Event synopsis: It's Been A While
| Event | Synopsis | Gallery | Trivia |
A collaboration with the mini-webtoon series The Legend of Luo Xiaohei, It's Been A While tells about Luo Xiaohei searching for his lost friend Luo Xiaobai, Ah Gen, and Biu after the gang was accidentally teleported to Terra. Through the clue of a runaway pet, Xiaohei eventually finds his back to his friends with tears and joy while unveiling the secret past of the pet.
Turn Left, Turn Right
Down the streets of Lungmen, there is a "black kitten" waking up from its nap by raindrops on the rooftop. The "kitten" suddenly shapeshifts into a "Feline" boy with white hair and green cat ears, The boy is Luo Xiaohei, and right now he has to return after hearing Hung calling him for a warm dinner.
As he is having his meal, his mind is still entangled by how he gets here in the first place. To begin with, the "Feline" boy is not even a Terran; he considers himself a cat Spirit, a supernatural, ghostly being who hails from another world, and previously, he was only known to have served as an young apprentice of the "Hall for Spirits." But two months ago, Xiaohei brought along his friends, Luo Xiaobai, his kind adopter, Ah Gen, Luo's cousin, and Biu, a strange, yellow, squirrel-like animal, into the woods to catch a mysterious "slug" that runs speedily. The gang suddenly got lost and seemed to have teleported them to another world, but Xiaohei was forcefully separated from his friends, only to find himself in Lungmen downtown. He was eventually brought into the Lee's Detective Agency after Mr. Lee met this strange orphan, and the L.D.A. has since been treating him as part of the "family circle" while helping him searching for clues regarding his friends.
Xiaohei is eager for Lee's latest news, but it is in vain. Nevertheless, Mr. Lee requests Xiaohei if he is interested in a recent client request—a search for the Yuan's lost pet, a storm cloudbeast, and Xiaohei gladly accepts the requests. On the other hand, Hung feels that Lee is being impolite to their guest, so Lee explains that he wants to use this request to have Xiaohei explore around and ease his weariness against strangers.
Meanwhile, on the other side of of Lungmen, Rockrock and Suzuran are bringing two children to the Rhodes Island branch office. The children are none other than Xiaobai and Ah Gen along with their pet Biu. They too have been worrying of Xiaohei since they were teleported to this strange new world, so they request R.I. operators to find him. Upon reaching the office, Xiaobai and Ah Gen encounter a crying Infected girl and comforts her. Introducing herself as Xiaoyuan, she cries because her beloved pet cloudbeast, Sixty-Seven, went disappeared a year ago, but she has to be transferred to the landship for further treatments, so she stubbornly refuses to leave before Sixty-Seven returns. The two kids then make a promise with her that they will help her find Sixty-Seven so that she will obey the nurses' words. Rockrock reminds that this will be an impossible mission in this huge nomadic city, but they will try their best to bring it back.
The streets of Lungmen are crowded and bustling. This causes Xiaobai and Ah Gen to get close together from getting lost, just like how they were forcefully separated from Xiaohei. Xiaobai worries that Xiaohei will struggle to return home, yet Ah Gen promises that he, a disciple of the powerful mortal Wuxian, will be fine in protecting himself. Unbeknownst to the kids, Xiaohei is just nearby after finding the Yuan's cloudbeast, and he is on his way to return back to the L.D.A. office.
That night, Xiaohei shifts into his kitten form to communicate with the storm cloudbeast. He grumbles of his misfortune as well as his worry for his friends. Upon hearing his misfortune, the cloudbeast seems to comfort Xiaohei with its paws. In the meantime, Xiaohei learns that the cloudbeast runs away in order to search for someone, so he makes a promise with it.
The Walls Have You
Xiaohei accepts another request from Mr. Lee, and this time, he has to help Emperor to expel vermin in his "Ends of the Earth" bar that has been causing damage here. The Penguin Logistics girls, Croissant and Sora, first chat about a ghost story about a wife and her abusive husband trembling before a ghost who squeaks in the ceilings. The story does not scare Xiaohei, for he is too familiar with supernatural events; it instead scares the timid Sora. Seeing Xiaohei and the girls loafing on the job, Emperor angrily dismisses the chat and orders them to work now before the vermin gnaws on his precious vinyl records.
Xiaohei reached the bar's air ducts in the storeroom. He summons his Hexiu, his black clones, to search for the vermin from within. He eventually hears a chirping sound which turns out to be a musbeast, a rodent-like Terran animal. Just as he brings it out safely, the storm cloudbeast somehow follows him and injures the musbeast out of instinct, causing Xiaohei to accidentally knock on the shelf. The collapsing noise alerts the P.L. girls, but they are rather afraid that Xiaohei's mess would enrage Emperor.
After having his wound treated, Xiaohei finds out that the musbeast is not with him because Emperor and the bartender have locked it up inside a cage. The bartender proposes to kill the musbeast because even though they are usually treated as exotic pets from Sargon, a growing number of these abandoned animals have turned them into dangerous vermin to the city. But Xiaohei angrily protests, stating that the musbeast-vermin problem is, in the end, human's fault, and he wants to keep the injured musbeast by himself. Emperor agrees with the bartender's words and loads his pistol to end its life. On the other hand, he too sympathizes Xiaohei and understands his reasoning, so he uses his pistol-like lighter as a prank. He further proposes to keep the musbeast as his new pet, so he brings Xiaohei along to meet a veterinarian down the slum to treat the two injured animals.
Emperor and Xiaohei have reached their destination and called the vet out. Xiaohei is puzzled why a vet will live in a dirty slum, so the vet explains that he is an ex-criminal; indeed, he is in fact an ex-Reunion combatant who has found a new life in the slum. The vet easily recognizes the storm cloudbeast Xiaohei brings along because he once mended its wounds on its hind leg. He recalls that this cloudbeast was brought to him by a young Infected with severe Oripathy three years ago who wished him to save this poor animal from its legs' severe injury. The vet treated its wound free of charge, but he turned down the client's request for adoption due to financial problems. He even remembers the nickname he gave to the pet: Sixty-Seven, a name given by the remaining LMD that Infected client offered.
Yangni and I
Xiaobai and Ah Gen continue their mission to search for Xiaoyuan's lost pet, so Ah Gen personally approaches an animal shelter. But he encounters hostility from the shelter owner who grumbles that kids like him love to abandon pets. The neighbors suggest that he not get in touch with the owner as he was a former Siracusan hitman. Furthermore, they have witnessed the shelter owner being interrogated by the Lungmen Guard Department for keeping police beckbeasts illegally, and they fear that this owner is nothing more than an animal trafficker selling them to the black market.
Unpersuaded by the neighbors' account, Ah Gen forcefully infiltrates the building to see for himself. There, he sees a layout map of the L.G.D. headquarters with several markings. The shelter owner, upon meeting the intruder, attacks Ah Gen, but the boy's supernatural traits, thanks to his other personality as Xuanli the Spirit, allows him to cast an ice ring around his neck to force him speak out. The shelter owner elaborates that he is planning to rescue all the beckbeast confiscated by the LGD because he distrusts them to treat them nicely, for these beckbeast are stray animals that he has adopted throughout the years. Most importantly, those beckbeasts confiscated include his precious pet as well. After he is freed, the shelter owner invites him to participate in the heist in exchange for the information regarding the cloudbeast he is searching for.
Ah Gen regrets hesitantly agreeing to the shelter owner's offer, but with Rockrock' backup plan, he is not worried. He will first pretend to have the shelter owner apprehended by the LGD for jacking his bicycle, and he will follow suit for a confession. After that, they will quietly leave and rush towards the kennels with the aid of Rockrock's drone. The shelter owner could finally get the chance to reunite with his pet, Yangni the beckbeast.
Just then, Rockrock reminds them that an officer is heading towards the kennels. Ah Gen first freezes the officer into a pillar of ice so that the shelter owner could have time to bid farewell to Yangni. Nevertheless, the officer knows the preparator and yells at the shelter owner to reveal himself. After being freed by Ah Gen from the pillar of ice, the officer and the shelter owner angrily engage in a fist fight. The shelter owner argues that he is the rightful owner of Yangni, but on the other hand, the officer refutes that Yangni is in fact Meituan, an honored beckbeast whose previous owner, Senior Superintendent Tse Ming, lost his life in the Chernobog Incident. In order to stop the fight, Ah Gen proposes a challenge: to have Yangni come close on whose side, and the one he chooses will be the righteous owner. Miraculously, Yangni chooses the shelter owner, and the officer admits his loss. Surprisingly, both the officer and the shelter owner suddenly become friends, and while Yangni finally returns to the shelter owner, he allows the officer to visit him once in a while.
After returning to the shelter, the shelter owner fulfills Ah Gen's promise by looking up his filed documents regarding any storm cloudbeast he had kept in the past. A metal collar slips off from the file, and Ah Gen climbs down to reach it. The shelter owner immediately recognizes it, but he frowns. That collar belongs to an escaped storm cloudbeast, but by the time he found it, he only sees the broken collar and a pool of blood on the ground, concluding that it never survived. Ah Gen then recognizes the name of the collar – the cloudbeast named Sixty-Seven.
Time of Farewell
Ah Gen brings the unfortunate news back to Xiaobai and Xiaoyuan, and as expected, Xiaoyuan cries aloud for the loss of her pet. Nevertheless, Xiaobai comforts her and suggests to hold a funeral to bid farewell to Sixty-Seven.
The plan to hold the funeral is tedious to the little girl. Xiaobai approaches a funeral home, but the mortuary staff mocks her for holding such an expensive, meaningless funeral, one that is only reserved for the rich, and tells her off. After Xiaobai shows him the photo of Sixty-Seven, the staff gets excited as he recognizes this deceased pet is from the rich Yuan family, and out of greed, he immediately accepts Xiaobai's request, but Xiaobai does not respond to his words.
The funeral preparation becomes too extravagant that even Xiaobai could not comprehend. The mortuary staff presents to her all the expensive offerings to the deceased pet, from luxurious Yanese joss paper crafts, colorful flower wreaths, to even a so-called "professional" funeral procession team. After having the offerings delivered to the R.I. office, Xiaobai heads on to inform Xiaoyuan of the funeral. Just then, The girl eavesdrops on the mortuary staff's phone call outside. There, she realizes that the staff have mistaken Xiaoyuan as somebody else, but she worries whether she should continue the funeral. Xiaobai eventually finds herself at a burial site of the Infected where Suzuran is performing rituals to the deceased. There, Suzuran shows her that a simple funeral is too luxurious to an Infected, yet it is the marks of the past that leaves mementos to those who are alive.
Xiaobai eventually bravely faces the mortuary staff and informs them to cancel their funeral service. Seeing that his greedy, under-the-table plan shambles, he angrily leaves, takes away all the offerings, and mercilessly curses the little girl. Nevertheless, Xiaobai does not take heed of his cursing and brings Xiaoyuan, Ah Gen, and Rockrock to the barren burial site where they will pray to Sixty-Seven and bid their final farewell to it under sunset. All of a sudden, they hear meowing from afar, and they meet familiar figures standing in front of them.
Reunited
Standing in front of them is none other than the missing Luo Xiaohei and—surprisingly—Sixty-Seven the cloudbeast. Xiaoyuan rushes to reunite with her lost pet, and Xiaohei receives a huge hug from Ah Gen and Xiaobai. He elaborates that he follows the vet's suggestion to search for a memento here, and without their presence, he will never be reunited. Xiaoyuan is surprised that Xiaohei knows Sixty-Seven, and Xiaohei puzzles that why would Sixty-Seven want to arrive at this barren burial site.
The gang then turn their attention onto an old photo hidden among the piles of memorial photos stuck on the chain-link fence, a portrait of Sixty-Seven and its former owner. Sixty-Seven's former owner had long passed away due to Oripathy, and after his death, he was buried there. And without the vet's rescue, Sixty-Seven will never make it alive. The cloudbeasts then stayed guard at its master's burial site before Xiaoyuan adopted it. Everything seems to be destined from the very beginning. Xiaobai then notices some writings behind the photo, revealing to be his last words:
| “ | ...May Heaven protect you. There will be someone out there, to love you as I did." | ” |
Xiaoyuan hugs Sixty-Seven deeply, crying in tears that the cloudbeast will never be masterless again. Xiaohei then receives another hug from the children when they promise that they will always be together. As twilight arrives, they pay their last respect to Sixty-Seven's former master and make an oath that they will keep this precious pet and treat it nicely.
After the search, everything seems peaceful. Xiaoyuan keeps her promise with the R.I. nurses and takes a ride to the R.I. landship together with her returned pet. The L.D.A. fails their requests for the Yuan family as they deem having Sixty-Seven back to its former owner is the best way to prevent its second escape. They miss Xiaohei as well, and they almost think of having a new pet before realizing that Aak will turn it into his "lab rat." The shelter owner and the L.G.D. officer become close brothers thanks to Yangni's dual ownership, and Emperor enjoys his time playing with its newly adopted musbeast.
Chill Out
The story finally turns its focus on Biu the squirrel-like animal, a Chamecavy that has a huge appetite. After the Luo Xiaohei trio arrives at the R.I. landship, Biu is handed to the R.I. robots, Castle-3, Lancet-2, and THRM-EX, to take care of it when they are not around, and as usual, Xiaohei sends his Heixiu to guard it. Even then, Biu's destructive appetite and its playful nature with Heixiu makes it mess around.
In order to prevent it running around, the robots have it kept inside a cave. They then try to analyze any method to keep Biu active through their database, but given that Biu is not a Terran animal in the first place, they fail to find any solution. Seeing that Biu is getting bored, the robots then bring it out for a tour, but the robots' misadventure almost brings disaster to both the staff and Biu.
Just then, Rockrock shows up, stating that she knows how to handle Biu by simply offering wood chips to it. To their amazement, Biu shifts its color every time it consumes a piece of wood chips. The robots learn new things and store up their experience in their database. After Biu is filled, Rockrock suggests they rather experience it by themselves.
For the remaining afternoon, the robot trio spend their happy time up at the landship deck enjoying the evening breeze and the warm sunset. Biu is satisfied that it receives a good treatment in the latter half of the day.