As the year drew to a close, on the second-to-last day before the holiday, Lin Yun got off work at the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau and returned home at nearly nine o'clock.
It was not only because he had had a meeting with government officials that afternoon, but also because after work, he had gone to the base to show his face as Larkspur. This had practically become a fixed part of his routine lately.
Normally, he might have simply stayed in the house at the base, but today was different—Lin Xiaolu had come home.
Sometimes once a week, sometimes once every half month, Lin Xiaolu often came home to change out her clothes and replenish daily necessities. She would take away things she needed for the days ahead, bring back things she no longer needed, and tidy up her room while she was at it.
To her, this was perfectly natural and required no consideration of any complicated underlying reasons. But for Lin Yun, whether or not he went home required weighing multiple factors.
During the first two months after moving into the Secret Base, his schedule had remained highly consistent with Lin Xiaolu's. Basically, whenever Lin Xiaolu went home, he would find an excuse to leave the base as well—Xia Liang already knew the truth anyway, and Bai Jingxuan did not care about such things at all. As long as he made sure he was home whenever Lin Xiaolu returned, he could ease the conflict between his identities to some extent.
But as time passed, especially after the Full Moon Festival, Lin Xiaolu discovered that her father was not entirely an ordinary person. Later, she even learned that Lin Yun was the director of the Anomaly Countermeasures Bureau. One night, she posed a thought-provoking question to her father:
—"Have