What did Wai Siu Bo's mother think had happened to him all those years?

[Ken Cheng]

After Wai Siu Bo left his hometown of Yangzhou for Beijing, he did not return for many years. He left as a barely pubescent adolescent and returned home a young man, and his mother had NO idea what had happened to him during the intervening years (e.g. becoming a wealthy and powerful official in the Qing Court, an incense master in the Heaven and Earth Society, the White Dragon Ambassador of the Divine Dragon Cult, and a somewhat notorious figure in wulin).

What did she *think* had happened to him during those years? She didn't act as if she believed that he had died, but did she wonder what had become of her son, who had disappeared abruptly and was not heard from for years before he reemerged in Yangzhou years later just as abruptly and as one of the most powerful and influential men in all of China?

[Doc Kwok]

She had no idea that he had become a powerful official. She knew that he was ridiculously wealthy, but thought he made it all by gambling - WXB demonstrated to her his ability to roll any number he wanted with loaded dice.