“Eh?”
Everyone was startled.
“Huh? Child abuse?” He Junhao was dumbfounded. “Who?”
Xiao He put away his phone, slowly raised his eyes to look at the auntie in front of him, pushed up his glasses, and said calmly, “Naturally, it’s her—”
Everyone’s gaze fell on that auntie.
The auntie’s expression twisted for a moment, and she tried to pounce directly on Xiao He: “What are you talking about? You mongrel—”
Because the auntie’s movements were too fast, the firefighters nearby didn’t have time to stop her, but Xiao He merely turned his body agilely and subtly hooked the auntie’s foot.
The next moment, the auntie fell heavily to the ground.
“Ouch!”
The auntie screamed like a pig being slaughtered as she fell to the ground.
“Ah, ah, you did that on purpose!”
Xiao He looked very innocent: “Is it wrong for me to dodge?”
Xiao He performed the series of actions just now flawlessly. {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} In the eyes of those around him, the auntie wanted to pounce on Xiao He and scratch his face, but she accidentally pounced too hard and fell flat on her face.
“I’m going to call the police to arrest you! Ouch! It hurts so much!”
The auntie cried out to heaven and earth, while Xiao He merely shrugged: “You can slander me however you want. Anyway, everyone’s eyes are sharp. Everyone saw what happened just now and can testify for me.”
As expected, the others all nodded.
He Junhao even took the opportunity to say sarcastically, “How ridiculous. Just now, she wanted to extort us directly. Now she’s not even pretending anymore, just faking an accident. It’s truly outrageous.”
Yu Minzhen was also trembling with anger: “Mom! What exactly do you want to do?! Do you really want to harm Xiao Xuan?”
When faced with such a situation, her mother-in-law didn’t care about the child at all, only constantly shirked responsibility and groundlessly attacked their great benefactor. Yu Minzhen was now both embarrassed and angry, and the thought that had previously arisen could not be suppressed—
Perhaps she really should get a divorce.
Although her husband was usually very good, but... marriage was not just a matter for two people.
Needless persistence would only make life a mess...
Soon, the police car arrived.
Due to different jurisdictional areas, Xiao He didn’t recognize any of the police officers who came this time.
However, this didn’t matter.
Xiao He went straight to the point and said to one of the police officers, “Hello, I’m the one who called the police.”
The moment he saw Xiao He, Officer Yan, who was in charge, frowned, but quickly relaxed: “We have already received the relevant calls. You must be the young man they mentioned who saved the person, right?”
They had already learned part of the situation on their way, especially about the young man who saved the person. Everyone said that the young man climbed five floors from outside the apartment building with his bare hands to save the person, so the police officers had long been curious about this legendary figure.
Now that they saw him, he was indeed a very special young man.
“That’s me.” Xiao He nodded. “It’s like this, Officer. After I rescued this child, she vomited due to severe coughing. Afterward, we found undigested white pills in her vomit. Combined with the child’s current listless state, I suspect this child was very likely given sedatives or similar substances before!”
“What?!”
“You’re spewing nonsense!”
Yu Minzhen and the auntie’s words rang out simultaneously.
Yu Minzhen looked in shock at the child who had been listlessly curled up in her arms after crying, then looked at the auntie, and anxiously questioned: “Xiao Xuan hasn’t been sick recently, so why would there be pills in her stomach? Didn’t you say you bought those sleeping pills for your insomnia? Did you usually give my daughter sleeping pills?”
The auntie immediately shifted her gaze: “I... I didn’t! This young man is just talking nonsense! Those, those were vitamins! How did it get linked to sleeping pills? This young man is simply spouting nonsense!”
Yu Minzhen sneered: “Didn’t you secretly eat all those vitamins yourself before? Would you be so kind as to feed my daughter those?”
She had indeed bought some vitamins before, but this old woman ate them all herself. Yu Minzhen wanted to argue, but the old woman said that it was a waste for Xiao Xuan to eat those things, saying she was a spendthrift, and that children in the past grew up just fine without vitamins. So, later, Yu Minzhen stopped buying these things.
But now, this old woman was even putting on an act.
Officer Yan observed the expressions of the auntie and Yu Minzhen, came to a rough conclusion in his mind, and then said to Xiao He, “You are quite observant.”
Xiao He just smiled: “I’m not very familiar with pills either. It just so happens that the lady next door is a nurse, so she’s more sensitive to this type of medication.”
When Xiao He was saving her, he felt a bit strange, sensing that the child’s reactions were quite slow, and she looked spiritless and dazed. He even thought that the child might have some mental issues herself, until the neighbor lady discovered the pills in the vomit. Only then did Xiao He realize that the child wasn’t dazed, but rather that the medication was still taking effect, making her quite disoriented.
Originally, Xiao He hadn’t thought much of it; it might be quite normal for adults to give children some pills. But after seeing the series of actions and attitudes of this auntie, Xiao He grew suspicious again.
As the saying goes, a bad person racks their brains, but it’s no match for a foolish person’s sudden inspiration.
Xiao He even had reason to suspect that this auntie was doing it on purpose, bringing the battery back to commit murder! She just wanted to kill the child at home!
However, looking at the auntie’s distressed attitude towards the house, it shouldn’t be that extreme...
This reminded Xiao He of a news story he had seen before, where a nanny in a certain place, to make it easier to look after a child, intentionally gave the child pills like oryzanol and melatonin, which have sedative and hypnotic effects, to keep the child in a drowsy, “obedient” state all day. This even saved money on lunch, and since the child didn’t understand things well, the parents wouldn’t discover it in a short period.
It’s just... this was her own granddaughter, it was truly a bit deranged...
Xiao He’s words were well-reasoned, and the auntie’s reaction didn’t seem fake. The police immediately became more vigilant, and Yu Minzhen also had a firm attitude, insisting on finding the truth.
However, since Xiao Xuan couldn’t speak, and the only sign language she could use was inconvenient for communication due to her previous burns, the police could only ask Yu Minzhen to first take good care of Xiao Xuan at the hospital. They would collect the items from Xiao Xuan’s vomit and investigate the room where the fire started...
Xiao He heard about the subsequent events from He Junhao.
Because the security guards of their community property management blocked the ambulance and delayed the rescue, the property management company compensated them afterward. However, the community owners were very angry and firm in their stance, eventually successfully changing to a new property management company. He Junhao could finally have delivery riders bring his takeout to his doorstep.
After investigation, the auntie indeed had no intention of harming Xiao Xuan, but the abuse was basically confirmed. She not only secretly starved Xiao Xuan, not giving her lunch, but also regularly gave Xiao Xuan the sleeping pills she used herself every day, then secretly went out to play cards with her old friends. Bringing the battery back to charge was just pure foolishness, and she didn’t expect such an incident to happen this time. Not only was her home gone, but she also almost killed her granddaughter.
After learning the whole truth, Ms. Yu resolutely proposed divorce to her husband. Her husband, after failing to persuade her to stay, could only agree to the divorce. Xiao Xuan would be raised by Yu Minzhen from now on.
As for this auntie, she would face a criminal sentence of approximately one to three years for child abuse and arson, with multiple offenses combined.
Hearing this result, Xiao He could only say, “Serves her right!”
