Quiet Dinner

Father was throwing another tantrum. That was normal.

He was almost always angry, and when he flew into a rage, he would hit people. He didn't just hit Mom; he hit Sister too. He rarely hit himself, though. Whenever he tried, Mom would get angry, and whenever Mom got angry, she could always scare him into stopping. But what Lu Xin couldn't understand was that, more often than not, Mom didn't try to stop or frighten him.

This time, however, things were somewhat strange. Sister had actually dared to talk back.

In the past, whenever she angered Father, she would run away or hide.

"Little brat, are you looking to die?"

Sister's refusal to back down only made Father angrier. He paced restlessly inside the room, his eyes looking ready to devour someone, and cursed viciously, "Don't think that just because you secretly ate something outside and got a little stronger, you can talk back to me. How dare you hide those things from me... If you have the guts, don't come back for the rest of your life. The moment you return, I'll make sure you remember this..."

"Then I won't come back!"

Sister hung from the ceiling, her black hair in disarray, and retorted fiercely, "When I grow up, it'll be your turn..."

"You think you'll have the chance to grow up?"

"When I grow up, I'll tear you into pieces and make you into a doll..."

"Roar..."

"Hiss..."

"Sigh..."

Lu Xin slowly walked over as he listened to them argue, arriving in front of the room.

"You actually know to come back?"

Father's towering figure blocked the light spilling from the room, like a dense, bloody darkness.

When he saw Lu Xin, he grew noticeably angrier. His bulging eyes fixed on him.

Lu Xin lowered his head and said, "I'm back from buying groceries!"

Father seemed to freeze for a moment. His palpable anger appeared to have nowhere to vent.

Lu Xin raised his left hand slightly and said, "There's also a bottle of liquor. It's for you!"

Father's savage face froze for an instant.

Lu Xin slowly raised his head and looked at Father. "Can we have a quiet meal today?"

Father fell silent at once. The anger around him was still obvious.

But the furious curses that usually followed did not come.

"All right, Miss Chen. Now that you've moved here, we'll be neighbors from now on. They say distant relatives are less useful than close neighbors, so we'll have to look after one another... No, no, it's no trouble at all. Get some good rest today, and come over to play sometime..."

In the living room, Mom, dressed elegantly and with exquisite makeup, was on the phone. This time, however, she hung up quickly. Leaning against the windowsill with a smile, she said softly, "What are you waiting for? Aren't you going to let the children in? Oh my, you bought so many groceries today. What a feast. Come in quickly. The whole family is waiting for you to eat. For your sake, I've already been rude to my friends..."

Father silently and coldly moved aside, leaving a gap.

Lu Xin carried the groceries inside, but Sister remained in the hallway, watching Father warily.

Mom helped lay out the napkins. Looking at the groceries Lu Xin had bought, she smiled and said, "You seem to be in a pretty good mood today. You went to the orphanage, didn't you?"

Lu Xin nodded and set the groceries down.

At the words "orphanage," Father and Sister in the hallway suddenly looked over.

Their gazes seemed rather strange.

After a moment, Mom took Lu Xin's groceries away to prepare them, while Father and Sister also returned to the table.

The meal was very quiet, but it was a rare moment of peace.

Only occasionally did Father, Mom, and Sister secretly exchange glances before revealing strange expressions.

After the meal, Lu Xin went downstairs and slowly began exercising.

Last time, with Sister's help, he had dealt with No. 041 special pollution source. Afterward, however, he had felt exhausted, and even suffered from aching muscles and a sore back the next day. He understood that it was because he didn't exercise enough. Whenever he moved around, he quickly became tired. Thus, from then on, he had formed the habit of going downstairs for a stroll after every meal, which would also help improve his physical fitness.

He bounced twice, jumped twice, and jogged back and forth for a hundred meters. Lu Xin felt that he was working very hard.

Especially after finding this job cleaning up Pollution Sources, he felt that life had finally gained some purpose.

Even the Crimson Moon in the sky seemed a little more vivid.

Just as Lu Xin had jogged for a while and was considering whether to do another ten push-ups, the Crimson Moon's light flickered faintly.

Suddenly, a dagger flew from the shadows in the corner.

The dagger made almost no sound, but its speed was astonishingly fast. In an instant, it shot toward Lu Xin's leg.

Lu Xin was badly startled and only had time to turn around.

Before he had even finished turning, the dagger had already flown in front of him.

However, the dagger still failed to hurt him.

Sister lightly descended from the streetlamp nearby and caught the dagger in her hand in the blink of an eye.

"Who is it?"

Only then did Lu Xin manage to shout. He warily looked toward the shadows.

"Haha, as expected of someone with an ability from the same series as mine. Your reactions are pretty quick!"

There was no one where Lu Xin was looking, but a voice came from the shadows behind him. Lu Xin hurriedly turned around again and saw someone slowly walking down the building beside him. The man was actually treating the building like level ground, taking one step after another downward. He walked until he was about a meter above the ground, then lightly jumped down and straightened up.

He was a young man wearing a trench coat and a pair of oversized sunglasses, yet he had a brilliant smile on his face.

He first raised both hands and smiled. "I just wanted to test you!"

Then he walked toward Lu Xin and extended a hand. "Let me introduce myself. My name is Gecko. Colonel Chen sent me here!"

"Gecko?"

Lu Xin quickly recalled the name. After hearing Chen Jing's name, he understood the man's origins even more clearly. But he did not shake his hand. Instead, he frowned deeply and said, "Do you know how dangerous that was?"

"Dangerous?"

The man called Gecko looked somewhat stunned. "No way, brother. For us Spider-types, does that count as dangerous?"

Lu Xin silently turned around and glanced around him.

Sister was crouching beside him, her hand gripping the dagger embedded in the ground. She watched him coldly and maliciously.

She was especially focused on his neck, as if she wanted to come over and take a bite.

Upstairs, Father and Mom had already appeared by the street-facing window. Expressionless, they gazed faintly down at the street.

It had been a long time since he had seen his family working together so harmoniously...

"What I meant was that you're the dangerous one!"

Lu Xin sighed softly, then walked toward the other end of the street. "Come with me. Hurry."

"..."

"Brother, it's not necessary to go that far..."

The man called Gecko scratched his head as he followed Lu Xin along, explaining awkwardly, "I was just saying hello. In our group, people greet each other with guns all the time. They say it's to train everyone's alertness..."

"You know, I crossed two Satellite Cities just to come find you. Not only did you not invite me upstairs to sit, you even got this angry..."

"..."

"He still wants to come upstairs and sit..."

This time, Lu Xin truly didn't know what to say. After thinking for a moment, he said seriously, "Next time, for sure!"