Chapter 22

Chapter 22

Su Ximu didn't quite understand why "Third Brother" reacted so strongly upon hearing that he had made friends in the Tourism Park.

Last time "Third Brother" visited, hadn't he already introduced Group Leader Lan242 as his friend?

He was about to continue explaining to "Third Brother" when the voice on the other end suddenly paused as if someone had hit a stop button.

After a moment, "Third Brother" said, "Something urgent came up with my tour groups. We'll talk about this later."

Managing tour groups was "Third Brother's" main profession. Since he mentioned there was something requiring his attention, Su Ximu naturally didn't want to waste his time and immediately nodded, "Okay, Third Brother, go handle the tour group matters first. I won't keep you."

One's career is very important.

To be honest, after arriving in this world and receiving the "original host's" memories, Su Ximu held a certain admiration for the "original host's" three older brothers.

The eldest brother built his business from scratch, the second brother deeply cultivated the entertainment industry, and the third brother started his own business shortly after graduating from university, paying off all his startup debt within a year.

They were all standouts in their respective fields.

Su Jianglou listened to the young man’s understanding words over the phone, and after hanging up, his expression improved somewhat.

Then he recalled the message reported by his subordinate tour group while he was on the call with Xiao Mu. The man’s eyes narrowed with a fierce intensity.

Was it because the world's edge had expanded outward again? Lately, there had been too many reckless new supernatural entities with no sense of respect.

They actually had the audacity to target his territory.

Su Jianglou, who had been full of pent-up anger all day with nowhere to vent, decided to take out a couple of entities to relieve some stress.

***

After ending the call with "Third Brother," Su Ximu continued walking. Group Leader Lan242 was waiting for him not far away.

When the young man approached, Blue 242 glanced at his expression and asked first, "How did it go? Did your family agree?"

"Yeah... they agreed to me resigning," he said.

But the topic of a new job hadn’t been fully discussed.

Su Ximu recalled that, based on "Third Brother’s" words, it seemed that if he didn’t like his current job, he could simply resign and move to another house "Third Brother" had bought, then just relax until school starts.

According to "Third Brother," "Second Brother" had been hard to pin down lately, probably preoccupied with some sudden matter and unable to focus on family affairs.

Human nature is to seek pleasure. If one could live a happy life without having to do anything, how many people could refuse that?

But it’s easy to go from frugality to luxury, and hard to go from luxury back to frugality.

Su Ximu thought he was somewhat afraid of getting used to such a life. If that happened, by the time he returned to his own world one day, he might no longer be able to adapt to the life that truly belonged to him.

It was like a child who never had candy suddenly getting thrown into a pile of candy. Once he got used to the sweet taste, all the candy was suddenly taken away.

People rarely go mad from suddenly becoming wealthy.

But bosses who jump off buildings due to bankruptcy are everywhere.

Suddenly having a lot of money is like that.

Suddenly having a lot of love is, too.

The young man seemed spaced out, his expression distant. Blue 242 gently steered him back, "Would you like some black fish soup?"

He shook the insulated container in his hand. "It’s just that black fish aren't much to look at."

"Black fish?" Su Ximu repeated instinctively.

What kind of fish was a black fish?

"It’s turtle."

Hearing "turtle," Su Ximu knew what it was. He couldn’t help but reminisce, "When I was little, I went with my grandma to gather snails, and a turtle bit my toe. It hurt so much."

"Then what happened?" Blue 242 looked down at the young man’s feet hidden in his shoes and asked immediately.

Su Ximu made a lifting motion. "Then Grandma picked me up, and the turtle was still attached when she pulled it up."

"I cried really hard," Su Ximu emphasized.

Because a turtle biting your toe really hurts.

But later, to comfort him, Grandma bought him a popsicle. After eating it, he forgot about crying.

Mentioning this, he was missing his grandma a little.

He wondered if he could return before the anniversary of her death.

That night, the two sat on a wooden bench in front of the dormitory building, each drinking a bowl of turtle soup. Su Ximu’s bowl was especially heavy on the solid ingredients, all served by Blue 242, who claimed it was payback for what happened to Xiao Xi.

After finishing the soup, he was gently guided by Group Leader Lan242 into a long, quiet chat. Perhaps because he had been thinking of Grandma, or because the night was too peaceful, Su Ximu was unusually homesick and spoke mostly about his childhood.

Aside from Grandma, the person he mentioned most was his cousin who helped him with tutoring.

As for the other family members he didn’t mention, Blue 242 thought they were probably all dead and unimportant.

After finishing the soup, they chatted for a while longer downstairs while walking off their meal. When Su Ximu returned to his dorm accompanied by Blue 242, the supposedly could-be-male-or-female tough guy had indeed left his room—worth all that time he’d spent dawdling downstairs.

Because he had gotten more exercise than usual that night, Su Ximu fell asleep almost as soon as he closed his eyes after washing up again.

In the middle of the night, Purple 5342, who had failed to invite himself into bed, suddenly opened his eyes in his sleep to find himself enveloped in a red mist, not knowing where he was.

***

The next day, Su Ximu, who hadn’t resigned yet, went to work as usual.

Neither "Third Brother’s" reply nor the job Group Leader Lan242 mentioned would happen for a couple of days.

The third day: still work.

The fourth day: work.

The fifth day: Su Ximu opened his eyes and felt like having cake again.

Coincidentally, the Tourism Park’s reforms also included the park’s catering services. The park’s first dessert shop had officially opened two days earlier, with incredibly fast renovation.

It was said that this dessert shop was part of a chain, and the brand was also owned by the Su Financial Group.

During his lunch break, Su Ximu didn’t knock on Group Leader Lan242’s door next door to ask him to come along.

He had known since yesterday that Group Leader Lan242 had taken half the day off today.

With an hour and a half left before afternoon work, Su Ximu left the dormitory building and set off toward the spot he had memorized from the day before.

The dining area wasn't far from the employee dormitory, and Su Ximu reached his destination after about a fifteen-minute walk.

Pushing open the door to enter the dessert shop with its eye-catching sign, he wondered briefly—didn't either the park visitors or the employees have a sweet tooth?

While the other shops and stalls in the dining area were bustling with noise and activity, the dessert shop was nearly empty, with barely any customers in sight.

Su Ximu's first thought was that the items in the dessert shop must be expensive.

As for the taste, with a chain dessert shop like this, even if the flavor wasn't exceptional, it certainly wouldn't be bad.

Feeling the single bill in his pocket, Su Ximu hesitated. But thinking that he had already come this far, he eventually continued toward the refrigerated display case.

As he approached, he noticed that perhaps because the dessert shop wasn't doing well, the pre-made desserts in the display case were very few.

There was only one small four-inch mango cake standing there.

Su Ximu glanced at the mango pieces on the cake—they looked fairly fresh—and then at the price. Fortunately, he had enough money to buy this cake.

"Hello, please wrap this mango cake for me, thank you." The young man extended a pale finger, gently tapped the display case glass, and spoke politely.

The employee selling the cake was a Tourism Park employee and had been lazily leaning against the counter. But as soon as he looked up and saw the face of the person buying the cake, he immediately became enthusiastic, greeting him repeatedly, and swiftly packaged the cake Su Ximu had pointed to.

As Su Ximu left with the packaged cake, the employee repeatedly called out, "Please take care."

After the customer left, the previously excited employee quickly went back to being lazy, retreating behind the counter.

Perhaps the thoughts of the powerful and eerie were truly beyond the comprehension of a small fry like him.

A Tourism Park catering to supernatural visitors, yet the boss had set up a dessert shop in the dining area that actually used ingredients like cream, eggs, and sugar to make cakes.

So, it wasn't hard to understand why, since its opening two days ago, the entire dessert shop had seen hardly any supernatural customers.

The employee had thought it would be a rare event to even have one customer today.

Unexpectedly, before he could slack off a bit longer, another customer pushed open the door and entered the dessert shop.

As soon as Su Xuanxiao stepped into the shop, he frowned and decided to fire the store manager.

Ignoring the employee who snapped to attention and hurried to his side, Su Xuanxiao walked toward the display case on his own.

Upon discovering that there wasn't even a proper cake in the display case, he decided not to just fire someone—he would reassign the manager in charge of this dessert shop to reclaim wasteland.

The handsome and authoritative face of the park's new boss, Mr. Su, had already been deeply imprinted in the heart of every employee in the Tourism Park.

Seeing the boss's gaze linger on the price tag of the mango cake, the employee, driven by a strong will to survive, stammered, "Sir, th-this cake was j-just bought by Young Mr. Su."

Most employees in the park had already assumed that the intimidating relative was related to their new boss, Mr. Su. Naturally, they no longer dared to refer to Su Ximu by his employee ID number in the park.

But since both were Mr. Su, to distinguish them conveniently, some employees had started calling Su Ximu "Young Mr. Su."

Young Mr. Su?

Who?

Su Xuanxiao couldn't recall for a moment and glanced briefly at the employee beside him.

"H-he also bought candles." Caught slacking off by the boss, the employee's stutter wasn't going away soon.

Buying a cake might be for oneself, but buying candles was usually for a birthday.

The employee could only hope that Mr. Su and Young Mr. Su had the same purpose in buying the cake—that they didn't actually need a second cake and had just come separately without informing each other in advance.

Su Xuanxiao's fingers, hanging at his side, curled slightly as he finally gave the employee his full attention. "He bought a cake and candles?"

The employee nodded vigorously.

Author's Note:

Elder Brother: The weather's getting cold; send this store manager to reclaim wasteland.