Duan Cai paused in front of the family home. It was a poor neighborhood filled with run down homes that was hard for any person to manage to enjoy living with their family. From his memories he could recall how the previous Duan Cai had struggled with his family for years in this neighborhood to survive due to how poor they were. The father was always working hard to bring in enough to survive while the mother struggled to take care of the home. The family was not without it's own problems even without him causing more as he grew up. Not only did they have a family that would personally come to cause them problems at the drop of a hat; they even had a son, Duan Cai, who had a behavior that even made them not question his own disappearances even if he was gone at days at a time.
He knew if he did not return at some point to check in on the family again for the sake of the body he was in that they would eventually reach their limit with him. Every now and then over the past few months he had come back here to check in with them before leaving them again for the sake of not wanting to be found out. It was something any person could just assume, however. After all when it came down to body snatching someones corpse that was not something all that natural on this world from what he'd seen the past few months.
Duan Cai cleared his throat and slowly walked up to the door as he grabbed the handle and slowly entered the house. The outside of the house looked run down and in bad shape and was not comparable to the condition of the interior. If someone was to walk inside of his family home they could tell instantly that the wife of the home truly took great care of the home for the sake of her family. It was a view that would even amaze Duan Cai every time he came home to check on his mother. Since father was often busy working his hardest for his family he rarely ever ran in to him. It was unclear to Duan Cai what the father even did for work because even the old Duan Cai had never paid that much attention to his own father when he was alive.
"Cai?" A small and excited voice asked as a small figure dashed around the corner and quickly grabbed hold of him. Her beautiful yellow eyes sparkling with excitement as she tilted her head to the side waiting for him to say something. From her long white hair it was almost impossible to realize that they weren't actually related by blood.
She was Duan Cai's younger sister from his father's side. When his father married his mother he had already had Iris from a previous marriage. Growing up Duan Cai had not paid much attention to his father, but he had been very protective of the young girl because she would always defend him against others even if he had not needed it. A slight smile formed on his face as he reached out and patted the girl on her head to calm her down as he looked around and saw his mother across the room standing at the kitchen sink while doing dishes.
"Mother, I'm home." Duan Cai said calmly as he slowly walked away from Iris towards his mother.
"Cai? Oh, your finally home.." The woman slowly turned and pulled Duan Cai into a tight hug as if she had been worried he would die out in the world without her knowing a thing.
The warm embrace gave Duan Cai a strange feeling in his chest that made him feel uncomfortable, yet warm and calm at the same time. It made him want to escape yet be captured at the same time. In his past life he had never had a family of his own so the feeling of a family was not something he was use to in the slightest. He could not comprehend why a mortal family would be so worried about each other in such a way and could not understand their worry to the extent of wanting to hug him for simply walking in their door. It was all so foreign to him that he could not react in the slightest without worry of doing something wrong in his own motion.
"Where have you been these past few days, Cai?" The old woman asked as she slowly released him from her hug to push him back and scan his face with her eyes as if looking for any possible wounds on him. Duan Cai had inherited his golden eyes and white hair straight from this old woman. Though over the years her eye color had faded slightly to almost a tan color due to her aging with so many worries in her life weighing her down. Her white hair was also cut short so that she did not have to waste so much time on it in her daily life. It was obvious that she put everyone around her ahead of her self to the point that it was causing herself to deteriorate without others even noticing unless they looked more closely at her.
"I've been with friends, mother. Do not worry about me. I am doing very well and wont do anything to make you worry." Duan Cai smiled at her warmly to try and put her heart as ease. Regardless of his words he knew she would worry regardless because that was how she was about him due to the fact of how much trouble he use to get into.
"You taking care of yourself?" Iris was on the side giggling to herself at the thought. She knew her brother well enough to know he never stayed out of trouble. That was something even the Duan Cai now and his past body's soul had in common. The only difference was that now he was able to take care of himself better then the old Duan Cai could.
"Is father at work?" He asked while looking around.
"Yes, you know how busy he is." Iris folded her arms and sighed heavily.
"Why are you pouting?" Duan Cai teased as he walked away from them and sat down on the living room sofa.
"Wh-what? I am not! Stupid!" Iris huffed and stormed off to her room annoyed. It was obvious something was on her mind, but she was not the type to share with Duan Cai when something was bothering her. She would often get upset over their father being gone constantly because even before he had met her the father was the type who would often leave his daughter alone for his work. It had often made her feel like an abandoned daughter, but she knew if it wasn't for him working so hard things would have only been much harder for them to survive in society.
"Don't tease your sister too much. Now tell me where you have been staying all this time. You've been taking proper care of school, right? Your tests for graduation should be coming up soon." His mother handed him a cup of coffee and walked back to the sink to continue her cleaning.
The old Duan Cai had been fond of such things, but who he was now simply wanted to throw the cup as far away as possible. He slowly put the cup down and looked away from him in attempt to hide the disgust he felt at the simple thought of that hot drink.
"I've got a friend I'm staying with. School is doing well. Do not worry about me so much.." He replied to her calmly hoping to put her at ease.