The orange cat had no idea that the human in front of it and the godson it had once taken a liking to were harboring so many thoughts. It was merely an orange cat that was a bit smarter than other orange cats, relatively speaking, a bit more well-traveled, also relative to other orange cats, and still subject to many limitations in many respects.
The orange cat did not understand what Zhao Jin meant. It only knew that the godson it had taken a liking to was unwilling to accept it and its little dried fish.
The orange cat also could not understand what Lu Luoluo and Lu Ran were saying. It had only once sensed a certain degree of danger from Lu Ran’s actions.
But the little dried fish were simply too delicious. Each time, the orange cat could not resist the temptation and would probe at the edge of danger. It was completely unaware of Lu Ran’s one-sided misunderstanding, nor did it know that without the help of the godson it had taken a liking to, it would have been caught by Lu Ran long ago.
This time, after smelling the scent of little dried fish on Lu Luoluo, the orange cat immediately rolled its eyes and decided to follow the human home.
It survived by acting cute among groups of students, currying favor to scrounge food and drinks. It did not know what holidays were, only that every winter and summer were especially hard to get through. Compared to the possible loss of certain body parts, whether it could make it safely through the winter seemed far more important.
If Lu Ran insisted another two or three times, the orange cat would probably follow along anyway. It was quite capable of bending when needed.
First go to someone else’s home to scrounge food and drink, then decide in spring whether to leave or not. The orange cat thought with its simple brain.
Small animals have their own rules for survival.
“Should we take it to the hospital for deworming and quarantine or something, and maybe give it a bath while we’re at it?” Driver Zhang could not help but suggest. He did not know the full situation, only that you could not just pick up a cat and casually bring it home.
Does a divine cat need deworming and quarantine? Lu Luoluo looked down at the orange cat in her arms, trying to convey the question with her eyes.
The orange cat lifted its head and gave Lu Luoluo a soft “meow.”
That means it agrees, right? Lu Luoluo thought uncertainly. She said to Driver Zhang, “Then please trouble you to take us to the hospital, uncle.”
“Alright.”
……
The examination results showed that the orange cat was in excellent health, with no parasites. It was also very cooperative during its bath. This came as no surprise to either Lu Ran or Lu Luoluo.
In the evening, when Madam Lu Mingzhu returned home, she discovered that there was now an extra cat in the house, along with quite a few newly added cat supplies.
“So this is Da Ju?” Madam Lu Mingzhu asked with some curiosity.
The orange cat had originally been lying next to Lu Luoluo on the sofa, leisurely swaying its tail. But the instant Madam Lu Mingzhu stepped through the door, its eyes narrowed, and it immediately recognized who the true master of the household was.
It jumped down from the sofa at once, walked briskly over to Madam Lu Mingzhu, and rubbed its fluffy head against her leg.
Lu Luoluo and Lu Ran: ……
Lu Luoluo turned to her son and asked in confusion, “Are you sure it really is Da Ju?”
Its movements looked far too practiced, not quite like a divine cat with supernatural powers. Could this be her own preconceived notion?
For the entire afternoon after bringing the orange cat home, both Lu Luoluo and Lu Ran tried various ways to communicate with it.
But whether they told the orange cat that they already knew about its special nature, or narrated stories about time travel to it, the orange cat merely squatted in front of them, meowing. Before long, it went back to pawing at the little dried fish, every bit an ordinary cat.
Lu Ran nodded with certainty. “That’s right. Several times when it disappeared right in front of me, the golden light surrounding its body was exactly the same as that night.”
On the night he returned to 2023, Da Ju had been wrapped in the same golden glow.
Madam Lu Mingzhu squatted down and patted the orange cat’s head. Having roughly guessed the meaning of the conversation between her daughter and grandson, she smiled and said, “If Ranran says so, then it must be right.”
Lu Luoluo suppressed her doubts. “Then maybe Da Ju can’t trust us yet. We’ll just take it slowly.”
At that moment, the phone screen beside her lit up. Lu Luoluo picked it up and cast a quick glance at it. Her eyes immediately lit up, and her fingers flew as she quickly replied to a message.
Lu Ran caught a glimpse of the message and saw that it was from his roommate and deskmate, Lu Qingjia.
He could not help but probe cautiously, “Mom, are you on pretty good terms with Lu Qingjia?”
“Yes. We sit in front of and behind each other, so we sometimes exchange notes about studying.” Lu Luoluo felt a trace of wariness inside, but kept her smile as she spoke naturally. “Why did you suddenly bring up Lu Qingjia?”
Lu Ran pointed at Lu Luoluo’s phone and answered honestly, “I accidentally saw the message he sent just now.”
Come to think of it, they were roommates, yet this person had never sent him a message before.
Lu Luoluo froze for a moment, then paused, astonished. “You could make it out clearly from that far away?” Lu Ran had been sitting across from her, with at least three to five meters between them.
Madam Lu Mingzhu, who had been stroking the “divine cat’s” head, also lifted her head.
Lu Ran did not expect his mother’s focus to be so unconventional. With no choice, he nodded. “Actually, aside from changes in speed and physical strength, my five senses have all become much sharper recently.”
Lu Luoluo immediately hurried to the storage room at home. Within three to five minutes, she dug out a tape measure from a cabinet, then took out a visual acuity test chart and grabbed a wooden spoon, indicating that she wanted to test Lu Ran’s eyesight.
The distance specified for the vision chart was three meters. Lu Ran effortlessly identified the opening directions of the symbols on the last line.
He stepped back to five meters. Still effortless.
Then seven meters, ten meters…
Finally, at thirteen meters, Lu Ran said, “This is a bit of a strain.”
Lu Luoluo said worriedly, “Could this be farsightedness?” Don’t tell me he’s getting presbyopia at such a young age?
Madam Lu Mingzhu gently patted Lu Luoluo on the head. “Don’t talk nonsense.”
Lu Ran smiled. “No, it’s not that. Things up close are very clear too.”
Madam Lu Mingzhu asked Lu Ran again whether he had any other sensations. Lu Ran smiled and answered that he did not.
In fact, there was a slight abnormality. He did not know why, but he had been particularly fond of basking in the sun lately.
It was a small matter. Saying it out loud would only make his grandmother and mother worry, so Lu Ran chose to keep it to himself for now.
“So, Mom, why did Lu Qingjia message you?” Lu Ran did not forget his question.
Lu Luoluo: ……
After all that fuss, how did this child still remember this matter?
“There was an exam question whose answer I wasn’t sure about, so I asked him,” Lu Luoluo lied without batting an eye.
All the answers had already been checked the night before. Lu Qingjia had messaged because she had seized a spare moment in the afternoon to urgently ask for help.
Lu Qingjia’s reply had been very simple: 【Two items.】
Anything that could be solved with money was not really a problem, especially since prices in this game were not high. Lu Luoluo hurriedly replied with a 【Deal】, transferred a sum of money straight away, and then waited for good news.
“So Mom has a habit of checking answers,” Lu Ran said with a smile, only half convinced in his heart.
Lu Mingzhu cast her daughter a sympathetic glance, clearly having more or less figured out the crux of the matter.
……
That night, when Lu Luoluo received the notification from Lu Qingjia that her registration for the mathematics competition winter camp had been successful, she was completely dumbfounded.
【Use the excuse of focusing on competition preparation during the holidays to temporarily stop playing the game. After the semester starts, you need to study properly. In the summer, tell him you have permanently lost interest in the game and simply gave the account to me.】Lu Qingjia had arranged everything very clearly for Lu Luoluo.
The registration fee had even been transferred by Lu Luoluo herself.
But… but! Lu Luoluo almost spat out a mouthful of blood.
The solution she had imagined: the genius student sends over more than ten pages of game guides. She crams overnight and studies hard, then shines brilliantly in front of her son, deepening his impression of his mother as a peak-level expert. Finally, she waves her sleeve lightly, declares that she is bidding farewell to the illusory clouds of the game world, departs gracefully, returns to real life, and reaps her son’s admiring gaze.
The actual solution: the genius sends over a notification confirming successful registration for the mathematics competition winter camp.
【I signed you up for the basic track. Your mathematical intuition is decent. Getting a participation award should not be a problem.】The genius student rarely sent a message to explain.
【Every year, half the people don’t even get a participation award.】
Lu Luoluo: 【……Isn’t there any other way? Genius, do you have any kind of rapid game mastery guide?】
Lu Qingjia replied very quickly: 【There are guides, but you can’t do it. Your awareness and reaction speed can’t keep up, and the teams you run into are random. Once you start playing, the probability of exposing flaws is one hundred percent.】
Lu Luoluo was dealt a heavy blow.
Thinking about it, it made sense. When she had played games with Lu Qingjia before, she had not asked for guides any less. What Lu Qingjia explained was one thing, but once she actually tried to do it herself, everything turned into something else.
Could it be that she really had to go to some mathematics competition winter camp?
Lu Qingjia had already sent over a whole list of reference books.
……
Under Madam Lu Mingzhu’s incredulous gaze, Lu Luoluo informed the family that she had already signed up for a mathematics competition winter camp. She said that she would work hard to prepare before entering the camp, and very politely asked Lu Ran whether he wanted to participate as well.
After learning that both his mother and his roommate and deskmate, Lu Qingjia, would be taking part in this winter camp, Lu Ran expressed that he too had a very strong interest in mathematics.
For the sake of her daughter’s dignity, Madam Lu Mingzhu outwardly voiced full support. In private, she shot Lu Luoluo a look, leaving her to reflect on it herself.
Thus, when night fell that same day, Lu Luoluo secretly slipped into Madam Lu Mingzhu’s bedroom. She poured out her grievances and her lack of alternatives, giving a perfectly reasonable and legitimate explanation for leaving Madam Lu Mingzhu behind and spending the winter vacation at the camp.
“Your daughter really has no other choice. Once she has free time, Lu Ran will definitely bring up the game.
“The moment she touches the game, your daughter will give herself away. It’s like poking through the skin of a glutinous rice ball with a chopstick. With a soft hissing sound, it bursts.
“Your daughter’s tall and mighty image in front of her son will collapse at the same time, like a towering mountain toppling over all at once.”
“Sigh, your daughter even thought about whether she should just buy that game company outright. But all the New Year’s money she’s received from childhood until now doesn’t even add up to a fraction of a single digit of their company.”
Madam Lu Mingzhu listened until her head started to ache. She thought to herself that she knew her daughter’s Chinese had improved over the past two months, but there was no need to show off in front of her own mother. She hurriedly said, “Alright, alright.”
Her daughter was quite skilled at digging pits for herself.
Then she asked, “As for you joining a mathematics competition, will that really work? Do you want to try something else?”
Ever since she was young, Madam Lu Mingzhu would get a headache just at the sight of mathematics. Her husband, Shen Jia, was quite strong in math, but in this regard, Madam Lu Mingzhu had always felt that Lu Luoluo took after her.
“I guess it’s okay?” Lu Luoluo said softly. “The genius said I have talent. How did he put it again, my mathematical intuition is pretty good.”
Lu Luoluo did not actually know what mathematical intuition meant, but compared to other subjects, this one was easier for her to make up for, and it was indeed a subject she was relatively good at.
Madam Lu Mingzhu asked suspiciously, “Really?” Could it be that in this aspect, her daughter took after Shen Jia instead?
Lu Luoluo nodded emphatically. “I estimated my score this time. It should be around one hundred and forty.”
Madam Lu Mingzhu was pleasantly surprised. “Such a big improvement? How about the other subjects?”
Over the past two months, Madam Lu Mingzhu had more or less seen the effort her daughter had put in. She had also had a bit of communication with Lu Luoluo’s teachers, and she held fairly high expectations for this.
“By the time we enter the camp, the grades will already be out. Mom, you’ll see then!” Lu Luoluo said confidently.
Madam Lu Mingzhu raised an eyebrow.
Over the next few days, Lu Luoluo became caught up in a flurry of activity. At first, she was just pretending to be busy in front of Lu Ran. Later, she was genuinely busy.
While browsing materials and doing some preliminary preparation, Lu Luoluo discovered that getting even a participation award was not such an easy task.
Lu Ran joined the mathematics competition winter camp with other motives. His main purpose was to observe any subtle signs between his mother and Lu Qingjia, and, if possible, see whether he could obtain Lu Qingjia’s genetic sample. He was not particularly concerned about the competition results themselves.
However, later on, seeing how hard his mother was working, Lu Ran felt embarrassed to laze around on the side. He decided to put in the effort together with his mother.
As for electronic competitive games and the like, the two of them naturally chose to forget about them selectively.
When doing the final exam papers, Lu Ran shaped himself toward a skewed subject profile. Mathematics happened to be the subject he was good at, and when he discussed problems with Lu Luoluo, he did not deliberately lower his level.
As a result, Lu Luoluo discovered in surprise that her son was very talented in mathematics.
Lu Ran also felt that his mother had a special knack for mathematics.
Both of them became increasingly diligent. Lu Ran wanted to perform well in front of his mother, while Lu Luoluo did not want to show any weakness in front of her son.
Each of them read on their own, occasionally discussing problems. The orange cat they had just brought home was instead left off to the side.
…It could not really be said that it was being neglected.
In fact, this senior cat had a very clear understanding of the distribution of status within the Lu household. When it had first arrived at the Lu residence, it was very clingy toward Lu Luoluo. The rest of the time, it stayed by Madam Lu Mingzhu’s side, currying favor nonstop. One moment it would fetch a ball for the elderly lady, the next it would sidle up to beg for head pats and act cute. Madam Lu Mingzhu had all but forgotten that this was a divine cat. She arranged everything from cat trees to freeze-dried snacks, calling it Da Ju every other sentence. In less than a few days, she had almost begun treating this orange cat as a second Lu Luoluo.
…
Time ticked forward day by day. In the blink of an eye, it was the day before the winter camp began. It was also the day when the final exam results were released.
On this day at noon, the school would uniformly send emails to the electronic mailboxes of parents and students, ensuring that parents and students were promptly and accurately informed of the student’s academic performance for the semester.
Despite having already checked the answers and acting very confident, when lunchtime came that day, Lu Luoluo could not help feeling a bit nervous.
How had the results of these two months of effort turned out? Would Lu Ran ask about her grades once he received the email? Would they meet her son’s expectations? Right, and how had her son done on his exams?
Afraid that revealing her emotions would make her seem less like a “top student,” Lu Luoluo deliberately ate at her usual pace.
Madam Lu Mingzhu, however, had no such concerns. She quickly finished her lunch, picked up a napkin to wipe her mouth, then took her phone and went over to the sofa. With one hand stroking the orange cat’s head, she used the other to tap open her phone.
As the guardian of both children, the report cards for both Lu Luoluo and Lu Ran would be sent to her electronic mailbox.
Lu Luoluo finished this long lunch with a calm expression. When she turned around, she met Madam Lu Mingzhu’s smiling eyes.
So the results were pretty good? Lu Luoluo curved her lips slightly toward Madam Lu Mingzhu and took the phone from her.
The first thing she checked was the ranking. Eighteenth in the grade, not bad at all. Chinese was about the same, English as well. Physics and chemistry were a bit lower than her estimated scores. This subject was so much lower… this one was much higher than expected… huh, full marks in mathematics?
That couldn’t be right. She and the genius student had checked the answers. She had gotten one multiple-choice question and one fill-in-the-blank question wrong.
Could it be that the genius student was wrong, and she had been right instead?
With a hint of embarrassed delight, Lu Luoluo thought to herself. Could it be that she really was this talented in mathematics?
All kinds of emotions swept through her heart. The next moment, her gaze shifted upward to what she should have noticed at first glance… the owner of the report card: Lu Ran.
Her son.
…Lu Luoluo did not know what to say. She hurriedly exited this email and opened another one.
Sure enough, mathematics was one hundred and forty, exactly deducting the points for that one multiple-choice question and one fill-in-the-blank question.
The scores in the other subjects were all more or less in line with her estimates. Even where there were fluctuations, they were within two or three points.
The ranking was ninth, a bit higher than Lu Ran’s, because Lu Luoluo’s overall performance was more balanced across subjects.
Not bad, not bad. She had actually squeezed into the top ten of the grade. Lu Luoluo felt that this result fully lived up to her early mornings and late nights of hard work, as well as her flawless performance on the spot.
Even if mathematics had not been a perfect score, it would still have been worth celebrating. And the perfect score belonged to her son! Lu Luoluo thought happily.
So her son’s grades were this good? He seemed a bit skewed toward certain subjects. If every subject were as strong as mathematics, could he become first in the grade and take the genius’s place?
The genius had helped her so much. Was it a bit rebellious to think about replacing him?
But her son seemed to have that potential. She should support him! Wait, encouragement was fine, but she should not put pressure on him…
“What are Mom and Grandma looking at?” Lu Ran had also finished eating. He neatly stacked the bowls and plates together to make it easier for the aunt to clean up later.
Lu Ran did not pay much attention to matters related to final exam results, so he was naturally puzzled by the behavior of Lu Luoluo and Madam Lu Mingzhu.
“The final exam results are out. You did great!” Lu Luoluo beamed brightly at her son. “You got a perfect score in math!”
Lu Ran suddenly understood.
“Very nice,” Madam Lu Mingzhu said, giving a thumbs-up. “Tonight we’ll go out for a big meal to celebrate properly. Do you want to relax a bit this afternoon and go shopping? You’ll be entering the camp tomorrow afternoon.”
For relaxation methods other than electronic competitive games, Lu Luoluo raised both hands in approval.
Lu Ran smiled and also expressed his agreement. He had almost forgotten that every time exam results came out, his mother and grandmother would take him out to celebrate. Even though he had been first place every single time before.
This time he was not first, yet he still received the same treatment.
“How did Mom do?” Lu Ran asked with a smile, showing concern.
“Pretty okay, ninth in the grade.” When it came to herself, Lu Luoluo felt a little embarrassed instead. She was not sure whether this ranking would count as being near the top by her son’s standards.
“That’s very good already.” Lu Ran gave her full credit with his praise. Afraid that Lu Luoluo might set overly high expectations for herself and feel dissatisfied with the ranking, he said firmly, “Mom will definitely do even better next time.”
What could Lu Luoluo say? She could only smile guiltily and say, “Doing my best is enough.” She did not even dare bring up the fact that her son had a skewed subject profile.
……
“This one’s nice. Ranran’s height can carry it.” Madam Lu Mingzhu held up a black wool coat against Lu Ran to check the fit. Then she picked up a red plaid coat and compared it as well. Immediately satisfied, she nodded and directed Lu Luoluo to try it on.
When the mother and son, who were close in age, came out of the fitting rooms one after the other, they found that Madam Lu Mingzhu was exchanging pleasantries with a familiar elderly lady.
This elderly lady was Shen Jia’s mother, Lu Luoluo’s paternal grandmother, Old Madam Shen. Lu Ran should have addressed her as great-grandmother, but under the circumstances, he could only call her “elder.”
Ever since her only biological son, Shen Jia, passed away, the old lady’s health had never been very good. She had not attended Old Master Shen’s birthday banquet last time, but today she looked to be in fairly good spirits.
“Luoluo looks very festive in this outfit,” Old Madam Shen said first, smiling as she looked at her granddaughter. She then nodded toward Lu Ran and said kindly, “The young man looks very spirited. Your name is Lu Ran, right?”
“Luoluo and Lu Ran have finished their final exams, haven’t they? Would you like to come over to the house to play? That boy Shen Rong is there too. I heard he and Lu Ran are even roommates. It would be nice for the children to keep each other company.” Seeing her granddaughter made Old Madam Shen very happy, and she also felt an inexplicable sense of closeness toward Lu Ran. She immediately extended the invitation to both of them.
“I’m afraid that won’t work,” Madam Lu Mingzhu replied with a smile as she declined. “Luoluo and Ranran are both willing, and I also hope they can be close with the two of you elders. It’s just that they signed up together for a mathematics competition winter camp, and they have to enter tomorrow. During the New Year holiday they’ll only have a few days to come home, and after that they’ll have to go again.”
“That’s so hard,” Old Madam Shen sighed emotionally. Compared to Old Master Shen, who would ask about grades the moment he met them, she was an out-and-out doting type. With regret, she said, “It’s not easy to finally have a break, yet they still have to attend some winter camp.”
“It’s not too bad,” Lu Luoluo said as she sat down beside her grandmother. “Did you come out today to buy clothes for Cousin?” The brand mainly catered to a younger clientele, so Old Madam Shen was most likely buying for the younger generation. Since it was not for her, then it had to be for her cousin Shen Rong.
“I was feeling energetic today, so I came out for a stroll. I remembered seeing Xiao Rong with torn pants last time, so I wanted to help pick out a few pieces. His father doesn’t care about him at all. In such cold weather, he still lets him go out wearing ripped pants…” Afraid her granddaughter might think she was playing favorites, Old Madam Shen said with a beaming smile, “If there’s anything you like today, Luoluo, Grandma will pay.”
Lu Luoluo thought to herself that her cousin was probably chasing some kind of trend. She did not expose it, and instead smiled obediently. “Alright, thank you, Grandma.”
“We’re family. What’s there to thank me for?”
Shen Rong hurriedly pushed open the mall doors, looking for his grandmother. Unexpectedly, he spotted his cousin’s family as well.
“Xiao Rong, over here—” Old Madam Shen waved to Shen Rong with a smile.
Shen Rong strode over. Lu Ran noticed that his hair had been dyed back to black.
That made sense. According to Old Madam Shen, he was currently living with the two elders, so of course he would have had to dye it back.
“I picked out a few pairs of pants for you,” Old Madam Shen said with a kindly smile. She did not mention his torn pants in front of him, lest he feel embarrassed. She simply said, “Go try them on.”
Shen Rong, not quite understanding why, went to try them on.
After he changed, Old Madam Shen and Madam Lu Mingzhu exchanged a few words and sent him off to try another pair.
Then came shoes, coats, inner layers, and accessories.
It was not just Shen Rong. Neither Lu Ran nor Lu Luoluo managed to escape either.
After trying on a few outfits, Lu Luoluo began to feel a little tired. After coming out one time, she seized the chance to sit down between her mother and grandmother, linking one arm through each of theirs. She commented on the two boys’ outfits, and without anyone quite noticing, seamlessly blended into the group of the two elders.
As a result, the only ones still going back and forth to the fitting rooms were Lu Ran and Shen Rong.
Was this what his mother called “if you can’t beat them, join them,” as in the internet slang?
Holding the thirteenth coat he had tried on that afternoon, Lu Ran walked into the fitting room with a sudden realization.
When he came out the next time and was handed yet another shirt, Lu Ran smiled and said, “I’ll try it later. I’ll help my roommate take a look first.” He even put on a thoughtful expression. “I think this one suits Shen Rong better.”
“Does it?” Lu Luoluo immediately caught on and played along. “Let me see. Grandma, what do you think?”
The four of them discussed it back and forth in a few short exchanges.
So when Shen Rong went in and out of the fitting room several more times and came back again, he discovered that he was the only one still trying on clothes.
The tried-on pieces were piled on one side, the untried ones on the other. The two piles took up roughly the same amount of space, and the latter was still growing as the group continued adding suggestions.
After several rounds, Shen Rong sensed that something was off. He looked at Lu Ran and pointed it out directly. “Why aren’t you trying any more?”
Old Madam Shen and Madam Lu Mingzhu finally reacted. So Lu Ran had been standing around without moving since a while ago.
“I’ll get to it later,” Lu Ran said with an innocent smile. “Let me help you first.”
He was not trying to escape entirely. He just wanted to seize a chance to take a brief mid-session break.
Shen Rong realized that he was once again starting to find Lu Ran a little annoying.
After finishing at this mall, there was still another one to visit. The shop assistants packed up all the clothes and arranged to have them delivered to each customer’s respective residence.
Before long, evening arrived. Since they had run into each other and it was already mealtime, having dinner together became the natural next step.
Thus, what had originally been a dinner for just Lu Mingzhu, Lu Luoluo, and Lu Ran gained two more people: Old Madam Shen and Shen Rong. They ate Chinese food, and to accommodate the elderly lady, they ordered several dishes that were easy to chew and digest.
“Come over to play during the New Year holiday,” Old Madam Shen said as they were about to part, holding Lu Luoluo’s hand and reminding the three of them.
At the same time, at the Lu residence.
Zhao Jin cast an invisibility spell on himself and crouched in a corner of the Lu family’s living room. Watching an orange cat push a ball around with its mouth, then chase its own tail, occasionally licking from a can of wet food, he could not help but pat his paw in mild frustration.
He had come to see the foolish cat regret losing its bell beyond measure, not to watch it sink into a life of luxury and forget its way home.
How did things turn out like this?
Even so, Zhao Jin decided to keep crouching there.
He had heard from teachers at No. 1 High School that the final exam results had already been sent to students and parents today. Zhao Jin was rather curious about Lu Luoluo’s exam results, and more importantly, whether she had ended up giving herself away in front of the younger generation.
Zhao Jin had always been very patient. He had plenty of time.
The sound of a door lock opening rang out, and bodyguards helped carry a pile of paper shopping bags into the living room.
There were clothes inside the bags.
They bought quite a lot, Zhao Jin judged as he crouched in the corner.
After the bodyguards left, the sound of high heels striking the floor drew closer from afar.
“Have the aunt sort these out tomorrow, categorize them and put them into the wardrobes,” Madam Lu Mingzhu said to the two children. “You don’t need to worry about it. Go to bed early tonight. I’ll take you over tomorrow.”
“Okay. Grandma, I’ll read for a bit first. It’s still a little early to sleep.”
“There was a question we didn’t finish discussing this morning. We’re just missing the last part. Let’s look at it first?”
“Sure, Mom.”
Zhao Jin tilted his head and listened for a while, twitching his furry ears. He did not hear anything related to final exam results. Instead, he noticed the chaotic forms of address in this household.
What was going on here? Grandma, Mom and all that. This family clearly looked human. Could it be that he had misjudged things?
Staring wide-eyed with those amber pupils in confusion, Zhao Jin suddenly heard Lu Ran point toward his position and say, “Mom, do you think there’s something over there?”
The fur on the back of Zhao Jin’s neck stood on end.
How could that be? Had his invisibility spell failed?
That should not be possible. One use should last at least a full day and night.
“There’s nothing there,” Lu Luoluo said at once. She stood up from the sofa and walked to where Lu Ran was looking, saying in puzzlement, “What did you see?”
“Nothing. Maybe my eyes just blurred for a moment,” Lu Ran said with a smile.
Just now, it had seemed like he saw a small orange cat there. It looked a bit familiar, but when he looked carefully, there was nothing.
Lu Ran glanced again at the orange cat licking canned food nearby and thought to himself that maybe it was Da Ju playing a prank.
“Blurry vision isn’t a small matter. Should we go to the hospital for a checkup tomorrow? You can ask for leave from the winter camp too. Health is more important,” Madam Lu Mingzhu said immediately, full of concern.
Lu Luoluo also grew nervous.
“It’s nothing. I just mistook the pattern on the carpet,” Lu Ran said with a smile as he rubbed his eyes. He did not want his family to worry, and he did not think any examination would turn up anything anyway, so he brushed it off.
“The carpet really is a bit dazzling,” Lu Luoluo agreed.
“We’ll have someone replace it tomorrow,” Madam Lu Mingzhu said magnanimously, finally putting her mind at ease as she waved her hand.