Chapter 10

An Zimo's nerves were taut as he gripped the edge of the coffin with both hands and peered inside.

In the faint light, the person he called Mother lay sleeping peacefully within.

An Zimo's pupils trembled in shock. No matter how much he had calculated, he had never expected An Xiang to be inside! The enormous shock made him lose his footing, and he accidentally fell straight into the coffin.

Damn it!

An Zimo's eyes turned vicious. He propped up his upper body with his little hands and climbed to his feet, only then noticing the soft padding inside.

Click.

Strings of tiny lights on both sides of the coffin lit up.

An Zimo's spine stiffened as he slowly turned his head.

An Xiang looked sleepy as she rubbed her eyes. It took her quite a while to make out the intruder's face. "Zimo?"

She wore floral pajamas, her messy hair framing a face full of drowsiness.

An Zimo froze and did not answer.

After all that commotion, An Xiang had woken up quite a bit. "Zimo, why aren't you asleep?" Her gaze swept over the little clock on the bedside table. The hour hand was about to point at two.

"Y-you—you—you—" An Zimo pointed at An Xiang for ages. He had no mood to keep pretending to be a fool, and finally voiced his shock. "You sleep in a coffin?!"

An Xiang blinked innocently. "Can't I?"

"Only dead people sleep in coffins!"

"Yeah, dead people sleep in urns too." An Xiang said, "I can't exactly sleep in an urn, can I?"

An Zimo choked, suddenly speechless.

Mother and son stared at each other from a distance, wide eyes glaring at wide eyes.

An Xiang could not understand why An Zimo had come into her room so late at night. After thinking it over and over, she suddenly realized. "Son, are you not used to sleeping in the crib?"

"Mm." An Zimo did not deny it. He really was not used to that lousy crib.

A strange light gleamed in An Xiang's eyes. "I know! You want to sleep in a coffin with Mommy too, don't you?"

...Who the hell wants to sleep in a coffin with you? Are you sick?

"If you like it, I'll have a child-sized one custom-made for you tomorrow." An Xiang patted her chest and promised.

It was understandable for her son to want to sleep in a coffin. After all, half of his bloodline was Vampire genes. A Vampire who did not sleep in a coffin was not a proper Vampire!

"Sleep with me tonight first." An Xiang shifted to one side, thoughtfully pulling her pillow to the middle. She slapped the mattress grandly. "Come on, Mommy will share half her coffin with you."

An Zimo was utterly dumbfounded.

What the hell does she mean, share half her coffin? Are they planning a joint burial here?

"No..."

Before An Zimo could finish the last word, An Xiang scooped him over with one arm.

"Don't be shy, son. It's very comfortable." She had specifically customized a soft mattress suited for coffins, with a cool, breathable silk quilt. There was an aromatherapy lamp beside it, so there was no need to worry about bad smells. There was Wi-Fi too. Whenever An Xiang did not feel like going out, she would curl up in the little coffin all day reading novels and watching movies.

"Should I close the coffin lid?"

...I'll suffocate to death.

As if she had heard his thoughts, An Xiang answered thoughtfully, "I had ventilation holes made in the coffin lid, so don't worry about suffocating."

"..."

Hah. Why make ventilation holes? Wouldn't it be better to just suffocate to death? They should dig a hole under the coffin too. Once someone dies and the lid is closed, it's a one-stop burial service with no middleman taking a cut.

An Zimo suddenly felt that the version of himself who had carefully laid all those plans was an idiot.

Judging by this woman's behavior, she simply could not pull off something as difficult as serial murder.

"Son, why aren't you asleep yet?" He kept moving around beside her, as though something had him restless and anxious.

An Xiang tucked the blanket around An Zimo. She recalled a parenting handbook she had read not long ago. It said babies suffered from insomnia because they felt uneasy and needed their mother's comfort. It was best to sing them a lullaby.

No one had ever sung An Xiang a lullaby when she was growing up, but she had learned a few from movies.

She cleared her throat, gently patting her son's belly as she started singing in the tune she had heard in films. "The night has come, are you hungry? What do you want to eat? The women by the roadside are a lavish dinner..."

An Zimo's eyelid twitched, and a bad feeling rose within him.

"The moonlight has come, are you still not done eating? Be careful, be careful, be careful before the sun rises, and don't make a sound..."

"What are you singing?" An Zimo asked.

An Xiang said, "A lullaby."

...More like an Underworld Lullaby.

The sleep song was slow and melodious. As An Xiang sang, her voice gradually lowered until it disappeared completely.

Her arm lay across An Zimo, completely imprisoning his soft little body in her embrace.

The night was quiet, especially in the basement.

Breathing in An Xiang's scent, An Zimo fell into confusion for the first time.

This mother beside him was completely different from the one in his memories, both in her behavior and lifestyle. She did not hit him or curse at him, and she often thought up strange things he could not understand.

Could this be the butterfly effect caused by his rebirth? Or had she simply not fully revealed her true nature yet?

Judging by this house, she was not living very well. If he exposed his intelligence, she might very well treat him as a money-making tool again, just as she had in his previous life.

Being too smart was not necessarily a good thing. Even his mind-reading ability could bring disaster upon him at any moment.

Since An Xiang had not made any moves for now, all he needed to do was continue pretending to be foolish and test her until she revealed a flaw.

An Zimo silently made up his mind, slowly yawned, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

****

He slept well through the night.

An Xiang's body clock had always been precise. The moment it turned six, she opened her eyes.

In the dim, shifting light of the basement, a little face came into view.

He was sleeping soundly, one small leg resting on An Xiang's stomach as he unconsciously sucked on his finger in his sleep.

The baby's eyelashes were long and thick, naturally curled like a doll's. His sleeping face was innocent and adorable, nothing like the unapproachable little fiend he was when awake.

An Xiang stared at her son for a long time. The more she looked, the cuter he seemed. Especially those chubby cheeks with a touch of rosy red—she could not help wanting to take a bite.

Her son's blood smelled delicious, like mango mixed with a milkshake.

Her stomach growled twice. She secretly glanced at An Zimo, who had yet to wake up, smacked her lips, opened her mouth, and took a bite of his round little cheek.

"Ah!"

An Zimo woke up instantly.

"What are you doing?" Fresh from his dream, An Zimo was still half-asleep. He covered his cheek with a dazed look in his eyes, then closed them again after speaking and rolled over, leaving An Xiang with an aloof little back.

Listening to his even breathing, An Xiang patted her chest, still shaken. Thank goodness, thank goodness. If she had really been unable to resist eating her son, there would have been no explaining it.

She carefully climbed out of the coffin, only to trip over that rotten piece of wood again and again and again on the stairs.

An Xiang was used to it. She calmly got up, patted the dust that had accidentally rubbed onto her skirt, and naturally headed into the kitchen.

Breakfast did not need to be too complicated. An Xiang decided to make simple sandwiches, then take her son to a coffin shop to have the coffin he wanted custom-made.

Right, she also needed to check out the milk tea shop the customer service agent had given her. If all the supplies were ready, it could open at any time.

As An Xiang focused on cooking, her wrist slipped and the kitchen knife veered to the side. Its sharp blade sliced directly into her index finger.

Bright red blood flowed from the wound and mixed with tomato juice.

She stared blankly at the wound. The rich, fragrant scent of blood rushed into her nose, constantly battering against her rationality.

The hunger in her belly was intense. An Xiang swallowed and muttered, "...It smells so good." Unable to control herself, she licked her dry lips and slowly put her injured finger into her mouth, sucking on it twice.

That single taste nearly made An Xiang throw up.

"So fishy!!"

Perhaps her sense of smell was too sensitive, which made her sense of taste exceed that of ordinary people as well.

Her human body could not accept the bloody taste. The metallic flavor spread through her mouth, making her stomach churn as every part of her rejected it.

But—

An Xiang looked at the still-bleeding wound. "It smells so good..." Still unwilling to give up, she sucked on it again. "Ugh, so fishy."

"Wah, I smell so good."

"Ugh, I taste so fishy."

An Xiang's thoughts bounced repeatedly between those two sensations.

An Zimo, who had just climbed out of the coffin, stared dumbfounded at this bewildering human behavior. His brow twitched violently as he silently turned and left.

—I should go back into the coffin. It's much safer in there.

After returning to the basement, An Zimo tripped over the broken wooden step again and again. Frowning, he climbed up, brushed off the dirt, pretended nothing had happened, and crawled back into the coffin.

An Xiang did not notice that her son had come out at all. She quickly bandaged her wound, and because she could not drink the delicious blood, she was in an extremely low mood.

An Zimo did not want to have any conversation with his strange-behaving mother either. Once breakfast was ready, he sat quietly at the table and ate the whole time. Still, the sandwich was surprisingly tasty.

"Wait." An Xiang stopped him.

An Zimo stopped chewing and looked up.

An Xiang raised her hand and removed one slice of tomato. "There's blood I got on it earlier."

Oh. No wonder it tasted so sweet.

An Zimo swung his little legs and finished the rest of the sandwich in two or three bites.

"Later, we're going out to buy you daily necessities. If Momo wants anything else, you can tell Mommy."

She had brought him home in too much of a hurry and had not had time to prepare many things.

An Xiang sighed inwardly and suddenly could not help thinking of the system.

Her family had imprisoned her in a tower ever since she was little. Unable to communicate with others, she knew nothing about the outside world. If it had not been for the system, she might still be wandering around like a headless fly.

During these years of living in the human world, there had been many things she needed to rely on the system for.

Now that she had reported the system, she could only rely on herself from now on.

Looking at the little bean sprout before her, An Xiang suddenly felt a heavy weight on her shoulders, a mother's sense of responsibility welling up inside her.

From now on, she was the mother of a little boy. She could no longer live as freely and carefree as before.

An Xiang stepped forward, hugged An Zimo's little head, and said tenderly, "Baby, Mommy will love you properly from now on."

Her son was silly and adorable. She would definitely protect him well!

She would make him the strongest man in the entire world!!!

Faced with his mother's sudden heartfelt declaration, An Zimo remained expressionless and even somewhat disdainful. His lips drooped, but he said nothing.

"Then let's head out now!"

An Xiang's first stop was the coffin shop. Once they had ordered the coffin, they would go to the mall.

An Zimo was still wearing the children's clothes they had hastily bought in town yesterday. They did not fit him very well, hanging loosely around his body. His hair was a mess too, completely unstyled. He looked like some wild little boy who had escaped from the deep mountains.

An Xiang decided to dress her son up properly first and make him the prettiest baby in the world.

Having made up her mind, An Xiang took her wallet, picked up her son, and got in the car for their first destination of the day.

The journey was quite long, and the surroundings outside the car grew increasingly desolate.

An Zimo found it stranger and stranger. Unable to resist, he asked, "Where are we going?"

An Xiang was searching Baidu for the newest children's coffins with her head lowered. Whenever she saw one she liked, she saved it, planning to show it to the owner later.

Hearing An Zimo's voice, she answered without looking up, "To buy you a bed."

This one!

A Peppa Pig collaboration coffin—her son would definitely love it!

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What An Xiang sang was "Underworld Lullaby."

As for why Momo did not want to drink blood, the setting is that young Vampires only grow fangs and can drink blood after they lose their baby teeth.

It's like how human babies who are only a few months old can drink milk but cannot eat solid food yet. They have no teeth, and Vampires are the same, QW

When Momo loses his teeth later, he'll be stunned to discover that his teeth are getting longer and longer. He'll be so scared that he secretly looks for a file every day to grind them down.

***

Red envelopes for the first hundred readers.

Definitely tomorrow! Update at six!!!!