Chapter Ten: Mom and Dad

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“Uncle,” a seven- or eight-year-old boy with a schoolbag on his back politely asked the shop assistant at the flower store next door, standing outside the florist’s shuttered entrance, “has my dad come back today?”

“No, not yet. Didn’t your dad say he was going to Yunnan to buy supplies? It’s a long way off. Who knows how many days it’ll take.” The shop assistant shook his head. “You can go home and ask your mother.”

Mother.

At the word, the boy’s expression suddenly stiffened. He politely said goodbye to the shop assistant, then trudged through the mottled shadows cast by the flower waterfall hanging above the bird-and-flower market.

His mother was not human.

Or rather, his mother had been replaced by something that was not human.

About a week ago, Mother had begun acting strangely. She no longer picked him up after school and spent every moment at home wearing a green facial mask that she never removed.

There was no more cooking in the house. He and his four-year-old sister ate nothing but bread, milk, and cereal for all three meals.

One night, he got up and saw Mother with her head buried in the refrigerator. From inside came the sound of someone chewing meat.

Then, three days ago, Mother finally removed the green facial mask and revealed a huge smile.

Amid his terrified expression, she seemed to realize for the first time that when people smiled, they were not supposed to stretch the corners of their mouths all the way beneath their ears.

Mother had returned to normal.

At least on the outside.

She began cooking, began going out, began fussing over him and his sister, and began getting up in the middle of the night to tuck in their blankets.

But she did not remember her own birthday. She did not remember that she was allergic to shrimp and crab. She did not remember the promises they had sealed with hooked little fingers.

The boy walked aimlessly, his expression dazed.

For the past three days, he had tried staying at school after classes ended, but Mother had simply hauled him home.

When he went to spend the night at a classmate’s house, she called and urged him to come back.

Once, he had even carried his sister to the police station and reported that there was something wrong with his mother. She had calmly come to the station, produced the family register and her identity card, told the police that her son was under too much academic pressure and was being disobedient, and then taken him away.

Brrring.

The Little Genius phone watch in his pocket began to vibrate. It was her calling.

“Xiao An, when are you coming home? Mommy made your favorite fatty barbecued pork today.” A gentle woman’s voice came through the phone. “It’s really delicious.”

A lie.

It was true that he used to love fatty barbecued pork. But after spending a month at his maternal grandparents’ home a year ago and eating barbecued pork every day, he had never touched fatty meat again. His real mother knew that.

He tried to make his voice sound as lively and cheerful as possible. “I’m playing at the Children’s Palace with my classmates. I’ll come home a little later.”

The gentle voice replied, “Then hurry, all right? The sun is almost down. Your sister is nearly beside herself waiting for dinner.”

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“Brother! Help—”

The call abruptly cut off.

He stared blankly at the phone and shuddered.

That was right. His father was almost home. If she did not make her move now, she would have no chance.

He made up his mind, touched the table knife hidden at the bottom of his schoolbag, and headed home.

————

“As time goes rushing by, you’re the only one I care for~”

The moment he opened the door, he heard Mother happily humming in the half-open kitchen.

A number of dishes had been set out on the dining table. His sister sat beside it, her face filled with terror. When she saw him, she looked so excited that she nearly burst into tears.

“Xiao An is home?” Mother called when she heard the door open. “Wait just a little longer. There’s still braised pork ribs.”

“Mm.”

Holding his schoolbag, he sat down beside the dining table and slowly shook his head, signaling to his sister not to speak.

“The scallions we bought this time aren’t very fresh. I won’t sprinkle any on top when the dish is done, all right?”

The sound of stir-frying from the kitchen continued without pause. Suddenly, Mother poked her head out from behind the glass door separating the kitchen from the living room and smiled sweetly at the children.

“Is that okay?”

He nodded instinctively. Only after Mother withdrew her head did he realize something was wrong, and every hair on his body stood on end.

The open kitchen was nearly two meters from the living room.

Yet when Mother had poked her head into the living room, the sound of stir-frying in the kitchen had continued. It had not stopped for even a moment. Nor had it shifted position.

“By the way, your father is coming home tonight.” Mother sounded especially pleased. “Judging by the time, he should be here any moment…”

Before she finished speaking, the sound of the door opening rang out.

His father walked in wearing the same clothes he had left home in. His face was wreathed in smiles, and he carried two presents in his hands.

“Dad!”

He and his sister were just about to leap down from their chairs and run over when Mother pulled Father into the kitchen first.

“Honey, look at the ribs I made. How are they? Do they taste good?”

“Mm. They’re delicious.”

Father took a bite, then poked his head out from behind the living-room glass door in the same eerily rigid posture Mother had just adopted. Smiling at the children, he said, “Xiao An, go serve the rice. You and your sister can eat now.”

“…”

He felt as though he had fallen into an icy abyss.

————

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[The world’s first fifth-generation nuclear power plant has been completed on Hainan Island, marking our country’s emergence as a world leader in the research, development, and application of fifth-generation nuclear technology.]

[The United States says American troops stationed in Jordan were attacked by drones. Three U.S. soldiers were killed and at least thirty-four American personnel were wounded. A New York state senator has called for America’s overseas military bases to be contracted out to Prometheus Laboratories.]

[Tel Aviv, Israel’s second-largest city, has suffered an attack by biochemical weapons of unknown origin. Gen-Sys Biotech has announced that it will provide medical assistance.]

The television news was reporting events from around the world. Father and Mother ate their dinner, occasionally laughing as they commented on current affairs.

With his head bowed, he stared at the rice growing cold in his bowl, his eyes vacant.

“Why won’t you let us leave?” he murmured.

The apartment’s security door had been locked from the inside, and his phone had been taken away. He had no way to contact the outside world.

“Xiao An, what are you talking about? Aren’t we a family?”

Father smiled and patted the back of his hand. The touch was cold, utterly devoid of warmth.

“That’s right. Families are supposed to stay together forever and ever.” Mother echoed him as she reached out to touch the faces of the siblings.

Crack!

He exploded into action. With his left hand, he slammed his plate into Mother’s head. With his right, he pulled the table knife from his schoolbag and drove it into Father’s hand.

The dining table descended into chaos. Soup seeped into the tablecloth and rapidly spread.

He seized his sister by the wrist and pulled her off the chair, sprinting toward the front door at the fastest speed of his life while shouting, “Fire! Somebody help us!”

He unlocked the door and gripped the handle, forcing it downward. Just as he was about to open the door and escape to safety, something seized him.

Mother’s body remained seated in its original position, but her neck had stretched countless times its normal length. It coiled around the waists of the boy and his sister and violently yanked them back.

“Xiao An, you’re being very naughty.”

Father still wore the same smile. He pulled the blade from the back of his hand without shedding a single drop of blood.

“Bad children must be punished.”

Father and Mother opened their mouths in unison. The corners of their lips split apart, extending all the way to their ears. Under the light, layer upon layer of sharp teeth could clearly be seen inside their throats.

Their gaping maws descended upon the siblings. Just as the mouths were about to close, two stones flew through the window and pierced the heads of Father and Mother.

The stones struck with such force that even the inhuman couple was driven backward by the momentum, their heads snapping back as they nearly toppled from their chairs.

Tap.

A pitch-black figure vaulted in through the window from outside the tenth floor.

He wore black night clothing, sunglasses, a hood, and gloves. Even his shoes had been wrapped in several layers of black cloth and then ringed with adhesive tape. His appearance was bizarre.

The figures’ gazes met. The man in black—or rather, Li Sheng—surveyed the scene, twisted his neck, and rasped, “Have you ever heard of the Lord of Insects?”

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