Chapter 156

Chapter 156

"Has he gotten a little taller?"

Adelaide measured Ye Mo against his own leg, still a soft little lump, but Ye Mo was right in front of him every day, and even he could actually notice the change in Ye Mo's height.

Ye Mo was still holding his bottle, occasionally sucking on the nipple.

Adelaide stroked his head and sighed, "He's been growing really fast lately, and he's eating more too."

Baide heard this and beckoned Ye Mo over curiously, "Little one, come here, let me see if you've really grown taller."

Ye Mo ran over. Baide said spin, so he spun; said raise your hands, so he raised them.

Arnold picked Ye Mo up and carried him off, displeased, "Don't tease him."

Norton, who was handling documents nearby, paused. He hadn't really noticed any change in Ye Mo's height, only that he felt heavier. But in the past few days, Ye Mo had started waking up at night, dazedly nuzzling into Norton's arms. If Norton asked, he would push his leg into Norton's hand, asking him to massage it.

He was growing.

Norton set down his pen and scooped Ye Mo up from behind.

Ye Mo glanced at him, then wrapped his arms around Norton's neck as he was lifted, calling out, "Dad."

Norton hummed in response, "Time for dinner."

"Yeah, Mom said we're having meat for dinner tonight."

As soon as Ye Mo spoke, everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked over at him.

Ye Mo was still holding his bottle, chewing on the nipple like a toy, completely unaware that anything was off.

Norton's stride hitched for a second, then he hummed and continued. By the time they reached the dining room, Ye Mo seemed to have forgotten what he had just said, happily kicking his legs as usual.

Everyone else breathed a sigh of relief. Adrian said, still shaken, "Scared the hell out of me—I thought he was going to cry. What's wrong with him?"

Deenlie threw him a look, "The doctor said during the cocoon phase, memories and reality get jumbled. It's normal."

Even as he said this, he instinctively lowered his voice and looked at Ye Mo, who had already switched to swinging his other leg.

The evening went smoothly—washing up, then bed.

In the middle of the night, Ye Mo woke up again, mumbling "my leg hurts" as he snuggled closer to Norton. Norton, as usual, reached down to gently rub his calf.

Ye Mo slowly calmed down, and Norton could tell from his breathing and heartbeat that he was about to drift off.

Norton kept rubbing gently. Then Ye Mo got restless out of nowhere, curling up a little and mumbling, "Mom…"

Then he started struggling harder. Norton sat up to check on him, and with his fingertip, he found Ye Mo's face was wet.

Then Ye Mo started to move restlessly.

Norton immediately said something and gently shook his shoulder, trying to wake him, "Cyril! Cyril!"

Once Ye Mo opened his eyes, he quieted down and stopped trembling. Norton breathed a sigh of relief, wiped away Ye Mo's tears with his fingertip, and asked softly, "Did you have a nightmare?"

Ye Mo didn't move. He sat up, looking a bit confused, and tugged at his clothes like he was looking for something, mumbling, "Hurts."

Norton pulled him into his arms, letting him sit on his lap, and rubbed his calf, "Daddy will rub it and the pain will go away."

Ye Mo turned and shoved his face into Norton's chest, "Scared, scared. Baby's scared."

Norton patted his back gently, whispering, "Don't be afraid. Daddy's here."

Ye Mo shook his head by himself, "Dad not, not here."

Norton kissed his head. "That was just a dream."

Ye Mo didn't say anything more, looking pretty confused. But soon he yawned, leaned on Norton, and fell back asleep.

Norton looked down at him and was about to put Ye Mo back down when Ye Mo started awake again.

He didn't react for a while, not even when Norton called him. He just sat there, almost frozen, as if stunned. But soon, he started to whimper.

Ye Mo leaned on Norton, tugging at his pajama top, crying and whining, "Hurts, hurts."

"Where does it hurt?"

Norton had already figured out this wasn't growing pains. He followed Ye Mo's hands and checked his pajama front, but found nothing.

Ye Mo's crying got louder and louder, until it turned into full-on wailing.

This was the hardest Ye Mo had ever cried, almost unable to catch his breath from the get-go.

Norton held him close, anxious but trying to keep his cool, patting Ye Mo's back gently and whispering over and over, "Daddy's here. Daddy's here…"

Ye Mo clung to Norton, grabbing fistfuls of his pajama shirt, "Go to the living room. Living room."

Norton had a vague sense of something. Without a word, he turned on the light, bundled Ye Mo in a coat, and headed downstairs as Ye Mo wanted.

Ye Mo's range of activity wasn't large; he spent the most time in the living room downstairs.

The lights in the living room had already been turned on by the Grath Palace's smart system.

Norton held Ye Mo so he could see the whole living room, "Look, there's nothing here."

Norton soothed him. "It was a dream. It's not real."

Ye Mo's crying was interrupted, and he had calmed down a bit. He parroted him, "Not real?"

"That's right, it's not real."

Ye Mo shook his head and started crying again, "Mom, want Mom."

As Ye Mo's emotions fluctuated, the psychic energy that had been lying low in his mental field began to stir restlessly. It spread over the entire Grath Palace, searching back and forth, checking every place several times before letting it go.

Such a commotion quickly alerted the others. The entire Grath Palace lit up rapidly, becoming brightly illuminated.

The Graths gathered quickly from all directions to where Norton and Ye Mo were.

They were all still in their pajamas.

Baide was the first to arrive, followed by Arnold.

Jacob hadn't put on a shirt, just a simple coat thrown over, and hadn't even fastened the buttons yet.

Herli had one leg of her pajamas rolled up, revealing her calf. She jumped down directly from upstairs, landed lightly, and hurried over to Norton and Ye Mo.

They quickly gathered around. Baide frowned and spoke first, "What happened? Call the doctor."

Deenlie nodded and said succinctly, "I'm going."

Adrian tried the same trick to calm Ye Mo down as before, "Look, what flower is this? Can I give it to you?"

But the usual trick didn't work this time, and Ye Mo continued crying on his own.

Adelaide rushed in. The normally spotless old butler was unusually flustered, "Has the doctor been contacted?"

After receiving an affirmative reply, he tried to get Ye Mo's attention, but Ye Mo seemed unable to hear anything, curled up in Norton's arms, crying so hard his whole body shook.

The others all tried to coax Ye Mo into stopping.

Except for Baide and Norton, who seemed to sense what was going on.

Norton knew more than Baide; he had glimpsed Ye Mo's memories during psychic calming sessions.

And memories from this age...

Having some suspicions, Norton stayed quiet, but his hand kept gently patting Ye Mo's back, trying to soothe him with his psychic energy.

But Ye Mo's psychic power, just like the boy himself, wouldn't stop for a second.

Ye Mo suddenly stopped as well. Lying in Norton's arms, he stared at the ceiling with open eyes, as if watching something. His body still twitched from the momentum, and he murmured dazedly, "Mom."

The others breathed a sigh of relief when they saw he had finally stopped and seemed to be calming down; his crying just now had been terrifying.

Only Norton seemed to understand. He roughly covered Ye Mo's eyes, whispering urgently, "Don't look! Don't listen!"

Norton's tone barely changed, yet somehow everyone could hear the plea in it, "It's all fake, Cyril, Ye Mo, it's all fake, don't look..."

But Ye Mo went on, stumbling over his words, "Mom was put into—into a bag."

Ye Mo's voice was still a bit dazed, and he didn't seem as emotionally stirred as before, but only the Graths knew how his psychic power was wailing.

His psychic power even briefly linked into the adult Graths' mental channel, and intense emotions flowed through the psychic link, along with his psychic power's incessant wailing.

This made almost every Grath present visibly agitated.

Norton's hand covering his eyes trembled, and he looked at Ye Mo in his arms, slowly sinking down until his knees hit the floor, whispering, almost begging, "Cyril, forget it, that's fake..."

Ye Mo's hand pressed against Norton's hand covering his eyes—as if he was comforting him. After a few seconds, he hummed in agreement and dutifully repeated Norton's words, as if he truly believed them, "It's fake."

Norton looked at Ye Mo and heard him murmur, "Fake..."

They almost believed Ye Mo really thought that—except as soon as he finished speaking, even stronger emotions and fragmented memories came through the psychic link—the memories that most stirred Ye Mo's emotions at that moment.

They glimpsed what happened in the dim living room: a very young Ye Mo saw a burglar break in, and the intruder plunged a dagger into his chest.

Then came the appearance of another woman; she quickly took down the burglar and rushed to check on Ye Mo. She picked him up, but his body went limp in her arms.

Then the scene shifted. This time, Ye Mo was standing outside in the cold wind, his pajamas stained with blood, a cordon set up, sealing off the crime scene and the bodies, along with Ye Mo.

Ye Mo was barefoot, his body covered in bloodstains, and the exposed skin on his limbs was almost all bruised. He stood on the cold steps, dazedly looking at the crowd outside the cordon from a distance.

Soon, someone came to comfort him, but Ye Mo's eyes passed over them blankly and lingered on the bag containing the bodies.

The living room was silent, and they finally understood the meaning of the words Ye Mo had cried out earlier—"Mom was put into a bag."

It was just the literal meaning.