“Ohhhh my gosh! I burnt through like twenty over odd medals worth of ammunition!” Jing Ru exclaimed as the police squad returned to the Panda Weaponry after their time was up. While slightly regretful, it was Ren Wei’s decision to stop when their mission of clearing the crashed airship carrier was completed.
The Pandamonium App asked if they wanted ‘One More’ try, but Ren Wei figured that their ammunition was all spent, the squad was tired enough, and he also noticed more cultivators were entering the fray to replace others. Hence, he decided to call it off which the team unanimously agreed to it.
“It was a really superb workout. I haven’t felt such an adrenaline rush for a long time.” Ren Wei praised the experience to the others as he returned the real gun and got his air gun model back at the side counter. The Three Headed Bear noticed a puncture in Ren Wei’s rifle before asking him to leave and stared at him coldly for a while.
“Heh, sorry about that. Needed to use it to defend myself from a surprise spear strike when I was turning the corner. Must say, the craftsmanship is supreme, it still works despite the puncture.” Ren Wei smiled innocently as he replied while trying to compliment the other party to calm him down. The Three Headed Bear snorted back as he placed his air gun down and asked for Abdul who was standing behind him to come forward for his gun exchange.
“If you want to experience a real adrenaline rush, you can always come back patrolling with us. I guarantee you will get such a feeling at least once every week.” Gupta teased Ren Wei a bit when he returned his gun back.
“Anyways, I am hungry, shall we go eat? I heard the Restaurant Train of Delicacy serves some great food.” Ren Wei asked but the three of them retorted all at the same time that they wanted to look around the weapon shop for a while. Ren Wei then decided to stay for a bit, but Jing Ru conveniently gave him an excuse.
“How about you go ahead and book a table for us first? I will be coming after you in a moment. Just some replenishment of some ammunition that’s all!” Jing Ru suggested as she pushed Ren Wei out of the Panda Weaponry and quickly ran to the counter.
“I believe I should have enough raid points and medals for the gift I reserved. Do you mind taking it out?” Jing Ru asked hastily. Seeing her actions, both Abdul and Gupta realised that Jing Ru had reminded them about the same goal they had in mind; Getting a gift for her father.
“Big Bear, my man. Could you give us our gift as well? If possible, subtract the points from both our accounts.” Abdul asked which caused the Three Headed Bear to simultaneously bring out the exact same gun model for the both of them, the Dragunov Sniper Rifle.
Jing Ru stared at the uncles, who looked back at the same time. The realisation that they had the same idea suddenly made all three of them chuckle and laughed together. “Well, Young Miss could you let us uncles purchase the gift for your dad? We don’t mind it being a present from all three of us. ” Gupta offered since the two policemen assumed they would rarely have the chance to come together and play that much in the near future.
“I cannot allow you all to pay for everything. How about this? We share equally for this rifle and perhaps we also buy him a 5 Gold Panda Medal Voucher so he can purchase customisations or ammo in the future?” Jing Ru suggested which Gupta and Abdul believed it was a good idea.
“Here is your gun. For the rest of the transaction, go to the Red Pandas.” The Three Headed Bear kept one of the sniper rifles and left the side counter to continue hammering his stuff on his anvil. Jing Ru then approached the Red Panda to inform her about their transaction. As always the cute animal gladly assisted them with their request. They even provided a sleek modern looking rifle suitcase to keep the air gun version of the Dragunov Sniper Rifle.
“Do you think they sell any birthday cakes in this place?” Abdul asked, but Gupta had no idea while Jing was busy doing the transaction for them.
“We do have cheesecakes! They are sold in the Restaurant Train of Delicacy Service Instance.” The Red Pandas offered their advice which made Jing Ru became wildly excited. She had completely forgotten about its existence for a moment.
“Oh yes!! How could I forget about THAT cheesecake! I still remember that sweetness in my mouth. Does the general store sells any candles or anything?” Jing Ru humbly asked which the Red Panda said that it could relay their request to the penguins.
“Alright, if Ren Wei’s girl vouches that the cheesecake is that good then we simply have to go for it. A little dessert before breakfast should not be a problem, heh!” Abdul commented. The Red Panda asked if they would like the casing also to be wrapped up.
“Do we need to pay extra?” Jing Ru asked as she checked her remaining raid points and medals.
“You do not have to. It’s on the house. We will bring it to you and your father. Enjoy yourselves!” The Red Panda replied courteously as it playfully grabbed the rifle casing and asked the other red pandas for help to wrap everything up and get things ready.
“We will pay for the cheesecake then, and it’s been a while since we last met. Let us at least do those honours. You can surprise him with the gift.” Gupta offered as they proceeded to the Restaurant Train Instance to see Ren Wei waving at them. While waiting, he had already ordered some drinks for them.
“I was unsure know what you guys would like to drink here, so I just ordered coffee for you two. For you, my princess, I knew exactly what you would like. Here’s your favourite Bamboo Juice.” Ren Wei beamed with delight as he saw Jing Ru gleefully accepted the drink.
Suddenly, all the lights in the train were dimmed, and a light drum rolling was heard in the background before an announcement was being made. “Ladies and Gentlemen, if you do not mind joining, let us put our hands together to wish a happy birthday for the pleasant gentlemen and loving father, Mr Ren Wei at Table 49.” The penguin spoke with a microphone on an elevated stage. It was none other than Mr Patsu making his personal appearance for Ren Wei.
Ren Wei immediately blushed and put his head down as the train’s spotlights were focused on him. The cultivators who were having their breakfast in the morning had unanimously clapped for him upon Mr Patsu’s request and the penguin waiters pushed a clothed trolley full of cheesecake with candles on it. There was even the penguin band that played a birthday song with an accompanying singer that the cultivators sang along with.
Meanwhile, the other three rascals were happily giggling at the side seeing Ren Wei embarrassingly blow the candles out from the cake. “Hey! You did not make any wish at all!” Jing Ru pouted a little but she knew they had already embarrassed her father enough.
The lights came back on and the penguins did a magic trick for Ren Wei to see. From underneath the small tray they somehow managed to pull out a big long rectangular box all neatly wrapped. Ren Wei was amazed by it and thanked the penguins for it as he was not expecting any birthday presents or celebrations but just wanted to spend time with his daughter and his buddies. Yet, the penguin waiter corrected him, informing him that it was a gift from the three right beside him. Ren Wei could not contain his excitement picked up the long bulky gift he received and took a good look especially when he noticed that the wrapper had cartoonish muskrats running around chasing one and other.
“What is it?” Ren Wei became curious about the contents of the beautifully packaged gift when all three decided to remain silent about it. (They were actually trying their best not to laugh or giggle.)
“Well, there is only one way to find out. Open it and you will see!” Abdul could not take it and laughed before he shamelessly tried a piece of the cheesecake.
“HOLY SHI-! What kind of heavenly cheesecake is this?” Abdul could not help to interrupt Ren Wei’s unwrapping but it did make Ren Wei laugh out as he had a similar (though not so vocal) reaction after enjoying the same cheesecake with Jing Ru before. He had never forgotten that taste. Gupta, on the other hand, had had the decency to wait until Ren Wei was done unwrapping before he partook that fluffy, bouncy cheesecake on the table.
“You must be kidding me! You guys bought this for me?!!” Ren Wei was at a loss of words after finding out the contents of the box. It was a brand new Dragunov Sniper air rifle which cost quite a fair bit on the market because of the lack of availability. Still, he could not fathom how the three banded together to buy this for him.
“To be honest, we didn’t plan to share the gift. We happened to choose the exact gifts for you in Jin’s shop. So we added a bit extra. Recheck the box. There should be one more present in there.” Jing Ru admitted that she had been planning to buy one since a month ago.
“No wonder you two rascals were going crazy killing the orcs like there was no tomorrow when both of you are usually more tactical in your approach.” Ren Wei finally figured why the two had been acting so strangely in the Raid instance. He noticed an envelope near the air gun rifle. Inside contained the five Gold Panda Medals Voucher which had a QR Code to link it up to his Pandamonium Account.
“Blahhh if we had known beforehand that we were going to share the cost with your daughter here, I wouldn’t have worked my ass off like crazy after my night duty.” Abdul sneered a little before he picked up another slice of the heavenly cheesecake to eat.
“Hey who is the birthday boy here?!” Ren Wei quickly grabbed one to eat before Gupta and Jing Ru snatched them all. The four of them had a great time chatting with each other about the encounters they had in the raid instance before they decided to return back for the day.
“Hey, Abdul, Gupta. Thanks…for recognising Jing Ru as my daughter.” Ren Wei said personally to his two pals when Jing Ru went to start up the car for him.
“She seems like a fine, dandy young lass,” Gupta said in a weird fake European accent, but he returned to his normal serious self when Ren Wei sighed at him. “It’s great that everything seems to be working out for you. Happy Birthday, buddy.” Gupta gave a hug which Abdul followed suit.
“Be sure to visit us once in a while in Tiangong rather than sucking up to people’s ass in Central.” Abdul patted Ren Wei’s back and went off. Jing Ru coincidentally came around the corner with his car and got down to wave goodbye to the uncles too.
“It was fun training with you. Did not expect those two uncles to be this funny too.” Jing Ru mentioned as she yawned a little when she got into the car but noticed a serious expression on Ren Wei’s face. It was as if he wanted to say something very important when he entered the car. She kept quiet and allowed Ren Wei some time to ask the question, although she roughly knew where it was going.
“I erm… Is…it okay if we go visit your mom’s grave?” Ren Wei asked and Jing Ru stared at him for a while and later nodded a bit.
“I am sure Mom will be delighted.” Jing Ru smiled tenderly as she pulled the chair back to rest. “Wake me up when …OH SHIT, WHEN DID YOU?!” Jing Ru was shocked as she just noticed an item so flurry behind the back seats.
“Well erm, I thought you would like it since you were rambling about it earlier in the morning. I was lucky that they just restocked. Sorry, I was not able to get the XXXL size because of the lack of points, but I hope XXL will do-” Suddenly, Jing Ru hugged Ren Wei and gave him a friendly kiss at his cheek.
“Thanks, Dad!” Jing Ru said as she quickly unbuckled her seatbelt and crawled towards the back seats hugging the XXL panda plushie. She immediately understood why Luo Bo was so crazy about it and why Xiong Da was so protective. Before she knew it, Jing Ru fell asleep.
“That little girl…” Ren Wei could not help but grabbed his phone out and took a picture of his daughter. Jing Ru’s innocent smile reminded Ren Wei of her mother when she was younger. “Thank you Xing Ru… for coming into my life.” Ren Wei whispered as he began to drive to visit Jing Ru’s mother’s grave.
