Chapter 19: Abdominal Blackness and Emotional Investment

  Ma Long woke up and saw the fiery red sun reflected in the dew drops on the evergreen wisteria swaying in the wind outside the window.

  "How long... did I sleep?"

  He withdrew his gaze from the window and sat up halfway, pulling out his hands from the brand new quilt, waking up his cousin Xiao Anwei who was sleeping soundly on the edge of his bed with even snores.

  "Malong brother! You're finally awake!"

  Rubbing her eyes awake, she found that the person who woke her up was Malong. Xiao An immediately let out a surprised and delighted cry.

  "Shh, don't disturb others, Xiao Anwei." Malong made a silencing gesture before asking, "How long did I sleep?"

  The next moment, Xiao Anwei's answer was completely beyond Ma Long's own expectations, because he had slept for a full three days.

  At this time, Ma Long couldn't help but think of the second sentence left by that mysterious spiritual psychic before leaving when he was attending the funeral of his poor aunt, Weena-Liszt.

  "Three days later, come find me at Eshirya's Light."

  Then Ma Long's second thought was -

  Damn it, it must be that guy's doing!

  If it can be said that when Marlon first saw the mysterious spirit sorcerer in the top treehouse of Eshilias' Light, he didn't have any subjective feelings of good or evil towards him, then now Marlon undoubtedly has a strong dislike for him.

  So Malong decided that he absolutely would not go to Echiria's Light restaurant today.

  "Xiao Anwei, I'm fine now. You go wash up and...". Malong, who had made a decision, hadn't finished speaking when his stomach suddenly rumbled loudly, causing his face to turn red involuntarily. However, Malong still pretended as if nothing was wrong and continued: "I'll take you out for food, okay?"

  "Great! Great!" Xiao Anwei was still a little kid after all, he didn't consider Marong's current physical condition at all, but instead cheered and jumped up and down to show his approval of going out to eat.

  This made Ma Long involuntarily make a hissing sound again.

  Then Little An hurriedly nodded repeatedly with a face full of expectation, and only then remembered something, so she asked in a low voice: "Brother, aren't you bringing Sister Amy?"

  "Emmie?" Marlon, who had been bedridden for three consecutive days and looked very weak, was already getting out of bed to put on his shoes. Without even lifting his head, he replied, "Of course I'm going with you!"

  "Huh? Going out to eat and you all forgot about your Uncle Bernard?"

  The creaking sound of the door, accompanied by the thudding sound of leather shoes on the floor, entered Ma Long's ears, which were half bowed. Of course, the loudest voice was undoubtedly that of Inspector Barnard, who had already become familiar.

  As soon as he heard this, Ma Long, who had been putting on his shoes with his butt up, hastily quickened his pace and put them on. When he looked up, he indeed saw Bernard standing at the door, dressed in a police uniform and standing upright.

  In front of Sheriff Bernard, a little fox girl Amy stood wearing a white lace-edged black skirt with a strong Gothic feel, looking at Marlon with her gemstone blue eyes that seemed to hold deep concern and shallow smile.

  Gulu

  Another loud and clear growl came from Malong's body.

  The voice made Bernard burst out laughing, and the shallow smile in Amy's blue eyes turned into a thick one.

  Alright, this time Ma Long was really embarrassed, he wanted to learn from the ostrich and dig a hole to bury his own head, or loudly shout "I'm so humiliated! I want to jump off the building, nobody can stop me!"

  But before Malong could think of a self-deprecating remark, Police Chief Bernard, who was laughing loudly, strode over and roughly rubbed Malong's head: "You little brat, you slept for three days and now you're hungry? You little brat, what do you think this place is? Go outside and buy something to eat. Do you want everyone to know that your Uncle Bernard can't even feed you?"

  "Uh, no, it's not like that, I just said it out of habit..."

  Chief Bernard's inquiry made Malone smile bitterly and explain that he used to be a single office worker who only worked from 9 to 5, so he definitely ate out for all three meals every day. Just now, when he said to Xia Anwei that they would go out to eat, it was just a habit.

  "That's more like it!" Malon's explanation seemed to slightly improve Chief Barnard's mood, so after nodding he instructed the little fox girl: "Emmie sweetheart, now it's your turn! Let this stinky brat know what real culinary skills are, so good that you'd want to swallow your tongue too!"

  The little fox girl Amy flicked her fluffy fox tail, pointed to the top of her head with a mischievous grin, and then went downstairs towards the kitchen with an expression that was absolutely delighted in "schadenfreude".

  Alright, Ma Long understood that Chief Bernard absolutely did not spare any effort in teasing Little Fox Girl Amy. Now that someone is suffering the same hardship as himself, perhaps Little Fox Girl Amy will not be so sinister this time?

  Alas, this mindset is unacceptable. It seems that in the future, I'll have to tell Xiao Yu more stories about good people being rewarded and having a correct outlook on life... Ma Long thought to himself.

  But soon, the aroma of stir-fried eel wafted out from the kitchen, making him abruptly abandon his idea of telling stories and rush to clean himself up.

  Weak and feeble Malong, under the care of Sheriff Bernard, finished his personal hygiene. Little fox girl Amy had also prepared a simple but appetizing breakfast - golden-brown toasted bread slices, colorful vegetable and fruit salad, golden-fried eggs sprinkled with scallions, oatmeal that had been simmered for a long time and filled the air with a savory aroma, and freshly squeezed lemon juice in a semi-transparent glass cup...

  As for the taste, at least Ma Long had a try and ate one mouthful before he couldn't bear to put down his chopsticks again.

  After eating a big meal, Ma Long finally remembered to be afraid of getting indigestion, because it seemed that people who hadn't eaten for many days in a row like him should eat like this and it would hurt their stomach.

  At least, Ma Long, with his round belly sticking out, rested on the sofa for another half hour and finally swept away the weakness before meals and restored his energetic state.

  At this time, Ma Long not only exaggerated the culinary skills of Xiao Hu Nu Ai Mi into a flower, but also made Xiao Hu Nu happy to shake her tail back and forth. He also basically figured out what happened to him during his two-day coma.

  Firstly, there was the problem of Marlon sleeping without waking up. Sergeant Bernard had him see a medical pastor who said that Marlon might be excessively missing his deceased aunt, Winnie Lister, so it wasn't anything serious and he would wake up naturally in two or three days; forcing him to wake up would be bad for him instead.

  The red-haired girl, Ivana, who looked like a young girl from the Emerald Pattern Publishing House, went to the slum yesterday with the address left by Malong and found this small villa of Chief Bernard with the help of neighbors around.

  Then, Evanna saw not only Marlon who was sleeping soundly, but also Marlon's nearly ten thousand manuscripts filled with dense and intricate ancient Chinese characters.

  Although she couldn't understand the text, the occasional rough "movie scene diagram" in those manuscripts made this red-haired queen Yvonne, who was extremely bold and decisive, not only left a check for 100 yuan without hesitation, but also sent someone to deliver a large basket of lemons, as well as lilies and orchids with auspicious meanings.

  There's no doubt that this hundred-rand check is the consolation money Yvonne gave to Marlon, and it's also making up for Marlon's loss of custody of Little An Wei from Hongse Ien Wan... This money is a purely emotional investment.

  Ma Long had no reason not to think so, because he saw the note that came with the flowers, written on it in bold letters -

  "Dear Malron, once everything is alright with you, please come to the publishing house to see me. Our company has decided to invest a large sum of money in promoting you and your 'Little Prince' - Yvonne Beine."