Pushing open the familiar front door, a different sound than usual came from the TV.
“How are you, Nan Qi? You have to hold on, Nan Qi!”
“Okay… I’m going to turn into Ultraman!”
“Why aren’t you transforming!”
“Hurry up and transform! What’s going on… Damn it, why can’t I transform anymore?”
His elder cousin was definitely not the type to be interested in tokusatsu shows.
All she watched were sitcoms or soap operas, or perhaps palace dramas.
Anyway, there had to be some backstabbing and hair-pulling involved for her to watch it.
He then took a closer look and realized that the person sitting on the sofa wasn’t his second sister, Yu Mingfei, but a little boy he’d never seen before.
Before he could think too much, he was drawn to the screen on the TV as soon as he entered the house.
It was Ultraman Jack playing from a disc.
Although he had seen it many times, he still found it interesting every time.
The little boy looked at An Jing strangely and quietly called out, “Hello, big sister.”
An Jing didn’t hear him at all, because he thought of the plot of this episode, and a wave of emotions surged in his heart.
This was the second episode of Return of Ultraman.
Hideki Goh, having received superpowers bestowed by Ultraman, became a bit conceited and even acted independently, disregarding commands.
As a result, he lost Ultraman’s response and couldn’t transform to fight…
Superpowers are meant to help others, not to benefit oneself, not to peek into others’ thoughts, and certainly not for showing off.
Those principles, which he had only vaguely understood when watching before, suddenly became clear at this moment.
“Could it be because of that day… I used my superpower to know if Zhu Ying liked me, so… so I couldn’t use it later?”
An Jing murmured to himself, “No… it must be like that… it must be…”
“Xiao Jing, you’re back?”
Yu Minghui’s voice interrupted An Jing’s thoughts.
“Dinner won’t be for a little while today.”
“I know, school finished early today…”
An Jing tilted his head to look at the little boy.
“He’s…?”
“A neighbor’s child. They had something urgent, so they left him with us for a while.”
“Do you want to shower first?”
“I’ll shower before bed.”
An Jing shook his head.
“Hasn’t Sister Fei come back yet?”
“Of course, she doesn’t get off work that early.”
“Oh… Then I’ll go back to my room.”
An Jing tilted his head and glanced at the little boy.
As he walked past him, he suddenly stopped and said abruptly, “You should call me ‘gege’ (older brother).”
“…Huh?”
“I’m a boy.”
“But your hair is a bit long…”
“It’s popular for men to have long hair now, and it’s not that long anyway.”
An Jing glared at him.
“In short, call me ‘gege’, understand?”
“Oh… gege…”
“That’s more like it.”
He carried his schoolbag, humming the melody of the Ultraman Jack theme song, pushed the door open, and entered his room.
Troublesome.
***
(2)
When he came out again, night had already fallen, and the streetlights outside the window were already lit.
The little boy who had been temporarily staying there had already been picked up by his parents.
At the dining table, his second sister was complaining to his eldest sister about work.
“Ai, Huihui, you don’t know how brain-dead that person is. I suspect he eats brain-dead pills instead of food, otherwise how could he be so brain-dead…”
“It’s work, you’ll always encounter strange clients, right?”
“It’s so annoying, day after day, aren’t there any normal people!”
Yu Mingfei rubbed her face against Yu Minghui’s hand, only then noticing An Jing who had just come out of his room.
She cleared her throat loudly and inexplicably put on a fierce look.
“You’re just coming out now! We were waiting for you to eat!”
“Didn’t you just call me…?”
An Jing drooped his eyelids.
“Five minutes have passed.”
“I finished as fast as I could.”
“Xiao Jing, come and eat.”
Yu Minghui smiled and waved at him.
“We made boiled fish slices today.”
“Wow, my favorite! Is it spicy?”
“Not too spicy, but quite numbing.”
“That’s the best!”
“Stop, go wash your hands first, then come eat, understand?”
“Got it, got it.”
When An Jing had washed his hands and sat down at the dining table, Yu Minghui had already filled a bowl of rice for him.
Each grain of rice was crystal clear, making one feel like they could eat several mouthfuls of just plain rice.
Unlike breakfast, Yu Minghui didn’t mess around with all sorts of things for dinner.
The dishes varied every day, and they were all delicious.
Yu Mingfei actually couldn’t eat much spice.
After only a few bites of fish, she was so spicy that she made “hiss-ha hiss-ha” sounds.
She patted Yu Minghui’s shoulder forcefully, and the latter, with great understanding, handed over the milk she had just taken a sip of.
She slurped a large mouthful and finally recovered.
“No, this is still too spicy.”
“I didn’t put that many chilies in, should I put even less next time?”
“But it won’t taste good if you put less!”
An Jing protested.
“If you want spicy food, make it yourself. My Huihui will definitely cook according to my taste, got a problem with that?”
“Tch—”
“How’s your studies lately, Xiao Jing?”
“Uh… everything’s alright, I guess.”
“Still in the top few in your class?”
“Of course.”
“You haven’t dropped down?”
“Sister Fei, you seem to really want to see my ranking drop. What are your intentions!!”
Yu Mingfei’s expression was strange, “Hmm… it seems I still need to vent.”
“Vent what?”
“Nothing. Combining work and rest is best. As long as your ranking doesn’t drop, I won’t care if you play games – provided your homework is done, and also, don’t stay up too late at night. The same goes for today.”
“Got it.”
“You should sleep before 2 AM,” Yu Minghui nodded with a smile.
“Huihui, you’re spoiling him too much! He should at least sleep before 12 AM, right?”
“I’ll listen to Sister Huihui! Everything Sister Huihui says is right!” “…”
***
(3)
It was almost eleven o’clock.
The desolate wind lifted the curtains, and the sound of breaking bottles and a woman crying drifted in from outside.
Perhaps another argument had broken out; it was a common occurrence here.
Those people’s joys and sorrows had nothing to do with An Jing.
He had just closed his game and then right-clicked to close YY Voice from his taskbar.
Today’s fun with friends was over, and he sat lazily in front of his large monitor, a strange emptiness in his heart.
Perhaps it was because he couldn’t even hear the chirping of insects outside the window, or maybe the sound of the wind rustling leaves made him feel a little melancholic.
There seemed to be nothing left to do.
He looked at the avatars of his classmates in his friends list and suddenly paused on the one named ‘Zhu Ying’.
Her avatar was gray; she had probably already gone to sleep.
He wanted to send a message, but he didn’t know what to say.
Finally, he just clicked on her Qzone.
He had expected to see only a cold password input box, but to his surprise, he got right in.
—Before, boys couldn’t access Zhu Ying’s Qzone.
Yes, no matter which boy added her as a friend, they couldn’t get in.
So, everyone was occasionally curious about what was inside.
What immediately appeared before his eyes was a webpage primarily in black.
The background was a pair of black wings spread wide, and in the upper left corner were a few lines of Martian text that he couldn’t quite understand.
In short, it was a bit… eerie.
The Qzone interface was simple.
In the upper left were messages from visitors, which all seemed to be from girls.
In the middle were her Qzone posts, and on the right were her photo albums.
There weren’t many posts, mostly about daily life and studies.
He quickly scrolled to the bottom; there seemed to be nothing special.
So he dragged the mouse again and clicked on the photo album.
Generally, girls’ photo albums weren’t accessible to boys.
Most girls in their class were like this.
But An Jing still clicked in.
Inside were photos of Zhu Ying.
They were blurry, and most were taken in front of a mirror.
Even so, her beauty and cuteness were still evident. Soon, An Jing’s gaze stopped on a photo taken in front of a full-length mirror.
In the photo, Zhu Ying was wearing an oversized shirt that covered half of her thighs, half of her small hand was tucked into the sleeve, and half of her face was blocked by her phone.
Only her small mouth, gently biting her vermillion lips, was visible.
To be honest, there was nothing revealing.
But for a young boy, this was already exciting enough.
Her delicate collarbone, her fair thighs… these were ‘sceneries’ that were rarely seen at school on a regular day.
“It’s been several days… Tomorrow is my birthday, maybe I’ll use this as a reward…”
An Jing swallowed, then vigorously shook his head, “No, no… I can’t just casually indulge in such pleasure. If I can’t even resist that kind of temptation, how will I shoulder the responsibility of saving the world later?”
The young boy used these words to warn himself—even though he had no idea where the world needed saving.
“Go take a shower, then go to bed immediately…”
***
(4)
An Jing, still steaming from his shower, flopped onto the bed with a “whoosh” and raised the corners of his mouth proudly.
Because today he had resisted temptation; even after several days, he hadn’t found an excuse to reward himself.
He felt like a hero who, after countless failures and falls, had finally triumphed over himself, doing something incredibly great.
“Ha… I feel completely refreshed. Resisting temptation was indeed the right thing to do.”
An Jing looked at the ceiling reflecting the streetlights outside and boasted triumphantly, “An Jing, An Jing, you truly are the strongest. You’ve surpassed yourself, haha…”
Thinking of this, he suddenly sat up and picked up the golden translucent meteor fragment on his desk, “Stone, oh stone, I’ve recognized my mistake. After this, can I still have superpowers…?”
Muttering to himself, he lay back down, sleepiness suddenly overwhelming him, and he yawned several times.
He fell asleep, still clutching the stone.
And as he was lost in a beautiful dream, like the arrival of spring, the stone began to slowly emit a faint glow.
His already delicate face became even more feminine, his skeletal structure slowly began to shrink, and something inside his lower abdomen felt like it was growing, becoming scorching hot.
The young boy, still lost in his sweet dream, had no idea that after today, An Jing’s “little An Jing” would fall into eternal silence…
He missed his chance to give his dingaling one last tug 😂 He defo gonna regret this.