Homesickness Debuff and a Teleport Point Called "Home"

The moment Lu Ren pushed open the front door, he felt like he had just cleared a massive raid that had taken three hours—his health bar was at the bottom, his mana bar was empty, and even his equipment durability had turned red.

The entryway light was on, but its warm yellow glow did nothing to restore his stamina bar. He kicked off his shoes, too exhausted even to straighten them, tossed his backpack straight onto the floor, and dragged his leaden legs into the living room. Then he collapsed spread-eagled across the sofa.

"Oho, why do you look like that the moment you get home?"

Lu Jianguo was sitting in an armchair reading the newspaper. Seeing his son looking half-dead, he set down his teacup and leaned forward to ask.

"Don't even mention it." Lu Ren buried his face in a cushion, his voice muffled. "We had a practice match against Aoba Johsai today. Went all three sets. Right now, every muscle in my body feels like it's filing a strike notice with my brain. Especially my thighs—they ache like that ace called Iwaizumi Hajime used them as volleyballs and spiked them a hundred times."

"Did you win or lose?"

"We won." Lu Ren rolled over and stared at the ceiling. "Barely. But the rewards were pretty generous, and the team's coordination improved quite a bit."

"As long as you won, as long as you won." Lu Jianguo smiled as he picked up his newspaper again. "Young people should move around more. Better than sitting in front of that game console all day until your brain turns to mush."

Lu Ren did not answer, but his stomach let out an impressively loud growl.

He had only managed to grab an energy bar at Sakashita Store, and those few calories had long since been burned off on the way home. He was hungry enough to swallow a cow—or at least three huge meat buns.

"Mom—" Lu Ren called toward the kitchen at the top of his lungs. "Is there anything to eat? I want buns, preferably braised pork ones."

The sound of chopping came from the kitchen, fast enough to sound a little like someone hacking through pork ribs, though it was not even dinnertime yet.

After a while, the kitchen door remained shut, but Lu Xin's voice pierced through it, as cold as a Siberian blast. "You still want buns? Go eat a hammer."

The air in the living room instantly froze.

Lu Ren blanked for a moment, then stiffly turned his neck to look at his father.

The newspaper in Lu Jianguo's hands trembled. He quickly raised it to hide his face, pretending to study Japan's economic pages intently, but the darting eyes visible at the edge of the paper gave him away.

"Dad." Lu Ren lowered his voice. "What did you say? How did I offend the Empress Dowager this time?"

Lu Jianguo lowered the newspaper an inch, revealing an utterly innocent face. "What else could I say? Your mother's right. Why eat buns so late at night? You'll get indigestion."

"Cut it out." Lu Ren sat up from the sofa and pointed toward the kitchen. "That tone is wrong. She even broke out the dialectal 'go eat a hammer,' which means her anger meter is at least eighty percent full. Tell me the truth—did she find the money you hid?"

"Rubbish!" Lu Jianguo's eyes widened. "I've been extremely well-behaved lately. I get off work on time every day, hand over all my wages, and I've even smoked two fewer cigarettes. How could it possibly be me?"

Lu Ren frowned. "Then me? I've been busy with Club Activities lately, running myself ragged. Whenever I get home, I go straight to sleep. I haven't even had time to commit a crime."

"Then it definitely isn't me." Lu Jianguo spread his hands. "There are only three people in this household. Use the process of elimination, and the one left is the truth."

"Truth my ass." Lu Ren rubbed his temples with a headache. "So what do we do now? If we don't dispel this anger meter, tonight's dinner is going to be a Hongmen Banquet. We might even trigger the 'Family Cold War' side quest."

Just then, the kitchen door slid open with a clatter.

Lu Xin stood in the doorway with an apron tied around her waist and a spatula in hand. She did not look at Lu Jianguo. Her gaze locked directly onto Lu Ren, who was still sitting on the sofa.

"What are you still lying there for?" Lu Xin asked sternly. "Serve the food. Do I need to invite you?"

Lu Ren jolted and instantly revived from his critical-health state, springing to his feet with lightning speed. "Coming, coming! I'm on it!"

He shot his father a look, and the two of them slipped into the kitchen with their tails between their legs.

The pressure in the kitchen was so low it was hard to breathe. Steam rose from the rice cooker, and the chopped ingredients on the cutting board had been arranged neatly, but the calm-before-the-storm atmosphere was impossible to shake.

Lu Ren picked up two plates of stir-fried dishes. While Lu Xin turned to ladle out soup, he leaned close to Lu Jianguo's ear. "Dad, something's wrong. The Empress Dowager's expression is more terrifying than that serving demon I ran into today. We need to figure something out."

Lu Jianguo held his chopsticks with a worried expression. "I want to. But you know your mother's temper. If we don't know where the problem is, prescribing medicine at random will only get us killed worse."

"Then what? Tough it out?"

"We can't tough it out. That'll lead to a party wipe." Lu Jianguo's eyes shifted as he lowered his voice. "Go west and invite the Buddha himself."

Lu Ren nearly dropped the plate in his hands. "Who?"

"Mother Yazhi." Lu Jianguo smacked him on the back in exasperation. "She's the only one around here who can keep your mother in check. They're best friends. Whatever your mother doesn't want to say to the two of us, she'll definitely be willing to tell her. Once we find out why, this dungeon will be easy to clear."