Chapter 34: Returning Home (I)
This year's Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day are combined, so there will be an eight-day holiday. Lu Ren originally thought that he could clean the house, do nothing for a few days, and then take a day to take Qilin cub out to play.
Speaking of the Qilin cub, it seems to have completely adapted to life in Lu Ren's home recently. Every night at 10:30, it follows Lu Ren to wash up. It even learned to carry a small stool by itself, stand on it, and use its front paws to scratch the washbasin to brush its teeth. Although it has a dragon head, it is a good child who loves cleanliness. Every night it brushes its two canine teeth until they are shiny. After brushing its teeth, the Qilin cub will return to its room, which is actually the original study room of Lu Ren's family. Lu Ren later bought a children's bed and assembled it here, and used this room as the temporary residence of the Qilin cub.
The morning wake-up time is set at 7 o'clock. Lu Ren will get up first to heat up the breakfast prepared last night in the refrigerator, and then wake up the Qilin cub. When the Qilin cub wakes up, it is always dazed, and then reluctantly gets up to brush its teeth, then picks up the small spoon specially prepared by Lu Ren to eat porridge obediently. After it finishes drinking, it will put on the children's helmet prepared by Lu Ren, sit in the front seat of Lu Ren's small battery car, and follow Lu Ren to work at the Immigrant Household Registration Bureau.
Lu Ren would always finish his breakfast earlier and start packing his own lunch. He didn't need to prepare lunch for Qilin cub because Qilin cub would eat lunch in the canteen of the Investigation Bureau. Jun Fang said that the food in the Investigation Bureau contained more spiritual power, which was more beneficial for the cubs of divine beasts like Qilin cubs.
At first, Lu Ren didn't want to take Qilin cub to the Immigrant Household Registration Bureau. But on the first night of Qilin cub's return, Lu Ren sent a message to Si Yuan but didn't get a reply. Undecided, Lu Ren sent another message to Yu Shi asking the same question.
The answer given by the Rain Master was simple: "Bring it tomorrow and I will help you take a look."
So Lu Ren obediently took the Qilin cub over the next day.
Master Yu frowned and looked at the unicorn cub for a long time, then suddenly stretched out his hands, picked it up and held it high. He laughed like a weird uncle, "It's really a unicorn! So cute. The previous generation of unicorns was too fierce and wouldn't let me get close to it."
The unicorn cub was struggling with its limbs, and its hind paws had already hit the rain master's cheek. The rain master's cheek was dented by the poke, but he still didn't let go of the little unicorn, and was still laughing happily. Just like the uncle from my relative's family who didn't know how to joke when I was a child.
Lu Ren couldn't stand it anymore and was about to ask for the Qilin cub back. At this moment, Feng Bo passed by the logistics team and saw this scene. He knocked on the head of Yu Shi and said, "Pedophilia is illegal. I don't want to send you to jail." Then a pair of white and slender hands took the Qilin cub from Yu Shi and returned it to Lu Ren.
Yu Shi rubbed his deformed cheeks and the hurt head from being kicked, and asked Lu Ren: "By the way, what name did you give it?"
"Name?" Lu Ren was stunned. He seemed to have never thought of giving the Qilin cub a name. He once heard Jun Fang say that if you give a monster a name, you will be trapped in an endless karma with the monster. So he said, "It seems that I shouldn't be the one to name the Qilin."
It was considered a polite refusal.
But the popularity of the Kirin Cub in the Immigrant Household Survey Bureau is indeed high, and monsters come in droves to admire the Kirin's grace. The Kirin Cub may feel that the days of majesty are very happy, not to mention that he can eat spiritual food at noon, which is better than waiting for Lu Ren to come home alone at home, so he cried and shouted to go to work with Lu Ren, and even helped Lu Ren when he was cleaning.
Time passed like water, and Lu Ren and Qilin cub gradually adapted to this rhythm of life. But strangely, the text message sent to Si Yuan that day has not received a reply. Recently, I have always seen various strange prototypes of my colleagues in the Foreign Household Survey Bureau. Si Yuan seems to have not appeared for a long time.
Lu Ren once asked Master Yu with some concern: "Why haven't you seen the director for such a long time? Isn't there anything wrong?"
The Rain Master, who had some misunderstandings, looked at him in surprise and asked, "With your relationship, how could you not know?"
Lu Ren:?
He was a little puzzled and thought: "Friends don't have to report everything to the authorities, right?"
But fortunately, Master Yu didn't dwell on this issue for too long. He said, "Si Yuan, the yellow bird, and the black snake were called to the Buzhou Mountain Realm Division to assist in the investigation. They should be back in a few days."
Lu Ren knew immediately that it was probably because of the class reunion. He hadn't thanked Si Yuan properly yet, so he would treat him to a good meal when Si Yuan came back.
However, National Day is approaching, but Si Yuan is still nowhere to be seen.
That night, Lu Ren was carefully looking for guides to nearby tourist attractions when he suddenly received a message.
[Aren, we are in the village now. Dad is dying. He hopes to see you one last time before he passes away.]
The sender was Lu Ren’s cousin, the daughter of his uncle.
Lu Ren's mother's family is from this city, but his father's is not. His father is from a less developed rural area, and he stayed here because he loved his mother. After Lu Ren was born, they didn't go back very often. Lu Ren only remembers it once. It is said that because all the young and middle-aged people in the village went out to work, only the elderly were left in the village, and these people were not direct blood relatives of Lu Ren's father.
His father's only direct blood relatives may be his uncle's family.
For a while after his parents passed away, his uncle, as his father's only brother, actually wanted to adopt Lu Ren. But the young boy bankrupted his father, and with tuition and some necessary living expenses, the cost of raising a child in modern society is indeed too high . His aunt always complained about this. Fortunately, Lu Ren was sensible and lived peacefully for a few years.
Later, when they were in junior high school, Lu Ren and his cousin gradually grew up and began to develop physically. But after all, they were not siblings, and during adolescence, they began to pay more or less attention to their personal privacy, so his cousin gradually began to reject Lu Ren.
Lu Ren knew that his uncle was in a difficult situation. So he asked his aunt to let him live on campus. His aunt was surprised at his understanding. Although she pretended to refuse a few times, she finally agreed. After graduating from high school, Lu Ren chose to live alone in his parents' old house.
He would send two thousand yuan to his uncle's family every month, but over the years he had not visited them very often.
Lu Ren took a while to react after suddenly receiving a message from his cousin. After all, their last chat record was from the Chinese New Year this year, which read: [Happy New Year! ]
Another person also replied: [Happy New Year! ]
Polite greetings and insincere blessings have constituted Lu Ren's entire impression of this cousin over the years.
But Lu Ren remembered that when he went to visit his uncle in the next city on New Year's Day last year, his uncle was still in good health. How could he be in such a state after only one year? And why wasn't he in the hospital? What was he doing back in the village?
With such doubts, Lu Ren asked his cousin: [What happened to uncle? What did the doctor say? ]
My cousin only replied: [I can’t explain it clearly for a while, come back quickly.]
Then no matter how many messages Lu Ren sent, they were like a drop in the ocean, and there was no response. Lu Ren thought that his cousin might be busy taking care of his uncle, so he stopped bombarding her with messages and looked at the tickets to return to the village. Of course, the village was a bit remote, and there were no ready-made tickets to go directly to the village. Fortunately, Lu Ren knew which station was the nearest to the village.
It’s not too close, so it can be considered a short trip.
Lu Ren didn't dare to delay. He took two days of annual leave and boarded the train back home before the long holiday arrived.
The 6am train was cheaper. It was a cloudy day and the morning mist hadn't yet cleared.
Sitting next to him was a unicorn cub transformed into a five-year-old boy. After all, it was a bit troublesome to bring a pet on the train, but bringing a five-year-old child under 1.2 meters tall not only saved tickets, but also did not require an ID check, which was the best disguise for the unicorn cub.
Lu Ren was sitting on a green train, with four seats on a table. When he sat down, he found that a high school student had already sat down opposite him. He heard the sound of Lu Ren sitting down and putting his luggage away. He had just raised his head carelessly, but when he saw Lu Ren clearly, he frowned and said, "Why are you here?" The disgust in his tone was beyond words.
After hearing this, Lu Ren looked up at the boy opposite him. It was a completely unfamiliar face. He searched his memory for a long time but couldn't find where he had seen it before. "He seems to know me, and he is very hostile to me."
At this time, the five-year-old Qilin cub whispered in Lu Ren's ear: "Ah Ren, he looks like a monster."
Is it a monster? Is it someone from the Investigation Bureau?
Just at this moment, two more people walked to their seats, and they were two acquaintances.
One of them saw Lu Ren and greeted him enthusiastically: "Brother Lu! It's you!" He happily sat next to Lu Ren and Qilin Cub, "Do you still remember me?"
Of course Lu Ren remembered, it was Zong Nian, and the person with him was Zong Chen.
Zong Nian happily introduced him to Zong Chen and the boy who was hostile : "This is Brother Lu. It was thanks to him that he saved us during the Ghost Festival."
Then he introduced the other two to Lu Ren: "This is my cousin Zong Chen, whom you have met before. The other one is my classmate Guan Eryue."
Lu Ren glanced at the expressions of the other two people. Zong Chen was obviously not as enthusiastic as Zong Nian. Although he smiled politely, there was clearly some fear in his eyes when he looked at Lu Ren.
As for the other one, Lu Ren knew who he was at once. Guan Eryue obviously knew that Lu Ren knew, and he was pretending to look out the train window with an annoyed look on his face.
At this time, Zong Nian seemed to have discovered the existence of the Qilin cub. He said in surprise, "What a cute child! Is it yours?"
Lu Ren couldn't say in front of so many people: No, this is the only unicorn cub in the world. So he had to lie and say: "No, it's a friend's child. I'm helping to take care of it for a few days."
The Qilin cub had a blush on his snow-white cheeks and a pair of big watery eyes, which made him very lovable. Zong Nian couldn't help asking, "What's his name?"
Lu Ren, who originally refused to name Qilin: …
So he looked out the window at the morning mist that had not yet dissipated and said, "His name is Lu Yang."
At this time, the train blew its whistle and slowly left the platform.
By chance, people move forward into the morning fog, heading towards an unpredictable future.
