Bai Zemin naturally had no idea about the conversation Lilith and Shangguan Bing Xue shared after he left the scene.
It wasn’t that he had run away from there by any means but that he actually had something very important to do and that was why he left when Lilith pointed out the practically fully dawned dawn to him.
Although he knew that the two women were definitely having some perhaps not-so-pleasant talk, there wasn’t much Bai Zemin could do about it. In fact, he still found it difficult or rather could not even figure out a concrete reason why Lilith and Shangguan Bing Xue did not get along at all.
From the very first moment, the two met on the now collapsed bridge linking the north and south of Beijing, the two women practically became enemies at first sight.
Because of the lingering language problem, Bai Zemin first went for Kali and put her on his back. After descending the stairs, he put her in her wheelchair before looking for Bai Shilin and carrying her on his back while moving the wheelchair out of the house.
Since it was still very early, the number of people in the streets of the privileged area of the base was 0, so Bai Zemin had no problem getting home with the two little girls who were still sleeping comfortably after they realized that he was the one who was moving them.
Arriving at his parents’ house, Bai Zemin left Kali and Bai Shilin resting on the two big couches in the living room before walking to the kitchen.
As he walked through the corners of this house that he thought would take time to get used to calling home, for some reason he felt nostalgic as if he had lived there for his entire life even though he had actually only spent a few nights in this place.
“All right.” He muttered before getting down to business.
Bai Zemin was not the best chef in the world let alone the universe. In fact, he would most likely never become one. Princess Bianca of the Lidora Kingdom back in Eventide World was at least a hundred times better than him or anyone he had ever met when it came to the field of cooking.
However, he wasn’t bad.
His family’s house had everything he needed but Bai Zemin only used the seasonings since he had higher quality ingredients in his storage ring.
Just as he was taking out some vegetables he gathered at Eventide World during the week he was away from the castle while the competition of kingdoms was taking place, the sound of small footsteps behind him followed by Bai Shilin’s voice made him turn around to see the girl rubbing her eyes.
“Father, breakfast?”
“Yup, I’ll prepare breakfast today. Shilin want to eat the food made by dad?”
“Mm.” Bai Shilin nodded still somewhat sleepy since she hadn’t slept much.
Bai Zemin told the girl to go back to rest but she shook her head and said she wanted to stay with him and so he let her do whatever she wanted.
Despite the 9-10-year-old appearance that the current Bai Shilin had, the reality was that she was only a 7-month-old newborn…. Of course, because she had a large amount of weaver ant records her growth speed was unmatched and the fact that she is a powerful soul evolver made it no problem not to sleep for a couple of days.
It wasn’t more than a few minutes later before the girl began to help Bai Zemin with the cooking. While she washed the vegetables and handed them to him, Bai Zemin chopped them at the same time as Bai Shilin washed the rice in a pot.
Watching Bai Shilin smiling happily while humming some kind of unfamiliar song, Bai Zemin felt a surprisingly strong surge of relief in his heart. He couldn’t help but wonder if his paternal instincts had kicked in and by seeing his daughter being happy his worries suddenly became less heavy.
Although the noise the two of them were making was minimal as Bai Zemin had told Bai Shilin to be careful not to wake the others, Bai Delan and Meng Qi were Second Order soul evolvers so it was impossible for them not to wake up eventually.
By the time Bai Zemin was marinating the meat of a Third Order mutant bull, the sound of heavy footsteps made him force a wry smile as he continued his task.
Bai Delan awoke alert, but his alertness soon turned to confusion when he realized the sound was coming from the kitchen. Since his wife was sleeping next to him, the other person was probably his daughter Meng Qi, but that didn’t make much sense either since they usually all woke up about another hour or so later.
It was obvious that it couldn’t be a thief let alone a killer so Bai Delan was careful not to wake Ye Linger and got out of bed. His expression became even weirder when he saw the beautiful little sickly-looking doll sleeping peacefully on one of the couches, but after looking at her for a few seconds he headed for the kitchen without hiding his presence.
He could feel Bai Shilin giggling happily as the kitchen utensils formed their own melody.
When Bai Delan arrived at the kitchen entrance and saw the back of the grown man who seemed to be educating the girl regarding the arts of cooking, he froze for an instant before his pupils trembled fiercely.
He would recognize that back even on his deathbed…. This person was his son after all.
Even if Bai Zemin was already a grown man, to Bai Delan and to Ye Linger he would probably still be the same child who needed to be cared for and protected.
Bai Zemin looked at his father over his shoulder and smiled slightly as he said calmly, “Old man, you go to the living room and wait. This time I will be the family chef for this morning.”
Bai Delan looked into his son’s blood-colored eyes for a few seconds. He said practically nothing, asked no questions or anything similar. There were only a few words that came from his heart.
“Good job in coming back.”
Bai Zemin nodded before returning to his task. He and his father were like that, though the two did not say how much they loved each other in words they both knew that either of them was more than willing to lay down their lives for the other.
“Father, what about Shilin? Shilin was the one who prepared the vegetables and rice, wasn’t she?”
“Of course, my precious girl is the main chef. Father wouldn’t be able to prepare such a yummy breakfast if it weren’t for your magic hands.”
“Ahem!”
Bai Delan smiled and his eyes filled with tears at the sight in front of him. He wrinkled his nose and forced those tears back the way they came before walking into the living room and sitting on the couch opposite the one Kali was using as a bed.
Not long after, Meng Qi walked downstairs as well, wearing loose, comfortable sleeping clothes. Her dark eyes flashed with confusion when she saw Bai Delan sitting on the couch in the living room, but that confusion soon turned to perplexity when she saw the girl sleeping on the opposite couch.
Bai Delan motioned for her to be quiet and Meng Qi nodded before walking towards the kitchen in search of a glass of water thinking that her mother was there along with Bai Shilin. However, her movements froze when she saw that far from her mother the person standing there was her brother; the person she had wanted to see the most during this half year, the person she had cared about the most during the past few months, and the reason she had been working so hard to level up.
Bai Zemin watched with a gentle smile as his younger sister’s eyes filled with tears that fell down her face soundlessly.
Meng Qi’s face crumpled and before her brother could say anything she practically teleported in front of him and hugged him so tightly that she almost knocked him to the ground after being taken by surprise.
Bai Zemin’s eyes trembled slightly as he listened to Meng Qi’s disconsolate crying and his heart squeezed tightly. Subconsciously, he hugged her back and as he caressed her back carefully Bai Zemin swallowed his words.
This was the second time Bai Zemin saw Meng Qi crying so disconsolately like a small child after she stepped into adolescence and learned to live with the death of her birth parents. The first time was when Bai Zemin almost collapsed after learning the truth about Feng Tian Wu and Sun Jie, but at that time she was crying on the sly and Bai Zemin only caught her by pure coincidence.
Meng Qi had not even cried like this after meeting with Bai Zemin after several months following the outbreak of the apocalypse, but now she was crying so loudly that their mother should definitely have felt it from the upper floor.
Bai Zemin’s face turned slightly pale and his heart finally began to feel fear as far from calming down Meng Qi’s crying was getting worse and worse to the point where she was starting to have trouble catching her breath while her arms and hands tried to hug him closer and desperately moved around his back.
Feeling panic in his heart and not knowing what more to do, Bai Zemin hugged her tightly and whispered in her ear just like an adult caring for a baby as he slowly let them both slide down to their knees on the ground.
Bai Shilin didn’t know what was happening, so she looked with panic at the scene of her aunt crying and her father trying to calm her down. She looked around for help before running while calling out for her grampa.
In the living room, Bai Delan sighed as he said to Bai Shilin that everything was okay and gently pulled the girl to sit beside him.
He didn’t go to the kitchen but waited as he listened to his daughter’s crying and his son’s words that didn’t seem to have much effect.
This time had been different after all. Unlike when the apocalypse broke out where the family could tell each other that Bai Zemin had definitely not turned into a zombie and was fine, the current reality was that he was attacked by a nuclear missile and to save other people’s lives he had taken that nuclear missile to some distant world.
That missile had definitely exploded in the other world. Was Bai Zemin able to survive it? According to Evangeline and the rest of Bai Zemin’s Loyal Followers, he was alive…. However, no one really knew.
Bai Zemin was thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions… countless light years away from Earth. Would he be able to come back? According to Shangguan Bing Xue who knew of his title, he should be able to return, yes… But, when? No one really knew.
Under so much pressure, the whole family was on the verge of collapse and the only reason they were able to endure was because the three of them were together and thanks to Shangguan Bing Xue never ordered them to move on a mission even though Bai Delan and Meng Qi’s strength were certainly crucial.
Now that Bai Zemin had returned safe and sound, Bai Delan had been able to endure since he was a man of the old school and would cry in some corner when no one was paying attention to him. However, Meng Qi was different; even she who was surprisingly mature for her age could not help but break down.
As Bai Delan calmed Bai Shilin that was looking towards the kitchen anxiously, he noticed the snow-white-haired girl on the opposite couch wriggling and pushing with her hands to sit up.
“Ah, it looks like Meng Qi’s crying woke you up. Sorry for that.” Bai Delan tried to engage in conversation with kindness.
This sickly-looking little girl had been brought home by his son after all so the two of them were probably close. As to how they met, Bai Delan had no idea.
Kali turned in Bai Delan’s direction and after a moment said something that neither he nor Bai Shilin understood.
Bai Delan didn’t know what to do as he realized the language barrier, but afotunately for him the girl just stood there silently as she kept her eyes closed and with her focus on Bai Shilin who was looking at her curiously.
* * * * * * *
Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3
