"Don't worry, Mom would never do anything foolish."
If the Feng family discovered it was her doing, they would likely retaliate against Saira. How could she gamble with her daughter's life? To resolve this and ensure Zuri is taken care of, Zuri must meet with an accidental death. Only in the case of an accident would the Feng family refrain from pursuing the matter.
The bright afternoon sun was blinding. As soon as Zuri returned to the neighborhood, she noticed a group of elderly people gathered in front of one of the building entrances. Zuri approached; it was the entrance to her building.
"Auntie, what's going on in front of the building?" Zuri asked.
The elderly woman eagerly replied, "Seems like some rich young man has taken a fancy to a girl in this building. He sent a ton of gifts! Those gifts look really expensive. Nowadays, young people spend so much money just to date."
Curious, Zuri peeked over and saw two trucks parked right in front of the entrance, blocking the entire building.
Who could be this extravagant?
Suddenly, one of the staff members noticed Zuri standing in the crowd, watching, and excitedly rushed over.
"Miss Zuri, thank goodness you're back."
At this shout, everyone turned to look at Zuri.
Zuri stood there, bewildered, looking at the overly enthusiastic staff member before her.
"Who are you?"
The staff member smiled ingratiatingly. "Miss Zuri, please come and see. All these gifts were prepared by Mr. Feng for you."
With that, the staffer signaled to his colleague.
The next moment, the truck doors opened, revealing one truck full of designer clothes and another packed with luxury handbags. The crowd gasped in amazement.
A young girl in the crowd recognized some of the handbags and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, I see a limited edition Hermès, Chanel, and LV. This is what I've always dreamed of!"
"These clothes are so beautiful. I can smell the money."
"Wow, just the handbags alone must be worth millions. This is insane!"
"Why can't a rich guy pursue me like this?"
The younger onlookers were all stunned, their eyes shining with envy and jealousy as they stared at the truckloads of goods.
The older men and women shook their heads in disapproval after hearing about the value of the items.
"What a waste!"
"With so much money, they could do something meaningful. What's the point of buying all this?"
"Young people today don't know how to be frugal at all."
Zuri watched as the staff started to open the boxes, quickly stopping them. "Don't open them!"
The staff halted immediately.
If her guess was correct, those boxes contained jewelry. Displaying such items in public was just inviting trouble.
Such a thoughtless move could only be the work of one of the Feng brothers. Zuri's mind automatically came up with a name—Owen.
She glanced around at the crowd and then turned to the lead staffer, saying, "Take everything back. I won't accept a single item."
"This…" The staffer looked troubled.
"Don't worry, I'll explain everything to him. Do you think this place can hold all of these things?"
The staffer looked around at the old, dilapidated neighborhood and finally gathered everything and took it away.
As they left, the onlookers couldn't help but feel sorry for Zuri, while also somewhat envious.
Just as Zuri reached her apartment, her phone rang.
"Hello, is this Miss Zuri?" A young voice came through the line.
"Yes, it is."
"I have a package for you, but I'm having trouble finding the address. Could you come and pick it up? I'm at the bus stop on Fushan Road," the voice on the other end nervously explained.
"Walk 300 meters further along Fushan Road, and after you see the supermarket, take the alley on the left. Ask someone there, and you should find it."
"I'm really sorry, I'm new at this and not very familiar with the area. Could you please come and get it? I also have another delivery that must be made by 2 PM, or else the customer will complain," the delivery guy admitted.
Zuri didn't want to make things difficult for him. "Alright, I'll come and get it. Just wait there."
"Thank you, thank you so much," the delivery guy repeated his thanks.
Zuri grabbed her keys and headed out the door.
Five minutes later, she arrived at Fushan Road and began walking towards the bus stop.
When she reached the bus stop, there were only three or four people waiting, but no sign of the delivery guy.
Zuri frowned slightly, glancing around, but saw no one fitting the description.
Did he leave?
She took out her phone, searched for the previous number, and just as she pressed redial, she heard a shout.
Zuri looked up to see a truck speeding out of control towards the bus stop. It was moving at an alarming speed, with nothing in front to stop it. In seconds, it would reach them.
Zuri quickly rolled out of the way, tumbling twice on the ground as the truck brushed past her.
If she had reacted just a bit slower, or moved a little less, she would have been crushed under the wheels.
With a loud crash, the truck smashed into a streetlamp. The lamp fell, pulling down some electrical wires, and they were about to hit a little girl standing nearby. Zuri gritted her teeth, got up quickly, and threw herself towards the girl, pulling her to safety just in time.
However, the cables struck the truck's cab, causing sparks to fly and electricity to crackle.
People saw the driver inside the truck convulsing as a small fire ignited from the cab, quickly spreading.
Onlookers rushed over to help Zuri and the little girl up.
The girl struggled to return to the bus stop, but people held her back.
"Mommy, I want my mommy," the girl cried out.
Her mother lay in a pool of blood, her fate uncertain.
This woman had pushed the girl out of danger at the last moment but couldn't save herself.
"Oh my God! This is horrible. I wonder if those two are still alive."
"Quick, call the police and an ambulance. Maybe they can still be saved."
But it was clear that the chances of survival were very slim.
Zuri glanced at the two people lying in blood, then at the out-of-control truck, narrowing her eyes.
Suddenly, a clean handkerchief was handed to her.
"Big sister, you have a lot of blood on your hands. Wipe it off," a little boy's sweet voice said.
Zuri looked at the small boy with large, dark eyes in front of her, and reached out to pat his head but stopped when she saw her bloodstained hand. She quietly took the handkerchief from him and said, "Thank you."
After the traffic police arrived, they questioned Zuri about what had happened. Zuri truthfully described the situation, and several witnesses around also corroborated the events.
When the ambulance arrived, the two injured people were loaded onto it. The truck driver, who was later pulled out of the vehicle, had already succumbed to the accident, his body emitting a burnt odor.
Onlookers shook their heads in pity as they watched the driver and the two bloodied victims.
One person said to Zuri, "Young lady, it's a good thing you dodged quickly, or else you would've been..."
"You're really lucky; you should go to a temple and pray for good fortune."
"That was too close. If it weren't for this young lady, that little girl might've been hurt."
Zuri paid no attention to the murmurs around her. She took out her phone, intending to call Lei Ting, but before she could dial, her phone rang—it was the delivery man who had called her earlier.
"Miss Zuri, I'm at the bus stop now, but it seems like there's been an accident. Where are you?"
"I'm right here at the scene," Zuri replied as she scanned the crowd. Soon, she spotted a man holding a phone, looking around anxiously.
Zuri walked toward him.
"Where are you?" the man asked.
Zuri tapped his shoulder. The young man turned around and, upon seeing the blood on Zuri's arm, looked at her in surprise. "Are you Zuri?"
"Yes, I am. Where were you earlier?" Zuri asked in a stern tone.
The delivery man looked embarrassed and apologized, "I'm really sorry. That client wanted me to deliver his package immediately, and since it was close by, I thought I could make it there and back quickly. I really apologize."
He bowed deeply in apology.
Zuri narrowed her eyes as she scrutinized him. Then, she glanced over at the truck and the pool of blood on the ground, a flashback of Jonah's accident surfacing in her mind.
The scene was eerily similar, almost too much so, making her wonder if this was all orchestrated.
Was it a coincidence? Or was it deliberately planned?
Zuri couldn't shake the question from her mind.
The delivery man scratched his head and, seeing her silence, nervously pleaded, "Please don't file a complaint against me. I've already had three complaints this month. If I get one more, I won't have any salary left."
Zuri didn't directly respond. "Where's my package?"
"Oh, right!" The delivery man quickly handed her a package. "Please sign for it."
Zuri took the package and signed her name.
"What's your name?" Zuri suddenly asked.
"My name is Li Nan. If you need anything in the future, you can reach out to me," Li Nan said shyly.
Zuri watched him leave after she took the package.
Li Nan, huh?
It wouldn't be hard to find out if her suspicions were correct.
Perhaps due to the scare from the accident, Zuri felt restless and anxious on her way back home.
She pulled out her phone and called Lei Ting.
"Lei Ting, help me look into a courier from Fengyun Express named Li Nan. Also, I want details on the truck driver from today's traffic accident on Fushan Road."
Sensing something amiss, Lei Ting asked, "Zuri, did something happen?"
Zuri couldn't bring herself to describe her feelings, so she merely said, "Nothing major, just a close call with an accident. Please look into this quickly..."
Before Zuri could finish her sentence, a sudden force from behind shoved her forward.
Caught off guard, she stumbled forward a few steps. As she turned around to see who had pushed her, a flower pot came crashing down from above, shattering right next to her feet, with dirt scattering all over her legs.
Zuri froze, looking up at the quiet apartment building, seeing no one around.
When she turned back, she saw a man standing in front of her. "Leo, what are you doing here?"
Leo walked up to her, his eyes scanning her before landing on the bandaged wound on her arm. His gaze darkened slightly when he noticed the shattered pieces near her feet.
He knelt down, took out a silk handkerchief from his pocket, and gently wiped away the dirt from the small cut on her leg caused by the shards.
Zuri was surprised to see this usually proud man kneel down for someone.
"I can do it myself," Zuri said as she squatted down, trying to take the handkerchief from him, but Leo held onto her hand.
"It's done," Leo said, tying the handkerchief around her ankle, making it look like a decorative anklet.
The shop owner downstairs, seeing the smashed flower pot, grumbled, "So inconsiderate! Throwing something from that height could kill someone."
"Does this happen often?" Zuri asked.
The shop owner sighed, "Yes, it does. People spit, toss cigarette butts, or throw used tissues out of the window—it's disgusting. But this time, throwing a flower pot is just too much."
"Doesn't anyone take action?"
"How can you, when you can't find the culprit? There's no surveillance in these old buildings, and when the property management asked around, everyone denied it. You can't do anything without proof. All you can do is put up with it. These days, you run into all sorts of people."
Zuri glanced up at the residents above, then turned back to Leo. "Why are you here?"
"I happened to be passing by," Leo replied, looking at the bandage on her arm. "How did you get hurt?"
Zuri glanced at her arm. "A car lost control earlier, and I got hurt while dodging it."
Her casual tone didn't convey the danger of the situation at all. If she hadn't dodged in time, she might have ended up as a corpse.
"A car accident?" Leo frowned.
"Had you not pushed me earlier, I might've ended up with a cracked skull. I think today's been rather unlucky for me. No wonder my eyelids have been twitching all day," Zuri said lightly, though she was still shaken.
"It does seem like bad luck," Leo said as he walked beside her. Suddenly, he reached out and covered her head with his hands.
Zuri looked at him in confusion.
"To block the bad luck," Leo said seriously.
"What kind of superstition is that?"
"It's an old saying from my hometown: when bad luck hangs over you, you just need to cover it up."
"That's just superstition," Zuri said with a smile. "You can put your hands down now."
But Leo didn't move, keeping his hands over her head. Passersby started staring at them, their heads turning as they walked by, the couple drawing a lot of attention.
"Mommy, what's that big brother doing?" a little girl asked curiously.
The child's mother was equally puzzled. What were those two young people up to? The weather was clear, so what was the point of covering her head?
The mother, although inwardly perplexed, calmly replied, "That brother is shading the sister from the sun."
"But there's no sun," the child said, eyes wide with confusion.
The mother: ...
The child, unsatisfied with the explanation, tugged on her mother's clothes.
The mother, exasperated, muttered through gritted teeth, "They're just being lovey-dovey."
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