Artifact Report

Chapter 149: Fu Tailan: The Only Home He Knows
"...Xiaotai, there's still more than an hour until the next gas station. You might as well get some sleep."

Fu Tailan looked up from his phone and glanced at his mother.

The air conditioner in the car hissed as if it was going to break the blades, but the cabin was still stuffy.

The slight smell of sweat on her body, the half-remaining Red Bull she had just drunk, the remaining smell of cheap shampoo, the bag of fast food garbage in the back seat... made the air flow like fermented rice wine, making him feel a little dizzy.

I seem to have forgotten something just now...?
Forget it, if I can forget it, then it shouldn’t be important.

"It's agreed that it will be your turn. I'm almost exhausted. I've been driving for four or five hours."

Mom's curly hair was tied into a messy ponytail, swirling behind her neck as she turned to look out the window. "I didn't expect this road to be any different from a decade ago. There weren't many cars in sight... You should be okay, right?"

The road ahead stretches as far as the eye can see, as if it will stretch forever across the open land.

"Of course, I'm not a child anymore."

Fu Tailan lowered his head as he spoke, and when he saw his old cell phone, he felt a little surprised for some reason - he hadn't changed his cell phone in several years, so it was normal for it to be old.

A classmate—a girl, to be exact—was asking him when he would be back, as she wanted to go out with him.

"I don't know either," he typed quickly. "My mom took me back to her hometown. I'll be spending the summer vacation there."

"Have you got a girlfriend yet?"

Mom suddenly turned her head, her face trying to remain serious, yet unable to resist asking for gossip: "Is it the Rachel from last time? Or is it the Xiao An who was going to the dance with you? He is worthy of being my son, handsome and motivated, so popular..."

Based on Fu Tailan's understanding of his mother, there is always a turning point after the good words.

"To be honest, I thought you were gay a few years ago. I didn't expect that girls' tastes have changed now. They don't like tall, strong, and masculine types anymore. Isn't that actor the one who's so skinny? What's his name? Timmy—"

"mom!"

Fu Tailan glared at her and said, "Do you want to praise me or scold me?"

Mom raised her head and laughed heartily. "Hey, I've noticed you've been drinking a lot of milk lately...Are you afraid that if you don't grow taller, you'll run out of opportunities?"

Even though there was no one else in the car, Fu Tailan's face still turned red with embarrassment.

"Don't talk nonsense, I just - I like to drink -"

"You're the best the way you are," Mom said suddenly. "You don't need to change at all. Of course, if you want to change, that's fine. Anyway, whatever you become is the best."

"...When you say this, are you still preparing for me to come out?"

Mom laughed again.

"You're still laughing," Fu Tailan snorted coldly, "I thought you'd be nervous about returning to your hometown. You're no different from usual."

"Don't be nervous," Mom slapped the steering wheel, making it bang. "During the hardest times, we managed to get through it without relying on them. Now that you're grown up, what should I be afraid of?"

She became excited and started gesturing in the air with one hand.

"If they dare treat you badly, we'll turn around and leave! At worst, we'll have to drive another twenty hours back. They'll be the ones who should be worried. But your grandma still misses you very much. The last time she secretly came to see us, you were only seven or eight..."

There are some things that you know you shouldn't say, but you just can't help it.

"Was it worth it for Fu Han back then?" Fu Tailan said in a low voice.

Mom thought silently for a few seconds, then sighed and said, "Well, I was a few months younger than you are now, and my taste...wasn't that great. I just fell in love with him because he was good-looking and gentle. But my parents' anger wasn't entirely because of Fu Han."

Fu Tailan paused.

"Is it because of me?"

His mother got pregnant with him when she was a minor.

In the states they straddle, as well as several nearby ones, none of them now offer legal abortion. And even more than a decade ago, when abortion was still legal, or perhaps even longer, the option was effectively dead.

Having a child meant that all her plans and dreams were shattered. Her life, which hadn't even begun, was suddenly kidnapped by a ball of embryonic cells. For the next twenty years, or even her entire life, it would never return to her.

Her hometown runs a farm, and according to her mother, even her dreams smell like corn and soybeans.

The family couldn't come up with the money, nor could they go against their beliefs to scrape together enough money to send their underage daughter to another place for a secret abortion - it seemed the only solution was to give her to the father, a child they didn't know very well.

When Fu Han took her away, the whole family seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

During the more than ten years that they depended on each other, there was an unwritten rule that his mother never told him a lie.

"Yes, because of you, and because of me," she said calmly. "Fuhan seemed to be a savior later on."

"After you left here, didn't you ever think of getting rid of me?"

Most people might say something nice like they want to keep you, but his mother would just tell him the truth: "Where's the money? It's cheaper to be pregnant with you. At least I have nine months to save money."

Fu Tailan couldn't help but laugh: "So I'm the cheaper one?"

My mother pretended to regret and shook her head repeatedly: "Who knew that he would need to buy shoes, replace his phone, and go to college again... What can I do? I can only support him."

"You're talking as if I don't work!" Fu Tailan protested. In his family, his father, who hadn't been seen for over a decade, wasn't a taboo or painful topic. His mother didn't bring it up, but she wasn't shy about talking about it either.

He could no longer remember Fu Han's face; judging from the photo, he was indeed a very handsome man.

It seemed that Fu Han himself knew this - after they moved to Blackmore City with Fu Tailan, he began to say that he was too young, could not afford this kind of life, was unwilling to strangle his future in diapers, and could not raise a child... Then one day, he disappeared.

Although the mother and son live in poverty, Fu Tailan can't say what went wrong in the past ten years.

He has no complaints.

After he goes to college, his mother might be able to continue the life trajectory that she interrupted when she was seventeen; he has already thought about it, if she also wants to go to college, he must never let her reveal the fact that she is his mother - going to school with his mother would be so embarrassing.

"Oh, right," Mom said suddenly, "your grandma told me on the phone that the lock on your bedroom door is a little broken. It takes two or three tries to close it properly, and the locksmith in town isn't around right now... You have to be really careful and don't open and close it too often."

Fu Tailan understood immediately and felt a tightness in his heart.

"Really? This strange physique was passed down from her to me, and then I passed it down to you. And the door lock hasn't been repaired yet." Mom complained.

"I will remember it, don't worry." Fu Tailan comforted her.

"When I first discovered you could get into the nest—" Mom stopped herself abruptly.

She took a few deep breaths before emphasizing, "...Anyway, you must never go to that kind of damn place."

Fu Tailan reached out and patted her arm gently.

"I don't want to go either," he said with a smile. "I was scared half to death the last time I went there as a kid. Mom, what do you think will happen if someone is scared half to death twice?"

The mother couldn't help laughing even though she didn't want to: "What a joke!"

The straight road under the high sky passes through endless cornfields, wheat fields and wilderness, and perhaps there will never be an end.

As long as you keep going, there may always be wind, sunshine and a road ahead.

When they finally noticed a car parked on the side of the road, the mother and son didn't even react.

"That woman's waving," Mom said, slowing down. "Did the car break down or something? We're in the middle of nowhere, it's really frustrating."

Fu Tailan lowered his head and saw a woman standing next to the car with a panic-stricken look on her face.

"I'll go down and take a look. Don't move in the car." Mom said as she unbuckled her seat belt.

She had lived in Blackmore for over a decade, but it seemed as if the simple, warm-hearted country girl she once was seemed to reign supreme once again. "If you need a tire change, I can help."

Fu Tailan didn't move; he watched his mother open the car door, get out, and the two talked for a while.

Few words were blown into the car by the wind, and everything was expanded, relaxed and quiet under the heat of summer.

My mother nodded and followed the woman to her car. Then, she pulled a gun out of the backseat window.

Fu Tailan froze in his seat, unable to comprehend his own vision for a moment.

"My bag is in the car..." Mom raised her hands, her voice trembling. "I'll get it for you when I get back, okay?"

"Get in the car," a man said from the backseat window.

The slight sound of Fu Tailan opening the car door seemed to startle her mother more than the gun; she turned her head suddenly and met Fu Tailan's gaze - the car door opened from behind her and a hand grabbed her arm.

"mom!"

Fu Tailan felt as if his chest was on fire. He jumped out of the car and was about to rush over to the front of the car when he heard his mother shout angrily, "Don't come over here!"

Fu Tailan was stunned.

There were lights and shadows in my mother's eyes, like the endless waves of the sea.

The man was trying to pull her into the car; he still kept the gun against her waist.

But her mind didn't seem to be on this matter. She only stared at Fu Tailan: "Xiao Tai, don't come over here - absolutely don't come over here!"

No, how can that be? Mom——

Fu Tailan would never let her be kidnapped like this, but for some reason, her mother's words froze her feet.

"I never lie to you, remember?" Mom forced a smile and said, "If you come here, you can never go back."

Can’t go back?
Where to go back?

The only home he had known for seventeen years was right here, right before his eyes.

He didn't want to be anywhere else.

　This chapter is about a parallel reality. In other words, if Fu Tailan's real life is just one half, then this parallel reality is the other half. The commonality between the two is probably his origins. I wonder if this writing style, hinting at Fu Tailan's true history by writing about a history that never existed, is acceptable...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)