“Everything went smoothly! Mom will cook your favorite dishes and wait for you to come home!”
Zuo Ying watched the car gradually disappear from view, her mind still somewhat dazed.
She anxiously took out her phone, looking at the cheek-to-cheek photo of herself and her daughter.
This was taken just moments ago when her daughter proactively suggested it—
“Mom, if you feel like this is a dream, just look at this photo~”
Zuo Ying’s fingers gently traced her daughter’s adorable little face in the photograph.
Her daughter had truly returned.
Still looking exactly as she did at 18.
Zuo Ying was nearly brought to tears again when she suddenly realized something:
Time hadn’t passed for her daughter, but it had for everyone else!
Look—after five years, she had aged considerably.
As for Qingyan…
He had always treated her daughter like a child simply because he was older.
Now he’s 29, making him 11 years older than her daughter…
This age gap… should be fine, right?
…
Mo Qingyan and his group arrived at the Slums via private jet.
This place had no laws, no control, no internet—completely isolated from the world, like living hell.
The people living here couldn’t even be called “people,” as their lives were worth less than livestock.
Even fighting for a single bite of food could cost them their lives at any moment.
Everyone here fought to survive every second, never daring to let their guard down, risking their lives daily.
However, when the private jet landed in the Slums, there wasn’t a single person in sight.
“Huh?” Zuo Yang looked around in confusion at the empty surroundings.
In her dream, the Slums were filled with people in tattered clothes, resembling walking corpses.
These people seemed to have lost their humanity—numb, yet terrifying.
If not for the ubiquitous garbage, swarming flies, the pungent stench of decay in the air, and everything else matching her dream exactly, Zuo Yang would have thought she came to the wrong place.
“Yu Ning, did you capture everyone here?” Zuo Yang asked, blinking her crystal-clear eyes.
“Yes, miss.” Yu Ning offered no further explanation, keeping his achievements modest.
He thought to himself: With the boss’s precious darling coming along, of course he had to clear away anything unsightly!
If not for the tight schedule, he would have preferred to have people directly captured and removed.
After all, this was a place nobody wanted to set foot in.
So he had sent his subordinates ahead to control everyone in the Slums.
“Miss, I’ve gathered all the boys matching your description in one place as requested. There are quite a number of them. Shall we proceed now?” Yu Ning said.
“Okay!”
Led by subordinates, the group moved forward.
Zuo Yang pushed Mo Qingyan in his wheelchair, chattering and laughing playfully with him along the way.
Mo Qingyan loved the liveliness she brought, adored her energetic demeanor—his raised lips never once fell.
Until they reached a dusty, open space.
Zuo Yang stared dumbfounded at the dense crowd of boys sitting on the ground.
How could there be so many?
Moreover, every boy had their hands and feet tied with ropes, their mouths sealed with tape.
Though heartbreaking, it was understandable.
Even half-grown children living in the Slums couldn’t be taken lightly.
When they turned fierce, they could rival enraged wild animals.
Even if only a mouth remained, they could still tear a chunk of flesh from you.
Otherwise, how could they survive in this place that devours people without spitting out the bones?
Zuo Yang sighed softly, “Shall I begin then?”
“Yu Ning, stay close.” Mo Qingyan, unable to move easily, remained in place and instructed in a deep voice.
Although the area was filled with their own people, Yu Ning dared not let his guard down. “Don’t worry, President.”
In the time that followed, Zuo Yang went one by one to identify them.
She wasn’t worried about failing to recognize Feng Lin.
Because in her dream, when she learned that Feng Lin was the only person who could save Mo Qingyan, she had firmly imprinted Feng Lin’s appearance in her mind.
It was just that with so many people, it was a bit taxing on the eyes, but she was certain she could recognize him.
About two hours later.
Zuo Yang finished examining the last boy.
She scrunched up her little face and looked at Yu Ning. “He’s not here. Yu Ning, did you miss someone?”
Yu Ning fell silent for a moment, then immediately ordered his subordinates to conduct a thorough search of the Slums, leaving no stone unturned—not even a hole or a crevice.
Zuo Yang returned to Mo Qingyan’s side to wait for news.
Mo Qingyan carefully wiped the fine sweat from the girl’s forehead and handed her a bottle of milk.
“Don’t rush. We have plenty of time.”
The girl sipped the milk and mumbled, “Mo Qingyan, I just realized something.”
“Hmm?” The man’s pitch-black eyes silently watched the girl’s pink lips as she drank. The child still loved milk so much.
“It’s just… I can’t seem to recall everything from the dream all at once. It comes to me piece by piece. What if I delay something and can’t change those bad things? What do I do…”
Before Mo Qingyan could even offer comfort, the girl had already sorted it out herself. Her smiling eyes curved more beautifully than a crescent moon:
“It’s okay! Look, since fate brought me back, there must be a deeper meaning to it.”
As she spoke, Zuo Yang looked at the man beside her. “Besides, I have you. My President is so amazing. With you by my side to level up and fight monsters, everything will be fine!”
Mo Qingyan smiled too. “Yes, I’ll level up and fight monsters with you.”
He truly adored her eternally optimistic and spirited demeanor.
“But in the dream, I remember you and Feng Lin met at the hospital.” Zuo Yang racked her brain to recall.
Only, by that time, it was already too late.
Mo Qingyan’s poisoning was too severe. Apart from being able to hear a little and speak, he had lost everything else, completely reduced to a helpless state.
Even Feng Lin was powerless to turn things around.
She remembered in the dream, Feng Lin could only watch helplessly as Mo Qingyan’s life slipped away, often murmuring with reddened eyes: If only I had met you earlier, I could have saved you…
Thinking of this, Zuo Yang crouched beside Mo Qingyan and rested her little head on his leg.
She was feeling a tiny bit sad now.
“Mo Qingyan, I will stop all regrets and all the bad things. I absolutely will!”
Mo Qingyan replied with infinite affection, “Of course. My child is the most amazing in the whole world.”
Time passed minute by minute.
About another hour later.
Yu Ning finally returned.
Two subordinates followed behind, carrying a wolf-like teenager.
The boy was around his teens, gaunt and emaciated, his thin face covered in grime.
He wore patched and tattered clothes and was barefoot.
Only those pitch-black eyes blazed with ferocity.
Even with his hands and feet bound, he still struggled with all his might, his strength so great that two grown men could barely restrain him.
Spotting the boy, Zuo Yang’s eyes lit up!
He charged forward without hesitation.
“Found him! This is Feng Lin!”