Mom's Back. The Villain Triplets Are in Trouble.

Chapter 57: Chapter 57: Running on the Wrong Track

[Forget her face, just look at her outfit. She already looks so young.]

[No wonder Lin Xiaoyun lost.]

[?? Wait, who said they were competing?]

While the live comments were in an uproar, Gu Qingyin suddenly walked toward the camera.

The audience fell silent at the sight, their eyes widening as they watched intently.

Gu Qingyin didn’t get too close. She simply picked up her shoulder bag from the cabinet by the wall, opened it, and took out an exquisite doll to look at.

Unfortunately, a talisman from inside the bag was pulled out along with the doll and fluttered to the floor.

Normally, at that distance, the audience wouldn’t have been able to see clearly even if they noticed something fall. Besides, most people were fixated on Gu Qingyin’s face.

But there were inevitably some dedicated viewers who recorded the segment, zoomed in on it, and analyzed it frame by frame.

This closer look not only made Gu Qingyin’s exceptionally youthful, supple-looking face a hot topic again, but the piece of yellow paper on the floor also started getting attention.

It was a talisman. Although no one knew its specific purpose, everyone had seen them on TV—the kind of talisman indispensable for exorcising demons and catching ghosts.

At first, the live comments were buzzing with excitement about Gu Qingyin’s face. They had thought her public image was about to collapse, but not only did it not, she actually gained a new wave of fans purely for her looks.

Some of the more passionate fans even started spamming the chat, telling Gu Qingyin to debut as a celebrity. They said she could do anything, and they’d willingly spend money on her!

Only after that tech whiz came back did the focus of the discussion begin to shift.

[So this is the ’little hobby’ of Sister Qing’s that Huo Xinghai mentioned before?]

[A BJD doll and... a yellow talisman?]

[That’s... quite a range of hobbies.]

[Whoa... Back when they first met, didn’t Lin Xiaoyun call her ’Master’? I’m starting to have a wild theory...]

[Holy shit! You’ve found the crucial point!]

[I’m getting goosebumps!]

[A master of the mystic arts was among us all along!]

Gu Qingyin was completely unaware of this. The director, on the other hand, saw everything clearly, but he paid it no mind. After all, the netizens’ imaginations were always ridiculously wild.

As expected, if the netizens’ initial guesses were somewhat close to the truth, they soon veered off course. Once they connected ’mystic master’ with ’eternal youth,’ they couldn’t resist turning it into a running joke, each theory more outrageous than the last.

Some said Gu Qingyin had already cultivated to the level of a demigod, which was why she stayed so young.

Others claimed Gu Qingyin wasn’t human at all, but a spirit monster.

An even more ridiculous theory claimed that Gu Qingyin was actually immortal, and that she would live out a normal lifespan, go into seclusion for a period, and then re-emerge once no one remembered her.

The theories were so absurd that even Gu Qingyin herself would have found them preposterous. It was a true loss to the entertainment industry that these netizens weren’t writing novels or screenplays.

Gu Qingyin hadn’t cooked in ages, and to put it mildly, she had a special ’talent’ for it. She was therefore exceptionally focused while making the congee, terrified that one wrong move would land her son in the hospital.

Just as she was halfway through, Huo Xinghai came home. He smelled the aroma of congee the moment he walked in. When he went to the kitchen doorway and looked inside, his face immediately filled with surprise.

In the midst of her frantic work, Gu Qingyin glanced back at him. "Go take a shower. It’ll be ready soon."

Huo Xinghai hesitated. ’I thought Mom couldn’t cook? Why the sudden urge to get in the kitchen?’

But he quickly figured it out. ’This has to be the production team’s idea.’

Before heading upstairs, Huo Xinghai couldn’t resist saying, "Mom, you really don’t have to force yourself."

Gu Qingyin puffed out her chest with a solemn expression, declaring as if taking an oath, "Don’t worry, your mother will make sure you get your breakfast!"

This only made Huo Xinghai more anxious. But then he had a thought. ’Even my eldest brother, the first of us to reunite with Mom, has never eaten a meal she cooked with her own hands...’

Huo Xinghai’s expression suddenly grew resolute. ’No matter how terrible it is, I’m going to finish every last bite!’

After letting it cook a while longer, Gu Qingyin decided the congee was probably ready.

She ladled a small portion into a bowl to try it. The flavor was a little bland, but it was fully cooked and didn’t taste strange.

Gu Qingyin’s eyes lit up. ’It’s actually not bad this time!’

After Gu Qingyin cheerfully ladled out the congee, Huo Xinghai came downstairs, fresh from his shower and dressed.

His face, so similar to hers, was still damp, making his skin look fair and smooth.

Gu Qingyin couldn’t resist reaching out to pinch his cheek. "A breakfast made with your mother’s love," she said with a grin. "Eat up."

Huo Xinghai stiffened for a moment, the tips of his ears secretly turning red. He pressed his lips together, sat down, and began to eat, spoon after spoon, with hardly a pause.

Gu Qingyin was very surprised. "Is it that delicious?"

Huo Xinghai paused, snapped out of it, and actually tasted it properly.

’It was bland, with the pungent taste of the preserved egg. The lean pork was cooked, but for some reason, it was incredibly tough, almost impossible to chew. And the rice grains didn’t have the texture of congee; they were more like plain rice soaked in water.’

Honestly, in his entire life, Huo Xinghai had never eaten such awful congee. But looking into Gu Qingyin’s sparkling eyes, he could only betray his conscience and nod. "It’s delicious. Thanks, Mom."

Gu Qingyin was greatly encouraged, her eyes curving into crescents as she smiled. "I’ll make it for you again when we’re back home."

She pulled out a chair and sat beside Huo Xinghai, sighing emotionally. "You have no idea. Everything I used to cook tasted like it was poisoned. This is the first time I’ve ever made something actually edible."

Huo Xinghai, who had just put another spoonful of congee in his mouth, suddenly found it hard to swallow. He instinctively began to fear for his life.

Gu Qingyin didn’t notice and continued her musings. "It seems my talent for cooking doesn’t lie in making dishes, but in making congee. No wonder I failed so many times before. Turns out I was running in the wrong race all along!"

Huo Xinghai was speechless.

The viewers in the livestream chat were dying of laughter at this scene.

[Wild guess: Sister Qing’s congee tastes awful.]

[You call that a ’wild guess’? Did you hear what she just said? How is that any different from a threat?!]

[First time I’ve ever seen someone issue a death notice to someone’s face. Gotta admit, she’s a badass!]

[Sister Qing! A Werewolf who only preys on her own son!]

Huo Xinghai spent the first half of the meal distracted and the second half in terror.

Thankfully, he felt no ill effects after finishing, and Huo Xinghai let out an imperceptible sigh of relief.

Only after she had cleared the table did Gu Qingyin finally snap out of the euphoria of her first cooking success. "Weren’t the livestreams supposed to start back up today?" she asked, confused. "Why isn’t the crew here yet?"

"It’s been live for a while now," Huo Xinghai said from the sofa where he was peeling an orange, a hint of mischief in his voice. "The cameras were on before you even got out of bed."

Gu Qingyin froze. Her mind raced. ’Did I do anything I shouldn’t have? Say anything that can’t be aired...?’

Her eyes widened as she looked at Huo Xinghai. "The doll!"

Huo Xinghai knew what she was worried about. A hint of a smile touched his eyes as he finished her thought. "Mhm. Now the entire internet knows that instead of raising your perfectly good son, you’d rather raise BJD dolls."

A look of confusion crossed Gu Qingyin’s face. ’What’s a BJD?’

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