PFC Chapter 458 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (69)
Chapter 458 "Infecting the World" - Male Mother (69)
Like a flash of inspiration, Lu Liruan quickly grasped it in her mind.
This feeling might be what's called "intuition".
"Stray cats?" Liao Tingyuan didn't find Lu Liruan's train of thought abrupt; instead, he seriously considered what she was saying.
"Were there stray cats in our yard, in our neighborhood... before?"
Liao Tingyuan never cared much about these things; he didn't pay much attention to anything other than going to and from get off work.
They are essentially living, breathing, but barely alive, corporate slaves.
"Yes!" Lu Liruan remembered it very clearly.
Lu Liruan still remembered that it was not long before this space appeared.
At that time... it seemed to be early summer. Lu Liruan has now regained all her memories, and they also correspond to the timeline.
"I was coming home from my night shift late at night when I was startled by a group of cats suddenly fighting as I walked into the neighborhood!"
Lu Liruan still remembers that she was carrying some extra fruit cutter that she had taken from the kitchen that day.
These items would spoil by the next day, so the waiters would take them away after their night shift, and the store would turn a blind eye.
“They’re not kittens, they’re all big cats now, and their markings… are different from the ones in the video.” Lu Liruan tilted her head, trying to recall more carefully.
Fortunately, the male homeowner and his accomplice didn't spend long catching the cat in the yard...
Through their conversation, Lu Liruan managed to piece together what kind of cats they had caught and what kind of videos they had recorded.
This is all thanks to the husband's habit of recording audio...
The male homeowner and his accomplice initially connected through a group chat.
As an accomplice selling videos, he once accidentally captured a corner of a computer screen with his phone while showing the video he was selling. The photo showed the sensor card for opening the gate of the residential complex.
Back then, it was the old version of the access card.
The neighborhood is safe, but it's not a high-end neighborhood, and the access cards don't have the neighborhood's name or picture printed on them.
However, the male homeowner still privately messaged the accomplice, initially pretending to be kind and reminding him: "You should be careful not to leak your personal information when you're doing this kind of business!"
The two of them had only exchanged a few words before. The male homeowner was the kind of person who was very good at disguising himself. If he wanted to, it would be easy for him to make someone like his accomplice lower his guard and chat with him.
Sure enough, the other party quickly replied nonchalantly, "It's okay, you can't tell anything from this. I've already sent the photo, and I can't take it back. I'll be more careful next time. Thanks for the reminder, bro!"
After chatting for a while, the male protagonist finally asked him one day: "Actually, I've always wanted to ask you, do you live in...?"
The other person was shocked: "Bro, you...you're a hacker? No way, I just...I just make a little money, I haven't done anything big, you don't need to spy on me, do you?"
The male homeowner's voice was gentle, even somewhat cheerful, as he answered the frantic call from the other party.
"You watch too many movies, don't you? Why would I spy on you? I figured it out from your key card because we live close by, and your key card looked a bit like it... That's why I asked you. Aren't we pretty close?"
"What can I do to you? I'm your client too. Don't we know what each other likes? Don't worry, I'm really doing this for your own good. If I had any ill intentions, would I be here to warn you?"
When Lu Liruan heard this recording, she felt that the male homeowner was incredibly good at controlling himself.
After that, he was a completely different person.
When the other person heard him say that and even revealed that he also lived nearby, they immediately felt much more relaxed.
"Brother, you scared me! I'll learn my lesson now, I definitely won't do it again!" The other person breathed a sigh of relief.
The two became more familiar with each other because of this incident, which was, of course, intentionally orchestrated by the male homeowner.
Then the male homeowner began to guide him, hoping that he would join him, because he didn't have a place at home, so the reason he needed this accomplice was simply to find a place and a scapegoat.
At first, the man was very timid; he was in the stage of having the desire to steal but not the courage. But the master of the house was like a devil, bewitching and seducing him little by little.
Until the very end, he became like this.
"Perhaps... they sensed danger, so they didn't come out?" Liao Tingyuan said softly.
Lu Liruan rolled her eyes at him: "Do you think animals have your kind of cunning?"
Liao Tingyuan: ?
“It’s one thing to judge others by your own standards, but why judge animals by your own standards?” Lu Liruan laughed at him. “If small animals had such a sense of danger, they wouldn’t be like this…” As Lu Liruan spoke, she couldn’t laugh anymore.
"Maybe." Liao Tingyuan patted her clenched fist: "And then... what came to mind?"
“I’m wondering if this is some kind of clue? Something to do with cats…something to do with stray cats?” Lu Liruan said uncertainly.
Actually, she didn't know what she meant. Once the thought popped into her head, it was completely unpredictable and only lasted for a moment.
They didn't even know where to begin their thinking.
“But…” Lu Liruan suddenly paused.
“I remember.” She recalled the beginning, the day she woke up late and went out to buy breakfast because it was too hot at home.
I ran into Yuan Yuan, a child who was looking for his cat, in the yard.
On that day, Lu Liruan heard a cat meowing. Yes, she definitely heard a cat meowing. She was wondering whether to tell the child, but she was afraid it wasn't the child's cat and she would disappoint him!
"I've heard a cat meow!"
Lu Liruan confirmed: "Before Yuanyuan appeared. But I didn't see the cat."
"Do you think that the meowing cats back then, and then Yuan Yuan's appearance, and the fact that there are no stray cats in the yard now, are all orderly, traceable clues?" Liao Tingyuan accurately expressed what she wanted to say.
"That's roughly the idea..." Lu Liruan confirmed.
"Where should I begin?" Liao Tingyuan was also a little troubled.
The main problem is that I really don't know where to begin my research.
"We can't exactly go out into the yard to look for the cat right now, can we?" Lu Liruan lay down on the sofa. "We don't even know what's going on tonight. When am I ever going to be able to go to bed early and get up early?"
Liao Tingyuan glanced at her and suddenly asked, "Does Ruan Ruan usually go to bed early and get up early?"
"How could that be? I have night shifts when I'm working, and when I'm off work I have to seize every moment to play on my phone and play games, how could I possibly go to bed early!" she said matter-of-factly.
"Then you now..."
"Isn't it true that you only realize the value of something when you lose it? I can choose to stay up late, but I can't be forced to stay up late completely. This is a matter of my dignity as a corporate slave!" Lu Liruan said righteously.
"What, you have a problem with that?" Lu Liruan sprang up from the sofa like she had come back from the dead, staring intently at Liao Tingyuan.
"No... I just wanted to say that I remember you once said that going to bed early and waking up early is a routine for old people, and old people are referring to me." Liao Tingyuan pointed to himself.
Lu Liruan: ...
"What an excellent memory this elderly person has..."
"What a young man with declining memory," Liao Tingyuan remarked casually, then got up and went to the living room to check on the bed board that was about to collapse again.
"Hey! Why aren't you acting like a kind elder anymore! Why are you arguing with me like this!" Lu Liruan said casually and illogically.
“Even kind elders have tempers, and besides… don’t treat me like an elder anymore…” He spoke very gently and softly for the last sentence.
Lu Liruan didn't hear clearly: "What did you say?"
"It's nothing!" Liao Tingyuan bent down, lowered his eyes, and pulled out the splinter of wood that had gotten caught in his glove.
That evening, at Lu Liruan's request, the two ordered takeout from downstairs.
Because it seemed like time was running out, Lu Liruan didn't want Liao Tingyuan to be busy.
"Do you usually...eat fried chicken?" Lu Liruan asked Liao Tingyuan curiously, holding a chicken wing in her hand.
"eat."
"Oh? You eat fried chicken too?"
"Why don't I eat fried chicken?" Liao Tingyuan helped her tear open a bag of ketchup and squeezed it onto a plate.
"When I ordered it, I thought you'd tell me when we got there: 'I can't get used to this...it's too oily, what is this taste like? Sigh, don't order it next time.'"
"..." Liao Tingyuan paused in his chewing motion. After swallowing, he slowly picked up another fry, pushed aside the fry that Lu Liruan was offering, and dipped it in ketchup first.
"Ruan Ruan, I am thirty years old."
"what?"
"Not sixty years old."
"Ha! People who are sixty years old don't necessarily look like that! Hahahaha, you're just being stereotypical!" Lu Liruan laughed heartily.
Liao Tingyuan: ?
Sometimes, when this girl talks, I feel like she's intentionally or unintentionally giving off an aura that says, "I'm targeting you, and only you."
"Do you want some chicken wings?" Lu Liruan asked, staring at the remaining bag of chicken wings.
“…Eat.” Liao Tingyuan held the chicken wing in front of him.
"Oh, then I'll eat the chicken nuggets." Lu Liruan was completely unaware of the subtle dissatisfaction Liao Tingyuan was expressing.
Completely oblivious to everything~
This time, there was no need to wash the dishes. After finishing their meal, Lu Liruan brought over a trash bag to put everything away.
"Burp—" I'm a little too full.
Lu Liruan checked the time and realized she could still rest for a while, so she curled up on the sofa in a headfirst position.
"Get up and sit properly. You just ate. Lying around like this will affect your digestion," Liao Tingyuan couldn't help but say with concern.
I regretted it a little after I said it.
He was also wondering why Lu Liruan seemed to treat him like an elder.
Liao Tingyuan felt that they were not just elders, but also very old-fashioned and rigid elders. He thought it might be because he had been too controlling.
Liao Tingyuan has never considered himself a talkative person, and in his thirty years of life, no one has ever described him that way.
But recently he himself has realized what it means to talk faster than you think.
His attention to Lu Liruan far exceeded... the normal level.
At least for him, the first thirty years were at a normal level.
Liao Tingyuan had noticed this before, but he let it go unchecked.
As a result, I can't change it at all now.
He had only been thinking for a moment when he saw Lu Liruan turn over, like a slippery eel, changing her position and continuing to curl up.
“…That won’t work either!” he sighed again and said.
"Oh oh oh, I got it!"
Lu Liruan knew that Liao Tingyuan was doing it for her own good. Since she was in school, she had been busy with many things, so she usually ate in a hurry and would move around without resting to digest after eating.
As a result, her stomach has always been in poor condition, and it would flare up and hurt whenever she wasn't careful.
"You can't take advantage of your youth."
Lu Liruan still remembers that she couldn't help herself in the middle of the night and went to the living room to call Liao Tingyuan in a low voice. At that time, Lu Liruan herself felt that she was too much of a bother... Was she going too far?
From childhood to the present, Lu Liruan has never deliberately trusted or burdened anyone with a lot of trouble. Therefore, although she seems carefree and approachable, she is not a troublesome person.
But when she needed someone else, Lu Liruan always felt uneasy...
Will it cause trouble for others? Will the other party get impatient?
Then Lu Liruan called out softly, and what she received was Liao Tingyuan's concerned gaze, gentle words, and the soft touch of his hands massaging her stomach, along with hot water and the right medicine.
Lu Liruan blinked, trying to make herself look normal.
This is so heartwarming...
In Lu Liruan's hazy childhood memories, she fell ill with a fever in the middle of the night, and her parents took her to the hospital.
The sound of Dad's broad back, his panting as he walked up the stairs, Mom's anxious instructions, the fairy tale books and small toys he bought after getting an IV drip at the hospital.
Just as good as that...
When I was little, I didn't know that it was happiness. I even took my parents' care for granted without ever thinking about it.
Now that Lu Liruan understands more, after being treated like this, she only feels that she is willing to stay by Liao Tingyuan's side forever.
so good……
this person.
Lu Liruan was unaware of Liao Tingyuan's thoughts; in fact, she didn't necessarily have to regard Liao Tingyuan as an elder or anything like that...
But in Lu Liruan's heart, it seems that only her elders, only her parents, could be so good to her.
So he said it half-jokingly, as if he was a little embarrassed, expressing his coquettishness and intimacy.
Actually, it's a bit awkward and hard to talk about.
"I understand—" Lu Liruan adjusted her posture again.
Liao Tingyuan walked into the house.
Where are you going?
"Move out the other bed board," Liao Tingyuan said, and the sound of moving could already be heard from inside the room.
"Huh? No way, they're dead so quickly?"
Lu Liruan's bed board is clearly better than Liao Tingyuan's door board; it has lasted for several days with only two cracks appearing.
Lu Liruan walked over and looked at the bed board, thinking it was alright.
"Take it out and keep it for later use; you never know what might happen tonight."
Then, to their surprise, the night was unusually quiet.
It was eerily quiet.
The two were on high alert, but as usual, the things that were supposed to come never appeared.
There were no cats either.
But Lu Liruan heard a cat meowing.
"Did you hear that?" Lu Liruan initially thought she had misheard.
He quickly nudged Liao Tingyuan.
Liao Tingyuan nodded: "Yes, I heard it, it was a cat meowing."