A few days later, a lazy, easygoing atmosphere filled the Random Play video store.
The television was running the news.
"The Melopede family has been found guilty of conducting illegal human experiments. With the evidence now conclusive, the Public Security Bureau has fully intervened in the investigation..."
"So it's finally over," Belle said, sprawled lazily over the counter as she yawned.
"Yeah." Wise scrolled through his phone. "Mr. Shi Yueyu has already made the formula for the special medicine public. I heard it should be covered by insurance soon."
Nicole rested her chin in her hands, warmth glimmering in her eyes.
"If that happens, kids like Xiao Luo should all be able to get proper treatment."
Just a few days earlier, Xiao Luo's adoptive parents had found her through information provided by the Public Security Bureau. When they learned that the special medicine was about to become widely available, the whole family had clung to each other in tears inside the hospital room—
tears shed by people who had finally found hope in the middle of despair.
Watching the rolling footage on the news, Nicole suddenly sat up straight, her eyes turning firm.
"I've decided. I'm going to build a brand-new 'Warm Home.'"
"Huh?"
Wise and Belle both turned to look at her at the same time.
"There are still so many kids in this world who are homeless, just like I used to be," Nicole said with unusual seriousness. "I don't care what they used to be, or what kind of trouble they got tangled up in. As long as they trust me and reach out a hand, I'll protect them."
"And where exactly are you getting the money to support them?" Wise asked flatly. "Planning to rob a bank?"
"Wrong!"
Nicole smugly raised one finger.
"I'm opening an odd-jobs agency! All the homeless people can come work together. We provide both a place to stay and jobs. Perfect!"
Wise stared at her.
"So this is just illegal child labor with room and board."
"What are you saying?" Nicole darted over to his side and hung off his arm like a koala. "This is family mutual aid, okay? Right, future business partner?"
Belle exploded immediately.
"Get away from my brother! And Nicole, you still haven't paid the commission fees from the last job, the one before that, or the one before that!"
"Aww" Nicole blinked innocently and clung even tighter to Wise's arm. "Talking about money hurts the relationship Why don't I pay off the debt in... some other way?"
"In your dreams!"
Belle grabbed a feather duster and charged at her.
"Let go of my brother!"
"Not happening~"
Nicole slipped nimbly behind Wise, and the two girls began circling the couch in a lively chase.
"Belle, why are you so worked up? Don't tell me you're secretly obsessed with your brother?"
"Y-you're talking nonsense!"
Belle stamped her foot furiously.
"I'm stopping my brother from getting tricked by a woman like you!"
"What kind of woman?"
Nicole deliberately puffed out her chest.
"At least I'm older than you~"
"Y-you—!"
Belle's face instantly turned bright red.
"I-I'm still growing!"
"Oh?" Nicole grinned wickedly and leaned closer to Wise. "So then, Wise, do you prefer them big or small?"
Both girls turned to him at the same time—
only to discover that he hadn't been listening at all.
He was holding up his phone, wearing some sort of fan headband that nobody knew where he'd dug up, wildly cheering at the screen where Yao Jiayin appeared.
"Jiayin! Over here! Aaaah, that wink was way too cute!"
"Brother!" / "Wise!!!"
Two pillows shot through the air with perfect precision and smashed into the back of Wise's head, sending him face-first into the couch.
"You two..." Wise struggled upright, rubbing the back of his head with a baffled expression. "Why are you interrupting my concert replay...?"
Nicole and Belle looked at each other.
Then, as if they had silently reached an agreement, they both lunged at him at once.
"This is all your fault!"
The three of them instantly collapsed into a chaotic rolling mess, with Wise's miserable cries rising now and then over the commotion.
"Don't pull my fan headband! That was a limited edition!"
In amusing contrast to the lively chaos at Random Play, the Public Security Bureau's side of the Xiao Li case had also reached a happy ending.
Watching Xiao Li and her parents cling to one another and cry with joy, Zhu Yuan unconsciously pressed her lips together. A faint softness flickered in her eyes—
a complicated emotion made up of relief, and something like quiet loss.
"Want to take some time off and go home for a visit?"
At some point, Qingyi had walked up beside her, her voice calm.
"You haven't gone back to see your parents in a long time, have you?"
Zhu Yuan almost nodded on instinct.
But then her gaze swept over the mountain of case files piled on the desk, and the answer that had reached her lips was swallowed back down.
"No, Senior."
She shook her head and put on her usual flawless smile.
"There's still a lot of cleanup work left to do."
Everyone knew Zhu Yuan was a perfectionist.
She held herself to impossibly high standards, worked seriously and reliably, and had always been upright and selfless, ever since she was little.
She was practically the ultimate version of "someone else's perfect child."
And it was precisely that blazing passion and impeccable work ethic that had made her Public Security Bureau team so well regarded by the citizens. Many people even believed that, given enough time, she would one day become the most likely candidate to take over as bureau chief.
But in the end, no person was truly perfect.
Just then, Zhu Yuan's phone rang.
When she saw the caller ID, she gestured to Qingyi, then quickly walked to the corner of the hallway to answer it.
"Xiao Yuan, are you coming home this week? Mom bought an old hen—I'll make soup for you when you come back, to help you recover!"
Her mother's loving voice came through the receiver. In the background, she could vaguely hear her father asking whether there was anything else she wanted to eat.
A warmth rose in Zhu Yuan's chest, and her nose suddenly stung.
She could practically see it—
her mother bustling around the kitchen in that faded apron, her father wearing his reading glasses and sitting nearby with the newspaper.
Scenes she knew better than anything.
And yet now, they felt impossibly far away.
"Mom, this week... I probably can't make it back. Work still isn't finished."
She tried to make her voice sound light and natural, even as her nails dug unconsciously into her palm.
There was a brief silence on the other end.
Then her mother's tone became light again, just as always.
"It's okay, it's okay. Work comes first. I'll save the hen for you—you can have the soup whenever you come back."
Then her mother started rambling cheerfully about all sorts of neighborhood trivialities.
About how her father's tomatoes had ripened recently.
About how the two of them watched the New Eridu news every day, just hoping to catch a glimpse of their daughter among the officers.
About how they proudly told all the neighbors what a perfect daughter they had.
Zhu Yuan listened quietly.
Every word was like the prick of a tiny needle against her heart.
After the call ended, the smile on her face vanished at once.
She leaned against the wall and fell into a long silence.
Almost immediately afterward, a text from her father popped up:
Your mom misses you.
Only five simple words.
But they made her eyes burn at once.
She scrolled upward through the message history, and her past conversations unfolded one after another like running water.
Almost every week, her parents sent her the same kinds of messages:
Coming home this week? Your mom made your favorite braised pork.
Xiao Yuan, Dad's vegetables are ready. Want to come back and have a look?
Are you free this weekend? Aunt Wang wants to introduce you to a nice young man.
And her replies were always exactly the same:
I'm on duty this week, can't come back.
Got called away on a work trip. Next time, definitely.
Work's busy. We'll talk when I get the chance.
She could no longer remember how long it had been since she last crossed the threshold of her family home.
In her memories, silver had already begun appearing in her mother's hair, and her father's once-straight back had started to stoop slightly.
But she could only witness those slow, quiet changes through the occasional photos she looked at.
For one moment, Zhu Yuan almost replied immediately:
I'm coming home this weekend!
But right then, a new work notification popped up on the screen—
a reminder about the recent Public Security Bureau work summary.
The homesickness that had just welled up inside her was abruptly cut short.
She was justice incarnate in the eyes of others, the role model trusted by her colleagues, the guardian expected by the citizens.
Too many people placed their hopes in her.
She had to give everything she had.
She could not fail them.
And so, in the end, all she typed into the reply box was:
Please take care of yourselves, Mom and Dad. I still have work to deal with this weekend, so I won't be coming home.
After hitting send, Zhu Yuan—the officer who was always perfect, always dependable—slowly lowered her head.
No one could see what expression was on her face now.
Only the setting sun beyond the hallway window stretched her lonely shadow longer and longer, all the way back to that memory-filled home where cooking smoke curled softly into the sky.
And now, shifting the clock forward a little—
Deep within a Hollow, Nicole, who had just parted ways with the Phaethon siblings, was carrying out a newly accepted commission on her own.
"Tch, Belle is way too stingy," she muttered unhappily as she moved between the ruins. "Helping out wouldn't have cost her a piece of flesh."
Denied assistance, Nicole could only set out to investigate alone.
"What an unlovable little sister," she sighed.
But as soon as she thought of the warmth between those siblings, a trace of envy crept into her voice.
"Still... if only I had a little sister to live with too."
Just as she was carefully searching through one patch of ruins, she suddenly spotted a figure collapsed on the ground.
It was a silver-haired girl, lying motionless among the rubble.
"Hey! Are you okay?"
Nicole hurried over and gently shook the girl by the shoulder.
Under her call, the girl slowly opened her eyes.
The moment her gaze focused on Nicole's face, it was as though some distant fragment of memory had suddenly been awakened.
"Mom!"
Nicole froze instantly.
She blinked once, not even knowing how she was supposed to react.
Wait a second, how old am I exactly? she complained inwardly. Do I really look that old?
Shaking those thoughts away, Nicole helped the girl sit up, intending to get her out of this dangerous place as quickly as possible.
As they made their way out, she tried asking about the girl's identity.
"Do you remember how you got here?"
The girl shook her head blankly.
"I don't remember... I can't remember anything."
"What about your name?" Nicole pressed, unwilling to give up. "You have to remember your own name, right?"
The girl fell silent for a moment, as if searching through the shattered remains of her memory.
At last, she softly spoke the one word that seemed to remain clear.
"...Anby."
Join here to read ahead.
In Star Rail, Ultra-Beast Armored — Have I Caught "Equilibrium"? l (Chapter 80)
Uma Musume, But I Only Have Five Years Left to Live (Chapter 175)
Zenless Zone Zero: I'm a Doctor, Not a Bangboo (Chapter 115)
Ben Tennyson Wants to Join the Justice League (Chapter 119)
TYPE-MOON: Redemption Beginning with the Holy Grail War (Chapter105)
Yu-Gi-Oh! — Transmigrated into the White Dragon Girl (Chapter100)
"Is this chat group even serious?" (Chapter79)
I, Lord Ravager, Utterly Loyal! (Chapter125)
Can Playing Games Save the World? 65
Crossover Anime Multiverse: The Demon Hunter of an Unnatural World 70
From Junkman to Wasteland 60
Weekly Refresh of Overpowered 31
I'm Grinding Proficiency Like 40
From Kiana, Lord Ravager, Onwa 73
Honkai: Is This Still the Prev 42
Elf: My Starter Pokémon Is Inc 55
Warhammer: My Primarch Is Remi 66
From Demon Slayer to Grand Ass 64
The Way the Umamusume Look at 63
Uma Musume, but My Cheat Power 55
Naruto: Weaving the Future, Be 45
Zenless Zone Zero, but Kamen R 31
Multiverse Crossover: The Perf 31
My Cyberpsycho Girlfriend 31
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