"Home? I'm home?" Charles looked at the door in front of him with an upside-down blessing hanging on it in surprise.
With a "click", the thick anti-theft door suddenly opened automatically, revealing the cozy little living room inside.
Noisy voices came from the side of the living room. Someone was at home. The voice was familiar, it was the voice of his family.
Charles walked in excitedly and saw his family sitting on the sofa, watching TV and playing with their cell phones.
The first person to notice Charles was Gao Suling. The girl moved her eyes away from her phone and looked at her brother.
However, there was no joy in her big eyes, but instead they were filled with fear, as if she had seen the most terrifying thing in the world.
"Ahhh!!" the girl screamed hysterically, holding her head and retreating towards the balcony like crazy.
The couple who were watching TV immediately screamed and stood up, but when they saw Charles, deep fear also appeared on their faces.
They stood in front of the girl with their arms outstretched, shouting and throwing their cell phones and TV remote controls at Charles, as if trying to drive him away.
"Mom and Dad, it's me, I'm Gao Zhiming!! What happened to you?" Charles tried his best to explain.
Just as he said this, Charles suddenly noticed a floor-to-ceiling mirror next to him. In the mirror was a deformed monster covered in sticky black and brown liquid.
Tentacles with triangular eyes were wriggling randomly on it, and all kinds of twisted limbs were pulling in and out of it.
However, what horrified Charles was that the triangular eyeballs on the tentacles were actually staring at him.
Charles took a step back in fright, and the monster in the mirror also took a step back.
"No... Impossible, I'm not a monster, I'm not!" Charles, trembling all over, looked down and suddenly found that his body had become exactly the same as the thing in the mirror.
Charles anxiously picked up the phone on the ground and wanted to communicate with his family by typing.
But a desperate scene appeared. The three family members in the distance were already standing on the balcony, their legs shaking constantly.
"Don't jump! It's me! I'm Gao Zhiming!!"
Seeing Charles rushing forward, the three of them jumped without hesitation.
"Bang!" Charles, covered in cold sweat, suddenly opened his eyes. Breathing rapidly, he stared blankly at the ceiling with gorgeous relief carvings above his head.
This was his bedroom in the Governor's Mansion, where he lay on a big, messy bed.
Charles' breathing slowly calmed down, but his emotions seemed to be covered by a veil.
He closed his eyes, turned his head away, buried his face easily in the white and soft back beside him, and took a deep breath.
Anna, who was reading the diary, felt something strange behind her. She turned around and gently hugged Charles, saying softly, "What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"
“… … ”
Anna didn't hear Charles' response and didn't ask any more questions. She patted Charles' back with her slender hands and hummed the familiar lullaby.
Charles used his limbs to hold Anna's petite body tightly, with great strength, as if he wanted to rub her inside him.
A trace of heartache flashed in Anna's eyes, and she let Charles hold her without struggling.
She put her lips to Charles' ear and whispered, "I will never leave you, my love."
"Scumbag, I'm talking to you, are you listening?"
Charles looked at Anna who was browsing on her phone next to him, "What?"
"I'm saying why don't you let Shanshan go back first. Five of your family members have fainted from fright."
"Crash~" The sound of plates breaking came from not far away.
Charles looked in the direction of the sound and saw his daughter floating in the air, using her tentacles to stuff various exquisite furniture into her body.
It wasn't eating the furniture. After a few seconds, it took it out and threw it on the ground. It looked like it was tasting it, just like a child who wants to put everything he gets in his mouth to taste it.
"It's okay. I'll ask everyone else to leave the Governor's Mansion later so that no one will be scared. Shanshan is my daughter and should stay at home."
"You care so much about your daughter, when will you care so much about me?"
A faint smile appeared on Charles' face. He hooked Anna's chin with his hand and said, "Don't I care about you?" Then he kissed her scarlet lips.
Anna pushed him away and rolled her eyes at him. "The child is here. Wasn't it enough last night?"
Seeing those liquid eyes glancing over at Shanshan, Charles put Anna down and continued his unfinished lunch.
"What are you going to do next?" Anna asked.
"I'm not going to do anything. I just plan to spend some time with you guys these few days."
"How disgusting! Go and do your own thing. Your island is in such a mess. If you, as the leader, stay in your room every day, people will really think I am Daji."
"Crunch, crunch." Charles chewed the food in his mouth and looked at Anna with some surprise.
"What are you looking at? Haven't you seen enough?" Anna's body suddenly split apart, and the hideous tentacle monster quickly pounced in front of Charles.
Charles put the last green tomato on the plate into his mouth and stood up. "Well, I'll go and get busy first. I'll spend more time with you after I finish some things."
After Charles finished speaking, he walked towards his office. Anna was right. Hope Island was in a state of disrepair and as the governor, he still had a lot of things to do.
The ruined Island of Hope began to be rebuilt. As the joy of victory gradually faded, a faint sadness emerged over the island.
Even though the navy and others responded actively, the people on the island also suffered heavy losses. It is roughly estimated that several thousand people died, and these are all living lives.
But no matter what, life must go on, and they began to renovate their damaged house with sad hearts.
Time always takes away everything. A few days later, when a new decree appeared, announcing that the Governor's Office would pay to subsidize the collapsed houses and streets, smiles appeared on the bitter faces of the islanders again.
And when Charles announced that the entire island would not have to pay taxes for four months, everyone's enthusiasm almost overturned the newly repaired greenhouse, which was almost equivalent to giving them money.
The wounds of Hope Island were healing rapidly. After this attack, the islanders' cohesion on the island was actually enhanced.
Now that people's livelihood has been resolved, the next thing is politics.
As the Governor of Hope Island, Charles announced that the Futan Cult would be the primary enemy of Hope Island and issued a series of reprisals against all Futan Cults.
(End of this chapter)