Chapter 82: The Alumni Directory and a Mother’s Illness

In the blink of an eye, it was already late May, and the weather grew increasingly warm.

One afternoon, Lin Duo, Shen Jing’an, and two other close friends from their class returned to their dorm after lunch at the cafeteria.

With the lunch break being short, Shen Jing’an soon resumed browsing online from her bed. Lin Duo, her curiosity piqued, leaned over. “Oh, what website is this?”

“It’s the alumni directory. You don’t know about it?” Seeing her roommate was genuinely clueless, Shen Jing’an patiently explained, “It compiles information from universities, middle schools, and elementary schools across the country. You can register your details under the schools and classes you’ve attended, making it incredibly easy for old classmates to find you.”

Lin Duo’s mind stirred. She opened her own laptop and logged onto the website, surprisingly managing to search for the junior high school she had attended in her hometown.

After a moment of hesitation, she clicked into it as a guest.

Approximately twenty people had registered their personal information inside, most of whom Lin Duo recognized. Crucially, her own elder brother, Lin Cheng, was also among them.

However, Lin Duo did not rush to click on his profile. Instead, she first looked at Jiang Chengying’s information next to it. For the first two years of junior high, this girl was arguably her only friend.

To Lin Duo’s surprise, Jiang Chengying had transferred to a middle school in Jiangbei City during her third year of junior high. She had even passed her high school entrance exams to get into Jiangbei City’s Third Middle School, a key municipal school with a respectable college admission rate.

Lin Duo vaguely recalled Jiang Chengying mentioning she had relatives in the provincial capital. Perhaps she had seized that opportunity to study in Jiangbei City, as it was, after all, the provincial capital with many more excellent middle schools.

Only then did Lin Duo’s gaze shift back to Lin Cheng’s avatar.

Despite having been away from home for so long, Lin Duo still harbored a deep resentment towards her brother. Her hand trembled as she opened his page, reading Lin Cheng’s details. It turned out he had been admitted to Linhuang City’s First Middle School, the best high school in Lin Duo’s hometown.

Roughly one-eighth of its students were accepted into key universities each year. In Kaihua Province, a region with scarce higher education resources and a vast number of test-takers, this admission rate was quite impressive.

Upon closer reflection, Lin Cheng’s grades had always been excellent; if he performed consistently in his high school entrance exams, this outcome wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Lin Cheng’s personal page also contained other information, such as his phone number, email address, home address, and QQ number. In truth, Lin Duo had always been Lin Cheng’s QQ friend, but she hadn’t logged into that old QQ account for two whole years.

Lin Duo then opened Lin Cheng’s QQ Zone interface. Most of it contained innocuous posts or statuses.

However, a status update posted last week left Lin Duo utterly aghast.

This post was very short, just a single line: [Wishing Mother a swift recovery.]

These words struck Lin Duo like a bolt from the blue.

‘Mom is sick?’

Lin Duo’s birth mother, Mao Qianwei, had been the only one in their old home who genuinely cared for Lin Duo. However, Lin Fu was a typical chauvinist, his word absolute in the house.

He was also prone to alcoholism, often resorting to domestic violence when drunk. As a child, Lin Duo frequently heard muffled cries from her parents’ bedroom.

Since running away from home, her birth mother was the person Lin Duo worried about most. Moreover, Mao Qianwei had been a famous beauty in their neighborhood in her youth; Lin Duo’s appearance inherited at least 80% from her.

The thought that her mother was ill instantly threw Lin Duo into a turmoil. She instinctively wanted to log into her old QQ account to contact Lin Cheng and inquire about the details, but then feared he might trace her location through the login IP address.

If she called his mobile directly, she dared even less, having long heard about the precision of satellite positioning. After a moment of hesitation, Lin Duo decided to ask her roommate first. “Xiaojing, do you think someone can be found based on their QQ login information?”

“That depends!” Shen Jing’an, surprisingly knowledgeable about digital matters, replied, “Generally, your specific IP address is only known to the company and won’t be disclosed. However, there are exceptions. For example, if you’re a wanted criminal or something, the public security bureau can contact the company, and they will confirm your exact location based on your IP address.”

“So that’s how it is… Is there any way to prevent others from tracking my IP address to find me?”

“Well, there is a technology for that called a proxy server. But it’s not absolutely foolproof; a network expert might still be able to trace you.” Shen Jing’an then stared at Lin Duo curiously. “Hey, you’re not planning some ‘naked video chat’ and worried the police might find you, are you?”

“What nonsense are you spouting!” Lin Duo angrily picked up a pillow and threw it at her.

Shen Jing’an deftly caught it. “Then why are you asking? If you haven’t done anything bad, who would come after you?”

“I… I was just asking, can’t I?”

In any case, Lin Duo abandoned the idea of logging into her old account, yet her mind still lingered on her birth mother’s condition. The problem was, she couldn’t contact Lin Cheng under her original identity; the risk was too great.

But if she were to become his friend as a stranger, how would she even begin? After all, Nanan City and Lin Duo’s hometown, Linhuang City, were over two thousand kilometers apart, making a chance encounter on the street impossible.

After much thought, it seemed the only way was through online gaming.

“Um, Xiaojing, what do guys usually do online?”

“What do they do? Mostly play games, I guess?”

“Play games…” Lin Duo pondered, then a thought suddenly struck her. “That’s right, Xiaojing, you played that online game called ‘Blade Soul,’ didn’t you?”

“Blade Soul? I vaguely remember it. An RPG, right? I have friends who play it.” Shen Jing’an was also familiar with the game. “Why, are you going to start playing online games?”

“No, just a casual question.”

A small plan had already begun to form in Lin Duo’s mind.

That Saturday, upon returning home, Lin Duo did not go down to help with the business as usual. Instead, she found an excuse to duck straight into her small bedroom, open her laptop, and begin downloading the game.

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