Bai Xun took a taxi to a small road near the seafood market. This market, bustling with people during the day, was now pitch black and deserted. A few stray dogs scavenging for scraps rummaged through the offal-filled puddles in front of the butcher shops.

Bai Xun walked alone through the dimly lit alley, twisting and turning until he finally reached the door of a ground-floor apartment.

He took out his key, unlocked the door, and was immediately hit by a wave of fishy, foul stench.

The power in the house was cut off. Bai Xun covered his nose and turned on the flashlight on his phone. The light from the flash didn't reach far, but it was enough to see his surroundings.

As the phone's light passed over a cage, Bai Xun frowned at the broken wires. His phone trembled slightly.

Almost at that instant, as the light grazed a dark corner next to the cage, a pair of red eyes glowed, startling Bai Xun.

He steadied himself and realized that it was Da Huang, emaciated and gaunt, staring at him warily, completely unlike his usual docile self.

Suddenly, Da Huang lunged at him.

Bai Xun instinctively raised a nearby chair to defend himself, while blowing a whistle and retreating a few steps.

With a yelp, Da Huang let out a miserable cry and immediately tucked his tail between his legs, retreating back into the corner, his eyes filled with fear and dread.

Bai Xun didn't dare lower the chair. He pointed the phone's light at Da Huang and saw white discharge in the corner of the dog's eyes, and a puddle of fresh urine on the floor.

Da Huang was hiding next to the suitcase Bai Ma Shan had prepared for Bai Xun's departure, filled with everything he would need abroad: his passport, money, clothes, and so on.

Bai Xun put down the chair and slowly approached Da Huang. He knew that the dog had been locked up here for too long, the food was gone, and he was now experiencing a stress response. He took a large sausage from his bag and tossed it to Da Huang.

Da Huang pounced on the food. While Da Huang was tearing at it, he picked up the suitcase. As he turned around, he knocked a book off the table, and two photos slipped out.

The first was of a young girl in a red dress, sitting on a swing and smiling radiantly. The second was a commemorative photo of him as a child, wearing swimming trunks and a cap, sitting happily on his father's shoulders after his father had just taught him how to swim.

He carefully picked up the two photos, his gaze fixed on them for a long time. Finally, a tear fell on them. He reached out and gently wiped it away, then put the photos in his pocket and left the house, dragging the suitcase behind him.

The taxi carried him to the airport. He lowered his eyes, his hands in his pockets. His plane ticket was in his left pocket, and the two photos were in his right. He gently rubbed the photos.

Forty minutes later, the car stopped at the airport. The driver took his suitcase out, and Bai Xun dragged it slowly inside.

Once he entered, he could board the plane in three hours and leave everything behind, flying to the land of freedom.

His mind was filled with memories of his father over the years, his father's strictness, even harshness, his father's controlling nature. He thought he would leave without looking back, but his steps grew slower and slower.

Bai Xun knew very well that once the plane took off, there would be no chance for him and his father to meet again in their lifetimes.

He remembered his father teaching him how to ride a bicycle and swim, how his father taught him to fight back when he was bullied in junior high school, how his father, busy earning money to support the family, worried that he wouldn't have hot meals and forced him to learn how to cook.

For so many years, the two of them had depended on each other. He hadn't felt it much before, but now he realized that the reason he hadn't felt the absence of his mother was because of his father's sacrifices.

His father had sheltered him from the wind and rain, giving him a "complete" home. If he left, he would no longer have a home from this moment on.

He touched the two photos in his pocket, stared at the airport gate a few meters away, and suddenly stopped. The next second, he dragged his suitcase back to the taxi.