Ever since he and Xiao Xi had openly discussed the matter that had weighed on his heart for many days, Su Jianglou shed his psychological burden, and he clearly relaxed a great deal.
That afternoon, he—who usually never stayed home and was always either at work or on his way to work—didn’t go anywhere. Instead, he stayed with Xiao Xi in the living room downstairs to pick a spot, then took a hammer and banged away at the chosen wall, nailing in nails.
Once the nails were in place and the painting hung up.
Su Jianglou looked at the eye-catching family portrait in the living room, and a surge of pride welled up in his heart.
He said to his younger brother standing beside him, “Big Brother once specially hired a painter from the neighboring city to paint our family portrait. Later, when that painting went missing, Second Brother and I went to retrieve it.”
Now that he looked at it, that painting was nowhere near as good as the one he painted. Not even his heel could compare.
At the staircase entrance, Su Wuzi glanced at Big Brother upon hearing this, as if recalling something.
Su Xuanxiao gave a light cough and smiled faintly.
The past was the past, so Su Wuzi didn’t bring up the time Big Brother had sent him and Jianglou away. Instead, he stepped forward as well: “Xiao Xi, what do you want to eat tonight? Second Brother will make it for you.”
To avoid any other weirds disturbing their family’s long-awaited warm family life, Butler Li and the other servants in the villa had all been given their holidays.
Fortunately, Su Wuzi’s culinary skills were decent, so he could fill in for the chef who was also on vacation.
Upon hearing this, Su Ximu didn’t stand on ceremony with Second Brother. He thought for a moment and began ordering dishes: “Mm… then corn rib soup, and tomato scrambled eggs.”
Su Jianglou chimed in: “Oil-braised large shrimp.”
Su Xuanxiao: “Add a cake.”
It came full circle back to Su Ximu. The boy in light brown casual clothes raised his hand: “Second Brother, I can help out and wash the dishes too.”
Su Wuzi smiled and naturally took hold of Xiao Xi’s wrist: “Then let’s go buy groceries first. But no need to wash dishes—Big Brother and Jianglou are here too.”
With that, he assigned tasks to Big Brother and Jianglou: “There’s still some ingredients in the fridge at home. Jianglou, you and Big Brother can prep them first. Once Xiao Xi and I get back, we can start cooking right away.”
Su Jianglou shrugged in mild dissatisfaction but still nodded in agreement: “Then hurry back with Xiao Xi.”
“Mm, Third Brother, Second Brother and I will come back right after buying the groceries.” This time, it was Su Ximu who replied.
Speaking of buying groceries, Su Ximu raised a question he had been curious about these past couple of days: “Second Brother, do weirds need to eat? Is there a supermarket or market nearby that sells normal fruits and vegetables?”
He now knew that the staff meals he ate at the Tourist Garden had been specially prepared by Third Brother.
As had the soups Second Brother always stewed for him.
He had thought these ingredients had to be obtained from special places.
Just like the trainee cafeteria on Bizarre Island, where the supply trucks always arrived and left silently.
Su Wuzi was already used to Xiao Xi’s endless questions. As always, he answered unhurriedly: “Weirds don’t need to eat, but they can. Some weirds out of habit want to continue their previous lifestyle, while others like to imitate. So, normal ingredients do have a consumer base in this world. There’s a mall just near Wealth Avenue that sells them. It shouldn’t be much different from the ones in your memory, Xiao Xi.”
Not much different?
Su Ximu’s interest was piqued.
By now, he had changed his shoes and gone out the door with Second Brother. As the two walked along the small path in front of the villa, Su Ximu asked briskly, “Then Second Brother, can I go to that mall by myself to buy things in the future?”
“You can.”
“Whatever you could do before, Xiao Xi, you can still do now.”
“Don’t feel burdened or worried.”
As they spoke, they passed the neighboring villa.
The villa’s front gate was locked tight, so the owner had probably gone out.
The two walked all the way to the mall without any other interruptions, chatting back and forth the whole time, and they didn’t find it boring at all.
When they were about to exit the Villa District, Su Ximu turned his head to look back. When he turned forward again, he shared a little discovery from before with Second Brother: “Second Brother, Ox Grandpa and Neighbor Grandpa seem very similar, but also a bit different.”
“The book Third Brother wrote said that Ox Grandpa used to be our neighbor, and now he is again. Ox Grandpa has a Little Yellow Dog, and Neighbor Grandpa said before that when he came back, he’d give me a puppy.”
With so many coincidences, he almost thought Ox Grandpa was Neighbor Grandpa.
But his intuition told him something still felt off, so he didn’t dare confirm it.
Yet recalling it now, he really did feel Ox Grandpa was kind.
“Grandpa said before he was moving…” At this point, the boy’s expression turned a bit wistful.
He hadn’t understood as a child, and right after waking from the dungeon a couple days ago, he had still been a bit muddled.
It wasn’t until yesterday that he fully came to his senses and understood everything.
Grandpa hadn’t actually moved. The Wasteland World had been in such a state back then—where could Grandpa have moved to?
Grandpa had probably been forced into the Weird World too.
He didn’t know if Grandpa was doing okay now, or if, like his brothers, he was still alive.
Unwilling to think the worst, Su Ximu convinced himself more and more that Grandpa was definitely still alive, just like Second Brother and the others.
“Second Brother, have you, Big Brother, and Third Brother run into Neighbor Grandpa these past years?”
Things had been coming one after another lately. If Xiao Xi hadn’t brought it up, Su Wuzi might have forgotten to mention it.
Hearing this, he too glanced back at that villa with its large back garden.
He reached out to pat Xiao Xi’s head reassuringly and gave him a positive answer: “Mm, we have.”
They had run into him quite early on, though becoming neighbors again was recent.
“Neighbors?” Su Ximu blinked in disbelief and whipped his head back for a second look.
But by now, he and Second Brother had walked farther, and the villa was out of sight.
The boy turned back to Second Brother for confirmation: “Second Brother, Ox Grandpa is Neighbor Grandpa, right?”
But why, why…
In essence, Su Ximu’s senses were very sharp.
It was just that his upbringing had veiled that sharpness with a fog that was sometimes thin, sometimes thick.
Like last time, right after waking from the dungeon and seeing Second Brother lying beside him, the instinctive “blue” he blurted out.
Seeing Xiao Xi growing a bit anxious from not finding the right words, Su Wuzi continued: “But why does our Xiao Xi feel that Ox Grandpa is somewhat familiar yet somewhat strange, and upon closer thought, even a bit dangerous—not quite like the feeling he used to give you, right?”
Su Ximu, who had been spot on, nodded vigorously up and down.
“Xiao Xi, do you know where Ox Grandpa’s surname ‘Ox’ came from?”
The meat citizens of the Wasteland World had only numbers, no surnames.
Su Ximu shook his head at once, slowing his steps and assuming an obedient listening posture.
“This surname came from another weird living inside his body.” Su Wuzi never beat around the bush when talking to Su Ximu; he always explained in detail.
Seeing the boy’s already large eyes widen even further at these words, Su Wuzi couldn’t resist reaching out to flick the boy’s long, upturned eyelashes.
Realizing Xiao Xi was blinking involuntarily from his touch, he snapped back to attention, withdrew his hand, slowed his pace, and continued: “In the earliest days, with Tanzhong City at the center, the surrounding four cities were still edge wastelands shrouded in Gray Mist. Back then, the nearest place to Tanzhong City was a Beast Fighting Arena.”
“The most senior beast tamer there was an elderly man surnamed Ox. Under his command were jackals, wolves, tigers, leopards, dogs, chickens, horses, oxen… everything one could imagine. Every beast fight match, with those animals tearing into each other, left the spectators thoroughly satisfied.”
“Until one day, word spread from the Beast Fighting Arena that this beast tamer found the beef of one of his oxen particularly tender and wanted to eat it. But midway through the slaughter, he was bitten to death by the ox.”
“Later, the Beast Fighting Arena gradually declined, and all the patrons only then realized that the arena’s owner was none other than its most senior beast tamer.”
An ox that bit the beast tamer to death?
Su Ximu looked down at his arms, which had grown chilly as he listened.
He couldn’t help searching the story for traces of Ox Grandpa—or rather, Neighbor Grandpa.
Clearly, it wasn’t the bitten tamer. Because the tamer had the surname Ox from the start.
But aside from the tamer, did a second person or weird appear in the story?
With that thought, Su Ximu rubbed his arms again but finally pushed through the discomfort to ask Second Brother: “Second Brother, were the animals in the Beast Fighting Arena really animals?”
Su Wuzi shook his head.
There were never any animals in the Beast Fighting Arena.
And the ox hadn’t truly bitten the beast tamer to death either.
They tore into each other, fought, their flesh and blood mingling, their powers indistinguishable at first—truly hard to tell apart.
Fortunately, in recent years, as one side’s power began to overpower the other, things gradually became clearer.
In a few more years, the beast tamer would probably vanish completely.
Su Wuzi explained patiently but didn’t want to delve into the gory details for Xiao Xi, so he glossed over it.
And Su Ximu did understand.
He understood Second Brother’s explanation.
Neighbor Grandpa wasn’t the beast tamer; he was the “ox” that bit the beast tamer to death.
In the Weird World, powerful entities were all weirds. The beast tamer was naturally one too.
Weirds weren’t so easily killed.
Some complicated changes must have occurred in between, but the current situation was that inside Ox Grandpa’s body, besides Neighbor Grandpa, there was also a beast tamer.
That was why these past couple days, he felt Ox Grandpa was familiar one moment, strange the next.
That evening, because he and Second Brother had gotten sidetracked chatting midway, they returned later than planned.
The moment Su Ximu stepped through the door, he saw Third Brother sitting on the sofa, gazing eagerly.
Feeling a bit embarrassed, he immediately carried the small bag of vegetables in his hand into the kitchen.
Su Wuzi, carrying a large bag, faced Jianglou’s glare and also entered the kitchen.
Just like the division of labor at the start: he and Second Brother cooked, while Big Brother and Third Brother washed dishes.
Two hours later, after finishing dinner, Su Ximu patted his slightly bulging belly, stood up, and decided to go for a walk.
He turned and invited: “Second Brother, want to go for a walk with me?”
Su Wuzi gladly agreed and stood up.
Behind them came the continuous whooshing of water from the kitchen.
This time, Su Ximu had just changed shoes and reached the villa entrance when two sharp “Woof! Woof!” barks suddenly sounded in his ears.
It was the sound of a puppy barking.
He turned back and sure enough saw a familiar spotted little dog, tail wagging and tongue lolling, joyfully running toward him.
Behind the puppy, that villa which had been dark before dinner now had warm light spilling from its windows.
Clearly, the owner had returned.
