Chapter 178: Everyday Life in Yicheng
On the livestream screen, it was first flooded with question marks, exclamation points, and ellipses. Only after that did actual comments in text start to appear.
[What is this? Is that a real lion? A lion acting cute? This can’t be real, right? Bro, do you not care about your fierce beast reputation anymore?!]
[Woke up too hard—am I hallucinating? It’s already bizarre enough to see a male lion lying on the ground showing its belly and acting cute, but now I’m also seeing Xiu-baby in a black turtleneck sweater!]
[As strange as it is to see a wild beast acting adorable, the moment you realize the person standing in front of it is Boss Xiu—especially with that expressionless look in his eyes as he stares down at it—ladies, don’t you feel there’s a weird but somehow natural harmony in this scene? I was about to say ‘never in a million years,’ but then I saw Xiu-baby and realized… that phrase doesn’t apply.]
[Still the same conclusion: it’s Boss Xiu. So of course—wait a second, this is Boss Xiu’s pet?!]
…
Xiang Yueting and the others read the scrolling comments while responding to the questions.
They chatted with the commenters one line at a time.
“Of course it’s a real lion, not a fake one. I was shocked when I saw it too, so I thought I’d share a little bit of that shock with you all.”
“What’s its name? From what Captain Xiu said, it’s called Arles.”
“Based on what Captain Xiu mentioned earlier, this is probably, maybe, most likely one of the ‘older brothers and sisters of Lucky’ he talked about. So basically, if you round it up—it’s a pet raised by Captain Xiu.”
“Hahaha, who could argue with that? When he first said ‘Lucky’s older brothers and sisters,’ I thought it was a bunch of stray cats. When I saw Arles, I was scared out of my mind! Who would’ve guessed!”
…
Hearing everyone chime in with their guesses, the comment section became even more excited.
[As expected, no one understands Xiu-baby better than us, the Xiuologists!]
[I knew it! A man like Boss Xiu, who just looks dangerous, must love keeping dangerous beasts. The people’s eyes are sharp—this is solid proof now!]
[Lucky’s brothers and sisters? So there are others? Show me all the other siblings now! I need to see them all!]
[What is Boss Xiu doing? Since you’re already there, are you seriously not going in to check it out?!]
Shen Xiu’s voice as he spoke to Arles was soft, and there was a glass wall between them. The transparent entrance panel only had a few small holes for sound to pass through, so if you didn’t go inside, you basically couldn’t hear what Shen Xiu was saying—just see his lips moving.
Shen Xiu lowered his gaze and said a few words to Arles, then raised his hand to stroke the lion’s fur.
Having gotten used to smoothing down Lucky’s fur, Shen Xiu found that Arles was really no different—just bigger in size.
Once Arles had calmed down from his excitement, Shen Xiu remembered what everyone had been saying in the group chat earlier and headed toward the entrance.
In the livestream, viewers saw the camera tilt slightly as Shen Xiu walked toward them with calm and composed steps.
Behind Shen Xiu was a lion so majestic that just seeing its massive head on screen was enough to make people truly feel what it meant to be in the presence of a regal, awe-inspiring beast.
Seeing Shen Xiu walking toward them, Xiang Yueting couldn’t help but glance at the transparent panel in front of him.
He lowered his voice and asked, “Hey, do you guys think this thing is actually strong enough even though it’s see-through?”
Ning Sinian poked his head out from behind the very composed-looking Shang Yu and added, “Not gonna lie, I was wondering the same thing.”
Before Xiang Yueting and Ning Sinian could reach a conclusion, Shen Xiu had already arrived in front of the group.
He introduced calmly, “Arles is Lucky’s older brother.”
Then he looked at Jiang Yanxi and asked, “Want to hug him?”
Jiang Yanxi swallowed hard. “…Will I die if I try?”
He had once said that if he ever met Lucky’s siblings, he wanted to hug them.
But back then, he had no idea that they weren’t the kittens he’d imagined.
Shen Xiu replied without hesitation, “Don’t worry. Of course not.”
Shen Xiu’s gaze swept over the others—excluding Shang Yu, Song Chengwang, and Xia Wenhao—who were clearly afraid of Arles, and he reassured them, “Arles is different from other lions. He’s gentle, kind, and compassionate.”
To back up his claim, Shen Xiu added, “Out on a deserted grassland, he brought food to share with me.”
How could that not count as gentle and kind?
That’s why Shen Xiu had immediately decided to bring Arles—who had followed him for several days across the plains—back home.
System: [……]
Every time Shen Xiu returned from a parallel world, he had to spend seven days in the border zone where worlds intersected. On the seventh day, he could return to any timeline he wanted through a tear in the dimensional rift.
The restricted zones were usually located in desolate, uninhabited places—humans rarely stumbled into them, but animals easily could. These zones weren’t dangerous in themselves, but without someone to guide the way, nothing could leave once it entered.
If the system remembered correctly, Arles had gotten separated from his pride and accidentally fallen into one of these zones. Just like everything else that ended up there, he had no way to escape on his own and was left with no choice but to survive by hunting within the zone.
Unfortunately for him, right after finishing a hunt, he happened to encounter Shen Xiu—who had just fallen into the zone from another timeline, bloodied from battle.
Arles was frightened by the lingering killing intent radiating from Shen Xiu. Weak, pitiful, and helpless, he panicked and fled, dropping the food in his mouth as he ran.
Rounded up, wasn’t that basically the same as Shen Xiu snatching prey straight from the lion’s jaws?
If Shen Xiu hadn’t randomly brought this up today, the system wouldn’t even have known that in Shen Xiu’s mind, Arles was “kind and compassionate.”
Whether it was the livestream viewers or the people present, everyone was struck speechless by Shen Xiu’s words—their silence was deafening.
[Xiu—Xiu-baby sure has a sense of humor, haha…]
[Boss Xiu’s definition of ‘gentle and kind’… feels kinda different from ours.]
After Shen Xiu finished speaking, his friends were all silently puzzled.
“…What’s wrong?” he asked.
Shang Yu smiled. “Nothing.”
As expected, it confirmed what he had long suspected: Shen Xiu had survived for extended periods in all kinds of extreme environments.
And in such harsh survival conditions, if no help ever came, there were only two possible outcomes:
One—if you weren’t strong enough, you wouldn’t just die of hunger—you’d become a meal for the wild beasts.
Two—you’d treat those beasts as your next meal.
But Shen Xiu represented a third type of outcome—one that Shang Yu had never even thought possible: wild beasts voluntarily offering tribute.
Shang Yu couldn’t begin to imagine just how terrifying Shen Xiu must have been in the past for even wild animals to behave so obediently in front of him—obedient in a way that even Lucky… no, wait.
Shang Yu glanced over at Lucky, who was currently being held in Zhuang Yi’s arms.
As someone who had witnessed Lucky kick Shen Xiu countless times with his soft pink paw pads, Shang Yu fell silent.
So in reality, it turned out that the wild beasts in front of Shen Xiu were treated worse than Lucky was.
The others didn’t really understand why Shang Yu had suddenly looked at Lucky mid-sentence, but they all echoed his response.
“Hahaha, yeah, nothing to worry about.”
“Captain Xiu, I think I’ll stay out here.”
“Yeah, same here. I’m good.”
…
[A beast that can bite a person’s head off in one chomp, tear someone limb from limb with one swipe… and it brings food to Boss Xiu? That’s my Shen Xiu—absolutely unreal!]
[This is what they call ‘Lord Ye loves dragons’—except the dragon loves him back.]
[The group: choosing to hug Lucky without hesitation!]
“Alright,” Shen Xiu replied, not pushing the matter.
He turned to look at Zhuang Yi. The moment Zhuang Yi met Shen Xiu’s gaze, he immediately understood and quickly stepped forward to hand Lucky over.
As Shen Xiu’s fingerprint touched the transparent panel, a faint trail of blue electric light rippled across its surface—then quickly disappeared.
As the entrance opened, Shen Xiu took Lucky into his arms, and the door promptly closed behind them.
Meanwhile, Arles remained inside the whole time, behaving well and showing no intention of coming out.
“Don’t worry,” Shen Xiu said. “They all stay quietly in their own enclosures. You can look around—I’ll bring Lucky back out in five minutes.”
Even though they wouldn’t see each other often in the future, Shen Xiu felt that as family, they should at least meet and get to know one another.
“Got it, Captain Xiu.”
“Take your time, we’re good here.”
…
[Poor Lucky, got carried inside without knowing anything, haha.]
[Hold on now, sisters in front—you’re laughing too early. Does Lucky look scared to you? It’s literally rolling around on Arles’s belly!]
[Arles: (casts a wary glance at Xiu-baby) (lying on the ground completely still) — Who can understand us domesticated beasts? I just got stepped on by a kitten today!]
…
Five minutes later.
Shen Xiu said goodbye to Arles and came back out carrying Lucky.
The group continued toward the next enclosure.
Even from a distance, they could already see two cheetahs pacing near the transparent entrance panel.
“Cheetahs!”
“Honestly, even though they look scary and fierce, the structure of their faces is incredibly striking!”
“Of course it is—didn’t that new car model just come out recently? The design was inspired by a cheetah’s facial features and muscular body lines.”
…
The viewers in the livestream completely agreed with what everyone was saying.
As the owner, Shen Xiu walked ahead with Lucky in his arms.
When they reached the entrance, Shen Xiu heard a series of delicate, soft sounds coming from inside. He turned slightly and asked his friends, “Want to go in?”
“They’re Lucky’s older sisters. The one on the left is Hera, the one on the right is Sally. Both are very gentle.”
Mu Zhenchu blurted out, “Maybe not, Captain Xiu… Your definition of gentle seems different from mine.”
“Awwooo…”
“Awoo…”
Through the small holes in the panel, Shen Xiu heard Hera and Sally’s cries and asked in confusion, “That sound… it’s not gentle?”
It sounded exactly like Lucky—wasn’t that adorable enough?! Shen Xiu genuinely didn’t get it.
Mu Zhenchu replied, “…Judging by the sound, yeah, it does sound gentle.”
But no matter what, he just couldn’t erase from his mind the image of cheetahs chasing and tearing into prey in the wild.
Still, Shen Xiu didn’t insist. He simply said, “I’ll come out in five minutes.”
[First time hearing a cheetah’s cry, and I’m in disbelief. Can someone who knows tell me—is a cheetah’s voice really that soft and dainty? I thought it’d at least sound like a lion or tiger! This mismatch between their fierce looks and cute little voices is wild!]
[I think I finally understand how Boss Xiu thinks. In his mind, whether it’s lions or cheetahs, they’re all just cats—so of course he’d call them Lucky’s big brothers and sisters!]
While Shen Xiu went inside with Lucky to introduce him to his two big sisters, the members of The Galaxy either chatted with the livestream viewers or wandered around to look at the surroundings.
When Shen Xiu was making the plan, he had already factored in time management.
Five minutes wasn’t long. The group had only chatted briefly with the livestream viewers before Shen Xiu came back out.
“Let’s go.”
Before coming to Yicheng, Shen Xiu had already shared the itinerary in the group chat, so everyone knew exactly where they were headed next. None of them had any objections to his arrangements.
Fang Heng was waiting outside. When he saw them coming out, he and a few bodyguards immediately stepped forward to help drape the coats they had taken off earlier back over their shoulders.
The group quickly got into the car. The black umbrellas were closed, and the vehicle pulled away from the greenhouse, heading toward their next stop.
During their few days traveling together in Yicheng, under Shen Xiu’s planning, the nine of them were completely satisfied—whether it was with the food, accommodations, transportation, or entertainment.
On the final day, the group split into several smaller ones and parted ways in Yicheng, each returning on their own.
—
The day after returning to the country, at exactly the time Shen Xiu had calculated—in other words, 6:00 PM that day—the first official screening of New Life took place.
New Life was Shen Xiu’s directorial debut, so naturally, it meant a lot to him. Without hesitation, he chose the nearest cinema to him, and—thanks to his occasional superstitions—picked screening room number six.
At 6:00 PM, the movie began. In the sixth screening room, some viewers who had also bought tickets for the premiere and hadn’t even had time to put on their 3D glasses yet suddenly noticed a familiar figure sitting near the front, close to the exit aisle:
Shen Xiu’s unmistakable silhouette.
<< _ >>
