Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Three: Discovering the Mystery of Life
Xiao Yu had not stepped into this place for a long time.
He actually felt nervous when he pressed the doorbell as he stood before the house with a fruit basket in his hand. After that short episode of nervousness, he was overwhelmed by a sense of self-mockery that almost drowned him.
It was supposedly his house.
“Come on in.” Mdm Fang opened the door, took the things in his hands, and scolded him. “It’s just a trip home, why do you have to bring so many things. I can’t even finish them by myself.”
“I bought them on my way here.”
Xiao Yu gave a very polite excuse, and Mdm Fang did not probe further.
After all, they were not a real mother and son.
Mdm Fang did not even serve him any drink and brought him directly to the long forgotten study room.“No one has used this room since your father passed away. I did some simple cleaning yesterday. Those things that were worth some money were sold off these past few years when our situation was tight. You can take anything you want here. If you are looking for something, then make it quick. I have a tea party in the afternoon.”
“Sure, sure. It won’t take too long, I – “
Xiao Yu said as he looked around the unfamiliar room. He was about to talk more but stopped when he heard the dull thump of the door and realized that Mdm Fang had closed it as she left.
Although he was disappointed, he did feel thankful. He was thankful because Mdm Fang had not probe further about that very eye-catching cylinder-shaped workout bag that he had carried.
After confirming that Mdm Fang was far away, Xiao Yu pulled open the zipper and took out the little fellow who was hiding inside.
“Meow – “ Faye was suffocating to death.
“Shhh!” Xiao Yu put his finger to his lips: “Aunt Fang doesn’t like small animals. If she finds out about you, you’ll become an ingredient for hot pot, got it?”
Faye shut her mouth feeling wronged.
Xiao Yu helplessly rubbed Faye’s little head. Initially, he did not plan on bringing Faye along. He had even declared that last night but changed his mind right before he left when Faye tried to act shameless with him. Fearing that he may be further delayed, he had no choice but to bring Faye along.
Thankfully, he still had the workout bag that he had won last year through raffle at a company gathering. Otherwise, he may not have even found a suitable way to bring the cat along.
“Be nice. I have important things to do. Go play on the side, be gentle.”
Xiao Yu settled Faye on the side as he took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Then, he began to start a blanket search of the room.
A week ago, when Xiao Yu had been reborn into a human again, he thought that his incident of turning into a hamster could only be an accident – a small joke that God played on him.
However, after he had experienced the series of events the day before yesterday, Xiao Yu had not slept the whole night reconsidering this question.
He finally concluded that he may not be a human.
More accurately speaking, this conclusion was what made Xiao Yu unable to sleep that entire night.
He, whose surname was Xiao, whose gender was male, aged twenty-six, current marriage status single, race… unknown.
Living with such an upsetting conclusion that was both funny and extremely embarrassing, Xiao Yu was faced with the question of whether there was something wrong with his parents’ race.
Ever since the experience of turning from a hamster to a human and vice versa, this was the first time Xiao Yu started to ponder about the philosophic question of ‘who am I’, a question which he gave up trying to figure out very quickly, it being a difficult question that had lived over several centuries.
Later, he called Mdm Fang feeling grief and indignation. He planned to start off with asking if she had known anything about it. However, due to his inability to speak clearly whenever he spoke to her, Xiao Yu could only attempt his final plan – looking through his late parents’ belongings
Despite the feeling that there was a very low possibility that he would find any clue after so many years, it was still better than doing nothing.
This room was his father’s study room when he was still around. Xiao Yu should have been there before when he was a child. But because he had still been too young back then, and adding in the fact that he had never been inside ever after it was locked when his father had passed away, he ended up not having any impression of what the room looked like.
Regardless, familiar or not, he had to start searching.
Xiao Yu had referred to detective fiction. He removed the dust-covered books on the shelves and looked through every one of them, but there were no letters; he opened the empty glass cabinets and felt every inch of them, but there were no secret buttons; finally, he even went under the bed and searched, but there were no new discoveries except for his head being covered in spiderwebs.
No, it was all for nothing. The only bonus he had was Faye when she went under the bed with him because she thought Xiao Yu was being very happy, jumping up and down the room.
“Heyyy, what are you doing, you just bathed this morning!”
Xiao Yu quickly reached out to grab that little white cat who was capable of getting extremely filthy. He did not expect Faye to suddenly jump to the side and dodge his grip and as she ran towards the door in an unglamorous manner.
Very coincidentally, at that moment the door was slowly opened.
“You’ve been at it for two hours…”
Faye ignored the obstacle that was in front of her as she ran with all her might. She fully utilized the climbing ability that she had gained as a stray, by grabbing Mdm Fang’s clothes and climbing onto her neck in an instant.
“What is this?!”
Mdm Fang was suddenly attacked by the blurry white furball and subconsciously raised her hand to fling it away.
Faye screamed as she flew. Luckily, she was caught by Xiao Yu who had sharp eyes and agile hands and she landed in his embrace without mishap.
“What did you bring here?” Mdm Fang studied Faye in her panicked and doubtful state. Then she asked unsurely: “Why is it a white cat? Don’t rituals normally use black cats?”
Xiao Yu: “……”
He had only heard of using black dogs. Use of black cats was really unheard of.
“Hurry up. Don’t make a big mess everywhere. It’s not easy to clean up.” Mdm Fang said as she closed the door again and left.
Xiao Yu: Wait, you really misunderstood, I didn’t, I’m not, I don’t know what ritual you’re talking about.
Thump.
Forget it.
“What did I just say!” Xiao Yu gave Faye’s little head a knock. “I told you to be good. Are you scared now?”
“Meow.” Faye used her adorable big eyes to stare at Xiao Yu, looking absolutely innocent.
She had reached greater levels of attainment than her current owner of using cuteness to seek for forgiveness.
“Fine. Are you hurt?” Xiao Yu gently rubbed Faye’s left paw that had been curled up since earlier.
The little paw suddenly opened up, revealing the pinkish paw pad and a piece of emerald green.
“Hm?” Xiao Yu picked the item from Faye’s paw up in surprise: “Isn’t this the necklace that Aunt Fang wears all the time? Look at what you’ve…”
He stopped his sentence halfway.
Because Xiao Yu realized something was different about the pendant.
The red string that had snapped was a normal red colored string; however, the emerald green pendant that was hanging off it seemed considerably valuable.
As a designer for so many years, Xiao Yu did have some understanding about jadeites. Although he could not tell which decade this pendant was from, he could tell from the material that it wasn’t exceptionally expensive.
It was not clear enough, and the color was not thoroughly solid. At a closer look, one could even see some impurities within it – it was a normal pendant.
A pretty normal pendant…
If one did not see the scroll-like thing inside the pendant.
It was not like the typical interior drawing. The scroll looked vivid and realistic and upon closer look, you could even see a slight tear at the corner of it.
It was like an actual scroll had been stuffed inside a pendant.
Xiao Yu played with the pendant for quite a while. He had never seen such a uniquely designed necklace before, and he was a top-class designer who had seen all kinds of jewelry designs.
Which mean to say, this was probably not an ‘unique design’.
After fiddling with it for about two minutes, Xiao Yu made a very crazy decision.
He held the pendant, aimed at the edge of the table, and threw it forcefully.
Along with the crisp sound of the jade cracking, a tiny, tiny scroll fell into Xiao Yu’s palm.
It really was a scroll.
Xiao Yu carefully opened the scroll.
The scroll was the size of a section of his thumb. But, as it was unrolled, the total surface was revealed to be much wider. In addition, the words were small and compact and made Xiao Yu’s eyes feel strained after a while.
[Dear beloved descendants: If you could see this scroll, it means you have displayed signs of reversion. Fret not and conquer the world hahahaha -]
Xiao Yu: “……”
The ‘hahaha’ continued for five lines before the the real content began.
[- Hahaha. I shall now tell you the important things to know about conquering the world…]
Xiao Yu patiently finished reading all of it.
Then, he put the rubbish paper in his pocket, carried Faye in his arm, and went to bid goodbye to Mdm Fang.
“Did you see my necklace? I wonder where I’ve misplaced it.” Mdm Fang was sweeping the floor as she asked.
Xiao Yu replied negatively as he quickened his pace.
“Walk yourself out.”
“Sure, sure. Thank you for today.”
……
After returning home, Xiao Yu put Faye aside as he took out the cans of beer that he had not touched after purchasing them two days ago to drink his sorrows away. Then, he took out a measuring cup, which he had bought long time ago but have never ever used before, from the kitchen
He sat on the couch as he poured the beer into the measuring cup before he started to drink little by little.
The specific method was to drink fifty milliliters each time and wait for half an hour.
When he drank about two hundred and fifty milliliters, Xiao Yu sensed a weak hotness gathering on his head and at his tailbone. He waited for another half hour before a pair of ears suddenly popped out from his head and a tail also appeared on his tailbone.
After about half an hour, Xiao Yu’s ears and tail automatically disappeared.
Hm. Basically it was exactly what that rubbish paper had said.
Xiao Yu wiped his tears of hardship as he thought about his race.
That rubbish paper explained that his ancestors were indeed non-human. There was a certain possibility that their descendants may show signs of reversion. That also meant that he was a human, but no longer one right now.
The reason why he called it ‘rubbish paper’ was because aside from that fact that it did look like rubbish, after Xiao Yu had read through all of the important things to note, he had only understood that he would have a harder time surviving from then on. He could not count on it at all to conquer the world.
Firstly, his hamster lineage had the possibility of being activated when his life was endangered. To cure the sickness of his original body, the soul would be temporarily attached to a hamster body and would not be able to return. When his original body’s injuries had been fully recovered, there would be several special circumstances that would happen. From what he knew at the moment:
One, there was a very low possibility of time travel. Once that happened, he should avoid doing too much that would change the future. Otherwise, he may be destroyed by the natural law.
Two, memory confusion. That could include, but was not limited to insanity, memory confusion, and senile dementia. He may even forget that he was once a human.
Three, he must come into close contact with his human body before the hamster body dies. Otherwise, his soul would perish and his human body would be stuck in a vegetative state.
In conclusion, basically what it meant was that once signs of reversion occurred, there would be a high chance that he could not return. However, if he could not return to his human body, his soul would perish as the hamster body died.
Secondly, after he return to his human form, the lineage that was activated would not be reverted. There would be two characteristics that he would possess for the rest of his life. One, under mild alcoholic influence, his ears would appear, whereas under heavy alcohol influence, he would straight away turn into a hamster. Two, after alcohol metabolism, he would transform back into a human in two stages in the reverse manner.
The key that would trigger this magical transformation was alcohol.
He wasn’t sure whether to call it ‘down to earth’ or plain vulgar.
As for the specific amount in question, it had just been tested by Xiao Yu.
…… it was about the amount to be considered for drunk driving.
Which was why Xiao Yu was starting to contemplate if he should buy an alcohol detector.
