"Welcome, Li Jin!" Duan Wei said again. He felt a bit flustered looking at the shock in Li Jin's eyes. It was that shitty Zhou Gen's(mentioned in Ch18; he and Chen Peng are the so-called enemies of our MC) fault for his fierce aura in the university and people slowly got used to it so he never thought of changing that image. Now he seemed to be giving accidental mental traumas to innocent juniors. Soon Fang Bai found a way to escape from the boredom and quickly called out, "Hey Li Jin! You came at the right time. How was your day?"
Li Jin quickly came out of his thoughts and looked at Fang Bai who was half slumped on the sofa. Nothing of his usual grace was left. On his side was a beautiful girl in a purple dress who seemed similar to their age. The sofas were arranged in a circle around a center table, maybe to form a larger area for more people to easily fit in.
Li Jin replied, "Hello, Happy Birthday senior! Wishing you health and prosperity in life", and handed over a gift box. The box was a special gift from him to Fang Bai which could be very helpful during the apocalypse.
"You don't need to be so formal. You can call us normally." Fang Bai casually spoke as he took the gift. He kept it on the side table so that he could open it after the party.
"Li Jin, meet Rong Qing, our fifth family member. Rong Qing, this is Li Jin, our new friend."
Rong Qing had observed Li Jin's movements from the moment he entered the door. She had some doubts in her heart but maintained a calm smile on her face.
"Hi, Li Jin! How was your day?"
"Um, it was pretty nice."
Next, all of them got quiet. Li Jin was clueless about what he should talk about. Tang Rong and Duan Wei had gone somewhere. They seemed to be busy doing some work. Fang Bai was slumped on the sofa. He seemed to be unaware of the lengthy silence as he casually yawned.
Rong Qing decided to continue the previous topic.
"Hey Xiao Bai, why don't we go on a trip to City V? This semester has just started and there is hardly any study going on. Why don't we enjoy the castles in City V? There is also a beach there. We can enjoy ourselves and then come back after the vacations. C'mon, these days in university are the only times we can fully enjoy ourselves."
Fang Bai's eyes flew open after listening to the name City V. The monk's voice still seemed fresh in his mind.
"Since when have you been planning for this vacation?" He asked casually.
"Since forever! I so much wanted to go on a vacation with all of us but never got the appropriate time. This time I felt that we will never get a perfect time; after this year Rong Rong will also graduate, then you and Ah Wei. Why don't we go on a long road trip? We can pack all the food and drinks and enjoy ourselves on the road. Say, let's make the plan final?"
Rong Qing double crossed her fingers in secret.
"Okay, let's ask ge-ge. If he agrees then we can decide a day."
Rong Qing sprang up in excitement. "Great!!!" Li Jin was quietly sitting on the side listening to their conversation.
The doorbell rang once again. Fang Bai had given up on protesting as he remained slumped in the same position. Tang Rong once again got out of the kitchen to open the door. He seemed satisfied that Fang Bai was quietly sitting on his seat as he enjoyed the indirect torture on the birthday boy. Who told Fang Bai to mess up this big? If he thought he could easily escape then it would probably be his beautiful dream.
Opening the door, Tang Rong saw Long You who was standing with a bouquet of red roses and a gift box in his hand. He greeted Long You and welcomed him inside the door. The atmosphere when Fang Junjie and Long You were together with each other and the recent news definitely gave him a clear view of their relationship, and he did not want to meddle in between as long as Fang Junjie was happy. After all, Fang Junjie was a responsible adult and he had all the rights to decide his own personal life.
After observing the room for a bit, Long You walked towards the sofas and greeted Li Jin and Rong Qing in courtesy. He wished the lazy young man (and his brother-in-law) Fang Bai a 'Happy Birthday', and gave him the small gift. Fang Bai mercifully thanked him without making a disgusted face.
The bouquet of red roses was still in Long You's hand. In the doubtful eyes of everyone, he politely asked, "Where is Junjie?"
Rong Qing's eyes lit up, Fang Bai rolled his eyes and Li Jin looked curiously at the reactions of all.
"In the kitchen." Tang Rong replied to Long You with a straight face. As Long You went away, he asked Li Jin, "I'm sorry for asking this late. Do you want to drink juice or coffee?"
While Li Jin replied "Juice", Long You had already vanished from the scene with an incredible walking speed and turned towards the kitchen. No-one doubted him as he had visited their house once or twice before, but little did they know; this was not what made Long You so familiar with their home. For now, only the author and the readers know this.
Tang Rong hesitated for a bit if he should follow after Long You to the kitchen or should he just wait for a few minutes. But since Duan Wei was also there, he presumed that the field was clear. As he walked through the corridor to the kitchen, his phone vibrated. Looking at his phone, he realized what the notification was for and his breath hitched. He quietly changed his path and walked to his room.
In the living room, Rong Qing was sitting quietly but from her twinkling eyes her inner world seemed otherwise. Pointing to the direction of the kitchen she whisper-shouted, "HE?!" Fang Bai wanted to close her annoying mouth. "Umm" He glared at the ceiling imagining the face of some punchable villain he beated once.
Li Jin was once again taken aback by the behavior of Fang Bai. This was never what he saw or heard about the 'Prince' in the university. Was there a reason for their different behavior when at home or outside?
There was another pressing matter that he wanted to ask.
"Umm, how long are you planning to go for the vacation?" This time he had dropped the formalities. To be honest, he was not at all used to formalities after such a long time in the apocalypse.
Rong Qing was surprised by his question, "I think we will come back after the college vacation ends. I know it's long but I wanted all of us to enjoy a long break."
"Oh, um… Can I travel with you all?" Li Jin felt awkward but still persisted.
"This…" Rong Qing was tongue-tied. She wanted to say that they all need to discuss for a bit but Fang Bai replied before she could.
"This is the first year of your college. Don't you want to attend college?"
"Actually, I'm dropping out of college. I want to hustle for one year before looking for the area of study I am most interested in. I will then chase that goal."
"Oh, then you can join us." Fang Bai said. He narrowed his eyes under the arm he had put on his face. 'What could be the reason?'
Rong Qing looked at Fang Bai for a while and said nothing. Xiao Bai never got so close with other people. This boy was the first. Something was definitely up with Xiao Bai from the way he is suddenly accommodating an unknown stranger in his life.
Li Jin sighed inside his mind. 'That this young man was so easy to fool, he could just be taken advantage of by anyone in the apocalypse. He might not be the perfect Prince everyone called him, but he was definitely an innocent young man who had not seen the world.'
City M was a very populous place. If they stayed here when the apocalypse started, they could be stuck for long because of the large population of zombies. It would be a very difficult task with high danger on their lives. It would be better if they left the town soon. Supplies could also be arranged in the way, he did have some spare money with him after buying that apartment online in the other city.
"I think we should leave by Sunday. Next week is predicted by the weather forecast to be sunny and pleasant. It would be great if we could travel then."
"That… was my original plan, but I want to know Junjie's decision." Rong Qing said.
"Okay" Since Li Jin had decided to join and protect this group of people, he just wished that they could leave for the vacation by Sunday. Till then, he would go and see that apartment in the nearby city, make payment, and put all the food and material that could be stored for a long time there. He also had to reinforce the locks to make sure that no-one other than him could break into the house. And he would try to awaken his second ability and use it so that he could hopefully complete the work without the knowledge of that organization. Now that he had his abilities already, he hoped that he could destroy that shitty organization this time. Otherwise, he could only leave this group of people and retire to that house for the rest of his life.