The two elders stared at their son coming home with a man who was as pale as a ghost. That man smiled and bowed at them.
'Oh my god! He actually met someone!' Both thought. They were afraid that Shao Chen had done unreasonable things to the pale man.
"Wh—who is this man?" Yao Meilin asked. She tried to be positive.
"He? He is … err … my resource of money!" Shao Chen exclaimed honestly.
The two elders immediately slapped their foreheads. 'No way! my son had really done something disrespectful to this stranger!'
Meanwhile, the pale man's smile twitched a bit when no one noticed but he still managed to maintain his beautiful smile.
"Ah Sheng, come here!" Yao Meilin immediately pulled her son into the inner room.
Yao Tengfei smiled and invited the man to sit down. Guilt filled his face. "Forgive my son. He—he is … a little bit sick now so his behavior was a bit … yeah…." He didn't know how to describe this new version of his son.
The pale man shook his head. "It is okay."
Yao Tengfei ordered a servant to bring the tea and told the man to sit there for a while while he went to meet his son.
The pale man was still smiling while glancing in all directions.
"There is nobody here," he muttered in a very small voice. The smile on his face instantly faded.
He reached into his pockets inside his wide sleeves and pulled out a paperscroll. He opened it and began to observe the paper while occasionally looking around the house….
*****
"Tell me ah Sheng, what did you do to that man?" asked Yao Meilin after taking her son to the dining room.
Shao Chen answered honestly, "He treated me a food and gave me money."
Lightning instantly struck Yao Meilin. She almost fainted on the spot. How could her son who was so smart be able to do such an immodest and embarrassing thing?!
'Do I have to accept the fact that my son has been replaced by a fool?' She thought sadly.
"He gave you money?! You asked him for it?!" Yao Tengfei asked in a rage. He overheard their conversation as he was already near the dining room.
Shao Chen nodded again. He didn't understand why they were staring at him angrily and sadly.
Yao Tengfei rubbed his temple while stretching out his hand towards Shao Chen. "Give the money back!"
Shao Chen was immediately alert. He clutched the money pouch tightly. "It turns out that you are indeed the one who stole my money!" He really thought that Yao Tengfei had stolen his money and wanted to steal this one too.
Yao Tengfei wanted to scold his son but he gave it up because he felt this method won't work for this child. He shook his head. "I don't even know where you keep your money and I will just return this money to that guy! Give it to me, quick!"
He forced to take the pouch from Shao Chen's arms but Shao Chen was surprisingly very strong as Shao Chen had trained himself just to protect his own money from danger like now.
Yao Tengfei's strength was not enough to snatch that pouch from his son. In the end, he could only let go of his son's arms and caught his gasping breath.
"You! This is really embarrassing! How can you take money from a stranger?!"
"I didn't take it! He gave me it!" Shao Chen exclaimed honestly. He never asked for money because when he asked, he only got some. He preferred to work hard to get them liked what he had done to those women with his old body.
Yao Tengfei's jaw dropped to his chest. He could not believe that a stranger would be so generous as to give his son a pouch full of gold coins. However, considering Shao Chen's brain ability, he was sure that this child was not lying.
At last, he gave up and went out of the dining room.
Yao Meilin also sighed. She was tired of all this. Gently, she placed her hand on top of Shao Chen's.
"Ah Sheng, please return to your old self," she muttered sadly.
Shao Chen stared blankly at her. He didn't understand why but he felt something sore in his chest when he saw her figure.
Without realizing it, he was doing something he would never do before. He was gently stroking his mother's back.
Yao Meilin raised her head with wide eyes. "Ah Sheng?! You are back?!" she asked happily, full of hope.
Her son would always stroke her back when she was sad. Certainly, Shao Chen didn't know that fact so she thought her son had already back to normal but….
"I'm Shao Chen."
Shao Chen's reply shattered all of her hope and happiness. Yao Meilin's face turned gloomy again and could only cry out her sadness.
The room was only filled with the sound of her crying in despair.
"Is my existence make you this sad? Is it really that bad?" Shao Chen suddenly asked after a while.
Yao Meilin could not stop crying. "You are much different from my son, but you use my son's face. It makes me sad. Who exactly are you? What do you want to do with possessing my son's body?" As she said that, her crying grew louder until she almost fainted.
Shao Chen could not answer her. He himself didn't understand either. Why he was here? Where was this place? What he was supposed to do here? And who all these people were? He didn't know any of the answers to those questions.
He only knew that everything had changed. Everything here was different from what he had known before.
****
When Yao Tengfei went back to talk with the pale man, he had gone. There was only a piece of paper left on the table.
'I have to go. The tea was delicious.'
Those were what was written on the paper….