The first and second days of the new year passed in a flash. Lu Lingxi felt that he didn’t do anything, just ate and drank, and the time was gone.
In the morning of the third day, Yi Hang brought Zheng Tan and Bai Yuan and found Lu Lingxi, saying that they were going out to get together. Zheng Tan and Bai Yuan had been back for a few days, and on the day they came back they went to see Lu Lingxi in Tiny Garden. In the past few days, everyone was busy and there were a lot of relatives in the family. Only today did they free up time and arrange a private room to sing.
Lu Lingxi felt quite enthusiastic about this. Although he was not as familiar with Zheng Tan and Bai Yuan as Yi Hang, he also regarded them as friends in his heart. The only depressing part was that he couldn’t take Dahei with him. Yi Hang asked when he booked a private room, but the KTV didn’t allow pets to be brought in. Originally, Yi Hang wanted to change to another KTV, but in time for the New Year, most KTV in the city were full, and it wasn’t as easy to book as usual.
“Dahei, be good and stay at home, I’ll be back this afternoon.” Lu Lingxi squatted down and stroked Dahei’s head, coaxing patiently.
Dahei gave an aggrieved bark and licked Lu Lingxi’s fingers with some reluctance.
Yi Hang was okay with it, having gotten used to the stickiness between Lu Lingxi and Dahei, while Zheng Tan and Bai Yuan both watched with the corners of their mouths twitching, trying to remember what Lu Lingxi used to be like.
After Dahei was appeased, Xiaohei started causing trouble. Lu Lingxi thought that since he couldn’t take Dahei, it would be fair to leave Xiaohei at home as well. Who knew that Xiaohei would hear Lu Lingxi’s words and bite Lu Lingxi’s coat, refusing to let go. Lu Lingxi tugged at Xiaohei’s tail and wanted to find a biscuit to lead Xiaohei away. Xiaohei hesitantly struggled between the biscuit and Lu Lingxi for a long time, finally slipping into Lu Lingxi’s coat pocket with a look of “can’t be lured by food”.
Lu Lingxi had no choice but to take Xiaohei with him. When they arrived at the KTV, there were many people waiting to sing in the lobby. There was a lot of commotion and people kept asking the waiter when someone was going to check out. Yi Hang was a little smug, “See, isn’t it good I booked well in advance, right? Otherwise we’d have to wait half a day too.”
Zheng Tan had grown quite tall during the half a year they hadn’t seen him. Now he stood a full half head taller than Yi Hang. He smiled and grabbed Yi Hang’s neck, saying in a funny voice like he used to, “Boss is wise.”
Yi Hang laughed and dragged Zheng Tan to the service counter, leaving Lu Lingxi and Bai Yuan standing aside waiting for the two of them. Bai Yuan was a bit bored and looked for a topic to talk to Lu Lingxi, “Lao San, Boss told you about me not leaving after the New Year, right?”
Lu Lingxi nodded and said seriously, “Yi Hang really wants you to come to the small restaurant and work with him.”
Yi Hang had also said this to Bai Yuan, but Bai Yuan was a little less confident, “I only know how to cut radishes, can I do it?”
“Of course.” Lu Lingxi was quite confident about Bai Yuan, “It is easy. Yi Hang didn’t know anything when he first went there. I didn’t know anything when I first went to Tiny Garden either, and I slowly learned.”
Bai Yuan felt relieved when he heard that. He was about to speak, but suddenly his face sank and he said quickly in a low voice: “Lao San, look, are those bastards on the opposite side the ones from the park last time?”
s
Lu Lingxi smiled and looked over, but was at a loss, “Which ones?”
Remembering that Lu Lingxi’s amnesia had not yet healed, Bai Yuan walked through the crowd, thinking he would take a closer look. But there were too many people in the hall, and when he got there, those few people across the hall were no longer visible.
“What’s wrong?” Yi Hang and Zheng Tan returned and looked at Bai Yuan strangely.
Bai Yuan whispered that he seemed to have just seen the bastards they had fought with in the park last time. At that time after the fight, Lu Lingxi was hospitalised and the few of them hid outside for a few days, and when they came back, they heard that those bastards had been arrested. Although they hadn’t suffered any losses, when Bai Yuan thought of Lu Lingxi’s bloodied appearance and the fact that he still couldn’t remember anything, he was filled with anger and felt that it was all those bastards’ fault. After hearing it, Yi Hang’s face also turned ugly and he said hatefully, “I guess it’s the New Year and they’re released.”
Zheng Tan looked around but didn’t find the people Bai Yuan mentioned. Seeing that the waiter was still waiting aside to take them to the private room, he also whispered, “All right, cut the crap. Lao San almost recovered, so don’t make him unhappy.”
Ever since Lu Lingxi lost his memory, they were a bit cautious when talking to Lu Lingxi, just in case Lu Lingxi was unhappy when reminded of his amnesia. Yi Hang did feel that Lu Lingxi had adapted quite well, but what if Lu Lingxi was hiding something inside his heart? It was better not to talk about it.
When they stopped talking, Lu Lingxi didn’t know what to say either. He understood which time in the park Bai Yuan was referring to, the very time this body had been injured. He looked searchingly in the direction Bai Yuan had just told him to look, but there were only a few young girls giggling. Lu Lingxi looked away and by the way pushed the Xiaohei back into his pocket. Who knows what happened, but Xiaohei suddenly got excited and wanted to get out. Now that there were so many people outside, Lu Lingxi would not dare to let him out; it would be bad to scare people.
While they followed the waiter to the private room, in another corner of the hall, a young man in his early twenties whispered to the people around him, “Are they the ones who fought with you last time and caused you to get locked up for half a year?”
The man next to him was dark-skinned and thin. He nodded in reply and said viciously, “Brother Li, it’s them. They fought with us. What bad luck, I just came out and ran into them. I’ll get my brothers and beat them up later.”
The young man known as Brother Li laughed and said, “What’s the point of fighting in the New Year, it’ll be bad if we get into trouble with the police. You go and find out which room they are in, and leave the rest to me.” He spoke confidently, and the dark-skinned, thin youth knew that Brother Li had some means, so he agreed at once.
s
Lu Lingxi and the others didn’t know that they were being watched and were crowding in front of the computer in the room, ordering songs. The three of them, except for Lu Lingxi, were all mic hogs and were rolling around on the sofa fighting over who would sing first.
Lu Lingxi looked on in amusement and was hesitant to go up and pull them apart when the door of the room opened and the waiter looked in, seemingly because he had seen them rolling in a ball from outside and was afraid something would happen. The waiter saw that they were fine and retreated. Lu Lingxi was just about to reach out and pull Yi Hang up when Xiaohei in his pocket suddenly poked out, showing his tongue and hissing in the direction of the door.
“Xiaohei?”
Lu Lingxi was a little surprised and reached out to touch Xiaohei, who didn’t wrap up around his wrist like before, but instead bowed his body and assumed an S shape. Lu Lingxi remembered that Yan Yue said that this was the usual action before a snake launched an attack. Before he could react, Xiaohei’s tail stood up, the muscles of his whole body contracted, and his previously curled body shot out violently. A black arc streaked across the room; Xiaohei flew to the door and burrowed under the sofa at a speed that Lu Lingxi had never seen before.
A dozen seconds later, Xiaohei burrowed out from under the sofa, his tail tightly wrapped around another small green-coloured snake. The little snake had a transparent plastic bag around its neck, which seemed to be filled with some white powder.
“Crap, what is this?” Bai Yuan said in surprise.
Zheng Tan wanted to go over and take a look, but Yi Hang stopped him, “Don’t move, that green snake is poisonous, look at its head.”
Zheng Tan stopped in his tracks as Xiaohei slowly let go of the little green snake and waved his tail, looking at the little green snake with the same expression as if he was looking at a biscuit at home. The little green snake cringed back with some trepidation, its instincts telling it that it had met a natural enemy. There was that one snake that fed exclusively on poisonous snakes, the nemesis of all poisonous snakes.
Xiaohei held his head high and flicked his tail, and the little green snake removed the plastic bag from its neck in a human-like manner. Xiaohei rolled the bag and slithered to Lu Lingxi’s side. Lu LIngxi was a little surprised, “What is this?”
Yi Hang picked it up, and his face darkened after just one look. “Drugs.”
The moment the word ‘drugs’ was uttered, the atmosphere in the room immediately changed. Bai Yuan had an incredulous look on his face, “Is this snake trying to harm us?”
Zheng Tan gave him a blank look, “What does a snake know, it must be whichever son of bitch is behind it.”
“That’s not right either.” Bai Yuan still didn’t think it made sense, “Even if there was someone behind it, he would have to be able to talk to the snake, right? Look at this snake, It was going straight for the sofa, it was clearly coming for our coats. Was it trying to stuff it into someone’s pocket? This fucking snake is too smart for that, right? Can you find one that’s smarter than that?”
Zheng Tan’s gaze fell on Xiaohei on the floor.
Bai Yuan: “……”
Lu Lingxi frowned slightly. He wasn’t sure until Bai Yuan said so but was the little green snake also an evolved animal like Xiaohei? Did that mean that there was another person behind it? He also wondered if Xiaohei could communicate with its own kind, but Big Brother Yan wasn’t there, so even if Xiaohei could, Lu Lingxi would not understand what he meant.
While a few people were talking, Xiaohei had already started dripping saliva over the little green snake. Lu Lingxi speechlessly grabbed Xiaohei’s tail. The little green snake was still useful and couldn’t be eaten now. Besides, he was used to Xiaohei eating cakes and drinking milk. If suddenly he had to see Xiaohei swallowing a snake, it would be a bit uncomfortable.
Xiaohei waved his tail in resignation and kept a close eye on his food.
“So what now? The bastard who did this to us must have called the police. Let’s go now?” Bai Yuan asked as he came back to his senses.
“What are we leaving for, we have to find that bastard before we go!” Yi Hang said as his gaze shifted to Xiaohei, his eyes flickering, “Lao San, can you get this snake to take the drugs back to the person who raised it? That son of bitch dares to harm us, let’s call the police too, let’s see who’s afraid of whom.”
Lu Lingxi understood what he meant and stroked Xiaohei’s head, repeating Yi Hang’s words. Xiaohei waved his tail, somewhat reluctant to let his food go. Lu Lingxi had no choice but to compromise with Xiaohei, “A piece of cake.”
Xiaohei struggled a little, and Lu Lingxi whispered, “Two pieces.”
As he added up to three pieces of cake, Xiaohei dashed out like lightning, whipping his tail and rolling up the little green snake.
Lu Lingxi: “……”
Perhaps the two snakes could really communicate. He didn’t know what Xiaohei said to the little green snake, but the little green snake obediently slithered ahead and led the way back to its original room. Xiaohei followed behind with the plastic bag containing the white powder. Lu Lingxi pretended to go to the toilet and watched from afar as the little green snake and Xiaohei slipped forward one after the other against the wall. Occasionally someone passed by the corridor but didn’t notice their presence at all. He thought for a while and gave Fang Lei a call, saying he was in a bit of trouble and asking if Fang Lei could come to the KTV.
While Yi Hang said he wanted to call the police against the other party for framing them with drugs, Lu Lingxi was looking for Fang Lei because of this little green snake. With the change in Fengcheng’s environment, especially with the existence of several purified places, the evolution of people and animals would definitely happen as well. Just because he had not encountered it before, he couldn’t say that this situation didn’t exist. This little green snake was just one example; perhaps there were other evolved animals and humans in places Lu LIngxi didn’t know about. These people might all be good people, but as long as one of them was a bad person and used evolved animals to do bad things, the harm caused would be greater than average.
Lu Lingxi felt he had an obligation to warn Fang Lei.
