"So, are you an adult?"

He Chenze patiently continued to ask.

This time, he's going to listen to the truth.

He was indeed very interested in her, and if it were another woman, he would have been kicked out of the house by now.

The girl breathed a sigh of relief, "No..."

"How old?"

Standing in the corner of the closet, the girl clutched the corner of her clothes tightly, and then whispered, "15"

He Chenze's deep ink eyes narrowed slightly, and then he left the girl's side, sat on the sofa with his slender legs folded, and looked at her with interest.

"How long has it been in this line?"

"For the first time?"

"Hinata?"

He asked her three questions in a row, and the girl paused, then nodded.

"Why are you doing this?"

He Chenze raised his hand to light a cigarette and twisted it on his fingertips.

"I said, can you help me?"

The girl looked up and peeked at He Chenze on the sofa, if it weren't for the fact that he was smoking at the moment, for a few seconds she felt that the tone of his questioning was very similar to that of a police uncle.

He Chenze paused for a few seconds and slightly raised the corner of his lower lip, "It depends on the situation." ”

He never promises lightly.

"I was abducted by them. ”

The girl's answer was not very creative, which reminded He Chenze of the classic scenes of several police and gangster movies he watched a few days ago.

"I'll call the police for you. ”

He didn't know her, and that was the best he could do for her.

"No! I don't want to go back to that home. ”

The girl showed a painful expression, and squatted in the corner with her head in her hands in excitement, shaking her head desperately, and countless things that had happened to her mind flashed in her mind.

In her memory, that home was full of the smell of rot and mildew, and there was an old man who beat and scolded her every day.

She hated that man and hated that home.

She wanted to escape, she wanted to leave forever.

So, she really did that, and just half a month ago she mustered up the courage to leave the house full of garbage and rats, and the nasty old man who had given her countless scars.

In the days that followed, she was starved, frozen, snatched food from vicious dogs, taken captive by human traffickers, and sold flowers on flyovers.

But she still hasn't regretted her decision to leave there.

At this moment, a siren sounded outside the window.

He Chenze accompanied the girl downstairs until she got into the police car, and when she was leaving, the girl held He Chenze's hand tightly and refused to let go of anything.

"Who is he?"

The police asked, because as far as the police knew, He Chenze and the girl should not be related, he was just the whistleblower of this human trafficking case.

The girl was silent for a moment, then spoke slowly, "He's my brother." ”

After speaking, she looked at He Chenze with a longing gaze, as if she was looking at a life-saving straw.

"Is that so?"

The police asked He Chenze.

He Chenze smiled at the girl, then gently broke the girl's fingers and closed the car door that was resting between them.

································

He hadn't seen her since, and he had thought they wouldn't cross paths again.

But everything seems to be predestined.

When they met again, it was winter.

Winters in the north are cold, and there is a white expanse everywhere.

Early in the morning, the garbage treatment plant on the outskirts of S City.

"He Shao, the people are there, but it has snowed heavily for three days and three nights, and it is estimated that the people may ...... Gone early. ”

Yang Mingyu bowed respectfully to He Chenze, and then pointed to a tattered straw mat curled into a barrel on the side of the garbage heap.

He Chenze looked at the blood-stained straw mat, and his heart couldn't help but hurt.

If he hadn't called the police at the beginning, then her life might not have ended now.

After all, it is a living life.

Thinking about it, I felt some remorse in my heart.

He Chenze lit a cigarette and put it to his lips and took a sharp puff, the old smoker was choked by his own cigarette and his eyes were red.

He threw the cigarette on the ground, extinguished it vigorously, and then walked on his slender legs towards the straw mat.

Walked to the straw mat, squatted down, and was about to stretch out his hand but someone stopped him.

"He Shao, don't dirty your clothes, leave them to me. ”

Yang Mingyu was afraid that the girl's blood stained his boss who had a habit of cleanliness, so he asked for the right thing.

But he didn't want to, this time he was smart.

"Not necessarily. ”

He Chenze said coldly, and stretched out his hand to the tattered straw mat on the ground as he spoke.

Slowly lifting the straw mat, with the strong smell of blood, a slender arm slipped out of the straw mat.

The arm was covered in fine scars, a few from a knife and a few from a rodent's bite.

He Chenze suddenly frowned, he had been a forensic doctor before, and he felt shocked when he looked at the tragedy in front of him.

"There are rats, I'm afraid, save my ......"

A weak voice came from under the straw mat.

Still alive???

Injured like this, being swept up in a straw mat on a snowy day and still alive?

He was struck by her tenacious vitality.

Hearing the call for help, He Chenze hurriedly tore open the straw mat, and then the girl's little face full of scars and blood was revealed.

"Help me..."

Her lips were closed one by one, and a little bead of blood oozed from the corners of her mouth between the mumbles.

He Chenze's brows frowned, he picked up the girl from the ground, carefully hugged her to his chest, and whispered in her ear: "In the future, you will follow me." ”

It was 52 days since the girl was in distress.

In the ICU ward of the hospital, the girl lay quietly on the bed, her pale face without the slightest blood, and her body was full of various types of tubes, and the other end of the tube was connected to instruments with different functions.

If it weren't for the slight heaving of her chest, the girl on the bed would be no different from a dead person from a distance.

He Chenze sat on the side of the girl's bed, holding a fruit knife to peel apples for her.

This is the 52nd apple he has peeled in the past few days.

She remembered telling him that the birthday present she wanted most was an apple that her family peeled for her.

"I'll peel you an apple every day from now on. ”

He Chenze put the peeled apple next to the girl's bedside, and then stretched out his slender fingers to grope the girl's delicate cheeks.

"Knock Knock ......"

There was a knock at the door.

"Enter!"

With He Chenze's permission, Yang Mingyu respectfully entered the house and reported to He Chenze: "He Shao, the perpetrator has not been found. It snowed heavily for three days and three nights, and not even a single footprint was left. ”

He was visibly embarrassed.

Just now, he led people to turn over the entire garbage dump, and he didn't even find the murder knife, plus the girl caught up with heavy snow on the day she was in danger, the garbage dump was suspended, no workers went to work, and no one in the neighborhood went out.

There are no witnesses, no murder weapon, and there is no way to find the murderer.

After Yang Mingyu left, He Chenze dialed the phone of his friend Huang Yuanyuan, who was in the criminal police team before, "My sister was injured, help me find the murderer." ”