Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Lin Jiaxu, with his dark, unblinking eyes, stared impassively as his mother playfully cooed at him. Soon, however, his gaze shifted to the man entering the room behind her.

Lin Cheng had come to call Xu Yinuan for dinner. He stood silently in the doorway, observing his wife and child interact, making no move to join them.

His eyes inadvertently met Lin Jiaxu’s direct, unwavering stare.

Lin Cheng’s heart lurched. No matter how many times he witnessed it, he was always reminded of the terrifying sensation he’d experienced the first time Lin Jiaxu opened his eyes.

Those eyes were vacant, like dark, swirling abysses. A wailing and screeching echoed in his ears, as if two black, circular chasms were trying to drag him in.

Lin Cheng’s body trembled slightly. He forced a strained smile, neither advancing nor retreating.

It had been over a month, and he had developed some immunity.

At the very least, he no longer displayed any overt signs of discomfort when seeing the child.

After waiting for his wife to play with the baby a little longer, he finally spoke: "Yinuan, it’s time for dinner."

Xu Yinuan paused. She placed the baby in the crib, tucked him in, and then stood up.

"Alright, I’m coming."

At the dining table, they ate in silence. Only the occasional clinking of bowls and chopsticks broke the quiet.

Anyone who had known them before would have been astonished to see this scene. The couple, who had been inseparable and deeply affectionate since they first met, now seemed like strangers. It was truly surprising.

They sat facing each other, eating the food in front of them, a stark contrast to their former loving demeanor.

Lin Cheng’s attitude toward the child was even more peculiar. Far from the happiness and anticipation he had shown before the birth, there was a distinct sense of avoidance.

They finished their meal in silence.

As Xu Yinuan prepared to leave, he closed his eyes for a moment, then reopened them. "Let’s talk."

"I don’t want to talk. That is my child."

Xu Yinuan’s voice was sharp.

"Alright," Lin Cheng wasn’t surprised by her response. He rubbed his temples. "If you say so, then it is. From now on, he will be our child."

That day, he had taken down the phone numbers from the police officers and saved them.

Over the past month, Lin Cheng had countless times considered sending the child away or contacting those people to inform them of the child’s abnormalities.

But in the end, he hadn’t.

Hearing his response, Xu Yinuan’s sharp defenses suddenly dropped.

She relaxed, a hint of defeat in her posture. "Say what you want to say."

Given the child’s death and resurrection, and the sudden appearance of the officers, the couple—who were far from foolish—had intuitively sensed something amiss.

They had argued for two days, though it was mostly her doing the arguing.

Lin Cheng had witnessed his wife’s breakdown after losing the child and didn’t want her to suffer any lasting health issues during her postpartum recovery.

Although he dreaded confronting the child, he hadn’t been entirely unyielding. Still, Xu Yinuan could tell he wasn’t genuinely happy that the child was alive.

She had clearly seen the fear and repulsion in her husband’s eyes when the child awoke, and it had deeply wounded her heart.

As for the child’s behavior, she subconsciously avoided dwelling on it. Her tumultuous emotions also made it difficult for her to blame her husband.

But she knew very well that she was now pushing her husband away.

Xu Yinuan still sat down beside him but corrected him: "He has always been our child."

"He’s not," Lin Cheng said. "You know it."

Even if there were no obvious abnormalities when the child came back to life, after over a month of living with him, something would inevitably seem off. His wife was no fool; she would certainly understand what he was saying.

Xu Yinuan’s gaze didn’t waver, but she kept staring at her hands. They were even slimmer than before her pregnancy. It seemed that pregnancy and childbirth had not nourished her body but instead drained her of energy and vitality.

She was almost afraid to look directly into his eyes.

Of course, she understood how special the child was. No one understood it better than her, the mother who had been almost inseparable from the child.

Perhaps the child’s death had traumatized her. Over the past month, she had started having nightmares again.

She dreamed of that long-forgotten night—a crimson moon and indistinct monsters coiling around her, then settling and taking root like a newly sprouted tree.

She had jolted awake in terror, and in that moment, she understood everything.

But she didn’t want to believe it. She didn’t want to, and didn’t dare to, think about it.

She remembered the fear vividly—it was a terror rooted in her soul, deep in her marrow. She wasn’t even sure if she could maintain her sanity if this continued.

But as she watched the small child in her arms gradually lose his bluish-purple tint and thinness, becoming fair and adorable, Xu Yinuan suddenly realized that she had poured all her emotions during this time onto this child.

If the police had taken the child away that day, she might have gradually calmed down after a while. But now, she couldn’t bear to part with the child.

For many days, Xu Yinuan hadn’t dared to think too deeply. She was afraid her husband would kill her child.

She closed her eyes in pain, but her wavering heart immediately grew firm again.

"I don’t see it! That is my child!"

At this moment, she resembled a ferocious mother lion. Her gentleness and elegance vanished in an instant, as if she had fallen into madness.

"You can’t take him away from me! You can’t!"

"But it’s a monster," he murmured.

The child had been utterly revealed when he woke up.

The moment those hollow eyes opened, it was as if some monster had awakened. Due to his angle, he saw the child’s eyes—they were crimson.

In that instant, he felt as if he were being stared at by some powerful monster. His heart pounded as if it were about to leap out of his chest.

Lin Cheng felt frozen in place. Only one thought crossed his mind.

He would die!

They would all die!

Then, amid everyone’s exclamations of surprise, the infant’s eyes instantly turned pitch-black, returning to their hollow state. The terrifying and powerful aura he had felt gradually disappeared.

It was as if everything he had seen and felt was just his imagination.

Lin Cheng looked at the child again, and in the child’s hollow, pitch-black eyes that seemed to see right through him, he knew the answer.

It wasn’t an illusion—it was real.

His child was a monster.

A terrifying monster.

But no one else had witnessed it except him.

And because of his reaction, his wife was filled with disappointment and resentment toward him.

Lin Cheng thought of the baby sleeping peacefully upstairs and realized that fate had indeed played a cruel joke on him.

A joke he could never escape for the rest of his life, no matter what.

He had imagined many scenarios: he and his wife might be eaten one morning or night, or they might stumble upon something and be killed, or perhaps, after the creature had its fill of toying with his wife’s emotions, it would abandon them.

None of these were good outcomes.

But he had no choice. He smiled bitterly at his wife.

"He’s not! He’s not!"

Xu Yinuan’s voice was cracking. She frantically swept the items off the coffee table; glasses and cups shattered on the floor, producing sharp, crisp sounds.

The sight of Xu Yinuan’s distraught, irrational state and her frail body was unbearable for Lin Cheng.

Lin Cheng had regretted many times why they had insisted on keeping the child in the first place. Wasn’t his wife already of advanced maternal age back then?

He murmured, "If... if we had terminated the pregnancy back then, would you have been spared so much pain?"

It took a long time for Xu Yinuan to gradually calm down from her hysterical state.

Lin Cheng remained silent, staring at the mess on the floor. To have a proper conversation with his wife, he had earlier given the maid and nanny the day off. The light-colored carpet they had chosen together was now stained and covered in dirt.

The messy home seemed to reflect their crumbling relationship and broken family, all because of this child.

He stood up and slowly began cleaning up the mess without saying a word.

Tears streamed down Xu Yinuan’s face as she covered it with her hands. "Sorry, sorry..."

She didn’t understand why she had become like this. She had wanted to talk calmly, but the moment she remembered the child lying cold in her arms, she couldn’t bear it.

She couldn’t accept losing her child again, nor could she forget the pain. So, no matter how miraculous the coming back to life was, she only knew one thing: that was her child.

He had come back to life—that was all.

"No, don’t take him away from me..." Xu Yinuan clutched Lin Cheng’s sleeve, repeating, "I can’t lose him. Please don’t take him away, I’m begging you..."

Ever since the child came back to life, Xu Yinuan’s condition had worsened.

His once cheerful, gentle, and generous wife had gradually become oversensitive and fragile. When the child wasn’t mentioned, she was fine, but the moment the topic arose, she would become hysterical and neurotic.

Lin Cheng had consulted a doctor, who said it might be due to severe postpartum shock or an instinct to protect the child, leading to postpartum depression.

Her condition was serious. When she wasn’t having an episode, she seemed normal, but once triggered, she became like this.

The doctor advised keeping her in a calm and comfortable environment and avoiding further stimulation.

Lin Cheng had considered medication, but he knew the problem wasn’t physical—it was the child. Even medication wouldn’t help.

He had gotten the prescription, but after their long cold war, Xu Yinuan never took the pills.

Lin Cheng slowly embraced his increasingly thin wife. After a long while, he patted her shoulder and said, "I know. It’s not your fault."

He also knew that following the doctor’s advice was the right thing to do.

But if the child had simply come back to life, it might have been manageable. However, having experienced the fear for his life, he could no longer see Lin Jiaxu as just a child.

That thing was a monster capable of endangering him, his wife, and their family.

So, even if bringing it out into the open would distress his wife, he couldn’t let Xu Yinuan continue living in denial.

Xu Yinuan looked up at him, kneeling weakly on the floor.

She repeated, "He’s our child. I can’t lose him."

No matter what her husband had seen or why he was convinced their child wasn’t human, she only understood one thing: she couldn’t lose him.

Although Lin Cheng understood this, he couldn’t help but feel a sting of sadness. "Even if he hurts you or me, it doesn’t matter?"

"He won’t! He’s just a child!"

Xu Yinuan grew agitated again. Gripping the hem of her shirt, she tried to stay calm and spoke word by word:

"He won’t. I’ll teach him. I’ll raise him well. He’ll grow up like other children."

Just ordinary, nothing special.

As if comforting herself, or as if making a firm resolution.

Lin Cheng was stunned.

He looked at his wife with wide eyes and finally understood one thing.

Xu Yinuan wasn’t ignorant of the fact that the child was a monster. She knew it all too well, which was why she spoke of teaching him and helping him survive.

"...Are you sure?"

Xu Yinuan lowered her head. "I am."

Even if the child would harm her, she couldn’t give up on him. That was her choice.

Lin Cheng didn’t know whether to feel sorry for himself or for his wife. They used to be so close, happy in every way except for the lack of a child. How did it come to this?

Lin Cheng sighed deeply and said with a bitter smile, "I understand."

In that case, he would respect her choice.

Xu Yinuan looked at her husband, feeling empty and lost.

She frantically grabbed Lin Cheng’s hand—it was still warm and strong, yet for a moment, she felt the distance between them had grown vast.

Having made his decision, Lin Cheng seemed to have lifted a weight off his shoulders. His gaze returned to its usual gentleness as he smiled and said, "Alright. From now on, he’ll be my child too."

He would accompany Xu Yinuan in raising the child, keeping an eye on him and teaching him not to harm anyone.

Yet, a cloud had settled over their marital relationship.

At this moment, Xu Yinuan was clearly aware that she was taking advantage of Lin Cheng's love for her to make him accept the child, and she felt guilty about it.

Yet, she felt she had to.

She knew her husband would compromise because, just as he understood her, she also understood this upright and gentle man.

"...Thank you."

Xu Yinuan’s face twisted bitterly. Since when had things between them gotten so formal, needing to use a word like "exploitation"?

"I don't expect you to change your view, but if possible, please try to treat the baby well."

Xu Yinuan stood up and said softly, "Do this for me."

"Alright."

Lin Cheng shut his eyes again.