Chapter 123: Unit 1, Li Zhuo Chapter, Part 1...

1.

Teacher Mo has been acting strange lately...

Li Zhuo's experiences in his childhood and even adolescence have endowed him with a delicate and sensitive heart, making him very alert to changes in other people's emotions and subtle atmosphere.

Although since meeting Mo Liang, Li Zhuo has gradually become less sensitive than when he was a child, and gradually stopped being cautious, and gradually realized that he can also be loved.

As he grew older, Li Zhuo seemed to have been reborn in the eyes of outsiders. He was considerate in his words and deeds, and his career was also on the rise.

Regarding the relationship between him and Mo Liang, over the years, it has evolved from being rife with rumors, both overt and covert, to becoming an unspoken understanding.

It is human nature to get bored with the old and love the new. Any emotion seems to have an expiration date; even hormones will gradually fade away after reaching a certain stage.

But Mo Liang is not human.

He still paid special attention to all matters concerning Li Zhuo as he had done for years, and was extremely careful about what he ate, what he wore, who he met, and what he did.

Li Zhuo cannot deny this.

But…

Something's wrong with Teacher Mo lately...

2.

Everything was fine last week. Li Zhuo had just finished his work in another city and was taken home by Mo Liang. On a whim, he took the initiative to go to the vegetable market to buy some vegetables.

Mo Liang naturally knew about his behavior, but when he opened the door, Li Zhuo still saw tears in Teacher Mo's eyes, and he praised him with great joy.

"The child has grown up and can buy groceries."

This is too exaggerated.

It seemed like many years ago, when he took the initiative to help wash the dishes or serve the food, he would be praised in a very exaggerated tone for being so awesome.

At that time, he was rarely praised, so he felt at a loss for what to do with such straightforward praise.

But later on, he grew up almost immersed in praise, and he became a little immune to such praise.

But I still complain in my heart. He is almost 30 years old. What is there to praise about him going to the vegetable market alone to buy good vegetables?

There was nothing unusual here that day.

After having dinner together in the evening, Mo Liang still ate up the food that Li Zhuo had given him in the bowl bit by bit. Before going to bed, he still held him tightly in his arms and told him a bedtime story in the gentle tone that had not changed in years.

The subtle difference was discovered after he woke up. Although Teacher Mo still prepared a rich and nutritionally balanced breakfast for him as before, he also regularly checked his body every day to see if there were any trace elements missing, which ones were consumed in excess, and which ones should be supplemented.

His behavior was normal, but his reaction was a little slower than before.

This "slow" may still be very fast for other ordinary humans, but for Teacher Mo, for the previous Teacher Mo, it is indeed a bit slow.

Just like when humans are sick, their reactions become a little slow, and so does he.

This subtle change is like the air temperature rising by 0.5 degrees. Outsiders will only feel that there is no difference, but it is different for Li Zhuo who has been immersed in this temperature for a long time.

strangeness…

In his eyes, Teacher Mo has always looked the same for so many years, although he would occasionally adjust the details of his features to make himself look older in order to deal with the rumors outside.

But in essence, Teacher Mo is still the same as when we first met in the psychological counseling room.

After all, he is not human.

after all…

Aren’t humans immune to illness?

3.

Teacher Mo's slowness became increasingly apparent. In the past, he would have noticed Li Zheng as soon as he appeared a few kilometers outside the community, or even more than ten kilometers away, and would only be able to catch him when he got home.

But this time, when he arrived downstairs in the community, Teacher Mo actually realized that he was back. For the first time, he asked him to wait a moment in a very guilty tone.

There was nothing wrong with waiting, as he wasn't that hungry. What worried him was his slowness and whether he was really sick.

If a person gets sick, can he still go to the hospital for treatment?

What should we do since Teacher Mo is not a human being?

"Are you going to die?"

That night, when Teacher Mo brought him a glass of milk before bed, watched him drink it bit by bit with a smile, and began to tell him a bedtime story, Li Zhuo finally couldn't help it.

"You've been acting weird these past few days..."

"Tell me the truth..."

"Are you sick?"

"Is he...going to die?"

Regarding the future, what Li Zhuo thought about most was what would happen to Teacher Mo if he died one day?

He never thought that one day Teacher Mo would fall ill. Under Mo Liang's careful care, he himself became healthy and rarely caught a cold.

But what if Teacher Mo falls ill?

Li Zhuo spoke in a hurried tone, with a look of deep concern on his face. He frowned and looked at him worriedly.

"Just tell me, it's okay, I'm not a child anymore."

Mo Liang rubbed his head and smiled gently. "What are you talking about? In my eyes, you are always a young child who needs to be well protected and cared for. This will never change."

He even thought Li Zhuo's self-narration was cute. It had only been a few years, and he was saying that he had grown up in front of himself, who didn't know how long he would live?

Oh, what a lovely statement...

On the one hand, Mo Liang was deeply touched that his child cared about him so much. On the other hand, Mo Liang was proud that he was indeed his child and had such sharp observation skills.

"Yes, I do have some minor problems recently, but I'm not sick. Well, it may take some time. After this cycle is over, I will be the same as before. I may become even better than before..."

"cycle…"

Their ethnic group grew up in a polluted environment, and pollution is a habit for them. An overly clean environment is actually harmful to them.

And since he ate so much food in such an unpolluted environment, his body naturally accumulated a lot of waste that he couldn't digest?

When these things accumulated to a certain amount, his body naturally entered a special cycle, which can also be called evolution.

Although it will become slower and weaker than usual during this special cycle, it will be able to absorb the nutrients from those foods after the cycle is over.

"...Do you understand?"

Mo Liang touched his very soft hair lovingly, not finding even a single split end, and was very satisfied.

"Are you relieved now? No wonder you've been eating a little less recently. I thought it was because of that woman. I didn't expect it was because of me..."

"So you're worried about me this much? Are you afraid that I'll get sick, or die?"

Mo Liang was very stable emotionally, and he rarely lost his composure in front of him. But this time, it might be because he was too excited, or it might be because he was currently in a special period as he said, which made him weaker than usual and more difficult to control his words and actions.

Therefore, Li Zhuo clearly saw that the skin on his face slowly began to fall off like melted wax.

He could hardly maintain his basic human form, and was almost about to reveal his true form, a pitch-black substance of unknown material.

Soon, Mo Liang realized the change in his behavior and almost immediately disappeared from Li Zhuo's sight.

At this time, it was Li Zhuo who took the initiative to speak to the air: "It's okay, it's not the first time I see you like this, come out quickly, it's okay, I'm not scared."

After calling several times, Mo Liang slowly appeared from mid-air.

If others saw him like that, they would probably find him terrifying, frightening, and horrifying, because his body was so inflated at that time that it almost touched the ceiling, like a giant, puffed-up wood ear.

He spoke again, but the sound was not transmitted through the air, but was transmitted to his mind in another pattern that Li Zhuo could not understand but was already familiar with.

【I'm sorry, I scared you just now. 】

【do not be afraid】

[I'm just so happy that you're so worried about me. When I think about it now, I feel...]

Getting bigger and bigger...

Li Zhuo could no longer be seen.

4.

In short, at the end of the day, it took Teacher Mo more than half an hour to calm down, and he decided to be alone for a while.

Even so, he still didn't forget to prepare food for him. While eating, Li Zhuo once again thought of "that woman" that Mo Liang had mentioned not long ago...

The woman he was talking about was Lu Fei.

Some time ago, Li Zhuo learned about Ms. Lu Fei's recent situation by chance.

Several years have passed, and Li Zhuo knows that it must be Teacher Mo who intercepted the message.

Otherwise, why didn't she see any of the calls and messages she kept sending him? He hadn't changed his number.

Soon after the woman left the country, she discovered she had been deceived. Her foreign lover, sweet-talking and handsome, was a charlatan with a veneer of eloquence. He had promised her all sorts of good things before she left, but she realized they weren't what she thought they were. She coveted his good looks, while he clearly coveted her wealth, disappearing without a trace once he'd gotten his hands on her.

She probably immediately thought of Mr. Mo's biological son, who was already on the list, so she contacted him quickly...

The initial message played the emotional card, and her words were all about how much she loved him and hoped that he could help him because of their blood relationship.

She called him Xiao Zhuo, said she loved him very much, missed him very much, regretted not caring for him well enough before and treating him better, and said she would make it up to him if she had the chance. Of course, she never forgot to include a bank card number at the end of each sentence.

Probably because she saw that Li Zhuo didn't reply, after sending more than a dozen messages in such a tender and affectionate manner, her tone suddenly became sharp and unpleasant. She began to curse him, swear at him, and insult him, completely losing the elegant image that Li Zhuo remembered.

Such intense messages continued for a while, with a gap of several months in between. When there was another message, the other party had changed to a new number, and the tone was no longer deliberately intimate or angry cursing, but with obvious showing off.

Lu Fei was also a person of perseverance. After failing to find help, she did not compromise or wait for death. Instead, she opened a small nail salon based on the knowledge and aesthetic taste she had accumulated as a wealthy lady.

Unfortunately, the above information was completely lost, and when Li Zhuo learned all this by chance, it was from someone else, and then he went to find Mo Liang to recover the intercepted information that had been there for so many years.

Ms. Lu's current life is certainly incomparable to her previous life of seclusion, but her condition in the photos on WeChat Moments looks okay. At least her smile is no longer as precise as if measured with a ruler.

After looking at the pictures one by one and listening to some information about Ms. Lu's current situation, it is obviously unlikely to say that there is no fluctuation at all.

How to say it?

Li Zhuo was indeed depressed for a while, but it was only for a moment before he cheered himself up.

He is no longer the child who was just abducted, nor is he the rural boy who had been in the mountain village for more than ten years and was finally found. He is not waiting pitifully for her charity-like love. There is already another "monster" who has given him a lot of love.

But then again.

After reading the message, Li Zhuo still acted sad. Teacher Mo reacted strongly and tried various ways to cheer him up, making delicious food, telling him interesting stories, hugging him, and kissing him repeatedly...

Li Zhuo did not resist either.

There was even a hint of enjoyment in my heart.

At that time, perhaps even he himself could not tell whether he was really sad because his biological mother was deceived, or whether he was deliberately pretending to be so "unhappy" in order to attract the attention of the monster next to him and gain more attention?

A long time ago, Li Zhuo, who was still studying at Experimental Middle School, always used this method.

Deliberately falling down and getting hurt, deliberately stabbing my palm with a pen while breathing, deliberately getting wet in the rain without an umbrella, deliberately not eating, deliberately staying alone for a long time without saying a word...

This way, he could see Teacher Mo frantically circling around him, and he could also feel his anxious concern, shielding him from the rain and wind...

And every time this happened, he would feel emotional in his heart, it turns out that he loves himself so much, he really loves himself.

It seemed that only in this way could he feel loved.

However, Li Zhuo was young at the time, and a big part of the reason he did that was that he had no sense of security. Teacher Mo suddenly broke into his life and treated him well in many ways, so he naturally wanted to hold him tightly, but how could he hold on to a creature that was so much stronger than himself? He couldn't think of any other way, so he had to do this.

As he grew older, Li Zhuo's mind gradually matured and he rarely used this trick. He only thought of doing it occasionally.

After all, it's really interesting to see him anxiously looking for solutions for Teacher Mo.

If he hadn't noticed something unusual about Teacher Mo, he might have continued playing this trick for two more days.

Because he noticed the abnormality shown by Teacher Mo, he gradually forgot about the previous incident and also forgot about Lu Fei.

5.

At night, Li Zhuo thought about how Teacher Mo would take care of him anxiously whenever he had a slight cold or felt a little uncomfortable, monitoring his body temperature and any changes in his organs.

Now he was "sick" too. Although he couldn't do what Teacher Mo did, he couldn't just sit there and do nothing, right? For example, he should do something within his ability.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" Li Zhuo made this suggestion seriously in the living room. "Something that can make you feel better during this period."

Teacher Mo was silent for a while.

This pause made Li Zhuo immediately feel that there was an opportunity, because if he really couldn't do anything, then Teacher Mo would definitely say no directly. His silence showed that there was indeed something he could do.

"What's going on? It's okay, just tell me."

He even started to act like a spoiled brat, something he hadn't done in a long time. Such a grown man, yet he softened his voice like a child and spoke with a nasal tone.

"I'm worried about you and want to do something for you..."

"Is that alright?"

Mo Liang, who already had strong feelings for him, would immediately buy something for him if he looked at it for a few more seconds, let alone such a coquettish offensive.

Especially since I was in a weak period at that time, the fluctuations in my emotions were even more obvious, and I almost lost control again.

Teacher Mo disappeared, and when he reappeared a moment later, he finally spoke. He looked at Li Zhuo with a loving look, raised his hand and gently stroked Li Zhuo's cheek: "Baby, can you sleep in my belly like you did so long ago?"

Li Zhuo: "Ah?"

Mo Liang placed his hand on his abdomen, his tone particularly nostalgic: "You were a little thinner then..."