Lan Xi had never seen snow.
He sprawled against Fu Hui and refused to get up. Before long, Fu Hui heard a faint rustling sound. He instantly went on alert and hurriedly turned his head to look.
Lan Xi was scooping up snow and stuffing it into his mouth.
Fu Hui was horrified.
Doesn’t kindergarten teach this?
He darted out a hand to pin Lan Xi’s hand down while prying open his mouth. He could not tell whether the snow had already melted or whether he had stopped him in time; after digging around for ages, he still did not manage to fish anything out.
“It’s dirty. You can’t eat it!” After saying that, Fu Hui sat up, forcibly gathered Lan Xi into his arms, and dragged him toward the house. “Go rinse your mouth right now.”
Lan Xi blinked and looked up at him. “Like ice cream.”
“It’s not like we don’t have ice cream at home.”
“We don’t.”
Fu Hui did not say anything more. He took Lan Xi to the washroom, watched him rinse his mouth thoroughly, then made him open wide. “Let me check.”
Lan Xi obediently kept his mouth open.
Fu Hui’s stern gaze swept over every one of his tiny, pearly-white baby teeth. No cavities.
Fu Hui immediately lifted his chin with one hand and closed Lan Xi’s mouth for him.
Only then did Fu Hui go check the freezer.
The two shelves reserved especially for popsicles and ice cream were completely empty.
They really were gone?
But if he remembered correctly… Fu Hui turned around. “There should’ve been enough in here to last until next month. Where did it all go?”
Lan Xi tilted his head and parroted him. “Yeah. Where did it all go?”
“…” Fu Hui held out a hand and asked the bodyguard for the tablet.
Ever since Lan Xi had started going to school with him every day, Fu Hui had stopped using the thing.
Fu Hui pulled up the surveillance footage. After thinking for a moment, he focused on the nighttime recordings. As for the date, he randomly picked a Thursday from the previous week.
Two-thirty in the morning.
A tiny figure swaggered into the living room, passed through two doors, and arrived at the chilled-storage area.
The lock on the final door had been installed too high for Lan Xi to reach. He jumped up and slapped it. Click. The door opened at once.
Lan Xi stayed inside for half a minute before coming back out, licking his lips as he walked and erasing every last trace of his “crime.”
Fu Hui held the tablet out for Lan Xi to see and deliberately asked, “Who’s this?”
“…Lan Xi.” Lan Xi stared at himself on the screen and could not even deny it. No other child had a whole head of purple hair like that, especially not hair that long.
Fu Hui took meticulous care of it, carefully working conditioner through it every day and even smoothing hair oil over it afterward.
It practically shone in the dark!
The little succubus grew faintly annoyed.
But…
Lan Xi grabbed the tablet and flipped it back and forth with irrepressible curiosity. “How is Lan Xi inside there?”
Fu Hui pointed at the ceiling. “Because there are cameras everywhere. They’re like phones. They can record Lan Xi.”
Fu Hui could not resist deliberately adding, “I can see what Lan Xi is doing anytime, anywhere.”
Lan Xi froze, then exclaimed with heartfelt amazement, “They’re all Fu Hui’s eyes!”
Fu Hui thought about it. “You could put it that way.”
Lan Xi’s eyes went slightly unfocused with admiration. “Wow! Then Fu Hui is even more amazing than lots and lots of demons!”
Fu Hui had been trying very hard to keep a stern face because Lan Xi had been sneaking food, but in the end he could not hold the expression.
He reached out and rubbed Lan Xi’s purple hair. “There are lots of ‘eyes’ like these outside…” He leaned closer and quietly reminded him, “So don’t show your wings in front of anyone except me.”
Lan Xi nodded over and over. “Mm-hm, mm-hm.”
He blinked his big eyes, decided the matter from just now was over, and immediately went back to hinting, “There’s no ice cream left.”
“They don’t sell it in winter.”
Hearing those five short words was like a bolt from the blue striking Lan Xi’s little head.
He looked at Fu Hui, who seemed capable of anything, and found this extremely difficult to accept.
Fu Hui did not want him eating so much ice cream.
During the day, when Lan Xi was right in front of him, Fu Hui could at least keep an eye on him. But at night he had actually learned to sneak out of bed and eat it, and he could already open doors and run all over the place with practiced ease… This would not do.
But Fu Hui did not want him to be sad either.
Fu Hui furrowed his brows, tucked Lan Xi into his arms, and once again half dragged, half carried the little demon outside.
Lan Xi was still in a daze. It was only after Fu Hui had wrapped the scarf all the way around his neck and Lan Xi instinctively tried to tug it off that he finally came back to himself.
“Have you ever had a snowball fight?” Fu Hui asked.
Lan Xi stared at him O_O. “What, what?”
He did not know what that was, but anything connected to the word “play” had to be something good.
Fu Hui straightened his face and copied Lan Xi’s tone. “Listen to me seriously.”
Fu Hui explained the rules of a snowball fight to him.
After listening, Lan Xi pointed at Fu Hui. “One.”
Then he pointed at himself. “Two.”
Lan Xi’s brows knitted together. “Am I supposed to hit Fu Hui?” He immediately added, “But I don’t want to hit Fu Hui.”
Fu Hui instantly pressed his lips together.
…Maybe I should just buy him some more ice cream.
Lan Xi asked again, “Does Fu Hui hit me?”
Fu Hui answered with ringing certainty, “No.” Then he said, “Wait here.”
Fu Hui politely called the old family residence and asked whether the children of his uncles and aunts happened to be free to come over and play.
At Fu Hui’s age, he was right at the stage where he liked acting cool and keeping to himself. On top of that, aside from his schoolwork, he had plenty of other lessons, so he rarely had the chance to spend time with any of his cousins.
The elders naturally agreed at once and sent over eight unlucky children of varying ages.
Fu Hui put Lan Xi’s gloves on him. “Come play!”
“Fu Hui, who is he?”
“Fu Hui, why did you suddenly want to have a snowball fight? Last New Year you said this game was too childish and you weren’t going to play…”
Fu Hui gave a light cough, cutting his cousin off, and selectively answered only one thing. “His name is Lan Xi.”
Of the eight children, two were in middle school and five were in elementary school. Even the youngest was at least old enough for the senior kindergarten class, built like a little calf and slightly taller than Lan Xi.
Fu Hui swept his gaze over them, then added anyway, “He’s a little baby. Very little.”
“Oh, okay.” One cousin tactfully said, “I won’t throw snowballs at him.”
“Yeah. Look how tiny his hands are. How big a snowball could he even make?” another cousin said with a laugh.
Lan Xi vaguely realized that he seemed to be getting laughed at. How could a little succubus tolerate that? He immediately bared his tiny fangs at the other boy in warning.
“So cute.”
“He looks just like the doll at my sister’s house.”
“He’s so little. Maybe he shouldn’t play.”
Someone on the other side could not help saying it.
Fu Hui frowned when he heard that and, before Lan Xi could get angry, said, “I’ll make the snowballs for him.”
“Uh.” The others looked at one another, but agreed in the end.
None of the Fu family children were fools. The slightly older ones could all tell that Fu Hui simply wanted to play with this “Lan Xi.”
If Fu Hui was willing to play, then they could humor him and join in. They were older kids, after all. They could manage that much tolerance…
Three minutes later.
The cousin who had said, “Look how tiny his hands are,” was the first to get hit so hard he fell flat on his back.
“Hahaha, why are you lying down?” someone else had only just laughed.
Immediately afterward, howls and wails erupted across the field.
The little succubus had incredible stamina.
He forgot all about the ice cream. Sweat dampened his soft bangs, and everything from his eyes to his entire face seemed to sparkle.
“Fu Hui! So fun!” he shouted.
“I can’t, I can’t, I really can’t! Fu Hui, you can’t keep taking his side. The little guy hits hard, and he dodges way too fast!”
Of course he did.
Lan Xi could not bear to throw snowballs at Fu Hui, but he was perfectly willing to let everyone else hit Fu Hui.
Exactly. While everyone else was working hard to find cover, Lan Xi hid behind Fu Hui.
Fu Hui looked at his cousin’s bruised and battered face and also felt that this was probably not ideal. He walked over, caught Lan Xi by the arms, and said, “We’re done playing.”
Lan Xi had one very obvious trait: whenever he had just started liking something, he had absolutely no idea what moderation was.
It had been the same when he first fell in love with kindergarten. He would want to leave the house at the first hint of dawn.
And whenever he learned a new word, he had to use it until he was thoroughly sick of it.
Now he refused to leave too, his little face falling. “Fu Hui, no. Still play.”
Fu Hui told him, “It’s time for dinner. We have guests today, so the kitchen is making lots of new dishes.”
New dishes!
Dishes Lan Xi had never seen before!
“Okay.”
Everyone watched the two of them talk and could not help muttering to themselves.
Just who was this person? Why was Fu Hui so good to him?
…
Once they were back inside, warmth wrapped around them. Everyone began taking off their coats and neatly handed them to the bodyguards at the side.
Lan Xi, meanwhile, kicked off his shoes as he walked. “Fu Hui, so hot.”
After the shoes came the scarf.
Then the gloves. Lan Xi was just about to bite them off with his teeth when Fu Hui, quick as a flash, caught his hands and helped take them off.
Everyone watching felt dizzy all over again.
Why did Fu Hui seem so much like the household nanny?
Once the gloves were off, Lan Xi’s sweat-damp hands were exposed. They were bright red, and the skin had gone slightly wrinkled.
The lessons in etiquette Fu Hui had received tugged at him for a moment.
In the end he still said, “You sit down first. I’ll take him to wash his hands.” Then he had the bodyguards bring out some snacks, fruit, and milk for the guests.
After that, he took Lan Xi’s damp hand and led him in another direction.
Conquest and victory seemed to be pursuits Lan Xi had been born with.
The excitement from the snowball fight was still running through his bones. He skipped as he walked and could not resist rubbing all the sweat from his hand onto Fu Hui’s, grinning smugly as he did it.
When they reached the bathroom, Fu Hui took off Lan Xi’s sweater, and a puff of white steam immediately rose from around Lan Xi’s neck.
Fu Hui set him on a little chair and picked up a towel to wipe him down.
Lan Xi dodged this way and that, then used the height of the chair to throw himself around Fu Hui’s neck, smearing his sweat onto Fu Hui’s neck too.
Then he burst into another triumphant laugh.
Fu Hui was completely out of options.
No matter how many times Lan Xi said that a succubus would never get sick, Fu Hui still refused to take the risk.
He simply turned on the faucet, adjusted it to warm water, and soaked Lan Xi from head to toe. If Lan Xi would not let him wipe off the sweat, then he could just have a bath instead.
Lan Xi froze for only two seconds before dissolving into giggles again and rubbing the water all over Fu Hui too.
It was as though he absolutely had to share half of everything on his body with Fu Hui.
Even the “bad” things.
…
Back in the living room, one cousin had been sitting so long his backside felt hot. He scratched his head. “Why aren’t they back yet? Does washing your hands take this long?”
Another cousin was even more horrified. “Damn, why is my face swollen?”