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Chapter 9: Restocking

He knew Jiang Xiao didn't come from Huaihai province. He was from Rongxiang Province, a long way off in central China. But Lin ChengYu wasn't clear exactly where. He'd never heard "Houlin" mentioned at all.

Jiang Xiao rarely returned to his hometown. He had a poor relationship with his relatives, and when he finally made money, he went back to his hometown once to move his parents' graves to the best cemetery in Liujiang, where it was easier to worship. But at the time Lin ChengYu was busy studying. He knew about it, but he wasn't personally involved, and Jiang Xiao didn't talk about it. He preferred to tell Lin ChengYu about happy things, not stories from the worst part of his youth.

But if his life was good at home, why would he go out to work when in his teens?

Lin ChengYu never dreamed he'd be reborn. In his last life he wouldn't meet Jiang Xiao for another four years. But now he couldn't wait. He didn't want Jiang Xiao to suffer so much to make a living when he was young.

But when exactly did Jiang Xiao come to Liujiang? And where the hell was he now? Lin ChengYu didn't know enough about Jiang Xiao's past. He knew Jiang Xiao had dropped out of high school and gone to work because his parents died. Now that Lin ChengYu was reborn, he wanted to go to Rongxiang province to search for him.

But the IT industry was still underdeveloped, and it was almost impossible to track someone. His family might have money but their business was along the coast. They couldn't reach all the way to Rongxiang province thousands of miles away.

The elder Lin kept Lin ChengYu abroad until his injuries were healed. When he came back, he was apprehensive and on edge. That was when he happened to see Lin RongJia's photo.

Maybe it was fate. How else could Lin RongJia happen to take that picture with her camera, and accidentally show it to him before it was deleted?

Maybe heaven saw his misery and the bitter, belated regret he felt in his last life. Maybe it granted him and Jiang Xiao another chance.

The photo showed a version of Jiang Xiao that Lin ChengYu had never seen before. He was only fifteen, so young and yet he was carrying two bags that size. As he stared into the camera his eyes were widened slightly. His hair was a mess and his face was soft and tender, very pleasant-looking and likeable. And his clothes were worn out and had been washed too many times. He looked like a puppy who'd fallen into a dust pile.

He didn't know how many times he looked at that picture of Jiang Xiao. It was a treasure that made his heart ache, and the surprise of seeing him there made Lin ChengYu even more anxious to find him.

The boy in the photo obviously wasn't a tourist. There was no parent or guardian around him. He was alone.

Combining the details from the picture with what he knew from his last life, Lin ChengYu began to wonder if the fifteen-year-old Jiang Xiao was already working in Liujiang. Although he was a minor, there were a lot of small factories in Liujiang, and there were oversights in management. It wasn't unusual for an underage boy to go to work.

The information he chased down later was consistent with this theory. The conductor on the bus had some impressions of Jiang Xiao and remembered that he traveled from one industrial park to another.

Logically speaking, even if a minor was able to find work through loopholes, there were still restrictions. Generally, they could only do short-term work. They couldn't sign a contract to work long-term, so they had to change jobs frequently.

But there weren't cameras everywhere like there would be in the future. Aside from the clues he got from the bus, further information was thin on the ground.