The neighborhood atmosphere was serene and peaceful. Walking through the tree-lined path, they could see the increasingly familiar apartment building ahead.
In this world that belonged to reality, it was Yu Bai’s first time walking home side by side with Xie Wufang.
He took the opportunity to explain to the man beside him why he had laughed earlier.
“It’s not just because the gatekeeper grandpa—who’s about the same age as Uncle Yuan—called him ‘little friend,'” he said with a smile. “It’s also because Uncle Yuan’s walking posture is hilarious.”
“Normal human kids don’t walk with their backs hunched like that… That’s something only old folks do. So the gatekeeper grandpa thought he had a hunchback and tactfully said it was just a little one.”
Amid the dappled light filtering through the treetops, the black-haired blue-eyed man listened intently, occasionally asking questions. “Do little friends get hunchbacks?”
“They do,” Yu Bai replied. “People of all ages can. Aside from the elderly and the sick, a lot of it comes from not paying attention to posture when standing or sitting as kids, forming bad habits that are hard to break once grown up.”
Yan Jing, walking a short distance ahead of them, overheard this and burst out laughing like a leaky kettle. “Little Bai, you’re actually explaining the joke? Hahaha, help—your conversation is so bizarre!”
Meanwhile, the very subject of the joke—Yuan Yuxing—had rushed into the neighborhood but, unfamiliar with the layout, stopped at the fork ahead to wait for the others.
He had hurried too much at first, and now the little boy sat panting on the steps, glaring sourly at the three approaching figures. “Hey! I’m not deaf yet, you young punks—don’t push it!”
This sparsely populated neighborhood was exceptionally quiet, filled only with the faint murmur of wind and cicadas.
No sooner had he shouted than the burly muscle guy laughed even harder. As he passed by, he pointed shakily ahead and said, “This way, this way… Sorry about that, Uncle Yuan.”
The brown-haired, fair-skinned young man right behind him struggled to suppress his laughter. Taking a deep breath to steady his expression, he passed by and said with apparent sincerity, “I wasn’t mocking you on purpose—I was just explaining it to him… Sorry, Uncle Yuan.”
The last one, the tall blue-eyed mixed-race man, hesitated briefly as he passed. With his companions having already covered it, he simply admitted, “Sorry, Uncle Yuan.”
Uncle Yuan, hit with three apologies in quick succession: “…”
The little boy’s face turned beet red. He shot to his feet, hands clasped behind his back, and stormed ahead in the stiff posture of a pint-sized geezer.
What kind of weirdos were these people!
…Every bit as strange as the elevator in this building!
The moment they stepped into the apartment lobby, all four stopped short at the sight before them.
The muscle guy scratched his head in bewilderment. “Huh? When I was here last week, the elevator on the left was out of service—major malfunction, they said it needed replacing. They got it done this quick? Your property management’s efficiency is insane!”
The brown-haired youth blinked slowly. “It wasn’t the property management. Tian Ge had someone swap it out, so that’s why it was so fast… But I’d rather they hadn’t.”
The blue-eyed man maintained his composure. “It was still wrapped up outside last night. It started running normally this morning.”
The little boy jabbed the up button in astonishment, smacking his lips. “What the heck—this one’s not even the same color as the one next to it!”
Before them gleamed a golden elevator, its doors etched with intricate patterns. It sat conveniently on the first floor, and with the button pressed, the doors slid smoothly open.
Revealing an even more lavish golden interior. The bright yellow walls mirrored the four figures, evoking a sense of opulent grandeur.
“…Whoa, total Tian Ge aesthetic,” Yan Jing said in amazement. “It doesn’t even look like it’ll take you home—more like straight to a karaoke bar.”
“I’d say it’s more like a free buffet bathhouse,” Yu Bai sighed. “The other residents aren’t going to complain about this?”
Xie Wufang—the only one who had seen the Golden Elevator in action and quietly eavesdropped on the humans’ banter—thought back for a moment before replying earnestly. “They shouldn’t. They noticed it’s a bit faster than the old one and seemed pleased. And the replacement didn’t cost the residents a dime.”
“That’s a relief,” Yu Bai said, fighting back a grin. “Good thing us humans have plenty of practical types.”
Beside the quietly open elevator doors, the three much-taller adult men chatted away but didn’t step in first. Yu Bai even held the up button to keep them from closing.
The short little boy froze for a second, then turned his face aside with a cough. Hands behind his back, he shuffled inside at a leisurely pace. Only then did the other three follow.
Cough. Weirdos they might be… but polite ones, at least.
The golden doors slid shut, laughter spilling out once more.
Yan Jing slapped his thigh. “So this is—”
Xie Wufang intoned gravely, “Respect for elders, love for the young.”
Yu Bai chimed in, barely containing his amusement. “Two-for-one special.”
On account of being both old and young.
“…What nonsense is this!”
The grumpy little boy muttered under his breath but couldn’t help cracking a smile. He quickly schooled his features into seriousness and murmured his introduction. “Anyway, I’m Yuan Yuxing.”
Yuan Yuxing—the Yuan from Uncle Yuan, the Yu from jade stone, the Xing from action.
Ten minutes later, Yu Bai’s living room was packed onto the small sofa as they passed around a slim rectangular card.
“Uncle Yuan, your photo and birthdate on here haven’t changed at all,” Yan Jing noted, peering at the ID. “So you can’t use this one for the time being.”
Yuan Yuxing’s ID remained in its prior unaltered state, listing him as a sixty-seven-year-old man—even though he now appeared to be just a tenth of that age.
This reminded Yu Bai of something else.
He tapped lightly on the portrait to the right of the ID and addressed the man beside him. “The photo here is fixed forever once the card is issued—no changes, clothes included. If the details don’t match the system records, it’ll cause problems.”
He had no sooner finished than he sensed the man beside him stiffen. Only then did he murmur in response, “Understood.”
Yu Bai had to stifle a laugh.
He didn’t need to check to know Xie Wufang’s ID photo showed him in the exact outfit he wore right now.
Humans changed clothes, so the guy in the photo had to keep up.
Such an oddly sensible line of thinking.
Thanks to the time loop, he had nipped a potential crisis for Xie Wufang in the bud ahead of time.
A non-human earnestly role-playing as one of them, striving to fit into human society, probably didn’t want to keep using superpowers to bail himself out.
Perched on a small stool beside the sofa, Yuan Yuxing cradled his face in woe. “Yeah, like this, I can’t even go home. If the neighbors spot me, I’ll never live it down.”
Yan Jing tried consoling him. “It’s not so bad, Uncle Yuan. You don’t look exactly like your kid self, so no one’ll recognize you. Just say you’re a relative’s kid visiting to play.”
Yuan Yuxing shot him a glare. “Absolutely not! Won’t everyone start calling me ‘little friend’ too?!”
“…” Yan Jing wracked his brain. “How about ‘little handsome’?”
From Yuan Yuxing’s words, though, Yu Bai latched onto a key detail.
He broached it gently. “Uncle Yuan, you headed to the funeral parlor this morning and still haven’t gone back. Shouldn’t you let your family know you’re okay?”
“Right—we’d barely left when Uncle Zhang’s relatives called the cops.”
The instant Yan Jing arrived at Yu Bai’s, he’d called his parents as instructed.
He explained, “They told the police it was haunted—the cremation furnace wouldn’t fire up, and some old guy turned into a kid. Cops naturally didn’t buy it. Then they started bickering over Uncle Zhang’s inheritance again, so the police blew it off completely—no surveillance check, just chewed them out for wasting resources.”
“My mom says they’ve shelved cremating Uncle Zhang’s body for now, hauled it back to the morgue, and claim they’ll wait till they honor his final wishes before proceeding.”
Yan Jing shook his head with a sigh. “These people are awful. Final wishes? Please—it’s just a pretext to divvy up the cash.”
“Exactly—a pack of turtle bastards!” Yuan Yuxing fumed.
He then answered Yu Bai’s question frankly. “No need to check in. I don’t have much family anymore—just one no-good son I haven’t spoken to in forever.”
“Even if we did talk, he’d be no better than those turtle bastards. Just pretend I’m all alone.”
No wonder the two old timers played chess together every day.
Family or no, they were both lone wolves at heart.
Yu Bai fell silent for a moment. In the end, he couldn’t hold back the line he’d been itching to say for ages.
“Uncle Yuan, if you curse them like that…” He reminded him softly, “it’s the same as calling Uncle Zhang a bastard.”
“…” Yuan Yuxing, who had been feeling a bit sentimental just moments before, cleared his throat at once and said casually, “Oh! Old Zhang has a good temper. He won’t get mad!”
Yu Bai turned his head to the man beside him upon hearing Yuan Yuxing speak so confidently. “Don’t learn from him. Cursing people is wrong, and besides, we can’t be sure whether Uncle Zhang is actually upset or not.”
Yan Jing chuckled. “Pfft.”
Yuan Yuxing put his hands on his hips. “Hey!”
A faint hint of amusement flickered in those gray-blue eyes, and Xie Wufang nodded. “I won’t learn from him.”
Satisfied, Yu Bai withdrew his gaze. “Alright, then. Let’s sum up the current situation.”
“Uncle Zhang’s family has decided not to cremate the body for now. No one can prove that Uncle Yuan has truly turned young again, and the traffic cop on the road earlier didn’t notice me driving without a license either. In short, we don’t have to worry about any major incidents for the time being.”
“We can put off the question of whether the world will end for now and focus on solving these immediate problems first. I’ll look into how to sign up for a driver’s license test later.”
As he spoke, Yu Bai glanced at the little boy sitting quietly nearby and listening attentively.
“I want to turn back. I’m not used to this body at all,” Yuan Yuxing said, sounding a bit awkward. “Besides, Old Zhang needs to be cremated properly. He can’t just stay frozen in the morgue forever. He once told me that if he ever passed away, he wanted his ashes scattered into the sea.”
Yuan Yuxing wanted to return to his normal elderly appearance. Uncle Zhang needed to be cremated smoothly and then given a sea burial.
“Both of these things could have been resolved quickly.” Yu Bai’s gaze swept over Xie Wufang. “But…”
A brief silence fell over the living room as everyone’s eyes turned to the blue orb sitting motionless on the coffee table.
Back when Yu Bai had no idea what the small ball did, he had tossed it casually onto the coffee table.
Now, the Doom Orb had been placed inside a little black box.
…And then casually set back on the coffee table.
The only difference was the addition of a small box to hold the orb in place.
Mainly, they were afraid it might accidentally roll onto the floor and explode.
Having learned that this orb was the culprit behind the strange events at the funeral parlor, Yuan Yuxing rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “So this ball’s the one causing all the trouble? Who would’ve thought something so small could be this powerful.”
Yan Jing still felt a lingering fear. “No wonder Little Bai wrapped it in so many layers of boxes when he came to my place yesterday.”
It had actually been for different reasons at the time, but Yu Bai kept that thought to himself and instead said, “So, what should we do about it now?”
Staring at this rebellious Doom Orb—which couldn’t be violently subdued by Xie Wufang, couldn’t communicate with anyone, yet contained a bellyful of strange timespace power—Yu Bai, young and unmarried with no children of his own, inexplicably felt the distinctive headache of a parent dealing with a troublesome kid.
Yuan Yuxing sighed. “What are we gonna do?”
Yan Jing echoed him. “Yeah, what to do?”
Xie Wufang thought for a moment before saying, “I could try correcting the mistakes it’s made. Maybe it won’t resist.”
Yu Bai asked, “What if it does resist?”
“…”
The strikingly handsome non-human fell silent. His slightly curly black hair draped over his forehead, and his clear, crystalline blue eyes brimmed with an apology that needed no words.
The three humans in the room immediately spoke in unison. “No, no, no! Don’t try it, don’t try it!”
Xie Wufang nodded. “Alright.”
The three humans sighed in relief almost simultaneously.
Yu Bai muttered to himself, “What should we do?”
No one had an answer.
Everyone fell silent, staring at the Doom Orb on the coffee table.
After a long stretch of quiet, Yan Jing suddenly asked, “Little Bai, when exactly did Brother Xie give you the Doom Orb? It wasn’t that day in the kitchen when it exploded, was it?”
Recalling something, he pondered aloud. “I remember you walking in from outside that day, holding a ball about that size. I thought you’d pried it out of a stone lion’s mouth or something.”
Yu Bai replied, “Yeah, that’s the one. After it absorbed the timespace energy, it changed from grayish-white to blue.”
Yuan Yuxing, who had been listlessly tugging at the oversized clothes hanging loosely on his small frame, suddenly spoke up. “Um… Little Bai, do you have any kids’ clothes at home?”
After his sudden rejuvenation, he was still wearing the black mourning clothes he’d had on before. The scrawny, diminutive body of the little boy couldn’t hold them up at all. Luckily, Yan Jing had kindly donated a belt, and with Yu Bai’s deft hands, they’d managed to fashion something resembling a trendy oversized style.
Yu Bai responded, “I don’t have any at home, but there’s a children’s clothing store and a supermarket nearby in the neighborhood. Whatever you need, I can go buy it.”
“Great, great, thanks!” Yuan Yuxing said quickly. “I can’t go home, so can I crash on your sofa tonight? I want one of those old man tank tops—they’re comfy to wear.”
Yan Jing volunteered. “Little Bai, I’ll go with you to buy them.”
Yu Bai said, “No rush. We haven’t had lunch yet. Let’s eat first.”
“Sure. Should we go buy groceries or order takeout?”
In the small room, the once-stifling atmosphere instantly livened up again. Only the lone non-human gradually looked puzzled.
He turned to the brown-haired young man beside him and asked softly, “Weren’t we discussing what to do?”
“Yeah.” Yu Bai blinked, then broke into a smile. “But we can’t think of a good solution right away.”
“So at times like this…”
His pale eyes fixed on Xie Wufang with intense amusement as he patiently taught him a new piece of human common sense.
“…humans sneak in a little escape.”
