Reborn as his Shadow - Chapter 17

In a plain, old room, a thin young man lay on a double bed with thin skin stretched around his gaunt limbs. At first glance, one would immediately mistake him for dead until they noticed his chest’s slight rise and fall. After staying in a coma for so many years without any sun, there was hardly a difference between him and a zombie from western folklore, his gray skin and skeletal frame resembling anything but liveliness.

The sun was setting outside the window, and the last rosy glow traced by the sun as it crawled over the horizon slowly left the boy’s face. As it disappeared, the young man opened his eyes and stared dully at the ceiling. Open and close, open and close, he blinked his eyes repeatedly, washing away the daze he was stuck in.

“Hungry…” He struggled to mouth the simple word.

“Hungry…hungry…” His expression grew more vivid as his eyes moistened with the grievances he felt.

“Father, Xiao Xuan is hungry….” He struggled, managing to complete a sentence with much trouble.

No response came to his whimpers and the young man felt even more aggrieved, his cries growing louder, “Aunt Yu, Xiao Xuan is hungry….” He raised his hand to try and support his body as he attempted to sit up, but fell back down limply from the strain.

Repeated failures made him scream and beat the bed like a child, bursting into tears as the stress built up.

“Dad–Dad–” The young man finally noticed his strange voice, falling quiet as he continued to cry, “Dad, wahhh….Xiao Xuan can’t move! Xiao Xuan is hungry! Wahhhhh!” The sound insulation of the house kept others from noticing, though, his shrill cry only faintly being heard in the hall after quite some time had passed. If a servant hadn’t been passing by for errands, it would likely have been much longer before someone came too.

The maid hurriedly opened the door and saw the child awake after so many years. Tears fell from her face as she stepped forward to comfort him with a distressed look. “Young Master Xuan, you’re finally awake!”

Hearing a new voice, Mo Jingxuan looked up from the bed and paused his cries. His hesitant eyes struggled to identify the woman approaching him as he cautiously called out, “Aunt Wang?”

“Yes?” Her emotions burst as she cried harder from her young master calling her name.

His wet eyes bent into beautiful crescents the moment they got the response, “Aunt Wang!”

Her eyes were gentle as she held his head softly.

He tilted his head slightly, pulling at her hands as he wondered aloud, “Why is Aunt Wang’s hair white?”

Aunt Wang was stunned momentarily, rubbing his back in distress as she answered warmly, “Because Young Master Xuan has been sleeping for a very long time. Aunt Wang waited and waited and grew old.” She raised his hand up to eye level and pressed it against her palm, “You grew up too, young master, you’re no longer a small child.”

Looking at their hands together, Mo Jingxuan’s eyes were shocked, “Look Aunt Wang! I grew up soooo much! Wow! Am I an adult now Aunt Wang?”

Watching the child, who can now be considered a young man exclaim about his growth like a preschooler, Aunt Wang couldn’t conceal her worry. He had been asleep for sixteen years. The body has indeed grown, but the memory and intelligence…

“Yes, you’re an adult Young Master Xuan,” She pressed his hand underneath the quilt. “Young Master is hungry, should I go bring you some food?”

Mo Jingxuan, who was still in a state of excitement, remembered his hunger quickly. He pressed his hands to his stomach underneath the quilt, and complaints rose to his face, making themselves clear to anyone looking on, “Hungry~ Aunt Wang, Xiao Xuan is so hungry, Xiao Xuan can’t even get up!”

Aunt Wang shook her head, “Young Master Xuan has slept for too long and hasn’t been exercising.” Her rough palms stroked the young man’s skinny cheeks, “Auntie will cook some yummy food for the young master, so be sure to eat a lot and get fat for us.”

“Yes~” Mo Jingxuan nodded with a smile.

As Aunt Wang closed the door, she turned to say, “Young Master, close your eyes for a while and I’ll ask the Master to come up while I’m cooking. Once he hears you’re awake, he will surely be very happy….” Even as she said this to reassure the child she had cared for for so long, the uncertainty in her words was obvious.

But oblivious to any cues he could have taken, the smile on Mo Jingxuan’s face grew even brighter. He didn’t realize the harm it brought to his appearance when he stretched his lips so far on such a skeletal face.

Aunt Wang sighed and closed the door behind her as she rushed downstairs to the living room.

Standing at the doorway, she looked deeply at the backs of the happy family of three before her. Sighing once more, she stepped forward to say, “Master, Madam, Young Master Xuan is awake.”

“Huh?” Mo Zhenhao’s eyes didn’t move from the news being broadcasted before him as he replied mindlessly.

Mo Heng paused for a moment before continuing to finish the bite of fruit he had taken, and Yu Hong, sitting next to him, closed the magazine in her hand calmly. “What did you say Aunt Wang?”

“Young Master Xuan is awake!” Aunt Wang raised her voice as she repeated herself.

“Really?” The previous quiet of the room was gone as the family understood what she was saying. Yu Hong got up from her seat in a flurry, letting the magazine on her knees fall to the ground, “He’s really awake?!”

Father Mo still didn’t move from his seat, merely looking up to hear the response to his wife’s question.

“Yes, Young Master Xuan is awake.” Although she had expected the indifference, Aunt Wang was still filled with disappointment as she experienced it; how much pain would it cause her young master to feel it firsthand?

Father Mo nodded his understanding and got up to walk to his eldest son’s room.

Yu Hong pulled Mo Heng’s arm, squeezing it tightly, “Xiao Heng, let’s go! Your brother finally woke up, we need to go and greet him!”

Mo Heng agreed, the indifference in his eyes naturally being replaced with joy as he dropped the fruit from his hand and followed her lead.

Watching them head upstairs left Aunt Wang with complicated feelings, and she continued on to the kitchen to make some porridge, preferring to make it herself rather than call the cook.

“Father!” Mo Jingxuan, who had been staring at the door, shouted with excitement the moment Mo Zhenhao turned the doorknob.

Father Mo was stunned by the strange man’s voice, looking at the ugly man lying on the bed. A gloomy dislike flashed in his eyes for this unfamiliar son, “You finally woke up, how do you feel?”

“I can’t get up, I’m so hungry~” Looking at the people he loved most in the world, the pain Mo Jingxuan felt seemed to magnify and he voiced his complaints without thought. The grown man on the bed looked like a deformed child at this moment, tears forming in the corners of his eyes.

This couldn’t be right; his son looked as though he was mentally handicapped. An adult who was stuck in the world of a child… Although he understood that it was normal for his son to act this way, having slept for so many years, his cognition would not have grown with his body; Mo Zhenhao couldn’t stop his frown from forming. How could his son be like this? If this was known, wouldn’t he be treated as a joke, everyone laughing at him? Laughing that his eldest son was such an idiot? Thinking about this, the disgust in his eyes increased by a point, but showing his emotions so easily would never be something he allowed.

Before Mo Zhenhao could respond to Mo Jingxuan’s ailments, Yu Hong walked around him into the room, “Xiao Xuan!”

Seeing Yu Hong, Mo Jingxuan shouted innocently and excitedly, “Aunt Yu!”

“I’ve missed you so much…” Yu Hong made her way to the bed with a smile on her face. Holding Mo Jingxuan’s skinny hand, she said, “Xiao Xuan, you finally woke up, Auntie….” She couldn’t finish speaking as her own tears cut off her words.

“Mom,” Mo Heng stepped forward to gently pat her on the back, “Don’t cry. Brother finally woke up, today should be happy!”

Father Mo followed his son’s example and put his arms around Yu Hong, squeezing her shoulders comfortingly.

“Yeah,” Wiping her tears, Yu Hong pulled Mo Heng closer to Mo Jingxuan, “Xiao Xuan, this is your brother, Heng Heng.” Noticing his confused eyes, she explained more clearly, “You saw him a few times before you went to sleep. He’s the small baby from then, he grew up just like you did.”

“Baby?” Looking at the soft smile on Mo Heng’s face, Mo Jingxuan was becoming more and more confused. He couldn’t help himself from repeating that familiar word, “Baby-ba—ahhh!” Suddenly screaming in pain and grabbing at his head, Mo Jingxuan felt as if there was another being inside him, trying their best to pierce their way out of his shell of a body.

“What’s the matter?! What’s going on?!” Yu Hong looked anxious as she pulled on Father Mo’s arm.

Mo Jingxuan was in so much pain that he wasn’t registering the words of anyone around him, rolling on the bed with his head in his arms. He quickly made a mess of the room, his IV ripping out and pillows flung to the ground.

Mo Zhenhao hurriedly stepped forward to hold him down, not letting him hurt himself more than he already had, “Xiao Heng, call the doctor.”

Mo Heng nodded and quickly went downstairs to get his phone.

By the time the doctor came, Mo Jingxuan was no longer in pain. He could not describe the type of pain he felt when asked or even why he thought he felt that way. The best he could do was explain to the doctor that he seemed to have lost something important over and over again.

After some detailed examinations, Mo Jingxuan was found to have no other symptoms except severe weakness and malnutrition. The doctor judged that his headache must have been a complication caused by the large imbalance in his physical condition.

He ended up prescribing a warming tonic made of traditional Chinese medicine to Mo Jingxuan alongside a series of formulated plans to restore his body. The plans were extremely detailed, ranging from a medicinal diet that was to be followed at all times to the subsequent muscle massage and stretching that would eventually develop into the final stage of physical exercise and professional rehabilitation. Although recovering would be painful, the doctor judged the effect to be better if Mo Jingxuan could bear with it compared to some of the other suggestions that were not decided upon.

Father Mo didn’t say much, just ordering the servants at home to be responsible for his son’s diet and supervise his exercise. Not many people knew the condition of his eldest son, and he preferred to keep it that way, so this important task was handed over to Aunt Wang.

Aunt Wang knew a little bit about massage already and would massage Mo Jingxuan three times a day while he was asleep, taking great care to time it while he was resting to try and minimize the pain he had to go through. In order to do better, though, she bought many books and practiced on the other servants, and she gradually became more versed in her skills, to her great relief.

In the following days, the Mo house was often filled with Mo Jingxuan’s crying and wailing from the pain.

“Woooo… Aunt Wang, wooooo… Xiao Xuan doesn’t want to do this anymore, Xiao Xuan hurts so much…” Mo Jingxuan, who had regained some blood in his face, but was still frighteningly skinny, begged Aunt Wang with tears all over his face.

“Young Master Xuan, you need to bear with it. You will only be able to get out of bed and walk if you persevere.” Aunt Wang didn’t lessen the strength of her hand even as her eyes turned red around the corners. Her words were meant not only to comfort Mo Jingxuan but also to keep herself from being soft-hearted and harming her young master’s recovery.

Seeing that Aunt Wang was indifferent, Mo Jingxuan turned his wet eyes to look at Yu Hong, who had taken to sitting in with him for at least one session a day, “Aunt Yu…Xiao Xuan hurts so much. Can Xiao Xuan stop now?”

Yu Hong made the appropriate distressed expression as she persuaded, “Xiao Xuan, be good. Bear with it, Auntie is here.”

“It hurts…woooo.”

Yu Hong’s tears followed the rhythm of Mo Jingxuan’s sobs, and she pressed Aunt Wang’s hand, preventing her from continuing, “Aunt Wang, he’s in so much pain, I can’t just sit here and watch. Let’s stop here today and let Xiao Xuan rest, look, his face is even turning pale from the pain.”