Rules of the Strange

Life afterward was uneventful. Like all ordinary children, Xiao Ming and An'an attended kindergarten together for three years.

When Xiao Ming was six, some children at kindergarten suddenly said that An'an's mother was a celebrity. It seemed that An'an's mother had picked him up once and been seen by other parents.

Those children completely changed their previous attitudes and wanted to play with An'an.

But just as An'an had treated the other children before, no matter what they did or said, no matter how they coerced or tempted him, he refused to pay anyone else any attention. He only stayed with Xiao Ming.

Watching TV dramas was not among little Xiao Ming's recreational activities. Even when the kindergarten let them watch television together, they only played cartoons. He did not know what a celebrity was. He only knew that other people wanted to play with An'an too, but An'an was supposed to be his friend alone.

Little Xiao Ming was very possessive, and he even fought with other children over it. Since too many children had been involved, the kindergarten teacher called in their parents.

When he learned that his mother and father were coming, little Xiao Ming was actually very nervous.

"An'an, my mom and dad are coming, but I'm a little scared. Will they not like me because I fought today? I wasn't good."

At the time, An'an said the longest sentence he had ever said to Xiao Ming since they met. "If they don't like you, I like you. I'll give you lots of candy, and you stay with me forever."

Little Xiao Ming had no idea how domineering those words were. He merely opened his mouth wide and let out a "Wow." "An'an, you said so much today! Thank you! I'll go find my mom and dad first, then come back to find you later."

But he never expected that to be the last thing he said to An'an.

Xiao Ming's parents showed no particular reaction when they saw him. They simply took him home. Afterward, they brought him to a specialized institution for an IQ test.

When the results came out, little Xiao Ming heard his father say that he was not as smart as his parents, and that they were somewhat disappointed in him. At the time, he only knew that the disappointment in his parents' eyes made his chest hurt. From then on, he decided to work twice as hard so he would not disappoint them, and he kept at it for fifteen years.

Back then, Xiao Ming's parents had taken him away so suddenly that he never got the chance to say goodbye to An'an. As a result, they had no contact information for each other. As for things like photographs, those had all been sent to the parents.

And Xiao Ming's parents had no idea where they had put the photos. They were not even sure whether they had gotten them developed.

When they were children, they did not understand that they should exchange contact information. Besides, Xiao Ming's parents were so busy that they had no time to answer unfamiliar calls.

After entering elementary school, he devoted himself wholly to studying in order to gain his parents' approval. He had no energy to spare for anyone else, so he made no friends, and no one took the initiative to approach him.

Xiao Ming's impression of An'an also gradually faded as time passed. Rather than saying his memory was not good enough to retain something that distant, it was more accurate to say that over those fifteen years, he had forced himself to let go and forget.

After all, it was difficult for people to remember a kindergarten playmate forever, wasn't it? How could anyone be like him and have no friends for so many years?

That was where the memories ended. After Xiao Ming began catching up on Qu An's works and promotional materials, he dreamed of "An'an" for a while, but he did not dare connect the two of them.

After all, even he himself hated the version of himself who had left without saying goodbye, and he had turned into such a boring adult.

Xiao Ming quickly sorted out his emotions and followed the instructions in the fan support group's chat, beginning to repost promotional content for Qu An's new drama. In a few days, the fifth episode would be filmed, and the first offline event since he joined the support group would soon take place as well.

Oh, and it was worth mentioning that Jiang Yuefeng somehow got the contact information for his work account. From a fan's perspective, Xiao Ming did not want to add him at all, but in the end, he did.

Jiang Yuefeng got straight to the point and asked him for Qu An's WeChat. Xiao Ming spent a long time puzzling over what he had said: "I heard you and Brother Qu have a pretty good relationship, so you must have Brother Qu's WeChat, right? Brother Qu said before that he wanted to add me, but his phone died, so I came to ask you. You should give it to me, right? You and Brother Qu are close, so you should know that Brother Qu and I have a pretty good relationship too."

Ah, the kind of "good" relationship where they had been in the same production and the same variety show but had never even added each other's contact information, and Qu An had even refused to hype a CP with him?

Xiao Ming did not know why Jiang Yuefeng had come looking for him, but he did not give him Qu An's account.

He only found out later that Qu An did not even separate work and personal accounts. He did not post Moments, and had even disabled them. Everyone he added was muted, so there was no need to set up an extra work account or anything like that.

So, people who had Qu An's contact information were not exactly rare. Jiang Yuefeng's move had simply been meant to irritate him, though Xiao Ming did not understand what had prompted it.

Xiao Ming's reason for refusing was perfectly proper: he could not casually disclose another citizen's personal information. Not long after he sent that, he discovered that Jiang Yuefeng had blocked him.

What kind of person was that?

This matter did not stay in Xiao Ming's mind for long, because he had to prepare for the filming of the fifth episode. Time truly passed quickly.

The fifth episode would be filmed in Sky City, not far from Capital City, and the recording was at night. So this time, Xiao Ming did not stay at the hotel arranged by the production team. He took the high-speed rail directly to Sky City.

Qu An had also been busy these past few days, with magazine shoots and a pile of other work. He and Xiao Ming had barely chatted. Xiao Ming realized that he liked talking to Qu An more and more. He could send him anything, mainly because Qu An responded to every single message.

This episode was filmed in a children's amusement park, covering an area roughly the size of two Bird's Nests.

Because it was a nighttime acceleration challenge, the acceleration team members had to wear glowing acceleration suits, with the color chosen by themselves.

Once an acceleration team member was captured by a hunter, their challenge would be considered failed, and they could only receive one-tenth of the Acceleration Energy they had earned at that point. If they survived safely for one hundred minutes, they could obtain 600,000 Acceleration Energy, equal to 600,000 Acceleration Coins.

This episode included challenge zones. Participants could choose to forfeit at designated locations, and those who forfeited could receive all the Acceleration Energy they had earned at that time.

The top twenty acceleration team members in cumulative Acceleration Energy over eleven episodes would enter the twelfth episode to compete for the Uncrowned Acceleration King title. The winner would become Yiniu's spokesperson for a year and donate one million to impoverished areas in its name.

There would be no hunter-perspective livestream for the fifth episode, because nighttime was not suitable for that kind of broadcast. More importantly, this recording was on a workday. Even if it was online, the chief director had no intention of taking that risk. Money was not burning a hole in his pocket.

The children's amusement park's palette was mainly pink, white, yellow, and blue, and their illuminated suits were primarily those colors as well. The light colors would not determine teams or anything; this episode was not a competition.

Since Xiao Ming had been assigned blue last episode, he simply picked a blue outfit. When he arrived, he discovered that Qu An was also wearing blue. They exchanged a glance and smiled at each other over the coincidence.

Besides eight familiar faces—Qu An, Xiao Ming, Meng Na, Lin Shange, Lin Xiang, Xing Tong, Guan Jun, and Zhong Ka—the acceleration guests this episode included Shan Yi, who had already appeared in two episodes, as well as Wu Qiyi, Pang Ba, He Songyi, Ning Shupei, and Gu Wuping, who had also appeared before. Then there were two new guests, Mi Jierui and Zhuang Qiaofang, both idol singers.

Pang Ba was dressed in pink. Her eyes lit up when she saw Xiao Ming, and she came over. "Little brother, long time no see!"

Pang Ba had asked for Xiao Ming's WeChat, and he had given it to her, but she had not really contacted him much. Xiao Ming knew that this was only for variety-show effect.

But the instant Qu An saw her approaching, he strode quickly to Xiao Ming's side and watched Pang Ba with a gentle smile. Then... Pang Ba did not come any closer.

Tsk, that brat looked like he wanted to eat her alive. Was that necessary? Forget it, she would stop teasing him.

The opening of this episode was rather unusual. Sixteen hunters were gathered before them, as though it were one hunter against one runner. The hunters were locked in the same place, with a display screen beside them that temporarily served as the Hunter's Eye.

Before this episode began, they had mentioned that it might be different from the previous ones and contain some mildly scary elements.

A line of text appeared on the screen, drawing everyone's eyes over in unison. "Acceleration team members, ten rules will now be read aloud. Please remember these ten rules carefully. They will affect your actions going forward."

"That sounds like that thing that's been really popular lately..."

"Rules of the Strange," Mi Jierui said.

Any young person on the 5G internet immediately knew what it was, while older people who did not follow online trends would be somewhat confused. Oh, and that included Xiao Ming, who only followed one specific person.

Rules of the Strange? What was that?

Xiao Ming vaguely had a bad feeling, but his instincts made him take out his phone and start recording.

"Rule One: Please beware of being captured by people in black in the night!"

"Rule Two: There is no orange in the Children's Amusement Park. If you find any, destroy it immediately or stay away from it."

"Rule Three: Do not trust anyone!"

"Rule Four: Children can be trusted."

"Rule Five: The weather is dry; beware of fire!"

"Rule Six: If you find yourself in trouble, seek help at the ticket booth for Castle of Terror."

"Rule Seven: There is no absolutely safe place!"

"Rule Eight: Keep the lights on your body lit. They will like it."

"Rule Nine: Do not hide all the time!"

"Rule Ten: They like the Carousel best. Approach with caution."

There were ten rules in total. Whenever one appeared, the previous one disappeared and would not appear again.

The group stared at the ten rules, looking at one another in dismay. None of them had expected the show's style to change so drastically. Turning a children's amusement park into something mildly terrifying—they really dared to imagine it.

Sending the acceleration team members to this place had been the work of the Space Pirates' leader. According to data collected by his subordinates, this kind of environment was the most likely to affect them, preventing them from carrying out acceleration missions effectively and disrupting their collection of Acceleration Energy.

When the Interstellar Empire's marshal discovered this, he immediately went to stop it, but he was intercepted by the enemy. He could only set up a barrier in the Space Pirates' leader's channel connected to Earth, preventing them from continuing to issue false missions to Earth and interfere with the acceleration team members' collection of Acceleration Energy.

However, because this channel had a single main passage that also connected their means of contacting Earth, he could not directly send missions either. Fortunately, he had placed A-Bai's latest research results on Earth, which could monitor the situation on-site and notify the entire area once a mission was triggered.

"Acceleration team members, this episode's missions must be discovered and triggered by yourselves according to the ten rules. There are currently sixteen hunters. You can reduce their number by entering the ten rules on the screen. For every correct rule, one hunter will be eliminated. The hunters will be released two minutes after the entries are confirmed."

When Xiao Ming saw that message on the screen, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Good thing he had recorded it. Some guests had not thought to take pictures, or had failed to capture everything, and they all looked dejected.

Xiao Ming did not really want to stand out, so he handed his phone to Qu An and whispered, "I recorded it. You can go enter it."

Qu An raised an eyebrow. Seeing the crowd around them, he understood why Xiao Ming had done this. He knew Xiao Ming only wanted to play and did not want this to lead to any consequences, which was why he had made that choice.

He understood, but...

Qu An took a long stride forward. It was summer, and the show had provided shorts. Paired with the long-sleeved illuminated shirt on top, they somehow did not make his proportions look awkward at all. He was still exceptionally handsome and tall.

"Classmate Xiao Ming recorded the entire thing. If no one minds, I'll enter one first to get us started." He had no intention of stealing the credit, nor did he intend to take it all for himself.

"Wow, Xiao Ming's pretty sharp."

"Little brother reacted so fast."

"That's great. That means there'll only be six hunters left."

"But this episode really has changed a lot."

After Qu An entered one rule, he returned to his original position. The remaining acceleration team members went up one after another to enter the rest. There would be ten seconds to verify the answers later, and because the answers were submitted all at once, Xiao Ming had to wait there to get his phone back.

"Brother Qu, you didn't have to say I recorded it." Xiao Ming sounded a little helpless.

"But the viewers will know when they watch it anyway. You don't need to be so afraid. This is your own ability." Qu An kept his voice low, just loud enough for the two of them to hear.

The nighttime breeze was not as scorching as the daytime heat. Xiao Ming felt one of his heartstrings get plucked, but the sensation was fleeting and swiftly vanished.

"Where are we going later?" Xiao Ming asked.

It was not that he wanted to cling to Qu An for popularity. It was mainly that the others... were not always very smart. There was also another very important reason—Xiao Ming was afraid of the dark, as well as things that were a little supernatural, while Qu An was the kind of person who could play a horror escape room with a completely expressionless face from beginning to end.

How did he know? Qu An had previously gone to an escape room with someone, though Xiao Ming did not know who. An NPC spotted him, felt thoroughly defeated, and made a Weibo post to complain about it. Later, people dug up the story, and the staff there directly released the video as promotional material.

Today, Xiao Ming was going to cling tightly to that thigh. Whether he accelerated or not did not matter—his life was more important.