The Whole Family Are Villains, I’m the Group Pet 136

Chapter 136

Snow was falling outside. Xing Nuo, wearing a brown bear coat and a fluffy hat, a few unruly golden curls peeking out,

sat on a small stool, watching the snowflakes, his chin resting on his hand, lost in thought.

Shen Wen brought him a cup of herbal tea and two biscuits, then tapped his head lightly.

“What are you thinking about? Don’t you have winter homework to do?”

Xing Nuo’s winter break had just started.

He enjoyed sitting at his desk, competing with Shen Baizhou to finish their homework. The winner got to tear a sticker from the loser’s collection.

Xing Nuo had won many times, almost depleting Shen Baizhou’s sticker stash.

Shen Baizhou, feeling competitive, wanted to try the first-grade homework, sure he could win.

But Shen Yan scoffed, “Don’t embarrass yourself,” ending his childish plan.

Xing Nuo shook his head and, cupping his cheeks, said:

“Daddy, I had a long, scary dweam.”

Shen Wen crouched down, ruffled his hair, and reassured him, “Dreams aren’t real.”

Xing Nuo hesitated, then confessed:

“In my dweam, I had two daddies…we were happy…but then our house exploded…and Other Daddy died…pwotecting me and Daddy.”

Shen Wen’s eyes widened in surprise. Did the memory-erasing prop malfunction?

Did Xing Nuo remember the dungeon?

Fortunately, he was young and dismissed it as a dream.

“But it was just a dream. You don’t have an Other Daddy. You have Daddy and Big Brother. That’s enough.”

Xing Nuo nodded obediently.

“Yes. Daddy and Big Brother vewy good.”

But a lingering sadness remained, and as he worked on his homework, his mind would wander, causing him to make mistakes.

He sighed, looking at the incorrect answers, and closed his workbook.

Shen Wen, learning how to make soup, told Xing Nuo he was going to the market with the grandma downstairs.

Qi Yao, seeing Shen Wen leave, hurried upstairs to investigate.

Xing Nuo let him in, then, seeing Shen Baizhou studying, quietly closed the study door and brought Qi Yao some hot water and fruit.

Like a little host, he sat down politely.

“Sowwy for the mess, Uncle. Have some water.”

Qi Yao almost burned his tongue on the hot water, but he was still touched.

“Your dad always gives me the cold shoulder, won’t even let me in. We’ve been neighbors for so long!”

Shen Wen always turned him away.

Qi Yao placed a small cake on the table.

“This cake is better cold. ‘Winter’s happiest ice cream flavor,’ they said. Tell your dad.”

Xing Nuo nodded, then tilted his head.

“Uncle Qi, still asking ’bout Mommy?”

Qi Yao, slightly embarrassed, but determined to find the source of the powerful energy fluctuation he had sensed in Xing Nuo’s apartment, persisted.

“Yes. Aren’t you curious about your mom? Or how you were born?”

Xing Nuo scratched his chin and shook his head.

“Not really. And Uncle Qi, I weally no have mommy.”

Just two daddies.

Qi Yao sighed, glancing around, not sensing the familiar energy, and left.

Xing Nuo knew who he was looking for: the transparent monster Big Brother.

It had been a while since he last saw him.

Usually, he would appear every two weeks, his voice hoarse, reminding Xing Nuo to be careful or to dress warmly.

Xing Nuo waited and waited, until he had changed from his winter clothes to his summer outfits, but the monster hadn’t appeared.

In Central City, Wen Xingxue’s ranking had plummeted.

Having been absent for months, the other players assumed he was dead.

When the lease on his small house expired, a staff member came to reclaim it and, opening the door, saw Wen Xingxue, his face pale and gloomy.

His aura, terrifying, made the staff member jump back with a scream.

“A-are you still renting this place?!” he stammered.

Wen Xingxue hummed, his voice hoarse, and nodded.

“Yes.”

At the convenience store near the school.

Xing Nuo, looking longingly at the ice cream in the freezer, his mouth watering, looked up at the shop owner.

The shop owner, sweating in the heat, was eating a popsicle and fanning himself.

“Don’t even look, kid. Your brother’s company supplies my shop. He told me not to sell you any ice cream.”

Xing Nuo had once eaten two popsicles and ended up with a stomachache, needing IV drips.

Shen Yan, whose business now included food processing, had warned the shop owners not to let Xing Nuo eat too many cold treats.

Xing Nuo, clutching a crumpled dollar bill, his mouth turned down, mumbled:

“I have money. One dollar…can buy one.”

The shop owner sighed, seeing no one around, and found the smallest ice pop.

“Here, eat it quickly. Don’t let your brother see.”

Xing Nuo happily took the ice pop and skipped outside, licking it.

The afternoon air was hot and muggy.

Xing Nuo, walking home, savoring his quickly melting ice pop,

“Aw,” he whined, watching the melted ice cream drip. He found a trash can and quickly ate the rest.

As he was enjoying his treat, a voice suddenly sounded:

“How pathetic. Months gone by, and you’re scavenging for food in trash cans?”

Xing Nuo, startled, recognizing the familiar voice, dropped his ice pop into the trash can.

His eyes widened, his emotions a mix of sadness and surprise.

The voice continued, its presence close and comforting.

“Long time no see, Xing Nuo.”

Xing Nuo’s nose tingled, and his voice trembled.

“Why you take so long? I thought…you died.”

Wen Xingxue, seeing the little one’s watery eyes, his heart aching, said:

“Something happened. Long recovery. Came as soon as I could.”

He wanted to hug Xing Nuo, but the prop’s limitations prevented him.

Xing Nuo, his head down, silent for a moment, wiped his eyes and hummed.

“I forgive you, Daddy.”

Wen Xingxue, surprised and touched by those words, his usual coldness melting away, his heart pounding, nodded after a moment.

“Thank you, Xing Nuo. Daddy wasn’t good enough.”

Unlike in the dungeon, where Xing Nuo, his memory altered, had called him “Other Daddy,” now, with his true memories, he had still called him “Daddy.”

“So good,” he murmured, his own eyes almost tearing up.

Xing Nuo, sensing Wen Xingxue’s emotions, giggled, covering his mouth, and said sweetly:

“Daddy, can you buy me…cweamy ice cweam?”

Creamy ice cream, a forbidden treat.

Wen Xingxue, his heart melting, nodded eagerly.

“Let’s go! We buy big one!”

Xing Nuo ran back to the convenience store and, hiding, pointed at the freezer.

“There! Daddy, you buy! I can’t go.”

The owner would tell on him!

Wen Xingxue, finding a mind-control prop in the market, used it on the shop owner, placed the money he had on the counter, and took an ice cream.

He gave it to Xing Nuo, reminding him to eat it slowly.

“Too cold. Your tummy sensitive.”

Xing Nuo nodded, licking the ice cream happily as they walked home.

“So yummy! Daddy, you no need eat?”

Wen Xingxue, his heart warmed by the repeated “Daddy,” nodded.

“I eat. But…this world’s food…costs. I buy bread…in my world.”

Xing Nuo nodded, seemingly understanding something about Wen Xingxue’s world.

“You finished the pear syrup? I buy you more. Youw voice…more hoarse.”

Wen Xingxue was about to say he hadn’t finished it, when, hearing Xing Nuo’s offer, he quickly said:

“Okay. I’ll remember…to drink it.”

His heart, filled with a fatherly warmth, melted.