Chapter 81 Part 1

Su Xuanxiao decided to give the community one last chance. Maybe the voting had just started, and the community hadn’t invited their family yet.

So he continued to ask, “Xiao Ximu, that child named Dudu invited you to vote for her family. Did she tell you specifically how to vote?”

Su Ximu turned his head to look at the computer his eldest brother had placed on the desk.

Dudu had said that as long as he used the computer to log into their community’s website, it would work. The website was called the Wealth Avenue Homeowners Community. Apparently, every homeowner received an account for each family member when they first moved in.

Reminded by Xiao Ximu, Su Xuanxiao also recalled that such a website did exist.

He reached out, picked up a notebook from the coffee table, pulled the pen from it, thought for a moment, and then started writing on the notebook.

A few seconds later, Su Ximu watched as his eldest brother tore the page with the writing from the notebook and handed it to him.

He took it and found that the paper his eldest brother handed him had two strings of numbers written on it—one was the username, the other the password.

“Eldest Brother, is this mine?”

Su Xuanxiao nodded.

Su Ximu pursed his lips, looked down at the paper in his hand again, then lifted his head to look at his eldest brother, his eyes sparkling brightly.

He was a little eager to use his own account to log into the community website Dudu had mentioned and take a look.

Seeing Xiao Ximu’s eagerness, Su Xuanxiao pointed with his finger.

Half a minute later, the teenager in casual clothes sat in the large office chair and tried operating the computer that held countless confidential files of the Su Consortium.

The computers in the Weird World weren’t much different from those in the Real World—at most, the search engine had a different name—so Su Ximu handled it fairly proficiently.

Step by step, he quickly found the community website Dudu had mentioned and logged in using his own username and password.

The Wealth Avenue Community website was a semi-private site. Only after successfully logging in did Su Ximu see the model family voting section Dudu had talked about.

It was right in the most prominent spot in the middle of the homepage.

There were ten voting windows in total, corresponding to the ten families invited by the community. Each voting window’s avatar was a photo that looked very warm and harmonious—a full family portrait.

Su Ximu scrolled through them and found Dudu’s family in fifth place. Dudu’s family portrait had a great atmosphere too. Dudu’s brothers and sisters playfully made very exaggerated ghost faces toward the camera ones—that made it hard to see their exact appearances clearly.

Su Ximu, sitting in the office chair, looked at the contestants’ family portraits.

Su Xuanxiao, standing behind the chair, looked at the already fully packed ten families and nodded with dark eyes.

Very good.

Extremely good.

After leaving his eldest brother’s study, Su Ximu wanted to bring the next fruit platter to his second brother.

Unexpectedly, his second brother was already in the kitchen.

The man standing at the stove had rolled up his shirt sleeves a bit and was wearing a cartoon bear-head apron.

The apron matched the taste of the family’s chef who was on vacation.

Hearing footsteps behind him, Su Wuzi didn’t turn around and said directly, “Xiao Ximu, come taste how this steak is.”

The fried steak had been resting on tin foil for a while. Knowing Xiao Ximu probably didn’t like undercooked meat, Su Wuzi had practiced several times to fry the steak fully cooked without drying it out.

He cut off a small piece of meat, and the abundant juices immediately flowed out. Su Wuzi forked it to the teenager’s mouth, who had already leaned in.

Su Ximu instinctively opened his mouth. After chewing the meat carefully, he swallowed it and immediately gave his second brother a thumbs up. “Delicious!”

“Second Brother, you’re amazing. You can make anything.”

Su Wuzi smiled and looked at Xiao Ximu giving him a thumbs up, a flash of satisfaction in his eyes.

In his memory, the child-version of Xiao Ximu had a round little face. When he stretched out his hands, the backs were full of ten little dimples.

The grown-up Xiao Ximu was still very pretty and cute, but his chin was noticeably pointier, and the dimples on his hands were gone.

From the first time he saw this version of Xiao Ximu, Su Wuzi had decided in his heart that his Xiao Ximu must have suffered greatly somewhere he couldn’t see. How else could a chubby little baby have slimmed down to this state?

So from that day on, Su Wuzi resolved to practice his cooking skills and make sure to put back all the baby fat Xiao Ximu had lost over the years.

Su Ximu, whose weight was perfectly standard—just a tiny bit slim—sat at the dining table eating the loving steak his second brother had made for him, completely unaware that his standard-slightly-slim weight had become evidence of great suffering in his second brother’s eyes.

He only thought it was as his second brother said—that he, his eldest brother, and his third brother didn’t like afternoon tea.

Chewing the steak in his mouth, Su Ximu suddenly remembered something very important.

He quickly swallowed what was in his mouth, took a sip of water, and then asked, “Second Brother, am I really on summer vacation now?”

His third brother had originally said to let him get a summer job to train himself.

If it was a summer job, then he must still be in school to have a summer vacation.

From the ‘Original Host’s’ memories before, he had also seen segments of the ‘Original Host’ going to university. The university the ‘Original Host’ attended was called Tanzhong University.

Previously, he had fully trusted the ‘Original Host’s’ memories and naturally didn’t doubt the existence of Tanzhong University.

But now, he was a bit suspicious—maybe this Tanzhong University was something his third brother had made up too.

However, that afternoon while picking berries, he had heard Dudu’s sister Qianqian say she was going to school tomorrow.

That was strange. As an elementary schooler, Qianqian needed to go to school. But as a university student, he was still on summer vacation.

Over these past few days, Su Wuzi had gotten a general idea of what kind of messed-up memories his third brother had instilled in Xiao Ximu.

Facing Xiao Ximu’s question, he nodded matter-of-factly. “According to Tanzhong University’s vacation schedule, Xiao Ximu, you are indeed still on summer vacation.”

Over these years, their family had been missing one member. But they wouldn’t let Xiao Ximu lack anything other children had.

His brothers who loved him dearly, the amiable neighbors all around, and perfect academics and classmate relationships.

As the Weird World gradually developed and perfected, the weird entities also came to realize the importance of learning.

Especially those little weird entities born and raised in the Weird World, whose strength wasn’t particularly outstanding and who had no innate specialties that other weird entities couldn’t replace. For them, studying and creating their own value in the Weird World became especially important.

With the weird entities having this realization, large and small schools naturally sprang up in the city.

Back then, Su Wuzi hadn’t thought that when Xiao Ximu returned one day, he would need to work overtime like other weird entities in society to make a living.

But he hadn’t objected when his eldest brother had gone ahead and registered Xiao Ximu’s student status, step by step from elementary school to junior high, high school, and then university.

After all, whether they used it or not, other families’ children had it, so their family’s Xiao Ximu must have it too.

?

Su Ximu was shocked for the first time to learn he had student status in two worlds.

His mindset couldn’t switch over right away, so he couldn’t help asking, “Just student status without a student—can the student status go to university by itself?”

This, in turn, left Su Wuzi a bit puzzled as he countered, “Why not?”

Su Ximu blinked. Could it?

The two stared at each other for a moment. Su Ximu concluded: Probably not in the Real World, but yes in the Weird World.

After all, the Weird World was full of weird things—anything happening was normal.

Quickly convincing himself with this reasoning, the teenager who had finished his steak started counting on his fingers.

Since he really had school, how many days of vacation did he have left?

It couldn’t be that now that he was here in person, the student status was still attending for him.

Right—he was in the Art Major at Tanzhong University in the Weird World?

“Art Major.” Su Wuzi remembered everything about Xiao Ximu clearly. “Jianglou suggested it. He said you have great talent in drawing. He was taught by you.”

Su Ximu fell silent.

He thought of his drawing skills still stuck at the stick-figure stage, and that massive family portrait from his third brother’s hand.

He felt his third brother’s filter was a bit thick.

What virtue or ability did he have to have taught his third brother?

Finally, there was an explanation for why it was summer vacation now, but Qianqian and Little Ming were going to school.

Probably off-campus tutoring schools.

The Weird World had no regulations cracking down on off-campus tutoring institutions. These tutoring schools were rampant—even turning into full-fledged schools mid-tutoring and competing for students with others.

That evening, after the family finished dinner together, Su Ximu returned to his room, hugged the little Ah Huang who had trotted over excitedly, sat on the sofa, and began thinking seriously.

First, after summer vacation, he had to go to classes at Tanzhong University’s Art Major.

Second, he had to go to classes at the Art Major.

Finally, he had to go to classes at the Art Major.

Art Major sounded broader than fine arts, sculpture, or photography majors—maybe it covered all of those! Then specialize in grad school.

Su Ximu looked down at his hands holding the little dog, unable to imagine a statue full of artistic vibe taking shape in them.

When he was little, he really did like drawing and playing with mud. There wasn’t much mud in the Wasteland World, so he just kept drawing.

But which kid didn’t like that stuff?

He hadn’t thought about drawing or anything like that in a very, very long time. Back in university before, he had chosen business administration because it was easy to find work after graduation.

Now…

The teenager on the sofa held up the little dog in his arms level with his face and met Little Ah Huang’s round doggy eyes. He couldn’t help imagining the dismal scene after summer vacation ended: him going to school for class, then in the classroom using his childhood hobby to challenge a bunch of classmates with twenty years of professional art training.

But if he switched to another major, he didn’t know what to pick for the moment.

Because Tanzhong University’s business administration major wasn’t called business administration. Its full name was: 007 Spy Training Major.

That is: the university department aimed at training all-around special agent-level employees who worked twenty-four hours a day, clocking in and out at midnight, and worked seven days a week.

Just…

For Su Ximu, whose physical makeup was still somewhat human-like, he couldn’t go into that major—it would kill him from overwork.

Besides the 007 Spy Training Major, the other majors’ names didn’t sound much better either. Like: Internet Surfing Elite Computer Major, Scam Entrepreneurship Major, Ruthless Dungeon Management Major…

Looking around like this, Art Major suddenly became the top choice.

And, in terms of his own inclinations, Su Ximu knew he actually didn’t mind going to Art Major classes much.

He was just worried he wouldn’t keep up.

“Woof woo~”

Little Ah Huang’s bark pulled Su Ximu’s thoughts back. He put the little yellow dog back on his lap, groomed its fur while thoughtfully saying, “Tutoring class…”

“Little Ah Huang, do you think I should go to a tutoring class to catch up on lessons?”

The little yellow dog, being petted comfortably, wagged its tail but didn’t make a sound.

Su Ximu thought more and more that he really did need to go to a tutoring class—at least to get a clear sense of his own level.

So, the next morning at breakfast, he told his brothers about his decision.

Su Jianglou objected immediately upon hearing it. “Xiao Ximu, if you want to learn drawing, Third Brother can do it with you. Why go outside to learn?”

Su Ximu glanced at Third Brother and decided not to tell the truth. He just said, “The tutorial classes outside have a better learning atmosphere.”