Chapter 97: Happy Times |
When Ji Jue opened his eyes, he saw the familiar ceiling. He raised his head and heard the kitchen exhaust fan and the constant noise from the living room that never seemed to stop. It had been going on since early morning, noisy yet strangely reassuring.
Behind the half-open door, a pair of dark, sneaky eyes peeked in. Noticing Ji Jue had woken up, the youngest kid squeezed in furtively with his homework book, pointing at a completely blank page and asking in a low voice, “Ji Jue, how do I do this?”
From outside the cramped bedroom came Lu Ling’s furious complaint. “Lu Feng! Why is your underwear hanging on the doorframe again?!”
“Hey, just let my underwear be!” the guy on the sofa said lazily, flipping over while scrolling on his phone and picking at his foot.
“Mom, look at him!”
“Enough, enough. Where’s your younger brother?” Mrs. Lu shouted from the kitchen. “Check if Ji Jue is up! If he is, get him to eat. I’ve been stewing old hen soup[1] since last night!”
“He’s up, he’s up.”
After quickly helping the youngest finish his homework for today’s check, Ji Jue pretended he had just woken up, yawning as he walked out of the bedroom. Before he even sat down, the table was already packed full.
“Whoa! What’s the occasion today? So lavish.”
For example, the youngest was a fraction too slow, and the plate was already empty. He burst into tears instantly.
“Mom! Sister stole my meat!”
The third sister, already chewing on the biggest chicken breast, shot up like lightning and pointed at the broccoli hidden behind the youngest’s bowl. “Mom! He picked out the vegetables again!”
Lu Ling, who was seated by the fridge, screamed, “Aaaaah! My milk! It’s gone again. Lu Feng, I’m going to kill you!!”
“Your milk doesn’t even have your name on it!” Lu Feng ducked like a turtle, dodging the milk carton thrown at him. The carton hit the third sister instead, who started crying loudly too.
Bang.
With a heavy impact, the solid wooden table, together with all the dishes on it, jumped a full chi into the air from a single hammer-like blow. Mrs. Lu got their antics under control with a single punch, her sharp eyes sweeping across the room.
“Enough already! Xiaogou, Ergou, Sangou, and Sigou[2]! All of you sit down and eat properly!”
Pfft!
Ji Jue, who was holding his rice bowl, could not hold back anymore and broke the silence by laughing out loud.
Mrs. Lu turned to look at him, and the frost on her face melted in an instant into a smile as warm as a spring breeze. She scooped a full bowl of soup for him with the ladle.
“Ah, Ji Jue hasn’t been home for so long. Look at you, you’ve gotten so thin. Eat more. If it’s not enough, I’ll make more for you. Later I’ll kill a chicken and make white-cut chicken for dinner.”
“Yay!” Ji Jue raised his fist in celebration.
Mrs. Lu’s spring-breeze-like warmth vanished, and instead her winter-like coldness returned with a slap. A heavy thwack landed on Lu Feng’s head.
“What are you laughing at? Did you wash your socks?! How many times have I told you to hang your underwear on the balcony, the balcony!”
Lu Feng hugged his head in grief. “Mom!!! I’m the one with the Lu surname!”
“And you still dare say that? Someone from the Lu family would never hang their underwear on the doorframe!”
Smack! Smack! Smack!
A storm of slaps rained down.
Ji Jue shrank his neck, watching the chaos, and couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.
To Ji Jue, happy times never passed by too quickly. In fact, he could watch them like this every single day.
After breakfast came washing dishes, packing bags, and chores. Then everyone lined up at the door.
Mrs. Lu went to her shop to prepare for opening. Lu Feng drove his younger sister and youngest brother to school before heading back to help out, or to slack off and wander the streets as usual.
Meanwhile, on the buzzing Horsey, Ji Jue happened to give Lu Ling a ride to Tianmen University.
In the back cargo compartment, stuffed full of what looked like antiques and all kinds of incomprehensible junk, Lu Ling carefully found a place to sit among the clutter. Several times, as the engine rattled, she looked like she wanted to speak but stopped herself before trying again.
“Ji Jue, isn’t something off about our scooter?”
Ji Jue twisted the throttle up front, letting the wind slap his face as he shouted, “What’s off about it? It’s perfectly fine, isn’t it?!”
“It’s not fine at all!”
Lu Ling clenched her fists in frustration. Seriously, I accepted it when it suddenly got a bit bigger. I just assumed I remembered it wrong. But it’s gone from a two-wheeler to a three-wheeler now. Do you think I’m blind?!
“What’s up with this cargo bed?”
“I picked it up, no one wanted it!”
“And the extra wheel?”
“Picked it up too!”
“And this pile of stuff on top?” Lu Ling pointed at the stack of boxes and random junk. “Don’t tell me you picked all of that up too?”
“Yep!” Ji Jue answered without hesitation. “Next time I will take you to pick some up too, remember to bring a few extra sacks. The locals are super friendly!”
Lu Ling rolled her eyes and gave up questioning him. “I’m not buying that for a second.”
The joy of coming home loaded with loot was something she simply did not understand.
Ji Jue was in an unusually good mood. He hummed a tune as he rode along. The sky was clear, the flowers bloomed, the birds sang, even the security guards blocking the road suddenly looked kind and approachable.
Ji Jue forcibly rejected Lu Ling’s suggestion to be dropped off at the street corner, pulled out the ID card given by Professor Ye, swiped it at the campus gate, and drove the three-wheeled Horsey straight in without obstruction. Under everyone’s shocked and confused stares, he fully enjoyed the sight of Lu Ling frantically covering her head and fleeing in embarrassment.
She was clearly terrified he would honk the horn and shout “scrap TV, scrap air conditioner for sale,” which would have been instant social death.
Ji Jue chuckled smugly. See how good your big brother is to you!
After making a rare and memorable entrance on campus, he rode off like a satisfied stray dog and headed straight to the seaside workshop. He parked Horsey in the storage room, then strode into the living room with exaggerated swagger. “Ms. Ye, I’m back!”
Watching a TV drama, Professor Ye, seated in her usual spot, calmly held her teacup. She clearly had already anticipated the emotional state of a kid returning home after a long trip with a pile of belongings, and she didn’t react much.
Instead, it was Ye Chun, sprawled on the sofa like a sleeping Buddha, who got startled by the noise.
“Well, well, if it isn’t Ji Jue,” she said while munching on nuts, glancing over at him. “Long time no see. How did you end up looking like this? Even your pants are torn. At least change into something decent, yeah?”
“What nonsense, my pants are brand new!” Ji Jue sneered coldly, completely unmoved by her sour and sarcastic jab. Right in front of her, he took off his gloves, rolled up his sleeves, and revealed the intricate matrix patterns covering both his hands and forearms.
“Open your damn eyes and take a good look at this!” Ji Jue practically shoved his hands into Ye Chun’s face, turning them back and forth to show off. “This is the sage-class legacy I got after risking my life! Ever seen it? Ever seen it? Ever seen it?!”
He had been waiting for this moment for who knew how many days. As the saying went, “if you get rich and don’t return home, it’s like wearing fine clothes at night.” Showing off in front of others was an indispensable part of life.
It was just a pity that in the rift realm there had been no one to show off to. Even the Seer had seen the matrix so many times that she had no reaction at all. Horsey was confused and had no idea what was going on. An Ran remained calm and didn’t care in the slightest. Ji Jue could only rely on the bit of emotional value provided by Young Master Lou to avoid losing his mind completely.
Now that he was back in the workshop, of course he had to show everything off and strike back at his friend who had always bullied him. And…
Huh? Huh? How did you know I got the Celestial Being’s legacy, the Pacifier, on this trip?
In this moment of stunned confusion, Ye Chun instinctively widened her eyes, staring at Ji Jue’s hands. Confusion, doubt, suspicion, and shock all flashed across her expression like a spinning wheel, one after another.
She grabbed his hand and examined it. Studying the solemn emblem that looked like a tattoo, her expression gradually turned sympathetic.
“Doesn’t this mean you can’t take the civil service exam anymore?!”
Ji Jue’s face flushed red, and he nearly spat out a mouthful of blood. After going through so much hardship to finally obtain this sage-legacy matrix, you don’t even say it’s impressive, and instead you only care about whether I can still take the civil service exam? That’s some serious attack power! Always striking from completely unexpected angles. As expected of you, Ye Chun!
“If that’s the case, then I won’t bother pretending to be a gentleman anymore…”
Ji Jue’s face instantly darkened. He mercilessly shook off her hand, then pulled out a thick stack of papers he had just printed on the way back from his backpack. He handed it to Professor Ye with a serious expression.
“Ms. Ye, this is my paper. I wrote it on the way here. Please take a look and see if there’s anything that needs revising. Oh right, has Ye Chun handed in hers? I didn’t delay things too much, did I?”
He even turned back to Ye Chun and gave a mocking smile. He had originally planned to give her a second-author spot depending on her performance.
What a pity. That chance was gone now.
Snap!
The jar of nuts nearly slipped out of her hand and hit the floor.
Ye Chun stiffly turned her head, completely stunned, as if she had finally seen through Ji Jue’s true nature.
A bastard! Auntie, he’s a bastard! Even when he’s away, he still thinks about how to outwork me every single day. I even gave him so many snacks so he could rest a lot, and this is how he repays me?!
“Just leave it there, I’ll look at it later.” Professor Ye took a sip of strong tea, calmly enjoying the familiar sight of her student and niece bickering like cats and dogs. She added, almost casually, one more finishing blow. “Ye Chun’s should be coming in soon too, right?”
Ye Chun collapsed backward onto the sofa, staring at the ceiling, wiping away tears after losing the ability to speak.
So I’m the only one in this family who doesn’t belong here, huh?
After Ji Jue sat down, the report finally began.
“Alright, go on then,” Professor Ye said, waving her hand. “You rarely go out. How were the gains?”
“I secured Pacifier.” Ji Jue raised his hands, ready to show off again. But Professor Ye merely glanced at them and seemed to immediately confirm the authenticity. She didn’t say anything, leaving him no chance to bask in it at all.
“And then?” she asked.
“…I also got an Ember blessing. It seems pretty powerful.” Ji Jue hesitated slightly, then gave an embarrassed smile. “I accidentally… leveled up.”
“Hm?”
This time, Professor Ye paused. The teacup froze in the air before she could bring it to her lips. She carefully examined Ji Jue, and after confirming there were no signs of corruption or runaway mutation, she nodded.
“Bit fast, but not too strange. I’ll help you reinforce your fundamentals later. What else did you get?”
“Just a bunch of miscellaneous things, including some fixtures and materials from Mercury’s workshop, and some alchemical constructs. There were also some blessings in there, but unfortunately they’ve been without spiritual maintenance for too long, so they’ve all degraded back to their original states.
“I’ll bring them up later for you to take a look. It’s just that…” He hesitated for a moment, cautiously observing Professor Ye’s expression. “…I might have brought too many.”
“Too many?” Professor Ye caught onto the subtle inflation typical of academic exaggeration. She didn’t like vague summaries like that. “How much is ‘too many?’”
“Uh… about the kind of storage boxes engraved with the Eternal Gate emblem, expanded internally. Each one is roughly seven to eight cubic meters.”
That already sounded like a decent haul. Professor Ye gave a slight nod, just about to take a sip of tea in approval.
“…and there’s about a cartload of those boxes.”
She stopped sipping on her tea.
Ye Xian looked at her student, who was sitting there with his head lowered and looking properly well-behaved, and felt the urge to ask if he was joking. But when she turned her gaze toward the warehouse projection, she saw a three-wheeled scooter with a small mountain piled up in its cargo bed.
You went out for a trip, and even the number of wheels on the scooter increased?
Even for someone as experienced as Professor Ye, she couldn’t help but draw in a breath in quiet respect. With genuine curiosity, she asked, “How did you manage that?”
“Uh… I just explored as usual, really. The locals in the rift realm were pretty friendly. They told me to take whatever I wanted. The rest I just… picked it up from the ground. Yeah.”
Ji Jue thought it over, then chose honesty over everything else.
“And then I ran into Young Master Lou. We didn’t get along, so we fought. I figured that since I’d already offended him anyway, I might as well hold him hostage and make a big profit.”
This time, it was Professor Ye’s turn to fall silent. She studied Ji Jue’s face carefully, looking at his harmless, helpless, and pitiful expression. Then, she slowly raised her brows and asked, “Is his corpse still in one piece?”
1. Old hen soup is a deeply flavorful, collagen-rich broth made by slow-simmering a mature, egg-laying hen (typically over 1-year-old) for 3–4 hours. It is favored for its rich, intense taste, higher fat content, and medicinal properties in traditional, particularly Chinese, cuisine.
2. Similar to Lu Feng’s milk name “Xiaogou”, these are the second, third, fourth kids’ milk names. Er means ‘two’, San means ‘three’, Si means ‘four’, while Gou means ‘dog.’
