Morning light spread across the land, and the entire Qitan Town was shrouded in a thin mist. It still seemed like good weather, but as the family of three sat at the breakfast table, Long Qian easily noticed that the atmosphere at home was a bit strange.
Long Yan and An An's eyes were filled with a hint of worry.
Sure enough, after finishing breakfast, as An An was about to clear the dishes from the table into the kitchen, she touched Long Qian's head and reminded him, “Baby, later some guests will come to our house, remember to call them ‘Uncle,' okay?”
Long Qian nodded without asking more. In fact, over the past two years, except for the occasional townsfolk of Qitan visiting after the New Year, he had never seen any of Long Yan and An An's relatives come here. He had no idea who his grandparents or his maternal grandparents were, as Long Yan and An An never mentioned them in front of him.
Long Qian wasn't particularly curious about these relatives. In this world, he only considered Long Yan and An An as his family. As for people who were related to his biological parents by blood, from his observations over these two years, he roughly guessed that their relationship with his parents seemed bad, or perhaps they were no longer in this world. Moreover, having been given a second chance at life and now having parents who cared about him, Long Qian already felt satisfied and didn't ask for too many relatives.
After a while, Long Qian, standing on the second floor, saw far off along the wide road leading to Qitan Town, east of the fence at the foot of the hill, a seemingly luxurious carriage quickly approaching. When the black-covered carriage reached outside the fence, it stopped. The coachman jumped down by the roadside and pulled open the black curtain, and then a middle-aged, corpulent man dressed in expensive clothing emerged from the carriage.
At this moment, Long Qian suddenly heard An An calling him and had to run back into the house, thinking to himself that the middle-aged fat man should be the so-called uncle. Long Qian didn't believe this uncle was coming for anything good; on the contrary, he vaguely felt that the family's financial troubles might be largely related to this fat man.
Having been made to change into a clean set of clothes by An An, Long Qian had just stepped out of the room when he heard a high, thin voice, like a woman's, coming from downstairs.“The weather in this damn place is scorching; it's remote and poor, and it took me ages to find it. Damn unlucky! Long Yan, tell me, what's the point of staying in this godforsaken place? Why not just move to Qingtian City? I still have a few good houses, I could give you a bit of a deal, how about that?”
Long Buren waved his paper fan vigorously with one hand and held the dark green robe with the other, as if afraid of getting it dirty from the mud on the ground. He walked very cautiously, and his protruding belly seemed to make this careful pace somewhat difficult.
“I think it's pretty quiet here. Qingtian City isn't really suitable for me.”
Long Yan replied lightly, with a faint smile on his face, though the smile carried a trace of awkwardness.
Once inside the hall, Long Buren went directly to the largest wooden chair and plopped down. Fortunately, the chair's load-bearing capacity was decent and only let out a slight creak; if it had been another chair, it might have collapsed immediately.
The portly Long Buren waved his fan while inspecting the living room's furnishings. After scrutinizing it for a while and finding nothing that caught his interest, he shook his head and spoke, “Look at this, what kind of junk have you placed in your home? If these were in my house, they'd be thrown out ages ago; even the servants wouldn't care for them. Long Yan, you're after all a direct descendant of our Qing Tian Long family; no matter how destitute you are, you still have to maintain the appearance a bit, right? If others saw this, they'd think our Qing Tian Long family favors some branches over others. I really don't know what you're thinking.”
Long Yan just smiled faintly at Long Buren's deliberately cutting words and replied, “Being comfortable is enough. Besides, I doubt anyone would be interested in coming here to visit my humble abode. This time, it's you, Fu Ren, who's gone through the trouble of coming all the way.”
Long Buren, however, was extremely sharp-tongued and cursed directly, “If I had known it was going to be this far and so poor, I wouldn't have come. This round trip took me four days and caused a huge loss. Damn unlucky!”
Long Yan frowned slightly. When he saw An'an guiding Long Qianzhen down from the second floor, he suppressed the anger in his heart, forced a smile, stood up, and called out, “Qian'er, come over, this is your Uncle Buren.”Before Long Buren spoke, Long Qian naturally listened attentively. He had no affection for this fat man at all, but he had to consider his parents' face, so he always did what a child should do. Following An An to stand in front of Long Buren, Long Qian suppressed the disgust in his heart and, like a well-behaved child, bowed to Long Buren and respectfully said, 'Nephew Long Qian greets Uncle.' 'Oh, you've all grown up so much.' Leaning sideways in the chair with his legs spread wide apart, Long Buren did not move but shook his cheeks as he laughed: 'The little guy sure has a strong life. I thought you were doomed to die. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe that even a senior-level Xuan master couldn't save you, yet you survived. But it seems your physique isn't very good, huh? Why are you so thin? How pitiful. By the way, they say those who survive great calamities are destined for good fortune. You should be able to inherit your father's knack for making money. Being a wealthy figure in this poor place shouldn't be a problem.' Are these words meant as praise? Long Qian couldn't help feeling somewhat angry and thought to himself, why does everything this damn fat man says sound so sharp and biting? Could it be that he feels accomplished and pleased by mocking and ridiculing a little child who is just over three years old, along with the child's father? Long Qian couldn't say anything aloud, but he could certainly grumble in his heart. If it weren't for considering that Long Buren's ancestors were also Long Yan's ancestors, he would have scolded Long Buren's ancestors for seventy-two generations. Naturally, Long Buren did not bother to pay attention to Long Qian. In his eyes, such an immature little brat probably didn't understand the meaning of what he just said. And in fact, his words were deliberately meant for Long Yan and An An to hear. Long Buren extremely enjoyed watching Long Yan's expression of suppressed anger, especially in front of An An. This was one of the main reasons he traveled all the way from Qingtian City to this poor place. Indeed, Long Yan was angry inside, but, just as Long Buren expected, he had to hold it in. He forced a smile and instructed An An, 'An An, take Qian'er upstairs. I need to discuss some serious matters with Brother Buren.' 'No rush, no rush.'\ The dragon, once slumped in the wooden chair, suddenly stood up with a thud. In his haste, all the fat on his body jiggled in waves. He squinted his eyes, staring at An An, who was about to lead the dragon back up to the second floor, and from top to bottom assessed An An's well-maintained graceful figure. That look in his eyes was like a ravenous wolf about to pounce on a lamb, full of bare lustful desire...\Chapter 4 – Lustful Crawling, End (Not spoiling the plot is my duty… )
