By the time Mo Fei was about to reach the villa, she had already turned on the villa’s central air conditioning using her phone. When they walked inside, cool air was already flowing throughout the house, making it exceptionally comfortable.
“Dad, Mom, this villa has three floors above ground, and there’s also a basement underneath. The basement is very large. I’ve converted it into three bedrooms and a living room, and I also installed a hidden door. If there’s ever any emergency, our whole family will go down to the basement. I’ve stocked enough food and water there to last our family for years. It’s blast-proof, poison-proof, fireproof, waterproof, basically protected against everything. I’ll explain it to you in more detail later.”
Mo Fei first registered her family’s information into the system, then introduced the house. “Normally, we’ll live on the first and second floors. You’re both getting older, so it won’t be convenient for you to go upstairs. You’ll stay in the master bedroom on the first floor, and Jianian’s room is also on the first floor. There’s also the kitchen, cold storage room, and storeroom downstairs. Jiayue and I will stay on the second floor. I’ve turned the third floor into a gym and a study. That’s about everything. Go get some rest first. I already ordered takeout for dinner earlier. I’ll take care of Jianian.”
The so-called takeout was actually food that Mo Fei had stored in her space beforehand.
She had her family take showers first. About twenty minutes later, dishes such as stone pot bibimbap, cold skin noodles, cold noodles, and braised pig’s trotters were spread across the table. There were also chilled grass jelly dessert and milk tea.
Song Yi and Mo Zhicheng had been exhausted from the day’s events and had little appetite. After eating a little, they took Jiayue to bed. Before leaving, they repeatedly reminded Mo Fei to wake them if anything happened.
Song Yi even specifically set an alarm for midnight, saying she would come and take over watching Jianian for Mo Fei, but Mo Fei firmly refused.
Mo Fei carried her son into the bedroom and gently laid him flat on the bed.
The air conditioner had already been set to 19 degrees Celsius. Even Mo Fei had gotten cold enough to put on a long sleeved shirt.
Yet Mo Jianian’s entire body remained burning hot. Before long, even the bedding beneath him had become scorching from his fever. None of the methods for reducing his temperature had any effect. If this continued, he would probably be burned into a fool before his ability even awakened.
Mo Fei knew there was perhaps only one thing left that might work on Mo Jianian. She continuously took out water from her space. Some she fed directly to him to drink, while the rest she soaked into towels to wipe his face, chest, arms, and legs.
Half an hour passed like that.
“Mom…” Mo Jianian finally woke up.
“I’m here.” Mo Fei immediately crouched beside the bed, wanting to hear him clearly. Without realizing it, she had perhaps truly begun treating these two children as her own.
“Aren’t you… not really my mom…?” Mo Jianian’s lips were pale, and his voice was as soft as a mosquito’s buzz. Even so, he stared intently at Mo Fei’s face.
Mo Fei fell silent. At a moment like this, silence was already answer enough.
“How did you figure it out?” Seeing that he was awake, Mo Fei took out another cup of space water and helped him drink it.
The cool water slid down his throat, and Mo Jianian immediately felt much better. After coughing a few times, he was already able to sit up. “Ever since you woke up after fainting, I’ve always had this vague feeling.”
Mo Fei sighed. “Then why did you have to say it out loud?” Now that the whole family had followed her here, to put it bluntly, this family of the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the young had essentially placed their lives in the hands of an outsider like her. If he had been smart enough, he should have pretended not to know instead of confronting her directly. He was still just a child after all.
“I know you’re not a bad person.” The hot breath Mo Jianian exhaled gradually returned to normal under the cooling effect of the space water. Mo Fei remained silent.
So Mo Jianian continued, “If my mom were still here, she’d definitely be happy that we could live together with Grandpa and Grandma. You fulfilled my mom’s wish and resolved what had weighed on her heart. And when things became so dangerous, you didn’t abandon us.” Children looked at people with their hearts. How could someone like this be a bad person? But when Mo Jianian spoke about his mother, his eyes filled with tears.
Mo Fei also honestly revealed where she had come from. “I wasn’t originally from this world. Although your mom and I look the same, and even have the same name. In my world, I was a chef. That world developed about the same as this one, except there weren’t so many disasters. I don’t know why I came here either. After I arrived, a voice told me that I was some kind of participant, and that this world would be struck by many natural disasters.” She had never had the chance to tell anyone these things. She had never expected the first person to hear them would be this eight-year-old child.
Mo Jianian had clearly not expected Mo Fei to speak to him with such honesty. He stopped crying for a moment and asked, “Then what about your family?”
Mo Fei knew he was asking about the family she had left behind in her original world. She had no intention of making herself sound pitiful, so she only answered vaguely, “They’re gone.”
At that moment, the older and younger pair unexpectedly shared a sense of kindred sorrow.
“When everyone wakes up, I can tell them everything honestly,” Mo Fei said, referring to revealing her true identity.
“No.” Mo Jianian grabbed her hand, his voice almost pleading. “Don’t tell them.”
He did not want his little sister to suffer the pain of losing their mother. Nor did he want his grandparents to go through the pain of losing their daughter all over again.
“Have you really thought this through?” Mo Fei asked. He needed to understand what this meant. If she chose not to tell them now, then he was placing the safety of the entire family in the hands of an outsider like her. When real danger came, could he truly trust that she would protect them without hesitation?
Mo Jianian’s dark, clear eyes were filled with determination as he nodded solemnly. But what he said next caught Mo Fei completely off guard.
“I know my sister and I are still young, so we can’t help much. Grandpa and Grandma are old, so they can’t do much either. We’d only be a burden if we stayed with you. But don’t worry. Your family is gone, and my mom is gone too. From now on, we’ll be one family, okay?”
Mo Fei thought to herself that the original owner’s two children could not have been more different. One was innocent and adorable, while the other was astonishingly perceptive. She could leave them behind and continue living just fine, but they could never do the same without her.
“When my sister and I grow up, we’ll be filial to you, Mom.” Mo Jianian held onto Mo Fei’s hand.
Mo Fei could tell that when he called her “Mom” this time, he meant it sincerely.
“All right. I promise.”
That night, one young and one old reached a silent understanding.
Song Yi and Mo Zhicheng woke up a little after six in the morning.
They had both been worried about their grandson, so the fact that they had managed to sleep until after six was already remarkable.
Mo Zhicheng stepped out of the bedroom ahead of his wife. The moment he saw the person sitting on the living room sofa, he let out a loud scream.
“What the hell are you doing?!” Song Yi rushed over and shoved Mo Zhicheng aside. Then she screamed too.
“Grandpa, Grandma!” Mo Jianian had been sitting on the sofa studying with a tablet. As soon as he saw them, he immediately stood up. Although he was obviously very happy, for some reason he tried his best to suppress his smile.
“You’re better? How did you get better? Do you still have a fever? Come here, let Grandma give you a hug.” Song Yi was so overjoyed that her face bloomed with happiness as she rushed over and hugged Mo Jianian tightly.
Mo Jianian shook his head. Although his complexion was still a little pale, his voice was no longer so weak. “Mom took care of me for a long time yesterday, and she even made me mung bean soup to drink. Then I got better. I don’t have a fever anymore. I feel really energetic now, so I was just sitting here studying for a while.”
Mo Zhicheng was just as delighted. “Wonderful. Wonderful.”
Still, he could not help wondering to himself. This child had never liked smiling much before. Why did he seem even less inclined to smile after recovering from his illness?
After a full night’s sleep, everyone in the family was full of energy.
Mo Fei, however, was so exhausted that she could barely keep her eyes open. Once a person’s tension finally relaxed, it became especially easy to feel tired.
She slept until the afternoon.
When she woke up, the blackout curtains were still closed, and the only visible light in the room came from the tiny display on the air conditioner. Mo Fei yawned, stood up, and pulled the curtains open.
The blazing sunlight streamed in, shining over Mo Fei from head to toe.
Looking into the distance, she saw that aside from several villas with layouts similar to this one, everything else in every direction was covered in lush green forest.
Mo Fei looked down through the window and discovered that her parents were squatting in the yard. She had built a sun shelter there, and judging from what they were doing, they planned to plant some scallions, garlic, and chili peppers. The instinct to grow vegetables really was engraved into every Chinese person’s DNA. It was the same no matter which world they were in.
“Mom!” Jianian and Jiayue had originally been playing with tablets on the first floor. The moment they saw Mo Fei come downstairs, they both ran over together.
“Yes?” Mo Fei answered before asking, “What are you two watching?”
Mo Jiayue happily held up her iPad. She was watching a video about making clay crafts and planned to mold a little bear out of modeling clay.
Mo Jianian, however, nervously and awkwardly handed over his iPad.
It showed the search results he had been looking up.
[What should I do if spikes grow out of my hand whenever I smile?]