“Not bad, not bad~ You’ve all sung well~ Well then, off you go~” The Cave Immortal said.
“Thank you,” the children replied in unison.
Everyone set off once more.
Huo Zinan took Ye Qingxi’s hand and walked beside him, clutching it tightly.
Ye Qingxi: .……He really is terrified.
Ye Qingxi felt like laughing, but, afraid that if he did, Huo Zinan would realise he was laughing at him, he forced himself to hold it back.
Zhang Ning was leading the way, and before long he spotted something on the wall not far ahead.
He ran over quickly and discovered it was a slingshot.
“It’s a slingshot,” Zhang Ning said happily.
The others immediately gathered round.
There were small pebbles in the cave, so Zhang Ning simply handed the flashlight to Yang Shu, took the slingshot himself, picked up a small pebble and fired it off. With a ‘whoosh’, the pebble struck the wall.
Tao Tao exclaimed, “Wow! Zhang Ning, you’re so amazing!’
Zhang Ning smiled proudly, then picked up a few small stones and tucked them into his pocket.
“I’ll keep this slingshot for now. I’ll protect you all. If any bad guys come along, I’ll shoot them.”
“Mm-hmm.” Tao Tao and He Lei both nodded in agreement.
Zhang Ning, holding the slingshot and flashlight, continued to lead the group forward.
As they walked along, Ye Qingxii suddenly spotted a fluffy teddy bear.
The next moment, Yang Shu called out, “What’s that? A doll?”
Zhang Ning hurried over, picked it up and examined it. “It’s a toy bear.”
He walked back over holding the teddy bear and looked at Yang Shu. “You saw it, so I’ll give it to you.”
Yang Shu hesitated for a moment, then said, “You should keep it for now.”
“We came in here together, so everyone should get a share. Let’s have a look around for a moment to see if there’s anything else, and then we’ll divide it up.”
Zhang Ning thought she had a point, so he put the slingshot back in his pocket, hugging the teddy bear and holding the flashlight.
He shone the light carefully into the cave, trying to see if there was anything else, but discovered nothing.
Ye Qingxi followed behind him, and as they walked forward, he suddenly felt as though something had flickered twice.
He shone the flashlight in that direction again, and sure enough, it did indeed look as though something was flickering.
Ye Qingxi took a step forward, but Huo Zinan squeezed his hand, and asked in confusion, “What’s the matter?”
“It looks like there’s something there.”
Huo Zinan: !!!
The very next second, Ye Qingxi felt him grip his hand even tighter.
Ye Qingxi was at a loss for words.
“It’s nothing,” he reassured Huo Zinan. “It’s just twinkling.”
“It’s not a ghost.” He leaned in close and whispered this half of the sentence into Huo Zinan’s ear.
Huo Zinan didn’t seem to want anyone to know he was afraid of ghosts, so Ye Qingxi didn’t want anyone to know either.
Huo Zinan: ……
“So you don’t need to be afraid.” Ye Qingxi said in a soothing tone.
Huo Zinan flushed instantly. “Who’s afraid! I’m not afraid! I’m not afraid at all!”
“Alright, all right,” Ye Qingxi agreed readily. “You’re not afraid, you’re not afraid at all. I’m the one who’s afraid, I’m especially scared.”
Huo Zinan: .…… I feel like this statement doesn’t quite add up.
[Hahahaha, so Nan Nan really is scared of ghosts!]
[I wouldn’t have thought so, not even Lei Lei was that scared, yet you, Nan Nan, are actually scared.]
[Nan Nan was so frightened he clung tightly to Xiaoxi.]
[It feels like Nan Nan really likes Xiaoxi~]
[I think so too. He’d only just finished tying his shoelaces when he suddenly walked over to Xiaoxi’s side.]
[Come to think of it, at the start Nan Nan said they’d hold hands according to their ages—so doesn’t that mean he would hold hands with Xiaoxi?]
[Wow! Nan Nan, you little rascal! You’re quite the sharp one, aren’t you!]
[I told you, Xiaoxi is very popular! Just as I thought!]
[Our Xiaoxi really is loved by adults and children alike, hehe~]
The dads watching from the monitoring room couldn’t help but laugh unexpectedly.
“But what did Xiaoxi see?” Hu Kai asked curiously.
Mu Shaowu wasn’t sure either. He stared at the monitor, terrified that something might happen to his son.
Ye Qingxi walked over slowly and knelt down, and could faintly make out several diamond-like objects.
He reached out, picked up the diamonds, and then wiped them with a tissue.
It was a sparkling diamond bracelet, clearly designed for a young girl, with a little rabbit clutching a carrot right in the centre.
When Ye Qingxi brought the bracelet back, He Lei and Yang Shu’s eyes lit up, both secretly longing to have it.
But neither of them had the nerve to say so.
After all, Ye Qingxi had found the bracelet. Moreover, Yang Shu knew if that one of them took it, the other would be left without.
Ye Qingxi handed it over to Zhang Ning. “Hold onto this for now, we’ll share it out later.”
Zhang Ning replied with an ‘Oh’ and slipped it into another pocket of his trousers.
Now everyone was much more careful, afraid they might miss another treasure.
However, right up until they reached the next bend in the path, they didn’t discover anything else.
Zhang Ning sighed, but no sooner had he done so that, the very next second, he spotted a pile of straw just round the bend, as if it were concealing something.
Zhang Ning hurried over, parted the straw, and discovered a box.
Zhang Ning: !!!
The others gathered round once more.
“Is it a treasure chest?” Tao Tao asked curiously. “How do we open it?”
“It’s a combination lock,” said Yang Shu.
“But we don’t know the combination,” Zhang Ning scratched his head.
“Never mind,” he decided. “Let’s carry it out first, then find a stone to smash it open.”
Ye Qingxi thought to himself: …That’s certainly one way of doing it.
After Zhang Ning finished speaking he went to pick up the box, only to hear a voice say, “Who’s tampering with my treasure chest?”
Zhang Ning quickly let go. “Who are you?”
“I am the owner of this treasure chest.”
Zhang Ning: ???
Zhang Ning was very skeptical.
“Would you like to know the combination to my treasure chest?” the voice asked.
“How?” Zhang Ning kept turning his head, trying to find him.
“You’ll need to answer my question first,” the voice replied firmly.
“In my treasure chest, there are six gold bars, six silver ingots, six copper coins and six diamonds. So, how many items are there in total in my treasure chest?”
“Twenty-four,” replied Ye Qingxi without hesitation.
“Correct. Now let me ask you this. One day, I returned from a treasure hunt and added three gold bars to the chest. To make room for these three gold bars, I threw out two silver ingots, then I split the copper coins in half, and stuck the diamonds together to make a bracelet. So now, how many items are there?”
“Twenty-six,” replied Ye Qingxi.
“Oh, you’re quite impressive, little kid~ Since you’re so clever, answer one more question~”
“What is it?”
“On the day of the treasure hunt, I brought back some pheasants and wild rabbits, but I can’t remember exactly how many of each there were. I only remember that when I went to count them later, the pheasants and wild rabbits had a total of eighteen legs and six heads. So, exactly how many of each were there?”
Huo Zinan thought he was being rather silly. “You’ve already counted six heads. Couldn’t you have checked, whilst you were counting, how many were rabbit heads and how many were pheasant heads? Pheasants and rabbits look quite different, after all.”
[Hahahaha, Nan Nan’s spot on!]
[Production team: .…. Oh, right…]
[This is hilarious, Nan Nan, aren’t you scared at all?]
[Nan Nan: What a fool!]
Ye Qingxi almost burst out laughing.
He really is just a child, so adorable.
“Three rabbits, three pheasants,” Ye Qingxi answered.
The livestream audience reacted with surprise: [He knows that too!]
[Wait, is this something a child his age is supposed to know?]
[This question clearly wasn’t meant for him, was it? It was meant for Zhang Ning, right?]
[And he answered far too quickly, it was practically instant!]
[Wow, are celebrity kids under such intense pressure these days? Are they already learning the ‘chickens and rabbits in a cage’ problem at such a young age?]
[And he’s learnt it so thoroughly that he hardly even has to think about it.]
Zhang Ye looked at Mu Shaowu in surprise. “Xiaoxi already learnt the ‘chickens and rabbits in the same cage’ problem?”
Mu Shaowu: .…… Um, well.
“M-maybe he learnt it.”
“Maybe?” Zhang Ye asked in confusion.
Mu Shaowu said helplessly. “Xiaoxi had a very talented grandfather. He used to be looked after by his grandfather, who taught him a great deal. Things like calligraphy, playing the piano, classical poetry, English, and some maths. So I don’t know exactly what he
learned from him, but I do know he knows a lot—things not typical for his age. Nine times out of ten, it was his grandfather who taught him.”
Zhang Ye: …Well, his grandfather must be truly remarkable! To be able to teach a child all that!
It’s worth noting that he’s already considered a parent who takes his child’s education very seriously, as he started focusing on Zhang Ning’s studies at an early age. Back then, when the programme crew asked him what the most difficult maths problem Zhang Ning could solve was, he proudly answered ‘chickens and rabbits in the same cage’, which is actually one of the simplest problems— and Zhang Ning had to think for a while before giving the answer; he couldn’t come up with it straight away.
Who would have thought that Ye Qingxi wouldn’t even need time to calculate it?
“Does he have any plans to start teaching classes?” Zhang Ye inquired.
Mu Shaowu: ???
I’m afraid that if his grandfather dared to bring it up, you wouldn’t dare to send your son over.
Mu Shaowu lowered his voice and asked, “Is there any chance that, if he were still alive, Xiaoxi would call me “Dad” and would live with me instead?”
Only then did Zhang Ye realise what was going on.
“Sorry, sorry,” he apologised hurriedly. “It’s just that, Teacher Mu, you and Xiaoxi are like a real father and son. Xiao Ning and I are much the same, so I completely forgot for a moment. I’m truly sorry.”
“It’s all right,” said Mu Shaowu.
He Yao, sitting nearby, silently scoffed to himself upon hearing this. He didn’t even know what his own son did or didn’t know. Yet here was Zhang Ye, sucking up by saying he and Ye Qingxi looked like a real father and son. What kind of resemblence did they have? Their gender, perhaps?
Just you wait. The next time he ran into Ye Qingxi, he was going to tell him all about this.
He wondered what Ye Qingxi would think of it then.
“How on earth do you know that?!”
Inside the cave, Zhang Ning looked at Ye Qingxi in astonishment. “My tutor has only just taught me this, and you actually know it too?”
Ye Qingxi: ……
Ye Qingxi could only invoke his all-powerful grandfather.
Grandpa Ye, I’m sorry, but I really can’t help it QAQ.
“My Grandpa taught me that once.”
“Well, there you go,” Mu Shaowu said, as if he’d known all along. “I told you, anything I haven’t taught him, and anything not in his current textbooks, is basically something his grandad taught him.”
Zhang Ye nodded: What a master teacher!
That’s truly impressive!
“Just because your grandad taught you, you know how to do it?” Zhang Ning grew increasingly puzzled.
Ye Qingxi: ……
“I’ve been studying it for a long time.”
“But you’re not even six yet.”
“I will be soon,” Ye Qingxi replied. “I’ll turn six next month.”
“You’re so clever,” Zhang Ning remarked with a sincere sigh. “If only I could transplant your brain into mine, how wonderful would that be!”
Tao Tao nodded. “I’d like that too.”
Yang Shu: Me too.
Ye Qingxi: …..
Why did those words sound so out of place in this cave?
He couldn’t shake the sudden chill down his spine.
Author’s note:
Xiaoxi: What on earth are you all on about? Are you the zombies from Plants vs Zombies?
Zhang Ning: Zombies want to eat your brain, but I’m not eating it. I’ll keep it for myself.
Tao Tao: Mhm.
Xiaoxi: ……
Xiaoxi tightly guarded his mind.
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