Although Blake Leaf checked into the hotel he reserved, he didn’t sleep a minute.
After entering the room, he took a shower and then sat by the window, waiting for dawn.
When the first light of day broke through the horizon, the quiet city seemed to be suddenly awakened from its slumber.
The area has many mountains, with the city built on top of them.
Highways of varying heights surround the entire city like a scene from a fantasy movie.
He looked down and saw a light rail passing through the middle of the building in front of him, the rumbling noise penetrating the poorly soundproofed window and rushing to his ears.
He used to hate the noise here, but now he found it endearingly familiar.
After breakfast, he put on sunglasses, a light gray pullover sweatshirt, lightly faded blue jeans, and a pair of worn-out Nike sneakers, blending into the crowd exercising early on a Saturday morning. Follow current ɴᴏᴠᴇʟs on 𝕟𝕠𝕧𝕖𝕝⚑𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖⚑𝕟𝕖𝕥
His cousin’s father had sent the addresses of those two families to his phone.
If the eldest daughter of that family is indeed his biological mother, then the two families he’s visiting today are his uncle’s and aunt’s.
His grandmother lives with his uncle.
However, it was strange that these two families were quite far apart, one in East City and the other in the west.
The hotel he stayed in was located in the city center, equidistant from both sides.
After some thought, he decided to visit his aunt’s house first.
He wanted to see from his aunt what his biological mother might have looked like when she was younger.
Yes, even though he had not met them and had no concrete evidence, he had unconsciously started considering these two families as his true relatives.
Instead of calling a taxi, he took the light rail to the west side of the city.
In this city of fluctuating elevation, the light rail was much faster than a cab.
By 7 a.m., he had arrived at the foot of the address.
He looked up and saw that it was in a relatively old residential area, the buildings resembling the first generation of commercial housing, not high-rise, just six floors, with no elevator.
It must have been fashionable back in the day, but after many years, without regular maintenance, the exterior of these residential buildings was quite dirty.
The once light red walls had peeled in many places, with patches of red and gray, like the mottled rouge on an aging beauty’s face.
Blake Leaf thought, his aunt’s family situation might not be very good...
Just slightly better than his adoptive parents.
As he stood gazing upward a little too long, a woman returning from her morning exercise looked at him and asked with a smile, "Are you here early, young man? Who are you looking for? I know everyone in this community..."
Blake Leaf’s heart was stirred.
Although he knew the specific floor and apartment number, it seemed too rude to just show up unannounced.
Maybe it was better to inquire first.
Blake took off his sunglasses and smiled first.
Sure enough, those with good looks have an advantage.
As soon as the woman saw him smile, her attitude improved, her face blooming like a flower: "Are you visiting relatives?"
Blake neither nodded nor shook his head, just smiled and said in perfect Mandarin, "I heard that a family with the surname Su lives in apartment 403 here. Are they home today?"
The woman immediately replied in her somewhat rough local Mandarin, "The family in 403 isn’t named Su, they’re named Mo. You must have remembered wrong."
"Ah? Really? Not named Su? So no one in that family has the surname Su?"
"... There seems to be, Mo’s wife’s maiden name is Su, yes, I remember now." The woman exclaimed with a slap on her thigh, "I was just walking with her this morning, and she said she was going to buy breakfast for her grandson and left earlier. If you wait a moment, she’ll be back soon."
Blake’s heart raced, but he tried to maintain his composure, smiling and nodding, "Then I’ll wait a bit."
Just as he finished speaking, the woman suddenly called out behind him: "Hey! Old Su! Someone is looking for you! Look! Such a handsome young man!"
Blake turned quickly, only to see a woman with graying hair, a gloomy complexion, and an aged appearance, possibly at least in her fifties...
How could this person be his mother’s younger sister?
She should be an older sister instead.
Blake inwardly criticized his cousin’s father for being unreliable.
The woman beside him pointed at the approaching woman and said, "This is the 403’s old Su you’re looking for! Her husband’s last name is Mo, you can call her Aunt Mo."
After saying that, she waved her hand, "You guys chat, I’m going back to make breakfast."
Then she hurriedly ran off.
Blake watched the woman nervously approaching, coughed lightly, and asked, "Excuse me, are you Su, Penelope Sommers?"