After completing the police statement, Li Qing ignored Yuan Miao’s wails and left him to the police.
She treated the incident as nothing more than a minor interruption.
Leaving the police station, Li Qing unlocked a shared bike and rode home.
Her home was in the old district of Wucheng, an area dense with buildings, crisscrossed by narrow alleys, and populated by a motley mix of people from all walks of life.
Li Qing took out her keys and was about to insert one into the lock when she noticed from the corner of her eye that the door wasn’t fully closed.
She paused, then pushed the door open expressionlessly.
With a creak, the old door let out a grating, unpleasant sound.
The layout of the seventy-square-meter, two-bedroom apartment was simple. At a glance, Li Qing saw her biological father, Li Jianhui, sprawled drunk and unconscious on the sofa.
The room was a mess. The smell of alcohol and sweat mingled in the air. Garbage littered the floor, and a liquor bottle lay tipped over on the table, its contents trickling down to the floor.
Li Qing walked over and opened all the windows.
“Burp!”
The noise of the windows opening startled Li Jianhui awake. He let out a drunken belch, then sneezed violently.
When Li Jianhui looked up, he saw Li Qing standing behind him.
A shadow fell over his face.
“Did you sell my bicycle?”
“What bicycle…”
Li Jianhui’s words were slurred with drunkenness. He squinted and mumbled, “Oh, I remember now. That piece of junk your mom bought you?”
“Hmph, only got a few dozen bucks for it.”
Li Qing’s eyes darkened, a flicker of anger surfacing in their depths.
Seeing her expression, Li Jianhui’s own temper flared.
“You’ve really picked up some attitude hanging around those Jiujie folks, huh? Bunch of paupers. I won’t agree to anything less than a million in bride price!”
“Daydreaming.”
Li Qing stared at him coldly. “Forget about selling your daughter for glory. You’ll rot in this house for the rest of your life.”
“Hey, you—!”
Furious, Li Jianhui slammed his hand on the table.
He slammed it again, and the already wobbly table, missing one leg, collapsed with a crash.
A corner of the table struck Li Jianhui’s foot. He sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes red with rage as he roared, “What a piece of crap! Where’s your mom?! It’s so late and she still hasn’t made dinner—trying to starve me to death?!”
Li Qing remained unmoved, watching the scene with scorn.
“You little brat—”
Li Jianhui turned his head, ready to curse again, but then, as if remembering something, he forcibly softened his tone.
“Qingqing, dear.”
The endearment made Li Qing nauseous. Her face clearly showed disgust.
Suppressing his anger, Li Jianhui spoke in a coaxing voice, “Your mom’s about to start chemotherapy, right? You must have saved up some money. How about helping your dad out first, for an emergency…”
“Li Jianhui!”
Li Qing’s voice suddenly rose sharply.
Li Jianhui glared at her, displeased. “No respect for your elders! I’m your own father! You’re an adult now. It’s only right you take care of me!”
“You have the nerve to mention my mom.”
Li Qing’s fists clenched at her sides.
“If you hadn’t been so arrogant and squandered all our savings, how could Mom have missed the best treatment window? By the time it was discovered, it was already terminal cancer!”
She spoke each word deliberately, her face tense and grim, her voice thick with hatred.
“Well…”
Li Jianhui’s eyes darted away, and his tone became evasive. “I did it for this family!”
Li Qing had heard that line countless times over the years.
She couldn’t be bothered to argue with Li Jianhui any longer. She walked into her room, grabbed her things, and prepared to leave home.
Li Jianhui saw she was about to leave and quickly asked, “Are you going to Ninth Street? I heard Ninth Master is quite formidable. You should ask him more about those rich second-generation heirs…”
“If only you could latch onto a wealthy man. Why hasn’t any rich second-generation heir taken a liking to you? What a waste of that pretty face.”
“Did you hear me? No matter how well you study, what’s the use? You’ll still have to marry someday!”
Li Qing ignored him with a cold expression and walked out of the house.
On her eighteenth birthday, her mother prepared a lavish dinner and waited for her to come home.
But as soon as she returned, she saw Li Jianhui, drunk and raging, smash a bottle against her mother’s head.
Li Qing rushed her mother to the hospital overnight. After insisting on various tests, she received devastating news.
Her mother was already in the late stages of cancer.
The family’s savings had long been squandered by Li Jianhui, but her mother’s treatment could no longer be delayed.
At the time, Li Qing had considered dropping out to earn money, but her mother desperately stopped her. Instead, she took on multiple part-time jobs after school.
……
The next day, during the noon break.
Li Qing received a call from the police station.
“Hello, is this Li Qing, the student who reported the incident yesterday?”
“We’ve checked the database but couldn’t find any information about him. He insists you’re his mother. Could you please come to the station…”
“………”
Li Qing hadn’t expected yesterday’s incident to have a follow-up.
Was this scammer still not giving up?
“I understand.”
She asked Liao Ting for the afternoon off and went to the police station.
“Mom!”
As soon as Li Qing appeared, Yuan Miao stood up, looking aggrieved.
His young mother, though cold and indifferent, was unharmed and perfectly healthy.
Thinking of how his mother later had to undergo amputation due to burns, Yuan Miao felt that fate had brought him back to prevent this from happening!
So when he saw Li Qing again, all the anger he had bottled up vanished.
At least his mom was willing to come back for him.
The mediator briefly explained the situation to Li Qing, stating they would continue searching for Yuan Miao’s relatives. In the meantime, Yuan Miao would have to stay with her.
Li Qing calmly asked, “Is there any compensation?”
“Well…”
The mediator thought for a moment, then said earnestly, “Once his relatives are found, we’ll definitely advocate for you.”
Wasn’t that just an empty promise?
Li Qing and the awkward mediator locked eyes for a few moments.
She didn’t say anything more, signed the papers, and prepared to take Yuan Miao away.
The mediator glanced at Yuan Miao, who was already eager to leave, and whispered to Li Qing, “He seems to have delusional disorder. Be careful.”
“…Alright.”
Li Qing’s eye twitched.
She led Yuan Miao out of the police station. Yuan Miao had already forgotten the unpleasantness of the previous night and asked excitedly, “Mom, where are we going?”
“Get on.”
Li Qing tossed him the only helmet on the electric scooter.
She had borrowed this scooter from a friend at Ninth Street the night before—it had just been picked up from a secondhand market not long ago.
“Wow, an electric scooter? This is my first time riding one…”
Yuan Miao put on the helmet, swallowing the words “this scooter is so rundown” with difficulty, maintaining his obedient son demeanor.
His mom’s family circumstances seemed tough when she was young.
Li Qing took him to the nearest construction site. She stopped when she saw a hiring flyer posted at the entrance.
“Are you an adult?”
“No, I won’t be for another three months.”
“?”
Not even an adult, yet daring to scam people? Could he really have escaped from a mental hospital…
Li Qing glanced around the construction site, noticing quite a few young-looking teenagers, and shooed Yuan Miao away.
“I can’t afford to keep you. Find your own way to make a living here.”
“Mom, are you really that short on money?”
Yuan Miao was taken aback for a moment, then quickly grabbed Li Qing, who was about to leave, and pulled out a wad of cash from his pocket.
“This is all I have on hand for now. Take it!”
He had sold his mechanical watch to get this money, though most of it had already been spent over the past couple of days.
Yuan Miao was a genuine young master, raised in luxury and never having experienced the hardship of being broke.
The only hardship he had ever faced in his life was the loving slap from his mom.
Under Li Qing’s astonished gaze, Yuan Miao proudly declared, “You taught me that no matter what, I should never let myself run out of money!”
He had truly taken his mom’s teachings to heart!
“…?”
Oh no.
Li Qing thought to herself, this kid really seems to think of her as his mom.
Does he have some kind of special fetish?
Li Qing cast a suspicious glance at Yuan Miao and posed a sharp question.
“Then why don’t you go find your dad?”
Yuan Miao’s lips drooped, and without missing a beat, he started singing “Only a Mother Is Good in the World.”
“A child with a mother is like a treasure…”
“A child without a mother is like a blade of grass~”
“Stop!”
Li Qing’s eyelids twitched, utterly exasperated.
She sighed wearily, “Get on the bike.”
“Alright!”
Yuan Miao immediately seized the opportunity, swinging his long leg over and happily settling onto the back seat of the electric scooter.
His dad was probably still in Jinghua—too far away.
Besides, if he found his dad, he wouldn’t be able to stick close to his mom anymore.
Yuan Miao secretly stuffed the money into his mom’s backpack, nervously glanced at Li Qing, who was focused on riding, and let out a sigh of relief.
He had to take good care of his young mom.
Then, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, he continued humming, “A child with a mother is like a treasure…”