He heard my name and introduced himself to me, “Hello, my name is Wei Zizhen, with the ‘excellent’ character Zhen. My older brother’s name is Wei Zijin. This is my mother. Her name is Su Lin, and my father’s name is Wei Shenzong…..”

He had a child’s clean and pure voice. Perhaps because he had just run here, there were a few wet strands of crow-like hair on his temples. The ears under his hair looked white and thin.

As he spoke, he scratched the ear that was irritated by his hair.

He was a very innocent child.

He was not overly introverted either, but very much like a gentle and agile young deer.

His father was a tall, thick-browed middle-aged man with dark skin, sturdy enough that he didn’t look like a scholar. Hearing these words, he hugged his beautiful wife and laughed. He grasped his son’s shoulders with his big hands and said lovingly: “Little brat.”

His parents loved him and doted on him very much.

The eyes of the adults were drawn to him, and my father had been looking at him since he appeared. When he finished speaking, he smiled and stepped forward to hug him, gently stroking the back of his head and his earlobes with broad palms. “What a good boy. Call me Uncle Wen.”

He seemed to cower as he was hugged by a strange uncle. One hand was forced to hold my father’s shoulder, and the other curled up in a reserved manner. I saw him looking at his father for help.

Uncle Wei gave him a look of encouragement, so he softly called out, “Uncle Wen.”

My father touched their foreheads together. I saw in his eyes a love I had never seen before. He leaned down and picked up Mingyi with his other arm, just like a loving father holding his beloved child. “Uncle Wen will treat you as his own son. Play with Mingyi from now on.”

The grown-ups walked past me with their children in their arms, smiling broadly. Their conversation topics revolved around their children, and they walked toward the living room on the first floor while talking and laughing.

Of course, the uncle and aunt of the Wei family cared more about their child, and my parents never really liked me.

So nobody seemed to notice that I was left behind.

They were all drawn to the youngest son of the Wei family.

But actually, so was I.

I stood there and turned around, looking at the boy being held by his father for a moment. My mother said that the way I looked at people was scary, but I knew nobody would notice me, so I followed with impunity.

But to my surprise, the boy lying on my father’s shoulder turned back to look at me.

I wasn’t sure if he was frightened by me, but he only glanced at me once before turning away.

I feared that he would complain, so I lowered my eyes. I quickly thought of some words of defense, but I heard him say to my father: “Uncle Wen, Mingcheng-gege hasn’t caught up, let’s wait for him……”

Uncle Wei also noticed me after hearing this. “Yes, ah. Haha, why did Lao Wen leave his own son behind?”

My father smiled and said nothing. My mother also gave an awkward smile and turned around, saying: “Mingcheng, ah, hurry up.”

I looked at the boy again and walked forward quickly.

. . . . . . .

I was very interested in him.

So much so that I no longer paid attention to the beautiful fish in the fish tank.

Because we were both boys and were about the same age, he initially liked being near me more than my sister.

It was a pity that my parents didn’t support us being friends. Whenever he came near me, my parents would find a reason to call him away and have him play with Mingyi.

And the main reason was still me.

At first, he always came to me with a smile on his face, but he gradually became less cheerful and began to be afraid of me.

His eyes were clear and pure like beads of glass, and you could see to the bottom at a glance. So even if he didn’t say anything, I could see a touch of fear and resistance in his eyes.

It was actually not his fault. I was just different from normal people at that time. As my parents said, I looked at people very strangely, and the aunties at home were very frightened of me. And it was normal for him as a child with normal intelligence to be afraid of me.

So he later ran to play with Mingyi, and didn’t want to get close to me.

He was not a fish in the fish tank, and could not be caught by my hands at will. At that time, I already had a certain understanding of human nature. I knew that forcing him would only make him more afraid of me, so I didn’t stop him when he left.

They played happily in the courtyard or inside every day, and I would stand nearby and secretly watch them.

Over time, it caught my father’s attention.

He warned me to restrain myself. If I dared to hurt the children, he would not let me off.

I humbly agreed.

They all knew that I was interested in him, but in fact, no one knew that the person I secretly watched the most at that time was my sister.

I watched how she got along with Wei Zizhen as a normal person. I watched her expressions, the way she talked, the way she carried herself.

In the evenings, I would watch cartoons with her that I had no interest in. When she laughed, I laughed along with her, and when she cried, I tried to look as sad as possible.

I would secretly observe in the mirror whether my expressions were normal or not. And to practice, I would read some adult novels to understand the psychology of the protagonists.

For me, whether it was my sister or the characters in the books, they were all normal people, so they were my learning goals.

Although I was emotionally different from normal people, I was very intelligent and had a strong ability to learn and pretend.

Active change was much more effective than taking psychological classes every day. Soon, I understood how to act out the emotions of normal people and understand human nature.

Because of my poor ability to empathize, being a lively person was too difficult for me. And being an introverted and silent person was not conducive to getting the person I wanted, so I chose to pretend to be a gentle, kind, and good person.

My disguise was very good. I was specific down to the details, such as when to smile kindly and say nice words, and show that I liked beautiful things like flowers, birds, insects, and fish.

I even learned to blush and look shy like my sister.

Years later, this disguise was etched into my bones. I didn’t even know if I had truly become a normal person, but I indeed felt happy, angry, sad, and regretful, and was obsessed with emotions and desires.

So for a period of time, I wasn’t sure whether I was wearing a mask or not.

But I later understood that everyone had their representation, so it didn’t matter if that representation was real or not. The important thing was……my love and hate were real.

At that time, I was focused on changing myself, until one day I discovered that Wei Zizhen was always secretly looking at me.

He was clearly playing with Mingyi, but his eyes always drifted toward me.

And on New Year’s Eve that year, he finally took the initiative to approach me again.

“Mingcheng……let’s play together. Can I take you to cut window decorations together?”

He stayed with me for a long time that night. He took me to cut various window decorations, watched TV with me, and went to the snack room to steal something for me to eat.

He also apologized to me.

I thought at the time that my disguise had caused this effect, and couldn’t understand his apology.

It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that he had never discovered how abnormal I was. He always left me behind because he was afraid of me, and he felt guilty about it.

So in fact, when I was watching him secretly, he was also watching me back. He always came to me.

But my changes were not in vain, and I kept him.

Because of his initiative and my disguise, I still became his best friend even though my parents hindered me.

My disguise also became better as I grew older. When I was in middle school, I couldn’t tell whether it was a disguise or not. I had normal emotions like a normal person.

Although, it was more like observing myself from the perspective of a third party.

Wei Zizhen seemed to have magical powers. He made me, who wore the skin of a monster, grow skin and blood in the vacuum of my chest, and turned me into a human being.

When I was in high school, I was awakened one night by an abnormality with my body and beautiful dreams about him.

Because I didn’t have emotions like normal people at first, reason came first, and then emotion. So my analysis of emotions had always been clear and calm.

I lay in bed thinking for hours, and knew that I was in love with him.

This person, ah, he was so miraculous. It was wonderful to feel like this. As long as I thought of him, my soul felt light and my whole body was numb.

During the day, I couldn’t help but cast my eyes upon him.

I was happy because every time I looked at him, he looked back at me, and our eyes often met.

But I was not satisfied. Perhaps my mother was right and I was the son of Satan, and evil was in my nature.

He was always surrounded by people, which made me uncontrollably angry.

I knew myself very clearly, so when someone looked at him with the same eyes as mine, I understood what that person was thinking.

For example, his deskmate. The son of a mere actor, he already showed weakness to me when I rolled my car window down.

And those so-called friends were either afraid of me or hated me. I would give rewards, or rather bribes, to those who were afraid of me, and would intimidate those who hated me.

I drove them all away.

Most of the children in upper-class schools had extraordinary backgrounds. Naturally, they were not fools. Gradually, the people at school understood my intentions.

They were afraid of me, so they could only stay away from him.

He was finally alone.

At that time, he thought it was his fault. He doubted himself a little, and was unwilling to play with others.

And at that time, I had not completely lost my nature as a monster, and it was difficult for me to sympathize with him.

I didn’t understand what friendship was, and didn’t know how painful it was to lose a friend. I thought that his downcast mood was the same as when he watched TV, and would disappear after a while, so I didn’t take it to heart.

I hugged him to comfort him, sniffed his hair, and felt his body in my arms.

Because my desire for exclusivity was greatly satisfied, I was so excited that I shook.

When I was twenty-eight years old, I regretted this immensely. To be precise, I regretted many of the things I had done, but it was already too late.

……I didn’t have time to do anything.

But when I was eighteen and could actually do something, I felt that it wasn’t enough. 

Like a bloody executioner, my eyes became red in this struggle.

My attention turned to my family. Although they didn’t tell the outside world, and even Mingyi and A-Zhen didn’t know, I did.

They planned to marry Mingyi and A-Zhen. 

I talked to my father alone, and asked him to change the marriage partner to me.

I didn’t think this was anything at all. If Mingyi could do it, why couldn’t I? Same-sex marriage had long been legal.

But he reacted very violently. He smashed a pair of bone china vases against the wall and strangled me to stop my delusions.

He didn’t like me, but I still didn’t understand why he was so opposed to it since he didn’t necessarily like Mingyi very much.

This angered me to such an extent that I became very unscrupulous and directed my antagonism toward my family.

I was young and inexperienced, but an extremely ruthless person.

I achieved my goal, but the blade of my weapon was too sharp, and I accidentally hurt both A-Zhen and myself.

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Chapter 29 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 31