Chapter 147: Have Been Looking for You for a Long Time

Lu Xin walked forward with Mother and Little Sister along the well-paved cement path of the town.

They passed row after row of crowded shacks toward the back of the town Mother had just pointed to.

Behind them, the followers grew increasingly numerous, forming quite a sizable crowd that trailed him discreetly.

Whenever Lu Xin turned around, the crowd would jerk to a halt, eyes glistening faintly in the darkness as they stared at him.

Soft rustling whispers could now be heard from the rooms lining the path.

Behind the darkened windows, one could sense pair after pair of eyes tracking them warily throughout their journey.

Little Sister would sometimes whirl around, snarling viciously toward the blackened windows, but Mother strolled ahead as if utterly unconcerned. She seemed to relish this attention, almost as if she were walking a catwalk.

Although, to be precise, the townsfolk seemed to be fixated solely on Lu Xin.

“It’s fortunate I have Mother and Little Sister alongside me…”

This thought crossed Lu Xin’s mind as well.

In such a silent, aberrant town, entering alone would have filled him with sheer terror.

It’d feel like standing amidst a crowd of aberrants, himself becoming the anomaly.

But with family beside him, the sensation was entirely different.

……

Under the silent scrutiny of countless eyes, they arrived uneventfully at the town’s edge.

Mother vaguely recalled lights shining here earlier, but they’d switched off the moment Lu Xin entered town.

These houses appeared no different from the others—equally silent and dark. Several rooms clustered together, more prominent as they stood at the very fringe compared to the tightly packed structures elsewhere.

“I only remember it was roughly this area—I truly don’t recall which exact shack it was!”

Mother’s voice held a note of self-reproach as she drew a scissors from her handbag and snipped lightly behind Lu Xin’s back.

Snip…

The sound was crisp and clear.

Lu Xin sensed that Mother must have cut something invisible, though the gloom cloaking this Crimson Moon-lit town made it impossible to see. He trusted Mother’s judgment implicitly, so he dismissed his curiosity and focused instead on examining the shacks, wondering if Qin Ran hid within one of them.

A moment later, he inhaled deeply, a frown forming. “Do you smell that fragrance?”

Both Mother and Little Sister looked at him curiously.

Lu Xin murmured, “It smells like cooking meat…”

Speaking this answer aloud, he was reminded of his first encounter with Qin Ran back in Satellite City No.2. Qin Ran had meticulously devoured steamed buns, dumplings, and pickled vegetables with greedy intensity—ravenous as though perpetually starved.

This town held no strange scents, only the floral fragrance drifting in from the nearby Flower Field.

Only here, by these particular shacks, did Lu Xin detect that distinct aroma of cooked meat.

Thus, deep within his heart, conviction solidified.

……

“So, what’s our next move?” Mother asked him with a gentle smile. Was it a test? Or was she simply teasing him, wanting to see him troubled?

“Easy enough—if they’re inside, we’ll find out by opening the doors.”

Lu Xin swept his gaze over this isolated cluster of shacks. Compared to searching every door in town, trying only these few clearly required far less effort.

Mother’s smile deepened.

Yet Lu Xin continued, “But here’s the thing: if we kick these doors in and find them straight off, fine. But if we don’t… it’ll trigger chaos immediately. That’s exactly when whoever might be hiding in another hut would seize the chance to slip away.”

Mother nodded slightly and gestured subtly into the distance, saying, “That’s not the whole story either…”

Lu Xin followed her gaze. The townsfolk who had trailed them now formed a dense, murky mass. Wielding various tools, they crowded within the deeper shadows, watching him with agitated, restless eyes. Though they hadn’t charged him yet, it felt like a tension ready to snap at any moment.

“Big Brother! I found a secret!”

Little Sister’s voice suddenly whispered by Lu Xin’s ear, filled with mystery and thrill. Her eyes sparkled with an excited, secretive gleam. “This place—there’s something super fun!” She emphasized with wide-eyed earnestness, giving the adjective extra weight: “Super duper fun!”

Both Lu Xin and Mother turned to regard her with matching expressions of mild pity at her belated eureka moment.

“We knew about that long ago…”

……

Directly pushing open the door didn’t seem wise, and waiting indefinitely wasn’t an option either…

Lu Xin fell into deep thought.

……

“Uncle…”

Just then, a clear voice interrupted Lu Xin’s contemplation.

From the crowd gathered not far away, a boy of about eight or nine suddenly emerged. He stumbled his way towards Lu Xin, finally stopping in front of him and stretching out his small hand. “Uncle, eat jujube…”

Lu Xin saw several red, wild jujubes clutched in his little palm.

The boy looked quite adorable; it was just that his face seemed unwashed, smudged and grimy.

There was a faint smile on his face too, only it held a touch more liveliness than the others.

Looking at this kind little boy, Lu Xin slowly smiled.

Then he crouched down, looked seriously at the boy, and lowered his voice: “That’s very rude. Who are you calling ‘Uncle’?”

The little boy’s expression stiffened slightly.

Not only was Lu Xin crouching in front of him, smiling; behind Lu Xin, Mother and Little Sister were looking at the boy and smiling too.

His voice, almost instinctively, became timid and hesitant: “B… Big Brother?”

The smile on Lu Xin’s face grew more genuine. He took the wild jujubes from the boy’s hand and patted his head.

“That’s very obedient of you…”

The little boy gave a shiver, slipped away, scurried back into the crowd, and vanished.

……

“They are definitely here, and I’ve figured out what to do.”

Lu Xin stood up, smiling as he looked towards Mother and Little Sister.

As he spoke, he walked a full circle around the cluster of buildings. He looked towards the back of the houses where a hillside planted with rows of pine and cypress trees stood. “Those pine and cypress trees burn very easily,” Lu Xin stated. “So, go gather a large amount, pile it next to these rooms, and set it alight. That way, we won’t need to push the doors open. The people inside will come out on their own…”

Little Sister’s eyes instantly lit up. She clapped her small hands together. “Big Brother is amazing…”

Mother’s face also broke into a gentle smile.

Lu Xin handed the wild jujubes to Little Sister, then decided it was time to go collect some dry pine and cypress branches from the hillside.

“You’re not seriously considering that, are you?”

Just then, a somewhat helpless voice rang out.

Immediately afterwards, the door to one of the nearby buildings opened, and a man wearing camouflage fatigues stepped out.

This man appeared to be in his thirties, with a holster hanging at his waist and a red beret on his head. His skin was coarse and dark – the complexion typical of someone who had spent long periods traversing the wilderness. A scar ran next to his left eye. He had a very sturdy build. His right hand was empty, while his left held a partially eaten roasted ear of corn. He leaned against the door frame, giving Lu Xin a bitter smile.

Qin Ran.

Lu Xin stared carefully at the man’s face. It really was Qin Ran.

He looked exactly the same as the Qin Ran Lu Xin had met at the Sifang Transportation Company, his very demeanor identical.

Moreover, Lu Xin was certain: this Qin Ran was the very one who had ambushed him and Chen Jing and stolen that painting.

Found him.

……

Lu Xin slowly placed the bag he was holding on the ground, his expression turning serious.

He glanced at Mother. She was smiling, but her figure seemed to become somewhat indistinct, as if countless shadows were overlapping. Then, in every surrounding intersection and alley, at every dead-end spot, her graceful figure simultaneously appeared.

He glanced next at Little Sister. Little Sister was running excitedly towards him, stretching out her small hand to grasp his. She was still munching on the wild jujubes, crunching loudly. Her little body was slightly hunched, and beneath the dark hair falling across her face, her eyes were gleaming with excitement.

Only then did Lu Xin truly relax. He turned his gaze back to Qin Ran, a smile spreading across his own face. “I’ve been looking for you for several days.”