Su Ze carried the fruits with his right hand and held the hand of the girl who was in charge of eating them with his left.
Uesugi Akizuki wasn't very well-behaved; while munching on the fruits, her eyes roamed around, spotting anything interesting or fun, she would pull Su Ze over to buy it. If it was a cute trinket, she always bought three: one for herself, one for Su Ze, and the third, she didn't say, but Su Ze knew, was for her sister.
Su Ze indulged her, buying almost everything she wanted.
Until she pointed at an adult store with a large white mascot standing in front and tugged Su Ze to rush in.
Su Ze was startled and quickly pulled her back.
Uesugi Akizuki's puzzled gaze met Su Ze's stern one. "We're not going in there," he said firmly.
Uesugi Akizuki obediently nodded and continued walking with Su Ze, though her eyes lingered on the distant white mascot.
Meng Xingyao called.
"Haven't you arrived yet?"
"She's dragging me around shopping."
"Then keep shopping."
"Okay."
Meng Xingyao hung up and looked at Uesugi Chigenki, who was glued to the window, staring at the street. "It'll take a while longer to get there. Want to eat first?"
Uesugi Chigenki didn't even turn around. "No."
"Not eating will make your stomach grumble. I can cook a lot of delicious things."
"The executor is already on the way. I'll leave as soon as I pick up my sister; no need to trouble yourself."
After wandering for over an hour, Su Ze looked around at the unfamiliar area, realizing he had been led here by Uesugi Akizuki, far off the intended route.
Checking the map, he found they were thirteen kilometers from their destination.
Three kilometers further than the ten kilometers they started with. Uesugi Akizuki, holding a palm-sized teddy bear, grinned and proudly showed it to Su Ze.
"You've led us astray," Su Ze said, patting her head. The girl giggled happily. "You dragged me all over the place as soon as we got into town. Aren't you looking for your sister?"
"Looking," the girl said innocently.
"Then let's stop shopping and find your sister first, okay? Then you can play with her."
The little witch nodded, then shook her head. "First play."
She pulled Su Ze towards the mall...
Su Ze felt that this little silly girl's logic was a bit different from normal people.
A normal person, knowing their sister who was on the run was alive and safe, would be anxious to find her.
But this little silly girl, knowing her sister was safe, breathed a sigh of relief. While looking for her sister, she didn't forget to have some fun first, since her sister was already fine.
At the mall, Uesugi Akizuki was inevitably drawn to the arcade games.
Su Ze, accustomed to the girl's starry-eyed, hopeful gaze, stored their belongings and exchanged them for a coin, taking the silly girl to play.
Perhaps due to the recent blood moon, the mall was sparsely populated, with only a few people seen occasionally.
The area had suffered relatively minor damage, so the mall was able to open so early.
Su Ze chose to play the ring toss game, where a coin buys ten small glass balls. One or several balls are thrown, with more won or lost depending on the outcome.
Uesugi Akizuki loved playing but was terrible at it.
Su Ze was a seasoned player at such places, often visiting arcades whenever he could.
He was a game enthusiast and a bit of a gaming addict, but his skills were undeniable.
Su Ze inserted the coin into the machine, a game he often used to win big with small stakes. Ten glass balls clinked out.
Uesugi Akizuki gasped in surprise, and Su Ze promptly poured all ten balls into the slot.
'All in,' he thought.
He pressed the stop button, and the row of flashing red lights halted, with only two remaining lit.
Pulling the lever, he released it, letting it snap back and hit the plastic ball, which then bounced around the machine, finally dropping into the narrow channel of the lit red light.
Clink, clink, clink...
A shower of glass balls poured out.
Uesugi Akizuki's eyes widened, and she excitedly clapped and jumped around Su Ze, as if she had made the shot herself.
Having grasped the game's rules, Uesugi Akizuki took the glass balls Su Ze had won and went to another machine to play.
Su Ze kept just one ball, and within minutes, he turned it into over sixty, which Uesugi Akizuki happily took, then promptly poured a dozen or so into her machine.
She pressed the stop button, lighting up five red lights.
Then, pulling the lever with precise control, she aimed seriously, like a hidden tiger in the bushes, fiercely watching a drinking antelope, and then, seizing the moment! She let go with a snap.
Miss!
"What a spendthrift," Su Ze muttered, watching Uesugi Akizuki's moves.
Soon, she was back to playing with the hundreds of small glass balls Su Ze had prepared for her, throwing them in without even counting.
She was as bold as a wealthy landowner.
While Uesugi Akizuki played, Su Ze received a call from his brother.
"What's up?"
"That scumbag got out of jail."
The scumbag referred to their father.
The one they had sent to prison themselves.
"So what?" Su Ze didn't care. Getting out of jail meant nothing to him; if he died on the street, Su Ze wouldn't even bother to collect the body.
He'd just hire an agency to handle it, paying them to take care of the funeral, which he definitely wouldn't attend.
"I want to kill him."
"Why does that concern me?" Su Ze replied indifferently.
There was silence on the other end, understanding his brother's stance and dropping the idea.
He knew his brother wouldn't cover for him.
Su Ze's coldness towards his brother stemmed from some conflicts they had over the past year.
His brother had thrown a tantrum and run away, thinking Su Ze would seek reconciliation. Instead, Su Ze didn't indulge his bad habits, changing the house's password the moment Su Yu left.
Completely caught off guard by Su Ze's move, Su Yu didn't even bring his phone.
With his pride, he wouldn't bow down within a day.
That night, Su Yu's stomach growled, nearly making him compete with a dog for food in the deserted alley.
Afraid of the dark, he left the alley.
That night, he slept under a bridge, regretting his actions.
At that moment, he felt like a complete idiot.
His brother was the type to respond to softness, not hardness, yet he had challenged his limits with stubbornness.
As he was reflecting, he was kicked by a disheveled homeless man.
Looking up, he saw the man had robbed him of his last ten dollars and was chased out of the bridge by the homeless community.
He spent the rest of the night crying on a chilly park bench.
The next day, he sat at his home's doorstep.
Su Ze saw him but acted as if he hadn't, returning to the game room to play for over ten hours.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
