Ye Muo handed the cloak over with both hands. When he noticed the other party wasn’t moving, he even thrust it forward a bit.
Ye Muo’s appearance had been completely exposed by now. He was soaking wet. Rainwater dripped from his hair. The skin visible from his dark, tattered clothes was especially white in contrast.
The teen stared at Ye Mo for a moment. He looked away and took the shawl. In a rare moment, he decided not to make things difficult for Ye Muo. “Go on, leave.”
Ye Muo just stood there. The teen unceremoniously kicked the door behind Ye Muo and tilted his head. His tone had noticeably chilled. “Leave.”
Ye Muo still didn’t move. He glanced at the closed door inside the room. The one the woman went into. Ye Muo’s eyelashes trembled. He wanted to say something, but the words just wouldn’t fall into place. In the end, he could only whisper, “Mom…”
The teen cut Ye Muo off, “I said, leave.”
Ye Muo subconsciously took a step back. He paused for a few seconds before finally turning to leave. Just as he stepped out of the doorway, the door loudly slammed shut.
He subconsciously turned to look at the closed door. There were still traces of either paint or blood on it.
The teen kicked the door shut before grumbling as he rejoined his comrades, “Arrgh, that old bat’s gone off her rocker again. I thought she would stop after searching through the entire neighbourhood, but here she is, grabbing the first new face she sees on the streets again.”
“I wonder where she picked up this little young master. He’s even more beautiful than Katia. His hands don’t seem to have a single callus.”
Katia, who was sitting on the windowsill, glanced at the speaker, who immediately raised his hands apologetically.
Katia sat up. His boots thudded against the wall as he raised his eyebrows in disgust. “Don’t call me by my name.”
The teen pretended to zip up his mouth. Katia hated when people brought up his name. He thought it sounded too girly.
The teen sat down again, still mulling over Ye Muo.
“I wonder if he escaped from West Street. It won’t be easy to live here.”
Everyone in the room could tell that Ye Muo was cherished growing up. Although his exposed skin was a bit dirty, it was also fair, delicate and uninjured.
Even the strongest among them, Katia, was covered in scars. And the clothes Ye Muo was wearing were obviously made from very good materials despite their now almost destroyed state.
Most damning of all was his mannerisms and his foreign countenance. He seemed too obedient to be from around here.
The man seated in a chair in the centre of the room smiled. “Perhaps he’s the same as me.”
The teen fell silent. They all knew that Chris had lived a safe and happy life somewhere before he was exiled here.
Chris didn’t seem to mind. The woman’s cries came from the other room. She shouted hysterically, “I want my child!” I want my Little Qing!!”
Chris turned to the teen. “Go and see your mother, Ji Ting.”
Ji Ting nodded and stood up.
Outside, Ye Muo heard some faint screams. He pressed against the door and didn’t relax until the sounds disappeared.
He straightened and glanced around in a daze. The narrow corridor was dark. Not a single light was on.
It was kind of cold. Ye Muo shifted towards the corner to avoid the wind blowing through the corridor.
After a while, the door opened again. Katia came out. The hood of his sweatshirt was covering his platinum blond hair.
He glanced at Ye Muo in the corner before he closed the door. Then he pulled a bottle of nutrient fluid out of his pocket and tossed it to Ye Muo. “Leave when you’ve had enough.”
Ye Muo subconsciously caught it.
Katia turned and walked down the stairs before stopping again. He tilted his head back. “To the west is the red light district. Don’t go unless you want to die real bad.”
Then he disappeared down the stairs.
Ye Mo looked down at the small bottle and hesitated. He clasped it in his hand and stood still.
People continued to occasionally file up or down the stairs. They all vigilantly gave Ye Muo a wide berth as they passed. Most were juveniles or parents with their children. One jacket-wearing man paused to stare at the nutrient fluid in Ye Muo’s hands, but he reluctantly moved on after glancing at the mottled door beside him.
Finally, a mother led a little girl through. The little girl hadn’t learned how to conceal herself yet. She stared at Ye Muo until her mother pulled her behind herself. Her mother was too tense. The small glass ball the little girl was holding fell to the floor and rolled to Ye Muo’s feet.
The little girl gasped and subconsciously tried approaching Ye Muo.
Ye Muo bent down. He was about to pick it up and return it to her when he saw the mother stop the little girl and almost drag her upstairs. She murmured to the little girl, “Be good. We don’t want it anymore…”
Ye Muo paused in the middle of bending down before standing up again. He lowered his head and pulled away from them. Almost plastering himself against the walls, he went down the narrow stairs.
As he was about to round the corner, Ye Muo saw the little girl bending over to pick up her glass ball.
It was still raining lightly downstairs. It was very quiet.
Ye Muo turned back. In the countless brightly lit windows, he accurately identified the window of ‘Mom’s’ house.
He still remembered the feeling of ‘Mom’s’ hand on his cheek. It was a little rough but very warm.
Ye Muo couldn’t shake the feeling that someone had once caressed his cheek this way, from his cheek all the way to the nape of his neck before planting a shallow kiss on his forehead.
It was still raining as Ye Muo walked through that long passage to the street outside.
It was very lively here even at night. There were still many shops with discoloured signs open along either side of the street. The tattered shops boasted bright and flamboyant lights.
Groups of teens whistled by on skateboards through the dense high rises.
Ye Muo stood off to the side, observing this strange and foreign world.
Everyone suddenly dropped what they were doing and automatically gave way to the middle of the street.
A dozen armed men in uniforms marched a group of people through this bustling part of the city.
There were also armed individuals riding hovercycles above.
“They’re here again? Haven’t enough people been enlisted to fill their quota? This never happened during the previous insect tides.”
“I heard that something seemed to go wrong on the frontlines of this insect tide. It seems that there aren’t enough king insects or something, so the insects have been popping up in the rear. The district leader’s had his hands full with that.”
“How can anything go wrong with the Grantz on the frontlines? I think they’re using that as an excuse to get free manual labour. Even my barbershop owner neighbour’s Level B son was taken away. That child had such a bright future. He ranked quite high during last year’s galactic network battlefield simulation too. He was so close to emigrating but still isn’t back.”
As the escort team neared, conversations like this gradually trailed off.
Everyone went quiet.
Ye Muo stood behind the crowd, staring blankly at them. He quietly repeated, “Grantz…”
Everything went back to normal after those people left.
Ye Muo soon had no time to ponder. Someone was following him. Ye Muo glanced behind him before disappearing into the crowd.
The people following himself circled around the place where he was last seen before their leader cursed and led his gang away. “You’ve all seen him. Get the others to search as well. He’s a fine piece. If we’re lucky, he might be auction quality.”
As the night grew deeper, the crowd thinned and more of the flamboyant lighting was turned off. Ye Muo, who was wandering the streets, became more obvious.
He didn’t know where to go. In the end, he ended up back in the vicinity of ‘Mom’s’ house. Ye Muo glanced at that building from a distance before finally sitting in a small alley next to a trash can. There was no wind here.
A cat ran out from further in the alley and quickly passed by. Ye Muo’s foot shrank back.
The next day, Ye Muo wandered around nearby and ran into ‘Mom’ again.
She stood in front of the passage, holding food and a blanket as she looked around.
The woman was ecstatic to see him. She ran over and stuffed everything she was holding into Ye Muo’s hands. Then she went to touch his face. Ye Muo lowered his head so it was easier for her to check him over.
“Mommy was so worried about you. Your big brother’s lost it. He keeps saying some nonsense about you being dead. Why, Mommy’s Little Qing is right here!”
She suddenly burst into tears. “It’s your heartless brother that won’t let Little Qing come home. How are you doing? Were you cold?”
The amount of strength her callused hands were using hurt a little, but Ye Muo didn’t shy away. He stumbled to formulate a sentence, “Wasn’t…cold.”
He paused and added quietly, “Mom.”
The woman hugged Ye Muo and chattered for a while. She continued to jump to different but repeated topics seemingly at random as she tugged Ye Muo along. Ye Muo started off awkwardly listening, but he was gradually able to say some simple phrases.
She continued to pull him along until nighttime.
Ye Muo noticed one of the men he saw yesterday from a distance. He happened to meet his eyes before quickly looking away. He was a little nervous and wanted to explain that he was just leaving, but the woman refused to let him go.
Fortunately, the man didn’t drive Ye Muo away. He just smiled gently at him before looking down and speaking to the woman, “It’s time to go home, Aunt Ji.”
The woman tugged Ye Muo’s arm and turned to speak to him, “Let’s go home, Little Qing. Chris, let’s take Little Qing home.”
Chris shook his head. He quietly coaxed Aunt Ji, “Little Qing still wants to play outside for a while.”
Aunt Ji looked to Ye Muo. She waited until he nodded before reluctantly letting go.
Ye Muo just stood there and watched them head for the passageway. At some point, the others he had seen yesterday had gathered there.
A teenager took Aunt Ji’s arm and left with her first.
Ji Ting glanced in Ye Muo’s direction. Ye Muo was still standing in the corner looking over. When he noticed Ji Ting’s gaze, he looked down and disappeared into the crowd. Ji Ting felt kind of bad for some reason.
As he followed behind Chris, the man glanced at him and said, “Let him stay for a while. That child should have arrived recently. At least this place is safer than everywhere else.”
Ye Muo might not know, but this was their territory. Everyone who lived here knew each other, so any outsiders were glaringly obvious. He had been noticed right away as he wandered around the vicinity.
Ji Ting clawed at his hair in frustration, but he was kind of relieved as he agreed with Chris, “Fine, he can stay for a while.”
Chris chuckled.
Ji Ting muttered to himself, “That kid probably can’t do anything even if he’s up to no good. Just look at him.”
Author’s Corner
Gradually regaining my confidence and feel for the story! I…am the best! I want to be a pigeon that brings updates everyday.
(So if there are disappointed little angels that want to leave, can you leave quietly? I know there are problems and shortcomings, but I can’t do anything about them in the short term. I want to charge right in and finish this story first before slowly going over it again. I hope we can meet again when I become better in the future.)
Translator’s Corner
Poor author. She’s stopped writing these cute little notes in the latest updates… It seems like the negativity plaguing her comments got to her, perhaps leading to that hiatus last year. You can tell from her other story ‘Transmigrated as the Cannon Fodder Abandoned by the Movie Star’ (translated wonderfully by Twin Fish here on CG!) that she is a sensitive person able to depict the throes of depression and dissociation so well. I hope she is doing better these days…
