Chapter 116 - 108: The Second Mysterious Gift

Chapter 116: Chapter 108: The Second Mysterious Gift

The teachers took their students and split up to search. Fortunately, the park wasn’t large, and they found him quickly.

"Teacher, Li Jiahao is over here!"

Li Beixing turned around and saw two boys, Li Zilin and Wang Zeyu, waving frantically from a corner of the park. Behind them, the square-headed Li Jiahao looked dazed, as if he had just been woken up.

Li Beixing ran over, huffing with anger. "Li Jiahao, what is going on with you? Didn’t we agree to stick close to the main group? Even if you have to go to the restroom, it’s best to go with two or three others. Where did you run off to?"

Li Zilin, who had spotted him first, beat him to the punch. "He was sleeping on the bench behind the flowerbed just now!"

Seeing so many people gathering around, Li Jiahao knew he had caused a major disaster and was instantly terrified. "Teacher, I’m sorry. I ate too much just now, got a little sleepy, and took a short nap."

"Did you stay up late playing games last night?" Li Beixing’s anger had yet to subside.

Li Jiahao hurriedly shook his head. "No, I didn’t."

Wang Zeyu, standing next to him, exposed his lie. "Yes, he did! Right before I logged off to go to bed last night, I still saw him in a match!"

Li Jiahao immediately glared at him. "Wang Zeyu, you traitor!"

Seeing that the two brats were about to start wrestling, Li Beixing said crossly, "Alright, enough. Hurry back to your class’s line. If you run off again, see if I don’t call your mom to teach you a lesson!"

"Please don’t, Teacher! I know I was wrong!"

"..."

Li Beixing stood with her hands on her hips, sighing inwardly, "I’ll be angered to death by these troublemakers sooner or later." She quickly called the other two teachers who had been helping with the search, telling them that the missing student had been found and they could head back to leave.

Upon returning to the class line, Li Jiahao was unsurprisingly condemned by everyone. He could only hang his head in shame, afraid of inciting public outrage. However, as soon as everyone’s attention shifted away from him, he decisively grabbed Wang Zeyu and delivered an elbow strike. He wanted to show this kid what happened when you sold out a friend. Next time they played a duo queue, he would make sure Wang Zeyu’s rank plummeted!

Li Beixing recounted the students. After confirming no one else was missing, she finally told the driver to start the bus. She felt mentally exhausted. After this incident, she never wanted to organize such a thankless group activity ever again.

Chen Qiyun sat quietly in her seat, watching the trees and flowers constantly retreating outside the window. She was actually quite happy to come out and play today, although she didn’t make it very obvious. Of course, this definitely wasn’t because she was afraid that if she opened her mouth, the residual chili oil smell would hit the classmate sitting next to her.

The other students, on the other hand, were very active, chattering from start to finish as if they had endless things to say. On the way back, everyone was sharing the photos they had just taken with one another. Chen Qiyun didn’t take any pictures. She didn’t really like taking photos—or rather, she didn’t like being in them. She hadn’t learned any photography skills either, so her poses always defaulted to flashing a peace sign. It was boring.

Actually, she had used her smartwatch earlier to snap a few pictures of the flora, some exhibits in the museum, and the crocodiles in the breeding area. However, the camera resolution was limited, so her photos weren’t as good as those taken by the rest of the class. Her biggest harvest this time was sharing the delicious food Chen Jingle had made with Teacher Li. Teacher Li obviously liked it very much.

"I’ll have to tell Chen Jingle about this later, just so he knows whose credit this is!" Chen Qiyun thought, feeling both smug and proud. But when she thought about how hard she had worked while Chen Jingle just sat back and reaped the rewards, she instantly felt a wave of disdain for him. He was such a useless guy!

The bus returned to the school gate and stopped. Seeing that it was already past eleven o’clock, Li Beixing figured there was no need to head back to the classroom together, so she dismissed them on the spot, reminding them to be careful on their way home. Like everyone else, Chen Qiyun said goodbye to the teacher and headed home.

"I’m back!" Carrying her small backpack, Chen Qiyun skipped into the courtyard of Chen Jingle’s home.

Chen Jingle checked the time, a little surprised she had returned so early. "Was Crocodile Park fun?"

"It was just alright. There weren’t many rides we could go on. The water park is probably the most fun, but you have to buy separate tickets for it. The teacher was afraid it’d be dangerous and didn’t let us go, so we just strolled around casually. We finished touring it in a little over an hour," Chen Qiyun answered truthfully. She then added, "Oh, right! I let Teacher Li try the beef you made."

"Yeah, and then?" Chen Jingle looked at her.

Chen Qiyun grinned. "She really liked it."

"Yeah, and then?"

"Make more of it from now on!"

Chen Jingle sneered. "Just say it if you want to eat it yourself."

"I want to eat it, and Teacher Li wants to eat it too." Chen Qiyun didn’t think there was anything wrong with that statement.

Chen Jingle was speechless. "If she wants to eat it, can’t she make it herself? What kind of logic dictates that a parent should cook for a teacher?"

Chen Qiyun’s eyes widened. "You have to use your cooking skills to capture her heart!"

Capture her heart? Yeah, right. If good food could capture a beautiful woman’s heart, then beautiful women would fall for chefs, not handsome guys! Chen Jingle chuckled, not even bothering to reply.

Seeing this, Chen Qiyun pursed her lips, thinking to herself, "Chen Jingle is still too useless. If you just had the ability to find a girlfriend, I wouldn’t have to worry about you this much."

However, thinking about it carefully, given Chen Jingle’s conditions, he shouldn’t be lacking in girls who liked him. He just wasn’t proactive enough. These days, girls all liked proactive guys. As long as he took a bit of initiative, there would probably be many girls willing to date him. After all, he wasn’t ugly—in fact, he could even be considered very handsome. Teacher Li shouldn’t dislike him.

So she asked, "Why can’t you be a little more proactive?"

"Proactive about what?" Chen Jingle washed his hands, getting ready to eat.

"Proactive about pursuing girls!"

Chen Jingle didn’t care in the slightest. "I don’t like it!"

Chen Qiyun blinked. "You don’t like what? You don’t like Teacher Li?"

"I don’t like proactively pursuing someone."

"No wonder you don’t have a girlfriend."

"..."

Chen Jingle felt that this little brat was truly being noisy today. He really wanted to kick her out of the house.

"What’s for lunch?" Seeing him take out the bowls and chopsticks, Chen Qiyun instantly forgot what she was about to say and hurriedly followed him into the kitchen.

Chen Jingle glanced back at her. "Didn’t you already eat?"

Chen Qiyun spoke with righteous confidence, "That was at ten o’clock! It only counts as a mid-morning snack at best!"

Who ate lunch at ten in the morning anyway? So it absolutely did not count!

Chen Jingle took a deep breath, suppressing his rising blood pressure. "Cold tossed beef and cold tossed potatoes."

Chen Qiyun’s eyes lit up. "I want some too!"

She had already eaten the cold tossed beef, but she didn’t know what the cold tossed potatoes would taste like. However, she found out very soon.

When Chen Jingle lifted the stainless steel fly cover from the dining table, Chen Qiyun’s eyes widened. Her gaze swept back and forth over the plate of cold tossed potatoes. "You can make potatoes like this?"

It just looked a bit spicy. But having just eaten the cold tossed beef, she knew that the chili oil wasn’t actually too spicy—it was more fragrant and entirely acceptable. She quickly grabbed a bowl and chopsticks to serve herself some rice!

After picking up a piece of the cold tossed potato and eating it, Chen Qiyun felt as if the doors to a new world had opened. "So good! Brother Le, you’re amazing for actually coming up with this recipe."

Chen Jingle absentmindedly shoveled rice into his mouth. "I didn’t invent this dish; I just learned how to make it."

"Being able to make it this delicious is also amazing." Chen Qiyun currently sounded like a little flatterer.

Chen Jingle glanced at her. "That’s true."

It seemed she still knew the difference between being fed once and being fed every day.

Chen Qiyun’s chopsticks didn’t stop moving as she mumbled indistinctly, "When Grandma and my mom stir-fry potatoes, they usually just cook them until they’re done. Either way, it never tastes bad."

"That’s just how potatoes are." Chen Jingle felt that potatoes could easily be called the most perfect vegetable. Praise the Potato God!

"Oh, right!" Chen Qiyun suddenly remembered. "I’m almost 1.54 meters tall now. You can start preparing the second mystery gift!"

"1.54 meters? Seriously?" Chen Jingle was surprised. Didn’t this mean her growth speed was almost catching up to him, a guy with a system?

"Of course it’s serious!" Chen Qiyun was very dissatisfied with his doubt. "I’m drinking two bottles of milk a day now, and I go to bed before ten o’clock at night! Plus, I jump rope at home!"

If that was the case, then it was quite normal. As they always said, if you wanted to grow taller, you had to max out your intake of meat, eggs, and milk, sleep early, wake up early, and exercise. A centimeter a week was a very good pace. Being a preteen was exactly the time when the body grew the most.

Chen Jingle remembered back in high school, a classmate had come back from summer vacation having grown a whopping fifteen centimeters—it was absolutely exaggerated. He himself had only managed to grow seven to eight centimeters over a single summer at most. Calculating it, a centimeter a week was a very normal growth rate. She needed to grow as much as she could while she still had the chance; otherwise, once she reached high school, a girl’s height would basically be set in stone.

Since that was the case, he might as well prepare for it. Chen Jingle wasn’t about to go back on his word and deceive a little kid. "Alright, I’ll arrange it for you later!"

Chen Qiyun instantly perked up. "So what will this mystery gift be?"

Chen Jingle looked at her like she was a foolish child. "Do you think I’d tell you in advance?"

"Hmph, don’t tell me then!" Chen Qiyun angrily turned her head to the side. However, the thought of Chen Jingle racking his brains to prepare a mystery gift for her immediately made her happy again.

Actually, there was no need to rack his brains at all; Chen Jingle already had an idea. Back when he was learning sketching, he had thought about drawing a portrait of Chen Qiyun. With his current skill level, whatever he drew would be stunning at first glance. Little Douding would probably love a gift like that. Whether she kept it as a collectible or showed it off to her classmates and friends, it would be more than sufficient.

Watching her hold her bowl and scarf down her food like a gluttonous little pig, Chen Jingle couldn’t help but chuckle, prompting Chen Qiyun to look up at him curiously. Seeing him look away, she immersed herself back into the delicious food.

Mmm, it was so good!

After eating, Chen Qiyun went to wash the dishes, taking the opportunity to wash her lunchbox as well. When she finished, she used the seedless grapes in Chen Jingle’s house as a palate cleanser, finally feeling the spicy aftertaste in her mouth fade a bit. Cold tossed dishes were delicious, but the lingering smell was too strong, which was truly frustrating.

After Chen Qiyun left, Chen Jingle took out his sketch paper, charcoal pencils, and other tools, and began to draw. He planned to draw a half-body portrait of Chen Qiyun.

Did people still remember the origins of the idiom about having a fully formed image in mind before putting pen to paper?

Chen Jingle was intimately familiar with what Chen Qiyun looked like. He could practically draw her with his eyes closed. The so-called structural dimensionality and lighting were no problem for him at all. The key was, what kind of Chen Qiyun should he draw? It all depended on what kind of emotion he, as the artist, wanted to convey to the audience.

What was his deepest impression of Chen Qiyun?

With just a moment’s thought, a smile surfaced on Chen Jingle’s face.