The day they arrived at Tianhu District was clear and sunny, the sunlight gently enveloped the earth, bringing brightness and good mood to the people. As soon as everyone got down from the leap point, they saw a familiar figure, with sharp eyes like a torch and a tall and winding body.
Tian Yuan’s commonly used body was well known in the Tianhu District, so he had deliberately changed his skin for travel. The children of the Jing family were most familiar with his almost human-like body, and were thrilled to see it from afar. After greeting Jing Man, they swarmed over and surrounded Tian Yuan.
“Uncle Tian Yuan! It’s been a long time, I missed you so much!”
“ZhiZhi missed you too! Look how tall I’ve grown!”
“I’ve been waiting for a long time to come and play with us, so I came to find you myself.”
The children were talking so much that they couldn’t even hear what they were saying. But this was not a problem with Tian Yuan, who could handle hundreds of audio tracks at the same time and could clearly distinguish the voices of the children.
With a smile on his face, Tian Yuan leaned over and chatted with the children while quietly recording their growth with the cameras built into both eyes.
The last time they met, the children were barely a year old, and now they were running around like 4 or 5 year olds. This made him even more interested in what Mu CangZhou called “inter-stage egg breeding technology”.
Jing Man and Mu CangZhou had more contact with Tian Yuan and did not feel that it had been a long time since they had seen each other. So, they simply said hello and followed them, listening to their childish conversations with smiles in the corners of their eyes.
This time when Jing Man’s family stayed at the Five Seasons Hotel, Tian Yuan negotiated with the hotel and asked for a suite built on the first floor. The rooms on the first floor had always been for the exclusive use of the treants and now ZhiZhi’s body mutation could completely turn into tree form.
In order to recover their body and consume the excess energy as soon as possible, they needed to allow the roots to grow more freely in a microclimate room.
The other children had already turned into humans and the hotel’s own microclimate room could no longer play a beneficial role, so this suite was designed for treants. The entire living room was the microclimate room and the path to the bedrooms were not paved with flooring, so that treants could draw energy from the soil at any time. The interior was very forest-like, but unlike the white frost-covered forests of the snow forest area, the atmosphere here was gentler and softer, reminiscent of lush broadleaf forests.
ZhiZhi had long been prepared for a bitter battle, and as soon as their things were packed up, they couldn’t wait to take root in the center of the living room and turn into a leafy peach tree. The double petals of peach blossoms were cascading on the branches, more abundant than before on the snowy mountains, and suddenly the room was filled with a fragrant and sweet smell.
Tian Yuan tilted his head, staring at the peach tree, turned on the video mode and murmured, “ZhiZhi is so beautiful…”
At this point, ZhiZhi could not communicate with the non-tree people, and was overwhelmed by the words, but could only shake the top of the tree to express their joy.
Jing Man told Tian Yuan about this small change in time, and the three adults quietly admired the beauty of the peach tree. But soon, the calm, peach-colored water was stirred up in waves.
The other children were used to the original form of ZhiZhi these days and could not appreciate the romance of it.
Without waiting for the dads to arrange it, they spontaneously came under the peach tree and ran around turning things over to set it up, saying they wanted to stay here with ZhiZhi.
Jing Man smiled helplessly as the children chattered and played under the tree, which made it impossible for people to quietly enjoy the beauty of the peach blossoms. They chatted for a while, Xiao Jin found the picnic cloth from the luggage, and arranged for the younger siblings to order food and load the plates.
The trip to the snowy forest area was worthwhile, the children had perfected the skills of how to survive in the wild and work together.
Jing Man rubbed his chin in thought.
The way the kids were arranging things on the picnic cloth was overly skilled, not as if they were accompanying ZhiZhi, but as if they were really enjoying the flowers here… ZhiZhi in their tree form was shielded from external perception, trying to root into the soil and trying to focus on consuming the excess energy in the body.
The majority of the day had passed, but it did not feel like they had used up a lot.
Thinking that they were not working hard enough, they silently increased their efforts, yet things did not show any sign of improvement. ZhiZhi stopped growing and started to review, and suddenly it occurred to them that the soil at the Five Seasons Hotel was very fertile, so maybe that was the reason.
The energy they needed to grow was all received from the outside world, so they did not consume less than their own above. They may have to change the microclimate room, the more barren the better. With that thought, they hurried into human form. As soon as they raised their eyes and saw the scene in front of them, ZhiZhi’s whole body froze, and their heart was flooded with feelings of emotion.
Their dear daddy and brothers completely disregarded the filthy dirt! Abandoned their proper business! Staying close to them and watching over them!
Jing Man was startled when the shade overhead was suddenly gone. Turning back to see ZhiZhi standing there with red corners of their eyes, he hurriedly put away the terminal and ran over.
Jing Man smiled worriedly, squeezed ZhiZhi’s fat hand and asked, “What’s the matter ZhiZhi, didn’t you say you wanted to absorb the energy urgently and turn into a tree shape for this whole time?”
ZhiZhi sniffled and squeezed out a smile to explain the reason.
It turned out they wanted to cry and that was okay. Jing Man also did not question them and directly arranged the hotel to change rooms.
After some deliberation, the family moved to a suite commonly used by the aquarium. This room had plenty of sunlight and water, but the soil was very poor, most plants would be unable to take root in the golden sand. ZhiZhi transformed into a peach tree to feel things out, as a peach tree, it would be very difficult to live here.
Their body quickly mobilized the residual energy in their body, just as they wanted.
So, they shook the left branch to indicate, after which they fell into the journey of absorbing energy. The change of room had little effect on the others, except that it changed from watching the broad-leaved forest, and listening to the insects and birds, to watching the blue sea and blue sky, and listening to the waves roll in.
Xiao Shui was considered to have taken advantage of ZhiZhi, as this environment was the most beneficial to him. He didn’t hesitate for even a second to come here and darted into the sea to roam, enjoying the cool seawater passing through his fingers.
Later, Xiao Shui could not help but transform into his medusa form, with his hair flowing freely in the sea without wind. The sunlight shines on them, gilding them with a soft glow, making them beautiful.
ZhiZhi absorbed so much energy that it took a month to regain their original slim body. In fact, it could have been done in twenty days if they had gone all out, but Jing Man had slowed them down at a later stage for fear that their sudden weight loss would affect their health.
Some of the lateral weight was transformed into height, and now ZhiZhi was really the tallest among their brothers. The child was so happy that they accidentally changed their gender to female and celebrated by wearing a little dress for a few days.
The other children were also very respectful, even Xiao Jin would call ZhiZhi his sister when she was a girl.
The kids had missed too many classes, and with finals coming up in a while, Jing Man took the large family on the return trip without stopping.
The Jing family’s children had developed good habits since they were young, and while they were in Tianhu District, except for ZhiZhi, who was focused on losing weight, the other children didn’t miss their cultural lessons while having fun.
When the end of the year came, all the children got good grades, except for ZhiZhi who had a low score in one course. When the parent-teacher conference was held, the teacher gave face to the children, praising again and again, really envious of the others.
The approach of winter break often meant the end of the year. While the people of Sky Blue Star were complaining that the taste of New Year was getting lighter and lighter, an official announcement was made – Sky Blue Star had successfully approached the intelligent creature from the alien planet, Zaka, and after much understanding and preparation, would officially join the Wisdom Galaxy next year.
This news was immediately released and the whole planet boiled up. Although most scientists had always believed that there must be other civilizations outside the Sky Blue Star, for millions of years few people had touched the edge.
Now, this age-old problem was solved so simply, and in one step. No need to spend all the manpower and resources to search the vastness of the universe, and did not have to slowly make contact with the unknown.
In one fell swoop, it became one of them!
It was like a dream!
However, they also knew that the officials would never joke with such a big event, so all carried a stomach full of questions every day in the star network, waiting for Zaka to open a live stream. During this time, every day he would open a four hour live broadcast, two hours to exchange information with the official staff, and two hours to answer the questions of netizens.
At first, there were many conservatives who held opposing views. However, as time passed day by day, the officials, as if peeling a silk cocoon, released all the benefits of joining the Wisdom Galaxy, directly sealing their mouths.
Join and they could experience and learn more advanced technology, who does not crave! If they joined, they would have the opportunity to experience the customs of other planets, who does not want to do so?! Who wouldn’t want to join and have the opportunity to experience the customs of other planets?
However, the official meeting with Zaka was vague and did not mention meeting Jing Man’s family at all, which was just what they wanted.
On New Year’s Eve, there was an air of joy and happiness everywhere, and the whole planet was filled with the joy of witnessing a historical milestone. Jing Man and Mu CangZhou didn’t want to join in the fun, so they took the children and ran to their parents’ house in one go.
After the relationship with their parents eased, they met often, but always at Jing Man’s house. Jing Man’s old house was a very strange Eden for the children. Upon entering, the caretaker children took off their coats and handed them to the butler AI.
Jing Man smiled and asked their mom who came to greet them, “Happy New Year’s Eve, Mom, isn’t Dad home?”
Yan Xiu’er kissed her grandchildren one by one, heard this, and her beautiful eyes wandered. She spoke with some anger, “He went to a meeting again, I don’t know how many meetings he has to hold day after day. He can’t even come back in time for the New Year!”
Seeing this, Jing Man echoed indignantly, “Yes, I specifically told him that I would bring the children back today, but I was still pigeonholed, I have never seen such a father.”
The words in this line completely forget that in the past twenty years, most of the time father and son, mother and son were only online contact states. It wouldn’t have been possible to spend New Year’s Eve together in such an intimate way. Don’t even think about it.
Showing a helpless smile, Mu CangZhou coughed lightly and tried to correct his father-in-law’s name, “ManMan, don’t say that. Mr. Jing is doing a good job for the country and for the people. After being promoted to the district chief of QingYuan District he has a lot more responsibility on his shoulders.”