"What devil? This is called being a helpful soul — look~"
Caelus's fingers flew across the screen, sending a message to Wen Furui from the Fox Immortal Susu alt account. He tilted his head toward Qingque and pointed at the instant reply: [I'll definitely make it, just wait for me, Susu!]
"Do you think the Herta Space Station might just produce a shining new star in the field of physics research?"
"My, my — why is there such a kind and benevolent person as myself in this world?"
Qingque looked at Caelus striking his most sorrowful, world-weary pose, opened her mouth, decided she ought to say something, then adjusted her posture and settled back into a more comfortable salted-fish sprawl.
"Caelus-cub, what in god's name are you doing?!"
The Stellaron spirit scrambled up from below the terrace like a nimble monkey shimmying up a tree — one flying leap, a half-crouch landing — sharp eyes instantly locking onto the Caelus-cub who was holding Qingque.
Faintly, from below the terrace, came March 7th's cry of "Wait for me!"
"How did you end up over here? I thought you were sitting down there collecting money," Caelus said, utterly unruffled in the face of Stelle's hands-on-hips, charging-bull energy. He lifted his arms and opened them wide.
"Got boring after a while."
Stelle hesitated for all of two seconds, then chose to dive into Caelus's embrace, re-enacting the legendary "you came at just the right time" scene.
The Heliobus was sealed inside the barbecue grill, the Abundance spirit beasts provided more than enough meat stock, and the food stall could run completely on autopilot. Stelle had only been manning the stand for the joy of collecting money as proprietress.
The familiar sensation of bodily contact — Stelle, now a seasoned veteran in these matters, immediately clocked that the Caelus-cub was hugging a beautiful girl. She'd handed the stall off to a Herta puppet and came charging over.
Even by Qingque's swaying, utterly-unbothered salted-fish standards, three people piling into a hug was undeniably a bit strange.
Especially the look in March 7th's eyes — that complicated, delicate expression she wore as she came pattering up the steps, pink hair swaying in a little trot. Not that Qingque was old by any measure... well, at least by Xianzhou standards she was unquestionably young — but her eye for people was razor-sharp.
Da Hao, the Chief Steward of the Exalting Sanctum's offices, harboured a secret crush on Jing Yan. Yu Ling had no time at all for Qing Jue yet faked warmth to his face. Any hidden couples in the vicinity — Qingque could pick them out at a glance.
March's expression made it plain as day: she liked Old Caelus.
Come to think of it, the number of girls around Old Caelus really was a touch... numerous...
A flicker of thoughtfulness passed across Qingque's face, her delicate willow-leaf brows arching for just a moment — then a mild, cool evening breeze swept through and she let it go.
Forget it, time to go limp~
Even in matters of the heart, Qingque maintained her signature salted-fish philosophy: don't fight, don't scramble, let fate take its course. The right connection would come when it was time. No point fretting over other people — as long as she herself was comfortable, that was enough.
Looked at another way, having more people had its own advantages. For instance...
"We've got exactly four people — let's play a few rounds of Celestial Jade!"
Qingque bounced off Caelus's knee, the red lucky knot at her waist swinging, and pushed off with her small jade feet clad in white silk socks to hop back into her beloved rocking chair. She suggested it with a bright, beaming grin.
"Cards again?"
March 7th rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish look. "How about something different for once?"
"Oh? You don't want to play Celestial Jade?" Qingque tugged at her tea-colored twin tails.
"It's not that I don't want to, it's just..."
March 7th didn't dislike Celestial Jade, but she certainly wasn't as obsessed as Qingque. These days, the moment she saw a Celestial Jade tile, her mind would drift back to the events in Qingque's mental illusory realm.
Her fair cheeks flushed a tempting shade of pink. Her eyes carried a trace of lingering shock, as though reliving some sensation. The smooth legs beneath her skirt pressed together ever so slightly.
"Mmph!"
She bit down on her lower lip with her pearly teeth, then shook her head vigorously and laughed it off:
"It's just nice to try other games sometimes!"
"Caelus, you must have fun games, right?" March 7th pinched a Xianzhou specialty pastry off the small round table between her fingertips, popped it between her lips, and gave Caelus's shoulder a nudge with one hand.
"Games? Of course." Caelus hugged his adorable little Stellaron spirit.
As a Masked Fool, he was equally attuned to the shifting emotions of those around him. He'd caught the tiny flicker of jealousy from March 7th just now — but when he hugged Stelle, Ah Qi never reacted. Even a drawn-out French kiss with Stelle right in front of Little March would earn him nothing worse than a helpless sigh.
"There are so many board games that work with four players."
Not to put too fine a point on it — though the Xianzhou was an interstellar civilization, its entertainment culture had developed in a rather narrow lane. Not in terms of content, but in style; the mindset had calcified to a certain degree. It was rather like if Earth had only ever had China, with no outside cultural influence, ancient traditions carried down to the present day — whether it could have independently invented the entertainment formats that arrived from the West was genuinely anyone's guess.
"Now you've got my full attention." Qingque's eyes lit up. Not that she'd been drowsy before — she gave the table a sharp double-slap with both hands. "Old Caelus, whatever new toy you've got, bring it out!"
"Let's start with a round of Monopoly."
Caelus pulled a folding board from his spatial ring and set out the game pieces — a Monopoly set made to mirror the Earth version from the Honkai World. He wasn't sure if anything like it existed elsewhere in the galaxy, but Xianzhou people didn't seem to have encountered it.
"Monopoly?"
Qingque examined the components Caelus had produced with curious interest: a large board etched with a grid of squares, each inscribed with names of institutions — banks, prisons — and events like marriage and bankruptcy.
"We'll start on simple mode. Everyone begins with 1,500 in starting funds. When all the properties have been bought, the game ends — whoever has the most money wins."
Caelus tweaked the board slightly, swapping out the location names for Xianzhou Grotto-Heavens to make it easier for Qingque to follow.
"Along the way you'll run into all sorts of positive and negative events, and there are items you can use to compete with each other."
"This sounds like a lot of fun already." Qingque grew more and more interested with every word.
"Hmph, in that case, this young lady has nothing to fear!" March 7th planted both fists on her hips and tilted her little pink head up with a triumphant air. "Luck-based games are this young lady's specialty!"
Not that her luck was especially good — it was more that she couldn't wrap her head around games that required serious thinking, so by comparison, luck-based games were indeed her strong suit~
"Come on then — it's easy to pick up, learn as you play."
Caelus had everyone choose a chibi figurine to represent themselves, placed them at the starting position, and passed the dice to Qingque.
"Ooh ooh!"
Listening as Caelus explained the rules in more detail, Qingque gave the dice a casual toss.
Three. She picked up her little figure and moved three spaces: [Exalting Sanctum], value 60.
"Buy."
She spent 60 funds and claimed the Exalting Sanctum property.
"My turn."
Caelus rolled the dice. Two.
"What's the question mark?" Qingque watched as Caelus's chibi figure finished its move and landed on a square marked with a question mark.
"Chance card."
Caelus tapped the thick stack of cards beside the board and drew one.
"Send any one player directly to jail," he read — then raised his volume noticeably on the last four words.
In jail, you couldn't move. You had to pay a fee or meet certain conditions to get out.
"Hmm, who to pick..."
Caelus swept his gaze across all three. Stelle, March 7th, and even Qingque all instantly looked away — like students caught making eye contact with a teacher who was about to call on someone — and stared down at the table.
"How about each of you say something nice?"
"Dad!" Stelle moved in zero frames, unhesitating, her eyes clear and bright, short and to the point.
"Huh?" March 7th's mouth dropped open slightly. She really had zero shame?
"Old Caelus, I just noticed — you look really handsome today!" Qingque raised her head and delivered this with a completely straight face.
Caelus gave a satisfied nod, then looked toward Little March. Little March, who had been staring wide-eyed at Qingque with the exact expression of someone who'd just been told "wait, you play Genshin Impact too?!"
"Is this young lady the only person here with any dignity?"
"Ah Qi, this isn't purely a luck-based game."
Caelus grinned and placed the chibi representing a thoroughly bewildered March 7th squarely on the jail square.
"Whaaat! That's not fair!"
Amid Little March's wail of protest, the atmosphere grew livelier and livelier.
Monopoly looked simple, but once you got into it, it was seriously addictive.
When the round ended, Stelle — who had played both Caelus and Qingque off against each other and reaped the rewards — came out the victor, holding up a stack of play money and laughing her head off.
"Not bad, not bad! Even the simple version is this fun — is there a more complex one?"
Drawing on years of sneaking card games during idle hours, Qingque judged this game to have enormous replay value. It was easy to carry around too — all you'd need was to recreate the board on cloth or some other portable material.
"This is the base version. I think we could do a Xianzhou localization — add a 'manpower' stat, swap buying properties for capturing planets and raising armies, bring in the IPC to offer players loans, and throw in some enemies."
As he spoke, Caelus used his multitasking to mentally control his phone and type out a message to Asta.
Sorry — running four parallel processes just lets you do whatever you want.
"Xianzhou versus the Denizens of Abundance?" Qingque mused, her eyes growing brighter and brighter. "That would definitely be more appealing to Xianzhou people."
"As for the complex version — now that's something else entirely. Its name is: 'Soukaizan Leap — The Great Fissure of the World-Opening Earth'!"
Caelus's voice rose with theatrical flair as he stood up and struck a bizarre pose.
— A tribute to the legendary brainless board game designer, Lu Zhanbo.
"It's a mega board game that needs at least eight players."
"Then let's call up Seele, Bronie, Bronya, and Li Sushang to play next time!" Stelle suggested with great enthusiasm.
"Sure — I just hope you cry."
Caelus's smile was all sunshine and warmth.
The whole board is filled with 'me' — what are you going to win with?
And they could mix in Truth or Dare for extra fun. Just thinking about it was already hilarious.
"Are there more board games? Old Caelus!"
The look in Qingque's eyes as she gazed at Caelus was growing increasingly fervent. This man was an absolute treasure trove!
So many little games perfect for sneaking in during downtime and slacking off.
Simple rules, strong randomness, clear win conditions between players, easy to make and easy to carry.
Without a doubt, Qingque thought that Caelus's localized Monopoly — renamed to the far more fitting "Journey of the Hunt"— could, once the details were polished, become the Xianzhou's second Celestial Jade.
"Plenty more, don't worry. I'll tell you about every board game I know, we give them a little makeover, and they all become patents of the Celestial Jade Group."
Caelus patted Qingque's smooth, delicate shoulder.
"I've also got a card game that, once it's made, is guaranteed to take off. Its name is 'Xianzhou Killer'."
"Yes!"
Qingque broke into a rare display of unrestrained, jumping-for-joy delight, and wrapped herself around Caelus, rubbing back and forth.
Caelus produced a stack of blank cards:
"Let's all design it together."
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