“She and her little friends were so small back then…”

The boss’s eyes, when mentioning the children, held a loving gaze as if he were truly lost in memories from a long, long time ago.

“They had such a good relationship, especially the other child, who was particularly cheerful and sunny. But her, afterwards, even her smiles were demure, never showing her teeth, shy. Her mother seemed… quite strict.”

The boss pointed to Mona’s childhood photo, synthesized by Guigui through the ghost system, as he spoke.

“Oh? Are you sure?”

This was the second person to mention Mona’s mother.

The first was Hu Yue, who discovered the flaw because of Mona’s mother.

That lie about Lu Xiaoyao and Mona being childhood playmates.

Although, under normal circumstances, the memories set by their NPCs wouldn't develop errors over time like humans do.

But if they were twisted by someone else, that would be another story.

“Of course, I’m sure. But the child you mentioned, I really haven’t seen her before.”

The boss had no memory at all of the childhood photo of Lu Xiaoyao synthesized by Guigui.

“What about this one?”

With that, Mingmei, as if by magic, had Guigui quickly process a photo of the character played by Bai Xiao, aged down by ten years.

“Hmm! That’s the other child’s mother, I remember she was quite busy with work and didn’t pick up her child often. But every time she did, she would buy her child snacks; my store benefited from her patronage!”

Before Mingmei could continue questioning, the boss leaned back on the chair and began chatting with Mingmei about everyday matters.

Finally, he sighed, as if lost in memories of a long time ago, feeling a bit melancholic: “Time really flies!

Originally, when I saw the school on fire, I was worried for a while, because most of the children living nearby… ended up going to that school.”

The subsequent regrets ultimately turned into a silent sigh from the boss.

“It’s good that the school is starting over like this…” The boss said, turning his head to look at Mingmei, “To be honest, this school wasn’t very good before.”

“Really?” The topic unexpectedly returned, and Mingmei, who was almost asleep, perked up immediately!

“I even heard that a student committed suicide at this school a few years ago.”

“Yes, those kids… they were all so cute when they were little, who knew…”

The boss’s eyes looked at the empty ceiling, remembering those children who had passed by his store for more than ten years, from kindergarten to middle school…

“But when they grew up, they became—incredibly rebellious.” The boss squeezed out this sentence after a long time, “They didn’t buy snacks or candy, they just liked to ask me if I had any cigarettes, the little devils!”

The boss said, pursing his lips, not knowing who he was thinking of from the past.

“They haven’t even grown up yet, and they’ve learned a bunch of bad habits from adults. Bullying others, playing pranks, smoking and drinking…” The boss recounted everything he had seen, and then said, “Good thing I don’t sell any of those things here.”

The boss then told Mingmei about the sight of those hooligan-like young people squatting near other tobacco and alcohol stores when he passed by, smoking and drinking, and couldn’t help but tell Mingmei not to touch those things if possible.

“I heard that the student who committed suicide was bullied and no one cared…”

The boss couldn’t help but take a breath, casually grabbing a soft candy meant for children and putting it in his mouth, the sympathy and anger on his face clear for anyone to see, “I heard that the parents of the student made a scene at the school many times, but unfortunately… nothing came of it.”

“Could it be because the girl’s father was disabled?”

“Silly? No, I’ve seen the girl’s father from afar, he’s fine! Where did you get the idea that he was disabled? He lives near us.” The boss waved his hand and denied Mingmei’s statement.

This also stunned Mingmei.

So Yuan Fang’s character’s disability wasn’t there from the beginning?

“Then… what happened later? Did the matter just fade away?”

Mingmei was puzzled, listening to the boss talking without any conclusion.

“Yes, that’s right, it seems like there was no follow-up, and then the school had a fire. After that, I never heard any news about the couple.”

The boss chatted with Mingmei for a long time, probably realizing that Mingmei was a little suspicious, and looked Mingmei up and down, asking, “Girl, you wouldn’t happen to be an undercover police officer, would you?”

Mingmei: “Uh…”

Mingmei wished she was.

“I’m just curious… I have a friend whose younger sister was classmates with the person in this photo, and they mentioned this place unintentionally while chatting…”

Mingmei used a common phrase in conversation – “I know someone who…”

While Mingmei was eagerly gathering information here, Mu Chen went to the milk delivery company early in the morning.

All morning, his supervisor kept looking at him with a hesitant expression, until he finished delivering the morning milk, and then he found the opportunity to ask what was going on.

As a result, Mu Chen’s supervisor mysteriously told Mu Chen that someone wanted to kick him out.

“Really? Did I… do anything wrong?” Mu Chen put on a pitiful and innocent expression, and then turned to look at the supervisor, “Then what about me now…”

“Hey, you’re fine now, the person who wanted to get rid of you is in trouble, so let’s just pretend we never heard about this…”

As soon as the supervisor said this, Mu Chen knew what was going on.

Besides Li Yuan, who had the power to do this, no one else probably had the ability to make him leave the milk delivery company and indirectly leave the school.

Unfortunately, Hu Yue’s move last night, taking down two with one, brought out Li Yuan and Qi Hai Kui.

The most anxious person now is probably the Boss, right?

Mu Chen was thinking about Mona, while Mona was staring at Lu Xiaoyao, who had the police visit her and then got into a police car, and returned with her father less than noon.

“Are you… alright?”

Mona’s heart was also very complicated at this time. She didn’t expect Xila to do this, but Lu Xiaoyao directly reported her to the police, sending her away, which was both unexpected and reasonable.

“Of course, I’m alright~”

Lu Xiaoyao looked like she wanted to laugh, but seemed to be wary of Mu Chen, who was busy in the kitchen, so she whispered and shared everything with Mona, “Although she can be considered to have eliminated harm for the people, I think she should also bear the responsibility she should bear, right?”

How could Mona not know what Lu Xiaoyao meant by this?

Lu Xiaoyao was secretly nervous in her heart, but she still had to put on a complicated expression of “I’m really happy, but I don’t want to say it, oh my god, I’m suffocating.”

Seeing this, Mona couldn’t help but turn her face into the shadows.

She didn’t want to admit that she had failed now.

Because Mona was wearing her hair down, her “slightly” turning her head looked perfectly normal, but Julian, who was pretending to be distraught in the kitchen while cooking for his daughter, could clearly see through the reflection of the glass on the range hood that Mona’s turning angle and body had exceeded 100°.

If it weren’t for her hair blocking it, Lu Xiaoyao would definitely be able to see that there was a pair of eyes behind that hair staring askance at her…