After that, the five of us lived a very peaceful life for a while.
Lao Liu still went to school with me and spent his spare time washing dishes. It was truly more than I could bear. I mean, Chaos was about to wake up, and there he was, still washing dishes—it just didn't seem right. Even if Chaos didn't wake up, he was living in a villa like this; to head out pushing a beat-up bicycle to wash dishes and come home smelling like slop... I couldn't stand it. I told him to change his internship, so he quietly found a job at a crematorium. I didn't even want to think about what he was doing there, so I desperately insisted he go back to washing dishes. Consequently, I usually didn't see Lao Liu during the day.
I had quite a few classes, so I spent my days commuting between home and school. Once, I actually ran into my Eldest Son in the library. He was a true member of the elite; he could memorize every book on a shelf just by flipping through them. It wasn't even a skill on the level of photographic memory anymore—it was a full-system scan. I saw him with my own eyes, standing before a bookshelf holding a book, two straight red beams of light shooting from his eyes, scanning the pages continuously as if he were welding steel. As the biological entity that gave birth to him, I felt it necessary to remind him that with people coming and going, it really wasn't good to openly demonstrate that he wasn't human.
After half a month of this, while I was still working myself to death for final exams, he freaking became a professor! When I ran into him again in the library aisle, I actually had to call him "Professor Liu"! Was there no justice? He was my... my son!
I felt a bit of envious resentment. "Which field did you specialize in to become a professor so fast?"
My Eldest Son pushed up his gold-rimmed glasses and cleared his throat. "Philosophy and Theology."
Damn it, that was so shameless. It was like a Chinese person going abroad to study Chinese.
Seeing no one around, I dragged him aside. "Then do you have a way to stop Chaos from awakening?"
My Eldest Son looked relaxed. "Five eras, five cycles. Every time the Lord God dies, it triggers the awakening of Chaos, and everything starts over. It’s programmed like a code that cannot be defied. Father is the Lord God of the Fifth Era. Therefore, as long as Father does not die, Chaos will not wake."
I found it a bit strange. "Lao Liu is alive and well, so why are they all acting so restless?"
The Eldest Son coughed slightly. "Because of the prophecy... The prophecy says the Fifth Era is the final era, and from then on, there will be no more cycles of the Lord God and Chaos. Many prophets have predicted the apocalypse for these recent years, so the other divine races believe that challenging Father now will result in victory."
Knowing so many people wanted to kill my husband was not good news. I planned to go back and brew some Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup for Lao Liu and then never let him leave the house again. Surely he wouldn't just die of old age for no reason.
However, I still had some questions that were hard to voice. Thinking it over, my Eldest Son was quite smart, so I wanted to ask him, but I felt a bit embarrassed. Seeing my hesitation, he looked at me with a face of total understanding. "You want to confirm Father's true feelings."
Damn it, you brat. You've been eavesdropping on your parents, haven't you!
"I just feel that if I really am such a terrible god, I don't seem to be a match for your father. Are we really a pair? I should have some kind of impressive divinity, right? Right?"
The Eldest Son gave a meticulous smile and patted my shoulder. "According to Zhang Litian, Father only obtained absolute ruling power after he split from you. Thus, I speculate that Father possesses the positive divinities—glory, greatness, reason, temperance, courage, justice, and so on—while you possess the inferior divinity. You are complete opposites. After he separated from you, he truly began to become a Lord God in every sense of the word. That is the truth of the matter."
I slammed the table. Thinking it over, I really was abandoned by him! That bastard! He even said I was like Xiao Yu when I was little—if we did it over a hundred times, I’d still be driven to tears by his attitude and scream at him! Why do I have to be so terrible just to make him look so perfect? Can we still play together happily?
My Eldest Son patted my shoulder with a sense of teacher-student affection. "Do not doubt his feelings. You see, you are equivalent to his repressed and separated invisible divinity. Humans always fall in love with the true self that can never be realized; why wouldn't a god? Indulging you and loving you is equivalent to releasing himself. Moreover, throughout history, you are the only one who can be considered his peer."
"Aren't you all his peers?"
My Eldest Son gave a mocking smile. "Us? We are him, and merely parts of him at that. We don't count as peers at all; he is omniscient regarding us. As for the other deities, to him, they are alien species—enemies. In this world, you alone are an existence that is different from him yet of the same race. He is curious about you, instinctively pursues you, and made you his wife. Because of this, you possess the power representing reproduction and procreation."
I was still dejected. "B-but he won't even have children with me... He made you guys himself and secretly stuffed you into my stomach for surrogacy..."
"..." My Eldest Son indicated that he couldn't answer this question either. Perhaps our reproduction was just difficult; after all, this was unprecedented, and the divine race was used to asexual reproduction. He suggested we look for those "Old Traditional Chinese Medicine" flyers on telephone poles to cure infertility. "Failing to conceive for billions of years and eventually relying on surrogacy—something must be wrong," he said, pushing up his glasses seriously.
Seeing I was still depressed, he led me out of the library and bought me a cup of milk tea. "The true essence of love is that no matter how much you differ or how far apart you are, he still falls for you without hesitation. You don't need to feel inferior just because you aren't 'good'."
My mood finally improved a bit. I passed by the elementary school to pick up Xiao Yu.
Liu Xiaoyu was a complete bastard. At school, leading his lively, invisible younger brother, he not only stole all the other children's snacks but also got into fights that left him covered in bruises. I obviously had to scold him, but not only did he refuse to listen to my gentle guidance, he also kicked, struggled, and spat at me. Seriously, aside from that one time he acted with Lao Liu, Xiao Yu never wanted to call me "Mama" again. He was exceptionally wicked. This time, the teacher even suspected I wasn't his guardian but a human trafficker, and nearly had me hauled off to Ren Xing.
The key was, it would have been fine if that little brat Liu Xiaoyu just ignored me, but he actually wanted me to buy him KFC! Bastard! His dad was strict and didn't allow him to eat junk food. The kid wanted it to death, but he couldn't reach the counter, so he threw a fit with me every time. I was so exhausted: you want me to buy you KFC, yet you won't call me Mama and even want to hit me—I'd have to be a ghost to buy it for you!
But Liu Xiaoyu—how vicious could he be? Fuck, he actually collapsed at the crowded entrance of the KFC and started wailing, saying I had kidnapped him! That bastard! Once again, I almost got sent to rot in a cell by Ren Xing! My whole being felt unwell. I dragged him into the KFC, and we ate from five o'clock until eleven. The staff couldn't make the food as fast as he could eat it. They were all pointing fingers at me, saying I was going to burst the little kid! They wanted to call the police to have Ren Xing arrest me! How hard is it to be a mother? How hard!
When we got home at night, I even got scolded by Liu Wukong, who said I was taking the kid to eat junk food—while he himself turned around and took the kid to the sewers to eat literal trash.
My heart was stifled.
I was tired after a long day and planned to wash up and sleep. While brushing my teeth, I kept feeling like something was wrong in the mirror. Later, I finally remembered—it must be because I was too handsome. A normal person's home wouldn't have such a handsome man in it, right?
To be honest, I didn't really remember my own appearance very well. I only knew I was a major hottie. I only started looking in the mirror frequently after Zhang Litian mentioned it, but no matter how much I looked, I still couldn't remember exactly what I looked like. I specifically went to ask my former human roommate and showed him a photo of Liu Wukong. His answer was quite terrifying: "Isn't this you?"
I was talking about my roommate.
He looked like he'd seen a ghost. "Ye Xiao, don't scare me. You never had a roommate!"
I gave a calm "oh" and told him that was right, I didn't have a roommate, and left. Lao Liu must have erased everyone's memory of him, probably.
When I left the dorm, I even ran into Pi Zhang. Seeing him shuffling in his slippers with a cigarette in his mouth, I stayed far away from him. After all, although my husband eventually resurrected him, he had previously pulled out his spine and imprisoned his beloved human-skin Old Chu in the depths of the Abyss. Unexpectedly, Pi Zhang called out, "Hey kid, where are you going?" and gave my neck a very affectionate pinch. Remembering it now while brushing my teeth, it felt miraculous. Could he have drunk the Soup of Forgetfulness?
I finished washing my face, hung up the towel, and turned to leave, intending to brew that Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup for Lao Liu. The moment I reached the bathroom door to close it, I suddenly realized where the sense of dissonance I'd had since entering the room came from!
To be honest, since being with my husband, I very, very rarely felt my hair stand on end. But now, my adrenaline was spiking like crazy!
I slammed the door open. The "me" in the mirror was still standing at the faucet, looking out at me—looking toward the door!
Fuck, I screamed instantly! Footsteps immediately came from the stairs behind me, taking them two or three at a time. Someone grabbed my shoulders from behind and pulled me into a protective embrace. "What's wrong?"
I clutched Lao Liu's shirt and pointed into the room. "There's something in the mirror!"
He rushed in and checked everything. "There's nothing."
I wouldn't have it. I lunged from behind and hugged his waist, pinning him between me and the mirror and shaking him. "Lao Liu! I'm definitely not dreaming! There's something behind the mirror trying to get me! It even looks like me! It's too creepy, too creepy, kill it quickly!"
Lao Liu frowned, and finally, he gently pushed me away. "Mama."
My first reaction was: Fuck, my relationship with Lao Liu just got another layer of complexity.
It took more than half a minute of daze to realize—fuck, the person in front of me was the Second Son, not Lao Liu.
"Father and Xiao Yu went out. They aren't back yet."
I looked at his face, feeling it was unbelievable. He and Lao Liu looked far too much alike. When I first saw him take human form, he was still very, very green. After not seeing him for a few days, he had a sense of being fully ripened from the inside out.
Looking at him was like looking at a quiet, mellow Lao Liu.
I felt very strange inside, an indescribable discomfort. I felt he was doing it on purpose; he even chose to dress in the same style as Lao Liu. I suddenly understood a bit why Liu Wukong had that attitude. Liu Wukong was a bit unfair toward these children. Usually at home, he pampered the Third and Fourth sons the most, allowing them to cause all sorts of trouble—the youngest sons, so he was more indulgent. With the Eldest Son, he was more like a friend; my Eldest Son's IQ and EQ were enough to make him his father's confidant.
But the Second Son, stuck in the middle, was treated like a fart. Lao Liu was never close to him; occasionally their eyes would meet, but Lao Liu would quickly look away, acting as if he hadn't seen him—a very unexpected coldness. In this situation, the Second Son became even more introverted, sometimes even hiding when he saw me.
I really felt for the kid. He was in his teens, and in this family environment, I was afraid his psyche would become twisted. If other kids' psyches got twisted, so be it—at worst, they'd be caught and executed after committing a crime. But if my son's psyche got twisted, fuck, you wouldn't even be able to find the people to execute them. So, I was extra attentive to him. Since Liu Wukong was the worst to the Second Son, I was the best to him.
But now, I understood a bit why Liu Wukong didn't like the Second Son.
To be honest, I also felt a bit of a lump in my heart...
Just as I was wondering how to avoid this awkwardness, I was drawn to the wound on his hand. I was startled. "Lao Er, where did you get hurt? Who hurt you? Was it Father?"
My children were all warriors replicated by Lao Liu. Lao Liu would take them out for training whenever he had the chance. I had seen them learn to manipulate all things in nature; it was terrifying. Xiao Yu's lightning was off by ten thousand miles and almost struck me dead. So my first reaction was that the Second Son had been injured during training with his dad.
My Second Son remained quietly silent. I walked up to him and repeated the words he had taught me last time, and the wounds on his body slowly healed.
Seeing him looking listless, I wanted to pat his head.
But this time, for the first time, the Second Son brushed my hand away. "Go away."
My heart skipped a beat. Oh, fuck, where did that young boy go who used to hug me and call me Mama when he was in pain... The kids in this house were getting harder and harder to deal with.
At that moment, the door suddenly swung open with a bang. Liu Wukong entered with a cold face, grabbed my hand, and hauled me out, only letting go once we were in the master bedroom.
"What's gotten into you!" I was about to hit him.
"Did he do anything to you?" he asked urgently.
"Huh?"
I didn't understand. Shouldn't I be the one asking what you did to the Second Son?
Finally, he withdrew his gaze and waved his hand tiredly, indicating he wanted to sleep.
Then, I noticed that he also had blood on him.
That night, as I lay in his arms, I felt a false sense of happiness.
I was beginning to sense that too many things were wrong.
***
**Glossary**
Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation
--- | --- | ---
混沌 | Chaos | A primordial force or entity mentioned as a recurring threat.
主神 | Lord God | The supreme deity of an era; currently Lao Liu.
神格 | Divinity / Godhead | The divine nature or essence of a being.
纪元 | Era / Epoch | The distinct periods of time in the world's cycle.
十全大补汤 | Ten-Ingredient Tonic Soup | A traditional Chinese soup used for health and vitality.
柳老师 | Professor Liu | The title given to the Eldest Son after he becomes a professor.
劣等神格 | Inferior Divinity | The "lesser" or "negative" divine nature attributed to the protagonist.
孟婆汤 | Soup of Forgetfulness | A mythical soup that erases memories before reincarnation.
老二 | Second Son / Lao Er | The second of the four sons; looks identical to Lao Liu.
柳小于 | Liu Xiaoyu | The third son; mischievous and loves junk food.
任兴 | Ren Xing | A character associated with the police or law enforcement.
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