Lin Mu thought about the sound mahjong he heard just before he hung up, glanced at Yan Gui, and thought that perhaps this was a bit too much?
He gently pulled Yan Xuanjing’s fur, and before I could say anything, Yan Xuanjing had simply turned and headed towards the city centre.
Lin Mu’s head was full of question marks, “where are you going?”
Yan Xuanjing answered in an extremely calm manner, “to buy some food and drinks.”
Lin Mu: “?”
Really don’t understand you great monsters.
“Can we just leave Yan Gui alone?” Lin Mu asked.
“In any case, we can’t help. As long as we don’t drag him down, that’s fine.” Yan Xuanjing turned back into his human form when he landed, and led Lin Mu into the mall.
What happened in the mountains didn’t reach the city, and the city centre was still as lively as always.
Looking out from the transparent skylight of the mall, one could see the financial centre just across the road.
Lin Mu’s impression of this place was quite deep, since the location he originally wanted to opened a flower shop at was near this area.
He had seriously examined this area before, and the rent was quite high, and of course, the flow of people was quite amazing.
Lin Mu still remembered the plans he had before he entered the sub-district office.
— First he would get a regular civil service job, then after saving a little, he would find a way to make some small investment or something. Slowly, he would save up money, then quit his job and open a store across the financial centre.
Lin Mu knew, many white-collared workers would buy a bunch of flowers on their way to work to decorate their cold office. With so much potential profit, as long as his deposit was enough, it wouldn’t be difficult to persist until he made a profit.
Opening a flower store and spending time with plants everyday was a life that his mother had hoped for.
At that time, he had always wanted to keep more memories about his mother — after all, that was the beginning of his existence in this world, and was his root.
It’s just that all the plans that he had made before died the day he started work.
Lin Mu didn’t come to the city centre very often, and now that he did, he was filled with emotions.
Yan Xuanjing didn’t intend to avoid how others looked at them, and boldly held Lin Mu’s hand into the supermarket.
When Yan Xuanjing had stopped in front of the shelves, Lin Mu was still in a daze, and crashed right into him. Before he could even respond to it, he had hugged Yan Xuanjing’s waist.
The fox spirit tilted his head, “what are you thinking about?”
“Thinking about the me before.” Lin Mu followed behind Yan Xuanjing and rambled on about the childish and naive thoughts he had in the past.
“Now that I think about it, it was really naive–” Lin Mu smiled after he said that, then turned around to push two shopping carts over.
“Isn’t the group you talked about not doing too well lately?” As Yan Xuanjing said, he directly swept across a whole shelf, taking two of each item.
“Ay?” Lin Mu paused, “you actually pay attention to such things?”
Lin Mu himself didn’t care too much about financial matters, so he didn’t pay much attention to this type of news at all. Naturally, he didn’t know much about his grandfather’s situation.
To pay attention to his grandfather’s situation was something he did when he was still insensible a few years ago, always watching the news while hoping for something to happen to them. This kind of behaviour was a bit like a rat in a gutter, incapable of doing anything, and could only get angry.
In any case, after he had something he wanted to do, Lin Mu stopped looking at those things.
After all, nothing was as important as having a good life himself.
Yan Xuanjing shook his head, “just incidentally saw it.”
Lin Mu knew that recently, Yan Xuanjing was doing research on human society, so it wasn’t surprising that he had collected newspapers and read it.
“Well…… now, I don’t really care.” Lin Mu looked at the shopping cart which had gotten filled within minutes, and brought another one over, “instead, I hope that both Uncles could have a better result.”
“I can no longer be considered a pure human being now…… thinking of it this way makes me feel like I’m living in a separate world from them.”
Lin Mu muttered.
“It feels as if a layer of film separates me from things I used to care about before, and slowly, I can’t really remember them at all.”
Yan Xuanjing heard his words, turned his head to look at Lin Mu while holding a bag of chips, then nodded, “en.”
The nine-tailed fox wasn’t that surprised about this point.
After leaving the category of ordinary humans, strictly speaking, they couldn’t be regarded in the same species as humans.
If the current Lin Mu went out with or for a meal with his previous friends and classmates, he was bound to feel out of place.
It’s not about xenophobic pride or something, but it was the truth that they were living outside the ordinary human race, so indeed, there was a sudden sense of heterogeneity.
After spending some time in the Great Wilderness, Lin Mu would have much less involvement with the human side, and in the end, what would be kept in his head, will only be his mother who gave him his most wonderful memories.
“I’ll push a few more shopping carts here,” Lin Mu said.
Yan Xuanjing nodded, and went to take another bunch of drinks again.
Probably because of fate, Lin Mu met his second uncle’s family while taking the cart.
Both him and his second uncle paused.
“……” Lin Mu froze on the stop for a while, then nodded and called, “second uncle.”
Lin Hongkuo was stunned by his cry, and his lips trembled twice. He twitched out a smile and greeted back.
“This is Lin Mu — the one I’ve been telling you about all the time,” he told his family.
“I remember.” The gentle-looking woman smiled at Lin Mu, “the autumn chrysanthemums at home are blooming well.”
“Hello, Auntie.”
Lin Mu smiled at them and pulled out three shopping carts.
This was the first time Lin Mu had officially met his younger uncle’s family.
Their days seemed to be quite good. Lin Mu remembered that the boy who should be considered his younger cousin was in his third year of university, and his sister should be in her first year.
Lin Mu greeted them and pushed the cart away, ready to leave, “have fun shopping, I’ll……”
“Let’s shop together.” His second uncle said.
Lin Mu hesitated for a bit, and said, “I came with my boyfriend.”
His second uncle’s whole family paused, “boyfriend.”
“En,” Lin Mu nodded.
His second uncle was confused.
It was his aunt who had responded first, “is he good to you?”
“Really good.”
Lin Mu showed a smile again, but this time, his smile was much more real than before, and the two sweet dimples at the corner of his mouth appeared, and he looked as if he was in a much better mood.
The atmosphere got better, and his second uncle wanted to speak, but didn’t know how to say it, and in the end, swallowed his words back into his stomach with a step from his aunt.
He pushed the shopping cart following his son and daughter, and didn’t say a single word.
Lin Mu glanced at him, thought for a bit, and still said, “recently, I’ve been planning to go abroad with him — and probably won’t come back in the future.”
His second uncle’s eyes widened, and just as he wanted to say something, he was dragged back by his own children as they told him about the environment homosexuals had to face within and out of the country.
His aunt nodded understandingly, and said, “that’s good too.”
“I’ll trouble you to tell my first uncle too.” Lin Mu said.
He didn’t have much ties.
His old classmates wouldn’t come looking for him, and he didn’t have really close friends. He did have people from the same village, but it wouldn’t matter once he moved away, and he only had these two relatives.
If he counted it carefully, if he wanted to go to the Great Wilderness, all the people he needed to inform could be counted with a single hand.
“Then what about Qingyao Village’s demolition?” His second uncle asked in a low, muffled voice.
“Still need.” Lin Mu answered, “could I try to buy that land down?”
His second uncle asked, “aren’t you going abroad?”
“But I want this land.” Lin Mu looked at Yan Xuanjing who was currently holding a bunch of snacks with nowhere to put them, and the two shopping carts that were filled with items, smiled and said lightly, “what if one day, Mum comes back? I’m scared she can’t find her way home.”
Yan Xuanjing glanced over, and Lin Mu ran over pushing the three shopping carts, and let him put everything in his arms into the cart.
The several humans stared at Yan Xuanjing, and it wasn’t until the fox spirit’s cold glance swept over them that they shivered, suddenly returned to their senses and took back their gaze.
They stood at the end of the shelves, and hesitated, but stopped moving forward.
Yan Xuanjing asked in a low voice, “is that your uncle?”
“En.” Lin Mu nodded, glanced over in that direction, and realised that in the end, they had approached. He told Yan Xuanjing, “I’m planning to buy the land.”
— Strictly speaking, a reincarnated soul wouldn’t have anything to do with their past life.
Yan Xuanjing was planning to say that, but when he looked at Lin Mu who was looking down and picking snacks, the words that reached his mouth made a circle and ran back. He nodded his head, and said, “let Qin Chuan and the rest watch it for a while.”
If not.
It was also possible to build an additional management office there, since it was close to the passageway.
Lin Mu reached out with a hand, “I might not have enough money.”
Yan Xuanjing simply gave him the card.
Anyway, this money was provided by Di Wu’s subordinates, it would be a waste not to spend it.
Lin Mu put away the card, and his whole entire person became a lot happier.
The few humans who had listened to Yan Xuanjing’s and Lin Mu’s conversation had somewhat complicated feelings. They looked back and forth between Yan Xuanjing and Lin Mu, and even until after both of them had swept all the snacks off the shelves, they still didn’t say anything.
— Every time they wanted to say something, the chilling gaze of Lin Mu’s boyfriend would sweep over them, and his expression was so cold that people wouldn’t dare to speak out.
Lin Mu had greeted the only relative he needed to greet, and cheerfully left the supermarket pushing a bunch of shopping carts. He found a small corner that didn’t have any surveillance and shoved the snacks into the small fabric bag, and was carried by Milky all the way back. Just as he entered the mountains, he was met with a face full of fog.
Lin Mu made a light sound of astonishment, “this is…… Nie Shen, right?”
“En. He had probably turned back because he sensed the resentful energy.” Milky’s vision was unobstructed, and went onto the familiar path towards the main mountain peak.
As soon as they entered, they heard the shuffling of tiles.
A mahjong table, a Fight the Landlord game, and a bunch of little monsters at the side playing Hopscotch and jump rope.
There were two victims sitting with their backs facing each other, one on the mahjong’s side, and the other on the Fight the Landlord’s side.
One was Nie Shen, the other was Qin Chuan. They were covered in pieces of paper, and one could vaguely see that under those papers, their limbs had ugly flower tattoos drawn all over them, and there seemed to be a giant turtle on their face.
Di Wu rubbed his hands, “Nie Shen discarded a tile, all my tiles are the same suit in sets of threes! Another sticker!”
Lin Mu looked at Nie Shen’s expression under the layers of notes, and he seemed even more confused than the first time they met.
A sleepy, sleepy couch potato that adores BL. Only second to sleeping.
If you enjoy reading the novels, consider buying some caffeine to perk up this sleepy potato.
I bet that shopping was expensive. But well, DW pays lololol Can I borrow this card? :3
Thx for the ch (ㅅ˘ㅂ˘)
Thanks for the chapter! This is a bit bittersweet… it reminds me of the manga/anime ‘Natsume’s Book of Friends”, because many stories are about how difficult love and friendship between humans and supernatural beings can be due to the disconnect in time spans, culture, and views… But where Natsume is trying to develop and balance better connections to both worlds because there are people and things he cares about in each, Lin Mu pretty much only has a deep attachment to his house, and possibly his mother’s grave. The relationship he might have developed with his uncles came too late to matter. As he said, when he came to work his current job, that pretty much killed all the dreams he had wanted to accomplish in human society.
I thought of Natsume too. A lonely person that finds his place in both worlds. <3
I never really understood mahjong.. nor poker card games even though I know of people who play them during the Chinese New Year. My family ain’t the type to play games like these :’) so I don’t really brain what’s going on.. which is probably what Nie Shen is experiencing now, so I could relate. Thanks for the chapter! 😀
Thanks for the update
The ending where Nie Shen looked even more confused then when they first met cracked me up