In the dark parking lot outside the karaoke bar, Lian stood silently, hands tucked into his pockets, and watched Auntie drive away, with Maisie sitting quietly in the front passenger seat. He kept his eyes fixed on the car the whole time. Only when the car's red lights finally disappeared around the far corner did Lian take a deep breath, turn around slowly, and walk back inside the noisy building.
Just like Lian had guessed, the sudden police raid had ruined the fun for everyone else inside. The happy, excited mood was completely gone. Customers hurried to pay their bills and left one after another. Even the loud music now sounded empty and sad.
Lian never looked away from the door of the private room where his mother had shown up earlier that night.
A few minutes passed. Then a waiter walked in carrying the bill. Right after that, his mother stepped out, smiling and laughing with two strange men Lian had never seen before.
"Four now…" Lian whispered to himself, counting quietly inside his head.
Until tonight, he had already been sure about two men who had some kind of secret relationship with his mother: the mysterious man in the long dark coat and Uncle Jun. Uncle Jun didn't even need to be talked about again, his mother had actually slept with that man right next to Lian's hospital bed while Lian was lying there sick and weak. That memory still made Lian's skin feel cold.
About the man in the coat, Lian still had doubts. "It must have happened in the park that day, but I was too far away to see his face properly. And tonight he behaved like he might be gay… Could a gay man really be the same person Mother was secretly dating in the park? No… his coat is exactly the same one. I'm not wrong about that."
The two new men walking beside his mother tonight were now added to Lian's list of suspicions. He had no doubt at all that something improper was going on between them and his mother.
If they were just normal friends having a good time together, his mother would never have lied to the whole family and said she had to "work overtime."
The three of them, two men and his mother, kept talking and laughing loudly as they walked down the stairs together. Lian stayed far behind, watching every move carefully.
His only plan right now was to memorize the license plates of any car his mother's lovers used. If he could remember the numbers, maybe one day he could find out who these men really were and where they lived.
But the three of them never walked toward the parking lot. Instead, they went straight out the front door of the karaoke bar and stepped onto the street.
"They didn't drive tonight?" Lian muttered under his breath, a little surprised.
He had secretly followed his mother once before, so during the past few weeks while trying to escape Maisie's scary pursuit he had already learned many useful skills: how to follow someone without being noticed, and how to tell if someone was following him.
Since they were on foot, Lian decided to keep following them the same way.
At first, the two men walked on either side of his mother, all three chatting and laughing happily. But when they turned into a narrow, dark, and completely empty alley, the men moved even closer. One on the left, one on the right, they pressed their bodies against hers.
His mother felt it, but instead of getting angry or pushing them away, she just let out a sweet, teasing laugh, a sound Lian had never heard from her at home.
That laugh made cold chills run down Lian's back. He had never, ever heard his mother sound like that in front of him.
Lian did not step into the alley.
It was far too narrow. If he went in, his mother or the men would spot him immediately.
So he stayed at the entrance, hiding in the shadows and trying to peek deeper inside.
But by then his mother and the two men had already walked far into the darkness, and it was almost impossible to see anything clearly from where he stood.
Just as Lian was hesitating, wondering whether he should risk walking deeper into the alley, he heard soft giggles and the rustle of clothes from the darkness. His mother let out a quiet moan, followed by a man's low groan. Lian's heart stopped, he instantly understood what they were doing in there.
Suddenly, the sharp ring of a bicycle bell cut through the night. There was a quick panic inside: hurried whispers, the sound of a zipper, fabric being pulled back into place fast. The three of them were clearly fixing their clothes in a rush.
Lian immediately stepped back from the entrance and hid under the dark roof of a nearby closed shop.
Just as he expected, the bicycle rolled out first. The rider kept turning his head to stare behind him.
Right after, his mother and the two men came out of the alley. Their hair was messy, shirts half-tucked, mother's skirt twisted to one side, faces red and breathless. They looked like they had just been caught doing something secret.
As soon as the cyclist disappeared around the corner, the three of them looked at each other and burst into loud laughter, holding their stomachs, leaning on one another like it was the funniest thing that had ever happened.
Lian felt sick to his stomach. He didn't need to see it all to know exactly what they had been doing in that dark alley only moments ago.
****
Read chapters 17+ 18+ 19 + 20 in full on Patreon [C0DX].