she’s the same woman!
she’s the same woman!
It was downtown, where the city's poorest lives. Smelly, disorderly, broken houses with wires hovering over, and puddles everywhere.
Wang Shi opened his tab and glanced at her. She had been looking out the window at the poor people and kids doing their daily chores. Understanding her mood, he gently touched her chin, "We have our limitations. No matter how much we try or question ourselves, we cannot help everyone in this world."
"I know, it's just—" she sighed, "—leave it. Tell me, why are we here?"
"Look at this video."
By now Suyin had seen many videos as collected by Daiyu and Xiu Mei. This one was no different.
The video recording was of the day of Gong Li's accident, taken from the CCTV recording of a small coffee shop. When Gong Li's car stopped at a traffic light, a few kids selling random things on the street surrounded his car, urging him to buy things from them.
Suyin found nothing unusual!
As the traffic light went green, he drove off.
Other than the fact that after leaving Ace he took the unusual longer route, making it further longer by taking unnecessary turns, only to stop at traffic lights, Suyin didn't find any other information. But one thing was evident he was worried and maybe trying to run away from someone to reach her.
In the police's investigation, they found his mobile broken in his office drawer, which prohibited him from calling Suyin.
"I have seen this number of times. Why are you showing me this?" she pushed the tab away.
He paused and zoomed the video to the maximum. "Look at the hands of the boy and tell me what did you see?"
She took the tab from him and bring it closer to her eyes to pay attention; her eyes widened, "This— "It's a magazine! Gong Li gave him a magazine!? Is this what he was pointing at?"
Without replying, Wang Shi gets down from the car, and Suyin followed. He linked his fingers with hers and walked with her towards the narrow lanes of the downtown. Without letting her know, his bodyguards closely followed in disguise to protect them.
"Since the last few days, two kids of over eleven-twelve years old had been coming to the People's hospital seeking treatment for random things. It was clear they were coming for other reasons." He said, taking her to an old concrete house with a broken door. "Since they were poor, Dr. He Jeff tried to talk to them to understand if they were seeking treatment for someone else but were afraid to ask. However, they asked for me."
"They asked for you? As if they took your name?"
"Yup!" he said, "…and it surprised Jeff, so he asked Miya to call me as the kids were reluctant to say anything else. However, by the time I came, they were not there. Probably ran away." Since he's the president's son and involved in social activities much before his collaboration with Suyin, it was important for him to pay attention to the needs of the boys and help them as much as possible.
Seeing them sneak away, he asked the security to get him their photographs from the CCTV camera.
He took out a photograph from his pocket and passed it to her before knocking at the door. "Can you recall them?"
"They—"
Before she could say something, the door creaked, and an old woman peeked through the opening. She visibly got scared, "I-I have nothing. You may go."
"Granny," Suyin stooped her from closing the door, "We are not bad people. Please let us in—"
"Ah, she's the same woman!" a small boy poked his head out from the tiny gap that attracted Wang Shi and Suyin's attention, and they looked down.
******
"H-he asked you to give me this!?" Suyin clenched a magazine given by one of the boys she saw in the photograph, protecting it like her dear life. It was the old magazine that had an article written about her after she had helped the martyr widows.
"Yes. That uncle gave us lots of money and this magazine." The boy extended Gong Li's signed business card that has People's Hospital and Wang Shi's name written on it. "He asked us to go to People's hospital and look for the doctor named Wang Shi who will take us to the woman in the magazine, that is you."
Wang Shi crouched down, "Then why did you run away from the hospital?"
It took him a complete day to find their address.
".…. Because that uncle had warned us not to talk to anyone other than Wang Shi and this aunty. If we don't follow his instructions, not only we will miss our reward but will be given to the police." Another boy in tattered pants answered while stammering in his words, which makes Suyin touch his cheeks softly. He probably had a speech disorder by birth.
"That bald doctor and the fat nurse are bad, I saw him talking to the police and ran away with my brother."
They were talking about Dr. He Jeff the psychiatrist and nurse Miya. Moreover, it was not the police but one of the security guards that was asked to monitor them until Wang Shi comes. But it scared the kids.
Suyin turned her attention to the eldest boy to whom Gong Li had given the magazine. The third incomplete word was this boy's name, Philips. "What else you saw that day? Can you tell me anything about the man who gave you this magazine? Anything will help."
The boy thought for a while, "T-that uncle was hurt and had blood on his shirt. I asked him, but he shoved the magazine in my hand, said a few words, and drove off."
Wang Shi, "Did you saw anyone following him?"
"I didn't notice it. But he was looking at the mirror again and again."