He could barely bring himself to open the medical record, his fingers trembling as he clicked the icon. The document showed her hospital admission and treatment information. She was hospitalized due to illness, and the last line contained only four words: Confirmed dead. The time was midnight three days ago.
Meng Qing went rigid, staring blankly at the screen. Spider, sitting across from him, noticed his unusual state and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Meng Qing forced a smile, “Lost to ‘Extreme Firepower’ several times in a row.”
Spider scoffed, “Losing a few game rounds is nothing… didn’t lose money…” Seeing Meng Qing’s increasingly terrible expression, he asked in surprise, “Did you actually bet money? How much did you lose?”
Meng Qing closed the tablet, leaned back on the sofa, covered his eyes with one hand, and whispered chokingly, “…Everything…”
Spider’s eyes widened, “What?! Everything…”
Meng Qing rubbed his eyes forcefully, stood up, and strode toward the bedroom. Spider could only see his back, hearing him mumble to himself, “Alright, starting tomorrow, I’ll start over.”
The day after learning of Yu Laoshi’s death, Meng Qing began searching for his past.
He found the record of his entry into the orphanage. He entered the orphanage in December eighteen years ago, still an infant. Because he had been abandoned in the hospital for too long with no one caring for him, the hospital called the police. The police first sent him to a foster family, then searched for his parents. After three months of unsuccessful searching, they sent him to the orphanage.
So while his exact birthday was unclear, it could be roughly determined to be between July and August. His time was limited; before truly turning eighteen, he needed to leave.
They now trusted him like a comrade. When he decided to leave, it wasn’t difficult.
The challenge was how to avoid their subsequent tracking.
The game of tracking and counter-tracking, which Meng Qing had played with the police for nearly nine years, had been accompanied by Spider for two to three years. Spider was familiar with his preferred escape methods, and Meng Qing was equally familiar with Spider’s tracking routines.
Whether Spider intentionally went easy on him was unclear, but he escaped extremely easily.
He didn’t choose to report to the police, not just because of the experience of being beaten after reporting as a child, which instinctively made him distrust the police, but also because he wasn’t naive enough to think he could avoid responsibility for his past actions.
Moreover, he didn’t want to send Spider or his other accomplices to prison with his own hands.
He just wanted freedom. He just didn’t want to commit crimes anymore.
More than a month later, Meng Qing arrived in a small city in the central region.
He asked himself: Why did he come here?
During his days of escape, he had no specific goal. The money Yu Laoshi had saved in the account could support his escape expenses without stealing, but that money would soon run out. He needed a stable income and wanted to settle down.
While wandering through the network, he habitually infiltrated various system backdoors, simply intruding, browsing, and then doing nothing, exiting exactly as he found them. Unknowingly, he began searching for the person who had abandoned him. He surprisingly found her easily, along with her identity and current address. He could have found her long ago; he just didn’t know what he would do after finding her.
After aimlessly wandering for a month, he arrived in her city and stood at her doorstep.
Meng Qing wondered what he should say to her first in this situation.
She opened the door slightly, with a chain lock in place, and peered through the narrow gap, examining him with a hint of wariness. “Who are you looking for?” She looked older than her ID photo but much more beautiful.
He hesitated for a moment, then said, “I’m your son.”
She let him in, poured water into a plastic cup, and placed it in front of him.
Meng Qing looked around. This was an ordinary two-bedroom apartment. There was no indication of whether she lived alone. Shoes were neatly stored in the shoe cabinet, and the slippers she gave him were somewhat tight.
Meng Qing and she sat silently, neither knowing what to say. He asked to use the bathroom and noticed there was only one toothbrush.
After coming out of the bathroom, he asked, “I can stay here for three days, right?
Finding her, he had also learned his birthday – August 5th, three days from now, and seven days after that, she had abandoned him.
She seemed to find nothing special about this day but agreed.
Their atmosphere became more relaxed afterward. She asked how he had been doing these years. He said, “Ordinary.”
She hesitantly asked if anyone had taken care of him. He said someone had when he was young, but later he had to rely on himself.
She felt guilty, her eyes reddening. “Don’t blame me. I was too young, I didn’t understand anything. I gave birth to you without telling my father, a friend took me to the clinic. After giving birth, I didn’t know how to take care of you… I had no choice but to leave you…”
Meng Qing stopped her: “Enough. I don’t blame you.”
But she started crying instead.
No matter how intimidating he was online, he was just an eighteen-year-old boy. Meng Qing scratched his mouth corner, perplexed that he now needed to comfort her, repeatedly saying, “Don’t cry. I said I don’t blame you.”
After a while, she calmed down, embarrassedly wiping her tears, and asked if he had eaten, offering him something.
What made Meng Qing happy was not the food, but that he no longer had to listen to her crying.
Meeting his mother for the first time in eighteen years, his feelings were hard to express. They were just slightly more than strangers… awkward. Coming to see her was just to fulfill a wish, and he now regretted saying he would stay for three days.
During the meal, she asked if he was in school. He shook his head. She asked about his work; he said he did odd jobs everywhere.
At night, he slept on the sofa, hearing her enter her bedroom and softly lock the door.
He sat up, almost ready to leave immediately. But after hesitating, he lay back down. To her, he was still just a stranger, wasn’t he? After all, she had let him stay.
During two days in her home, he accompanied her to the supermarket, changed the water filter, and helped her carry heavy items upstairs. That night, they ate dinner while watching the news. She smiled, saying it felt good to have a man in the house, even if he was just a half-grown kid.
The news showed his photo with a massive reward. The name beneath was his gang nickname. They called him a “crime genius” who had infiltrated a bank system at nine and stolen large amounts of money.
Her face turned pale. She looked at him and asked what he had been doing all these years.
Meng Qing closed his eyes and told her everything he had done. Then he stood up and softly said, “I just came to see you. Now I’m leaving.”
She silently watched him open the door, quietly saying, “Tomorrow is your birthday, right?”
“Stay one more day.”
He ultimately agreed to stay another day, but in his mind, he planned to leave before dawn. With the public reward, staying near her would only implicate her.
Eating the remaining food tastelessly, she washed dishes in the kitchen. He lay on the sofa, eyes closed, thinking about his next destination. His face was now public, driving would be safer, but he had little money left, not enough to buy a used car…
The doorbell rang. She came out of the kitchen to open the door.
Meng Qing was still thinking about how to leave the next day when he heard multiple people enter. Opening his eyes, he saw several police officers standing before him, looking at him coldly.
