4: Chapter 4 Su Wanqing's Pursuit

Yunzhou, Starlight Night Market.

It was 1:00 AM, the most bustling time here.

Grease from the grill dripped onto the charcoal, sending up choking white smoke that mixed with the scents of cheap perfume, sweat, and cumin, creating the distinct atmosphere of the city's underbelly.

"Boss! Two bowls of malatang, one mild and one extra spicy, hurry up!"

"Coming!"

Su Wanqing replied, stirring the colander in the pot. But her gaze was somewhat vacant, and she almost poured a ladle of boiling hot soup onto the back of her own hand.

That video call just now had left her feeling as tangled as a mess of hemp.

Chen Fan.

The name rolled off her tongue, carrying a lingering, aged bitterness.

Nineteen years had passed; she thought she had long forgotten him, forgotten him completely. But a single sentence from her daughter, and the image of that down-and-out delivery driver, was like a rusty nail, forcibly hammered back into her mind.

"Wanqing, what are you thinking about? The soup is overflowing."

A rough voice interrupted her thoughts.

Wang Qiang from the neighboring barbecue stall walked over. He was in his early forties, wearing a grease-stained tank top, a blackened gold chain around his neck, and holding a stainless steel plate with two skewers of sizzling lamb kidneys.

"Just grilled, eat them while they're hot, it'll be good for you." Wang Qiang set the plate down on the small folding table in front of Su Wanqing, his dark face wearing an honest smile.

Wang Qiang was an honest man, divorced years ago, and was making a living at the night market with his ten-year-old son. For the past five years, everyone in the night market knew about his feelings for Su Wanqing.

A few regular customers at the stall started to tease them.

"Oh, Brother Qiang is showing his devotion again!"

"Sister Wanqing, just give in, Brother Qiang's kidneys are very nourishing!"

Su Wanqing ignored the crude jokes. She turned off the stove, wiped her hands on her apron, and instead of taking the plate of skewers, she bent down and pulled a shoebox from a cardboard box under the stall.

"Brother Wang, take these kidneys back for your child to eat; I don't like them."

Su Wanqing handed the shoebox over, her tone as polite as if she were speaking to a stranger: "I went to buy shoes for Su Muyang the other day and just happened to see these children's shoes on sale. I thought they would fit your little one, so I picked up a pair. I still haven't thanked you for fixing my gas tank last time."

Wang Qiang's smile froze on his face.

He looked at the brand-new shoebox, then at Su Wanqing's tired yet still beautiful face.

This was no thank-you gift.

It was clearly a way to settle accounts, to not owe him a single cent of favor.

"Wanqing, you're being too distant..." Wang Qiang rubbed his hands together, a bit awkward. "We're neighbors, isn't it natural for us to help each other? These shoes... must have cost a lot, right?"

"They weren't expensive, just street market goods." Su Wanqing shoved the shoebox into his arms and turned to clear the empty bowls from the table. "Take them, otherwise I won't dare to ask for your help next time I have an issue."

Wang Qiang held the shoebox, stood there for a long time, and finally sighed. He carried the uneaten plate of lamb kidneys and slinked back to his own stall.

Sister Liu, who sold stinky tofu nearby, fried tofu while fanning herself and leaned over, whispering: "Wanqing, don't be so stubborn. Wang Qiang might be a bit rough, but he's considerate and sincere to you. You're raising two children on your own; how long can you keep struggling like this?"

Su Wanqing scrubbed the rag hard in the bucket, the cold, dirty water washing over her fingertips.

"Sister Liu, right now I just want to earn money to support my children's education; I don't have the heart to think about anything else."

"You, you're just still holding onto that deadbeat ex, right?" Sister Liu curled her lip. "A man who abandoned his wife and children should have been thrown into the trash heap long ago."

Su Wanqing's hands suddenly stopped moving.

She looked up at the pitch-black night sky. The clouds were thick, hiding the stars; only the neon lights of the high-rise buildings in the distance stained the sky a dark red.

Holding onto him?

How could that be?

She wished she could eat his flesh and drink his blood.

Back then, when she knelt on the ground with her big belly, begging him not to leave, his back as he walked away with the check in hand was the greatest nightmare of her life.

"I just feel..." Su Wanqing wrung out the rag, her voice so soft it sounded like she was talking to herself, "that if I just find someone to settle with, it would be an insult to all the suffering I've endured."

...

At the same time, a thousand miles away in Jiangcheng.

The night was deep, and the campus of Jiangcheng Foreign Language University was silent, with only the streetlights casting long shadows.

No one noticed two black shadows, only the size of a fingernail, slicing through the night sky like ghosts, silently and soundlessly.

Those were the micro-bionic drones controlled by zero.

They made no buzzing sound; even the fluctuations in airflow were perfectly hidden.

Men's dormitory, Room 405.

The window was left open a crack for ventilation. The first micro-drone nimbly slipped inside and hovered in mid-air. Its camera flickered with infrared light invisible to the naked eye, rapidly scanning the boy sleeping on the bottom bunk.

Su Muyang was sleeping soundly, half the quilt kicked off, revealing a lean arm. His features held the heroic spirit of youth, and even in his sleep, his brows were slightly furrowed, as if he had something on his mind.

The drone slowly descended and landed by the pillow.

It extended a mechanical arm as thin as a hair and gently picked up a short strand of hair that had just fallen onto the pillowcase.

Hair follicle confirmed intact.

Sample collection successful.

The drone didn't linger; like a well-fed mosquito, it quietly flew out the window.

A few hundred meters away, in the women's dormitory, Room 302.

The second drone completed its mission just as smoothly. Su Nianyao had her head buried in the quilt, her long hair scattered on the pillow. The drone accurately found a strand of long hair with a follicle and quickly withdrew.

The two drones converged in the night sky, their tails emitting a faint blue ion stream, and shot toward Jiangcheng city center at astonishing speed.

There, there was a high-end private hospital belonging to the Huihuang Group.

At this very moment, the hospital's laboratory department doors were tightly closed, but under zero's intrusion, the emergency access door, which could only be opened by the director's fingerprint, clicked and automatically popped open.

The laboratory was empty, with only cold instruments flashing green light.

The two drones flew into the sample slot and precisely placed the two hairs, which carried a shocking secret, into the sample inlet of the DNA sequencer.

The screen lit up.

Lines of complex code and data began to jump frantically.

[Sample A (Suspected Father): Chen Fan]

[Sample B (Suspected Son): Su Muyang]

[Sample C (Suspected Daughter): Su Nianyao]

[Expedited comparison program initiated... Estimated time: 3 hours.]

The machine emitted a low hum and began to run at high speed.

Meanwhile, at the night market stall in Yunzhou, Su Wanqing finally sent off the last wave of customers.

She was so tired she couldn't straighten her back; she unfastened her apron while staring blankly at pictures of her children on her phone.

She had no idea that on this seemingly ordinary night, a paternity test report that would tear her peaceful life to shreds was being generated thousands of kilometers away.

Nor did she know that the man she regarded as "scum" had already sharpened his knife, ready to reclaim the debt of these nineteen years, with interest.

"Time to close up and go home."

Su Wanqing turned off the lightbulb at the stall.

The world plunged into darkness, save for the DNA sequencer that was running frantically, its light growing brighter and more blinding.