At that moment, the man was bending down to ask a little boy in front of him:
"Hey, kid, how old are you?"
To make himself seem "friendly and approachable," the player deliberately flashed a brilliant smile.
Faced with a stranger who had suddenly struck up a conversation with him, the little boy showed neither wariness nor fear. He answered in a clear, childish voice:
"Nine."
One quick glance was enough for Li Xian to understand what the player was trying to do.
He thought asking children for information would be safer, and that they would be easier to coax into talking.
That wasn't a bad idea, but...
The player and the boy chatted sporadically, mostly trading questions and answers. The questions were all exceedingly dull, making him seem just like an older relative struggling to find something to say.
The player clearly realized his attempt at conversation wasn't going well. The boy was growing visibly bored and looking around as though he wanted to leave.
He began scrambling for a topic, then suddenly had a flash of inspiration:
"Oh, right, where are your mom and dad? Did you come out to play by yourself today?"
For some reason, Li Xian's heart sank when he heard that. Then the boy answered in his childish voice:
"Mom and Dad aren't here."
The male player, however, failed to realize how dangerous that question was. Seeing that he had regained the boy's attention, he thought he had found the right topic:
"They aren't here? Did they go to work or go shopping?"
"Not here means not here! Don't you understand, mister?"
The boy suddenly raised his voice, drawing glances from everyone around them. The player jumped, finally beginning to sense that he might have chosen a bad topic.
Just as he was looking