Hajiling: I'm Here to Take You All Home!

One more turn at the end of the alley brought them to the place where Chisa and the others were now living together.

Dania looked at the somewhat old building before her, assessing whether the house was safe.

"It looks a little old, but it's still safe. Most importantly, the rent is cheap," Xiao Ling explained beside her.

"So how do we get in?" Dania asked, tilting her head.

"Ring the doorbell."

Xiao Ling gently pressed the doorbell twice, and a ding-dong rang out with each press.

A shuffling of footsteps sounded, followed by a click as the door opened. A slightly hunched old woman stepped out, her cloudy eyes watching Xiao Ling and Dania warily.

"Hello, Grandma. I'm here to see Chi-"

"Please leave." The old woman's voice brooked no argument. "You already have a girlfriend, yet you're still pestering other young girls. Shameless."

Dania said nothing. She merely looked at Xiao Ling with a hint of amusement in her eyes, but that was enough to make him break out in a sweat.

"No, Grandma Lin, take another look. It's me, Xiao Yu?" This time, Xiao Ling addressed her by her surname and even gave her his childhood nickname.

"Xiao Yu...?" The old woman's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up. "Hey, you little rascal! You gave your mother no end of trouble when you were little! Now you're all grown up and two-timing! I'll teach you a lesson on your mother's behalf!"

"Whoa! Grandma Lin, let me explain! Damn, not the clothes hanger! My girlfriend's right here, give me a little dignity-ow, ow, ow!" Xiao Ling tried to stop her, but took two solid whacks from the hanger and cried out in pain on the spot.

As for Dania? She was doubled over laughing beside them, without the slightest regard for her image.

After a rather protracted chase,

Xiao Ling and Grandma Lin were finally able to talk calmly. The price was a thorough beating, and he even had two red welts on his face.

"Oh, oh, I can't take it. That was so funny." Dania was laughing so hard she could barely catch her breath, and tears had even come to her eyes.

"Hey, you're still laughing!" Xiao Ling was about to "reassert his authority as a man," but one look from Grandma Lin made him shrink back.

"Go on, what are you here for, boy?" Grandma Lin's voice was quiet and a little hoarse, but plenty stern.

"To pick someone up..." Xiao Ling answered honestly.

"You're here for Chisa?" Grandma Lin pressed.

"No?"

"Hm?"

"Uh, and Aemeath too..." Xiao Ling chose his words carefully as he spoke to Grandma Lin.

"You heartless brat... Two boats aren't enough for you, so now you want to jump onto a third?!" The clothes hanger in Grandma Lin's hand was already poised to strike.

"Wait, Grandma Lin." This time, it was Dania who spoke. "We really are here to pick them up. Chisa and Aemeath are both my friends. Ling saw how worried I was about them and wanted to bring them over to live with me."

"Really?"

"Really!" Dania leaned closer and looked at Grandma Lin with her big, adorable, watery eyes.

Grandma Lin looked at the incomparably adorable Dania before her, then at Xiao Ling, who was grinning foolishly on the other side. In the end, she sighed helplessly.

"Hmph, at least you've got a bit of a conscience, boy," she said in a slightly fierce voice, making that silly boy Xiao Ling flinch again.

"Come on, I'll take you two upstairs."

Xiao Ling followed behind with Dania. Just as they were about to head upstairs, he suddenly felt a gaze full of malice.

He abruptly turned toward the mouth of the alley, only to see a tall, thin man with glasses and a canvas shoulder bag passing by. A moment later, the man was gone from sight.

"What's wrong?" Dania squeezed Xiao Ling's palm, a little puzzled by his sudden alertness.

"Nothing. I must have imagined it."

He thought no more of it and took Dania's hand, following Grandma Lin upstairs to pick up Little Ai and the others.

Although Grandma Lin was already in her seventies, she was still nimble on her feet. Of course she was-what ordinary old lady could chase a young college student like Xiao Ling around and beat him?

"Too many people have been coming around to bother them lately. Every time those girls go out and come back, there are always some shifty-looking fellows following them. They all look like upstanding gentlemen, but what they do is downright nasty." Grandma Lin still had enough breath to tell Xiao Ling about Chisa and the others' recent situation as she climbed the stairs.

Xiao Ling found it a little funny. He figured most of the shifty-looking fellows Grandma Lin spoke of probably thought Chisa and the others were cosers with a hundred-percent accurate portrayals and wanted to get photos with them. Of course, he couldn't rule out the possibility that some of them really did have bad intentions.

"By the way, Grandma Lin, how did you meet Chisa and the others?" Xiao Ling asked.

"Oh, that. Actually, the first one I met wasn't Chisa, but the girl called Aemeath," Grandma Lin explained.

"I don't know what happened to her, but she was lying there beside the alley, with a crowd gathered around her. I asked and found out that the child had appeared out of thin air."

"The girl was so pretty. I was worried that someone with bad intentions would set their sights on her if she was out on her own, so I took her in."

"Come to think of it, Aemeath is warmhearted, just like you. In the little over a week she's been here, she's helped everyone in the alley with all sorts of dirty, tiring work. I thought a young girl like her might not be used to it, but to my surprise, she seemed to enjoy it."

"As for Chisa, that child brought her back too. Later, she brought back two more very pretty girls. I think their names were... Lynae and Sigrika. They both sound like foreign names. I thought the girls could stick together and look out for one another, so I took them all in."

"Grandma Lin." Dania, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke up. "Does the Sigrika you know have orange hair tied in four braids?"

"Hey, she does! What, is she a friend of yours?"

"Yes. A very, very good friend." Dania smiled at Grandma Lin with her eyes narrowed.

"Thank you, Grandma Lin. And I'm sorry for causing you trouble again..." Xiao Ling thanked her gratefully.

"You haven't come too late. These old bones of mine can't take much more. I can protect them for a while, but I can't protect them forever. You're a bit of a bastard, boy, but you have a good heart. I feel at ease leaving them with you."

As she spoke, Grandma Lin led them to the door of the apartment where Chisa and the others lived.

"All right, this is as far as I'll take you. I'll leave the rest to you young folks."

Grandma Lin slowly made her way downstairs.

"Shall I knock, then?" Xiao Ling turned to look at Dania.

Dania gave him a silent reply with a determined look.

Knock, knock, knock. Counting the beats of his heart, Xiao Ling knocked three times, steadily and firmly.

As soon as the knocking faded, shuffling footsteps sounded behind the door, followed by a cheerful voice through the door: "Coming!"

Then the apartment door clicked open.

Aemeath appeared before Xiao Ling, looking lovely in a short-sleeved shirt a size too big for her and a pair of loose-looking shorts, with pink Hello Kitty slippers on her feet. Her waist-length pink hair was loose and draped casually over her shoulders, making her look a little less heroic but a little cuter.

The moment she saw Xiao Ling, her somewhat dazed eyes instantly cleared, and they began to tremble uncontrollably.

After taking a deep breath to calm his excitement, Xiao Ling patted Aemeath's little head while she was still in shock.

"Aemeath," Xiao Ling said, his voice gentler than ever, "I'm here to take you all home!"