July was usually the time when the heat began in summer. But with the improvement of the Earth’s environment over the years, the climate had been regulated by the extensive coverage of vegetation, so even at noon there was shade from trees and a cool breeze wherever you went.

In a small city near the Taklamakan Desert, Lu Lingxi stood on the side of the road in a simple white cotton t-shirt and khaki shorts, his body straight and slender. His black travel bag lay at his feet, and Dahei was lying quietly on top of it. Lu Lingxi was reading a text message, occasionally shifting his gaze to look at Dahei. The passage of time had removed the childishness from his face, and his youthful profile was gentle and calm. He stood there, like a finely carved jade, with an inner light that made it impossible to look away from him once you took a glance.

“Brother! Brother Dahei!”

The sound of a child’s voice reached him from behind. Yan Yue, dressed in the same way as Lu Lingxi, came out from a fast food restaurant on the roadside. He was holding a little kid of about three or four years old on one arm and carrying a pile of cold drinks in the other hand.

The little kid was a bit excited when he saw Dahei and stretched out his arms to greet Dahei from far away. When Yan Yue bent down and let go of him, the kid immediately ran happily to Dahei’s side, hugging Dahei’s neck and refusing to let go. Lu Lingxi finished texting and smiled as he bent down and stroked the little kid’s head. “Does Xiaorui’s tummy still hurt?”

Xiaorui beamed and said in a milky voice, “If Brother and Brother Dahei kiss me, it won’t hurt anymore.”

Lu Lingxi smiled and leaned over to give him a kiss on the cheek. Xiaorui happily turned his face to look at Dahei, “Brother Dahei, here!”

Yan Yue walked over and shook his head in amusement, not knowing who Xiao Xiaorui had taken after. Wang Shuxiu was spirited, Lu Lingxi was gentle, Xiao Feng was restrained, but Xiao Xiaorui had been sweet-talking since he was a baby, coaxing everyone around him into a daze.

He looked at Lu Lingxi with the cold drinks in his hand, “What does Xiao Xi want to drink? Orange juice or mango juice?”

Lu Lingxi picked the orange juice and passed the straw to Yan Yue’s mouth without drinking it first. Yan Yue lowered his head and took a sip. Meeting Lu Lingxi’s smiling eyes he couldn’t help but reach out and touch his hair. “Who were you chatting with now?”

When he asked, Lu Lingxi remembered something, “It’s Xiaohui, he quarrelled with Brother Fang and is coming to us.”

Yan Yue had an odd expression, “Fang Lei would quarrell with Xiaohui?”

Lu Lingxi also found this somewhat unlikely, but that’s what Xiaohui said in his text message. “I told him the address of our hotel. He said he would go immediately and would probably arrive in the evening.”

Yan Yue said, “Then I’ll book another room. I guess Fang Lei will be coming after him.”

Speaking of which, both of them were a bit curious to know why Fang Lei had quarrelled with Xiaohui. Ever since Xiaohui had magically turned into a human four years ago, Fang Lei had lived a life of being bullied by Xiaohui in various ways. Of course it was the same before Xiaohui had turned into a human. According to Lu Lingxi’s understanding, Fang Lei was very indulgent towards Xiaohui, and Auntie Fang and Uncle Fang were also very fond of Xiaohui, so he couldn’t think of any reason for Fang Lei and Xiaohui to quarrel at all.

When the two of them couldn’t think of a reason, Yan Yue picked up his travel bag and said, “Let’s go first, we’ll know when Xiaohui comes over tonight. Didn’t Xiao Xi want to see an oasis? There’s one not far from the town.”

When they were in Kunnan a few years ago, Yan Yue promised Lu Lingxi that he would take some time off every year to accompany Lu Lingxi to travel. The two of them had visited quite a few places in the past years, and this year they had set their sights on a desert oasis. Usually, wherever they went, Yan Yue and Lu Lingxi always travelled by car, taking Dahei and Xiaohei with them. This time there was also Xiao Xiaorui. They were afraid Xiao Xiaorui wouldn’t be able to stand riding in the car for a long time, so the three of them, plus one dog and one snake, had to give up their self-driving trip and choose public transportation. The good thing was that in the past few years, the pet craze had been on the rise all over the world, and everywhere you went, you could see people with all kinds of pets. For example, Dahei had a unique boarding pass once he passed through security. As for Xiaohei, he hid in Yan Yue’s pocket every time he went through customs.

Yan Yue rented an open-top jeep, and Lu Lingxi sat in the back with Xiao Xiaorui in his arms, while Dahei jumped on the passenger side. Yan Yue smoothly put sunglasses on Dahei’s face. The car started and Dahei posed against the wind, very stylish. There was a car passing by and a shiny golden retriever was looking through the back window. The golden retriever saw Dahei and gave a soft bark; the driver in front laughed and nodded to Yan Yue, saying, “Buddy, my girl fell in love with your young man at first sight. How about becoming in-laws?”

Yan Yue: “……”

Lu Lingxi, who hugged Xiao Xiaorui, was about to laugh to death as Dahei barked at Lu Lingxi, aggrieved. Lu Lingxi hurriedly stroked Dahei’s fluffy head, but still couldn’t stop laughing. This was not the first time he had encountered this situation; compared to him and Yan Yue, Dahei was too popular. Every time he went out, he encountered a few flirtatious attempts, clearly illustrating what it meant to be a heartthrob.

Yan Yue habitually declined politely, “Sorry, our family’s dog is also a girl.”

Dahei: “……”

Driver: “……”

Lu Lingxi lowered his head and stifled his laughter until his stomach hurt. Yan Yue obviously could have found other reasons to refuse, but he loved to tease Dahei like this. The other driver regretfully left. Dahei whimpered and Lu Lingxi hurriedly adjusted his expression to comfort Dahei.

Half an hour later, they saw the desert poplar forest far ahead of them, and the largest desert in China, the Taklamakan Desert, slowly unfolded in front of the two of them.

Speaking of which, the Taklamakan Desert was not only the largest desert in China, but also the number one mobile desert (desert that tends to move in the direction of the winds) in the world. The entire Taklamakan Desert covered a vast area of 330,000 square kilometres, accounting for 4% of China’s total area. In the past, the Taklamakan Desert was known as a no-go area for people, with 13 sandstorm days throughout the year, little rainfall and high evaporation. Few plants could survive here, except for the desert plants such as desert poplar. Because of the desert’s barrenness and lack of water, the animals that lived here were also extremely rare and occupied zones abandoned by humans. Occasional travellers appeared here, but only for a short time. But everything changed four years ago; or rather the whole world had been undergoing various changes since four years ago.

The source of the earliest changes appeared in Fengcheng, the heavy industrial city in the north of China. As if overnight, the city that was full of smog and pollution and was always at the bottom of the various environmental awards in China had disappeared. The Fengcheng that appeared in the media and news was a city of beautiful hills and clear blue skies, with lush greenery filling the streets and alleys. The whole city seemed to be blessed by the god of nature, and people, nature, and animals lived in harmony, just like the city of elves in myths and legends.

First, crowds from all over the country flocked to Fengcheng, and then crowds from all over the world flocked to Fengcheng. All at once, the eyes of the entire world fell on Fengcheng. Whether it was governments, scientists or ordinary humans, everyone wanted to know: was the change in Fengcheng City unique? Could other places be like Fengcheng City? This frenzied anticipation reached its peak with the first appearance of the Great Willow Tree in Lingshui Village to the public.

The government, the media, scientists, ordinary people, everyone identified the Great Willow Tree as the cause of Fengcheng’s changes, and cities all over the country asked to transplant and plant seedlings of the tree. With no one daring to destroy the tree and the people of Fengcheng not agreeing to move the Great Willow Tree, Lu Lingxi’s Tiny Garden Technology Company rose to prominence. All the seedlings planted in his plant nursery were the Great Willow’s seedlings that had been evolved and upgraded.

The government chose to cooperate with Tiny Garden at the first opportunity, and the seedlings were transported to each city like a treasure, with the best gardeners selected to take care of them, in the hope that the miracle in Fengcheng would be replicated elsewhere. The results didn’t disappoint. With the successful transplantation of the big willow seedlings, the environment in various places gradually began to improve. Although both Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue knew that the heart of the planet played a role, in the eyes of everyone, all this was the grace of the Great Willow Tree.

Now, other countries couldn’t sit still, and China welcomed the most frequent diplomatic missions in history. Every country in the world sent envoys to China, and all kinds of economic and military cooperation were coming to China. The various technologies that had been kept secret in the past were launched in China, and the resources and energy were left to China to choose. All countries had only one condition; they hoped that China would agree to transplant the seedlings of the Great Willow Tree. For all the countries of the world, the existence of the Great Willow Tree did not only mean a change in the environment, but also the evolution of mankind. In this race for survival where China was leading the way, no one wanted to be the one to be eliminated.

If the Chinese government was the biggest winner of the Fengcheng transformation, then Tiny Garden was the second winner after the Chinese government. With the export of the seedlings of the big willow tree, Yan Yue had successfully promoted Zhugang and copaiba balsam trees. In fact, apart from making money, the existence of the bamboo and copaiba balsam trees was more like a kind of guidance. They were a reminder to mankind that plants were rich in energy and that the tens of thousands of plants on earth were the greatest treasure trove for mankind. Protecting the living environment of plants was also protecting humans themselves.

In less than four years, seedlings of the Great Willow Tree had been planted all over the world, including, of course, the Taklamakan Desert. Since the first seedling of the Great Willow tree survived here, the originally desolate desert had gradually taken on a new lease of life. Although it was mainly thanks to the transformation of the planet’s heart, it was undeniable that the willow trees’ root system’s ability to store water had played a great role in the desert. Oases began to appear at the edge of the desert and were gradually advancing towards its centre. Some experts predicted that within twenty years the entire Taklamakan Desert would become an oasis of life.

The changes of the past few years flashed through Lu Lingxi’s mind as he looked out of the car window in fascination.

“Brother, Brother.” Xiao Xiaorui noticed that Lu Lingxi’s attention was not on him and shook his arm to remind Lu Lingxi of his presence.

Lu Lingxi looked at Xiao Xiaorui and smiled gently, stroking Xiao Xiaorui’s soft hair and saying, “What’s the matter?”

Xiao Xiaorui blinked and said loudly in a milky voice, “I like Brother the most.”

Lu Lingxi agreed, “I also like Xiaorui the most.”

“Ahem.” 

“Woof.”

Yan Yue and Dahei protested at the same time. Lu Lingxi giggled and went over to give the man and the dog a kiss on the cheek.

Xiao Xiaorui got anxious, “I want it too, I want it too.”

Lu Lingxi smiled and hugged Xiao Xiaorui, giving him a big smooch on the cheek.

Xiaohei peeked up from Yan Yue’s wrist, aggrieved, and hissed in Lu Lingxi’s direction. Without waiting for Lu Lingxi’s reaction, Yan Yue had unceremoniously suppressed Xiaohei’s request.

Xiaohei: “……”

The three of them, the dog and the snake, spent the afternoon strolling around the oasis, and Lu Lingxi also bought quite a few desert poplar crafts. Originally Yan Yue wanted to accompany Lu Lingxi to stroll around the neighbourhood at night and rent a tent to watch the sunrise in the morning, but Fang Lei called to say that he and Xiaohui would be arriving soon. Yan Yue had to pull the reluctant Xiao Xiaorui into the car, ready to rush back to the hotel where they were staying.

“Brother, I want to stay in a tent tonight.” Xiao Xiaorui complained with his mouth deflated.

Lu Lingxi hugged him and fed him some water before explaining, “Brother Xiaohui is coming to see you, don’t you want to see Brother Xiaohui?”

Xiao Xiaorui shook his head honestly and added, “Brother Xiaohui likes to pinch my face every time and even steals the little dried fish I leave for Meow Xiaohui to eat.”

Lu Lingxi: “……”

After four years of getting along, Lu Lingxi actually felt that even though Xiaohui had turned into a human that looked like an adult, his personality was still completely childish. Every time they got together, Xiaohui liked to tease Xiao Xiaorui, often switching between cat and human forms to confuse Xiao Xiaorui, simply full of bad taste. However, because of Fang Lei’s indulgence, Xiaohui was able to retain his nature to the fullest extent, happily following Fang Lei and having Fang Lei clean up the mess no matter what he did.

Lu Lingxi coaxed Xiao Xiaorui for a long time and as soon as they returned to the hotel, they saw Fang Lei in front of them holding Xiaohui, who had turned into a cat.

Yan Yue raised his eyebrows, “What’s wrong with Xiaohui?”

Fang Lei was serious: “This will save one person’s airfare.”

Yan Yue & Lu Lingxi: “……”

The truth was that Xiaohui was quarrelling with Fang Lei and refused to change back into his human form. He squatted in Fang Lei’s arms, puffy with anger. His eyes rolled around; he chose a target and aimed to pounce towards Xiao Xiaorui. Xiao Xiaorui didn’t like Brother Xiaohui, but he was extremely fond of Meow Xiaohui. Xiao Xiaorui remembered that Meow Xiaohui liked to eat dried small fish, and every time he saw Meow Xiaohui he would take out the dried small fish he had specially saved and give it to Meow Xiaohui to eat.

This time Xiao Xiaorui didn’t have any dried small fish with him. He struggled to find it for a long time, piling up all the souvenirs Lu Lingxi had bought for him this afternoon in front of Xiaohui. “Meow Meow, these are all for you, I’ll ask Daddy to fry you little fish to eat when we get home.”

Meow~

Xiao Xiaorui hugged Xiaohui and gave him a big kiss before turning to discuss with Lu Lingxi, “Brother, can I sleep with Meow Xiaohui and Brother Dahei at night?”

Lu Lingxi held back a smile and looked at Fang Lei, who laughed helplessly.

Looking at Xiao Xiaorui and the cat-shaped Xiaohui playing together, Yan Yue took the opportunity to satisfy his and Lu Lingxi’s curiosity, “Did you quarrell? What happened?”

Fang Lei sighed, “As you know, I was injured in a case some time ago. It was not a big deal, but Xiaohui took it to heart and went to take revenge for me without saying a word, solving the case in the process. Fortunately, he was fine, but what if something had happened?”

Xiaohui had run to Fang Lei with great enthusiasm to claim credit, but to his surprise, Fang Lei was not only unhappy, but grabbed him and gave him a lecture. In his anger, Xiaohui wanted to leave home but was caught by Fang Lei just as he arrived at the airport. Still angry, he turned back into a cat and refused to pay any attention to Fang Lei the whole way.

This was exactly what Xiaohui would do. Yan Yue patted Fang Lei sympathetically and suddenly frowned, “Fang Lei, why is there a lipstick mark on your collar?”

Fang Lei was stunned and was just about to ask what lipstick mark, when Xiaohui on the bed twitched its ears and pounced angrily towards Fang Lei.

Meow~

Yan Yue winked at Fang Lei, hugged Xiao Xiaorui with one hand, pulled Lu Lingxi with the other, and left the room with Dahei behind him. The moment the door closed, Xiaohui had already changed back into his human form, angrily pulling Fang Lei to sniff around.

Fang Lei chuckled, smoothly wrapped his arms around Xiaohui and lowered his head to kiss him. “Yan Yue lied to you, there is no lipstick mark.”

Xiaohui: “…asshole!”

Fang Lei gently slapped Xiaohui’s butt, “No swearing.”

As soon as Xiaohui got excited, the cat ears and cat tail that had been put away appeared again.

Fang Lei familiarly touched Xiaohui’s tail, which was the most sensitive part of Xiaohui’s body. Xiaohui blushed, waved his tail and bit Fang Lei’s neck hard, saying viciously, “Bite you to death.”

Fang Lei kissed him indulgently and said softly, “Don’t be angry, I know you are worried about me, but you should know that I will be worried about you too.”

Xiaohui didn’t say anything and wrapped his arms around Fang Lei’s neck with force. Fang Lei smiled, hugged Xiaohui tenderly and asked, “Are you hungry?”

Xiaohui nodded obediently, “I want to eat grilled fish.”

“Good, put on your clothes and let’s go eat grilled fish with Yan Yue and the others.”

In the next room, Xiao Xiaorui was playing with Dahei. Lu Lingxi glared at Yan Yue, “Big Brother Yan is lying again.”

Yan Yue smiled faintly and kissed Lu Lingxi on the forehead, saying gently, “I would never lie to Xiao Xi.”

The corners of Lu Lingxi’s lips curved up and he interlocked his fingers with Yan Yue’s, saying seriously, “I know.”

Their eyes met, and the two simple words “I know” were better than all the sweet words in the world.

THE END

Translator’s note: So, the story is over! It is the longest one I have translated. I originally thought I would leisurely translate it till the New Year but apparently I cannot do anything leisurely 🙂

I hope you enjoyed it (those who didn’t enjoy it but read 175 chapters of it anyway… I don’t know, go reflect on your life or something) 🙂 I will certainly miss Xiao Xi, Yan Yue, Dahei and others.

Thank you, Blood, my favourite reader, for your constant support! And thank you everyone who commented and said all those nice things. I hope you’ll enjoy some other stories on this site 🙂

If you liked the story, please leave a review on Novelupdates.

If you want to thank the translator, you can support me on Ko-fi. Well-caffeinated translator is enthusiastic and fast-working 🙂

Previous / ToC

Fang Lei took a week’s leave from work. He couldn’t take Xiaohui with him to the police station, so he could only take leave to stay at home with Xiaohui, at least to give Xiaohui some basic knowledge of life. Of course, as a cat, Xiaohui was good in every way, but as a human, Xiaohui needed to master a lot more. It was also fortunate that Fang Lei had just finished the case at hand, otherwise the leader wouldn’t have granted him leave.

“This is money.”

Fang Lei leaned against the head of the bed, pulled out various banknotes from one yuan to one hundred yuan from his wallet and laid them out in front of Xiaohui to teach him to recognise them. According to what he knew about Xiaohui, Xiaohui would definitely not stay at home obediently, and he couldn’t guarantee that the people Xiaohui met would be good people like the driver last time, so he could only teach Xiaohui what the money was first. “Xiaohui, whatever you want, you can exchange it for money,” he said, picking up a one yuan bill. “This is the smallest money.” Then he picked up a hundred yuan note, “This is the biggest money.”

Xiaohui squatted opposite Fang Lei; he still didn’t like the “sitting” position as it tended to squash his tail. He stared curiously at the banknote in Fang Lei’s hand, tilted his head and waved his tail, meowing.

Fang Lei nodded, “You can exchange money for anything.”

Xiaohui’s eyes lit up and he pulled a hundred yuan out of Fang Lei’s hand, meowing.

“……” Fang Lei. He held back a smile and stroked Xiaohui’s ears, “No, you can’t exchange this hundred yuan with Yan Yue for Lu Lingxi. Money can only be exchanged for things, not people. Besides, didn’t we just agree that there would be only two of us at home and no one else?” 

He was just joking, but who knew that Xiaohui twitched his ears and threw away the money, suddenly jumping into his arms. Fang Lei was stunned and firmly hugged Xiaohui for a while.

Meow~

Xiaohui leaned over and pressed his forehead against Fang Lei’s, sticking out his tongue and licking Fang Lei’s lips. Fang Lei’s heart trembled and he was about to push Xiaohui away, but he hesitated when he heard the meaning of Xiaohui’s meow clearly. Xiaohui didn’t understand the joke he had just made and simply thought that Fang Lei was upset by Xiaohui’s behaviour, so he comforted him by licking him.

Meow~

Xiaohui stopped moving after licking and looked at Fang Lei expectantly, signalling that it was Fang Lei’s turn to lick. According to the internet, in the world of cats, only cats with good and close relationships were allowed to groom each other. Previously, Xiaohui treated Fang Lei as a servant who served him, but now he reluctantly regarded Fang Lei as a kindred spirit.

Fang Lei: “……”

The sudden ringing of the phone rescued Fang Lei. Whoever it was, Fang Lei was grateful to the caller. But soon Fang Lei regretted this thought. On the phone, the old Mrs. Fang made a final decision, “Leizi, I heard that you took a week off from work. The girl you met today is also on holiday these days, so since you have a day off, tomorrow just have a meal with her to get acquainted with each other. Don’t leave after dinner, go for a stroll around. It’s a deal, I’ll tell the girl first, and you can call her to agree about a place.”

Fang Lei: “Mom, I…”

“Alright, the TV series is about to start, I won’t talk anymore.” The old lady hung up the phone, leaving Fang Lei alone with a headache. He was thinking of inviting the girl for another meal as a kind of reparation, and by the way, to make it clear that he had no intention of looking for a girlfriend for the time being, so as not to delay her. But he didn’t expect the old lady to be in such a hurry and arrange the meeting for tomorrow. He looked at Xiaohui helplessly; he didn’t feel safe leaving Xiaohui at home, but he was also worried that if he took Xiaohui with him, Xiaphui might turn back into a cat at some point.

He hesitated for a long time and discussed it with Xiaohui, “Tomorrow I’ll send you to Xiao Xi, okay?”

Fang Lei had many friends, but if there was anyone who could accept the fact that Xiaohui had turned into a human being without any problems, it was only Lu Lingxi.

Meow~

Xiaohui immediately became vigilant and expressed his dissatisfaction with Fang Lei’s arrangement.

When Fang Lei saw that it wouldn’t work, he chose to compromise. “Then tomorrow I’ll invite a friend over for a meal, okay?”

Meow~

Fang Lei explained, “Just an ordinary friend, it’ll be just dinner.”

Xiaohui reluctantly nodded, agreeing. Fang Lei let out a sigh of relief, thinking that taking into account the enthusiasm of the old lady, it was better to talk to the girl as soon as possible. Otherwise, there was no guarantee that the old lady wouldn’t do something without his knowledge. Although it was a risk to invite the girl home, this was his home turf and he could find a way to trick her in case Xiaohui turned back into a cat. Fang Lei found the girl’s phone number, and when he got through, he first apologised for his behaviour today, and then politely said that his brother was not feeling well and it was not very convenient to go out. If the girl didn’t mind, he wanted to invite her over for a meal as an apology.

Perhaps it was because Fang Lei’s profession as a police officer gave people a sense of security, so the girl didn’t refuse and agreed to come.

Fang Lei thought about the problems he might encounter tomorrow and felt that there was nothing missing, so he relaxed and continued to explain various things to Xiaohui. After one night of hard work, he taught Xiao Xiaohui how to recognise the amount on the banknotes. Xiaohui didn’t know how to count, but was able to tell by the colour of the banknotes. Fang Lei also took Xiaohui to re-demonstrate how to use the electrical appliances in the house, including the mobile phone he was now using. Although Xiaohui was smart when he was a cat and basically knew how to use them all, there was a difference between his paws and his hands after he’d become a human. These were the basics; the most crucial thing was for Xiaohui to develop the habit of wearing clothes. Fang Lei found all his own clothes, trousers, t-shirts, jackets and pulled Xiaohui to try them all on. The good thing was that except for his tail, which was a bit of interference, Xiaohui didn’t seem to be averse to wearing clothes.

Fang Lei thought about buying Xiaohui some oversize trousers that were popular nowadays, so that Xiaohui could hide his tail, as well as a hat, and yes, he needed to buy a mobile phone for Xiaohui. As he made his plans, he looked at Xiaohui, who was tossing and turning on his bed, enjoying himself, and had the feeling he was raising a son.

Meow~

Xiaohui rolled over, shrunk into a ball like a cat and clung to Fang Lei’s thigh. Fang Lei was a little uncomfortable and tried to move; Xiaohui slapped him unhappily.

Fang Lei: “……”

A son probably wouldn’t be that grumpy.

After 11 o’clock in the evening, Xiaohui couldn’t hold it any longer and pulled Fang Lei to sleep. Fang Lei had slept all afternoon and didn’t feel sleepy, but Xiaohui was making a lot of noise, so he had to follow Xiaohui to sleep. Before going to bed, Fang Lei found two t-shirts to sleep in, one for Xiaohui and one for himself. But Xiaohui refused to wear it and took off his underwear as well, lying naked on Fang Lei’s body, stretching his limbs and meowing. 

Fang Lei was going crazy and grabbed Xiaohui to stop him from moving around, “Sleep.”

Xiaohui bit Fang Lei’s neck, dissatisfied, and continued to rub against him. Fang Lei had to hold Xiaohui tightly in his arms, with his legs clamped around him, confining Xiaohui’s movements. The two were cuddled together in an unprecedentedly intimate position, and Fang Lei clearly felt that while he was getting hard, so was Xiaohui.

Fang Lei: “……”

Xiaohui pouted uncomfortably and followed his instinct to lick Fang Lei’s neck.

Meow~

Fang Lei understood the meaning: Xiaohui was in heat. He tried to brainwash himself with “Xiaohui is a cat”, but the soft lips and tongue on his neck reminded him that Xiaohui was not a cat now but had turned into a human. Even though Xiaohui still had cat ears and a cat tail, Fang Lei was sure that anyone who saw Xiaohui now would think that Xiaohui was a human.

Meow~

Xiaohui urged in discomfort and Fang Lei awkwardly had to release him. Xiaohui immediately wrapped himself around Fang Lei without needing anyone to teach him and grabbed ‘Xiao Lei’ with both hands through Fang Lei’s underwear.

Fang Lei: “……”

It’s going to break!

“Xiaohui, let go.” Fang Lei gritted his teeth. Xiaohui was obviously inexperienced. Fang Lei felt that if he kept on being grabbed by Xiaohui he would have to go to the doctor tomorrow.

Meow~

Xiaohui didn’t listen to Fang Lei’s words; instead he grabbed tighter. It was as if he suddenly understood what was going on and moved his hands up and down over Xiao Lei. Fang Lei no longer knew whether it was enjoyment or torture. In order to avoid the tragedy of Xiao Lei breaking in Xiaohui’s hands, Fang Lei had to grab Xiaohui’s hand and instruct him how to regulate his strength. After the “sweet” torture, Xiaohui looked at Fang Lei with shining eyes and excitedly grabbed Fang Lei’s hand to touch Xiao Hui.

Meow~

Fang Lei: “……”

Adhering to the principle of giving as much as receiving and helping each other, Fang Lei successfully solved Xiaohui’s problem. His experience was much richer than Xiaohui’s. Xiaohui comfortably hugged Fang Lei and licked him everywhere, leaving countless tooth marks on Fang Lei’s neck, slobbering all over Fang Lei’s body. Fang Lei had no choice but to carry Xiaohui to take another bath, but Xiaohui was not happy and left countless drool stains all over his body again.

Meow~

Fang Lei understood that this slobbering by Xiaohui was an interaction between cat mates. Technically speaking, Xiaohui was not just licking but marking him as his possession. He marked Fang Lei’s body, announcing to Fang Lei and to other cats that Fang Lei was his and no one was allowed to steal him.

Fang Lei: “……”

No matter what Fang Lei thought, Xiaohui finished marking him and happily fell asleep on top of Fang Lei. Fang Lei hugged Xiaohui helplessly and unconsciously fell asleep too.

The next morning, Fang Lei went to the vegetable market and bought a lot of hot pot ingredients. Although he had practised his cooking skills, he was only good at cooking fish, and everything else was just a bit too ordinary. Considering that Xiaohui might not like to eat hot pot, Fang Lei also bought several catties of fresh small fish, preparing half of them to be fried for Xiaohui and half to be cooked in a fish soup for Xiaohui. When he went out in the morning, Xiaohui had not yet woken up. But when Fang Lei returned to the apartment with his hands full, he saw the apartment door wide open and Xiaohui squatting in the doorway wearing only black underwear, waving his tail and looking at him.

Fang Lei was startled and hurriedly looked around to see if anyone had seen Xiaohui. He rushed inside and was about to close the door when Xiaohui jumped into his arms, angrily accusing him of the evil he had done by leaving Xiaohui alone at home. Fang Lei had no choice but to use his magic trick, wrapping one arm around Xiaohui and rubbing his tummy with the other.

Meow~

Xiaohui was so comforted by the rubbing that he couldn’t remember what he was angry about a minute ago.

Fang Lei looked at Xiaohui with amusement and prepared to go to the kitchen to wash the vegetables. Xiaohui followed obediently. When the vegetables were washed, Fang Lei looked at the time and pulled Xiaohui back into the bedroom, finding two pieces of his clothes and asking Xiaohui to wear them.

“Good boy, when someone comes later, make sure you hide your tail. Also, when you are about to turn back into a cat, hide back in the bedroom and don’t come out, remember?”

Meow~

Fang Lei stroked Xiaohui’s ears and coaxed patiently, “Just for a little while, I’ll give you fried little fish to eat at noon.”

Xiaohui cocked his head and looked at Fang Lei for a moment, magnanimously agreeing to his mate’s request.

Meow~

It was almost eleven o’clock when Lin Jing found Fang Lei’s single apartment according to the address he had given her. She had a very good impression of Fang Lei, practically falling in love at first sight. Although it was strange to her that Fang Lei was not married when he had such good conditions, she could understand it considering Fang Lei’s profession. The only thing that concerned Lin Jing was the cat-eared boy from yesterday. She probably guessed that the boy was Fang Lei’s brother, and her heart was not very comfortable. After all, she had been left in the restaurant by Fang Lei on her first meeting with him, which was a bit humiliating, to say the least.

Lin Jing stood at the door and was about to knock when Xiaohui inside the house suddenly exploded. He smelled a nasty smell at the door, exactly the same as the smell Fang Lei had on him yesterday after he had left him behind.

Meow~

Xiaohui angrily went to Fang Lei who was frying fish for him.

Fang Lei didn’t understand why Xiaohui was angry again, “What’s wrong?”

Xiaohui was about to complain when there was a knock on the door. Fang Lei stroked Xiaohui’s head, “Stop it, a guest is coming.”

He guessed that it was Lin Jing, so he turned off the fire and opened the door. Xiaohui followed behind Fang Lei angrily. As soon as Fang Lei opened the door, a gentle smile appeared on Lin Jing’s face. The next moment, the smile froze on her face as Xiaohui squeezed into Fang Lei’s arms from behind, hugging Fang Lei and giving him an affectionate lick.

Meow~

Lin Jing: “……”

Fang Lei: “……”

Xiaohui swept a haughty glance at Lin Jing, full of hostility at her presence.

Fang Lei could do nothing about Xiaohui; he could only smile helplessly and step aside to invite Lin Jing in.

Lin Jing walked in silently, her eyes darting around the room. Fang Lei’s apartment was very clean and Lin Jing’s impression of him was a little better. Of course, it would have been better if there wasn’t that weird cat-eared teenager.

“Sit down for a while, we’ll have hot pot for lunch, it’ll be ready soon.” Fang Lei was very polite.

Lin Jing smiled, “Do you need my help?”

“No, no need.” Fang Lei excused himself as he set the fruit on the coffee table in front of Lin Jing. Xiaohui swept the entire fruit plate into his arms.

Meow~

Lin Jing: “……”

The corners of Fang Lei’s mouth twitched; he nodded at Lin Jing in embarrassment, grabbed Xiaohui and went to the bedroom, closed the door and whispered, “Remember what we talked about in the morning?”

Xiaohui scratched Fang Lei angrily; he felt more righteous than Fang Lei.

Fang Lei had to compromise, “It’s just an ordinary friend having a meal, we’ll send her away later. Be good and don’t make trouble.”

Meow~

Fang Lei nodded, “I promise.”

After they communicated again, Xiaohui’s attitude towards Lin Jing was a little better. Of course his hostility was still there, but Xiaohui felt he was adult enough to tolerate his mate preparing food for his rival. Xiaohui’s hostility was so obvious that Lin Jing felt it all too clearly. She had been a little uncomfortable, but upon closer observation she realised that Xiaohui couldn’t speak, only meow. She didn’t think of anything else but that Xiaohui was not quite right in the head. Looking at the cat ears that Xiaohui was wearing on his head, she could see that Xiaohui was thinking he was a cat. When she thought of this, Lin Jing felt a little sympathy for Fang Lei and became a little more tolerant towards Xiaohui. When Fang Lei laid the table and invited her to eat hot pot, she even smiled and gave way to Xiaohui.

“Xiaohui doesn’t eat hot pot.” Fang Lei said as he held up a small fish and carefully picked out some larger bones  before tearing it into small strips and placing it in Xiaohui’s bowl.

Meow~

Xiaohui meowed at Fang Lei.

Fang Lei felt helpless and nodded politely to Lin Jing, indicating that Lin Jing should eat first, and turned to hold the small fish and feed it into Xiaohui’s mouth.

Lin Jing: “……”

Seeing that Fang Lei himself couldn’t be bothered to eat and just kept picking out the bones and feeding the fish to Xiaohui, Lin Jing finally couldn’t help but smile and said, “Isn’t Officer Fang hungry?”

Fang Lei casually said, “It’s okay, I’m used to it, let me feed Xiaohui first.”

Lin Jing felt a vein throb on her forehead as she watched Xiaohui, who didn’t feel self-conscious at all, meowing and eating. After finally waiting for Xiaohui to finish eating, Lin Jing thought it was her and Fang Lei’s turn to eat slowly, but it turned out that Xiaohui lazily leaned on Fang Lei and squeezed into Fang Lei’s arms in front of her, with the look of a pampered cat.

Meow~

Xiaohui gave Lin Jing a provocative look and turned his head to lick at Fang Lei’s neck.

Fang Lei: “……”

Lin Jing almost couldn’t keep the smile on her face as she put down her chopsticks and said as softly as she could, “I’m full.”

Fang Lei sighed; there was really no way to blame Xiaohui, so he could only nod apologetically at Lin Jing and said straightforwardly, “I’m sorry, my brother isn’t very sensible. This time I invited Miss Lin to come over to apologise for what happened yesterday, and to tell her that my profession is too dangerous and I don’t know when something will happen, so I don’t want to drag others down. Miss Lin is very good and deserves better.”

He said it politely, but Lin Jing still turned red and interrupted him straight away, “Is it because of him?” Lin Jing pointed at Xiaohui.

Fang Lei froze; to some extent it was because of Xiaohui, but it was certainly not what Lin Jing thought. But his hesitation was taken as an admission by Lin Jing, who was instantly aggrieved. The anger from yesterday when she was inexplicably left in the restaurant also surged, and she blurted out, “What’s good about a psycho!”

Fang Lei’s face darkened slightly, “Miss Lin, Xiaohui is not sick.” After saying that Fang Lei felt this matter was his fault and eased his tone, “I’m really sorry, this matter is my fault, I…”

Before he finished his sentence, Lin Jing suddenly stood up. Without waiting for Fang Lei to react, Xiaohui had already jumped down nimbly and stood in front of Fang Lei, blocking him.

Meow~

Xiaohui narrowed his eyes angrily and yelled at Lin Jing, looking as if he was about to pounce and bite her at any moment. In Xiaohui’s view, Lin Jing’s actions were a threat to Fang Lei and he had to stand up to protect his mate.

Fang Lei: “……”

Lin Jing left the apartment in a rage, throwing the words, “Don’t explain to me, wait until you explain to your mother.”

As soon as she left, Xiaohui immediately jumped happily into Fang Lei’s arms. Driving the enemy away from his territory was a victory for Xiaohui, and he waved his tail proudly at Fang Lei with a look that begged for praise.

Meow~(≧▽≦)/~

Fang Lei laughed helplessly, looking at Xiaohui with a gaze full of indulgence.

“Still want to eat the fish?”

Xiaohui rubbed his stomach, thinking that he had just consumed a lot of energy while confronting the enemy and could eat another small fish.

Meow~

Fang Lei led Xiaohui back to the dining room. Half an hour later after eating and drinking enough, Fang Lei received a call from the old lady. He was already mentally prepared. As expected, the old lady first scolded Fang Lei, saying that he had made a girl cry and was simply too much. When Fang Lei felt that the old lady had almost scolded him enough and was about to take a break and drink some water to moisten her throat, the old lady suddenly said, “Are your father and I some kind of old-fashioned people? If you say you like men, you like them, what can’t you say to the family? You are living with someone and your father and I are still kept in the dark, are we outsiders? Are you worthy of your father and I raising you for so many years?”

Fang Lei: “……”

“Mom, no, I…” Fang Lei didn’t know how to explain it for a long time.

The old Mrs. Fang took a sip of water and continued heatedly: “You what you! What are you trying to say? It’s not that you’re deliberately hiding it from us? Then what is it? Are you ashamed of yourself? Are you afraid that people around you will laugh at you? Who do you think you’re living your life for? It’s important to live comfortably yourself, what do you care what other people think, can they live your life for you?”

“……” Fang Lei simply admitted his mistake, “Mom, I was wrong.”

He had given up on the idea of explaining and the old lady grunted, “So what if you know you are wrong?”

Fang Lei immediately promised, “I’ll find time to take him home to see you guys.”

“That’s more like it.” The old lady hung up the phone arrogantly.

Fang Lei shook his head and laughed as he held the phone.

Meow~

Xiaohui watched Fang Lei answer the phone and immediately squealed coquettishly. He had eaten two more fish and also fished out a lot of noodles from the hot pot. He had overeaten a little and was rolling around on the bed with his belly up. Fang Lei sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed Xiaohui’s tummy. Xiaohui squinted comfortably and rolled into Fang Lei’s arms, hugging him and licking him all over again.

Fang Lei looked at Xiaohui indulgently, thinking that it was actually not bad to be like that.

Previous / ToC / Next

Noticing the reaction of his body, Fang Lei tried to push Xiaohui away with some embarrassment.

As soon as he moved, Xiaohui instinctively wrapped himself around him, meowing and pouting unconsciously. Fang Lei felt more and more embarrassed as Xiaohui pressed on him too tightly. He tried to tell himself that Xiaohui was a cat and he was not a pervert, at the same time regretting the way Xiaohui used to be when he was a cat, when Fang Lei could pick up him one-handedly and put him aside; unlike now.

After a while, Xiaohui woke up. He hadn’t realised that he had become human again and stuck out his tongue to lick Fang Lei’s neck like a cat.

Meow~

Fang Lei’s body froze; he felt his hard-on was about to explode.

Meow~

Xiaohui twitched his ears in displeasure; something poked uncomfortably under his soft stomach. He got up nimbly and knelt on Fang Lei’s lap, looking curiously at the place that had been poking him.

Meow~

Xiaohui reached out his hand and grabbed it.

Fang Lei reacted by catching Xiaohui’s hand. Meeting Xiaohui’s angry stare, he said, somewhat woefully, “I’m going to take a shower.” Without waiting for Xiaohui to make another move, Fang Lei pushed Xiaohui onto the bed, jumped off the bed and rushed into the bathroom as if fleeing. Embarrassed at his body’s confused response, he turned on the cold water and stood under it.

Meow~

Xiaohui followed him angrily. What Fang Lei had just done, that is, pushing Xiaohui away, had greatly trampled Xiaohui’s dignity as the boss of the family. Fang Lei was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn’t notice Xiaohui entering the bathroom. Only when Xiaohui jumped into his arms as usual did he react. Xiaohui was shocked by the cold water and meowed. Fang Lei turned off the water quickly, and Xiaohui shivered from the cold and squeezed his whole body into Fang Lei’s arms, grabbing him and scratching him angrily twice.

The two of them were naked, and Fang Lei tried not to think about what Xiaohui looked like right now as he turned on the hot water and rinsed Xiaohui. When the warm water poured on his body, Xiaohui purred comfortably, his previous anger swept away. He waved his tail, grabbing Fang Lei and rubbing against him affectionately.

Fang Lei: “……”

Damn it, he was getting hard again. “Xiaohui, I want to take a shower, you go out first.” Fang Lei said to Xiaohui in embarrassment.

Meow~

Xiaohui grabbed Fang Lei’s waist, tilted his head and looked at Fang Lei with dissatisfaction, twitching his ears. He also wanted to take a bath. Fang Lei was a bit helpless. He had no problem bathing Xiaohui when he was a cat, but now that Xiaohui had become a human, it would be inconvenient for him to bathe Xiaohui. The problem was that Xiaohui didn’t understand this at all. He stood proudly in front of Fang Lei as if he was a cat. His gaze fell on the bathing gel that Fang Lei usually used and he pointed at it excitedly.

Meow~

Fang Lei looked at the shower gel and out of the corner of his eye noticed the cat shampoo on the side, sincerely hoping that Xiaohui would change back into his cat form. While he hesitated, Xiaohui scratched him angrily. Fang Lei looked at Xiaohui with a bitter smile, trying to visualise him as a cat.

“Bow your head.”

He squeezed the shampoo a few times and rubbed it into bubbles to start washing Xiaohui’s hair, carefully avoiding the grey cat ears for the water not to get in them. Xiaohui closed his eyes and was very obedient. After his head was washed, he raised his face and waited for Fang Lei to wash his face.

Fang Lei: “……”

Even though Xiaohui turned into a human, he was still Master Cat.

Maybe it was because Xiaohui was young, but when he became a human, his skin was very fine and white, with a light pinkish fine porcelain lustre under the hot water. Fang Lei was very good at bathing cats, but it was his first time bathing a human. After he had finished washing Xiaohui’s face, he squeezed the shower gel onto the bath sponge and wanted Xiaohui to wash himself. But as soon as he showed a hint of his intention, Xiaohui got angry. Fang Lei felt that even in the year he graduated from the police academy and almost got discovered as an undercover agent he had not been as tormented as he was now. Looking at Xiaohui’s righteous face, Fang Lei repeated “Xiaohui is a cat” a dozen times in his mind before he could barely manage to finish the bathing process without any distractions. But then Xiaohui had a new request.

Meow~

Fang Lei: “……”

Scratching Xiaohui while bathing him was a habit, and Xiaohui had actually retained it even after turning into a human. Fang Lei tried to reason with Xiaohui, “You don’t have any hair on your body now, how can I scratch you?”

Xiaohui looked down at his naked body and then at Fang Lei’s, and stretched out his finger to poke Fang Lei’s abdominal muscles, going down along his abs. Fang Lei hurriedly grabbed his hand and said expressionlessly, “I’ll scratch.”

Xiaohui: Meow~(≧▽≦)/~

After spending a whole hour, Fang Lei finally finished giving Xiaohui a bath. He found a big bath towel and wrapped Xiaohui in it, coaxing him, “You go out first, I want to take a shower.”

Meow~

Xiaohui protested, dissatisfied and perched lightly on the sink, with his tail waving behind his butt, wiggling his two long legs, watching Fang Lei unblinkingly as he used to do, waiting for him to take a shower.

Fang Lei: “……”

The feeling of being watched was completely different from being watched by a cat. Even if he had thick skin, he couldn’t ignore Xiaohui’s gaze, so he hurriedly washed himself without even using shower gel and then haphazardly pulled a towel to wipe himself. Fang Lei wiped off the water and put on his underwear, and after thinking about it, he found another pair and handed it to Xiaohui, “Xiaohui will wear mine first, and I will take you out to buy new ones tomorrow.”

Xiaohui waved his tail and was a bit reluctant, but Fang Lei couldn’t watch Xiaohui run around the house without wearing anything. He patiently coaxed Xiaohui, “You’re not a cat now, you’re a human being, you have to learn how to wear clothes and be good.”

Meow~

Xiaohui reluctantly stretched out both legs; Fang Lei saw what he meant and consciously bent down to put Xiaohui’s underwear on, only for it to get stuck at the tail. Although Fang Lei’s underwear was a bit too big for Xiaohui, it was stretchy and wouldn’t fall down, but Fang Lei couldn’t fit the tail into it. Fang Lei looked at the place where it was stuck and went to find a pair of scissors. As soon as he approached Xiaohui, Xiaohui burst out and jumped into Fang Lei’s arms with a meow.

Although Xiaohui had become a human, his cat nature had not changed. When Xiaohui was a stray cat, he had been caught by naughty children and had his tail cut with scissors, and he had a deep fear of scissors. Fang Lei felt sorry, hugged Xiaohui and coaxed him for a long time. “It’s okay, it’s okay, it’s just cutting a hole in your clothes.”

Xiaohui furiously scratched Fang Lei, who helplessly indulged him. In the end, he found a new pair of underpants and cut a hole in the back, replacing the one on Xiaohui. The new underwear he found was a black triangular one, and Xiaohui’s tail poked out of the small hole in the back. Xiaohui pulled at the underpants and seemed to find them amusing as he jumped off the floor with his tail wagging.

Meow~

When Fang Lei came out after cleaning up the bathroom, Xiaohui was squatting on the chair in front of the fridge drooling at the small dried fish in the fridge. The fridge door was wide open and Xiaohui seemed to be a little scared of the cold air inside. Fang Lei looked at the time and saw that it was already evening. He went over and touched Xiaohui’s ears, took out the dried fish that had been frozen in the fridge for a week and asked, “Is Xiaohui hungry? I’ll re-fry the dried fish from before, so we’ll make do for tonight.”

He went to the kitchen and poured some oil into the pan, turned on the fire, and Xiaohui went over to him again.

Xiaohui hid behind Fang Lei, sticking close to him and looking at the frying pan in front of him. Fang Lei’s body stiffened and he struggled to relax. The fried fish returned to the pan was heating up very quickly. Xiaohui, who couldn’t use chopsticks, grabbed it with both hands and meowed when it was too hot. Fang Lei looked amused and tore the fish into small strips for him, found a paper towel to clean Xiaohui’s hands and fed him patiently.

Meow~

Xiaohui, who had eaten his fill, slouched on the chair like a cat, puffing out his little belly and purring at Fang Lei. This was his habit when he was a cat; he liked Fang Lei to rub his tummy when he was full.

Fang Lei: “……”

Meow~

Xiaohui urged, and Fang Lei had no choice but to put his hand over Xiaohui’s belly and rub. Xiaohui stretched out his tongue in satisfaction and licked Fang Lei, ignoring Fang Lei’s suddenly stiff expression and coquettishly leaning into his arms and rubbing against him. This move expressed Xiaohui’s liking.

Meow~

Fang Lei paused and chuckled, “I see, Xiaohui is the boss in the family.”

Meow~

Fang Lei was helpless and assured, “Xiaohui is the only one, there will be no one else in this family.”

Fang Lei had gone on a blind date at noon still thinking that if that girl was suitable he could have a relationship; he was indeed not young and should consider the issue of having a family. But ever since he found out that Xiaohui had turned into a human, Fang Lei had stopped thinking about it. It would be better if Xiaohui had turned into a human fully, but Xiaohui still had cat ears and a cat tail, and no one couldn’t say when he would turn back into a cat, so Fang Lei couldn’t feel comfortable with an outsider in his life.

Although it was true that people and animals lived in harmony nowadays and almost every household had a pet, Fang Lei had never heard of anyone whose pet could turn into a human. Just as Lu Lingxi had hidden the fact that Dahei could communicate with people back then and didn’t want Dahei to be studied, Fang Lei also didn’t want Xiaohui to be discovered and taken away for the so-called scientific research.

Fang Lei stroked Xiaohui’s ear, “For your sake, I’m going to be a bachelor for the rest of my life.”

Xiaohui didn’t understand what a bachelor was, but understood what Fang Lei was saying about no one else in the family. This meant that Xiaohui’s territory wouldn’t be taken over by anyone else, and Fang Lei was his alone. He meowed happily, enthusiastically hugged Fang Lei and licked him again.

Fang Lei: “……”

Previous / ToC / Next

For a full minute, Xiaohui chewed the pillow, looking around in shock, unable to come back to his senses.

Meow~

He meowed tentatively and moved his front paws. The furry paws were gone and turned into human arms. A little confused, Xiaohui tried to crouch on the bed habitually, but found it difficult with his two human legs, especially since his tail was still in place, making it very uncomfortable to press it down while squatting.

Xiaohui waved his tail and jumped off the bed like before, but failed to get his balance right and fell to the floor.

Meow~

Xiaohui yelled angrily; it hurt too much to fall like that. He was about to vent his anger on Fang Lei, but soon realised that Fang Lei had left him alone in the house and had gone out on his own. Xiaohui waved his hand angrily and held onto the edge of the bed, struggling to stand up on his two legs. He didn’t feel it when he was a cat, but now that he didn’t have the soft fur on him, the floor was a little cold.

Xiaohui learnt to stand on the floor like Fang Lei; his two legs were long and strong enough to support his body weight. The only trouble was that he wasn’t quite used to standing or even walking on two legs. Xiaohui cocked his head and wagged his tail, struggling to keep his balance, and took a few tentative steps walking along the edge of the bed.

Meow~

Xiaohui’s voice was dripping with the delight of discovering something new. The world he could see as a human was not the same as from a cat’s perspective. He glanced around curiously. Everything around him was both strange and familiar. He took a few more steps, tilted his head and stopped in front of the dressing mirror.

Was that him there? Xiaohui was a little confused. Why had he turned into a human? This was something that Xiaohui had never thought about at all. Most of what he thought about in his daily life were things related to food, territory, and Fang Lei. When he couldn’t eat the dried fish, he was in a bad mood and scratched Fang Lei. When a wild cat encroached his territory, he was in a bad mood and scratched Fang Lei. When Fang Lei left his cat at home and went to work, he was in a bad mood and scratched Fang Lei. When he lost a fight with Dahei, he was in a bad mood and scratched Fang Lei. What should he do now? Find Fang Lei and keep scratching him?

Xiaohui blinked, tilted his head, thought for a while and decided to follow his instinct to find Fang Lei. He jumped onto the bed and subconsciously went to the window that Fang Lei never closed in spring, summer, autumn or winter, leaving a gap for Xiaohui to enter and exit. But soon Xiaohui realised that he was now in a human body and could no longer climb out of the window.

Meow~

Xiaohui waved his tail in dissatisfaction, feeling that turning into a human was not good at all. He jumped off the bed again and waved his tail to keep his balance as he walked to the door of the living room. Wait a minute! Xiaohui saw Fang Lei’s police uniform hanging at the entrance and looked down at his naked body again. He remembered that Fang Lei didn’t grow hair on his body and had to wear this thing called clothes whenever he went out. Xiaohui thought about it, reached out and twisted his hand to pull the shirt down. He looked at the trousers for a long time and pushed his legs into them like Fang Lei did every morning when he got dressed.

Meow~

Xiaohui stumbled and almost fell over. He pulled the trousers up, but they got stuck at the tail. Xiaohui twisted his head and tucked his tail into the trousers. Fang Lei’s trousers were a bit too big for him, so with his tail tucked in it couldn’t be seen from outside. Xiaohui twisted his body and felt uncomfortable, and habitually got angry with Fang Lei. After putting on the trousers, Xiaohui put on the police jacket and walked barefoot to the door.

The place where Fang Lei lived was a single apartment belonging to the police station, so it was a good thing that there was no one around at noon and no one noticed Xiaohui’s abnormality even after he had walked all the way outside the apartment. He stood by the road and sniffed, catching Fang Lei’s scent.

“Taking a taxi?” A taxi pulled up to the side of the road and the driver asked, poking his head out enthusiastically.

Xiaohui looked over blankly and the driver froze and laughed as he took in Xiaohui’s appearance, “Where did you get your cat ears, young man? They look like real ones. The clothes aren’t yours either, are they? You stole it from your parents? That’s no good, you can’t wear a police uniform indiscriminately, you’ll be punished.”

While the driver was talking, Xiaohui had already come up, pulled open the door and sat inside. He used to ride in Fang Lei’s car a lot and was very familiar with it.

“Yo, get in, where are you going?”

Xiaohui: Meow~

Driver: “……”

One man and one cat stared wide-eyed at each other, and then Xiaohui patted the steering wheel and pointed towards the front.

The driver responded, “Is that to go ahead?”

Xiaohui: Meow~

The driver’s face immediately showed sympathy. The poor guy looked like a handsome young man but couldn’t talk and could only learn how to meow like a cat. His gaze fell on Xiaohui’s bare feet and he shook his head, “Young man, you don’t even wear a pair of shoes when you go out. It’s not cold in May, but it’s not comfortable to step on the ground with bare feet.”

Xiaohui followed the driver’s line of sight and looked at his own foot, with a small green blade of grass between his white toes, picked when he had just stepped on it at the side of the road. His mood instantly brightened and he smiled slightly at the driver.

Meow~

Driver: “……”

Relying on Xiaohui’s directions all the way, the driver managed to deliver Xiaohui to a steakhouse not far from Fang Lei’s work. Xiaohui was about to push open the door without waiting for the car to stop, when the driver hastily pulled him back. “Wait, young man.” Although Xiaohui would only meow, the driver had already imagined countless pictures of Xiaohui being abandoned by his family. He had no idea what Xiaohui was doing here, and considering that the police station was not far ahead, the driver was more than eager to get Xiaohui there.

Xiaohui had already seen Fang Lei through the car window and he turned angrily and slapped the steering wheel, signalling the driver to let go of him.

The driver guessed, “Is there your family down there?”

Xiaohui: Meow~

The driver pulled over and Xiaohui angrily jumped out of the car. The driver felt worried, thought for a while and chased after him. On the other side of the road, the sign of Youmeng Steakhouse was huge, and behind the glossy floor-to-ceiling glass window, Fang Lei was sitting, talking to a long-haired girl in a floral dress.

Xiaohui rushed to the glass window and meowed angrily at Fang Lei inside.

Fang Lei felt something and subconsciously turned his head to meet Xiaohui’s eyes. He recognised the clothes on Xiaohui almost immediately, and then thought of something and said in astonishment, “Xiaohui?”

The girl opposite Fang Lei followed Fang Lei’s line of sight and smiled faintly, “Kids these days are quite funny, look at the cat ears, they look like they’re real.”

Cat ears… Fang Lei couldn’t sit still, couldn’t care less what to say, so he just stood up and hurriedly ran out. As soon as he ran out of the steakhouse, the driver happened to catch up with Xiaohui and stopped him to ask what was going on. Fang Lei was anxious and thought the driver was going to do something, so he rushed up and pushed the driver away, holding Xiaohui in his arms.

Meow~

Xiaohui scratched Fang Lei angrily, the cat ears on his head cocked up in fury.

“Xiaohui.”

Fang Lei was sure that the young man in his arms was Xiaohui, and a million questions flashed through his mind. How did Xiaohui turn into a human? When did he become human? How did he find his way here?… Before Fang Lei could find answers to these questions, the driver he had pushed away yelled, “You are this young man’s family? Is this how you take care of him? He can’t speak and you dare to leave him outside alone, without even wearing shoes?”

Hearing this, Fang Lei realised he had made a mistake. He nodded at the driver somewhat apologetically, “Sorry for the misunderstanding just now.” Noticing that Xiaohui had no shoes on his feet, Fang Lei straddled and picked him up. Xiaohui was still angry and nonchalantly reached out to scratch Fang Lei again.

Fang Lei was helpless; he couldn’t spare his hands to touch Xiaohui’s ears now, so he could only whisper and coax, “Xiaohui, don’t make a fuss, behave.”

Meow~

Fang Lei nodded, “It’s my fault, I shouldn’t have left Xiaohui alone at home, let’s go back now, okay?”

Meow~

“Good, let’s go back and fry the little yellowtails.”

Meow~

The two of them kept talking to each other, and the driver looked at them and took pity on Fang Lei. It seemed that this young man really thought he was a cat, and by the look of his family member, he was playing along with him, treating him like a cat. He kindly said, “Should we take the young man to the hospital?”

Fang Lei froze and smiled, “Thank you, Xiaohui is not ill.” As he said it, he walked to the car with Xiaohui in his arms and put Xiaohui on the passenger side, then pulled a hundred yuan out of his wallet and turned to hand it to the driver, “You sent Xiaohui here, didn’t you? I’m really sorry for your trouble.”

The driver didn’t want to accept the money, but Fang Lei insisted on giving it to him, so he had to take it. When he was ready to find the change, Fang Lei had already gotten into the car, nodded to the driver and drove away.

“Eh, looking for your change.”

The driver’s voice was blown away by the wind. Fang Lei held the steering wheel with one hand, stroked Xiaohui’s ears with the other and smiled, “Not angry anymore?”

Meow~

Xiaohui twisted his body, feeling very uncomfortable with the pressure on his tail under his buttocks.

“What’s wrong?” Fang Lei asked.

Xiaohui scratched his trousers, simply half-kneeled on the passenger seat and took them off. He had only Fang Lei’s police jacket over his body, his long bare legs were exposed, and his snow-white butt with his grey tail waving at Fang Lei was revealed.

Fang Lei slammed on the brakes and stopped on the side of the road, almost having an accident. He instinctively took off his t-shirt and wrapped it around Xiaohui’s waist. Xiaohui waved his tail in discontent and meowed at Fang Lei.

Fang Lei was helpless and said softly, “I know the tail is uncomfortable. Let’s go home, you’ll take it off there, okay? Bear with it a little longer, just a little longer.”

Meow~

Fang Lei immediately promised, “Okay, from today onwards I’ll never leave you behind again.”

As Xiaohui was in this state now, Fang Lei really didn’t feel comfortable leaving him alone either.

Meow~

Xiaohui reluctantly accepted the presence of the t-shirt, and Fang Lei breathed a sigh of relief as he restarted the car. It was not too far from here to the apartment, and Fang Lei always felt as if he had forgotten something. But it didn’t matter what he had forgotten, the problem was how to take Xiaohui back to the apartment when he arrived. If his colleagues saw him, how could he face them in the future?

Fang Lei’s problem didn’t bother him for long. He looked at the door of the apartment building in front of him, and suddenly a faint green light flashed. As soon as Fang Lei turned his head, his police uniform fell to his seat. Under the police uniform, Xiaohui’s furry head was revealed.

Fang Lei: “……”

Perhaps because maintaining his human form had consumed a lot of energy, Xiaohui fell asleep soon after turning back into a cat. Fang Lei parked the car, opened the door and carefully carried out Xiaohui. Xiaohui was curled up in a ball in his arms, with a small green blade of grass stuck in his toes.

Fang Lei touched Xiaohui’s nose in amusement and carried him back to his apartment. Just as he entered the door, the old lady’s phone call came, “What’s wrong with you, Leizi? Halfway through the meal, you disappeared. You didn’t even say goodbye to the girl, what’s the matter with leaving her alone in the restaurant? Also, the girl said, you left with a young man, where is the young man?”

“……” Fang Lei just knew he had forgotten something. He was a bit apologetic, “Mom, it was a bit of an accident, I didn’t mean to. Something happened to a friend’s brother and I was in a hurry to get back to deal with it and forgot.”

“A friend’s brother?”

Fang Lei glanced at Xiaohui in his arms, “A friend’s brother, no different from my own brother.”

When the old lady heard there was an accident, she was reasonable, “Then you should call the girl and explain. Even the money for the meal was paid by the girl herself.”

Fang Lei nodded helplessly and promised to find an opportunity to invite the girl to dinner again.

After soothing the old lady, Fang Lei watched Xiaohui sleeping soundly. There was nothing to do for a while, so he simply took off his clothes and hugged Xiaohui to catch up on his sleep. The cat and the man slept until the afternoon, when a faint green glow flashed and Xiaohui reverted to his human form. He moved habitually, lying on Fang Lei’s body like before, his limbs stretched out, his face buried in Fang Lei’s neck, purring and continuing to sleep comfortably.

In his sleep, Fang Lei felt pressed down by something and subconsciously reached out to touch it. The touch felt strangely smooth. Fang Lei was taken aback and then his palm had touched a fluffy tail, with a warm, soft and supple convex under it.

He opened his eyes suddenly and grey cat ears brushed against his face. The human Xiaohui lay on top of him naked with his eyes closed.

After his consciousness cleared, Fang Lei found that he was shamefully hard.

Previous / ToC / Next

At seven in the morning, Fang Lei and his colleagues finally broke through the suspect’s psychological defences after a day and night of interrogation and managed to get a confession. The office resounded with quiet cheers; everyone had been working overtime for a week for this case, and many people were living and eating at the police station, including Fang Lei. Now that the case was solved, everyone was elated.

Listening to the cheers of his colleagues, Fang Lei breathed a sigh of relief. He rubbed his bloodshot eyes, poured the cold coffee on the table into the sink, and packed his things to go home. He hadn’t been back for a week and could barely imagine what a fuss Xiaohui would make. Fang Lei was going to send Xiaohui to Lu Lingxi’s place this time, but Xiaohui refused, so Fang Lei had no choice but to fry a large pile of fish and put it in the fridge, asking his neighbour to feed Xiaohui on time.

When he was about to leave, his mind full of Xiaohui, a new colleague stopped him, asking, “Team Fang, why don’t you stay here to sleep before going back?”

Before Fang Lei could say anything, another colleague interjected with a smile, “You think Team Fang is a loner like you? Team Fang has a little beauty at home. If Team Fang comes home late, he is guaranteed to come tomorrow with his face covered in scratches.”

Apart from this new colleague, the other people in the office had all seen the power of Xiaohui and laughed at the colleague’s words.

Fang Lei laughed as well and walked to the door just as he heard the colleague who first spoke up behind him ask in a sympathetic tone, “Team Fang’s girlfriend is so impressive?”

He was answered by another burst of laughter.

Fang Lei shook his head helplessly and drove back to his apartment. When he passed by the morning market, Fang Lei got out of the car specifically to buy two catties of fresh small yellowtails. He reckoned that the fried fish in the fridge hadn’t been eaten yet, but it had been there for a week and was no longer fresh. There was no choice before, but now that he was back, he had to give Xiaohui something good to eat.

Fang Lei returned to his apartment with the small yellowtails in his hand, and as soon as he entered the door, a grey figure pounced on him. Fang Lei nimbly caught Xiaohui with one hand and held him in his arms. “I’m back.”

Meow~ Xiaohui cried out angrily, waving his claws, trying to scratch Fang Lei.

Fang Lei threw the fish he had bought aside and freed his hand to touch Xiaohui’s ears and then pinched the skin on Xiaohui’s neck. Xiaohui’s anger was not as great as it was at the beginning. Fang Lei made his sure shot move, rolling over Xiaohui and rubbing his bulging belly. Xiaohui stretched his limbs comfortably and meowed coquettishly.

Fang Lei laughed and carried Xiaohui into the bathroom. He had been at the police station all week and had to wash up properly when he got home. Especially since Xiaohui hadn’t had a bath for a week either, and Xiaohui particularly loved to be clean, so they just as well could wash up together.

Meow~

Xiaohui jumped out of Fang Lei’s arms and onto the sink, pawing at his special cat shampoo.

Fang Lei took off his clothes in a few movements, grabbed Xiaohui and said, “You’re not happy when I go to work but look at all the things you use. None of them are cheap. If I don’t go to work how can I feed you?”

Xiaohui discontentedly broke free and squatted aside meowing.

Fang Lei was amused and scratched Xiaohui’s chin, “You mean you caught a mouse last time to feed me? First of all, I don’t eat mice, and secondly, mice are worthless. They can’t feed you even if you sell them.”

Meow~

Xiaohui waved his paws, proving his status in a stern manner.

Fang Lei immediately raised his hands and compromised, “I know, Xiaohui is the boss in the family, I am dedicated to serving Master Cat Xiaohui.”

Meow~

Xiaohui was satisfied and waved his tail at Fang Lei, signalling that he could take a bath.

Fang Lei couldn’t do anything about Xiaohui, so he didn’t bother to look for a special basin for Xiaohui and directly turned on the shower, tested the water temperature and stood under the water with Xiaohui in his arms. Perhaps because of the evolution, Xiaohui didn’t reject bathing and even liked it a little, but only if you served him comfortably. After a painful lesson, Fang Lei had learned how to give Xiaohui a bath while scratching him. Xiaohui meowed in enjoyment. Fang Lei mixed some more water with the cat shampoo, rubbed it for a long time, rinsed it off, wrapped Xiaohui in a big towel and put him on the sink.

“Be good and wait, I’m going to take a shower.”

After taking a bath, Xiaohui calmed down and squatted on the sink with his head tilted, watching Fang Lei unblinkingly as he took a shower. Fang Lei washed quickly, and after he was done, he casually put on a pair of shorts and left the bathroom half naked with Xiaohui in his arms. After wiping and blow-drying them both in one go, Fang Lei pinched Xiaohui’s nape, put away the hairdryer and asked him, “What flavour of fish do you want to eat?”

Ever since Xiaohui had shown his dislike for canned cat food, Fang Lei’s skill in handling fish had improved by leaps and bounds. Deep fried, crispy, steamed… all sorts of flavours were at his fingertips. During the New Year, Fang Lei went home and showed his cooking skills to his relatives. Of course, he didn’t dare to say that his skills were practised on Xiaohui.

Meow~

Xiaohui shook his fur and cried out softly.

“Crispy? No problem.”

Fang Lei skillfully handled the yellowtails he bought in the morning, and Xiaohui squatted beside him contentedly, meowing every now and then. When the processed yellowtails were in the pan, Fang Lei grabbed Xiaohui and moved him away from the frying pan. After the last time when Xiaohui was naughty and almost got burned by the oil, Fang Lei always remembered to keep Xiaohui at a distance from the frying pan. There was an aroma coming from the pan and Xiaohui meowed excitedly. Fang Lei looked at him indulgently. It was a rare moment when Xiaohui would act like a cat, not Master Cat. Fang Lei flipped the yellowtails in the pan over and his phone rang.

“Mom?” Fang Lei cocked his head and pressed the phone with his chin while staring intently at the yellowtails in the pan.

“Leizi, you have a day off today, right? It’s just as well that Mom has made an appointment for you with a girl, so go and meet her. The girl is a teacher, very polite and gentle, good-looking, and does not mind your profession. I’ve made an appointment with her, at noon at the steakhouse near your work. She’s wearing a floral dress and has long hair, remember to go!”

Fang Lei: “……”

He didn’t know whether to cry or to laugh. “Mom, I have something else to do today.”

“What to do? Don’t tell me you’re going out with Xiaohui to fight and grab territory? Look at you. Xiaohui is a cat who doesn’t understand anything, do you not understand anything either? You’re following him when he fights!” Fang Lei’s mother was also a policeman before she retired, but unlike Fang Lei, who was a member of the criminal police force, she used to belong to the street police, so she was very eloquent.

The old lady’s mentioning of this matter completely undermined Fang Lei. The last time the old lady arranged for Fang Lei to go on a blind date, the result was that Fang Lei was late, giving the reason that he had lost his cat and had been looking for it for a long time. Only later did the old lady realise that it was not Xiaohui who had been lost, but Fang Lei who had followed Xiaohui into a fight. During that time, Xiaohui had not yet consolidated his position as the king of the cats in the neighbourhood, and every now and then a wild cat would come and pick a fight. Fang Lei was worried, so he followed Xiaohui every time he fought. Fang Lei was happy when Xiaohui won, but when Xiaohui lost, he would come back and scratch Fang Lei to vent his anger. The old lady remembered this incident very well, and every time she talked about it, she had to embarrass Fang Lei.

Fang Lei felt a bit helpless. In fact, he had nothing to do, he just subconsciously rejected blind dates. In the past few years, Fang Lei had been busy with work and had never had a real girlfriend. It was not that he was not serious, but the nature of his work was special and he would often forget everything when he got busy. Sometimes he had to go on business trips that were confidential and no one could contact him. After a while, the girls who were interested in him couldn’t accept his work and all backed out.

In the past, the old lady didn’t care; men after thirty are still as fresh as flowers. But when Fang Lei passed his 30th birthday, not only did he become more and more indifferent to having a family, but he also got a cat and behaved as if he wanted to live his life with Xiaohui forever. The old lady couldn’t sit still any longer and started to introduce Fang Lei to some girls. Fang Lei’s time off was basically wasted on blind dates, but none of them worked out. After a lot of failures, Fang Lei got a bit repulsed by dating. Besides, Xiaohui was very concerned about his territory; once he realised that a stranger was trying to encroach on his territory, he would be alert and furious. It could be said that half of Fang Lei’s previous blind dates failed due to the nature of his work, and half failed due to Xiaohui.

The old lady also knew Xiaohui’s destructive power. After successfully suppressing Fang Lei’s resistance, she warned him, “Don’t take Xiaohui with you. I told the girl that you have a cat, and she also likes small animals. Her family has a dog. I heard that it is an evolved animal just like Xiaohui. Although cats and dogs don’t get along well, those things can be considered in the future. You need to meet the girl and coax her to stay first.”

Fang Lei: “……”

He was distracted for a moment, and the little yellowtails in the pan were burning. Xiaohui waved his paw angrily and meowed to remind Fang Lei.

Fang Lei hurriedly turned off the fire and took out the fish to soothe Xiaohui.

The old lady couldn’t hear Fang Lei’s voice for a long time, so she tapped the microphone, “Leizi, say something, are you going or not?”

“Yes, I’ll definitely go. Mom, I have something to do, I have to hang up now. It’s that steakhouse near the office, isn’t it? I’ve got it down, at noon sharp.” He hung up the phone quickly as he said it, then touched Xiaohui’s ear and apologised, “It’s a bit mushy. Now it’s too late to go out and buy fish, Xiaohui, you eat the side that is not mushy and not eat the other side.”

Meow~

Xiaohui waved his paw unhappily but still ate the fish in a picky manner.

Fang Lei looked at the time. It was only eight o’clock; he could still sleep for a while. He waited for Xiaohui to finish eating the fish, washed the plate, cleaned up the kitchen, grabbed Xiaohui and went to the bedroom.

“Don’t make a fuss, Xiaohui, be a good boy, I’ll take a nap for a while.”

Fang Lei had set his alarm clock for 11 o’clock and fell asleep as soon as his head touched the pillow. Xiaohui squatted by the pillow and looked at Fang Lei with his head cocked, then jumped off the bed with Fang Lei’s phone in his mouth, hid the phone behind the sofa in the living room and finally pressed a small pillow on top of the phone to make sure the alarm clock on the phone didn’t sound too loud.

After doing this, Xiaohui jumped back onto the bed, crouched down by the pillow and licked his paws. He tilted its head, his golden pupils reflecting Fang Lei’s sleeping face, and a moment later Xiaohui curled up into a ball and slept next to Fang Lei.

The alarm clock went off at 11 o’clock. With a pillow and a door between them, Fang Lei didn’t hear it at all. Xiaohui wagged his tail a little smugly when the landline at his bedside suddenly rang and the old Mrs. Fang called over specifically to urge Fang Lei to go out.

Fang Lei: “……”

He hung up the phone, grabbed Xiaohui and said helplessly, “Where’s the phone? Where did you hide it?”

Xiaohui meowed angrily.

Fang Lei helplessly took Xiaohui in his arms, turned him belly up and rubbed his belly, patiently coaxing, “I’m just going out for a meal. I’ll be back soon, it’s not that I’m leaving Xiaohui behind. You see, even if I find a girlfriend, it’s just one more person to serve Master Cat in the future. Someone to fry little fish for Xiaohui while I’m away, wouldn’t Xiaohui like that?”

Meow~

Fang Lei had a bit of a headache. Choosing between Master Can Xiaohui and the old lady was troublesome. But no matter what, he had to go to meet at noon. Success or failure was another story, he couldn’t leave the girl alone at the restaurant.

“I’m going to go, Xiaohui, I’ll be back later. I’ll keep frying you fish in the afternoon.”

He looked at the time and saw that it was getting late and there was no time to coax Xiaohui. Casually changing his clothes, Fang Lei fished out his phone from behind the sofa, stroked Xiaohui’s head and closed the door before Xiaohui could swing his paw.

Meow~

Xiaohui yelled angrily, grabbing the pillow and biting it for a while. From under the pillow, a green pendant carved into the shape of a kitten that Fang Lei had bought on his last business trip to Kunnan fell out and somehow rolled to Xiaohui’s side. A faint green light flashed, and Xiaohui on the bed was gone. Instead, a young man who looked seventeen or eighteen, naked and fair-skinned, with grey cat ears and a cat tail, was lying there biting the pillow.

Meow~

Previous / ToC / Next

Someone once said that the most beautiful sound in the world is the cry of a newborn baby.

Lu Lingxi didn’t have much insight into this before, but when the nurse held the bathed and wrapped baby in front of him and he listened to the baby’s little monkey-like cry, Lu Lingxi felt his heart melting.

He and Yan Yue were at a loss for words when the nurse smiled, “The baby is very obedient, weighing four kilograms fifty grams. Where is the baby’s father?”

The baby’s father was too busy fussing around Wang Shuxiu at the moment to even look at the baby. “Where do you feel uncomfortable, Xiaohua? Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat? Or do you want to take a nap first?”

Although the birth went well, Wang Shuxiu’s body was a little weak because of her age. Until Xiao Feng mentioned it, she didn’t feel hungry, but now she did a little. But before eating, Wang Shuxiu thought about the baby, “Where’s the baby?”

The nurse came in with the baby in her arms, followed by Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue carrying the chicken soup.

Wang Shuxiu gently held the baby and looked at it carefully for a long time before looking up and smiling at Lu Lingxi, “He looks almost exactly the same as Xiao Xi when he was little.”

“Really?” Lu Lingxi moved over and looked at the little red monkey.

Wang Shuxiu nodded, her gaze tender as she looked at the baby. Although her hair was messy and her face was a little pale, in Xiao Feng’s eyes, Xiaohua seemed to look at her best.

The family of four was secluded in the hospital room, all focused on the newborn baby, and no one paid any attention to the various rumours circulating in Fengcheng. A few days later, when Wang Shuxiu was discharged from the hospital with the baby in her arms, Lu Lingxi learnt that something had gone wrong with the renovation project in Nancheng and the situation underground in Fengcheng was completely exposed to the public.

At the expert group’s station in Nancheng, the group leader Zhu Xiaowei distributed the underground exploration report in his hands to the group members. “The latest exploration report is out, and what can be confirmed so far is that the entire underground of Fengcheng is covered with coiled and gnarled roots of willows, tangled together like a large net.”

This was simply an incredible thing. One expert looked puzzled, “According to the tests of the age of the willows on the ground, the oldest willows have only been planted for ten years, and more have been planted for a few years or even a year. How could their roots be so developed?”

Another expert interjected, “Is it evolution?”

“What about the water storage? How can you explain the fact that the willows’ underground roots are full of water?”

“Do you remember the abnormal weather in Fengcheng? It hasn’t rained much since the beginning of spring, yet it’s not dry at all, the soil is completely moist when you dig it. Could it be related to the water storage in the willow trees’ roots?”

“Yes, yes, several of the surrounding cities are in a state of drought, but Fengcheng is the only one that doesn’t lack water. We’ve been unable to find the cause, but now it really seems to be related to the water storage of the willow trees’ roots.”

“But why do the willow trees store water? Have they become conscious and sense the approach of drought in advance? Note that not only one willow tree is like this, but all the willow roots we found are like this, which is already in the realm of group consciousness.”

Several of the experts expressed their opinions; this was the first time they had encountered such a situation. After their search for the cause of Fengcheng City’s overall evolution had stalled, the discovery in Nancheng was like a ray of light.

“Group leader, a new discovery.”

“What?”

“A map of the underground alignment based on an echo detector.”

“Look, although Fengcheng City is covered with roots underground, several of the main roots have been expanding towards the north.”

“North? What’s to the north?”

“Do you guys still remember that village? Lingshui Village, the one where the whole village has evolved. They have a hundred year old large willow tree in the village, could it be related to this willow tree?”

In the past, when the expert group investigated, they focused on the people and didn’t pay too much attention to the plants in Fengcheng. This time the discovery in Nancheng drew all their attention to the plants they had overlooked in the past, especially the countless green willows planted on both sides of the roads.

The expert team rushed to Lingshui Village almost immediately and brought in the most famous botanist in China. After carefully studying the form of the big willow tree and the green willows planted in Fengcheng, the other side affirmed two things. Firstly, tracing the roots back to their origins, the large willow tree in Lingshui Village was the mother tree of most of the willows in Fengcheng, which could explain why the underground root system was expanding towards the north. Although the scientific community had not yet found a theoretical basis for this, the available experiments proved that there was conscious transmission between homologous plants. Secondly, he believed that the large willow tree in Lingshui Village was already a higher-level evolutionary form. The other willows in Fengcheng had evolved more in ‘imitation’ of the Big Willow. This group evolution might also be the reason for the evolution of Fengcheng as a whole.

In response to the group’s question about the cause of the willow’s evolution, the botanist interviewed the village elders and concluded that it was related to the willow’s resurrection from the dead a year ago. Perhaps the lightning strike created a special circulation of energy within the willow, or perhaps some magical substance entered the willow through the lightning. In short, there must have been an external cause that prompted the Big Willow Tree’s mutation. And this was also consistent with the timing of the changes in Fengcheng.

These explanations gave the group a direction, and the group focused almost entirely on deciphering the secrets of the willow tree. In this way, the whole of Fengcheng knew that the Big Willow Tree in Lingshui Village was the key to human evolution, and for a while Lingshui Village replaced Nancheng and became the focus of attention in China.

Uncle Li called Lu Lingxi and complained that the arrival of the expert group had disrupted the normal life of the village.

“There are troops everywhere, the whole Lingshui Village is surrounded. It’s not even convenient to go out and buy a barrel of oil. Only after the village head told them did they send each family two barrels of oil and a bit of rice and flour or something.”

What Uncle Li described was exactly the reality of the current situation in Lingshui Village. Because of the importance of the big willow tree, the government had stepped in to take over the village and no outsiders were allowed to enter. There were rumours that the villagers were originally going to be moved out, but the villagers objected collectively and the proposal was scrapped.

Lu Lingxi also applied for an entry permit because the plant nursery was in the village. However, he felt a bit guilty. Under the pretext of watching the baby at home, he hadn’t been to Lingshui Village recently. Uncle Li stepped in to deal with the plant nursery.

In fact, at the very beginning the expert group also approached Lu Lingxi. According to the investigation, all the green willows planted in Fengcheng City came from a place called the Qiu Tian plant nursery. And nearly a year ago, something happened to the person in charge of the Qiu Tian plant nursery and it was resold to Tiny Garden. The expert team followed the trail and found the address of Tiny Garden, originally wanting to ask Lu Lingxi what he knew. As a result, before Lu Lingxi could say anything, the big willow tree caught the group’s attention. By the time the expert group found out that Tiny Garden’s plant nursery was located in Lingshui Village, they ruled out Lu Lingxi’s suspicion and decided that he was just a lucky guy. 

Uncle Li also knew about this and was very understanding of Lu Lingxi’s reluctance to go to the plant nursery. The two talked on the phone for a long time before Lu Lingxi hung up the phone.

“What’s the news?” Yan Yue asked him when he finished.

Lu Lingxi shook his head, “It’s still the same as before, all kinds of research on the big willow tree. But when Uncle Li heard that someone was proposing to move the big willow tree to Zhongjing, the villagers were privately cursing.”

Yan Yue laughed, “Such a proposal is simply impossible to realise, it’s obvious at a glance, this person just pretends not to understand it. There is no shortage of such people at all times, but there is nothing anyone can do if the Great Willow Tree doesn’t want to leave.”

He said it in a funny way, and Lu Lingxi couldn’t help but laugh along with him. The roots of the Great Willow Tree covered the entire northern suburbs; it was not something that could be relocated with a single word at all.

Yan Yue thought about it and said, “Let’s go to Lingshui Village sometime, it’s a bit strange to keep avoiding it like this.”

Lu Lingxi nodded obediently.

Since the two decided to go, they didn’t delay much, and the next day they talked to Uncle Li and drove to Lingshui Village. Even though Lu Lingxi had an entry and exit permit, they still went through layers of checkpoints on the way before finally entering Lingshui Village. Knowing that Lu Lingxi was coming, Uncle Li was most happy. Some time ago, Auntie Li had sewn several sets of clothes for the baby. Because of the arrival of the expert group, these clothes were still at home. Auntie Li said several times that if the baby didn’t wear them now, he would outgrow them.

Uncle Li smiled and called Lu Lingxi, “Come on, let’s go home for dinner first.”

Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue waited until closing Tiny Garden before coming here, just in time for the evening meal. The two didn’t refuse and followed Uncle Li to his house. As they passed by the big willow tree, Lu Lingxi took a look from afar. There were a lot of people around the big willow tree and the villagers were not allowed to go near it. In the past, Xiao Shi used to climb the willow tree and tease Ah Huang with a branch, but since the arrival of the expert group, these actions had been banned. It was said that the expert team was very nervous about the willow tree, and even if it dropped a leaf, it had to be collected like a treasure.

After dinner, Lu Lingxi visited the plant nursery and stayed in the village for the night. In the middle of the night, Dahei suddenly barked urgently. Lu Lingxi woke up in a daze; Yan Yue had already gotten up, opened the door and let Dahei in.

Xiaohei got out from under the pillow and hissed at Yan Yue.

Yan Yue and Lu Lingxi looked at each other and said quickly, “Earthquake.”

The two of them didn’t bother with anything else, hurriedly put on their clothes and went out. Lu Lingxi called home while walking, eager to warn Wang Shuxiu. Before the call was connected, a huge tremor came from the ground. Lu Lingxi grabbed Yan Yue to stand still. The white panel suddenly floated in front of him.

Plant Name: Third-class weeping willow

Plant needs: none

Plant vitality: very high

Plant status: Third level peak

Plant evolution conditions triggered, do you choose to evolve?

Lu Lingxi: “……”

“Xiao Xi?” Yan Yue saw that he didn’t look right and called out in a low voice.

“It’s probably not an earthquake, it’s the big willow tree that’s going to evolve.” Lu Lingxi said looking at Yan Yue, not sure if he should choose to evolve. There were researchers everywhere outside now, in case… while he was still hesitating, a bigger tremor came through and there were thick roots poking out of the ground, firmly locking the house behind the two.

“…it’s not evolution, it’s an earthquake.” Yan Yue frowned.

Lu Lingxi’s eyes widened in surprise as the lights in the village lit up in turn. Wang Shuxiu’s voice came from the phone, “Xiao Xi, it’s an earthquake, where are you guys?”

“Mom, we’re outside, it’s safe now, Dahei warned us in advance.”

Wang Shuxiu breathed a sigh of relief. Xiao Feng had already packed up and stood with the child in his arms. She didn’t have time to say anything else and hurriedly hung up the phone.

Knowing that Wang Shuxiu was fine, Lu Lingxi felt relieved. The vibrations were still going on underground, and Lu Lingxi looked at the white panel floating in front of him and decisively chose “yes”. He had been worried that the evolution of the big willow tree would attract the attention of the researchers, in case someone suspected that he and Yan Yue had appeared too coincidentally. But now with the earthquake as a cover, no one would suspect that the earthquake was artificially manipulated, right?

As Lu Lingxi chose “yes”, the white panel changed again. The green prompt faded and the entire underground of Fengcheng City appeared in front of him. From the panel, he could see that the roots of the big willow tree had once again extended and had reached deep into the urban area of Fengcheng, entwining with the roots of the willow trees underneath Fengcheng.

The green font surfaced, “The evolution of the fourth level weeping willow has been completed, and the willow ecological community has been extended into a standard urban unit, rewarding the plant hearts +20,000 and the power of nature +20.”

Without waiting for Lu Lingxi to express his surprise, another line of green font surfaced, “Collect 100,000 points of plant hearts, purify a standard ecological city, meet system upgrade criteria, evolve the system into the heart of the planet.”

The green font disappeared, and a faint blue light radiated from Lu Lingxi’s body, gradually coalescing into a football-sized blue orb of light in the air.

Lu Lingxi looked at the orb of light in surprise, and Yan Yue suddenly asked, “What is this?”

“Can you see it, Big Brother Yan?”

Yan Yue: “……”

Lu Lingxi calmed down, “It’s so beautiful.”

The orb of light in front of him emitted a luminous light blue glow. The inside of the orb was not static; countless colourful dots flowed around, like a river of multicoloured stars. In the centre of the orb was a world the size of a fist, in which the four seasons changed and everything grew, a realistic simulation of the planet’s way of working.

Lu Lingxi carefully stretched out his hand and touched the orb in front of him. The orb of light dispersed, the colourful spots of light re-entered his body, and the small world in the centre slowly sank into the ground in front of him. Lu Lingxi grasped Yan Yue’s hand and closed his eyes. A magical feeling lingered in the hearts of the two of them. They seemed to hear the sound of water flowing through the ground, infiltrating the land. The green grass began to sprout and colourful flowers bloomed around. Water flowed through many places, from plateaus to basins, from valleys to deserts, the entire planet seemed to be slowly awakening, and the chronic diseases of human activities were slowly healed. The world became alive again, restored to a healthy vibrancy.

The two opened their eyes again and it was already dawn. The golden sunrise was glowing on the horizon. As the light spilled down, Lu Lingxi felt as if something had changed, but he couldn’t describe it clearly for a moment. Yan Yue held his hand tightly, and the two of them interlocked their fingers, smiling at the same time.

The vibrations underground in the middle of the night had long since stopped, and peace had returned to the outside. Lu Lingxi called home and knew that everything was fine, the little baby had slept through the night and didn’t even feel them tossing and turning. In the morning he and Yan Yue went to have breakfast at Uncle Li’s house to find out that the earthquake detected in Fengcheng last night was Level 7, but because the big willow tree roots slowed down the vibration, the tremor manifested was less than Level 4. It was said that there were no casualties and very little material damage in the whole of Fengcheng, with only a few houses that were too dilapidated collapsing.

After this earthquake, the Great Willow Tree was put on a pedestal, but all this had nothing to do with Lu Lingxi anymore.

His and Yan Yue’s life was the same as ever, Tiny Garden, Lingshui Village and home, three points in a circle, with the occasional visit to the Qiu Tian plant nursery. Zhugang, copaiba balsam trees, evolved begonias, Tiny Garden Technology Company under their name were going well, and the past that had once troubled them was left far behind. Whether it was Hopewell and the Yan family or the Zhongjing Lu family, they gradually faded out of the sight of the media and were completely removed from Lu Lingxi’s and Yan Yue’s lives.

Three months later, on New Year’s Eve.

Lu Lingxi’s family got together enthusiastically. Wang Shuxiu and Zhou Xiaoman sat in the living room watching TV while waiting for dinner. Xiao Feng and Xiao Hong were busy in the kitchen, and Yan Yue was in the backyard setting off fireworks, holding Lu Lingxi in his arms.

Bang!

The sky was full of stars exploding in mid-air, and countless gorgeous spots of light scattered around. Lu Lingxi quickly rose on his toes and kissed Yan Yue. The corners of Yan Yue’s lips curled up as he unbuttoned his coat and hugged Lu Lingxi into it.

“Xiao Xi, I love you.”

“I know, Big Brother Yan, I love you too.”

The two figures melted into one, their moment of happiness caught in eternity.

Translator’s note: This is the end of the main story 🙂 Extras 1-4 are Fang Lei x Xiaohui (Xiaohui turns into a human… do I really need to say this?) 🙂 Extra 5 is Xiao Xi and Yan Yue.

Previous / ToC / Next

After Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue returned to Fengcheng, their life was the same as before. They spent most of their time at Tiny Garden, and every few days they would visit the plant nursery.

Taking advantage of the fact that the current household registration policy in Fengcheng was not too strict, Yan Yue moved his household registration over to the house in the community without any problems. Lu Lingxi also moved his household registration out of his home and settled with Yan Yue. The day he got his household registration, Yan Yue looked at its contents with satisfaction. The column for the head of the household was filled in with his name, followed by Lu Lingxi’s name as the family member.

“Xiao Xi, we are now a family.”

As soon as he got into the car, Yan Yue couldn’t help but hug Lu Lingxi, smiling at him and lowering his head to kiss him fervently.

Lu Lingxi blushed a little; there were many people outside the household registration office and he didn’t know if he should push Yan Yue away. In fact, he was happy in his heart. It was hard to describe the happiness he felt when he saw his name and Yan Yue’s name side by side on the same household registration book.

Yan Yue couldn’t stop himself from kissing Lu Lingxi greedily. Finally, his sanity prevailed and he reluctantly let go of Lu Lingxi when someone passed the car. He tenderly tidied up Lu Lingxi’s messed up hair and discussed, “Shall we treat Ah Kang and the others to a meal at noon, as a celebration?”

“Celebration?” Who knows what Lu Lingxi thought about but the tips of his ears turned red all of a sudden.

Yan Yue was so softened by the look on his face that he moved over, grabbed Lu Lingxi and kissed him several times. “That’s it then, I’ll call Ah Kang and Fang Lei and the others.”

Lu Lingxi nodded with a red face and added after a moment’s thought, “Let’s call Yi Hang and the others as well.”

“Okay.”

The place for the meal was chosen in the new branch of the small restaurant. Lu Lingxi called Yi Hang first and asked him to reserve a private room. The new branch of the small restaurant had opened not long ago, and although the floor space was several times that of the first restaurant, it was still crowded with customers and was always full whenever you went there. With the increase in visitors to Fengcheng, the fame of Xiaohua’s Home Cooking Restaurant had even spread outside the city. There were customers who came from afar and who waited a long time just to have a meal at Xiaohua’s Home Cooking Restaurant.

When he received Lu Lingxi’s call, Yi Hang readily agreed. In particular, Lu Lingxi’s reason for inviting him for dinner made him unable to hold back his laughter. Speaking of which, Yi Hang had really never thought that Lu Lingxi would like men. Even when Yan Yue and Lu Lingxi went everywhere together at the beginning, Yi Hang didn’t suspect anything. It was only when Lu Lingxi took the initiative to confess to him that it dawned on Yi Hang. No wonder Yan Yue had a displeased look on his face whenever Yi Hang approached Lu Lingxi.

After settling on a place for dinner, Yan Yue informed An Jie and the others. When they heard that he and Lu Lingxi were going to treat them to dinner, everyone was enthusiastic. Even Fang Lei, who was the busiest, promised to be on time and not to delay the meal.

Yan Yue smiled as he hung up the phone and looked at Lu Lingxi, “We’ll go over first.”

Lu Lingxi nodded obediently.

When the two of them arrived, Su Lang, who lived the closest, was already there. He was alone in the room, holding his phone and reading something. Hearing the sound of the door opening, Su Lang put away his phone and looked over with a smile, “Why are you so slow?”

“The street is full of people and the traffic jam is terrible.” Yan Yue explained.

Su Lang laughed, “I go out on my bike now, it’s much faster than driving.”

Yan Yue’s heart stirred; the idea of riding a bicycle was a good one. Xiao Xi could sit in the front and he could hold Xiao Xi in his arms all the time. He was thinking whether he should go and buy a bicycle later, when Su Lang started talking about the business, “By the way, I’m going to go to N.T.’s headquarters next week to apply for a foreign patent for the donglingcao medicine as well.”

Some time ago Su Lang had already applied for a domestic patent for the donglingcao medicine in the name of Tiny Garden Technology Company and was now preparing for the official production. Their research team was so ambitious that they wanted to apply for the foreign patent too.

Yan Yue naturally didn’t object to this. Lu Lingxi listened and asked, “How is Xiaobao doing now?”

Su Lang smiled, his eyes gentle, “Xiaobao has almost recovered and will be able to live like an ordinary person in the future.”

“That’s good.” Lu Lingxi was a little surprised.

Su Lang’s eyes flashed strangely when he saw Lu Lingxi’s smile, but the strangeness quickly disappeared without a trace. Fang Lei and Ye Kang arrived one after another, and everyone got together, joking and chatting. Su Lang watched Yan Yue and Lu Lingxi holding hands across the table, picked up the phone and deleted a few photos in it. The background of the photos was the primary school in Jing’an District, Zhongjing, where Lu Lingxi was standing at the entrance with Yan Yue, talking to the old man who was guarding the door. Su Lang didn’t tell anyone about it but he happened to have been in Zhongjing a few days ago. For some reason that was hard to explain, he took an afternoon off to go to that primary school in Jing’an District. 

He never expected to meet Lu Lingxi and Yan Yue at the entrance of the primary school. At that moment, Su Lang thought a lot. The familiarity he faintly felt in Lu Lingxi, his inexplicable closeness to Lu Lingxi, and Lu Lingxi’s abnormal attention to donglingcao… Many questions haunted his mind and the answer was about to come out, but Su Lang didn’t dare to think about it further.

He hurriedly left that primary school and left Zhongjing to go back to Fengcheng. He sometimes wondered if he was dreaming, but the photos in his phone reminded him of the reality of his memories. Su Lang didn’t contact Yan Yue for several days in a row, not knowing whether he should share his doubts or not. When Yan Yue called today, Su Lang suddenly felt relieved when he looked at Lu Lingxi’s smiling face. It didn’t really matter if the answer was what he had in mind; Lu Lingxi was happy and that was enough.

Time passed in a flash, and it was soon the end of August. Amongst all the news in Fengcheng, the local people were most concerned about the demolition and renovation of Nancheng. News of several major consortia in Zhongjing competing for the Nancheng project were at the forefront, with the Ye family and Hopewell the most likely winners. The two families had been going head-to-head at every turn, fighting all the way from Zhongjing to Fengcheng.

In early September, the Fengcheng government’s auction for the Nancheng demolition and renovation project officially began. Yan Shihui brought Yan Hai to Fengcheng personally. Elder Ye of the Ye family was also present at the auction, and he nodded at Yan Shihui from afar, with the look of a man who was bound to win.

“Dad?” Yan Hai called out nervously.

Yan Shihui waved his hand, “This kind of auction is fair, whoever pays the most money will win. Even if the Ye family does something secretly, once we have the money in place, Ye Cheng can’t take us down.” He was so confident that for this project he had not only syphoned off all the liquidity that Hopewell had, but had also mortgaged all his shares in Hopewell to secure a large loan, larger than ever before. He knew that several of his competitors were strong, but he absolutely had to win the project.

The auction soon began.

Hopewell, the Ye family, the Li family… more than a dozen companies, large and small, all tried to win the project, and the bids on the entire project soared. As the amount became larger and larger, one by one, some companies withdrew from the competition, and finally only  Hopewell and the Ye family were left to compete.

Ye Kang was a little nervous; he had grown up in the Ye family seeing a lot of such scenes, but this time the situation was special and he was always mindful of Yan Yue’s warning, afraid that the Ye family would fall if they were not careful.

“Three billion.” Elder Ye said quietly as he raised his card one last time.

Ye Kang’s heart beat wildly and he immediately looked in Yan Shihui’s direction. From his perspective, Yan Shihui’s face looked a little bad. Although everyone knew that this piece of land was worth a lot of money and could definitely earn it back later if it was operated well, it was important to know that three billion was not the entire investment of this project but just the money for a piece of land in Nancheng. The compensation for demolition and relocation at a later stage was an unpredictable bottomless pit. To be honest, based on the Ye family’s strength it was already a bit strenuous now, and Ye Kang suspected it would be even more strenuous for Hopewell with its financial situation.

Just as Ye Kang focused on Yan Shihui, the eyes of the whole room basically were on Yan Shihui too. Yan Shihui took a deep breath; the amount of money in the competition for the project had far exceeded his expectations by now, and the funds in his hands were no longer enough for this bid. Yan Shihui gave a veiled glance at Elder Ye, who still looked as if he was winning. He wondered if Elder Ye had some inside information, such as the rumours of a “capital relocation” that were secretly circulating in Zhongjing. After a few seconds of hesitation, Yan Shihui decisively raised his card and offered a higher amount than the Ye family.

The eyes of the audience shifted back to Elder Ye. A hint of cunning flashed in the old man’s eyes and he made a gesture of giving up. Not surprisingly, Hopewell took the land. Yan Shihui nodded at Elder Ye with a sense of satisfaction. Without a word, the old man dragged Ye Kang straight out of the venue. In the eyes of the people around, it was more like the old man was angry at losing the competition.

Outside the venue, Elder Ye got into his car slowly and narrowed his eyes at Ye Kang, “I did such a big favour to the Yue kid, how is he going to thank me?”

Ye Kang felt that he was simply going to be scared to death by the old man. Sniffing somewhat helplessly, he said, “What does Grandpa want?”

Elder Ye had some regrets; he had always been quite optimistic about Yan Yue. “It’s a pity that the Yue kid doesn’t like girls, your little cousin has just graduated, she is quite a good match for the Yue kid.” Speaking of this, Elder Ye suddenly gave Ye Kang a suspicious look, “Ah Kang, you’ve been avoiding dating, you don’t like boys too, do you? Who do you like? Ah Yue? Or that assistant next to Ah Yue? You don’t like that cop, do you?”

“……” Ye Kang turned his head with a distorted expression; that was why he was hiding and wouldn’t go home. The old man was thinking of catching him for a blind date all the time, and once he objected, there was no telling who the old man would matchmake him with.

Ye Kang almost woefully rolled out of the car and hurriedly told the old man that he was going to find Yan Yue. The old man sighed, “Actually, Ah Kang and the Yue kid are quite a good match, it’s a pity that someone else has gotten to him first.”

The driver who had been silently acting as a background: “……”

After the bidding was over, the development of Nancheng was quickly put on the agenda. Yan Shihui gritted his teeth and borrowed another sum of money, speedily relocating a third of the residents within the development area. With all eyes on him, Yan Shihui shovelled the first spade of soil and the engineering team soon followed, digging according to his directions.

One metre, two metres, three metres, four metres, when the digging reached five metres, the excavator suddenly came to a halt. The driver poked his head out and gestured to the ground, “Something doesn’t feel right.”

“What’s wrong?” Yan Shihui asked when he saw it stop.

The next moment, a torrent of water rushed up into the sky, and the mud faded away, revealing the gnarled roots that looked like a dragon beneath.

A bad feeling arose in Yan Shihui’s heart, “Try digging around.”

The team spread out to the surrounding area, and for thousands of metres, the ground was full of roots several people thick, like a dragon lying in the dark brown soil in endless coils. Before Yan Shihui could think of a solution, the news had already spread. The entire city of Fengcheng was immediately shaken, and countless crowds of people came to the scene. The expert group sent people to secure the scene as quickly as possible and began further investigations. As for Yan Shihui’s project, who would care?

While the eyes of the whole of Fengcheng were fixed on Nancheng, Lu Lingxi’s family was in the midst of chaos.

Ten months (meaning lunar months) into her pregnancy, the child in Wang Shuxiu’s belly was finally about to be born.

“Quick, I’ll take Xiaohua to the hospital first, Xiao Xi, you pack up and follow.” Xiao Feng carrieded Wang Shuxiu and hurriedly ran towards the car. Everything just started and he was already covered in sweat.

Lu Lingxi nodded as he darted around to sort out the things he had prepared beforehand. Clothes, towels, baby blankets, diapers… “What else?” He asked nervously, rushing to Yan Yue.

Yan Yue checked against the list, “Is there a milk bottle missing?”

“Huh? Right.” Lu Lingxi hurriedly searched for the bottle. The family had prepared four baby bottles alone. They were of different sizes and models. He simply took them all with him so that they could use whichever one the doctor ordered.

After a lot of fussing, the two of them arrived at the hospital with a big bag and a small bag. Wang Shuxiu was in good condition and had already been sent to the delivery room.

Lu Lingxi was apprehensive and nervous, “Is Mom going to be okay?”

“She will definitely be fine.” Yan Yue’s voice had a calming power.

Lu Lingxi breathed a sigh of relief and gently leaned into Yan Yue’s arms as he waited for the new life to be born.

Previous / ToC / Next

Lu Lingxi’s primary school was located in Jing’an District of Zhongjing, and at this time of the summer holidays, there were no students at the school, so it was very quiet.

The two of them were stopped at the entrance of the school by the old man who was guarding the door, and Lu Lingxi greeted him, saying that he was a former student here and had come back for a visit. He and Yan Yue looked neat and didn’t seem to be bad people. The old man looked at them warily for a few moments, asked Lu Lingxi’s name again, and let them in.

“Thank you, Uncle.” Lu Lingxi smiled and thanked him, pulling Yan Yue and running inside in a flash.

The old man looked at Lu Lingxi’s smiling face and smiled too, thinking that this child was quite likeable. But this name felt a bit familiar, as if he had heard it before. Where exactly was it? The old man’s memory was failing him. He seriously wrote down the words “Visitor Lu Lingxi” on the blackboard at the entrance and went back to his booth to read the newspaper.

A few minutes later, the headmaster of the school personally delivered Lu Guangjing to the school entrance. Lu Guangjing had approached the school some time ago with the intention of donating an indoor stadium, and the school was very welcoming of donations, so the headmaster personally accompanied Lu Guangjing on several visits to the school. The school was not aware of the Lu family’s affairs; they had only heard vaguely that a child from the Lu family had attended school here eleven years ago but had later dropped out for health reasons. Now that that child had passed away, the family wanted to do something to commemorate that child.

“Mr. Lu, don’t worry about the stadium, I’ll call you when I’ve made arrangements on my side…”

The headmaster suddenly closed his mouth halfway through the sentence. He noticed that Lu Guangjing seemed to have seen something and was staring, deathly pale, at the small blackboard hanging on one side of the wall, looking somewhat lost. The headmaster followed him and saw the words “Visitor Lu Lingxi”. He was slightly stunned. Wasn’t this the name of the child who had died in the Lu family?

While the headmaster was stunned, Lu Guangjing had already turned to him in a daze and said in a low voice, “I’ll leave first.”

The headmaster wanted to ask what was going on with this Lu Lingxi, but he felt that it was a bit ugly for him to get too curious since Lu Guangjing’s son had passed away.

After sending Lu Guangjing away, the headmaster couldn’t hold back and asked the old man at the door who this Lu Lingxi was. The headmaster’s face immediately went white as soon as the old man described the young man. His age matched up, as did his previous experience of going to school here, and it went without saying that he had the same name and surname.

In the end, the headmaster was so scared that his legs went weak as he muttered in his heart that he had seen a ghost in the daytime. 

Meanwhile, Lu Guangjing closed his eyes, feeling that God was reminding him to remember to atone for his sins all the time. In recent times, the name ‘Lu Lingxi’ sounded very frequently in the Lu family’s old house. Even though Lu Guangjing didn’t live there, he heard rumours in the old house about his father’s other son and grandson. Lu Guangjing didn’t care about business matters. He just occasionally thought of the child with the same name as Xiao Xi. He couldn’t help but wonder: if Xiao Xi hadn’t had an accident a year ago, what would he have been like now? Unfortunately, there were no “what ifs” in this world.

Halfway in the car, Lu Guangjing opened his eyes and said, “Let’s go to Li’s house.”

The driver simply took a turn, giving Lu Guangjing a sympathetic look while the man was not paying attention. The servants at home were saying that Mrs. Lu had gone crazy. She was mad at the eldest young master and was now taken away by her parents. The driver thought that if the boy in his family dared to be so unfilial in the future, he’d definitely break his legs. 

The driver thought he was being stealthy, but his glance was still noticed by Lu Guangjing. Lu Guangjing smiled to himself; the driver was new and didn’t know about the previous affairs of the Lu family. If he knew, he wouldn’t have sympathised with him, but would have scolded him for deserving it.

When he arrived at the Li family’s house, Li Caiying’s elder brother, Li Yao, was there. His attitude towards Lu Guangjing was not polite, “What are you doing here? I’ve arranged for a lawyer to send you a letter. Caiying wants to divorce you, so get ready.”

Lu Guangjing whispered, “I won’t divorce, it’s my responsibility that Caiying has become what she is now, I…”

“It doesn’t matter now who is responsible,” Li Yao interrupted him. “I know my sister well, she has problems with her personality and is too obsessive. Back then when you were having an affair, I advised her to get a divorce, but she insisted on having a child to tie you down. When Wei’an was born prematurely, her spirit was not quite right. When Wei’an became ill, Caiying felt sorry for Wei’an and all her motherly love was given to him. All these years, the Li family only watched Caiying revolve around Wei’an but didn’t realise that her spirit was becoming more and more unstable. By the time it broke now, it was already too late.”

He said that, giving a somewhat mean glance to Lu Guangjing, “Now don’t say that you want to take care of Caiying. To be honest, I don’t trust you. No matter how many mistakes Caiying has made over the years, when she married you, she wanted to have a good life with you. But what about you? I don’t want to talk about what happened back then, but had you paid more attention to Caiying’s emotions later, she wouldn’t have become like this.”

“I…”

“You don’t need to explain.” Lai Yao added, “I know you’re sad that Xiao Xi died.” He paused and said, “…Xiao Xi was a good kid, and now it can be regarded as Caiying’s retribution.”

Li Yao sighed, and Lu Guangjing’s heart trembled, “Wei’an…”

“Don’t mention Wei’an to me.” Li Yao coldly averted his eyes, “Caiying wronged Xiao Xi, but she has never wronged Wei’an in the slightest. Since Wei’an feels that his life was worse than death all these years because Caiying’s obsession forced him to live, then the Li family has nothing more to say to him.”

“I…”

“Alright, you can go now.”

Once again, Li Yao interrupted Lu Guangjing’s words and instructed the housekeeper to send Lu Guangjing out. The Li family no longer wanted to have anything to do with the Lu family. After sending Lu Guangjing away, Li Yao turned and went to Li Caiying’s room. The doctor said that Caiying had just fallen asleep after being sedated. Lai Yao looked at his sister’s pale, thin face and let out a deep sigh. He didn’t know how Caiying had gotten her life into this mess. The elder son she had given her heart and soul to was a white-eyed wolf, and the younger son who was well-behaved and sensible had died early. The man she had held onto all her life was a wimp, and she was paranoid and severely insane in her middle age. If she had known this day would come, would she have still looked at Lu Guangjing back then and insisted on marrying into the Lu family?

There was no one left to give an answer to Li Yao’s question.

Lu Guangjing stood at the entrance of the Li family’s house and took one last look, hunched over and got back into the car. Caiying had gone mad, Xiao Xi had died, and Wei’an had been sacrificed by the Lu family as a scapegoat. Lu Guangjing had come to Li Yao to see if Li Yao could find a way to save Wei’an but Li Yao… Lu Guangjing couldn’t blame Li Yao for being heartless; after all, Caiying had been stimulated by Wei’an. The previous quarrel between Wei’an and Caiying flashed in his mind, and Lu Guangjing shrank back in his seat wearily. He was really unaware that Wei’an had actually been living his life in resentment for so many years. 

He and Caiying had put so much thought into Wei’an, but in the end it turned out that they had selfishly forced Wei’an to live, that they had wronged him. Lu Guangjing really didn’t know what had gone wrong. Why had Wei’an turned out to be like this? He still remembered how well behaved Wei’an was as a child and how good his relationship with Caiying was. But in the blink of an eye, nothing was the same as he remembered.

When Lu Guangjing arrived home, the house was empty and no one was there, and even the maid had gone somewhere. He sat hunched over on the sofa and looked at the family portrait hanging on the opposite wall… Soon he would be the only one left in the family.

Not far from the Lu family’s house on the street, Lu Lingxi looked at the Lu family’s house from afar. He had lived there for eighteen years, yet the house still felt unfamiliar.

Yan Yue bought a cup of lemon tea from a roadside cold drink shop and handed it to Lu Lingxi. Lu Lingxi looked away, took the lemon tea and suddenly said, “Big Brother Yan, let’s go back to Fengcheng, I miss Mom.”

Yan Yue raised his hand, stroked Lu Lingxi’s hair and said softly, “Okay.”

The two of them talked to Ye Kang, went home and packed their things quickly, and drove away from Zhongjing that afternoon. The highway from Zhongjing to Fengcheng was full of cars and the traffic jam was very bad. Yan Yue casually said, “We should have taken the high speed train back.”

Dahei immediately barked, reminding of his existence.

Lu Lingxi laughed, scratched Dahei’s chin soothingly and made a call to Wang Shuxiu.

“Mom, Big Brother Yan and I are on our way home. There’s a bit of traffic on the highway, it’ll probably be night before we get home.”

“Why so soon? Didn’t you plan to spend a few more days in Zhongjing?” Wang Shuxiu was a little surprised.

Lu Lingxi held the phone and said seriously, “I miss Mom.”

“Little bastard.” Wang Shuxiu scolded with a smile, “What do you want to eat when you come back tonight? I’ll make it for you.”

“…glutinous rice ribs.”

“Okay.”

After hanging up the phone, Wang Shuxiu used her big belly to send Xiao Feng to go buy ribs quickly. If it was any later there would be no good ribs. Xiao Feng took his wallet and prepared to go out, instructing Wang Shuxiu as he was leaving, “Xiaohua, stay at home and don’t worry about anything, wait for me to come back to wash the rice.”

“I know.” Wang Shuxiu glared at him. Xiao Feng smiled and touched Wang Shuxiu’s stomach, feeling the baby’s movements under his palm. He looked at Wang Shuxiu very tenderly, “Xiaohua, what do you want to eat? I’ll buy it too.”

“The fridge is full of food, don’t buy anything.” Wang Shuxiu stopped him.

Xiao Feng smiled and went out, thinking that Xiaohua liked to eat the miso pork from the shop in front of the street. It so happened that Dahei was also going to be back, so Xiao Feng decided he would go and buy some pork for the evening. Xiao Xi liked glutinous rice and lotus roots, and Yan Yue seemed to like the braised pork sold in the same shop. Xiao Feng would get some, as well as… He kept walking, figuring out what to buy, all the family’s favourites.

The family? Xiao Feng smiled silently. When the child in Xiaohua’s belly was born, they’d just go to take a family portrait again. This time, Yan Yue would also be called and, by the way, there was Xiaohei who had lost a tooth recently.

As if by a tacit agreement, Lu Lingxi was also talking to Yan Yue about having the family photo taken again. “We’ll do it when the little brother is born. Big Brother Yan, Dahei, Xiaohei, we’ll all go together.”

“Okay.”

Yan Yue surely didn’t mind, and Xiaohei poked his head out of Lu Lingxi’s bag when he heard his name, contentedly tying himself in a knot around Lu Lingxi’s wrist.

The traffic ahead restarted and Yan Yue’s lips curled up as he smiled at Lu Lingxi, stepping on the gas and driving in the direction of home.

Previous / ToC / Next

Yan Yue met Yan Shihui the day after he returned to Zhongjing.

Without the smoke of speculations from the outside world, the expressions of the two people who met were very calm. Yan Shihui looked at Yan Yue deeply for a few moments, as if he didn’t know him. Yan Yue gazed at him openly, letting his father look at him. Now, no matter what Yan Shihui thought, Yan Yue no longer cared.

After a long silence, Yan Shihui was the first to speak. “What are you doing back here?”

Yan Yue slightly hooked the corner of his mouth, “I heard Yan Hai say that he wanted to expel me from the Yan family. I came back to move my household registration out so that my father wouldn’t be embarrassed.”

His tone was mocking and Yan Shihui endured it, “Are you blaming me for being biassed?”

Yan Yue shook his head unexpectedly, “I thought so when I was a child, but later I felt it didn’t matter.”

Yan Shihui stared at Yan Yue’s expression, trying to determine what he was really thinking. In the past, Yan Shihui didn’t care what Yan Yue thought, but now that he wanted to know, he could no longer read Yan Yue’s mind. He had the feeling that his authority had been upset, and this was not the first time. From the time Yan Yue stayed in the country without his knowledge to the time he suddenly sold his shares from the Yin family, Yan Shihui was angry. He was angry that he had lost control of Hopewell, but he was even more angry that he had lost control of Yan Yue.

From childhood to adulthood, Yan Shihui’s life has been smooth sailing. The only time he failed was his marriage to Yin Qinglan. After that, whether it was life or business, he never tasted failure again. Regarding Yan Yue, it was not that no one had warned him. But Yan Shihui was used to controlling everything, and he surely could control his son. What he didn’t expect was that it was the son he felt he could control who gave him a fatal blow.

Yan Shihui said in a cold voice: “You sold the shares of the Yin family to Chen Xiuyuan and you don’t have any guilt in your heart? You just watched the foundation your grandfather had worked so hard to build for years destroyed in your own hands?”

“What is there to feel guilty about?” Yan Yue met Yan Shihui’s gaze, his eyes icy, “Father knew full well what Yan Hai’s qualifications were and still thought of putting Hopewell in his hands. Wasn’t this destroying Hopewell? Since Father doesn’t care about my grandfather’s efforts, what do I care about?”

“After all is said and done, you are still blaming me for being biassed.” Yan Shihui said angrily.

Yan Yue paused and the corners of his mouth rose, “Really not. It’s just that it’s my own business whether I want something or not, and I don’t like it when others snatch it from my hands. Since that’s the case, then why not just leave it to no one?”

Yan Shihui finally understood what Yan Yue had in mind. “How long have you been planning this?”

“What about Father? How long has Father been planning?”

The two men went toe-to-toe, and for the first time Yan Shihui felt as if he had never understood his son clearly.

After Yan Yue left Yan Shihui, he met Yan Hai outside. He didn’t even bother to give Yan Hai a glance, treating the other man as if he were air. Yan Hai was furious but he didn’t have the guts to catch up with Yan Yue and say something. Apart from daring to shout a few words behind his back, he was used to being as meek as a quail in front of Yan Yue.

Looking at Yan Yue’s back from a distance, Yan Hai wondered why he suddenly thought of Yin Ya. Once Yin Ya had laughed at his lack of courage in front of Yan Yue, but what happened? Yin Ya was so arrogant, and now she was put in jail by Yan Yue and couldn’t get out. When Yan Hai thought of this, a chill suddenly ran up his back. He shook his head and rushed into the office. When he saw his father, he couldn’t help but ask, “Dad, what’s Yan Yue doing here?”

Yan Shihui’s attitude towards Yan Hai had cooled down considerably, “Where have you been again?”

Yan Hai boasted, “Dad, didn’t you want to go to Fengcheng to get land? I’ve asked around and found out that there’s a lot of vacant land in Fengcheng, but it’s all on the outskirts. The only land in the city that can be developed is in the south. The infrastructure there is backward and many residents are just waiting for demolition.”

As word spread about the wonders of Fengcheng, along with the tourism boom, there was also an investment boom. Of all the various investments, real estate was clearly the most lucrative. Many companies in Zhongjing were already planning to go to Fengcheng to acquire land, and Hopewell was no exception. Yan Shihui valued this opportunity very highly and saw it as a chance to make a comeback. Having lost his position as a major shareholder, if he wanted to sit firmly as the chairman, he had to take the shareholders to make money so that he could gain support.

Yan Shihui didn’t feel comfortable handing over such a big task to Yan Hai. However, Yan Hai was stubborn and very active during this period, using a group of fox friends to snoop around, just to make Yan Shihui look up to him.

He said it with aplomb, and Yan Shihui became interested, “The south of the city? The part where the underground is rumoured to be emptied?”

Yan Hai nodded quickly and immediately explained, “It used to be a matter of the underground being emptied, but who cares about that now. I heard that people and animals can evolve after living in Fengcheng for a long time, and now everyone is rushing to buy houses in Fengcheng. What does it matter if the ground is emptied, just put more cement in the foundation, the cost will definitely be recovered.”

It was obvious that Yan Hai had put in a lot of effort, and he was right on the money. Yan Shihui had consulted a professional before and the advice he received was to pad the foundation with more cement in the emptied area. Yan Shihui had made up his mind and was ready to go all out for the first development project in the south of the city, so he couldn’t miss this opportunity.

There were many people who thought the same way as Yan Shihui. Fengcheng was now a big golden pie, and everyone wanted to take a bite out of it. It had only been two days since Yan Yue had returned and he had heard a number of familiar names ready to enter the real estate sector in Fengcheng.

He gave Ye Kang a call, “How’s it going? Did you convince the old man?”

The Ye family was one of those who were optimistic about the real estate market in Fengcheng. With their strong capital and the natural backing of Ye Cheng, it was foreseeable that if the Ye family made a move, no company would be able to compete with them. Elder Ye returned the favour by inviting Yan Yue to invest with him, but Yan Yue refused. Not only did he refuse, he also advised Ye Kang to convince Elder Ye to abandon the plan. Ye Kang was puzzled, but Yan Yue didn’t explain much. Out of his trust in Yan Yue, Ye Kang followed him back to Zhongjing. He had some authority in front of the old man now, so he had to try to convince him to give up the plan.

When he received the call from Yan Yue, Ye Kang first complained about his grandfather’s stubbornness for a long time before finally saying, “Grandpa has probably loosened up. He values your attitude, and a word from you is much better than a long speech from me. But Ah Yue, why on earth aren’t you optimistic about the development of the Fengcheng property?”

Yan Yue evaded the question as he always did, “You’ll know when the time comes.”

“Fuck off!” Ye Kang was clearly not satisfied with his answer.

Yan Yue laughed. When it came to his plan, Yan Yue had no way to explain it clearly to Ye Kang. There was only one reason why he was not optimistic about Fengcheng’s property development; the underground of Fengcheng was so full of intertwined willow tree roots that there was no way to dig up the soil to build the foundation. Through the white panel, you could see that the roots of the willow trees underground in Fengcheng were all connected together. It was like a net woven from the roots, firmly enveloping the ground of Fengcheng.

Of course, unless one had a white panel like Lu Lingxi, no one would know that the underground of Fengcheng was such a peculiar sight. The reason why Yan Yue reminded Ye Kang was that he didn’t want the Ye family to fail in their investment, and he also hoped that the Ye family would give the “opportunity” of the land in Nancheng to Hopewell.

Yan Yue had received information that Hopewell was very interested in the real estate market in Fengcheng and had collected a lot of information about the land in the south of the city. The land was indeed the most suitable piece of land for development in Fengcheng at the moment. Without the competition from the Ye family, Hopewell would have a good chance of securing that piece of land with all its efforts. This outcome was exactly what Yan Yue wanted to see.

He didn’t calculate all this simply for Hopewell to lose money, but to draw out the existence of the big willow tree. The longer the expert team stayed in Fengcheng, the more they investigated, the more likely it was that Lu Lingxi’s identity would be revealed. After all, whether it was the anomalies in their residential community, or the anomalies in Lingshui Village, or the particularity of Tiny Garden’s plants, these traces could always be linked together by the interested parties if they investigated them carefully. If only one of those things was related to Xiao Xi, it would be fine, but all of them could be linked to Xiao Xi. Although the expert team might not be able to find any evidence as long as Xiao Xi refused to admit it, Yan Yue was still worried that Lu Lingxi would be targeted by the government in the future.

If he wanted to rule out Lu Lingxi’s suspicion, he had to find someone or something more suspicious to come out, and the existence of the big willow tree fulfilled the conditions perfectly.

The changes in Lingshui Village, the special plants in Tiny Garden, the beautification of the community, the changes in the whole of Fengcheng could all be counted on the “tree god”, the Big Willow Tree. The root system under Fengcheng City was perfect proof of this, not to mention the fact that these roots were extending in the direction of the north where the big willow tree was located and would soon be connected to the big willow tree’s extended root system.

When Yan Yue first took Lu Lingxi around to purify the soil in Fengcheng, he specifically looked for the places that had willow trees planted, just so that one day they could be linked to the big willow tree, and things were clearly progressing better than he had expected.

There were too many twists and turns behind all this, and Yan Yue had no way of explaining them clearly, nor did he intend to talk to Ye Kang about them at all. Anyway, when Hopewell started the land development, everyone would know about it.

Since Elder Ye’s attitude had already relaxed, Yan Yue also put his mind at ease and focused on having fun with Lu Lingxi. The two of them went around almost the whole of Zhongjing, even climbing Hongye Mountain twice. That day Lu Lingxi had a sudden whim and asked Yan Yue if he wanted to go with him to see the place where he used to go to school.

“Primary school?”

Lu Lingxi nodded shyly; technically he hadn’t graduated from primary school yet.

Yan Yue also thought of this and hugged Lu Lingxi, “If Xiao Xi likes to go to school, we can see if there is a suitable school.”

“It’s not that I like going to school either.” Lu Lingxi shook his head, “In the past, I didn’t have the opportunity to go out, so I hoped I could see the outside world through school. Now I feel that life is quite good and I don’t need to change anything by going to school anymore.” He had no memories of this body, but when he talked to Yi Hang, he heard Yi Hang complain about having too much homework at school and being scolded by the teacher for not finishing it. Lu Lingxi imagined coming home every night to do his homework and thought it was better not to go to school.

Yan Yue guessed what Lu Lingxi was thinking and couldn’t help but be amused in his heart. However, he had always indulged Lu Lingxi, and everything was fine as long as Lu Lingxi was happy, so it really didn’t matter if he went to school or not.

Previous / ToC / Next

The tourism boom in Fengcheng continued, but after the initial days of excitement, the people of Fengcheng could already look at the events around them calmly. Take Wang Shuxiu as an example; she no longer listened to Dahei’s every bark, asking Lu Lingxi what it meant.

Lu Lingxi and Dahei let out a sigh of relief at the same time.

Yan Yue looked amused and discussed it with Lu Lingxi, “Does Xiao Xi want to go back to Zhongjing with me?”

Lu Lingxi thought about it for a while and nodded. Although he had grown up in Zhongjing, he was not familiar with it, so it would be good to go back and have a look.

After his recent experiences, Yan Yue now wanted to tie Lu Lingxi to his waist and take him along wherever he went. When he heard that Lu Lingxi was willing to go to Zhongjing, he reached out and took Lu Lingxi into his arms, kissed him on the ear and rested his chin on Lu Lingxi’s shoulder, saying, “Although the environment in Zhongjing is not as good as that in Fengcheng, some tourist attractions are still good, so we can go and have a look.”

“Can we go climb Hongye Mountain?” Lu Lingxi suddenly asked.

Yan Yue smiled, “Of course.”

Lu Lingxi grabbed Yan Yue’s hand and said, “I’ve never been anywhere in Zhongjing since I was a kid. The only time I could go on a trip was when the school arranged a spring trip for us in the third grade, and the destination at that time was Hongye Mountain. But on the first day of the spring trip I had an accident and missed the event. Then… I stayed home and never went out again.”

Now when it came to the past, Lu Lingxi no longer had any psychological barriers. He had made up his mind to say goodbye to the past once and for all, and wouldn’t have anything to do with the Lu family again. However, Lu Lingxi felt a bit weird. The Lu family had even sent Lu Yishui to make him acknowledge them, but he had only met Lu Yishui once and never seen him again, and there was no news from the Lu family either. It was so strange.

When he was quiet and didn’t say anything, Yan Yue reached out and covered his hand, softly saying, “Then let’s go and climb Hongye Mountain a few times.”

Lu Lingxi curved his eyes, “Climbing once is enough. By the way…” he looked at Yan Yue curiously, “Big Brother Yan, do you think it’s strange that it’s been almost a month and neither the Lu family nor Lu… Dad has reappeared? “

“Lu Yishui?” Yan Yue’s tone was subtly odd but Lu Lingxi didn’t notice it. Yan Yue’s arms tightened, “Probably the Lu family has something else tripping them up right now.”

A few days ago, the Lu family in Zhongjing

Lu Yishui stood in front of Lu Hengchuan, shrinking his neck and with his head drooping.

Lu Hengchuan looked at him fiercely, his face grim, feeling his breath stuck in his throat, suffocating him unbearably. In all these years, the Lu family had never been so humiliated. It was simply a disgrace. A month ago, Lu Yishui had patted his chest and promised that he could bring Lu Lingxi back to the Lu family. What happened? Instead, they received the news that Lu Yishui had secretly run away to Aogang Casino to gamble without his assistant’s knowledge and lost 100 million yuan and was detained there.

The Lu family originally didn’t want to take the blame for Lu Yishui, but they couldn’t resist the shamelessness of Lu Yishui, who pretended to be crazy and shouted everywhere that Lu Hengchuan was his father and had just recognised him back to the Lu family. Everyone in the entire Aogang Casino, including the guests, knew about it now. By word of mouth, the whole city of Zhongjing was watching the Lu family as a joke. Lu Hengchuan was furious, but he couldn’t help but swallow the bitter pill of Lu Yishui and pay back the money he owed.

Just thinking about it made Lu Hengchuan feel sick to his stomach. One hundred million happened to be all the cash that Lu Group could draw out right now. The Lu family had already been hurt by the involvement with Hopewell, and now it was even worse as there was no telling when the money chain would break. Lu Hengchuan didn’t believe that this was a coincidence at all. He suspected that someone was deliberately targeting the Lu family.

“How dare you come back!” Lu Hengchuan shouted angrily.

Lu Yishui smiled apologetically, “Dad, I… you…”

“Shut up!” Lu Hengchuan yelled, “You actually used the Lu family’s name to gamble, you! You…”

Lu Yishui argued in a small voice, “I was originally your son, it doesn’t count as borrowing the name of the Lu family, right? Besides, when Dad passes away one day, won’t I still have a share of the inheritance? It will be worth hundreds of millions. Think of it as spending it on me in advance now, and give me less when the time comes. I promise I won’t fight with my brothers.”

He said it shamelessly, and Lu Hengchuan’s face turned red with anger, “Get lost!” After one sentence, Lu Hengchuan clutched his heart and collapsed softly.

The news of Lu Hengchuan’s hospitalisation was suppressed carefully. The Lu family’s stock had fallen very hard due to the impact of Hopewell. Now the most important thing was to seek stability and not to have any more bad news break out. If the news of the hospitalisation of the Lu family’s patriarch, Elder Lu, was to break out at this juncture, investors’ confidence would be dented and the Lu family’s shares would suffer another round of plummeting. The Lu family had kept the news under wraps, and Lu Hengchuan even wanted to send Lu Yishui back to Fengcheng, so that he wouldn’t have to worry about him. However, Lu Yishui was afraid that if Lu Hengchuan suddenly died, he wouldn’t be able to come back in time to divide the inheritance, so he refused to leave and insisted on staying by Lu Hengchuan’s side to serve him.

Lu Hengchuan was disgusted by his own son and was afraid to let him go out and say anything, so he had to keep him by his side. He couldn’t care about Lu Lingxi’s affairs in Fengcheng anymore.

Of course, the news of Lu Hengchuan’s hospitalisation could be concealed from others, but not from the Ye family. The Ye family in turn told Yan Yue about it. Yan Yue didn’t expect Lu Yishui’s killing power to be so great, and was as relieved as he was surprised. The sins that Elder Lu had committed when he was young had to be repaid now when the time came.

These things Yan Yue didn’t intend to tell Lu Lingxi. He always remembered his wish when he first met Lu Lingxi, his hope to protect Lu Lingxi in his arms and never let him know the dark side behind the scenes. He especially didn’t want Lu Lingxi to know these rotten things about the Lu family.

After taking care of some matters in Fengcheng, Yan Yue took Lu Lingxi to Zhongjing. Of course, Dahei was definitely going to come along, accompanied by Ye Kang and Erha the demolition expert.

After getting used to the environment of Fengcheng, when they returned to Zhongjing, they felt a bit uncomfortable. Ye Kang joked, “It’s easy to go from frugality to luxury, but hard to go from luxury to frugality. Although it’s about the environment, that’s also true. I wonder if the change in Fengcheng is a special case, or can it be replicated throughout the country?”

Lu Lingxi was an expert on this issue, and he said with certainty, “It can be replicated all over the country.”

“Xiao Xi is so sure?” Ye Kang teased casually.

Lu Lingxi was startled, but Yan Yue had already clarified for him, “Fengcheng didn’t start out like this. First it was a few places in the city, and only later did it expand to the whole city.” He finished, rubbing Lu Lingxi’s hair, and Lu Lingxi obediently lowered his head and stopped talking.

Yan Yue was much more cautious than Lu Lingxi when it came to the panel and Lu Lingxi’s identity. Although Ye Kang was his trusted friend, Yan Yue had no intention of telling Ye Kang either.

Ye Kang didn’t hear anything suspicious and said with interest, “Then at the speed of Fengcheng’s expansion, it will take a few years until the changes reach Zhongjing, right?”

Behind Ye Kang’s back, Lu Lingxi secretly made a “four” gesture.

Yan Yue chuckled and reached out to pinch Lu Lingxi’s face. The two of them had actually discussed this issue. According to the expansion rate of Fengcheng’s soil purification, it would take four years to expand from Fengcheng to Zhongjing. But if several purification points were formed in Zhongjing and both sides expanded together, the time could be completely compressed to two years. Lu Lingxi still had four points of power of nature and he had agreed with Yan Yue that he would use all four points when he came to Zhongjing this time, to speed up the purification on the Zhongjing side. Of course, the ecological communities formed by evolved plants were more effective, but it would easily reveal Lu Lingxi’s identity. Until there was a suitable excuse, Yan Yue wouldn’t allow Lu Lingxi to do so.

They quickly settled down in the Yan family mansion. It was simple; Lu Lingxi was going to stay with Yan Yue and Ye Kang did not want to go back to the Ye family, so he said hello to the old man and stayed here, as there was a room for him to stay in anyway. The only two who needed to be worried about were Dahei and Erha. Dahei was fine, he had always been obedient and sensible, unlike Erha with his lively nature. Just a short time later Erha had already gnawed a table leg in the living room like a chicken leg.

The housekeeper looked depressed, and the stupid dog was still acting cute with him, covering his eyes with his paws and peeking at his reaction. He looked away speechlessly and Erha actually went around to his other side.

Housekeeper: “……”

Lu Lingxi was afraid that the housekeeper would get angry and secretly called Erha to his side. Erha pounced over with great enthusiasm, and when he was growled at by Dahei, he immediately flopped onto the floor with a wilted look. Lu Lingxi held back his laughter and took them both outside to the small garden.

Although it was his first time here, the structure of Yan family’s house was similar to that of the Lu family’s old mansion, and Lu Lingxi found his way to the garden after just thinking a little. Speaking of which, he didn’t like this kind of big house; one would always have a feeling of emptiness when living in it. Especially when he thought that Yan Yue had lived here alone since he was a child, without his family; that must have been even more lonely than he had been in the Lu family.

With all sorts of thoughts running through his mind, Lu Lingxi took the two dogs for a walk around the garden. By the time he returned to his original spot, Yan Yue was already standing there waiting for him.

“Do you like it here?”

Lu Lingxi paused and shook his head honestly.

“I don’t like it either.” Yan Yue took Lu Lingxi’s hand and walked around the small garden, saying as he walked, “My grandfather wished for the family to live together in harmony back then, but it turned out that his wish came true only for a year and then my parents’ relationship was declared broken. They had separate relationships outside but couldn’t move out because of my grandfather’s presence and were forced to live together. When my grandfather died, they couldn’t wait to move out and I was the only one who stayed. When I was young, I didn’t know any better and kept this house in the hope that my parents would come back. Later, I became sensible and when I went to school abroad, I didn’t like it more and more, and I didn’t like coming back.”

As Lu Lingxi listened, he gripped Yan Yue’s hand hard. Yan Yue smiled and kissed him on the forehead. “Actually the house is fine. Think of the Ye family, a large family would be quite happy living here together.”

Lu Lingxi thought for a moment, “We’re quite happy now too.”

Yan Yue was taken aback, and then laughed aloud.

Previous / ToC / Next