Chapter 54

The afternoon sun was exceptionally scorching, and the fishy stench on his fingertips was difficult to wipe away. In the blink of an eye, he was all alone. An Zimo pursed his lips, put his mask back on, and walked home alone.

"Momo, why are you only coming back now? I was just about to go out..." An Xiang's voice stopped abruptly as she immediately noticed the new wound under her son's eyelid.

She frowned and took a few steps closer. Besides the wound, there was a faint stench of decay, like rotting flesh.

"Momo, did you get into a fight again?"

"No." An Zimo avoided eye contact. "I fell."

"Nonsense, that wound looks like it was from being beaten up." An Xiang didn't call her out on it, but took two steps closer. "Take off your mask, let Mommy see." As she spoke, she pulled off the mask that was in the way, and now she could see the full view of his teeth. Her forehead twitched, and her mind went blank for a few seconds. Then she immediately suspected that her son might have been bullied by his classmates because of his teeth.

"It's alright," An Xiang said with a pained expression, "She's cute like this too."

An Zimo remained unmoved, his expression somber, as he walked past her to the bathroom, repeatedly washing his blood-stained hands.

His gloomy expression betrayed him; it wasn't just that he had been bullied, something else must have happened.

An Xiang over cautiously and asked, "What's wrong? Did you have a bad day at kindergarten?"

An Zimo wasn't very good at talking, and in the past he would have gone straight back to his room. However, facing An Xiang's concerned gaze, he stopped for the first time and felt a desire to confide in her.

He didn't know how to start the conversation, having never shared his daily experiences with anyone before. His lips moved for a long time, but he couldn't utter a single word. An Xiang was very patient, quietly giving him time to prepare.

"On our way back, we encountered an injured sparrow. It was dying, Pei Nuo asked me to save it."

An Xiang slowly squatted down, looking him straight in the eye. "And then?"

"I strangled it because I felt that was the best way to save it."

When he said this, An Zimo's eyes were filled with calmness.

He never felt he had done anything wrong. Compared to the hypocritical and useless kindness of humans, his act of freeing it, though a bit rough, was the most useful. If the sparrow could talk, it would thank him instead of asking Pei Nuo to take it to the hospital.

Pei Nuo didn't understand and threw stones at me.

An Xiang led her son to sit on the sofa and carefully cleaned the wounds on his face with medical cotton swabs.

He was very well-behaved, remaining motionless and quietly gazing at An Xiang's face.

An Zimo originally thought that An Xiang would get angry when she heard these words, or beat him up again like before. After all, according to their beliefs, his behavior today was considered animal abuse and he should be severely disciplined by the adults.

But An Xiang not.

She gently applied the medicine to him throughout the process, her eyes seemingly glowing with moonlight, An Zimo couldn't help but stare into those eyes.

"Will you be angry?" he couldn't help but ask.

"Why are you angry?" An Xiang stop, so she looked up and looked back.

I killed a sparrow.

"Does Momo think she did something wrong, or something right?" An Xiang gently stroked the soft hair in front of her.

I did nothing wrong.

Those three words revealed the respondent's stubbornness.

An Xiang and said, "Then Nuo Nuo also feels she did nothing wrong. You each made your own choices."

He frowned, still unable to agree.

An Zimo felt that his small act of kindness could hardly be called kindness; in fact, it was a form of harm to that life. He felt the same way about humans. In his previous life, he felt that he was terminally ill and beyond cure, and all the comfort and help from outsiders only added to his suffering.

Therefore, he understood himself and chose to save himself.

"I checked, the sparrow's internal organs are shattered. Even if I don't do anything, it will only live for another ten minutes or so, and it might get eaten by cats or dogs if things get any more brutal. Rather than letting them struggle for those extra ten minutes, it's better to end it sooner. Pei Nuo doesn't understand because she's too young, so I won't blame her."

It's ridiculous that children of this age tend to blindly follow kindness.

An Zimo touched the cut on his face caused by a pebble. Even though he couldn't feel the pain, he was still annoyed by it.

"Do you know what Pei Nuo is thinking?"

"I have no idea."

An Xiang, "If you save it, it will surely live."

"Impossible. There's a lack of professional avian doctors in China. Even if we found one, they couldn't save it."

He always analyzes the right and wrong of events from a very rational perspective, and then gives the result. Perhaps this is what makes An Zimo different from other children.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not a good thing either.

An Xiang pursed her lips, her voice soft and slow, "Zimo, people always habitually believe in miracles."

"You crushed a sparrow, which was also what she saw as a possible hope, that's why she was angry, because you extinguished her hope." As she spoke, An Xiang stroked his hair again, "But it was definitely wrong of her to hit you."

An Zimo frowned slightly and remained silent. In the fourteen years he had lived, no one had ever told him about miracles or hope; such words were too fantastical and too illogical. However, these words had indeed influenced his worldview over the years.

An Zimo's eyelashes trembled as she cautiously glanced at An Xiang's face.

She didn't blame him, nor did she resort to corporal punishment like his mother had. She genuinely listened to his thoughts and tried to understand his feelings.

It's a strange feeling; it makes you feel uncomfortable from either side.

An Zimo twisted his neck uncomfortably a couple of times, when he suddenly caught a whiff of a sweet, metallic scent of blood. The An Zimo instantly drew him up to look.

An Xiang then pricked her finger with a syringe, squeezing out two drops of blood, and said, "Here."

An Zimo tensed up, as if facing a formidable enemy. "No!"

"New teeth will retract automatically after tasting blood, and human blood helps damaged teeth heal on their own. Let's wait and see how it grows back. If it's still like this, we'll go to the dentist. With technology so advanced these days, your teeth are definitely fine."

This is extremely rare.

An Xiang had never seen a Vampire with teeth so flat, as if they'd been ground down by a dwarf! In their race, such teeth would be a laughingstock; blunt teeth were like impotence in men. Her son was a boy, and quite handsome at that, so she had to find a way to fix this flaw.

Generally, Vampire cubs will regain their teeth as long as they replenish their blood and have sufficient nutrition. However, the son is no ordinary person...

Of course, she didn't dislike her son; she was just worried that he wouldn't be able to find a wife when he grew up, and if he couldn't, he might have to marry someone else!

An Xiang's inner thoughts were incredibly joyful, while An Zimo's expression changed repeatedly. Finally, he lowered his eyes, looking at the two drops of blood with a mixture of repulsion and curiosity.

"It's alright, drink up. Your Uncle Pei has already had some."

It would have been better if he hadn't said anything, because once he did, An Zimo got even angrier.

"I won't drink it, it's disgusting." An Zimo jumped off the sofa and headed towards the room.

"It's not disgusting, Mommy washed it! It's very sweet!" An Xiang forcefully grab her son by the back of his collar and shoved her fingers into his mouth without saying a word.

An Zimo let out a whimper, his body trying to resist, but his brain gave the order first. His flat teeth bit down on his finger, a few drops of blood touching the tip of his teeth. His fangs, tasting human blood for the first time, slowly retracted and returned to normal.

His pupils suddenly contracted, and he touched inside in disbelief.

--It shrank back.

--How come these teeth retract automatically?!

An Zimo's worldview was once again severely impacted.

The reaction on her son's face was so funny that An Xiang suddenly had a whim to draw a story about a little Vampire's daily life, with her son as the main character. Speaking of this, she realized that since bringing her son back to her side, she hadn't logged into her personal Hui Man account for a long time, and apart from drawing some simple sketches for the shop, she hadn't picked up a pen again.

She used to make a living by collecting rent and drawing comics, but now that she has enough money and owns a small shop, she doesn't need to rush around like before.

An Xiang about it carefully for a while. The work at the milk tea shop wasn't very busy, and her son was in kindergarten. The free time was just right for her to continue drawing comics. Even if she didn't earn much, it was still a very happy thing.

An Xiang more and more and felt it was feasible. She hurriedly returned to her room, took out her neglected graphics tablet, turned on the computer, and began designing her son's initial image.

Actually, she drew many animal-like sons for the milk tea shop's business cards, but they were all too sloppy. Since she was going to make comics, she naturally had to be more serious.

"What are you doing?" An Zimo followed him in.

Without looking up, An Xiang said, "I want to draw my son."

"... ha?"

An Xiang, with a pen in her mouth and bright eyes, looked at him and said, "I've already thought of a name: ' The Cat Mom’s Tiger Son '."

"...??"

What the hell?

An Zimo glanced at the graphics tablet, then scoffed dismissively at the haphazard lines. "You should just draw business cards. Who would like something with such kindergarten-level lines?"

An Xiang had been hurt since childhood, so she probably didn't care. She waved her hand to send her son out of the study and focused on designing the character.

She had already come up with the storyline: Cat Mom brings home a fierce Little Tiger, and the story revolves around the daily life of the Cat Mom and the Little Tiger, which is also her daily life with An Zimo. This way, when she dies and returns to her original body, she can still recognize her son through comics, which would be a good piece of evidence.

and.

An Xiang desperately wanted to use her limited talents to record her son's growth.

The character design was quickly finalized, and she then drew another picture: a large tiger carrying Cat Mom under a tree. After coloring it, An Xiang to post this picture on Hui Man website and her personal Weibo.

She only has 20,000 to 30,000 followers, which isn't a lot. Because she hasn't taken on any new projects or been active for several months, most of her followers have left.

The new comic didn't make much of a splash, and An Xiang wasn't interested in the data either. After uploading it, she shook her sore wrists, shut down the computer, and got up to leave the study.

"Tsk, I knew nobody would watch."

An Zimo nestled on the sofa, clutching her tablet. The screen displayed her personal homepage.

[Think Think Catfish: QWQ Long time no see! Catfish has a new work! Hope you'll support it, muah!]

An Xiang froze on the spot, a surge of heat rushing to the top of her head.

"What does QWQ mean?" An Zimo looked at her and read the emoticon aloud in English without any expression.

An Xiang, her face flushed and neck red, lunged forward and snatched the tablet into her arms, holding it tightly, her eyes red with anger. "What are you doing!"

An Zimo calmly replied, "Browsing Weibo."

"What are you doing on Weibo, you little kid! How did you know my account?!"

An Zimo: "You've linked your Weibo account to the mini-program in the 360 webpage sidebar. You can see it by clicking on it."

Her face was pale, and her lips trembled as she stammered, "You... you still know my password?"

An Zimo scoffed dismissively. "If you think numbers like 666888 are a password."

"..."

He then asked, "So what does QWQ mean?"

"..."

※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※

An Xiang: You're not human, you're a real dog QAQ

An Zimo: What does QAQ mean?

***

She does have a cleavage, you know! Don't look down on her!!!!!

Two hundred yuan in red envelopes.