New Arc: Love Delusion/Erotomania
Chapters 203-258 (this is the last arc before extras~~)
[Congratulations to the player for passing this game with a perfect score!]
[After settlement, congratulations on becoming the number one player in this dungeon’s leaderboard.]
[Achievement Unlocked: 100% Charm.]
[Achievement Description: You’ve managed to make players, NPCs, and bosses alike so infatuated they’re dizzy, and your survival rate was astonishingly high.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Only Mother is Good in the World.]
[Achievement Description: Statistics show that in Player Xin Hexue’s livestream barrage, the keywords “Mother, Mother, Mother” appeared frequently, with over 1,000,000+ comments containing these keywords. Thank you, Player Xin Hexue, for your contribution to the birth rate of the big world.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Satisfaction Of Morbid Fetishes – Pregnancy]
[Achievement Description: What? Some viewers ask why only ‘Pregnancy’ is mentioned? Well, the other two are content that is unsuitable for broadcast.]
[Achievement Unlocked: Encouraging Study.]
[Achievement Description: Those who understand, understand. (Xiao Hei with noodle-wide tears.jpg)]
[Achievement Unlocked: Colorful Flags Flutter Outside, the Red Flag Stands Firm at Home.]
[Achievement Description: Yes, that’s right. The village chief originally wanted this player to form a ghost marriage with the Red Prince, but the charlatan fortune teller said this pure-looking, devoted wife actually has five husbands!]
[To be honest, the system is skeptical of this guess; a zero should probably be added after the number five.]
[Friendly Reminder: Please believe in science and be wary of all fortune-teller scams.]
Xin Hexue’s head felt a bit dizzy. When he woke up, he felt like he was still in that state of dizziness and blurred vision from inside the dungeon.
The time flow inside the game was different from the outside world. The two or three months he spent in the dungeon were actually only three days in the big world.
The game cabin had basic life-sustaining functions, able to deliver nutrient fluids to the human body. This was mainly to prevent some overly engrossed players from not eating or drinking and dying suddenly in the game pod, and it could ensure the body’s functions wouldn’t have major issues for up to seven days. Once the seven-day limit is reached, the pod would automatically eject the player.
He climbed out of the game cabin.
Meat was sizzling hot in the kitchen, oil was spattering, and the spatula and pot bottom were clashing in a “hiss-sizzle” symphony.
Xin Hexue peeked around the kitchen door and scanned inside.
The man had broad shoulders and a narrow waist, wearing a cat-paw patterned apron, giving the impression of a culinary master who had reached level ten.
“It will be ready to eat soon.”
K said.
Xin Hexue asked softly, “Who are you?”
The spatula in K’s hand dropped.
Xin Hexue: “I’m joking.”
They had not seen each other for a while. If he suddenly said he found K’s face unfamiliar and almost forgot what he looked like…
Forget it, it’s better not say that.
Tears falling into the pot would make it too salty.
Xin Hexue turned his back, spun around halfway, and asked K: “Could you see what was happening in the game?”
K rinsed the spatula. “I’ve always been the off-site supervisor.”
It seemed he was fully aware of the dynamics within the game.
“But,” K remembered, “what happened after Xiao Hei killed his father? The livestream showed a black screen after clearing the level, but you stayed inside for a long time without coming out.”
K didn’t think Xin Hexue was just resting in the game cabin, it was only possible that the dungeon was actually still ongoing during that time.
“Mr. K.”
Xin Hexue suddenly called K’s name seriously.
“What’s wrong?”
K scooped the food from the pan. Seeing Xin Hexue’s serious attitude, he also straightened his expression and looked over.
Xin Hexue said: “I’m preparing to fight a stranger for child custody.”
K: “I’m willing.”
Xin Hexue: ?
Did he ask him?
K turned around, washed his hands, wiped them on the apron, and smoothed the apron.
He said solemnly: “I’ll go install the Good Father Parenting Module tomorrow.”
“…”
Xin Hexue looked at him suspiciously for a while.
K stood straight, still wearing the apron, uncharacteristically stiff and reserved like a fresh graduate applying for a stepfather position.
“Alright then.” Having reached this point, Xin Hexue retreated from the bustling kitchen. “I’m hungry, let’s eat first, father of the child.”
………
“Woo…”
The green train sounded its whistle, rumbling all the way from north to south.
The scenery outside the window kept receding. Expanses of banana groves and sugarcane fields disappeared into the shimmering light of fish ponds. A child’s eyes opened and closed, and after a night, the sharp, snow-capped green mountains were gone.
At the small station platform where they stopped midway, cries of vendors with local accents drifted into the carriage.
“Crispy cakes, crispy cakes, twenty cents each, one-fifty a box, bring a souvenir for the family…”
“Poria cake! Fifty cents a pack, relieves fatigue and sweetens the mouth, loved by adults and children alike!”
In the crowded carriage, a woman by the window slept soundly, holding a child. Unable to tidy up during the long train ride, her permed hair looked even more disheveled. Her expression was tired while sleeping, and a pair of finely arched eyebrows were furrowed.
The child in her arms had just woken up. He rubbed his eyes, which were watery like small ponds, dark and bright. The crease of his double eyelids followed the slight upward tilt of the corners of his eyes, and his eyelashes were long, dense, and upturned.
His eyes darted around in their sockets.
In the aisle of this carriage, a woman looked around furtively, suddenly met his gaze, and immediately smiled and beckoned to him.
She had two braids with frizzy ends, wore black low-heeled leather shoes, and carried a bag.
Seeing the child unmoved, she took a box of crispy cakes from her bag, mouthing the words: “Come on, come on.”
Xin Hexue tilted his head, staring at her with bright and clear eyes.
K: [Don’t go.]
[I know that without you saying it, that’s a child trafficker.]
The cute child responded to the voice in his heart.
[Uncle, a beautiful and smart child like me is very popular outside.]
He had a strange uncle in his head whose words other adults and children couldn’t hear. Xin Hexue had felt special since he was little.
[…] Uncle K said, [Mn, pay attention to safety.]
Xin Hexue looked at his reflection in the train window, looked at his nose, then his eyes, finally making a slightly annoyed expression. His face scrunched up like a little cat’s, and he quickly pressed down his black hair that was sticking up at the edges.
The child already had a basic concept of beauty and ugliness.
Butterflies in the fields wore flowery clothes, the rapeseed flowers turned the whole yard yellow when they bloomed, the Mid-Autumn Festival moon turned into a round jade plate, big and bright…
These were all beautiful.
Of course, the most beautiful was himself.
He had learned this early from the mouths of adults and children.
Grandpa Zhang from the village shop always gave him two candies each time. Xiao Hu from the end of the village cried and screamed because he was unwilling to part with him when he learned he was going to the big city this time. Several friends got together and held a farewell party for him.
Satisfied with his smooth hair from the window reflection, Xin Hexue finally stopped frowning.
K watched the child’s little series of actions and fell silent.
Five years ago, on a winter night, a newborn baby cried as it landed in the delivery room.
If Xin Hexue hadn’t said before loading into the world that since it was a womb transmigration, he’d seal his memories this time, he wouldn’t have known the host was this vain and conceited as a child.
Seeing she couldn’t lure him, the sneaky woman went to find other children. Soon she was discovered by adults: “Hey, who are you? Why are you pulling my daughter’s hand?! Let go, let go! I’ll beat you to death, you child trafficker!”
“Someone, help! Someone’s kidnapping a child!”
The people in the carriage rushed at the trafficker in chaos, and the woman in the low-heeled shoes fled the train as if escaping. The green train sounded its whistle again.
Xin Hexue looked out the opposite window. Guards on the platform were waving their batons, chasing the trafficker in large strides.
“Stop!”
“Stop her!”
Grandma said the world outside was messy and told him not to run around.
The woman holding him woke up during the commotion. Realizing what happened, she immediately hugged the child tighter and stroked his head. “Xiao Xue, are you okay? Were you scared?”
“Auntie.” He smiled, pursing his lips and saying obediently, “I’m fine. Sleep a bit more.”
The weather was so cold that even breathing produced white mist.
Xin Zhiying quickly found the water bottle and fed the child a few sips of hot water.
An auntie next to them leaned over. “Oh my, this child is so pretty! Is this your nephew?”
Xin Zhiying smiled. “Yes, my nephew.”
“Where are you heading, sister?” The auntie asked, taking a Poria cake from the middle-aged man’s bag next to her and handing it to the child. “Here, auntie treats you.”
“I’m returning to Lingzhou City. I was just coming back from his grandma’s place this time.”
“We’re also returning to Lingzhou after visiting relatives!”
The auntie stuffed the Poria cake into the child’s arms affectionately. The pastry was wrapped in rough straw paper, emitting a sweet fragrance.
“Auntie, you have some first.”
Xin Hexue looked up, his two hands unable to hold it fully as he offered it to Xin Zhiying.
“This child is so thoughtful!” The auntie grinned from ear to ear, and took another Poria cake. “Here, there’s more! Your aunt has some too!”
Xin Zhiying said gratefully: “Thank you! Xiao Xue, quickly thank them!”
“Thank you, auntie, thank you, uncle.”
Xin Hexue smiled, showing his small glutinous rice-white teeth.
The soft glutinous rice cake was coated with a layer of powdered sugar. One bite was sweet, with a strong rice fragrance.
The sweetness lasted until the next stop.
………
It was already evening by the time the train whistle wailed and they arrived at the station.
They had spent thirty-one hours on the leaky green train all the way from Licheng to Lingzhou City.
Xin Zhiying had a travel bag slung over one shoulder and held the child’s hand tightly with the other.
“Xiao Xue, stay close.”
Xin Hexue nodded. “Mn.”
They hurriedly merged into the crowded flow of people.
It was snowing at night, but there were still many people waiting outside the train station. Those picking people up were noisily calling their relatives’ names, and the place was noisy.
Although Xin Hexue was born on a winter night, he had not seen snow since he could remember. His mother used to work in the frontier production and construction corps. Not long after he was born, he was sent to his grandma’s house. Licheng’s climate was hot; even though they were in the mountains, the coldest days in winter only had frost, no snow.
He reached out to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky. They looked like sweet white dots on rice cakes, melting as soon as they touched his hand.
“Zhiying!”
The child’s sharp eyes looked up and found the source of the voice.
Xin Hexue tugged Xin Zhiying’s hand, his other little finger pointing. “Auntie, over there!”
The person coming to pick them up was Xin Zhiying’s husband, Zhuang Ping.
Zhuang Ping was also holding a child. The boy looked about two years older than Xin Hexue, around seven years old, wearing a blue cotton-padded jacket, thick corduroy cotton pants, and canvas-topped, rubber-soled white shoes on his feet.
The two children made eye contact and both pursed their lips.
Xin Hexue clutched his own sleeve, lowering his eyes.
He was wearing a lined, lapel-collared little jacket handmade by his grandma, made from the fur of rabbits raised at home in the countryside. His pants were also hand-knitted woolen pants, which felt very warm. If there was any downside, it was that compared to children’s clothing in the big city of Lingzhou, the rural Licheng style was a bit “rustic”.
[Pretty baby, you’d look lovely even in a sack.]
K had no choice but to coax helplessly.
A word of praise eased the child’s unease in the new, unfamiliar environment.
[I know, I’m prettier than him.] Xin Hexue even hummed like a little cat, [And who wears a sack? Urea bags are dirty and ugly.]
He was also a clean, beautiful baby.
He obediently followed Xin Zhiying to the father and son.
Xin Hexue smiled with dimples. “Hello, Uncle.”
Instead, Zhuang Ping, as the adult, said awkwardly: “Ah, this must be Xiao Xue. Here, Tongguang, this is your younger brother, Xin Hexue. Say hello to your brother.”
Zhuang Tongguang stood where he was, silent.
Xin Hexue turned his head away and didn’t speak either.
Xin Zhiying nudged her son. “Come on, Tongguang, say hello to your brother. I took you back to grandma’s house in the summer when you were little, you’ve met before.”
“Hello, brother.”
Zhuang Tongguang pulled off his cotton gloves and reached out his hand.
A half-grown child, with a serious, straight face.
Only then did Xin Hexue turn to look at him.
Two small hands met in the snowy night air.
“Hello, Brother Tongguang.”
The child’s voice was crisp and tender, his cheeks nestled in the rabbit fur lapels, as white as snow.
Zhuang Tongguang stared unblinkingly. “Mn.”
Seeing no resistance between the children, both adults breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s really cold outside. Xiao Xue, Tongguang, let’s go home now.”
As they walked, Xin Hexue suddenly heard a voice.
[Rabbit.]
[Little white rabbit.]
He looked around.
[Uncle, were you talking just now?]
K: [I didn’t speak.]
How strange. Who was speaking then?
Xin Hexue had a question mark over his head.
On the street leading out from the train station, a vendor pushed a stove with an oil pan set on it, calling out to passersby.
The adults bought the children hot turnip cakes, one crispy peanut cake each, both freshly fried foods.
There were no buses at this hour. Even after getting on the rickshaw, Xin Hexue was still holding the turnip cake and blowing on it.
………
Both Xin Zhiying and Zhuang Ping were employees at the Lingzhou Power Plant. Xin Zhiying was a nurse at the plant hospital, and Zhuang Ping was a worker in the plant’s boiler team.
Their workplace was a state-owned factory, directly managed by the local Power Bureau, belonging to the “iron rice bowl” high-benefit units. Children’s education and medical care were guaranteed. They could see a doctor and attend classes without leaving the plant area. Supporting facilities like kindergartens, cinemas, and gymnasiums were all within the plant area.
The family lived in housing allocated by the plant. Zhuang Tongguang was in first grade at the attached elementary school of the power plant.
The rows of tube-shaped apartment buildings were still littered with the fiery red remains of firecrackers from after the New Year that hadn’t been swept away yet. Scarlet red covered the open space, and some fragments were carried up the stairs by the soles of passing shoes.
He looked around curiously at the surroundings. The stairwell light was dim yellow, and each floor’s corridor had stacks of black honeycomb briquettes piled against the wall.
While going upstairs, they met a neighbor from the same building coming down, who ran into their family.
“Oh, Sister Ying, whose child is this?”
“My nephew. I brought him back from Licheng.”
“Is he really your nephew? I think he looks like you. This couldn’t be…” The young woman lowered her voice. “I’m telling you, in our state-owned unit, the higher-ups are strictly enforcing the family planning policy now. Don’t do anything rash. If someone reports you, it’s over. Before anyone finds out, can the child still be sent back?”
“He really is my nephew, my sister’s child.”
Xin Zhiying didn’t know how many times she had said this, sighing. “My sister died four years ago in an earthquake over in the frontier area.”
“The child is older now, I can’t just leave him with his grandparents; he needs to go to school.”
………
Third floor.
Zhuang Ping used a key to open the post-office-green door flanked by red couplets. Inside was a shoe rack, and the pair of white sneakers on it caught Xin Hexue’s eye.
Last year, Xiao Hu’s uncle went to the city and bought a pair like this for his nephew. Xiao Hu showed them off for a long time afterward, but then he ran out on a rainy day and stepped in a pond of mud, turning the white shoes black, and got a good beating from his mother.
Once inside, it was warm.
Zhuang Tongguang pulled off his cotton gloves, then unwound his scarf, and took off his cotton-padded jacket.
Xin Hexue glanced at his actions and also took off his cotton-padded jacket and hung it on the rack.
Zhuang Ping busied himself with serving the food. “Zhiying, I’ll go to the public kitchen to heat up the dishes.”
Xin Zhiying: “Okay!”
She was busy organizing things in the travel bag, not looking up as she said: “Tongguang, get the snake oil frostbite ointment and help your brother apply it. He forgot to wear cotton gloves on the way. Don’t let his hands get frostbite.”
“Mn.”
Xin Hexue looked around and cautiously sat on the sofa.
The house was packed with furniture; tables, chairs, wardrobes, cabinets, sofa, tea table… A television sat on a chest of drawers across. A large bed was also placed in the corner; clearly serving as both a bedroom and a living room.
Welfare housing allocation was based on seniority. Xin Zhiying and Zhuang Ping’s application to exchange for a two-bedroom, one-living-room unit for dual-income couples hadn’t been approved yet. They still lived in a one-bedroom, one-living-room unit. Now that the child was older, the small bedroom inside was left to Zhuang Tongguang.
“Xiao Xue, your aunt’s house is only this big. You’ll share a room with your brother from now on, okay?” Xin Zhiying folded the clothes, turned around, and stuffed them into the wardrobe.
Xin Hexue lowered his head. “Mn, as long as brother doesn’t mind.”
“So well-behaved.”
Zhuang Tongguang found the frostbite ointment from the bedroom and opened the flat, round green tin, revealing the milky white ointment inside.
Just as he was about to apply it for Xin Hexue, Xin Hexue shrank his hand back. “No.”
Zhuang Tongguang: “Why?”
Xin Hexue pursed his lips and asked slowly: “Is there a snake inside? Snake oil…”
He repeated the medicine’s name with certainty, his speech soft and sticky, as if he had glutinous rice cakes in his mouth.
Zhuang Tongguang frowned, his dark, thick brows knitting. “No.”
Xin Hexue asked him, “Then why is it called snake oil frostbite ointment? What is snake oil?”
After thinking for a moment, Zhuang Tongguang mumbled slowly: “I don’t know either. Anyway, there’s no snake.”
“…Oh.”
He compromised and stretched out his hand.
His fingers were like small white scallions, different from the radish-like hands of other kids.
His little face was fair, and only his fingers and earlobes were red. Zhuang Tongguang applied the snake oil to his hands and earlobes, startling Xin Hexue into goosebumps.
………
Late at night, the small light in the living room was still on.
“Tomorrow you go to the kindergarten. No matter what, Xiao Xue has to be enrolled first.”
“Zhiying, I know you’re anxious, but the household registry hasn’t been transferred in yet. They’re cracking down on the one-child policy now. What if those people use this disguised extra birth policy as a reason to block you…”
With a light “creak”, Zhuang Tongguang closed the small bedroom door. The voices of the adults outside became lower and harder to hear.
“I’ll go find the Family Planning Office director tomorrow to explain, and go to the police station to handle the procedures. I sent two packs of Peony cigarettes to the people in Licheng before they agreed to issue my sister’s death certificate and this child’s proof of absent father. What kind of people are they! I’ve brought the child back now. No matter what, if registering the child under relative sponsorship doesn’t work, then change it to adoption!”
“However I do it, I must guarantee this child’s living and educational environment!”
“A’Ping, if you have objections, speak up. But this child must stay with me. I was able to study, to go to nursing school, all because my sister dropped out to support my education. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to enter the power plant hospital either.”
Xin Zhiying’s voice choked up. “Every time I see him, I think of my sister…”
“I know, I know. I like this child too.” Zhuang Ping held his beloved in his arms, and the two embraced. “Tomorrow I’ll go with you first to handle the household registration, then we’ll go to the kindergarten.”
“Don’t cry. The children are about to sleep. They might hear.”
The house quieted down. The tube shaped building had poor sound insulation, and they could hear the footsteps of neighbors upstairs and downstairs shuffling to the bath room.
The small lamp by the bed was on. The stern-faced Zhuang Tongguang brought another quilt and stuffed it to Xin Hexue.
“You sleep on the inside, I’ll sleep on the outside.” Zhuang Tongguang paused, looked at Xin Hexue, and lowered his voice. “I’m drawing a line in the middle. No one is allowed to cross it.”
“Oh.”
Xin Hexue nodded.
With a serious expression, Zhuang Tongguang drew a line in the air.
“Brother, that’s 3/7.” Xin Hexue looked at it, then looked up and added, “And I’ll take 7, you 3.”
Zhuang Tongguang pulled the bedside lamp’s cord and covered his head with the quilt.
Xin Hexue lifted the curtain. The window was open a little for air. Outside was the moon of Lingzhou City, yellow and bright, probably no different from the one his grandma saw.
He lowered his head and burrowed into the quilt like a silkworm baby.
[Little brother… little brother…]
[Little brother is like a mashmellow.]
‘Who is speaking?’
Xin Hexue stared in darkness with wide cat eyes.
The author has something to say:
Can our little snow cat become a model child? [cat paw]
[Erotomania/Love Delusion]: The patient firmly believes that they are deeply loved by one or more individuals. Even in the absence of clear expressions of affection from the other party or obvious supporting evidence, this belief remains unshakable. The patient may fabricate beliefs that the other person is conveying love through various means such as glances, gestures, letters, etc., and they hold these beliefs with deep conviction.
On the surface, this is the setup, but in reality, the inner voices that Little Snow Cat thought were delusional symptoms were actually the true feelings of the dog boys. [dog head]
