A young man from another world returned to his hometown.

The temporary commercial street opposite the middle school was originally built by Lin Jiayao, who rented out the first floor of the road on both sides of the national highway. As a result, more and more people gathered there to do small businesses, and it formed on its own.

There's everything for sale. On market days, the smoke from grilled oysters mingles with the aroma of coconut from dessert shops, the tempting sweet rice balls, and the fragrance of various snack stalls, all wafting all the way to the other end of the street.

The street was bustling with people. Workers in overalls flocked here in groups of three or five after work, while young women from government jobs walked in pairs, each carrying a milk tea.

"Two skewers of fried food!"

"Boss lady, one order of stir-fried snails, please!"

"Add an extra spoonful of chili to the cold noodles!"

The quiet country roadside, which was peaceful just a few months ago, is now bustling like a New Year's market. Xier is holding Nia's hand, and Lin Yan is carrying Miki. The four of them are walking on the street.

"Wow!"

Nia's eyes weren't enough to take it all in; her little head kept turning around.

"Mom, look at that! It's even smoking!"

"It's Mom... no, it's my older sister!"

Syl has given up trying to correct her. Miki leans closer to a sugar painting stall, her eyes wide.

The stall owner was using a spoonful of golden syrup to draw a lifelike monkey on a stone slab.

"What... what kind of magic is this?"

Miki was stunned.

"Sugar painting."

Lin Yan smiled and said, "I'll scan the QR code to pay the vendor."

"One for each of you, what do you want?"

"dragon!"

"Phoenix!"

The two little ones were jumping around with their hands raised. The old man's wrists were flying, and in no time, two sugar paintings were handed to the two little ones. Nia held up the sugar painting and looked at it closely. The sugar dragon was an Eastern dragon, while Nia was a Western dragon.

She frowned slightly and said very seriously.

"This dragon... doesn't look like a dragon at all; it doesn't seem very intelligent."

Lin Yan laughed and gave Nia's head a good rub.

Syl was drawn to a nearby stall selling innovative rice noodle rolls. She stood on tiptoe and watched as the stall owner poured white rice batter into a metal pan, put on the lid, and steam billowed out.

A few dozen seconds later, the lid is lifted, the snow-white rice noodle roll is scraped off with a small spatula, coated with fruit and jam, and then put into the refrigerator to chill.

"...Wow! It looks delicious, so chewy and bouncy."

Syl's ears twitched slightly, and his whole body lit up.

"Honey, how was this made? How did the rice milk become such a thin layer?"

Lin Yan was completely bewildered as he watched the colorful jams and fruit pieces being wrapped in rice paper and even stuffed into the refrigerator.

His mouth twitched violently, as if his culinary DNA had been subjected to an unprecedented attack.

"Wait... rice noodle rolls... can rice noodle rolls actually be made into a dessert?!"

However, as Syl tilted his head more curiously, and as Nia and Miki looked on with longing eyes, he saw his elven wife's expectant eyes.

Lin Yan sighed helplessly, swallowed the culinary disaster that was about to enter his mouth, and resignedly took out his phone to scan the QR code on the stall.

"Alright... Boss, three servings of dessert rice noodle rolls, please."

Lin Yan felt quite pleased watching the curious expressions on the faces of the group as they explored the new world.

This kind of warmth and life was something he had never experienced during all those years of fighting in that other world.

The little ones quickly filled their hands with things, and Nia mumbled something while stuffing it into her mouth.

"Dad... about school... can we talk about it again...?"

"cannot."

"..."

Nia gritted her teeth and took a bite of the oyster fritter, imagining it was Lin Yan.

……

The four people were having a great time when a motorcycle drove by. The rider noticed Lin Yan and stopped.

"President Lin!"

Section Chief Ma was wearing a drab gray coat, and his face looked terrible.

"Section Chief Ma?"

Lin Yan was somewhat surprised.

"Where are you rushing off to?"

Section Chief Ma took a breath.

"Sigh, two people were arrested. My colleagues in town called me and asked me to come over. Zhou Derong and Uncle Liu were arrested. Do you remember Liu Xiaohui? The girl that you guys supported for her education, Mr. Lin? Her father was arrested."

Lin Yan found it a bit strange.

"What happened?"

As a cadre in a small place, Section Chief Ma sighed again.

"The policies are very strict now, and environmental protection is a red line. Anyone who crosses it will be in trouble. But these two are really bold. They went and started to refine oil from highly polluting waste tires."

Lin Yan frowned. Section Chief Ma continued.

"Not only that, their oil refining furnace had an accident a while ago, which caused a wildfire."

"..."

Lin Yan paused, holding the milk tea. He and Xier exchanged a glance, and a look of understanding flashed in Xier's eyes. All of this was probably related to Nia.

Lin Yan glanced down at Nia, who was busy dealing with the cotton candy. The little girl looked blissful, her face almost buried in the cotton candy, completely oblivious to the conversation around her.

"...The fire on the back mountain of Niushi Ridge?"

Lin Yan spoke calmly.

"right."

Section Chief Ma nodded emphatically.

"The cause of the fire has been found out on site. It was their oil refining furnace that exploded. The most harmful thing is that the wildfire went viral on short video platforms and generated a lot of discussion. The two of them hid at first, but they were still caught. Now the whole province knows about it."

"..."

He remembered how dirty Nia looked when he got home; he never expected this to happen again.

"The city attaches great importance to this and has already determined that this is a case of defying the law and is extremely serious in nature. They have ordered the suspect to be detained and punished severely."

Section Chief Ma rubbed his temples wearily.

"Liujia Village is under my jurisdiction, and I need to go there to help explain the suspect's situation. Moreover, it involves rural issues. You know, the villagers are very united, so I have to go and make things clear and communicate properly."

He sighed.

"That old Liu guy... sigh, his daughter just started school, what will happen to the whole family if he goes to jail?"

Lin Yan considered for a moment, then patted Section Chief Ma on the shoulder.

"Old Ma, let me ask my cousin to come with you to take a look."

"you?"

Section Chief Ma was taken aback for a moment.

"What are you doing here? It's not appropriate for you to be here in this situation."

"I'm not going in."

Lin Yan shook his head.

"Just look around from the outside."

He didn't voice his inner thoughts.

He had heard his cousin talk about Liu Xiaohui, the girl who was the first child in several nearby villages to voluntarily ask to go to school. He heard that she was a spiritual leader in the rural middle school. She had finally managed to carve out a path for herself. Now that her father was in jail, would reality crush that path again?

He also took a look.

"Alright."

Section Chief Ma didn't ask any more questions. This small place didn't have as many rules as big cities. Official duties and villagers' lives were intertwined, and besides, the person in front of him was the town's big boss.