Translator: Mukyuu
Editor: Mokyuu
Quality Check: Mukyuu
“Looks like Zuo Feng already found Uncle’s communicator.”
“How do you know?” Lei Jue looked up at Xiao Lingyu, “Pipi’s dad, it’s not good to invade other people’s privacy.”
“I just wanted to see if the thing was going to get tossed or remain with Zuo Feng. Besides, I only used the location detection function. I didn’t look to see what’s inside.” Xiang Lingyu said thoughtfully, “Though this makes it seem like Uncle had already decided, before he left, to let Zuo Feng find his communicator.”
“Or maybe it’s because he shrank too much and couldn’t take it with him.” Lei Jue recalled what Zuo Feng wore that day. Though Zuo Feng had worn pants that would be considered a wider and looser design, the pants hadn’t been that big. After all, it was formal men’s clothing and, unlike women’s formal wear, it couldn’t be made too fancy and complicated without attracting people’s attention.
“That’s true. Or maybe Uncle wanted to show Zuo Feng something. Otherwise, he could have hidden the communicator somewhere Zuo Feng wouldn’t be able to find. But since Zuo Feng found it then he didn’t put too much thought into hiding it from Zuo Feng.”
Xiao Lingyu turned things over for a moment and then asked, “Carrera, does Uncle’s communicator have any activation privileges?”
“Yes there are, Sir.” Carrera replied after a while, “Should I check what the exact activation mechanism is?”
“Take a look, but no need to tell me the results.”
“If we’re checking then why not know the results?” Lei Jue asked, “Aren’t you curious?”
“I want Carrera to figure things out beforehand, just in case. Just in case Uncle’s communicator gets so damaged that we can’t crack the activation mechanism, we’d at least know the answer ahead of time,” Xiao Lingyu raised his eyebrow, “But I think this activation mechanism likely has something to do with Zuo Feng. Think about it, if Uncle wants to use this opportunity and tell Zuo Feng some things… What would you do if you were him?”
“Of course I’d make it so that the communicator can only be activated by Zuo Feng,” After a pause, Lei Jue patted Xiao Lingyu’s chest, “But I’d have to make sure to block you and your supernatural technical skills.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Xiao Lingyu smiled in acknowledgment of Lei Jue’s answer.
“It was meant to be. But, circling back, can you tell me why you have so much blind faith that Uncle will definitely be alright?” Lei Jue couldn’t see any obvious signs of worry in Xiao Lingyu’s eyes. It didn’t feel like Xiao Lingyu wasn’t worried about his Uncle, but rather it felt like he believed in Uncle from the bottom of his heart.
“Because Uncle doesn’t seem like the kind of person to run off after flirting. Since he’s already chosen Zuo Feng to some degree, then he won’t leave so easily. If I were in his position, I’d fight to the death to return to you no matter what I encounter. I believe that Uncle would do the same.” XIao Lingyu picked Pipi up and looked at his chubby white cheeks. “Good boy, we’ve got those excellent genes for model husbands, right?”
“Ah.” Pipi hugged his father despite his confusion. His two chubby hands reached out to dig at his father’s nostrils.
Xiao Lingyu hurriedly ducked away and lifted his son in the air. Then, he let his son ride on his neck and walked out like that.
Lei Jue looked at Qiuqiu, who reached out a hand to Pipi as a sign that she wanted to go too. He picked her up and their other son had cleverly turned himself into a little tre-human, and clambered onto Lei Jue’s shoulder despite the short legs.
The night air was refreshing. The five of them sat on the wooden benches in the garden and watched as the two women of the family made plans for their new home. It looked like they were discussing designs for the flower house. Right then, Xiao Zhicheng returned from the army. Unwittingly, Lei Jue and Xiao Lingyu both looked over simultaneously and saw that the patriarch’s expression was unpleasant.
Xiao Zhicheng didn’t stay at home after their return from Haweila Palace. Instead, he stopped by the army. Because Lei Jue mentioned that Emperor Surong’s aging problem could be related to the Golden Fruit Tree Clan, Xiao Zhicheng personally “picked” a few more people in consideration for the children’s safety. At the same time, he looked into whether someone had already discovered Maikalun before Lei Jianwei was sent out, and if Golden Fruit Tree Clan members had visited Casweir before. The results came as a shock to him.
Though he couldn’t be absolutely certain, he did have a hypothesis — The Golden Fruit Tree Clan people on Maikalun maybe weren’t early visitors to Casweir. Instead, they could very likely be originally from Casweir.
The child on the statue of Lord Lyniel on Suspension Mountain had wood elemental abilities. He had a golden sprout on his head, just like the children from Golden Fruit Tree Clan. That, by itself, was an explanation.
By the time he reached his grandsons and granddaughter, Xiao Zhicheng had already adjusted his expression. Since he had people following him, he didn’t share his hypothesis with his children. He leaned over to caress his grandson’s head and then looked at his youngest son, “Any news?”
“Nothing for now.” Xiao Lingyu had been paying attention to information coming out of Haweila Palace, but up until now, nothing had changed. Instead, Uncle’s communicator had been successfully activated at the Zuo family home.
At first, Zuo Feng hadn’t figured out that the dry tree bark was actually a communicator. It wasn’t that he hadn’t seen highly disguised communicators, but he really hadn’t seen communicators made to look like real tree bark. Luckily. he had kept it in his hands and ultimately discovered the tick to it.
This “bark” was tiny but it had many surprisingly new functions, and the technical skills behind these were quite high level — he could say that because he hadn’t been the one to activate the communicator. Instead, it had activated itself. At first, he had tried to activate it but to no avail. But when he had kept working on it for 30 minutes, the communicator turned on by itself. Clearly, there was some kind of preprogramming involved.
Unless Di Lin wanted to tell him something?
Nobody else beside him would touch this flower pot. Since he valued his plant so much, not even the servants dared touch it. This meant that it was very likely Di Lin who buried the communicator in the pot.
Besides, the tree bark-like appearance was so Di Lin’s style.
Zuo Feng placed the “treebark” in his hands and watched as the bark-like material turned more and more transparent until it became a screen. Then, several lines of tiny, almost invisible, words appeared on the screen.
He projected the tiny words onto the wall so they became more readable. But when he saw the first sentence, his face tightened involuntarily.
— Zuo Feng, if you’re seeing my message then I’m sorry, but I likely won’t be coming back any time soon. Maybe this will be the last thing I’ll be able to leave you. I’m sorry that I lied to you. I promised that I wouldn’t leave but I still disappeared. But, please believe me, I just… I don’t know how to explain this to you.
— My appearance in your flower pot wasn’t a coincidence. I’m also not the balai tree that you had. I’m just me, a human who can turn into any type of plant and also someone who’s lost his home.
In the message, Di Lin broadly outlined his mission of revenge and what he planned to do, but didn’t specifically mention who his target was.
Zuo Feng scrolled until the very end and read through the entire story as well as the last few words that Di Lin left him.
–If I really can’t make it back this time, then I think my biggest regret is not being able to tell you in person that in the last decade, I was happiest with you. “
— Even if I keep annoying you, I truly do love you.
Zuo Feng gripped the communicator tightly.
If it were him, he would probably do what Di Li did. The hatred of having your family killed is not something that you can forget.
It was strange that he never doubted whether Di Lin’s message held any trace of lies. Perhaps it was because in Zummmmmo Feng’s heart, no matter how many tricks Di Lin played, Di Lin had morals.
But the last sentence was so damned vexing! If Di Lin knew he might not come back, then why didn’t he say it!?
Zuo Feng realized that he had been anxious when he didn’t know why Di Lin left. Now that he knew Di Lin was out for revenge, he was even more anxious. He was so anxious, in fact, that he wanted to dig up the ground, find that out-of-his-mind piece of wood and then burn him over flames!
Wait, he can recover from being burned.
That wasn’t right either. How could Di Lin’s communicator have technology that advanced? His Enoch had just been upgraded by Mr. Single and was supposedly equipped with top-notch decryption skills but he couldn’t activate Di Lin’s communicator.
Could it be that Di Lin was Mr. Single?
Why else would he suddenly accept his request after declining it? And, his communicator had managed to successfully escape Enoch’s detection!
Mr. Single…. Single… single piece of wood?
Zuo Feng hurriedly directed Enoch to get in touch with Mr. Single. But this time, Mr. Single didn’t respond. Not only did Mr. Single not respond, but Mr. Single’s assistant didn’t respond either. This strengthened Zuo Feng’s hypothesis even more.
Xiao Lingyu didn’t know that his identity had been gifted to his Uncle by his “Aunt.” Right then, he hadn’t let Carrera respond because he was worried Zuo Feng was trying to get him to crack open Uncle’s communicator. He didn’t know that because of this, Zuo Feng now firmly believed that Di Lin was Mr. Single.
Di Lin, who was now randomly designated as a highly-skilled hacker, was still in the garden. At the moment, he was still a tiny tree. But, it was raining throughout the entirety of Lin City today, and he had gotten rained on for several hours. Though, while it wasn’t cold, the sensation of being struck by rain wasn’t pleasant. Therefore, he sneakily transferred himself to underneath a big leaf during the night. That worked since the rain couldn’t strike him anymore.
Di Lin thought delightedly, he’s so smart!
But he never thought that the next day, which was a bright and sunny day, all of the light would be blocked by that leaf as he stood underneath it.
Di Lin was very annoyed because he couldn’t absorb the warm light. But luckily, he finally got the chance he had been waiting for.
….
The nightleisure bugs were moving about in frustration due to hunger. Di Lin glanced at Prince Sulan standing at the edge of the gardens and, after thinking for a moment, Di Lin released two of the nightleisure bugs.