"So Zeig, have you gone crazy?"
"Why did you suddenly go buy candied hawthorns?!"
From March 7th's perspective, Zeig slowly pulled out a small stool and naturally stepped onto it.
Only then could he barely stand at eye level with the two brothers.
Zeig spoke:
"Little friends, Uncle has something to ask you."
Faced with Zeig's words, the crew-cut man suddenly turned shy:
"Uncle, go ahead and ask. We're friends now!"
"No—— Senior! You're being too careless!"
The other muscular man named Xiao Fang stroked his dense chin stubble, eyes sharp:
"This uncle gave you candied hawthorns for no reason. He must have ulterior motives!"
"Here, don't argue." Zeig took out another candied hawthorn skewer and handed it to Xiao Fang.
Xiao Fang: "Uncle is such a good person~!"
March 7th: "…"
Seeing the two little brats already eating the candied hawthorns with zero caution, Zeig leaned in and spoke in a hoarse voice:
"Little friends, have you seen any strange people here in Exalting Sanctum?"
"Yeah, you." The crew-cut man licked his candied hawthorn, eyes full of innocent purity.
"Besides me?"
"Us."
"?"
"Because we developed early, lots of adults say we're strange."
As he spoke, the crew-cut man lowered his head dejectedly:
"They even call us monsters and tell the other little friends not to play with us."
"What?!" March 7th gritted her teeth.
"That's way too much judging people by appearance! Sis thinks you two are no different from ordinary little friends!"
"Yeah, we think so too." Xiao Fang said gloomily:
"But because of our builds, the little friends in kindergarten won't play with us."
"Every class, in our small class I'm the only one using a whole desk with no desk mate. It's the same in his senior class, so… the two of us just ended up playing together."
"…Actually I don't want to play with him. If it weren't for having no one else to play with, I wouldn't play with him at all."
Crew-cut man: "?"
Just as March 7th was about to cry from pity for these two kids, Zeig cut in:
"Alright, alright. Besides me and you two, are there any even stranger people?"
Hearing Zeig's merciless words, March 7th pouted:
"Hey, can you read the room at all?"
"?" Zeig narrowed his eyes at March 7th and shot back:
"Aren't we out here on the streets looking for terrorists?"
"Is now the time to bring that up?"
"But you just said these two were ugly enough to be terrifying." Zeig muttered.
Xiao Fang and crew-cut man: "…"
"Damn it, I did not!" Under the sorrowful gazes of the two muscular brothers, March 7th's face flushed red as she shouted:
"Don't slander me! When I first walked over I said these two were actually pretty cute!"
"You mean it?"
"Y-Yes, really!"
"Fine, fine. So that's how you're gonna play, huh."
Under March 7th's uneasy gaze, Zeig—as expected—pulled out his phone! The corner of his mouth curled into a wicked little arc.
He showed March 7th the screen and silently moved his finger toward the playback button of a certain recording app.
"...!!"
Just as the two muscular men stood there red-eyed, licking their candied hawthorns while confused by this weird uncle's actions, a man quietly patted Zeig's shoulder:
"Hey, you're an outsider, right?"
"?"
Zeig turned around in confusion and met the man's eyes.
The man had his hair tied up with a hairpin and looked sneaky. One glance and you could tell he wasn't decent.
"I'm from outside. What's up?"
Hearing Zeig admit he was an outsider, the man immediately laughed:
"I've lived in Luofu this long and I've never seen anyone like you two who could play with them for so long. As expected of outsiders, haha!"
"Something the matter?" Zeig asked.
"Ehh~ Too many people here. Not a good place to talk. Let's go somewhere else."
The strange man pulled Zeig down from the stool and kept leading him toward a shady spot.
Seeing this, March 7th instantly panicked.
"Hey, wait! What are you doing!"
She quickly grabbed Zeig's other hand and warily glared at the strange man:
"I'm warning you—we're decent people!"
"I'm also a decent person, haha… Miss, do I look like a bad guy to you?"
"No." Zeig chimed in:
"Woman, let go! You're in the way!"
"?" March 7th's pink-blue eyes widened:
"Shit, what's with that tone?! I'm not letting go! Did you forget why we're here?!"
Her grip tightened and she actually started physically dragging Zeig away from the strange man.
"Aren't we here to seek longevity!" Zeig shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Seek your ass——! We are…"
"Both of you, both of you! Calm down!"
For some reason the strange man looked even more excited. He laughed while trying to smooth things over:
"Outsiders coming to the Xianzhou for that kind of thing—everyone understands! Come with me… you definitely won't lose out!"
Under the strange man's invitation, March 7th and Zeig were still led away.
This was a small alley.
Seeing no one around, the strange man patted his cyan long robe and smiled at them:
"You two, I have an opportunity here for outsiders to achieve immortality. Interested?"
"Yes!" Zeig shouted loudly:
"I came to the Xianzhou precisely for eternal life!"
"Ehh ehh ehh!" The volume made the strange man panic instantly. He quickly patted Zeig's shoulder:
"Hey! Keep your voice down. This isn't a decent topic on the Xianzhou!"
He lowered his voice:
"Pursuing longevity is right. Who doesn't yearn to live forever?"
"But the Xianzhou Alliance doesn't care about the well-being of short-life species! They stubbornly block the glorious path toward longevity!"
"My name is Green Hibiscus. I came to Exalting Sanctum this time hoping to meet fated people like you—so we can ascend the immortal path together."
Zeig excitedly shook hands with him:
"Nice to meet you, nice to meet you. I'm Sampo! This is my little sister Wang Ergou. We both deeply desire eternal life!"
"Wang Ergou my ass!" March 7th cursed.
"I know, sis. Don't interrupt!" Zeig said seriously.
March 7th: "…"
"Hehe, Brother Sampo, is it? Good, good… It's just that your little sister seems a bit… not quite on the same page?"
Green Hibiscus sized up March 7th, a trace of vigilance rising in his heart.
"How so?"
Zeig pulled March 7th to his side and introduced her:
"She's always been like this since she was little—not believing this, not believing that. But deep down she also really wants eternal life!"
"Really? Doesn't look like it."
"Ergou! Do you desire eternal life?!" Zeig said sternly.
"?"
March 7th blinked:
"I desire it, okay?"
Zeig quickly added:
"See? She's just being tsundere! She wants it but refuses to admit it. Ask a few more times and she'll be honest."
"I see." Green Hibiscus nodded to himself.
"But why do I suddenly feel… you two… seem a bit like spies sent by the Cloud Knights?"