The old woman’s words left Ming Xiaoyu completely speechless. He couldn’t fathom any reason why his parents would hide themselves from their own children, choosing instead to secretly care for him and his sister as nameless heroes. Wasn't raising offspring the most fundamental duty of any parent? Yet, faced with his mother’s earnest, painstaking counsel, he found no justifiable grounds for rebuttal. After all, having only just met his long-lost mother, would letting out years of pent-up bitterness and airing his grievances against his father and mother truly solve anything? It would likely only shatter this hard-won reunion and cast a shadow over the fragile mother-son bond they had just begun to rebuild.

"Wuwu... Mom... wuwu... I'm sorry!" Xiaoyu choked out, intending to say more, but his traitorous throat was seized by sobs, allowing only whimpers to escape.

"There, there, my dear boy, my precious baby." His mother pulled him into a tight embrace, as if Xiaoyu were still an unformed child, frozen in that moment when the family gathered around the hearth listening to his father tell stories. "Listen to me. Mama understands your situation; I, too, have faced the choice between life and death. For you both, I chose to remain in this world. See? We are reunited now; that proves my decision then was the right one."

"Life and death?" Xiaoyu rubbed his eyes, staring at his mother in disbelief. He thought: before I even entered the door, I never mentioned anything about a life contract. How did she know about the scythe left outside?

His mother grew uncomfortable under Xiaoyu's bewildered gaze, unsure how to begin. She stammered, diverting the topic: "In a couple of days, Mama will go home with you. We can finally be a complete family. You and your sister should go back to work and school; this family cannot be scattered anymore. It’s time for us to draw back together."

"Mom," Xiaoyu still couldn't believe what he was hearing. This effortless meeting, this sudden, fate-revealing hint, felt like two sharp blades cutting into his just-calmed heart. A sense of danger surged back, and no matter how tightly he wrapped himself in the blankets, the chill in his core wouldn't stop. He had to force the issue: "What exactly did you mean by that just now?"

"I, I... nothing... My child, life is singular, and the bond of kinship is singular too. In the next life, no matter what, we won't meet again. Cherish this connection, okay?" After a long silence, the mother finally remembered those words and managed to smooth over her previous, startling statement.

"You said you faced such a choice before?" Xiaoyu didn't accept the soft words, pressing directly toward the core issue with his elderly mother.

"En, en..." The mother paused, her face flushing, clearly uneasy.

"Tell me, are you a living person or a dead one now?" Xiaoyu suddenly saw the truth, his eyes shining sharply as he pressed the old woman claiming to be his mother.

"I, I... also entered that contract. For you two siblings, I chose to remain in this world." The old woman was startled by the sudden fierceness in Xiaoyu's eyes, stuttering for a long moment before finally uttering the words she had been concealing from the start.

With that, Xiaoyu threw off the covers and sharply dragged his fingernails across the sole of the old woman's foot. The elderly woman registered absolutely no reaction. Any conscious, living person would have been writhing in agony from the combined tickle and pain, begging for mercy. How could there be no response at all? Xiaoyu suddenly leaped from the bed, his bare feet hitting the floor, and began backing away step by step, as if the person he had just embraced was not his mother, but a demon from the depths of hell. As he neared the doorway, tears welling in his eyes, he pointed at the figure on the bed and declared, "My mother is alive and well in this world! Don't try to fool me!"

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