Chapter 2: Foodie

　While Lu Shu was trying to figure out what was going on, he was ready to take Lu Xiaoyu away at any time. As for whether he could escape or not... he could only say that he had tried his best.

　　However, the group of people in black windbreakers did not seem to intend to get involved with them, nor did they look like the standard villains in TV dramas who would kill innocent people at every turn. They just left.

　　At this point, Lu Shu felt somewhat relieved. Could it be that the other party was really a government official?

　　He suddenly remembered the videos and people who disappeared in those supernatural events... Could this performer also be related to that kind of thing? When did the government have a uniform like black windbreaker... It looks good.

　　If the other party suddenly showed a certificate from a mysterious department at this time, Lu Shu might actually believe it.

　　As for the fire brigade the other party mentioned... forget it...

　　After encountering such a thing, Lu Shu and Lu Xiaoyu, the big and the small, were in no mood to continue watching the temple fair and decided to go home.

　　When leaving, Lu Shu lowered his head in deep thought, looking a little absent-minded.

　　Lu Xiaoyu looked up at him and said, "Lu Shu, what are you thinking about?"

　　"You'll die if you call me brother, right?" Lu Shu was a little angry at the time.

　　"Are we related by blood?" Lu Xiaoyu looked disdainful, like a little brat.

　　At this time, a young man suddenly stopped Lu Shu and said with a kind smile: "Did you just come out from the backstage? Can you tell me what happened in there?"

　　Lu Shu asked cautiously: "Who are you?"

　　"Hello, my name is Zhiwei, nice to meet you." The handsome young man introduced himself with a smile.

　　"How happy are you?" Lu Shu asked.

　　This young man named Zhiwei almost peed himself. Why the hell is he playing so unconventionally? !

　　"Um... Anyway, I'm very happy..." However, just when Zhiwei wanted to continue explaining, he saw that the boy opposite him ignored him and walked away with the cute little girl. The little girl was still jumping around him...

　　"Huh... Never mind. I won't bother with you!" Zhiwei was a little helpless. She decided to go and take a look herself. There should be a lot of witnesses inside. Those people should be easier to deal with than this young man.

　　After walking for a while, Lu Shu looked back at the young man and frowned. Lu Xiaoyu said calmly: "Lu Shu, there is something wrong with you today."

　　"Xiao Yu, if there are many people in this world who are more awesome than normal people, what would you do?" Lu Shu asked. If that performer really had a problem, then did the throbbing in his heart mean that… he also had a problem?

　　"Of course I have to be more awesome than them." Lu Xiaoyu said as a matter of course.

　　After listening to this, Lu Shu pondered for a moment, then smiled as if he had figured something out: "You make it sound so simple, but it makes sense. Let's go home."

　　Lu Xiaoyu said to himself: "Lu Shu, you are so weak that you can't do it. You are out of breath after playing basketball with your classmates for five minutes. But it doesn't matter. You can't do it, but I can. From now on, I will protect you and you just need to cook for me!"

　　"Hehe." Lu Shu's face darkened: "Inexplicably confident."

　　Lu Shu and Lu Xiaoyu live in Courtyard No. 4, Luocheng Administrative Office Road. This is the legendary compound for the family members of the Municipal Party Committee. However, that was decades ago. Courtyard No. 4 is now a recognized slum. At this time, it is still a small one-story bungalow, dilapidated, without gas or heating. It is no wonder that others say this is a slum.

　　Lu Shu and his family live in a rented house, an 80-square-meter bungalow, which costs 500 yuan per month in this third-tier city, excluding water and electricity bills. The landlord has no plans to sell the house, and is simply waiting for good compensation when the house is demolished.

　It has been said for a long time that the house here would be demolished, but it has not been demolished for several years because the residents in the yard are rather difficult to deal with.

　　Many people dislike this place, but Lu Shu likes it very much, because there is a small yard in front of each bungalow, which is about ten square meters, and you can grow some garlic, leeks and other things. After all, buying them requires money.

　　Lu Shu was short of money because he was an orphan and was thrown at the door of an orphanage when he was young.

　　So is Lu Xiaoyu.

　　Generally speaking, if an orphan grows up in an orphanage and no one adopts him/her by the age of 16, he/she has to go out into society and become self-reliant. This is the case with Lu Shu.

　　He has been in poor health since childhood. Which family would be willing to adopt a sickly child?

　　However, Lu Xiaoyu ran away secretly on his own. The orphanage was used to this. In that era, there were many cases where little orphans couldn't stand the life in the orphanage and secretly ran away, stealing things and becoming beggars, so even now they were too lazy to call the police.

　　Orphanages are not as responsible as those "model orphanages" in the movies. Who cares whether the children who run away are dead or alive?

　　Lu Shu wanted to send Lu Xiaoyu back to the orphanage. After all, she was in good condition and still young, so there would definitely be someone willing to adopt her. But Lu Xiaoyu would run away again every time.

　　Over time, Lu Shu got used to it.

　　Lu Xiaoyu is a little abnormal. Compared with children of the same age, she is a little precocious. Of course, Lu Shu may not be that abnormal either. It is not obvious in normal times, but the conversation with Zhiwei today is just a microcosm of it.

　　The house they rented was at the end of a row of bungalows. When they passed by a square, they saw a neighbor aunt boiling Chinese medicine.

　　Lu Shu knew that there was an old man in this family who had been suffering from illness for many years. The neighbor aunt was also the old man's daughter-in-law. The disease seemed to be hereditary. Before the old man passed away, his son was tortured to death by the illness.

　　The daughter-in-law is quite filial and has been taking care of the elderly for so many years. Although Aunt Lin looks to be in her forties and has many wrinkles on her face, Lu Shu can still tell from the contours of her face how young she was.

　　There are really few women like this in this society who are willing to stay a widow and take care of the old man in her husband's family.

　　"Aunt Lin, good evening." Lu Shu greeted the aunt with a smile.

　　"Little Tree and Little Fish, you're back." The aunt agreed with a smile.

　　However, just as Lu Shu was about to take Lu Xiaoyu home, Lu Xiaoyu suddenly squatted down and looked eagerly at the medicine pot on the small coal stove: "Aunt Lin, can I have some?"

　　Aunt Lin was happy: "This is medicine, Xiaoyu."

　　Lu Xiaoyu thought for a moment and said, "Then I'll just take a sip!"

　　Lu Shu's face turned dark at that moment: "Go, go, go, why are you causing trouble? You even drank other people's medicine!"

　　This is so damn embarrassing. At Lu Shu's age, his self-esteem is growing, but he is accompanied by such a little foodie. It's outrageous!

　　Then Chinese medicine doesn't smell good, okay? !

　　"Oh." Lu Xiaoyu continued to walk inside reluctantly, looking back every few steps, obviously still thinking about the pot of Chinese medicine.

　　A low cough was heard from the room behind Aunt Lin, and an old man sighed, "It's great to be young."

　　Aunt Lin smiled and agreed: "Yes, it's good to be young."

　　Lu Xiaoyu no longer looked back at the pot of Chinese medicine, but instead looked at Lu Shu eagerly: "Lu Shu, I want to eat instant noodles with braised beef!"

Chapter 3 You're in big trouble!

　　"Why instant noodles? I'll cook noodles for you." Lu Shu was reluctant. He had to go out to buy instant noodles in such a cold day. If he wanted to buy instant noodles during the Chinese New Year, he had to go to the 24-hour Zhang Donglai convenience store two blocks away.

　　"The noodles you cooked have no taste at all. I don't want to eat them. Go buy me some instant noodles!" Lu Xiaoyu was unhappy.

　　"I'm not going." Lu Shu said as he was about to change his shoes.

　　"Then crack the walnuts off your neck and give them to me to eat." Lu Xiaoyu's eyes sparkled.

　　"Fuck you, stop thinking about this, okay?" Lu Shu felt uneasy. The thing on his neck was not a walnut, but the pattern on it looked like one, except it was a little black and the roundness was a little abnormal.

　　This was abandoned along with him in the orphanage, and it looked ordinary. Although Lu Shu often criticized the staff of the orphanage for being irresponsible, he had to admit that they were decent people, otherwise he wouldn't have kept this thing until now.

　　This thing is of no use to others, but to Lu Shu it is a not-so-small wish.

　　What if... He meant what if, his parents want to find him again through this, isn't this a proof?

　　Although he had no concept of the word "parents", he had lived well alone for so many years.

　　When a parent came to the orphanage wanting to adopt a child and the director took his hand and walked him in front of the strange couple, he still had a glimmer of expectation for the word "parents".

　　However, when the other party despised his frail health, that bit of expectation disappeared.

　　It seems that I really don't need my parents anymore. Lu Shu would think this way sometimes.

　　But when I really have to throw it away... I still feel a little reluctant.

　　"I'll say it again, this thing is definitely not edible." Lu Shu said unhappily.

　　"I dare to drink other people's Chinese medicine, so why shouldn't I be afraid to eat this!" Lu Xiaoyu was not convinced.

　　Lu Shu peed himself at that moment. What you said makes so much sense!

　　"Lu Shu, you've changed. You weren't like this before!" Lu Xiaoyu said calmly, "Last year you helped me..."

　　Lu Shu's face turned black at that moment: "Lu Xiaoyu, that's enough... I'm telling you, if you watch romantic soap operas again, I'll smash the TV!"

　　"Then you have to pay the landlord 800 yuan." Lu Xiaoyu analyzed calmly.

　　"I'll go, I'll go buy you some instant noodles!" Lu Shu turned around and went out.

　　Standing at the door, Lu Shu tightened his collar. The winter in Luocheng was indeed a bit cold.

Suddenly he felt a little wet on his eyelids. He looked up and saw that fine snowflakes had begun to float in the sky without him noticing.

　　The fine snow was like velvet, slowly falling from the sky to the earth, floating on the ground, on the eaves, and on Lu Shu's body.

　　Why is the relationship between him and Lu Xiaoyu so good? Lu Shu stood at the door and looked at the white snowflakes falling from the sky. In fact, he didn't quite understand.

　　Maybe it was when he was 14 years old and had a fever in the orphanage during the Chinese New Year, that Lü Xiaoyu poured him a cup of hot water? When he was bullied by others in the orphanage, Lü Xiaoyu always called the director for him?

　　Maybe everyone is helpless and huddles together for warmth?

　　Or maybe it was because Lu Xiaoyu trusted him and relied on him without reason, which made him feel an inexplicable sense of responsibility.

　　"Who cares why?" Lu Shu smiled. Since he had no parents or relatives in this world, what was wrong with having a younger sister? Even if this younger sister was causing trouble for him all day long.

　　It gets dark earlier in winter. As it was the third day of the New Year, there were no pedestrians on the street. There were only a few trucks passing by occasionally, still delivering goods during the New Year. Everyone's life was not easy.

Somehow, Lu Shu suddenly remembered the acrobat who was taken away today. Could that performer be the supernatural being that everyone on the Internet was speculating about? Do people who practice Taoism really exist?

　　Why was all this just a fantasy in the past, but this year it suddenly seems to be about to enter people's lives?

　　There was another person that Lu Shu had a deep impression of today, and that was the young man named Zhiwei whom he met after leaving the backstage.

　　Lu Shu was a little distracted as he thought about the possible, brighter world.

　　At this moment, the sound of the wind seemed to break as it swept towards Lu Shu, and the flying snow in the sky looked particularly gorgeous under the two huge lights.

　　The light came from behind. When Lu Shu looked back, the dazzling lights made him dizzy.

　　But even so, he could still recognize that it was a huge truck, roaring towards him like a beast.

　　The sharp sound of brake pads rubbing against tires and the sharp sound of tires gripping the ground sounded together.

　　But the beast was out of control.

　　In just a split second, the air was squeezed to the point of being distorted, and in the pitch-black night, Lu Shu was knocked out by the huge beast.

　　His body crashed through the snow curtain behind him like a kite with a broken string. Lu Shu's world seemed to slow down. For some reason, he suddenly remembered someone saying that people would recall their entire lives in an instant before they died.

　　Lu Shu closed his eyes and wanted to seize that moment to see what the parents who sent him to the orphanage looked like...but he saw nothing.

　　Lu Shu felt that his life was dying, just like all the beautiful things in the world would eventually die.

　　At this moment, the pendant on his chest suddenly turned into dust. No, only the shell that was so hard that Lu Xiaoyu couldn't break it even with a hammer turned into powder.

　　Finally, a thing inside was revealed, and it was hard to tell what it was. It looked a bit like an almond, and a bit like a star.

　　The star flowed into his body, drifted along with the river of blood, and finally stopped in Lu Shu's palm. After it finally spit out a warm current, it completely disappeared from Lu Shu's perception.

　　That warm current was like an ocean current flowing from south to north in the Pacific Ocean, flowing into Lu Shu's heart.

　　Boom!

　　Boom!

　　Boom!

　　There was a strong heartbeat, and a white flame in the heart began to burn again.

　　Yes, the blazing flame that had been extinguished in his body but rekindled, the joy of reunion after a long separation made Lu Shu feel more comfortable than ever before.

　　This blazing flame originally belonged to him, as if this has been the eternal truth since the creation of heaven and earth.

　　With a bang, Lu Shu fell to the ground without a sound.

　　The truck driver jumped out of the car and looked at Lu Shu lying on the ground with a hesitant look. He regretted that if he hadn't been driving while fatigued, this would never have happened.

　　The driver slowly moved towards the boy on the ground. He had bought full insurance for his car, so he could afford millions of dollars in compensation, and he would not stand by and watch the boy die. Suddenly, the boy moved, and the driver walked over in surprise.

　　Before he even got close, he saw Lu Shu slowly standing up, his face covered in blood: "You're in big trouble!"