Chapter 1777: Home?

The moment his mother spoke, Li Laide's heart instantly tightened.

He hadn't looked at his mother from such a close distance and spoken with her for a very long time... He originally thought he could bravely take this step and have a good chat with his mother before leaving, but when he saw the shallow wrinkles on his mother's face, he began to shrink back for a time.

Did he really want to let his mother see this version of himself... a fugitive fleeing everywhere, not even daring to return home, with wanted posters plastered everywhere?

Even if he let go of everything and spoke with his mother, what should he say?

Li Laide opened his mouth, silent for a long time, but still couldn't say even a single sentence as Li Laide... He couldn't even say the words, "Mother... I miss you so much."

He hesitated to speak like this, ultimately as if making up his mind, squeezing out an ugly smile from the corner of his mouth:

"Madam, hello..."

"I am a product manager from the maintenance factory next door. We recently just developed a bionic mechanical leg to help disabled people walk, and it is still in the testing phase... We hope you can try our product, rest assured, it's free of charge."

The more he spoke, the more natural Li Laide's tone became, as if he was truly an experienced product manager:

"Oh right, there is also good news. As a reward for our first batch of trial users, from now on, you can keep using this bionic leg, we will not take it back."

After speaking, Li Laide calmly crossed his ten fingers in front of his chest, looking at his mother before him, revealing a professional and brilliant smile.

The breeze brushed through the courtyard full of birdsong and fragrant flowers, emitting a rustling sound.

The woman looked at him blankly.

A moment later, a warm and rough palm gently stroked across Li Laide's cheek...

"You are leaving, right... my child." An indescribable complexity surfaced in the woman's eyes.

Li Laide's whole body trembled, freezing in place on the spot.

The woman gently hugged Li Laide's figure with both hands, resting her cheek against his body. Two streams of tears could no longer be stopped, rolling down from the corners of her eyes...

"You read the newspaper on the roadside opposite for an entire morning, but didn't even turn a single page... How could Mom not know it was you? How could Mom not recognize you?"

The woman's murmur sounded beside Li Laide's ear.

This sentence was like a thunderclap, violently resounding beside Li Laide's ear. He blankly watched his mother crying like a person made of tears in the wheelchair, stiffening in place like a sculpture...

A moment later, he finally stretched out his hand tremblingly, and also hugged his mother... He slowly closed his eyes. The highly built wall of self-protection in his heart, growing countless barbs, violently collapsed at this moment.

He took a deep breath, and finally called out those two words softly:

"...Mother."

...

What Li Laide and his mother said, Chen Ling didn't listen to.

Li Shangfeng and his sister were bustling about enthusiastically in the factory, and he didn't go see either.

He walked alone along the street, the hem of his brown coat gently fluttering in the sunlight. Even though his appearance didn't seem obtrusive at all within the crowd, a faint sense of detachment was constantly revealed from his body... like a traveler who didn't belong here.

Only a group of ghosts who similarly didn't belong to this world were laughing and playing, following behind him.

"Brother, I want to eat cake!"

A crisp voice entered Chen Ling's ears. Chen Ling, immersed in memories, froze, subconsciously looking back.

He only saw a pair of young brother and sister standing before the floor-to-ceiling Glass of a cake shop by the street, looking at the mouth-watering small cakes in the display window, unable to walk away for a long time. They were residents on this street, children as ordinary as could be.

"Today isn't a festival, nor a birthday, why are we eating cake?"

"So what! I just want to eat it!"

"Alright alright alright... Then, let's go in and pick a small one."

The brother ultimately held his sister's hand and walked into the cake shop, going in to pick carefully.

Chen Ling slowly walked to the display window where they just stopped, looking at the dazzling and incomparably expensive cakes inside, somewhat in a trance for a time... He seemed to have returned to the past again, seeing the cold wind and snow, the weak candle, the cheap cake, and that clear-eyed youth in the Theatrical Robe with eyes bright as stars.

Two completely different worlds, two mutually severed memories, gave Chen Ling an unspeakable loneliness and melancholy. He hadn't had this kind of emotion for a very long time. Perhaps the conversation with Li Laide just now made him recall some things and become somewhat sensitive?

The noisy Dusk Society members behind him all quieted down at this moment. They could feel the sorrow revealed on the Red King's body, looking at each other in dismay for a time, not knowing what to do.

"Do you want to buy a piece?" Chu Muyun walked to Chen Ling's side, his tone somewhat complex. "Just treat it as... drawing a period."

Among the society members, only Chu Muyun had witnessed that segment of history. He knew where Chen Ling's sorrow at this moment came from, and he also felt somewhat distressed for Chen Ling. After all, in this world, many Dusk Society members had the chance to make up for their regrets, but who would make up for Chen Ling's regrets?

In this world, he didn't even exist at all.

"...No need."

Chen Ling shook his head, "Everything hasn't reached the time to draw a period yet... I will return to Frost Street, but not now."

He took a last look at the dazzling array of cakes behind the display window, calmly turned around, and walked back.

...

Chen Ling returned near the small house. In an unoccupied Alleyway, a youth was already waiting for him.

Emerald green branches meandered across the sky from above the walls on both sides of the Alleyway. Sunlight sprinkled onto the youth's pure white silk-edged shirt through the dancing gaps in the leaves.

Li Laide's eye sockets were still somewhat red, like he had just cried. Seeing Chen Ling come, he immediately pretended nothing happened and glanced elsewhere.

"Did you say goodbye?" Chen Ling asked softly.

"...Mm."

Li Laide nodded obediently.

For some unknown reason, he could feel a faint detachment and sorrow radiating from Chen Ling's body. He didn't know what happened to Chen Ling, but this feeling instead made Chen Ling's aura more mysterious and special... even making people birth a kind of reverence.

"We should go back." Chen Ling said slowly.

Li Shangfeng's matters were already resolved, and the Alchemist Association was also uprooted. The two most important things Chen Ling came to the Chengtian Domain for were already completed, so naturally there was no need to keep staying here.

As for the Li siblings, Chen Ling had already mostly repaired the dilapidated factory. With Li Shangfeng's craftsmanship, repairing the rest wouldn't be a problem. They would continue living here... As for what the future would be like, that was a matter for several years later.

"Go back where?" Li Laide asked.

"Go back... to the Ancient Vault of the Drama Path." Chen Ling paused for a moment,

"That is the home base of the Dusk Society, it's my home... From now on, it will also become yours."