Nestled in the workshop chair, Lin Mu stared at the photo alb.u.m spread out on the table.
The photo alb.u.m and records that his mother had left behind held no information about her family at all. Not even the littlest bit of related information was left for him.
Lin Mu always thought that his mom didn"t leave any information was because she had fallen out with her family, and there was no need for her to contact her family again.
For more than a decade, although the mother and the son pair had not lived that well, and a lot of things need to be worthwhile before they could be bought, but at least they had food to eat and clothing to wear.
Since their living requirements weren"t that high, there really wasn"t any need to contact his grandfather"s side.
His mother could even stand rolling about in the wild, so naturally, she could withstand this ordinary life. After so many years, even through working hard and being tired, she had a happy life.
And also, there were no difficulties that they encountered which needed them to contact his grandfather"s side.
So Lin Mu had always took it as if he had no other relatives.
Anyways, it didn"t affect him.
Lin Mu was in a daze, and the mobile phone on his desk vibrated a little.
He glanced over at his phone"s screen, and realised that it was information from the big boss displayed on the screen.
Picking up his phone and unlocking it, Lin Mu realised that the big boss had ordered three pots of Cyclamens from him.
Lin Mu paused, tapped his fingers on the screen for a few times, got stuck for a while, then deleted a whole bunch of words and replied with an ‘okay".
Before he had time to put down his phone, the big boss had sent another message.
He asked Lin Mu: You don"t have anything to ask?
Lin Mu"s fingers hovered on the screen for a long while and didn"t know how to answer.
He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask.
But when he thought about it, the answers were already reflected to him.
Why would such a rich person like Uncle Zhao always order potted plants from him every half a year?
Not talking about whether these flowers and plants were good for raising, even if it was a flower that was difficult to raise, every year, during flowering seasons, what kind of flowers couldn"t be bought in the flower market or in various flower exhibitions?
Even Lin Mu himself, would take the better flowers and plants that he had raised and joined in the fun, and also won prizes during the flower show and received some prize money.
And not to mention he had also met a few bosses who wanted to buy flowers.
But these kind of bosses wouldn"t order flowers from him a year and a half in advance, and also get two or three pots a month.
Lin Mu called Uncle Zhao a big boss because he provided a great amount of business.
So great to the extent that amount of flowers Lin Mu sold in a year, other than some small orders for a few high-end places, nearly a quarter of them were handed over to Uncle Zhao.
He said he ordered it for friends, or he wanted it for himself, or he sent it to his elders, all kinds of reasons.
Now that he thought about it, it was basically sending him money.
Lin Mu"s hesitant finger on the screen paused, typed out a string of words, hesitated again, and deleted the words ‘Lin Hongsheng", and changed it to ‘Uncle".1Lin Mu uses 小舅舅. 小 (younger/small) 舅舅 (uncle on your mother"s side.)
After a while, he deleted ‘Uncle", and replaced it with a ‘his".
Lin Mu asked the big boss: Was it his idea to buy flowers from me?
At the other end of the phone, Lin Hongsheng looked at this reply, and with a face full of pain, turned to look at his friend who was happily looking at the Rhododendron that Lin Mu had sent over, who couldn"t seem to bear to part with it.
“How do I reply to this?”
Uncle Zhao turned and glanced over, took the phone, and gave a very serious reply: I like flowers. He introduced, and other than your flowers, no others can go through three rounds in my hands.
Lin Mu looked at this reply, was stunned for two seconds, and thought about the tragedy he had seen when he first went to the big boss" viewing room in his house, and couldn"t help but chuckle.
He had once suggested that the big boss hire a special gardener to take care of it, but the big boss was very stubborn and always felt that he could.
In the end, he still relied on him to go down once a month or two to help take care of it.
Lin Mu looked at his and thought for a while on how to reply, and a lot of news were sent by the other side one after another.
It was some things about his mother"s family.
Lin Mu slowly flipped through, and his heart wasn"t touched by his two uncles.
Just two ordinary people.
Unwilling to accept the risks and losses of completely breaking away from their family, but still trying to pursue their own lives while enjoying the resources.
Some parents would choose to indulge their children, give them many things, and then let them grow freely. Yet others would strictly control them, treating their children like their own belongings, and did not allow them to take a step outside the road they had set.
His grandfather was obviously the latter, and for the two who wanted to fly but had no courage to break free, the world simply didn"t follow their wishes.
His older uncle was a coward, and he hoped that his younger sister and brother could succeed where he had failed.
The younger uncle was protected by his brother and sister, and was very afraid of meeting his grandfather.
Both uncles, one was forty-five and the other forty- and they were both living in the shadow of their grandfather. Even small things like attending the funeral of their sister and taking care of their nephew, they would have to secretly look at the other"s att.i.tude. Neither of them succeeded.
His mother simply left, but seemed the most comfortable.
Lin Mu looked at the chat record which had been swept to the end by him, and his heart didn"t waver.
Living in this world, who didn"t have a few stories of hardship?
But one thing at a time.
Although he felt nothing towards their affairs, but the convenience that they gave to him should be returned.
Lin Mu tapped on the phone screen and thanked him for the past, and wondered how to repay the kindness of his two uncles that he hadn"t been able to find all these years.
He finally realised where this part of his personality that remembered grudges came from.
He had already said, the father in his dreams looked gentle, warm and quiet, and didn"t seem to have a character that seeks revenge.
It turned out to be inherited from his mother.
Now that he thought about it, his mother asked him to call his grandfather to collect her corpse, and maybe she had hoped the two brothers could come here and take care of him later.
In particular, his mother had lived in A City for so many years and hadn"t seen her relatives, was probably because his grandfather was meddling in the middle.
After all, A City isn"t that big. They had lived in the suburbs for so many years and bought a house here, how could his grandfather have not known?
For so many years, Lin Mu has never seen any of his mother"s relatives — not even mention relatives visiting, even phone calls came from a few friends and meteors.
Only, the mother in his memories seemed very gentle, and it was really impossible to see the rebellion in her bones.
Lin Mu placed down his mobile phone and closed the alb.u.m. He glanced out of the window, and from the second floor, he could see the tip of the gla.s.s house that was under construction.
Several little monsters were carefully putting the gla.s.s on, applying the waterproof glue and protective coating, and occasionally turned around to look at his room.
The small mimosa peered into the room and met sight with Lin Mu, paused for two seconds, then smiled shyly at Lin Mu and waved the brush happily.
With this wave, the glue on the brush was flung around, and stuck to the face of the small potato beside her.
Lin Mu and the little monsters were shocked, and he didn"t care about whether he was sad or something, and bounced up from the chair, rushing out of the room.
The little potato felt wronged and turned back to his original form, and let Lin Mu help him wipe off the glue on his body.
The little mimosa who did the wrong thing anxiously apologised at the side, her eyes were red and filled with anxiety, as if she would cry out the next second.
The big mimosa was comforting her two little friends, and seeing that the comfort seemed to be useless, she also sniffled, and her tears started to trickle.
The Ginseng Baby hurriedly brought out a few bowls of double skin milk2A pudding made out of milk, sugar, and egg whites. , comforted his friends in a quiet voice, and gave a bowl of double skin milk to each person.
But his little friends couldn"t be coaxed no matter what, and the little Ginseng"s eyes also turned red, and he sniffled as he held the bowl, looking at Lin Mu.
Lin Mu: “……”
After pondering for a while, he asked, “all of you don"t have a name yet, right? Do you want to give yourself a name?”
The few little monsters heard, and instantly stopped their sobs and sniffles.
Yan Xuanjing made a turn outside and came back with a cage of cooing pigeons. When he came back, he saw the sun essence lingering in the yard, and Lin Mu was squatting down beside a basin, cleaning a potato.
Surrounding him were three little ones, and the two mimosas were scooping from a bowl of double skin milk, and since Lin Mu couldn"t reach out, the Ginseng Baby would feed him a spoonful at a time.
Looking at the small blush on the little Ginseng"s face, it seemed that he was reveling in the fact that he could feed Lin Mu.
Yan Xuanjing looked at Lin Mu"s expression and felt that Lin Mu didn"t need to be comforted.
He walked over, glanced at little ones and said, “eating potatoes today? I brought pigeons.”
The three small monsters and Lin Mu paused, then turned to look at the great monster who was carrying some pigeons.
The Ginseng Baby"s shivered a little as he held the double skin milk, and stammered out in a childish tone, “you, you, you3regular you…… you4polite form of you don"t eat Lin Potato, he just gained spiritual awareness not too long ago, and isn"t delicious.”
Lin Potato?
For a moment, Yan Xuanjing was at a loss.
“They just gave themselves a name.” Lin Mu explained, and pointed them out to Yan Xuanjing, “Lin Ginseng, Lin Potato, Lin Big Mimosa, and Lin Little Mimosa.”
“……”
One could see that it was a name that could be chosen without studying.
Yan Xuanjing looked at the potato in Lin Mu"s hand, and then realised it wasn"t an ordinary potato, but a little monster.
No choice.
Lin Mu liked to eat potatoes, and it was time for dinner, and looking at how serious he was while cleaning the potato, for a moment, he hadn"t noticed.
“Won"t eat him.” Yan Xuanjing said, and placed the pigeons in his hand to the side.
Lin Mu glanced at the pigeons and said, “would you like to eat it?”
Yan Xuanjing nodded.
The little Ginseng put away the bowls, pulled the two mimosas, and also squatted to the side, observing Yan Xuanjing, who had just made a terrifying statement.
Lin Mu went into the house to boil some water. Yan Xuanjing looked at his back for a while, and leaned over to grab a pigeon out of the cage. With a ‘crack", he twisted and broke the pigeon"s neck. His hands were quick and accurate, and strived to let the pigeon die in the fastest time, then cut the neck of the bird and let it bleed.
Several small monsters who were watching in the dark nearby all sniffled.
In fact, they had seen Yan Xuanjing"s fierce moves when he fought with Lin Mu, but Lin Mu could continue jumping about quickly afterwards.
Yan Xuanjing killing an animal, they had really never seen it before.
“How, how fierce.” The little mimosa sniffled.
“Wuwu, en, en.” The little Ginseng nodded.
The little potato came up to him and said, “you guys don"t call Lin Mu fierce when he kills.”
The little Ginseng paused, and immediately performed a scene of double standards, “how can that be the same?”
The other three monsters listened to him, thought for a while, and shook their heads in unison.
Not the same.
Really not the same.
Lin Mu was gentle and soft, how could he be as scary as this nine-tailed fox.
Yan Xuanjing had heard the small movements in the corner clearly, but was too lazy to take care of them. He simply turned to look at Lin Mu coming out of the house.
Lin Mu waved at him and said happily, “it"s Da Hei!”
Yan Xuanjing nodded, and wasn"t surprised.
Lin Mu ran over and pressed the speaker.
Da Hei was here to report their safety and the progression of the task.
It"s better for a third person to know about these kinds of tasks, if not, all of the records would disappear if they died.
Da Hei said, they had sent out four monsters and three humans this time. As a result, they were trapped by the array set by Di Wu.
“We were gotten out by a newly arrived great monster, but Di Wu didn"t have any intention of killing us.” Da Hei looked at the villa in the resort and said, “the ingredients left in the refrigerator and the instant food, drinking water, fruits, were enough for those humans to eat for a month.”
It had turned out to be like that.
Now, Lin Mu understood what Di Wu had meant when he had called him, when the other party had told him not to care about it.
Da Hei muttered, “from my point of view, Di Wu doesn"t plan to touch us, and just wants to hold us back.”
“That"s good, since you guys have no negative karma on your body.” Lin Mu said, a little happy.
“En, that"s good news. But after we came out, we received two bad news.” Da Hei thought about the news that they had received and felt a bit of a headache, “Di Wu ended another Taoist Temple, just like before, killed them without leaving a single bit, and even the fish in the pond weren"t spared. This is number one.”
“……” Lin Mu opened his mouth, and closed it again, “then, number two?”
“In that Taoist Temple, in addition to Di Wu"s aura, there"s also Di Xiu"s aura.” Da Hei said, “you know about Di Xiu? One of the sacred trees, around the same level as Di Wu. It"s said that the relationship between them was very good, but I don"t know the specifics……”
On the other side, Da Hei was still rambling, but Lin Mu was frozen on the spot.
Yan Xuanjing looked at Lin Mu, but found out that Lin Mu"s eyes were red, and had starry tears streaming down.
The fox spirit was slightly startled, and stared somewhat bewildered at Lin Mu who was about to cry for a long time, then learnt the way Lin Mu had used to comfort the little Ginseng and patted his head.
“You didn"t wash your hands.” Lin Mu said, with a teary voice.
Yan Xuanjing looked down at his hands that were stained with pigeon blood, “……”
Lin Mu thought about Yan Xuanjing"s ident.i.ty as a nine-tailed fox, and thought about Yan Xuanjing"s father who used to be one of the great monsters that guarded Di Xiu"s valley, and sniffled, “you knew for some time, right? Di Xiu…… my father"s matter.”
Yan Xuanjing paused for two seconds, hesitated, then nodded.
Lin Mu stared with red eyes at Yan Xuanjing who had admitted, and couldn"t speak for a while.
Yan Xuanjing looked at how angry and sad Lin Mu looked, and looked at Lin Mu with a look of contemplation, then suddenly showed a look of sudden realisation, and under Lin Mu"s stare, approached and slightly bent down to kiss Lin Mu on the forehead.
He spoke, and his voice softened a little, like the cold snow of the mountains that had turned into a flowing spring under the sun.
“Don"t cry.”
He said.
The translator has this to add:
Double skin milk, or 雙皮奶. A type of smooth milk custard that resembles with two skins (formed from milk.) Click on the picture for a link to the recipe.
A sleepy, sleepy couch potato that adores BL. Only second to sleeping.