Chapter 34 My Mother's Childhood - Xiao Bumian
Xiao Bumian was taken aback.
His long eyelashes drooped slightly, casting a shadow beneath his eyes.
He stared silently at the food box in front of him, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the chain.
Hmm, memories from a thousand years ago are a bit distant. Did the cat bring him food back then?
Xiao Bumian was unaware of the situation. He curled his lips into a smile and reached for the food box. The chains binding him jingled and clanged, making a distinct sound in the quiet night.
Mingjian breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the child eating the pastry in small bites.
He sat on the ground and wagged his tail, trying to see if the child was Xiao Bumian, but the child was dirty and he couldn't see clearly.
Mingjian had no choice but to give up for now and wait until dawn to discuss it again.
He was now sore all over, and not far from Xiao Bumian, he found a suitable pile of dry hay and curled up into a snow-white ball.
The woodshed was filled with a faint, dry scent of grass and wood, and moonlight streamed through the window cracks, drawing silver lines on the ground.
Xiao Bumian only ate one piece before stopping. Since he began abstaining from grains, he had long since stopped eating human food, but in this dream, his young body still needed to eat to fill its stomach.
With his hunger slightly relieved, his gaze involuntarily fell on the white cat beside him. The moonlight fell precisely on the fluffy body, which rose and fell with its breath, like a breathing cloud.
He bent one leg and leaned against the corner of the wall, his well-defined fingers tapping his knee lightly and casually.
The moonlight outlined his youthful yet already sharp features, and a hint of interest flickered in his eyes.
That's interesting.
Xiao Bumian chuckled. Did he encounter this cat at this time? He seemed to remember snatching it from Gu Guanlan.
However, Xiao Bumian had no mind to recall. This body was still too small and troublesome, requiring not only food but also sleep.
Xiao Bumian leaned against the corner and closed his eyes to rest.
The mansion was quiet, with only the occasional rustling of leaves from the crabapple trees in the small courtyard.
In the woodshed, a small figure nestled together with a snow-white cat.
Perhaps because the woodshed was a bit cold, Mingjian unconsciously snuggled closer to the heat source in his sleep, and his fluffy tail involuntarily wrapped around the child's wrist.
The child seemed to pause, but ultimately picked him up from the ground and held him in his arms, keeping his eyes closed without saying a word.
It got a little warmer, and Mingjian squinted his eyes, burying his head even deeper.
Half-asleep, Mingjian rubbed his head groggily, then suddenly realized something—the hands holding him were warm. Meanwhile, Xiao Bumian, who always clung to him, was always as cold as ice.
He remained silent for a long time, then sighed softly, unable to tell whether he was disappointed or relieved.
If this is truly Xiao Bumian's childhood... then it's just too...
Mingjian placed his paw on the child's chest, feeling the steady heartbeat. Never mind, it's better this way.
Although he cursed that bastard all day long, he secretly hoped that Xiao Bumian could have a decent childhood.
Otherwise, he would look so pitiful.
This thought softened Mingjian's heart. He yawned slightly, curled up in the warm embrace, and let sleepiness overwhelm him.
Outside the window, crabapple blossoms swayed gently in the night breeze, casting dappled shadows on the embracing person and cat.
As dawn broke, the sound of a lock being opened startled Mingjian awake. He twitched his ears and peeked out from the child's arms.
A gentle, spring-like voice came from outside the door, yet it made the kneeling maid tremble like a leaf: "Madam...Master instructed..."
"He said not to open the door for me if I come, right?" The woman looked up, her eyes meeting his, a faint smile on her face.
Upon seeing this, the maid immediately knelt on the ground, her forehead covered in a dense layer of cold sweat, and hurriedly kowtowed, saying, "Madam, I was wrong, please spare my life."
His forehead slammed into the bluestone slab, and blood appeared instantly.
The woman glanced at her, then turned her gaze back to the door lock.
The maid behind him immediately understood and stepped forward to slap him across the face. "When did it become your place to speak in front of your master, you good-for-nothings?"
He turned around and shouted, "Guards! Drag her away and give her forty lashes!"
Two rough-looking old women immediately helped the limp maid up. The pleas for mercy gradually faded into the distance.
The annoying noise finally stopped. The woman pressed her temples and said with disgust, "Open the door."
"Yes, Madam." The maid bowed her head and opened the door for her.
Inside the door.
Mingjian was startled awake by the sudden noise and perked up his ears, meowing alertly.
What's going on outside?
Why is it so noisy?
Xiao Bumian remained calm, placing Mingjian on the ground and softly chuckling, "You'd better hide well, or your mother will kill you..."
Xiao's cold fingers brushed against Mingjian's earlobe, and her tone carried a hint of regret, "Then I can't take care of you anymore."
This familiar tone made Mingjian's skin crawl. This child's tone was exactly the same as that yandere's!
Before he could even look up and see his face clearly, the door was suddenly opened, and Mingjian instinctively jumped onto the roof beam.
The cobwebs that had accumulated over the years on the roof beams gleamed like silver threads in the dim light, trembling gently with the airflow, and Mingjian subconsciously held his breath.
Through the gaps in the wooden rafters, he saw the elegantly dressed woman from yesterday gracefully enter.
"You can all leave now, and close the door behind you," the woman said.
"Yes." The maids who followed her walked out with their heads down.
Mingjian hadn't reacted yet.
Wait, Mother?
Mingjian's paw slipped, and he almost fell off the beam. Wasn't that the mother of that brat Gu Guanlan from yesterday? So this poor little thing locked up inside... was Gu Guanlan's brother?!
The door closed, and for a moment, the air seemed to freeze. Only the two of them and Mingjian, who was lying on the roof beam, remained in the woodshed.
"Mian'er, come here."
After a long silence, the woman spoke softly.
Mingjian's ears twitched, and he thought to himself, "It really is Xiao Bumian."
His feelings were somewhat complicated as he looked down at Xiao Bumian and the woman under the beam.
"Mother." Xiao Bumian stood up, dragging his chains, the clanging of the chains particularly jarring in the silence.
As he approached, the woman brushed the dry grass off his shoulders and suddenly pulled him into her arms. "You've been hungry these past few days, Mian'er, do you resent your mother?"
Xiao Bumian was lost in thought, staring blankly into the distance for a long while before finally saying, "It's not my fault."
Mingjian was stunned for a moment.
Surely he's not looking for him?
Sure enough, those eyes, exactly the same as when he grew up, accurately locked onto his location. Xiao Bumian suddenly curled his lips into a smile and raised his index finger to his lips.
Mingjian dared not utter a sound, but his tail tip twitched slightly as a response, indicating that he knew.
The woman let out a long sigh of relief, her brows and eyes relaxing as she said with a sigh of relief, "It's good that you don't blame your mother. Your younger brother was bullied at the academy because of you, and he was unhappy, so you can't be happy either. Your mother is punishing you for your own good, you know?"
Xiao Bumian responded softly, "Mian'er knows."
Xiao Bumian played the role wholeheartedly, lowering his eyes to hide the mockery in them, and letting himself indulge in this false embrace with a touch of greed.
A thousand years have passed, and he had long forgotten what his so-called "mother" looked like, but unexpectedly, he relives it in his dream.
"Good girl." The woman smiled and asked gently, "Then shall Mother continue to teach Mian'er puppetry?"
Xiao Bumian nodded, "Okay."
After speaking, the woman took out several silver-white silk threads from a box placed by the door. She lowered her eyes and carefully wrapped the silk threads around Xiao Bumian's fingers.
Before long, the silk threads seemed to come alive and burrowed into Xiao Bumian's fingers.
Then he took out a yellow oriole that was still fluttering from the box.
"Mian'er, you can't eat anything until we turn this oriole into a puppet."
Xiao Bumian responded indifferently.
Beneath the roof beam, the woman and Xiao Bumian were quietly and eerily acting as puppets.
Mingjian felt a chill run down his spine.
The scene before him was completely different from what Mingjian had imagined; he had thought it would be the warm and touching scenes of a mother and child interacting.
But it doesn't seem that way now.
The woman knew that Xiao Bumian had not eaten for several days, but the box did not contain food; instead, it contained a few silver threads and an oriole.
Besides, if that brat is unhappy, why should he be punished under the pretext that Xiao Bumian can't be happy either?
What is the connection between him and Xiao Bumian?
It's not like he's bullying that brat.
Mingjian grew angrier the more he thought about it, especially when he thought about that brat dressed in fine clothes and jade belt, while Xiao Bumian was locked in this dark room and couldn't go out. Even the maids and servants could openly laugh at him and insult him.
Compared to the big devil who only knew how to bully him and killed people at the drop of a hat, Mingjian was even angrier.
Therefore, it is understandable that Xiao Bumian became a villain.
He told himself not to act impulsively more than a dozen times before calming down. He connected the unfinished words of the servants from yesterday with what he was seeing now, and roughly pieced together the plot.
In other words, Xiao Bumian's mother and the male owner of this mansion were engaged years ago, but a year before their wedding, the woman disappeared. When she returned, she found that she was already pregnant, and for some unknown reason, the child was born.
After the child was born, it was kept in the mansion, and the woman had other children with the mansion's male owner.
Mingjian: "..."
Since you chose to give birth to Xiao Bumian, why raise him like an animal?
Mingjian looked at the bloody marks left on Xiao Bumian's fingertips by the silver thread, and his chest felt like it was stuffed with a wad of waterlogged cotton. If he truly hated it, it would have been easy to give her an abortion pill or strangle the baby; why torture her like this day after day?
"Mother, I've finished cooking," Xiao Bumian said obediently.
Upon hearing this, the woman lowered her eyes to look at him, and after a long while, she smiled and said, "I knew Mian'er could do it. I'll bring Mian'er the puppet again tomorrow."
Mingjian wished he could jump down and stop Xiao Bumian.
Don't agree!
That's so stupid!
It's no use agreeing! She doesn't care about you at all!
Xiao Bumian nodded obediently, her slender white fingers slowly winding the blood-stained silver thread back around her wrist. She held the oriole in her palm, walked to the window, and released it.
The woman watched quietly, seemingly unsurprised.
Only Mingjian patted his chest with his claws, thinking that Xiao Bumian, this demon, wasn't a ruthless killer when he was young.
"Did it fly away?" the woman asked.
Xiao Bumian hummed in agreement.
"Hmm," the woman said, "Why are you so soft-hearted? You have your father's blood on you, you should have just killed him, why do you let him go every time?"
Xiao Bumian didn't speak, but his clear eyes were fixed on her.
Anger slowly welled up in the woman's heart.
It's so bright and glaring.
No, no.
He is that person's child. He should be dirty, willing to do anything to survive, not looking at her with those eyes!
It's like...it's like she's the one who's wrong.
But she did nothing wrong! She did nothing wrong! The ones who are wrong are clearly him and them!
Suddenly, the woman grabbed Xiao Bumian by the neck as if she had gone mad, yelling, "You're not allowed! You're not allowed to look at me like that!"
She broke down, crying out, "I'll kill you, I'll kill you, okay?"
Everything happened so suddenly that Mingjian was startled.
He jumped off the roof beam and bit the woman's hand.
No, we can't do this to Xiao Bumian.
His mind was still in a daze, and he didn't know what he was doing.
A sharp pain shot through the woman's wrist, and she instinctively loosened her grip, then flung Mingjian away.
"Where did this cat come from?" The woman looked coldly at Mingjian, who had been thrown to the ground, then turned to Xiao Bumian. "Mian'er, is this your pet?"
Xiao Bumian remained calm as he looked up at Mingjian, who was curled up in a huddle.
After a long silence, he shook his head and said, "No."
The woman wanted to say something more.
"boom--"
The door was suddenly kicked open. A middle-aged man in a brocade robe strode in. He looked to be around forty years old and dressed very elegantly. The jade pendant at his waist jingled crisply. "Xiao Yun! What's gotten into you again?!"
"Gu Lang," Xiao Yun looked at the man, tears streaming down her face, and threw herself into his arms, sobbing, "Gu Lang, I... I don't know either. I hate, I hate so much. He and his father deserve to die! I want to kill him, please help me kill him, okay?"
Gu Weishen hugged her and patted her back. "Yun'er, you're confused. Have you forgotten again? Didn't we agree that Mian'er is also our child?"
“Child, yes,” Xiao Yun murmured, “he is also our child.”
Seeing that she had calmed down, Gu Weishen called to the trembling maids outside the door and said coldly, "After sending the lady back to her room, each of you go and receive twenty strokes of the cane."
The maids dared not disobey, and, their faces pale, they responded and helped Xiao Yun leave.
After the maid saw Xiao Yun off, the room became completely quiet, with only Gu Weishen and the servant boy beside him.
Gu Weishen scrutinized the child before him: "Did your mother hurt you today?"
Xiao Bumian tilted her head and looked at the man in front of her, Gu Weishen.
How did he die?
Ah, it seems like he killed him.
"No, Mother didn't mean it." Xiao Bumian smiled and said, "Mother didn't mean it."
Gu Weishen frowned.
What a freak! How can he still laugh like that?
"The full moon will be in ten days. You should make preparations." Gu Weishen felt annoyed, snorted, and left with a flick of his sleeve.
Xiao Bumian stood in front of the door, staring intently at his back without missing a single moment.
The servant hunched over, avoiding eye contact, his forehead beaded with cold sweat, and quickly locked the door.
Until everything became quiet again.
Xiao Bumian turned around and walked step by step toward Mingjian, then squatted down.
Seemingly not quite understanding, after a while she carefully held the white cat in her arms, lowered her head and rubbed her face against it, "So good."
How strange, why does he think this cat looks so much like Akemi?
In the dim light, he only heard Gu Weishen say that it would be ten days later.
In ten days, it will be the night of the full moon.
What happens on the night of a full moon?
Mingjian was anxious and just wanted to keep watching.
But then a familiar voice rang in his mind.
[The memory fragment experience has ended. Please keep up the good work, host. When the mission progress reaches 20%, a second memory fragment will be delivered.]
The villain's redemption value is currently 18%.
Mingjian: "..."
It feels like the story I was following suddenly ended at a crucial point.
I really want to kill the system.
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Author's note: Okay, still haven't fixed it. Goodnight, I'll deal with the rest when I wake up. [crying emoji]
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