Ch'en Hui-chieh had a dream.
In the dream, everyone said that Mom was dead, and Dad was dead too—had been dead for a long, long time.
But how could Dad be dead?
Not long ago, she had seen that man—the one she was supposed to call Dad—lying drunk as a skunk on the sofa in the living room. Little Talulah had even wanted to cover him with a blanket.
Hmph. Why should she cover him with a blanket?
He was supposed to be their father, and yet he could not even take care of Mom. He just let Uncle bully her, until she could never see Mom again.
It was all Dad's fault!
Still half-asleep, Ch'en Hui-chieh was shaken awake.
"Little Ch'en, hurry up, hurry up! We're going to be late for school!"
Huh?
The moment she heard they were about to be late, the sleepiness vanished from the just-turned-seven-year-old girl.
"Where's Dad? Why didn't Dad wake us up?"
In the end, they were still late. Standing in the hallway with her hands on her head as punishment, Ch'en Hui-chieh complained bitterly.
"..."
Talulah looked at Ch'en Hui-chieh and pressed her lips together.
"Little Ch'en, are you sick?"
"Talulah, you're the one who's sick!"
"What's been wrong with you these past few days? Dad's been gone for a long time already."
"Nonsense! I obviously saw Dad just a few days ago!"
Ch'en Hui-chieh shouted loudly, glaring at Talulah like an angry little dragoness.
"Fine, fine. You saw Dad."
Talulah perfunctorily soothed her younger sister, but her brows had already knotted together.
Little Ch'en had to be sick.
Talulah clearly remembered that the man who could be called her adoptive father—and who was Ch'en Hui-chieh's biological father—had already died a year ago.
Of course, the adults all said that the man had only gone to a very, very distant place, and simply would not be coming back for quite some time.
But Talulah was not so young that she could not tell the difference between dead and gone on a long trip.
Clearly, over the past year, Ch'en Hui-chieh had been perfectly normal. Yet for some reason, these past few days she had suddenly started insisting that she had seen that dead man.
"Oh my, how come the two of you are being punished in the hallway the moment class is over?"
The bell rang for recess. A little girl with blonde hair and blue eyes came walking over, dressed like a tiny princess, looking at Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah with open schadenfreude.
"None of your business!"
Ch'en Hui-chieh puffed out her cheeks. In the entire school, the person she got along with the least was this blonde, blue-eyed girl standing in front of her. Seeing her punished like this, of course the girl would come over just to laugh at her.
But seeing that Ch'en Hui-chieh was clearly in a bad mood, the blonde girl wisely avoided provoking the little powder keg any further.
"Little Ch'en, Little Talulah, are you two free tonight?"
"What do you want?"
"Do you want to go on an adventure?"
"An adventure?"
"That's right, that's right!"
The blonde girl's eyes sparkled.
"Tonight, Lungmen is going to dock beside a super huge lake. If we can climb up to the city walls and wait until dawn, we'll get to watch the sun rise over the lake."
"That has to be beautiful!"
"But if you stay outside overnight, won't your bodyguards definitely stop you?" Talulah said, leaning against the classroom doorway.
"So we're going to shake them off!"
Swire waved her tiny fist.
"Who else is going besides the two of us?" Talulah asked.
Swire replied, "I also invited Little Mouse!"
"I'm not Little Mouse!"
Another small head popped out from the side. Lin Yuhsia was extremely dissatisfied with the nickname Swire had given her.
"And if we stay out all night and don't go home, Dad and the others will definitely be worried."
"So we'll just tell them we're going to Talulah's house to play!"
As she spoke, Swire turned to Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah. "What do you think?"
"I don't want to spend the night outside," Ch'en Hui-chieh muttered.
But before she could refuse properly, she saw Talulah beside her nod heavily.
"Then it's settled!"
"Little Talulah?"
"Going out to get some fresh air once in a while isn't a bad thing."
Since Talulah was older, Ch'en Hui-chieh usually listened to her more anyway. So now that Talulah had agreed, even though she was still a little unhappy, she did not object any further.
What Talulah was actually thinking was this: Little Ch'en had not been herself lately. Going out and relaxing for a bit might help her feel better.
"Then I'll go get everything ready right away!"
Hearing that both of her little friends had agreed, Swire immediately broke into a delighted grin.
First, she called her grandfather.
Then she stared at Lin Yuhsia until Lin Yuhsia called her own father too, supervising the call to make sure she would not sneak in any tattling.
As for Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah, it was even simpler.
Since both of their father and mother were dead, and there were only two servants at home, all they had to do was leave a message for the servants before starting their adventure.
"Beatrix, is this really going to be okay?"
Carrying the large bags Swire had handed her, Lin Yuhsia asked worriedly.
"It'll be fine. Didn't you say it too? Ch'en Hui-chieh has been in a bad mood lately. If we all go out and have some fun together, she'll definitely cheer up!"
Besides, Swire was not completely unprepared. She had already brought a pager with her. If they really ran into danger, one press of the distress button and her grandfather would definitely send people to rescue her immediately.
Neither Swire's bodyguards nor Lin Yuhsia's bodyguards had expected that, although the girls said they were going to Ch'en Hui-chieh and Talulah's house to play, the moment the four little girls gathered together inside, they would immediately slip out through the back door.
"So? They probably didn't follow us, right?" Swire asked.
"Even if they really did, there's no way we'd be able to tell," Lin Yuhsia replied.
"Hmph. Then let's just pretend they don't exist!"
Swire was a member of the Swire family, while Lin Yuhsia was the only daughter of Lin Geigeui, the leader of Lungmen's largest underground syndicate. The two of them were ordinarily followed around by seven or eight bodyguards apiece, and those bodyguards would have counted as elites even in the military.
Swire had never truly expected to shake off her family's bodyguards. She was simply enjoying the thrill of the adventure.
Compared with Swire and Lin Yuhsia's sneaky behavior, Talulah was far calmer.
She leaned toward Swire and asked, "Little Tiger, you planned the route before we set out, right?"
"Of course I did!"
Swire puffed out her little chest proudly.
"Once we leave the upper city, we'll take the inter-district train to Sector Six. That's the sector closest to the big lake. Then we just run to the highest point in Sector Six, and we can all watch the sunrise together!"
"But Sector Six is in the lower city. Lots of people say it's dangerous there!"
"That's why I brought Little Mouse. She knows the lower city routes best!"
"I told you not to call me Little Mouse!"
Lin Yuhsia muttered sullenly as she walked beside them. But on this point, Swire really was right—Lin Yuhsia was indeed very familiar with the lower city. After all, the entire slum district there could practically be considered her family's turf.
"Still... I feel like I've heard someone mention Sector Six before."
Talulah thought hard for a long while before suddenly saying, "I think I heard him say that we have an uncle and an aunt living there."
"An uncle and an aunt?"
When Talulah brought up him, the gloomy look on Ch'en Hui-chieh's face finally shifted a little. But as soon as the words uncle and aunt came up, she looked blank again.
Had Dad... ever said that?
Talulah did not think much of Ch'en Hui-chieh's expression. After all, when her adoptive father had mentioned it, Ch'en Hui-chieh had only been six. How could she possibly remember something like that?
"But we'd better not go bother them."
At the end of the day, this uncle and aunt only had some blood relation to Ch'en Hui-chieh. Since her biological father was no longer Ch'en Hui-chieh's father, he had no real ties to them anymore either.
"I want to go see them!"
Ch'en Hui-chieh suddenly spoke up. She had no idea what exactly had happened these past few days—why everyone insisted Dad had died long ago, or why an uncle and an aunt had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"But if we run into adults, the adults will definitely make us go straight home."
"I'll just look from far away!"
"So troublesome..." Swire pouted, originally about to refuse, only to get kicked by Lin Yuhsia beside her.
"Little Mouse, what was that for?"
"Don't forget the real reason we came out this time!"
When Swire glared at her, Lin Yuhsia glared right back without giving an inch.
"Fine."
Swire puffed out her cheeks.
"Then do you remember where it is?"
"Let me think."
Talulah frowned, and only after quite a while did she finally say, "I remember him saying Uncle and Aunt bought a house on Fulao Street in Sector Six, but I don't remember exactly where."
"That just makes it part of the adventure!"
Before Ch'en Hui-chieh could say anything, Swire's eyes had already lit up.
"Decided! From this moment on, our next mission is—help Ch'en Hui-chieh find her uncle!"