Long time no see, I finally know your name

The two got into the car for the return trip. "Mystry of love (remix)" played over the speakers, soothing and gentle.

Wen Yanyu leaned back beside the window, silently watching the distant scenery.

When it came to fighting, he only knew a few amateur moves at best. Taking on an ordinary person was no problem, but an armed assailant was still a little beyond him.

In the heat of the moment, he could only use the abilities he had brought back, along with what the system had given him for pain relief. Thankfully, they still worked.

It was just that...

Wen Yanyu clenched his still-trembling hand. The consequence of using those abilities was...

Agony churned through his body, piercing pain shooting along his nerves straight to his brain, while overwhelming dizziness and nausea kept surging over him.

Having those bloody memories awakened felt terrible, as though they were reminding him once again: You still haven't escaped. You aren't free.

With his emotions out of control, he had nearly killed someone, too.

He had come so close to doing something irreversible.

Wen Yanyu closed his eyes briefly.

He knew he was no good person. Under the plot's control throughout the loops, he had done many bad things and hurt many people.

So he willingly accepted retaliation, willingly let himself become an outlet for their anger.

None of that mattered to him.

But he had never taken that step.

He had been so close.

The production crew had started the livestream as soon as the two got into the car, ostensibly to reassure the viewers that they were safe. In reality, they had used the incident to rake in publicity for the show, and the livestream's popularity was now climbing steadily.

[Baby, sob sob, baby, why did you rush in like that, baby? Sob sob, what if something had happened to you?]

[Bro, I'm never teasing you about being a delicate little bunny again. You're a special forces soldier. You're awesome.]

[My baby bunny transformed into a special forces bunny. I can already picture a big bunny in uniform.]

[Remember when Wen Yanyu ran inside and Bro Lu was shouting anxiously, "What good will going in do with that malnourished body of yours?" Then, in the footage from the scene, Bro Lu arrived halfway through and just stared in shock.]

[LMAO, he looks like a gust of wind could knock him over, but give him a knife and he can stab it straight into a tiled floor.]

Throughout the journey, Lu Mingxu kept starting to speak, stopping, then wanting to speak again.

He stole several glances at him.

"Sorry, did I scare you?"

Wen Yanyu suddenly glanced sideways and asked softly, a hint of apology in his voice.

His emotions really had been a little out of control earlier.

Lu Mingxu froze at his words, then instinctively shook his head.

Propping his chin on one hand, Wen Yanyu looked away and returned his gaze to the scenery outside.

A peach fragrance filled the car, mingling with a faint scent of blood, strangely and indescribably beguiling.

Lu Mingxu stared blankly at the person beside him for a long time.

"Was your middle school in Lan City? Was it called Mingzhi?"

Wen Yanyu nodded.

"Then when you were in middle school, was your home near an alley, at 46 Changshan Road? Was there a bus stop a few hundred meters to the left when you came out? Was there?"

Lu Mingxu leaned closer, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.

Surprise flickered in Wen Yanyu's eyes, and he drew back a little in astonishment. "How did you know?"

The viewers and production crew were equally baffled now, closely watching their every move.

[What's going on?]

[They know each other?]

[Were they classmates?]

[Wen Yanyu looks totally confused. Doesn't look like he knows him.]

Without waiting for Wen Yanyu to speak,

Lu Mingxu brushed his hair down in front of his eyes, mimed a pair of glasses, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a large handful of peanut candy.

He looked at him eagerly, anticipation surging in his eyes.

Seeing him like this, Wen Yanyu suddenly froze.

A few seconds later,

he ventured, "The one with glasses? Little Lamb?"

His suspicion was finally confirmed. Lu Mingxu's eyes lit up, and his tense demeanor instantly softened and relaxed.

"Yes! I'm Little Lamb!!! It really is you! You still remember me! I-I wasn't sure at first. I-I never thought I'd meet you under these circumstances."

Someone still remembered him after all.

Glancing at the peanut candy in his hand, Wen Yanyu sniffed, his voice a little hoarse. "I should be the surprised one. How did you recognize me?"

After all, he really had changed a lot since then. Besides, it had always been nighttime, and he had never told him his name, yet he had still recognized him.

And the plot...

Why did someone remember him?

Lu Mingxu's expression briefly stiffened, and he rubbed his nose.

"The way you kick people below the belt first, then slap them when you fight-it's exactly the same as back then."

He targeted people below the belt in a fight and ate like a little bunny.

Wen Yanyu paused, then suddenly laughed. The tension and irritation surrounding him abruptly softened into gentleness.

"My dad taught me those moves. They work super well against men."

[They really do know each other!]

[What the heck is Little Lamb?]

[Hahaha, sorry, but I'm dying. "The way you kick people below the belt and slap them is exactly the same as back then." Hahaha, there's a story here. Someone dig it up!]

[So my wife has been a violent bunny since he was little?]

[I feel like Lu Mingxu suddenly went from Mr. Aloof to a soft little animal, hahaha. Is this the power of someone familiar?]

[Watching Bro Lu's eyes go from doubtful, hesitant, probing, hopeful, and excited to those of a dazed, happy little animal is killing me.]

[I thought Lu Mingxu only had that veteran-cadre expression.]

[I'm still completely confused. What happened between these two before?]

"You disappeared before I could ask your name back then. I went to that alley to wait for you several times, but never saw you again. Later, after I moved to another district, I thought I'd never see you again in this lifetime."

Lu Mingxu looked at the person before him, someone from his memories whom he had not seen in years.

The boy looked almost completely different, yet he still shielded others behind him just as he had back then. Countless emotions surged through Lu Mingxu's heart.

For a moment, he was lost for words.

Back then, both his parents had died, leaving him a considerable inheritance. Combined with his adoption by the Sang Family, this meant he had little financial burden.

But he had never fit in well, and his inferiority complex made him withdrawn. Darkness came early that winter, and on his way home from school, he was always cornered by people he had offended who also had their eyes on his pocket money.

He had neither father nor mother. Apart from holding the title of his guardians, the Sang Family rarely bothered with him. He lived alone, and the school could not be bothered to interfere either, leaving those people even more unrestrained.

With almost nowhere left to turn, he ran into that alley, hoping to find a shortcut to escape. But the three of them caught up with him anyway. They pinned him among the garbage bins, searched him, and humiliated him. That was when Wen Yanyu appeared.

He came out through an apartment building's entrance in the alley, knocked all three to the ground in a few moves, and scared them off with a warning before pulling him out of the garbage.

Over the following month or so, he still passed through that alley from time to time. Those people refused to give up, and he ran into the alley again. He thought he would not be lucky a second time, but that person appeared again.

After the final warning, those people were taken to juvenile detention. He did not know who had done it. His younger self thought perhaps it was the person who lived in the alley. He never asked, and that person never said.

Winter nights were terribly, terribly cold, and school life was lonely. Yet the loneliness and bewilderment after losing his parents were colder still. He did not know where to go or what future belonged to him.

So even after the harassment stopped, he still went into that alley from time to time.

At first he talked to himself alone; later, that person would sit lazily beside him.

He listened to his involuntary rambling, his bewilderment and unease, the dream of becoming an actor that he had never mentioned again after his parents' deaths, his pain and helplessness, and the weeping he did not know whom to turn to with.

They ate roasted sweet potatoes together in the alley, sat silently in a daze, occasionally played in the snow, and chatted about strange things that made little sense.

He kept him company at the freezing winter bus stop as he waited for the last bus, told him the names of the stars in the night sky, and listened as he sang slightly off-key nursery rhymes.

He listened as he told him, "Grow up soon, Little Lamb. One day, Little Lamb will stand on the world's stage. Lots and lots of people will love Little Lamb."

He did not know the other boy's name, nor did the other boy know his. He simply called him Little Lamb after the lamb on his scarf. The other boy always wore a winter hat with rabbit ears, often kept his hands tucked away, and ate like a little bunny.

From his school uniform, he knew the other boy was younger than him, but he wanted someone to lean on, too, so he jokingly called him Rabbit Big Brother.

The last time was on a snowy night, beneath lonely streetlights. The little bunny waited with him at the bus stop and handed him a large bag of peanut candy.

That person watched him quietly from outside the window.

He thought they would meet again. Next time, I have to ask his name. I have to get his contact information.

He wanted to be friends with the little bunny forever.

Only later did he learn that it had been a silent farewell.

Little Lamb had grown up. Little Lamb had fulfilled his dream. Lots and lots of people loved Little Lamb.

But countless times, Little Lamb had regretted not asking the little bunny's name. Why had he known nothing about him except his school uniform? Why had he hesitated? Why had he never spoken up?

Yet now that he had confirmed who he was, facing someone he had not seen in so long, he suddenly did not know what to say.

Looking at the person beside him, one of the few people in the bug-ridden plot whose memories had not been completely erased, who still remembered his existence,

Wen Yanyu's eyes were gentle, his face full of smiles as he said,

"Long time no see, Little Lamb."

Lu Mingxu froze for a moment, then came back to himself.

"Long time no see, little bunny."

"Wen Yanyu."

Long time no see.

I finally know your name.

I finally got to see you again.

My little Rabbit Big Brother.