Standing in the corridor, Qing Chen was silent.
He was looking at the familiar yet suddenly unfamiliar door in front of him.
Because of how old the building was, the cover of the electric box has already gone missing.
In the past, power outages frequently happened at home, so they had to keep candles. Once the power went out, his dad had to go outside with a candle and get the power back on.
But that wouldn't happen ever again.
Standing there, Qing Chen seemed to have quickly gone through everything that had happened here.
He finally raised his hand and knocked on the door that used to lead to his home.
The door opened, and Qing Guozhong was there with a dark face, "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be at school?"
Qing Chen asked calmly, "Why are you selling this place? Have you ever thought about where I'll be after you sell it?"
Qing Guozhong had never seen his son being so aggressive before, and he seemed to have backed down a bit.
But he quickly raised his eyebrows and said, "It's mine! I get to decide. Go live at your mom's place if you have to! Some random motherfucker reported me, and I had to end up in that place for so long. Let me tell you, I've been long suspecting that you're the one bring me the bad luck!"
"You are my legal guardian," said Qing Chen.
"Your mom's rich now," said Qing Guozhong, "She's in a big mansion, just go live with her."
"What about the money under my bed," asked Qing Chen.
"Gone," said Qing Guozhong, "It's from your mom, right? She won't care about a couple thousand, just go ask her for more. Don't come back to me again! I just don't get it. Why did you choose me over her when we divorced?!"
Qing Chen looked at him and said, "At least my mom is still paying me living expenses every month. What responsibilities have you taken on?"
When Qing Guozhong heard this, he got really mad, "Do you really think that your mother is really doing this for you? She's doing it all for herself!"
Qing Chen was stunned for a moment.
Qing Guozhong said loudly, "Do you know why she won't just send the money to you directly? It's because we made a deal before that she had to send your expenses to me, or else, I would've never agreed to divorce!"
"So that's why," Qing Chen sighed.
Qing Guozhong continued, "Now that she's loaded, you think she is better than me just because she gave you a couple extra thousand? She is not a good person! Now that I sold this house, you at least can get some money to go attend college!"
Only Qing Chen knew that the money under his bed was earned through his hard work, not from his mother Zhang Wanfang.
So, aside from the agreed amount, Zhang Wanfang never sent him anything to help out.
What Qing Guozhong said about college was also a lie.
One can never trust a gambler.
At this moment, life showed the most hideous side in front of Qing Chen.
The bloodiest, the ugliest.
There seemed to be countless pairs of dark hands trying to endlessly drag the teenager down the abyss.
Qing Chen looked straight into Qing Guozhong's eyes, letting this moment sink in. Then, everything stopped there.
"Just sell it. I won't see you as my father anymore," said Qing Chen as he left the corridor.
In the apartment next door, Jiang Xue wanted to rush out and scold Qing Guozhong several times. She wanted to comfort Qing Chen. But she stopped every time after thinking about what Qing Chen told her earlier: Never give Qing Guozhong any clue that you know me. After he sold the apartment, he'll never come back again. But if he found out that we're close, he would even come back to ask you for money.
Qing Chen wanted to end it all, not be entangled in this mess.
Qing Guozhong didn't attempt to stop Qing Chen. He turned to the real estate agent and said, "See? It's easy. Tell the buyer to complete the paperworks today and pay in full!"
Qing Chen walked on Xingshu Road and looked at the busy traffic.
The old man beside the street selling roasted sweet potatoes was opening the oven. He carefully pinched every sweet potato to see if they were done or not.
A middle-aged man, who was calling, walked past him in a hurry while saying that he won't be home for dinner because of work.
Route 46 slowly stopped in front of the bus stop, and the driver seemed bored out of his mind waiting for the passengers to get off. On the bus, the rest of the passengers were staring at the winders aimlessly.
But none of this has anything to do with Qing Chen.
He felt that the whole world was filled with an unfamiliar sense of alienation.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. After opening it, he saw that it was a call from Zhang Wanfang.
Qing Chen picked it up, "Hello?"
Zhang Wanfang said, "Xiao Chen, mom is on a business trip this weekend, so I can’t come to see you this time…"
Qing Chen hung up the phone, then put Zhang Wanfang and Qing Guozhong's phone numbers on the blacklist, and deleted both of them from his WeChat.
Soon after, Jiang Xue came chasing after him. She held Qing Chen's hands and asked, "Xiao Chen…Are you all right?"
Qing Chen smiled, "Looks like it's not so hard to let go of the past after all. But I still have one more thing to do."
…
It was approaching midnight.
Qing Guozhong was humming a song as he walked under the dim street lights. He drank some beer and was in a good mood.
In one of his hands, he had a plastic bag filled with cash, and with his other hand, he dialed a number, "Hey, Old Zhang! Any spots open for mahjong today…? Look what you're saying, I'm rich now. I just sold my apartment, and I'm going to make all of you bankrupt today!"
"Alright, alright. I'm close by. I'll be there in a bit…"
Qing Guozhong continued walking forward.
At this moment, he seemed to feel that something was strange and looked back.
But there was no one on the path behind him. He could only see stray cats shuttling between the bushes beside the walkways.
Qing Guozhong smiled. He was being too careful.
"Gosh darn it. If I find out who that motherfucker was, I'm going to break his legs!" Qing Guozhong said to himself.
He then walked two blocks down and got into an apartment building.
After he went in, Qing Chen walked out from the shadows of the building next to it.
"Hello, is it the police? I want to report gambling in Apartment 301, Door 3 of the employee's residential area Building 7." Qing Chen said to the phone, "Yeah, at least three people, stakes are huge, more than fifty thousand, enough to file a case for prosecution. Please have someone here quickly. Don't worry, they can't escape."
After hanging up the phone, Qing Chen also walked into the building.
Honestly, when he learned the tracking and combat techniques, Qing Chen never thought that he would use those high-end skills for such a purpose.
He really wanted to know what Mom Ye's expressions would be like when he found out.
