The Watcher - Chapter 2

# Chapter 2

I was enjoying the show.

It turned out the money Brother Biao had spent on gifts was meant to pay for a cochlear implant for his seven-year-old daughter, who had a hearing impairment.

Sister Zhang worked five jobs to save it, wearing herself down day and night until she barely looked human.

At the sight of the mother and daughter crying their eyes out, Qin Yue didn’t even get angry.

Instead, she invited them inside.

The stream was off now, but through my camera I watched her take out a bank card.

“There’s a hundred and fifty thousand in here. I can give it to you.”

Sister Zhang and I were both stunned.

Qin Yue explained, “My stream’s been losing viewers lately. We could collaborate on content. Audiences love watching a woman rescued from a miserable life. If you can make a fresh start and live with dignity again, I’ll benefit too.”

Then her tone changed, a shrewd glint in her eyes.

“But I can’t give you the money yet.”

“You can’t protect it. Brother Biao will take it just the same. I’m not the only female streamer online. If he doesn’t spend it on me, he’ll spend it on someone else. Once someone else has it, you won’t get it back.”

Qin Yue pushed up Sister Zhang’s sleeve. Her arm was covered in old and new scars.

“You can’t even protect the money, much less your daughter.”

Sister Zhang looked lost and frightened.

You could tell she’d truly been beaten into terror.

“Then—then what am I supposed to do? Every time I bring up divorce, he beats me half to death. He threatens to kill Nuonuo too. You’re just a young girl. What could you possibly do?”

Qin Yue gently told her it was all right. “Take your time thinking. There are always more solutions than problems.”

From that day on, Qin Yue began filming Sister Zhang’s daily life.

She helped her recover, dress up, and find premises to open a shop.

When Brother Biao saw that the attention could make money, he beat his wife even harder.

The angrier and more anxious the followers got, the more the views brought in.

“I punched through your daughter’s eardrum. I can make you deaf too. If you even think of running, I’ll dump that deaf kid of yours on the street to beg!”

About a month later, Qin Yue gave Sister Zhang the card, as promised.

She really wasn’t a woman who coveted money. But wouldn’t the whole hundred and fifty thousand still end up in Brother Biao’s hands?

She might as well have given it to me!

Seething with envy and jealousy, I opened that day’s stream.

To my surprise, the chat was flooded with a news story.

“Did you see the news? Brother Biao died tonight!”

Brother Biao’s death was quite unexpected.

After leaving a casino drunk, he fell into a drainage channel and drowned.

I was delivering food past the second floor when I happened to see the police taking statements.

Sister Zhang explained, her eyes red, “He did beat me, but he’d been doing it for years. If I wanted to hurt him, why wait until now?”

“Me? I was helping my daughter with homework then. I didn’t go anywhere.”

But an immediate family member couldn’t serve as a witness.

Then Nuonuo, who had received her cochlear implant, suddenly said, “Mom was there. My English teacher started an online lesson at ten thirty, and Mom stayed with me. There’s a recording.”

With both witnesses and physical evidence accounted for, murder was ruled out.

The case was quickly classified as an accident.

But something bothered me. The day Qin Yue handed over the card happened to be the very day Brother Biao drowned.

Wasn’t she afraid he’d take the money?

A terrifying possibility flashed through my mind.

Or had she known Brother Biao would never need it again?