Shen Yeqing felt there was something wrong with him lately.
He sat in the classroom, watching the teacher deliver an impassioned lecture at the front, yet he couldn't take in a single word. All he heard was a buzzing in his ears.
He walked down the street, surrounded by bustling traffic and the warm, lively sounds of everyday life, yet none of it stirred him.
It was as though he alone was gray in a world of vivid colors.
When had he started feeling this way?
Perhaps it was when certain memories began to blur as he grew older.
Before he turned eight, he seemed to have had a father.
He vaguely remembered his father treating him well, and his childhood had been fairly happy. But after he was kidnapped at eight, everything seemed to have changed.
His father had inexplicably vanished from his world, an orphanage had taken him in and supported him, and his childhood memories had gradually faded.
No matter how desperately he tried to remember, it was no use.
His life before eight was like a dream. Apart from the memory that he "seemed to have once had a father," he remembered nothing.
His instincts told him that all of this might be connected to the kidnapping when he was eight.
So he searched online for news from that year and looked into what had happened to the rescued children afterward, only to discover a terrifying fact.
With the exception of one child surnamed Xiao, every single rescued child had ended up in an orphanage.
The news reports concluded that these children had never had families, speculating that the criminals had deliberately targeted orphans.
But he knew very well that wasn't the truth.
At the very least, his few remaining memories from before he turned eight