Destiny toppled as inevitably as dominoes
"The time was after 'Hoss Sink' disappeared," Tengshe scratched his head, looking at the empty underground passage. "That was the year before I was about to find a way to smuggle myself back home... Hmm, it doesn't seem like a full year, there are still a few months left?"
He stood there, picking at his nails again, pondering what major events had occurred during that time—because Zhu Ming still remembered Tengshe Ming's declaration very clearly.
The other party said that this was his destined "calamity".
But Tengshe had no recollection of it at all—although thinking back on his life of wandering here, he had experienced many life-or-death moments, but... what truly killed him was the terrible misfortune he encountered after returning home, which led him into the "Death game."
My experience abroad...
For example, after being bitten by a dog, the wound became infected and I had a persistent low-grade fever, almost thinking I was going to die from rabies...
For example, you might encounter a fight with some Black men you don't speak the language about and get hit in the eyebrow by a stray bullet...
Also, I vomited and felt unwell seven or eight times after eating spoiled canned food...
I once slept under a bridge and was swept away by the floodwaters during a torrential downpour...
In short, upon careful consideration, although there are many near-death experiences, if you asked Tengshe to name the one that was his most tragic ordeal, he actually couldn't choose.
If I had to pinpoint it... the cruelest and most desperate ordeal of his life was probably those events that forced him to become a wanderer.
My father was doing well studying abroad, but then he suddenly fell ill.
Although Tengshe had the money to study abroad, his family wasn't in business; they were just relatively well-off middle class—his father was a middle manager at a company, and his partner was a housewife.
Such families have very poor risk resistance, so when the father fell ill with a terminal illness that required a lot of money for treatment, support for Tengshe's studies had to be interrupted.
Tengshe couldn't say whether it was retribution for his father's infidelity that drove his Birth Mother away... Less than two months after his father's terminal illness, his mother, or more accurately, his "stepmother," ran away with his father's meager assets.
In short, due to these successive changes, Tengshe briefly considered whether to return to China to take care of his father or to work and study abroad to earn some money to prolong his father's life. He then decided to stay in this country and start working.
This might also be a decision to "escape"—now that I think about it, Tengshe feels that he was unwilling to face his father, who looked so withered and emaciated on the video call.
Even though she had a bad relationship with her father, just imagining her father, who was like a dried-up riverbed in the video, appearing in front of her in person, three-dimensional, real, with a hoarse voice coughing up phlegm and the smell of hospital disinfectant, made Tengshe feel a sense of panic in her heart, a fear as vast as an empty universe that she had to face.
However, Tengshe also thought that perhaps it was precisely because his relationship with his father, who had cheated on him, was not good enough that he was able to make the decision not to return to the country—of course, their relationship was not so bad that Tengshe could simply abandon him like his stepmother.
It's possible that the relationship had deteriorated to that point, but Tengshe himself had a stubborn side... He thought that since his father had never shortchanged him on living expenses when he was studying abroad, he couldn't shortchange that guy on medical expenses.
Of course, that's what they say... When it comes to making money, Tengshe knows very well that he is far inferior to his father, whom he looks down on.
Because he had mostly coasted through school, Tengshe couldn't do things like writing papers for others. The only way Tengshe could easily make money from other international students was by attending classes for them.
Although he was called a substitute teacher, he actually only had one friend who was a "long-term client" most of the time.
Most of the time... he worked at a fried chicken shop near the school, introduced by a friend. Although it was tiring and hard work, the advantage of capitalist countries is that although the minimum hourly wage for odd jobs is pitiful in terms of purchasing power, when converted to domestic terms, it is indeed an income that can barely support his father's continued treatment in the intensive care unit.
In addition, a resourceful international student friend helped Tengshe do some purchasing on behalf of others. His previous connections from social gatherings and parties allowed him to purchase foreign cigarettes, E-cigarette, and electronic products, which supplemented his income. This money allowed Tengshe to continue his studies temporarily even though he couldn't get a scholarship.
He didn't have a natural talent for making money, but he was also more resilient than he thought.
If it were merely a family tragedy... Tengshe might have a somewhat miserable and difficult life, but it wouldn't have fallen to this state.
Just one semester after he started his work-study program... some of the cigarettes and alcohol he was buying and shipping were seized by customs—and then the tax bureau and customs Police came knocking on his door.
This incident nearly landed Tengshe in jail and left him owing a lot of money to customers. Although his friend eventually intervened and smoothed things over, saving Tengshe from imprisonment...
However, he was expelled from school right after paying his tuition for the new semester and even preparing to start his internship.
This also means that his visa for studying abroad has expired—if he can't find a good solution within a few months, he will be deported.
In order to stay, Tengshe had to find a "formal" job, and since he could no longer live in the student Apartment, he had to find a cheap rental house as soon as possible.
Just when everything was in a terrible state... Tengshe met someone willing to help him.
A classmate from the art department of the same school, whom Tengshe had never heard of before, took the initiative to reach out to him. At this most difficult time for Tengshe, the Tengshe chose to lend him a helping hand and helped Tengshe find Apartment.
The reason is quite simple...
"I also need a roommate," Tengshe said casually, remembering the tall, long-haired boy. "I heard from Ruan in your college that your family went bankrupt and you were expelled, so... maybe we could share an apartment."
"I have a weird personality, so much so that my previous roommates had a hard time putting up with me. I heard you were even expelled from school, so your situation is probably worse than mine—so I guess you'll have to put up with me to make a living."
Tengshe didn't know the guy 'Tengshe name, but somehow he ended up living with him in a cold, damp, and dilapidated Apartment, enduring his eccentric but not really bad personality and lifestyle.
The other person simply enjoys painting Oil Painting completely naked in the middle of the night.
Two months passed in this peaceful routine, during which many things happened: bills piled up, work wasn't going well, and everything was slowly getting worse, but everything was still bearable... until...
That evening, while the other person was drawing, they suddenly received a phone call, and then hurriedly put on their coat and ran out the door.
Because the other person rarely went out while painting, Tengshe hesitated for thirty minutes before finally following him out out of concern.
Because Tengshe had a good memory, he remembered the address the other party had mumbled over the phone, so he hurriedly took a taxi to that address.
It was a fast food restaurant—when Tengshe arrived at the scene, he found it in complete disarray—a disheveled waitress was lying on the ground with blood streaming from her head, several men were fighting around her, and someone was even firing a gun.
When Tengshe arrived at the scene, he happened to see his roommate lying on the ground, shot.
Without time to think, Tengshe picked up a gun from the ground, not knowing whose it was, and fired a few shots randomly, hoping to scare the other person and take the opportunity to drag his wounded roommate back—although he and his roommate weren't exactly close, he couldn't just watch him die.
Just like how he viewed his father.
However... what Tengshe didn't expect was that not long after he fired the shot...
Everything then fell silent.
The Police arrived at the scene quickly—this time, Tengshe was going to jail no matter what.
Because he was charged with first-degree murder.
Meanwhile, Tengshe learned the whole story from the Police —the Truth was so absurd that it made him want to laugh.
My roommate was there because his classmate and friend got drunk and used foul language, got into an argument with a waitress at the restaurant, and physically assaulted her first.
Afterwards, the conflict escalated, and by the time I arrived, it had turned into a full-scale firefight between the two sides.
So...
Tengshe thought he was saving someone, but in reality, the person he was helping was a scumbag who was harassing a waitress.
He was charged with murder for this muddled reason—to be honest, Tengshe didn't know if he had actually shot and killed someone, because the scene was chaotic and he always felt that he was shooting at the ceiling and couldn't possibly have hit a real person.
But that didn't matter anymore—his fingerprints were on the gun, and surveillance footage showed the restaurant owner collapsing in pain after he fired the shot. To the police and prosecutors, this was irrefutable evidence.
Friends he met while studying abroad quickly arrived at the Police, bringing a lawyer with them—regardless of whether Tengshe believed he had committed murder or not, the situation was dire.
This was also the first time Tengshe had heard about the possible sentence he might be sentenced to—something he absolutely could not accept.
Therefore, Tengshe also put forward an idea to his friend that he himself did not understand why he was able to come up with.
"Can you help me escape?"
He gave his good friend the reason that he needed to pay for his father's medical treatment.
Although Tengshe himself felt that this reason was just an excuse he made for himself.
But what puzzled Tengshe even more was...
His friend actually agreed to his request.
"Alright... or rather, why not run away?"