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Chapter 4

Author: Twenty-Three
“Who else would do it besides you?”

She grabbed my wrist.

“Neil, calm down!”

“How am I supposed to calm down?!” I yelled.

“If anything happens to my mom, I’ll kill you!”

The hospital room door opened.

The doctor stepped out and took off his mask.

“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”

My world collapsed at that moment.

The funeral was held three days later, and my father would not let me inside.

“Go away,” he said through the door. “Your mother won’t want to see you.”

I waited outside the door from morning till night.

In the afternoon, Cyra and Devin arrived.

They laid down a bouquet and paid their respects.

The condolence note read, [In memory of Mrs. Spencer, with respect from Cyra and Devin.]

Devin saw me and softly said, “Please take care.”

I looked at Cyra with a gaze that could kill, and her face was deathly pale.

Devin tugged at her sleeve.

“Let’s go.”

Then, they turned and walked away.

My father finally opened the door.

He looked at me, and his eyes filled with hatred.

“Are you satisfied now? Your mother is dead. Are you satisfied?”

I stumbled in and clung to him.

“Dad…”

“Don’t touch me!”

He pushed me away.

“I don’t have a son like you!”

I fell to the floor and pressed my forehead against the cold tiles.

One week after my mother’s passing, I received a call from the company.

“Neil Spencer, you’re fired.” The tone of the human resources staff was icy.

“The reason is a serious violation of professional ethics. You abused your authority to harass a colleague during the Northwest project.”

I rushed back to the office and stormed into the human resources department.

“Where’s the evidence?”

The HR manager tossed a stack of photos at me.

They were work photos of me and a male colleague with our arms around each other’s shoulders on the construction site. The photos were accompanied with obscene captions.

“This is defamation!”

“The company only believes what it sees.”

The manager looked at me.

“The company will not tolerate employees with such behavior.”

I went to find Cyra, but her secretary stopped me.

“Ms. Stern is in a meeting.”

I waited until nightfall.

She finally emerged from the conference room and paused when she saw me.

“I know what you’re going to say,” she said.

“It’s the company’s decision. There’s nothing I can do about it.”

“Cyra Stern, you framed me.”

“It wasn’t me.”

She frowned.

“It was Devin. He thought—”

“You just do whatever Devin says?”

I stepped closer to her.

“He killed my mother, and now, he’s trying to ruin me. Are you still going to help him?”

She took a step back.

“Neil, calm down.”

“I’m perfectly calm,” I replied.

“I just want to ask you. Can you even sleep at night?”

She did not answer.

I turned to leave, but as I walked downstairs, I was surrounded by a crowd.

Seven or eight people were holding up signs.

“Homewrecker!”

“Shameless!”

“Get out of this city!”

Suddenly, someone splashed something at me.

It was red paint.

The paint flowed down from my head to my toes.

I stood there and dripped with the red liquid.

Cyra’s car pulled out of the underground parking and stopped at the side of the road.

She got out and stopped the crowd.

Then, she looked at me and sighed.

“Neil, why can’t you act with a little more dignity? Did it really have to come to this?”

I wiped my face, and red paint dripped down my fingers.

“Dignity?” I asked with a smile.

“How am I supposed to have dignity?”

She did not say a word and entered her car to drive away.

I walked back to my rental apartment and discovered that the locks had been changed.

My luggage had been dumped outside as well.

The landlord poked his head out.

“I’ve packed up all your stuff. Get out of here right away.”

“Why?”

“Someone complained about you. They said you’re a person of loose morals and that you’re damaging the community’s reputation.”

The landlord waved his hand.

“I’m not renting to you anymore.”

I crouched down next to my suitcase.

I had taken this suitcase with me to the Northwest five years ago, and I had brought it back.

Nothing had seemingly changed, but in truth, everything had.

I sat in a convenience store all night.

The city awoke in the morning light, and it was beautiful.

However, I no longer had a place to call home.

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  • Lost In The Desert   Chapter 9

    “Give me a chance to make it up to you.”I crouched down, looked Cyra in the eye, and told her, “Do you know what regret is? Regret is when you’ve lost the chance to make things right forever. My mother is dead, my youth is gone, and my body is ruined. “How are you going to make up for that?”She broke down and wailed hysterically.I turned and walked toward the boarding gate without looking back.As the plane took off, I received a message from her.[I’m sorry. I love you.]I looked at the message and recalled the indifferent expression on her face when she said, “I purposely had you transferred.” Then, I deleted her contact information.Love?Did she even deserve to utter that word?After returning to the Northwest, I threw myself into my work.The new project progressed smoothly, and the team I led won an international award.At the awards ceremony, the host introduced me while announcing, “This young scientist spent five years persevering in harsh conditions to fill a

  • Lost In The Desert   Chapter 8

    A week later, the Stern Group board of directors issued an announcement. They had suspended Cyra from all her duties pending an internal investigation.Someone dug up the truth behind my transfer five years ago. Discussions then began within the company about whether she was settling personal scores or abusing her authority.Her father rushed home from abroad overnight. At the board meeting, he slammed his fist on the table and called her a good-for-nothing.“You’ve ruined the company all for a man! How could I have given birth to such an idiot?!”Mr. Smith told me everything, as he still worked at Stern Group.“Neil, you’re really something,” he said over the phone.“Everyone at the company is talking now. They’re saying you’re the real tech genius, and Devin is just a fraud.”I did not say anything.Meanwhile, Devin had vanished completely.Cyra could not find him. He had taken all the money she had given him and disappeared without a trace.Cyra’s mother tracked down my pl

  • Lost In The Desert   Chapter 7

    I dialed the number.The woman on the other end sounded exhausted. But after hearing why I was calling, she fell silent for a long time.“Why should I help you?” she asked.“It’s not for my sake, but for your own,” I said. “This is for your child. The one he abandoned.”Eventually, she agreed.She sent me the medical report documenting Devin’s domestic violence from back then, along with evidence of his infidelity.I also began investigating that transfer order from five years ago.I tracked down the colleague who had been in charge of personnel assignments back then. She had since been promoted to supervisor.“Neil, what are you doing here?”She appeared awkward.“I’d like to see the transfer order from five years ago.”“Well…”“Ms. Linney, do me a favor.”She hesitated for a long time but eventually took me to the archives.The folder was very thin, as it only contained a few pages.It was a transfer request that was signed and approved by Cyra. A note in the remarks s

  • Lost In The Desert   Chapter 6

    He folded his newspaper and set it aside.“My name is William Lowell,” he said.“I used to be a driver.”I looked at his empty left pant leg and did not dare ask any more questions.He did not seem to mind and continued, “Two years ago, I was in a car accident. I lost my leg, my wife ran off with someone else, and I lost my job.”He spoke matter-of-factly as if he were telling someone else’s story.“At my lowest point, I wanted to die too.”He pointed to the high-rise buildings outside the window.“But then, I saw those people sweeping the streets from dawn till dusk, and I thought, ‘Why shouldn’t I be able to live?’”He shifted over a little.“Want to sit for a while?”So, I sat down.Sunlight streamed in through the window and fell on the blanket draped over his knees.“What about you?” he asked.“What happened to you?”I remained silent for a long time.It was so long that he thought I would not speak.“I was deceived for five years,” I said.“My job, my love life,

  • Lost In The Desert   Chapter 5

    Three months later, I had lost so much weight that I was unrecognizable.The humid air of this small southern town clung to my skin. The single room I rented was on the sixth floor, and there was no elevator.Every day as I climbed the stairs, I had to hold on to the wall to catch my breath.A mirror hung behind the door, and I looked at the person in it. I saw short and messy hair, prominent cheekbones, and two dark circles under my eyes.I did not recognize myself.The landlord, Mr. Maison, was a nice guy. Seeing me take on translation jobs every day, he often had his wife bring me a bowl of soup.“Young man, don’t push yourself too hard,” he would say.I would thank him and go back to typing on my computer.My sleeping pills went from one a night to two. Eventually, I needed three just to scrape together a few hours of sleep.My dreams were filled with the winds of the Fopi Desert. They blew so hard that they stung my face.Whenever I woke up, my pillow would be wet.That

  • Lost In The Desert   Chapter 4

    “Who else would do it besides you?”She grabbed my wrist.“Neil, calm down!”“How am I supposed to calm down?!” I yelled.“If anything happens to my mom, I’ll kill you!”The hospital room door opened.The doctor stepped out and took off his mask.“I’m sorry. We did everything we could.”My world collapsed at that moment.The funeral was held three days later, and my father would not let me inside.“Go away,” he said through the door. “Your mother won’t want to see you.”I waited outside the door from morning till night.In the afternoon, Cyra and Devin arrived.They laid down a bouquet and paid their respects.The condolence note read, [In memory of Mrs. Spencer, with respect from Cyra and Devin.]Devin saw me and softly said, “Please take care.”I looked at Cyra with a gaze that could kill, and her face was deathly pale.Devin tugged at her sleeve.“Let’s go.”Then, they turned and walked away.My father finally opened the door.He looked at me, and his eyes fille

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