder charge, which was no small matter.
But in a case of attempted murder, if there was no injury, if the victim offered forgiveness, and if the perpetrator actively admitted guilt and offered compensation, then his culpability would be significantly reduced.
Even though Li Tie was in the wrong, Li Gang was his older brother, after all.
He couldn’t just stand by and watch his younger brother’s life be ruined.
After all, his brother’s factory was doing well. If he just kept working hard, finding a wife through a matchmaker wouldn’t have been a problem.
But now, because of some twisted notion of love, things had come to this. He was heartbroken and frustrated.
He would rather send his brother to a hospital for psychiatric treatment than see him locked up in prison with no way out.
"Uncle Li Tie?" Su Yuqing was completely bewildered by her mother’s words.
From any angle, Li Tie and Chen Mo seemed like two people from completely different worlds who would never cross paths.
How on earth did they get tangled up together?
Suddenly, Su Yuqing remembered that after school that afternoon, Chen Mo had asked her about Li Tie.
At the time, she had found it strange. Why would Chen Mo suddenly be concerned about someone he barely had any connection with?
’It seems now that the two of them must have met somewhere and had some sort of conflict.’
She immediately asked her mother, "Did something happen?"
"Yes. Your Uncle Li Tie went to Chen Mo’s house tonight..." Li Fengzhi paused, then said, "He nearly stabbed Chen Mo to death with a knife."
"What!?" Su Yuqing froze on the spot, as if struck by lightning.
The next moment, she threw all caution to the wind, frantically running forward to catch up with Chen Mo, who had deliberately put a few steps between them.
Hearing her footsteps, Chen Mo was about to turn around when a fragrant scent rushed to his nose.
The next second, Su Yuqing grabbed both of his hands.
Frantically yet carefully, she began to check him for injuries.
Seeing no injuries there, she immediately looked at his exposed collarbones, neck, and head.
When she found no injuries there either, she grew bolder and lifted his shirt to check his body.
"Yuqing, what are you doing?" Seeing the surprised stares from people around them, even the thick-skinned Chen Mo couldn’t help but blush. He quickly grabbed Su Yuqing’s small hands, stopping her from fumbling all over his body.
Only then did Su Yuqing snap back to her senses and realize she had overreacted.
She said, her voice filled with lingering fear, "Mom just called... She said... she said Uncle Li Tie almost stabbed you to..."
Su Yuqing couldn’t bring herself to say the word "death." She couldn’t even imagine such a scene.
"Silly girl, I was able to come pick you up from school, so obviously I’m fine. Don’t worry."
Chen Mo smiled and ruffled Su Yuqing’s hair.
Thinking it over, she realized he was right, and she finally felt at ease.
Just then, Su Yuqing picked up her phone again, only to see that her mother had already hung up.
Seeing this, Su Yuqing put her phone away and looked at Chen Mo nervously. "What on earth happened? Why would Uncle Li Tie suddenly try to hurt you?"
Su Yuqing recalled the Uncle Li Tie from her memories. He had always been such a kind, friendly, and approachable adult.
He was always so good to her and Li Mingyu, always smiling, and never put on the airs of a grown-up.
Being around him was always very comfortable.
’How could such a good person suddenly turn into an attacker?’
Su Yuqing simply couldn’t wrap her head around it.
It could only be said that she still knew too little about the darker side of human nature.
After becoming a criminal detective, Chen Mo had seen too many bizarre cases and motives for crime.
He remembered watching Detective Conan and thinking that the criminals’ motives were often ridiculous. ’How could people like that exist in real life?’
But after becoming a detective and handling or hearing about a vast number of cases, he learned that reality was often stranger and more fantastical than fiction.
Almost any trivial issue could become a reason for violence.
The most absurd case he had ever handled was about a person who simply glanced at someone walking toward them on the street.
He wasn’t even looking intentionally; he just happened to glance in that direction.
As they passed each other, that person stabbed him.
The victim didn’t even realize he had been stabbed.
It wasn’t until he had walked a few more steps and felt his pants getting wet that he realized his femoral artery had been severed.
His friend quickly called for an ambulance, but in the end, he couldn’t be saved.
At the time, even his friend didn’t realize that the injury had been inflicted by the person who had just brushed past them.
Reality was just that absurd.
That was why Chen Mo could now face any criminal’s motive with a level head. It was also why, on the night he returned, he had been able to include everyone he saw in his range of suspicion.