Chen Qingqing stared at a certain spot outside the window, her entire body tense.
“It’s them!”
Lin Bai followed her gaze. At the street corner ahead, more than a dozen young people were walking together. They held a map in their hands and stopped from time to time to confirm their direction.
Lin Bai narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Is anyone among them injured?”
Chen Qingqing looked carefully once more. “No… Last time, it was the boy in the brown hoodie who threatened us!”
He was the one who had followed Lin Bai all the way home and snatched the jade pendant.
When they had encountered that group in her past life, one of them had been injured, which was why Lin Bai had kindly gone home to get medicine.
It was no more than a five-minute walk from here to the residential complex, and none of them was injured now.
Just then, someone in the group waved toward the car.
Chen Qingqing immediately gripped the machete.
Lin Bai quickly made a decision. “Qingqing, the sun is quite bright today. They probably can’t see how many people are in the car. Take the children into the spatial realm. I’ll go see what they want.”
Chen Qingqing glanced at her husband and could only take the children into the spatial realm.
If they ignored the group, they might instead draw their attention.
After his wife and children disappeared, Lin Bai pulled over by the side of the road.
“Hello, we’re university students here on vacation. We wanted to ask you for directions.”
The young woman at the front had a soft, gentle voice, and she was charming and adorable in appearance.
She stood by the car window, bending slightly at the waist with a smile on her face.
“Could you tell us where Yunsong Residential Complex is?”
Calmly, Lin Bai pointed them in the right direction, then sized them up. “Things haven’t been peaceful these past two days. Try not to wander around carelessly.”
The young woman covered her mouth and giggled. “Thank you for your concern, big brother. There are more than a dozen of us together, so we can look out for one another. We should be fairly safe.”
Lin Bai nodded, then quickly started the car and drove away from the street. In the rearview mirror, he saw that the group really was heading toward Yunsong Residential Complex.
He tapped the jade pendant in his pocket twice with his bent finger, and Chen Qingqing soon reappeared with the children.
“How did it go?”
Chen Qingqing held her daughter tightly, her expression tense.
“They really are heading toward our residential complex.” As for whether they were after their jade pendant and spatial realm… there was no way to know.
All he could say was that it was highly likely.
Xiaohuan poked his head out. “Were those bad people just now?”
“They didn’t look like bad people.”
Lin Bai smiled. “Xiaohuan, not every bad person looks like the fierce villains on television. The bad people who disguise themselves as good people are even scarier.”
Chen Qingqing also reminded him solemnly, “Remember this: other than Dad, Mom, and your little sister, don’t easily trust anyone. No matter how friendly they look or how kind they seem, remember?”
“Got it!”
Xiaohuan nodded seriously.
The car fell quiet again. After a while, Lin Bai asked, “If that group really is coming after us, aren’t we in danger?”
“Could they have something that can track us?”
Chen Qingqing thought for a moment, then shook her head. “If they really did, they should have realized who you were while they were talking to you just now.”
“In any case… we’ll deal with things one step at a time.”
After parking in front of the resort hotel, each of them carried one child inside.
Lin Bai handed the keys to a hotel employee. “Hello. Could you park the car for me later? Put it in a space closer to the outside.”
The employee smiled as he came forward to greet them, but the instant he saw the car parked outside, the smile vanished from his face.
He turned coldly and looked toward the group of employees at the front desk.
None of them raised their heads.
So he called out to a woman who was standing apart from the others in a service uniform and appeared older than all of them. “Sister Fang, you handle this.”
Sister Fang hurriedly answered.
The employee casually tossed the keys in his hand toward her. Sister Fang scrambled to catch them and nearly dropped them on the floor.
The man walked away without even looking back.
Lin Bai said nothing. Sister Fang arranged a smile on her face, took the suitcase and backpack from Chen Qingqing, and ushered the family into the elevator with her back bent the entire way.
Their room was on the second floor, with an outdoor staircase leading directly down to the hotel’s swimming pool at the back.
As soon as they entered the room, they could see the pool below through the floor-to-ceiling window.
“There’s no one down there. We can take Xiaohuan to play,” Chen Qingqing remarked casually.
Sister Fang placed the suitcase against the wall and immediately responded with a smile. “Yes. It’s the off-season recently, so not only are the rooms cheaper, there are fewer people too. The pool was just cleaned yesterday. It’s very clean.”
It seemed that because the room rates were cheap, the employee just now had assumed they were people who had come looking for a bargain.
Sister Fang rubbed her hands together and smiled at them. “You should rest for now. If you need anything, just call me…”
As she spoke, she suddenly remembered something and pointed to the name badge on her chest. “Oh, right. My employee number is 1999. Just call the front desk and ask for 1999!”
“Thank you for your trouble,” Chen Qingqing said.
Sister Fang was probably forty-five or forty-six years old and looked like an honest, hardworking person. A simple word of thanks from Chen Qingqing was enough to make her smile brightly.
There was one large bed, two small beds, and even a crib in the room.
Xiaohuan lay against the floor-to-ceiling window, gazing eagerly at the swimming pool. “Mom, when can we go play?”
“Right now!” Chen Qingqing said as she dug out Xiaohuan’s swim trunks and float.
The temperature had been dropping steadily these past few days. In another two days, they would have no chance to play in the water, and Xiaohuan loved water.
Within the limits of what she could do, Chen Qingqing would do her best to satisfy all of Xiaohuan’s requests.
Xiaohuan happily changed into his swim trunks, and the family went downstairs together.
Chen Qingqing cautiously checked the area nearby. It was relatively open, and she would immediately notice anyone approaching. Only after confirming this did she lead the children toward the pool.
They played to their hearts’ content all morning. It was only when Xiaohuan began calling out that he was hungry and Shuoshuo needed to be fed that they dried themselves off and went back upstairs.
As soon as they entered the hallway, they found a small stand outside their room. When they approached, they saw a brand-new quilt and mattress on it.
They were exactly the right size for the crib.
“It should be something Sister Fang brought us,” Chen Qingqing said.
The quilt on the crib had looked too thin, so she had originally planned to take one out of the spatial realm. She had not expected Sister Fang to be so considerate.
Lin Bai carried the quilt and mattress inside and made the crib. Then he ordered food from the hotel.
They had heard that the food at this hotel was especially delicious.
Chen Qingqing felt that one could never be too careful with anything they ate or drank. She set the hotel’s kettle aside and used the hot-water kettle from the spatial realm to boil water for Shuoshuo’s formula.
Shuoshuo finished her milk and was getting ready to sleep just as their food arrived.
It was Sister Fang who delivered it again. With a broad smile, she pushed the dining cart inside. “You’re the first guests this month to order so many dishes. The head chef was overjoyed and even sent you an extra dish.”
Lin Bai helped her arrange the dishes on the table. Sister Fang added, “Whenever you’re finished eating, just call me. Take your time.”
Lin Bai paused.
“You’re responsible for clearing the dishes too?”
Sister Fang nodded with a smile. “They’re busy, so I just take care of it while I’m at it.”
Chen Qingqing gently placed her sleeping daughter in the crib and said lightly, “They don’t look very busy to me.”
“They were all gathered together chatting when we entered the lobby.”
Sister Fang gave a sheepish laugh.
She seemed to wear a smile on her face at all times.
“They’re about the same age as my daughter. It hurts me to watch them work, so if I do a little more, they can do a little less. It’s nothing.”
Sister Fang turned to leave and nearly collided with Xiaohuan, who came running out of the bathroom.
Xiaohuan awkwardly moved to the side. “I’m sorry, Auntie.”
“What a cute and well-mannered child,” Sister Fang praised him sincerely.
“Sweetie, the bathroom floor is slippery. Be careful.”
Xiaohuan obediently nodded.
Sister Fang opened the door and walked out of the room. Lin Bai could still vaguely hear someone outside shouting impatiently for Sister Fang.
Lin Bai looked toward his wife. “Those young people are bullying Sister Fang.”
“Looks that way.”
Their family did not look wealthy, so no one was willing to serve them. That was why Sister Fang had been sent over.
“You want to help Sister Fang?” Chen Qingqing asked.
Lin Bai smiled and shook his head. “We’ll see.”
They had come to lie low. They could not put their own family in danger just to help someone else.
The couple said nothing more.
Lin Bai handed Chen Qingqing a pair of chopsticks. “I just tried a bite. It really is quite good.”
Chen Qingqing smiled. “Then later, we can learn how to cook from the head chef.”
Lin Bai corrected her, “I’ll learn. How could I make you do it?”
“Got it, Chef Lin!”
As long as Lin Bai was home, he always fought to be the one to cook. Naturally, his cooking was also considerably better than Chen Qingqing’s.
Halfway through their meal, they suddenly heard a scream from the hallway.
The sound was extremely piercing and woke their sleeping daughter.
Xiaohuan immediately put down his chopsticks, rushed over first, and picked up his little sister to comfort her.
Chen Qingqing glanced at the children, then hurried toward the door with her husband.