Ready or not
Trigger warning: Suicidal ideation. Readers discretion is advised. The author doesn't agree with any incident taking place in the book .
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"No," Luo Huian refused. How could she be a hunter when she was not even from this world? Luo Huian rolled her eyes and said to Pan Delan, "Hold on tight kid. If you are left behind, I am not coming back to you."
"That's terrible. Because I feel like my stomach was left behind," Pan Delan sarcastically jibed at Luo Huian who raised a brow and stated with a sly smirk, "I can go slower but can your Dearest Daddy wait till then?"
Sure enough, her words were enough to silence Pan Delan who glared at Luo Huian unhappily. Luo Huian did not bother with the glare of the child as she had never been a woman who had cared about others. She rushed past the streets with Pan Delan in her arms.
The two of them did not stop until the paper bird which had been brought to life by Luo Huian stopped. It was fluttering in front of a dilapidated, small and ransacked building. It was not only old but also terribly damaged, it was as if a single gust of wind could topple the building onto the ground.
"How could my daddy be here?" Pan Delan was simply stupefied, she had never seen such a terrible building in all her life. The yellowing paint that was peeling off from the walls, moss and broken stairs. It was something she had seen in the TV series but she had never been close to a building like this before.
Luo Huian also scrunched up her nose. She grew up in a valley which was surrounded by flowers and delicate trees that gave off a subtle sweet scent. Even the beasts in the immortal world did not dirty the land making it impossible for any sort of smell to float in the air.
When she smelled the damp, disgusting scent that made her want to throw up, Luo Huian was really disgusted. She said, "If the puppet brought us here then it means that your father is here. Let's go, we need to take a look."
She had full trust in her skills, there was no way she could have made a mistake.
when Pan Delan heard that her daddy was here, she was a bit confused. She did not want to believe that her father was in a run-down place like this. However, when she saw Luo Huian already making her way to the staircase, Pan Delan gritted her teeth and then followed her.
The two of them climbed up the stairs that were broken and covered with rush and dirt. Pan Delan held her skirt as she did not want it to be ruined by the mud that was sticking to the metal of the stairs.
"Are you sure that my daddy is here, sister? Why would he come here when he is so rich? He has so many apartments and houses!" Pan Delan had seen the wealth that her father had, so it was simply beyond her understanding as to why her father was in this place.
Luo Huian shoved her hands in the pockets of her pants and stated coldly, "Little kid, you are only five. I don't think that you know your father that well."
When someone was pushed to the edge or was reaching the end of their life, they wanted to be at the place which held their most fondest memories. Even if that place was rotten, the thing was broken or the person was heartless, as long as they held dear memories, that thing would be precious in the eyes of the person who had reached his or her limits.
"I am not a little Kid, I have a name and that's Pan Delan. You can call me Lan Lan, I will generously allow that as you are helping me," Pan Delan said to Luo Huian who snorted and stated casually, "Thanks but no thanks, I have a little ick towards generosity. Especially a little brat's."
Pan Delan did not know what Luo Huian meant by that but she knew that Luo Huian was looking down at her.
"How dare you!" Pan Delan puffed her cheeks as she looked at Luo Huian. "I am the princess of the Pan family, I am being so lenient with you and you are taking a mile because I gave you an inch."
"With you being so short, how many inches can you afford to lend me a mile?" Luo Huian walked up to the door where the bird was jabbing its beak. She smelled a foul smell from inside and furrowed her brows.
"It's LPG," Xiao Hei told Luo Huian. "Though it's harmless if a person was to close himself or herself for hours without any outlet for the gas to leak, it can lead to suffocation and fatal death."
Luo Huian's eyes widened. She turned to look at the child who was peering down, she was trying to look inside the room but couldn't see anything.
"I can't see my daddy," she said, her voice muffled as she spoke while pressing her face on the ground.
'It's a good thing you can't, the last thing I want is a crying, fussy kid with trauma thrown as salt sprinkled on top,' Luo Huian thought as she said, "Get away kid, this is not for you to see." She might be heartless but if that mer was dead, she did not want Pan Delan to see his dead body.
Wasn't she oh so kind?
Xiao Hei and Xiao Bai:"…" That's the bare minimum as the keeper of peace.
"But…"
"Close your eyes and cover your ears, if you count to a hundred, your daddy will be in front of you," Luo Huian did not give the girl a chance to speak. Time was running out and they needed to get that mer out of the room. When Luo Huian looked at Pan Delan solemnly, the little girl knew that she was serious.
She immediately covered her ears and closed her eyes and no sooner did she do it than Luo Huian raised her foot before yelling, "Ready or not here I come!"