Illusion Report

Chapter 174: Chapter 142: Fu Tailan: The Only Home He Has Ever Known

"...Xiaotai, we’ve still got over an hour until the next gas station. Why don’t you get some sleep?"

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

The car’s AC hissed as if the fan blades were about to break, yet the cabin remained muggy.

The faint smell of her sweat, the half-finished Red Bull she’d been drinking, the lingering scent of cheap shampoo, and the bag of fast-food trash in the back seat... it all turned the air into a heady brew, making him a little dizzy.

’I feel like I just forgot something...?’

’Whatever. If I forgot it, it couldn’t have been that important.’

"Don’t forget our deal. You’re taking the next shift. I’m exhausted—I’ve been driving for four or five hours straight."

His mom’s curly hair was tied into a messy ponytail that tossed at the nape of her neck as she turned to look out the window. "I can’t believe this road hasn’t changed in over a decade. You hardly see any other cars... You’ll be fine to drive, right?"

The highway ahead stretched out endlessly, as if it would go on forever across the open land.

"Of course. I’m not a kid anymore."

Fu Tailan lowered his head as he spoke. When he saw his old phone, he felt a strange, faint sense of surprise—even though he hadn’t replaced it in years, so it was bound to be old.

A classmate—a girl, to be precise—was asking when he’d be back. She wanted to hang out.

"I don’t know either," he typed quickly. "My mom’s taking me back to her hometown. We’re spending the whole summer vacation there."

"Got a girlfriend yet?"

His mom suddenly turned her head, her expression caught between trying to look serious and bursting to gossip. "Is it that Rachel from last time? Or Xiaoan, the one who wanted to go to the dance with you? That’s my son—handsome and ambitious, so popular..."

From what Fu Tailan knew of his mom, a compliment was always followed by a twist. freēwēbnovel.com

"Honestly, a few years ago I thought you were gay. I guess girls’ tastes have changed. They don’t like the tall, brawny, manly types anymore, huh? Like that one actor, so skinny and small, what’s his name again, Timex—"

"Mom!"

Fu Tailan glared at her. "Are you trying to praise me or insult me?"

His mom threw her head back and laughed loudly. "Oh, come on, I just noticed you’ve been chugging milk lately... Are you worried that if you don’t get a little taller soon, you’ll miss your chance?"

Even though there was no one else in the car, Fu Tailan was so embarrassed his face turned red.

"Stop talking nonsense, I just—I like to drink it—"

"You’re perfect just the way you are," his mom said suddenly. "You don’t need to change a thing. Of course, if you want to change, that’s fine too. No matter what you become, you’ll always be the best."

"...You’re just saying that to prepare for me coming out of the closet, aren’t you?"

His mom laughed again.

"You’re still laughing," Fu Tailan snorted. "I thought you’d be nervous about going back to your hometown. You don’t seem any different from usual."

"Nervous my ass," his mom said, slapping the steering wheel with a THUMP. "Back in the hardest times, the two of us got through it without them, didn’t we? Now that you’re all grown up, what do I have to be afraid of?"

She grew animated, gesturing with one hand in the air.

"If they dare treat you wrong, we’ll turn right around and leave! Worst-case scenario, we drive another twenty-something hours back home. They’re the ones who should be nervous. But your grandma really misses you. The last time she came to see us in secret, you were only seven or eight..."

There are some things you know you shouldn’t say, but you can’t help yourself.

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

His mom fell silent for a few seconds before sighing. "Well, I was a few months younger than you are now. My judgment... it wasn’t the best. He was handsome and seemed gentle, and I was smitten. But my parents weren’t just angry about Fu Han."

Fu Tailan paused.

"Was it because of me?"

His mom had gotten pregnant with him when she was still a minor.

The state they had just crossed, along with several neighboring ones, had all made abortion illegal. And over a decade ago when abortion was still technically legal—no, perhaps even further back than that—the option had already existed in name only.

Having a child meant all her plans and dreams went up in smoke. Her life, before it had even begun, was hijacked by a cluster of embryonic cells. For the next twenty years, for the rest of her life, it would never be hers again.

Her family back home ran a farm. According to his mom, even her dreams smelled of corn and soybeans.

That family couldn’t afford it, nor could they go against their beliefs and scrape together money to send their daughter somewhere else for a secret abortion. It seemed the only solution was to shove her off onto the baby’s father, a boy they barely knew.

When Fu Han took her away, it was as if the whole family breathed a sigh of relief.

In the seventeen years that mother and son had relied on each other, there was an unwritten rule: his mom never lied to him.

"Yes, because of you, and because of me," she said calmly. "After a while, Fu Han actually started to seem like a savior."

"After you two left here, did you ever think about getting rid of me?"

Most mothers might have said something nice, like they wanted to keep him. But his mom would only tell the truth. "Where would we get the money? It was cheaper to stay pregnant with you. At the very least, it gave us nine months to save up."

Fu Tailan couldn’t help but laugh. "So I was the cheaper option, huh?"

His mom feigned regret, shaking her head repeatedly. "Who knew you’d end up needing new shoes, a new phone, and tuition for college... What choice do I have? I just have to keep footing the bill."

"You say that like I don’t have a part-time job!" Fu Tailan protested.

In their family, the father who had been gone for over a decade wasn’t a taboo topic that brought pain whenever he was mentioned. His mom didn’t bring him up, but she never shied away from talking about him either.

He could no longer clearly remember Fu Han’s face; from photos, he was indeed a very handsome man.

It seemed Fu Han knew this himself. After they moved to Blackmoor City with Fu Tailan, he started saying he was still too young, that he couldn’t handle this kind of life, that he wasn’t willing to smother his future in diapers, that he couldn’t raise a child... Then one day, he just disappeared.

Despite their tight finances, if you were to ask Fu Tailan if there was anything bad about the past seventeen years, he couldn’t name a thing.

He had no complaints.

Once he was in college, maybe his mom could pick up the life she had left behind at eighteen. He’d already thought it through: if she wanted to go to college too, he absolutely could not let her reveal that she was his mom. ’Going to school with your mom would be mortifying.’

"Oh, right," his mom said suddenly. "Your grandma told me on the phone that the lock on your bedroom door is a bit broken. You have to close it two or three times for it to catch properly, and of course, the only person in town who can fix locks is away right now... You have to be extremely careful. Don’t open and close it repeatedly."

Fu Tailan understood immediately, his heart tightening.

"Honestly. This weird trait, didn’t she pass it down to me, and then I passed it down to you? And she still hasn’t fixed the lock," his mom complained.

"I’ll remember. Don’t worry," Fu Tailan reassured her.

"The first time I discovered you could also enter the Nest—" His mom cut herself off, not finishing the sentence.

She took a few heavy breaths before stressing, "...Anyway, you must never go to that damned place."

Fu Tailan reached out and gently patted her arm.

"I don’t want to go either," he said with a laugh. "The one time I went as a kid already scared me half to death. Mom, what do you think happens if a person is scared half to death, but it happens twice?"

His mom tried not to laugh but couldn’t help it. "What a stupid joke!"

The straight highway under the vast sky cut through endless cornfields, wheat fields, and open plains, seeming to stretch on forever.

As long as they kept driving, maybe there would always be wind, sunlight, and a road ahead of them.

By the time they finally noticed a car stopped on the side of the road, neither of them had fully processed it.

"Hey, that woman is waving," his mom said, slowing the car. "Did her car break down, or what? Out here in the middle of nowhere, this is a real problem."

Fu Tailan looked over and saw a woman standing by a car, a look of desolate panic on her face.

"I’m going to go check it out. You stay in the car," his mom said, unbuckling her seatbelt.

She had lived in Blackmoor City for over a decade, but it seemed the moment she returned to her home region, the simple, warm-hearted country girl she used to be took over again. "If she needs a tire changed, I can help out."

Fu Tailan didn’t move. He watched his mom open the car door, get out, and talk with the woman for a moment.

Snippets of their conversation drifted into the car on the wind. Everything felt swollen and hazy in the summer heat, serene.

His mom nodded and walked with the woman toward her car. Then, from the rear window, a gun emerged.

Fu Tailan froze in his seat, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

"M-my purse is in the car..." his mom said, her voice trembling as she raised her hands. "I’ll go get it for you, okay?"

"Get in the car," a man’s voice said from the rear window.

The soft click of Fu Tailan opening his car door seemed to startle his mom more than the gun. She whipped her head around, her eyes locking with his. From behind her, the other car’s door opened, and a hand grabbed her arm.

"Mom!"

For a moment, it felt as if a fire had ignited in Fu Tailan’s chest. He jumped out of the car and was about to rush around its front when he heard his mom shout furiously, "Don’t come over here!"

Fu Tailan froze.

Light and shadow flickered in his mom’s eyes, like a relentless ocean tide.

The man was forcefully dragging her into the car, the pistol still pressed against her waist.

But her mind didn’t seem to be on that. Her eyes were fixed on Fu Tailan. "Xiaotai, don’t come any closer—absolutely do not come over here!"

’No, how can I do that? Mom—’

Fu Tailan knew he couldn’t let her be kidnapped like this, but for some reason, his mother’s words rooted him to the spot.

"I never lie to you, remember?" His mom forced a smile. "If you come over here, you’ll never be able to go back."

’Can’t go back?’

’Go back where?’

The only home he had known for seventeen years was right here, right in front of him.

He didn’t want to go anywhere else.