Chapter 10: Parents
"Uncle,"
Outside the flower shop with the shutter door closed, a polite little boy about seven or eight years old, carrying a backpack, asked the clerk of the neighboring flower shop, "Did my dad come back today?
"No, didn't your dad say he was going to Yunnan to buy stock? That's very far away, and I don't know how many days it will take."
The clerk shook his head, "You can go home and ask your mom."
Mom.
Upon hearing this word, the expression of the little boy suddenly stiffened. He politely bid farewell to the clerk, dragging his heavy steps, wandering beneath the patchy shadows of the airborne floral waterfalls in the flower market.
His mom was not human.
Or rather, his mom had been replaced by something that was not human.
From about a week ago, Mom had started acting abnormally. She no longer picked him up from school, stayed at home all day with a green facial mask on, and never took it off.
There was no cooking at home; he and his four-year-old sister had to eat bread, milk, and cereal for three meals a day.
In the middle of the night, he saw Mom burying her head in the refrigerator, from which the sound of chewing meat could be heard.