Chapter 569 Lusamine and Family Portrait
Although it was unclear whether Luo Mu really didn't know the gender of the sea lion, Barnett still started with this sentence as usual.

"Besides the fact that it is female, the current examination shows that it is less than a week old, has severe malnutrition, and is smaller than other animals of the same sex."

"But there are no major problems with the bones in the body, so there is no need to worry about the possibility of deformity."

Barnett said the last sentence with a hint of relief.

After all, pollution is accompanied not only by various difficult and complicated diseases, but also the possibility of congenital malformations. Especially according to Luo Mu, the Pokemon egg was exposed for a period of time before it was picked up by Tapu Finfin.

We need to pay more attention to this aspect.

"Next, we will use the equipment to conduct a detailed examination. Anyway, let's draw some blood first."

Barnett handed the report to Luo Mu and looked at Bi Ke who was busy beside him.

Bi Ke quickly prepared the sterilized equipment and said softly, "Don't be afraid, it will be done soon."

"Mawu~"

The ball-shaped sea lion looked at Needlehead with some fear, and buried its head in Tapu Finfin's arms like an ostrich.

Luo Mu felt the same way.

Most children are afraid of having blood drawn, getting vaccinations, etc., even when they were young.

Receiving Kapu Finfin's puzzled gaze, Luo Mu nodded and explained, "Blood can reveal a lot of information. As long as a small amount is drawn, it won't be a burden to the sea lion."

After getting Luo Mu's explanation, Tapu Finfin felt relieved to hand over the Ball Sea Lion to Pico.

After a while, Pico handed the blood sample to Barnett and took out a bunch of candies from her bag, trying to comfort the autistic sea lion who was curled up in Tapu Finfin's arms.

But the sea lion didn't want to look at her at all now. He twisted his body and buried his head deeper.

In desperation, Pico had to go to help Barnett.

About an hour later, the sea lion, which had been tossed around with various inspections, was so tired that it fell asleep.

Reports were produced one after another. Finally, Barnett held a large stack of reports and summarized to Luo Mu: "Based on various careful examinations including blood tests, let me tell you the conclusion first."

"The miracle is that the sea lions, which were born in an environment that you described should be unsuitable for most life forms, can hardly detect any signs of pollution themselves."

"It may be that the purified water has removed the pollution, and even the congenital defects that should have existed in theory have been repaired by some mysterious drugs."

"Perhaps the Life No. 1 you fed it worked. Such medicine is really interesting."

"Anyway, there's only one thing you need to do for the Ball Sea Lion now."

Putting down a large stack of white paper, Barnett smiled.

"Provide it with nutrition so that it can thrive. If conditions permit, you can find some medicinal herbs or food that contain rich vitality and feed it a fixed amount to nourish its body. That's all."

Barnett sighed inwardly.

If she hadn't done the examination herself, who would have thought that the sea lions that were born and hatched in such an extreme environment as described by Luo Mu would only be slightly maldeveloped and malnourished?

After getting a definite answer, Luo Mu breathed a sigh of relief.

He nodded slightly to Tapu Fin-Fin and they smiled at each other.

In this way, the final risks and worries will be gone.

Next, Bi Ke and Barnett took Luo Mu to visit the nature reserve and even took them to play in a lake for a while.

The Ball Sea Lion, Snorlax and Bearcat quickly became friends.

Luo Mu also asked Pi Ke indirectly about the details of the teddy bear she picked up, and finally determined that the teddy bear was most likely the missing descendant of Tapu Kuma, the fifth of the four island guardians.

The matter itself was actually not complicated. When Pico was doing her daily patrol to protect Pokémon, she came across a seriously injured bear doll that was crushed under a tree trunk, and brought it back to the Ether Paradise to take care of it.

This action even had an impact long afterward, when the three great masters of Team Rocket followed Imp-Head to the Alola region and had them taken care of as children by the bear-wearing girl whose maternal instincts were inexhaustible.

Luo Mu thought that if he had the chance to meet a bear, he would let the mother and son meet each other first.

After visiting the Pokémon Sanctuary, before Luo Mu could say that he was going to leave, Pico, who had received some instructions, spoke up to persuade him to stay, saying, "Chairman Lusamine plans to host you at her private residence. Please do me the honor of coming!"

coming!

Luo Mu perked up, but his expression remained normal, and he began to show off his acting skills.

"Ah, this isn't good—"

After some politeness that needs no detailed description, Luo Mu accepted Lusamine's kindness and prepared to visit her private residence on the artificial island of Aether Paradise.

But on the way to the private residence, an uninvited guest quietly blocked their way.

He was a thin middle-aged man with a green crew cut, a hat that almost covered half of his face, and a small tuft of beard on his chin.

He calls himself Zaobo, an executive of the Aether Foundation, the head of the research department, and the "Inventor King of Alola".

However, his attitude cannot be said to be unfriendly, it can only be said to have nothing to do with friendliness.

Adjusting his glasses, Zaob looked Luo Mu up and down with suspicion, and then began to question Bi Ke.

"Officer Pico, you brought such a strange and suspicious man to the private residence where the chairman lives. Are you planning to harm the chairman?"

As soon as he spoke, a "tricky" smell came towards him.

Bi Ke was somewhat speechless and said, "What are you talking about? This is Mr. Luo Mu. Didn't the chairman just mention him this morning? Besides, it was the chairman who invited him to be the guest this time."

"Zaobo, you are so rude to your guests."

As a fellow cadre, Bi Ke would not be intimidated by Zaobo, not to mention that she had never done anything wrong.

On the contrary, Zaobo himself, perhaps because of some "guilty conscience", glanced at Luo Mu again, and curled his lips, "Who knows if he is taking advantage of Master Gladion's matter to curry favor with the rich and powerful."

Even though he knew he was not quite right, Zaobo still refused to let it go. He left after saying this.

Pico apologized to Luo Mu, who looked puzzled, "I'm sorry. Although Zaobo is a bit mean, jealous, and often gets angry for no reason, he only talks about being competitive."

"I apologize to you on his behalf."

Go ahead and say it, Bi Ke is about to bow deeply to Luo Mu.

"it's okay no problem."

Luo Mu stopped Bi Ke's actions and was not angry at all.

After all, he knew exactly what kind of personality Zaobo was.

Although he has done a lot of bad things, he actually has no talent in this area. Instead, he has good research ability.

Pico described his character very accurately. Perhaps Zaob had noticed something and was worried that he, who was connected to Gladion, would say something to Lusamine that would expose his past, so he hurried over to "intercept" him.

After all, whether it was Liliae's "fear of Pokémon symptoms" or the reason why Gladion ran away from home, they were all related to him.

But this guy isn't a traditional villain. He's simply a career-oriented guy trying to keep his job. It's very contradictory.

Luo Mu couldn't afford to be angry with him. If he had the time, he might as well deal with the things at hand first.

Someone will punish him later.

Motioning to Pico to continue leading the way, the two of them came straight to a rather luxurious mansion on an artificial island built in a calm sea. No, it might be more appropriate to describe it as a mansion.

After passing through the access control, the exquisitely decorated interior environment comes into view, with red velvet carpet extending from the entrance to the stairs.

At this time, Lusamine also walked down from the second floor in high heels.

"Welcome, Mr. Luo Mu!"

Lusamine extended her hand rather enthusiastically.

The only drawback was that her phone would ring from time to time, making it almost impossible for her to maintain her smile.

In the end, he handed a bunch of phone calls to Bi Ke and asked her to cancel all the work during this period. Then the two of them sat in the meeting room.

"I'm sorry to make you laugh."

Lusamine placed a cup of hot tea in front of Luo Mu and said apologetically.

As the helmsman of this huge Ether Foundation, she is like the CEOs in the overbearing CEO novels who make millions of dollars a minute.

It would be strange if work wasn't busy.

Luo Mu expressed his understanding of this.

As a world-leading company on par with Silver Corporation, Devon Corporation, and Roz Group, Lusamine must have paid a lot to run the Ether Foundation to such an extent.

Luo Mu envied her for being able to earn so much money, but he himself didn't have that idea.

The reason is simple: I'm too tired.

Not to mention that Lusamine was so busy with work that her children became somewhat alienated from her.

After the two exchanged some small talk, Lusamine went straight to her main purpose, which was the mention of Gladion.

"That, and something about Gladion, I want to talk to you about."

Lusamine's expression was somewhat gloomy, as if she was still a little disappointed by Gladion's attitude in the morning.

Luo Mu straightened his posture slightly and pretended to listen carefully.

But the first few words Lusamine said immediately sent him flying.

"It's about the kid going to school."

"I asked James to check this morning. It seems that the Grape Academy where you, Mr. Luo Mu, are in charge, has not yet entered the enrollment season."

"I think, how about donating some money to the college, investing in the construction of some teaching facilities, and then exchanging it for an admission quota?"

Luo Mu:?
Why did the topic jump directly here?

Looking at Lusamine's serious expression, it didn't seem like she was joking.

Luo Mu suddenly realized that the excuse Gladion made up in desperation was really taken seriously by Lusamine.

After all, as he knew, in order to protect the Aether Foundation left by Moon, Lusamine had to work day and night.

But even so, she loved her two children deeply, but rarely spent time with them because of work.

Look, a whole morning has passed, and I'm already thinking about donating money to allow Gladion to enroll in Grape Academy.

With this kind of initiative, she deserves to make a lot of money.

Luo Mu, who was silenced by Lusamine, thought for a long time and asked implicitly: "Have you consulted Gladion's opinion?"

"What is Gladion's opinion?" Lusamine looked puzzled. "Didn't he express his wish this morning?"

When it comes to her children, Lusamine becomes talkative.

"Although my baby Liliae is now enrolled in the Pokémon School on Melemele Island, Gladion has been taught by a tutor hired by James since he was a child."

"I was thinking that this child might have too little contact with his peers and might be a little withdrawn. It just so happened that this was the first time he expressed his wishes to me in the past few years, so I just followed his wishes—"

Lusamine became more and more excited as she spoke. She had already started to consider whether to use the donation to build a teaching building or a playground, or to build a library to cultivate one's sentiments.

Feeling something was wrong, Luo Mu fixed his eyes on the photo frame placed on the cabinet not far away and changed the subject stiffly.

"Ms. Lusamine, is that a family photo of yours?"

Being suddenly interrupted by Luo Mu, Lusamine looked towards the place where Luo Mu was pointing and was slightly startled.

After a moment of distraction, she nodded sadly.

"Yes, that's our family photo."

Perhaps the memories came flooding back to her mind again, Lusamine stood up, picked up the photo frame on the cabinet, and then sat down opposite Luo Mu.

The well-maintained hands gently stroked the cold photo, and Lusamine's voice was filled with some nostalgia and subtle sadness.

"This is a family photo my husband and I took shortly after Liliae was born."

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever met your husband, and Gladion didn't mention him either."

Luo Mu intentionally guided the direction of the topic.

When asked by Luo Mu, Lusamine's eyes showed more sadness, and her voice was slightly choked: "In fact, my husband disappeared due to a research accident many years ago, and his whereabouts are still unknown."

This was not a secret. Most Alola people had heard about Lusamine's efforts to find Moon over the years. Naturally, she did not think that Luo Mu was being deliberate in asking this question.

"That's it"

After a few seconds of silence, Luo Mu asked:
"If you don't mind, could you show me your family photo? Maybe I'll see your husband?"

"of course."

Although she had no hope that Luo Mu, who was from the Padia region, had ever seen her husband, Lusamine still gave the family photo to Luo Mu.

Luo Mu took the family photo and looked at it carefully.

Lusamine was holding a swaddled baby in her arms, wearing clothes that looked younger and more childish than she was now, and smiling brightly.

And there was Gladion who wasn't as immature as he is now.

And the younger version of Moon that Luo Mu knew.

After taking a look at Lusamine who seemed a little distracted, Luo Mu took a deep breath and spoke "hesitantly".

"Could this be Mr. Moon?"

The moment she heard Luo Mu's words, Lusamine was stunned at first, then she grabbed Luo Mu's arm as if he was grabbing a life-saving straw and asked anxiously.

"Have you ever seen Morn——!?"

Lusamine, who was so concerned that she was confused, completely ignored the possibility that Luo Mu might have known her husband's name through other channels, and was directly overwhelmed by the first hope in so many years.

Only after Luo Mu nodded affirmatively did she seem to have lost all her strength, and she knelt on the ground, and the trembling voice rang out.

"Please, please tell me where my husband is now--"

(End of this chapter)