Perhaps it was a guilty conscience.
Tian Mazi still avoided the main roads, weaving through the alleys instead.
Song Ning followed at a discreet distance, watching as they went farther and farther.
Unfortunately, it was nighttime, making it difficult for her to leave any markers.
Tian Mazi knew this area well. Occasionally, he would ride along a main street for a short stretch, only to turn into another alley soon afterward.
After riding in this roundabout fashion for over half an hour, he stopped the tricycle in a dark corner at the mouth of an alley.
He left his mother to watch the tricycle and stepped out of the alley himself.
If Song Ning followed him directly, the old woman would definitely notice her.
Just as she was growing anxious, a burst of chatter came from farther down the alley.
She looked back and saw a group of young people around twenty years old.
There were both men and women, some holding books and others carrying bags.
There was evidently a night school or something similar in the alley, and these students had just finished class.
She immediately stepped aside, then fell in beside them as they passed.
Seeing so many people approaching, the old woman at the alley entrance cautiously shrank deeper into the shadows without a sound.
Song Ning followed the students out of the alley.
She glanced around.
This was a main street, with buses traveling back and forth and quite a few pedestrians still out.
Some of the shops along the street were still lit.
She headed left, in the direction Tian Mazi had taken.
Before she had gone fifty meters, she spotted Tian Mazi standing beside a factory gate, leaning into the guardroom window. She could not tell whether he was making a phone call