Villain Path

Chapter 76. Do I know you at all?

"What does your mother prefer?" Shen asked again, stopping in front of another merchant. "Shall I buy peaches? Or maybe pomelo?"

"There is no need, teacher," Al dissuaded, awkward. "You have already bought very expensive tea, my mother will be delighted."

"Now I even wish my mother didn't live at the league and you couldn't see her at any time," Annis muttered, watching enthusiastic Shen.

"Sir," he decided in the meantime. "Give me those peaches!" 

"Teacher, there is no need! Peaches are very expensive this time of year!"

 "So what? I don't often get the opportunity to spend money sensibly!" he turned to Al and evaluated his appearance with a critical eye.

Al is looking wonderful today! I'm so glad I thought of buying him this silver outfit!

Although, there were concerns that he would now wear it without taking it off. Shen made a note to buy him a spare set afterward.

***

"So this is where your parents live!.." Shen said, looking at the high gate in front of which they stopped.

He didn't really expect the house to be that big. It, of course, did not compare in size with the Shuer's estate, but it definitely belonged to wealthy people. So, not only is his mother alive, she is also well and has quite enough money? Talk about breaking the pattern!

Why have you been pretending to be a poor little orphan all this time?!

Although Shen could not tell if Al had once pretended to be one. Rather, it was him who misjudged him. And all this was news only for him! Annis didn't look surprised that Al had a mother living in the capital, even Muan knew what the main character really was. It turned out that Shen was practically the one Who neglected Al most! What an irony, considering that it was Shen's life that depended on the well-being of the main character, and no one else's!

Al, meanwhile, knocked on the gate. A lady, who opened it, immediately exclaimed something about a young master, bowed and rushed into the house.

"Come on in," Al said, turning to Shen.

He felt the blood rush to his cheeks with excitement. Well, at least outwardly that practically did not show. He nodded to Al and followed, Annis walking gloomily beside him.

"Luar!" a woman in simple clothes ran out to meet them. "My son!"

While she hugged Al, stroked and examined his face and lamented, Shen studied her appearance with interest. Although she did not look young, the wrinkles did not spoil her pretty face, and in her big eyes, somewhere in the depths, there was hidden the same golden cunning that sometimes slipped from Al. Her hair was already turning gray, but it was still a chestnut color. All in all, Shen could well imagine that some visiting merchant had noticed this beauty on the street and fell madly in love. It was harder to believe something else: that the mother of the main character could be so lucky in general, because the usual clichéd drama is based on the fact that the protagonist's relatives die so that he or she would suffer more along with the readers. This is probably why Shen, when he was a reader, could not imagine at all that Al's mother was still alive, immediately deeming her another irrevocably dead.

"What happened? What brings you here?" meanwhile, the woman exclaimed.

"Everything is alright, mom," he said with restraint, removing her hands from his face. "I didn't come alone, actually."

Only now, having admired her child a little, the woman noticed two people standing behind him. A very pretty girl in a rich, yet made in a soldier-like fashion, dress of a dark shade and an elder man, with graceful features and in a crimson outfit reminiscent of dried blood. Those two were clearly not ordinary people, his mother immediately figured out that they were cultivators.