Chapter 15: Confession

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Liang Xiaoyu was sitting on a bench in the square, livestreaming.

“Hehe, Mr. Qiao has agreed to let me stay here.”

“What? Sleep with him?” Liang Xiaoyu retorted with a mix of embarrassment and annoyance, “As if I’d ever be that lucky!”

“The Bumblebee? It didn’t come, but I don’t really like it anyway.”

As she spoke, Liang Xiaoyu suddenly noticed the barrage of messages in her livestream, filled with words like “Road!” and “Look at the road!”

Puzzled, she glanced around, only to see several parts of the ground ahead swelling and trembling like sifting chaff before transforming into smooth, flat roads.

Those places had clearly been forest just moments ago!

“Is this how aliens build roads?”

“Isn’t Mr. Qiao technically not an alien? More like an outsider from another realm?”

“This way of road construction is absolutely brilliant.”

“As a civil engineer, I can’t help but feel jealous.”

“I wish I could go see for myself.”

Liang Xiaoyu was stunned for a moment but quickly recovered. “They’re probably building the passageways for the opening ceremony tours.”

When someone asked when ordinary people would be allowed in, she repeated what Qiao Mian had told her earlier.

“But it doesn’t matter if you can’t come. Tell me what you want to see, and I’ll livestream it for you.” Her tone was tinged with a spoiled kind of pride.

…

Qiao Mian had already picked his moment and quietly slipped out of the park.

There was a concealed tunnel in the southeastern corner of the park, specially constructed for him by the Transformers.

The tunnel was deep, and reinforced with Cybertronian technology, making its walls exceptionally sturdy and almost impossible to discover.

Climbing out of the tunnel, Qiao Mian found himself in his own backyard.

It connected directly to the family’s sweet potato cellar.

“Mom, I’m back,” he announced, opening the back door.

“Where have you been? I kept calling and you never answered!” came a middle-aged woman’s voice.

Qiao Mian poked his head out to see his mother carrying a bamboo basket.

Su Yueling.

She was forty-six years old, but looked not a day over forty.

Especially in the past five years, she seemed to be aging in reverse, growing younger and younger, making many middle-aged women in the village green with envy.

Her temper, however, was still as fiery as any woman in menopause…

“I called you so many times. Why didn’t you answer?” She stopped, looking at her son with displeasure.

“I was in the bathroom.”

“For that long?” Su Yueling was getting angry. “You’re never around, and nowadays you keep everything from your mother…”

Qiao’s father emerged from a nearby room, carrying a plastic bag and looking irritated. “Isn’t he home now? Just let it go.”

“What, you’re tired of me too?” Su Yueling turned her glare on her husband.

Qiao Lin looked innocent. “Aren’t you always worrying that something happened to him? Now he’s back, and you’re still going on.”

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“You two are just determined to give me no peace—one avoids me, the other is annoyed that I’m getting old…” Su Yueling put her things in the cart, her eyes turning red.

Father and son exchanged glances, both momentarily stunned, then helpless.

“That’s your wife,” Qiao Mian winked at his father, planning to slip inside for a drink of water.

“That’s your mother,” Qiao Lin coughed and pushed open the door first.

The two almost collided at the entrance.

“Dad, where are you going?” Qiao Mian called out loudly.

“I’m getting your mother a glass of water,” Qiao Lin glared at his son.

Su Yueling, eyes still red, looked at the pair.

They both felt uneasy.

Qiao Mian decided to play his trump card.

He let go of the doorknob, letting his father enter first, then called out into the yard, “Mom, there’s something I need to tell you.”

“You…”

“It’s important,” Qiao Mian said seriously. “Close the front gate.”

Seeing his son’s grave expression, Su Yueling suppressed her dissatisfaction and silently locked the main gate.

Qiao Lin, holding a glass of water, paused in surprise at the sight. “What’s going on?”

Su Yueling turned to her son. “Whose daughter is it?”

Qiao Mian blinked in confusion.

“Have you gone and made me a grandmother without saying a word?” Qiao Lin scolded, though he couldn’t hide the upward twitch of his lips.

“What are you two imagining?” Qiao Mian was speechless. “I’m up at dawn and back late every day—where would I find the time to date?”

“I’ve been to the breeding farm several times and you were never there,” Su Yueling sniffed. “You’re young, you don’t smoke, drink, or gamble—what else could you be up to?”

Qiao Lin’s eyes lit up. “Which family’s daughter is so blind?”

Qiao Mian rubbed his forehead. “I’m trying to tell you something serious.”

“Isn’t this serious?” they retorted in unison.

“You two haven’t been following the news, have you?” Qiao Mian said helplessly.

The news?

His parents exchanged glances.

“Yunling Mountain,” Qiao Mian prompted.

They both fell silent.

Qiao Lin pondered, then nodded, “If you want to go, you can go with them.”

Su Yueling worriedly asked, “There are troops stationed there now—won’t it be dangerous?”

Qiao Mian was bewildered. “What are you talking about?”

“Aren’t you planning to set up a stall at Yunling Mountain?” Qiao Lin asked in return.

“Set up a stall at Yunling Mountain?” Qiao Mian was completely at a loss.

“Yeah, lots of young people from the village have gone. Old Liu even asked me to go sell cherries with him,” Qiao Lin shook his head. “That place is crawling with outsiders now. The township government sent people to tell us it’s a restricted area, not to go join the excitement.”

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“Why is everyone going there?” Qiao Mian asked, feigning ignorance.

“There are aliens at Yunling Mountain,” Su Yueling said. “I thought you’d gone to see the spectacle.”

“What aliens?” Qiao Lin corrected. “It’s dinosaurs, gorillas, and Transformers.”

Qiao Mian fell silent.

So the authorities hadn’t imposed any restrictions.

This was not what he’d expected.

He’d thought the impact wouldn’t be so widespread.

Could it be that my claims have intimidated them, making them apprehensive?

Qiao Mian couldn’t figure out the reason.

He was secretly annoyed that Number Zero hadn’t warned him.

“Do you remember what I told you a few years ago?” Qiao Mian asked.

His parents turned to look at him.

“What?” Qiao Lin asked.

“I said I’d obtained a supernatural game…” Qiao Mian began.

Su Yueling looked at her son. “Wasn’t that just an excuse you made up to avoid going to college?”

“No,” Qiao Mian shook his head. “I never lied to you.”

Seeing they wanted to interrupt, he continued, “Mom, do you know why you’ve been getting younger these past few years?”

“And Dad, haven’t you noticed how much stronger you’ve become?”

Su Yueling stared at her son in disbelief.

Qiao Lin, excited, slapped his son’s shoulder hard. “Don’t tell me you’ve been working at Yunling Mountain all these years?”

Working…

Qiao Mian gave his father a plaintive look. “Don’t I look like a boss?”

“What kind of boss makes his own father haul cargo?” Qiao Lin retorted.

Qiao Mian gave an awkward smile.

His father had once spent all their savings on a big truck to haul goods, and because the cost of hiring loaders was high—and he was strong—he often did the heavy lifting himself.

Qiao Mian had tried to dissuade him a few times, but after unloading several truckloads of cement together, he’d stopped trying.

With the Blood Orchid serum enhancing their bodies, carrying sacks wasn’t really hard labor.

Besides, Qiao Mian was confident he could eventually help his parents transform completely.

“Dad, Mom!”

Qiao Mian spoke up, “There’s something I have to confess to you.”