After Yuan Ning finished speaking to his brother and his friends, he approached his mother.
"I'm going to visit a friend—it's the woman I told you about," Yuan Ning told her. "I'll be back. I assure you."
"Promise?"
"I promise," he said genuinely. He hugged her, and she embraced him tightly. To be giving his mother this much anxiety when all he'd only be visiting an injured (friend?) who saved his life, it made him feel terrible.
Yuan Ning left the house, entering his car, driving towards Wu Genji's apartment, which was a twenty-minute drive from the main estate. While he faked his death, Yuan Ning never left the city. He stayed in Wu Genji's apartment and only made short trips at night, concealing his face with a mask and a baseball cap. He never risked getting recognized, and now he had to get used to not hiding anymore.
