Hu Lei did not respond. She would not give the woman the satisfaction of knowing her insecurities. When she had been younger, as she travelled through the most dangerous parts of the world, she had dreamt that her mother would call her and tell her to come home to her.

But it had never happened.

And she had grown up.

Lu Liang did not seem to mind the lack of response. She looked at Hu Lei, but it seemed as if she was looking through her.

"When you were a small baby, I wanted so much to connect with you. I wanted you to be my little one. But I could not forget how you were created." She spoke in a distant voice.

Hu Lei knew that she should stand up and walk out. However, her mind could not help but latch on the wording.

"What do you mean 'created'?"

Lu Liang did not answer the question directly.

"You might not believe it, but when we were younger, your father and I were crazy in love. We were attached to each other and shared everything. Your father would talk to me about his life, his work and his family. He was my soul mate."

"His family?" Hu Lei was drawn in a little more.

"Oh, I forgot that he told you that he did not have any family. Actually, he came from a very prominent family in Herb Town. One can even say that the Huo family owns that town. It was probably named after their ancestors. The entire clan is known for their prowess in medicine."

Hu Lei realised that she knew two people who were surnamed Huo, but she brushed the matter aside. She could not believe that there was yet another thing that her father had lied about.

"At that time, your father was the greatest prodigy that had been seen in a long time. He was brilliant and came up with new treatments like it was nothing. The entire family revered him. However, this meant nothing to Hu Ming. You know how he was. He always wanted to push the boundaries."

"When we met, I knew that he was special. Some of his ideas were a little unorthodox. Even I, who had no medical knowledge, could see that he was pushing things a little far. But it was exciting, and I was crazy about him."

"I encouraged him to pursue his crazy ideas, and he fell deeper and deeper into his research. His family was against us being together because they thought that I was the one pushing him to stray from their clan's teachings."

Lu Liang paused and took a deep breath.

"In a fit of hunger after being scolded by his father, Hu Ming decided to leave the Huo family. When we came to Supreme City, he immediately changed his surname. He looked for work as a doctor and in no time, he became the divine doctor. Of course, he did not stay in that job for long. Eventually, he became a free agent who only took cases that interested him."

Hu Lei felt impatient even though she had already learnt a lot from the conversation. She wanted to know what Lu Liang meant.

"Can you get to the main point?"

Lu Liang laughed. "You know that you are very impatient. A lady should be calm and longsuffering."

"Don't try me."

"I am only telling you this because you have not treated me poorly in spite of my fall from grace." The woman smiled. "Are you sure you want to know?"

Hu Lei hesitated for a while because of the touch of schadenfreude on Lu Liang's face. However, when she thought of all the secrets that her father had hidden, she could not resist the temptation. And if Lu Liang considered it to be a token of gratitude, it had to be good.

She nodded.

Her mother seemed delighted at her choice. "As I said before, I was always a big supporter of your father. And his ideas almost always became a big success. Over time, he rose to the level of a godly doctor. Unfortunately, it was not enough. For your father, it was never enough."

Hu Lei knew how true that was. Even in the lab in Antarctica, he never stopped pushing the boundaries in spite of the situation. His love for medicine and science was his drug, and he could not quit.

"At that time, he decided that he wanted a baby. And not just any baby, he wanted the greatest baby in the world." Lu Liang took a breath. "I also had wanted a child. However, we had different ideas on conception. I thought that we would conceive the natural way. But your father wanted to edit the genes so that that baby would be perfect."

Hu Lei felt a cold shiver on her spine, and her scalp tightened.

"Of course, I did not want that. Even though I had always supported him, I could not condone this. I told him as much. But he was set on the idea. I thought that we were at an impasse, and no one would get their way."

"But then, a little while later, he sedated me and harvested my eggs. I don't know how he tinkered with them, but he was eventually satisfied. I am not clear on how he implanted the embryo. It was around the time I discovered what he had done that we started fighting a lot. I did not want to have an abortion even though I was angry. So, I carried you for nine months and gave birth to the perfect baby."

Hu Lei felt frozen in place as she listened. She did not pay attention to the sarcasm in the last words. She could not handle the fact that all her life, from before she was even born, she had always been an experiment. It was as if she had a big sign above her with the words 'lab rat'.

In a wooden manner, she stood up, took the document on the table, folded it and put it in her inner breast pocket. She zipped up her jacket and walked out of the house without saying a word. Within a few seconds, Lu Liang heard her motorcycle leaving.

The older woman sighed as she remembered that perfect baby. Hu Lei had not behaved like other children. She had been mature from when she was born. She did not cry or cause trouble. She always seemed to understand everything going on around her. Her mind developed at an unprecedented rate.

All she had wanted was a normal cute baby.