129 Smoking head.
"Oh...!!!" Yue Li exclaimed. "What is that?"
"You will see when we reach there, and Mom, can I tell you something now that we are having this heart-to-heart and all."
"Hmm, tell, tell."
Han Li was silent for a second and then said, "I have already told you this before, but I will tell you this once more. Don't box in your thoughts to things in a limit of 'Evil' and 'Righteous' so much."
"Uh... what do you mean?" Han Li pushed aside the grass and, without leaving marks of his passage by doing something rash, like cutting off the branches before him, moved forward.
"Not only you, but Liyue also has this issue, you see," he said, "But she is a girl who has a knack for learning things by herself after some bit of leading, so I had never told her this, but you are not like that. You are a little dumb animal who only knows what is in front of you."
"I am not that dumb!"
"Continue being delusional, then."
Yue Li was irritated, but she knew her son had labeled her dumb years ago, and unless some miracle happened, that wouldn't change. "So what are you saying anyway? I could, at least, try to learn."
"You see, calling something Evil or Righteous is stupid. There can never be such light and darkness so simply. Let me ask you a question now: if a savior has to kill a single infant in order to save a million people, what is the right thing to do then?"
Yue Li grew thoughtful.
Yue Li held his hand tightly.
"Just think of it, Mom: all around the world, people would think that our relationship is weird and uncanny—something that shouldn't be. But why? What if the rules, the higher-ups that created the rules that people are said to follow, told that the rules had changed and now such familial relations are a must, and that is what is righteous to do?"
Han Li mocked, "You would see far too many like us, if not in love, in lust. The news would change the world in two days at most. But since the higher power says it is bad, everyone thinks it is weird; you also think it is weird; you are wired that way from the start because you had chosen, or in other words, it had been branded into you, that belonging to society is your purpose in life from the start."
"Branded?" Yue Li asked softly.
"That is simple—even you had told me to be a good boy a thousand times, to act according to the goodness of society, have you not? All of us are grown that way, and the option of demonic beliefs isn't even a consideration in the whole scheme of things. From the start, people are slaves to the thoughts of society."
Yue Li sighed. "I really am having a hard time picturing your ideas. I can feel there is something profound about what you are saying, but I keep missing it."
Han Li chuckled. "Maybe someday you might understand. Anyway, whatever may happen in the future and whatever you may become, Mom, just know that your son will be here for you. Even if you are the worst of demons or the most righteous of saints, I will be there; never think you are not what I came to love, no matter what you may become as years pass."
Yue Li smiled. "What? You do know to be nice at times, don't you? Be like that all the time, and stop teasing me like you do. I know you think I am beautiful even when you say something looks ugly anyway; might as well be straightforward."
Han Li sighed.
"All those meaningful things said to a monkey would only be like throwing it a banana. What a dumbass. All of it went over your head, didn't it?"
Yue Li coughed. "No issue, this buddha has learned her lesson."
Han Li's eyes twitched.