Buzzz, buzzz.
Not long after Xu Yizhu had finally fallen asleep after a night of writing through, his phone buzzed incessantly.
With his eyes closed and his eyebrows furrowed in post-interruption annoyance, he reached a hand out from under the blanket and fumbled blindly until he found his phone.
Barely managing to crack his eyes open a slit, he located the answer button and pressed the phone against his ear.
“Hello?” His voice was lazy, soaked in the languor of unfinished sleep.
“Son?” Xu Man lowered her voice, softening it coaxingly. “Did you pull an all-nighter again?”
“Spit it out.”
“Well, it’s like this. Where did you move to?” Xu Man asked cautiously. “Mom hasn’t seen you in a long time, and I wanted to see how you’re doing.”
“I’m doing fine. If you have something to say, say it directly.” Xu Yizhu couldn’t be bothered to play emotional games with her.
“Can’t Mom just come see you? Is that really not allowed?” Xu Man’s voice sounded heartbroken, enough to make anyone listening think Xu Yizhu was the most unfilial son alive.
“How much did you owe them this time?”
Going completely against her usual behavior, Xu Man’s uncharacteristic shift forced Xu Yizhu to take the severity of the situation seriously.
The last time Xu Man had spoken to him with such gentle affection about their bond was eight years ago.
Back then, she owed fifty thousand yuan to some creditors and had almost sold him off to a creditor in his fifties.
If not for his quick wits in refusing to drink that glass of juice, the consequences…
“I didn’t owe anyone money,” Xu Man said with a guilty conscience. “It’s just… someone took some things of mine, and I need money to buy them back.”
“What things?” Feeling as though his head was about to split open, Xu Yizhu opened his eyes, sat up in bed, and asked in an icy tone.
Stammering and hesitating, Xu Man refused to give a straight answer.
“Tell me!” Xu Yizhu roared, his patience completely exhausted.
Startled by his sudden outburst, Xu Man burst into tears and cried, “It’s… photographs.”
A loud buzzing filled Xu Yizhu’s ears, and a wave of dizziness washed over him. Supporting himself with one hand on the bed while holding the phone in the other, he gripped the device so hard that a fine crack splintered across the tempered glass screen protector.
“Son?” Not hearing a response, Xu Man panicked instantly. “I didn’t want this either, I didn’t know he was going to set a trap for me, I…”
“Call the police,” Xu Yizhu said.
“No, you can’t! He’ll post the photos on the internet! Absolutely not!” Dropping her gentle facade entirely, Xu Man’s voice turned shrill. “Xu Yizhu, I am your mother, you cannot humiliate me like this!”
“Hasn’t she humiliated herself enough?” Xu Yizhu couldn’t even manage a bitter laugh anymore. “Xu Man, why did you give birth to me?”
“Xiaozhu, you can’t just abandon Mom. You’re the most filial one, you’ll help Mom, right?” Xu Man kept weeping. “One hundred thousand, Mom only needs one hundred thousand. Once this matter is settled, Mom will never play mahjong ever again, alright, son…”
Unable to harden his heart in the end, Xu Yizhu said, “I’ll be back the day after tomorrow.”
Hearing that he was willing to help her, Xu Yizhu let out a breath of relief and immediately choked back her sobs. “Good, good, good, Mom knew you wouldn’t just ignore me. I’ll wait for you.”
After hanging up the phone, Xu Yizhu lost all remaining sleepiness. He booked a high-speed rail ticket back to Yangcheng for the day after tomorrow on his phone. Getting out of bed, he tidied up briefly, skipped breakfast, and sat straight back down at his computer to code.
With no idea how long this trip would take, he queued up a week’s worth of scheduled chapter releases just in case. He couldn’t afford any unexpected accidents breaking his daily attendance streak.
That was a thousand yuan right there.
Too bad it still wouldn’t even cover a single round of wins or losses at Xu Man’s mahjong table.
Xu Yizhu’s ticket was for the nine o’clock morning train, a three-hour journey.
As Yangcheng grew closer, a complex swirl of emotions churned inside Xu Yizhu. This was a place he had once been desperate to escape. Eight years later, here he was, returning once again.
Just as he was about to arrive, Zhou Yi called, asking why no one was at his apartment.
“I’m in Yangcheng.” Xu Yizhu glanced out the train window.
“You went back? Why the hell did you go back there!” Hearing that he had returned to Yangcheng, Zhou Yi panicked slightly. “What is that woman up to again?”
“It’s nothing. She said she wants to open a shop and asked me to take a look.”
“Total bullshit! Open a shop, right, she’s trying to suck your blood dry again! You wait right there, I’m coming back with you!” Zhou Yi knew all too well what kind of person Xu Man was.
A dog can never unlearn eating shit. She was capable of selling her own son, so what else wouldn’t she dare to do!
“Don’t get worked up. Aren’t you supposed to be working? Following me around all day, aren’t you afraid Xiao Jing will get jealous?” Xu Yizhu chuckled to appease him.
“I’m worried about letting you go back alone.” Zhou Yi was terrified that past events might repeat themselves.
“Zhouzhou, I’m twenty-seven, not seventeen,” Xu Yizhu said. “Don’t worry, I’ll stop by the local police station to check in first once I arrive.”
“Alright then.” Hearing him say that, Zhou Yi settled down a bit. “Contact me immediately if anything happens.”
Xu Yizhu replied, “Got it.”
Still feeling uneasy after turning it over in his mind, Zhou Yi ran off to Scarlet to find Ji Xie. Unfortunately, Ji Xie wasn’t at the bar during the day.
Spinning around in circles out of anxiety, Zhou Yi grabbed a waiter by the collar and demanded, “Where the hell is Ji Xie?”
“I, I don’t, know.” The waiter started stammering in fright.
“You have his contact info, right?”
“N, no.”
“Fuck!” Zhou Yi cursed under his breath.
Since he didn’t have Ji Xie’s number and found himself in an unfamiliar city, he had no idea who else he could turn to to help Xu Yizhu.
Defeated, Zhou Yi turned to leave when a familiar voice caught his attention.
“Xiao Zhou?”
“Auntie!” Overjoyed, Zhou Yi felt as though he had met his savior. “Auntie, do you know where Ji Xie is? I need to find him, it’s urgent!”
Noticing his profuse sweat and the dry, cracked skin on his lips from panic, Ji Xie’s mother coaxed him to sit down and drink a glass of water. “What’s wrong? Is it serious?”
Too frantic to drink water, Zhou Yi blurted out, “It’s a matter of life and death!”
Sensing the gravity of the situation, Ji Xie’s mother hurriedly pulled out her phone and called Ji Xie. “Hello? Son, come over here for a moment. Xiao Zhou is looking for you and says it’s an emergency.”
At that moment, Ji Xie was attending a wine-tasting event discussing a business partnership. Hearing that Zhou Yi was looking for him, his relaxed expression instantly turned grave.
“What’s going on?”
Ji Xie’s mother replied, “I’m not sure myself, but you need to hurry back. He looks like he’s about to cry.”
Ji Xie told her, “Mom, hand the phone to him, let me talk to him.”
Zhou Yi snatched the phone from Ji Xie’s mother.
Before Ji Xie could speak, Zhou Yi roared into the receiver, “Azhuzhu went back to Yangcheng to see his mother, something’s definitely going to happen! Ji Xie, go check on him and help him, please!”
Ji Xie instructed, “Slow down and tell me clearly.”
“There’s no time to slow down! Hurry up! Go find him!” Zhou Yi sounded on the verge of tears. “We can’t let his mother sell him out again. Ji Xie, go save him, don’t let that monster hurt him!”
Hearing the word “sell,” Ji Xie bolted out of the venue, his footsteps flying as Zhou Yi heard what sounded like heavy running over the line.
Wind rushed past alongside his razor-sharp voice, making the hairs on the back of one’s neck stand up. “Address.”
Without missing a beat, Zhou Yi rattled off the location. “I don’t know where else he might go, should I come—”
“No need.” His tone was firm and instilled absolute trust. “I’ll find him.”
Just as Xu Yizhu stepped off the train, his phone rang.
“Son, did you arrive?”
“Almost.”
“Good, good, good. Mom is waiting for you at Yuehua Bar. Call me when you get here and I’ll come out to meet you.”
“Mm.”
Exiting the station, he stopped by a convenience store, handed the owner a hundred-yuan bill, and instructed, “Boss, if I don’t come back in three hours, would you mind calling the police for me?”
The owner, a middle-aged man in his forties, quickly tried to return the money with a look of deep concern. “Young man, don’t do anything foolish. If you’re in trouble, find the police; one person can’t solve everything on their own.”
Xu Yizhu appreciated his goodwill. “It’s just in case, sorry to trouble you, Boss.”
The owner shoved the money back into Xu Yizhu’s hand. “Go on then, stay safe. If you’re not back in three hours, I’m calling the police. Yuehua Bar, I remember.”
“Thank you.”
Xu Yizhu couldn’t call the police right away. If he didn’t coordinate properly with them and ended up provoking that group of people instead, the consequences would be unimaginable.
Hailing a taxi, he gave the driver the bar’s name. Upon arrival, he didn’t bother notifying Xu Man and walked straight inside.
A pungent, stale odor washed over him. Frowning, Xu Yizhu covered his nose and pushed further in.
The phone in his pocket vibrated continuously. Halting his steps, Xu Yizhu checked the caller ID.
Ji Xie.
Hesitating over whether to answer, the phone rang a second time.
“Hello?”
“Where are you?”
“Outside.”
“Address.”
Refusing to give it, Xu Yizhu countered instead, “Is something the matter?”
“Can’t I check on you for no reason?”
“I’m busy, we’ll talk when I have time.”
Xu Yizhu hung up the phone and kept walking inward, right into a face-to-face encounter with Xu Man.
He almost failed to recognize her.
The last time he saw her was four years ago, right after Xu Yizhu graduated from college and landed a stable job with full benefits.
That day, she had worn a lake-blue slip dress with her long hair half-loose, waiting downstairs at his company to intercept him.
She was naturally beautiful. With just a little styling, she looked even more dazzling and striking. Passersby and colleagues couldn’t help stealing glances, speculating about the relationship between Xu Man and himself.
At the time, she had smiled gently and said, “Son, Mom owes a lot of money, won’t you help Mom out?”
That moment, the rose had folded its petals, sinking its thorns straight into his heart.
In the blistering heat of summer, an icy chill crept through his bones from the inside out.
That was the first time Xu Man had ever asked him for money.
“Son?” Seeing him space out, Xu Man waved a hand in front of his eyes.
Recovering his senses, Xu Yizhu asked, “Xu Man, how did you…” He stopped halfway, trailing off before finally finishing, “Get out like this?”
“You look so aged. Is that what you wanted to say?” Xu Man laughed indifferently.
No one knows a son better than his mother.
Not bothering to deny having his thoughts guessed, Xu Yizhu urged her to lead the way. “Let’s go, I have to head back this afternoon.”
“Years apart, and my son has gotten even more handsome.” She was like the ultimate chameleon, shifting her colors to match whatever environment she found herself in.
At that moment, she played the part of a gentle, affectionate mother genuinely praising her son.
Xu Yizhu felt not a single ripple of warmth from her praise, stating flatly, “This is the last time I’m helping you. If there’s ever a next time, even if you get beaten to death, I won’t give you another cent.”
Ignoring his warning, Xu Man feigned heartbreak and sighed, “As expected of my son, truly heartless.”
With an expression of utter indifference, Xu Yizhu remained completely unmoved by her words.