Whispers circulated around them:
“He’s done for, this kid doesn’t know his place…”
“The Hot Spring Bar and Beast Fighting Arena both have Lord Li as an investor. Competing in beast cores, he’ll lose his pants…”
“Now he’s offended a big shot.”
Shi Deng reached toward the little rabbit pouch at his waist.
Two seconds later, he pulled out an even smaller bag embroidered with a delicate sunflower—soft and looking particularly plain.
A chorus of sighs filled the area.
A palm-sized bag—how much could it hold?
Shi Deng himself was somewhat conflicted. The bag was hand-sewn by Uncle Xiao Fu, the flower was embroidered by Uncle Xiao Fu, and everything inside was also prepared by Uncle Xiao Fu—medicine, a phone, earphones, a bank card, and various other odds and ends.
Apparently, Uncle Xiao Fu had put beast cores in this little sunflower pouch and told him to throw them around when he got angry.
But he’d never opened it, so he didn’t know exactly how many were inside.
If it wasn’t enough, though, he could have Shi-ge send him more.
Shi Deng looked at the hundred or so intermediate beast cores on the counter from Lord Li, then grabbed a small handful from the little cloth bag.
A small pile of rice-grain-sized beast cores placed on the cool counter surface. Besides the white intermediate beast cores, there were several iridescent ones, exceptionally brilliant.
The noisy ability user hall instantly fell silent.
Lord Li stared at that pile of beast cores for several seconds in a daze. His expression instantly turned ugly, mixed with a trace of fanaticism. “Special-grade beast cores—?!”
Low-level exotic beasts rarely produced beast cores, and those were gray with impurities. But intermediate exotic beasts produced relatively pure white beast cores.
Only special-grade exotic beasts could produce these completely pure, energy-abundant beast cores—incredibly precious to ability users and priceless on the market.
Yuan Ting, holding the cat, was already stunned, his mouth wide open.
Zhi Ze and Cen Le silently gasped, both looking toward Shi Deng.
They never would have dreamed that the brother they’d met halfway was actually a deeply hidden golden sugar daddy!
Shi Deng: “…”
[The blue-eyed youth instantly became the center of attention in the entire hall, clutching his little rabbit pouch, seeming somewhat bewildered himself.
A small thought bubble appeared above his head reading ‘Uncle Xiao Fu told me to throw these around for fun… that includes special-grade beast cores?’
Below were several small panels showing the youth’s memories:
#Uncle Xiao Fu wearing reading glasses, sewing the rabbit bag#
#Uncle Xiao Fu nagging while packing things#
#Uncle Xiao Fu saying he put money in the bag#]
[Hhh Shi baby is like Uncle Fu’s actual grandson.]
[After going back and forth so many times, he seems to still not realize he’s actually quite rich hahaha]
[Yuan Ting: What do I do? The cat in my hands suddenly feels scalding hot. What if I accidentally drop it? Can I afford to compensate QAQ]
[This little rabbit and sunflower pouch doesn’t match Shi baby’s vibe in the “Reversal Arc” and “Abyss Arc” at all, it’s hilarious. Big demon lord carrying a little bunny bag.]
The receptionist’s attitude immediately changed, plastering on a smiling face. “Young master, if you have special-grade beast cores, just one is enough.”
Lord Li: “I don’t believe it! Where would a little brat like you get so many special-grade beast cores?!”
Shi Deng: “An elder in my family gave them to me, said to throw them around for fun. Are they very precious?”
Lord Li: “…”
Everyone: “…”
Shi Deng’s expression was very convincingly innocent.
He currently didn’t want to make a move in front of Yuan Ting and the others. Having exposed his wealth, to safely leave here, he needed to display powerful deterrence.
So—if his family had an elder who could casually give out special-grade beast cores, could that be an ordinary person? Shi Deng silently added a supplementary descriptor to his current ‘frail and kind’ persona: ‘powerful and influential family background.’
This wasn’t really lying, either.
As the leader of one of the two major ability user organizations, although he’d never appeared publicly, he could at least make his voice heard in this region.
Lord Li’s expression looked like he’d swallowed a fly—suspicious yet wary. He couldn’t think of which powerful family’s young master had deep blue eyes, nor could he imagine which family head could be extravagant to this degree, giving special-grade beast cores to a child to throw around for fun.
Was this even human speech?!
The words were blunt, but also significant.
At least the other people in the hall weren’t as restless anymore.
The receptionist’s voice also carried some excitement. “May I confirm the transaction?”
Shi Deng: “I only want the inner ring property. How should this be calculated?”
The receptionist was about to speak when she received a phone call. Startled, she quickly answered. After hearing whatever was said on the other end, her expression became even more respectful when she hung up.
She pushed the special-grade beast core back to Shi Deng. “The head supervisor here says the rent for this half month is waived. The inner ring house is yours. Special-grade beast cores are too precious—please keep it safe.”
The head supervisor was a level 8 advanced ability user, at the pyramid’s peak here—elected by everyone with considerable prestige.
The receptionist felt somewhat regretful.
Although this precious special-grade beast core had nothing to do with him, since it passed through his hands, his superior might give him a raise. Such a good opportunity…
The receptionist: “The supervisor says if you have time, he’d like to invite you for tea.”
Giving up one special-grade beast core to exchange for an opportunity to befriend someone whose value was unknown.
Shi Deng felt something and glanced toward the second floor.
He saw a retreating figure in a wine-red suit.
“Alright.”
He didn’t refuse and put away the beast core.
“Also,” the receptionist smiled and pushed Lord Li’s pile of beast cores to Shi Deng as well. “The supervisor says according to the rules, these should also be yours.”
“No need.”
He wasn’t lacking, and carrying them would be heavy.
Perhaps because of that phone call from the supervisor, it directly intimidated the other troublemakers. When Shi Deng pulled Zhi Ze and the other two out, even after leaving the hall far behind, no one followed.
Yuan Ting still looked dazed. “…We get to live in a big house?”
Cen Le smiled with pursed lips. “Mm, and we have to thank Shi Deng.”
Shi Deng took Xiao Deng back from Yuan Ting’s arms and coughed lightly. “We’re friends. Besides, I wanted to live there too, and there’s Xiao Deng~”
He smiled and held up Xiao Deng. Xiao Deng had a lifeless expression and cooperatively meowed.
Zhi Ze: “Should we go see where we’ll be living?”
Yuan Ting excitedly shouted, “Let’s go!”
The three’s retreating figures radiated the simple happiness of youth—satisfied by just a small thing.
Zhi Ze waved at him from a distance. “Shi Deng—”
Shi Deng flashed a smile. “Coming!”
He also wanted to run joyfully.
Although when he first met this group, he lived humbly like a stray dog and approached them with ulterior motives—
But at that time, he was truly in his teens. After spending so much time with them, pretending for so long, it was as if he had become the person he pretended to be.
So he could also let go of some things and, in those brief moments, return to a carefree, purely happy time.
Shi Deng’s deep blue eyes brightened slightly. He had just lifted his foot when a breeze blew from behind.
A strand of hair was blown forward—the dark red at the tips had already faintly faded to gray-white.
Shi Deng froze.
Two or three seconds later, he lifted that strand of hair.
The youth fell quiet.
Xiao Deng softly called out, extending his milky little paw and using his pink paw pad to cover that bit of gray-white hair tip, firmly hiding it within his own fluffy white fur.
In the distance, voices calling his name came again. The three figures stopped and waited for him.
The youth looked up.
His friends hadn’t gone far.
It was he who seemed unable to return forever.
***
The house was quite nice.
Two floors.
The three boys chose rooms downstairs, while the upper floor was exclusively for Sister Cen Le.
Shi Deng’s room.
He came out of the bathroom. After drying his hair, it had completely returned to its original state. He rummaged through the small cloth bag and pulled out two bottles of dye.
The contact lens material was special and didn’t need attention, but dyeing hair was more troublesome.
One bottle dark red, one bottle natural black.
Pill-sized—after grinding them into powder with his ability, he could brush it on using Uncle Fu’s specially made small brush. Very convenient, just couldn’t get wet.
Xiao Deng was transformed back by him to serve as labor.
He was a six or seven-year-old boy. Unlike other children, his complexion was cold, his eyes held little childlike innocence, and his temperament was quite gloomy.
Not knowing which past time period he came from, the exposed skin on his arms bore scars both deep and shallow.
Xiao Deng brushed his hair while complaining. “How could my future self turn out like you? My future will definitely be mature and carefree like Shi-ge.”
Shi Deng pinched his face, tousled his hair into a complete mess, then said before Xiao Deng could explode, “Shi-ge, carefree? Would my future self be that difficult to talk to? Shh, if you keep making noise, I’ll turn you into a puppy.”
The little boy was stunned by his future self’s shamelessness.
After everything was tidied up, he lay in bed holding Xiao Deng to sleep.
Xiao Deng reminded him. “You haven’t taken your medicine yet.”
Shi Deng drowsily replied, “It’s fine to skip it today.”
Xiao Deng curled up in Shi Deng’s arms and stopped talking, his big eyes open. He leaned back, then said somewhat smugly, “No one held you to sleep before, right?”
Shi Deng lifted his eyelids lazily. “Did you have someone?”
Xiao Deng turned and hugged him, his soft little head pressing against the youth’s warm chest. His tone held a bit of pride as he said, “I have someone now.”
Shi Deng controlled time, yet sometimes couldn’t distinguish whether Xiao Deng and Shi-ge were part of his life or existed as separate individuals.
Would Xiao Deng become him? Would he become Shi-ge?
If this time succeeded, would the two of them leave?
If current choices influenced the future, then with him going back and forth so many times, why hadn’t Shi-ge changed at all? If Xiao Deng returned, would he have memories of now? If he did, would he make the same choices?
If the choices were different, would what he was experiencing now still exist?
Time paradox.
He seemed to have jumped outside of time.
Unable to sort through his thoughts, feeling somewhat empty, after a long while, Shi Deng stopped thinking. He patted his past self in his arms, closed his eyes, and said softly, “Then you’re a luckier child than me.”
After falling into deep sleep, an extremely long flash of blood-red crossed through the air. A young man silently landed on the ground holding a mirror. The scene in the mirror was exactly the same as the youth on the bed sleeping while embracing the child.
The young man wore a robe, as if he’d just rushed over.
He sighed silently, lifted a corner of the blanket, and extended his slender arm, embracing both versions of himself.
In his dream, the youth seemed to hear a low voice:
“You have someone now too. You’re also a lucky child.”
[Moonlight streamed through the window onto the floor, reflecting scattered tree shadows.
On the soft bed lay three people, arranged from small to large, warmly snuggled together.]
[Big cat hugging small cat hugging tiny cat. Big cat’s tail covering small cat and tiny cat. So cute, I’m dead]
[Shi Deng—I mean his whole person, including past, present, and future—is all very pitiful. Actually, when you think about it seriously, none of them had anyone to hold them to sleep when they were little.]
[Shi-ge is so doting on his two younger brothers. After hugging Shi baby, he even squeezed Xiao Deng’s palm. Waaah, ‘You have someone now too, you’re also a lucky child’ QAQ I have no resistance to this kind of Shi-ge]
[I’m hugging Shi-ge (charging—!)]
[Kick the person above away, let me do it!]
[(Shi-ge sleeping jpg.) (Shi-ge seeing his past two selves cuddling through mirror jpg.) (Shi-ge angrily lifting blanket jpg.) (Shi-ge rushing over to cuddle together jpg.)]
[Shi-ge even came barefoot in pajamas hahahaha, why didn’t Uncle Fu stop him? Uncle Fu: Put on your shoes!]
[How will Shi-ge get back? He can pinpoint Shi baby’s location and instantly appear using the Blood River. But going back, even using time ability, would take a few minutes. A barefoot young man in pajamas flying through the sky (?)]
***
The young man indeed encountered a small problem when leaving around three in the morning.
Shi-ge didn’t want to be exposed publicly, so he left behind an intermediate beast core, casually grabbed a hood to wear, covering his overly conspicuous hair tip color and eyes.
When compressing time to reach the temporary base’s edge, a voice came from the distance. “Who goes there?”
The young man paused, slightly turning his eyes.
Atop a tall building to the side stood a man in his twenties, a wine-red suit jacket draped over his shoulders, his features quite rakish.
He flicked the cigarette between his fingers, wariness in his playful eyes. “Your aura is very unusual. What are you doing here?”
“I’m Ye Fei, the supervisor here. I have a responsibility to protect this place’s safety. Interested in getting acquainted?”
Ye Fei felt uneasy.
This person was quite concealed—his face couldn’t be seen at all, but what he was wearing underneath… looked like pajamas? And he wasn’t wearing shoes?
And leaving at this hour too.
Three in the morning was when their Hot Spring Bar closed. Could this person have come to their bar looking for entertainment?
The young man: “The supervisor?”
Ye Fei: “That’s ri—”
His voice suddenly caught, pupils dilating.
He saw that the young man who’d been twenty meters away just moments ago had already appeared before him. He only glimpsed a stretch of pale jawline before discovering in horror that he couldn’t move at all, pressed down firmly by something invisible.
No… it wasn’t that he couldn’t move.
It was just very faint, as if his entire body except his head had time slowed down.
Ye Fei complained bitterly. “You…”
The young man: “I’ll ask you one question.”
Ye Fei hurriedly said, “Please speak.”
As long as he wasn’t being asked to embrace God, anything was fine.
The young man: “Has anything strange happened here recently?”
Ye Fei thought to himself that you’re pretty strange.
Of course, he didn’t dare say this. He obediently thought for a moment. “Yesterday, four people arrived. One had blue eyes and special-grade beast cores, said they were given by his family.”
Ye Fei secretly lifted his eyelids and discovered the young man seemed to smile.
Thinking he had a chance, he quickly revealed where Shi Deng and the others were staying, also saying, “If you like those special-grade beast cores, you can steal them. But it’s best not to touch that kid. If he can produce something like that, his family must also be extraordinary, right…”
As soon as he finished speaking—
He inexplicably shivered.
The night wind blew the young man’s hood. Moonlight cast the building’s shadow over him.
The young man said, “Is that so?”
**
wannaberecluse On SRTT Chapter 50.1