Infinite: Dawn Game

Chapter 791 Lie

He Lingling, who had been starving for a long time, burst into tears, banging on the door and crying out that she was so hungry and thirsty, calling out for her parents to go. Then, the sound from the neighbor across the street abruptly stopped.

Amidst her cries, He Lingling heard the sound of a key turning as it went into the lock.

At the same time, the neighbor's deliberately lowered voice could also be heard:

"Has this family been missing for two days?"

"It seems so. Does he have a blind daughter?"

"Did you...did you hear a child crying just now?"

"I think I heard it, you heard it too?"

"...Could it be a hallucination? I feel like there's something wrong with my ears."

"..."

After a long while, He Lingling finally stopped crying.

What are the people outside saying?

What are they talking about?

Haven't they already heard their own cries?

Although small, He Lingling was not stupid. She quickly realized what was going on. She stared wide-eyed and slowly let out a shout from her throat.

"Mom... Dad..."

A voice as faint as a mosquito's buzz came from her throat, barely audible.

"..." He Lingling finally realized what her neighbor meant.

The neighbors outside couldn't hear her cries for help at all—because her voice was so soft, so very soft, that they thought they were hallucinating.

But why?

Why is my voice so soft and hoarse... Could it be that only one day has passed at all?

He Lingling forgot how she fainted. She only remembered that when she was awake, she smelled a strong disinfectant odor.

My mother's voice came from not far away. She seemed to be crying or agitated, and she was making the phone call in a very impatient tone.

Mom said, "Where have you been? Didn't I call you to come back and watch over Lingling? Did you go fishing with your friends again?!"

Mom is on the phone with Dad.

My father's voice came through the speakerphone; he sounded very unhappy.

"What's wrong with me going fishing with my friends? Do I have to come back to that lousy house all the time?! I haven't even said you're never home—"

"He Baokai!"

He Lingling heard her mother scream uncontrollably:

"I'm going to work! I'm going on a business trip! Do you understand that a blind child like Lingling could get into trouble home alone? Isn't she your daughter? Huh? He Baokai, have you no shame? Isn't Lingling your child? Huh??!! You know she fainted from hunger at home alone, and if I hadn't come back early from my business trip, she would have died—"

"Definitely!"

Dad's impatient voice interrupted Mom's hysterical screams:

"She's not dead yet, is she? I told you before that it was a waste of time and money for a blind person to live, but you were out of your mind and insisted on keeping her alive. If you ask me, it would be a good thing if she really died this time."

The mother remained silent for a very long time, so long that He Lingling's small body, lying on the hospital bed, began to tremble. So long that He Lingling stiffly rubbed the blanket beside her, trying to sit up, when her eardrums were suddenly throbbed with pain from her mother's abruptly raised voice.

"He Baokai!"

The mother, in despair, roared at the father on the other end of the phone, who seemed completely indifferent, her voice trembling with barely suppressed sobs:

"You're not human! You're an animal! Even animals have more feelings than you! How could you say such things? Lingling is so obedient and well-behaved! How could you say such inhuman things—"

"enough!!!"

The father's roar once again drowned out the distraught mother; he angrily said:

"It's not like I didn't teach her how to eat and drink at home! Didn't I even save bread for her?! She's so stupid, she didn't go eat and almost starved to death, and now she blames me? Didn't I teach her how to find food at home? She's blind and stupid, a good-for-nothing, it would be better if she died!"

"You beast..."

"..."

He Lingling could no longer hear her mother and father arguing afterward.

She stared blankly into the darkness before her, trying to open her eyes briefly before closing them again. Tears streamed down her red-rimmed eyes, soaking the hospital pillow.

He Lingling curled up in a ball, hugging her knees, as the needle on the back of her hand made a soft "snap" sound as it was pulled out of her thin skin.

Her hand started bleeding.

A fine, dense pain spread from the back of her hand all the way through her body, with the most pain in her chest. Her heart pounded, and the surrounding flesh seemed to tremble with the pain in her hand. He Lingling hugged herself even tighter in pain.

no.

He Lingling buried her head in the blanket, and she thought groggily—no.

Dad is lying.

Her father had never taught her anything about finding bread and water.

After Mom went on a business trip, Dad almost never came back. Even when he did come back, he would just lie on the sofa and play games with his friends, saying things that I couldn't understand and that were vulgar.

Those filthy words were said by my mother when she and my father were arguing.

She wrote it down.

Dad is lying.

Dad is lying to Mom.

He Lingling murmured, her tears turning her pillow muddy.

"..."

Seeing her adoptive mother's "deeply affectionate" expression towards Thumbelina, He Lingling felt nauseous and almost vomited.

It wasn't because of her adoptive mother's exaggerated "love," but because of He Baokai's disgusting face in her memory and his curses to kill his own daughter.

Not every parent will love their child.

Whether it's a boy or a girl.

all the same.

What's more, she's blind.

Thumbelina at least brought strong emotional value to her adoptive mother, but in He Baokai's eyes, she was just a piece of trash he wanted to throw away at any time.

Unsightly garbage.

He Lingling watched expressionlessly as her adoptive mother continued to interact with Thumbelina, watching Thumbelina dance at her adoptive mother's repeated requests, singing beautiful songs, her skirt blooming again and again on the table, like a flower being reborn.

By the time this scene, identical to yesterday's, ended, Thumbelina was panting heavily, her entire body soaked in sweat, and her long hair, disheveled and hanging loosely over her shoulders, looked rather unsightly from the perspiration.

"Mommy's good daughter is so wonderful."

The foster mother, however, seemed oblivious to Thumbelina's pale face and disheveled hair. She loudly praised Thumbelina's dancing and singing, affectionately rubbed her head, and said the same thing again.

"It's time for bed, Mommy's sweet daughter."

The foster mother carried the exhausted Thumbelina back to her special match bed, then turned to look at the players around her and smiled happily.

"You too."

"Mommy's good children."