Chapter 2 Indigestion?

Old Blue took a public carriage back to Daffodil Street in the West End, then took out his key to open the door of the townhouse, hung up his felt hat and coat, and then walked into the kitchen carrying a paper bag full of ingredients.

Before he went home, he went to the Lettuce and Meat Market and bought green peas, cabbage, onions, potatoes, a pound of lamb, and a lively Tussock fish. He also went to the Slin Bakery and bought two pounds of oatmeal bread, two pounds of rye bread, and a piece of lemon cake.

Old Bruce lived in poverty on Lower Iron Cross Street in his early years, when his family could only afford black bread.

It was not until he joined the army and was discharged that he had some savings and would not starve to death on the streets if he did not work for a day.

Ten years after joining the Made Punishers, Old Blue got married and the family's staple food was changed to oatmeal bread, which his son Little Blue had been eating since he was a child, and lemon cake was his wife's favorite.

Old Blue recalled the scenes of his wife cooking, peeling, washing, stewing and frying fish.

——He didn't have a cook in his house, but he had a maid to clean the house on a regular basis and a laundry woman to wash the clothes.

As usual, he set out three sets of tableware. These exquisite glazed plates and silver knives and forks were all accumulated slowly over the past years.

On the table, there was steaming lamb stewed with tender peas, garnished with potatoes, carrots, and onions; there were golden, fragrant fish and chips; there were mashed potatoes; there was bread in a basket; and there was lemon cake on the plate on the right.

This is the dinner at the Bruce family, and it is also the style that old Bruce has learned for a long time.

Old Bruce sat at the dining table, took out his silver pocket watch, and clicked it. The time was 8:10 in the evening.

He looked towards the door somewhat uncomfortably, feeling somewhat confused, and suddenly froze.

He first picked up the oatmeal bread, broke off a bite and took a bite. Then he dipped it in the soup of lamb stewed with tender peas, put it into his mouth and chewed it.

He scooped up some tender peas with a silver spoon and stuffed them into his mouth, then chewed a piece of tender, well-seasoned lamb.

His dining movements were barely rude, a level he achieved after his wife corrected him for half a lifetime.

The food disappeared quickly. He ate very fast, which was a habit left over from his military career. His son, little Blue, who was prevented by him from joining the Loen army, could not understand this and probably did not want to understand it.

The oatmeal bread had disappeared along with the lamb, and the fish and chips had been mostly gone.

Old Blue picked up the brown bread, broke it into pieces, put them into his mouth and chewed.

His cheeks twitched, and he seemed to have returned to that poor era, downstairs on Iron Cross Street, where his father, mother, brothers and sisters, seven people, were crowded in a small room, and they had to rent the floor mat to a stranger.

"It's a blessing to have black bread to eat," Old Blue smacked his lips, then shut up. His wife started to complain again...

He placed the lemon cake in front of him and scooped a piece with a spoon, "It's too sweet..." Old Blue was still not used to eating this and still didn't understand why his wife liked to eat this, but his hands moved faster and faster until the plate was empty.

"Ahem," Old Blue felt like he needed a drink to relieve the sweetness in his mouth.

But he has stopped drinking.

After decades of being a "Substitute Punisher", the Beyonders of the "Sailor" Path always had to drink. The stronger the better, because it would keep him angry and fill his body with strength. Until one day, his anger burned his wife, his son, and himself, so he quit.

He took out the metal bottle he bought that afternoon and drank it all in one gulp, slurping it up. "At least it's not so greasy anymore."

Old Bruce cleared the dining table, washed the exquisite tableware carefully, and placed them carefully on the shelves of the cupboard. His movements were stiff and slow. "It took me a long time to save up to buy this..." he muttered.

Then he walked slowly and sat on the single sofa beside the fireplace. The firelight reflected on the old man's face, which had deep wrinkles, white hair and beard, and half-closed eyes.

"Stop my son from joining the army, stop my son from being the 'commissioned judge', the former can be stopped, but how can I stop the latter?" Old Blue's straight back hunched, and he supported his cane with both hands, but he began to tremble involuntarily.

Then, his body quickly became paralyzed and stiff. This was the effect of "poisonous lily juice". In ancient times, it was the best choice for suicide. The "diviner" potion formula had it as an auxiliary material, but it was only three drops. Old Blue drank a small bottle.

[“Fuck! What’s going on? Why does the old man feel like he’s going to die after eating dinner? Is he too full and can’t digest the food? MGJ, he ate so much just now and I thought everyone here had a good appetite…”] Inside Old Blue’s body, the ball of light was trembling in confusion.

"It's a good thing Jenny passed away last year and didn't see this end for her son, otherwise he would have been mentally unable to bear it." Old Blue ignored the angry muttering in his mind and thought of the last few years with his wife. His irritable temper had subsided, and he corrected his various habits at his wife's request. He became like a "decent person", and the two of them lived a so-called happy old age.

[“Old man! Stop mumbling! Go induce vomiting! How can you eat like that when you’re old? Eat slowly!”] The ball of light was very anxious. It felt that this body was heading towards death, and it also felt that it would disappear with the death of the flesh.

"Bury her in Raphael Cemetery, too," old Blue recalled the location of his wife's grave, and the epitaph his son gave him when he couldn't come up with one: "The best mother," a lonely sentence.

"The largest sum of money I've ever received in my life turned out to be my son's compensation. Haha, 6000 pounds, how much black bread can I buy with that?" Old Bruce wanted to curl up the corners of his mouth, but failed. His body was stiff, as if he had lost control.

[“Old man! Stay alive! What do you want!”] The ball of light screamed, but was powerless to stop what was happening.

"Stupid son, I've said it before, 'loss of control' accompanies the life of a Beyonder. I don't let you become a 'Substituted Punisher' because I've seen it too many times—" Old Blue's voice was weak, and his pronunciation was a little unclear. His tongue was almost completely paralyzed, and he didn't finish what he wanted to say. Of course, the person he wanted to talk to was not there.

His spirit was deep blue in color and separated from his body, seeming to condense into a dark blue gem.

Following closely behind was a white ball of light, which felt as if it was floating, and then slowly dissipated.

[“…I’m so angry. Did I travel through time? I’m going to die right after I traveled through time! That holy emblem is a storm? I traveled through time to the Lord of Mysteries…”] The light ball complained in fluent Chinese.

But as soon as the words "Lord of Mysteries" were uttered, something strange happened!
The ball of light stopped dissipating, and the air around it seemed to stop flowing, becoming sticky and strange.

It, along with Old Blue's spirit and body, were drawn into an illusory "sea" that seemed to encompass all colors and possibilities.

At No. 11 Narcissus Street, the tables and chairs are neat and tidy, and the tableware is exquisite. Old Bruce, who was dining here just now, has disappeared.

There was an occasional crackle of wood burning in the fireplace, but other than that, there was no other sound.

　Two updates a day starting from Monday ~ Thank you for watching!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)