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.
