Fangar carried a bag of bread back to the Moon Bay community and climbed up the spiral staircase step by step. Building 1 in the daytime was completely different from Building 1 at night, like a sleeping beast, eerily quiet. The crimes hidden in the rooms on the fourth, seventh, and fourteenth floors seemed to have completely vanished under the scorching sun.
However, there was a surprise on the seventeenth floor, where two women in police uniforms were interrogating the female resident living on that floor. A young woman with glasses stood protectively in front of her son, gently and lovingly comforting him, while the aggressive female resident repeatedly shouted, "What's wrong with me hitting my son? Is it illegal? If he doesn't listen, am I not allowed to discipline him?"
The young woman wearing glasses was a teacher, who had a few classes to teach later, so she left earlier.
When helping the boy into the house, the policewoman, out of habit, looked around and noticed a tall figure standing at the dim staircase, with dark and deep eyes that were hard to forget.
"Mr. Fangar, you're back! I was just thinking if I would meet you today!" The policewoman was very surprised and delighted.
"Yes, it's been a long time." Fangar slowly walked to the door, his eyes focused on the boy who looked haggard but still had bright, eager eyes. His condition was worsening day by day, with sunken cheekbones, thin arms and legs, and numerous scars representing pain and guilt. This indicated that the violence in this family was escalating.
The policewoman also noticed his gaze and caressed the boy's head, sighing, "Mr. Fangar, you live on the eighteenth floor, you should be aware of their situation, right? His mother is abusive, hitting and scolding him every day and not giving him food, it's really pitiful."
"Don't say those things in front of the child." Fangar handed a bag of bread to the boy and gently touched his forehead with his index finger.
The boy immediately took the bread and his large eyes gleamed with delight. His life was fading, but his soul was still burning fiercely with a desperate hope, fueled by the daily provision of a piece of bread.
Feeling guilty, the policewoman apologized, "Sorry, sorry, I wasn't careful enough, but Mr. Fangar is more attentive. I'll go make a cup of milk for Yangyang, finishing the bread will help him sleep. His physical condition is very bad, the doctor said his internal organs are also injured."
Fangar remained silent, simply standing at the door, silently watching as the boy searched for something inside a chest of drawers.
Seeing the boy looking for something, Fangar softly instructed, "Go to sleep."
If you have any more questions, feel free to ask.
Xu Yiyang nodded obediently and then entered the bedroom. Liao Fang, tortured by his strange temper, couldn't help but stare blankly. She knew that there was no one in this world that Vajra couldn't handle!
Vajra turned to look at her and explained in a gentle voice, "His mother doesn't allow him to steal food."
"Oh, I see! Not allowing a child to eat things given by others, yet keeping the child hungry every day. How can there be such a mother in this world?" Liao Fang shook her head and sighed. "Mr. Vajra, I know you are a good person. Can I ask you to take a closer look at this child?"
Vajra picked up a bag of rubbish and walked towards the door, giving her an unexpected answer at the same time, "I can't look after him."
"Huh? Why not?" Liao Fang hurriedly spoke, "You live so close by, it wouldn't be too much trouble for you to come and check on him from time to time."
Vajra had already crossed into the dim corridor, with his handsome face half-hidden and his deep eyes flashing with a mysterious light. "When you ask someone to take care of this child, it seems like you have forgotten that there's also a father in this house."
Liao Fang made a disgusted expression, "If his father can be relied on, I wouldn't have asked you. The abuser is indeed his mother, but his father, as a silent bystander and enabler, is equally guilty. When both parents are unreliable, we can only rely on kind-hearted people like you to help a little more."
Vajra shook his head again, his lowered eyelids covering the light in his pupils. "I'm sorry, I can't help him."
"No, Mr. Vajra, why can't you help him? It wouldn't be troublesome for you to come and check on him every day, right? I know you have the ability, as evidenced by the recently solved fifty-million-kidnapping case at our office. With just a word from you, Mr. Shen's daughter was saved. Why can't you save Xu Yiyang? As long as you're willing, you can definitely help him. I know you have that capability!"
Vajra slowly walked into the dark doorway, as if entering an unknown abyss, and spoke slowly, "Let me ask you a question. If you see a train moving forward, with five people standing on its track and one person standing on a side track, and the train's brakes have failed, it's about to collide. There's a lever next to you, and if you lightly push it, you can change the track the train runs on. What would you choose to do? Hit the five people or hit the one person? And why?"
His ethereal and cold voice sounded like it came from another dimension.
Liao Fang immediately replied, without hesitation, "Of course, I would push the lever to hit one person. In a situation where there's no choice, exchanging one life for five is always worth it."
Vajra slowly climbed the stairs, his voice gradually becoming deeper, "Have you ever thought? Those five people were fated to be crashed on the train track they were playing on. It was their destiny. The other person was walking safely on the side track, it was also his fate. But your slight push has overturned everyone's fate. Should the person who shouldn't have died die, and the person who shouldn't have lived live? Do you still think that's fair? Do you think it is worth it?"
Liao Fang was locked in place by this seemingly light yet soul-piercing question and could only watch as the slender figure disappeared around the corner.
The ethereal voice fell from the top like cold rain, filled with helplessness and loneliness, "That's me. I would stay away from the lever and let fate make the choice. Because in the face of fate, every one of us is equal, without high or low, without nobility or inferiority. When you try to change fate, you bear the weight not only of one person's life but the entire world of cause and effect. Do you understand what that means? It's something you can never face directly, and it will eventually crush you to pieces. If I could save a person by talking, I would talk until my mouth was worn out. But unfortunately, sometimes, fate cannot be changed by anyone. Currently, the only thing I can do is gently pluck at the strings of fate, carefully peeking at that slight turn of fate. I am far from the powerful figure you imagine."
"Keep an eye on that father."
Leaving these words, the young man's voice completely dissipated in the air. Liao Fang, then, took two hurried steps and looked up at the dark staircase, asking anxiously, "Mr. Vajra, what do you mean by those words? Does his father also have a problem? Can't you help Xu Yiyang? Does it mean he will continue to suffer abuse? Is his fate unchangeable?"
Although she asked it this way, Liao Fang knew that suffering abuse was certain because the person who was hitting the child was the mother, and the law would likely offer a light sentence, and the child wouldn't be taken away. When the mother was released, she would surely vent her anger and resentment on the child, and her abuse would go unchecked, even escalating.
Liao Fang had handled too many similar cases and very few children truly had a new lease on life under her help. Instead, they fell into more miserable situations. She had no power to change reality, so she could only hope in Mr. Vajra. But the hints from Mr. Vajra were making her more and more uneasy.
What will happen to a person whom even Mr. Vajra can't help? With a tight grip on the stair railing, Liao Fang felt a chill in her heart.
As dusk approached, the child's father finally returned, looking very refined and speaking in a gentle manner. He belonged to the class of people with high quality. He brought lunch boxes for Liao Fang and his son, and also bought a bunch of nutritional products for children. He repeatedly confessed and repented for his wife's actions.
"She has severe depression, and I only found out today. It's my fault. I was too busy with work and didn't pay attention to her and the child's situation," he regretfully grasped his own hair.
Liao Fang didn't know what to say and could only plead with the father to take good care of the child. She could see that the other side truly repented, and Xu Yiyang had less resistance towards his father. When his father patted his head, he did not recoil, but just stiffened for a moment and then continued eating.
Liao Fang felt relieved. After bidding farewell to the father and son, she didn't leave but looked up at the top floor. In her mind, there seemed to be a train passing through the endless railway tracks, with one person and five people standing at both ends of fate's trajectory, waiting for an inevitable collision, whether sooner or later. There would come a time when fate would take them all away, and yet she had arrogantly attempted to push the lever and decide their fates!
Liao Fang's heart suddenly trembled, and only then did she feel a deep and profound fear. Wasn't she the one who decided life or death with a single word just now? Why was she so arrogant, so conceited? On what basis did she think that the lives of five people were worth more than one? Did everyone in the world have such a moment of forgetfulness? Did everyone think their values were superior to those of others?
It seemed that only Vajra had been living lucidly and, at the same time, living a lonely life. Liao Fang bowed her head and walked away step by step, completely unaware of the invisible black vortex raging and sweeping through the complex from above.
In order to maintain the best condition, Vajra had slept for five days before being urged awake by his phone's ringtone. Cao Xiaohui, in a boasting tone, informed him that the work for the reality show had been settled and that the formal recording would start at 7 pm, with a process similar to the general talent shows, including auditions, preliminaries, and finals.