"Xu Le agreed to see you only because your mom took care of him for two years after the mine collapse. He's grateful for that... But you need to understand—he's the kind of person who hates trouble. Some things are better left unsaid."Back at the foot of the apartment building on Clocktower Street, Li Wei shot a sharp look at the boy. He couldn't help but feel a little worried—after all, the kid was barely ten, and kids had a way of saying the wrong things.
The boy's lips trembled like he was about to cry. Though Li Wei's eyes always seemed bright and harmless, every orphan on Clocktower Street knew better—when the sixteen-year-old leader got serious, he could be frighteningly ruthless.
The metal shaft Li Wei had been holding earlier had vanished somewhere. Now, he clutched a bottle of beer, drinking under the streetlamp and humming to himself, a smug look on his face. The kid glanced at him nervously, hesitated, and finally asked, "Brother Le hasn't been around much these past two years… what's he been doing?"
"Who knows?" Li Wei tipped his bottle, gulped, and let out a low whistle. "He's always loved tinkering with machines. Who would've thought he'd grow up to be so intense? Remember what we saw that year?"
"I was five. I don't remember anything." The boy licked his lips, his eyes fixed on the beer bottle with curiosity. For orphans in Donglin District, life wasn't hard—but getting anything alcoholic was. Booze on the black market was ridiculously expensive.
"Yeah… I was only eleven then, and Xu Le had just turned ten." Li Wei tossed the empty bottle into a pile of trash near the lamppost and took a deep breath. His youthful face seemed to grow more distant, more numb."If it weren't for what happened ten years ago, we'd probably still be in school. Maybe we'd have passed the vocational exams… Maybe even made it to Hexi University. Or even to the Capital Star as exchange students…"
The streetlight stretched their shadows across the garbage pile. A black cat crept through the gloom, its yellow eyes widening in search of rats that weren't there. Everything felt so hollow, so lifeless.
Ten years ago, a mining disaster buried over 300 workers alive. What made it worse was that the collapse extended to a nearby temporary housing zone, killing many visiting family members and tearing apart countless homes.
The tragedy shocked the entire Federation. In an age of advanced technology, so many deaths in a single event led to a political earthquake. Several high-ranking officials—including a director from the National Homeland Security Commission and the Governor of Hexi—resigned under public pressure. Three were convicted. Even the Deputy Undersecretary for Safety in Donglin District was sentenced to four years in prison.
The government and judiciary responded swiftly and harshly, but it was far too late. The dead were gone. The disaster dealt a final blow to Donglin's already struggling mining industry. CrystalMine Consortium folded, its assets seized and put under federal trusteeship.
The incident left lasting scars—but few realized how deeply it marked the orphans left behind.
The kids protesting on Clocktower Street earlier that day were all victims of the mining tragedy. Li Wei, the boy, Xu Le—every one of them.
Xu Le was one of them, but different. While other kids idolized gang leaders with flashy clothes and violent reputations, Xu Le had no interest. He preferred watching people fix appliances in dusty corner shops.
He was never big or intimidating. He didn't have a cruel streak. Instead, his face always wore an easy smile, as if nothing could really bother him.
—Strangely though, even the most aggressive street kids avoided picking fights with him. In fact, the orphans in the three adjacent alleys seemed to have a quiet respect for him—likely because Li Wei respected him so deeply.
Five years ago, the government raided a gang hiding in the shadows. That gang was forced to flee into the alleys behind Clocktower Street—territory held by the orphans. In just two hours, the gang violently took control of the area, killing three of the oldest and bravest kids in the process.
The street kids, usually loud and cocky, were still just paper lions. They weren't ready for real darkness.
That day, Xu Le—who never joined any group or gang—disappeared. The police and even military patrols had never managed to secure the lower sectors of Hexi's capital. But somehow, through an old underground pipeline, someone got a unit into the back alleys of Clocktower Street.
Many died. But in the end, the orphans reclaimed their ground. The three kids were avenged.No one knew exactly how, but on that freezing rainy night, it was Xu Le—cheerful, quiet Xu Le—who drove a broken hydraulic elbow joint from a discarded mech suit through the heart of the last gang leader as he fled the scene.
Only Li Wei and the boy saw it, trembling under the cracked tiles of an abandoned factory cafeteria. Li Wei was eleven. The boy was five. Xu Le had just turned ten.
"Four years ago?" Xu Le repeated, hiding his face under his hood, smiling lightly. He'd already guessed the middle-aged man in front of him was bluffing—there was no way he actually knew what Xu feared most. "I was retaking my entrance exams. State Board of Education, remember?"
Deputy Chief Bao stared coldly at him. He was certain this teenager had something to do with the commotion that afternoon—but how could a kid know the internal schedules of the police force? Or understand the power struggles playing out among high officials?
"I need to know who's backing you," Bao said, his voice calm and icy. He was sure these street orphans knew exactly who he was.
But Xu Le just looked down and gave a bitter smile. Shrugging like the deputy chief wasn't even there, he stepped into the light, ready to head home.
Bao's hand tightened on his baton.
Xu Le raised a long, steady finger.
He pointed toward the shadows behind the streetlamp and said,"There are five surveillance cameras watching this area. You're police, not a judge. Not a committee member. You can't delete the footage. So I suggest you don't try anything… If you want to question me, file the paperwork. I'll cooperate."
A flicker of cold light passed through Bao's eyes. His body stiffened. After a pause, he said, "Routine check. I need to scan your chip."
Xu Le turned back, still wearing his hood. Calmly, he replied,"The deputy chief of the 2nd Police Division is about to get chewed out by the governor tomorrow. Might even make the news for mishandling a protest. Who's going to believe he had the time—or the nerve—to do a midnight ID check on a harmless, skinny teenager?"
His finger, still pointing at the darkness, began to sway slowly in the quiet night."I'm a good person," Xu Le said sincerely. "Believe me. I'm saying all this—for your own sake."
Bao Longtao suddenly felt a chill. The boy's calmness—or was it sincerity?—was terrifying. Suspicion clouded his eyes, and his grip on the baton tightened.