At Last, It Was All Fake

Move out of that house? Rent a better one?

Xiao Xiao keenly noticed something wrong with that statement and looked at his father in surprise.

Ever since his father divorced his mother, he had moved out of that house and bought property elsewhere, leaving the old house for him and his mother to live in.

There was one thing his father had said that was true: the house really was too old. It had stood for several decades, and its water supply and other basic infrastructure were not very good.

But the key was its location. Even Yang Jia had praised the house after visiting it, saying that houses in the old district were actually very valuable.

It was obvious when one thought about it. The commercial center was just across the street, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold.

The old house was not only spacious; it even had a small courtyard. How much would a place like that cost?

Besides, after Xiao's Father moved out, although he had never said so explicitly, he had essentially left the home to Xiao Xiao and his mother. It was meant to be inherited by Xiao Xiao in the future.

Now, however, he wanted them to move out and rent another place.

Could anything rented ever truly belong to them?

Under Xiao Xiao's astonished gaze, Xiao's Father was somewhat unwilling to meet his eyes. He turned to clink glasses and drink with someone else, while the woman sitting beside him gave Xiao Xiao a haughty glance.

Xiao Xiao fell silent. He knew that someone had their eye on the house.

Although he was originally a stranger in this world and did not care much about such things, being made to give it up for nothing still felt wrong.

By then, the atmosphere at the banquet had gradually grown livelier. No one was paying attention to what their family was saying. Everyone was clinking glasses, chatting, and discussing business.

Xiao Xiao was forgotten in a corner as well, watching the world like an outsider.

The five-year-old boy beside the woman, however, was unwilling to sit still. He crawled out of her arms and rummaged through the things in Xiao Xiao's backpack without the slightest hesitation.

Xiao Xiao glanced at him but did not stop him. The woman beside him likewise turned a blind eye and let the boy play.

The child scattered everything from Xiao Xiao's bag, then even crawled over to him and reached straight into his coat pocket, as if he knew that everything Xiao Xiao had belonged to him.

When he pulled out a gun, his face clearly lit up with excitement. He held it in both hands, unable to put it down, and pointed it everywhere at the people present.

He kept murmuring, "Bang," and, "Bang."

When the woman beside him suddenly saw the gun in his hands, she knew he had taken it from Xiao Xiao. She did not care, merely sneering slightly.

"You're already this old and still playing with guns? Has that game rotted your brain?"

"..."

Throughout all this, Xiao's Father made no attempt to stop him. He merely thought that his younger brother getting close to his older brother was not a bad thing.

But suddenly, his eyes swept over the gun in the child's hands as it went bang-bang and pointed at people. He first frowned slightly, then his expression abruptly changed.

The gun felt wrong.

That heavy weight, the black baked-on finish, the obvious metallic sheen, and the finely crafted components...

...It looked far too real.

Just as this thought flashed through his mind, the curious child lowered his head and fiddled with the gun. Unintentionally, he opened the safety, producing a faint click, then excitedly raised it.

At that moment, Xiao's Father's expression changed drastically. His breath caught in his throat, and he nearly collapsed.

"Swish!"

At the same time, Xiao Xiao suddenly reached out, took the gun back from his younger brother, silently switched the safety back on, and tucked it into his own pocket.

"Waaah..."

The younger brother had been having fun, so when it was suddenly snatched away, he immediately began to cry in protest. "He took my toy..."

Xiao's Father, meanwhile, began gasping heavily, as if he had narrowly escaped death. His eyes were faintly unfocused as he stared at Xiao Xiao in disbelief.

"Mom hasn't had it easy these past few years either."

Xiao Xiao calmly met his father's horrified gaze and said softly, "It's fine if you want to take the house back, but buy her another one. Put it in her name. Don't get one that's too small, and preferably get one with an elevator."

After thinking for a moment, he added, "You'd better give her some compensation too. She goes to work at the mall every day and does the housework as well. It's really too tiring."

Meeting Xiao Xiao's calm and composed gaze, Xiao's Father had nothing in his eyes but deep confusion and wariness. He actually did not dare refuse and replied with a slight tremble, "...All right. I'll think... think about it."

Hearing this, the woman's expression changed drastically. She pulled the little boy toward her and said to Xiao's Father, "What are you talking about?"

Xiao's Father suddenly flew into a rage and roared, "Shut up."

The woman was shocked. She looked at Xiao's Father in disbelief, seemingly unable to imagine that he would lose his temper under these circumstances.

The guests at the table were startled as well, and the atmosphere fell silent and awkward.

"All right. Take your time thinking about it."

Xiao Xiao packed up his backpack, then rose with a smile. "I have to get up early for work tomorrow, so I won't stay for the cake. Um..."

He hesitated for a moment. In the end, he could not bring himself to say those two words to a monster, so he merely smiled and nodded. "Happy birthday."

After saying that, he did not linger. He slung his backpack over his shoulders and left the hotel private room. He could feel the confused gazes behind him, with his father's gaze especially filled with terror.

These monsters pretending to be human were quite conscientious.

They really were actors. They acted seriously and threw themselves into their roles. But Xiao Xiao truly found it difficult to cooperate with their performance.

As he took the subway home, Xiao Xiao looked at the glittering lights, bustling streets, and dazzling neon along the way. Suddenly, everything felt especially strange.

It really was all fake. Otherwise, how could it be so cold?

"You're back so early?"

After he returned home, his mother actually seemed to be in a fairly good mood. Her dinner was obviously dumplings left over from lunch, and she was cleaning up while complaining to Xiao Xiao.

"Your dad still has a little conscience. He even called just now to ask whether you'd gotten home and how the two of us had been doing lately."

"..."

Xiao Xiao knew this was probably a lingering effect of having frightened his father. He did not want to discuss it further and merely smiled. "Didn't he mention buying a house?"

"Buying a house?"

His mother looked surprised. "Why would we buy a house when everything's fine? It's perfectly good living here..."

"Don't let the age and shabbiness of our house fool you. The location is excellent. There are buildings all around us, and ours is a single-story house with a courtyard. It's worth a lot."

"When you get married, we can renovate it and use it as your wedding home. Your wife's family will definitely be satisfied."

"..."

"Mom is still too naive..."

Xiao Xiao thought to himself that the house was registered in his father's name, and his father was already planning to take it back. Yet she still thought she could live here for the rest of her life.

Still, Xiao Xiao could not be bothered to discuss these matters with her. He silently returned to his bedroom.

It was difficult for him to describe how the dinner had felt. Perhaps his father really had been badly frightened by that gun of his, but the experience had not been pleasant for him either.

Amid a table full of smiling faces, he had felt no sense of belonging at all.

He knew it, and they knew it too: he was merely an outsider. Every gaze directed at him held little friendliness.

No matter how warmly they smiled, he could still feel a bone-deep chill.

That chill made Xiao Xiao feel very lonely.

Perhaps only being with Yang Jia or Ruan Ruan and the others could ease it somewhat.

But everyone had their own lives. How could they possibly stay together all the time?

Then what could give him a sense of security?

He raised his head and leaned out of the window. He saw three dog heads lined up neatly on top of the wall, sticking their tongues out at him from a distance as if they were smiling.

Xiao Xiao smiled at the Three Adorable Hounds across the fence separating the two homes.

"Maybe I really can strengthen them once?"

"..."

It was a little risky, but occasionally gambling on a long shot was not bad either. What if he won?

Besides, if he did not rush to return those one hundred points to Yang Jia, it seemed he could not only strengthen the Three Adorable Hounds once, but might also be able to buy other things.

If, the next time he faced a mutated creature or some oppressive atmosphere, an Old Record Player happened to play a suitably mournful tune...

...The experience probably would not be too bad either.

At the same time, in a high-end apartment, Xiao's Father's young and beautiful wife, Auntie Wang, was also cold-faced and making a constant racket as she slammed things around.

She was in a terrible mood. Not only had her husband loudly scolded her in front of so many people over his ex-wife, but Xiao Xiao had also made her darling cry, and her husband had not said a word about it.

"Stop wearing that expression."

After she had been throwing things around for a long while, Xiao's Father, who was smoking on the sofa, finally looked over with a frown. "Didn't you notice anything today?"

"Notice what?"

Auntie Wang's face remained cold. "That you still haven't forgotten them and are planning to buy a house for that old hag?"

"That's the house the Shepherds want, and it's in your name too. What would be wrong with simply taking it back?"

"Enough."

Xiao's Father frowned. He had felt uneasy all along. After a moment of silence, he said, "I told you before that he had been ill, didn't I?"

"What illness?"

Auntie Wang immediately grew angry. "He was obviously pretending, afraid that you would divorce that old hag."

"And look at him now. Ha. He pretended to be sick for four years and managed to cripple himself."

"..."

"You..."

Xiao's Father found her impossible to reason with. After a long while, he slowly shook his head and sighed in a low voice. "I used to think he was pretending too. Children's thoughts are hard to figure out, but..."

After struggling with it for a while, he finally said quietly, "Why do I feel that he really is a little... strange?"

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