Libro Celestial El Gran Vacío

Capítulo 8

Others assumed her husband was talking to the eldest child on the left or the second child on the right, but only Mao Weiwei knew that her husband was talking to the "little child" in the middle.

That non-existent "Little Darling".

The husband not only bought all sorts of things for the child who didn't get to live, but also named him. Luckily, the husband thought the child was the third child; otherwise, the truth would have been revealed if anyone asked about the name.

The husband's behavior could no longer be described as mourning caused by self-blame; his actions made it seem as if... as if the child really existed.

The husband dotes on "Little Darling" very much, feeding him milk, changing his diapers, bathing him, and taking him for walks.

The husband spoke with such conviction that the little one liked strawberry-flavored formula, disliked pink, and cried more sharply than her brother… His descriptions were so detailed that it made one truly believe that such a child existed.

"Weiwei, we're out of formula at home. Shall we go to the supermarket later? We can buy some baby food." Her husband asked, but Mao Weiwei frowned.

"We still have formula at home, Dad just left it here yesterday, didn't you forget? And baby food... How can the babies eat that?"

"Dad doesn't come often, so he doesn't know the brands of formula. The two brands he bought, Da Guai and Er Guai, are okay, but Xiao Guai won't eat them. Xiao Guai is weak and picky about food; he only eats what he wants, hehe, just like me in that respect... Also, Xiao Guai is teething! Our Xiao Guai's gums are starting to turn a little white, he's developing earlier than his older brothers!"

Her husband's strange remarks came again, something Mao Weiwei had seen countless times before. Listening to her husband's words, Mao Weiwei became even more certain that he was just deceiving himself. How could a baby who was only a month old have teeth?

However, despite her thoughts, Mao Weiwei did not stop her husband's fantasies. She felt that her husband's behavior was only temporary and would pass after a while.

Then, Mao Weiwei regretted it. Lu Xianglai's symptoms not only did not improve, but became more and more serious.

His eyes seemed to only see Xiao Guai. Every night, no matter how much Da Guai and Er Guai cried, they couldn't wake him. However, when there was no sound in the room, he would suddenly jump up and shout, "Xiao Guai, stop making a fuss! Daddy's here!"

Mao Weiwei grew increasingly angry, and finally, she and her husband had a major argument over this, so she took her two children, Da Guai and Er Guai, back to her parents' home.

Life at her parents' home was naturally easy. Having a child made all the difference; her mother, father, and younger sister all vied to take care of the child, allowing Mao Weiwei to enjoy a more relaxed life.

After staying for two weeks, Mao Weiwei still harbored feelings for her husband. So one day, when her anger had subsided, she took her children home. As she walked downstairs, she ran into her neighbor, a middle-aged woman. Seeing how much effort she was putting into carrying her two children, she offered to help carry Erguai. Erguai was very well-behaved and let the auntie hold him.

As they rode the elevator upstairs together, the two women started chatting. The other woman asked where she had been these past few days, embarrassed to say that she had had a fight with her husband and had taken her children back to her parents' home. Mao Weiwei just blushed and said that her mother wanted to see the children, so she had taken Da Guai and Er Guai home to stay for two days.

The woman's next seemingly casual remark stunned Mao Weiwei: "Why only bring Da Guai and Er Guai? It would be so much better if you asked your husband to bring all three children. These past few days, your Xiao Guai has been crying nonstop every night."

The woman was just trying to get information out of him. These past few days, she had been kept awake every night by the crying of her children. When she asked, Lu Xianglai told her that his wife had gone back to her parents' home in anger, taking only the two children with her. Little Guai missed his mother.

Lu Xianglai's words stirred the maternal instincts of the neighboring mothers. Today they finally met the woman who had been rumored to have abandoned her child and returned to her parents' home. The woman said this on purpose, wanting to give her a gentle rebuke.

Mao Weiwei's expression turned extremely terrifying. "What did you say?"

The middle-aged woman stepped back, thinking for a long time, wondering if she had said anything she shouldn't have.

"Say it again!"

Mao Weiwei's tone startled the woman, but she quickly realized that Mao Weiwei wasn't trying to pick a fight, but genuinely wanted her to repeat what she had just said. So the woman recalled, "I said it would have been so much better if you had taken all three children with you... These past few days, your little darling has missed you and cried every day..."

Mao Weiwei's face turned completely pale.

Almost snatched, Mao Weiwei took the child from the woman as soon as the elevator doors opened and walked towards her own front door.

Holding Erguai in front and Daguai on her back, Mao Weiwei used her right hand to open the door, deliberately making as little noise as possible. She tiptoed inside. Her husband's shoes and coat were still on; he was home…

With these thoughts in mind, Mao Weiwei quietly approached the children's room and pushed the door open a crack...

She saw her husband sitting cross-legged on the floor, smiling. "Sweetie, sweetie, come to Daddy. Ouch! Sweetie fell down! Don't cry, don't cry, Daddy will blow on it and it'll be fine! Sweetie..."

Mao Weiwei looked at her husband, then opened the door a crack and looked towards where her husband was speaking...

The empty children's room... Looking at her husband talking to thin air, Mao Weiwei's heart turned completely cold.

Lu Xianglai has gone mad.

"You're saying Xianglai has gone mad?" Looking at the woman across from him, who looked far more haggard than the last time they met, Cheng Rui was shocked. "Are you kidding me?"

This is what most people would think, but Mao Weiwei gave a bitter laugh. "Do I look like I'm joking?" As she spoke, Mao Weiwei started to cry, and her two sons, sensing their mother's sadness, also began to cry.

Cheng Rui gestured to Bo Xiaoxue and Xin Nuo, who were standing nearby, to help soothe the child—after her recent hospital stay, Mao Weiwei had become good friends with the two of them.

Seeing the once lively, cheerful, and happy woman transformed into this state, all three were secretly alarmed.

Bo Xiaoxue poured her a cup of tea.

"Don't worry, so Xianglai feels like he has three children, right? This isn't uncommon; many mothers who have lost children experience this when they're overwhelmed with grief. It's less common for fathers, but it's not entirely rare." Bo Xiaoxue tried to help her see things in a positive light, but…

"I feel... if this continues... I'm going to go crazy..." These words sent another shiver down the spines of the three of them.

"What do you mean by that?" Cheng Rui suddenly asked, his voice trembling. He instinctively knew that what the woman was about to say would likely touch upon his fears…

Sure enough—

"I think... I think I saw that child too..."

For a moment, the midday meeting room was quiet.

Taking a sip of tea, Mao Weiwei said with a sob in her voice, "That night... the night I came home, I suddenly heard a child crying."

"Crying? That's normal. Da Guai and Er Guai will cry when they're hungry or their bottoms are wet at night." Bo Xiaoxue asked, puzzled.

Mao Weiwei's expression suddenly turned slightly panicked. "No way! You don't have children yet, so you don't know. No mother would mistake her own child's cry, so I immediately knew that the cry wasn't my eldest child's, nor my second child's, but someone else's."

"But the sound was so close, it definitely didn't come from the neighbor's house..."

The sound of a child crying at night... Suddenly, Cheng Rui and Xin Nuo remembered what the deceased Xu Yao had told them.

"Every night...every night there's the sound of children crying! I can't take it anymore!"

Xu Yao's terrified expression seemed still vivid in their minds, and the two of them swallowed hard at the same time.

Mao Weiwei seemed to have returned to that night, her expression distant and filled with deep fear.

"Xianglai jumped up immediately, shouting things like 'Little Darling, Little Darling,' and I suddenly remembered what he had once told me... 'Little Darling's voice is rather high-pitched.'"

"At that moment, I suddenly realized that the voice... seemed to be just as my husband described, high-pitched... I froze, while Xianglai hurriedly prepared to get out of bed, but then I suddenly saw the door open..."

"I was surprised when I heard Xianglai say, 'Little darling, you're amazing! You managed to walk all the way here by yourself!' Xianglai picked up something, and it was only then that I truly felt fear."

"That kind of familiarity is the kind of familiarity that can only be achieved through daily practice. I was in a daze at the time, but I couldn't fall asleep again. When I finally fell asleep, I felt something grabbing my chest. At first, I thought it was Xianglai, but... the size! The size was wrong! It was clearly a child's hand! A cold child's hand!"

"I watched as the blanket in front of me kept rising, and then slowly... I saw a child's face inside."

He called me "Mom".

At this point, everyone fell silent.

Looking at Bo Xiaoxue, who seemed to want to say something, Mao Weiwei gave a bitter laugh. "Are you trying to comfort me by saying I'm dreaming? I am... But after that day... I really saw it. I saw that child named 'Xiao Guai,' wearing the clothes Xiang Lai bought for him, drinking the strawberry milk powder Xiang Lai bought for him, and playing with Xiang Lai..."

"It's strange... why did I only notice it then? There were clearly three children in the family, we were clearly using up three children's formula, three children's diapers, and even three pieces of clothing at a time... I even started to think that I had three children..."

"But a voice inside me told me no. Da Guai and Er Guai used to cry for no reason all the time. Later I found out... they would cry whenever that child got close to them. They had already figured it out..."

"That child is growing very fast, much faster than Da Guai and Er Guai. He can walk now and even run... Xiang Lai doesn't think that's abnormal at all. In his opinion, that thing is normal. Xiang Lai started working, and when he's not around during the day... um... I'm terrified!"

"You all think I'm crazy, right? Yes... actually... I think so too... I'm going crazy..."

Seeing Mao Weiwei's face suddenly turn from crying to laughing, Bo Xiaoxue suddenly felt a chill and stood up to grab Mao Weiwei's hand.

"You must be exhausted taking care of two kids at the same time. Come with me next door, I'll find you a good massage therapist..."

"No, no need. I need to go back now. Xianglai is about to get off work, and I need to go back to prepare lunch. By the way, where is the restroom? I need to touch up my makeup." Mao Weiwei seemed to have returned to normal and, led by Bo Xiaoxue, entered the doctor's restroom next door.

Bo Xiaoxue felt she needed to calm down, so she quickly washed her face. When she looked up, she was startled by Mao Weiwei: Mao Weiwei was looking at her through the mirror.

Mao Weiwei lit a cigarette, and the smell...

Bo Xiaoxue suddenly felt nauseous and hurriedly ran to the toilet behind her.

She was just gagging, but it was very uncomfortable. After a while, Bo Xiaoxue felt someone gently patting her back and saying "thank you." When she turned around, she realized that it was Mao Weiwei comforting her. She put out her cigarette.

Bo Xiaoxue could only wash her face again. While washing her face, she felt someone watching her. After hesitating for a long time, she turned around and found that it was indeed Mao Weiwei. She was staring at her with a thoughtful look.

"Um... what's wrong?" Bo Xiaoxue asked as cautiously as possible.

"You...are you pregnant?" Mao Weiwei's opening statement was so explosive.

"No...no way..." Bo Xiaoxue hurriedly waved her hands in denial, however...

"Don't hide it anymore, I'm a woman who's given birth. You clearly have morning sickness. How long has it been?"

"...maybe five months."

"No way? I can't tell at all!" Mao Weiwei exclaimed, staring at Bo Xiaoxue's stomach, but Bo Xiaoxue quickly covered her mouth. "Um... please don't let anyone hear..."

"...Are you planning to give birth?"

"...Well, I was still hesitant at first, after all... my work had just gotten on track, and I was torn between work and the baby... But while I was hesitating, the baby was already five months along, and I couldn't have an abortion anymore..."

"That's true, it's been five months, the baby's basically formed." Looking at Bo Xiaoxue, Mao Weiwei suddenly sighed, "You've really been working hard. Aren't you planning to get married?"

Bo Xiaoxue didn't speak, but just before Mao Weiwei could speak again, Bo Xiaoxue whispered, "The child's father is Xu Yao."

Suddenly, Mao Weiwei understood Bo Xiaoxue's predicament.

"We had been dating before, but then we had a fight, and that's when we found out we had a child. How could I possibly go back to him... Besides, what happened later..."

Xu Yao is dead.

Mao Weiwei listened quietly, then glanced one last time at Bo Xiaoxue's stomach. "If I were you, I would abort this child even if it meant death. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone." After saying this, Mao Weiwei left on her own.

Bo Xiaoxue saw Mao Weiwei again three days later.

Hesitating for a moment, Bo Xiaoxue invited Xin Nuo and Cheng Rui, and the three of them went to the Lu family together.

Hearing about it is one thing, seeing it with your own eyes is another. Watching your friend talk to thin air and ask you, "Isn't my little darling cute?", the tone and actions... make you feel that the invisible air is really a child.

Mao Weiwei had lost the excitement she had a few days ago. She just sat numbly to the side, and when her husband asked her to hold Xiao Guai, she didn't refuse, but silently hugged a ball of air...

That feeling... the three of them finally understood the fear that Mao Weiwei had told them three days ago.

"Chengrui, look, Xiaoguai really likes you!" Chengrui was stunned by Lu Xianglai's ambiguous words.

The next second, Lu Xianglai laughed and said, "This is the first time Little Darling has climbed on a stranger..."

Cheng Rui didn't hear anything after that. All he knew was that the feeling of his whole body getting chills after hearing Lu Xianglai's words was not an illusion.

Looking at his empty knees, Cheng Rui stared wide-eyed, as if there really was a child there.

Cheng Rui hurriedly stood up. "It's getting late, and I have some things to do this afternoon. I'll take my leave now..."

Before he could invite them, Bo Han and the other two stood up as well.

"That's right, then we'll take our leave."

"Huh? Wait a minute, Cheng Rui, didn't you say you wanted to see what I filmed last time? I've prepared it for you..."

Seeing Lu Xianglai pick up a pre-prepared paper bag from the side, Cheng Rui had no choice but to accept it. Lu Xianglai and Mao Weiwei then each took one child and prepared to see the guests off.

The elevator seemed to be going down very slowly. Cheng Rui looked at Xin Nuo and Bo Xiaoxue across from him and saw their nervous expressions. He knew that they, like him, had sensed that something was wrong. The Lu couple, however, seemed not to notice. Lu Xianglai looked at him with a grin, while Mao Weiwei had an indifferent expression.