Chapter 70: Our Parents Are Kind of Weird…

“Why study if you’re not taking the Imperial Examination?”

Bai Yunqi asked curiously.

Bai Tian replied, “Mainly because your mom and I were never cut out for studying. Education isn’t the only path in life, but you still need to be literate.”

Jiang Dai chimed in, “Exactly. If you want to take the Imperial Examination, go for it. If you want to become a general, then be one. If you want to do nothing and just lie flat at home, that’s fine too—but you’d better have the means to lie flat. Just don’t lie around doing nothing and then complain about how hard your life is!”

Back then, she wanted to lie flat too, but still enjoy the good life. Greedy, wasn’t she?

So she filmed a drama, saved up some money, then took a short break. Not a bad life!

“Our parents are kinda weird…”

Bai Yunqi couldn’t help but mutter. After all, whether in the mortal world of the Cultivation Realm or in this one, what parent doesn’t want their kids to study hard and make something of themselves?

Jiang Dai raised an eyebrow. “Weird how?”

Bai Yunqi grinned. “Weird… in a good way!”

Jiang Dai and Bai Tian: 【Seriously? This lame joke again?】

Juanjuan tilted her head. Lame joke? Another new phrase learned.

Bai Yunxing looked at his young parents, then quietly lowered his head and continued eating.

【Parents like this are rare. Really good parents.】

Bai Yun’an also lowered his head to eat, but his mind was replaying everything Jiang Dai and Bai Tian had done these past few days.

Then, without a word, he lowered his head and smiled faintly.

【These parents really are… definitely people from before the apocalypse. How wonderful.】

【If given the choice, who wouldn’t want to be born before the end times? Who would ever choose to be born after? It’s disgusting.】

Jiang Dai looked at the four children in front of her and gave a light cough, trying to sound authoritative. “Eat up. Growing strong and staying safe is more important than anything else.”

A simple, ordinary sentence—but it made Bai Yun’an freeze. A long-buried memory was stirred, just slightly.

He was about five at the time, just a little taller than Juanjuan.

Born and raised in the base, he had never seen the full brutality of the outside world. At most, he’d seen injured ability users and a few corpses.

Back then, his biggest dream was to become the strongest ability user in the base, just like his mom. He wanted to be admired, to be a proud hero.

But his mom never let him leave the base.

She protected him fiercely. Her favorite thing to say was, “Our Yun’an needs to eat more. Growing strong and staying safe is more important than anything else.”

Then one day, before they’d even finished dinner, a Pseudo Zombie King appeared in the base.

A low-level worker with no abilities, responsible for transporting goods, had met a beautiful woman. Using his connections with mid-level base management, he secretly brought her in—unaware that she was a Pseudo Zombie King.

That night, the zombies almost slaughtered the entire base in a bid for promotion.

His mother, one of the top ability users in the base, fought the Pseudo Zombie King for half a day. But no reinforcements came. In the end, she chose to self-destruct.

That was the first time Yun’an, who had been sheltered in the base since birth, witnessed a hellish scene of such scale.

Blood sprayed everywhere, mixed with sticky flesh. The world looked like it was drenched in a crimson sunset. Eyeballs occasionally bounced across the ground. Everything was twisted and grotesque, filled with screams and wails.

The young boy reached out his right hand, trying to grab something—anything—but caught nothing.

So this… this was the world outside the base he had yearned for.

“Cough, cough…”

Bai Yun’an coughed twice, then couldn’t hold it in and dry-heaved.

Everyone at the table turned to him in surprise.

“What’s wrong?” Jiang Dai asked anxiously.

Bai Yun’an picked up his bowl with his left hand and took a sip of plain porridge, forcing a fragile smile. “I… I choked a little.”

Jiang Dai looked at him. He seemed okay now, no more coughing after drinking the porridge, so she didn’t press further.

“Eat slowly. Focus on your food.”

Bai Yun’an nodded with a smile, but under the table, he quietly placed his left hand over his right.

He gripped it tightly, forcing the trembling hand to stop.

In just a few moments, he used sheer willpower to suppress the tremors and regain control.

After the meal, Bai Tian and Jiang Dai went to wash the dishes.

What else could they do?

The kids cooked—were they really going to make them wash the dishes too?

Sure, they joked about mooching off their kids and lying flat, but as members of the new generation, they weren’t totally useless.

They might not have the golden fingers of those novel protagonists who could instantly make their families rich and reach the peak of life…

But they were trying their best!

They’d just signed a major project with Shiwei Restaurant. If it took off, Bai Tian was confident he could keep growing the profits.

Bai Yunxing quietly followed them and crouched beside his parents as they washed dishes.

“Mom, Dad… someone might’ve come to our house last night.”

He hadn’t said anything at the dinner table, not wanting to scare his younger siblings.

After all, they were still just kids—not like him, who had already been replaced with a different soul.

So he waited until now to tell them in private.

“Someone came to our house last night?”

Jiang Dai repeated in confusion, then suddenly thought of something.

“How do you know? Did you run into them? Were you hurt?”

Bai Yunxing was a little surprised that his mother had guessed so much.

He paused for a moment, then told the truth. “I didn’t see anyone, but Third Brother went out to pee in the middle of the night. That’s when I heard something. And…”

“I think… I heard little sister’s voice too.”

Jiang Dai: …

Wait—Juanjuan went out in the middle of the night, and she didn’t even know?

Bai Tian said he didn’t know either!

Even though he slept by the door, he genuinely hadn’t noticed Juanjuan getting out of bed and leaving!

“Can you tell me, son, how exactly are you so sure someone came last night?”

Bai Tian decided to change the subject.

In response to his father’s question, Bai Yunxing carefully explained all the strange things he’d noticed that morning, along with his suspicions.

As he watched his parents silently pondering the matter, Bai Yunxing was also weighing things in his own mind.

There was no need to keep this to himself and try to play the hero.

After all, his current body was still that of a child—too limited in many ways. If he didn’t tell his parents and the whole family failed to stay on guard, even the smallest oversight could lead to serious trouble.

Moreover, Father and Mother now seemed more dependable than ordinary country folk, even if at times they didn’t quite act like parents.

But Bai Yunxing couldn’t deny that their vision and decision-making ability wouldn’t necessarily fall short even among the nobles of Jingcheng.

“It’s probably Zhenxiu Restaurant—over at the Bai family’s side—they wouldn’t be this underhanded.”

Bai Tian gave the answer.

“How about I go ask Shiwei Restaurant for help?”

Bai Yunxing smoothly brought up the little idea he had in mind.