Li Beixing felt her heart flutter slightly.
Previously, she had assumed Chen Qiyun was exaggerating a bit when she praised her older brother’s looks. After all, a "sibling filter" was normal. She hadn’t expected it to be a completely factual description.
"Is this really your brother?"
She couldn’t quite believe it.
"If this were back in our school days, he’d be an absolute campus idol," she thought to herself. "With those features and that aura, who knows how many girls his age would see him as their unattainable dream guy. Would someone like this really lack a partner? I don’t believe it! I absolutely refuse to believe it! Even if someone called him a master player, no one would object.
"Let me check if this is a stock photo from the internet... hmm, it’s not. Let’s zoom in to see if it’s heavily photoshopped... hmm, not that either."
GASP.
Li Beixing shifted into a more proper sitting posture, staring intently at the photo in hopes of finding a flaw. Unfortunately, there were none. In all fairness, the photography skills used for this picture were abysmal. However, it perfectly met the three golden rules of portrait photography: the subject was devastatingly handsome. So, it still looked great.
"Of course!" Chen Qiyun was dissatisfied with her teacher’s lack of trust.
"I just feel like you two don’t look alike at all."
"He’s my older cousin."
"Oh, no wonder. Um, does your cousin really not have a girlfriend?"
Li Beixing admitted to herself that she had fallen for his looks at first sight.
"But isn’t that just human nature?" she justified. "People are visual creatures. Who could reject a handsome guy or a beautiful woman? What’s wrong with hoping your significant other is good-looking? Absolutely nothing! So, no one can blame me!"
However, she still felt that things weren’t quite so simple. She decided to ask a few more questions. Asking around wouldn’t hurt, and it would prevent any misunderstandings that might leave her making a fool of herself in the end.
Chen Qiyun replied with absolute certainty, "Ms. Li, have you ever seen a guy with a girlfriend stay cooped up alone in his house all day, every day?"
"What if it’s a long-distance relationship?"
"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" Chen Qiyun denied it without a second thought. "If he really had one, he would’ve said so ages ago. He wouldn’t be constantly pressured by the family to get married. He’s just an older, single shut-in."
Curious, Li Beixing asked, "Then what does your cousin do for a living? He’s at home all day, doesn’t he need to work?"
"He says he’s retired."
"Huh???" Li Beixing was completely bewildered. "Wait! Isn’t the retirement age sixty-five? How old is your cousin this year?"
"I think he just turned thirty."
"Then how is he already retired?"
"I don’t know, that’s what he said. He looks like he has a lot of free time every day, and he never worries about food or money, so he must really be retired."
"..." Li Beixing suddenly felt this sounded a bit shady.
Perhaps she was just a bit traditional, but she couldn’t help feeling that a man without a relatively stable job, who just stayed at home all day without going out, was rather weird. Follow the newest chapters on NovelPing.
"Is he just mooching off his parents?" she thought. "Given the current economic environment, it’s not entirely unacceptable, but what about the future? He can’t live off them forever, right? Even though he’s handsome, good looks won’t put food on the table. It would be best if he had an income.
"Hmm, if he wants to be a full-time househusband, not having a job wouldn’t be a big deal. My meager salary might not be enough to support him, but that doesn’t matter. I still have my parents. I can just ask them to subsidize us a little!"
...
"I’m getting way ahead of myself," she realized. Li Beixing hurriedly shook her head, pulling her thoughts back to the present. She decided to dig for more information.
"Then what did your cousin do for a living before?"
"I heard my dad and the others say he co-founded a company with some friends, but he eventually quit."
Chen Qiyun didn’t know much herself. She was just a junior high student. Managing to play some video games after finishing her homework was good enough; there was no way she’d know the ins and outs of everything. Now, if you asked her which stall at the school gates sold the best grilled sausages, she would know that!
Upon seeing this reply, Li Beixing’s imagination instantly went into overdrive.
"Maybe there was a clash in ideals, so they parted ways?" she theorized.
For a fleeting second, her heart actually ached for him.
"Isn’t it obvious who was right and who was wrong? Just look at his photo!"
Li Beixing decided to probe further from a different angle. "So, what kind of person do you think your cousin is?"
Chen Qiyun thought for a moment before typing, "He’s probably considered a very impressive person. He was the first college student in our family. Plus, I heard my dad say that he paid for the construction of his house all by himself. It’s the most beautiful house in our village. It’s even prettier than the Bi Gui Garden villas across from us!"
Oh?
Li Beixing raised an eyebrow. "Then, does he have any hobbies?"
"I’m not really sure."
"...Does he smoke or drink? Does he play mahjong or anything like that?"
"He doesn’t smoke or drink, and he doesn’t play mahjong. No one in our family touches that stuff."
"That’s great," Li Beixing thought. "There aren’t many people these days who stay completely away from tobacco and alcohol. Actually, drinking is fine as long as he’s not an alcoholic who gets crazy when drunk. But I absolutely cannot stand secondhand smoke."
Curious, she typed, "But he must have something to pass the time with, right?"
"Does planting flowers count? He’s planted quite a few in his courtyard, and they look pretty nice."
"That counts!"
"What about raising cats?"
"He also often cooks delicious food at home."
"All of that counts!"
Li Beixing let out a long sigh of relief. Thank goodness he was a normal person. In fact, he was almost *too* normal.
"But here’s the problem: since your cousin is so great, why doesn’t he have a girlfriend?"
This was what she found hardest to understand. It just didn’t make logical sense. Back in her school days, the male classmates with much worse prospects than him had all dated several girls, provided their standards weren’t ridiculously high.
Chen Qiyun replied, "I don’t know."
Great, asking her was a complete waste of time.
Li Beixing lowered her head in thought before typing, "Then what are your cousin’s thoughts on the matter?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I mean, is he looking for a girlfriend? [Eye-roll emoji]"
Chen Qiyun answered honestly, "He doesn’t seem to be in a rush. But my uncle and aunt still hope he’ll settle down soon, since he’s their only child. My grandparents are even more anxious."
Well, after all that talk, it turned out the man himself had no such intentions. This was pure wishful thinking on the family’s part.
Li Beixing deflated. She knew she shouldn’t have trusted the words of a little kid!
"I’m going to bed. I’ll be doing spot checks on your classwork tomorrow, so make sure you finish it."
"Noooo, Ms. Li! Don’t worry, I’ll keep gathering intel for you!"
"I’m not worried. Why would I be?" Li Beixing let out a soft harrumph.
Three-legged toads might be hard to find, but weren’t there plenty of two-legged men roaming the streets? At most, it would just take a bit more time if she wanted to find a good one.
***
Meanwhile, Chen Jingle had no idea that his own cousin had already sold him out.
After watching culinary tutorial videos for over two hours, he had gained quite a lot. He was fully aware of his own flaw: he absorbed plenty of fragmented information, but lacked a structured system, which occasionally led to cognitive biases. If left unchecked, this habit could even hinder his future learning and development. This was also a common roadblock many people encountered on the path of self-study.
"How do I solve this?" he pondered.
The only solution Chen Jingle could think of was to engage in deep learning while simultaneously teaching himself how to organize a knowledge framework, making sure to frequently review and summarize what he learned.
"Fragmented knowledge? That’s fine," he murmured to himself. "I’ll chew it up completely, swallow it, and digest it until it becomes just another nutrient on my path of growth. When the time comes to bear fruit, this knowledge will naturally have played its part. There will be no need to fuss over which specific system it originally belonged to."
Because by that point, all of this knowledge would belong entirely to him, and he himself could be considered a complete system. Perhaps, when that day came, he would finally be qualified to be called a "Master."
Heh, just thinking about it felt wonderful.