2ndchances 2: Fairy Theme Park

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Chapter 2: Fairy Theme Park

Later that morning, Chen Yijun stared bleakly into the mirror.

Look, he liked pretty people as much as the next person so he had no problems looking at that Chen Jiyun in that dreamscape, but it’s totally different when that face is his own, staring back at him in the mirror.

It’s better to be normal, no-r-mal. He feels like he’ll get heartburn just by looking at himself.

“Nn?”

Lanlan tugged lightly at the hem of his t-shirt, tilting her head curiously with her mouth full of toothpaste.

Chen Yijun just smiled wryly and patted her on her head.

“Brush your teeth carefully.”

“Nn.”

As Lanlan went back to brushing her teeth, Chen Yijun finished washing his face.

Forget it. It’s not just him, anyway. Spirit beasts all tend to have attractive human forms.

It’s basically a defense mechanism against humans so they’d let down their guard and be reluctant to kill him, so he should just get over it.

After wiping his face dry and helping Lanlan rinse and spit, he patted her on the head.

“Lanlan, what do you want for breakfast?”

“Nn… eggs!”

… Very good. She really is a snake, wanting bird eggs without caring how her uncle feels about it.

Not that Chen Yijun himself felt eating birds’ eggs was repulsive; this feeling of irony is actually from his previous life’s sentiments.

“Okay, okay, we’ll have fried eggs. Go set the table.”

Chen Yijun cracked four eggs onto the griddle, along with two slices of bread.

“Little Uncle, you’re cooking the eggs yourself?”

“Ah?”

Chen Yijun froze, spatula in hand. He had forgotten that auto-cooking was a thing in this interstellar world, and many simple cooked foods could be cooked automatically using a setting and various added accessories.

But the steps for frying eggs and making toast by auto-cooking was more than the steps than just doing it by hand.

Chen Yijun coughed.

“Ahem. I read it was more efficient to do it like this. Do you want orange juice or milk?”

“Milk!”

Although he had doubts about the auto-cooking function, Chen Yijun had to admit the future rice cookers were amazing. All he had to do was select the porridge setting, pick the amount and type of rice, and the rice cooker filled itself, washed the rice, and then filled the proper amount of water without him having to lift a finger.

It also cooked it in under 15 minutes. It … looked okay when he ladled it out, so… right, he wasn’t going to think too much about this.

As uncle and niece fell to eating breakfast, Chen Yijun took the opportunity to talk about the future.

“Lanlan, next year you’ll be going to school. Is there a type of school you want to go to?” he asked.

Although elementary schools were more or less the same. It wasn’t until middle school that there were some that specialized by vocation.

Lanlan blinked.

“School?”

Chen Yijun paused. He had thought Lanlan would be confused or excited, or maybe a little bit timid. But she sounded very … doubtful.

He put his spoon down.

“Does… Lanlan not want to go to school?” he asked.

Lanlan shook her head.

Did she mean she didn’t want to go to school, or that she didn’t not want to go to school? Before Chen Yijun could ask, Lanlan looked up at him with a small frown on her face.

“I thought… Little Uncle won’t want Lanlan to go to school. It’s dangerous.”

Um? Chen Yijun quickly sifted through the actual memories of Chen Yijun up to this point, separating them from the former Chen Yijun’s memories of the future.

He didn’t think Chen Yijun had mentioned school at all to Lanlan before he took over, out of fear that she’d want to go, so he’s not sure where Lanlan picked that up from. But it’s not impossible that he might have acted in a way that gave her that idea. Kids can be sharp about things you don’t want them to notice.

He scratched his head.

Lanlan was only four, but Chen Yijun didn’t agree with keeping things from her like the former Chen Yijun did, even if he did it to protect her from being scared of things like spirit beast hunters and discrimination.

“It’s true that Little Uncle has been worried a lot about Lanlan’s safety, but recently Little Uncle has been thinking that his way of protecting Lanlan isn’t good.”

Chen Yijun smiled wryly as he wiped the crumbs from Lanlan’s shocked face.

“What, you don’t like your Little Uncle now that you know he doesn’t know everything in the world?”

Lanlan shook her head furiously, making Chen Yijun laugh.

“Little Uncle has always been thinking we should be like a turtle, hiding and building up a wall between us and the things that could hurt us, but recently Little Uncle’s realized how difficult this could be. How big is the rest of the world, and how small are we?”

Lanlan tilted her head, face full of confusion as she tried to understand what Chen Yijun was trying to say.

Chen Yijun laughed again as she wrinkled her little nose at him.

“What I mean is, Little Uncle was wrong to think Lanlan should avoid people for the rest of her life. Since it’s impossible, it’s better for Lanlan to go to school in virtual reality, where you can learn how to interact with other people safely.”

Lanlan tilted her head, as if thinking for a while, before nodding, although she still seemed confused.

Well, it’s the first time Chen Yijun mentioned it, so it can’t be helped that she doesn’t really know how to feel about it. They had six months to discuss it until the deadline for admissions, so they could take it slow.

Rather, isn’t the more urgent matter whether he could get a stable job before then?

As Chen Yijun put the dishes in the dishwasher, that automatically rinsed and sterilized the dishes once closed, and set the griddle to clean itself, he used his light brain to check his microblog.

Aiya… Chen Yijun and Du Lingyu had already had their first fated meeting, and the photo that attracted Bluebird Photography Studio into hiring him was already posted.

Chen Yijun: … …

He really had to go figure out whether he had any talents in photography right away before he got contacted by the studio.

If he still had it, then it would be a shame to let a good job run away from him. If he didn’t?

It’s good to think out an excuse to turn them down ahead of time, right.

Mm? Du Lingyu?

The good feelings she had for him were just ‘oh what a nice guy’ for now, and it would only increase to ‘oh he’s my lucky break’ when she gets contacted by scouts, so it was something he didn’t have to worry about until the future.

It’s way more important to get a job so the schools won’t be suspicious of him as a child’s guardian!

“Little Uncle?”

Lanlan looked up at him curiously, some concern in her eyes as Chen Yijun had just frozen, staring at the picture of Du Lingyu on his microblog.

Faced with those wide, innocent eyes, Chen Yijun scratched the back of his head.

“Lanlan, can you help Little Uncle with something?”

—

“Okay~ I’m taking it now-!”

Lanlan held the edge of her skirt as she held onto the lightpost as her Little Uncle took pictures with her as his model.

Little Uncle loved photography, but it was always casual shots, the occasional picture he found as he lived his normal, daily life.

A flower on the side of the road, young boys playing in the alleyways – never had Little Uncle brought her out to take pictures, and especially to a theme park.

A theme park!

And it was a full forty-five minutes away by suspension car!

This was the furthest Lanlan had ever been from the apartment, and it was a fairy, flower garden theme park!

Even though Lanlan rarely left the apartment, she naturally had access to the TV and star network and knew about theme parks.

Actually, these days most people would go to theme parks in virtual reality, since there would be less lines and less annoyances, and less work to maintain on the park owners’ side, but the virtual theme parks can’t replace real theme parks fully.

The fairy garden theme park that Little Uncle had chosen was more of a garden than just a theme park, but there were beautiful, fantasy buildings from multiple planets, enchanting sparkling lights, and some less-adrenaline pumping rides throughout the park.

For a little girl who loved this sort of romantic setting, Lanlan felt like it was a dream come true to be able to come to this beautiful theme park in a nice dress, posing for her Little Uncle to take pictures of.

Amidst the flowers and fairy lights, Lanlan was very happy.

She felt like her Little Uncle was a bit different today.

He was always kind and cared for her, but today Little Uncle’s smiles and head pats didn’t have the quiet sadness hidden behind them, and his doting looks weren’t tinged with worry.

Maybe he’s like this because he finally made up his mind? So he’s not so worried anymore?

Maybe… but Lanlan decided it didn’t matter.

She knew her Little Uncle was always thinking of her, but there was usually a blanket of gloom hanging over him, and it always made her feel anxious and nervous.

Lanlan liked the Little Uncle who was more carefree and laughed a lot.

As for Chen Yijun…

His little niece was cute. Way too cute. As expected of a serpent spirit beast daughter. He’d have to beat boys off with a stick as she grew up.

No, the model wasn’t the problem right now.

Chen Yijun scrolled through the pictures numbly.

It wasn’t like he was a BAD photographer, per se. He just wasn’t a good one.

At the very least, he wasn’t the photographer that the former Chen Yijun was.

If you asked him, the compositions were okay, or at least the ideas were pretty good. But Chen Yijun wasn’t very good at dealing with the things that were out of his control when taking a photograph.

The light, the wind, things that just happened and ruined the image he’d had in mind when taking the photo, not to mention dealing with the focus and exposure and whatever settings on the camera.

Even though he had the former Chen Yijun’s memories, memories didn’t equal experience apparently, and this current Chen Yijun had no way of replicating the former Chen Yijun’s abilities to capture the moments when the light was just right or when the subject entered the lens just so without clashing with the background.

Also, the pictures where he’d messed with the settings were … aiya, it’s better not to comment on them. After reviewing the pictures he’d taken in the first twenty minutes, Chen Yijun had silently set all the settings to ‘AUTO’.

… Forget it, he doesn’t have the mentality to be a photographer, so he should just have fun taking pictures of his Little Niece. He could even send Xiulan some photos. She probably wouldn’t be upset if he sent them through an encrypted private chat.

At this point, Chen Yijun had given up on being a photographer and decided to just have fun at the fairy theme park.

It really was an amazing sight, what future technology can do, and walking through the gardens really felt like you were walking through a fantasy landscape.

Taking a break from the rides and sight-seeing, Chen Yijun and Lanlan had each bought a crepe and were sharing a drink at a floating, lit up mushroom table.

“Lanlan, are you having fun?”

Lanlan nodded excitedly.

She was a quiet, timid girl, but in the end she was still a child at heart, so she was having a lot of fun.

“Lanlan really liked the Starlight Caves, and the Underwater Garden!” she said.

As expected of a spirit beast – they felt a closer connection with natural things rather than the special effects, even if those natural things were glowing plants that weren’t from Earth.

At least, Chen Yijun had never seen or heard of them before in his previous life.

“Then which part do you want to see next?” Chen Yijun asked as he spread out the map of the theme park.

“Doesn’t… doesn’t Little Uncle have to take pictures?”

Lanlan sounded hesitant, but Chen Yijun had already given up!

“Little Uncle is not fated to be a photographer, so Little Uncle will be having fun taking pictures of wherever Lanlan wants to go.”

It’s just a shame that the former Chen Yijun had bought a decently expensive camera already… Chen Yijun will just have to use it as Lanlan’s life recorder to make it worthwhile.

As Lanlan finishes her crepe (and Chen Yijun wipes her sticky, sticky mouth), the two of them walk hand in hand towards the Enchanted Rose Garden.

The Enchanted Rose Garden was a maze made of rose bushes and rose trees with a gorgeous castle with stained glass windows in the middle of it and a pond to the side of it. It was mostly there just for the scenery, but there were a few rides within it.

If you asked Chen Yijun, the Enchanted Rose Garden was an attraction made for couples to show their PDA in.

“Well, I have a beautiful little lady with me, so it’s fine,” single-for-both-his-and-the-former-Chen-Yijun’s-entire-lives Chen Yijun said, not bitter about PDA-land at all.

“?”

Lanlan was confused.

Halfway through the garden, an announcement that the Enchanted Rose Garden would be closed due to reservation in a few minutes sounded, and uncle and niece had to scurry back towards the entrance as the maintenance robots rushed through the garden, making sure everything was in pristine order.

“What’s a reservation?” Lanlan asked.

“A reservation is when somebody pays money to make something their’s for a short amount of time,” Chen Yijun explained.

“Oh…”

Lanlan’s voice sounded wistful, like she wished she could own the rose garden for a while, but she didn’t make a fuss about being forced to leave.

“Why would someone reserve the Enchanted Rose Garden?” Lanlan asked, purely curious.

“Hm… let’s see…” A place like this, what else would it be reserved for?

Chen Yijun’s premonition was proven correct as they exited the attraction, where they saw a group of people standing nearby in formal wear, including a beautiful bride.

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<a/n: You may feel that it’s unfair/sad for Lanlan to like the new Chen Yijun without realizing he’s not the Little Uncle she grew up with, or you might think it’s justified for one reason or another.
Not only do I think both are acceptable, I feel like both are ‘correct.’ The former Chen Yijun’s decision to abandon his family to a stranger when he’s let them down before is very controversial and has good arguments for both sides, so the resulting situations will also be controversial. It breeds situations where readers are encouraged to feel something, but the author gives you no indication whether you should be feeling positively or negatively about them, so some readers will probably feel more strongly to one side or the other, and I’m just here to say there’s no right way to feel about it.>