“Xiao Mu Brother, do you want to play the game with us?” After the little girl explained the game they were playing, she took the initiative to invite him.
Clearly, she really liked this brother who always squatted down to talk to her seriously every time.
Su Ximu thought about it, but still shook his head. “Dudu, Brother is doing morning exercises right now, so he can’t play with you yet. If you and your brother and sisters have time to come out and play this afternoon, we can go pick berries together.”
After that, he looked at the other two children standing behind Dudu, who seemed a bit reserved, and smiled at them.
Dudu immediately clapped her hands happily upon hearing this. “Okay, okay! I have time, Brother, and so do Brother and Sister!”
With that, she turned around and looked at her brother and sister.
Xiao Ming and Qianqian nodded right away.
Having gotten their affirmative response, Dudu turned her head back, happily stuck out her little pinky finger. “Xiao Mu Brother, it’s a deal then—we’ll go pick berries this afternoon.”
Seeing this, Su Ximu also extended his little finger and seriously hooked it with the little girl’s in a pinky promise.
Once the promise was made, he stood up, waved goodbye to each of the three children in front of him one by one, and then continued jogging slowly along the path with Third Brother.
After running for another two or three minutes, Su Jianglou asked casually, “Xiao Xi, you’ve gone to the Children’s Amusement Park with Big Brother before, right?”
“Yeah.” The teenager’s voice carried a slight pant as he ran. He recalled his thought process from back then, and his tone couldn’t help but carry a hint of embarrassment. “When we went that time, I even asked Big Brother where the children were that we were supposed to bring to the Children’s Amusement Park. He said he was bringing me. While we were queuing at the ticket booth, I felt like neither Big Brother nor I could get in.”
After all, there really weren’t any ‘children’ as big as him.
Su Jianglou could imagine how awkward Xiao Xi must have felt at the time. He chuckled and couldn’t resist spilling Big Brother’s secrets. “I suspect Big Brother has been planning to buy up all of Tanzhong City in recent years. Next time, I’ll take you to the restaurant downstairs from Big Brother’s company—we won’t pay.”
An eat-and-run.
Su Ximu got the hint.
After saying that, Su Jianglou casually asked again, “By the way, did you have fun with Big Brother that day? Was the amusement park fun? If it was, let’s go again next time.”
“Sure, the amusement park was pretty fun. But next time we go, Third Brother, let’s not go to the Children’s Amusement Park.”
The Children’s Amusement Park only had children playing the rides—adults would feel too embarrassed to go.
Hearing Xiao Xi agree, Su Jianglou narrowed his eyes in satisfaction, casually took the towel hanging around his neck, and wiped the non-existent sweat from his forehead.
Behind them, after Su Ximu and Su Jianglou left, two of the children continued playing in place.
Dudu sat on the swing next to the Playground Slide, directing her sister Qianqian to push her higher and higher.
Her brother Xiao Ming went around inviting the other children to come out and play.
“Sister, higher! Push me even higher!” The little girl’s excitement threshold was quite high—normal heights couldn’t make her happy.
Behind her, the girl introduced by her little name Qianqian gritted her teeth and used a bit more real strength. Dudu, who was clamoring from the swing to go even higher, was immediately pushed up high, with the swing’s height even surpassing the swing bar.
The little girl on the swing spun around the pole several times.
Normally, a child at this point would either fall off and get hurt or at least cry from fright.
But Dudu at this moment seemed finally somewhat satisfied. She let out happy shrieks, her ponytail swinging high as well.
Dai Qian stood behind the swing, wishing she could give this troublesome little weird a smack.
She and the other veteran player Wu Ming had already spent a full month grinding away in this dungeon. She didn’t even know how much longer this situation would last.
Most critically, due to the unique characteristics of each dungeon, after entering this one, under the suppression of the dungeon rules, her body had been forced to shrink a lot, directly turning her into the appearance of her eleven- or twelve-year-old self.
Her body shrinking had inevitably caused her mindset to trend toward her current age as well.
Dai Qian herself was afraid that if she didn’t get out of the dungeon after another month, she might end up getting scared to tears by any random weird she encountered inside.
Because she clearly remembered that she had been very timid as a child.
Her current courage had all been forced out after entering dungeons and joining the Bureau.
But for now, Dai Qian, who could at least realize her thinking was becoming irrational, forcibly resisted the itch in her hands, continued to plaster on a business smile, and gave the little weird in front of her another hard push.
Higher, higher, higher!
Why don’t you just fall to your death!
A few minutes later, Dai Qian didn’t wait for the little weird to fall off the swing. Instead, she first saw her colleague Wu Ming, who had gone to call people—his current dungeon nickname was Xiao Ming.
Xiao Ming was a boy with thick eyebrows and big eyes, a lean build, full of vigor at first glance, like a cheeky monkey.
But at this moment, his injuries were quite severe, and he lacked that initial vitality.
Behind Xiao Ming followed a group of children about Dudu’s age.
Seeing that her little playmates had all arrived, Dudu braked the swing with one foot—it still carried huge momentum—and ran forward. “Liangliang, Dongdong, Xiao Jie… what are we playing today? Are we still playing the find little brother game?”
As soon as Dudu spoke, the group of children rushed past Xiao Ming and gathered with her.
Dai Qian took the chance to sidle up to her temporary partner and asked softly, “What happened to you?”
Dungeon universal rule: Players in the dungeon could not do anything that violated their assigned identities.
Wu Ming—the injured boy all bandaged up—shook his head with a pale face. “Nothing, I just got dragged by Liangliang and the others to play a game.”
The dungeon he and Dai Qian had entered had no prior players. They temporarily named it [A Loving Family].
The dungeon rules had been received on the first day they entered, in the form of a letter.
[A letter to Brother and Sisters:
Our family is currently participating in the Wealth Avenue Model Family selection. It’s said that the winning families will receive a trophy from the Wealth Avenue Property Management Committee, along with very generous rewards.
We’ll be away on a business trip for a while. To ensure our family wins, as the oldest children at home, we hope you can set an example for your younger siblings: respect the elderly, love the young, excel in virtue and academics.
If our family wins the selection by the time we return from our trip, you can get that reward you’ve always wanted.
—Love, Mom and Dad.]
A very short letter, obviously left by the parents of this family.
Respect the elderly, love the young, excel in virtue and academics.
What did those two phrases mean?
Clearly, Wu Ming’s injuries were from the ‘love the young’ part.
These little weirds played games without any restraint—whether it was 180-degree neck twists or axe chops, all kinds of deadly antics. He didn’t know if it was intentional or not.
Fortunately, he was an old player in the Strange Talk Game, with decent strength and a solid physical foundation, so he hadn’t been played to death by these little weirds.
Dai Qian obviously knew what these little weirds were like when playing games, so she didn’t ask further about it and instead said, “Where do you think Teng Teng is?”
Teng Teng was the little brother that she and Wu Ming had lost while playing with Dudu and her friends a few days ago during school time.
They had searched with Dudu for several days straight but still hadn’t found him.
Assuming a family couldn’t even account for its own child at the end, could it still be called a perfect, flawless Model Family?
Wu Ming cracked his dislocated joints back into place while replying in character. “When I went to call Liangliang and the others earlier, I also took a rough look around their house. Teng Teng shouldn’t be hiding there.”
Dudu was probably afraid of getting scolded by Mom and Dad when they returned from their trip for losing her little brother, so she insisted he was just playing hide-and-seek with them.
As he spoke, bang! A solid iron shot put smashed inescapably onto Wu Ming’s leg, which had just started recovering a bit.
Crack.
A clear bone-fracturing sound rang out.
Wu Ming took a deep breath, hurled the shot put back viciously, and flipped off the little weird making faces at him from behind.
Fuck your dad!
Fuck your mom!
Fuck your ancestors eighteen generations—this goddamn Wealth Avenue!
A single little weird was actually stronger than him!
Fuck!
Afraid of dying too quickly in the dungeon, Wu Ming had stacked almost all his power into defense.
So, his recovery ability was extremely strong.
His leg broke in the morning, but by afternoon, it had recovered enough for him to go to the Picking Garden.
When Su Ximu went out that afternoon, he brought Little Ah Huang along.
Not just Little Ah Huang, but also Little Ah Huang’s friends.
The two chubby little hamsters.
Little Ah Huang was a puppy that had just been weaned not long ago. It didn’t run very fast and was quite short, so the other big dogs didn’t like playing with it much.
Over time, the little dog found fun playing by itself and even made two much smaller playmates—the rare hamsters in the house.
Last night, when leaving Ox Grandpa’s house, Su Ximu had already fallen asleep and was carried home by Second Brother.
Big Brother and Third Brother had helped pack up Little Ah Huang, along with all its daily necessities, including its two little playmates.
The teenager wore a white short-sleeved shirt, cradling the curious, head-turning little dog in his arms. A pair of thin gloves hung around his neck, dangling at his waist.
The two gloves swayed back and forth, with fluffy little heads occasionally poking out from the glove openings.
“Ox Grandpa used to take you guys out to play like this, right?” Su Ximu spoke to the little dog in his arms.
The little dog heard its little master’s voice and let out a “woof-woo.”
Little Ah Huang took after its dad Big Ah Huang—they were both dogs that loved sunbathing.
Ever since weaning, if it didn’t go out one day, it would anxiously woof and circle around the house.
Later, Little Ah Huang made two little playmates and was reluctant to part with them. Every time they went out for walks, Old Master simply brought all three along.
Su Ximu had heard all this from Ox Grandpa during last night’s barbecue.
Since it was his first time taking such tiny pets like little hamsters out, Su Ximu walked very carefully the whole way, always watching to make sure these two didn’t escape and fall to the ground.
Otherwise, house hamsters like these definitely couldn’t survive in the wild.
Fortunately, just as Ox Grandpa said, the two little hamsters were very well-behaved. They only occasionally pawed at the glove opening to poke out a fluffy little head but didn’t try to climb out.
They arrived at the Picking Garden just like that. From afar, Su Ximu saw Dudu, Qianqian, and Xiao Ming already waiting there for him.
Once Su Ximu got close, Dudu saw the little yellow dog in Xiao Mu Brother’s arms and felt it looked familiar—like the little yellow dog from Ox Grandpa’s house.
But soon, she dismissed the thought.
Ox Grandpa was so terrifying—how could Xiao Mu Brother possibly steal his little yellow dog?
Next to Dudu, Dai Qian finally spoke up, trying to chat with this new Xiao Mu Brother. “Xiao Mu Brother, um, are those hamsters in your gloves? They look so fat.”
Su Ximu looked down at the two fatties in his gloves and nodded in agreement. “They are a bit fat.”
With that, he set down the basket in his other hand, took the two little hamsters out of the gloves, and gently placed them into Ox Grandpa’s pet-walking basket.
Little Ah Huang, who had just been set down, was very familiar with this basket. It squatted skillfully outside the basket, poked its head inside, and barked once at its two little partners.
The two furballs in the basket—one silver and one yellow—were obviously used to this as well. They flattened into a rat pie just as skillfully.
Dai Qian squatted beside the basket and looked at the little hamster inside. She then rested her hand on her leg, glanced at Wu Ming, and tapped a silent code on her leg with her fingers.
“Later, I’ll try to get Dudu to invite her friends to the Picking Garden again. You’re too slow on your own. This time, we’ll go together and check carefully if any of these little weirds’ homes are hiding people.”
“Time is running out. We have to find Teng Teng as soon as possible.”
Wu Ming felt a heavy weight in his heart and nodded lightly. “Got it.”
At the pair’s feet, the silver fur ball—which had been flattened front-side into a sheet of rat pie—lazily got up, flipped over, and continued flattening on its back side.
