From the moment the man started closing in to when he grabbed Bai Dongqing and left, the whole process took no more than three minutes.

It was obvious he had picked Bai Dongqing as his target long ago. He stayed hidden in the crowd, slowly moving closer, deliberately avoiding Jiang Qianyu and Lu Yunzhi's line of sight.

He only made his move after Lu Yunzhi had separated from the two of them and snatched Bai Dongqing away. That meant the man only looked insane. Or rather, his mind was still clear. It was just that his mental state had gone seriously wrong.

Jiang Qianyu sat on the ground with both arms wrapped around her legs.

She looked pitiful and helpless.

A kind aunt stepped forward to help. She pushed Jiang Qianyu's wheelchair back over, helped her sit down, and softly comforted her, saying everything would be fine and that she'd already called the police.

Jiang Qianyu thanked her and said nothing more. She kept staring in the direction where Bai Dongqing had been dragged away, her eyes vacant.

The same kind aunt helped gather the things scattered on the ground, then pushed her in that direction. At the very least, she could see what had happened to her daughter and whether Lu Yunzhi had caught the madman.

The crowd parted to either side.

Once past them, Jiang Qianyu saw Lu Yunzhi confronting the madman.

Lu Yunzhi had completely cut off his path. On one side, the escalator had also been blocked. Lu Yunzhi had thrown a table from a nearby shop over to jam the entrance. If the man dared go that way, she could grab him immediately.

The knife was pressed against Bai Dongqing's face. The man looked possessed.

"Why? Why are you stopping me? I'm just taking my daughter home!"

"I've been looking for her for a whole month!"

"Get the hell out of here!"

"What do you know? What do any of you know? No one loves my daughter more than I do. I gave her everything."

"I was just too hungry, just too hungry... and she agreed to it. She let me eat her foot..."

The man swung between furious shouting and low muttering.

From her wheelchair, Jiang Qianyu could clearly see the tip of the knife had broken Bai Dongqing's skin. Blood slid down her cheek.

Bai Dongqing was terrified, but she didn't dare cry out loud. Her tear-blurred eyes were full of fear.

She was only a nine-year-old girl, after all.

"Put the knife down. She's not your daughter. Look carefully." Lu Yunzhi stepped forward slowly, her eyes locked on his every move.

"Didn't you say your daughter had one foot eaten by you? Then take a good look. Is the girl in your hands missing a foot?"

"You've got the wrong person!"

"That's right. Don't act rashly. Look carefully first. Otherwise, if you bring a stranger home, what will your daughter think when she comes back?"

"Won't she think her daddy doesn't love her anymore? Why else would he bring home a little girl she doesn't even know?"

Lu Yunzhi was smart. She knew exactly what to say.

Sure enough, the man's expression changed after hearing that.

Especially at the last sentence.

He lowered his head, wanting to check whether Bai Dongqing's foot was intact. The instant he looked down, Lu Yunzhi suddenly hurled the thermos in her hand, still full of hot water.

Driven by sheer force, the thermos slammed hard into the man's shoulder. His body lurched backward uncontrollably, and the knife dropped from his hand from the pain.

Lu Yunzhi pushed off with her feet and burst forward. In the span of a breath, she was right in front of him.

"You bastard, how dare you kidnap my daughter!"

Bang!

Lu Yunzhi's fist smashed hard into the man's face. His nose broke on the spot, tears and blood spraying everywhere.

With her other arm holding Bai Dongqing, Lu Yunzhi stepped up to the man, lifted her leather boot, and stomped down at full force toward his head.

His face visibly caved in.

Not far away, the kind aunt clapped hard. "This girl's really got skills!"

Then she lowered her head and said, "Miss, I'll push you over there. Your daughter's fine now."

Only then did some light return to Jiang Qianyu's eyes. She looked up. "Auntie, thank you."

"It's nothing, nothing. Sigh, you've really had bad luck, running into a lunatic like this. Good thing the little girl is okay. When you get home, comfort her properly. Otherwise, this'll become a shadow over her for the rest of her life."

After pushing Jiang Qianyu over, the aunt turned and stood to one side, joining the others in angrily cursing the man for being mentally ill and still coming out to hurt people.

The moment Bai Dongqing saw her, it was like seeing a lifeline. She threw herself into Jiang Qianyu's arms, her two little hands clutching tightly at her clothes, unwilling to let go.

Jiang Qianyu held Bai Dongqing tightly in her arms. "It's okay now, it's okay now. Don't be scared. Mommy's here."

At that moment, she was very close to the madman. No one noticed a half-transparent black thread flash by and sink into his body.

"Sorry, Xiaoyu, I came too late. You weren't hurt, were you?" Lu Yunzhi hurried over, guilt filling her heart.

She hadn't expected something like this to happen the moment she left.

No matter how you looked at it, it was still her responsibility.

Jiang Qianyu's legs were inconvenient. It was easy to imagine what she must have felt just now, watching her daughter get taken away right in front of her.

"I'm not hurt. Thank you, Yunzhi. You saved Dong Qing." Jiang Qianyu used a tissue to wipe away the tears and blood on Bai Dongqing's face, then rummaged through her bag and found a bandage to stick on her.

She didn't blame Lu Yunzhi for arriving too late, or for anything else. She wasn't an unreasonable person. If Lu Yunzhi hadn't been here, then with her being disabled, Bai Dongqing would either have been taken away or killed by that madman.

The same went for the other bystanders just now.

It was understandable that they didn't help.

The madman had a knife. They were ordinary people, not police officers. What if they rushed in and got stabbed to death?

To save a little girl they didn't know, would it have been worth it?

Jiang Qianyu didn't want to talk about those philosophical or social questions right now. After putting the bandage on Bai Dongqing, she asked, "Does your neck still hurt? Mommy will take you to the hospital."

"It hurts a little, but it's okay. We don't need to go to the hospital, Mommy."

Bai Dongqing was very well-behaved. Even after going through something like this, she didn't cry or make a fuss, even though she was truly, deeply afraid.

While they were talking, the man lying on the ground suddenly climbed back up.

He pulled another knife from his pocket. Instead of trying to ambush Lu Yunzhi, he raised the knife and ran for the stairs, not even daring to look back at Bai Dongqing once.

The surrounding onlookers quickly scattered aside, letting him run down the stairs.

Lu Yunzhi wanted to chase him, but the moment she took a step, she realized Jiang Qianyu had grabbed the corner of her clothes.

"Yunzhi, leave the rest to the police downstairs. Don't go. Even if you catch up, it won't help. And... I don't want to see my family get hurt again."

Lu Yunzhi turned back and met Jiang Qianyu's calm eyes.

She wanted to say something, but swallowed the words before they came out.

Maybe it was just her imagination, but she felt there was something strange about Jiang Qianyu's gaze.

It was a look she had never seen from her before.

She actually found it a little frightening...

She didn't dwell on it, only assuming Jiang Qianyu had been shaken by what happened.

"Alright. Someone already called the police anyway. That guy shouldn't be able to get away."

"Yunzhi, do you think that man had some kind of problem with his spirit?" Jiang Qianyu suddenly asked.

As a Nightwatcher, Lu Yunzhi knew the "mental problem" Jiang Qianyu meant was something else.

She rubbed her chin and thought back for a moment. "Yeah, there was definitely something wrong. He's sick, but the symptoms are pretty—"

"Then are there a lot of patients like him?"

"Mmm... you're not wrong. There really are quite a few people like that hidden in society. Why are you asking, Xiaoyu?" Lu Yunzhi asked, puzzled.

"Nothing. Just asking." Jiang Qianyu gently rubbed Bai Dongqing's head and stared fixedly in the direction the madman had fled, with the same look she had when Bai Dongqing was taken away.