Chapter 37: The Toys’ Worries Part 2

Tao Fangyi lifted Wang up, but Wang struggled and flopped right back down.

Tao Fangyi lifted him again; Wang flopped back down again.

After this went on three or four times, Tao Fangyi gave up. “Fine, rest. But no more mischief.”

Tao Fangyi had no idea that at this moment, Wenren Fu was crouching on the ground, laughing gleefully.

“He said I was annoying, hahaha.” Wenren Fu’s excitement was getting a bit out of control.

The Fierce Ghost lying nearby thought he had lost his mind.

“He said annoying, hehehe.” If Wenren Fu closed his eyes now, he could fully experience the sensation and warmth of Tao Fangyi’s body.

He could feel Tao Fangyi’s helplessness toward him.

Wenren Fu was so keyed up he hardly knew what to do with himself.

Then he abruptly looked at the Fierce Ghost.

The Fierce Ghost: …

Moments later, Wenren Fu was taking a shower, humming a tune. He swayed to the rhythm of his humming and raised an eyebrow at his own reflection in the mirror.

“That’s a bit narcissistic,” Wenren Fu murmured to himself.

Then he let out a “Ha!” “Who could look like me and not be narcissistic?”

After his shower, he admired himself in the mirror for a while longer.

Wenren Fu didn’t usually do that. He knew he was good-looking, but physical appearance wasn’t his true pursuit.

Yet now, Wenren Fu was seriously appreciating himself.

The face, perfect. The physique, not bad either.

Just not bad?

Wenren Fu watched the un-dried water droplets trail down the lines of his muscles.

Wenren Fu’s lips curled into an excited grin. “Absolutely perfect.”

He dried off, dried his hair, and lay down on the bed.

Closing his eyes and focusing his attention on Wang’s side, he could still feel Tao Fangyi’s hand lightly patting his waist.

Wenren Fu wanted to savor this longer, wanted this euphoric feeling to last. But Wenren Fu soon grew sleepy.

Why was he feeling sleepy?

Wenren Fu tried to open his eyes again, but his eyelids felt impossibly heavy.

He hadn’t been happy for very long.

“Ready to sleep?” Tao Fangyi’s voice sounded by his ear once more.

A slight smile touched Wenren Fu’s lips, and then he sank completely into a deep sleep.

On the other side, Tao Fangyi looked at the sleeping Wang, reached out, and stroked Wang’s hair.

Wang slept even more soundly.

“You got him to sleep?” The Blade Spirit asked Tao Fangyi.

“Mm. His sleeping face is cute, isn’t it?” Tao Fangyi gently touched the corner of Wang’s mouth.

The Blade Spirit offered no comment. He genuinely failed to see what was cute about a man whose entire face consisted only of a mouth.

And that mouth took up half the surface area of his face and was filled with razor-sharp fangs.

When Wang was asleep, he couldn’t control the size of his mouth, which made him look even more terrifying.

“I’m going to kill you all,” Wang mumbled in his sleep. “Just the perfect me needs to remain.”

The Blade Spirit: …

The Blade Spirit turned to Tao Fangyi. “Did you hear what he just said?”

“Hahaha, he always talks in his sleep like that.” Tao Fangyi patted Wang’s cheek, then turned his attention back to the toys.

So this topic was just something to be completely brushed aside? Was that really okay?

The toys and Fantasy Creatures were still comparing themselves to one another.

Nearly forgotten, Blazing Flame hit upon a key point. “So Older Cousin and the other one had fantasy toys once too. It’s just that they’re too old now; their toys have been completely forgotten by them.”

“Or maybe their toys just weren’t moved here,” another toy said.

“No, no, no!” Sophia cut Blazing Flame off. “Hold on.”

She clambered over the shelves, ran to the Older Cousin’s box, and rummaged around. Finally, she found a palm-sized Bear Doll.

Sophia dragged the flattened Bear Doll out and pulled it in front of everyone. “Let me introduce… uh… this is… anyway, this is a bear.” If even her creator had forgotten the bear’s name, she certainly couldn’t remember it.

The toys who had been busy with their own tasks gathered around.

Sophia tugged at the bear’s bow tie. “It’s been in that box just like us, but it’s never come to life. Do any of you know why?”

The Little Mallet, who had been crying earlier, waved at the bear doll, swaying its body. “Hello~”

Sophia grinned, lifted one of the bear doll’s hands, and waved back. “Hello~”

The Little Mallet bounced around excitedly.

Sophia’s tone shifted sharply. “But it’s not good at all! It’s dead!”

The Little Mallet burst into tears, and the pack of three-year-old toys started wailing along with it.

Morning Star, who had just calmed this group down: …

The Morningstar Series Toys marched forward aggressively. “You are disturbing the peace!!”

“I’m just speaking the truth! This is reality! This is the truth of this world!” Sophia jabbed a finger at Morning Star. “You’re just an elementary school kid. You don’t know what the future holds for you!”

“Actually, those pre-three toys were dead long ago. They’re only preserved thanks to this portable hard drive!” Sophia pointed at the Blade Spirit.

“What’s a portable hard drive?” The Physical Toys didn’t understand at all.

“Look at your silly little heads.” Sophia’s smile was dripping with sarcasm. In front of these little fools, she was once again the confident, evil supporting female character. “You don’t even know what a portable hard drive is, yet you’re so confident you control your own lives?”

The Blade Spirit murmured in Tao Fangyi’s ear, “Middle schoolers are always so adept at discovering ‘the darkness of life.'”

“You can’t expect too much,” Tao Fangyi said, before adding helplessly, “Kids in their teens can be truly terrifying sometimes.”

The Blade Spirit agreed, “I concur. By the way, that one in your arms—knock a zero off his age—isn’t he also a teenager?”

Tao Fangyi: “…You can’t do the math like that.”

Sophia was still orating: “You don’t understand growing up! You don’t understand the pain that growing up brings!”

“Our creator gets hurt in all sorts of ways, and then they blame it all on growing up! They pride themselves on overcoming pain, but they could have just avoided touching pain altogether!” Sophia clenched her fist. “We gave them a chance to have beautiful dreams, and they rejected it. They just had to have their damn ‘growth’!”

She pointed at the Older Cousin’s Fantasy Creatures. “Their creator even has a child of his own now! That new child gets to dream freely, but we can’t. We have to step aside for their world! Why?!”

The burly man sobbed, “Here with us, he could be a hero, but he insists on going back to being a balding programmer.”

Sophia nodded. “Then they get trapped by their families, running like machines until they’re forty, fifty. They aren’t happy at all! They’ve been alienated by this world, forgotten what true happiness is!”

“And you! You’ll be forgotten long before that!” Sophia’s finger landed right on Morning Star’s face.

“Morning Star will never be forgotten!” Morning Star declared. “We are the champions of justice!”

“Oh? The champions of justice, are you?” Sophia hauled up Blazing Flame, who had been watching from the sidelines, and pressed the switch on his back.

A classic line played from within Blazing Flame’s body—”I am Blazing Flame, and I will fight for justice!”

“Oh-ho-ho, take a wild guess how many toys here are ‘partners of justice’?” Sophia tilted her head.

Then she faced the crowd of toys and shouted, “Partners of justice, raise your hands!”

Nearly half the toys raised their hands.

“Hahaha, isn’t that hilarious?” Sophia picked up the Bear Doll from the floor and lifted one of its paws too.

She raised the bear’s paw. “I’m a partner of justice~ Guess how I’m doing now?”

She tossed the Bear Doll to the ground. “Dead!!”

The three-year-old toys started wailing all over again.

“No one here remembers it anymore. No one will love it or care about it. And it’ll never get up to tell its story again.” Sophia sneered. “Learn to face loneliness, elementary schooler!”

A look of confusion flickered across Morning Star’s face.

“So you’re all preparing to rebel now?” the Blade Spirit asked them.

Sophia glanced at Tao Fangyi.

Tao Fangyi said, “Still ten thousand words.”

“I won’t do anything, but my spirit will resist forever!” Sophia desperately did not want to write ten thousand words, let alone ten thousand words while also practicing proper handwriting. “Until death!”

Blazing Flame watched her walk away and took another sip of his soda.

Soda really was delicious.

Morning Star stared at the messy graffiti covering Blazing Flame’s body, falling silent.

Blazing Flame tugged on Tao Fangyi. “Uncle Commander-in-Chief, can I follow our owner to school now?” The power inside him now was supplied by Tao Fangyi.

“Yes. I’ll place a concealing Spell on you. Just be careful crossing the street,” Tao Fangyi said.

“Aren’t you spoiling him too much?” The Blade Spirit thought it was too risky.

“He’s not a living being, just an elementary schooler’s fantasy. He can’t cause any real trouble.” Tao Fangyi wasn’t worried.

“Yesss!” Blazing Flame threw his arms up and cheered.

They chatted a little longer. Then, Tao Fangyi dropped the Barrier. Wang’s head suddenly hit the floor, and he woke up.

Someone was coming in.

The toys all scrambled back toward their Toy Boxes.

Morning Star had run a few steps toward his box when he suddenly stopped and looked back at Blazing Flame.

Blazing Flame had climbed up onto the Older Cousin’s box. The patterns on his body were a mess, and his position meant he had already been forgotten by his owner.

On the shelf above was the Older Cousin’s box, the flattened Bear Doll pinned at the very bottom.

Morning Star stared at the Bear Doll’s spot for a moment, then turned back to look at Blazing Flame.

One day, their owner would become just like the Older Cousin and the other one. No more pure happiness—moving from Physical Toys, to fantasies, until most of his time was spent on a joyless reality.

“Morning Star!!” his Green-painted Subordinate shouted.

“Oh, oh, coming!” Morning Star ran back to his Toy Box. His head was aimed toward the door.

He saw Liu Xuanyong push the door open and walk in.

His creator was confident and had a strong sense of justice. Morning Star believed Liu Xuanyong was the greatest kid in the world.

He was sure the other toys felt the same way.

Blazing Flame was still within his line of sight. The other seemed to use a blind spot to peek his head out in Liu Xuanyong’s direction.

Who could possibly not love this child?

Could the world really be so cruel as to hurt him?

Wang yawned and glanced at Liu Xuanyong. “Oh~ The little ugly catfish has swum back home.”

Morning Star: …

Oh, the world really was very unfriendly.

Nearby, the Blade Spirit thought Wang’s comment about the child’s appearance was highly inappropriate. “He’s not that ugly.”

Morning Star felt the Blade Spirit was right. Liu Xuanyong wasn’t just not ugly; he was completely adorable!

“Hahahaha! Not ugly!” Wang was delighted. He slapped his thigh. “I know he’s your reincarnation, and you’re biased in his favor, but you still can’t lie through your teeth like that, hahaha.”

Morning Star: …

“Not that it matters. Plenty of people will tell him the truth someday.” Wang propped up his head, feeling a bit annoyed. He had wanted to sleep a little longer.

“Recently, there’s been a black shadow in my room,” Liu Xuanyong said to the auntie behind him.

“That must be the shadow of the curtain,” the auntie replied, figuring Liu Xuanyong had been reading too many horror stories.

“It really was a black shadow of a person, and its tongue was super long!” Liu Xuanyong clutched the auntie’s hand tightly.

That was Tao Fangyi scaring Liu Xuanyong.

This kid was simply too bold, and also careless.

Moving a toy had zero effect on Liu Xuanyong. Only direct, in-your-face scares worked.

At first, Tao Fangyi was worried about going too far and giving the kid psychological trauma.

But later, he found out the kid adapted incredibly fast. He’d be scared for a little while on his own, and then he’d just fall asleep.

At this thought, Wang let out another laugh. “When this kid gets scared, his facial expression contorts, hahaha. It’s even scarier than a ghost.”

Morning Star: …

The future looked utterly bleak.