Chen family's manor was located in an elegant Royal district surrounded by other prominent families' manors in Xia kingdom's capital. Chen family was not considered one of the biggest four families in the Xia kingdom, but it was still one of the large ones. This could also be seen from how close it was to the king's palace. Chen family's manor was only half a kilometer from the center of kingdom power.
To travel from Laputa kingdom to Xia kingdom, Chen Murong took a yellow double-decker bus to Zerento teleportation station. Whenever he thought of this teleportation technology, he felt proud of his family, specifically his father.
His father, Chen Dong, was a famous engineer who invented this teleportation system. Although the system was not widely used due to its new technology and military controls, their company stock price (Chen group) had been rising through the roof. So far, only a few major cities with strict regulations had these teleportation stations.
After 30 minutes of queuing and security scanning procedure at the entrance of the beautiful futuristic glass dome – Zerento teleportation station, he boarded one of the white spherical shuttles. This spherical structure had a toroidal bulge around its equator in which the trans-dimensional drives were situated. The journey only took about a minute, and you would not feel a thing inside the shuttle when it jumped through subspace.
Having arrived at the destination, Murong made his way to the security door and quickly passed the information desk located at the front of the Kunming teleportation station. He then took another blue double-decker bus to Chen family's manor.
It was almost 7 pm when Chen Murong arrived at Chen family's manor. Murong was quite ecstatic to see his old childhood house again in perfect condition. In his past life, by the time he had a chance to come back to the capital of Xia kingdom, this house had already been ruined and deteriorated into several piles of stones.
"Welcome back home, young master Murong," Chen family's old butler, Chen Gui, has greeted him with a smile on his face.
Chen Murong looked back at this senior figure. This old man was loyal and capable. He continued to serve grandpa and grandma during the beginning period of the apocalypse as a butler and a bodyguard. Without him, both of them probably would not survive the first week of the apocalypse. They both, regrettably, had weak foundations and obtained non-combat jobs. Unfortunately, he died three years later by assassination planned by supposedly Ye family.
"Thank you, uncle Gui," Chen Murong also responded with a smile on his face.
"Both of your parents are not home. They went to Lianjiang for a business trip and will be back next week," Chen Gui duly informed Murong.
As a lead engineer and a president of Chen group, his father, Chen Dong, often traveled to meet our business partners. His mother, Chen Yiren, as a Chen group marketing department director, also frequently traveled together with him. Actually, because of this reason, our family members in the capital had lost contact with them at the beginning of the apocalypse and later found that they were dead. Chen Murong had vowed in his mind that, in this life, he had to prevent this from happening at all cost.
"That is fine. Thank you," replied Chen Murong and continued politely ordering the old butler, "I will go to my room upstairs. Please notify me when the dinner is ready."
"Yes, young master," Chen Gui acknowledged Murong's request while Murong was walking to his room...
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*** Murong's point of view. ***
Our family's house was a three-story building. At the ground level, it was equipped with a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, a patio for outdoor eating, two sitting areas, and several retainers' rooms. On the other levels, they consisted of several of our family members' bedrooms, guest rooms, working spaces, and library. My bedroom was on the second floor of the manor.
I walked up the stairs to my room but unexpectedly paused outside of my room's door. I surprisingly heard some voices behind the door. I quietly turned the key inside its hole and suddenly pushed the door open and shouted.
"Stop, little thief!"
The young boy who was looking for something on my study desk had flinched and turned his face back to look at me. Once he realized who it was, he yelled with an exciting voice.
"Big bro!"
Of course, it was my little brother, Chen Huilong. This guy always sneaked into my room and stole my expensive secret snacks. He knew I couldn't bear to punish him.
"You are back!" Huilong ran toward me and hugged me with his short arms. I, then, was hugging him back. I could not tell you how much I had missed this little guy. At the beginning of the apocalypse, he and my sister - Chen Yilin, were missing. Our family had searched for him and my sister for weeks but in vain. We only found Chen Yilin approximately a month later. We had never recovered this little guy, but we had never stopped looking. We spent a lot of our family assets to find him.
I looked at him carefully. He is still the same kid I remembered in my memory. He looks as cute as ever with an innocent smile on his face. However, don't be fooled by his innocent face. This little guy is very cunning. He always plays pranks when you least expected it. He even used to blackmail me when I sneaked out to the party at night. However, he is a kind- and soft- hearted person. He received punishment from our parents for me when I stole our parent's sports car for the second time and broke it. I still remember what he said back then.
"I don't want them to send you to military school, big bro….I will only be grounded in the house for a week," Huilong spoke with a smile on his face.
I was really impressed with the mindset of this little guy back then. Of our four siblings, I was the closest to him because he could always play jokes with me. Our big brother, Chen Dawei, was too strict with us.
"Don't play innocent and pretend to be a good little brother to me. You were stealing my stash, weren't you?" I asked with a smirk on his face.
"Hahaha. I won't deny it bro, but I was thrilled to see you home," he laughed.
"Never mind," I opened my drawers, found some snacks, and threw them to this little guy.
"Thank you, bro!" He received snacks and looked at me with a smile and wide eye.
"Let's talk over dinner. I can't play with you right now. I will need to do something before dinner."
"Sure, bro. See you at dinner!" Huilong replied and rashly left the room. He had already gotten what he came for anyway.