NFBE Chapter 420 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (31)
Chapter 420 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (31)
Before her mind could even process what was happening, goosebumps had already formed on Lu Liruan's arms.
She subconsciously took a step back, looking at the door, and felt that both the door and the dimly lit living room outside gave her a very uncomfortable feeling.
What exactly is the purpose of that lock?
Lu Liruan couldn't even think of a single reasonable and normal explanation. No one's door would have this kind of lock; at least, Lu Liruan had never seen one before.
The main purpose of a door lock is to prevent people inside from entering.
It wasn't the people outside the door who wanted to completely lock the people inside, preventing them from coming out.
Lu Liruan doesn't have claustrophobia, but a young woman who used to work at the hot pot restaurant does.
I remember one time when Lu Liruan and she went out together, they needed to take an enclosed elevator to go up and down the building.
The girl had been pale ever since she went in, and she had been leaning against the wall the whole time.
Lu Liruan asked her how she felt, and she said that in just a short while, she felt like she had difficulty breathing.
Lu Liruan didn't understand at the time. How could she suddenly have difficulty breathing when she was only in the elevator for a short while?
Now Lu Liruan suddenly felt that she understood.
Looking at the lock outside, she felt as if a heavy stone had suddenly pressed down on her chest, making each breath difficult...
"You said... who installed this lock? The lady of the house?" Lu Liruan nudged Liao Tingyuan in front of her.
Liao Tingyuan's expression was also not good. He walked forward and carefully examined the lock.
It looks quite new.
"It doesn't feel like it's been installed for long." He fiddled with it with his hand, and Lu Liruan walked over to him, took a deep breath, and bent down to check.
It was a very simple, old-fashioned bolt lock.
Lu Liruan turned the bolt to lock the door, then shook the doorknob back and forth; it was very secure.
"It must be the lady of the house." Liao Tingyuan unlocked the door again.
"How can you be so sure?" Lu Liruan pushed the door open wide again.
"Because, judging from the current situation, the male head of the household probably has no say in the household," Liao Tingyuan simply analyzed.
“In this house, the woman of the house is now in charge. Because this matter itself is unreasonable and very strange. If the man of the house had installed this lock on the child’s bedroom door, and the woman of the house felt that something was wrong and that it shouldn’t have happened, then this lock would have been removed very soon.”
“But if the woman installed it, the man can’t comment on it, and the child… her attention isn’t on the child right now.” Liao Tingyuan shook his head.
"Why would she lock the child up?" Lu Liruan asked, puzzled.
Based on the level of care the woman showed the child when she met her, and among the clues found in the house concerning the woman and the child, there was no evidence to suggest that the woman had such a controlling attitude towards the child…
Especially now, her attention is hardly on her children at all, which creates a very serious contradiction with her behavior, to the point of being paradoxical.
If her attention is so focused on her children, she shouldn't be like this.
This is very strange; there are too many suspicious points here!
I originally thought that once I got here, the events that had happened in this space would be pieced together and the key details would be revealed.
But to my surprise, once I got here, everything became even more confusing, with so many new, incomprehensible, and even chilling questions arising.
If the bloody and violent scenes that could be seen with the naked eye at the entrance before were a direct source of fear, then...
Lu Liruan found this situation equally terrifying.
What's frightening about it is that you seem unable to find the logic in it.
As you try to find the logic behind it, you will discover more and more irrationalities gradually emerge.
It is especially uncomfortable to focus on the relationship between the mother, child, and father, which should be an extremely close and united family relationship.
Lu Liruan's family relationships were very simple from childhood to adulthood, even though her family was full of tragedies and hardships.
But Lu Liruan knew that until the day her parents passed away, they loved her deeply.
And I also love them deeply and miss them dearly.
This is a very common, almost template-like, flat family relationship.
At this moment, Lu Liruan felt that if strange changes occurred in the relationships within a family, it would be disheartening.
That was a terrifying thing.
Because of the relationships within the family, it's impossible to escape them, especially when the child is very young.
When problems arise in family relationships, the first to be hurt are always the youngest and most vulnerable members, most likely the children.
Most importantly, children have absolutely no control over the direction of a family. Once problems arise, children can only follow along and are forced into the conflict.
If parents or close relatives cannot protect them, they cannot protect themselves either.
"Perhaps the lady of the house did this under duress?" Liao Tingyuan guessed.
Lu Liruan did not deny his thoughts.
The fact that the woman placed a knife under her pillow indicates that she was on the verge of a breakdown.
At this time, she might do some things that are illogical, or perhaps they have their own logic.
So she imposed all of this on the child...
However, neither Lu Liruan nor Liao Tingyuan knew what considerations led the mistress to make such a move.
"The lock..." Liao Tingyuan touched the lock: "The woman might have been trying to protect the child from something, or from some event..."
He turned to look at Lu Liruan and asked very carefully, "When you were talking to that child today, did he show any signs of not wanting to go home, disliking the lady of the house, or being afraid of his mother?"
Lu Liruan shook her head: "No, the child didn't seem afraid of the lady of the house. When his mother called him at the end, he seemed a little sullen. As they walked towards Unit 2, I watched their backs, and it seemed like the child argued with the lady of the house for a few words. That's not how a child would act when he's scared."
Lu Liruan was quite affirmative.
Liao Tingyuan nodded.
"If you see the child and the woman again later, could you please find a way to distract the woman so I can talk to the child?" Liao Tingyuan said earnestly.
"Oh, okay!" Lu Liruan trusted him unconditionally.
"Why are you so scared?" Liao Tingyuan noticed that Lu Liruan kept rubbing against his side, so he suddenly grabbed her and asked.
Lu Liruan was startled by his action. When she came to her senses, she noticed that Liao Tingyuan had a faint smile on his lips.
He must have done that on purpose!
"Big brother! You can scare people to death! Don't scare me like this! Don't ruin the trust we've built up, okay?" Lu Liruan slapped his back loudly.
Liao Tingyuan hadn't expected her to use so much force, and he stumbled forward a step!
"Okay, I'll definitely be more careful next time and protect the trust between us." He sighed and made a very casual promise.
"Really?"
"real."
After answering, Liao Tingyuan asked casually, "When did we develop trust in each other?"
"It started when you protected me and I protected you," Lu Liruan replied casually, her eyes still glued to the diary.
"Okay, then next time I'll protect you, and you protect me, how about it?" Liao Tingyuan looked at the little buns on her head that swayed as she moved her head, pursed his lips, and asked jokingly.
"Of course! Our relationship is already so good, need I say more?" Lu Liruan nodded, and because she was holding something in both hands, she nudged Liao Tingyuan with her buttocks in a very friendly manner.
Liao Tingyuan was pondering her words when, caught off guard, he stumbled backward.
Liao Tingyuan: ...
He lowered his head and slightly pursed the corners of his lips that were turned up.
"There's more at the end of the diary!" Lu Liruan flipped through the pages and found what she wanted to read.
“I want to sleep with my mom, but she won’t let me. She says I’m a big kid now and I can’t take care of her like that anymore. But I feel like my mom is unhappy. I want to stay with her, but I’m unhappy too.”
Turn a few more pages.
"I heard my parents arguing in the middle of the night. I wanted to open the door to see what was going on, but I couldn't open it. I didn't know if my parents were really arguing because I was asleep again. When I asked my mom the next day, she said I had a dream last night because my dad didn't come home. I don't know if I was dreaming, but my mom agreed to let me sleep with her tonight, and I was very happy."
Lu Liruan read it aloud, but these were diary entries from several days ago.
Looking at the date, it dates back to before this space even existed.
I don't know if the child stopped writing in his diary from that day on.
Or is this all she and Liao Tingyuan can see right now?
"Perhaps it's because the male director was still alive at that time..." Liao Tingyuan said lightly.
Then Lu Liruan got goosebumps all over her body.
"Could you please not use such a calm tone to say such sinister things?" Lu Liruan rubbed her hands together.
Liao Tingyuan: ?
"I didn't... I didn't," Liao Tingyuan said, unable to defend himself.
Clearly, Lu Liruan didn't give him a chance to argue.
Liao Tingyuan raised his hand to check the time; almost half an hour had passed since they entered the house.
"This house isn't very big, and I don't even know if we're looking for a crucial clue." Lu Liruan scratched her head, truly clueless.
Because there's simply no way to organize the clues we've gathered, we have no idea what information is important and what information is unimportant.
Are their guesses correct?
Has the direction been deviated?
Anyway... I'll just go with my gut feeling.
Let's just make do with what we have for now, what else can we do?
"There's one more room," Liao Tingyuan said, while slightly closing the door that was locked from the outside.
Lu Liruan followed closely behind, trying her best to appear unafraid, but her hands betrayed her true feelings, gripping the hem of Liao Tingyuan's shirt tightly.
Because they were out of sync, Liao Tingyuan took a step earlier than her, and as a result, his collar tightened...
"Tsk, slow down!" Having been discovered, Lu Liruan stopped resisting and rudely tugged at him again, making Liao Tingyuan laugh.
"You weren't this scared when you were hitting people with that big spoon," he couldn't help but tease softly.
Lu Liruan rolled her eyes at him: "When I hit someone with a big spoon, at least I knew who to hit! Now, even if I'm holding a big spoon, I don't know where to hit! This is like physical damage versus magical damage. Have you ever played a game? Do you understand?"
"I've spoken to them before, and I understand their language." Liao Tingyuan nodded.
"Huh? You've played video games?" Lu Liruan blinked.
Liao Tingyuan was a little confused: "Why do you think I've never played games?"
"Oh... never mind." Lu Liruan waved her hand.
What I really want to say is that you don't just look like you don't play video games.
You're like a serious office worker who doesn't watch movies, read novels, participate in any entertainment activities, or even sleep in during your rest time.
"What are you playing?" Lu Liruan's usual entertainment activities include playing video games while lying in bed.
Then Liao Tingyuan recited... a series of game names.
Lu Liruan: ?
"When I was in college, I did game boosting, and I did this part-time job on and off after that. I played all kinds of games."
"You think you can become a game booster just by playing around?" Lu Liruan clapped her hands: "Brother, you really are... good at everything you do."
To this day, Lu Liruan still doesn't know exactly how many jobs Liao Tingyuan has held.
Just how wide is the gap between these jobs?
How much money did he earn in total from these jobs?
Simply put, Lu Liruan couldn't imagine how much savings Liao Tingyuan actually had.
He absolutely loves his work!
Lu Liruan mentioned two games she had been playing recently, nudged Liao Tingyuan with her elbow, and asked in a fawning tone, "Brother, do you play these two?"
Liao Tingyuan sighed: "Wait for me to go out and take a look."
"Okay!" Lu Liruan replied cheerfully.
The two entered the last room, the study.
"The smell of smoke." Lu Liruan sniffed. She wondered how many cigarettes had been smoked in this room; it felt like the smoke had seeped into the air.
Liao Tingyuan first touched and looked at all the cabinets and drawers.
"What are you looking for?" Lu Liruan helped him look.
"Let's see if there are any that need a key to open." Liao Tingyuan shook the bunch of keys that always hung on his pinky finger.
Lu Liruan then remembered that there was a very small key, but she didn't know what it was for.
But there's nothing in this house that needs a key to open.
Lu Liruan had just strolled through the room and what impressed her most was the bookshelf. Apart from a small number of books of various kinds, the most numerous type was medical books.