No Time

A busy few weeks commenced.

The new deals were well-received and although some of them needed revising, they only took a couple of days. Intense days of no rest...

Everyone in the office celebrated as they would now get less work and not be too much of a corporate slave anymore.

We held a party, drank booze, and sang our hearts out at the karaoke station. Secretary Jing couldn't hold himself together so his wife came to get him. As for me, nobody could beat me in drinking.

The sky turned dark, the party was over, I walked home in a happy mood.

The next day, with a slight hangover, I made myself some congee for a hangover cure and took a cold shower.

Feeling refreshed, I took half an hour to pick out an appropriate outfit for Ah Bao's 100th day.

When I arrived, the venue was already full of people.

Ge and my brother-in-law had picked out a venue since Lu Han's family both wanted to have Ah Bao's 100th-day celebration at their "humble home".

Ge didn't mind but worrying that there could be implications of choosing one side over the other, he decided to rent a venue.

The venue was large and fancy, it was mostly for community recreation activities. Imagine aunties square dancing in a ballroom court...

Anyways, it was a good choice. The venue was decorated with red everything. Red flowers, red ribbons, red balloons, etc...

There were already a lot of people here. For instance, Xiao Lai and Lu Han's mother, Irene.

They were laughing and chatting delightedly, so much that Lu Han's father, Lu Ming, was brooding.

The situation was funny and cute, but a jealous man was never an agreeable man, so I quickly took Xiao Lai away.

When I looked back, Irene was consoling her husband by holding his face in her face and smiling at him.

...nevermind, she was teasing and laughing at him.

Ge was talking with Di Li Feng.

They noticed us,

"Where-" I barely got half of the sentence out before I was enthusiastically interrupted.

Di Li Feng grabbed my hands and held them tightly.

He smiled brightly as he thanked me, "Shui Yu, thank you so much! The show will be fun and not tiring at all! You won't regret it! Thank you!"

I gave a half-hearted reply. I hoped nothing would go wrong.

Di Li Feng soon went away to go look for his boyfriend.

Ge smiled at me and patted my back.

"Thanks for doing this. I owe a lot to Feng Ge."

"Any time. He did help you out as a senior and friend."

"Mhm."

"So, where's Ah Bao?"

Ge put on a strange look on his face and soon burst out in laughter.

"Did you know, Lu Han bought more than 200 outfits for her? He's trying to decide which clothing is best. Ah Bao's 100th day is going to be casual, so she doesn't have some kind of special outfit picked out. Lu Han should be bringing her right about now."

And lo, a familiar figure hurriedly rushed in with a baby in a poofy red dress.

The event started and the highlight of the event soon came on.

A row of objects was placed on a long table.

Pen, brush, medicine, gun, yarn, book, fur, all sorts of items were placed.

Definitely a mix-mash of everything, not your typical 100th-day ceremony.

Ambient music played and the atmosphere turned warm.

The chattering was loud, but as soon as Irene got up on the stage, all turned quiet.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming to celebrate my granddaughter's 100th day ceremony! We're going to let her choose future 'goal' objects and after that please enjoy the entertainment provided!"

Everyone clapped politely and soon, each guest who had provided the table with an object came by to stand next to the long array of tables.

I hadn't particularly picked out an object, but I did have things in my space that could work.

Meanwhile... Xiao Lai had put at least 20 items on the table and made a small mountain with them.

There all sorts of items on the tables, and I didn't want my item to be the same as others, so I could only go for a simple choice.

Money.

Um, in this case, seeing how Ah Bao had on sunglasses for some reason, it was strangely easy to imagine the baby fling money into the air like a tyrant. Money wasn't much now in the base, but some people still wanted it to throw around. It also turned out to be a useful prop in movies.

Ah Bao was an energetic child, more so since she had parents who were ability users and zombie trial receivers. Maybe since her parents both went through the original zombie trial, she was stronger than children born to zombie reagent receivers.

Anyhow, even with a long line of things that would tire a normal person out, Ah Bao was still lying in Ge's arms calmly, sucking on her thumb.

With her sunglasses on, she really did look like she was in charge here. A boss baby?

Festive music blasted out and the people who hadn't brought in any items, slackers, cheered.

Ah Bao didn't even look at some items.

She didn't pick anything until she got to Xiao Lai, the 8th person.

Xiao Lai was excited and Ah Bao was happy to meet him too.

She generously picked out 3 items by tapping at them.

Those 3 items were a crystal orb, a fancy set of small bells, and a picture book.

After that, Ah Bao did certainly pick out more.

For instance, Ah Bao picked up: A gun, a glass dip pen, a fluffy coat, a watch, a microscope, a softball, etc.

She picked out so many things that it was more like picking out concubines waiting to receive favor rather than selecting a wife.

Well, it's nice to say that Ah Bao did pick up my stack of money.

Ah Bao also picked out Xiao Bing's item.

Xiao Bing had been busy these days, only coming home to sleep, so I had thought that she wouldn't have been able to make it.

But she did and her item was more well-prepared than mine.

It was a delicate glass sculpture of an elusive form. It looked like a cube that had burst out, melted, shattered and turned into bubbles. If it wasn't for Ah Bao, I would have certainly wanted it.

Xiao Bing was certainly well-prepared.

She knew that Ah Bao liked shiny things and things that had a nice texture.

So of course, without any suspense, Ah Bao had chosen the glass sculpture.

Ah Bao was also happy to meet her aunt and patted Xiao Bing on the cheeks.

Xiao Bing laughed and asked, "Is Ah Bao choosing me too?"

Her voice cracked.

I took a good look at Xiao Bing to realize that she wasn't in that great of a state. She looked haggard but bright. This probably was the use of water abilities, making her skin look supple when she had dark eye circles.

She was too young and I should've stopped her from working...

She was still only 14.

I had been too harsh and strict since the beginning and failed to realize that my siblings were still young. Xiao Lai was still 16, Ge was 20. They were younger than I was when I had died.

Xiao Lai and Xiao Bing were still children, minors.

I wish I could go back again and raise them up normally.

Actually, could I do tha-

Cheers interrupted my thought and I put my focus back on the main character of this party.

I tried to focus on the celebration, but I couldn't anymore.

If what I thought could actually be possible, that would mean I could go back and fix any mistakes again.

But what if this new life was a one time use? Or a limited quantity use?

I didn't want to take chances, but if something bad enough happened...

There was no telling what I would do.