Translator: Sparrow Translations Editor: Sparrow Translations
The area that Lu Shu lived in was once a home for officials and dignitaries in the 70s, which was also known as the “West family courtyard”.
Following the constant development of the city, the original occupants moved out to a better place, leaving behind their old houses by either renting or selling them off.
Even as the past family courtyard transformed into the present-day slum, it was still considered quite an interesting place.
Lu Shu had initially rented the place due to its close proximity to Luo Cheng International School which made commuting easier. Furthermore, the apartment had a yard and a hut which would normally cost more than the price Lu Shu was paying.
There was a little path leading to their apartment upon entering the premises and by the time he had reached their stretch of cottages, it was already 9:40 pm and the sky had turned dark.
Just as Lu Shu was about to head into his apartment, his neighbor’s door opened.
The auntie whose medicine Lu Xiaoyu had always pestered for, walked out as a young man followed right behind her.
A faint yellow glow from the room enveloped the two and Lu Shu was shocked. The young man who stood behind the auntie had left a deep impression on him – “Zhi Wei”.
Just last night, Lu Shu once again noticed that Zhi Wei contributed 1 distress points to him.
Zhi Wei had left a significant mark in Lu Shu, which was nothing like the others.
He was present at the place where the incident had happened to Liang Che.
And Lu Shu spotted him yet again from the fire disaster news report the other day.
Hence, Lu Shu had already noticed and consciously linked him together with the metahuman situation. The only issue was that he was unsure of the other party’s actual identity and why was he always connected to incidents pertaining the metahumans.
Now that the other party had appeared at his neighbor’s house and was acting very familiar with her, Lu Shu felt that something was rather odd.
He had never thought that he would have a metahuman as a neighbor. Well given that one was a kind auntie and the other was a stroke-ridden grandpa, they had lived in the area for 10+ years.
It had never crossed Lu Shu’s mind that perhaps his own neighbors could be metahumans since one of them was just a kind-hearted auntie while the other was an elderly suffering a stroke. Even among the neighbors, it was mentioned that these two had already been living here for over 10 years.
However, with the appearance of Zhi Wei, it sounded a slight alarm in Lu Shu’s heart. If one of those neighbors were to be involved with a metahuman, there could come a day where Lu Shu would be implicated with the black coats. And that would definitely be a pain in the a**.
Lu Shu had first planned to keep silent and stand in the shadows from afar and would return to his place only after Zhi Wei had left as he did not want to be involved with the youth. On second thoughts, he realized that the pathway in front of his house was only 3 people wide and it was inevitable that he would be noticed. As such, he then proceeded ahead with his head hung low.
Only to hear Zhi Wei conversing in front of the door, “Auntie, there’s no need to sent me off. I’m grateful for the many years you have taken care of that old fart. He should feel better after consuming that pill and if there are other relics available, I will try my best to get my hands on them.”
The auntie whispered back, “No need to thank me, I was the one who initially volunteered to take care of him.”
” Alright then, I shall take my leave now,” as Zhi Wei walked out of the door. Just as he turned around, he spotted Lu Shu walking towards him with his head held low.
Zhi Wei’s eyes sparkled. Such a familiar silhouette, how could he possibly forget?
When he had gone to find the suspected metahuman Liang Che initially, he had met this teenager. Trying to be courteous then, he greeted him with “Hi, nice to meet you” and the reply he received had troubled him for days!
It wasn’t that he was triggered at the reply, but rather, the fact that he couldn’t think of a reply to Lu Shu’s words annoyed him the most even though he considered himself to be pretty witty and intelligent. This incident made him feel as though his intellect had deteriorated…
The embarrassment he felt made him remember this teenager and ever since then, he was always thinking of a way he could possibly answer to such a reply as “how happy exactly”! Zhi Wei felt that if he were to ever meet this teenager again, he definitely wouldn’t stumble on his words again. This time, he was prepared and was looking forward to what kind of expression Lu Shu would show the moment he gave his reply!
Imagining Lu Shu’s face filled with shock from his reply, he couldn’t resist but feel happy.
However, the issue was that he couldn’t find that teenager again. It was as though he had a nuclear warhead ready but was never able to launch it, causing him to feel awful inside.
If Lu Shu had known what Zhi Wei was thinking of exactly, he would understand as to why this dude had been contributing distress points to him up until last night…
With lips curled up in the corners and brimming with confidence, Zhi Wei walked up towards Lu Shu, “Hi, nice to meet you”.
“It’s too early for you to be happy,” Lu Shu had realized what Zhi Wei had planned when he heard what came out from his mouth – he was obviously looking for trouble! Lu Shu thought for a moment and delivered his reply to trigger Zhi Wei yet again. He continued to walk pass Zhi Wei and opened his door with his key, entering the house.
Leaving Zhi Wei stunned, he was feeling horrible entirely.
Why do you have so many tricks up your sleeves ?! How unreasonable can you get? I was being so polite in greeting you and in the end, all you have to say to me was that it was too early to be happy?!
Can’t you just conform to the logical flow of actions!
Chilled air in the early spring blew up from the ground at high speeds while Zhi Wei stood rooted to the ground with a priceless expression on his face.
He had never expected Lu Shu to throw out a reply that he could not follow up with…
“From Zhi Wei’s distress, +419!”
Zhi Wei turned his head rigidly and asked, “Auntie, does he live just beside you?”
“Oh you’re referring to Shu, his name is Lu Shu. Yeah, he lives just beside us and he’s a good kid, ” while she laughed at Zhi Wei being shot down by Lu Shu, as though she had seen an interesting scene.
Zhi Wei took in a deep breath, “Auntie, could you please not tell anyone about this.”
“Sure” as she smiled joyfully.
Lu Shu closed the door upon entering his house and took a look at distress points coming from Zhi Wei. Right after the initial chunk of 419 points, distress points were coming in constantly at a rate of +2 +2, compared to the previous rate of +1 +1 …
But more importantly, he was deep in thought, why did Zhi Wei appear here? Just when he had stunned Zhi Wei, Lu Shu was sure that from the other party came a strong energy surge, that energy surge, unfortunately, had surpassed Xi Fei’s.
This, however, was secondary and what Lu Shu could not help but think of was the actual reason as to why Zhi Wei would show up here. At that moment when he annoyed Zhi Wei, Lu Shu was certain that he felt a massive wave of energy being emitted from him. Such an amount of energy, could perhaps already surpass that of Xi Fei’s.
What kind of medicine did he offer to the elderly and what about the relics he had mentioned?
Zhi Wei said that “if there are other remains available”, which could be inferred that there are already relics available out there and that his ‘medicine’ originated from those remains.
There were too many things Lu Shu did not know of in this world and tonight was the first time he had heard of this foreign term – ‘remains’.
Even if he could confirm that Zhi Wei was a metahuman, what about the actual identity of his neighbors? That auntie said she had volunteered to take care of the elderly man and judging from her tone, it felt as though both of them were from some sort of organization. This was totally different from the rumors in the neighborhood which labeled her to be the daughter-in-law of the elderly man.
What the hell, the world had already started to take a turn in the opposite direction. How did his ordinary neighbors start becoming weird too?