Chapter 26 Chapter 26 City of Memory

Shen Qinyan suddenly appeared in front of the window, standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, the light fell on his snow-like profile, like an incomprehensible metaphor. Along the way, my eldest brother and I didn't make a sound. I was thinking about what Shen Qinyan would say to Uncle Yao and Aunt Yao—fleeing in fear of crime?Explain things clearly with Yao Yao?What the hell is going on!I bit my nails and thought, their family relationship is so bad, will it rise to violence? Half an hour later, I called Shen Qinyan, and he said that he had left the hospital and now went to the film company.

As for how the conversation with Uncle Yao's father and Aunt Yao went, he replied: "There is no progress." He exhaled again, "Frozen three feet does not happen in a day." My elder brother is much more patient than me, and he didn't talk about it in the car at all, and he didn't call sister Yao either.It wasn't until we went back to Shengxuan and entered the office that the eldest brother took off his suit and said, "Tell me what you know." When my elder brother asked me, I naturally knew everything and told my elder brother everything I knew——Yao Yao and Shen Qinyan are step-siblings who are not related by blood. The two had a deep grudge back then. Part of the reason why Shen Qinyan left was because of Yao Yao. .It's just that when I talked about "Yao Yao asked someone to follow and blackmail Shen Qinyan", I hesitated for a while.The relationship between Shen Qinyan and Yao Yao is obviously at odds, and one of them is my boyfriend, and the other has an inextricable relationship with my elder brother. Our positions seem to be at odds.

Sure enough, after listening to the eldest brother, his expression was complicated and difficult to distinguish. He leaned on the back of the chair and thought for a while, then shook his head, "Yao Yao will not blackmail Shen Qinyan." I sat in front of his desk, took out the notebook from my satchel, turned it on, brought up the page, and put it on my brother’s three-meter-wide desk, “I hacked that person’s computer, you can see it yourself. Yao Yao's own signature cannot be faked!" The eldest brother glanced at the screen and rubbed his temples. "I'm not saying that it's fake to hire a private detective, but there's probably something else behind the blackmail."

"But I—" The eldest brother waved his hand and stopped my words. "She hired a detective to investigate Shen Qinyan and found you. Therefore, she knew that Shen Qinyan was your boyfriend before I did." The elder brother tapped his finger on the table and continued, "On the weekend after a week, you will be on Baisha Road. When I met her, she was knocking on the door of No. 15, and said that I asked her to pick up the documents; after she separated from you, she called and told me that her parents came to Jinghai and could not see you and your boyfriend. After I had dinner with you that night, she called me and asked me out, and she broke up with me."

"Well... that's right." "She would break up with me, and her mood was very unstable. At that time, I thought it was my fault." The eldest brother leaned back heavily in the chair, "Now it seems that she didn't want to meet Shen Qinyan, so she broke up with me." "Shen Qinyan said that he and Yao Yao have deep grievances, and it seems that sister Yao is also secretive about him." I said, "I don't know why the step-siblings under the same roof became like this." "Not every pair of brothers and sisters in the world are you and me."

Shen Qinyan also said the same. "There are many reasons why the two of them don't want to meet," the elder brother said lightly, "but the matter of blackmail should have nothing to do with Yao Yao. Blackmail is a manifestation of threats and demonstrations. If she really wants to threaten Shen Qinyan, she will directly Put forward the requirements of 'we don't need to meet' and 'let's pretend to be strangers when we meet again' instead of money. If Yao Yao really cared about money, she wouldn't break up with me." I have to say that the big brother's analysis is very reasonable.

"But Shen Qinyan firmly believes that Yao Yao ordered it." The eldest brother glanced at me, "You said that they have deep grievances. If people's prejudices exist, it is absolutely impossible to judge a person rationally." I frowned and pondered carefully. "Anyway, extortion is a crime," the eldest brother picked up the phone, "you should call the police." With a twitch in the corner of my eyes, I pressed his hand, "There's no need to call...he's already in prison." The eldest brother didn't remember it at first, so he said, "How do you know?" Suddenly, he stared at me with a serious expression, "What did you do?"

I was silent. The eldest brother slapped the table, and his anger rushed over like mountains and seas, "Du Li, why are you pretending to be dumb!" I can't hide it anymore, I licked the corner of my mouth, and said in a low voice: "I, I put a copy of... um... a more important file... He is now... probably already by someone from the Security Bureau. I took it away... I'm afraid it won't be a year or two... I won't be able to get out..." "Du Li!" The eldest brother got out of his seat angrily, "You use your skills to frame people?!" "Why, how can it be considered a false accusation..." My voice was just a little louder, and then fell again, "The charge of extortion...will be sentenced to several years in court...I, I have given him a good deal..."

"That should be determined by the law," he said sullenly, turning around the room a few times angrily, "it's not you who set up a private court and act recklessly!" "I'm just punishing him..." "The result of reckless behavior is to burn yourself, do you know that?" The elder brother stared at me, "You can't avoid it every time!" "...No," I muttered in a low voice, "the Security Bureau can't find me." "You know what I mean." The eldest brother finally calmed down. I lowered my face, and opened my mouth after a while: "I know... I shouldn't have done this, but at that time, I was so angry, and I thought Shen Qinyan was going to break up with me..." I lowered my head and murmured , "Even if we break up, I don't want to leave troubles and threats to him, so... I used some extreme methods..."

"A Li, you are really..." The eldest brother let out a long breath, with a look of hatred for iron, "For Shen Qinyan, even my own bottom line has been ruined!" I can't say a word. Fortunately, he didn't have a chance to continue scolding me because his cell phone rang. The eldest brother grabbed the phone and started talking to the person on the other end of the line. "Yes, it's me. She's not here, what's wrong?" The elder brother's face changed drastically, "What! Missing?! I'll check right away, don't worry." The eldest brother hung up the phone, met my gaze, "Yao Yao is missing."

Yao Yao was originally infused with glucose in the doctor's lounge. After one bottle was finished, Uncle Yao went to the lounge to see Yao Yao, but found that she was not in the room.Doctors and nurses said that she looked hurried and went downstairs alone.Uncle Yao was worried about her health and called her cell phone, but she turned it off.Afterwards, Uncle Yao contacted her work unit, colleagues and friends, including us naturally, but the news he got was that he hadn't seen her. Uncle Yao then called the police.Because apart from Yao Yao's poor health, Shen Qinyan's appearance in the ward greatly stimulated her, and she was afraid that she would do something to hurt herself if she couldn't think about it for a while.But the police believe that she just left the hospital for a few hours, and the mobile phone may have been turned off because of a dead battery, which is not a case at all.The police force is limited, and they are now inseparable. Although it was very embarrassing to see the family dispute in Yao's family just now, Uncle Yao had no choice but to ask everyone he could think of. I also think what the police said makes sense. Yao Yao is an adult and a lawyer, so it doesn't matter if she leaves for a few hours. "Uncle Yao is a criminal judge. He has been sitting on the bench longer than your age." The elder brother rang the bell to call the assistant into the room without even raising his head. "You can't ignore a person who has dealt with crime all his life." intuition." I snorted, "Uncle Yao is too nervous, look at his attitude towards Qin Yan today, he doesn't look like a judge, it's just...it's extremely bad!" The eldest brother remained silent, and said with frowned in thought, "Call Shen Qinyan first and ask where he is." "Oh...he said he went to the film company this afternoon." "I tell you to call!" I was taken aback by my elder brother's fierce attitude, so I could only make a phone call. It was Sister Nan who answered the call. She said that Shen Qinyan was talking to the producer, and then transferred the phone to him half a minute later. When I told the whole story, he was shocked when he heard it, he was silent for a long time, and then said: "Missing? She didn't look for me." I told my elder brother that Yao Yao didn't look for Shen Qinyan. The eldest brother walked around the room a few times, looking at me with determination, "Use your mobile phone to check." "But sister Yao didn't turn it on." "I know," the so-called care is chaotic, the eldest brother obviously affected his mood, and his tone was a little irritable, "but I can know it as soon as she turns on the phone." My resistance is futile, so I can only do what my elder brother wants—I think, in fact, my elder brother and I are the same. When we care about a person, we don't care about the so-called standards and bottom line. Yao Yao didn't turn it on, but I found out that she turned it off around five o'clock in the afternoon.The last place before shutting down was the intersection 200 meters outside the Esther Medical Center.The eldest brother analyzed the satellite map and believed that after Yao Yao woke up from a coma, she left the hospital alone without notifying her parents. "She didn't come by car, but walked outside the gate of the medical center," the eldest brother pointed at the screen. "It's an intersection two hundred meters away, and there are many taxis. She got into the taxi and turned off her phone." I called Xiao Yang. He was having dinner outside with his colleagues. After I explained the disappearance, he said "hmm" and said that he would send me the video of the camera at that intersection in half an hour. "Thank you, senior." He was confused, "What happened to you?" I just laughed awkwardly. "By the way," Xiao Yang said, "Today my colleague asked me to handle the notebook of a certain survey subject." I listened quietly. "The notebook itself is not important, the evidence is solid," Xiao Yang's tone was as calm as a computer's voice, "but what is interesting is that during the interrogation, he confessed that he often used his professional convenience to blackmail the people under investigation. For example, he recently blackmailed a A famous actor." I said softly, "Thank you, senior." "Ok." An hour later, Xiao Yang sent me a video record, which showed that Yao Yao got into a taxi at 5:00 pm.The GPS records of the taxi showed that she sat in the car for three hours, wandered aimlessly through the streets and alleys of Jinghai, and finally stopped somewhere by the sea.After that, the information is no longer available. The eldest brother grabbed his clothes, "Let's go." "Where are you going?" "seaside." It took a long time to go to the beach, the driver drove the car very fast, my elder brother and I sat in the back seat, with my small notebook on my lap, and I checked to see if Yao Yao had turned on her mobile phone. Jinghai has a coastline of nearly 300 kilometers, and 30% of the area has extremely high-quality seaside beaches. The southern section is especially charming-the harbor has more than 50 twists and turns, and the sand is white and soft. , The sea water is crystal clear.Beside the coastal promenade, there are many well-arranged private villas.We arrived at the place where the taxi stopped, which happened to be the central headland of the harbour.No matter from which corner you look, you can see the winding seaside road and groups of villas and holiday cottages. We got out of the car, and I looked around in confusion, "What is Sister Yao Yao doing here?" Although it is October, there are not many people on vacation at the seaside in this season, but as far as the eye can see, in the dark night, there are still lights on more than ten houses near and far.Two lonely street lights sprinkled on the road on the seashore, illuminating the waves on the shore.The waves are like soldiers advancing one after another, sacrificing one by one on the reefs on the shore. The gentle sea breeze gently blew the eldest brother's hair, and the eldest brother said: "Look around one by one, starting from the nearest one." My laptop ding-dong. I opened the notebook and took a closer look, "Hey, sister Yao is on." The address displayed on her mobile phone was three kilometers away from the seaside boulevard where we were. I obtained the coordinates and entered them into the car's navigation system. After a minute, the mobile phone shut down again.It should be that she temporarily turned on the mobile phone to contact people. This news made the elder brother obviously relieved. The ability to turn on and off the phone shows that sister Yao still has a sense of autonomy, at least she can move. The distance of three kilometers is just an instant. Before the car stopped, I saw a small holiday cottage in the bushes 100 meters away from the road, with overgrown trees and plants, dim and quiet under the moonlight. "Go and see." I took my elder brother's arm and walked along the seaside path towards the holiday cottage.As I got closer, I felt that the hut looked exquisite and lovely.I could see the windows open, the blue curtains flapping softly against the wooden panes with the sea breeze. A little closer, faint voices came along the wind. "...pretending to faint is still the old trick." "...I can't help it, Du Zhe is also here..." "...I didn't want to worry about the past with you, but you actually hired a private detective to follow and blackmail me?" I was stunned, it was the voices of Shen Qinyan and Yao Yao. I instinctively wanted to speed up my pace and rush to the door. My elder brother grabbed my arm and said, "Go to the window." The hut is built on a rocky foundation about 70 to 80 centimeters from the ground. The bottom line of the windows is at the same height as the elder brother's head. As long as people in the house don't stand by the window and look down, they will never see us.The chatter in the room continued. "...Blackmail?" Yao Yao objected violently, "No, no, no! I didn't let Guo Yi do that." Shen Qinyan didn't answer. After the terrible silence, Yao Yao's aura almost disappeared, her voice was so weak that she seemed to have nothing, but her reason was still there, and she spoke in an orderly manner. "I read the news that you broke up with An Lu, and I thought, will you have a new girlfriend? I hired Guo Yi, and I terminated the contract after I learned about your new girlfriend and address from him... ...Guo Yi blackmailed you, I didn't know it. I really didn't lie to you...How could I tell him what happened back then? He is a private detective, and he has a way to find out some details..." Shen Qinyan said calmly: "As expected, you will deny it." I couldn't help but move my body, stood in the bushes and tried to look inside the house on tiptoe, only to see the bright chandelier and the closet in the corner. "Don't you believe me?" Listening to the voice, Yao Yao cried. "How stupid do I have to be to believe you again?" Shen Qinyan laughed.The Shen Qinyan I know has always had facial paralysis, with very little expression on his face, and his voice is not high when he speaks, always so low and sweet.At this time, his laughter revealed a strong sarcasm and ridicule. "It's true this time! I really didn't lie to you." "A liar who thinks his words are credible?" Shen Qinyan suddenly appeared in front of the window, standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows, the light fell on his snow-like profile, like an incomprehensible metaphor. I wince in horror. But he turned his face sideways, apparently not seeing us who were leaning against the wall. He said heavily: "Do you think I'm still the one who was framed by you and forced to run away from home?" Yao Yao's cry was so miserable in the dark night, "I, I know you won't believe anything I say, but think about it, I'm more afraid of being leaked than you are about what happened back then. I'm afraid that Du Zhe will know, I love him so much, he will never forgive me when he knows what happened back then." The elder brother's breathing suddenly became heavy, and I hugged the elder brother's arm tightly. "I'm not afraid of being blackmailed, but your tricks are still as despicable as before." Shen Qin said after a while, "I was framed by you and ran away from home. No. You must be very happy." "What happened back then, Shen Qinyan, I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything about it. I was only fifteen years old, I didn't understand anything, and I was too self-willed... If my father found out that I was pregnant, he would kill me..." She cried, "Dad's tantrum is terrible, all I can say is that the child is yours... sorry." The elder brother's body froze, I heard his heavy breathing, and his whole body seemed to be frozen. After a long, long silence, Shen Qinyan whispered: "Because you are ignorant, so you can destroy my cello again and again and prevent me from learning music? I deserve it because of the child in your belly who doesn't know who his father is. Beaten to death by your father? Because you are Yao Yao, should I be sacrificed?" "...I know, I'm wrong... I haven't had a good time all these years. Why do you think I have to follow you all the time? I am tortured by guilt all day long, and I hope to be forgiven by you. I don't want to live with Du Zhe with my sins on my back Happy days," Yao Yao burst into tears, "After I knew that Ali was your girlfriend, I had to break up with Du Zhe...how could I blackmail you?" Listening to her miserable cry, I remembered a sentence I read a long time ago. Memory says "I did that", but pride says "How could I do that", and the two are not giving in to each other.Therefore, the things that are most firmly remembered in memory are the things that one wants to forget. "Shen Qinyan, have you never reflected on yourself? Do you really think that you are not wrong at all?" Yao Yao's voice sounded particularly miserable in the night sky, "You are arrogant and conceited, relying on your own talent, you look down on our family Everyone. My dad is not good to you, but you never called him 'Dad'. You leave early and come back late, only care about your cello, how many times have you eaten at the same table with us since you were young? I have always I want to take the initiative to show love to you, but you think I'm treacherous just because I have a good relationship with the boy you hate, and never talk to me. You don't know what you look like when you look at me. The room was kicked out, and I borrowed a book from you, and you didn't even give me the corner of your eye! You would rather play the cello in front of outsiders than play for a minute in your own home..." Yao Yao was sobbing, and she said these words intermittently, "Shen Qinyan, for so many years, you have stood on the victim's side, you must feel that you are innocent and innocent, and you have a sense of superiority. When you face Du Li Naturally, we can be fearless. And all of us are cruel perpetrators, so I deserve to be scolded by you in front of you, I deserve to break up with Du Zhe, and end up dying alone. Right?" In the extreme silence, the bright moon hangs in the sky, like a light ink watercolor painting, only the nocturnal chirping of insects can be heard. "I will selectively tell Du Li about these things with you. However, I never thought of telling Du Zhe about your past. Du Zhe is Du Li's eldest brother. The grievances and grievances between me and you are now gone. It's not about the two of us, it also involves their brothers and sisters. After they know the truth, it is impossible not to have a negative impact on them. I don't want Du Li to be hurt in the slightest. Bad brothers and sisters, our pair is enough. If If it wasn't for being blackmailed, I wouldn't have come to you at all." Yao Yao's crying gradually stopped. "Shen Qinyan, I really didn't do the blackmail. Let's confront Guo Yi tomorrow." "The truth is not important anymore." Shen Qin said, "I just want you to do one thing, tell my mother the truth back then." "...After all, you still don't believe me," Yao Yao said softly, "Do I have any other choice? There must be a camera in this room." Shen Qinyan didn't answer. After the sound of steady footsteps, the wooden door creaked and pushed open. He walked down the steps, stood on the lawn in front of the wooden house, and stood motionless for a long time.His whole body was bathed in the moonlight, and his slender figure was shrouded in light blue luster, like a beautiful freehand figure painting.He exhaled lightly, as if he had finally let go of something on his mind. My eldest brother and I finally recovered from the petrified state. We looked at each other and lowered our heads at the same time. The elder brother sighed lightly. I hugged my elder brother's arm, trying to transfer all the energy in my body to him. At night by the seaside, the sound of breathing was louder than the waves and could be heard clearly.Shen Qinyan's body shook and he turned around slowly. For some reason, I had an instinct to hide myself—but it was too late.The dwarf bushes can't stop me and my eldest brother as two adults. His figure froze for three seconds, and then he walked towards us with big strides. He hoarsely asked my elder brother and me: "Ali, elder brother, did you all hear that?" I was in a hurry, and stammered: "Qin...Qin Yan, I didn't mean to follow you, because Uncle Yao called us and said that Sister Yao was missing, we were afraid that she would do something stupid, so... that's why we found this place .” He shook his head, "No, it's okay." He turned to his elder brother and spread out his palm, it was a memory card.Without saying a word, he broke off the memory card and threw it on the ground.At first I didn't want to understand what it was, but seeing his action, I finally realized that it was probably the memory card of the camera equipment in the house.During this process, he and his elder brother didn't speak a word. The elder brother didn't say a word, he just waved his sleeves and walked into the holiday cabin. Shen Qinyan reached out and hugged me. I don't know why, but I feel like crying - in front of Shen Qinyan, I cried three times.The first two times were because of grievances and bitterness, but this time - I don't know why I want to cry. I said hoarsely, "It doesn't feel good to know the truth." Shen Qinyan took my hand and walked towards the car in the corner in front of the house, "Let's go home." "But, I'm worried about my elder brother..." "Let's go to the car and wait for them to come out." The autumn night was also very cold, Shen Qinyan turned on the heater, and opened his mouth before I could speak. "When did you come? How much have you heard?" "... almost heard it all." He held my hand, "I never liked Yao Yao. "When I was seventeen and Yao Yao was fifteen, she got pregnant by accident. When she had a miscarriage, she was caught by an acquaintance. She was frightened and told my mother and stepfather that I raped her. The father of the child was me. Endure without breaking family unity." "Your stepfather believed her?" Shen Qinyan was silent for a while, "Yes. I didn't understand why both my stepfather and my mother would rather believe her than me, but now I finally understand." "For so many years, as she said, I felt innocent and innocent," he said in a low voice. "Now that Yao Yao gave me a slap in the face, I realized that I was at fault too. Rejection is mutual, and it's the worst kind of thing you can think of. I hate everyone in the Yao family, I hate my mother remarried, I hate them from the bottom of my heart. They naturally hate me too. I never gave the Yao family a good look, but Yao Yao called me happily Mother 'Mother'. My hatred was like a rock out of the ground, indifference accumulated day by day, loathing increased year by year...and finally exploded enough to destroy a family." I think, I can understand the sentiment. He is like the psychiatrist in "Looking for Him in the Crowd", trapped in the city of memory, guarding the only truth alone, and never letting go. "In the afternoon, I thought your elder brother had already broken up with her, so my worries were much smaller. So I want to take you to confront Yao Yao, so that you can learn the truth from her—my own defense is too weak .But then I saw her appearing with your elder brother..." I nodded, trying to connect the cause and effect of the afternoon's chaotic scene. Shen Qinyan thought that Yao Yao and elder brother had reconciled, because he didn't want to affect me and elder brother, so he held back. It happened that Yao Yao fainted, and the questioning obviously couldn't continue; and Yao Yao was already nervous, seeing Shen Qinyan appearing in In the ward, he was afraid that his eldest brother would expose what happened back then, so he simply pretended to be dizzy. "I knew she was pretending to be dizzy, so I sent her a message to ask her to meet here alone tonight. We have to talk clearly. When I was young, I ran away out of righteous indignation, but I didn't expect that my stepfather From my mother's point of view, it's no different from absconding in fear of crime. I can't be misunderstood for another ten years." He's right, there aren't many decades in one's life. "I...I don't know how to say it," I held his hand, "It's not your fault, it's sister Yao's fault...but..." "what?" I said in a low voice, "I think Sister Yao has changed her mind. She really didn't ask Guo Yi to do the blackmailing. Also, Guo Yi can no longer blackmail you." Shen Qinyan's eyes flashed, "What did you do?" I pursed my lips and refused to answer. He wanted to say something, but in the end he just shook his head with a smile and reached out to hug me. "This is not an example." "Ok--" Right and wrong back then were an unsolvable equation.Whether my behavior is correct or not, there is no answer.The answer may only exist in our memory.And all the things in the world are connected by invisible chains of memory, loss and love, entangled forever. Later, I saw my elder brother and Yao Yao come out one after the other. The two of them had their backs to the light, and their expressions were not clear. They walked slowly to the seaside boulevard and got into the car.Our car followed and drove all the way to the city. At night, the dew on the seaside was heavy, and a layer of white mist condensed on the windows. On the way back, Shen Qinyan drove the car. He drove steadily and crossed the sea-crossing bridge.And I, unknowingly, fell asleep leaning against the seat, and slept well. In a daze, I felt a jolt, and when I opened my eyes, I realized that I had arrived home.Shen Qinyan was going upstairs with me behind his back, his steps were very steady.Obviously I can walk by myself, but I just don't want to get down, I hugged him tightly, buried my head on his neck, and just kept silent. He suddenly said: "Du Li, it is my greatest luck to meet you in this life." "No," I pressed against his ear, "I'm the luckiest one." "Will you stay with me?" "Yes, forever."