Meeting Qian Lele’s expectant and excited gaze, Fang Guohua patted his head and praised him warmly, marveled on the inside at how so many wonderful items could be so cheap!
They would never know that the items they pulled so casually were surprises that others couldn’t get even after thousands of attempts. Xi Yue sighed; this lonely piece of gossip had no one to share it with.
The three first moved a batch of items upstairs, and after a short while came down to fetch the rest. Their faces were no longer hollow and numb; Fang Guohua had a smile on his face, while Qian Lele and Fang Xiaojun hustled their tiny legs at full speed, looking energetic and full of life.
Xi Yue watched them, hoping the two little luckballs would grow up happy and joyful forever~
Back in their room, under their grandfather’s direction, Fang Xiaojun and Qian Lele stripped themselves clean, and their grandfather bundled their naked bodies into the shower room. Holding the showerhead in one hand, Fang Guohua adjusted the water temperature and began rinsing the children. As the warm water poured over them, the children squinted comfortably. It was fair to say that however long the apocalypse had lasted was how long they hadn’t bathed. Layers of black dirty water ran down their skin, gradually turning clear, until the two kids finally revealed their natural skin. After scrubbing the two children until they were rosy and lathering them twice with body wash, the kids happily blew bubbles, their laughter echoing through the bathroom.
Taking out a pair of scissors, he trimmed the children’s matted hair. Though his craftsmanship was rough—looking as if it had been gnawed by a dog—it framed their tender faces and looked exceptionally neat. Fang Guohua felt a strong sense of accomplishment.
After bathing the two children, he wrapped them in bath towels, lifted them onto the bed to rest, and then went to shower himself.
Lying on the clean bed, the two children looked at the ceiling and inhaled the scent of milk wafting from their skin, giggling together in a bundle. After laughing, they lay down obediently, waiting for their grandfather to come out.
After showering and trimming his hair, Fang Guohua found his cleanest clothes, then dressed the children in the new clothes they had found today. The children carefully touched the fabric, faces filled with happiness.
Because they hadn’t had a proper meal in so long, Fang Guohua found two relatively mild self-heating rice meals to cook, then opened a can of millet porridge to line the children’s stomachs first.
The millet porridge gave off a sweet aroma. The two children ate contentedly and invited their grandfather to join in; taking turns bite by bite, the three of them finished it all.
The moment the self-heating rice was opened, the aroma it released made the children take a deep breath. At the first bite, the fresh, savory flavor made tears well up in Qian Lele’s eyes involuntarily. Living alone for so long, unable to even savor tasteless potatoes every day, this flavor made him feel alive again, as if he were still that cherished child pampered by his family.
Fang Xiaojun snuggled up and hugged Qian Lele. “Don’t cry, Brother. Xiaojun is with you. Don’t be scared, Brother.”
Qian Lele hugged his younger brother tightly. Looking at the loving gaze his grandfather cast over them, he finally calmed his emotions, savoring the flavor in his mouth contentedly, wishing for the taste to linger just a little longer, and a little longer…
After finishing their meal, their grandfather began unpacking their luggage, hanging the clothes in the wardrobe, placing the family photos on the nightstand, and arranging the shoes neatly in the shoe rack. Lele and Xiaojun leaned against the French window looking outside, the sunlight spilling over them warm and cozy. This would be their home from now on. Qian Lele wished that he, his grandfather, and his younger brother could live here together forever, never to be separated.
Having witnessed four SSRs appear from the blind boxes, Xi Yue watched TV contentedly. Liang Ye came downstairs, walked over to the sofa, and sat down. Because Xi Yue had notified everyone in their rooms this morning that there was a TV in the lobby, Liang Ye had felt a bit bored staying in her room and came down to check it out.
Xi Yue stole a glance at Liang Ye, who was a pretty young woman. She had noticed her this morning—this young woman looked exceptionally valiant and formidable, if a bit cold. After taking a shower and changing into a tracksuit, she looked even more striking.
Apart from the sound of the TV, neither of them spoke. Sensing the atmosphere was a bit too quiet, Xi Yue cleared her throat and said, “Did you know…”
Xi Yue’s universal conversation starters, apart from “Have you eaten?”, was always “Did you know?”.
Seeing the puzzled look Liang Ye threw her, Xi Yue couldn’t suppress her urge to gossip. Sitting a bit closer, she began, “Three new guests arrived just now: an elderly man and two young children. All three were skin and bones, looking so pitiful.”
Liang Ye didn’t find it unusual; such sights were everywhere in the apocalypse, and simply surviving was hard enough. It took a lot of courage for an old man to bring children all the way here.
Xi Yue gave Liang Ye a *you have no idea* look. “They are anything but ordinary! Do you know how many hidden items there are in these blind box machines? Even I don’t know for sure! Before today, I only knew there was a super-luxurious seafood noodle bowl inside, packed with all sorts of seafood and an entire giant king crab, enough to feed four or five people.”
Rewarded with a slightly surprised look from Liang Ye, as if saying *there’s actually something like that inside?*, Xi Yue continued sharing, “Who knew I’d get my eyes opened today! The younger of the two kids pulled that very seafood noodle bowl on his first ten-draw pull. The older one was even more unbelievable!”
Looking at Liang Ye’s curious gaze, which seemed to say *hurry up and go on*, Xi Yue’s bursting desire to share was thoroughly satisfied. She continued, “He drew ten times too, and on his very first try, he pulled a ten-inch chocolate cake! It was covered in plump cherries and looked utterly delicious. Then he pulled a luxury family hotpot set! A hotpot big enough to fill up an entire family—just think about how substantial that is! Inside were tons of fresh vegetables and various seafood balls and meat pastes. And that wasn’t even the end! You never know where a luckball’s limit is—in the end, he actually pulled a fruit basket from the instant food machine, containing over a dozen kinds of fruit! You can actually pull fruits out of an instant food machine! Tell me, with two luckballs in one family, isn’t that just mind-blowing?”
Liang Ye thought back to her own hundred draws, which yielded mostly instant noodles, with self-heating hotpots and rice being pitifully scarce. Seeing Liang Ye’s expression, Xi Yue seemed to know what she was thinking and comforted her, “Do you know how many times those two brothers who came with you drew after you went upstairs? Combined, they drew nearly four thousand times! And they pulled absolutely nothing!”
Liang Ye strangely felt genuinely comforted, and a smile appeared even on her cold face. A shouting match began playing on the TV, catching Xi Yue’s attention, and the two began watching the drama attentively.
The drama was reaching the point where the female lead and her boyfriend finished a screaming argument; the female lead stormed out of the villa without looking back, walking lonely along the road.
Watching, Xi Yue said with absolute certainty, “At this point, it’s definitely going to start pouring rain, and the female lead will tilt her head up and cry her eyes out in the rain.”
The plot unfolded exactly as predicted: down poured a heavy rain, and the female lead shivered in the rainy night, crying out loud.
Liang Ye looked at Xi Yue with surprise, and Xi Yue returned a proud glance. This was experience accumulated from thousands upon thousands of cheesy novels and TV dramas; these were just basic tropes.
“Now a car will definitely drive by to take the female lead away, and the one stepping out is bound to be the male supporting character. He’ll definitely fall head over heels in love with her, but even though his timing is always impeccable, he can never be the male lead,” Xi Yue said, leaning back on the sofa with her arms crossed.
Sure enough, the TV showed a car pulling up beside the female lead, and a handsome man stepped out holding an umbrella over her. “Why can’t someone with impeccable timing be the male lead?” Liang Ye asked curiously.
Xi Yue gave her that *you have no idea* look again. “In these melodramatic plots, the main leads’ relationship has to be as bumpy as possible, surrounded by all sorts of male and female supporting characters. All the men treat the female lead well, silently guarding her, going all out to cherish and care for her, but their family background and capabilities can never match the male lead’s. All the women fall for the male lead; they’re pretty, from top-tier families, brilliant in every way, and willing to give their heart, soul, money, and power for him, but the male lead just turns his nose up at them, thinking they’re all vulgar and ordinary. The male lead takes the female lead’s ignorance and coarseness as unique personality, while the female lead takes the male lead’s arrogance and contempt as domineering possessiveness. It’s just a thankless role—as long as you’re impressive enough, you’re destined to be a side character.”
Xi Yue remarked, “Mind you, that’s only in TV dramas. In real life, supporting male and female characters should run as far away as they can.”