Joseph looked at the three people giggling incessantly, completely confused. He didn't understand what was going on, but he didn't intend to intervene in their conversation either. His eyes immediately landed on the red costume in Alex's hands, so he didn't pursue the topic of their conversation, but instead gestured towards the costume, "What is this?""Halloween!" Alex held up the costume in his hands and cheered excitedly. Apparently, twenty-year-old Alex had been looking forward to the arrival of Halloween for a long time. "Look, this is a costume I specially went to a thrift store to dig up. How is it? It's pretty good, right? Pretty good, right?""What... is... this?" Hugo looked at the bright red onesie, full of question marks. "Is this skin-tight?" Hugo saw the material of the clothing and strongly doubted the effect after putting it on."Yes." It was Charlize who answered, her decisive tone showing her professional knowledge, but her horrified expression was not quite as amusing. Hugo and Charlize looked at each other, and both couldn't help but twitch their mouths."spider-man, this is spider-man. Can't you guys tell?" Alex still didn't want to give up hope, his eyes flashing with expectation as his gaze moved constantly between Charlize, Hugo, and Joseph.Hugo immediately had a bunch of black lines appear on his forehead. He could guarantee that if spider-man went out wearing a costume like this, he would definitely be eliminated as a weirdo, especially since Hugo had seen the live-action "spider-man" movie released in the 21st century, making this outfit look even stranger.Joseph's reaction was slightly better. He looked it up and down carefully twice and nodded reluctantly, "Although it's a bit different from the feeling in the comics, why didn't you choose blue for your pants?"Alex also regretfully tugged at the bright red pants, "Because of the price...""Oh..." The three of them, Joseph included, suddenly realized. Then Joseph pointed to the sleeve area, "Then what are you going to do about the spider web part?" Although the chest of the outfit had a spider-like logo, without the spider web, it wouldn't be considered spider-man."I have a plan, I intend to..." Seeing that Joseph had responded to him, Alex immediately began to speak excitedly, with a great intention to talk at length."You really have been looking forward to Halloween for a long time." Hugo couldn't help but sigh. Although he had participated in Halloween activities before, he rarely had as much enthusiasm and initiative as Alex. Perhaps it was because there was no Halloween tradition within Asia, so the atmosphere in this regard wasn't that strong."Of course! I've been looking forward to this day for a long time!" Alex's eyes were almost radiating light. "...Don't tell me you guys haven't prepared?" Alex noticed that the three people in front of him hadn't responded, and his surprised tone was almost cracking."Prepare for what?" Charlize asked curiously. She still didn't know enough about American customs. "For candy? But you've already passed the age for 'trick or treat'." Actually, there were quite a few college students who would still go play "trick or treat" on Halloween, but compared to candy, enjoying the atmosphere was the most important thing, and of course, pranks as well."This is a carnival party, it has nothing to do with age!" Alex explained excitedly, but still didn't get any response. "Oh, God! You are all a bunch of boring people! Boring!" Alex obviously couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't like Halloween. "You actually haven't prepared for Halloween, this is just too terrible."Alex complained angrily and walked back to his room with his costume. Watching Alex's stiff back, the three of them—Hugo, Charlize, and Joseph—looked at each other and couldn't help but laugh."This reminds me of my little sister Mary's anticipation for Halloween." Joseph recalled his family, and a smile couldn't help but tug at the corners of his mouth. "She would always wait by the pumpkins early on, waiting for us to carve pumpkins together. But after seeing the jack-o'-lanterns decorated, she would be terrified and always want to hide behind me. She insisted that I take her to get candy, and even if my brother Peter volunteered to go, she wouldn't want him. So every year when Halloween came, I was always very busy."Joseph's words made Hugo and Charlize smile as well; it was always like this when talking about family."Then what about this year, are you going back?" Hugo asked. In his memory, it seemed Joseph didn't go back last year either—not for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas.Joseph sighed. "Mary has grown up; she hasn't needed me to take her trick-or-treating for a few years now." He said this with great regret, full of melancholy. "Besides, we should still have promotional activities for Halloween." Joseph took a deep breath and adjusted his slightly disappointed mood. "However, there is a holiday for Thanksgiving, are you planning to go back?"When Joseph asked this, Hugo's first reaction was to look at Charlize, because he didn't think this was asked of him. Not only had he not been home for ten years, but more importantly, he was "homeless" here; he couldn't travel back.Charlize didn't react at first and was stunned. She thought it was asked of Hugo, so how did the question end up on her? "No, I won't go back. I'll go to New York during Christmas; I've made an agreement with my mother. What about you?" Charlize threw the question back to Hugo.It was only then that Hugo realized—no, he did have a home to go back to here. Hugo Lancaster was not an orphan; on the contrary, his parents were alive. However, the problem was that Hugo had transmigrated for ten months already, but he had never spoken to his parents on the phone, let alone met them. And the memories of family in his mind were still just some scattered, vague fragments. Apart from knowing his parents were divorced, he didn't have much specific information.So, following common logic, if parents don't contact their children for as long as ten months, isn't that obvious? The relationship between parents and children was very bad. Regardless of whose fault it was, at least for now, there were no signs of thawing. Therefore, after Charlize threw the question over, Hugo was stunned for a few seconds, not knowing how to answer.Joseph looked at the silent Hugo. His understanding of Hugo's family affairs was also very limited; he estimated that Ron Meyer or Tracy Jacobs would know more. But in the year or so that Joseph and Hugo had been together, Hugo had almost never contacted his parents. The only few times they had contacted each other seemed to be before last Christmas, and they had all ended unhappily. Family was not a frequently appearing keyword in Hugo's conversational dictionary."Hugo, why don't you try calling your father?" Joseph suggested uncertainly. If it were before, Joseph would never have given Hugo any advice about family because he simply disdained paying attention to Hugo's private life; Hugo wasn't worth it. But since this year, Hugo had changed a lot, and the two of them had gotten along much more harmoniously, which was why Joseph tentatively gave a suggestion.Sure enough, after hearing this suggestion, Hugo didn't get angry as Joseph had feared, but instead pondered for a while, "Maybe I'll give it a try?"But, what should he say after calling? Not to mention this father he had never met, even with the parents from before Hugo transmigrated, he hadn't been in touch for a long time. Even if there was contact, it was always with his mother. Suddenly, Hugo noticed that Joseph suggested contacting his father, not his mother. Was there any reason for this?Furthermore, Hugo didn't have the habit of celebrating Thanksgiving. He knew that the American Thanksgiving tradition was family gatherings, followed by complaining and arguing with each other. In many American movies, family conflicts erupted on Thanksgiving. Hugo didn't know if the movies were exaggerating or if real life was just like that. Therefore, Hugo also didn't know what to say after calling his father: "Shall we have a meal together?" or "Do you want to get together for Thanksgiving this year?"Hugo rubbed his temples; he felt a headache before even making the call. Joseph had gained some courage from Hugo's affirmative reply just now and continued, "You can just send a greeting, see what his plans are for Thanksgiving. As for the rest... you'll have an idea when you're on the call.""Whew... I got it." Hugo adjusted his breathing. "The phone number, my father's phone number... do you have it?" Hugo wrinkled his nose. "I don't remember." This was a hurdle he had to admit, because there were no clues in Hugo's mind.Joseph wasn't surprised at all; it seemed this was taken for granted. "I remember there seemed to be a note in your wallet. If not, you can check the 'dead poets society' script. You always have a habit of tucking some important information in there, or simply recording it on it." Previously, Hugo was a bit superstitious, believing that "dead poets society" had brought him good luck, so he always had the habit of saving important things in the script.Hugo frowned. "Okay, I got it. Anyway, there's still some time before Thanksgiving, no rush." If he could recall more about his family during this time, that would be even better. At the very least, he needed to know what was going on with him and his mother. If he could brew up some content for a conversation with his father, that would be even more perfect."So, what's for dinner today?" Hugo looked at the vegetables on the dining table. Charlize had been organizing them for a long time, spreading all the vegetables on the table, but she still hadn't put them into the refrigerator.Charlize knew Hugo was changing the subject, but she didn't expose him. Instead, she lowered her head and looked at the vegetables on the table. "There are still some clams in the refrigerator, so let's prepare pasta. Actually, if you had bought more potatoes, we could have made mashed potato gratin. It's a pity there are only three..." Charlize helplessly rolled the three lonely potatoes on the table."Why did you only buy three potatoes?" Joseph asked with a surprised look, which immediately brought the topic back to the one before Joseph entered the door. Hugo and Charlize looked at each other and laughed.
