"Huh?" Xu Shiqing was surprised.
"I've been negligent these days, letting you meet strangers in such a simple manner. If someone didn't know, they'd think I was deliberately making things difficult for you." Alger joked, pulling something out from the lining of his coat.
"Flirtatious guy." Xu Shiqing rolled his eyes and leaned over to take a look: "What is this?"
"It's a very expensive headband." Alger showed it to him in his hand. In Xu Shiqing's words, it was a pile of jewels, very shiny, very bright, and very beautiful.
[……] It is obviously unreasonable to expect a human being who has lived in a hospital ward for nearly twenty years and lived a carefree life in the apocalypse for three years to have any artistic appreciation.
The Temple of Nature wasn't a place where extravagance prevailed. No one would discuss jewelry with the high priest...
System 021 can already imagine what the host will say.
"It's really beautiful!" Xu Shiqing said sincerely, "It's a perfect gift for the girl you like!"
"...I want to give it to you." Alger smiled helplessly. "Girls' accessories usually match their clothes. I made a hair accessory based on the clothes you usually wear."
The colors of the elves' clothing changed over and over, but they were always the same, and you could tell their preferences at a glance. He could easily find a style that was commonly used for commuting.
Xu Shiqing exclaimed in surprise. He felt that Alger had done something strange.
Xu Shiqing, who had never thought of love, thought that if friends had a good relationship, there was nothing wrong with giving each other gifts. Just like him and Gu Yi, they each had different ways of interacting with each other. Perhaps Alger's reaction to him was because Xu Shiqing had too few friends and no experience.
"Grandma is coming back from the next planet today. Why don't you stay for dinner?" Alger took the elf's soft long hair and suggested putting it on him. Xu Shiqing nodded subconsciously, and then the dignified Duke started working as a hairstylist.
"Should I prepare some gifts?" Xu Shiqing was a little worried. In his opinion, elders need to be respected.
Alger lowered his head and braided pearls and gems into the elf's long brown hair. Finally, he made it into the shape of a yellow bird and fastened it with buttons. The hanging ribbons looked like bird wings.
He said, "As long as you are here, grandma likes you very much."
…
Alger Lecter's story was no secret, and he himself was not shy about his past hardship. Xu Shiqing easily pieced together his friend's profile from the people he met, but he was actually surprised. Alger didn't seem like a calculating person.
But compared to the fearful and contemptuous criticisms of others, Xu Shiqing was more willing to believe Alger, whom he had actually met.
Besides, what he did was nothing. In that apocalyptic world, Xu Shiqing himself had his hands full, so he had no right to accuse others.
As they walked around at night with candlelight, Alger told him many things, such as his mother and his other "relatives".
"I only hate them because they killed my mother." Alger said this calmly, but Xu Shiqing knew tears welled up in his words. "Grandma was a good person. I know she couldn't do anything, but at that time, she did everything she could to protect and nurture me."
Alger Lecter was able to attend the same school as Leon Lecter and have the same educational resources thanks to the efforts of this elder.
He didn't dare ask for too much.
Xu Shiqing gave him a hug, which was the best comfort he could give at the moment.
Alger put his arm around the elf's shoulders. From his perspective, he could only see her hair combed to one side and her slender neck exposed at the collar, which looked like a swan with its head lowered under the moonlight.
He continued, "My mother is a mermaid and human hybrid. Her bloodline is so thin that she can't regenerate, which is why she can breathe underwater. But she can weave mermaid silk and dance... When I was a child, I was by her side and watched her exchange the mermaid silk for money to buy candied oranges... I remember we would have a few days of prosperity at first, and she was extravagant, always forgetting to plan her daily expenses."
Alger couldn't help but laugh. He didn't think that kind of life was difficult because there was always hope. He could run after the sea on the beach or roll into the grass to chase rabbits. The sky was high and the earth was vast. He never considered life difficult because his mother was there, because he knew he could be a bird. As long as he was diligent, he could do whatever he wanted and no one could control him.
"…When I was twelve, the Lecter family, my then-surviving father, discovered the product of a night of absurdity in his youth. He killed my mother and took me away."
"He thought Mom was doing it for Lecter, that she was delusional...but Mom just wanted a child of her own," Alger said. "She didn't abort me just because he was good-looking."
Xu Shiqing silently raised his head and looked at his exceptionally handsome face, thinking that this mother was so different.
"She likes good-looking young men," Alger told him, tucking the elf's messy hair behind her ears. "Before Mom died, she had already agreed to marry a suitor."
"Then, what happened next?" Xu Shiqing was terrified. How much sin had Alger's biological father committed?
"The pursuer was depressed and unhappy, but later he was lucky enough to find a good match and a harmonious family. It can be said that after all the hardships, there is happiness."
…In short, Alger’s family relationships are simply horrible and tragic.
Xu Shiqing couldn't help but feel restrained when it came to the relatives his friend sincerely recognized. Even though Alger assured him that Ms. Lecter was cheerful and not particular about trivial matters, it was difficult to soothe the elf's anxiety.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com