Chapter 29 Part 2

Only that family’s child was different. Even on ordinary days, he could wear brand-new clothes and have his own toys. Even if he broke a bowl, he wouldn’t be scolded.

Especially that last point.

At the time, Li Zhuo had been so envious.

With the passage of time, most early childhood memories had blurred. Only the more profound ones were always remembered.

One of them was when he was washing dishes and his hand slipped, smashing a blue patterned porcelain bowl. The Man yelled at him harshly and beat him.

Every dish and bowl in the household was accounted for. Smash one and there was one less. The Man called him useless, and even the small Li Zhuo at the time thought it was his own fault.

He was truly so useless.

Unable to sleep in the middle of the night, the scrawny Li Zhuo, wearing an old outfit that was clearly a size too small, wiped away his tears and tried to piece the broken bowl back together. Instead, he cut his hand on the sharp porcelain shards, and the tears became even harder to hold back.

Transparent teardrops fell one by one into the dirt, mingling with the blood on the ground.

Actually, if The Man were still around, even if Li Zhuo told him about it, he surely wouldn’t remember. To him, it was nothing more than a trivial, sesame-sized matter.

Only the moon that night would remember.

Later, by coincidence, last semester, just as Li Zhuo and Mo Liang were gradually getting closer—around the second month after being invited over for meals—

At that point, he had just been allowed into the kitchen. While having lunch at his apartment, Li Zhuo really did knock a bowl onto the floor because he was lost in thought.

Almost simultaneously, he immediately crouched down to pick up the pieces and blurted out, “Sorry, sorry! I was just thinking about something else and didn’t pay attention to my hand—I thought I’d already set it on the table. I’ll definitely be more careful next time.”

And at the time, Mo Liang’s reaction was also quite strong. Seeing only a very tiny, tiny cut on Li Zhuo’s hand, oozing just the faintest trace of blood, he pulled out a whole pile of medications.

With an expression as if he simply couldn’t comprehend what Li Zhuo was saying, Mo Liang looked at him and said, “It’s just a bowl. If it broke, it broke. If you want to smash them, you can smash them all.”

Mo Liang added, “Don’t pick them up next time. Isn’t hurting your hand so not worth it? You are what’s most important.”

“……”

At that moment, Li Zhuo felt as if he had suddenly become extremely nearsighted. The scene before him was so blurry he could barely see. He took a deep breath, turned away, and secretly wiped his tears.

“Teacher Mo, let’s eat.”

That night, Li Zhuo had thought that maybe the Band-Aid Teacher Mo had applied was just expensive, and that’s why the pain stopped after it was put on. When he took it off, he couldn’t even see the wound from before, and the skin there seemed even better?

Thinking back now, the Band-Aid was just a cover to fool others. He must have used some other method to make his wound heal so quickly.

These were things he never could have dreamed of in the past.

From the very first sentence Mo Liang spoke to him, from when he accepted that bottle of strawberry milkshake, from when he noticed the very first anomaly…

His life had long since started rolling in a bizarre and unpredictable direction.

The meals in the Teacher’s Apartment that perfectly suited his palate, the physics-defying dodges of harm time and again, every perfectly timed “help,” the “godlike luck” on the mountain during summer camp, the refreshing sleep every single night, and so on.

In the past, Mo Liang would sometimes try to cover up the abnormalities, but now that Li Zhuo had discovered his identity, he laid all the anomalies bare before him.

An ordinary human youth and an uncanny non-human creature lived under the same roof day after day, spending every waking moment together, with the non-human creature protecting him in every conceivable—and inconceivable—way.

Li Zhuo thought seriously: even if he posted these things online, probably no one would believe them, right?

The bell for class break exercises rang. Li Zhuo followed the crowd toward the playground. Passing through the corridor, he instinctively glanced in the direction of the psychological counseling room.

A classmate beside him asked what was wrong.

He shook his head and said it was nothing.

With his eyesight, he naturally couldn’t see the scene inside the counselor’s office, but he knew that Mo Liang was definitely watching him from somewhere.

Definitely.

Looking back to the very beginning, back then, Teacher Mo had initially just cooked meals for him every day. Later, he began appearing around him more and more, gradually infiltrating his life. And by now, this non-human monster had become Li Zhuo’s instinctive anchor of reliance.

This reliance wasn’t one-way, either—

it was a mutual permeation!

Especially after returning from Hai City, Li Zhuo could clearly sense the change in Mo Liang, including his markedly more anxious and cautious attitude toward him.

As if he were some kind of fragile object?

Something that needed to be handled with extreme care.

Apart from this, Mo Liang’s physical contact with him had increased dramatically. Without realizing it, Li Zhuo had grown accustomed to sleeping in the same bed as him, being naturally held in his arms, having his hair gently smoothed back.

Every morning when Li Zhuo woke up, Mo Liang would give him a gentle smile, say good morning, kiss his forehead, tell him he loved him, tell him he liked him, and praise him for being so good and quiet when sleeping.

Because all these changes had been gradual and subtle, by the time Li Zhuo suddenly looked back, his relationship with Teacher Mo had already become like this.

And his first reaction wasn’t to question whether such feelings were right or wrong, but rather: how long would this overwhelmingly intense—almost completely abnormal—love from this “non-human monster” toward him last?

Every emotion has a shelf life, just like his parents. Weren’t they also full of guilt toward him at the start?

According to the Law of Entropy, going from flourishing to decline is an inevitable process. Nothing in the world escapes this law—no matter how dazzlingly beautiful flowers bloom, they will eventually fade into withered petals as time passes.

Could it be that one day, he would suddenly disappear the same way he suddenly appeared?

So how could he find out?

After finishing the class break exercises, Li Zhuo returned to the classroom, wrote a few lines of homework, then abruptly stared at the pen tip in his hand. After pondering for two seconds, he abruptly and without warning stabbed it toward his palm. However…

No pain—none at all!

He could clearly feel a resistance. Without even needing to guess, he knew Mo Liang was stopping him. Then, as if nothing had happened, he put the pen back.

—Test successful.

Li Zhuo’s movements were so fast that even his fixed deskmate Deng Yuliang didn’t notice. By the time the latter turned his head, Li Zhuo had already put away the pen.

“After lunch, let’s go to the school store? I heard the boss got a new flavor of soda. It’s pretty good. Went last time and it was sold out—let’s go early this time.”

Li Zhuo smiled. “Sure.”

At the same time on the other side, 0255 was reporting to Mo Liang on the progress of the current rescue mission.

Among the criteria, the first—altering the target’s original predetermined fate—had been completed. The third—making the target sincerely feel happy—had always been in a completed state.

Only the second—making the mission target happy—remained stuck at 98% ever since they returned from Hai City.

【Upon inquiry, you currently hold a highly trusted role in his heart—someone he depends on. No matter what he encounters, he is likely to confide in you…】

【That’s not what I’m asking.】

Mo Liang gazed at a window of a certain teaching building, his eyes filled with a doting tenderness that could drown a person. He could clearly see his child sitting properly and paying attention in class, but what was that business with the pen earlier?

【This is already the fourth time this month.】

【This time it was a ballpoint pen…】

【Last time it was a utility knife…】

【And the time before that…】

The “Man’s” brow furrowed tightly.

【I’ve reviewed all his recent visual footage, including the humans he’s interacted with, his call logs, internet search history—I’ve checked everything. His diet, his micro-expressions—none of it differs from usual. My child… why has he suddenly started doing this…】

【……】

The light on 0255 flickered repeatedly. Finally, after continuous checking and cross-referencing against its database, it discovered that the target’s current behavior and state closely resembled a certain period back when he was with the Li family.

When he wanted to draw attention or confirm his position in the other person’s heart, he would use these methods to test whether they cared about him.

【In short, it’s like this…】

Mo Liang pondered for a long time.

【He’s suspecting that I’ll suddenly stop loving him just like that pair of humans did? How could I possibly do that?!】

【Perhaps because, in his eyes, there have been such precedents before, so…】0255 wisely shut its mouth. 【For now, the only thing to do is… soothe him.】

【I don’t want “perhaps,” I want a solution!】Mo Liang was so agitated that his outer skin began destabilizing again. 【I want my child to be well, to be healthy!!】

Recalling how just the slightest hint of Li Zhuo exhibiting self-harming behavior would immediately send this mass of pollution into an extremely tense state, 0255 felt its motherboard about to fry.

As a high-level AI, it still couldn’t fathom how a higher-dimensional being could regard an ordinary, fragile human as its most important existence—and now be reverse-domesticated, reverse-conditioned by that very human’s use of his own fragility?!

Truly… inconceivable.

On the character profile, Li Zhuo was summarized in just a few flat descriptors. But after interacting with him, it turned out to be so much more. He had a natural talent for learning languages, and his personality also contained such extreme, pathological tendencies.

Humans really are complex.

【I’ve got an idea!!】