bayedsolid Chapter 486 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (97)
Chapter 486 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (97)
"Liao! Teacher Liao!" Lu Liruan jumped up from the sofa without even putting on her shoes, calling out Liao Tingyuan while her eyes remained fixed on the screen.
The room was unusually quiet when Liao Tingyuan was startled by her sudden shout. Thinking something had happened to her, he turned around in a panic, only to see the little girl slam on the brakes...
Couldn't stop in time...
He bumped his head directly into his own shoulder.
"hiss--"
Both of them gasped simultaneously.
Lu Liruan rubbed her head. She was only wearing socks, and the ground was too slippery. She had pushed too hard and bumped into Liao Tingyuan. Her head almost went back into her neck.
"What's wrong? Are you so anxious?"
Seeing her grimacing, Liao Tingyuan hurriedly checked if she was alright. His own arm was aching from the impact, poor Lu Liruan was quite strong.
"No...it's okay!"
Lu Liruan twisted her neck, like a turtle stretching its head out...
But what she really wanted to say was something else!
"I've found something!" Lu Liruan held up her phone, almost shoving the screen right up to Liao Tingyuan's nose.
Liao Tingyuan moved back a little so that he could see what was on the screen.
Lu Liruan showed him a photograph.
There are several children in the picture.
"I was just casually mentioning it to Sister Yan! Who knew I would actually guess it!" Lu Liruan never expected that she would be so accurate.
In the photo, some children are facing the camera, some are squatting, and some are standing. Among them, Lu Liruan and Liao Tingyuan are very familiar with one of the little boys.
It's the lady of the house's child!
Although the child was standing sideways and slightly bent over, Lu Liruan recognized him at a glance. The child was talking to a volunteer sister wearing a vest who was squatting on the ground.
"Ah..." Liao Tingyuan was also surprised for a moment because he didn't expect that it was actually the same as what Lu Liruan had casually said.
“But that’s not the important thing!” Lu Liruan zoomed in on the photo to see what the child was holding. Because the child behind her was blocking the view, Lu Liruan couldn’t see the thing very clearly.
Liao Tingyuan took Lu Liruan's phone and looked at the screen carefully.
Because the photo is enlarged, the resolution becomes very low.
Only a small corner was visible...
"Teacher Liao, can you tell what this is?" Lu Liruan blinked, a proud look on her face as she showed off her conclusion to Liao Tingyuan.
Liao Tingyuan followed her lead and looked for a long time, but he really couldn't figure out what it was... because it was too small to be seen.
“A bowl!” Lu Liruan said excitedly, gesturing as she explained to Liao Tingyuan, “It’s a bowl!” She gestured to show the approximate size.
"Hmm?" Liao Tingyuan was somewhat puzzled.
He didn't understand why a bowl would suddenly appear in Lu Liruan's words. What was all this about?
"Teacher Liao, you forgot!" Lu Liruan looked at Liao Tingyuan as if he had amnesia, making Liao Tingyuan begin to doubt whether his memory was really failing him.
As Liao Tingyuan pondered the word "bowl" in his mind, he suddenly remembered it!
The two men looked at each other.
Lu Liruan nodded vigorously, her eyes sparkling: "Yes! It's the bowl we found in the children's room!"
“I remember it being this color! Although the photo isn’t very clear, I’m sure I’m not mistaken!” Lu Liruan zoomed in and out of the photo, confirming her judgment again: “Look at the shape that’s showing, it’s that one!”
"Why would this child... take this bowl with him when he goes out?" Liao Tingyuan asked hesitantly.
Lu Liruan pouted and thought for a moment; she didn't really understand either.
When she first saw the child's figure, she didn't notice him at first glance. But since there were no other clues, and what she had casually mentioned actually happened, Lu Liruan zoomed in on the photo and suddenly discovered something.
Before she could even think it over, she eagerly called out to Liao Tingyuan.
Regardless of what this bowl is for, it's the only thing they've found in days that combines the woman's house with the rescue organization's operation.
Liao Tingyuan and Lu Liruan, without any clear purpose, practically tore the floorboards off the hostess's house. Now, whatever it was, they finally found a glimmer of hope.
“Let’s flip through the rest! Stop looking at those cute cat and dog pictures!” Lu Liruan winked at him, then assigned tasks: “For the rest of the pictures, I’ll look at the front, and you look at the back. Now we have something to look at, so it should be much better!”
"Target: the little boy and the bowl! Action!"
Lu Liruan raised her arm and swung it with great enthusiasm.
After looking at adorable cat and dog photos for a long time, Liao Tingyuan sighed: "It's not like he doesn't work hard..."
Before returning to the sofa, Lu Liruan playfully wiggled her hips and nudged Liao Tingyuan, saying, "Teacher Liao, your memory isn't as good as mine~"
"Yeah, I'm getting old, there's nothing I can do about it." Liao Tingyuan dodged her second attempt to nudge him, then grabbed Lu Liruan by the back of her neck like he was catching a kitten, turning her around to face the sofa: "Young people should do more, go and take a look!"
"Remember to wear slippers next time you go out!" Liao Tingyuan added.
"Okay, okay, I got it!" Lu Liruan was so excited she had nowhere to vent, and she rushed back to the sofa, almost losing control again.
Following Lu Liruan's instructions, Liao Tingyuan looked from the back to the front.
These photos are a mess and not sorted by date, so they were probably edited and saved again later.
Although Liao Tingyuan remembered what Lu Liruan meant by "bowl," he wasn't quite sure. The photo was blurry, but he hoped Lu Liruan hadn't made a mistake.
It wasn't for any other reason than that I didn't want to see Lu Liruan's dejected and disappointed look anymore.
Fortunately, Lu Liruan's memory is indeed very good!
When Liao Tingyuan turned to a photo, he stopped turning the page, and his slightly furrowed brows relaxed.
"Ruan Ruan," Liao Tingyuan called to her.
"What's wrong? Did you find anything?" Lu Liruan crawled over from the other end of the sofa on all fours, rested her chin on Liao Tingyuan's shoulder, and looked at his phone screen.
Liao Tingyuan tried to move, but abruptly stopped.
He only felt the little girl's hair brush against his cheek, soft and fluffy, like a kitten on his shoulder...
Liao Tingyuan has indeed seen a bit too many cute cat pictures this afternoon.
Liao Tingyuan felt a slight itch in his hand... and wanted to touch it.
"I'll just say it!"
The next instant, the little girl shouted something incredibly loud in his ear, making his head buzz.
Lu Liruan hooked her arm around Liao Tingyuan's shoulder and swayed back and forth excitedly!
"This time the shot is clear!"
There's no one in the photo this time; judging from the angle, it was probably taken from a distance behind the stone bench... There are a few kittens in the picture.
It's all fluffy... its fur is still standing on end, and from a distance it looks like a few small kiwis, huddled next to the feeder.
They're too big to eat adult cat food.
So there was a small bowl filled with milk, and several kittens were surrounding it, licking it greedily, their heads almost touching the bowl.
One of the kittens raised its head, its whiskers covered in white milk, looking incredibly cute.
That bowl is the one the child was holding in the photo, and it's now in the woman's house. This time, we can see it clearly; it's definitely the same bowl.
But Lu Liruan's excitement only lasted a few seconds before she fell silent. Even without turning to look at her, Liao Tingyuan could tell that she must be frowning and looking miserable.
Liao Tingyuan eventually touched Lu Liruan's head, like petting a cat, his fingertips gently running through her hair, his fingertips lightly kneading it, silently comforting her.
Those kittens in the photo...
Lu Liruan remembered it very clearly because she had a very good memory.
Those kittens were clearly the same ones I'd seen in the hallway.
They used to drink milk happily there, growing plump and round like little kiwis...
They all looked healthy, but none of them grew up. Their mother never found them again, and even their mother lost her life.
Lu Liruan's eyes stung, and her vision became blurry.
Hearing the sniffling sound, Liao Tingyuan turned off his phone screen.
"Don't be sad." Liao Tingyuan pulled her down to sit. "You've been sad so many times already..."
"Teacher Liao... do you think that if this space completely ends, these kittens will still exist in the vanished space?" Lu Liruan asked haphazardly.
But Liao Tingyuan knew what she meant.
He should have said: These kittens in the space might not actually be the same kittens. Those kittens have long since disappeared from the real world. What exists might just be... illusory afterimages, like the male owner and his accomplices.
They don't actually exist in space, because the concept of "resurrection" doesn't exist in space...
Liao Tingyuan had always been rational, but at this moment, looking at Lu Liruan's puffed-up little face, he sighed softly: "Who knows? Maybe...maybe it will exist in another form. After all, there are many things we can't explain, right?"
He said this, and at that moment, that was indeed what he was thinking.
Who knows what it all is... and who can understand it all?
Who can predict what's happening now or what's going to happen in the future?
Lu Liruan nodded and didn't say anything more; she just felt she couldn't accept it.
So the bowl used to feed the kitten formula was actually the child's...
It's unclear whether the child brought the bowl back before or after the incident of poisoning the feeder.
Lu Liruan thought it must have been before, when the kittens had grown a little bigger and were old enough to eat cat food...
If it happened later, the child should have learned about the terrible poisoning incident.
Lu Liruan didn't hear anything from the child during her several conversations with him, so the hostess probably kept it a secret from the child as well. If that was the case, Lu Liruan felt a little better.
The kitten is pitiful, but if the child is forced to learn the truth at such a young age, then the child is also pitiful...
After flipping through the other photos, Lu Liruan found a few more pictures of the child.
He really liked those kittens and visited them often.
Regardless, Lu Liruan felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders; her efforts over the past few days had finally yielded results.
When evening came and the space time was restored, Lu Liruan was the first to step out of her house.
The stairs felt like they went down faster today than before.
When they got downstairs, the two of them went to take a look at the lawn first.
Lu Liruan wasn't sure if it was just her imagination, but even though there were still no meows today, she felt like she could hear rustling footsteps, lively ones, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, following her through the bushes.
Lu Liruan wanted to ask Liao Tingyuan if he had heard it, but she opened her mouth and then didn't ask. What if only she could hear it?
Let's just assume it really exists.
When they arrived at the hostess's house, Lu Liruan went straight to the children's room.
He found the bowl in the drawer.
Lu Liruan had seen it a few times before, but when she saw it in the drawer, she closed it because there was nothing else in the drawer at a glance.
Today, Lu Liruan took it out for the first time and held it in her hands to examine it.
Sure enough, it looked exactly the same as in the photo.
Lu Liruan touched the edge with her fingertips and slowly closed her eyes.
That feeling of familiarity mixed with unfamiliarity gradually crept into my heart.
This made Lu Liruan involuntarily clench her fingers.
“Yes… I found it, this is it,” Lu Liruan murmured.
This time, I felt more at ease and more determined than before.
This time, Lu Liruan didn't need to ask Liao Tingyuan what to do, but Liao Tingyuan naturally put his hand on Lu Liruan's arm and shared this moment with her.
Lu Liruan repeated what she had done before...
"Okay... all done!" Lu Liruan opened her eyes and felt the weight of the thing in her hand suddenly become lighter.
"Huh? Why does the weight of something that actually exists change?" Lu Liruan weighed it in her hand.
Liao Tingyuan took it from her and tried it, and it was indeed the case.
Liao Tingyuan was afraid that Lu Liruan would drop it, so he held it in his own hand.
Lu Liruan got up and walked around the room. She had been quite annoyed with this place a few days ago, but today, she felt a strange sense of longing for it.
Perhaps it was because I had focused too much attention on this space and this room.
Now that I think about it... after leaving here this time, I probably won't come back again.
It's likely that the woman and her child will never have any further contact with Liao Tingyuan.
Lu Liruan picked up the child's diary again and flipped through it, but there were still no updates.
Recently, Lu Liruan has been reading her child's diary as if it were a novel.
The diary entry ends where the child says he wants to live a good life with his mother from now on.
“We’ve stopped here. It will definitely come true in the future!” Lu Liruan put down her diary. “Teacher Liao, let’s go!”
Liao Tingyuan walked behind her.
The moment the two stepped out the door...
The door behind us slowly closed.
The lock clicked shut, and the light coming from inside the door disappeared, leaving only two people standing in the dark corridor.
Lu Liruan pushed the door with her other hand, but this time she really couldn't open it.