11: Chapter 11: Gradient-colored names – I learned something new!

The police officer hurriedly tried to soothe Liu Mei.

Lin Ning stood to the side, completely zoned out, just listening to Liu Mei sobbing as she accused him of his "heinous crimes."

"Sob, sob, sob... My baby was thrown to the ground when he grabbed him; the child was so scared..."

"Now my baby is afraid to go out and keeps waking up at night. We went to see a pediatric psychologist, and they all said this kind of shock would affect the child's psychological well-being, and could even impact his personality in adulthood..."

"I have to take time off work every day to take him to the doctor, so I lost my performance bonus for this month, and I have to spend money on the baby's treatment. And this person even ran away at the time!"

After finally managing to calm Liu Mei down, the police officer asked Lin Ning: "What was the situation back then? Why did you grab someone else's child and fall?"

The police officer actually had significant doubts, even suspecting for a moment that Lin Ning was mentally ill; otherwise, who would grab someone else's child and fall on the street?

Lin Ning: "... I saw the child running into the road to pick up a ball, and an SUV came speeding around the corner..."

Lin Ning suddenly didn't know what else to say.

Lin Ning suspected that since the incident happened so suddenly, maybe the child's mother didn't realize the child was almost hit, and since he was saving the child, she only saw him holding the child and falling to the ground when she turned around, leading to a misunderstanding?

So he turned to Liu Mei: "Ma'am, did the SUV driver run away too? He almost hit the child, and I only..."

Liu Mei interrupted him: "He didn't run away! He apologized sincerely and offered compensation! Unlike you!"

Lin Ning: "???" What did I do?

Liu Mei continued angrily: "I've already checked the dashcam footage. If you hadn't grabbed the child, he wouldn't have been hit; instead, it was you who scared and hurt my baby!"

Lin Ning couldn't help but laugh; so it turns out people really do laugh when they are speechless.

He had freaking run into a madman! But looking at the red text above her head, was she deliberately playing dumb to extort money?

The police officer was also stunned by now. When he received the report, this Liu Mei had claimed that on the street, Lin Ning suddenly rushed out, threw the child to the ground, and then ran away...

The officer's face immediately darkened. Although in their line of work, there were so many bizarre people that one might suspect the world was just a giant mental hospital, that didn't mean they wouldn't get angry when someone acted so entitled.

The officer slammed the table: "Quiet!"

He looked at Lin Ning: "Mr. Lin, please explain the situation in detail."

The form of address had changed to Mr. Lin.

As for what Lin Ning had to say, he didn't want to say anything at all.

If someone wronged you, you would be angry and refute it, but if you were facing someone like Liu Mei, it didn't even make you want to open your mouth.

Confronting such a person was just beneath him!

Lin Ning took out his phone directly, connected to the cloud storage of his helmet camera, and found the recording from that time.

He handed it to the police officer.

The officer sternly stopped Liu Mei, who was still crying and making a scene, and took the recording device.

The profession of a police officer, especially a patrol officer, involves seeing too many people; basically, just by looking at Lin Ning's expression and demeanor, he knew the situation wasn't as Liu Mei had described.

The small screen played the thrilling footage and audio from that day.

It was a short clip: the camera swept past the mother who had her back to the child, the child running to pick up the ball, and the car getting closer and closer. Then, everything spun around; because the camera was on his helmet and too close to the tires, one could even see the dust stuck in the tire treads.

Then came the noise of the crowd, the crying of the woman and child, and a man—presumably the SUV owner—asking the camera if Lin Ning was hurt and if they should go to the hospital for a check-up.

Lin Ning left quickly, and then there were only street and tree views.

The situation was clear at a glance.

Lin Ning took back his phone and asked the officer: "Am I liable?"

The officer said very firmly: "No!"

"Then can I leave?"

Lin Ning didn't want to stay any longer.

You can't wake someone who is pretending to sleep, and reasoning with Liu Mei was just an insult to himself.

The officer said: "Wait a moment."

The officer was extremely disdainful of Liu Mei: "He performed a brave act to save your child, yet you still frame him. Do you know what kind of behavior that is?"

Liu Mei's momentum withered a bit: "I've seen the car's dashcam footage; there was distance, he might not have been hit."

As if finding some confidence, her voice rose: "Even if he meant well, doesn't he have to be responsible if his good intentions caused bad results?"

The officer was also speechless at Liu Mei: "Did you go to the traffic police to assess the accident? Did the traffic police tell you the vehicle wouldn't have hit the child? How was the liability for the SUV divided?"

Liu Mei: "Since there was no collision, we didn't look for the traffic police! The SUV owner apologized and paid money; we settled it privately!"

The officer lost his patience too: "Do you know what place this is? Is this a place for you to make unreasonable demands? If the SUV had no responsibility, and in your view it wouldn't have hit the child, why did they give you money? Don't you have any self-awareness?"

Liu Mei tried to argue, but was interrupted by Lin Ning.

Lin Ning looked at the officer and said: "This counts as a false accusation, right? I remember there are provisions in the Public Security Administration Punishments Law. I request to file a case."

"No mediation, no compensation, and no forgiveness. Please help me file the case!"

As for the law, because he had to tail people and was afraid of crossing the line, he had learned a bit. He couldn't recite it all, but he had a vague impression of it.

Ignoring Liu Mei as she started crying and making a scene, Lin Ning stood up and left first.

The officer didn't stop him.

This wasn't a civil dispute, and the nature of the matter was quite malicious.

Those in the police force looked down on such immoral behavior that corrupted social values.

He went straight out to find another officer to take over Liu Mei and went to process the paperwork for Lin Ning.

"... Upload your gimbal recording here... You need to sign here..."

Lin Ning was in the lobby cooperating with the officer to process the paperwork; the environment was buzzing and somewhat noisy, but overall busy and orderly.

Suddenly, a rough male voice grew louder and louder, and started to make a racket.

Lin Ning turned his head out of curiosity; a police officer was standing in the center of the hall not far from him, talking to a chubby middle-aged man.

Lin Ning's pupils constricted.

Light red ---> Bright red [Li Zhijun, Self-employed].

Green ---> Grayish-white [Qiu Liang, Police Officer].

Lin Ning had never seen a situation where a character's status color was changing.