Chapter 44

Su Xuanxiao pretended to ponder, as if digesting this shocking information.

Su Jianglou said nothing. He simply found the sofa closest to Xiao Mu and sat down. He was afraid that if he spoke now, he would produce something akin to mentally polluting noise.

As for Su Ximu, after saying all that, he only added at the end, “Everything I said is true. Please believe me.”

With that, he fell silent and waited quietly.

During the wait, perhaps because he had already exhausted his tension earlier, his mind became unusually active now.

One moment, he recalled a post he had seen online in his previous world—about someone who had transmigrated as Qin Shi Huang. He wondered if that netizen had truly found the elixir of immortality with everyone’s collective brainstorming.

Probably not.

Hmm… Also, he still hadn’t accepted the two hundred thousand from Blue 242 Leader in the end. He wondered if Blue 242 Leader would be angry.

Did Blue 242 Leader’s home lie nearby too? He had walked a long stretch of the road with Blue 242 Leader just now.

As Su Ximu’s thoughts wandered to what he would do for work if he got kicked out of the program group, Su Xuanxiao finally spoke.

His expression was equally serious, his voice steady and calm, compelling belief in everything he was about to say. “Xiao Xi, let’s assume transmigration really exists. Then…”

Su Ximu looked up and listened intently.

“If a person transmigrates more than once at different ages, do you think that’s possible?”

In other words, could one person transmigrate multiple times?

Su Ximu thought about it and figured it might be.

“Then, assuming you are such a being—do you think that’s possible?”

This time, Su Ximu blinked in a daze, not quite grasping the meaning.

Su Xuanxiao continued, “So, is it possible that you are actually our little brother? That one day, some accident happened, sending you to another world. And now, you’ve simply come back.”

Su Ximu had imagined many reactions from “Big Brother”—doubt, anger, calm, sarcasm…

His best hope was that “Big Brother” might go easy on him since he had been passive about it and had confessed on his own, so there wouldn’t be too much blame.

But he hadn’t expected “Big Brother” to believe him and still insist that he was his little brother.

After digesting “Big Brother’s” wild theory, he racked his brains and found a flaw in the logic. “But I have memories of growing up in the original world. After transmigrating here, I gained another set of memories—in which I grew up in this world from childhood too.”

It couldn’t be that he had been split in two, right?

When Xibao mentioned the extra memories, Su Jianglou sat up straight.

Did he have to tell Xibao right now that those memories weren’t real, but something he had gotten the tech team at Big Brother’s company to synthesize?

Su Xuanxiao didn’t spare Su Jianglou even a glance.

Hearing Xiao Xi’s question, he still explained with the air of one who had everything under control. “Time flow rate issue.”

“A single instant in this world might equal a year in that one.”

“You fell asleep in this world and woke up in the other. Something must have gone wrong in between, causing you to lose some memories.”

“Now that you’ve grown up and have few ties left in that world, it’s natural for you to return.”

“Because you once lost your memories, upon returning, you doubt your identity and feel like you’ve usurped another’s nest. In truth, it’s always been you.”

The Weird World and Blue Star’s real world did have a time difference, but not that exaggerated.

Su Xuanxiao didn’t want Xiao Xi dwelling on the issue, so he settled it with finality. “Xiao Xi, do you think, as your big brother, I could mistake the little brother I love most?”

The previously convinced Su Ximu stared blankly at “Big Brother.” There wasn’t a shred of doubt in those deep black eyes.

He felt a bit lost.

“You like oranges and cake.” Su Xuanxiao piled on. “Others eat birthday cake once a year, but you want to eat it four times a year, right?”

“Once was your own birthday. For the other three times, would you light candles on the cake?”

“Last time at the Tourist Garden dessert shop, you bought the store’s last cake. I went there later too. Because that day was my birthday.”

“Sorry, that day Yuzi and Jianglou got into a fight, so I didn’t call you to share the cake.”

Now, Su Ximu didn’t feel so lost anymore. He started to believe it.

Liking oranges could be coincidence, but the cake-eating habit shouldn’t align so perfectly, right?

Next, he heard Big Brother list out those dates one by one.

Every single one matched the times he craved cake.

Big Brother said these were Third Brother’s birthday, his birthday, Second Brother’s birthday, and his own birthday.

After saying that, Su Xuanxiao stood up.

Su Ximu unconsciously stood as well. He took two steps forward, then retreated uncertainly.

The next second, he was enveloped in Big Brother’s open embrace.

Big Brother held him and whispered very softly in his ear, “Xiao Xi, welcome back.”

“Big Brother failed to protect you before. It won’t happen again.”

In that moment, Su Ximu felt fragments flash through his mind. The image of a scrawny boy who resembled Big Brother.

He knew those were his own memories.

The dramatized novel that Su Jianglou had hastily gotten the weird ones to help make was realistic, but compared to true, flesh-and-blood memories, there were subtle differences.

“I…” The boy in the embrace opened his mouth. “My head’s a bit messed up right now.”

Not still tangled in the transmigration issue, but overwhelmed by emotions upon returning home, unsure how to react.

In an instant, his mind went almost blank.

Had he really gone through something so miraculous?

Growing up, aside from Grandma, did he really have family who loved him so deeply?

His actual impressions of brothers came from his cousin who tutored him as a child.

But that cousin wasn’t much older and had his own family.

He wanted to go out and play with his cousin, but he was sick and not recovered yet. He couldn’t go out or to school, just stay home.

Sometimes, when his cousin played with the older kids and passed by his house, the cousin would run over and pass an orange through the door crack.

The orange was picked from the orange tree at the street corner. Cousin knew he liked them, so he picked one for him.

When there were no oranges, he gave him candy instead.

“I… I want an orange.”

After dazedly mumbling that his head was messed up for a while, Xibao finally said he wanted an orange. Su Jianglou, who had been holding back while watching, wished he could pluck every orange in Tanzhong City right then.

He picked an orange from the fruit plate on the coffee table and handed it to Xibao, who Big Brother had just released, using his one currently uninjured hand.

Real oranges had a slight tang.

“Thanks.” Su Ximu thanked Third Brother in a dazed tone, took the orange, and popped two segments into his mouth.

He bit through the outermost skin, and that tangy flavor spread across his tongue.

Su Ximu shivered all over, then looked up at Big Brother and Third Brother. “You’re really not mistaken?”

“In statistics, what’s the probability of such coincidences?” Su Xuanxiao countered.

To look identical, like the same foods, have the same name, and match on obscure hobby dates too.

The odds of that were probably slimmer than winning a billion-dollar jackpot.

After all, a jackpot only required matching a string of numbers.

Su Xuanxiao gently patted Xiao Xi’s dizzy head and coaxed him. “Big Brother knows today’s been a lot for you. You might need time to process.”

“Your room has always been kept clean. No need to go back to the program group today. Stay home for the day. Your Third Brother and I won’t disturb you.”

He did need time to process.

Feeling one orange wasn’t enough, before heading upstairs alone to think, his hands were stuffed with a big plate of already-peeled oranges by Third Brother.

He had been too lost in thought earlier to notice where they came from.

Back in the bedroom that felt both unfamiliar and familiar, Su Ximu settled onto a small sofa and gazed at the bed nearby.

He remembered that day, he had groggily opened his eyes on this very bed and found Third Brother sitting at the edge waiting for him.

Now that he thought about it, if he had acted really strangely that day, Third Brother would have suspected him, right?

Big Brother had been home that day too.

But neither of them said anything, as if his personality had always been like this.

Unknowingly, Su Ximu found another piece of evidence supporting Big Brother’s words.

And what Big Brother had asked—would a brother fail to recognize his own sibling?

In plastic sibling relationships, that question would definitely raise doubts.

But Big Brother and Third Brother clearly treated him well.

Third Brother even went so far as to send him away to lay low after he ruined Second Brother’s auction video tape worth 536,227,253$.

Su Ximu didn’t think rich people treated money as worthless. Maybe for some very wealthy folks, what ordinary people saw as a lot was trivial to them.

But that triviality absolutely did not extend to 536,227,253$.

Especially since currency held high value in this world.

Wait!

Su Ximu, who had just popped another orange segment into his mouth, suddenly straightened up. His dizzy brain felt struck by lightning, snapping awake.

If—if he really was this world’s Su Ximu.

Then, did that mean Second Brother’s video tape worth five billion three hundred sixty-two million two hundred seventy-two thousand five hundred thirty… no, 536,227,253… was actually ruined by him?

!!!

He had always thought that was something the original host did while drunk. It had nothing to do with him.