Chapter 5

The provincial Math Olympiad Champion’s Cup was heavy enough to kill someone.

In that moment, my mind was completely blank-utterly blank. Dad flailed his arms, trying to grab at something, while Mom, in a panic, looped a section of electrical wire around his neck.

She pulled with all her strength, tightening it until Dad’s eyeballs bulged. Seizing the opportunity, I gathered all my might and struck down again.

Dad collapsed to the ground, motionless. After a long while, Mom finally reached out her trembling hand to check his breath. “No… no breath.”

We had conspired to kill Dad.

Protecting me was Mom’s most instinctive reaction. What was wrong with her wanting to protect me? And what was wrong with me not wanting to be sold off again?

But if we called the police, we would inevitably be the ones in the wrong.

We’d carry the burden of murder for the rest of our lives.

My future, my innocence, my entire life would be destroyed.

We were terrified, unsure of what to do next. Mom cautiously poked her head out. The narrow alley was silent, bathed only in the quiet light of the moon.

At the alley’s entrance, there was someone.

It was an old woman who ran the convenience store-Granny Zhang.

But thankfully, she was blind.

We stuffed Dad into a red-white-and-blue plastic bag and, one in front and one behind, slowly dragged it along. Just as we passed by, Granny Zhang suddenly spoke up. “An Rui’s mom, where are you off to so late?”

The old woman sat hunched in the darkness, her cloudy, milky-white eyes-seemingly devoid of pupils-turning toward us.

Mom flinched, her hand loosening. The bag dropped to the ground.

Her voice was so tense it could’ve snapped. “N-nothing much, just… just taking out some trash.”

The old woman’s face remained expressionless as she turned her gaze toward us.

“But that trash of yours is too big, too fresh. You can’t just throw it out like that.”