Be it day or night, the lighting in the house had always been pretty bad.
At night, the environment might look somewhat homely under the dim, orange lamplight. But it was gloomy in the day.
However, Lu Xin was in a good mood.
His mom was a graceful lady. She had finished preparing the breakfast and brought three bowls of porridge to the table. There was a salted egg on the plate, but his mom only took a tiny bit of egg white and left the savory egg yolk to Lu Xin and his sister. However, Lu Xin would often give most of the egg yolk to his sister. Their father didn't eat with them. He seldom stepped out of the kitchen, anyway. Things would turn messy every time he came out.
"Is your new job starting today?"
Lu Xin's mom asked him in a gentle voice like she always did, "Are you ready for it?"
Although he hadn't mentioned it after coming home with his sister the night before, it was as if his mom knew about everything. It had always been like that.
Lu Xin nodded. "Yes, I'm ready."
"My boy is a grown-up man now."
His mom looked at him with a heartened smile. She picked some egg white and put it in his bowl. "It's hard to juggle between two jobs. Eat more!"
"Damn it. Useless! You're a piece of trash! You know you're being used, yet you're happy being their dog!"
It was his father cursing from inside the kitchen. But all of them pretended not to hear him.
"You're the most useless one of you lot! You don't even know you've been scammed…"
His father raised his voice as his anger grew.
But no one responded. They continued to eat breakfast in silence.
"I'd say you should chop them all into pieces!"
The man pulled open the kitchen door and appeared in the living room.
He stared at Lu Xin and shouted, "You almost died yesterday, thanks to them! They don't even value your life. They won't even care if you die, and they may even be planning to kill you! Have you not seen that?
"You'd be a corpse now if not for that damn girl!
"Why do you still work for them when they almost killed you?"
"…"
As he spoke, he walked toward Lu Xin threateningly. It looked as if his bloodshot eyes were going to pop out of his eye sockets.
"You're right. They didn't do it right at the Corner Cafe incident…"
Lu Xin sipped on his porridge. Having realized that he couldn't ignore his father any longer, he explained in a low, timid voice, "But they paid me…"
His father was visibly stunned by his answer.
"Piece of crap! How can you be so useless?!"
Exploding with fury, his father cursed loudly and reached his hand toward Lu Xin.
When he was about to grab Lu Xin's shoulder, a bowl of porridge splashed onto his face.
"How dare you…"
The man's anger was redirected at his wife at once. He wiped off the porridge from his face and shouted, "You're the most useless one here!"
Lu Xin's mom sat elegantly in her chair and looked at her husband with despise in her eyes. There was a cool air around her. "If you were slightly more capable and less bad-tempered, we wouldn't have been trapped here in the first place."
"…"
"You b*tch! Go to hell!"
As if she had triggered his greatest insecurity, the man roared like a beast and clawed at his wife.
But this time, Lu Xin's mother didn't seem to be in the mood to fight. She looked at her husband coldly and extended two fingers.
The man suddenly stopped short, as if fear had gripped him at the sight of the hand gesture.
"What do you mean?
"Why are you showing me this?"
He lowered his voice and shot her a fierce yet fearful look.
"You know it well."
The woman smiled gently. "If you're scared, go back to where you belong. Now!"
"Useless. Useless! You're all trash…"
The man exploded with anger. He seemed to be on the verge of losing his sanity.
However, Lu Xin's mom simply looked at him calmly with that hand gesture.
In the end, the man took hold of his temper and did not harm his family. Instead, he started hurling curses, flipped the dining table, ripped off the ceiling fan, smashed the cupboard, and crashed a glass with his hand. Then, he stared at Lu Xin, his mom, and his sister fiercely with his bulging bloodshot eyes before finally going back to the kitchen while swearing.
"Alright now. Everything's okay."
His mom stood up gracefully and tidied Lu Xin's shirt. She said gently, "It's very important to follow your heart and do what you want to do."
"I know."
After a moment of silence, Lu Xin said in a low voice, "Thank you!"
"My silly boy. We're a family. You don't have to thank me."
His mom gave him a gentle pat on the shoulder and smiled. "But do remember to be polite and respectful toward other people!" Then, she gently brushed his hair and smiled again. "Of course, we should expect others to treat us with respect too. You're a good boy, and you don't want to harm others. But if you're bullied…"
Lu Xin looked at his mom cautiously.
Her smile was gentle and heart-warming as usual. "Your family will go and find that bully together…"
Lu Xin felt a chill down his spine. But he could only sigh in response.
He had to make sure he didn't get bullied out of concern for other people's safety…
…
As usual, Lu Xin arrived in the office forty minutes before the official start time.
That day, he finished all the reports and files assigned to him with great care. Moreover, he intentionally sped up his work and even skipped lunch. When it was time to end work, he had completed all his tasks and was the first to leave the office.
He didn't volunteer to stay for over-time as he had before because now he had other matters to attend to.
On the night before, he had carefully read through the files from Chen Jing, which gave him some basic understanding of his new job.
The part of the agreement he cared about the most was the salary and subsidies.
He knew that he had to head to the designated location as soon as Chen Jing summoned him. There, he had to follow their instructions and clean up the corruption. However, if there was nothing that needed his attention for the whole month, he would still receive the usual salary.
Most importantly, he would receive some subsidies every time he took care of a corruption incident.
That would be the main source of his income. It ranged from 10,000 to 30,000, and some tasks were even worth 100,000.
Lu Xin felt motivated by the money, so he decided to do his best.
He would actively look for opportunities and treat the work with his best attitude, hoping to get the official contract soon.
With his documents, satellite phone, and a gun in his backpack, Lu Xin arrived at the streets.
He had come to patrol with his sister.