“Our Brother Hao is amazing. He’s undefeated in all the internet cafes around here! Big sister, play a round with our Brother Hao, let’s see who’s better.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, play a round.” The teenagers who had been watching earlier also chimed in.

Lin Shuyue could tell that this teenager, called Brother Hao, had a high status among this group of teenagers.

Lin Shuyue smiled. “Alright, let’s play a round.”

The two searched for each other’s names and added each other as friends. They randomly found a room and chose different teams.

The game started, and both of them began to move. The kill feed in the upper left corner began to alternate between their kills.

They unexpectedly met at the key location for planting the bomb and began an intense standoff.

After one round, Lin Shuyue won with an overwhelming advantage.

Lin Shuyue took off her headphones and said encouragingly, “You have talent. If you practice diligently, you might even be able to play professionally in the future.”

His technique and awareness were still a bit raw, but with training and development, he could definitely catch up to those professionally trained players of the future.

Ah Hao lowered his head, his lips pressed tightly together. He only said, “Tomorrow at 12 o’clock noon, let’s play another round. I will definitely beat you.”

This round of gaming had been exhilarating, and Lin Shuyue’s gaming craving was mostly satisfied. She readily responded, “Okay.”

Having received the reply he wanted, Ah Hao nodded, pulled out his chair, and walked away.

The teenagers nearby, however, didn’t disperse. They gathered behind her, chattering about random things, and talking about Ah Hao’s affairs.

His father had passed away, and his mother had remarried a local wealthy man. For various reasons, she hadn’t taken him with her. Now that he was older, and she hadn’t had any children, she started looking for him again. From time to time, she could be seen going to Ah Hao’s home and school to pester him.

Ah Hao was so bothered by it that he didn’t even want to go to school.

“It’s a little after three, almost four o’clock. It’s almost time for school to get out. Ah Hao has to go back. His grandma is waiting for him to get out of school so they can go home and cook dinner together.”

Lin Shuyue inevitably overheard this. She played a few more games, made an agreement with the teenagers to come back tomorrow at noon to teach them some gaming techniques, and then, satisfied, prepared to go home for dinner.

She walked in the direction of her home. Passing by the edge of Pinghu District, at the entrance of a village called Wujiao Village, Lin Shuyue saw Ah Hao helping an elderly woman in her sixties pack up her vegetable stall. Then, he supported her as they walked into the village.

Lin Shuyue retracted her gaze. After walking for a while, she arrived at Pingsha Village.

Unlike when she left in the morning, a shed had been set up under the grape shed. Under the shed were several large woks and stoves, and a tricycle was parked outside the gate. Lin Shuxing and Luo Zhengjun, wearing white chef’s hats and white towels around their necks, were busily stir-frying, the air filled with the rich aroma of food.

Seeing Lin Shuyue return, Lin Shuxing smiled and said, “We don’t know if business will be good, so Zhengjun-ge and I decided to make a batch first and take it to the entrance of the construction site on the tricycle to try it out. If it works, I’ll quit my job and focus on buying groceries and cooking at home. When your Zhengjun-ge’s contract ends, we’ll do it together.”

Lin Shuyue smiled and nodded. “I’ll help too.”

Lin Shuxing didn’t refuse. The two of them stood at the table, packing the food Luo Zhengjun had cooked. He had made a dish of stir-fried pork with chili peppers, a dish of stir-fried pickled vegetables with chili, and a dish of stir-fried cabbage. The three dishes—one meat and two vegetables—had one thing in common: they were very oily.

While packing the food, Lin Shuxing told Lin Shuyue about their mother, Lou Fengqin.

“They did a DNA test on the child they found. It’s confirmed to be Uncle Wu’s child from Guangcheng. They’ve already contacted the police there. Uncle Wu should be able to bring his son home soon.” Lin Shuxing said this with a smile on her face.

Uncle Wu’s child had also been lost for more than ten years. He was lost at the age of two, and now he was a twenty-one-year-old man. Being able to find a child who had been lost for so long was undoubtedly a huge boost of confidence for these families of abducted children.

Many families who had given up hope because they couldn’t find their children, because of this shot in the arm, persisted, persisted, and persisted.

“Does Mom have enough money?” Because Lin Shuyue was still in her internship period, Lou Fengqin was afraid of affecting her work, so she didn’t called her.

In Lin Shuyue’s memory, Lou Fengqin called the original owner at least three times a week. But because long-distance calls were expensive, they often had to hang up after just a few minutes. If it weren’t for this truly joyous occasion, she wouldn’t have talked to Lin Shuxing for so long.

“I asked her, and she said she had enough. On this trip, that person also gave her some money.” The “that person” Lin Shuxing was referring to was the original owner’s father, Lin Jianxin.

He had now become the owner of two restaurant chains. His new wife had given birth to another daughter.

Perhaps out of guilt, since Lin Shuyang had been lost while in his care, he had contributed half of the expenses every time Lou Fengqin went out to search for their son over the years.

Lou Fengqin didn’t want it at first, but later she accepted it. After all, searching for a child was a very expensive endeavor. In her words, pride wasn’t worth anything, and she wouldn’t let that bit of pride burden Lin Shuxing and her sister, even though they were already burdened enough.

Lin Jianxin would also give Lin Shuxing and her sister money, but they never took a penny of it.

Lin Shuyue’s phone rang. She wiped her hands, and went to her room to answer the phone. Lou Fengqin excitedly told her about Uncle Wu finding his child. Finally, she said to Lin Shuyue, “Ah Yue, Uncle Wu’s child was lost for eighteen years and he still found him. Ah Yang has only been lost for fourteen years. We will definitely be able to find him too.”

Lou Fengqin said this with boundless hope. Lin Shuyue’s nose stung, and tears welled up in her eyes.

She said to Lou Fengqin seriously, “From now on, we’ll all help you find him together.”

This “Mom,” Lin Shuyue called willingly. Even without the original owner’s connection, Lou Fengqin’s actions deserved this title. Having taken over the original owner’s body, Lin Shuyue felt it was her duty to help find the original owner’s younger brother.

Lou Fengqin responded, “Good, good, good. Then Mom will be waiting for you to help me.”

After a few words of everyday conversation, Lou Fengqin quickly hung up. She was always like this when she was away, very frugal with phone calls, always hanging up as soon as she finished saying what she needed to say.

Lin Shuxing knocked on the door at the right time. “Ah Yue, come out and eat.”

Lin Shuyue rubbed her face, responded, put the phone on the bed, got up, and went out to eat.

The sun was setting but hadn’t completely set, dyeing the clouds in the sky a brilliant orange-red.

The three of them ate this meal very quickly. After dinner, Luo Zhengjun rode the tricycle carrying the boxed meals they had prepared towards the nearest construction site. Lin Shuyue and her sister followed behind on bicycles.

Luo Zhengjun’s cooking was delicious, and he was generous with the ingredients. A box of rice with one meat and two vegetable dishes costs six yuan, and you could add unlimited rice. The complimentary soup was tomato and egg soup, and you could always scoop up plenty of eggs with a spoonful of soup.

The workers at the construction site were all doing heavy labor. The food at the cafeteria was contracted out by the boss’s brother-in-law, and it was completely devoid of oil and flavor. Once you got a serving of food, you couldn’t get a second helping. The small restaurants nearby were tasty, but things like rice noodles were all soup and water, and they weren’t as filling as rice and stir-fried dishes. The fast-food restaurants were far away, and the workers, exhausted after a day of physical labor, were too lazy to walk.

The boxed meals Lin Shuyue and the others were selling tasted good, were oily and flavorful, and most importantly, the rice was unlimited. As soon as they set up, and Lin Shuyue had just shouted out a couple of times, many workers gathered around.

Soon, the trial dishes Luo Zhengjun had made were sold out. Only the bottom of the tomato and egg soup remained, and the large bucket of rice was scraped clean.

It was already dark when they returned. The streetlights along the road were dim, and some weren’t even lit. The three of them rode their bikes side by side, their hearts filled with joy.

Especially Lin Shuxing and Luo Zhengjun, who were filled with endless fantasies and aspirations for the future.

Back home, the two began to tally up the accounts. Luo Zhengjun had made over 60 servings of food, selling each for 6 yuan, for a total income of over 400 yuan. Among these, the most expensive expenditure was buying meat. Luo Zhengjun had bought it from an acquaintance, and a jin (half a kilogram) of good quality pork belly cost 5 yuan. The 60-plus servings of stir-fried pork with chili peppers had only used eight jin of meat.

Chili peppers and other ingredients were bought at the local vegetable market, at 5 mao (0.5 yuan) per jin.

Apart from that, the biggest expense was rice. A jin of rice cost 9 mao, and they had cooked about ten jin today. Calculating electricity, water, and seasoning costs, their net profit for today was over three hundred yuan!

These three hundred yuan weren’t much in the future, but in this era, when the average person’s monthly salary was at most a little over a thousand yuan, three hundred was a considerable amount of money.

Lin Shuxing generously gave Lin Shuyue twenty yuan. “Go buy some oysters and two bottles of beer. Let’s have a drink and then go to sleep.”

Buying some grilled oysters was already a very extravagant way for Lin Shuxing to celebrate.

Lin Shuyue smiled and nodded, riding her bike outside. The main street was bustling at this hour, with all kinds of vendors. Lin Shuyue bought oysters and ordered a few more small barbecue skewers. Passing by a shop at the end of the alley, she bought two bottles of iced beer.

The three of them sat under the grape arbor, enjoying the warm night breeze, eating barbecue, drinking ice-cold beer, and looking up at the full moon hanging in the sky. The moonlight was mottled. Lin Shuyue raised her glass and toasted it.

After two glasses of beer, she slept soundly that night. The next morning, Lin Shuyue ate the breakfast Luo Zhengjun had brought and rode her bicycle to work.

Passing by a newsstand, she stopped to take a look. The bloodthirsty smile of Duan Taoyong was indeed displayed in the most prominent position. Beneath the bloodthirsty smile was an incredibly large and attention-grabbing headline: Suishan Child Rape and Murder Suspect Apprehended, the Reason is This?!

Lin Shuyue chuckled at the headline. This very futuristic-sounding clickbait-style headline was particularly eye-catching among a bunch of very serious news headlines.

This was Lin Shuyue’s first report, and also her first front-page headline. Lin Shuyue bought a copy. While paying, she asked the newsstand owner, “Big sister, which newspaper is selling the best today?”

The woman was cracking sunflower seeds. “It’s the one you’re buying. When I got the newspapers this morning, I was shocked when I saw this report. I wonder who the reporter who took this photo is. They’re really skilled! To be able to take such a photo!”

Before Lin Shuyue could answer, she continued, “That puk gai jai, how could he lay his hands on such young children!” After saying that, someone came to buy a newspaper, and she went to attend to them.

Lin Shuyue put the newspaper in her bag and pedaled forward.

The atmosphere in the office was very good today. Wang Mingzheng specifically held a company-wide meeting, and Lin Shuyue was singled out for praise.

After the meeting ended, Lin Shuyue remembered the agreement she had made with Ah Hao at the internet cafe yesterday, and she took her camera and went out. News department director Lao Zhao had pretended to be busy all morning. When he finally wanted to chat with Lin Shuyue, he couldn’t even catch a glimpse of her bicycle’s exhaust.

Lin Shuyue had no idea that Director Zhao wanted to have a detailed conversation with her. She had already arrived at the agreed-upon internet cafe.

Many teenagers had already arrived. They were squatting or standing, chatting while waiting for Lin Shuyue and Ah Hao to arrive. They took today’s duel very seriously. This level of importance was no less than that of the legendary duel between Ximen Chuixue and Ye Gucheng at the Forbidden City in the TV series.

As soon as Lin Shuyue arrived, she was surrounded by these teenagers. Some who were particularly fond of this game asked Lin Shuyue for advice. Lin Shuyue had played for many years after all, and she was very dedicated to teaching.

By the agreed-upon time, Ah Hao was still nowhere to be seen. Some who couldn’t wait began to speculate.

“Ah Hao still isn’t here. Is he scared?”

“I think so. He’s probably afraid of losing face. He didn’t win yesterday.”

At this time, a teenager wearing a short-sleeved shirt came in from outside. Hearing their words, he retorted indignantly a few times and then said to Lin Shuyue:

“Big sister, last night Ah Hao’s mother came, said he was skipping school all day to come to the internet cafe to surf the internet, that he was neglecting his studies, and took him away overnight to an internet addiction treatment school. When he was taken away last night, he asked me to tell you not to wait for him.”

Hearing the words “internet addiction treatment school,” the self-narratives of students who had come out of internet addiction treatment schools in later generations quickly flashed through Lin Shuyue’s mind. Her heart skipped a beat. “Ah Liang, do you know where Ah Hao’s home is?”

“I do. It’s in Wujiao Village. Are you going to look for him?” Ah Liang was puzzled, but he still answered.

Lin Shuyue thought for a moment. This place wasn’t far from Wujiao Village. She didn’t answer Ah Liang, nor did she say anything. She just saw that it was getting late, said something, and turned to leave the internet cafe.

Ah Hao’s family could be said to be very well-known in Wujiao Village. She asked a few local aunties sitting under a large banyan tree to cool off and found out Ah Hao’s home address.

Ah Hao’s family lived in a one-story flat-roofed house. Because it was old, the originally white lime walls were covered with large patches of mold. A cluster of bright red bougainvillea stubbornly poked out from the courtyard wall.

Lin Shuyue knocked on Ah Hao’s wooden door. After a while, she heard footsteps. The one who came to open the door was Ah Hao’s grandmother.

Lin Shuyue asked politely, “Ah Po (Granny), is Xu Shuhao at home?”

Ah Hao’s grandmother looked up, squinted, and looked at Lin Shuyue carefully. “Who are you? What do you need him for?”

Lin Shuyue remembered what she had heard about Ah Hao’s problems at the Internet cafe yesterday. “Ah Hao is tutoring my younger brother. He didn’t come to class today, so I came to ask.”

Ah Liang and the others had said that Ah Hao was currently in high school. Although he often skipped school, his grades were always very good. He was the top scorer in the school in the previous middle school entrance examination.

Knowing that he was short on money, some classmates introduced him to tutor their children. He earned three to five yuan an hour, which Ah Hao’s grandmother also knew about.

Hearing this sentence, the guarded look in Ah Hao’s grandmother’s eyes dissipated. She said, “His mother took him away last night. She said she was sending him to some internet addiction treatment school. His mother gave me a flyer, saying the school was there. I don’t know how to read. I’ll go get it for you.”

The old woman’s hair was gray, and her steps as she walked back were a little hurried. Soon, she returned with a flyer, which was printed with many promotional words. It stung Lin Shuyue’s eyes.

“His mother said Ah Hao is neglecting his studies, skipping school, and not studying. If this goes on, he’ll be ruined. They came last night to take Ah Hao away. I couldn’t stop them. How is Ah Hao neglecting his studies? He sees that I’m old and feels for me, wanting to earn money to support me.” At this point, tears flowed from Ah Hao’s grandmother’s eyes.

At this time, the Good and Evil Detection System, which had been silent, also came out: [Ding~ Host has triggered the keyword ‘internet addiction treatment school’. Timed mission activated: Investigate the internet addiction treatment school and expose its true face to the public. Time limit: fifteen days to complete.]