“So… where to next?” Feng Bujue said, “It's rare for the two of us to hang out, and it's the May Day holiday, but going to the movies would be a bit too…”

“Your place,” Si Yu interrupted in her usual icy tone.

“You… this… I…” The quick-witted and eloquent Brother Jue couldn't even utter a complete sentence at that moment.

“You're overthinking it,” Si Yu continued.

“Okay…” Feng Bujue said.

How these two understood each other… only they themselves probably knew.

“Oh, wait a second,” Feng Bujue said, taking out his phone from his pocket and speed-dialing a number.

More than ten seconds later, the other party finally answered, and Xiao Tan's voice came through: “Hello? Brother Jue? What's up?”

“Oh, it's nothing, I just wanted to invite you and the girl next to you to come out from behind the green belt and come to my place to sit for a while.”

…………

Five minutes later, the four of them were sitting in Xiao Tan's car.

Xiao Tan and Bei Ling sat in the front, while Brother Jue and Si Yu were in the back, the two in the back sitting far apart… in almost symmetrical postures, propping their chins with one hand, each looking at the scenery outside the windows on either side.

“It must be because you were so careless that you were discovered,” Bei Ling was still complaining.

Xiao Tan replied, “Don't make a fuss when I'm driving, oh… don't forget to buckle your seatbelt.”

At this moment, they had already taken off their sunglasses and hats, and the expressions on their faces were a little awkward.

“It's not his fault,” Feng Bujue said from the back seat. “My counter-surveillance skills have been systematically trained, and my theoretical knowledge and practical experience are beyond your reach. Even the local public security…”

“Hey! Don't just say that kind of thing!” Xiao Tan interrupted, yelling.

“Ah~ Forget it, it's actually fine this way. It's rare for the four of us to get together,” Bei Ling said. “Besides, public places are crowded with people during this national holiday, so going to the team leader's house is indeed a good choice.”

“Yeah, that's right, ‘A reclusive otaku's home is a place that combines a movie theater, board game room, cafe, and restaurant,’” Si Yu echoed, repeating a sentence.

“That's my…” As soon as Feng Bujue heard it, he remembered that it was his own original words written in a novel.

“It's what you wrote in that short story ‘The Eyes in the Attic’ three years ago,” Si Yu continued.

“You believe it just because I wrote it…” Feng Bujue said.

“Of course I don't believe what you wrote, I'm just using what you wrote to deduce how much of it is related to your real-life situation,” Si Yu said.

“If we switched genders… I could already call the police, right?” Feng Bujue squinted and glanced at Si Yu beside him.

“I'm just speculating, I haven't done any substantive investigation,” Si Yu said. “I never thought… I would meet you in Thriller Paradise.”

“That's what you call fate,” Xiao Tan chimed in from the driver's seat without turning his head.

…………

About half an hour later, the group arrived at Brother Jue's house. Arriving at this place that combines a movie theater, board game room, cafe, and restaurant…

“Ah~ I suddenly have the feeling of renting the whole place for free…” Bei Ling jumped onto Brother Jue's sofa without any reservations and stretched lazily.

“Yo, Arthas, you still have that aloof look on your face today,” Xiao Tan found the tabby cat lying in the corner of the room and squatted down in front of it.

“Eh eh? Does the team leader have a cat?” Bei Ling jumped up from the sofa again, ran over, and knelt down beside Xiao Tan. “Uh… this cat has such a haughty look in its eyes…”

“Its expression is unusually similar to its owner's…” Si Yu also came over.

Arthas was surrounded by three strangers, but it still went its own way, acting as if nothing had happened. It lay prostrate on the ground in a standard cat pose, glanced at the crowd, then turned its head and yawned.

“You guys really don't treat yourselves like outsiders…” Feng Bujue walked in last, closing the door as he spoke.

“Eh? Team leader, do you have any cat toys?” Bei Ling asked.

“I did buy some on the day I picked it up, but I never used them. This guy never scratches or bites randomly; it doesn't react to cat teasers or yarn balls at all…” Feng Bujue replied. “So after a few days, I returned all the cat toys.”

“In that case… it's quite well-behaved?” Bei Ling said.

“Apart from strategically burying poop mines and ignoring me in every way, I guess so…” Feng Bujue said. “Speaking of which… what am I doing, bringing back such a master to serve…”

“Because you're lonely, right?” Si Yu left the cat, walked into the kitchen, “What would you like to drink?”

“Hey! That's the question the host should be asking!” Feng Bujue shouted.

“Hot water.” “Anything,” Bei Ling and Xiao Tan replied respectively.

“Eh? Why hot… pfft…” Xiao Tan was just about to ask when he got elbowed again.

“I can already imagine your married life,” Feng Bujue said coldly.

At this moment, Si Yu, who was standing by the refrigerator, had a slight change in expression, her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly, and she turned to Brother Jue and said, “Why… are there… underwear in your refrigerator…”

Feng Bujue wasn't embarrassed at all, and replied in a serious tone, “Ah… once you've worn the frozen ones, you can't go back to the warm ones…”

“So the reason is because they're comfortable to wear…” Si Yu pondered, a rare blush appearing on her cheeks, then her gaze returned to the inside of the refrigerator, “And they're all boxer briefs…”

“Hey hey… what's with this strong sense of incongruity? The male and female attributes are reversed… generally, it should be more normal for me to try to peek at your underwear color, right…” Feng Bujue said.

“What's normal about that…” Xiao Tan said from the side, “The only difference between the two is the degree of perversion, right…”

…………

That afternoon, the four had a pleasant conversation and had a great time. The soundproofing in this building was good, and Feng Bujue lived on the top floor, so it didn't matter how loud they were when playing board games, as long as they didn't stomp their feet directly on the floor.

Brother Jue's house did have the functions of various entertainment facilities. In addition to the ones Si Yu mentioned, Feng Bujue's game console collection spanned various platforms, and he had plenty of cartridges… at his house, you could play various mainstream consoles from the 1990s to the 2050s.

Around five o'clock, while Feng Bujue was alone in the kitchen making chuunibyou dishes, the other three watched Brother Jue's “I'm a Writer” video again. Although that episode had already been broadcast on television, and Si Yu had already secretly recorded it, she still watched this version very seriously…

The dinner that followed was naturally very sumptuous, and Feng Bujue's cooking skills made the two girls sweat with shame. Of course, his various words and deeds while cooking were even more embarrassing.

After dinner, the group didn't feel like breaking up, so, at Bei Ling's suggestion, they started karaoke using Brother Jue's rather luxurious home theater… but it was almost all Xiao Tan and Bei Ling singing. These two rich kids were considered handsome men and beautiful women, and their vocal conditions weren't bad either. To be fair, if they participated in a talent show, they would definitely make it to the top twenty.

Feng Bujue's mood was also really high today, and he even sang a song called “What's the Logic of Love”, “Actually, living alone isn't too bad, occasionally there's some small sadness, I don't think others can see it, even if loneliness makes me sad, I'll try to think positively…” In various senses, he seemed to be responding to Si Yu's earlier sentence – “Because you're lonely, right?”

At nine o'clock in the evening, the three of them finally reluctantly said goodbye and left, and Xiao Tan took on the responsibility of taking the two ladies home.

…………

After sending his friends away, only Feng Bujue was left alone in the empty house again.

There was still a pile of greasy dishes to wash in the sink, Arthas' litter box needed to be changed, and Si Yu had deleted a lot of valuable video files when she “checked” his computer, which needed to be recovered…

But Feng Bujue, just sat on the sofa, turned off all the lights in the house, and silently closed his eyes.

He seemed to want to bring this memory into his mind palace, seal it in an exquisite box, stick a label of happiness on it, and save it forever.

Feng Bujue was a pessimist, and he also thought… maybe one day, the shadows in his mind would not only take away his fear, but also take away his wisdom, and even take away his life.

If that day really came, at least… he could still recall and wander in his mind palace during his last days.