Chapter 53: After Class, Fall Into My Arms (51)

Lu Yu’s gentle expression gradually fell apart, piece by piece. Suddenly, he let out a mocking laugh.

He reached up, indifferent, and wiped away the blood trickling down his cheek. He wiped it clean, only for more to flow. The woman stood right before him. The woman he called his mother.

“Where’s the money? Why isn’t there any money!” The already chaotic house was turned upside down by the woman. The sofa lay askew, plastic cups scattered across the floor.

Why weren’t there any glass cups? Because when Lu Yu was a child, whenever the woman lost her temper, she would smash things and use shards of glass to strike him.

“Money? You’ll never get any from me again!” Lu Yu kicked aside the obstacles at his feet and walked carelessly toward his room.

Inside, there were candies A Si would occasionally give him. He needed to take them—then things would taste sweeter, not so bitter.

Before Lu Yu could reach his room, the woman rushed at him, tearing at his school uniform, trying to find money. Lu Yu frowned impatiently, his brow dark with hostility.

She reeked of alcohol and stale tobacco. He shoved her away.

Coldly, he said, “You went gambling again, didn’t you?”

“I told you to give me money! Lu Yu, you bastard, you’re so unfilial!”

“Unfilial? The fact I haven’t called the police to have you arrested is already more than enough.”

Even if he hated her, when he was very young, little Lu Yu had harbored hope. He hoped his mother would embrace her child, as other mothers did. But it never happened. Only beatings and curses.

“Arrest me, then! You ungrateful wretch! I gave birth to you, raised you—so what if I hit you a few times? So what if I ask you for money?” The woman screamed abuse at him.

Lu Yu rubbed his brow, weary.

“There’s no money. You’ll have to figure it out yourself.” He turned to return to his room.

The woman grabbed an empty beer bottle she’d drunk from and smashed it against Lu Yu’s head again.

His mind reeled. The woman picked up the shards.

“Are you going to give it or not? If not, I’ll kill myself right in front of you!”

His vision blurred—he couldn’t see anything clearly.

He heard his own icy voice.

“Fine, then die.”

The woman shrieked, unable to believe it. She sliced her wrist with the shards, then struck Lu Yu with her bloodied arm.

Sharp fingernails tore through his school uniform, cutting into flesh.

Suddenly, darkness engulfed Lu Yu. He struggled to pull his phone from his pocket, dialed emergency services, managed to utter his address, then collapsed to the floor.

See—for all the hatred he bore her, Lu Yu still couldn’t bring himself to watch the woman who gave him life die.

Lu Yu hadn’t been to school in three days.

When asked, the teacher said Lu Yu hadn’t requested leave. He’d vanished without explanation, and A Si was terribly worried.

Her posture had once been a highlight of the classroom, a glimpse of beauty. Now, even that had wilted. She lay feebly across her desk.

She tried to use her mirror to look for Lu Yu, but the mirror was gone. How strange.

After school, A Si searched through her home, turning everything upside down, looking for that mirror.

“A Si, what are you looking for?”

“Chao Yun, have you seen the mirror I brought down from the Celestial Palace? I can’t find it.”

A Si lay on the floor, peering under the sofa. Nothing.

“You mean the mirror? It’s here with me,” Chao Yun replied nonchalantly, rummaging through her bag and handing over the mirror.

A Si accepted it happily, then turned it over to look.

The surface was pitch black, smeared with something filthy.

A Si frowned, cautiously extending a finger to scrape at it.

The dirty smear didn’t budge.