Chapter 764 - 239: Unfilial (Second Update 6002 Seeking Monthly Votes)

"Oh dear, I heard the Jiang Family’s eldest son suddenly ran back home and then killed himself!"

"Damn, these young people—young people nowadays are way too fragile."

"Yeah, nothing like our generation. Our generation was so resilient, we could swallow any hardship. Now these young people off themselves at the drop of a hat..."

Jiang Si was squatting off to the side and turned his head to glance at the two uncles chatting.

"Where’s that resilience? The resilient older generation that drank so much paraquat they forced it off the market."

Jiang Si sighed beside them. "What a pity, such a good herbicide."

The two old men who’d been playing chess looked over at Jiang Si and didn’t recognize him at all—after all, when his accident happened he’d been in the hospital the whole time, and later Lu Ya took him away.

Neighbors who weren’t especially close didn’t all know him.

"You kid."

"What kind of way is that to talk... you saying us old folks can’t take hardship like young people?"

Jiang Si stood up and patted his legs. "Paraquat really is bitter. You guys are pretty good at swallowing it."

The two old men immediately made a face, full of bad luck, and moved their chess table away.

Jiang Si didn’t bother to follow; he just watched the cars going back and forth on the road.

In his hand he held his own Miracle Seed.

After taking out his heart, he’d retrieved the Miracle Seed, but still hadn’t managed to transform.

The purple Miracle Seed was dim.

He touched his chest; his heart was still beating, as if that heart-plucking conversation with his father in the mourning hall had been nothing but an illusion.

He hadn’t stayed there long.

Whether it was wasting time with the police or once again discussing inheritance with his younger brother, he had no interest.

They probably wouldn’t come looking for him again in the short term—after all, without a Colonel Chu ambushing anyone here, reporting it up the chain would likely take quite some time.

There was still plenty of time; Jiang Si was in no rush.

After walking out of the park, he went by the school to take a look.

The school had a few more buildings now; the railings, the main gate, even the track field had all been renovated.

Back then, when he approached, the school security guard came over by reflex to shoo him off, but after seeing Jiang Si, he hesitated, puzzled.

"Jiang Si?"

He looked up at the middle-aged security guard, thought for a moment, and couldn’t remember who he was.

"Well I’ll be, it really is Jiang Si. You punk, you haven’t changed much at all."

The guard muttered on and on as if wanting to chat about something.

But when the school bell rang, the security guard just waved a hand. "Be careful, all right? Don’t get hit by a car again."

He had no intention of staying at the school, and after leaving, he went on to the place where he’d had the car crash.

The little alley was gone, completely rebuilt into a wide road.

The houses on both sides had been demolished; who knows how much compensation those people got for the relocation.

Jiang Si didn’t linger long. Following the route his younger brother had described, he crossed the streets and roads and walked through the market.

Some places hadn’t changed, but overall, quite a lot was different.

The place where he’d been born and raised had, in the end, become a strange city.

He’d come a bit early.

So he thought.

Earlier than he’d planned, actually.

To the point that, faced with all this unfamiliarity, he even felt a bit tired.

The way wasn’t easy to find; the place they used to live was out of the way.

Still, before long he saw a familiar alley.

Back then he’d walked it in the snow, but even without the snow now, he still recognized it.

Sometimes, in a strange city, finding a corner that still matches your memories

inevitably brings a slight sense of warmth.

He walked forward; finally there were people in the houses on both sides.

Snoring, conversation, the clink of dishes and chopsticks, the crackle of a stove, the loud bubble of boiling water.

The greasy cooking smells that filled the air every day after school in the evening wafted around again.

The overall layout hadn’t changed, but many rooms had been renovated. When he was little, they’d been one shabby unit after another, some even mud-brick huts; now many were faced with brand-new tiles.

Some had even been turned into little two-story houses.

Little cats and dogs sauntered lazily along the road; when Jiang Si walked by, they warily stood up—some barked twice, some ran away.

He just glanced at the spot where he’d thrown away a dead cat back then.

The garbage heap was gone; flowers and plants had been planted there instead, with butterflies and bees flitting about, and the morning glories were blooming quite well.

In the shop with its door open next to it, the owner sat at the entrance shelling edamame, occasionally cursing at the kid inside playing on a phone, swearing as he ordered the child to come out and help.

The child came out with the phone, sulking, and the gunshots from the game echoed through the alley.

Auntie on the second floor opened her window and dumped a basin of dirty water onto the road; the uncle next door shouted twice, and the two sides started arguing.

A little girl squatting by the roadside playing with the cats and dogs looked up curiously at Jiang Si as he passed.

In the Magical Girl world, he rarely paid attention to things like this, because if he wanted to go somewhere he could just fly.

He wasn’t interested in this sort of everyday trivia either.

But here, where he could only walk on his own two feet, all he could do was watch these petty daily scenes and feel bored.

Only when he walked all the way to the end did he see a familiar house at a corner.

It was the house his father had used as an Alchemy Room.

It was also where the three of them had lived together for a long stretch of time.

Back then his father had almost killed himself with Elixirs; in the end, his mother softened and came back to take care of him.

Eventually his father truly turned over a new leaf and cleared out all the Elixirs, the Pill Furnace, and those books from the house.

They’d originally planned to sell them, but for some reason they ended up appearing in the mourning hall.