Chapter 126: Aberrant 16

Seeing Qian place her favorite foods on the offering table, Chen Cailing felt a little moved inside.

“Qian is really filial.” She patted the child’s round head and comforted her, “Mama hears you’re worried about her, she’ll get better soon.”

“Sigh.” Qian suddenly sighed, rubbing her ears. “They’re really noisy when they cry.”

Chen Cailing shuddered instantly and instinctively moved closer to her small body. “Who did you say was crying? I didn’t hear anything.”

“My… little brothers and sisters.” Qian pointed at the wall. “They’re inside the room, can’t get out.”

As she spoke, she suddenly leaned toward the wall behind the offering table and stuck her head in. Visually, it looked like she had just wedged her head into the wall.

Chen Cailing: “!”

Qian covered her ears and peeked in, glancing into the “womb.” A dozen or so children were crawling on the floor just like before. Because their mother and older sister were absent, the pillows and blankets in the room had been torn apart, scattered everywhere like a pack of mischievous huskies wrecking the place.

When they saw their older sister, they immediately crawled toward her, each one shouting loudly, their dark red throats visible.

Qian pulled her head back from the wall, turned to Chen Cailing with a bit of frustration: “They’re hungry and drooling.”

Chen Cailing: “Ah, hungry?”

She couldn’t help but steady herself on the table. Could it be they wanted to eat her?

Qian looked at the yogurt and snacks on the offering table, then reached out to grab some.

“I’ll give them this.”

“How old are they? Can they even eat snacks?” Chen Cailing blurted out the question and immediately smacked her own forehead.

What kind of question was that? They probably weren’t even human—what couldn’t they eat?

“Big sister, come with me.” Qian hugged the snacks and tried to pull her along.

Chen Cailing was a little scared and didn’t really want to go, but a tiny bit of curiosity made her agree. With this mixed feeling, she was pulled by Qian and bumped into the wall. Qian disappeared behind it, and Chen Cailing crashed into the wall herself.

She covered her forehead, reddened from the bump, and crouched against the wall, letting out a painful grunt.

“Big sister, can’t you come in?” Qian poked her head out from the wall.

Chen Cailing clutched her heart, subtly averted her eyes from the stuck head, and stammered, “You go… you go ahead. I’ll wait outside.”

Qian sighed with regret, unable to bring the big sister to play with the little brothers and sisters.

Feeling like her feet were being nibbled on, Qian turned to look and furrowed her brows. Instantly, the sweet little girl became a tough older sister.

“Don’t bite me!”

The little brothers and sisters hadn’t been scolded for days, so after getting a fresh dose of sisterly love, Qian finally sat among the now much quieter children.

She first opened a yogurt, put the straw in, and brought it to one baby’s mouth.

“Suck, suck a little, okay?”

The baby immediately bit through the straw. Qian gently patted its bottom and took the straw from its mouth, reinserting it into the yogurt bottle.

“I’ll show you how, just like this.”

She took a sip herself.

It was really tasty. Another sip.

She seriously demonstrated, sipping one after another until she finished the whole bottle.

A bunch of little babies lying beside her watched her gulp down the yogurt so fast, their drool dripping longer.

Qian opened another bottle to teach them to drink, but their sharp little teeth kept piercing the hard straw, pulling it off the bottle, spilling yogurt everywhere.

“Ah!” She focused on one baby, while the others restlessly pawed at the other snacks she brought. One baby lunged at the bag of chips and bit down.

“Pffft.” The bag burst, air hissed out, and the baby crushed it flat along with the chips inside, turning them into crumbs.

Finally, Qian started feeding the babies pieces of chips and crushed crumbs.

She scooped some up and put it into the big open mouths of the babies. They smacked their lips happily. These babies, eating this kind of food for the first time, were especially excited, constantly pawing Qian and urging her on.

Qian had to twist her body now and then, saying, “Don’t push me!”

“Not your turn yet!”

“Don’t fight!”

“Don’t bite my fingers! Then you don’t get any!”

The scene was exactly like a child feeding a bunch of scrambling puppies—tense, frantic, and crowded.

Because the babies all squirmed and climbed over each other, Qian soon lost track of who she had just fed.

“Did I feed this one?” she wondered. But she quickly stopped caring. Based on her past experience feeding turtles, goldfish, ducks, and other strange creatures, if they opened their mouths, she shoved food in until they stopped.

But all the food was gone, and Qian’s arms were tired, yet the babies still kept opening their mouths and crying.

Looking at their big heads and small bodies, just like Mama and sister did to her, she scooped them up and touched their bellies.

They were all flat, as if they hadn’t eaten at all—not at all like her own swollen belly.

Chen Cailing squatted by the offering table hugging her knees, waiting a long time before seeing Qian come out from inside the wall.

“Qian, are you done feeding?”

“…Done.”

Qian twisted her fingers, a little conflicted, then gave her a guilty yet cute smile.

“What’s wrong?” Chen Cailing crouched in front of her and asked.

Qian hummed, “They’re still hungry.”

Chen Cailing patted her head tenderly, feeling Qian was like a little kid forced to take on family responsibilities. She comforted her, “It’s okay. When Mama wakes up, everything will be fine.”

“Really?”

“Really!” Chen Cailing whispered, “So let’s leave here first and go downstairs.”

She had been alone in this room too long—she was nearly scared to death!

Chen Cailing settled down safely in Tianzi Building. During that time, she saw people come by, but none dared enter; they just circled the entrance to check in quickly, then ran away.

Every time someone came, Chen Cailing grabbed Qian to hide and reminded her again not to get close to people, to keep away.

When no one came, Tianzi Building was very quiet. Chen Cailing didn’t know if it had always been this quiet, or if it was only so because the Aberrant was asleep.

But after staying here for two days without any harm, her courage grew a lot.

Watching TV with Qian on the first floor, her gaze once again swept over the lush green vegetables in the garden courtyard.

After eating snacks for so many days, she was starting to crave a proper meal.

“Qian,” she took Qian’s hand and asked, “who planted those vegetables? Are they edible?”

Qian nodded, “Yes, they’re edible! I even played house and ate them with my little brothers and sisters.”

“Then let’s cook some meals. I see there are kitchens in many rooms here—maybe we can even find some rice.”

“Cook food!” Qian raised both hands happily.

In the house with the TV, Chen Cailing found rice and flour in a cupboard. Excited, she grabbed a red basket and said to Qian, “Let’s go pick some vegetables!”

Picking vegetables was like a game to a child. Qian stepped onto the garden bed and started pulling up vegetables one by one, soon filling both hands.

“This soil is so dark and soft, and the vegetables are well grown—no bug holes at all,” Chen Cailing said happily.

After they left with their baskets full, the soil in the garden bed, half disturbed by them, seemed to churn with anger.

The churning soil soon sprouted new seedlings.

What else could they do besides replant?

Chen Cailing was young but very capable. Whether it was rinsing rice, cooking, washing, or stir-frying vegetables, she was quite skilled.

Qian followed at her feet, lying on the stove while Chen Cailing cooked.

Holding the spatula, Chen Cailing eyed the green vegetables simmering in a pot, the broth turning a red color, feeling a bit uncertain.

“What kind of vegetable is this?”

Fortunately, the broth was magenta, not blood-red, or she might have been too scared to eat it.

Qian opened her mouth beside her: “Ah ah ah!”

Chen Cailing pinched some with her chopsticks and handed it to her: “Is it tasty?”

Qian chewed on the crunchy vegetable stems and nodded, “Delicious!”

It had been a long time since she’d had a proper meal.

Chen Cailing stir-fried the greens, scrambled eggs with some ham sausages she found in a small supermarket, and made a simple vegetable egg drop soup. The two of them eagerly served up their food.

“I want to eat this tomorrow too,” Qian said, spooning large mouthfuls with her cheeks puffed out.

“Then tomorrow we’ll go to the supermarket and get more eggs to make fried rice—we still have some leftover rice.”

“Fried rice! Fried rice!” Qian nodded her head excitedly.

Chen Cailing never imagined she’d live such an ordinary life inside this eerie Domain.

People always feared the Domain, and so did she. But this time’s experience gave her a new feeling.

Taking a bite of the red broth vegetable, Chen Cailing suddenly froze.

The Survival System in her mind gave a prompt: Congratulations Players, you have gained the “Ghost Aura Immunity” ability. The aura of ordinary ghosts will no longer affect you.

Chen Cailing looked at the vegetable on her chopsticks: “…”

Before she knew it, it was the night of the seventh day.

Chen Cailing and Qian sat on small stools, heads together, busy drawing and writing.

Qian was drawing, while Chen Cailing was reviewing her lessons. With exams approaching, her grades had never been good, especially math. She easily forgot what she learned, and after being here a few days, she was almost blanking on formulas. Feeling urgency, she bit the end of her pen and silently wrote out the formulas she still remembered.

Suddenly, a faint tremor startled Chen Cailing, who had been studying with glazed eyes. Qian had already dropped her pen and happily exclaimed, “Mama’s awake!”

At night, the Domain’s bottom six floors would only appear when an Aberrant was awake.

The shadows in those six floors had mostly faded and would take time to recover.

Hand in hand, Qian and Chen Cailing climbed up. Chen Cailing suddenly spotted a somewhat familiar figure in the shadows.

That shadow! Isn’t that Young Master Li!

Sometimes, humans who died here would turn into aberrations inside the building. Young Master Li was particularly susceptible to assimilation by the shadows, so after death, he became one of them.

But unlike before, the shadowed Young Master Li no longer had his consciousness or memories—just a newborn ghost wandering with the other shadows.

Pulled by Qian to the fourth floor above, Chen Cailing saw the Aberrant again.

Her appearance now was almost unchanged from the first time they met—restored, slender and tall, with full limbs, though the arm behind her seemed slightly shorter.

“Mama, mama, mama!” Qian ran excitedly to her, throwing herself at her legs.

The Aberrant picked her up and glanced at Chen Cailing standing quietly at a distance.

If Aberrant could speak now, she’d probably ask why the food caught hadn’t been eaten for so long.

Qian clung to her neck, saying, “Mama, I drew a picture of you.”

“Mama, why have you been asleep so long?”

“Mama, do you still remember me?”

“I’ve been good these past two days and ate meals. My sister cooked for me.”

“Mama, do you want some yogurt? I saved two bottles for you!”

…

The child’s words didn’t stop, jumping from topic to topic. Just watching from the side, Chen Cailing felt her head buzzing—let alone the freshly awakened Aberrant.

So before Qian could finish, Aberrant gently put her down and nudged her toward Chen Cailing.

Mama tried to say through actions and thoughts: Don’t play with the caught food for too long, eat it quickly.

As for herself, she obviously wouldn’t eat the food the child caught. She’d woken up now just to rush the last wave of meals.

This Mission cycle’s death rate in the Monster Domain was incredibly low, leaving many Players still inside on the last day.

Near Tianzi Building, a pale and still healing Liu Zhi held a tool telescope and saw an Aberrant hunting in the corridor.

“This monster is really convenient—such heavy wounds heal so quickly. My breathing still hurts,” Liu Zhi said softly.

With her injuries, she naturally wouldn’t go to die again and was just waiting for the Mission to end so she could return.

“Eh?” Liu Zhi suddenly made a puzzled sound, then uttered three words: “Young Master?”

The bodyguard resting nearby immediately opened his eyes. “What?”

He took the telescope from Liu Zhi’s hand and quickly spotted the shadowed Young Master Li squeezed at the outer edge of a group of shadows, chasing Players with them.

Liu Zhi stepped aside and said regretfully, “Our little young master—I don’t know if it’s lucky or unlucky—but it seems he’s become an anomaly inside Tianzi Building.”

Useless when alive, useless as an aberration after death.