9 Where is he?

Different from the last life, the phone call came. Wu Die happily conversed with me as she told me how Fu'er is at work for the whole day, so he can't come to chat for today. I was happy to know that Fu'er didn't call me at this time because he was at work, but that doesn't fit for a reason for not calling me afterwards is it? What type of job does Fu'er work at anyways? Is it life-risking? When my thoughts hit that point, my heart shuddered as an ominous feeling brewed in my heart. It seemed as the monster in my heart was warning me against the future and that warning was not just a warning.

While conversing with Wu Die, some sort of siren sound rang in the background which halted our conversation. I asked Wu Die what was wrong while she replied with some nonsense of just a test drill. I knew it was nonsense because I can hear people shouting in background as loud booms were heard. When Wu Die was about to end the call, I heard Fu'er's panicked voice as he told Wu Die, "The camp is under attack!"

My heart clenched and my mind went blank as I registered the possible scenarios of the future. The call was ended abruptly as I slumped down in my seat while understanding the most likely reason that Fu'er has not called back in my past lives, but I could not believe it was true. I denied that reasoning, I know my Fu'er will be fine. It was just some drill. They are at some training camp practicing some drill. Fu'er was a regular soldier working for the government, hence he did not want me to worry. Since after training, he would be busy and have no time to call me. Yup, that's the reason.

Although I tried hypnotizing myself to believe so, my heart could not help but say otherwise. Finally, I could no longer bear to sit and wait as I once again sold my apartment, taking my funds to Americas once again, but this time, I knew where to go, New York City.

I arrived at that bustling city, but I was still unsure of where to specifically find information about my son. Hence, I took the only route of going to the police station to report my son missing in hopes of getting information of his whereabouts.

I was shocked by the reply I received. I was told that the person Xiao Bu Fu does not exist. Did my son change his name when he reached here? So, I tried describing the details of Fu'er's appearance, to see if a facial recognition software can find his identity. Unfortunately, I was returned with the same result. Hence, I considered the fact that Fu'er did not register his identity. So, I requested that the police officers to search the airport private files. Although they wanted to deny me, but through my consistent begging over a couple of days, they pitied me and then requested a search of Fu'er from the airport files. It was reported that there was a record that Xiao Bu Fu did end up at the airport, but any information of where he went after was gone, like someone trying to remove his traces.

The police thought it was queer and searched deeper into the network of information, but suddenly, they told me that they could not search further. When I asked the reason, they told me that it was highly classified files. I knew then and there that what stood in my way to finding my Fu'er was the government. I knew I could not go against the government directly, and I could only wander around blankly, but then I had an epiphany. I was able to secretly track Fu'er, so I can probably secretly access the government's secret files.

Hence, I spent many years afterwards staying in New York City. I took up a jobs to maintain my livelihood while using my spare time to learn hacking. Of course I was not stupid enough to just go for the government with my low experience, so I spent many, many years learning hacking along with taking up small hacking side jobs. Although one would agree that lots of things can change with the amount of time I spent, but in my mind, I encouraged myself by repeatedly telling myself that Fu'er is still okay, and that he is probably locked up somewhere by the government waiting for my rescue.

Decades flew by as I grew old, but I have finally gathered the confidence to dig into the hidden secrets of the government. I spent years carefully hacking into the government agency, then more years to download and search through secret files, trying to find information on my Fu'er. I learned many interesting facts along the way, for example how young master Ye apparently disappeared after marriage and "Xiang He Ai" taking over all the assets; however, I did not worry about that for now because what is important is Fu'er. Eventually, I found a short, highly classified file about Fu'er. It only had a short description of his name, his appearance, and two words in his affiliation or location: Camp DG.

After finding such a name, I spent years searching through the remaining files, but I still wasn't able to glance at what or where this Camp DG was. All I knew from what I heard from the phone decades ago is that it was probably some military camp that was attacked decades ago, and this was confirmed by a file of Wu Die that stated that specific date decades ago and with Camp DG crossed out along with the text "Deceased in duty".

My heart clenched as tears rolled down my face once more as the fact settled in about the fate of my son. Although I did not want to admit it, my son most likely had resolved to rest at that Camp DG eternally with Wu Die.

I despaired for the short remainder of my life as once again, I was helplessly alone on the cold bed in my small condo in New York City. As tears slowly roll down my wrinkled cheek, I slowly closed my eyes to rest once again while vowing that if I had another chance, I will definitely protect my son.