Chapter 1

After I lost my job, I was browsing job listings online when I accidentally clicked into a website that auctioned off Buddha statues.

The auctioneer claimed the "living Buddha" they sold had uncanny powers, and could grant any wish you made.

Out of curiosity, I paid the hundred-dollar verification fee, but what the seller sent back was a photo of a naked woman bathing.

It was blurry, but one look was enough for me to recognize the place it was taken—my own bathroom!

My heart shot straight up into my throat, and the auctioneer kept pushing his pitch.

This living Buddha is the hottest item we sell here!

Divorced and single, no man's been near her in ten years, satisfaction guaranteed!

Do you want her or not? If not, I'll sell her to someone else.

To find out the truth, I forced down my fear and disgust and paid the deposit.

I even agreed with the seller to take delivery at eight o'clock tonight, in the park right outside my building.

The next second, my son knocked on my bedroom door.

"Mom, tonight at eight, come take a walk with me in the park downstairs?"

...

My heart pounded wildly in my chest.

Wasn't this just a little too much of a coincidence?

Could my son have taken that photo of me and posted it online?

That was impossible!

Divorced ten years, I'd raised my son alone. We lived poorly, and he was right in the thick of his teenage years, so we couldn't help but argue.

But ever since the school launched its love education program a month ago, his attitude toward me had clearly softened.

Not only had he learned to help me with the housework, he even used his free time to work part-time jobs to ease my burden.

How could such a sweet, sensible son be the monster who secretly photographed me and even posted me online to be sold?

It had to be just a coincidence.

Seeing me stay silent so long, my son couldn't hold back and pushed the door open.

"Mom, are you coming or not?"

"It's almost eight already. If we don't go now, it'll be too late."

That one simple sentence instantly brought back all the doubts I'd finally managed to push away.

If I remembered right, the time I'd agreed on with the auctioneer was also exactly eight o'clock.

The time and the place both matched.

Add to that the photo taken secretly in my own bathroom, and no matter how hard it was to believe, I couldn't help suspecting my son.

Especially when I saw him already dressed and just waiting to go downstairs with me, I refused outright.

"Another day. I have a proposal to revise tonight, so I don't have time to go out."

But my son found that strange. "But didn't you just lose your job?"

My heart lurched. To give my son a good environment for his studies, I never told him about anything outside of school.

So how did he know I was unemployed?

My mind was full of doubts, but the one thing I was certain of was that tonight, I absolutely could not go out.

I answered offhandedly, "I've already found a job, so I have to work."

"You should hurry back to your room too, and get that set of papers done."

Though he was unhappy about it, my son obediently went back to his room.

I let out a breath of relief. It seemed the person trying to sell me wasn't my son after all; I'd just been too sensitive.

So who could it be?

Before I could work it out, my son suddenly knocked on my door again.

"Mom, can you go downstairs and buy me some stomach medicine? My stomach suddenly hurts..."

His face was pale, and since he really had developed a stomach problem as a child because I was too busy with work to look after him properly, I didn't suspect a thing—I just threw on some clothes and went out to buy the medicine.

My son called after me from behind.

"Mom, I already talked to Uncle Jarvis, the one who runs the clinic by the back gate. He's got the medicine ready for me, so you can just go and pick it up."

I nodded and was about to head out when a new message from the auctioneer popped up on my phone.

There's been a change. The delivery time we agreed on is pushed back half an hour, and the location has changed too.

I've sent you the exact spot—remember to pick up your order on time.

I opened it, and the pin on my phone was the exact same location as the pharmacy I was about to go to. In that instant, I felt every drop of blood in my body freeze!