Li Zhuo had come to Hai City this time only to attend the long-awaited coming-of-age ceremony. After what had happened, Mo Liang had organized a new one for him.
The day after seeing off his classmates one by one, and also the sixth day since that farce ended, just when Li Zhuo was planning to return to Changyang, he again received a call from Lu Fei and met her.
This was the first time mother and son had met since the incident, and it was also the last.
That time, Lu Fei had changed a lot from Li Zhuo’s memory. For the first time, he saw her tie up her long, loose curly hair, neatly revealing her forehead.
Her first words didn’t ask about where Li Zhuo had been living or how he was doing; instead, she first asked why his phone had been out of service area before. Without waiting for Li Zhuo to answer, she then rattled off a bunch of matters about the Li family, like dumping trash.
She first laughed at his father for inviting a wolf into the house, mocking Li Huachuan with a scornful tone for being a fool, thinking she didn’t know. She had long known that Li Xuan was actually his father’s illegitimate son…
“Ah???”
In Li Zhuo’s memory, Lu Fei had always been the gentle and soft type, seeming to prioritize her husband in everything. In the past, whenever Li Zhuo complained a bit, Lu Fei would defend Li Huachuan. How suddenly…
Li Zhuo was shocked by Lu Fei’s change. Then, hearing that Li Xuan was Li Huachuan’s illegitimate son, his mind became even more chaotic. So in the end, was Li Xuan still his half-brother from the same father but a different mother?
“…”
“None of this matters now…”
The woman went on to say that luckily she had made plans early and started transferring assets long ago, or else she wouldn’t know if there was a way out now.
She said she had a lover outside, a British person, and she was already preparing to go abroad. Originally, she didn’t need to rush, but she was worried about that ungrateful bastard Li Xuan, so she thought to leave first. The divorce procedures and such could be slowly handled by a lawyer.
“Anyway, these years have been enough…”
She spoke faster and faster, saying she was finally about to be freed. When talking about future plans, her eyes sparkled, and her expression and speech revealed excitement.
Even knowing the answer, Li Zhuo asked softly without hope: “And what about me?”
The spirited woman froze for a second, then resumed her natural demeanor: “Xiao Zhuo, you’re grown up now. Understand Mom a little, okay? Mom has had a tough time…”
She said she knew Li Zhuo hated her.
Li Zhuo’s hand hidden under the table clenched tightly. His clear vision blurred for a moment, and he said: “I don’t hate you. I’m just a little sad.”
She then said she still loved him very much.
If this had been said to the previous Li Zhuo, he would probably have been moved to tears by now. But at this moment, he pressed his lips together tightly: “No, you don’t love me.”
The woman’s expression cracked for an instant, and she almost blurted out: “How is that possible? What nonsense are you talking about? I’m your biological mother, how could I not love you!”
Li Zhuo then continued softly: “Before, I never dared to admit this fact, so I desperately convinced myself, looked for all kinds of evidence, to prove that you actually loved me. You were just too busy to answer my calls; you just sent me away because I didn’t meet expectations…”
“Every time you sent me living expenses, what I was happy about wasn’t the money, but the attached message. I thought there must still be love, right? But recently, I suddenly woke up—everything was fake…”
“That year, when you first met me at the airport and hugged me, the tears you shed—were they from really missing me, or because you were performing in front of the camera?”
“When I explained to you that I wasn’t saying bad things about Brother behind his back anymore, you definitely knew, so why did you still advise me to correct it in the future?”
…
Lu Fei’s expression shifted from initial anger to guilt, but she still forced herself to explain, repeating things she had said to him countless times before.
“You know, your grandparents, those two old relics, never really liked me. Your maternal grandfather passed away early, your maternal grandmother has been in poor health for years and always favored the other son. Your father Li Huachuan, needless to say, is full of schemes, and your brother—you know—is even more scheming. What could I do?”
She said she could only play the role of a yes-man who was totally obedient to her husband, to numb the closest person in bed, so she could secretly transfer some assets.
As for not taking him away, he was already so grown, and whether her current boyfriend would accept him was even uncertain.
“And suddenly going to live abroad isn’t such a simple matter. You definitely wouldn’t get used to it either. I’m thinking of you, too.”
Li Zhuo didn’t speak, just looked at her, as if asking her: Really? Under such a clear gaze, the woman dodged and averted her eyes.
“You still hate me.”
“No, not hate, but sadness.”
“I knew you hated me.”
“Not hate, sadness.” Li Zhuo stubbornly corrected again and again. “I really don’t hate you.”
Lu Fei finally fell silent.
Li Zhuo didn’t know what to say for a moment either.
In this dead silence, Li Zhuo’s chest felt stuffy. The next second, he distinctly noticed the air around him suddenly becoming clearer.
Even though he was in a closed room, he seemed to smell the scent of fresh grass with morning dew, mixed with floral fragrance.
He knew who it was, and this discovery lightened his originally gloomy mood a little.
“Just consider that year, you didn’t receive that call, and I wasn’t found by Director Guan.”
“…”
“Even if just a little, you did care about me. Thank you, thank you all.”
The woman’s expression was indescribably complex and melancholy. Finally, she put her sunglasses back on: “Alright.”
But as she stood up to leave, Lu Fei suddenly said a few disjointed words, roughly meaning that the Mo family’s waters were much deeper, that people like them were just a momentary novelty, that feelings were the most unreliable, and that getting more money was the most practical.
“Huh?”
Turning those words over in his mind a couple of times, Li Zhuo finally understood that Lu Fei probably thought he was a lover being kept by Mo Liang.
“You’ve misunderstood. Actually, Teacher Mo he…”
Just then, Lu Fei answered a call. Judging from the foreign language and her expression, it was likely her boyfriend on the other end.
The call lasted a long time. Lu Fei walked away while talking on the phone, leaving Li Zhuo in the private room. He silently mouthed: “Goodbye, Mom.”
Before Li Zhuo’s low mood could fully brew, a tall figure silently appeared at the door. The man’s lips didn’t move, a gentle smile hung at the corner of his mouth, and he held a drink in his hand.
What Li Zhuo heard was: “Talking for so long, thirsty?”
He nodded.
The meeting place was chosen by Lu Fei, and the coffee on the table was also ordered by her. As a biological mother, she actually didn’t understand Li Zhuo’s tastes.
But that was normal. After all, to her, Li Zhuo was just a stranger son who had left at age one, returned at fifteen, and even counting to now, hadn’t been together for long.
In contrast, the non-human creature Mo Liang would record every tiny expression of Li Zhuo, including his flavor preferences calculated in precise percentages.
Backed up 8276 micro-expression models of Li Zhuo. Collected 387 fallen eyelashes and 1825 hairs of Li Zhuo, each with time and location info.
Air humidity kept constant at 58%, the most suitable range for human relaxation.
Even just seeing him eating and chatting happily with classmates, Mo Liang would think of the risk of airway foreign bodies from sudden laughter, so he prepared several emergency plans that have yet to be used.
During exam cycles, he would be given extra Ω-3 fatty acid supplements, and bone density scans were required three times a day.
There was a detailed table recording Li Zhuo’s favorite and disliked foods, and among the disliked foods, bitter melon topped the list with a 99% rating.
He was allergic to dust mites, allergic to peach fuzz, and also intolerant to caffeine, so he never drank coffee.
Therefore, the bitter black coffee that Lu Fei ordered for him—Li Zhuo didn’t take a single sip from start to finish, and the woman didn’t seem to notice, or rather, she didn’t care.
Mo Liang, hidden in the shadows, was closely monitoring the moisture level of Li Zhuo’s lips the entire time. Watching the number representing lip moisture decline bit by bit through the monitoring data, his own unconscious lip-licking frequency increased as well.
He knew his child was actually thirsty, so he secretly switched the coffee in the cup, but Li Zhuo was completely unaware, only noticing that the air had changed.
“When did you prepare this?”
“Just now.”
Li Zhuo and Mo Liang walked side by side, unaware that there was an even higher frequency, more covert sound wave—if you decoded the signal within it, you would get a message like this:
[My child…]
[My poor child.]
[Don’t be sad…]
[I will definitely learn to be the best and most qualified caregiver, to become your new mom… to cherish you, look after you, love you, protect you, and become your sole support… Ahh… how can there be such a happy thing…]
[Happiness… warmth…]
[Joy…]
[Love him so much, love him so much, love him so much, love him so much that I want to eat him up in one bite, swallow him into my belly and then give birth to him again; he needs me, I need him…]
Never be apart… never be apart… never be apart… never be apart… never be apart… never be apart… Part… never be apart… never be apart… never be apart… never be apart…
After receiving the encoded message without any barriers, the light upon its body dimmed considerably. It was truly… so noisy. If it knew that Mo Liang’s kin had once said the same thing, it would definitely append a line without hesitation: I get it!
![I Am the Tragic Supporting Character Who Was Saved [Quick Transmigration]](https://i2.wp.com/dobynovels.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/on.jpg?resize=151,215 "I Am the Tragic Supporting Character Who Was Saved [Quick Transmigration]")
