Chapter 22 Chapter nine

Murray approached lightly. He stood behind Mu Dongcheng, looked around, and his face suddenly changed—— He only thought that his son was watching something, but he didn't expect that he was doing such a terrible thing - Mu Dongcheng was pressing a baby in a bucket full of water, trying to drown the baby! "No!" Murray yelled.Mu Dongcheng was so frightened that he trembled violently, out of his wits.He turned back in horror and looked at his father: "Dad...you, when..." Murray didn't bother to talk to him, picked up the baby boy from the water, and tested his breathing.Fortunately, I just choked on a few mouthfuls of water and did not drown.

Murray carried the baby to Mu Dongcheng's room, wrapped him in a blanket, and held him in his arms. Mu Dongcheng walked into the room in fear, not daring to meet his father's eyes. Murray warmed the baby with his body temperature, and he was not relieved until the baby's face returned to a little rosy.He put the baby boy on the bed, covered the quilt, and then glared at Mu Dongcheng, shouting: "What were you doing just now? Want to kill this baby?!" Mu Dongcheng was trembling with fright, and said tremblingly, "Dad, listen to my explanation... This... This is not an ordinary baby, he is a monster!"

Murray widened his eyes and said, "What is going on, you start from the beginning!" "Dad, you won't believe me when I tell you." Mu Dongcheng shook his head violently, "Let's not talk about you, even I can't believe it's true...God, how could there be such a thing in the world?" thing……" Murray said word by word: "If you tell the truth, I will believe it." Mu Dongcheng bit his lips tightly, and said slowly after a long time: "That day, that was the night when we went to Yuechuan Ancient Town, we discovered the tragedy of dismemberment in Shanpinju. After you took a look at it for the first time, I just went out to vomit because of nausea, and I stood there for a few seconds when I suddenly had a weird idea..."

Murray stared at his son. "Go on." "You still dare to call the police?" Murray asked with wide eyes, "Aren't you afraid of arousing their suspicion?" "They won't doubt it. I don't think they'll find that there's a piece of these minced meat missing." Mu Dongcheng said, "And I asked very cleverly, pretending to care about An Qing's progress, and then asked about the old man's body by the way. How to deal with it. Director Liu told me that since no relatives of the old man could be contacted, those stumps were sent to the crematorium for cremation the next day.”

"That is to say, the police didn't find any changes in the meat, or they didn't discover the secret of the meat, and they already disposed of the body?" Murray said. "Yes." Mu Dongcheng said, "So I realized that now I am the only one who owns this kind of meat. fear." "Why didn't you tell me about it?" Murray asked. "I thought about telling you! But I was afraid that you would blame me." Mu Dongcheng said in confusion, "Dad, when I saw this piece of meat that grew every day, I understood that you had a few decades ago What did you eat? There is no doubt that it is this kind of meat! But... this is the corpse of the old man! Besides, how did grandpa get this thing decades ago? I am afraid that you will not be able to accept it, and I want to continue Let's see how this meat will develop and change, so... I have been keeping it from you."

Murray's face turned pale, and he said, "So, you've been 'raising' this piece of meat in the bathroom." "Yes...the metal basin couldn't hold it anymore. So I bought a big baby bath basin and put the meat in it. I thought it would keep getting bigger, but unexpectedly, After about a week, the meat...had a terrifying change." Having said that, Mu Dongcheng covered his mouth with one hand, with a horrified expression. After a long time, he said: "One morning, I went to the bathroom to check, and found that the flesh had grown a hand! I was so frightened that I was at a loss for what to do, and vaguely guessed what it would turn out to be. Another day later, another hand grew. Then the legs, the neck, and finally... this morning, it... grew a head, and, like a newborn baby, he began to breathe, Crying, this piece of meat... finally became a living person!" Mu Dongcheng couldn't control it anymore, he was trembling all over, his face was pale, and he was so frightened that he almost vomited, "This is really It's too scary! I never thought that there would be such a bizarre and terrifying thing in real life!"

"So, you just want to drown him?" Murray said with his eyes wide open. "What else can I do? Dad, after hearing what I said, don't you think this baby is a monster? How can such a horrible creature allow him to survive in this world?" "Whatever he is, it's all your fault!" Murray roared, "If you hadn't had that weird idea to bring this kind of meat back, how could such a thing have happened? Now, you Whether you call him a monster or a terrifying creature, in my opinion, this is a baby boy!" He pointed to the baby on the bed, "No matter what he was before, he is now a human being! Since he is a human being, you can You have no right to deprive him of his life!"

Mu Dongcheng said palely, "Well, what do you mean by that? You want me to feed him? Raise this monster like a son?" "Shouldn't you feed him? You brought him back to life!" Murray roared red-faced: "Also—you're not allowed to call him a monster!" Mu Dongcheng was stunned for a few seconds. He didn't know why his father was so angry, but he, who had always obeyed his father's arrangement, chose to resist at this moment, "No! Dad, as you said, I caused this incident, so , I will use my way to solve it!" "Your way is to kill him? Why are you so inhuman? This is a living baby!"

Mu Dongcheng shook his head and said, "No matter what you think, in my opinion, he is a monster. If you raise this kind of creature, God knows what will happen?" "Nothing weird will happen, he will grow up like any other ordinary baby." Mueller's tone suddenly softened, almost begging, "Dongcheng, just take it as me, don't treat him Let's go, he, he..." Mu Dongcheng looked at his father curiously, "Dad, where do you get the basis for thinking that he will grow up like an ordinary person? Also, why are you defending him so much?" Murray stared at Mu Dongcheng for a minute and said, "Do you want to know the answer?"

"certainly." "Okay." Murray nodded slowly, took out the letter found in Bazai's old house, handed it to Mu Dongcheng, and said weakly, "Originally, I planned to keep you from knowing about it forever. Yes, now it seems that I have to let you know the truth. I just went to the old house to pack up and found it in your grandfather's bookcase. You can read it and you will know." Mu Dongcheng took out the letter paper from the envelope and opened it to look at it. Writing these things down, I am conflicted.I don't know if this letter will be discovered by the family one day.They usually don't touch my pile of antique books, but they might look through them after I die—it doesn't matter anyway, by the time my family finds this letter, I'll be dead long ago .

I promised my great benefactor that I will never tell about this matter.I did it, and in my life, I never told anyone about it.But in the end, I couldn't help but write this matter on IQ. It's not that I broke my promise and wanted to use this new method to disclose this matter, but that this matter is related to a person's life experience.If I can read this letter and understand its meaning during his lifetime, it can be considered as an explanation to him.Back then, when my family was about to starve to death, I had no choice but to commit suicide.I walked to the river, ready to throw myself into the river.This is, a man about my age appeared. He grabbed me and asked me why I was dying. I told him that my baby who was only a few months old - my grandson - had no milk.It is dead today.And Wo, my son, and my daughter-in-law were about to starve to death, and our family came to a dead end. This man is very sympathetic to me.He said that he can help me tide over the difficulties, but the condition is that the secret must be kept.I agreed, and the man told me to wait a while.Not long after, he returned with a bag containing a large piece of meat.He told me that this is a kind of magic meat that will grow by itself.As long as you don't eat him all at once, you can eat some every day, and you can eat it forever.He gave me this meat and asked me to agree to two conditions: first, no one should know about this piece of meat; Eat up this kind of meat all at once, and don't leave it in the world. When my whole family was about to starve to death, I had no choice but to commit suicide. I walked to the river and was about to throw myself into the river.At this time, a man about my age appeared, he grabbed me and asked me why I had to die.I told him that our baby who was only a few months old - my grandson - died today because he didn't have milk.And my son, daughter-in-law and I were about to starve to death, and our family came to a dead end.This man is very sympathetic to me.He said that he can help me tide over the difficulties, but the condition is that the secret must be kept.I agreed, and the man told me to wait a while.Not long after, he returned with a bag containing a large piece of meat.He told me that this is a kind of magic meat that will grow by itself.As long as you don't eat it all at once, and leave some every day, you can eat it forever.He gave me this meat and asked me to agree to two conditions: first, no one should know about this meat; Eat all the meat at once, and don't keep it. At that time, I half-believed, agreed to his condition, took the meat back home, cut half of it, and cooked a pot of broth.This meat is the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my life.My son and daughter-in-law and I have recovered our physical strength and spirit after eating it.The next day, I was surprised to find that the meat had magically grown in size as the man had said.I was overjoyed, knowing that what he said was true, that we could really get through this difficult time with this meat.So, I cut half of it every day and hid the remaining half in a jar.This kind of meat lasted us for a year.I told my son and daughter-in-law that this matter cannot be told to anyone, and they are not allowed to inquire about the source of this meat.After the food cutoff, our life became easier and we no longer had to worry about food.At this time, I remembered what my benefactor said, telling me to eat this kind of meat at once at this time, and not to keep any.I really wanted to do what he said, but then I thought, who can guarantee that there will be no famine in the future?If I eat this meat all at once, where will I find my benefactor and this kind of meat in a disaster year?So, I did something that violated my original promise - I didn't eat all of this meat, but quietly hid it in another residence of mine - a small house.I was just thinking of saving it and cutting some every now and then so the piece doesn't grow too big.Unexpectedly, a week later, I discovered that this piece of meat had grown hands, and then feet.Half a month later, it turned out to be a chubby baby boy, and it was alive: I was extremely surprised, wondering how we could become a person after eating meat for a year? !But now that things have developed to this point, I have no other choice but to take this child home.I told my son and daughter-in-law that this child was picked up on the side of the road.Because the grandson died of starvation in the famine, the daughter-in-law's body was in trouble again, and she could no longer conceive a child.So, they happily accepted the boy, thinking that it was a child given to them by the gods, not knowing that the child was transformed from that piece of meat.I dare not tell my son or daughter-in-law, for fear that they will feel uncomfortable.So, I regarded this child as a descendant of the old Mu family, loved him as my own grandson, named him "Dongcheng", and planned to keep this secret in my heart...At that time, I half-believed and agreed to his proposal Conditions, I took the meat back home, cut half of it, and cooked a pot of broth. This kind of meat is the most delicious food I have ever eaten in my life. After eating it, my son and daughter-in-law recovered our physical strength and spirit. The next day, I was surprised to find that this kind of meat had miraculously grown in size as the man said. I was overjoyed, knowing that what he said was true, and we could really get through this difficult time with this kind of meat. Days, so, I cut half each day and hid the remaining half in a jar.This kind of meat lasted us for a year.I told my son and daughter-in-law that this matter cannot be told to anyone, nor can I inquire about the origin of this meat. After the food cutoff, our life became easier and we no longer had to worry about food.This is, I remembered what my benefactor said, telling me to eat this kind of meat at once at this time, and not to keep any.I really wanted to do what he said, but I thought, who can guarantee that there will be no famine in the future?If I eat all of this meat at once, where will I find my benefactor and this kind of meat in a disaster year?Seeing this, Mu Dongcheng's face lost all color.His body shook violently like chaff, his head shook like a rattle, and he repeated in a crying voice: "No...impossible, it's not true, and I only found out today." Murray said sadly, "I'm sorry, Dongcheng... For so many years, I have been hiding it from you. As stated in this letter, my real son actually starved to death during the famine. You were brought back by grandpa. At that time, he I just said that I picked you up on the side of the road, I believed it was true, I didn't know until I saw this letter today..." Speaking of this, Murray looked at Mu Dongcheng: "So, now you know why I told you not to do anything to that child, right? He is your brother, or he and you... are the same person." "What? What do you mean?" Mu Dongcheng walked up to his father and grabbed his arm, "Isn't this made from the old man's flesh? How could it be the same person as me?" "Didn't you understand until now?" Murray said, "When I saw the boy's face and thought of the old gentleman's face, I figured it all out. East Side, when I first saw the old gentleman , I think he looks a bit familiar, and this child, don't you think he looks a lot like you?" Mu Dongcheng looked at the baby boy sleeping on the bed in fear, and he was already asleep at the moment.The facial features on that face are really somewhat similar to himself.He wouldn't have connected at all if he hadn't heard his father say that. Murray said sadly: "At the beginning, when the old man was young, a piece of his body was given to your grandfather. Later, this piece of meat became you. And now you have picked up a piece of the old man's body back , this piece of meat turned into a boy again. That is to say—the old gentleman from Shanpinju, you, and the baby boy—all are the same..." "No! Don't say it!" Mu Dongcheng held his head in pain, "How could this be... I, myself, was also transformed from a piece of meat?" He laughed ironically. "I kept saying that this baby room is a monster, but it turned out... I am a monster that has lived for decades?!" "Dongcheng, don't talk about yourself like that!" Murray said sadly, "You are not a monster, that old man and this kid..." "Then what are we? Tell me, what are we?" Mu Dongcheng said with tears.Murray looked up and sighed, and said, "Originally, I didn't believe that such a thing existed in this world, but now that I have experienced it, I can only draw one conclusion." He fixed his eyes on Mu Dongcheng: "Of course you They are human beings, but I am afraid they are not human beings on the earth. In this world, there are some friends from faraway places." Mu Dongcheng looked at his father, looked at him for a long time, and asked faintly, "Who am I? What should I do?" What should I do?" Murray looked at him intently, and replied, "You are my son. You must continue to live well in the future." "What about him?" Mu Dongcheng pointed to the baby boy on the bed. "He is your son, a new member of the old Mu family. Give him a name." Mu Dongcheng's tears overflowed his eyes again, just like all humans on earth. "Dongcheng, don't say that about yourself!" Murray said sadly, "You are not a monster, neither are the old man and this child." "Then what are we? Tell me, what are we?" Mu Dongcheng said with tears. Murray looked up and sighed, and said, "At first, I didn't believe that such a thing existed in this world, but now that I have experienced it, I can only draw one conclusion." He fixed his eyes on Mu Dongcheng: "Of course you are human beings, but I'm afraid you are not human beings on the earth. In this world, there must be some friends from far away." Mu Dongcheng looked at his father, stared at him for a long time, and asked weakly, "Who am I? What should I do?" Murray looked at him intently and replied, "You are my son. You must continue to live well in the future." Epilogue More than ten years later, a private restaurant opened in a little-known ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River.The chef is a sixteen-year-old genius boy.This private restaurant has a lot of rules: only open on Monday and Wednesday two days a week, only one table, dinner is limited; the number of people eating can only be between 6 and 8 people; no ordering, the chef eats whatever ; No matter what dish you eat, you can't inquire about the source of ingredients and the cooking process.Despite such strict rules, gourmets still flock to it, because there, bears can eat unique delicacy.The owner of the private restaurant is only the boy and a woman in her fifties.Sometimes, outsiders will hear this woman who is over fifty years old, calling this young man "the head of the family". The relationship between the two is unimaginable and leads to reverie.The boy who heads the house and this woman like to make a cup of tea in the yard and chat casually in their free time.Also remember the past.One evening, the woman asked: "Master, why do we have to open a restaurant?" The young man looked up at the starry sky and said quietly, "Anyway, we can't go back... Here, we must find something to do." He turned his head to look at the woman, and said with a smile: "And, don't you think? The food in our 'hometown' is much better than the food here. I always want people here to try it." The woman sighed with a wry smile Take a breath. "We've been living here for many, many years..." She said sadly, "Sometimes, I feel like I'm already from here." The boy patted the woman's shoulder and comforted him, "There's nothing wrong with that." .Although this place can’t compare with our hometown, it’s not bad. The Jiangnan water town we’re in is not the only one here.” The good woman nodded silently, and said: “This time, let’s open the restaurant in this Jiangnan water town. Shouldn't there be any more trouble?" The boy said: "Probably not, we don't sell 'that dish' anymore. The last time someone ate it, it almost revealed our identity." The boy smiled and said, "Do you think they don't know? In fact, they have already guessed it." "So, the bureau we set up for them didn't work?" "That's right, they were not 'framed' by us, nor did they give up because of fear—it really made us waste our efforts." The young man laughed, "However, I didn't do it entirely because of them. I was old at the time, and I wanted to take this opportunity to be born again." "That's right... By the way, how do you know they guessed our identities?" The young man smiled unfathomably; "How could I not know? I can sense my brother." "They knew our secret, why didn't they make it public?" "He is one of us, how could he expose himself? Besides, he is raising a brother who is about my age." "So, you are not alone anymore." The boy looked at the woman: "Qinghui, you are not alone either. Didn't you have a few more sisters when you were reborn?" The woman laughed: "Yes, If you don’t tell me, I’ll forget, I don’t know where they are now.” "We will meet someday." The boy looked up into the distance. "People in this world who look the same as us are our brothers and sisters. It's just that sometimes, they themselves are just sometimes, and they don't even know it." The Gothic story is over.Beidou let out a long sigh of relief, and said, "Your story really made me miserable!" "Why?" Goth asked puzzled. Beidou said: "In the first half, listening to your detailed introduction of the delicacies that appear in the story, my saliva almost flowed down; but after deciphering, it made me a little nauseous again... I really admire you, Goth! I am still the first Listening to a certain story once makes my stomach churn!" What Beidou said seemed to be derogatory, but Goth smiled lightly. Lake also expressed his appreciation: "This story has a novel theme and a sense of mystery. Especially the final epilogue is the finishing touch, making the ending meaningful and exciting." "It is indeed a surprisingly good story," Xia Houshen praised, "You, a young writer in your twenties, can actually use a person in his fifties as the protagonist of the story, and all descriptions are in line with his age characteristics ——It is commendable." "Since everyone's evaluation is so high, let's rate this story while the aftertaste is still unfinished." Beluga said. "Thank you for your compliments." Goth stood up, "I'll get the paper and pen." After a while, Goth came back with a pen and blank paper and handed them out to everyone.After everyone finished scoring, he put away the paper and gave it to Nan Tian and Longma, who would count and score. After the average score was calculated, Nan Tian and Long Ma looked at each other with astonishment. "What's wrong?" Sajia asked, "Has the score been calculated?" "Wait... I'll do the calculation again." Ryoma said with shame, he took a few minutes to recalculate carefully, and let out a sigh of relief, "That's right, this number..." "How many points?" Dark Fire asked. Nan Tian raised his head and looked at the crowd: "9.5 points." "Ah... so high?" Sajia gasped, surprised that she had only maintained her number one position for a day before being taken away by Goth with an absolute advantage. Everyone seemed a little surprised, especially Goth. He didn't seem to have expected that he could get such a high score. His face was flushed with excitement, and he stood up and bowed to thank: "Thank you for your kindness!" Gothic acknowledgment, to the proud and proud writer Araki, seems like a satire in the city.He, who claimed to be a senior, lost to these young people time and time again.He really couldn't hold back his face, but he didn't like to get angry, so he just stood up annoyed and walked away. Looking at the back of Araki Zhou going upstairs, everyone felt that the great writer was a little too unrefined.But those who knew Araki Zhou before knew that although he was arrogant, he was actually such a mild-mannered person who did not hide his inner feelings. "Let's go back to the room too." Xia Houshen said, he looked at Chris, "Little genius, it's your turn tomorrow night, are you ready?" "Well, it was ready yesterday." Chris said without hesitation. Xia Houshen was taken aback. "...you don't seem to worry about 'fouling' at all?" "No," Chris said with a confident smile, "my story is absolutely impossible to foul." Xia Houshen raised an eyebrow: "Really? You are so confident? Is there anything special about your story?" "Of course." Chris smiled mysteriously, "You will know tomorrow night." Chris' words aroused everyone's itching, but it was inconvenient to ask more questions now, so they had to disperse and wait for tomorrow night. According to the previous practice, after the scores were counted, Ryoma or Nan Tian put the scored papers in the bottom corner of the cabinet.Nan Tian was just about to put the stack of papers into the cabinet for tonight, when Goth came over and said, "Nan Tian, ​​can you show me the scoring paper?" ?" Goth said with some embarrassment: "I just want to see... how many points everyone gave me." "Didn't you read it when you put it away?" "Didn't look carefully." Because you got the highest score so far, want to reminisce again?Nan Tian thought to himself.He smiled and handed the stack of papers to Goth. "Take it and see." Goth followed the papers and flipped through them one by one. He looked at them slowly and carefully, as if savoring a cup of fragrant coffee. Nan Tian secretly laughed and said to Goth, "Look slowly. Well, just put it on the floor under the cabinet for a while." Ah, ok. " Nan Tianchao walked up the stairs, he went to the door of his room upstairs, and glanced down - Goth was still standing alone looking at the stack of papers.At this time, he felt a little strange - there are 11 pieces of paper in total, 11 points, is it worth looking at it for so long? Nan Tian opened the door and walked in, but did not close the door immediately.He stood at the door with his head raised, watching Goth quietly below.After more than a minute, he saw Goth peeking at the upstairs on both sides, then quickly folded the stack of papers a few times, put it in his pocket, and walked upstairs. Nan Tian was taken aback - why did he take this stack of paper away?There is no doubt that such behavior cannot be senseless! Nan Tian closed the door, leaned his back against the door and pondered for a few minutes. Suddenly, he suddenly realized something—could Goth... This thought made him startled, and in order to confirm whether his guess was correct, he decided to go to Sajia immediately.Nan Tian quietly opened the door, walked to the door of Sajia's room next door, knocked lightly on the door, and said, "Shajia, tell me, how much did you score for the Gothic story just now?" Sajia asked suspiciously : "The scores have been counted, why ask this?" "I'll explain to you later. Tell me first, how many points did you score?" Sajia thought for a while and said, "I gave him an 8.9." Nan Tian gasped: "You remember correctly, right? Did you really score 8.9?" "Of course I remember correctly. This just happened. What's the matter?" Nan Tian opened his eyes wide, the guess in his heart had been confirmed. "Sure enough... what's going on?" Nan Tian told Sajia what she saw just now, and Sajia asked inexplicably: "Why did Goth quietly take away the graded paper?" "I was puzzled before, but after I came to you, I already understood what's going on!" Nan Tian said angrily, "Goth cheated, that's why his score is so high!" "Ah!?" Sajia was taken aback, "How did he cheat?" "He has ulterior motives. In order to cheat, he started to prepare two days ago!" Nan Tian stared at Sajia and said, "Think about it, Beidou was responsible for getting the paper and pens for the first nine nights. But On the tenth night—after Arakishuu had finished telling the story—Goth took over the task. He distributed the paper and pens to everyone, collected them later, and handed them over to Ryoma and me to count the scores. At first, I thought he just wanted to serve everyone, but now it looks really naive! He did this to lay the foundation for tonight!" Sajia stared blankly at Nantian. "You still don't understand?" Nan Tian said, ""Maybe let me imagine Goth's cheating process tonight-after he finished telling the story, he went to the cabinet to take out the paper and pen as he did the previous two nights , send it to everyone.Since it's him doing it for three days in a row, we've gotten used to it. "Then we graded separately. Goth collected the papers next to each other - think about it carefully - he collected them very slowly. When he passed by Yu Chicheng and Xu Wen, the two chairs were empty! This is The key! He can take advantage of this small vacancy by making some small movements, turn his back to us, and reverse the prepared paper with high scores and some papers—as long as he moves neatly, it only takes a second or two! Come on, when the paper is handed over to me and Ryoma, it will be full of high marks!"