The Seventh Year After Mom Died

It's a slightly tart, bittersweet, and tender little romance. Don't let the blurb scare you off!

Wen Shizhou raised a child.

The child was sweet, obedient, and beautiful, a tiny little thing. Aside from sticking close to Mommy, wanting to fall asleep with Mommy in her mouth, and saying things like how much she loved Mommy and how Mommy had to love her just as much, she was a perfect child in every way.

One day, the Mission Bureau issued its latest notice: a dangerous, S-class mutant species had landed and had been lurking inside the bureau all along. The warning device at Wen Shizhou's waist flashed red. She turned and saw the child's beautiful, innocent face.

Zhang Xu loved her mommy. As a humanoid mutant, she had always been bullied and rejected in the forest. She could only sneak out at night and rummage through trash cans on the edge of human towns for food. Then one day, her mommy found her.

Being cared for and cherished was addictive.

She desperately learned how humans lived, carefully using her mental power to mimic a shadow, and worked hard to grow by absorbing energy in the dead of night, so she could raise Mommy just as Mommy had raised her.

Fortunately, Mommy loved her too and wanted to spend the rest of her life with her.

Later, she saw a long-familiar emotion in Mommy's eyes, one identical to the emotion she'd seen in the eyes of the monsters who had bullied her: disgust, hatred, revulsion.

She trusted her mother with all her heart, but her mother schemed to send her to the Mission Bureau. After decades of having her heart torn out and her bones stripped away, she finally broke free of her cage. She returned, consumed by endless hatred, but the first thing she saw when she met Wen Shizhou was a woman's heart pierced by mutant vines and her hot, flowing blood.

In the few seconds after she froze, then erupted into fury and despair, she realized she still loved her.

Seven years after Mommy died, she found a way to be reborn.

Hatred was an overwhelming sense of grievance.

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