The undead have descended upon the world? I possess a sword that can cleave the heavens once more!

Having clearly seen the eye contact and the nod, Lin Xinmai was almost completely certain: that was Wu Jing's brother who had been missing for a long time, or rather, who had most likely died in the disaster before Lanhe!

Wu You!!!

Moreover, the unique black trench coat she was wearing, made Lin Xinmai understand something.

Wu Jing's brother is also a member of that mysterious organization!

After disappearing for a long time, Wu Jing, who was admitted to all the martial arts universities in Xilin Province, suddenly returned. They were also their parents, who had both changed to easy jobs.

For a moment, Lin Xinmai felt as if she had vaguely grasped the main thread of some things!

She took two deep breaths, picked up her phone, and her fingers flew across the screen as if playing a piano.

A moment later, after sending the message, Lin Xinmai looked back in the original direction, but the two figures had already disappeared.

Meanwhile, Wu You and Hua Linlin had already entered Lanxing Residential Area.

As the two walked past a residential building in Lanxing Community, Hua Linlin couldn't help but pause.

She glanced at Wu You beside her, and some memories welled up in her mind.

She remembered that the first time she noticed the person next to her was in this very place.

At that time, she came here for the first time to find her second aunt but couldn't find the way. She wanted to ask someone for directions and happened to run into Wu You.

At that time, Wu You was carrying a wooden sword and ignored her, who was the most beautiful girl in her class and even the most beautiful girl in the school at Lanhe No. 5 Middle School.

At that time, she was still a little annoyed by Wu You's unromantic and clueless behavior.

Looking back now, she was so naive and innocent back then.

Before she knew it, several months had passed, and now she was an official torchbearer of the Bureau of Anomalies, working hard every day to protect the world.

But thinking about it carefully, she's only just graduated from high school and started college, so why is she so busy protecting the world every day?

Thinking of all this, Hua Linlin glanced at Wu You, who was staring straight ahead, and suddenly chuckled softly.

Hearing the sound, Wu You slowed her pace slightly, then turned her head slightly and asked, "What's wrong?"

Hua Linlin smiled and said, "I just suddenly realized how wonderful time is."

Time is truly a wondrous thing.

Wu You silently repeated the sentence to himself.

Indeed, even though less than a year has passed, returning here feels like stepping into another world.

This is true for him, and probably even more so for his parents.

Thinking of this, he felt even more uneasy.

He nodded and then quickened his pace.

Seeing this, Hua Linlin also quickened her pace.

As Wu You walked upstairs, he stopped at his doorstep.

He looked at the unchanged front door, and at his right hand, which could still hold a sword and slay the projection of a god, and for a moment he couldn't lift it.

He recognized the voice coming from inside the door.

The sound carried the warmth of home-cooked meals, along with the soft clatter of bowls and chopsticks, like a thick quilt enveloping the entire room.

"Come on, Xiaojing, eat more meat. You've been working yourself to exhaustion every day practicing swordsmanship, you need to replenish your energy." It was Wu Ma's voice, unchanged.

As soon as he finished speaking, the sound of chopsticks picking up food rang out.

Then Wu's father's voice followed, carrying the restrained admonition unique to male elders: "Practicing martial arts also requires a balance of tension and relaxation; you can't ruin your body."

Then came the sounds of people quickly shoveling food into their mouths and swallowing large mouthfuls.

Now is the time for the family to eat.

Although he had heard these sounds many times, he was still somewhat dazed for a moment.

He stood at his doorstep, listening to these everyday sounds, as if touching a time he hadn't experienced in a long time through a medium.

The motion-activated lights in the hallway turned off automatically after he had stood there for too long, leaving only a sliver of warm light shining obliquely through the crack in the door onto his shoes.

Hua Linlin simply stood beside him, without saying a word. Her breathing was light, and her posture conveyed no sense of urgency; she simply stood quietly in that spot, her very presence serving as an unspoken form of companionship.

until--

"I've finished eating. I'm going to practice my sword for a bit to digest." It was Wu Jing's unique voice, which carried a hint of indifference.

"You child, you just finished eating and you're already going to practice your sword again?" Wu Ma's voice carried a hint of helplessness.

Then came the sound of a chair being dragged and the sound of footsteps getting closer and closer to the door.

Each footstep clearly corresponded to the distance to the door in Wu You's ears.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, his heart jumped, and his breathing became lighter in that instant: he knew he had to make a choice.

His hand finally rose, knuckles bent, about to touch the doorway—

But at that moment, Hua Linlin moved even faster than him.

Her hand reached out from the outside of his arm, first gently placing it on his forearm, then with a subtle yet clear force, pulling him a small step to the side, before she herself stood in the spot where he had just been standing.

"I'll do it."

She understood that Wu You had asked her to join him to provide a buffer and increase credibility, and now it was time for her to step in.

She took half a step forward and raised her hand.

Knock knock—

Without any hesitation, Hua Linlin knocked on the door that Wu You had never dared to knock on.

After the two knocks, the footsteps behind the door stopped.

After a brief pause, the sound of the doorknob turning rang out, and the subtle friction of the metal shaft meshing was very clear in the quiet hallway.

Hearing the sound of the doorknob turning, Wu You's heart began to race uncontrollably.

He stood half a step behind Hua Linlin, the door that was about to be opened taking center stage in his field of vision.

With a creak, the door opened.

The crack in the door slowly widened, first letting in a beam of warm light from inside, then the silhouette of a high ponytail, then a hand gripping the doorknob, and finally a whole face—

Behind the door, Wu Jing was carrying a long cloth bag in one hand and holding the doorknob in the other.

When she saw Hua Linlin standing at the door, her expression relaxed, showing surprise at seeing an acquaintance at this time: "Hey? Sister Lin? You're back from your mission?"

Hua Linlin nodded with a smile and said in her usual tone, "Yes, I just got back and stopped by to see you, Xiaojing."

"I hope Xiaojing won't dislike me?"

As she spoke, she naturally shifted her body half a step to the side.

Just then, from inside the house with the lights on, Wu Ma's voice came asking, "Xiao Jing, who's knocking?"

Wu Jing turned her head and called out into the room, "It's Sister Lin."

Then she turned her head, immediately opened the door completely, stepped aside to let people in, and said to Hua Linlin, "How could this be? Sister Lin, come in quickly—"

But just as she fully opened the door, her movements suddenly stopped.

There was another person in her field of vision from that angle.

The person stood half a step away from Hua Linlin, wearing the same black trench coat, and his slightly long black hair shimmered faintly in the warm light coming from inside the door.

Although she could only see half of the figure's face, that was enough.

She will never forget that face.

A moment later, there was a loud crash.

The long cloth bag containing the training sword in Wu Jing's hand fell directly to the ground with a short, muffled thud.

Her gaze began on that face, following the lines of the brow bone, the curve of the nose, and the contour of the jaw, each line overlapping with the image she remembered.

She was completely stunned.

Wu You slowly turned his head and looked at his younger sister, whom he hadn't seen for a long time.

This time, those dark eyes that had previously only shown him indifference or dislike were now rapidly filled with tears.

Wu Ma's voice came from behind: "Xiao Jing, what's wrong? Why haven't you brought your sister Lin in yet?"

At this moment, Wu Jing could no longer hear any other sounds. She just stubbornly and intently stared at that familiar yet unfamiliar figure with her already blurred vision. Even if others could see her embarrassing state, she was unwilling to look away even a fraction of an inch.

Wu You felt the weight of that gaze, and for a moment his throat felt dry.

He knew that it was a heavy longing.

After a moment, Wu You finally spoke, his voice lower than usual, with a slight hoarseness: "I'm back."

Upon hearing this, Wu Jing's previously tense defenses crumbled instantly, and the small lake that had been welling up in her eyes burst forth like a dam breaking.

She threw herself into Wu You's arms, her forehead pressed against his chest, her hands gripping the fabric of his black trench coat, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force.

Her shoulders were trembling, and her voice, broken and intermittent, escaped from her suppressed breaths: "You... finally... recovered?"

recover?

When Wu You heard that word, a moment of doubt flashed through his mind: Wu Jing couldn't possibly know that the last "settlement" was him, so why would she use the word "recovery"?

Of course, he wouldn't know that, in Wu Jing's mind, he had recovered from a vegetative state.

However, Wu You didn't think too much about it at the moment. He didn't ask any questions. He just pulled his arms around his sister, who was acting unusually, and gently stroked her back with his palm.

He could feel her back rising and falling with her breath. She was thinner than he remembered, and he could feel the outline of her shoulder blades through her clothes. Moreover, she had indeed been practicing swordsmanship regularly during this time, and her figure was more upright and solid than before.

Although only a few months have passed, Wu Jing has clearly grown a lot.

At this moment, Wu Ma seemed to have heard the noise at the door and got up to go to the front door.

She first saw Hua Linlin standing by the door, then her gaze moved to the side and saw Wu Jing sobbing in the arms of a strange boy.

She paused, about to say something, but when she saw the boy's face clearly, she was completely stunned, and all the words stuck in her throat.

Then, Mr. Wu, who was holding a rice bowl, also came out of the living room. When he saw that all-too-familiar face, his eyes widened and he was stunned. The rice bowl in his hand slipped from his grasp.

Seeing this, Wu You immediately pulled out one hand, flicked his sword finger, and used his sword control technique to freeze the rice bowl in mid-air to prevent the shards from cutting his family.

At that moment, looking at his parents, whose hair had turned much whiter, he felt a pang of sadness and called out, "Dad."

"mom."

"I'm back."

Upon hearing the word "Mom," Wu's mother could no longer hold back. With a speed completely out of character for her age, she rushed forward and hugged Wu You, who was standing at the door, repeatedly saying, "It's my child, it's my child who's back."

At this moment, Wu's father completely ignored the rice bowl that was defying common sense and suspended in mid-air. His lips moved many times, as if he had a lot to say, but in the end, he only said one sentence that was as short as it could be, but full of weight: "It's good that you're back."

The two elderly people had no doubt that the young man in front of them was the real Wu You.

They recognized their own child.

Hua Linlin had already stepped back a step outside the door frame, turning her body to give the family of four the space in the doorway, while she stood at the boundary between the warm light and the night outside, without making a sound.

. . .

That dinner was later reheated.

Wu You sat at the dining table and briefly told his family about the ability users, the zombie species, the Investigation Bureau, and what had happened during this time.

At first, the two elders couldn't believe that there were superpowered people or monsters that threatened the world. But after Wu You levitated his rice bowl in mid-air and Hua Linlin used her abilities to summon green plant roots out of thin air, they finally believed it.

During the conversation, the two elders suddenly asked about the relationship between the girl named "An Shen" and him, saying that they felt she looked strangely similar to him.

Wu You stammered for a while, but finally had to confess that it was himself, but he had been influenced by some force and that's why he became like that.

After he finished speaking, Wu You was naturally scolded by his parents. They said things like, "Do you really think they would disown their own child just because of a change in appearance?" and "Don't do this again!" They sounded serious, but their words were full of worry.

After listening, Wu Jing finally understood everything and couldn't help but roll her eyes.

Her brother hadn't become a vegetable at all; he had just changed his appearance and gone into hiding—no, he had gone on a mission, but it was all pretty much the same thing.

She couldn't help but mutter, "Tch, coward."

At the same time, there was no such thing as an older brother's friend. The book "Basic Sword Techniques of Martial Arts (Part 1)", those alien plants were left by him, and the alien plants that his parents were assigned to when they changed companies were probably all his doing.

Then, as if she had thought of something, she suddenly looked at Wu You and said, "I clearly did not participate in the martial arts exam, but I was suddenly admitted by so many martial arts universities at the same time."

"Did you make this too?"

Wu Youyou leaned back in her chair, looked at her, and nodded.

At this point, he was completely at ease, realizing that his family's acceptance and tolerance were far greater than he had imagined.

A hint of a smile played in his eyes: "How was it? Did you steal the spotlight?"

Wu Jing rolled her eyes again. She didn't want to be in the limelight at all.

Hearing their conversation, the two elders gained a preliminary understanding of Wu You and the influence of the Investigation Bureau.

How could they possibly interfere so easily in such a major event as the martial arts examination? And with just a word, they could get Wu Jing, who didn't even take the exam, admitted to all the martial arts universities in the province at the same time?

Wu Jing remained silent for a moment.

She suddenly remembered those terrifying monsters from her memories, and realized that her brother was actually a member of that mysterious organization called the "Abnormal Investigation Bureau," and had been fighting those terrifying monsters all along?

Then, recalling the magical scene of the rice bowl floating in mid-air, she asked a question she was very curious about: "So, just how strong are you now?"

Just how strong is he?

Wu You's lips curled up slightly. Since that's what he was asking, he was about to start showing off.

. . .