[july 2052, fourteen years ago]
“I have composed one more for you, my dear.”
A soft melody drifts throughout the spacious room. The place is exceptionally pleasing to the eye, the walls tastefully adorned with paintings and premium artwork. Two large casement windows stream soft highlights onto an ivory rug and toward the two people in the center.
The woman is prettily illuminated in light, her blonde hair made more golden amidst the backdrop. Her skin is an ashen shade of white, but she is a beauty for certain. She wears a long dress that pools down her ankles, the silk fabric hiding most of her emaciated frame.
The man to her side is the direct opposite of her fragility. A silver insignia is plastered onto his dark uniform, a single star that carries clear magnificence. A zinc handgun juts out between more dark fabric by his waistband. The man is leaned forward with both of his arms wrapped around the woman’s waist. His looks do not match the iridescence of his lover’s, but he is just as eye-catching.
They gather by a grand piano. Above them is a dangling chandelier made of the finest crystals. The scene is picture perfect. The woman’s slender fingers glide past piano keys, playing a melody that remind of summertime waltz, soft ocean breeze. The man simply stands to listen, his own fingers gently holding her body upright.
The song fades past crescendo and he finally speaks.
“You’ve been practicing?” he asks. “It is good.”
“Practicing… for a year?” she responds with a smile. Soft and light, just like her appearance. “Xie Liwei, if only you would come home more often, you may even hear your son’s playing. He has gotten very good—talented at everything, just like you are, hmm?”
“His resemblance to you is uncanny,” he replies. Some apprehension in his tone. “His talents take after yours as well, but…” He purses his lips. Then comes a sudden change of the topic with an off-handed remark. “No one can match the beautiful color of your eyes.”
She laughs. “Another year in the field and your sappy lines have gotten worse. Your mannerisms are unbefitting of your grand title, hmm, Brigadier General?”
“I do miss you,” Xie Liwei says. Although his expression is stoic, there is tenderness laced in his words. “It is unfortunate I haven’t much time before I am due to be stationed in South Barcuda.”
The woman removes her hands from the piano and holds onto her lover’s wrists. “The South Barcuda… Is it possible to take a few photos of its landscape? The tropical forests, evergreen trees… and it has been a while since I’ve seen a pretty creek, my dear.”
“It has turned into a quarantine zone,” he replies. “The area has become a desert.”
She lets out a low hum. “I see. It really is unfortunate.”
“Luna,” he says as he places a soft kiss on the back of her head. “Tell me how you are doing?”
A darkening of the skies, the slivers of light gradually reducing to a muted yellow. The skies outside the windows are wanned in color. Barely visible flecks of chroma can be seen, a small distortion in the air, almost like a large film overhead the city. An invisible, manmade electromagnetic field encompasses all of the inner city and the border, spanning an innumerable diameter far away.
“The skies are brighter today,” the beautiful woman whispers. “Do you see it, Xie Liwei… or is it only with my unhuman eyes?”
The time is six in the evening. Both the brigadier general and his lover stare out past the translucent curtains, settling their gaze on the skies. It is a grand feat in itself to construct a barrier, but the protection is only temporary. A few more decades, estimated, and the last survivors would have to develop radioresistant structures, generate a magnetic dipole strong enough to shield against solar wind.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The beautiful woman sighs softly. Her brows are scrunched in distress.
“I am losing control,” she whispers. “Yesterday, I tried to strangle our son—no, I did strangle him. A few more seconds and Xie Xing would have died in my hands. I could not quell my bloodlust. Again.”
“He hasn’t died,” Xie Liwei responds. “It is not your fault.”
“But it is not his fault either,” Luna says. “My dear, our Xie Xing should not have been born. That way, he will not suffer like so.”
The brigadier general tightens his embrace. “…Perhaps I find myself agreeing.”
They hear a soft noise from the doorway.
Immediately, the mother’s eyes widen in happiness.
“Xie Xing,” she calls out. “Come here.”
A tuft of silver hair is all that peeks out from behind the door. It is with a little more prompting that the young boy finally steps inside the room. Xie Xing, six years old, has a beautiful pair of doe eyes – the brigadier general was wrong, for the radiant blue is an exact mirror of his mother’s. The child’s left eye, however, has resemblance to neither of his parents.
Xie Xing is covered in heavy gauze. The bandage blends with the whiteness of his neck and it almost does seem like a second skin on him – only his face, his hands and a patch of his forearm are uncovered. The boy has on a tentative expression, his small fingers fidgeting in both shyness and… if looked at closely, a small bit of fright. It only perpetuates when he catches a glimpse of the general’s figure.
“Xie Xing,” the man speaks out to him – his tone is as stoic as usual, but his dark eyes bear hints of complication. Some mix of apathy, just a small tinge of vehemence. “Come.”
When the boy gets close, his father bends to touch his hair. Calloused hands rub on silver-white locks, sliding down to rest on the plump of his cheeks. The movements are slow and testing – the man had never done such things. His hands are stiff, and the slightest twitch of his tendons indicates he’s wholly uncomfortable with touching the child – his son.
Xie Xing doesn’t seem used to such contact nor is he expecting affection from the impassive military man. He flinches slightly – a learned habit – and remains rooted in place. His eyes are glued to the pistol strapped onto the general’s dark leather belt.
His father lowers his hand. “This child is so timid?”
“—It is because you are no different than a stranger to him,” replies his lover sitting on the piano chair. “You should show him more affection. He is your son.”
“When I look at him, I am more reminded of the infection in your veins,” the man replies. “It is not that I dislike him. Rather, it is that—”
“You think of him as some sort of plague,” Luna says with a sad smile. “But that child surnamed Yang—is he not the same horror?”
“…” The brigadier general is silent for a moment. “Yang’s eldest son is a different case I am monitoring. The radiation level is low, and he displays no abnormal traits as of yet. He is kept under strict supervision. I had hoped that Xie Xing would be able to overcome like he. However, Luna…”
The brigadier general stares at his son. Such an odd appearance coupled with innocence, the young boy looking nothing short of an anomaly. Xie Xing is a beautiful child for sure but the more he looks, the more he is averse to those unhuman heterochromatic eyes, silver hair – Xie Liwei thinks that if the boy parts his mouth, there would be canine teeth.
He says, “This child will turn… like you.”
“It is true,” she replies with a soft chuckle. “He and I are both doomed to die. I can feel myself losing sanity and as for Xiao-Xing, there are nights I find him with glowing eyes, starved for blood. Perhaps it is that our beastly traits are incompatible with our physiques.”
The man turns silent again before speaking some seconds later, “…I have hope still. In the… improbability that he does not morph, I would not be opposed to catering to him. If he does, I—”
“You would not hesitate to kill him.” Luna gives him a small smile. “I know the kind of man you are, Xie Liwei. Would you kill me too?”
“…” He looks at her with lightened gray eyes. “No. You are a different case, Luna, because I am in love with you.”
There are many things unsaid, many hypocrisies unexplored, but instead of delving deeper, his wife leans down to ruffle Xie Xing’s hair – the two of them miss the way the child recoils from the touch.
Luna says, “You should come home more often so he’ll recognize you as his father. Or perhaps take him out for a walk? Xiao-Xing is indoors for 364 days a year, and he stays outside by the porch on the remaining day. He has one friend—your Shi Luo, that smart child who comes to visit whenever he’s free from studies. Xiao-Xing must be very lonely to be trapped in this home, no matter how big you construct it to be.”
“Very well,” her lover replies. “Then to heed your words, I will see to taking a day off next year. However, with such an appearance, the child would garner strange looks from the city folk. It would be sensible to dye his hair a more inconspicuous color. What do you feel about black? Or perhaps brown would be more suited his temperament—”
“My dear,” his wife interrupts suddenly. “I feel I do not have much longer. Next year I may turn into something grotesque. If not next year, then the year after, I certainly…”
“Do not speak of an unknown future,” Xie Liwei says.
“You cannot protect me forever,” she says softly. “Neither can you hide our son from the city’s omniscient eyes. Perhaps there is a brighter outlook in the slums.”
“To leave you in the wilderness is tantamount to murder,” he replies coldly. “You have seen and fought the creatures there, Luna. I will not compromise your safety.”
His blonde lover stands up, the hem of her dress pooling elegantly down the rug. She struggles to keep herself balanced and it is with the support of her husband that her body finally stops shaking. Her frame is extremely weak and there is little resolve in her radiant blue eyes. Only resignation.
She holds Xie Liwei’s hand and leans to say, “If I had died on that snow-swept day, I would not have passed down these accursed traits.”
Six-year-old Xie Xing stands quietly by the piano, his small fingers grazing against the keyboard. He really is timid, more so than any other child his age. He bears scars that run from his neck down to torso and stomach, those ugly streaks that mar his delicate skin. Unbeknownst to the child, sometime during conversation, his pupils have turned into inhuman, vertical slits.
The brigadier general only purses his lips, remaining quiet.
His wife gives a soft chuckle then – her voice travels as melodiously as the first taps on piano keys, the playing of a note in minor. “My dear, let me tell you a secret.”
Her lashes are lidded low and her mouth is curved into a small smile. When she whispers in his ears, her voice carries no jest. “There are times I want to die and take our child with me.”
Xie Liwei’s lips thin even more. “It is only a short-term depressive state. I will see to hiring a psychiatrist.”
“No,” she says with that same smile on her face. Undecipherable. “What use is it to be trapped here, hidden away forever? I should not be alive and Xie Xing should not have been born.”
—
[january 2054, a year and a half]
A cry can be heard in the vicinity.
The sound of it is soft and stifled. A child’s voice, pained, echoes throughout the spacious home.
Xie Liwei, having just returned from duty, throws all his belongings aside and rushes inside. The room he steps into reeks of copper. He fights all of his rationale, refusing to pull out his pistol and empty the entire magazine onto… the woman, his wife.
Luna has turned into a terrible mix of human and canine – some sort of wicked disfigurement. A creature that is as white as a phantom. Protruding ears, long sharp fangs, a tail that has grown out of her coccyx. Then those eyes, slanted downward unnaturally, the pupils crazed, the irises with zero semblance to the aqua blue he’s familiar with.
A child lies limply on the pristine floor tiles. His stomach has been ripped – and is still being continuously ripped, his mother intent on drilling a hole through. A little longer and she would be prying out his organs to feast on. Her claws sink onto the tender of his skin and Xie Xing sobs out once more, choked and pained. It is a miracle that he is alive – perhaps his endurance, too, is attributed to his monstrous being.
His mother is lost in delirium, simply pinning him down, clawing her way through to satiate her carnivore. Xie Liwei, upon seeing his son damaged on the floor, does not take a second look. He rushes to his wife and pulls her into his arms.
The brigadier colonel holds love for her so intensely that he is prone to disregarding all others in backdrop – including his own son.
“Luna,” he says as he cradles her head, ignoring the white ears that poke at his chest. “Luna, calm down. It is me.”
She is too disoriented to care. His wife thrashes in his hold and she lets out a scream, not humanlike in the slightest. Xie Liwei locks her tightly but doesn’t place enough strength to hurt her. It is when those beastly cries tune down into light sobs that his wife finally regains a sliver of consciousness.
She turns to him with hauntingly glowing eyes. Her lips are stained scarlet and the same-colored liquids trail down her jaw and neck, dyeing her ivory clothes.
“…Xie Liwei,” she musters out. “Take me away from the city. Take me away from the humans and our son… our son will die with me in the slums.”
The brigadier general finally turns to the young boy on the floor. Tears streak down the child’s unfocused eyes – they are equally as crazed as his mother’s, equally as demented and downright inhuman. Perhaps a few more years and he, too, will succumb to the radiation like she has.
Xie Liwei finds himself thinking that it is pitiful this child reminds him so much of her insanity.
“…Very well,” he whispers to his lover. “I will take you away.”
It takes a lot to make me hate a character. I usually don’t care enough about fictional characters to hate them. But I find myself making an exception where the general is concerned. He’s a special kind of scum. And Noah’s mother isn’t much better, talking about such things infront of her child.
Props to the author. The writing is excellent. Thank you for the chapter 💕
I agree with you! The dad is horrible. like if he can’t take care of a kid, then he shouldn’t have had one. The mom is kind and caring, but some topics shouldn’t be said in front of the kid.
+1😭
general xie…. his character is such a struggle to write!! there will be more of him in the next arc, and his motivations are going to be super morally gray (black)
So sad. Thanks for the new chapter!!
thanks for reading~!
What a hypocrite and unfair man that mr.General is…
At first I thought that it was just a case of ‘I will treat other’s child better than my own son’… but, alas, it IS way worse. He’s the prime example of a man could be the best husband but not (even a bit) good father figure.
Then as a couple, IF YOU DON’T WANT TO HAVE A CHILD, THEN DO “IT” SAFELY FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE.
And Mom, I know that you care for Noah/Lil’ Star, and I know that that was the only way you could think of to protect him from long life-suffering, but not like that please…
Seriously, I AM crying for Noah… good job author… good job
definitely!! xie liwei treats his lover incredibly well, but the mother is also the one who’s been abusing (straight up trying to murder) noah for all of his childhood
🙃🙃🙃 Wow these «parents»….
Thanks for the chapter!
<<parents>> who shouldn’t procreate
Congrats, you guys won the award “Every child deserves parents, but not all parents deserve children.” I hope you take this award to your graves ☺️. And I mean literally 😗
I agree!!!😭
yes! and it isnt like children can have a choice of parents ; ;; hence there are too many developmental, anxiety and fear issues that stem from early childhood
I have no words for how disgusted I am with these two… Poor Noah!!
Thanks for the chapter 🥲
thank you for reading~!
damn i feel so sorry for noah ,firstly he was born infected cause of his mother getting infected during pregnancy but rather than feeling guilty for him these idiots (mostly father) are blaming him, and the mother, despite knowing the fact that she is infected and can go crazy at any time is not keeping away from him (noah), even if it was in a crazed state she still did all of that ,but she is talking to noah as if nothing has happened . and we don’t even need to talk about this mr. general he is a complete waste of a human through and through , your son is dying over there but you didn’t even look at him, just amazing!!!.
whew! well the author did a really great job writing the character design cause this is my first time i really felt like crying for the mc.
.
aw thank you for commenting ~ i appreciate any and all silent readers!
before i start a story, i make up all my character’s backstories and backgrounds in my mind. noah in this case gets all the angst and suffering, but i also didn’t expect to make his parents this terrible — it was supposed to be a loving mother and an aggrieved father who’s crippled from loss. but now, it’s turned into two toxic, abusive and terrible human beings…!
I’ll adopt Noah! I love how well you’ve written General Xie, that I actually feel unadulterated hate towards that man 😭. I feel so bad for little Noah, I’ll take care of our little precious steamed bun baby, how could they ever mistreat a child.
When you described Luna as iridescence, I pictured Li Wei as Matte. They are a match made in heaven ( hell) ♪(^^)o∀∀o(^^*)♪
matte and iridescence ~ perfect for each other ~ they do have a bit of a side story going on in …. maybe 15-20 chapters, and i think it’ll be fun to write about them
thank you so much…❤
thank you 💕
omg c’mere Noah. Lemme pamper you and appriciate your heterochromatic eyes. Damn it. This is so harsh 😭😭💓
i think if it were in any other universe without mutations, strange monsters and dying humans, noah’s appearance will be much more appreciated (and he wouldn’t be so self-conscious about it) ; ;;
Yess 😭
thanks for the chapter <3
💕
this is so saddening. 🙁
im the type of author who can never write pure fluff without losing my mind.. *inserts angst and death everywhere
I’m ashamed to admit it, but once in a while I kinda crave for this type of heartwrenching chapters.. 🙈
i am more ashamed for wanting to write them 😭
Noah’s Dad is more of a beast than his wife and child. No wonder Noah is the way he is..getting ripped by his mother continuously…..poor Noah. My heart aches for him.
omg u__u;; the amount of child gore in this novel has seriously reached new heights!! ngl i really like how gruesome it is but poor noah weeppppss
Hate General Xie so much, he is scum and so is his wife. Poor Noah
I can still understand Noah’s mother’s actions and words, since she is infected and losing her sanity little by little, and probably she sees Noah’s morphing in herself..
But the father is the true monster under the human skin..
+1
He’s a good husband but not as a father figure, I utterly dislike him for treating Noah like that. Shame on you! You shouldn’t have a child, if you’ll only care is your wife, although I can’t blame you for not liking him since he reminds you of the situation your wife is but you should have treat him better! He deserves it, my goodness, this terrible parents. UGH
This was heartbreaking, I can’t even imagine how Noah went through this. KUDOS, yue-sama! this was well-written. 🙌💞
I fking hate these two people, my poor baby Noah 😭 I really like how you alternate between past, present and the interchanging PV’s of the character’s, the pacing is very well balanced 😊
I am absolutely livid. Burning to the very bone. It’s conflicting, as I say often, but regardless of love for his wife, can one look at their own child and not care for their suffering? For the wounds painted on their skin, the emotions clear on their face?
My dear Noah, he deserved none of this, not even close. His parents were selfish, despite their reasons, it’s downright unreasonable and unacceptable.
Poor Noah do you think they would not talk about that stuff in front of him. No wonder he scared oh Yang Rong, considering both his father and mother were quite scary at times.
I suppose it’s a noting some of her mental instability but I can’t help her be angry at how she is also a problem not just the general. In any case folks mental health issues do not excuse terrible behavior( psychology major here).
These parents make me wanna slap them
General Xie takes the title of “scum father” to another level. His bias towards Yang Rong’s appearance (which looks like him), compared to Noah (his own son), is infuriating. That’s why Noah is so averse with his own appearance. I know Yang Rong is his astronaut best friend’s son, but does he really have to show such obvious bias? Anyway, what an amazing piece 😍 and I hope, personally, for General Xie to be an unredeemable character because I don’t think I can forgive him 🙂 lolz
I especially hated it when they talked all those shitty stuff right in front of Noah! Like wtf?! Mutation or not, Noah is still the child that you conceived together and a child that doesn’t know anything. They should at least be a little sympathetic or maybe be a bit more considerate and go to another room or let Noah leave the room before talking about how him being born is a mistake and how General fucking Xie would not hesitate to put a bullet in his brain!! >:(
I really hate Xie Liwei 😡
I’d like to say that he is a neglectful husband and a total failure as a father. The mother isn’t going to win any awards either but at least she has the excuse of the infection messing with her sanity. General Xie has no excuse for his behaviour. He’s simply an utterly cold and selfish man with an obsession–he doesn’t actually care about anyone. Even Yang Rong is just a useful tool for him.
Congrats author for making me seethe with anger this chapter (and wanting to take baby Noah far, far away from those two–no wonder he has attachment issues and such an ingrained fear and loathing for military men) 😭😭😭
… do I have daddy issues? Maaaaybe
looks shifty