coobybook Chapter 485 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (96)
Chapter 485 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (96)
"Huh?" Lu Liruan looked at the business card, clicked on it, and found that she had never seen it before.
"Teacher Liao!" Lu Liruan waved her phone at Liao Tingyuan. She was too lazy to get up, so Liao Tingyuan naturally stood up, walked in front of her, and bent down to look at the phone screen.
"Have you followed this WeChat official account?" Lu Liruan asked.
Liao Tingyuan looked at it carefully. He then scrolled through his phone.
Then I showed Lu Liruan another account.
"When I scanned the QR code, this is what appeared, so I followed it on a whim." Liao Tingyuan also forwarded it to Lu Liruan.
"Sister Yan, why are there several different WeChat official accounts?" Lu Liruan took screenshots of both of them and sent them to He Yan.
He Yan replied after a while: "Yes, we have two WeChat official accounts. One of them is mainly for recruiting volunteers and introducing our organization's activities, etc... It's the one I sent you."
"The one your boyfriend is interested in is mainly for adoption and the like..."
He Yan sent some pictures to Lu Liruan on her WeChat official account.
The WeChat public account that Liao Tingyuan follows features many photos of adopted animals, their happy lives in their new homes, and photos of them with their owners.
There are still small animals left in the rescue center that have not yet been adopted.
The photographer took beautiful photos; every little animal looked adorable in the pictures, accompanied by lovely and heartwarming captions. Lu Liruan enjoyed reading them immensely.
"Who wrote this copy? It's so cute..." Lu Liruan praised.
"Hahaha, it was written by a female student majoring in Chinese literature at university, one of our volunteers. We've made the most of her." He Yan laughed.
"We'll make the most of any talent our volunteers have, so we can minimize costs when it comes to caring for the animals," He Yan said, half-jokingly and half-seriously.
“Then let’s think about what talents we have, and then we can report directly to you, so you won’t have to bother to find us!” Lu Liruan replied.
"Teacher Liao, what are your talents?" Lu Liruan put down her phone and turned to ask Liao Tingyuan.
"..." Liao Tingyuan couldn't think of any talent he had in rescuing small animals for a moment.
Lu Liruan thought for a moment: "You're so good at taking care of children, you're probably also good at taking care of small animals, right?"
Liao Tingyuan: ?
"Ruan Ruan." Liao Tingyuan sighed.
"Ok?"
"You can't lump children together with small animals just because they can't speak much and always express their emotions through vocalizations," Liao Tingyuan said calmly.
Lu Liruan didn't know why, but she just found it very funny, especially with Liao Tingyuan's expression.
"Oh, okay." Lu Liruan turned her head away.
"I think I'm pretty good at taking care of Ruan Ruan." Liao Tingyuan noticed Lu Liruan's expression and suddenly said something out of the blue.
Lu Liruan didn't react for a moment, wondering what this meant.
Teacher Liao is indeed very good at taking care of people!
Then I heard Liao Tingyuan say, "So I think I might actually be able to take care of small animals..."
After he finished speaking, his expression remained indifferent, and he didn't even change his posture of looking at his phone screen. It sounded like a very ordinary sentence.
Five seconds later, Lu Liruan suddenly realized what was going on.
Liao Tingyuan's point is that because he can take care of himself, he can also take care of small animals. In other words, he and the small animals are equal, on opposite ends of a scale.
But Liao Tingyuan just said that taking care of human babies is different from taking care of small animals!
Therefore, we can deduce the answer from these two known conditions...
Liao Tingyuan meant that he was even more difficult to care for than human cubs, just like a small animal! He went through all this trouble just for this reason!
"Teacher Liao!" Lu Liruan raised her voice.
Liao Tingyuan then turned to look at her, his expression a half-smile, just looking at Lu Liruan without refuting her.
Liao Tingyuan usually has this same expression when he jokes around.
After getting to know him better, Lu Liruan discovered that Liao Tingyuan was not the kind of person who was very serious or rigid. He had a very gentle personality and temperament, and his gentleness was also very tactful and interesting.
Anyone willing to spend time with him, anyone who can truly connect with him, would probably find him exceptionally kind… At first, Lu Liruan wondered why Liao Tingyuan, despite being so outstanding in every way, seemed like… a passerby? It was as if no one noticed him.
But later... I don't know when it started.
Lu Liruan suddenly had a vague thought: it would be nice if no one else came to Liao Tingyuan's side, and only she came to his side to know what kind of person he was, and to enjoy the unique Liao Tingyuan all to herself.
This thought only flashed through her mind occasionally, so quickly that Lu Liruan sometimes couldn't even grasp it.
Perhaps it was because, in this particularly enclosed environment, there was nothing to worry about, and nothing or no one to distract Liao Tingyuan.
Lu Liruan had never been treated like this before in all her years.
But gradually, Lu Liruan became more and more aware of her own thoughts.
When Liao Tingyuan spoke of her in a joking yet tender tone, Lu Liruan felt as if her heart was being gently tickled, both itchy and fluttering.
Liao Tingyuan thought the little girl would rush over to argue with him, but she just stood there, her face flushed and her eyes blinking.
Liao Tingyuan was stunned...
"Ruan Ruan?" Liao Tingyuan was worried that he had upset her.
"Ha!" To cover up her lapse in composure, Lu Liruan rushed over, threw the cushion at Liao Tingyuan, and then ran into the house.
I tripped and stumbled on the way because I wasn't wearing my slippers properly.
Liao Tingyuan: ?
Lu Liruan slammed the door shut in shame and anger.
After entering the room, I leaned against the wall and took a few deep breaths, realizing that something was very wrong with me...
Lu Liruan squatted on the ground, holding her head, thinking for a long time, but still couldn't figure out what she wanted to do. But in any case, she was definitely different from herself a few days ago. Although she didn't understand why she was different, Lu Liruan wanted to find out, yet she didn't want to.
This feeling of unease was, for a moment, even more intense than the frustration of not being able to find the source of infection.
Why are there so many things going on...?
Lu Liruan complained to herself inwardly.
No! In any case... I need to get out of this space first. I'm probably going crazy from being cooped up like this. Maybe once I get out and see the flowers, plants, and the world outside, my mood will improve.
Lu Liruan patted her cheeks, trying to convince herself.
Her legs were numb from squatting on the ground, but Lu Liruan didn't make things harder for herself. She flopped onto the bed and started looking at her phone again.
After a while, because the closed door blocked the cold air from the living room, Lu Liruan felt a little hot, so she got out of bed again and carefully opened the door a crack to listen to the sounds outside.
When Lu Liruan was little, she didn't experience much angering her parents. She would rush back to her room and slam the door, only to find that no one was paying attention to her. After a while, she would secretly listen to her parents' voices outside, then feel embarrassed and not know how to open the door and go out again.
Lu Liruan has this feeling right now.
Whether other parents care about their children in the house is unknown, but Liao Tingyuan certainly does. Ever since Lu Liruan rushed into the room, Liao Tingyuan has been sitting in the living room for a long time, unable to figure out why the little girl doesn't seem angry.
Liao Tingyuan circled the bedroom door twice before heading to the kitchen to cut a fruit platter.
When Liao Tingyuan heard a slight noise coming from the bedroom door in the quiet living room, he glanced at it without making a sound.
Then they noticed Lu Liruan peeking out from under the door.
Liao Tingyuan pretended not to notice, and after a while, he coughed lightly and asked, "Ruan Ruan, would you like some fruit?"
"eat!"
Sure enough, they heard Lu Liruan's reply.
With a step provided, the little girl skipped and hopped out of the house again.
She picked up a handful of grapes from the fruit plate, stuffed them into her mouth while glancing at Liao Tingyuan out of the corner of her eye. Only after realizing that the other person didn't seem to notice anything amiss did she feel at ease and curl up back on the sofa.
Even better at reading between the lines than small animals...
Liao Tingyuan thought to himself that it was funny, but he didn't say it out loud this time.
Otherwise, they'll get angry again soon, and we'll have to use something to trick them out.
After a while, Lu Liruan realized that nothing seemed different, and her mood gradually calmed down.
The two divided the work: Liao Tingyuan looked up the WeChat public account about adoption.
Lu Liruan searched for the WeChat official account that recruited volunteers to organize activities.
He Yan and his team put a lot of effort into their operations, resulting in a substantial amount of content on both public accounts, yet the layouts are pleasing to the eye and easy to read.
Lu Liruan's WeChat buzzed a few times.
Lu Liruan opened the message; it was a collection of super cute kitten pictures sent to her by Liao Tingyuan.
He saw it on a WeChat official account.
Lu Liruan pursed her lips, unable to hide a smile.
Liao Tingyuan flipped through the dates to a very early point, but found nothing.
I only saved a lot of photos of cute little animals...
Lu Liruan's side seems more likely, as it records the actions of the volunteers involved in each different activity at different locations...
Lu Liruan has already searched through several nearby residential areas.
Because the layouts of the neighborhoods in the area are all similar, Lu Liruan carefully examined the pictures for a while to make sure that none of them contained pictures of the neighborhood where they lived.
Could it be that there was a problem here... so it was deleted?
Lu Liruan calculated the approximate dates, found those days, and began to search carefully.
Then, Lu Liruan indeed found several pictures of this residential area in one of the links. Presumably because there was a problem here and they were worried about being targeted, the name of the residential area wasn't labeled.
Lu Liruan checked the building numbers written on the surrounding buildings and confirmed that it was indeed her place.
"Sister Yan, did you post the photos from the past few days?"
Lu Liruan sent a screenshot to He Yan.
For some reason, Lu Liruan felt that she was one step closer to knowing what she wanted to know.
This intuition-like feeling came over her again. Lu Liruan didn't know if it was her imagination or if she was just too eager to figure it out, which was why she had this feeling.
"You took quite a few photos that day. What do you need them for?"
He Yan sent an inquiry.
“There’s a little kid in our yard. The last time I saw him, I told him that someone had helped these kittens in the yard…”
Lu Liruan's eyes lit up, and she smoothly wove the words together.
“He said he had seen you in the yard before, and he was there at the time, wanting to help the kittens. I said you took pictures back then.”
Lu Liruan spoke smoothly: "Then he asked me if I had those photos, saying he didn't know if they had taken any pictures of him. His school teacher had assigned some homework, one of which was to be a little volunteer... He said it would be great if they had taken pictures of him, so he could hand in his homework."
"I just looked through your WeChat official account and found that you might have deleted a lot of content, so I came to ask you..." Lu Liruan's reason was perfectly normal and reasonable.
He Yan, as expected, had no doubts.
“We went there several times back then, and sometimes the kids from the yard would come over to watch, and some kids would even try to help us, though they didn’t really help much…” He Yan laughed:
"But we should still praise the children's actions. In this way, the seed of kindness in helping small animals may be planted in their hearts. When they grow up and have the ability, they will also do their best to help these small animals..."
“I went to check and found that more photos had been posted on the official account, but due to what happened later, they were all edited out.”
"I'll go and see if I saved these pictures on my computer back then." He Yan was very enthusiastic, and she tried her best to find solutions to all of Lu Liruan's requests.
Lu Liruan made a gesture to Liao Tingyuan, indicating that there seemed to be a new clue.
After waiting for a while, He Yan sent Lu Liruan a file package.
“These aren’t just photos taken in your neighborhood, but all the photos taken in the area during that period. Even if you asked me to break them down, I couldn’t tell them apart now. If you’re looking for that child, just look through these photos and see if he’s there. If he’s not here, then there probably aren’t any others,” He Yan explained.
"Okay, wait a minute, I'll look it up myself and find it. Sorry to bother you, Sister Yan."
Lu Liruan used decompression software to open the file package.
Suddenly, nearly 1000 photos popped out.
Lu Liruan looked at the densely packed photos and sighed.
"I really wish I could find that child. Finding a person is much easier than not knowing what to look for..."
Liao Tingyuan asked Lu Liruan to send him a copy of the document as well.
The two of them still worked together very well, one from front to back and the other from back to front.
Lu Liruan looked at the photos for an hour and ate two bags of potato chips for herself; her stomach felt a little full.
Until she suddenly flipped to a photo and knocked over the packaging bag on the table.