Liam browsed the Interstellar Connection network out of boredom, watched a few entertainment programs, played a few rounds of games, and when he had had enough of that, took out the drawing tablet and tried to draw something the way the original owner would have.
Unfortunately, he was no artist. Even with the original owner’s skill sitting in his hands, what came out looked like a picture generated by AI, soulless from edge to edge.
He put the tablet away in defeat and turned instead to researching the agricultural industry of this world. Agriculture was his own favorite field, after all, and Liam read on and on, thoroughly absorbed.
Buried in his own world as he was, he had no idea that back in the Solaris star system, the Hall family had unravelled into a complete mess.
On the first day after Liam left, the driver waited outside the shopping mall for a very long time without ever seeing him come out, and went looking for him in a panic. When he could not find him, he called Alexander at once to report. Alexander hurriedly pulled up the locator, saw that it had been switched off, went ashen in the face, and rushed out to search.
Mrs. Hall dropped her work and came home too, pressing a handkerchief to her eyes the whole way. Mr. Hall put the royal network to use hunting for Liam’s whereabouts. Very quickly they narrowed in on a young man in a pair of glasses for people with genetic defects, walking out of a restroom.
They followed the trail from there and found that the place Liam had slipped away to was the spaceport. And there the clues ran out, because among all the passenger records for the ships that departed that day, there was no one by the name of Liam Hall.
Alexander, at his wits’ end, opened his smart watch to try contacting Liam, and discovered to his astonishment that the locator was on again. The position it showed was the tourist planet Eva, not far from the Capital planet. Elijah looked at the family of three rejoicing in front of him, and something unwilling flashed in the depths of his eyes. He sniffed and said:
"I’m so glad Brother Liam is all right. He really is something, though, pulling a stunt like running away from home and putting the whole family through this. Lucky he turned the locator back on, or we’d have thought the star pirates had taken him."
At those words, the expressions on Mr. and Mrs. Hall’s faces shifted, and then turned steadily uglier. That was right. Who exactly was this performance staged for? If he was so set on running away from home, why turn the locator back on at the end of it? It seemed this was another one of his tricks.
Mr. Hall said furiously, "Let him go wherever he likes! Freeze every one of his cards. I’d like to see how long he can stay out there being stubborn!"
The butler bowed his head and went off at once to contact the bank.
Alexander glanced at Elijah, saw him still working his pitiful act, and an inexplicable disgust rose in his chest. He no longer knew whether he had been right or wrong to hurt Liam in order to shield this biological younger brother of his.
He watched everyone gradually drift away, then looked around the living room that now felt rather empty, and a sense of unease welled up in him out of nowhere. He started calling Liam, and Liam did not pick up. He sent messages instead, voice messages and then text messages, sending them all night long. Liam did not answer a single one.
At half past ten on the third day after Liam left, Mr. Hall’s bank account received a sum of three billion silver stars, along with a message: Thank you both for the love you have given me all these years. I am returning all of it to you. I wish everyone lasting good health.
Mr. Hall shot to his feet, knocking over even the titanium alloy chair. He rushed out of his office at the main headquarters and drove home at the highest speed he could manage. Alexander, who was preparing to leave on a business trip, Mrs. Hall, who was out networking with the Princess Consort, and Elijah, who was busy enjoying himself with friends, were all summoned back urgently.
Once everyone was present, Mr. Hall switched on screen-sharing mode so they could see the transfer he had received.
Alexander’s face went ghastly pale, and Mrs. Hall broke into a panic. She cried out:
"Three billion silver stars? Where did he get three billion silver stars? And what is this message supposed to be? What does he mean by it?"
Alexander’s lips trembled. "He wants to sever ties with us..."
Mr. Hall kicked the expensive sofa over and shouted, "On what grounds? We raised him all these years, and he thinks three billion silver stars buys him out of this family? Go! Alexander! You get to planet Eva and drag him back here by the scruff of his neck!"
Alexander nodded, jumped aboard a ship at once and shot away. Elijah’s eyes darkened. He settled himself down beside Mrs. Hall and quietly began feeding the fire. Mr. Hall’s face was black. He went straight into his study and sat himself down in there, stubborn as a stone.
He opened the drawer, took out the smart signature pen inside, and sat turning it over in his thoughts for a long while. He regretted it a little, raising his hand to Liam that day. The boy had been obedient and sensible since he was small and had never once given him cause to worry. The higher the hope, the greater the disappointment. Seeing his son in such a disheveled, shameful state that day, he had not been able to hold his hand back.
In truth, the instant his palm knocked Liam’s face sideways, he had already regretted it. It was the boy’s reaction afterward, too fierce by half, that sent his temper flaring up again. And his wife had not been able to control herself either, and had raised her hand to Liam a second time.
After that Liam fainted, and they took him to the hospital in a rush. That was the last time they had seen him.
The boy must be throwing a tantrum at them; that was the only reason for a stunt like severing ties. Why did he never stop to consider his own mistakes? He was an Omega, and he had gone and climbed into bed with an Alpha as casually as that. He had ruined the Hall family’s face entirely.
Fortunately it had only been a temporary mark, and erasing it was the end of the matter. As for the people who had been in that room, the Hall family had ordered the information sealed. Who would dare breathe a word of it outside?
Mr. Hall threw the pen irritably into the back of the drawer and shut it. Out of sight, out of mind. He would wait for Alexander to bring Liam back and deal with him then.
Two hours later, however, Alexander called, and the news he brought was as bad as it could be:
Liam really was missing.