A scholar who for some unknown reason came to teach history in the "common people's school", a teacher who was well-versed in ancient history and seemed to have a good relationship with Nina. His arrival was an unexpected situation for Duncan - but also an opportunity.
Mr. Morris's attainments in the professional field will certainly help Duncan solve many problems, and if he can establish a good relationship with such a professional, there may be unexpected conveniences in the future - an old scholar of relatively high status must have a certain status in the city-state.
Nina didn't know why her Uncle Duncan suddenly agreed to the home visit, and she didn't think about it too much, she just felt particularly happy.
This even gave her an illusion—as if her life was really changing for the better, and was gradually... returning to the past.
The night outside the window deepened. The pale and cold light of the Creation of the World illuminated the windowsill on the second floor of the antique shop. In the quiet night, the whole city was gradually becoming quiet.
In this world filled with weird things, most people don't have much nightlife to speak of.
"Come and eat," Duncan called his "niece" who was staring blankly at the window. He brought the stewed fish soup to the table, as well as the bread that Nina bought in the afternoon and the fried onion rings. In his opinion, this dinner was not actually sumptuous, but considering the special nature of "fish", this meal in the downtown area might be considered a feast. "We have to get up early for school tomorrow."
"Oh, ok Uncle Duncan."
Nina agreed and came to the dining table obediently. The aroma of the fish soup had already spread. She shrugged her nose in surprise and looked at Duncan in disbelief: "It smells so good... Uncle, when did your cooking skills become so good?"
"Can this be considered a good cooking skill?" Duncan couldn't help but laugh, thinking that his cooking skills were probably only slightly better than Alice's, and he was actually praised for his good cooking skills. "Did I have poor cooking skills before?"
"That can't be described as very bad. You used to cook to the standard of not being deadly. And even though your cooking skills were terrible, you were always ambitious to research new dishes. Every time, you dragged me to test poison with you..." Nina muttered balabala, and she was a little excited when she recalled the past. "One time, the food you made was so disgusting that you couldn't eat it yourself, so you had to throw it in the trash can, and then dragged me to the family restaurant on the next street to solve the problem of lunch. When we came back, we saw the neighbor's dog lying in front of the trash can at the door and vomiting all over the floor. Since then, the dog has been circling you..."
As Nina spoke, her voice suddenly lowered.
"Forget it, it happened several years ago, and you never like to hear me mention it..."
Duncan remained silent.
The memories left in this body did not contain any of the things Nina recalled - these were almost the only good memories Nina had when she was with her uncle, but they had disappeared completely with the last breath of the misguided man.
Nina silently broke the dry and hard bread and softened it little by little with the delicious soup.
Duncan suddenly reached out and ruffled the child's hair.
Nina looked up in surprise: "Uncle?"
"Uncle's research on new dishes was successful." Duncan said seriously.
Nina stared at Duncan in a daze. Her expression changed several times. Countless thoughts were swirling in her mind. In the end, all her expressions turned into an uncontrollable smile: "Uncle, you are so funny when you are serious!"
"Don't make fun of adults," Duncan glanced at Nina, and then as if he suddenly remembered something, he casually said, "By the way, I'm going to tidy up the store these days. If you see anything strange and unfamiliar on the first floor, don't touch it."
He was preparing for the upcoming shuttling between the two places and the distribution and turnover of "materials".
As Ai Yin's abilities were developed, he would inevitably have to frequently transport goods between the Lost Hometown and the antique shop, and this would be difficult to completely hide from Nina's eyes - so it would be better to take precautions in advance.
Nina had no doubts at all and nodded quickly. Duncan then continued, "Also, I plan to add one more person to the store so that if I go out during the day, there will be someone to take care of me. Of course, this is just an initial plan and may not be realized. I just want to tell you in advance so that you don't feel strange if you suddenly see a stranger in the store one day."
This time, he was paving the way for Alice's arrival—but just a prelude, of course.
There were many things that needed to be considered in order to allow Miss Doll to enter the city-state. Teleporting her here was only the most insignificant part. He also had to think about how to prevent Alice's true identity as a "doll" from being discovered. Alice's appearance was almost the same as a real person. As long as she wore long gloves to cover her hand joints, there would be no big problem. At most, she could wear a veil to cover her face that was even more delicate than a real person. These were all minor problems. The real big problem... was that guy's head.
He brought Alice here to help him, and he couldn't stand the girl running away in front of others all day long.
Nina looked at Duncan in surprise: "Uncle, you are actually looking for a clerk for the store?! This is a big deal... Do you have a candidate? What kind of person is he?"
Duncan thought for a moment, trying to filter out a bunch of unpleasant adjectives from his mind, and then said with a straight face: "There is a preliminary target, a... hardworking young lady."
He thought about it carefully, and it seemed that the only compliment about Alice was "hardworking".
Then he saw that the expression on Nina's face suddenly became subtle.
The girl looked her uncle up and down for several times, and finally couldn't help but said: "Young lady? Uncle, are you..."
Duncan was an experienced person. He knew what Nina was thinking as soon as he saw her expression. He immediately tapped the table with his fingers: "Eat well! What nonsense are you thinking about!"
Nina immediately suppressed her laughter and made a "grunting" sound, then continued to eat with her head down. After tasting a bite of the fish, she opened her eyes wide in surprise again: "It's delicious!"
Duncan laughed, broke off some bread and threw it to the pigeons pacing nearby, and said, "Then eat more. There's more in the kitchen."
On the small second floor of the antique shop, Nina and her Uncle Duncan had a simple but long-awaited dinner.
After dinner was over and everything was cleaned up, Duncan called Nina who was about to go back to her room to rest.
He had something he wanted to confirm.
"Nina," he looked at the girl who had just come out of the kitchen after cleaning up the cups and plates, "I have something to ask you."
"Ah?" Nina was curious. "What's the matter?"
"Do you remember... your childhood?" Duncan thought about where to start and recalled the information he had heard at the cult gathering. "When you were six years old."
Nina frowned. She didn't know why her uncle suddenly brought up the incident from eleven years ago, but she still started to think about it.
Eleven years had passed since the incident, and she was only six years old at the time, so when she recalled the past, she didn't feel too sad.
"I was still young at the time, and I can't remember many things, but I remember that it was a very chaotic day... There were messy adults everywhere. Some people said that there was a leak in the factory near the Cross Street District, some said that there was a collective panic in Lower Third Street, and some even said that something happened in the upper city... I didn't remember many things at the time, and it was only later when I heard adults talking about them that I could put them together..."
Duncan thought for a moment and looked into Nina's eyes: "Do you remember the big fire? I took you away from the fire. Your parents... were in that fire..."
He only mentioned it tentatively, but he didn't expect Nina to suddenly open her eyes wide: "Fire? Uncle, do you remember there was a fire at that time?!"
"... Of course I remember." Duncan knew something was wrong when he saw Nina's reaction. "Do I remember anything wrong with the fire?"
"I also remember that there was a fire, a very big fire," Nina said quickly, a little excited, "but later I told the adults around me about it, but no one remembered it. They all said that I was so scared at the time that there was no fire at all... Later, when I grew up, I went to find the newspaper from that time..."
She paused, and shook her head slowly with a strange expression: "But even the newspapers didn't mention any fire... All the records only said that there was a factory leak at the time, and the chemicals caused widespread hallucinations..."