The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

(Please follow the updates and finish reading; this is very important for the survival of this new book. Thank you! ♪(･ω･)ﾉ)

(Plot development: angst → sweetness → angst → yandere [currently being serialized, includes Liu Bei] → sweet happy ending. Please be patient with this slow-paced story.)

Yuncheng, Municipal Public Security Bureau.

"What's your name?"

"Xu Nian."

"age?"

"Seventeen."

"Seventeen?"

Inside the interrogation room, the overweight policeman took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

In the dim light, he sized up the man sitting in the interrogation chair.

Her disheveled hair was studded with many fine, silvery strands.

His dark face was covered in dust, and several wrinkles were faintly visible in it.

The calloused hands gently caressed the handrail, accompanied by the clicking sound of handcuffs.

Xu Nian leaned back in the interrogation chair and asked in a rough, hoarse voice.

"What? Is there a problem?"

Please provide your ID number.

"210100..."

The fat policeman was very surprised to see that the headshot that popped up on the system looked exactly like Xu Nian.

He looks seventeen? He'd believe you if you said he was thirty-seven.

"Tell me, what have you been doing?"

"Shouldn't I be the one asking that? Why did you arrest me?"

The fat policeman chuckled and pointed to the eight-character proverb behind him with his pen.

Confess and you'll be treated leniently; resist and you'll be punished severely!

"Young man, you're still young. If you confess voluntarily, you might still get out. I'm giving you a chance."

Xu Nian shrugged, looking completely indifferent.

"Then let me in as soon as possible. Food and lodging included, wouldn't that be great?"

Seeing that Xu Nian was unmoved by reason, the fat policeman was not annoyed. Instead, he opened the thermos and took a sip of water to moisten his throat.

He had long been prepared for a protracted battle.

The psychological fortitude of a suspect who can commit murder and flee is indeed far beyond that of an ordinary person.

"It's okay, we still have time. Think it through carefully, and tell me when you remember."

Xu Nian stretched her stiff body and looked up at the flickering incandescent light on the ceiling.

After hearing the fat policeman say, "Maybe he can still get out," Xu Nian realized that she had definitely been wronged.

At most, he just got a fake certificate; he shouldn't have to spend his whole life in prison.

Time ticked by, and apart from the sound of the fat policeman tapping his pen on the table, there was no other sound in the interrogation room.

The chubby policeman glanced down at his watch, becoming slightly impatient.

Just then, the door to the interrogation room was pushed open.

A young policeman walked in, looked at Xu Nian, then at the fat policeman, and leaned down to whisper a few words in his ear.

Xu Nian couldn't hear what he was saying, but she saw the fat policeman's face change from one expression to another.

After a long while, the chubby policeman came and unlocked Xu Nian's handcuffs.

"If you didn't do anything wrong, why did you run away when you saw us?"

"I remembered I forgot something and I'm in a hurry to go back and get it. Officer, is this illegal?"

The fat policeman felt inexplicably strange when he heard this man, who looked similar to him, call him "uncle."

"Next time you encounter the police, don't run so fast. It'll be misunderstood, and they might think you've done something wrong, understand?"

Xu Nian nodded slightly, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

"Alright, call your parents to come pick you up."

Xu Nian raised her head, a trace of sadness flashing in her bloodshot eyes.

"I have no parents."

"What about the other relatives?"

"No, not at all."

"So how do you live?"

"I started working when I was very young and have been supporting myself."

The chubby policeman looked Xu Nian over for a while, and couldn't help but feel a lump in his throat.

No wonder he looks so old at such a young age.

He patted Xu Nian on the shoulder.

"You can leave now."

......

The afternoon sun was glaring, and Xu Nian squinted as she quickly walked away from the police station.

In a quiet alley, he stopped and carefully pulled out an ID card wrapped in cotton cloth from his inner pocket.

Xu Nian, thirty-seven years old.

The area where his headshot was engraved was slightly blurred, seemingly because it was soaked with sweat.

Xu Nian gently rubbed the sweat stains on the photo with her thumb, her fingers getting quite a bit of ink on them.

This fake ID is of really poor quality!

Xu Nian silently cursed the unscrupulous merchant in her heart.

Fortunately, I will be an adult in two months.

You no longer need to falsify your identity to find a job.

Perhaps because he had a fake ID on him, he instinctively turned around and tried to run away when he encountered the police.

Unexpectedly, the police mistook him for a suspect fleeing from justice, chased him for three blocks, and brought him back to the police station.

I wasted half a day, and the interview time at the electronics factory has already passed.

Remembering that she only had enough money left for a few days' worth of food in her pocket, Xu Nian felt a surge of anger for no reason.

"You little brat, don't run away!"

A furious shout came from the alley entrance, followed by a series of noisy and chaotic footsteps approaching.

Xu Nian turned around and saw a thin little girl running towards him.

"You bastard, better not let me catch you, or I'll break both your legs!"

"Uncle... Uncle, help me! I'm being chased by human traffickers!"

When the little girl reached Xu Nian, she seemed to have used up all her strength. She stopped and gasped for breath.

As the chaotic footsteps behind her grew closer, the girl hurriedly grabbed Xu Nian's sleeve and cast a pleading look at him.

Xu Nian carefully examined the girl. She was wearing a dirty cloth dress, and her exposed arms were covered with scars.

One eye appeared to have been punched; the eye socket was bruised and the eyeball was bloodshot.

Dust covered her face, and only her lips, trembling with fear, could be vaguely seen.

The girl was very thin, like a telephone pole, about to fall over in the wind.

Xu Nian looked around and found a pile of dusty junk behind her.

......

"Hey kid, have you seen this girl?"

Three tattooed men called out to Xu Nian. One of them, a blond man with a cigarette in his mouth, handed a photo to Xu Nian with an unfriendly expression.

The girl in the photo is the same young woman from earlier.

Xu Nian frowned.

Why should I tell you?

The atmosphere instantly became tense.

The blond-haired man cursed under his breath and rolled up his sleeves, ready to attack.

Xu Nian was not to be outdone. She casually picked up a brick from the pile of junk behind her and pointed it at the blond-haired guy who was about to make a move.

At that moment, a tattooed man wearing sunglasses tapped him on the shoulder and held him down.

He seems to be the leader of these three.

The man in sunglasses stepped forward and sized up the guy who dared to challenge them.

He was 1.85 meters tall, and although he was thin, he had a muscular physique.

If a real fight breaks out, they will probably suffer a lot of losses.

After weighing the pros and cons, the man in sunglasses forced a smile, took out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and handed it to Xu Nian.

"Brother, my younger brother has a rather fiery temper, please forgive him."

"This little girl's father owes us a large sum of money, and he can't pay it back now."

"Paying back debts is a matter of course, don't you think?"

"Since you can't pay it back, then use your daughter as collateral. We're reasonable people too."

"Could you tell me which direction she went?"

A commotion arose from the pile of junk behind Xu Nian, and a broken fan collapsed from above.

Xu Nian took the cigarette and expressionlessly put it in her pocket.

He raised his finger and pointed to the right side of the alley.

"Turn right ahead."

"Chase!"

The man in sunglasses patted the two men on the shoulders and ran towards the end of the alley.

"Boss, is that kid trying to scam us?"

The man in sunglasses thought for a moment and then spoke to the blond-haired man.

"You go to the left, run fast, Scarface and I will go to the right."

"OK!"