He ran on the street, out of the residential area, into the subway, pulling out a handful of coins he’d secretly saved over the past few months, taking one or two at a time without them noticing. He bought a ticket to the North District, only relaxing after entering the train carriage, finding an inconspicuous corner to sit.
An hour later, he arrived in the northern city, left the subway station, and hesitated at the bus stop, not taking the bus to the North District orphanage. She would definitely call his foster father, who would go to the orphanage to look for him. What if the orphanage didn’t believe him and wanted to send him back?
The nine-year-old boy stood on the street edge for a while, bewildered and helpless.
He had only thought about escaping. Over the past year, he’d considered various escape methods but couldn’t implement them. During that moment when his foster mother was wiping the floor yesterday, he made a decision, unexpectedly succeeding in escaping. But what next? He hadn’t actually thought that far.
He missed Teacher Yu. If she knew about his situation, she would definitely help him.
Meng Qing opened his tablet, searched for nearby wireless networks, found the strongest signal, and easily cracked the password. He entered the orphanage’s internal network and left a document named “qing” on Teacher Yu’s computer.
He should buy some food and find a place to stay overnight.
Before dark, he wandered around the abandoned factory, discovering a wall hole in a corner of the warehouse where he spent the night.
The next day, Meng Qing continued roaming the factory’s surrounding alleys, familiarizing himself with the terrain and searching for wireless network signals. There was no signal in the factory area, and the nearby streets were poor, so he couldn’t find a network to connect to. Only after leaving this district, near a convenience store, did he find a signal.
Meng Qing entered the convenience store, and the signal indeed strengthened. He again entered the orphanage’s internal network, checking the document and finding no reading or modification records. He didn’t dare leave the document on the desktop, instead placing it in Teacher Yu’s commonly used folder, hoping she might not notice the suddenly added document.
