Previously, he had only ever cut his own hair. It was the first time cutting someone else’s, so Su Ximu exercised great patience, stepping back after each snip to check the effect.
On the final step back, Su Wuzi cooperatively lifted his head. “Does it look good?”
“Wait a second.” While moving, Su Ximu noticed a stray lock on the side that still needed trimming, so he leaned in close again and carefully fixed it.
When he finally straightened up once more, he took a breath, set down the scissors, clapped his hands as if declaring mission accomplished, then nodded vigorously in answer to his second brother’s question.
He thought his second brother looked great. The hairstyle he had given him didn’t detract at all—it could score very high marks.
After nodding, he immediately turned around, pulled a mirror from the tea table drawer, and held it up in front of his second brother.
Su Wuzi examined himself carefully in the mirror for a moment, then nodded in evident satisfaction, giving his hairdresser high praise. “It looks good. Xiao Xi did a great job.”
Back when his second brother had long hair, Su Ximu always recalled how he used to coax him to sleep as a child, picking him up whenever he cried. At that age, he had probably been too young and immature, needing to stay in his second brother’s arms for a long time to feel safe.
Reflecting now with an adult mindset, Su Ximu thought that, back then, his second brother had been more than just a brother to him.
He still remembered one night when he missed home. He fell asleep, then started crying in his sleep, only to be picked up while sobbing. He had thought it was Mom.
Back when his parents didn’t fight, Mom would hold him at night too.
Later, once his parents were always quarreling, they had no time to hold him.
But as he grew a bit older and gradually adapted to the Wasteland World, he came to understand: his brother was his brother, not Mom.
His brother was just a slightly older kid.
His brother simply liked him, so he always held him.
Su Ximu always felt like his brothers saw him through rose-tinted glasses, no matter what. But in truth, the feeling was mutual.
He had always thought his second brother was good-looking, but in reality, Su Wuzi with long hair gave off an uncanny, gloomy sense of oppressive eeriness. Few people noticed his actual features. His pale skin and slightly curly black long hair made him look more like a fierce ghost that could lift its gaze from the gorgeous red mist at any moment and kill without effort.
But now, this fulfilling, happy life had made even the most malice-filled Weird begin to truly soften.
Sunlight seemed to finally shine on him for real.
Su Ximu looked at his second brother like this. Without a doubt, he still perfectly matched the figure from his memories… but he also seemed just a tiny bit different.
A hint of contemplation appeared in the eyes of the youth holding the mirror. He tilted his head slightly.
Su Wuzi mimicked Xiao Xi, tilting his head in the same direction.
Nearby, in just those few short seconds, Su Jianglou inexplicably sensed something off in the atmosphere and frowned.
“Xiao Xi, my hair has grown out a bit too! I want a haircut!”
?
Su Ximu snapped back to reality at his third brother’s voice and turned his head.
Seeing his third brother point at his own head, he nodded on instinct. “Oh, okay. Then sit down, Third Brother. I’ll cut it for you.”
“Good.” Su Jianglou immediately strode forward and sat down.
By the time Su Ximu had positioned himself behind his third brother, he looked at the prickly buzz cut and asked in some confusion, “Third Brother, this… how do you want it cut?”
It didn’t seem like it could be cut at all.
At that moment, a pair of clippers was handed to him.
He saw his second brother smiling as he handed them over with a suggestion. “His hair’s too short to cut. Use this instead.”
Shaving it bald would be pretty good too.
The next day.
Though his third brother’s hair really was too short to trim much, considering they had to go collect the award and take photos the next day, Su Ximu ultimately showed mercy.
Matching his third brother’s inherently wild vibe, he just used the clippers to carve an even wilder ‘X’ on the sides of his head.
The judging and award venue was inside the Wealth Avenue property management company. The entire first floor had been temporarily requisitioned.
When Su Ximu arrived at the property company with his eldest, second, and third brothers, plus Ox Grandpa, the site was packed—practically standing room only.
All the neighbors he had grown familiar with lately seemed to be there.
During the formal award presentation on stage, he even spotted Dudu in the third row, with Qianqian and Xiao Ming seated to her left and right.
A tiny glass vial sat on the table in front of Dudu, seemingly containing a miniature landscape.
Dudu’s parents still hadn’t appeared.
Finally, while holding the trophy for photos on stage, the emcee below— an owner roped into hosting on short notice—projected his fawning, excited voice across the entire first floor without even needing a microphone.
“What a perfect family! What touching familial bonds!!”
“The inaugural Model Family selection has produced such a flawless, impeccable winner!”
“This is the honor of all of Wealth Avenue! The glory of every owner!”
“Ah! Just attending this award ceremony feels like my very soul has been cleansed…”
“Now, let us use our cameras to forever capture this moment!”
On stage, Su Ximu—who had never experienced anything like this—felt a bit uncomfortable and hung his hands at his sides. He had meant to grab his shirt hem but ended up grasping his second brother’s hand instead.
Below the stage, all the owners doubling as audience members clapped like their lives depended on it. Some in the front rows had glistening eyes, looking as if they had been moved to tears.
For whatever reason, the property company had gone all out. After the awards, the host announced that the second and third floors had prepared a lavish buffet for everyone.
The owners immediately pivoted, pulling back feet that had been heading for the exit and turning toward the spiral staircase instead.
Even after going upstairs and discovering it was all legitimate buffet fare, not a single owner voiced any objections.
Second floor.
Su Ximu spotted the three kids huddled amid the adults. After greeting his brothers and Ox Grandpa, he grabbed a small plate of snacks and headed over.
“Xiao Mu Brother.” Dudu, sitting in the corner of the dining area, waved happily.
The little girl’s smile was noticeably brighter and more carefree than a few days ago.
There were exactly four chairs at the small table. Su Ximu sat in the empty one.
Before he could even speak, the little girl eagerly pushed her glass bottle forward like a treasure. “Look, Xiao Mu Brother!”
Su Ximu leaned down as instructed to examine it closely, while pulling three tiny glass vials from his own pocket and handing them over.
After a short look, he realized there were…
Two little figures inside, a bit bigger than ants?
The two tiny people seemed to be holding some kind of weapons, their body language conveying furious rage as they smashed at the glass with them.
He glanced from the tiny people in the bottle to Dudu, a guess already forming in his mind.
Dudu, meanwhile, examined the tiny glass vial from Xiao Mu Brother, peering curiously at the three glowing white light orbs inside that resembled fireflies.
After observing for a bit, she asked, “Xiao Mu Brother, what are these?”
Su Ximu reached out and patted the little girl’s head. “They’re keys that can take Dudu to a safe place with her brother and sister.”
After two days of research, though he still couldn’t fully control the appearance of the small light orbs, he had at least learned another way to use their power.
For instance, the three small light orbs in the glass bottle right now weren’t for hiring employees. They were simply dungeon invitations.
However…
He glanced again at the glass bottle in front of him. Su Ximu thought his thinking might still be a bit limited.
Dudu probably didn’t need them anymore.
And it seemed Qianqian and Xiao Ming didn’t either.
But Dudu was still thrilled. She tucked the little bottle into her plush backpack and thanked him sweetly. “Thank you, Xiao Mu Brother.”
Actually, there were so many ways she wanted to thank Xiao Mu Brother.
If his brothers hadn’t beaten her parents black and blue a couple days ago, leaving them extremely weakened, she couldn’t have gotten her brother and sister’s help to shove them straight into the bottle.
Now, in the Du Family, Dudu was in charge!
Two hours later, after finishing the buffet, Dudu waved goodbye to Xiao Mu Brother.
On the way home, she remembered to share Xiao Mu Brother’s gift with her brother and sister too.
Once she saw her brother and sister carefully pocket their shares, she turned around and skipped merrily toward home.
“Once we find Teng Teng too, our whole family can be together happily.”
The little girl’s tone brimmed with beautiful longing.
Dai Qian and Wu Ming, following behind her, exchanged a glance.
They had spent a relatively long time in this dungeon, full of twists and turns.
The original clearance condition had been to obtain the Model Family title, but they couldn’t find Teng Teng, and the title had slipped away to someone else.
If those two dungeon horrors hadn’t suddenly taken heavy injuries, the award ceremony today would have been their death day.
But likewise, the original dungeon horrors being gravely wounded didn’t mean the dungeon was over.
Now, the BOSS of this family dungeon seemed to have become the little girl in front of them.
And yet, she seemed to harbor some goodwill toward them and hadn’t laid out any dungeon rules for them to follow.
Lately, according to Confidentiality Bureau stats, players were encountering more and more unexpected situations in dungeons.
Many of the previously summarized universal rules no longer seemed to apply.
It was as if, with the Strange Talk World increasingly encroaching on the real world, an equally real and complete world was unfolding before them.
Before entering the ‘home’ door, Dai Qian and Wu Ming exchanged looks again, reaching a mutual understanding.
Perhaps they shouldn’t approach everything in the dungeon with a game strategy guide mindset anymore.
Instead, they needed to think of a way to break through using a different perspective.
Once they were officially back ‘home,’ Dai Qian—who had been silent the whole way—finally spoke up.
She crouched down in front of the little girl, who had seemed so happy the entire walk, and met her eyes with firm, earnest resolve. “Dudu, you actually know who we are, right?”
The little girl froze, about to smile and say ‘you’re my sister.’
But another smiling face inexplicably flashed in her mind.
“I know Teng Teng didn’t get lost on his own, right? You deliberately took him out and left him outside.”
“But you were trying to protect him, because you knew life at home wasn’t good.”
“It’s our fault for being slow on the uptake. Not just Teng Teng—ever since we got here, you’ve been protecting us too, haven’t you?”
“Dudu, you once told me you wanted a happy family. Now you’ve beaten your parents, and you have the power to create a truly happy home for yourself.”
Seeing no extreme reaction like the rampage before a Weird went berserk, Dai Qian felt slightly relieved and continued. “But Dudu, your home is here. Ours isn’t.”
“I’m glad to have such a cute little sister during this time, but…”
Her home wasn’t here. Her responsibilities weren’t here either.
She couldn’t stay in this dungeon forever, becoming Dudu’s family for good.
Dudu half-understood. “Sister, you don’t want to stay here? Why?”
She could protect her brother and sister now.
Before Dai Qian could answer, Dudu’s smiling face fell, and she shoved the girl in front of her hard, making her ass-plant.
“I knew you didn’t like me that much!”
They were all faking it.
The brother and sister who truly liked her had already been killed by her parents.
No matter how much she wanted it later, no matter how she searched, there would never be another identical older brother or older sister.
Just like in this world, there was only one Dudu, and only one Teng Teng.
Suddenly understanding this point, she lowered her head sadly.
“Dudu?!”
Raising her head again, the little girl who always looked so happy and pretty shed her first truly heartbroken tears, belatedly.
Red tears, as if blood was flowing from her eye sockets, dripped onto the floor drop by drop.
They made the little girl’s fair and tender cheeks look somewhat terrifying.
And Dai Qian and Wu Ming could no longer say anything, not even move a bit.
In their struggle, the glass bottle originally in Wu Ming’s pocket fell out and rolled to the little girl’s feet with a gurgle.
Dudu squatted down and picked up the bottle.
In that instant, time dragged on like years.
Finally, this little girl who had truly become the master of the Du Family took action.
She stepped forward and put the bottle back into ‘brother’s’ pocket.
The next second, whether it was Dai Qian or Wu Ming, both were thrown out rolling heavily from the villa’s large floor-to-ceiling windows.
In the instant their consciousness briefly detached, leaving the dungeon, what they heard in their ears was the little girl’s angry shout: “Fine, leave then! I don’t care!”
“You’re not my brother and sister at all!”
“I won’t play with you anymore!”
“We’re breaking off our friendship!!”
