Chapter 279: You're home

As they arrived at home, Haru noticed that there had been some work done to the house for sure since the last time he had been at home. The curtains on the inside were different, and the outside of the house had a rejuvenated look to it.

Not to mention the garage that was built at the front to store Luke's new car. But it seemed like they weren't really sure about spending the money that Haru had given to them. They probably felt as though he earned it for himself, and they shouldn't be the ones to take it.

But Haru thought differently. To him, the money was reparation for any mental trauma that could have been caused to Saki. But he also wanted to stir some trouble with the department that decided to break into Zen's house. He just didn't feel right taking all the money for himself, so he split it and gave everyone equal amounts.

But his parents couldn't bring themselves to spend the money that their son had given them, so they spent their own money on the things that they wanted instead and opened separate accounts to store it in.

The car came to a stop in the driveway as Luke pressed a button on his key fob to open the door to the garage, and then once it opened completely, he drove the car inside and then turned off the engine. He sighed for a moment and then turned around to Haru.

"You're home at last." He said with a smile and then pulled a face at Saki to make her laugh.

Haru felt a warmth within his chest that he hadn't felt for a while and took a deep breath in to appreciate the moment. Although he hadn't lived there in four years, it still had the calming effect on him that he remembered, and he finally felt like he was home.

It took a while for them to settle down after Haru's return, but as Krista and Luke began to prepare dinner for them, Haru decided to take a few moments to relax in his room.

It really was the same as he remembered.

From the dark blue wallpaper to the grey bed sheets lying on top of his bed and even the laptop that he had gotten for his homeschooling classes was sitting on the desk.

But despite the fact that everything remained the same, it looked clean and exactly how he left it the day that he started school. But he had his parents to thank for that. They wanted to keep it well preserved so they could think back to all memories Haru had lying around his room.

"Hm, I wonder if it still works?" He asked as he approached the laptop lying on the desk. He wasn't expecting much, but as he opened the screen and held down the power button, he was surprised to see that it booted to the home screen.

He quickly typed in his date of birth from his previous life as his password and opened the browser. He sat staring at the screen for a few moments while his mind went blank.

He didn't know what to do. He sat down with the intention of seeing if it still worked but seeing that it did, he didn't know what to expect.

He thought to himself for a moment before typing two words into the search bar, with each letter making his throat ache as he struggled to keep in his feeling.

"Suyin Jiang" He typed the name into the search engine and pressed enter to see dozens of articles pop up on his screen.

Most of them showed images of a crushed car lying at the bottom of a cliff with headlines that made it sound like she was involved in a car accident. There was nothing about the situation that happened in Shanghai and nothing about Haru. The articles just stated that an unknown male was rushed to hospital with serious injuries.

He couldn't stop himself from tearing up as he read through the countless articles that stated that she died on the scene of the crash. It felt wrong.

He was there when she died, and it felt like they were lying to him more than they were lying to the general public. He couldn't understand why anyone would lie about her death. She was gone, and that was bad enough, but they could at least do the honour of telling the truth.

"She didn't die in a car accident. She died because I wasn't strong enough to protect her. Why does this always happen!?" Haru broke down after seeing what was happening in the media.

And after a few minutes of crying, he managed to calm himself down before becoming curious to know what happened in Shanghai after he passed out. He had hoped that they were starting to rebuild, but as he searched the word Shanghai many different things came up.

"Shanghai bomb, Shanghai war, Shanghai destroyed. American missile shanghai." The search suggestions that came up piqued Haru's interests more.

"A missile?" He thought as he clicked on the suggestion, and hundreds if not thousands of articles popped up talking about missiles sent to Shanghai.

As he opened the first one, he was at a loss for words. He couldn't think straight as he read it out loud.

"On the seventeenth of November, a radar system in shanghai showed that a rocket-propelled missile was heading for the city at high speeds.

It was first picked up over the Atlantic ocean and was later picked up by shanghai as the calculations showed that it was due to impact the city.

The authorities were quick to evacuate the citizens and set up a catastrophe unit to deal with the aftermath in case it was unclear, but to their luck, it wasn't.

Despite the evacuation, two hundred and thirty people had been confirmed dead, and over a thousand were confirmed missing. It was a catastrophic event that destroyed everything that the Chinese government had built in shanghai.

The Chinese authorities looked to America to explain as the missile had come from their jurisdiction, but the US government refused to respond and then later sent battleships to be stationed around the coasts of china as a warning not to start any trouble." The article seemed like it was written by an amateur as it was published on an independent news website, but it had the most traction for the sole reason that they posted pictures of the damage.

Haru couldn't believe it.

They had decided to hide the truth from people and let the sacrifices made that day go to waste for the sake of political gain. There was always tension between the Chinese and American governments since the end of the previous war, but now it seemed as though those tensions had come to a peak and war was on the verge of breaking out once again.

"How could they do this? Why would they do this? Don't they value cultivation in china? Why would they turn their back on the cultivators that stopped them from thousands of casualties?" It didn't make sense to him until it suddenly hit him.

"Major Niu said that the major governments knew about the demons clan, but they called them extraterrestrials since they came from other worlds." That meant the US also know about the Demons and the technology from the upper realms.

If they could get their hands on that technology, then the world would change dramatically. But China wouldn't want to hand that over, so if they made a scene to let the whole world know that the US is trying to abuse their power, they would be able to keep that technology for themselves." Haru concluded as it all began to make sense to him.

"Those greedy bastards, why would they put their people at risk for the sake of a bit of technology? Even if it would be useful, it's still not worth the lives of innocent people." Haru commented loudly as the door to his room suddenly creaked open to reveal Saki standing up and using the door frame as support.

"Bastard!" She said with a smile while looking up at Haru.

'What have I done!?' Haru thought before running over to Saki and kneeling down to be on her level.

"No, don't say that word. It's not nice." Haru instructed her while pointing his finger at her to show authority, but to Saki, it was a funny word and one of the only ones she had in her vocabulary thanks to Haru's carelessness.

"Bastard! Bastard!" Saki laughed as Haru looked down with disappointment in his eyes. He knew what was going to happen next and reluctantly picked her up into his arms and took her downstairs.

"Mom, Dad?" Hau asked as he walked into the kitchen to see both of his parents cooking dinner.

"What is it?" Krista turned around and asked, but before Haru could say anything else, Saki interrupted.

"Mommy bastard!" Saki shouted out loud.

Krista dropped the spoon she was holding in disbelief before looking up at Haru with anger in her eyes as Luke began to laugh.

"I might have made a mistake", Haru said and then cast his gaze down to the floor as he waited for her to shout at him. But that didn't happen.

He felt his mothers arms wrap around his neck.

"It makes me happy seeing you were playing with your sister, but please try not to say anything like that until she is a bit older, okay? She doesn't know any better right now, so she will copy you." Krista said in a caring way that made Haru feel safe.

Haru wasn't expecting her to be nice even after he messed up, but he felt lucky that he had parents that cared about him and didn't want to even begin to think about what he would have done without them.