When Ash and his team found Meng, this outstanding ruins explorer was touching his chin with a serious look on his face, observing a magic trap blocking his way. He had an excited smile on his lips and looked much more reliable than usual.
He soon noticed someone coming, turned around alertly, and found that it was Ash and the others.
"Hey, it's you guys." He waved, "Where have you been? Have you seen Jane?"
Then he saw Lan on Ash's shoulder and asked curiously, "Hey, what is this? A doll? Ash, did you find it in the ruins? What's its use?"
Ash ignored him and introduced Meng to Lan first: "This is our companion, Meng, he has always been interested in ancient history."
Seeing Ash's particularly respectful attitude towards the "doll", Meng immediately shut up and smiled apologetically at Lan: "Who is this?"
Ash laughed, "Uncle Meng, you would really like to be friends with her."
With Lan's tacit consent, Ash introduced Lan's background to Meng in a few simple words.
Sure enough, after hearing that Lan was an ancient wizard, Meng's eyes suddenly brightened up and he stared at Lan with a sharp gaze so intense that Lan couldn't help laughing. He really was... passionate about ancient history.
"Lan, do you want to get on my shoulders?" Meng invited shamelessly.
Lan: “…No, thank you.”
Sigourney sneered mockingly from the side.
Meng: “…” When you get older, you’re not as popular as young rookies like Ash.
After some communication, Meng also learned about the current status of the ruins.
"No need to go any further?" he confirmed. "Is there nothing left inside?"
Lan affirmed: “Yes.”
"Is that so?" Meng had spent a lot of effort to get here, and now being told this meant that all his efforts had gone to waste. But he did not show any frustration or disappointment on his face, instead he was beaming with joy.
Yes, no matter how many ancient books there are, can they compare to a living ancient wizard?
In his eyes, Lan had become a walking mobile bookshelf.
"Will you follow Ash and the others from now on?" He asked Lan in a friendly manner.
Lan nodded: "Yes."
Meng immediately looked serious and looked at Sigourney and Ash calmly: "I don't have anywhere to go recently, so please take me in for a while."
Sigourney: "Free food and lodging?"
Meng Zheng said in a dignified tone: "How could that be? How about this, I will give you all the eggs in my collection."
Ash was amused. What was the point of having so many eggs? If they were all hatched, there would be so many cubs. Would Sigourney raise them?
Thinking of Sigourney being at a loss when surrounded by a group of cute little cubs... Ash covered his heart and suddenly felt very excited!
"Okay." Ash agreed to make the decision before Sigourney.
Sigourney raised her eyebrows and looked at him: "The eggs in your hand haven't hatched yet, right?"
Ash said calmly, "So I want to get a few more and hatch one as soon as possible."
Yeah?
Sigourney looked at him suspiciously and said nothing more. Anyway, if Meng refused to leave, he would not have the time to chase him away.
"The environment here is not very good for them. I will give you the eggs after we leave the abyss." Meng said readily. It was useless for him to have the eggs anyway. He could either eat them as reserve food or sell them at a stall to earn money for the journey - but few people wanted to buy them.
"By the way, shall we leave now?" He seemed to have remembered something, "The Undead Lord escaped while I was dealing with the magic trap. Should we catch him first?"
"Even the prisoners in the cages can be lost?" Sigourney said in a cold tone.
Meng coughed lightly: "The enemy is too cunning."
"Undead Lord?" Lan, who was familiar with the ruins, immediately pointed out the direction, "There is an uninvited guest trapped over there."
Meng laughed loudly: "Leave?!"
Lan said "trapped", so when they found the fleeing Undead Lord, his figure had expanded again, like a tall human-shaped white mist anxiously wandering around in circles in a magic circle, unable to find a way out.
"Hey." Meng walked over first and greeted with a smile, "Long time no see."
The Undead Lord froze in the magic circle, looking desperately at the beautiful and cold vampire among the few people - damn, long time no see? How long has it been on the run? The journey of escape has just taken a step!
It cried miserably and wailed heartbreakingly in its heart, but on the surface, it greeted me politely: "Hello, long time no see."
Then, very consciously, it shrank back into a ball shape.
"Huh?" Lan suddenly said, "Why does he look so familiar?"
Ash: "Look familiar?"
Lan thought for a moment, "I seem to have seen it somewhere before... a little creature as cowardly as it..." Suddenly, she suddenly remembered a name, "Xiao Jin? Is it Xiao Jin?!"
At this time, Meng had already taken the white ball-shaped Undead Lord out of the magic circle and put it back into the small cage.
The white ball lay flat in the cage with a look of despair, looking as if nothing had happened. It was unknown whether he heard what Lan said or not.
In order to establish a friendly relationship with Lan, Meng knocked on the cage gently: "Hey, I want to ask you a question. Is your name Xiao Jin?"
Meng's words finally reached Baituanzi's ears.
"Xiao, Xiao Jin?" It suddenly stiffened, as if stimulated by something, and was as motionless as a pebble. When Ash and the others realized something was wrong and planned to let it out to see what was going on, it suddenly jumped up from the cage, and its ball-like body swelled up again.
In the blink of an eye, it turned into a palm-sized hamster, milky white and translucent, with its two little paws raised, lying on the cage, staring at Lan with its two big eyes. If it was not a ghost, it would probably be in tears the next moment.
"It's me! It's me! I'm Xiao Jin!" It screamed heartbreakingly, "Teacher Dailan, I remember now! I'm Xiao Jin! It was that old bastard Vincent who put me here!"
Ash blinked blankly and turned his head to look at Lan who was sitting on his shoulder. What was going on?
Lan seemed shocked as well.
Although she thought Bai Tuanzi looked familiar and guessed his identity, she was still a little surprised when it turned out that her guess was correct.
"Is it really Xiao Jin?" Could it be that the cunning Undead Lord was pretending to follow her words?
Although she asked this question, Lan was already certain in her heart.
Only the real Xiao Jin knows that "Xiao Jin" is a hamster. Only the real Xiao Jin knows that its owner is Vincent, and only then will he call her Teacher Dailan.
As Xiao Jin excitedly said, "It's me, I really am me," she said softly with mixed feelings, "Vincent is my student, and Xiao Jin is a pet he raised." She was explaining to Ash and the others, "But why it is here, I don't know. Vincent... When I was created, Vincent was still very young, about the same age as Ash. I don't know why he was called... an old bastard."
Lan's excitement is understandable.
After such a long time, I was able to meet my old friend - well, my old friend - again in the present moment. I couldn't help but recall more and deeper memories about the people and events of the past.
However, she also discovered that she had missed a long period of time in those years - she only knew about Vincent's life before he was ten years old, and then he was absent from Vincent's life. She didn't know why Vincent's pet turned into a lord of the dead, and why it appeared near her ruins.
"Can you let it out?" she asked.
Meng shrugged, opened the cage, took out the undead hamster, and held it in his palm.
"You are Xiao Jin." Lan said confidently.
After hearing Lan's words, Xiao Jin whimpered and finally stopped being so excited.
It sat down on Meng's palm, shaking its cheeks, and earnestly conveyed the message from the past: "Teacher Dailan, Vincent conducted an astrology before he died. After the astrology was over, he sent me to the abyss."
It slowly unveiled a layer of history that even Dailan was unaware of.
That was a period of history in which Lan had never participated.
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