Chapter 93

Guinaifen's home, or more accurately, the relief apartment provided by the Aurum Alley community, is located in a secluded corner of Aurum Alley.

The exterior of the apartment, with its yellowed and peeling walls, shows sections of the wall that have fallen off. The once vibrant paint on the front door has faded over time, leaving only a pale gray color. Moreover, one of the brass rivets on the black lacquered wooden door has fallen off.

The apartment was hardly a spacious place; at best, it was a small home for four people. However, considering that more than a dozen members of Guinaifen's family lived in such a small house, Bai Jun felt that Guinaifen's life was indeed quite difficult.

Bai Jun wasn't the only one thinking this way; Sushang, standing beside him, also revealed the same gloomy and disappointed look, seemingly blaming herself for not having noticed the hardships Guinaifen was going through.

However, the person involved didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it and happily knocked on their own door.

"I'm home! Open the door for me, sister!"

Soon, light footsteps echoed in the entryway, followed by a sullen complaint. "Coming, coming~ Honestly, Second Sister, you clearly have the key, why do you bother us to open the door for you every day..."

"Of course I want to open the door and see my adorable younger siblings first thing, Gareth! Don't you miss your older sister?"

"Of course I want to, but Second Sister... wait, is there a guest behind you?"

A cute little girl with a high ponytail and a headband, who bore a striking resemblance to Guinaifen, noticed Bai Jun standing behind Guinaifen. His tall stature and captivating charm instantly drew her attention.

The little girl tilted her head back, blinking her bright eyes repeatedly, trying to find information about the handsome man in front of her from her Remembrance.

"Hello?" Bai Jun waved his hand in front of the little girl, puzzled.

Guinaifen's younger sister didn't respond. Instead, she slowly lowered her head, her petite shoulders trembling slightly. She took a deep breath, her chest heaving, and then shouted into the house at a volume that shook the entire house:

"Big sister! Third sister! Second brother! Everyone! Second sister tricked a super handsome man into coming home with her--!!!"

As the sound faded, the apartment seemed to tremble, and dozens of footsteps, like an earthquake and tsunami, erupted from the corridor floor. Men and women with faces strikingly similar to Guinaifen rushed to the entrance, squeezed through the narrow doorway, and scrambled to surround Bai Jun.

"You're Guinevere's boyfriend?"

The red-haired beauty, with her cold demeanor and elder sisterly aura, scanned Bai Jun with a serious expression.

"Really? That idiot Guinevere actually managed to bring a man home?!"

A beautiful woman with a haggard expression and short, reddish hair adjusted her glasses in disbelief and let out a mournful cry of resentment, "Damn it, it's such a handsome man, while I can only stay at home every day desperately trying to earn money... Ugh, I'm so envious."

"Ah, Guinevere is finally getting married and starting a family. Father, Mother, your spirits in heaven can finally rest in peace..."

The tall, slender, gentle man was moved to tears, then clasped his hands together and whispered to the sky.

"What a handsome guy! Come in and chat with us for a bit!!!"

The younger siblings chattered and surrounded Bai Jun's legs, Bai Jun his reaction, and dragged him and Guinaifen into the house.

The paint-chipped door slammed shut with a bang.

Sushang, who was standing outside the door, was completely ignored.

Watching Bai Jun being led into the house by the crowd, Sushang looked up and saw the reddish-purple light approaching from the west. Suddenly, she felt that the wind was particularly noisy today.

Then, she took a deep breath and let out a mournful cry of resentment and anger, "What about me?!"

Chapter 122 Falling into the Nest of the Knights of the Round Table

It's 18:11 now; it's already evening.

Some time after Grain Rain, the season is approaching the Beginning of Summer. The majestic Luofu Mountain still looks like springtime, with vegetation growing and all things gradually reviving. However, the nights are noticeably shorter, and even now the sky has not completely turned into night.

The Sun sank completely below the horizon, and the magnificent sunset illuminated the clouds hanging in the sky with a bizarre and dazzling light.

The apartment was dark, and the orange glow of dusk shone through the windows, casting a reddish hue onto half of the living room wall through the clean, dust-free glass.

Just as one might imagine, the living room in Guinaifen's home, which could accommodate more than a dozen people, felt quite cramped, with almost no room for anyone to move around.

The space in the relief apartment was very limited, especially due to insufficient funds. Therefore, the style of Guinaifen's home was very different from that of normal Xianzhou native. The most important point was that there was no dining table, chairs and sofa in the living room. Instead, tatami mats and cushions were laid out in the living room to save space.

The only piece of furniture in the living room is the long table in the center, large enough to accommodate everyone in the family for meals.

The living room was quite lively today because of the guests. After hearing that Bai Jun was not Guinaifen's male companion, the adults present sighed in disappointment.

"I'm sorry, these misunderstandings must have bothered you. Please allow me to apologize on behalf of the children, Mr. Bai Jun."

The thin, gentle male voice was full of apology. He was the second oldest man in the family, whose Bedivere. At this moment, he was resting his head on the tatami mat, sincerely apologizing to Bai Jun.

"What... You made me so excited for nothing. I thought that idiot Guinevere had finally snagged a big shot. But it's fine this way, after all, that's just my Guinevere's personality. It's normal that she can't find such a high-quality man."

A beautiful woman with short red hair and a quiet, elegant demeanor took off her glasses and shook her head with a hint of regret. However, despite her words of regret, the bright smile on her face showed no sign of fading. Soon, she was engaged in a fight with Guinaifen, who rushed up to her shouting, "Merlin, you're talking nonsense again! You don't respect your older sister at all!"

Guinevere, I'm very disappointed in you.

Morgan sighed in exasperation, then, exercising her authority as the eldest sister, pulled Guinaifen, who was arguing with Merlin, back to her senses.

Unlike the sighing adults, Guinaifen's younger siblings remained in high spirits, crowding around Bai Jun and asking him all sorts of questions. Although Bai Jun had answered similar questions many times before, the children continued to ask questions with great enthusiasm.

"Hey, big brother, how did you meet Sister Guinevere?"

Instead of worrying about those things, how about I perform a magic trick for you?

Bai Jun was impressed by the children's precociousness and felt that he could no longer remain passive. So he pretended to be mysterious and spread his hands out. Under the puzzled gazes of the others, he suddenly clenched his fists. When he opened his palms again, dozens of exquisite candies were already quietly lying in his palms.

"Wow, big brother, where did you get the candy from?"

The children were captivated by his magic tricks, and they exclaimed in surprise.

The children's faces lit up with bright smiles as they received the candies that Bai Jun magically produced from his clean palms. They rarely ate candy, partly because they were afraid of damaging their teeth, and partly because they seldom went shopping and had no opportunity to buy it. The last time they tasted sweetness was when Guinaifen brought some desserts home.

"Aww, so sweet~"

"This is so delicious! It's even better than the candy Yu-nee gave me!"

"Handsome big brother, I want more!"

"Mordred, you've already eaten seven candies. For the sake of your teeth, you should let an adult handle this."

"Aaaaah, you cunning Galahad, give me back my candy!!!"

Watching the children's lively smiles and interactions, the adults sitting at one side of the long table smiled with satisfaction. Guinaifen playfully nudged Bai Jun's arm and praised him sincerely:

"Bai Jun, you're amazing! I never knew you were so good at interacting with children. Tell me secretly, where did you conjure up that candy? I'm also curious about your technique... how did you manage to fool me? Are you a hidden magician, Bai Jun?"

At this point, she touched Bai Jun's palm and then checked his wrists and sleeves for any hidden mechanisms.

"Don't worry about those little tricks you use to fool kids. They're a secret technique, and even if you did care, I couldn't teach them to you."

Bai Jun seemed to see through Guinaifen's behavior and saw right through her ulterior motives.

As for where this sugar actually came from?

In fact, Bai Jun secretly used "Abundance" to create condensed fruit candy, which is essentially an application of plant life. It can't really be called a clever and unparalleled technique. It can simply be explained by the force of a brick flying. If he wanted, he could even condense a handful of white sugar.

"No, no, that's not it! I was just asking out of curiosity--"

"Okay, okay, okay."

Before Guinaifen could even utter a few more words of embarrassment, something hard was suddenly pressed against her lips. Trusting Bai Jun, she instinctively opened her mouth and took it in. As the taste of the candy fully blossomed in her mouth, she realized what Bai Jun had fed her. Her shyness instantly melted into an even sweeter happiness.

"Guinevere is swooning over a girl again, how disgusting..." Merlin said instinctively, looking at Guinaifen's shy expression.

"Merlin!"

"Don't grin at me, Guinevere, always acting like the older sister. You were only born a few seconds before me, weren't you? Anyway... ha, ha ha ha, stop, stop scratching me! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was wrong, I was wrong, sister! Sister!"

Ignoring the chaotic scene between the Guinaifen sisters, Bai Jun casually produced another candy and stuffed it into Sushang's mouth. Sushang, who had been feeling neglected and giving him a somewhat resentful look, immediately quieted down, happily squinted her eyes, and her face radiated happiness.

"Please excuse my rudeness, sir. Have some tea."

A man who looked to be in his twenties or thirties walked over carrying two steaming cups of tea.

Nothing describes this man better than "robust." Even in his loose robes, one can vaguely see the strong muscles hidden beneath his sleeves. His sun-darkened face is lined with faint wrinkles, his short red hair is neatly trimmed, and he wears a kind smile.

He was the eldest brother in his family. His real name was Xianzhou Lang Shile, and he also made a living on Luofu. However, he preferred to be called "Lancelot" rather than his Xianzhou name.

After serving the tea, Lancelot sat back down in the main seat on the tatami mat, took out an account book and began to meticulously calculate. Although the room was dark, he could write by the orange light streaming in from the window.

"I earned two coins today. Ignoring food expenses, after deducting this month's water and electricity bills, the children's school fees, the plate Morgan broke, Guinevere's fine... I have exactly half a coin left."

Seeing Lancelot engrossed in writing, Bai Jun nudged Guinaifen's arm and whispered, "Is your older brother writing something? Aren't you going to turn on the light?"

"It's okay, I'm used to it." Guinaifen chuckled and scratched her cheek, explaining, "Because of debt, my family is actually living quite frugally, so we try to cut back on many small things."

"Debt problem?"

When Bai Jun first heard that Guinaifen's family had debt problems, he originally thought that her family was just too big and she didn't earn enough money to support them.

"Ah, I don't think I've told you and Sushang about this yet. Actually, it's because my silly brothers robbed a merchant ship from the Xianzhou. Fortunately, the Xianzhou's military officers were kind-hearted and merciful, sparing our whole family and even providing us with shelter and education."

Guinaifen's expression turned sorrowful, and her clenched fists trembled slightly.

"However, one thing is one thing. We need to fully repay the losses caused by the delays in stopping the merchant ships. Let me think... it's about 360,000 tungsten. So far, we've only repaid less than 100,000 tungsten. Sigh, it seems there's still a long way to go."

"More than 300,000 arrows?! Little Gui, did you blow up the merchant ship that was the Xianzhou...?" Sushang stared wide-eyed in astonishment.

"You'd have to ask my eldest and second eldest brothers. Who knows what they were doing back then?"

Guinaifen sighed softly, causing Lancelot, sitting in the main seat, to shudder. He slowly put down his pen and confessed in despair, "There's nothing we can do. The merchant ships are loaded with ores, and our small spaceships can't carry much. In the end, we had no choice but to dismantle the merchant ships' energy cores..."

"Unexpectedly, the energy core was actually a positioning device, and we were arrested by the Xianzhou's escort ship before we got very far." Bedivere lowered his head, tears welling up in his eyes.

"Foolish Lancelot."

Morgan scoffed and shook his head dismissively.

"How can you blame me for this?! And if I remember correctly, it was Morgan who suggested we become space pirates, wasn't it?"

Lancelot's brow twitched, and he brought up someone's weakness with a hint of annoyance. "You were so confident and shrewd when you came up with the ideas, but when it came to actually robbing someone, you were the first one to run away, weren't you?"

"Alright, alright, we have guests today, you two stop arguing!"

Just before the two were about to escalate into their familiar argument, Bedivere stopped them in time, then stood up, picked up the two bags of ingredients that Bai Jun had brought, and headed to the kitchen.

However, after a long time, no sound of food being processed came from the kitchen.

"Um... Morgan, come here for a second, give me a hand," Bedivere suddenly called out, sounding a little embarrassed, from the kitchen.

"Can't you handle this yourself? Shameful, Bedivere, you're getting more and more incompetent."

Morgan snorted, stood up, and walked over.

Soon, sounds like "What is this?", "I don't know, this is a completely unfamiliar ingredient," "This should be fish, right?", "Never mind, let's cut into it first!", "Whoa, this fish is still alive?!", "Hey, hey, hey, there's a plate over there, be careful!" echoed from the kitchen.

Suddenly, the sound of something breaking echoed from the kitchen.

Lancelot, feeling exhausted, took out his notebook and added another entry, "Morgan's broken plate this month: 7".

"Um... Mr. Bai Jun, could you tell us what these ingredients are?" Morgan poked her head out from the kitchen, looking a little embarrassed, and whispered.

"Leave it to me."

After thinking for a moment, Bai Jun went into the kitchen and took their place, preparing the ingredients by himself.

Morgan and Bedivere were too embarrassed to say anything else, since they didn't even recognize the ingredients, let alone know how to cook.

After all the dishes were served on the long table, it was already 7:44 PM. The sky outside the window had completely darkened, and lights from every house came on, creating a vibrant tapestry of lights.

"It's so delicious! Big brother's cooking is much better than my older sister's and second brother's cooking!"

The children couldn't wait and grabbed a piece, immediately bursting out with praise before wolfing it down.

Morgan and Bedivere couldn't resist trying it too. Their eyes widened, and they exclaimed involuntarily, "It's delicious! It's even better than anything we've ever had in Camelot!"

Hearing such an exaggerated description, Guinaifen and Lancelot quickly picked up their chopsticks, and then...

"So delicious~ Bai Jun, you're amazing!"

"Oh my gosh, the fish is so fresh and delicious! I've never tasted anything like it before!!!"

Lancelot excitedly put more fish into his mouth. He swore it was the best fish he had ever eaten, attributing most of the credit to the chef's skill, but also partly to the quality of the fish itself.

Driven by his curiosity as a fish enthusiast, Lancelot couldn't resist asking the name of the fish so he could buy some to eat some later.

"Starsea Grouper, you can buy it at the market at Starskiff Haven Dock," Bai Jun answered truthfully.

Lancelot seemed to have heard the name before, but couldn't quite place it. Just then, Merlin trembled as he removed his chopsticks from the fish, his voice filled with an unknown fear:

"Is that... that kind of Starsea Grouper that sells for 100 darts? And if I remember correctly... that kind of fish is only sold to people from the Shence Mansion, right?"

As soon as those words were spoken, an eerie silence fell over the room. The expressions of all the adults in Guinaifen's family froze, and the occasional gulping sound of them swallowing could be heard.

Sushang and the children were still wolfing down their food when Bai Jun affectionately put some food on Sushang, completely unaware that their eyes were gradually becoming fervent and hungry, as if they were seeing not only Bai Jun, but also the super-giant thigh of the whole family!

They had long been fed up with this dark, oppressive, and hopeless life. To escape this boundless suffering, they were willing to pay any price!

"Mr. Bai Jun! No! Young Master Bai Jun, please stay here tonight! We'll make room for Guinevere!!!" Lancelot's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"Mr. Bai Jun! Let's get engaged to Guinevere tonight! Or we can have her as a mistress, no problem at all, as long as you're happy!!!" Morgan betrayed his own sister without the slightest hesitation.