63: Chapter 63 For 20,000 yuan, would you really watch your child die in front of you?

The viewers in the livestream who were starting to waver began to shift their stance once more.

"Yeah, Cinnabar really does calm the nerves; that's a common saying in Chinese medicine."

"They even have a test report. Is Su Yun really just making baseless accusations?"

"That young woman is crying so pitifully. I don't believe this is an act."

Seeing the tide of the comments shift again, the smugness in Celestial Master Zhang's eyes was impossible to hide.

You think you can beat me?

I've prepared more props than the grains of rice you've eaten!

Su Yun leaned back in his chair, watching the pair's clumsy performance; he almost felt like giving them a round of applause.

"A test report?"

Su Yun picked up the thermos beside him, unscrewed the lid, and took a sip.

"Those cost twenty yuan on Taobao, and they even customize official seals. If you're willing to pay extra, they'll even stamp it with the seal of the Jade Emperor for you."

Celestial Master Zhang's expression stiffened. "You..."

"And about that Cinnabar."

Su Yun set down the cup, his gaze suddenly becoming as sharp as a knife.

"The main component of genuine Cinnabar is Mercury Sulfide. While it is toxic, talking about toxicity without considering the dosage is just being a rogue."

"But is what's inside that bottle of yours actually Cinnabar?"

Su Yun leaned forward, his eyes seemingly piercing through the screen to look directly into Celestial Master Zhang's very marrow.

"That is Red Lead Powder."

"Scientific name: Lead Tetroxide."

"To make the color look better, you even added industrial dyes to it."

"Lead, mercury, and all sorts of other heavy metals."

Su Yun's voice wasn't loud, yet every word felt like a steel nail being driven into concrete.

"One bottle of that, and forget a three-year-old child—even a bull would drop dead."

"And you say the child isn't crying or fussing and is sleeping soundly after drinking it?"

Su Yun let out a cold laugh and turned his gaze toward the young woman who was still wiping away tears.

"Liu Xiaoli."

The moment those three words were uttered, the woman's sobbing stopped abruptly.

Her eyes widened, and she looked at the screen with a face full of terror.

That was her real name.

Except for her family, no one knew her by that name; the name she used for streaming had always been Liu Fang.

"How... how do you know..."

Su Yun ignored her surprise and began to speak faster.

"For the twenty thousand yuan Zhang Xuanji promised you, do you really intend to watch your biological son die in your arms?"

Liu Xiaoli's body jerked violently, and she instinctively hugged the child in her arms tighter.

"I... I'm not..."

"You're not?"

Su Yun directly cut off her excuse.

"Then look at the child in your arms."

"Think back carefully. Over the past two days, has the child's urine been particularly sparse?"

"On the discarded diapers, were there red traces? That's hematuria!"

"And you think he's sleeping soundly?"

Su Yun slammed the table suddenly, his voice rising sharply.

"That is a coma!"

"That is a deep coma caused by heavy metal poisoning!"

"That is a precursor to liver and kidney failure!"

This string of accusations hit Liu Xiaoli's heart like a series of heavy hammer blows.

Her face instantly turned deathly pale, and her lips began to tremble.

With shaking hands, she pulled back the blanket wrapping the child.

The child's small face was sallow, his lips were purple, and his breathing was as faint as a thread about to snap.

She gently shook the child. "Lele? Lele?"

The child didn't react at all, slumped limply in her arms.

Before, whenever the child slept, he would whimper if touched even slightly.

But now, he was like a fake doll.

Fear.

An unprecedented fear flooded over Liu Xiaoli like a tide.

"How can this be? How can this be..."

Liu Xiaoli panicked, completely losing her composure.

She suddenly looked up at Celestial Master Zhang, her eyes filled with a mix of a plea for help and accusation.

"Taoist Master, didn't you say he'd be fine after a sleep?"

Celestial Master Zhang hadn't expected Su Yun to be so accurate; cold sweat instantly poured down his forehead.

But he couldn't admit it.

If he admitted it, that would be intentional homicide!

"Shut up!"

Celestial Master Zhang glared fiercely at Liu Xiaoli, his eyes full of threats.

"Don't listen to his nonsense! The child is just tired!"

"Liu Fang, think carefully before you speak! If you talk nonsense, can you afford the consequences?"

The threatening undertone in his words was obvious to anyone.

Was this just about twenty thousand yuan?

This involved the company behind him, the capital!

Liu Xiaoli was intimidated, and the words at the tip of her tongue were swallowed back down.

She was just an ordinary rural woman; she had never seen such a confrontation.

Just as she was hesitating, Su Yun's voice rang out again.

"Jiangcheng City First People's Hospital is less than three kilometers from the rental house you're in now."

"An ambulance can get there in just ten minutes."

Su Yun looked at Liu Xiaoli, the sharpness in his eyes gone, replaced by a chillingly calm expression.

"Every moment you hesitate now is spending your son's life."

"Look at his fingernails."

"Have they already started turning black?"

"Those are lead lines, a sign of lead poisoning."

"Any later, and not even a god will be able to save him."

"When that time comes, will you take that twenty thousand yuan and buy your son a nice urn?"

That final sentence completely shattered Liu Xiaoli's psychological defenses.

She was greedy for money, and she was ignorant.

But she was this child's biological mother!

He was a piece of her own flesh that she had carried for ten months!

Liu Xiaoli suddenly grabbed the child's hand.

On the tiny fingernails, there was indeed a black line, startlingly vivid against the pale skin.

"Lele!"

Liu Xiaoli let out a heart-wrenching scream.

She no longer cared about any script, the twenty thousand yuan, or Celestial Master Zhang's threats.

She screamed at the camera like a madwoman.

"It's him! It's all him!"

Liu Xiaoli pointed at the ashen-faced Celestial Master Zhang, crying hysterically.

"He's the one who made me feed it to him! He said it was divine water and that the child would cooperate with the act after drinking it!"

"He said as long as I cried a bit in the livestream and said the child was cured, he'd give me twenty thousand yuan!"

"I didn't know it was poisonous! If I had known, I wouldn't have given it to Lele even if it killed me!"

Boom!

The livestream chat completely exploded.

Over eight hundred thousand viewers witnessed this collapse of humanity with their own eyes.

"Animal! He's a total animal!"

"Feeding a child poison just for livestream effects? Is this something a human being does?"

"Call the police! We must call the police!"

"I knew this Taoist didn't look like a good person, but I didn't expect his heart to be this black!"

Celestial Master Zhang completely lost his head.

He rushed forward, trying to cover Liu Xiaoli's mouth and grab her phone.

"You crazy woman! What nonsense are you talking! Did Su Yun pay you to smear me?"

"Get away!"

At that moment, Liu Xiaoli erupted with incredible strength.

She shoved Celestial Master Zhang away, pulled her phone from her pocket, and frantically displayed it to the camera.

"I have evidence! I have evidence!"

"These are the WeChat messages he sent me! These are the transfer records!"

The screen clearly showed Zhang Xuanji's WeChat profile picture.

The chat history was filled with various script arrangements.

[When we stream tomorrow, remember to cry more pitifully.]

[Give the child half that bottle of water. Don't give him too much; just enough to make him fall asleep.]

[Transfer: 20,000.00 RMB. Note: Service fee.]

The evidence was as solid as a mountain.

Inarguable.

Looking at the phone screen, Celestial Master Zhang looked as if his spine had been removed, and he slumped limply into his chair.

It was over.

Everything was over.

This was no longer just a matter of his reputation being ruined.

This was a capital offense that would see him behind bars for life, if not facing the firing squad!