When Gu Jun woke up the next morning, his head still felt a bit swollen. But when he saw Wu Siyu in the lobby, he instantly felt better. During their breakfast at the hotel, he brought up briefly what happened the night before.
“Have you experienced this sensation of the inability to locate your phone or keys?” Wu Siyu started her lecture. “You could not find it no matter what. But the moment you decided to give up, it appeared right at the places you’ve searched before. I believe this is something similar. Perhaps the timing is not right yet. Perhaps it’ll reveal itself to you in the near future.”
Gu Jun did feel much better hearing that. He nodded. “Yes, master Dirty-minded Yu.” He too believed that if there was really someone trying to reach him, they would not stop right then. For the next two days, the signal no longer appeared and so did the sense of anomaly. Phecda also did not find out anything new. FBM had nothing to share either. The ‘mysterious signal’ appeared more and more like an imagination constructed by Gu Jun. Regardless, they still kept an eye on it. The medical team heard about Gu Jun’s symptoms of acoasm and they worried about the exacerbation of his PTSD.
Gu Jun was worried about it too. As human beings transmuted towards zombies or Deep Ones, there would be changes to their biological structures. Transmutation of the brain would cause changes to one’s personality that was irreversible. This change was subconscious. Thankfully, for the next two days, Gu Jun did not suffer from any other symptoms. In fact, once he lost himself in the relaxation activity, Gu Jun and Wu Siyu threw that issue out of their mind. They visited the beach, cinema and many different restaurants. Shen Hai City was their playground. The Lunar New Year’s Eve arrived in the blink of an eye. Wu Siyu had to stay home that day to play host to visiting families and Gu Jun would drop by in the afternoon.
The visiting family in question was Wu Siyu’s aunt or Mother Wu’s younger sister. Auntie Wu and her husband were workers at an IT company. They had a single girl named Lee Kedou. She was only 5 years old. The girl was clever and cute but in terms of naughtiness, she could rival the young Wu Siyu. During the first day of kindergarten, while the other children were crying for their parents, Kedou clapped her hands and danced. One time, a boy tried to bully her and Kedou rewarded him with a punch to the face. The shadow of young Wi Siyu was quite present on this precocious little girl. Because of that, Kedou and Siyu shared a very close relationship. In fact, she had helped changed Kedou’s diapers many times, a feat that Siyu would not have done for many people. But ever since Wiyu joined Phecda, she did not get to come home that often. At most, she could only talk to her family through Skype so she had lost touch with her cousin somewhat.
“I have to warn you, this cousin of mine is very naughty.” Wu Siyu commented, “She’s somewhat of a little demon. Is it wrong of me to say something like that?”
“I’m sure you’re just exaggerating.” Gu Jun chuckled. He had heard about this cousin from Dirty-minded Yu before, in fact, he had watched a video recording of Kedou’s kindergarten stage performance. Even if the girl was a she-demon, Gu Jun was not afraid. He was very good with children. After all, he had a secret weapon: Endless store of money. Which child would not succumb to an avalanche of gifts and bribes?
That afternoon, Gu Jun visited Wu family with a carefully assortment of selected new year presents. He met Auntie Wu’s family through Mother Wu’s introduction. Kedou was dressed in an Elsa costume. She would grow up to be a beautiful princess. Her hair was braided. She had an oval-shaped face and large blinking eyes. Her gaze did not have the shyness and fear common to young children but it shone with curiosity.
“Nice to meet you.” Gu Jun greeted her with a smile.
“He he.” Kedou giggled, exposing her baby teeth. “You’re Sister Siyu’s boyfriend!” The bribes of dolls, legos and so on worked perfectly. She followed Siyu’s example and called him Dirty-minded Jun but with an additional Brother affixed to it. The bribe might have worked too well because Gu Jun found himself with a small bodyguard. Wu Siyu sighed in relief when she saw this because it meant she could lie down and be lazy in peace. Gu Jun played blocks with Kedou while the adults busied themselves in the kitchen.
The naughtiness of Kedou shone through then. Realizing they were out of the adult’s earshot, she leaned over to ask, “Brother Dirty-minded Jun, have you kissed Sister Siyu already?” The little girl knew about kissing because it was featured in fairy tales. Kissing was done between couples, after all, Snow White was awakened from a true love’s kiss.
Gu Jun could not help but chuckle. He sneaked a glance at Wu Siyu before leaning back to whisper conspiratorially, “Yes, I have.”
“Ah, kissie, kissie!” Kedou finally caught Wu Siyu’s tail. She giggled out loud. “Shame, shame!”
“Huh? What’s so shameful about that?” Wu Siyu pulled Gu Jun over for a big, wet kiss. She purposely made a smooching sound. “Aren’t you jealous that my boyfriend is so handsome?” She then broke into a wicked laugh, “Muahaha.”
Gu Jun’s stomach pained from laughter. This was one unique sisterly fight. Kedou pouted for a while before her eyes turned to study Gu Jun and Siyu. Suddenly something came to her and she asked, “Then will Sister Siyu have a baby?”
“Huh?” Wu Siyu was stumped. Even though maternity leave was a great paid holiday, she was not ready to claim that yet.
Gu Jun wanted to give Kedou a thumb’s up. There were not many people in this world who could stump Wu Siyu. The girl thought kissing would lead to pregnancy. If that was true, then he’d be a father of a dozen children by then. With a smile plastered on his face, Gu Jun left this situation for Dirty-minded Yu to handle.
“You’ve kissed after all.” Kedou said in a way of argument.
Wu Siyu sighed before launching over to plant a kiss on Kedou. “Kedou, now you will have a baby too.”
“Sister Siyu, you can’t trick me.” Kedou said seriously, “It will only work between boys and girls and they need to love each other.”
“Well, you’re not wrong…” Gu Jun grinned wickedly. The troubles from before seemed a world away.
“In any case, I won’t be having a baby anytime soon.” Wu Siyu shrugged, “Well, that might be wrong. I am after all carrying a food baby.”
Kedou’s attention was soon distracted. She was at an age which was interested in everything. When she saw the television, her eyes widened and she gasped, “Brother Dirty-minded Jun, I saw you on the television that day. You look so handsome in your uniform.” Gu Jun guessed it was some kind of Phecda’s promo video. He had not done any new ones but they could always replay the old ones.
“The uniform is from Phecda.” He said with a smile. “Your sister Siyu looks good in it too.”
“Hah…” Wu Siyu nudged against his shoulder. “Dirty-minded Jun, I have other uniforms that I look better in, would you be interested to see them? In fact, I think I have a school uniform somewhere in my room.”
Well, that certainly caused some reaction in Gu Jun. Images that would put me, the translator, into trouble with the authority entered his mind. Gu Jun noticed Kedou was looking at them with interest but he still leaned over and said affirmatively, “Of course.”
Reality proved to be more disappointing. Wu Siyu returned dressed in a normal blue and white tracksuit as well as a pair of sport shoes. It was not the uniform Gu Jun had in mind but it was still a school uniform alright…