Mom's Anniversary 2

When "Mom" turned her scrutinizing gaze on him, Lu Mi looked down and silently cursed: he was still holding the shard of the vase!

Just then, the girl stepped forward and said firmly, "Mom, it wasn't him. I can vouch for him."

"Mom" stretched her mouth into a grin, revealing sinister white teeth, and raised her scissors.

Snip, snip.

"Who is the naughty child?"

She approached step by step and touched Lu Mi's forehead. The icy contact made him shudder.

"Child, did you break the vase?"

After a series of agonized screams, the "naughty child" lay sprawled on the carpet. He dipped his finger into his empty mouth and wrote several blood-red words: listen to Mom.

"That's better. Just a little punishment. Make sure you remember your lesson."

"Mom" held bloody scissors in her left hand and a freshly severed tongue in her right.

"I just bought a narrow-necked vase for the anniversary. Now I have a ribbon to decorate it with."

Everyone watched her retreating figure in horror. Blood dripped from the tongue all along the way.

If breaking a vase brought this kind of punishment, then anything worse...

"All right, stop staring," the young man reminded them. "Hurry up and find your rooms, before she accuses you of not going to bed on time."

Someone asked, "Brother Xu, can two people sleep together? That woman said she'd come tuck us in tonight. We could look out for each other."

The others looked at him expectantly, too.

It wasn't as though the burly man hadn't fought back. Yet a grown man that strong had been restrained with ease and had his tongue cut out.

The young man they called Brother Xu shook his head. "There's just one rule: you can only sleep in your own room."

Lu Mi gazed at the man writhing in agony on the carpet and fell into thought. "Mom" had touched each of their foreheads and asked the same question.

After he answered no, "Mom" had slowly lowered her hand.

The man had copied his tone and expression when answering, only to be pinned down on the spot and have his tongue cut out.

Could touching their foreheads be how "Mom" checked whether they were lying?

Suddenly, he felt someone tugging on his clothes.

"Scared?" The girl pulled him along as they followed the others upstairs. "This wasn't even that bad, though it's still quite a shock for a newcomer."

Lu Mi didn't answer her question. Instead, he asked, "To survive here, do we just have to do what that woman says?"

"Thanks for what you did today." The girl stopped and raised the arm with the bracelet on it. "I'll tell you a few things tomorrow, but that depends on whether you survive tonight."

She glanced back at Lu Mi, said, "Good luck," and entered a room.

Lu Mi walked over and saw a nameplate hanging on the door, bearing the girl's name in large letters: Ning Zhuangzhuang.

By the time the hallway was nearly deserted, Lu Mi found his room at the far end.

Staring at his own nameplate on the door, he felt a strange unease. Was his name really Lu Mi?

He tried to recall what had happened before he appeared here, but remembered nothing. Only the pain returned, as though something were deliberately stopping him from remembering.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead and gave up for the moment. He pushed open the door and entered a small room with old furnishings.

He went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror. He wore a white crew-neck shirt and a black jacket, both remarkably new.

His gaze moved upward, and he froze.

His face was as delicate as a girl's, yet his features still held the sharp vigor of a young man.

No wonder the burly man had said he looked like someone who lived off women.

Lu Mi took off his jacket, set it on the sink, and turned on the water to shower.

Before long, he deliberately extended his fingers and moved them.

About three minutes after waking up, Lu Mi had discovered that he could manipulate flames.

After making sure nobody had noticed, he continued playing dumb. In a dangerous game world like this, such an ability was best kept quiet.

Even during his confrontation with the burly man, he had summoned that little tongue of flame with extreme caution.

Without his previous memories, however, he didn't know enough about the ability's activation conditions, duration, or other details.

Lu Mi looked again at his fingertips, which were still dripping with water.

Nothing happened.

Could this special power only activate when I'm in danger?

As he was thinking this, he heard the clock downstairs chime again. Ten, eleven, twelve-

With a thud, Lu Mi suddenly fell onto the slippery bathroom floor. Everything around him had become enormous.

He looked down and saw two furry paws.

Water had pooled on the floor. Seeing his reflection in it, he sucked in a breath. He wanted to say, "What the hell?" but all that came out was, "Meow, meow."

Yes, as the clock struck midnight, he, Lu Mi, had turned into a sleek tabby cat with wild-looking markings.

Just then, an abrupt knock came at the bedroom door, making his heart jolt.

"Mom's" eerie voice drifted in. "Child, are you asleep?"

Lu Mi: "..."

You even know to knock. How polite of you.

The next second, he heard the door open.

"Are you sleeping?-No, no. Why aren't you being good and going to bed?"

Lu Mi heard the anger in her voice. Sensing trouble, he frantically searched for an escape route.

"Are you sneaking food?-Oh, you're not in the wardrobe."

"Then... are you taking a bath?"

You creep, Lu Mi cursed inwardly, then sprang onto the bathroom windowsill.

The handles of the two windows were bound together with steel cable, leaving only a small gap between them. A human couldn't get out that way.

But as everyone knew, cats were liquid.

Lu Mi struggled to squeeze his head through first. The rest of his body followed much more easily.

The rain had stopped at some point. There wasn't a single star in the night sky, yet he could see his surroundings without the slightest effort.

He climbed nimbly down the wall and heard "Mom's" disappointed voice ring out again.

Unsure whether "Mom" would leave, Lu Mi had no choice but to leap down and hide in the bushes.

This seemed to be the back garden. Within its two-meter-high walls, flowers, shrubs, and trees filled his view. But it was autumn, and everything looked withered.

He couldn't help wanting to jump onto the wall and see what lay outside. Just as he was about to move, his keen ears caught a faint sigh.

Was it another player like him, or something else?

Lu Mi crouched even lower.

A tabby's coloring was well suited to surviving in the wild. Now he was certain that as long as he didn't reveal himself, he wouldn't be discovered.

If all else failed, he could sleep here for the night. He had thick fur to keep out the cold, after all.

With that thought, he pricked up his ears and listened closely. Good, there weren't any footsteps-

The next instant, his view rose away from the ground. Caught completely off guard, he was lifted bodily into the air and found himself looking into a pair of exquisite eyes. Their outer corners tilted slightly upward, tracing a captivating curve.