Chapter 41
On the way back to class, Yu An ran into Zhou's mother, who was rushing over. She anxiously pulled her student aside to ask for directions, "I'm Zhou Xia's mother. Little classmate, do you know where our Zhou Xia is? And which way is the principal's office?"
Perhaps because her clothes were too shabby and had many patches on them, a few students looked at her with contempt, looking down on her openly or covertly.
Mother Zhou was unlucky. Many of the students she met were either from the primary school campus or simply didn't want to tell her and wanted to see her anxious.
"Mother Zhou." Yu An walked forward and looked at her nervous and overwhelmed look, and couldn't help but feel distressed. "Brother Zhou Xia is fine now."
Mother Zhou was extremely skinny, her face an abnormally sallow complexion. She was relieved to hear that her son was fine. She wiped the tears from her eyes and took Yu An's hand. "Thank you, little classmate. Are you good friends with our Xia Xia?"
She just heard Yu An affectionately calling Zhou Xia "Brother".
Yu An nodded. Perhaps it was because Mother Zhou exuded such a strong aura of kindness that he liked her very much. "We are good friends. Brother Zhou Xia is very good."
Xu Mingyao on the side curled his lips, unhappy. Why was he a friend and Zhou Xia a good friend?
Mother Zhou smiled from ear to ear, and the wrinkles on her face were particularly obvious. She seemed relieved and nodded repeatedly, muttering, "That's good, that's good. Xia Xia has good friends now. I was worried that he would be bullied in this school. Fortunately, fortunately..."
Mother Zhou asked Yu An a lot of questions about Zhou Xia, and Yu An told her everything he knew.
When Mother Zhou learned that Zhou Xia had always been the top student in her grade, she didn't seem particularly happy. The old, tired woman raised her tearful eyes and looked toward the towering school building. "...Then I wonder how much effort my Xia Xia puts in every day. It must be very hard..."
She murmured to herself, and seeing Yu An staring at her blankly, she wiped away her tears. She felt that Yu An, a little guy, had made a fool of her, an adult, and her face turned red with embarrassment. "Then I'll go first. Sorry to bother you this time."
Yu An quickly called out to her, "Don't you want to go see Brother Zhou Xia? He must miss you very much."
Mother Zhou froze in her place, glancing down at her washed-out pants and the shoe with one toe exposed. She clutched the corner of her clothes in embarrassment, a smile uglier than crying on her face. "No, I'll embarrass him if I go like this."
Zhou Xia was already having a hard time in this school, and she couldn't give others a reason to bully him.
Yu An watched Mother Zhou's back as she walked away with her head down, feeling a pang of sadness in his heart. He thought of his grandmother for no reason, not the current grandmother Wen Yun, but his biological grandmother.
In his distant memory, his grandmother's figure seemed to be upright, but gradually, her waist slowly hunched, and her black hair was replaced by silver, until that night, when she completely left him.
Yu An was immersed in his memories until Xu Mingyao called him. He finally came back to his senses and looked at him blankly, "What's wrong?"
Xu Mingyao frowned, "Why are you crying?"
Crying?
Yu An wiped his eyes and found that his eyelashes were stained with tears. He lowered his curled eyelashes and shook his head, "It's okay, let's go back to the classroom."
Yu An didn't want to answer, and Xu Mingyao wouldn't force him. He just followed him obediently, glancing at his watery eyes from time to time to make sure he wasn't crying anymore.
Rare incidents like group fights in school always spread quickly. After Yu An returned to the classroom, many classmates gathered around him to ask him about the specific situation.
Yu An told them everything he knew. After hearing this, the group of elementary school students were filled with righteous indignation and stood up for Zhou Xia. "This is too much! My mom said that bullying is something only bad kids do."
"That's right, a few people bullying one person, don't they feel ashamed?"
"Next time I see it, I'll go help."
“…”
The little guys were chattering about it. Although they were a few years younger than the bullies, they knew what to do and what not to do. They seemed to be able to distinguish right from wrong better than the senior students.
Yu An was still concerned about Zhou Xia's situation. In the office, Xu Ye Ning asked Zhou Xia's class teacher to take better care of him, and the class teacher nodded in agreement.
But there are so many bad students in Zhou Xia’s class. What if they secretly bully him when the teacher isn’t paying attention?
The more Yu An thought about it, the more possible it seemed. He used Xiaobai to send a message to Fu Yunshu, Gu Yixing and the others, asking them to protect Zhou Xia.
This brother can't even fight. Even if someone bullies him, he doesn't dare to resist. This is not acceptable.
Gu Yihang responded quickly, "Why protect him? Our mission is to monitor him. An An, this comes at a different price."
Yu An was surprised: [The base gave you money? ]
Then why doesn't he have a penny?
"No, we're just free labor. Who would pay us? It's good enough if they don't treat us like oxen plowing the fields."
Yu An was in a complicated mood and replied to him with six points.
【……】
Gu Yihang sent a laughing emoji, "Alright, alright, it's just to protect someone. I'll help you. If I can't do it, I still have Ersheng. Don't worry~"
Yu An thought about it and said reluctantly: "Next time you come to my house, you can pick something from the room to take away."
After years of collecting, the size of Yu An's collection room has doubled. Lin Huaichen knows that he likes shiny jewelry, so he takes Yu An with him every time there is a large auction to purchase goods for his collection room.
Now, Yu An decided to take out a copy from the collection room and give it to Gu Yihang as a reward.
Gu Yixing sent several shocked emoticons in succession. He certainly knew how much Yu An loved his room full of sparkling jewels, and now he actually agreed to let him pick one. Gu Yixing immediately agreed as he couldn't miss the opportunity.
【A liar is a puppy! 】
Even though Yu An was extremely reluctant, he still nodded and agreed: "Yes, I won't be a puppy."
Gu Yixing didn't reply for a long time. Just when Yu An thought the matter was settled, Fu Yunshu and Gu Ersheng both sent two messages.
Fu Yunshu: [An An is a bit biased.]
Gu Ersheng: [(crying and making a fuss)(rolling on the ground), why is it that only my brother got a reward, but Big Brother Fu and I didn't? An An, you can't do this!]
Gu Yihang, who was always looking for trouble, laughed heartily, "I knew An An, you like me the most!"
Yu An panicked and quickly typed to appease Fu Yunshu and Gu Ersheng, "No, no, you all have it, all of it."
Before he knew it, two more of Yu An's treasures were gone. In the second half of the class, his mood became visibly depressed. He lay listlessly on the table, fiddling with his pen.
Claude noticed that the child was in a bad mood, so he broke off a piece of chocolate from the hole in the table, climbed onto the table, picked up the chocolate with his two small tentacles, and put it to Yu An's mouth, staring at Yu An with his big lake blue eyes.
The smaller version of Usatos looks quite cute, especially its jelly-like body, which feels very relaxing to pinch.
Yu An glanced at him, ate the chocolate slowly, then held Claude in his palm and squeezed him. He was in a good mood indeed.
Claude had long been accustomed to it and didn't want to argue with the little cub, so he just let him be.
Compared to other cubs in the tribe, he is usually noisy and likes to provoke alien species that are stronger than himself. In the end, he was beaten and ran back crying.
Yu An just likes to pinch his own kind, it's a harmless little habit.
After pinching the "stress-relieving toy", Yu An began to check the schedule of the latest auctions and the new products launched by major jewelers. Unfortunately, there were very few that caught his eye.
Yu An bought two aquamarine rings and a pink diamond ring and sent them back home so that they could be placed in the empty space later. He couldn't bear to see any empty space in the collection room.
With Fu Yunshu and the others' deliberate care, Zhou Xia obviously became closer to them and their relationship became much better. Anyone with a discerning eye could see that Zhou Xia had a powerful backer, and those who wanted to bully him kept their distance from him, but at the same time, there were more students who secretly envied him.
…
Because Ling Xingcheng lives in the villa, Yu An returns to the villa every night after evening self-study in the past few weeks. It is also good to have Ling Xingcheng as a roommate, at least he won't be bored.
Moreover, after Ling Xingcheng came, he felt that he had to play his role and could not just eat and live for free, so he waved his hand, let the aunt go home and rest, and volunteered to take on all the housework.
Because one of his legs is lame, normal people need crutches to walk, but Ling Xingcheng is obviously not a normal person. He threw his crutches aside and hopped around on one leg in the villa every day.
That night after school, Yu An was carrying his schoolbag home when he saw Ling Xingcheng jumping down the stairs. The sight of him was so frightening that Yu An hurried forward to support him.
Ling Xingcheng was physically disabled but determined, and resolutely refused Yu An's help. "I don't need your help, you little idiot. I'm not disabled. Go away."
After saying that, he jumped down another step.
Yu An looked at Ling Xingcheng's back with hesitation, and sighed slightly. Why can't Brother Xingcheng, a disabled person, have a little awareness of being a disabled person?
Suddenly, Ling Xingcheng turned around and asked him, "Are you hungry?"
Yu An ate a lot for dinner, but after a few hours, he was a little hungry. "A little hungry..."
Ling Xingcheng nodded and started to skip to the kitchen again. "Okay, I'll make some midnight snacks. Do you want noodles?"
Yu An hesitated for a moment and took the initiative to suggest, "How about we order takeout."
He had been eating noodles for a week and really didn't want to eat noodles anymore. Even a bowl of fried rice would be fine. But he couldn't say this to Ling Xingcheng. The fried rice he made was very unpalatable. It was just rice soaked in oil and the eggs were mushy.
"Takeout is unhealthy." Ling Xingcheng refused outright, saying righteously, "If your father knew I took you to eat junk food, he would definitely beat me to death."
Yu An: “…”
I don’t see that the food you cook with instant noodles is that healthy. At most, you just add eggs.
Ling Xingcheng took out a pack of braised beef noodles from the cupboard, tore it open and threw it into the pot, turned on the fire to boil, added eggs and seasoning packets, and the familiar aroma of instant noodles came from the kitchen.
Yu An sighed, took out a bag of dog food and poured it into Monday's food bowl.
Monday was thrilled to be back in shape and enjoying the perfect late night snack.
In addition, Yu An thoughtfully added ham sausage and opened canned meat for it. Although his midnight snack was bad, he had to eat well on Monday.
Xiaobai needs to go upstairs to charge, Claude only eats snacks occasionally and doesn't need to eat now. Yu An squats next to Monday and watches it eat heartily.
After a while, the midnight snack was served on the table. Yu An looked at the bowl of instant noodles and did not pick up his chopsticks for a long time.
Ling Xingcheng had already started eating with big mouthfuls, and urged him, "Eat now, or the noodles will clump and won't taste good."
Yu An then picked up the chopsticks and started eating. Including today, he had been eating instant noodles for a whole week. As much as Yu An liked instant noodles before, he hated them now.
But Ling Xingcheng didn't feel tired of it at all and cooked instant noodles every day without getting tired of it.
Halfway through the meal, Wen Xun called Yu An and asked him how his day was. This was a necessary stage every night. Yu An glanced at the instant noodles and said, "It's good. Brother Xingcheng made me something to eat."
Ling Xingcheng raised his head proudly, "Don't worry, teacher. I'm here and won't let An An go hungry. As long as I'm here, he won't be without a bowl of noodles."
Yu An: “…”
Not necessarily.
Wen Xun was obviously clueless about Ling Xingcheng's terrible cooking skills, and thanked him sincerely.
Lin Huaichen was also surprised and said, "You are quite good, you are good at taking care of children."
Ling Xingcheng lifted her red hair from her forehead, looking incredibly proud and confident. "Of course. Leave the child to me, and you can rest assured. There's nothing I can't handle."
Yu An was in a complicated mood and didn't want to participate in their conversation.
Perhaps because Yu An was too quiet, Wen Xun sensed something strange was wrong. Before ending the call, he transferred some money to Yu An and told him, "If you're hungry or need anything in your life, go buy it. You can also ask your aunt to buy it for you."
Yu An sniffed and said, "Thank you, Dad."
Wen Xun chuckled, "Miss me?"
"Yeah, I miss you and dad." Yu An answered frankly this time. He glanced at Ling Xingcheng and the half-eaten noodles in front of him, "I also miss the food that my dad cooked."
Lin Huaichen's cooking skills are completely different from Ling Xingcheng's. It is obvious that he has received special culinary training. Everything he makes tastes better than those in restaurants outside.
When Lin Huaichen heard that Yu An actually missed his cooking skills, he was immediately moved. "What do you want to eat? I'll make it for you when you come back."
Yu An thought for a moment and said softly, "I want to eat kelp and pork ribs soup, and scrambled eggs with tomatoes, the kind with sugar."
Lin Huaichen readily agreed, "Okay, come back this week and I'll make it for you."
Lin Huaichen would naturally agree to this small request from his little darling. Moreover, Wen Xun's taste was very similar to Yu An's. He couldn't eat spicy food and preferred sweet food. Even the scrambled eggs with tomatoes at home would have sugar in them.
The aunt at home didn't understand this at all. She just thought that scrambled eggs with tomatoes and sugar tasted weird.
After finishing chatting with the fathers, Yu An began to concentrate on this bowl of noodles. He had already finished Ling Xingcheng's bowl, and he was holding his chin with his hand while watching Yu An eat in small bites.
"You eat so slowly." Ling Xingcheng specially served the food in a small bowl to Yu An, but it still took him a long time to finish it. Are all children so slow to finish their meals?
But he remembered that he ate very quickly when he was a child. He would finish a whole bowl while his sister would usually only take a few bites.
Ling Xingcheng stared at Yu An's pretty little face and couldn't help but wonder in his heart, is it possible that such a refined person always chews his food slowly? No wonder he eats so slowly.
Yu An had a hard time eating, but he was too embarrassed to mention it to Ling Xingcheng, so he could only chew the noodles dejectedly. Suddenly, an idea flashed in his mind: yes, he could share it with others!
So he put Claude on the dining table, picked up a noodle and fed it to his mouth, "You must be hungry, I'll feed you."
The sleepy little octopus looked confused and subconsciously swallowed the noodles in his mouth.
Claude couldn't understand what this little brat was up to. He ate noodles with an expressionless face, but there was no taste in his mouth. His only thought was that the little brat should eat less of this unnutritious food.
Yu An's eyes lit up and he glanced at Ling Xingcheng cautiously. If he had no objection, he would give half of the noodles to Claude.
But Ling Xingcheng could easily see through his little thoughts, "Don't want to eat?"
Yu An nodded and said in a low voice, "I'm full."
"If you don't want to eat, just pour it out and go upstairs to sleep." Ling Xingcheng glanced at the time. "It's almost ten o'clock. You have to get up at seven o'clock tomorrow to go to school. Tsk... school is so tiring that you can't even sleep in."
Fortunately, he has graduated for a long time. Ling Xingchen often feels grateful for this, as children nowadays have a very hard life.
This was a complete surprise for Yu An. Although he didn't want to waste food, he didn't want to upset his stomach even more. He happily poured out the remaining noodles, stepped on a small stool to wash the bowl, and put it away.
On the way upstairs, he put Claude on the table into his pocket and called Monday to come upstairs.
Ling Xingcheng looked at the two aliens beside him, wanting to say something but stopping himself. In the end, he just reminded them, "Be careful when you go to school. Don't let them appear in front of ordinary people, otherwise the base will take your little aliens back."
Zhou Yi was registered under Fu Yin's name and was said to be just a C-level alien, but Ling Xingcheng knew nothing about the strange-looking little octopus. He often sensed a faint sense of oppression from the little octopus, so it must be no ordinary alien.
Many powerful families will specifically capture high-level alien species to infect the younger generations in their family in order to achieve the goal of giving birth to people with special abilities.
The snow snake that Fu Yunshu had was caught by the Fu family specifically for the younger generation in the family. However, before Fu Yunshu, several of his brothers and sisters had died due to failed infection, and he was the only one who was successfully infected.
Could it be that this little octopus was also caught by the Lin family or the Wen family specifically for Yu An?
Ling Xingcheng felt that this was possible. Since Wen Xun and Lin Huaichen did not register Yu An's detailed information at the base, they must have their own considerations.
He didn't want to investigate further, but now everyone in the base had different opinions, so in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, he decided to remind Yu An.
Yu An had heard his father say this a long time ago. He nodded seriously and held Zhou Yi and Claude in his arms. "I will take good care of them."
Claude's face was squeezed together with Monday's furry face. Monday was very enthusiastic towards all his friends and kept rubbing his face against Claude.
“Pah.”
Claude slapped Zhou Yi lightly and gave him a threatening look. Zhou Yi whimpered twice, tucked his tail between his legs, and finally became much more obedient.
After watching their interaction, Yu An smiled, touched their heads, and said to Claude, "Monday likes you. Dogs express their affection by kissing and rubbing against each other. Don't bully him."
Monday immediately nodded in agreement, "Monday, I like it!"
It likes everything about Yu An!
Claude glanced at Monday who was grinning foolishly and thought that he was very restrained now. If it were in the past, he would not have just hit it lightly.
Standing at the top of the food chain, Usatos does not allow any creature to offend. Their strong exclusivity means that they will only be tolerant of their fellow tribe members. For other creatures, there is only a difference between delicious and not delicious.
Looking at Yu An's clear and beautiful lake blue eyes, Claude hesitated for a moment and chose to give in. [I'll try my best next time.]
Since Yu An likes this puppy so much, he can reluctantly give the puppy some preferential treatment.
Monday realized that Claude wanted to get along well with him, and his tail swung excitedly. Without thinking, he licked Claude, "Woof woof woof!"
【Let’s get along well. 】
Claude's face was as black as ink, and each of his little tentacles was curled up in anger.
Yu An's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly put Monday's suicidal thoughts aside and changed the subject, "It's so late, let's go take a shower and go to bed. We have morning self-study tomorrow."
Claude is a clean little octopus. Even though his body is dark blue and doesn't look dirty, he still washes himself clean every day.
Now that his body was stained by the dog's saliva, Claude could not bear it at all. He could only suppress his anger in his heart and tell himself that this was Solander's body, not his. His body was sleeping cleanly in the temple. It was Solander who was dirty, not him.
Thinking of this, Claude maintained his shaky sanity and just glanced at Monday dimly before going into the bathroom.
Monday got furious and rushed to the bedside table to look for Xiaobai who was charging. He timidly buried his head under Xiaobai's mechanical wings, as if he could be protected by his good big brother.
Yu An sighed. He really couldn't bear to see Monday worried and scared, so he took Claude into the bathroom and closed the door.
"Do you want to use my shower gel?" Yu An filled the bathtub with water and took out a small basin to serve as Claude's bathtub.
He originally wanted them to take a bath together. His bathtub was very big and Claude's was so small, but Claude refused to agree, so Yu An had to give up.
Claude looked at Yu An's milk shower gel and felt very conflicted.
You can use shower gel to clean it more cleanly, but the sweet and greasy scent only suits the little cub, and it would be too awkward for him to use it.
Yu An took his silence as a consent and rubbed bubbles all over his body in his hands. Claude stood there in a daze, his eyes wide open, his brain frozen for several seconds.
After living for tens of thousands of years, he was actually being held down and scrubbed by a half-grown kid?!
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