031 Performance Art

"Clocking out, time to go!"

"Oh my!" Lu Chun stretched lazily. "Girls, shall we go get hot pot tonight? It's been ages, and I've got coupons."

"Yes, please! Are you coming, Brother Bai?"

Mo Bai checked the notification on his phone and shook his head. "You guys go ahead, I'll pass."

"Eh? Why?"

"Need you even ask?" Although she was off the clock, Gu Xiaoxiao, still sporting her signature twin-tails, flashed a mischievous, teasing smile. "Our ultimate sister-complex is obviously rushing home to see his little sister~"

"He's probably got his head full of his adorable sister, dying to get home~"

"Hee hee~ Mo Bai, unable to live without his sister, what a hopeless, pathetic little fishy~"

"Hey, hey... you're a few years older than me, stop acting like a bratty little girl."

Mo Bai rolled his dead fish eyes and waved his phone screen. "It's really not because of my sister. Why don't I just ask her to come join us? She knows you all anyway."

"It's actually a friend of mine. He just got back from out of town and is coming over to hang out tonight. I have to play the proper host."

Xie Ziyun clenched her fists. "Is he that scumbag you were talking about earlier today?!"

Mo Bai: "?"

"You still remember that..." He waved his hand. "Anyway, you all go. Eat plenty of meat, get nice and plump—that way Sister Li will fire you instead of me, heh."

Sister Li walked over from behind and poked Mo Bai in the cheek. "In your dreams. You don't get fat from one meal."

"What about you? Are you ready to serve as a gigolo... ahem, I mean, provide butler services?"

Mo Bai ducked his head. "I really think that's unnecessary. Gu Ran was a total accident!"

"We're heading out then, Brother Bai. Remember to lock the door."

Sister Li led the three maid girls out like a mother hen with her chicks. The final lights in the shop clicked off, and Mo Bai gently locked the door.

Looking at the sign above the maid café, Mo Bai offered a faint smile.

Clocked out... huh?

Before he knew it, he had truly grown accustomed to this place.

Accustomed to this kind of daily life.

If it meant preserving this everyday life, he might even be able to take down a Demon King.

Suddenly remembering an anime he had once watched, Mo Bai shook his head in self-mockery and turned to leave.

Just kidding.

How could a Demon King possibly exist in this world?

Hiss...

Probably not, right?

The temperature had started to drop recently. The jacket that felt warm enough just a few days ago now made him shiver as the wind caught it.

Mo Bai rubbed his hands together. Better hurry home, hug his adorable sister, and nuzzle her soft cheeks.

Oh right, he also had to make dinner for that blockhead Mu Sheng. There didn't seem to be much food left at home; he should stop by the market on the way.

Mo Bai took a detour to the nearest supermarket.

However, on the way, under the dim and pale moonlight, he vaguely saw a group of people lying flat at an intersection ahead.

Mo Bai: "?" What are they doing?

Is this some fitness group out for a collective session of push-ups?

Or some kind of performance art?

But as Mo Bai drew closer, he realized they weren't just doing push-ups—they were literally humping the ground!

Mo Bai was stunned. His dead fish eyes widened fully for the first time in shock, his face practically screaming "What the hell?"

Although back in middle school, he had seen plenty of classmates turn push-ups into ground-humping for various reasons, he had never seen dozens of people doing it in perfect, synchronized unison!

Was this some kind of new religious ritual?

Driven by morbid curiosity, Mo Bai crept closer and heard a few sounds that were both unexpected and yet, in some twisted way, made sense.

"Hehehe, Firefly, hehehe..."

"Stelle, Stelle, Stelle..."

"Dongxuechan... my Dongxuechan..."

"Gardevoir, Gardevoir..."

Mo Bai: "?"

Seriously, guys? This is just too pathetic!

And wait, did a few weird things get mixed in there?!

Mo Bai felt a sense of fearful respect and kept his distance. This was truly a case where reality and games had blurred beyond recognition. He didn't even need to investigate their background; one look was enough to know they were beyond saving.

He’d better run. Stay any longer and he might be assimilated. (Sigh)

As Mo Bai turned and bolted, he didn't notice that the eyes of those performing the "art" were flickering with a strange light.

In those hollow pupils, despite not looking at the sky, one could faintly perceive a moon.

A pale green, full moon.

...

"Brother, I'm home."

A weary-looking Mo Mo pushed open the door, kicked off her shoes, and slid her feet into her rabbit slippers.

"Hmm? Why is there so much food today? Is it a holiday?"

Mo Mo looked with confusion at Mo Bai, who was wearing an apron and waving a spatula over the stove. In her memory, today was just an ordinary day.

"Oh, not a holiday. That guy Mu Sheng is coming over."

"Brother Mu Sheng?" Mo Mo tilted her head. "Did he find a job?"

Even though in many people's eyes Mo Bai seemed a bit "off," he still had those one or two friends you inevitably encounter in life.

Mu Sheng was one such rare specimen, a bizarre bloom growing on the lands of Dongxia who had the luck to call Mo Bai a brother.

The most insane thing he’d ever done was pull an all-nighter playing a galgame, only to try and use the in-game strategies to woo the beautiful neighbor who had just moved in next door.

Mo Bai’s assessment was that Mu Sheng was a total loser—the kind who acted like a vampire seeing sunlight whenever he saw a woman, unable to even speak, yet still dreaming of a successful romance.

He should just stick to his late-night fantasies.

Mu Sheng argued that this was wrong. Through long practice, he claimed he could now speak a full sentence to a beautiful woman without changing his expression.

And since the protagonists of galgames often won the heroine's heart with just one such line, it was perfectly logical.

If that loser of a protagonist—whose every move required a player's input—could do it, why couldn't he?

The result? The woman called the police.

Mu Sheng barely avoided spending a few days behind bars.

To this day, Mo Bai didn't know which galgame line Mu Sheng had used, nor did he know... just how beautiful that neighbor was.

In short, that was the kind of person Mu Sheng was.

A total loser who traded a moment of boldness for a lifetime of social exile.

But he was also the kind of person who, upon hearing that Mo Bai’s mother had run away from home, would take him and little Mo Mo to the snack street, find ways to help them save money, and help look after Mo Mo.

Of course, Mu Sheng never had much money either; both brothers were penniless. Trips to the snack street usually ended with them buying treats for Mo Mo while they watched her eat.

Whenever Mo Mo asked, they’d say they were already full and that she should hurry up and eat so they could go home.

Back then, Mo Mo was just a little girl, so she was easily fooled.

It was a memory that felt bittersweet, yet incredibly warm.

He was a partner in crime who shared Mo Bai’s peculiar tastes, the only other person Mo Mo truly called "brother," and at the same time...

A soon-to-graduate college student frantically hunting for a job. (Sigh)