In another world, Lu Mingfei is learning card making.

Once inside the house, Lu Mingfei stuck his chopsticks into the rice and stared at the bowl of food, lost in thought.

Lu Mingfei had already heard the whole story from his "personal butler" at school, but that didn't mean he could understand why such a big change had occurred at home—

Just as he didn't know why his personal butler was in the principal's office at school and even told him about what had happened at home.

"Oh right, I haven't asked her why she was in the principal's office yet." Lu Mingfei slapped his forehead, remembering this.

He was so caught up in the noise of the surroundings and the surprise of seeing the red-robed acolyte that he completely forgot about the most important thing.

But now that he's home, it's not realistic to set off again to ask at the school. So Lu Mingfei just silently reminded himself that he must ask tomorrow—by the way, does making a card 'make' your IQ along with it? Or am I just the kind of person who forgets things as soon as he does them?

Lu Mingfei began to think about the problem, but after a long time, he decided to give up.

It's stupid enough to even think of that statement, but it's even stupider for him to delve into whether he actually fits the description.

However, with this interruption, the problem lingering over the meal could be put aside for now. Lu Mingfei picked up his rice bowl and began to eat heartily.

While there is indeed a kind of 'dining etiquette' in Western culture, first-year students are still children, and no one would bother with such trivial matters. Therefore, among the four houses, only the freshmen of the House of Nobles pay attention to the etiquette of those around them, while most of the other houses do not even look at it.

Lu Mingfei still remembers the person who left a deep impression on him at the entrance ceremony. This person would even cut the beans open with a knife and eat them by sticking them in the food during the banquet.

"Doesn't table manners include the etiquette of using a spoon? Must one use a knife and fork to eat beans?"

He remembered asking Rong En the question in this way, so Rong En specially scooped up a bowl of peas with a large spoon and ate them all with the spoon—no one paid any attention to him, so Lu Mingfei gradually opened up.

Until he left, he and Rong En were like two starving ghosts at the dinner table, two greedy snakes.

There was no way around it; young people are still growing and naturally eat a lot. The two of them also had to do physical training, so they ate even more. The halfling chef remembered that there were two big eaters among the new students of the Knight Academy, so he had to add an extra steak, two Yorkshire puddings, and a spoonful of extra gravy to their meals.

Lu Mingfei felt he would never forget the taste of that spoonful of meat gravy. It was different from the braised pork gravy made by his aunt with soy sauce and MSG. The halfling chef's gravy was made by stewing beef bones in a pot for half an hour, with meat being added continuously during the process, resulting in a thick and creamy gravy that tasted like liquid beef.

As they talked, Lu Mingfei got hungry. He finished all the rice and gravy in his bowl and still felt it wasn't enough. But if he went out and got some more food...

He felt it wasn't worth it, after all, his aunt's cooking skills were just so-so, not as good as the professional chefs at St. Mary's College.

The door lock slid open easily, and Lu Mingze slipped in through the crack. He was twelve years old and in sixth grade. Overall, he looked alright, but his rather noticeable belly and lingering baby fat gave him the first impression of being 'obese'.

He came in and, without speaking to Lu Mingfei, lay down on the bed and turned his head to stare at the moonlight streaming down. A quarrel broke out outside the door, stirring up a cloud of dust that seemed to mark the moonlight using the Tyndall effect.

"Hey, cousin," Lu Mingze finally managed to say after a long pause, "Do you know where my parents took me?"

"To the police station?" Lu Mingfei didn't intend to say anything sarcastic. He preferred to speak politely. "My uncle told me that we're getting a divorce because of money."

"No, not just the police station, there's another one..." Lu Mingze let out a long breath, as if he were expelling every last bit of flesh from his body, "...a paternity testing center."

"My dad suspects my mom, and he wants me to do a paternity test with him."

"...This should be considered a good thing, right?" Lu Mingfei kicked the foot of his bed. "Given Uncle's personality, if he finds out he wronged Aunt, he will definitely apologize with deep remorse—and there's also the money my parents send back, 100,000 a month."

"The family crisis will be resolved in six months, won't it? What are you worried about?"

"I'm worried..." Lu Mingze groaned in a dreamlike voice, "Dad didn't wrong Mom, we really aren't cousins."

The room fell into a deathly silence.

Lu Mingfei tried to open his mouth, but found he couldn't utter a single word. What right did he have to speak? Given his relationship with his aunt, he feared that any word he uttered would be suspected of being sarcastic or unhelpful…

But without Lu Mingfei saying anything more, Lu Mingze began to continue on his own: "When Dad was about to drive to the paternity testing center, Mom kept making a fuss on the way."

"But if I really am my father's child, why did my mother try to stop me? She even threw a tantrum at the paternity testing center, sitting on the tiles by the door and refusing to get up no matter what we did..."

"Think about it, if she were really confident, would she have done that? She could have just gone in openly, just like you said, and solved every problem..."

At this point, Lu Mingze stopped talking and simply lay sprawled on the bed, staring at the falling moonlight.

Looking at his cousin, who was a year younger than him, Lu Mingfei suddenly didn't know what to say.

Because this "child" seemed to have grown up in an instant, while Lu Mingfei was still stuck in childhood—adults can't listen to important things or comforting words from children.

"...Then, if anything comes up, just let me know." Lu Mingfei patted his chest. "My parents send a lot of money; they can afford to send another person to school."

"Thank you, brother." Lu Mingze kept staring at the beam of moonlight until the dark clouds drifted away and the pure white light could no longer be seen.

"I'll go wash the dishes." He rolled over and got up, taking Lu Mingfei's bowl from the table. The arguing outside the door served as background noise when the two were talking, but when Lu Mingfei was alone, it became quiet, so quiet it was almost frightening.

Lu Mingfei covered his eyes and lay down on the bed. The sounds of running water and washing dishes replaced the argument, and a strange thought slowly surfaced in Lu Mingfei's mind:

Shouldn't we have avoided letting the red-robed acolyte go out and give her access to the internet? Otherwise, my uncle and aunt's family could at least have survived and wouldn't have collapsed like this.