Chapter 9

An Zimo's fingers tightened around the cola bottle as he began rationally analyzing what [Smells so good] and [Want to eat] meant. From a normal perspective, it probably wasn't the kind of desire to eat food, but a man's desire to conquer a beautiful woman.

His conclusion-this man really was no good!!

Pervert!

Low-life!

Flirting right in front of a child!

An Zimo set down his cola, shifted off his chair, and stood in front of An Xiang, staring at her expressionlessly.

"Have you had enough to eat, Momo?"

"Yes." An Zimo shot Xu Chuan a vicious look, his disgust written all over his face.

"Then let's go home." An Xiang gathered their things without talking much more to Xu Chuan, then took An Zimo's hand and walked out of the shop.

The sky had cleared, and An Xiang easily hailed a taxi.

She gently rested her arm on An Zimo's shoulder and said, "If you meet someone like that again, remember to shout loudly for Mommy." Still shaken, An Xiang added, "People like that are probably traffickers who abduct children. They're very dangerous."

An Zimo pursed his lips, shook off An Xiang's arm, and scooted aside, leaving a wide gap between them.

Faced with her son's distance, An Xiang felt somewhat dejected, but she soon rallied. It was normal for her son not to be close to her. After all, he had been sent away just days after being born, and there was something wrong with his brain, too...

Thinking of An Zimo's physical condition, An Xiang grew deeply discouraged.

With his condition, even attending kindergarten might be difficult. He might even get bullied...

As her thoughts wandered, the taxi stopped in North City District.

Three years later, the neighborhood looked even more desolate. The streets were disorderly, weeds grew everywhere, and untended trees grew wild. The residential complex stood amid it all, with an enormous Ferris wheel behind it. Having long been abandoned, however, it looked anything but romantic. Instead, it felt overwhelmingly oppressive.

Looking at the scene before him, which resembled a horror movie, An Zimo's eyes slowly widened, and his mouth involuntarily fell slightly open.

"Momo, we're home! Why have you stopped walking?"

This... was home?

Facing the gloomy building before him, An Zimo felt suffocated.

He clearly remembered them living in the most prosperous part of the city in his previous life. How had their home suddenly changed after his reincarnation? He understood now. This woman must have fallen on hard times because he wasn't making money for her.

"Momo?" Seeing that he still wasn't moving, An Xiang walked over. "Momo, do you want Mommy to carry you?"

"..." Like hell I wanted you to carry me.

An Zimo took a deep breath, forcibly banished countless horrifying imaginings from his mind, and followed An Xiang closely into the complex.

An Xiang noticed her son's misgivings and said as they walked, "Actually, it only looks bad on the outside. The interior is decorated quite nicely?"

"..." Really? I didn't believe it.

"Look, there's even an amusement park behind it. If you like, Mommy can take you there tonight."

Once inside the complex, they could see the amusement park more clearly.

The enormous puppy statue in front of its gates had long since lost its paint to wind and rain. One of its eyeballs had fallen who knew where, and its smile was sinister and eerie.

For some inexplicable reason, An Zimo felt a chill down his spine. A cold current shot from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head. He shuddered, involuntarily quickened his pace, and hurried after An Xiang into the residential building.

The stairwell was dark, and there was no elevator. It was probably so deserted that nobody even came to put up little advertisements.

An Xiang lived on the first floor. She climbed the steps and took out her key to open the door, while An Zimo stood beside her, secretly surveying their surroundings.

Upstairs was dark and silent, and the neighboring apartment didn't look occupied either. Despite the broad daylight, the entire building showed no signs of anyone living there.

"Momo, are you looking to see whether anyone lives here?"

An Zimo said nothing.

An Xiang answered her own question. "Almost everyone in this building has moved away. Now it's just my household."

"...?"

"There were originally six other households, but a year ago, the man upstairs murdered someone and hid the body. All the neighbors who found out moved away."

"...????"

"Only one person died. What a fuss."

"..."

"..."

An Xiang muttered indifferently, turned the lock with a click, and pushed the door open. "Come in, Momo! This will be our home from now on!"

An Zimo had no expectations for this so-called home. He walked into the entryway with a wooden expression, lifted his little head, and casually looked around.

How should he put it?

This simply wasn't a place for the living.

The decor and furniture were Gothic, with inverted crosses hanging on the walls and wall lamps made from candles. Even the carpet had a vintage feel.

"Momo, this is your room." An Xiang led An Xiang to the guest room.

The children's room had only been finished a few days earlier. She had originally wanted to decorate it in the same style as the living room, but the system had firmly refused, claiming that a dark aesthetic was unsuitable for a child's physical and mental health. Though An Xiang found it regrettable, she had to give up for her child's sake.

She had painted the walls sky blue. The crib in the center was full of childlike charm, and beside it sat a sofa covered in plush toys.

It was a room any child would like, but An Zimo saw only stupidity and childishness.

Like hell I'd sleep in a crib.

Like hell I'd play with dolls.

Like hell I liked blue.

Ridiculous, naive, stupid, childish.

An Zimo put down his little backpack expressionlessly. Despite his disdain, he didn't complain. After all, he would escape sooner or later. This room was merely a temporary refuge for him, and its decor had nothing to do with him.

Seeing no sign of rejection from An Zimo, An Xiang couldn't help brightening. "I thought you might not like this style."

I didn't like it to begin with.

"Then look around, Momo. Mommy is going to tidy up the house." An Xiang reached the doorway, then stopped and looked back. "Oh, and whatever you do, don't go into the basement." A light above the stairs was broken, and one of the wooden steps was loose. She still hadn't found time to repair them. She was afraid An Zimo wouldn't be able to see where he was going. If he fell and got hurt, that would be trouble.

After giving her warning, An Xiang picked up a cloth and carefully wiped down every table and corner of the room.

Time gradually passed. An Xiang's warning had had no effect whatsoever. Instead, it had stirred a trace of curiosity in An Zimo's heart.

Why wouldn't she let me go into the basement?

What unspeakable thing was in there?

An Zimo's clever, agile mind worked furiously, his gaze following An Xiang's movements. Once she went outside to take out the trash, he got up without hesitation and headed straight for the basement.

A long flight of stairs led to the basement. The light seemed broken; no matter how An Zimo pressed the switch, nothing happened.

Fortunately, it was daytime. The light was merely dim, not bad enough to affect visibility.

On his two short, thin legs, An Zimo carefully stepped over one stair after another.

Crack.

His shoe suddenly caught a raised piece of wood. He stumbled, and his body instantly tumbled down the stairs.

An Zimo couldn't feel pain. He merely felt unlucky.

Cursing, he climbed up from the floor, haphazardly patted the legs of his trousers with his little hands, then raised his hand. An enormous coffin came into view without warning.

An Zimo's breath caught, and his little body froze completely before the coffin.

Who would put a coffin in their basement for no reason?

On closer inspection, the coffin had been polished until it gleamed. Clearly, someone had maintained it over a long period.

[Whatever you do, don't go into the basement.]

An Xiang's gentle warning seemed to sound right beside his ear.

[Only one person died. What a fuss.]

Only-one person had died.

One person.

Following the logical emphasis of that statement, it meant An Xiang had seen two dead people. No, perhaps three.

Thinking about it carefully, this place was practically a natural sanctuary for a serial killer!

An Xiang's calm response to the murder and the coffin before him both told him something was wrong. Combined with his memories of his previous life, he had no doubt that An Xiang was capable of murder.

After all, his mother really had threatened him with a knife before.

She would threaten even her own son, so why would she care about anyone else's life?

Perhaps this coffin had been prepared for me.

She thought I was a burden, so she might as well finish me off early.

An Zimo closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they held nothing but cold indifference.

-In that case, I might as well strike first.

He quickly ran back to his room, shut the door firmly, and curled up in a corner to think seriously about how to carry it out.

With his current body, eliminating An Xiang was simply impossible. However weak his enemy was, she was still an adult. Acting rashly would only get him discovered and killed instead.

An Zimo buried his entire head between his knees.

He couldn't be impulsive. He needed to calmly think of a plan.

If... if An Xiang really was a criminal, then that basement and that coffin would definitely contain evidence of her crimes. Next, all I needed to do was find a chance to sneak inside, gather the evidence, and hand it over to the police. Then I could easily get rid of An Xiang.

Decided!

Tonight, once An Xiang fell asleep, I would act!!

"Momo, what would you like for dinner?"

The door opened, and An Xiang poked her head inside.

Faced with that foolishly smiling face, An Zimo sneered inwardly. He had already seen this person's true colors and understood everything before him. Next, he only needed to ruthlessly expose her disguise and make sure she could never smile again!

"Momo, if you don't want to talk to Mommy, you can write it down." An Xiang specially found paper money and placed it on the table. A moment later, she fell silent again and sighed regretfully. "Oh, right. Momo doesn't seem to know how to write yet."

She scratched her head. "Then I'll cook some noodles. Something light would be good for dinner." Having decided, she went to the kitchen to prepare their meal.

Mother and son spent a quiet, utterly ordinary evening together.

An Xiang habitually watched a movie after dinner, such as "Blood-Red Night of Terror," "The Texas Cannibal," or "Twenty Days of Terror." These were all romantic movies featuring vampires as protagonists. The only thing that displeased An Xiang was that many of them ended with the vampires' defeat.

She cut up some fruit and put it on the coffee table, planning to eat while watching. Seeing An Zimo sitting on the sofa with no intention of leaving, her eyes lit up. "Do you want to watch a movie with Mommy?"

This time, An Zimo answered, "Yes." He needed to wait for An Xiang to return to her room and sleep, then go to the basement to gather evidence.

"Then which movie would you like to watch?" An Xiang picked up the remote and displayed all the movies she had purchased, scrolling through them page by page for An Zimo to choose.

"'Fierce Ghosts: A Night of Terror,' 'Blood-Red Wedding,' 'Have You Seen My Head?' I haven't watched any of these. Which one interests you, Momo?" It was the first time anyone had watched a movie with An Xiang, and she was indescribably excited and happy. She introduced them one by one as though showing off treasures. Without instruction from the system, she had no idea these R18 movies were unsuitable for children.

"..." An Zimo's face was blank. Couldn't this woman put on something normal for children, like "Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf," "Little Baby Mary," "Peppa Pig," or "Divine Armored Heroes"?

Forget it.

Why expect basic standards from a criminal suspect?

An Zimo pointed at random. "'Have You Seen My Head?'" This one was the longest, and its title sounded like a lousy movie, too. He believed she would get sleepy after watching for a while. Once she grew drowsy and went back to her room to sleep, he would begin his operation.

"All right. If my son wants to watch the head movie, we'll watch the head movie." Completely unaware of her son's thoughts, An Xiang happily agreed. She got up, took a tub of popcorn from the refrigerator, removed her shoes, sat cross-legged on the sofa, and pressed play.

Unexpectedly, this wasn't a bloody, violent horror movie, but a heartwarming antiwar film masquerading as one.

The story mainly followed a soldier who parted from his wife and child to fight in World War II. He was decapitated during the war and became a restless ghost, dragging his incomplete body around as he desperately searched for his head. In the blink of an eye, seventy years passed...

Finally, the headless ghost met the main characters, who made a living exorcising ghosts.

"Sir, why do you keep looking for your head?"

"Because I need my eyes and my lips."

"Why?"

"Because my eyes want to see my wife, and my lips want to kiss her cheeks again. Oh, and Danny. He's my son."

Beneath the city's neon lights, the headless ghost in military uniform was gentlemanly and courteous, dissolving the horror of the story's first half.

An Xiang stuffed popcorn into her mouth, unable to stop herself from sobbing.

An Zimo frowned at the movie, then looked at the tear-streaked An Xiang beside him. His brow furrowed even more deeply.

This? This? This? What was there to cry about in this?

Human joys and sorrows weren't shared. An Zimo merely found her noisy.

"Why aren't you asleep yet?" The hour hand already pointed to ten, and An Zimo felt weariness creeping through his body.

An Xiang pulled out a tissue and rubbed her nose, gazing at An Zimo with reddened eyes.

After several seconds of silence, she tapped her head in sudden realization. "Oh! I forgot babies need to go to bed early."

An Zimo: "..." Idiot.

An Xiang hurriedly switched off the television, carried him back to his room, and gently placed him in the crib.

An Zimo utterly despised the crib with its guardrails, but for the sake of his grand plan, he could only endure it for now.

A little rabbit lamp glowed beside the bed, making the entire children's room feel gentler.

Just as An Xiang was about to close the door and leave, she stopped.

Seeing that she wasn't leaving, An Zimo asked impatiently, "What?"

An Xiang scratched her cheek, blinked, and returned to the bedside. She bent down and pressed a warm kiss to his forehead. "Good night, son."

Boom-!

An Zimo's head exploded.

His eyes were shocked, and his little hands gripped the quilt tightly as he remained unresponsive. All sorts of chaotic thoughts whirled furiously through his mind.

I had been kissed by a criminal suspect who might have eaten human flesh.

I was dirty.

I was no longer a clean baby.

There might even be DNA on my forehead. I couldn't wipe it off-it was evidence. Later, I would have it tested and get this vicious woman arrested.

A good night was a good night. Why did she have to kiss me? There had to be a conspiracy behind this!

An Zimo frantically turned Mind Reading's volume up to maximum. An Xiang's inner voice nearly deafened him.

[I learned that from the television. I wonder if I did it right.]

[Should I kiss a little farther down?]

[Mm!! I need to keep improving tomorrow!]

Her inner voice fell silent, and An Xiang left the room.

The little rabbit lamp swayed, and the innocent smile on the rabbit's face seemed to mock his suspicions.

An Zimo turned over, his fingers about to touch his forehead. After thinking for a long while, he lowered them again. His formerly sleepy mind had become clear because of that perfectly ordinary good-night kiss. He couldn't describe what he felt. It was just... his mother would never love him.

She didn't love him.

All along, he had relied on this belief to keep himself alive.

An Zimo closed his eyes.

It was decided. Tonight, he would tear through her disguise and expose her true colors!!!

The hour hand ticked around and around. When the clock struck one, An Zimo threw back the covers and climbed out of his crib. Without shoes on, his little feet made no sound against the floor.

An Zimo picked up the pen and paper An Xiang had left in the room that day and wrote a letter in Morse code. If anything really did happen to him, this encrypted letter would be evidence for the police to solve the case.

He really was a genius.

If he hadn't been so smart, he might have died at An Xiang's hands long ago.

An Zimo hid the letter, stood up, and carefully pushed the door open to leave. The living room was pitch-black. He felt around on the table for the flashlight and twisted it on, focusing its beam entirely on the door to the basement. An Zimo pursed his lips in thought, then took a folding fruit knife from the fruit basket and tucked it into the back of his pants.

With his preparations complete, An Zimo took a deep breath and walked up to the door.

He had thought it all through. The moment he discovered anything unusual, he would use the living room landline to call the police. There was no way An Xiang could destroy the evidence in such a short time.

An Zimo tightened his grip on the flashlight and pushed open the tightly shut door before him, extremely slowly and carefully.

He had thought she might have locked it, but unexpectedly, she hadn't. Her carelessness had helped him instead.

An Zimo turned the flashlight to its dimmest setting and descended the stairs one step at a time. This time, he deliberately avoided the broken piece of wood and didn't foolishly trip again.

He made it down the stairs, and the coffin was now within reach.

An Zimo tiptoed over. Facing the enormous coffin, he finally realized the problem he was about to encounter.

It was too tall.

At his current height, he couldn't climb up.

Damn it.

If he couldn't climb up, he wouldn't be able to see what was inside. Forget gathering evidence-An Xiang would probably discover him and finish him off while she was at it.

An Zimo gritted his teeth in frustration, then spotted a chair nearby out of the corner of his eye.

Without hesitation, he put the flashlight on the floor, carefully moved the chair over to the coffin, then clambered onto it using both his hands and feet.

Steady breathing came from inside the coffin.

An Zimo's breath caught.

Sure enough, there really was someone inside the coffin!!!

※※※※※※※※※※

An Xiang: Hooray! Didn't expect that, did you! It's me!

An Zimo: Only a ghost would like rag dolls!

Mom: Actually, you're half a ghost.

Momo: ???

Momo suffered too great a blow in his previous life, so his mind isn't quite normal in this life either _(:з"∠)_. Although An Xiang wants to be a good mommy, she still thinks like a vampire, so don't judge these two by conventional thinking.

Jin Cheng went really long today!!!!

Random red packets.