The Creatures That We Are

Chapter 614: Good Boy

On top of the concrete Dam, Mu Xing’s mother took the wicker basket from him and lifted the white cloth, taking out the incense sticks, joss paper, a bowl of uncooked rice, a jug of alcohol, two drinking cups, and three bowls of cold dishes.

Facing the dam, she lit three incense sticks and put them in the bowl of uncooked rice, laying down the dishes and getting Mu Xing to kneel with her.

Burning the joss paper, she muttered under her breath.

It had been a year since her husband passed away. First thing in the morning, she visited her husband and swept the tomb. Then she came here.

After Mu You’s death, she had been heartbroken to the point of hysteria and came to believe in superstitions. She was now convinced that her husband was taken by the water ghosts near the dam, and she was here to pay tribute to the river god of the Yuan Yang River, hoping that They would send her husband’s spirit to heaven so that he could quickly enter his next life, rather than getting trapped here as a ghost.

Mu Xing kept his head down, daring not to even breathe a little harder. He couldn’t help but think of his father again. If only he were here. They had been a happy family of three. Mom wouldn’t have become who she was today if not for his father’s death. Still, his father was gone, and it was his fault...

Mu Xing suddenly felt a dull pain in his chest. His sorrow, regret, pain... All the negative emotions he had been bottling up over the past year finally overflowed from his body.

He looked up at his mother.

By then, his mother had finished her prayer to the river god. She filled a cup with alcohol and raised it to pour the alcohol into the water.

The first cup was for the river god.

Then she refilled the cup and poured it onto the dam under her feet.

The second cup was for the mountain god.

The next cup she splashed toward the sky.

It was for the heaven.

Gurgle. The river before her started bubbling and rippling, the ripples growing in size. She stared, thinking she was seeing things.

But she soon became convinced. Could it be that the river god was making an appearance? Without thinking, she clutched Mu Xing’s hand tightly.

Splash.

A few seconds later, a head popped out of the water.

“Huff...huff...” The man gasped for breaths, wiping his face and looking up at the mother and son on the dam. He waved his hand and shouted, “Xiaofang! Son!”

“Old Mu?” Mu Xing’s mother, Yan Xiaofang, gaped, her widened eyes quickly brimming with tears. “You, you...”

“Haha!” Mu You swam toward his wife and son, asking, “Have you been keeping the time, Son? How long have I been holding my breath?”

Mu Xing took his mother’s hand and broke into a happy smile. “I counted to 233...”

“Haha, I’ve gotten rusty.” Mu You laughed. “My record was 300.”

He moved his arms and feet to swim toward the dam, making splashes as he came. Then with both hands, he propped himself up ashore, making another splash.

Yan Xiaofang paused for a few seconds before reaching out to take one of his hands. It wasn’t a hand that belonged to a body or a water monster. It was warm and strong, of a living man.

She pulled him up to the dam with some difficulty.

“Old Mu, you, you...” Yang Xiaofang’s face was covered in tears, and her voice trembled. Pulling a long face, she complained angrily, “Where have you been the past year? You’ve made things so hard for your wife and son!”

“Oh, what’s wrong?” Still topless, Mu You pulled his wife into his arms, as awkward as ever. “Stop crying, sweetheart. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. It’s my fault. You suffered because of me.”

Mu You cocked his head at Mu Xing, waving at him with a smile.

Mu Xing quickly ran up to hold onto his father’s and mother’s legs, and the family of three stayed in each other’s embrace.

“Why didn’t you come home if you were alright, Old Mu? Do you know how the year’s been for me...?” Yan Xiaofang sobbed in Mu You’s arms, overwhelmed with bottled-up pain. “There were so many times when I thought about ending things. I was going to follow you with our son...”

“Nonsense! I’m here now, am I not?” Mu You stroked her hair and let go of her. “Here, let me have a look at you.”

Staring at her face, Mu You frowned, aching for her. “You’ve lost so much weight. Stop crying. It’s all fine now. I’m back, and everything will be alright.”

“Yeah...it’s all in the past. As long as you’re here...” Yan Xiaofang cried and laughed at the same time.

Mu You reached out to wipe her tears for her, but before his hand could touch her face, he vanished.

Yan Xiaofang’s eyes widened. She didn’t understand what was happening.

Her husband had disappeared before her in an instant.

“Old Mu?” Yan Xiaofang looked around from the top of the dam, eyes widened in panic. “Old Mu! Where are you, Old Mu? Stop scaring me. Come back...”

“Did you hide in the water again? Stop this at once! I’m angry...”

“Old Mu! Old Mu!!”

Her panicked and desperate cries resounded across the empty forest.

There was no response.

Yan Xiaofang turned to the side and realized that something was wrong with Mu Xing. Her son’s eyes had turned an emerald green, and blood streaked down from his nostrils, yet he was smiling.

“Mu Xing, you...” Yan Xiaofang was confused. “What...what happened?”

“I’m fine, Mom...” Mu Xing was pale and breathing unevenly, but he was happy. “Just wait a little. Dad will be back soon...”

Yan Xiaofang jumped. She knelt before Mu Xing and grabbed his shoulders. “Mu Xing, what did you...do to Mom?”

Mu Xing said proudly, “Mom, Dad will be back. Just you wait. I have a way...”

Tears overflowed from Yan Xiaofang’s reddened eyes. She pulled Mu Xing into her arms. “Silly boy, Mu Xing, Mom’s been wrong all this time. It’s been so hard for me, and I didn’t know what to do. That was why I took it out on you. Would you forgive me...?”

Mu Xing rested his chin on her shoulder. He felt weak, but a happy grin had appeared on his face. His mother finally hugged him. “It’s not your fault, Mom. It’s mine...”

His mother cut him off icily, “Yes, it’s your fault.”

It wasn’t until then that Mu Xing belatedly realized his mother’s arms had turned slick and cool, and they were wrapping around him more and more tightly like she was trying to break him.

“Mom...it hurts, it hurts so much!” Mu Xing screamed as he struggled.

It was too late.

His mother’s arms had turned into countless soft yet sturdy tentacles, the surface moist and slick, holding Mu Xing in a vise-like grip. The grayish-green worms writhing along the tentacles bit his skin like monstrous leeches, sucking on his blood while trying to burrow into his flesh.

Light gray and muddled green scales grew out of her face too, and her pupils contracted, her eyes resembling dark purple marbles.

—No, this isn’t my mother, but a monster.

Mu Xing thought with fear and despair.

“It’s all your fault, it’s you! So Mom’s going to eat you!” Yan Xiaofang went mad with excitement, her expression twisted and her voice trembling. “Be good. Mom will make it quick, make it easy. You won’t hurt. You won’t be sad. It’ll be like falling asleep...”

“Mom...save...me...”

Mu Xing’s airway was cut off. He could no longer make a sound.

At first, he could still feel the cold, slick, and vicious worms eating away his flesh and blood, but even the pain blurred after a while, and he fell into the embrace of a cruel tenderness, like he had been submerged in water.

He was melting little by little like snow under sunlight until he lost his form. All around him was a pure, silent darkness.

Then the darkness crumbled, and strange rays shone through, lighting Mu Xing’s face.

He suddenly heard his father’s voice in his head.

“Space is big. It’s vast and boundless. There is everything and nothing in space, and we’re as small as a grain of sand. Think about it. Isn’t it beautiful...?”

—Dad, I think I’m seeing space.

—You didn’t lie. It is beautiful.