The little creature tossed and turned in bed until Cui Xuefeng showed up. He stroked her head until she blearily opened her eyes. His soft smile reappeared, "Baobao, go back to sleep, alright? I'm here." The creature looked at him and muttered something. Eventually, she fell into a restful sleep holding his hand. Partway through he used mana to create a 'warm hand' illusion and snuck off to shower and change. A message lit up his phone. It was payment for the 2,438.68kg of Orange Rose Obsidian. He returned and held Cui Baozhai's hand for the next few hours. He woke her for lunch.
"It's time to eat. Wake up, Baobao." He stroked her head and removed the illusion of his hand he'd replaced his own with half an hour ago again. He had left to make her food. His soft smile had reappeared again.
She groggily opened her eyes, "Gege?"
"I made you lunch."
Her half-open eyes shot open. She jumped up from bed to go to the kitchen.
"Face and hands first." He warned her.
She turned and rushed off to the bathroom. He laughed.
She reappeared in the kitchen doorway a few moments later. She watched him scoop her a bowl of rice. He smiled at her, "Come on, come eat. You need it." He turned back to the table, "Should we visit the hospital after this?"
Cui Baozhai sat down at the table. She looked slightly stunned as she stared at the food. "Gege made me food…" She muttered. "Oh!" She came back to herself, "Yes!" Her smile lit up the room, "We need to tell mom you are an awakener! She won't be happy we skipped school, though. Gege, what is this?" she pointed to a dish with spinach and slices of meat.
"I don't know. I just tossed some things together." He had scanned a cookbook at the bookstore, but he also had a lot of experience making his own meals. After understanding their basic methods and knowing what the appliances were for and how to use them, he tossed a few things together. He made dishes that he and the little creature needed the nutrients of.
He had already made plans to switch out this sad excuse for food with real ingredients. He may need a specialized kitchen for that, though. It's not like he can toss everything into a fridge as humans do.
She took a bite and moaned. She quickly ate her meal. It didn't even take her 10 minutes. She sat back rubbing her tummy with a satisfied expression, "Huh? Gege, why are yours different?" Her eyes finally saw that his dishes were different than hers. The full little creature suddenly looked ravenous again.
He pressed a finger against her forehead to stop her, "This is my meal. You've already finished yours." He only had a few bites left.
She sat back down and looked helplessly between the two plates. "Why are they different? It's fine if it's just a taste, right?"
"They are different because our bodies need different things. I made those ones specially for you. I didn't make mine taste good as I did yours. You won't like it."
"Why didn't you make yours taste good?"
"It's the same either way for me." He finished and gathered all their dishes.
She quickly picked some up and followed him into the kitchen.
"Did you lose your taste when awakening?"
"No." He thought about it, "I can use mana to block the taste. So I didn't bother making mine taste good. I focused on your dishes instead. My body isn't as fragile as yours anymore." He explained as he washed the dishes. This was another habit of years in the making. Even while he was cooling their dishes, he didn't realize he was skipping his seasonings. He only realized it when she mentioned it. He needed to do better to blend as a human. Being unable to blend in means death.
She listened carefully at the side. "Gege, did you sleep last night?" She realized, "I held your hand! Did you not sleep because of me? I'm sorry! Gege, go to sleep first!" She tried to push him out of the kitchen.
He continued washing the dishes, unmoved. "I'm well rested, don't worry." She didn't believe him with just this so he added, "I rested at your bedside. My body doesn't have any aches because I protected it, so it's the same as sleeping on the softest cloud."
He had said he needed to blend, but now he was doing the opposite again. He couldn't help but sigh. Even so, the idea of sleep makes him uneasy. He would pretend in the future.
She continued bugging him for a while about it until he was finally able to talk her down. If he didn't know she would worry about it all the time, he wouldn't have bothered explaining to her. But they'd made a promise not to keep secrets from one another.
"All this is going to take some getting used to."
He patted her head. "Good. Now go get changed. Let's go."
She nodded and went to leave. She turned back and hesitated. Then she saw his outfit was from the matching ones they'd picked out the day before. Her face lit up and she happily ran off to get ready.
Cui Xuefeng laughed in an empty room. Less than an hour later he opened the door to his mother's room. There were 5 other people in the room. He went to the middle bed.
The 47-year-old woman was emaciated. She didn't have that warm feeling he thought he remembered coming from her at all. She was gloomy and depressed and her body was breaking down. He could smell it. He sent his mana over to check. There wasn't a big problem. He could fix it right now and go home today. But he wondered if the association would be alright with that.
"What happened? Did we run out of money?" The woman glared at them.
He watched her silently. She didn't like looking at their faces. He saw that her bone structure was quite good, it was just that her body couldn't keep meat on her bones and her eyes were sunken. She was probably upset because they reminded her of the kind of life she was missing out on. She also didn't like being seen like this, so she probably didn't let them visit often. Which would be why she thought there was an emergency for them to come during school hours. She was sour and crass from her mental state and current living situation. But he could also see that she didn't want to be sour to her children, that she hated the feelings of jealousy that she felt from them and that she was hating herself for many things.
He surmised that she was just a regular, sick woman. He smiled, "Mom, we didn't run out of money. I told Baobao to stay home today because she was up all night because of me. Don't be angry with her." He coaxed. He led Cui Baizhai into the chair by the bed and stood behind her with a hand on the back of the chair. She looked worriedly between the two.
The woman furrowed her brow. She looked him up and down. She noticed their matching outfits and her brow furrowed deeper. She looked over her daughter before snapping her eyes back towards the young man, "Who are you?"