Chapter 3
As Xing Nuo curiously surveyed the small garden and the humans within, they, in turn, were observing him.
The cub wore a classical-style robe he often wore in the castle, a light beige with his favorite sunflowers printed on it. His cheeks were fair, his hair, unstyled by the comb prop, fell in curls over his shoulders, framing his round, bright eyes as he curiously observed the small garden.
His expression was like a kitten’s experiencing the human world for the first time, full of wonder.
As if thinking, So this is what human two-legs look like!
A parent, also with a child, saw the attractive father and son. After hesitating for a moment, she approached, her daughter chattering excitedly about wanting to play with the other child.
“Hello, are you the new residents?”
A faint smile played on Shen Wen’s lips as he politely nodded.
“Yes, we just moved in.”
Before the parent could continue, her daughter wriggled free from her hand and rushed towards Xing Nuo.
“Your dress is so pretty! Are you a princess? Your hair is curly too!”
The little girl was a chatterbox, and then turned to ask her mother:
“Mommy, I want curly hair too! And a pretty dress like that!”
The little girl with pigtails, upon seeing Xing Nuo, instantly wanted a similar hairstyle.
The parent’s lips twitched, and she quickly pulled her daughter back.
“I’m sorry, my daughter takes after me. She’s quite lively.”
Shen Wen continued to smile, shaking his head and saying it was alright.
However, the smile on his lips was perfunctory at best.
Today was Zaizai’s first day in the human world.
Shen Wen, afraid of frightening Xing Nuo, was incredibly gentle and patient with the unfamiliar humans.
At any other time, he wouldn’t even bother looking at them, simply throwing them into a dungeon.
Not wanting Zaizai to interact with humans for too long, Shen Wen excused himself and carried the somewhat shy and introverted Xing Nuo upstairs.
After he left, the crowd erupted.
“Golden hair actually looks so good! Not tacky at all!”
“Do the father and son have foreign ancestry? Or is it dyed hair?”
“His child is so well-behaved, staring at me with wide eyes. It makes me want to steal him.”
The speaker glanced at his muddy, messy little nephew playing nearby and sighed deeply.
Why is the gap between kids so huge?
After his little outing, Xing Nuo returned home. Despite not having done much, his face was a few shades paler.
Coughing a few times, the curiosity Xing Nuo had felt towards humans was gradually eroded by his frail body.
Xing Nuo lay on his dad’s lap, his expression drowsy.
“Daddy, sleepy.”
Shen Wen was about to instruct the butler to prepare the bath when he suddenly remembered that they had moved.
The monster butler wasn’t suitable to stay here and had been sent back to the castle.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, Shen Wen carried the limp cub, feeling like he was holding a blob of jelly, to the bathroom for a simple wash.
Halfway through washing his face, Xing Nuo had already fallen fast asleep, his little hands and feet dangling.
Shen Wen’s eyes softened. He pinched Xing Nuo’s cheek and carried his cub back to the bedroom.
Xing Nuo slept particularly deeply this time.
Midnight.
Shen Wen, who didn’t need sleep, quietly tidied up the unpacked items in the living room.
The blood-red tulips brought from the castle were placed in a vase; Zaizai’s favorite sunflower robes were hung in the bedroom closet; some interesting player props he had snatched were stored in the utility cabinet…
The comb prop that Xing Nuo often used to straighten his hair was also placed neatly on the bathroom shelf.
As he organized the scattered items, Shen Wen thought about the clothes the humans in the small garden were wearing and wondered if he should also buy some modern clothes.
Their attire was somewhat out of place in this world.
Sometimes, standing out too much wasn’t a good thing.
Walking down the street, he always felt scrutinized by unseen eyes.
As Shen Wen was thinking, he suddenly sensed a change in a dungeon.
A human player was actually challenging an S+ level dungeon?
And as it happened, this dungeon was created by Shen Wen.
As the ultimate boss of the dungeon, Shen Wen’s name always ranked among the top three on the human players’ “Do Not Provoke” boss leaderboard.
Players rarely dared to challenge his dungeons.
In the players’ eyes, Shen Wen was a monster boss disguised in an elegant and refined human skin, with a preference for extravagant and luxurious dungeon settings.
Blood Rose Castle, Violet Crystal City, Eternal Night Flower Manor…
In any dungeon involving Shen Wen, he always appeared as a refined and noble medieval aristocrat.
Calm and elegant, noble and indifferent, without a trace of a villainous monster.
Even when causing the death of players, there was no bloodshed or gore; they simply became fertilizer for the flowers, cleanly and efficiently.
Shen Wen’s eyes darkened. He initially didn’t want to bother, but he sensed that this human player’s power seemed particularly strong.
What if they destroyed his castle?
It contained all his and Zaizai’s belongings.
Annoyed, Shen Wen glanced at the time, estimating it wouldn’t take long.
Returning to the bedroom, Shen Wen tucked a “Deep Deep Sleep Pillow” prop into Xing Nuo’s arms.
This pillow had only one function: instant sleep upon contact.
Shen Wen left his power mark in the room, brushed aside the hair stuck to Zaizai’s forehead, and kissed Xing Nuo’s face.
Finally, still uneasy, he took out his Bloodvine Entwined Purple Gem Ring and tapped it.
In the next moment, space distorted, and Shen Wen vanished.
Not long after Shen Wen left, Xing Nuo was awakened by hurried footsteps outside the door.
Xing Nuo was a deep sleeper, and with the help of the pillow prop, he shouldn’t have been woken up.
However, the pillow prop had a ten-minute cooldown period every half hour.
During these ten minutes, a commotion erupted outside.
The footsteps sounded like someone was chasing him, accompanied by bloodcurdling screams.
Just a few short cries were enough to wake Xiao Xing Nuo.
“Ahhh, help!”
“What’s wrong with these stairs? Why am I going in circles?”
“It’s haunted! Help, ahhhh!”
Zaizai sat up groggily, rubbing his eyes. His vision swam for a moment, and he felt like he was still dreaming.
He looked around the unfamiliar living room with a dazed expression. Not seeing his dad, Xing Nuo panicked.
Without even putting on his shoes, Xing Nuo ran barefoot into the living room, lit by a warm, small lamp.
He looked around the somewhat unfamiliar living room and called out:
“Daddy?”
Xing Nuo didn’t hear his dad’s response. Instead, the noises outside grew louder.
“Ahhhhhhh! I’m going to die, I’m going to die!”
“Help, help—Huh?”
“Dude, who are you?”
Outside.
High school student Lin Ke, after finishing evening self-study, realized he had forgotten his elevator card again and decided to take the stairs.
Unit A of the complex occupied a large area with plenty of sunlight, and all the buildings were uniformly ten stories high.
For Lin Ke, who constantly forgot his elevator card, taking the stairs was more common.
His home wasn’t high up, just on the fifth floor. Lin Ke swung his backpack, humming a tune as he slowly walked up.
But after walking for a while, he realized something was wrong.
How many floors had he climbed?
Lin Ke suddenly looked up and saw the bright red number “3” stickered on the corner.
Illuminated by the corner light, the red number looked eerie and sinister.
Goosebumps instantly erupted all over Lin Ke’s body, and a chill ran down his spine.
His instincts screamed at him not to turn back, and he started sprinting upwards with his backpack.
His panicked howls echoed through the stairwell.
After running for who knows how long, he suddenly crashed into a wall of flesh with a thump and landed on his butt.
“Ahhh!”
“What the—?!”
Lin Ke instinctively looked up, and a silver-haired teenager came into view.
The teenager was holding a black, plastic-bag-like object, his eyelids drooping as if he hadn’t woken up properly, looking down at him with a languid gaze.
“Uh, dude, who are you?”
Lin Ke looked down, confirming the other person had a shadow, and his heart settled back down. He quickly patted his pants and stood up.
For some reason, after seeing the other person, Lin Ke felt the temperature in the stairwell rise.
The eerie, chilling feeling vanished in an instant.
The white-haired teenager didn’t say a word, seemingly not wanting to bother with Lin Ke.
Lin Ke was about to ask again when he heard a soft voice:
“Daddy?”
He scratched his ear, let out a “Huh?”, and looked around, realizing he had somehow reached the fourth floor.
“This is…”
Lin Ke remembered that a father and son had just moved into the fourth floor today, and they were incredibly good-looking.
Their clothes were a bit strange, though, and the golden hair made him think they had foreign ancestry.
Hearing the little cub’s voice, Lin Ke analyzed the situation:
“The little guy’s dad must have gone out, right? It seems like it’s just the two of them living here.”
As he was speaking, Lin Ke saw the silver-haired teenager standing at the door, pressing the buttons on the smart lock.
Lin Ke was startled, realizing something, and quickly blocked the way.
“What are you doing? The little guy has a dad. Don’t even think about doing anything bad while the child is home alone!”
Now, Lin Ke wasn’t afraid of ghosts anymore, but he was afraid of this teenager doing something bad.
Despite Lin Ke’s obstruction, the door beeped and opened.
The barefoot cub inside, his little nose red, looked at the teenager who appeared and tilted his head in confusion, calling out:
“Big…brother?”
Lin Ke, who was blocking the silver-haired teenager with his arm, stiffly looked up at the teenager.
Big brother?!
Like a clown, Lin Ke slowly moved aside, step by step.
The silver-haired teenager looked down at the toddler in front of him, and the coldness in his eyes instantly dissipated.
The teenager’s sharp, indifferent features softened, and a smile tugged at the corners of his lips as he reached out and picked up Xing Nuo.
“Why aren’t you wearing shoes?” the teenager frowned.
Human cubs were fragile, and it was easy to get sick walking around barefoot.
Xing Nuo wasn’t unfamiliar with the teenager. He wiped his tear-stained eyelashes with his small hand. The anxiety of not finding his dad lessened after seeing his older brother.
“Find…Daddy.”
Despite this, Xing Nuo still hadn’t given up, pointing outside with his little finger.
No one was home, so Daddy must have left Zaizai and gone outside alone.
