Once again, Lin Mu carefully flipped through the photo alb.u.m. Then, he sat in a daze for a long time before letting out a long sigh.

He had wondered why his mother would always show such a sweet yet mournful look when she was looking through the alb.u.m, when it had obviously just been normal photos of a single person.

Lin Mu was distracted for a long time, then his gaze fell back onto the photo.

This is his father……

Handsome.

Lin Mu touched his own face and looked down at the opened photo alb.u.m. There was a very rare photo that had been taken inside the city.

The man in robes looked out of place in a city made out of concrete and steel. But he didn"t have the slightest sense of cautiousness, but instead, was just quietly staring at the woman beside him.

The cameras from that time weren"t as convenient and the mobile phones from this era. The pixels and texture of the photo from then weren"t as good as the present, and even if they were well preserved, there would be traces of time pa.s.sed.

Anyways, to see that his own parents were indeed in love, this was enough to make Lin Mu feel happy.

He looked through the folder carefully until the sky turned dark, but did not notice anything special inside it.

Lin Mu guessed that his mother probably didn"t want this matter to be discovered by others.

He carefully closed the folders and photo alb.u.ms, and did not intend to take out the photos inside.

There must have been a reason why his mother chose not to mention anything about his father to other people for so many years, and also why she had never shown the alb.u.m to others.

Lin Mu wasn"t prepared to ruin his mother"s perseverance.

To keep something a secret for nearly twenty years, the stakes involved in this matter must have been beyond what Lin Mu could imagine, and he knew nothing about it.

Lin Mu placed the folders and photo alb.u.ms back into the bookcase, then took down the box he thought contained only an ordinary decoration.

The red lacquer wooden box contains a black fruit half the size of his fist, and had a leaf on top. Lin Mu looked at the leaf for a while and felt that it looked a bit like poplar leaves.

Helping his new colleague solve their problem, Da Hei"s heart was full of happiness.

He spent the whole morning teaching Lin Mu how to go through some basic work processes in person. After lunch, he rubbed his hands together and shuffled over to Lin Mu"s side, “I"ll be skipping work this afternoon? I have a little something.”

Lin Mu paused then nodded, “okay, I should be able to do it on my own.”

“Okay!” Da Hei let out a big grin, and took out a new set of white collared shirt and jeans from the cupboard.

With this set of clothing taken out, Lin Mu knew why Da Hei was skipping work.

“Recently, that Old Turtle seemed to have encountered some problems during work, and it"s always been me here alone, so troublesome.” Da Hei said as he changed his clothes.

Lin Mu no longer expected this dog to have the sense of shame as humans.

He turned his head away, and asked upon hearing Da Hei"s words, “what trouble?”

“It seems that it was that nine-tailed fox who in before asked him for a divination, and he divined out some serious matter.” Da Hei answered, “because of this thing, I"ve been running around, delaying things until I didn"t have time to see the old lady.”  “

Lin Mu heard the Da Hei say so, and was slightly startled, “the old lady……"

Da Hei"s voice sounded calm, “I went to see her on the weekend, and its probably because of terminal lucidity that she"s got a healthy glow and was full of energy. A lot of her relatives, friends, and former students came back to see her after hearing this news, and she seemed happy, so it"s quite good.”

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He had never seen this fruit before, and there was no smell after opening the box.

Lin Mu thoroughly remembered how this fruit looked like, and when he went to work the next day, he would go to the reference room on the second floor to ask what it was.

He closed the box again, carefully placing it back into the bookshelf and touched his empty stomach. Then, he prepared to go back downstairs to get something to eat.

“Lin Mu, Lin Mu!” The little Ginseng came out from the kitchen and saw that Lin Mu had come down the stairs. Holding a bowl of porridge and two large chicken tights, he raised his feet and placed the food on the table, “Milky left the chicken thighs for you!”

Lin Mu paused and turned his head to look at the dog lying on his side and then turned back to look at the two large chicken thighs.

Two large chicken thighs were equivalent to half the meat of the whole chicken.

"I can"t eat so much." The amount of food that Lin Mu ate was indeed quite small.

He separated the thighs so that there was only the drumstick left for himself, and after asking the little Ginseng, gave the rest of the thighs to the dog.

The little Ginseng was holding a box of milk, he turned to Mily, and with Milky"s signal, asked, "Lin Mu, are you in a bad mood today?”

"Hm?" Lin Mu turned to look at the little baby and let out a smile, “I"m quite good.”

The little Ginseng turned to look at the Milky again and asked, “but when you just came back, you didn"t seem too good.”

The little Ginseng really didn"t realise that Lin Mu wasn"t happy.

Because Lin Mu was always very gentle with him, so it was difficult for him to detect if Lin Mu was in a good mood or not.

In any case, the Ginseng Baby hadn"t realised anything at all.

But Yan Xuanjing could tell with a single glance.

Lin Mu"s mood was bad, and he was in a trance, so it was clear that there was something on his mind.

Nine-tailed foxes were astute, and if a sly fox didn"t even have the EQ to understand people"s emotions by looking at their expressions, then they needn"t bother to live.

Originally, he was still upset about being kicked out by Lin Mu in the middle of the night, but seeing that the half-monster was in such a trance, Yan Xuanjing was too lazy to care about it, so he sent the little Ginseng away to cook and at the same time ask what was going on.

He wasn"t like Lin Mu, who really treated the Ginseng Baby like a child.

Whose family"s child would be hundreds of years old? Even looking at it through monster years, he would be an adult already. In other words, the Ginseng Baby took advantage of his racial characteristics, and thus, still looked like a baby.

The little Ginseng asked in a small voice, “are you in a good mood now?”

“Pretty good.” Lin Mu pinched the little Ginseng"s face, “I might contact a construction team in a few days — that is, a group of people to come over to help and build a greenhouse. When I"m not home, you need to hide.”

“Ay?” The little Ginseng was slightly taken aback, and he becamea little nervous as he twisted his little dudou, “but…… if humans enter and leave at will, it would destroy the spiritual energy of the land. And we just planted the spiritual medication……”

Lin Mu didn"t think about this matter, and he was slightly taken aback as he gave a slight frown.

"That…… could you find monsters?" The little Ginseng looked at Lin Mu carefully, “I know a few monsters, who can build houses.”

Lin Mu held the chicken drumstick in his mouth and paused for a moment.

“All of them should be able to pa.s.s through the Morning Dusk! They"re not bad monsters!” The little Ginseng raised his voice slightly.

“En……” Lin Mu was also quite confident in the Morning Dusk. He placed the chicken drumstick down and said, “I don"t mind, but how should I pay for it?”

“Just…… just taking them in for a short time should be enough.” The little Ginseng said, and at the same time carefully observed Lin Mu"s expression, “recently, the mountain is in chaos, and even the land G.o.d can"t manage what happened. We also dare not get to close with humans……”

“How many?” Lin Mu asked.

The Ginseng Baby"s eyes brightened, “three! We won"t take up s.p.a.ce! We can just burrow into the soil!”

“Alright.” Lin Mu agreed.

“Then I"ll go out and find them tonight, okay?” The little Ginseng asked in a sweet tone.

Lin Mu didn"t care much about the time, and only asked, “can you guarantee your safety?”

The little Ginseng looked at the dog who was crunching away at the chicken bone and said tentatively, “Milky could protect me?”

Yan Xuanjing raised his eyebrows, and didn"t really care as he continued to eat his chicken.

The next second, the little Ginseng let out a smile, “Milky can protect me! We"ll be back in three or four days at most!”

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The old lady always had a gentle and quiet character, and no matter how fierce she got, she was still the same gentle and warm type. She had suddenly became more active recently, and her children that rushed back from abroad also knew in their hearts.

People always knew when they reached the end of their lives.

Her time was coming, terminal lucidity, she probably was going to leave soon.

“The old lady"s great-granddaughter is three years old.” Da Hei fell silent after speaking, and his clothes rustled as he wore them, “I"ll come back when the workday ends, you continue working first.”

Lin Mu nodded, “okay.”

He watched as Da Hei left, and seeing that n.o.body else came, he went to the reference room on the second floor.

After five days, Lin Mu could already see the shadow of the office"s second floor.

The area was a large, dark, and black building. The reason why an ‘area" was used to describe it was because it almost covered the entire street"s sky.

Lin Mu stood on the second floor and looked down that the Ginseng Baby who was holding a dog and wiggled his b.u.t.t to the front door and waved, then heard him say, “Lin Mu, remember to get up early tomorrow! Don"t be late for work!”

Lin Mu answered and watched as a dog and a ginseng walked away, drew the curtain close, sat on the bed, and picked up the picture frame he had placed on the bedside table.

In the photo frame was a photo of him and his mother.

There was no other figure.

Lin Mu looked at this picture for a long time, and he didn"t see the figure he wanted to see in the picture.

Similarly, in any photos that had him and his mother, his father"s figure didn"t appear.

At the time of his birth, his father didn"t seem to be with his mother anymore.

It might even have been even earlier — otherwise he wouldn"t have let his mother be bullied so badly by his grandfather"s side.

Lin Mu put down the photo frame in his hand, properly collected his curiosity that had been hooked by the photos, and got up to take a bath.

His mother really loved him.

And if his father was there with them, he would definitely love him too.

That was good.

Lin Mu lay on the bed, looked at the ceiling, could not help but hide in his blanket and smile.

……

That night, Lin Mu had a dream.

He dreamed of a valley covered in a carpet of flowers and gra.s.s. There was a big tree rooted there, with a thick trunk and knotted roots that firmly grasped the land. The tree"s lush branches and leaves were luxurious, extending in five different directions, covering the sky.

The crisp leaves were blown by the wind and let out a soft rustling sound, revealing a few scatter yellow flowers. There were also a few cl.u.s.ters of light that fell from the flowers, and were blown away by the wind and out into the valley.

Outside the valley, the wolves and the sheep live in harmony, the tigers and the rabbits depend on each other, peacefully and quietly squinting their eyes as they took a nap.

There were many living creatures kneeling down towards the valley, listening to the sound of rustling that was brought out by the wind. When they were touched by the cl.u.s.ters of light, they showed an expression of ease and contentment.

Until the wind stopped, the entire valley was covered in a gentle atmosphere, and the creatures outside these valleys gradually returned to their cycle of fighting again.

Lin Mu stood amongst the carpets of overly lush flowers and plants and turned back to look at the large green tree, slightly raised his head, and his eyes met the eyes of the man sitting on the tree branch.

The man was dressed in a dark green robe, and the leaves embroidered in golden thread glistened in the warm sunlight.

Lin Mu suddenly opened his eyes to the sound of knocking on his window. He turned to give the culprit who woke him up a dull look.

Outside the window was a magpie with a branch of begonia flower in his beak. After it saw Lin Mu looking at it, it carefully placed the flower on the windowsill, and the minute it opened its mouth it said, “Lin Ginseng called Lin Mu to wake up! Lin Ginseng called Lin Mu to wake up!”

After that, it turned around and flew away.

Lin Mu was slightly stunned as he watched with wide his eyes, “……”

No.

What!!

What"s going on!

There"s actually such a good wake-up service!

Lin Mu sat on the bed in shock for a long moment, then shook his head.

His head was full of the man who smiled so brightly even the sun seemed brighter.

He recognized him.

Overall, it was a very distoryed, irregualr and unscientific shape, like it was built up by a kid who didn"t know anything, one piece stacked on top of another, with the occasional protruding piece.

Not in accordance with architectural mechanics and aesthetics at all.

He looked seriously at these materials, and after reading the first few pages about the Qingqiu Country, the information about Yan Xuanjing and his father were clearly displayed, including pictures of their original body.

The huge snowy white fox towered like a mountain, and as if they were aware of something, both nine-tailed foxes had used their nine furry tails to cover their body, not letting others see how they looked.

Lin Mu simply skipped the side mentioning Yan Xuanjing"s fathe and glanced at Yan Xuanjing"s information. He realised that there were some words he had never seen before in the column about Yan Xuanjing"s favourites.

However, there was an explanation below. Lin Mu read it and found out that this fox seemed to prefer eating birds.

Lin Mu spent an entire afternoon looking at the information, and in the middle he had stumbled through but still managed to complete his job, and when it was time to get off work, Da Hei came back.

Lin Mu asked as he tidied up the infromation on the table, “how is the old lady?”

“Just some recent matters.” Da Hei unb.u.t.toned several b.u.t.tons on his shirt, “go, let"s get off work.”

Lin Mu nodded, and took Da Hei back to the market on his way back. He bought two pigeons, and when he pa.s.s Uncle De"s place at the village entrance, he bought a live chicken from him.

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That was his father — the man who rarely smiled in pictures, and within those pictures there were only a few of him looking at his mother, with a faint smile on his lips, revealing two very shallow dimples.

Lin Mu continued to sit in a daze for a long time, until his alarm clock rang. He let out a long sigh and opened the window to take the branch of begonia on the windowsill in.

Now wasn"t the flowering period for beognia.

But that didn"t matter.

One can"t use the common sense of human beings to cover issues related to monsters.

Lin Mu inserted the flower into a small vase with a thin neck, cleaned up a bit and hastily ate his breakfast, then went to work in a hurry.

Lin Mu was thinking about the fruit in the bookshelf. He had arrived at the office early, and the other two hadn"t arrived yet.

He locked the door, went up to the second floor, and stepped on the platform.

“I"m looking for a…… black fruit, with the leaves a bit like the poplar tree.” Lin Mu finished and paused, and thought about the dream he had last night, and hesitatingly added, “a very big tree with yellow flowers."

Just as he finished, the platform under his feet slightly shook, and the bookshelf on his left opened, carrying him to another bookshelf.

A book floated out, flipped open a few pages, then stopped in front of him.

The Relaxed Emperor, the worry-free tree.

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Leaves like poplar, five branches intersect. Yellow flowers to black fruits, and the ones who eat would anger no more1More information about this in the translation notes below.

The author has this to say: holy s.h.i.t, I like daddy [dammit

Translator has this to say:

These last two lines are taken directly from 山海经 (The Cla.s.sic of Mountains and Seas).

帝休木，无忧树。
叶状如杨，其枝五衢，黄华黑实，服者不怒。

帝休木 is the name of a tree.

帝 (Dì) – Emperor
休 (xiū) – To relax/be happy [there"s other meanings, but these two fit the most in this context] 木 (mù)- Tree/wood (the same Mu in Lin Mu"s name.)

无忧树 (Wú yōu shù) – lit. worry-free tree.

叶状如杨 – Leaves like poplar

其枝五衢 – five branches intersect

黄华黑实 – Yellow Flowers to black fruits. 华 is a very, very rarely used version of 花, both are p.r.o.nounced hua.

服者不怒 – the ones who eat would anger no more. 服者 can mean a lot of things, it can mean those who serve and those who get served, or those who submit. However, 服 can also mean to to eat or take, usually medicine. Another translation could be those who served/get served, or those who accept, would no longer feel any anger. But context wise, eat is the most appropriate, due to the previous sentence mentioning fruit.

As far as I know, there isn"t an english translation for these words. (If you know, please tell me.)

A sleepy, sleepy couch potato that adores BL. Only second to sleeping.