Chapter 37: A Quiet Dinner

Father lost his temper again. This was the usual state of affairs.

He was almost constantly enraged, and when he flew into a violent rage, he would hit people. He hit Mother, and he hit Little Sister as well. Only he rarely laid a hand on Lu Xin himself. Because every time he tried to touch Lu Xin, Mother would get angry, and whenever Mother was angry, it always managed to intimidate him back. But what Lu Xin couldn’t understand was why, under most circumstances, Mother wouldn’t actually stop or threaten him.

However, this time things were a little strange. Little Sister actually dared to talk back.

In the past, whenever she angered Father, she would immediately slip away or hide.

“You snot-nosed brat, you’re asking for death!”

Little Sister’s defiant retort only fueled Father’s fury further. He paced frantically inside the room, his gaze fierce enough to devour someone alive, as he cursed viciously, “Don’t think that just because you stole something to eat outside and got a little stronger, you dare talk back to me! How dare you secretly eat that stuff behind my back… If you’ve got guts, then never come back at all! But if you do come back, I’ll make sure you remember this properly…”

“Fine, I won’t come back then!”

Little Sister was hanging upside down from the ceiling, her black hair disheveled, snapping back fiercely, “When I get bigger, it’ll be your turn…”

“You think you’ll even get the chance to grow up?”

“Once I grow up, I will tear you to pieces and make you into a doll…”

“Roar…”

“Hiss…”

…

“Sigh…”

Lu Xin slowly walked forward while listening to their quarrel, arriving at the doorway.

“So you do remember to come home?”

Father’s tall frame blocked the light spilling from the room, casting a thick, blood-like darkness.

Seeing Lu Xin, his fury visibly intensified. Eyes bulging, he stared fixedly at him.

Lu Xin kept his head down and said, “I bought groceries.”

Father seemed stunned for a moment. His palpable anger hit a wall, finding no immediate outlet.

Lu Xin raised his left hand slightly. “And a bottle of wine. For you.”

For an instant, the ferocious expression on Father’s face froze solid.

Lu Xin slowly raised his head and looked directly at Father. “Can we have a quiet meal today?”

Father fell utterly silent. His anger was still clear as day.

But the expected, torrent of abuse didn’t erupt as usual.

“Yes, Miss Chen, you’ve moved here now, so we’ll be neighbors then! They say neighbors are more important than distant relatives. We really should look out for each other… No trouble at all, no trouble at all! Rest well today, and come visit sometime…”

In the living room, Mother, exquisitely and elegantly dressed, was on the phone. This time, she hung up relatively quickly. Smiling, she leaned against the windowsill and called out gently, “What are you waiting for? Don’t keep the children outside. Oh my, look at all these groceries he bought! So plentiful. Come in quickly! The whole family is waiting to have dinner for you! Because of you, I’ve even been rude to my friend…”

Father moved aside silently, coldly, leaving just a gap.

Lu Xin carried the groceries inside, but Little Sister remained warily watching Father from the hallway.

Mother helped lay out the napkins. Glancing at the groceries Lu Xin brought, she smiled. “You seem in a decent mood today. Did you go to the Orphanage?”

Lu Xin nodded and put the groceries down.

At the words “Orphanage,” both Father inside the room and Little Sister in the hallway suddenly turned their gazes towards him.

Their looks were peculiar.

A short while later, Mother took Lu Xin’s groceries to prepare them. Father and Little Sister both returned to their seats at the table.

This meal was eaten in silence, yet it was strangely the most peace they had experienced in a long time.

Only occasionally would Father, Mother, and Little Sister exchange surreptitious glances, each time revealing an odd expression on their faces.

…

After the meal, Lu Xin went downstairs and started doing some light exercises.

Last time, with Little Sister’s help, he had dealt with Special Contaminant-041. But afterwards, he felt utterly exhausted; he even had some backache and muscle pain the next day. He understood well that it was due to his lack of physical training. Every exertion now left him feeling spent. So, starting from then on, he had made it a habit to go downstairs for a walk after dinner every day, hoping to gradually improve his physical fitness.

Jump twice, hop twice, jog a hundred meters back and forth. Lu Xin felt he was trying hard.

Especially after finding this job dealing with contamination sources, everything suddenly felt so much more full of promise.

Even the Crimson Moon hanging in the sky seemed to take on a more vibrant glow.

Lu Xin had been jogging slowly for a while, pondering whether to add ten push-ups, when the light of the Crimson Moon flickered almost imperceptibly.

Out of the shadows in a corner, a Dagger flew towards him.

The Dagger made almost no sound, yet it was unnervingly fast. In an instant, it was aimed precisely at Lu Xin’s leg.

Lu Xin was utterly startled. He barely had time to turn around.

But even before he could fully turn, the Dagger had already reached him.

Yet, the Dagger still failed to strike him.

Little Sister dropped down lightly from a nearby lamppost. In the split second it took for the spark to fly from the flint, she snatched the Dagger right out of the air.

“Who is it?”

Only then did Lu Xin find the breath to shout out, his gaze wary as it scanned the shadows.

“Hah! Not bad! As expected of the same line as my ability system! Your reflexes are pretty sharp!”

Where Lu Xin looked, no one was there. But then, from the shadows behind him, a voice rang out. Lu Xin hurriedly spun around and saw a figure descending nonchalantly from the side of a building. This person was treating the vertical building face as level ground, stepping down one deliberate step at a time until he was about a meter above the ground, when he then hopped lightly onto the street and stood upright.

He was a young man wearing a trench coat and large sunglasses, yet sporting a bright, cheery smile.

First, he raised both hands defensively. “I just wanted to test you!”

Then he walked towards Lu Xin, hand outstretched. “Let me introduce myself. Gecko. Colonel Chen sent me.”

“Gecko?”

Lu Xin immediately remembered the name. Hearing Chen Jing’s name only confirmed the man’s origin. But he didn’t take the offered handshake. His brow furrowed tightly. “Do you realize how dangerous that was?”

“Dangerous?”

The man called Gecko looked genuinely baffled. “Come on, man! For us Spider-Types, does that even count as dangerous?”

Lu Xin silently turned his head and glanced around.

Little Sister was squatting nearby, her hand clutching the Dagger she had planted in the ground. Her eyes were dark and icy, regarding Gecko with unmistakable ill intent.

She seemed particularly focused on his neck, as if itching to take a bite out of it.

Upstairs, silhouettes of Father and Mother had appeared at the street-side window. Externally expressionless, they peered down at the scene below.

It had been a long time since he’d seen his family so… aligned.

“The danger,” Lu Xin said in a low voice, “was all yours.”

He started walking towards the other end of the street alley. “Follow me. Quickly.”

“…”

“C’mon, Brother, really? No need to be like this…” The man called Gecko scratched his head, awkwardly following Lu Xin as he walked along and tried to explain. “It was just a greeting! In our squad, people greet each other with guns! Said it was to maintain situational alertness…”

“Here I am, finally made it across two Satellite Cities to find you, and you don’t even invite me upstairs for a visit! And you’re this ticked off…”

“…”

He actually wanted to come upstairs…

Lu Xin genuinely didn’t know what to say this time. After a moment’s thought, he responded with utmost seriousness, “Next time for sure!”