Raising You This Small Stuff

Chapter 54.1 If I hadn’t met you

When Mo Yi Cheng finished the interview, he didn’t see the little thing welcome him, but sitting on the bench with his head lowered sullenly.

“What’s wrong, are you tired from waiting?” He walked over and asked in a soft voice.

Yuan Suo lifted his head, blinked as he looked at Mo Yi Cheng, then reached out his hand to clutch the corner of his jacket at an angle that no one else could see gently.

On the way back, he held the corner of Mo Yi Cheng’s jacket and refused to let go. It wasn’t until Chen Jiao drove the car onto the highway that Yuan Suo looked at Mo Yi Cheng as if waking up from a dream and asked, “Mo Yi Cheng, if I hadn’t met you, what would have become of me right now?”

It was as if Mo Yi Cheng had been hit as his breathing stagnated. Such a small and silly thing, if had met a bad person, maybe he wouldn’t even be alive. Even though he had met him first, he had also suffered a lot of in the first days.

He held Yuan Suo in his arms in distress and rubbed the fine soft hair at the back of his neck. There was no if. It was only when he hugged the small thing close to him that he felt a little relieved.

“There’s no if, we met, and I will continue to stay by your side in the future.” He said softly.

Yuan Suo was silent for a long time, then opened his mouth: “I met Po Fei today.”

Mo Yi Cheng tensed, “The little elf that hurt you before?” Could it be that the little thing was unhappy because of this? “Why, what did he do?”

Yuan Suo said: “Nothing, he’s good, I mean he’s good to me now and he apologized to me, and…. also smiled at me, but he’s having a bad time.”

“He said that to you?” Mo Yi Cheng was still wary of Po Fei.

“He didn’t say that, it’s my own feeling. We met in the corridor today, and he looked very tired as he moved items.”

“So you think he’s having a bad time?”

Yuan Suo pursed his lips, “Not really, I’m with Mo Yi Cheng. If I’m asked to do Po Fei’s work, I’ll also be tired, but my heart won’t be tired and my eyes wouldn’t have…. unhappiness in them. I didn’t see happiness in Po Fei’s eyes, but rather a sense of despair and powerlessness. “

Mo Yi Cheng was touched by Yuan Suo’s unintentional ‘words of love’. He pinched his soft face, “Is Du Du trying to help him?”

Yuan Suo nodded vigorously, “En, I want to help him.” However after saying this his shoulders slumped, “But Long Bow said that a certain senior tried to help him before, but didn’t succeed.”

Mo Yi Cheng comforted the little thing, “It’s okay, I believe Du Du is more powerful than all of them and will succeed in whatever he wants to do.”

“Really?” Yuan Suo’s eyes lit up.

“Really, but before that don’t be impulsive, let’s understand the specific situation first before we try to figure out a solution, ok?”

“En!”

There was news from Kan Ming’s side. The two security personnel he had sent a few days ago did see the drunk man Yuan Suo had described, but he didn’t do anything drastic. He simply took the money from Fang Ya left.

Mo Yi Cheng instructed, “If there’s nothing more, dismiss them.”

“Alright.”

“Right, find a way to investigate one of the workers on the tenth floor of the XX building where I had the interview today. He’s probably a porter or he does some odd jobs. He should be less than 20 years old. He’s thin and pale with a somewhat gloomy face. I’ll send you a picture of his specific appearance in a moment.”

“Alright, second young master.” Kan Ming hang up and a message arrived immediately. He opened it to see a hand-drawn portrait sketch. He was really thin and gloomy like Mo Yi Cheng described.

Because the information wasn’t specific enough and because Po Fei was only a temporary worker, the investigation took some time.

Three days later, Kan Ming handed a file containing information to Mo Yi Cheng.

Lin Po Fei, male, 17 years old, place of origin: S City. It wasn’t a strange thing to see elves living in the outside world, because after reaching a certain level the system would automatically assist them with registration and other things including an ID card, just like the situation with Long Bow.

According to the information, Po Fei was now a dropout, and his address was in the outer ring of a low-rent building area.

“The specific family situation is a bit complicated.” Kan Ming frowned, “He lives with a man and the initial suspicion is that this man is his owner. According to the investigation, the man was an automobile engineer in a factory in his early years and his work prospects were okay, but it’s unknown why he suddenly became addicted to gambling and alcohol and he owes certain loan sharks. He has a wife who became a vegetable after being involved in a car accident a few years ago and is now in a care center.”

The look in Mo Yi Cheng’s eyes turned serious. Fortunately, he hadn’t called the little thing to listen to the results with him. An elf falling into the hands of such an owner was really sad.

“Anything else?” The index finger on the hand on his face tapped his temple repeatedly.

“And… the man’s name is Fang Gui and he has a sister.”

Mo Yi Cheng guessed sharply, “… Fang Ya?”

Kan Ming nodded, “Yes.”

Chapter 54.2 If I hadn’t met you

When Yuan Suo found out that Po Fei’s owner was the drunkard, he became very depressed, which fuelled his determination to do his part to help more.

He contacted Long Bow and Su Yi, and although the two of them were at very high levels, they both said that they had never heard of ‘forcefully’ changing an owner and that the system stipulated that the player’s transfer of authority was entirely based on their own will. It was only possible if the player’s life was in danger or an unpredictable eventuality occurred, and even with that, the consent of the elf was needed. In other words, it meant that Po Fei had agreed to transfer himself to Fang Gui at that time.

“Maybe at that time Fang Gui hadn’t fallen to this stage.” Long Bow messaged.

“Hmm, it must have been like this.” Yuan Suo replied to his message, then put his tablet down and walked around. Suddenly, a light bulb went off in his head. Maybe…. Grandpa Abel would know! After all, among all the elves he knew, Grandpa Abel was the oldest and seemed to know a lot about the game.

Thinking like this, he waved at Mo Yi Cheng, changed his clothes quickly and got ready to go to the park. When Marshmallow saw him going out, he blocked the doorway and showed his little belly, refusing to get out of the way. Having no other choice, Yuan Suo could only attach his leash and take Marshmallow with his short legs out as well.

He took a bus to the park and the NPC lady in charge of checking identities at the entrance hugged Marshmallow and kissed him several times before letting them in.

From a distance, he saw two familiar figures inside the gazebo. There was English afternoon tea on the stone table and Grandpa Abel was rubbing his chin in contemplation as he looked at the stalemate game of chess in front of him while Anie flipped through a book calmly and elegantly with a blanket over her lap.

“Bark, bark, bark!” Marshmallow greeted before Yuan Suo could say anything.

Anie and Abel were very happy to see Yuan Suo. One couldn’t tell from Abel’s cold face face that he liked the fluffy marshmallow, but once marshmallow went up to him, he hugged him and refused to let go.

As they spoke, Yuan Suo revealed his purpose for coming today.

Abel thought silently for a while then said solemnly: “The situation of an elf not getting along well with his player has happened before, but it’s because the system only screened to a certain extent when it was matching the player and elf that was why such a careless mistake occurred. Usually, conflicts between the two can be resolved, so there’s no way to forcibly undo it for the time being. Otherwise you can resolve the conflict between the two, or help the player change, which is a more effective method.”

Anie who hadn’t spoken up until now finally couldn’t help saying, “But it’s easier to change the mountains and rivers than for a person to change his character.”

Three people fell into a long silence. It was only Marshmallow on the other hand that brought out his tongue, not bothered at all as his little dark eyes narrowed into a slit from smiling.

“Or…. there’s a way, although there’s a certain risk.”

“What way?” The tea in Yuan Suo’s hand almost spilled over.

Abel said, “After an elf reaches level 50, the system automatically alerts the player as well as the elf that they can use a certain permission and that is the game self-start mode.”

“Game self-start mode?” Yuan Suo was confused.

“As you know, every elf game start-up needs to be operated by a player, but after the elf reaches level 50, the player can choose to transfer some of the rights to the elf, and the elf can start the game outside the game itself.”

“Doesn’t that mean…. that the elf can be detached from the player?”

“To a certain extent, but the operation of this mode is difficult, after all, the carrier housing the elf is generally some sort of electronic equipment. It can get damaged, run out of power or experience some sort of unexpected situation. At that time the elf would need external help and that period is the best time to rely on their player. But I’m afraid that it would be very difficult to achieve this in Po Fei’s case, because for that mode to work and for the player to transfer some of the rights, the elf’s favorability level for the player needs to reach level 70 or more.”

In short, after all was said and done, the reality of Po Fei’s situation didn’t allow him to change his current owner.

Yuan Suo returned to the apartment from the park and saw that Mo Yi Cheng was already waiting for him and that lunch was ready in the dining room.

He told Mo Yi Cheng everything Abel had said and fed Marshmallow before coming out of the game. As he sat opposite Mo Yi Cheng, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Seeing that the little thing didn’t have an appetite, he realized that the already thorny situation had become much more thorny. He rubbed his forehead and sensitive to his emotions, only said, “Eat a little more.” Then he feathered his finger gently across his small nose. He was worried about Yuan Suo. The little meat that hadn’t been easy to put on the little thing’s bones had all vanished.

“Hmm.” Yuan Suo looked at his favorite braised meat inside the bowl then at the worried look in Mo Yi Cheng’s eyes and struggled to reveal a smile, “En!”

—

The sun was setting and the afterglow of the sun spread over the uneven slab of oily road. A black Land Rover pulled over to the side of the alley to take shelter from the blowing wind.

The man in the car had been here for two days. The man in the driver’s seat rubbed his slightly sore eyes and took two sips of the coffee that had become cold. The air condition in the car was at the highest level but it was inexplicably a little suffocating. He couldn’t help but roll the window down to get some fresh air.

At this moment, a thin teenager came from afar, carrying a handy bag in his hand, his back somewhat hunched uncontrollably. His peaked cap was pressed down so low that he could barely see his eyes, only his two thin lips that were pursed together were clearly visible.

Kan Ming subconsciously reached into his pocket but found that there was no cigarette inside. He rummaged around the car for a while, then found it was finished. He looked up only to see the teenager crouching on the ground and don’t know where he found the half piece of broken porcelain bowl, he carefully dished some of the food from the handy bag then put the rest away.

Soon, two kittens meowed as they ran over, looking to be very familiar with the teenager. They buried their heads to feast on the food in the bowl and although there wasn’t a smile on the teenager’s face, the air around him seemed to have softened at this moment.

Kan Ming’s eyes fell on the food that the teenager poured out and found that it was leftovers from his ordinary box lunch. The teenager brought back things like this two days in a row and he had basically determined that it was from his part-time job somewhere. The teenager saved his lunch….. not only to feed the kittens, but to use it for his own dinner as well.

Seeing that the teenager had gotten up and was walking towards him, he hesitated for a moment before opening the door and getting out.