The Road to Freedom Was Strewn with Thorns

Although Chen Nan wished he could sprout wings beneath his ribs and fly straight into Wu City, his child's steps and frail body simply could not support rapid travel.

Driven by what was almost a desire to survive, he held on for about an hour, barely making his way through the winding goat-track and reaching the broad expanse at the foot of the mountain.

On the open ground, there was only his tiny figure. Every now and then, a car roared past on the highway. Chen Nan could not help feeling somewhat powerless. The severe mismatch between the heroic ambitions in his heart and his actual circumstances was the root of that helplessness.

But gritting his teeth, Chen Nan still stepped forward.

He did not follow the highway. Dawn was already breaking, yet there were still very few vehicles on the road. Even so, he did not want to take the risk.

A child like him walking along the highway would stand out far too much. He feared some "kindhearted person" might send him back to the orphanage, and even more, he feared a pickup truck might suddenly come barreling down the road.

He crossed the highway and entered a stretch of wilderness, advancing beneath sparse trees by taking the straightest route between two points on a plane.

Such a "shortcut" was inevitably rough and uneven, but to him, it was far safer.

His thin little body trudged forward step by step. The sky changed from dim to gray-white, then gradually brightened fully, and only then did Chen Nan barely reach the outskirts of Wu City.

Fortunately, Wu City was not very far from the mountain where the orphanage stood. By the time everyone at the orphanage got up, he had already entered the outer reaches of Wu City.

Only after arriving at the outskirts of Wu City did Chen Nan finally feel at ease.

There was clearly much more of the bustle of everyday life here. Bicycles, electric scooters, cars, and even buses filled the streets.

Pedestrians of all kinds hurried along the sidewalks on both sides of the roadway. Whether temporary laborers in work shoes, students and their parents, or office workers wearing arrogant expressions, none of them gave Chen Nan a second glance.

Children like Chen Nan were rarely valued, much like stray cats and dogs. Especially on the outskirts of a city, where the economy was generally poorer, there were naturally more children like him.

Chen Nan naturally felt nothing toward these people either, because he had spotted a breakfast stall.

Several greasy, battered long tables, cracked plastic stools, a burly man with an open shirt fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan, an honest laborer, a small boss fiddling with car keys to flaunt his status...

Under normal circumstances, such a scene would not have moved Chen Nan much.

But at this moment, it made his heart surge. Later, he realized it was mainly because his stomach kept churning up acid, flooding so violently it nearly drowned his heart.

To keep the stomach acid from corroding his heart, Chen Nan hurriedly put away his emotions. Soothing his stomach came first. Feelings and ambitions could wait until after he filled his belly.

But the closely packed tables and stools had no seats left, and Chen Nan became quite anxious.

Just then, the man holding the car keys snapped his fingers. The huge gold ring on his ring finger glittered in the morning light.

"Boss, card payment!" he shouted boldly.

The owner was a part-timer—in other words, aside from the kitchen, he handled everything in the shop. Though unwilling, he thought, You're only having a bowl of wontons. What card are you swiping? Now I have to find the card reader for you.

After a while, the owner brought over an old, rarely used card reader and said with a forced smile, "Fifty cents, boss."

The man took out a white card, swiped it smoothly over the reader, and said, "Keep the fifty cents."

Then he patted his fat belly, a symbol of wealth and prosperity, and got up to leave.

With an empty seat now available, Chen Nan immediately sat down. When the breakfast stall owner turned around and saw a little beggar sitting there, he immediately shouted, "I'll give you two buns later. Get lost!"

Chen Nan smiled. "Boss, that's not right. I'm paying for my food, so why are you telling me to get lost?"

As he spoke, he took out a one-yuan coin.

In Qingyang Kingdom, currency came in three units: yuan, jiao, and fen. Yuan came in denominations of 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, and 1; jiao only came in 5 and 1; while fen only had the 1 denomination.

Ten fen made one jiao, and ten jiao made one yuan.

The money Chen Nan had brought when escaping came from Director Wang and the orphanage staff. What he had stolen from Director Wang were all hundred-yuan bills, while he had gotten some smaller change from the staff.

He had considered that, looking like a beggar as he did, taking out large bills would invite suspicion.

So taking out one yuan now naturally posed no problem.

This owner was quite reasonable—at least, for the sake of the money, he no longer chased Chen Nan away. Instead, he asked irritably, "So what are you having?"

After all the hunger and thirst of the journey, Chen Nan knew he could not gorge himself. He only ordered some thin rice porridge, two meat buns, a boiled egg, and a plate of free pickled vegetables.

All of that only came to fifty cents.

The owner took the money first, gave Chen Nan fifty cents in change, and then ignored him. Because Chen Nan was sitting there, the others sharing the table all sped up their meals, cursing under their breaths as they hurried away.

Chen Nan ate with great satisfaction, and immediately felt as though he had been reborn. Sure enough, in a land of food lovers, the meaning of life lay in eating.

He left the breakfast stall and wandered aimlessly along the road. Once the problem of his stomach was solved, the problem in his heart resurfaced.

Chen Nan needed to plan carefully. He knew he had not merely escaped from an ordinary orphanage, and that meant his days ahead would not be safe.

They might even be more dangerous, because Chen Nan's escape was a massive risk factor for the orphanage.

Leaving aside the sinister dealings Chen Nan had inferred, the few human lives in that storeroom alone were enough to make Director Wang pay dearly.

Chen Nan simply refused to believe that treating human life like grass was not against the law in this world.

To keep the orphanage's darkness from being exposed, once they learned that he had escaped, they would definitely search everywhere for him. And if they found him, Chen Nan could only assume the worst: death.

There was probably no other possibility. Clearly, under Director Wang's leadership, the orphanage was a criminal organization. For an organization like that, killing to silence witnesses was simply routine business.

What was more, as long as they had money and influence, killing an orphan with no one to rely on would not bring them any consequences.

Therefore, although he had escaped, the situation had actually become even more dire.

Yet even so, Chen Nan did not regret his decision.

At the orphanage, his fate would only have been that of a frog slowly boiled in warm water. Besides, he could not guarantee that Li Yu and Xun Xin had not been whispering poison into Director Wang's ear.

With all the thefts of property at the orphanage added in, he would still have been headed for a dead end.

That was why Chen Nan had left at the first opportunity after the assessment.

Li Yu and Xun Xin had taken his money but refused to do the job. Then it was highly likely they would use someone else's hand to get rid of him, the one who had paid them. Once the millstone was put away, the donkey had to be killed; a deal without variables was the best deal.

Chen Nan would not naively believe those two "Immortals" were truly the ethereal sort. The road ahead was still fraught with hardship.

And Chen Nan had no intention of sitting around waiting to die. He had his own ideas, the most direct of which was to kill Director Wang.

The thought made Chen Nan shudder, even feel sick. But he had already crawled back from the brink of death twice. Without such resolve, it would make no sense at all.

Chen Nan's plan was simple. He would naturally use his ability again, using rats and other small animals to poison Director Wang and then kill him.

But he still needed to understand some basic details.

Namely, what the main members of the orphanage's organization were like. He needed to make sure that after dealing with Director Wang, no one would come seeking revenge. Otherwise, killing him would mean very little.

And to accomplish all this, one condition had to be met: before he carried out these plans, he could not be found. He had to stay alive.

So how was he supposed to survive in Wu City?

Continue living as a beggar like this? Or change his appearance entirely?

In the end, Chen Nan decided to change his appearance. First, he did not want to suffer like this anymore—the key issue was that he was too dirty and smelly. Second, he felt that if the orphanage came to investigate, they would definitely pay attention to children who looked like beggars.

That made him too obvious a target.

But if he was clean and looked like an ordinary child, the range of possible targets would expand, making it harder for them to find him.

With that thought, Chen Nan made his decision and entered a secluded alley to rearrange his money.

He first focused his mind and used his mental power to sense the small creatures nearby. As a result, he discovered a rat hole at the other end of the alley.

After summoning the rats there, Chen Nan wrapped about five thousand yuan in hundred-yuan bills in a plastic bag and had the rats drag it into their burrow. He kept the remaining small bills on his person.

That amounted to a little over two hundred yuan, which was no small sum either.

Then he began wandering the streets while looking for helpers. After all, he had to consider the dangers he might encounter in the future. What could a child of around ten possibly do alone?

So he definitely needed helpers, and Chen Nan set his sights on stray dogs.

Since he was unfamiliar with the place, Chen Nan did not dare go too far. If he got lost and could not find his way back, losing that huge sum of money would make the things he needed to do later much more difficult.

While looking for helpers, he also had to gradually familiarize himself with the surrounding urban environment.

Because all of Wu City would be his battlefield in the future. If he did not know this place inside out, would that not be committing one of the great taboos of warfare?