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Su Xuanxiao took the lead and walked toward the ticket booth after standing briefly at the entrance to the Children’s Amusement Park. Su Ximu followed nervously.
The closer they got, the more Su Ximu realized his earlier observation had been correct.
This Children’s Amusement Park was just like the play areas in regular malls—indeed, it did not allow entry to adults without accompanying children.
Adults could only enter as guardians with kids in tow.
But ‘Big Brother’ insisted, so Su Ximu had no choice but to stand in line with him to buy tickets, quietly awaiting the moment the ticket seller rejected them.
‘Big Brother’ had chosen the VIP lane, so the rejection would probably come even faster.
Unlike Su Ximu, ‘Big Brother’ was at least a boss with hundreds or thousands of employees under him. He was used to being obeyed and issuing commands freely. Now, suddenly rejected at the ticket window in front of all these other tourists, he might feel embarrassed and lose face.
Looking at Big Brother’s back, so close to him, Su Ximu thought maybe he should buy the tickets instead.
With that in mind, as the line slowly advanced and the parent ahead of them entered the park with their child, it was almost their turn. The boy who had been behind Su Xuanxiao tentatively took a small step forward.
“Big Brother, let me buy…”
Before he could finish, a sleek Black Amusement Park Card was placed on the ticket counter.
A few seconds later, a somewhat dazed Su Ximu passed through the automatically opened barrier, with the amusement park ticket seller behind him bowing respectfully.
He turned to look at the man beside him and opened his mouth. “Big Brother, that… he, we…”
They had just… come in like that?
Su Xuanxiao tucked the card away again, his tone casual. “The Su Corporation holds 21% of this amusement park. I’m still looking for opportunities for the rest.”
The last time he had passed by the Tourist Garden, it was on his way to a meeting here.
If he couldn’t buy a ticket as a tourist, then he wouldn’t. This was a shareholder inspection.
Such a statement left Su Ximu momentarily at a loss for words. He could only force a smile, afraid his poor-guy aura would taint the multi-talented, multi-billionaire ‘Big Brother’ beside him.
Just as the atmosphere grew a bit awkward, Su Ximu suddenly heard a child’s voice shouting from behind: “Big Brother!”
At first, he didn’t think it was calling him, until the voice rang out very close by: “Big Brother.”
Only then did Su Ximu turn his head. The first thing that caught his eye was a rabbit balloon floating in mid-air. He looked down and saw a little girl with a bun hairstyle gazing up at him, her cheeks flushed pink.
“Big Brother! That day, when I got home with Mommy and Daddy and took off my clothes to go to sleep, I found the candy in my pocket!” The little girl’s eyes sparkled as she spoke excitedly about it.
“I was so happy. I wanted to find you, but Mommy and Daddy wouldn’t let me go out.”
Su Ximu had already recognized the little girl in front of him. She was the child he had met on the first day he arrived in this world, on the landscaped lawn.
There had been two slightly older kids among them, whom the other children called Lao Da and Big Sister Boss.
After Lao Da and Big Sister Boss ran off crying in a huff from him, the remaining kids started cleaning up the mess they had made because they wanted candy. In the end, they also ran off crying after getting mad at him.
By the time he finished his morning exercise and returned home, some of the kids had even brought their parents to find his parents.
Of course, ‘Big Brother’ clearly hadn’t suffered any losses.
The little girl in front of him now was one of the kids who had stayed to clean up the lawn. Her name was Dudu.
However, from what Su Ximu recalled, she hadn’t brought her parents to the Su Family to complain that day.
Su Ximu had thought he must have made enemies with the kids on Wealth Avenue. After all, the next day while strolling in the neighborhood, their Lao Da—that little fatty—had even made faces at him.
Since the little friend was being so friendly, Su Ximu crouched down as well. “Dudu, hi. How have you been lately?”
The little girl thought about it, unsure if she had been doing well or not.
That day, because she hadn’t joined her friends in the group action of fetching parents, Lao Da and Big Sister Boss wouldn’t let the other kids play with her afterward.
But not long after, Lao Da and Big Sister Boss moved away. So their order not to play with her no longer counted.
Still, without Lao Da and Big Sister Boss, it was boring.
They didn’t know what to play anymore.
Unlike before, when Lao Da and Big Sister Boss always had ideas. They would lead them to trample the lawn, chop down trees, burn houses. The most fun time, Big Sister Boss had led them to steal the security guard’s electric baton. After they zapped the chasing security guard unconscious, they even threw him into the scariest Ox Grandpa’s house.
The mission was thrilling and fun. Big Sister Boss’s little brother had even been left behind in the scariest Ox Grandpa’s house and still hadn’t been found to this day.
Su Ximu had no idea that such a seemingly five- or six-year-old girl would have such terrifying thoughts in her head.
When she said Lao Da and Big Sister Boss had moved away, everyone had been bored lately, and she had even been ostracized for not joining in troubling him, he thought for a moment and pulled out two pieces of candy from his pocket to hand over.
He didn’t have much candy left himself, but he was an adult now and didn’t crave sweets like kids did.
Dudu’s eyes lit up as she cupped the two candies in both hands. She hopped in place happily, then vigilantly glanced back at her dad before carefully hiding the candy.
Dudu’s Father clearly feared Su Xuanxiao a bit. If not for Dudu’s quick movements, he probably wouldn’t have followed.
Seeing this, Su Xuanxiao looked at Dudu’s Father. “Since we’ve run into each other, let’s walk together.”
Dudu’s Father opened his mouth to refuse, but upon meeting the other man’s gaze, he swallowed his words. “Sure, sure.”
With Dudu’s father and daughter joining them, Su Ximu no longer had to stare awkwardly at Big Brother. He walked ahead with the little girl, while the two adults followed behind.
A few minutes later, they passed a cotton candy stall on the walkway.
Five minutes after that, Su Ximu and Dudu each held a cotton candy stick as they walked ahead, while Su Xuanxiao and Dudu’s Father continued following behind.
Dudu wanted to play in the Ball Pool Ocean in the amusement park. The other three adults had no objections or suggestions, so they followed the directional arrows.
Along the way, Su Ximu tried hard to recall what games he had played as a kid, but oddly couldn’t come up with anything concrete.
He thought for a long time. By the time they were almost at the Ball Pool Ocean, he finally suggested to little Dudu: “Dudu, have you ever played Hunter Game?”
The little girl shook her head immediately, full of interest. “How do you play? How do you play?”
Now, she was interested in anything as long as it was play.
Su Ximu slowed his steps to match the little one’s short strides and recalled: “It’s a game for exactly four people. One is the Hunter, three are Meat Citizens. The Hunter has special abilities— all kinds of special abilities. When playing, you can write the Hunter’s abilities on a card, and the kid playing Hunter draws the card…”
The more he recalled, the clearer the game rules became.
It was really just a simple game of pursuit and evasion.
It was just that whether it was the pursuing Hunter or the pursued Meat Citizens, the names alone made people feel inexplicably repulsed.
If he hadn’t recalled it today by chance, Su Ximu wouldn’t have even remembered playing such a game as a kid.
He shook his head right after recalling only half the rules. “Forget it, forget it. Let’s not play that. It’s no fun.”
Dudu, who had been listening patiently to the rules, nodded too. “Okay then.”
It really didn’t sound fun. It was just like cops and robbers.
Their voices weren’t loud, drifting back from ahead to Su Xuanxiao, who was a few steps behind.
In an instant, something completely changed—or perhaps nothing changed at all.
Dudu’s Father, who was very close to Su Xuanxiao, seemed to sense this undercurrent of turmoil. He silently put some distance between himself and the man beside him.
At the cotton candy stall far behind the group, the cotton candy vendor wearing an employee hat gazed toward them in the distance, his expression more complicated than could be described.
Who could understand? On the first day entering the Dungeon, he had run into the Weird that Rao Fei had mentioned—the one rampaging through Dungeons. All the features matched perfectly!
It was just that the powerful Weird following behind him had changed appearance again.
Standing at the edge of the Ball Pool Ocean, Su Ximu ultimately felt too embarrassed to jump in and play with Dudu.
Dudu’s Father used the excuse of watching his child and swiftly vanished into the sea of balls with his daughter.
Su Ximu turned his head to the side and finally voiced the question that had puzzled him all morning. “Big Brother, do you have something on your mind?”
Su Xuanxiao turned his head as well and reached out, wanting to smooth down the tuft of messy hair on the boy’s head. But after lifting his hand, he ultimately let it drop.
He clasped his hands behind his back, his expression still calm. “I want to hear you call my name.”
The two faced each other, the cheerful laughter of children ringing in their ears. Su Xuanxiao did not address the boy with any title this time.
Hearing this ‘outrageous’ request, Su Ximu’s first reaction was to shake his head.
But then ‘Big Brother’ tempted him. “Didn’t you tell Jiang Lou you wanted to change jobs, and he didn’t agree? Call me once, and I approve.”
Evidently, in family status, Big Brother > Third Brother.
The boy immediately looked up, his voice clear and bright, enunciating perfectly: “Su Xuanxiao.”
“Su Xuanxiao, Su Xuanxiao.”
Afraid it wasn’t enough, he added two more.
Su Xuanxiao’s hands clenched tightly behind his back.
In the end, he couldn’t hold back. With a boom, the Su Corporation Building dozens of kilometers away collapsed halfway.
A name was the shortest curse.
Call it once, think of it once.
So when the name was called again and again, how could one forget? How could one stop missing it?
