I will never give in to Miss Death

The middle-aged woman in the kitchen said, gesticulating with her hands: "There are too many professions in this game, and they are very unbalanced. It's not as good as our time, when everyone was the same. It all depended on your ability to pick up a weapon when you landed. The sledgehammer has high damage and a large range, the double spear is flexible, and the spear has a long range..."

When she was excited, the middle-aged woman even took a cucumber from the kitchen and started to gesture: "At that time, Xiao Luo was still very young, and her father was too lazy to take care of her, so I carried her to the Internet cafe to play games. Every time, it was one against three or one against five. The scene was so spectacular."

Oh my god, now I finally know where Elodie learned her obsession with games.

I put the watermelon in my mouth with a "kaz" and continued to watch the show in silence.

"Meteor Butterfly Sword... well, I played with it for a while."

After finishing the steamed chicken, Lan Jiajia turned to the middle-aged woman at the door and said, "But because the game is too old and the operation is a bit complicated, I couldn't beat the novice mission after entering, so... I didn't play it anymore."

"In fact, there were many simple games at that time, such as "Sword and Demon Sealing Record" and "Chinese Paladin". We played them so much that we forgot to eat and sleep..."

Perhaps noticing the large pile of things in the kitchen, the middle-aged woman changed the subject: "Girl, what are you doing? There are fish and hairy crabs here..."

"Oh, someone's birthday here today, and Nuoer has friends coming over, so I bought a little more."

Lan Jiajia signaled me with her eyes: "And that child is a student of the nearby Xingguang Primary School, and he is also our friend."

"My daughter is so virtuous."

The middle-aged woman didn't even look over here, her attention was all on Lan Jiajia: "If that's the case, then I'm relieved. You and Xiao Luo have known each other for... five or six years, right?"

"what……"

The middle-aged woman's expression as she looked at her daughter-in-law made Lan Jiajia even more embarrassed. She tentatively said, "I'm a woman."

"I know."

Elodie's mother seemed not to understand what Lan Jiajia meant: "My daughter told me that she has a boyfriend online. Now the boyfriend has moved in with her and they are in a relationship."

"Are you in a relationship?!"

Lan Jiajia was a little dumbfounded, and then as if she remembered something, she gestured frantically: "I...that, Auntie, I am also a girl."

"I know. You just said that."

Elodie's mother asked curiously, "You are a woman, that's right, what's the problem?"

"Then...then what you mean..."

Lan Jiajia pointed at herself: "Xiao Ai said...said I am her...her what?"

"Boyfriend, but now I should call her girlfriend."

"Then our relationship...Auntie...don't you find it strange?"

"What's weird?"

"Xiao Ai and I are both girls, okay?"

"Then are you and my daughter in a relationship?"

Elodie's mother acted as if she knew everything. "My daughter has clearly stated that you and she are lovers and will live together in the future. Do you have any other ideas?"

"No, I... I didn't... No, no, I mean..."

Lan Jiajia was obviously confused: "Although our relationship... uh, our relationship online is indeed that of lovers..."

Elodie's mother interrupted her: "Not in reality?"

"In reality, in reality... in reality... yes, yes."

Lan Jiajia's face turned red: "But doesn't our situation belong to... to the same... the same..."

"Gay, huh?"

Elodie's mother interrupted Lan Jiajia again: "What do you think about this?"

"Huh? Me? Me?"

Lan Jiajia lowered her head, looking like a shy young wife: "I'm actually fine with anything. I... I've had little contact with boys since I was a child. I basically have no male friends. My best... best female friend is Xiao Ai..."

"That's it."

Elodie's mother walked to the stove, opened the big bag of vegetable leaves I bought, and started picking them. "Anyway, my daughter has already told me that she has a boyfriend, and she plans to spend her life with him. If you have no objection, then this matter is settled. From now on, we will be a family, and the rent can be waived. Auntie made some money from speculating in graphics cards before, and she has three houses in Shenbin City alone, which is enough for the two of you to live a simple life."

I was stunned when I heard it in the living room.

Are these really the parents of our generation? Are they so open-minded?

And... what is the operation of making money by speculating on graphics cards? It is difficult to buy graphics cards, and the mining boom is coming... should we sell them all?

This aunt...is not simple.

At least a few decades ago, taking children to an Internet cafe to play games was already quite avant-garde.

"But... Auntie, if we do this, won't your family be criticized?"

Lan Jiajia still looked a little worried: "We two girls..."

"Who is giving me advice? My daughter's choice of man or woman is her business. How can they give me advice?"

Elodie's mother said seriously, "Even if they gossip, so what? Will it reduce the money I make every month? Will it affect my watching TV and playing games every day? I live a carefree life in this world for once. How can I live? How can my daughter live? When I play games online, people often come to scold me. If I care about such people, I will be pissed off every day."

"Then we might..."

From her tone, I could tell that Lan Jiajia was already feeling "ecstatic", but she still continued to ask tentatively: "Maybe I can't let you hold your grandchild..."

"Why, you want me to bring your grandson home to take care of him, and lower your quality of life? If you want a child, you can raise it by yourself, I won't help you."

Elodie's mother continued to reply in a tough tone: "Whether to have children is a matter for your generation. Don't ask me. If you ask me, I won't give any advice. It's a different era now. Children are no longer a necessity. We don't have a throne to inherit."

"Eh?"

Lan Jiajia still seemed a little unconvinced: "Auntie, are you serious?"

"Do you look at me like I'm joking?"

Elodie's mother turned her face away: "As Xiao Luo's parent, my lifelong responsibility is to raise her. She is 18 years old and goes to college. She has the ability to be independent, right? If she is capable, she can work to earn tuition for college. If not, I can help pay for it. After college, she will be in her twenties. What rights and obligations do we as parents have to take care of her? None."

"At most... I hope Xiao Luo won't be so lonely in the long road ahead and find a companion. At most, I will only take care of my daughter's affairs, right? The grandchildren in the future are things my daughter has to consider. As long as Xiao Luo lives a good life, I have fulfilled my responsibilities in this life."

After finishing the large handful of vegetables, Elodie's mother walked to the sink: "We have a saying over there - living according to your own wishes is not selfish, but asking others to live according to your wishes is selfish."

After hearing these words, even I, who claimed to be an uncle in the living room and had lived for almost 30 years, couldn't help but silently applaud this middle-aged woman in my heart.

Hmm... How do you describe this situation? A good parent who is willing to accept new things and new ideas?

As an online fiction writer, I know very well what it means to be “open to new ideas.”

Times are always changing, like a surging river, pushing the pebble-like flow of people in the river forward vigorously.

Pebbles that are willing to smooth out their edges, or those who are willing to follow the river, will be able to go to a wider world, see more beautiful scenery, and merge into a wider ocean.

A long time ago, when novels were being written, there were very few authors and few books available online. Everyone was eager to read any book they could find, so even novels with obscure titles but excellent plots could be discovered by a large number of readers. Authors of that period basically did not care about the title and introduction of the book, and would just pick a crazy and cool title. Now, more than 20 years have passed. If authors choose titles like "Great Power Domination" or "God King" again, I'm afraid that even if the editors put them on the homepage for recommendation every day, they won't get much traffic.

Times are different now. There are a lot of books and authors on the Internet. People just glance at the books and click on the ones that attract them. Most people directly write the selling points of the books in the titles. For example, most people will click on the titles like "Did the Scammer Retrieve My Game Account? I Recharged 5 Million Yuan Back". There is no need for editors to recommend them. Once recommended, the books will take off immediately.

In this era, if authors still think that "these books are unorthodox" and "giving such alternative names is completely inconsistent with the online literature tradition of the time", and they cannot let go of this mentality, they will easily be buried.

Elodie's mother is obviously the type who is willing to follow the trend of the times and keep learning until she is old.

The most important thing is...she is actually willing to accept these new era ideas, which I didn't expect.

After all, two girls falling in love is still too advanced even for this era.

"..."

While eating watermelon, I noticed that Zhou Xiaofei next to me seemed to be attracted by the conversation with Elodie's mother in the kitchen. She didn't even watch the cartoons and stared blankly at the middle-aged woman and Lan Jiajia in the kitchen.

"Let me tell you, my little Luo was spoiled by me when she was little. She liked junk food and started having stomachaches in high school. I took her to see a doctor for a while and she finally got better. Now that she has graduated, I can't take care of her and she is like this again. You have to educate her more."

"Ah... don't worry, auntie. I am basically responsible for Xiao Ai's three meals a day at home. She just eats a little when she is at work."

"That's good. I see you have great cooking skills. Who did you learn from?"

"I signed up for a six-month training course when I was in college."

"So that's how it is. You're also a local of Kamihama?"

"Not really. I...my grandpa used to live here."

It looks like I don’t need to go back to this kitchen.

The sight of Elodie's mother and Lan Jiajia having a long conversation while cooking in the kitchen made me feel helpless and relieved.

"Xiao Fei."

Thinking that there was nothing else I could do, I sat down next to Zhou Xiaofei and asked, "Have you always lived with your grandma?"

"Ah."

The girl next to him said very obediently: "My mother has been working outside and only comes back once in a long time."

"Where's your father?"

"Divorced from my mother."

"Oh, sorry."

I reached out and rubbed the kid's head. "Where do you and grandma live now?"

"Right...over there..."

The little guy raised his head and looked around, as if to confirm the direction, then raised his hand and pointed to the south-west direction: "After leaving the community, walk down along the road over there. When you see the sea, follow the road to the end, and then walk a few hundred meters forward and you will arrive."

There?

I roughly simulated the path Zhou Xiaofei mentioned in my mind.

If we walk along the road from the community, isn’t that the seaside road that Xiaomo and I have been going to every day this month? If we walk to the end of the road, isn’t that… the small forest and lawn near Minami-nagi Tower?

No, there is no need to walk to the end of the small forest in Minami-nagita. The end should be...

I subconsciously took out my cell phone and opened the map of Kamihama City.

"is it here?"

After searching for a long time on the map on my phone, I held the screen in front of Zhou Xiaofei and pointed to an area on it: "Here?"

Because I was worried that the little one might not understand, I also specifically introduced the route to her: "This road is the road you said you saw the sea after leaving the community. This is the end of the road, and this is Minami Nagi Tower."

If this is really the location...there are no residential areas around?

Not to mention a residential area, this is basically a wilderness. If there are people living in such a place, their house can only be similar to the simple house of the old man under the Minami Nagi Pagoda.

This month, almost every day after get off work at the cafe, I would go to the top of Minami-nagi Tower to look at the sea and relax. I have become very familiar with the scenery there.

The old man who guards the Minami Nagi Pagoda not only goes to the first and second floors of the Pagoda at night to listen to the radio and perform his duties as the "sea watcher", but also occasionally runs to the prairie behind the Pagoda to fertilize and water his vegetable garden.

There is a large vegetable field and orchard garden nearby, all of which are planted by the elderly.

The old man grows flowers purely for aesthetics, and the "fruit trees" he grows are mostly grapes, dates, peaches and the like. As for vegetables, there are much more options, including Chinese cabbage, water spinach, sweet potato, pumpkin, cucumber and so on. The old man usually makes a living on these vegetables and the seafood harvested from the sea - he eats half of the vegetables himself and sells the other half at the nearby vegetable market. If there wasn't a very close vegetable market behind the Xingxing Garden community, or if I ran a little further to the vegetable market on the other side, I would probably run into old men setting up stalls with the vegetables they grow.

After selling the vegetables, he would buy firewood, rice, oil and salt. Then he would go back and make a fire to cook in the small house next to the vegetable garden. This was the old man’s daily life.

The house where the old man sleeps is very simple, a small single-story building made of mud and bricks, with a small kitchen next to it for cooking. There is no water or electricity. If you really want to investigate, it is a definite illegal building. However, because the Minami Nagi District is relatively remote, and the small seaside forest near the Minami Nagi Tower is even more of a suburb of the Minami Nagi District, no one has been willing to come here to meddle in such trivial matters.

But now that I've put it this way, I can understand the difficulties Zhou Xiaofei's family is facing.

If her family was similar to that of the old man who managed Minami Nagita, who could not afford to live in an ordinary house and could only settle down in the woods, and usually lived on the minimum living allowance... then she would indeed be deeply attracted to the two foods "roast duck" and "watermelon".

Although my life has improved recently because of Xiaomo and I have more savings, I am still a child from an orphanage after all. I still remember every detail of my life in the orphanage clearly even today.

There are rich people and tycoons in this world, and naturally there are poor people. When I was a child, there were many families around the welfare home, similar to the elderly in Nannai District and Grandma Zhou Xiaofei.

Or even the word "family" is a bit of a stretch.

At that time, there were similar groves and rivers around the medicinal plant garden where the welfare home was located. In that era, many people "wandered" here from other cities, and settled down here because there were fruit trees and rivers. They would pick up some stones from the abandoned construction site or the rubble nearby, find a vacant lot, build a "house", and then find some wooden boards to make a "bed". Then they would stand up a few logs and pull a piece of cloth to cover the top to form the "roof". Unless it was raining very heavily, there would be no problem hiding in such a house.

Zhou Xiaofei's situation might be better than that of a "semi-homeless person", but it certainly has not reached the living standards of ordinary people in Kamihama City.

"Yes, this is it."

After looking at the map on my phone for a while and confirming the direction, Zhou Xiaofei pointed to a piece of "grass" at the end of the road that was not marked on the phone map and said, "My grandma and I live here."

That should be it. Zhou Xiaofei belongs to that extremely poor family.

In a city, people like Su Yunjin are considered "tycoons", and they probably account for less than 0.01% of the entire city's population, while those people living in the Snail House and I are the "ordinary people" here, accounting for more than 95% of the total. Extremely poor people like Zhou Xiaofei are probably as extreme as Su Yunjin.

What I didn’t expect was that such a child would live next to me.

I have a feeling that...

The guardian of Nannagi Tower, an old man, an old man, and then Zhou Xiaofei’s grandmother... alone, without a grandfather.

It can’t be such a coincidence, right?