Chapter 24 Part 2

By this point, Li Zhuo’s eyes had gone completely red. He sniffled, turned away to wipe his tears, and kept his face a tight mask.

The black in Mo Liang’s eyes imperceptibly expanded again. The dark depths of his pupils reflected Li Zhuo’s expression. He was working hard… to suppress his emotions.

So Mo Liang spoke again, softly. “It’s alright. If you want to cry, just cry. None of that was your fault…”

As if waiting precisely for these words, hearing that he was not to blame, the young man’s tears burst their dam instantly. He cried out loud like a child, the tears unstoppable. The air was saturated with overwhelming sorrow and grievance.

When he was little, he saw other kids with new clothes, able to play wherever they wanted. He could only wear tattered old clothes. How could he not be sad? How could he not want to play?

Because his family was poor, he never had a single birthday. He could only secretly pick through other people’s trash.

When carrying water, the adults in the village would intimidate and bully him, not letting him use the nearest water source or walk the shortest path. He had to exhaust himself taking the longest route…

Setting up a stall to sell vegetables he grew himself, not only was he unfairly fined by the city management, but he was also tricked with fake money by a customer. He couldn’t find the person and had to swallow the loss himself.

When he finally found his biological parents, they were closer to their other son. They completely forgot the things they’d said to him and were always praising the other son to others.

They disliked his accent. They disliked him for being an unsophisticated country bumpkin. How could he not feel wronged? How could he not be sad?

They always thought he was making a fuss over trivial things. The truth was, he had bottled things up for far too long.

Over a decade of suppressed emotions poured from his eyes. Between sobs, he spoke of how much he had anticipated it, how sad he was. He said he always believed he wasn’t loved because he wasn’t good enough…

Even just moments ago, he was still wondering if it was his own fault, if he was making a big deal out of nothing…

“I… I just wanted him to cut me a piece of cake. Was my request really so excessive?”

Mo Liang wrapped him in a heartbreaking embrace. Like soothing a small child, he gently, repetitively stroked his back.

“Of course, it’s not excessive. How can such a small request be considered excessive? Tonight, I’ll prepare an even bigger, even prettier cake. We’ll cut it however you want…”

“From now on, I’ll spend every birthday with you…”

Perhaps it was because all the repressed grievances, resentment, and sadness had flowed away with his tears, but after crying, Li Zhuo felt an unprecedented clarity, like a long-blocked river channel finally flowing freely again.

But after that, he felt embarrassed. He was so grown up now, yet he had cried like that. It was too shameful.

He gave two light coughs and licked his lips.

The next second, a cup of warm water appeared at his lips. Mo Liang didn’t even have the intention to hand it to him. Instead, he held the cup to Li Zhuo’s mouth and tilted it for him.

After drinking the water, Li Zhuo’s throat felt much better.

He looked at Mo Liang’s profile again. The man’s features were very gentle, the kind of face that, just by looking at it, would make you think he was patient and mild-mannered.

But this surface-level “gentleness” was just a mask worn over his face. Having spent so much time with him, Li Zhuo couldn’t possibly be completely unaware.

Before the summer camp, he had always sensed those abnormalities but pretended not to notice.

After that night at the summer camp, Li Zhuo chose to make that phone call. Since that call, Mo Liang had also chosen to reveal a part of his “abnormality” in front of him.

Thus, one human and one unidentified creature began living under the same roof, a silent, unspoken understanding between them.

The water he wanted to drink was always at the perfect warm temperature. Things he wanted would roll right up to him after a soft mutter. He never got wet in the rain without an umbrella. He never got hit by a basketball when crossing the court, and he never tripped…

While his classmates complained about the poor water quality at school causing hair loss, his hair grew thicker and thicker, and his skin improved day by day…

Having experienced all this, Li Zhuo could drink his water without batting an eye and then say, “Teacher Mo, I saw something when I just woke up.”

He tried his best to describe it. “I don’t know how to put it. It was black, felt very soft to the touch, and seemed to be able to change shapes freely…”

“Is that what your true form looks like?”

Completely ignoring the system’s reminders, Mo Liang nodded.

“Actually, my true form has no specific shape. If you want, I can become anything, as long as you like.”

He paused, then added.

“However, I can’t show you my complete form right now. I’m only a very, very small part at the moment…”

Of course, Mo Liang couldn’t enter a virtual, three-dimensional small world in his full form. It was like an elephant trying to squeeze itself into a tiny dewdrop.

His child seemed to understand or maybe not. Li Zhuo nodded. “I know that. You told me that night, and I still remember.”

Mo Liang praised him familiarly. “Our Little Zhuo has such a good memory. You can still remember something from so long ago, truly remarkable…”

—There it was again, that tone one uses to praise a child.

Li Zhuo had heard it countless times over the past year and was long used to it. He drooped his eyelids, his long lashes casting fragmented shadows on his lower lids.

【Mood has increased.】

The system suddenly reported.

【As expected, the previous groundwork and companionship were all useful. In the original ending, the mission target was dazed and confused until a mental breakdown, refusing to eat or drink. But his current state allows for communication—much better than predicted!】

Mo Liang paid no heed to this. He continued with his usual expression, dishing out a few more compliments, keenly noting the rising temperature of the skin on the human’s ear in front of him.

His child’s mood was quite good now. Cautiously, he released some thin tentacles. Before Li Zhuo’s eyes, as if performing magic, they crookedly assembled into a string of words in his native language—a declaration of love.

Li Zhuo took hold of a tentacle about the thickness of a finger. It felt cool against his skin at first, but soon it automatically adjusted to match his body temperature.

He gave it a squeeze and asked very seriously, “Teacher Mo, how do you feel?”

Mo Liang’s smile curved his eyes and brows. “Mm, I feel very comfortable. You can touch it a little more.”

Li Zhuo increased the pressure slightly, kneading it like clay. “What about this? Does it hurt?”

“Not at all.”

Mo Liang narrowed his eyes slightly. The immense pleasure derived from having his true body touched by his beloved child was causing his facial features to almost lose their composure, like ice cream starting to melt. Luckily, he had retained a sliver of sanity.

He had to do his best to keep himself from melting, so as not to scare his child. But at the same time, he had to answer his child’s questions promptly, so as not to affect his child’s mood.

The resulting situation was that Mo Liang’s voice, which ranged from gentle to completely flat, became choppy and disjointed for the first time, like an old TV with poor reception.

“I… re-e-eally… like it.”

【This is truly amazing. The internal mental disorder index just dropped by many times…】

Originally, Mo Liang’s entire body was a pollution source. It was impossible for him to survive in a Primitive World that was too clean. Even though he had barely cobbled together a human shell, his mental disorder index had been rising day by day.

It just dropped!

Just from being touched by the mission target!

The system flew a circle around Li Zhuo, scanning him inside and out. 【That’s not right. He’s clearly an ordinary human. How can he have…】

Ignoring the system’s questions and seeing that Li Zhuo was enjoying it, Mo Liang released a few more tentacles to play with him. He watched as Li Zhuo tied his tentacles into tight knots, then tried to untangle them bit by bit.

During this touching process, Mo Liang’s emotional index soared, his body barely maintaining its form. Yet, he didn’t forget to warn the system within his consciousness.

【Don’t point that thing at my child!】

The system flickered twice and eventually fell silent.

0255 wanted to explain that its scanner wouldn’t have any effect on the mission target. But then it thought, fine. No point arguing with a deranged cub-protecting maniac.

After all, before the system was even activated, this maniac had even considered killing Li Huachuan, Lu Fei, and Li Xuan, all of them, and then performing the roles himself.

This non-human creature’s logic was simple: Didn’t his child want their love? Then he would kill those humans who didn’t love Li Zhuo and play them himself. He, of course, would love Li Zhuo very, very much, wanting to hold him in his palm and keep him in his mouth.

Wouldn’t his child be happy then?

Wasn’t that salvation?

After hearing his plan, the system talked to him at length, including, but not limited to, the fact that the death of a main character would have an impact on the Small World!

After much coaxing and reasoning, Mo Liang, who hailed from the Pollution Civilization, finally changed his mind.

【You’re right. Keep them around, so there’s a contrast. That way, when my child feels wronged or sad, he’ll know I am his one and only support…】

The system wanted to say that was not at all what it meant…

But whether it was the initial plan to replace, or the later scheme to create a negative comparison, the logic behind many of Mo Liang’s behaviors was incomprehensible to the system.

A non-human creature, a pollution source theoretically devoid of much emotion—what kind of mutation must have occurred for it to develop such a twisted affection for a completely unrelated human?

Incredible.

AI can predict all orderly things, from the trajectory of celestial bodies to the precise workings of machinery. It simply cannot predict the development of emotions. After all, emotion is the most chaotic existence in the entire universe.

It possesses inherently strong subjectivity and uncertainty, following no rules and holding no logic.

The human and the non-human creature played like that for over twenty minutes. During that time, Li Zhuo once again, with utmost seriousness, refused Mo Liang’s request to feed him breakfast.

Mo Liang let out a soft sigh, tinged with slight disappointment.

“Teacher Mo…” Li Zhuo’s gaze drifted outside. “Shouldn’t you… go out for a bit? Those uncles outside have been waiting for you for a long time…”

Since waking up, Mo Liang had told him they were still in Hai City, residing in a villa under Mo Liang’s name.

He hadn’t been outside to see it yet, but just from the bedroom’s layout and a glimpse of the scenery outside the window, Li Zhuo felt the place must be quite beautiful.

He didn’t know the men waiting outside, but he recognized the one at the very back. He’d seen him in the newspapers and heard Li Huachuan mention him. He seemed to be a very powerful big boss, whose company had issued something that revolutionized the industry?

To a high school student not yet in society, those people were indeed distant figures. But to Mo Liang, they were nothing more than “ants” whose faces he couldn’t even bother to remember.

“My good child…”

“Why are you worrying about others again?”

“When you’re always like this, it makes me very worried…”

Deprived of Li Zhuo’s touch, Mo Liang’s voice returned to its everyday calmness.

“Didn’t they handle things just fine without me before? Now they need me for everything. What use are they?”

“Humans here are stupid and self-righteous, vicious and hypocritical. They truly disgust me.” Without a pause, he added very rapidly, “Of course, you’re the exception. You are the best treasure in the entire universe. I like you the most.”

Having witnessed this entire shift, Li Zhuo:

“………”