The old days

Lin Yuan sat by the window with his chin in his hand, holding the handle of the stirring stick with his right hand boredly. He watched the time ticking on the screen of his mobile phone again and sighed softly.

"The captain is too slow." Lin Yuan complained to himself: "I've never seen him so unpunctual before."

After another sigh, the young man who had been longed for finally arrived, with a cute little tail following him.

"Who would be late for a date?" Lin Yuan complained, and then asked, "I thought you would bring Rong Yu with you."

"He's gone back to the orphanage. It's a rare opportunity for him to be reunited with his family, so I won't disturb him." Zhou Xun said, dragging out a chair and sitting down opposite Lin Yuan, and then he took the little girl next to him into his arms: "Sorry, I encountered something on the way out."

He took the little girl's right hand, waved it at Lin Yuan, and said in a teasing tone: "Call Lin Yuan brother."

The delicate little girl in his arms was not shy and called out "Brother Lin Yuan" sweetly.

Few people would dislike cute and well-behaved children, especially a group of "grandfathers" whose psychological age is already over 100. Lin Yuan's face immediately blossomed, and he smiled kindly: "Hey, little sister is so cute, what's your name?"

"My name is Momo." The girl's voice was crisp.

"What's the meaning of our Momo's Mo?" Zhou Xun asked as if he was adding a joke, and then he heard the girl answer neatly: "It's the Mo in Moshang Renruyuyu, not the Mai in Maimai Hanqing!"

At this time Zhou Xun said again: "This is my sister Zhou Moran."

Lin Yuan: "...So are you planning to call your future siblings Zhou Lanshan?"

"It's hard to say." Zhou Xun showed a sigh of relief: "Isn't it possible to have three children now?"

Lin Yuan was quite impressed: "Then your parents have a really good relationship. My parents can hardly cope with just raising me and my brother."

"Your parents can't handle it?" Zhou Xun complained mercilessly: "They have hardly been home since I was a child. When it comes to being a parent, Yu Zhi does a much better job than them."

Lin Yuan: "...Please be careful with your words. We are just a teacher and a student, not a mother and a son!"

After that, he couldn't help but ask, "How dare you say that about my teacher? Don't you raise Rong Yu as your son?"

Zhou Xun: "...I am responsible for taking care of the members of the group! There is nothing strange about it!"

"Take care of me?" Lin Yuan sneered, "I am also a member of your group, why don't you take care of me like this?"

"Brother, what is a team leader?" Zhou Moran paused while eating the cake, raised his head and curiously interrupted the tense conversation between the two.

Zhou Xun patted Zhou Moran's head and said, "When my brother plays games in dungeons, the leader is called the 'Team Leader'. Your brother Lin Yuan plays games with my brother."

Zhou Moran said "Oh" and bit the spoon and said, "Is it the Rong Yu brother you always told me about?"

Zhou Xun nodded: "He is much cuter than your brother Lin Yuan. I will take you to school to meet him in a few days, okay?"

Lin Yuan: "...No personal attacks!"

He picked up the coffee cup and took a sip: "Stop talking about these boring things. Why did you call me out?"

Zhou Xun pointed across the coffee shop, and the four big words "Boxing Classroom" immediately passed through the glass window and came into Lin Yuan's sight.

Lin Yuan: "Are you serious?"

Seeing Zhou Xun nodding seriously, Lin Yuan smiled bitterly and had a headache: "...Captain, we have to rehearse and prepare for the sports meeting these days, and we have to find time to study. How can we have time to practice boxing?"

"There's no rush in the next two days." Zhou Xun picked up the hot tea and drank it slowly: "Let's wait until the sports meet is over, and then we'll sign up first."

"We?" Lin Yuan accurately captured the key words: "You and me?"

"You and me."

Lin Yuan: “…”

"Teacher Rui is right. We are uncertain about what will happen in the future. We must make all plans." Zhou Xun seemed very serious: "I don't want to waste all these years of combat experience. Now that I don't have magic to support me, I will become rusty if I don't exercise for a day. The combat technology that has been continuously developed on Earth for thousands of years is not without merit. If we can go back in the future, at least our combat consciousness and reflex nerves will not degenerate. If we can't go back, I will prepare to apply for a police academy."

"Have you thought about the future development?"

"Almost." Zhou Xun said: "How about you?"

"Still thinking about it." Lin Yuan smiled bitterly: "I am like this no matter where I am. I have considered the future for others. Isn't my brother in the entertainment industry? He said before that he wanted to watch our class's performance. I thought Lin Lang was not very good at this, so I took this opportunity to let her sign a contract with my brother's studio. With my brother's vision, it is impossible for him not to see Lin Lang's talent. I also asked Lin Lang, and she is very interested."

At this point, Lin Yuan paused and sighed: "It's a pity that I haven't decided what I want to do yet."

"Take your time, okay? There's no rush anyway." Zhou Xun wiped the cream off Zhou Moran's mouth, hugged her and stood up: "Let's go, instead of worrying about the future, why not practice boxing with me first."

...

The boxing gym was bustling with people on the weekend. Zhou Xun was busy with the registration procedures, so he stuffed Zhou Moran into Lin Yuan's hands and said, "I'll leave it to you."

Lin Yuan: "...I finally understand. It turns out that you called me today to take care of your child!"

"Don't you usually go to the orphanage to volunteer? You should be good at taking care of children." Zhou Xun said without any psychological burden.

Lin Yuan rolled his eyes at him, but still skillfully held Zhou Moran in his arms and took her to a rest area to sit down. He watched from afar as Zhou Xun was taken to the boxing ring after signing and experienced boxing for the first time.

Speaking of which, this team leader is really heartless. Is he going to bring a little girl to a place like this?

Isn't that a bit too violent? Is his sister five years old? Don't scare the girl to tears.

Fearing that Zhou Moran would be frightened in such an environment, Lin Yuan racked his brains to change the subject: "Um...Momo, do you want Brother Xiaolin to tell you a story?"

"Okay, okay." Zhou Moran stared at Zhou Xun's figure without blinking and said perfunctorily.

Lin Yuan: “…”

Should he tell this story or not? He felt that it would disturb Zhou Moran's interest in watching his brother.

But Lin Yuan was silent, so Zhou Moran urged him: "Brother Xiao Lin, where is your story?" Then he added: "I want to hear the princess' story."

Lin Yuan: “…”

Originally, he just planned to tell the story of the three little pigs to get by.

Princess... He had only heard stories about two tigers and three little pigs since he was a child, and had never heard of a story about a princess.

Lin Yuan coughed, searching for the existence in his mind, thought for a while, and said: "Once upon a time there was a princess, her skin was as red as snow, her lips were as white as blood..."

"Brother, I've heard the story of Snow White."

Lin Yuan: "Once upon a time there was a girl who was bullied by her stepmother and two sisters..."

"I've heard the story of Cinderella, too." Zhou Moran sat on Lin Yuan with his short legs swinging, and said disdainfully, "Brother Xiao Lin, you are so lacking in knowledge."

Lin Yuan: “…”

Is this a provocation?

He silently repeated the word "princess" in his mind, and the picture in his mind gradually became clear. Before he could think too much, a story was unconsciously uttered by him.

"A long time ago, there was an island. On the island there was a lighthouse. On the lighthouse lived a princess -"

When the princess was just born, there was heavy rain on the island for three consecutive days.

The evil witch said to the king: "Your daughter is cursed. Lock her up, otherwise the curse will destroy the whole country."

So the king believed it, and he built a tall tower and locked the princess inside.

But the heavy rain continued to fall, the sunny days became fewer and fewer, and the farmland was flooded.

Then the witch said to the king: "This is the punishment from the goddess. She is punishing you for your kindness and leaving a cursed child. We should sacrifice her to the goddess, let her take away her evil, and pray for her to forgive us."

So the king agreed again.

They sealed all the exits of the tower and set it on fire.

The princess's sobbing voice floated out from the tower. She cried and cried until her tears dried up and her voice became hoarse.

The wind howled, dark clouds rolled in, and the heaviest rain ever seen fell for thirty days until the royal city was completely submerged.

The princess, covered in scars, walked out of the ruins. The survivors realized that the princess was not cursed. She was the son of God given to the king by the goddess to bring peace and prosperity to the country. If people love her, the sea breeze will blow away the clouds and let the sun shine. If people hate her, fear will make her call for a rainstorm.

"The princess is so pitiful." Zhou Moran's eyes welled up with tears: "What happened next?"

"Later..." Lin Yuan's eyes were filled with nostalgia. He gently stroked Zhou Moran's head and said softly, "People rebuilt the tower, but they did not imprison the princess again. Instead, they revered her as a goddess and worshipped her for generations."

"...Is it her story?" Zhou Xun had left the boxing ring at some point and walked to Lin Yuan's side with a complicated expression: "The legend of the goddess of disaster is all over Parnaki, but no one knows what happened to her. The only thing I know is that Teacher Rui stopped the heavy rain, and since then, this incident has always been a knot in Teacher Rui's heart."

Lin Yuan pursed his lips and did not respond.

He didn't know why he told this story. Even though the Bible of the goddess of disaster spread it as an allusion, as a Templar Knight, he had always been very reluctant to talk about this past event.

The woven "fairy tale" story is cruel enough, but it is still a beautification of reality.

He could not forget the shock he felt when he first heard this "fairy tale", nor could he forget the suffocation he felt when he heard the truth from Yu Zhi's own mouth.

But Yu Zhi still spoke of the past calmly, without pain, sadness, or relief, as if she was just telling someone else's story.

That day, he suddenly realized that the pain and entanglement he had indulged in in the past were useless in the face of true despair. He enjoyed the love of his parents and brothers, and had no worries about food and clothing. Even though he traveled to Parnaki and became a displaced orphan, he did not really experience the pain of his parents' death. Even before he awakened his memories of the Earth period, he was adopted by Yu Zhi and became her anonymous student.

His life was so smooth that all his troubles seemed like complaints without any reason.

But the more things go smoothly, the more confused you become about the future.

If he was in Parnaqui, he still had a career to work on and strive for. But once he left that world, he was once again doing nothing and was confused about the future.

No one can be sure of the future. Does he really have to spend every day laughing and joking with an empty head, just for a Parnaki who may come at an unknown time and perhaps is destined to never come?

Yu Zhi has an art that she has devoted her life to, and the team leader has also chosen the police as the direction of his efforts.

I had thought about inheriting my parents’ business, or using my classmates as a springboard to make a name for myself in the entertainment industry as an investor.

But this doesn't seem to be what I really want to do.

What should I do in my future?