As Xiao Shu hesitated whether to step forward and lend a hand, perhaps also to see if the newcomer had dark skin, a fierce gust of wind swept through, kicking up a cloud of dust and sand that blew the towel off the person's head, exposing a pair of eye sockets streaming with bloody tears to the sunlight.

That single glance made Xiao Shu gasp, take two steps back, turn, and run until she found an empty corner where she could stop and finally catch her breath. It turned out the person was indeed the dark-skinned man she had fought earlier—the same face, the same nose, the same mouth, only lacking eyes; the facial features were all present otherwise. Those eyes, like Hua Gu’s, were deeply sunken into the sockets, and two rivulets of blood-red tears dripped steadily down from his eyelids. The dark-skinned man trembled, muttering incomprehensibly for a long time; no one could make out a single word. Later, after examination, it was discovered that a small piece of his tongue had been cut off. He would only be able to speak again after this riot was over, following delicate reconstructive surgery at a major hospital.

Old He and his colleague carried the dark-skinned man to the medical area, intending for Xiao Yu’s sister to care for him. Xiao Yu’s sister’s facility was only meant for shelter patients. Since the riot began, the most severe case she had treated was a broken arm or leg; a case like this, with both eyes gouged out, was a first. When the police lifted the towel from the dark-skinned man’s head, she was startled into silence, her hand holding the gauze forceps trembling uncontrollably. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bear to look again at those sunken sockets.

Helpless, the police officer had to take cotton swabs dipped in alcohol to clean the man’s injured eye sockets himself, then sprinkled them with anti-inflammatory powder and wrapped the entire head, from the eyes to the back of the skull, with gauze.

At this point, Xiao Shu had regained her composure. She pushed aside the tent flap and entered from outside. Seeing the dark-skinned man, she crouched beside him, taking hold of his wrist. “You still remember me, right? The person who was fighting with you on the street just now?”

The dark-skinned man listened closely; the voice was indeed familiar. He nodded, turned his clenched fist over, and held Xiao Shu’s palm, squeezing it tightly twice. Xiao Shu then asked, “Do you know who gouged out your eyes?” The hand holding hers gripped even tighter. After a pause, he fiercely nodded twice. Just as Xiao Shu was about to ask another question, the officer bandaging the wound spoke up: “Let’s ask later. He can only nod, and moving his head around so much will affect wrapping the gauze.”

Before the words faded, three or four burly police officers entered from outside the tent, stating they were taking the dark-skinned man to the Central Hospital for treatment. There had been an error at the control center, which had mistakenly sent the order for him to be routed to the shelter. Before the dark-skinned man’s head was fully bandaged, two officers hoisted him onto a stretcher, one at the head and one at the foot. The half-unrolled roll of gauze fell to the ground, rolling quite far away. Xiao Yu’s sister bent down to retrieve it, placed it near the stretcher, and quietly retreated.

Witnessing this scene, Xiao Shu became terribly anxious. She hadn't asked the questions she needed to, and the answers she sought were still locked in another person’s mind. She rushed forward to help lift the stretcher, intending to accompany the police to the Central Hospital. However, the officer lifting the stretcher was extremely strong; he gave her a sharp shove with his shoulder, knocked her aside without a word, and walked out of the tent. That left Xiao Yu’s sister, Old He, Xiao Shu, and the officer who had been bandaging the wounds standing in the tent, staring blankly at each other.