Chapter 42

After returning home, An Xiang put a bandage over Pei Yan's scraped skin. Looking at the cartoon-patterned bandage, Pei Yan could not help recalling An Xiang's overly gentle expression.

Covering his hand, he went up to An Zimo. Completely unconcerned by An Zimo's coldness and annoyance, he said to himself, "For your mommy's sake, I won't hold it against you." The next second, he took out his toy and generously held it out to An Zimo. "Here, let's play together."

It was a toy car that could transform. He had just scavenged it from Fu Ze that afternoon, and he was only letting An Zimo play with it for An Xiang's sake.

An Zimo ignored him completely, turning to the kitchen to retrieve the beef bone he used for teething. Hugging it in his arms, he gnawed away enthusiastically.

"An Zimo, are you teething too?" Pei Yan leaned his head closer and asked curiously.

That question instantly caught An Zimo's attention.

"Look, look, I'm teething too." Pei Yan opened his mouth and showed him his upper teeth. "The dentist said my fangs are growing slower than other vampires my age. I need more vitamins, and he said type A blood is best."

Fangs?

Other vampires his age??

Who the hell used human blood as a vitamin supplement?!

Too stunned to react, An Zimo stopped gnawing and stared blankly at Pei Yan's teeth, unable to say a word.

Only a few days had passed since that tooth had been knocked out, but An Zimo could clearly see that a new tooth had begun to emerge from the gap. Its tip was sharp, like an animal's canine tooth.

No, something was wrong.

An indescribable panic filled his heart, and cold sweat poured out all over him.

An Zimo reached into his mouth and was shocked to find that the tooth he had lost not long ago had truly grown back a little!

"The blood pudding I had at noon was type A blood, but rare blood tastes better..." Pei Yan smacked his lips. "Oh, and Chongqing people's blood tastes good too. It's spicy, but it gives you heatiness easily. Last time I drank some, I got ulcers all over my mouth."

The conversation was quietly heading in a bizarre direction.

An Zimo threw away the beef bone and rushed into the study, locking himself inside.

"Momo?"

Looking flustered, An Xiang poked half her head out from the kitchen. Frowning, she followed after him.

"Momo, you're not allowed to stay in your room by yourself."

There was no sound from inside for a long while. Just as An Xiang was about to find the key and open the door, An Zimo's muffled voice came through the door. "I'm fine. I just want to be alone for a while."

An Xiang turned to look at Pei Yan and suddenly understood.

The child had probably gotten into another fight with someone.

"Then you need to come out in five minutes, okay? Otherwise, I'm coming in."

"Got it!"

There did not seem to be anything wrong with him, so An Xiang relaxed and turned back toward the kitchen to continue cooking.

An Zimo carried his laptop to the floor. His expression was frozen as he easily cracked the password, opened the browser, and typed in the words "vampire."

An Zimo gulped down a mouthful of saliva and nervously waited for the results.

He refused to believe this world could be so ridiculous. How could something like vampires, which only existed in movies, possibly live in reality?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible!

The page finished loading, and the search results appeared before him.

[Vampires emerged after humans and are endangered...]

[The government has established a special regulatory department for vampires...]

[Three years ago, a mixed-blood individual surnamed Zhao, diagnosed with mental illness, escaped from a hospital. He has currently harmed three humans. Be sure to lock all doors and windows...]

[An Family: The oldest purebloods.]

[...]

An Zimo's breathing became ragged, and beads of sweat the size of beans rolled down his forehead.

He blinked hard, wanting to remind himself that it might be a visual error. Yet the hundred pages of results told him that this was not a joke.

—Vampires... really existed.

An Zimo collapsed onto the floor. Slowly turning around, he saw himself in the mirror: pale-faced, drenched in sweat, with terror and confusion appearing in his eyes for the first time.

This face was exactly the same as his face in his previous life.

But reality told him that he had changed worlds, changed mommies, and perhaps even changed fathers. Today, reality had told him again that he might not even be human!!

No, impossible.

It could not possibly be this absurd!

There had to be... there had to be some trace of similarity.

An Zimo wiped his face and left the study. At some point, Pei Chen had brought Pei Yan and Pei Nuo home. An Xiang was busy in the kitchen and had not noticed him for the moment.

He went to his room, took a bank card from inside one of the stuffed animals, then put on his backpack and hat before sneaking out of the house.

An Zimo first withdrew some cash from an ATM, then hailed a taxi and got in.

The driver was quite surprised to see that he was alone. "Little guy, where are your mom and dad?"

Without the slightest panic, An Zimo said calmly, "My parents went to my brother's place. I'm going to find them now."

"You're all by yourself?"

"Mm." An Zimo's eyes flickered. "My dad said I could take a taxi to find them after school." As he spoke, he took out the phone watch Pei Yizhou had given him yesterday and entered Pei Chen's number.

He turned on speakerphone and raised the volume. Pei Chen's voice came through clearly.

"Hello? Who is this?"

An Zimo spoke into the watch. "Brother, I'm going over to find you by myself now."

Pei Chen was doing homework and happened to have two questions he could not solve. Without suspecting anything, he said, "Sure, come over now."

"Mm." He hung up and looked at the driver again. "Uncle, you heard that too. My brother is waiting for me. Please take me there now."

"Alright." The driver finally put away his lingering doubts and started the engine. "Little guy, tell me where you're going."

An Zimo calmly gave an address. "Splendid Garden."

The driver stepped on the gas and headed straight for the destination.

"Your parents are really something, letting such a young child go out alone."

An Zimo lowered his eyes and turned off the watch. "My sister-in-law just gave birth. They don't have time to take care of me."

The driver flashed a wide grin. "What a sensible kid."

Half an hour later, the driver stopped at the entrance to Splendid Garden. After An Zimo paid, he happened to see a young man and woman standing outside. He smiled and waved at them, casually shoved the tracking watch into a gap in the seat, then excitedly ran out of the car.

Only after seeing him safely reach the young couple did the driver finally leave.

As the sound of the engine faded farther away, the smile on An Zimo's face disappeared as well. He quickly ran through the entrance, his calm eyes sweeping over every blade of grass, every brick and tile around him. The anxiety in his heart instantly turned to ashes when he saw the sight before him.

This was a garden.

Fountains, trees, elderly people taking walks.

An Zimo walked farther inside in a daze.

In his previous life, he had lived here with his mother. He could even clearly remember the place where he had died.

But...

It was all gone.

The residential complex called Splendid Garden had truly become a garden.

An Zimo sat amid the grass, plucked a flower, and stared at it in his palm.

He had thought something would surely remain, but there was nothing. The intersecting parallel worlds had erased every building and memory from his previous life. His mother was no longer his mother; he was no longer himself.

Should he be happy? He was not happy.

Should he be sad? He was not sad either.

He simply did not know how to continue living from now on.

In his previous life, he had been a puppet in his mother's hands. In fourteen short years, he had never enjoyed freedom; now that the shackles had broken, what he felt was not relief but confusion toward this unknown world.

He was not human, and naturally he did not want to become some vampire. He also did not know how to face that face identical to his mother's in the future.

An Zimo could not find an answer. The helplessness pressing down in his heart made it hard for him to breathe.

He curled deeply into the shadow beneath a tree, motionless like a stone statue.

Only after finishing dinner did An Xiang realize that An Zimo was not home. The apartment's security door was ajar, and the little backpack that had been on the sofa was gone.

She searched every room first. Only after finding no one did she knock on the neighboring door.

"Xiangxiang!" Pei Nuo, who opened the door, lifted her head and called sweetly.

An Xiang craned her head inside and asked, "Has Zimo come to your house?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Pei Chen came out of the study. "Xiangxiang, are you looking for Zimo?"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask whether he came to your house."

Pei Chen scratched the back of his head in confusion. "That kid called me half an hour ago and said he was coming over, but I finished my homework and still haven't seen him. What, isn't he at home?"

Those words made An Xiang's face turn pale. A bad feeling made every muscle in her body tense.

She ran back inside, grabbed her phone, and opened a tracking app with trembling fingers. A red dot kept flashing across the map, covering quite a few locations in less than an hour.

"Is this Zimo's location?" Pei Chen walked in.

An Xiang nodded, her vision swimming.

Pei Chen took two looks and said, "There's no way he could have gone that far on foot. He probably threw the watch into someone else's car."

An Xiang could not take in his words. Her ears buzzed.

She could not understand why An Zimo had suddenly run away from home. Did he simply hate her? Or did he not want to live with her at all? But no matter the reason, it could not justify him leaving home on his own.

"Xiangxiang, don't panic. The watch is probably still in the car. I'll contact the owner right away and see if they know where Zimo went."

The still-immature Pei Chen displayed a reliability far beyond his years at that moment.

He temporarily calmed An Xiang, then turned to contact Pei Yizhou. Pei Yizhou had detailed tracking information for all the children and could quickly locate the car owner.

After several phone calls, they confirmed the address.

"The driver said An Zimo went to Splendid Garden. He also said Zimo was looking for his parents. Since Zimo had spoken to me on the phone, the driver didn't suspect anything." Pei Chen fiercely raked his hands through his hair, unable to stop blaming himself. How could he have known that An Zimo had used him as a cover? No wonder that little bastard, who thought so highly of himself, had suddenly called him brother.

"Splendid Garden?" An Xiang's cheeks were pale. "What would Zimo be doing there?"

Splendid Garden was far from where they lived. An Xiang found it hard to believe that a child barely over three years old had secretly left home, deliberately lied, and gone to such an unfamiliar place he had never visited before.

Now that she knew the location, An Xiang could no longer sit still. She grabbed the essentials and rushed outside in a panic.

Pei Chen reacted quickly and grabbed her arm. "Xiangxiang, don't panic. My great-grandfather has already sent people over. He said he'll be back soon and told us to wait here first."

She only had one son. How could she not panic?

An Xiang ignored his advice, shook off Pei Chen's hand, and rushed into the elevator with her things. Her figure vanished in an instant.

"Xiangxiang, don't leave yet!" Pei Chen anxiously wanted to follow her, but when he remembered his younger brother and sister, he immediately stopped. He stomped his feet twice in the direction she had gone.

That little bastard An Zimo! He really knew how to cause trouble!!