Opening his eyes, he saw the familiar ceiling.
He lifted his head and heard the hum of the range hood drifting from the kitchen. In the living room, the seemingly endless clamor had been going on since early morning—noisy, yet reassuring.
From behind the cracked-open door, a pair of dark, beady eyes peeked in furtively. Sensing Ji Jue look up, the youngest crept inside like a guilty pup, clutching a homework notebook. Pointing at an entirely blank page of exercises, he whispered, "Second Brother, how do I do this?"
Outside the cramped bedroom, Lu Ling's furious accusation rang out: "Big Brother! Why are your boxers hanging over the doorframe again?!"
"Oh come on, what's the big deal?" The figure on the sofa picking his feet while scrolling through short videos rolled over, not caring in the slightest.
"Mom, look at him!"
"All right, that's enough! Where's the youngest? Keep an eye on him!" Mother Lu called out from the kitchen, glancing back over her shoulder. "Go check if Xiao Ji is up yet. If he's awake, tell him to come eat! I simmered old hen soup all night long!"
"Up, I'm up!"
After quickly helping the youngest fill in the homework due for inspection today, Ji Jue feigned just opening his eyes, yawning as he walked out of the bedroom. Before he even sat down, the table was already packed with food.
"Whoa! What's the occasion today? Quite a feast, huh~"
Lu Feng rubbed his hands like a fly before immediately reaching out to grab a drumstick. The other siblings followed suit—no sense of gentle propriety or polite restraint here. Whatever you snatched and shoved into your mouth was yours; any kid counting on elder siblings to share the pears would have cried their eyes out long ago.
Take the youngest, for instance. Just a beat too slow, and the platter was already empty. He burst into tears with a wail: "Mom! Sis stole my meat!"
The third sister, chomping down on the biggest piece of chicken breast, turned her sharp gaze instantly toward the broccoli hiding behind the youngest's bowl. "Mom! The runt picked out his vegetables again!"
In front of the fridge, Lu Ling let out a tragic scream: "Aaargh! My milk, someone drank it all again... Lu Feng, I'm going to kill you!"
"It's not like your milk had your name written on it!"
Lu Feng pulled his head in like a turtle, dodging the milk carton Lu Ling hurled at him. It struck the third sister right on the head, sending her into loud, wailing tears.
Until—
*Thud!*
A heavy sound echoed.
A single fist slammed down, sending the solid-wood table weighing hundreds of jin, along with every dish on it, leaping more than a foot into the air.
"Have you had enough yet?!"
Mother Lu suppressed the chaos like a demon queller, her narrow eyes sweeping across the room. "Puppy One, Puppy Two, Puppy Three, Puppy Four—all of you sit down and eat properly!"
*Pfft!*
In the dead silence, Ji Jue, holding his rice bowl, couldn't hold back a laugh. Mother Lu turned to look at him, her frost-covered expression instantly melting into a gentle spring breeze. Picking up a large ladle, she filled his bowl to the brim with soup.
"Ah, Xiao Ji hasn't stayed home in so long. Look how thin you've gotten. Come on, eat more. If it's not enough, I'll make more for you. Later I'll slaughter a chicken and make white-cut chicken for dinner."
"Hooray!" Ji Jue cheered, throwing his hands up.
And then, the spring breeze vanished. A winter-cold backhand slap landed square on the back of Lu Feng's head. "What are you laughing at? Did you wash your socks?! How many times have I told you to leave your boxers on the balcony?!"
"Mom!" Lu Feng clutched his head in indignant grief. "You're my biological mother! I'm the one named Lu here..."
"You dare talk back? The Lus never hung their boxers on doorframes!"
*Smack!*
Slaps rained down like a tempest.
Ji Jue ducked his head to watch the show, unable to hold back his laughter any longer.
Good times weren't fleeting; he could watch this every single day!
After eating came washing dishes, packing schoolbags, and doing chores. Then everyone lined up at the door. Mother Lu went to get the shop ready to open, while Lu Feng drove to drop off the third sister and the youngest at school before either going back to help or slacking off to continue loafing around as an idle street drifter. Meanwhile, aboard the beeping Little Niuma, Ji Jue gave Lu Ling a ride to Tianmen on his way.
Only, squeezed into the bulging cargo bed packed with a huge heap of items, Lu Ling carefully found a spot to put her feet among things that looked like antiques and various baffling objects. Several times over the sputtering engine, she opened her mouth to speak, only to hesitate and swallow her words.
"Second Brother... is there something off about our bike?"
"What's off about it?"
Up front, Ji Jue twisted the throttle, swallowing mouthfuls of wind as he shouted back, "Isn't it completely fine?!"
*Fine my foot!*
Lu Ling felt her fists clench. She could accept it suddenly growing a bit bigger before—she'd just chalked it up to misremembering. But now it had gone from two wheels to three! Did he think she was blind?!
"What's the deal with this sidecar cargo bed?"
"Nobody wanted it, so I picked it up!"
"And the extra wheel?"
"Picked that up too!"
"What about this pile of stuff back here?" Lu Ling pointed at the stack of crates and bizarre contraptions. "You couldn't have picked all this up too, could you?"
"Yep!" Ji Jue answered without a second thought. "Next time I'll take you along to scavenge. Remember to bring extra burlap sacks—the locals are super hospitable!"
"...Like hell I believe you."
Lu Ling rolled her eyes, too tired to ask any further.
The joy of returning with a full haul was something she just didn't understand.
Ji Jue hadn't felt this cheerful in a long time. Humming a tune, he drove under a clear, cloudless sky. Flowers bloomed, birds sang, and even the security guard at the gate seemed warm and friendly.
Flatly rejecting Lu Ling's plea to "just drop me off at the street corner," Ji Jue took out the ID card Professor Ye had given him, swiped it at the gate, and drove right through. The three-wheeler sputtered forward unimpeded, cruising ostentatiously all the way to the small plaza in front of the teaching building. There, amid the shocked and bewildered stares of onlookers, he relished the sight of his second sister scurrying away with her head ducked in embarrassment.
She looked terrified that Ji Jue would honk twice and shout, "Buying old color TVs and used air conditioners!" and gift her with total social death.
*See how good your second brother is to you!*
Ji Jue turned the bike around with a grin. After making his long-awaited presence felt at school, he rode away with the cocky, carefree swagger of a stray dog, driving all the way to the seaside workshop.
After parking the three-wheeler in the storehouse, Ji Jue strutted into the living room with an arrogant swagger that looked like he wouldn't acknowledge his own kin. "Teacher, I'm back!"
Amid the sound of a TV drama playing, Professor Ye sat in her designated seat, calmly holding her teacup. Clearly, she had anticipated the mental state of a kid returning home hauling big and small bundles after a long journey, and paid it no mind.
On the contrary, Ye Chun, lounging on the sofa like a reclining Buddha, was startled by the ruckus.
"Well, well, isn't this Brother Ji Jue?" Nibbling on nuts, she cast a sidelong glance. "Long time no see, why are you looking so ragged? Your pants even have a hole in them. Couldn't you at least change into a new pair?"
"Bullshit, I just put these pants on!"
Ji Jue sneered, completely unfazed by her sour mockery. Right in front of her, he pulled off his gloves and rolled up his sleeves, revealing the intricate matrix spreading across his hands and forearms.
"Open your dog eyes and take a good look—what is this?!"
Ji Jue almost shoved his hands right into Ye Chun's face, turning them over and over to show off. "This is a genuine Sage heirloom I risked my life to hunt down!
"Have you ever seen this before? Huh? Have you?!"
He had been waiting for this moment for days.
As the saying went, achieving wealth without returning home was like walking in embroidered robes at night. Showing off in front of people was an indispensable pursuit in life.
Unfortunately, he hadn't been able to find anyone to brag to inside the Border Realm.
The Prophet had seen it countless times and had zero reaction. Little Niuma had been dazed, not understanding what was happening. Xiao An had been calm and unconcerned. It had only been thanks to the emotional value provided by Young Master Lou that Ji Jue's mindset hadn't completely unraveled.
Now that he was back at the workshop, of course he had to flaunt it for all it was worth, launching a counterattack against the senior sister who had always bullied him—wait.
*Wait, how did you know I went out and got my hands on the Celestial-Human legacy, Non-Offensive?*
In a brief moment of bewilderment, Ye Chun subconsciously widened her eyes, staring at Ji Jue's hands. Confusion, doubt, suspicion, and then shock played across her face like a spinning prize wheel in vivid succession.
Grabbing Ji Jue's hands, she inspected them over and over.
Studying the solemn, tattoo-like insignia, her expression gradually shifted into deep sympathy.
"—Then doesn't this mean you can't take the civil service exam anymore?!"
"..."
Silence fell abruptly. Ji Jue's face flushed crimson, choked with speechless indignation.
He had gone through countless hardships to finally obtain the matrix legacy of a Sage, and instead of asking whether it was awesome, all she cared about was whether he could still take the civil service exam?!
What brutal toxicity!
Always landing a backstab from the most unexpected angle—as expected of Ye Chun!
"Fine. Since you want to play like this, I'm done pretending to be a gentleman..."
Ji Jue's face fell instantly. Unceremoniously shaking off her hands, he reached into his backpack and pulled out a thick stack of papers he had just printed out on the way.
With a straight face, he handed it to Professor Ye. "Teacher, this is my paper. I wrote it on the road. Please take a look and see if anything needs revision.
"Oh, right, has Senior Sister submitted hers yet? I didn't take too long, did I?"
Saying so, he threw a mocking grin back over his shoulder.
*I was originally going to see how well you behaved and reward you with second authorship. Too bad, not anymore!*
*Clatter!*
The jar of nuts nearly slipped from Ye Chun's grip to the floor.
She turned her head stiffly, dumbfounded, looking as though she had finally seen through to Ji Jue's true form.
*Dog! A total dog!*
*Auntie, there's a dog in here!*
*Even while you were out, you were racking your brains every day on how to out-grind me! And here I was stuffing snacks into your bag and telling you to get plenty of rest—do you have no conscience?!*
"Just leave it there. I'll read it in a bit."
Professor Ye took a sip of strong tea, relishing the customary dog-eat-dog spat between her student and her niece. Finally, she delivered a casual parting blow: "A-Chun's draft should be almost ready too, right?"
Ye Chun threw her head back and collapsed onto the sofa, wiping away tears, rendered completely speechless.
*I'm the only superfluous one in this house, aren't I?*
Once Ji Jue took a seat, the debriefing finally began.
"All right, let's hear it."
Professor Ye waved her hand. "It's rare for you to take a trip outside. What did you bring back?"
"Non-Offensive—secured."
Ji Jue raised both hands, eager to show off all over again. Unfortunately, Professor Ye merely gave them a glance, as if already confirming it was the genuine article, and said nothing more, leaving him with no chance to gloat.
"Mhm, and then?" she asked.
"...While I was at it, I got an Embers blessing. Seems pretty powerful." Ji Jue cleared his throat, offering a bashful smile. "I ended up advancing a rank by accident."
"Hm?"
This time, Professor Ye paused slightly, her hand holding the teacup freezing. She scrutinized Ji Jue carefully. Seeing no symptoms of corruption or aberration, she nodded. "A bit fast, but not entirely out of the question. I'll shore up your foundations later.
"What else?"
"Just various miscellaneous items, including furnishings and materials from Quicksilver Workshop, as well as some alchemical creations,"
Ji Jue answered obediently. "There are also a few blessings in there. Unfortunately, having lacked spiritus maintenance for too long, they've all regressed to their original forms.
"When I haul them up later, I'll need your help looking over them.
"It's just the quantity..."
He hesitated, testing the waters of Professor Ye's expression. "There might be a bit much."
"Much?"
Professor Ye sharply caught the familiar padding often seen in academic papers, disliking such vague generalizations. "How much is 'a bit much'?"
"Uh, about the size of those crates inscribed with the Eternal Gate insignia that have expanded interiors—roughly seven or eight cubic meters each."
Sounds like a good haul.
Professor Ye nodded slightly and was just about to take a sip of tea to offer some praise when she heard the second half of Ji Jue's sentence:
"Those crates... I packed about a whole vehicle's worth of them."
"..."
Her motion of drinking tea was interrupted once again.
Ye Xian scrutinized the meek and well-behaved student before her, suddenly sorely tempted to ask if he was pulling her leg.
Yet when she turned and brought up the projection of the storehouse, she saw that very three-wheeler, its cargo bed piled high into a small mountain...
He went on a single trip, and the vehicle somehow gained an extra wheel too?
Seasoned veteran that she was, Professor Ye couldn't help drawing a sharp breath out of sheer respect. Full of curiosity, she asked, "How did you manage that?"
"Uh, well, just standard exploration. The locals in the Border Realm were quite hospitable. Whatever they saw, they insisted I take some, and the rest I just picked up off the ground."
Ji Jue hesitated, choosing his words carefully before deciding that honesty was the best policy: "Also, I ran into Young Master Lou in there. We didn't see eye to eye, so we had a fight. I figured, since I'd already offended him anyway... I might as well kidnap him and make a fortune."
This time, it was Professor Ye's turn to fall silent.
In the brief hush, she carefully studied Ji Jue's weak, helpless, and pitiful expression. Her eyebrows slowly arched, and she asked abruptly, "Did you leave the corpse intact?"
Chapter 97