TDU Chapter 410
Chapter 410 Reason for Corruption
“Is this her?” Zhang Chenze asked quietly. “The {leader} White Tiger mentioned… from many years ago?”
“Who knows…” Yun Yao shook her head helplessly. “Although she’s still alive, it’s… well, a case of {dead men tell no tales} now…”
Hearing this, Lin Qin felt as if she had found a clue. She looked up at the shop assistant and asked, “Hello, do you have any food here?”
“Food…” The female shop assistant paused for a long moment, then extended one filthy hand to scoop some, while the other mimicked chopsticks, bringing a little to her mouth. “You mean this kind of food?”
“Yes…” Lin Qin felt a sense of déjà vu.
Back when Qi Xia had asked her if there were any {needle and thread} here, her first reaction had also been to mime the motion of threading a needle.
It seemed she was using these gestures to preserve a sliver of rationality.
“We don’t have much food in the store…” the attendant said regretfully, shaking her head. “Only a small amount arrives each time… even I haven’t eaten in a long while…”
At that moment, Tian Tian and Li Xiangling were inspecting the convenience store. They soon noticed a few cans on the shelves, which still looked fairly new.
Tian Tian spoke up, “There are some canned foods here—why don’t you eat them yourself?”
Hearing the word {canned foods}, Lin Qin turned to look. She remembered that the last time she had come here, the shelves had been completely empty.
And now, after more than twenty days, the stock had actually been replenished?
“I can’t…” the shop assistant waved her hand. “Even if we shop assistants want to eat, we have to pay for it… but I can’t afford it…”
Lin Qin thought for a moment, realizing there were two important questions she needed to clarify.
“Since you never eat the store’s food… how long has it been since you last had a proper meal?” Lin Qin asked.
“How long… has it been…” The attendant’s yellowed eyes blinked for a long while before she finally remembered something. “The last time I ate… I had a pot of little piglet stew… it was delicious…”
“It’s been at least twenty-four days,” Lin Qin remarked without thinking.
No normal person could survive twenty-four days without food and look like this.
No… the thought alone was chilling.
Had this attendant not eaten anything even before those twenty-four days?
A brief moment of reflection was enough to answer that question.
“I believe {White Tiger} was telling the truth…” Lin Qin whispered to the others. “This woman’s body has definitely been enhanced. She possesses {Terrestrial-grade} physical traits… that’s why she’s been able to survive until now.”
Yun Yao scrutinized the shop assistant again. Her frame was now no more than a skeleton, which meant that for a long period, her body had been consuming its own tissues for energy.
“If your deduction is correct…” Yun Yao said, her expression grave, “then she won’t survive much longer… her muscle and fat reserves are nearly depleted. If we don’t find a way to provide her with nutrition, she’ll soon become a corpse that can never rise again.”
Lin Qin nodded, then asked the shop assistant, “If that’s the case… who’s been supplying you with these {goods}?”
“{Goods}?”
Lin Qin pointed toward the shelves not far away. “Where did these canned foods come from? Is there really someone in this place supplying you?”
“Ah…” The shop assistant raised her eyebrows. With her skin completely shriveled, the lines on her forehead were unusually pronounced. “It’s the {delivery person}… he regularly brings me some cans… but I can’t touch them… they’re store property… I can’t afford them…”
“{Delivery person}…?” She lifted a can, examined it, and it didn’t take long for Yun Yao to figure it out. These cans were all too familiar to her. “What does this {delivery person} look like?”
“He…” The shop assistant thought for a moment, then raised a hand to her eyes. “He wears a… a pair of golden…”
“Glasses,” Yun Yao prompted.
“Right… glasses. He wears a clean shirt… he smiles a lot, and it’s very attractive…” The shop assistant unconsciously smiled as she spoke. “His voice is gentle when he talks… and he smells really nice too…”
As she described him, an image of a person crystallized clearly in the minds of the listeners.
“Chu Tianqiu.” Yun Yao and Lin Qin spoke the name in unison.
Chu Tian…qiu? Upon hearing the three words, the shop assistant’s expression slowly shifted. It seemed that the name {Chu Tianqiu} left an even deeper impression on her than {Qiaoyun}.
“Who is…Chu Tianqiu?” Her cracked lips trembled as if she were trying to awaken some long-dormant memory.
Yun Yao did not answer, merely looking at Lin Qin with furrowed brows. A strange notion began circling in her thoughts.
“Lin Qin… what does she mean by {little piglet}?” Yun Yao asked.
In a few words, Lin Qin recounted her first visit to the store.
The woman, when they had first encountered her, had cooked her own child by hand and attempted to share it with everyone. She had completely lost her mind.
Hearing this, Yun Yao lowered her head silently. Her gaze flickered back and forth, as if some thread of clues was weaving all the previously absurd events together.
“Wait a moment…” Yun Yao murmured. “It’s not because of Qi Xia…”
“What…?”
“I’ve been mistaken all along…” Yun Yao said, a little dazed. “I thought Chu Tianqiu had completely gone mad… because he saw Qi Xia twenty days ago…”
“Was that not the case?” Lin Qin asked in reply.
“Have you not considered the possibility…” Yun Yao turned back, her expression filled with terror. “That it was… because of this woman?”
“What!?”
“Or should I say…” Yun Yao made an effort to calm her mind, “…because of that child?”
Just a short statement, yet everyone’s brows creased.
“Yun Yao…” Lin Qin interrupted. “Isn’t this hypothesis too bold? Are you saying that the child is Chu Tianqiu’s…?”
“Indeed…” Yun Yao nodded. “As the woman said, the one she encountered most frequently was Chu Tianqiu. For some reason, he became intimate with her, and after realizing his child had been cruelly killed, he completely lost his sanity…?”
Hearing this, Zhang Chenze couldn’t help but interject. “That’s… that’s preposterous… I’ve met Chu Tianqiu too. Though I don’t know him well, I have a basic understanding of his character. He may be insane, but how could he have fathered a child with this woman here…? I don’t recall him being such an uncivilized person…”
TL Note: DUN DUN DUNNNNN!! I had previously speculated this, and also given y’alls hints… the cat is finally out of the bag!
