A shotgun and a sniper?
It took Jiang Wanyi a moment to understand what he meant.
Young people’s metaphors were just that direct and vivid.
Chen Yuan quietly took a step back, and Jiang Wanyi followed him back into the living room.
"Have some Coke, it’s refreshing."
Chen Yuan didn’t refuse this time. He was indeed a bit thirsty after all that work.
"Thank you so much, you were a huge help."
Jiang Wanyi sat beside him, brushing her hair back. "I definitely couldn’t have handled her today without you."
"The baby is over eight months old. You haven’t gotten used to it yet after all this time?"
"Ever since the baby was born, my mom and our nanny have been the ones taking care of her. I haven’t been very involved, and with a heavy workload, I have even less time to look after her," Jiang Wanyi explained.
"A few days ago, our nanny’s son had a baby, so she became a grandmother. No matter how much I offered to pay, she couldn’t stay. My mom has also been helping look after the baby for the past six months, and her health isn’t great, so now it’s all on me."
Now Chen Yuan understood why Jiang Wanyi was like a total novice. She’d been a hands-off boss.
"But you seem to know so much."
Jiang Wanyi sized Chen Yuan up. "From the looks of you... you’re only eighteen or nineteen?"
"Yeah, I’m 18."
"If you’re 18... you must have just started university. How do you have so much experience with babies?"
"Well..." Chen Yuan searched for a reasonable explanation.
"I worked part-time for a housekeeping service over the summer. I sat in on a lot of their training courses, so I just picked it up..."
"You’re really amazing, to learn so much just from attending training classes."
Jiang Wanyi praised him sincerely while picking up her phone. "You didn’t even get to finish your meal because of the baby. What do you want to eat? I haven’t eaten either, so let’s get something together."
"No need, really. The baby’s asleep, and there’s nothing else for me to do here. I should get going."
With that, Chen Yuan stood up, walked to the door, and put on his shoes.
"Um..."
Jiang Wanyi hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping short.
"What’s wrong?"
"Can I add you as a friend? I’m pretty much a novice right now. If I run into any problems, could I ask you for advice?"
"Sure."
Chen Yuan took out his phone, and they added each other as friends.
"Wait a minute."
Not letting Chen Yuan leave just yet, Jiang Wanyi hurried back to the master bedroom. When she came out, she had 200 yuan in cash in her hand.
"I can’t drive you home with the baby here. Take this for a taxi."
"No, it’s fine."
Chen Yuan had already put on his shoes. Before Jiang Wanyi could approach, he opened the door and left.
’It feels good to help people. Since I chose to help, it wouldn’t be right to accept anything for it. Besides, I already got a reward from Tongzi.’
After leaving the residential complex, Chen Yuan took a bus back to school, scrolling through his phone to kill time.
"APT, APT..."
"Everyone, remember this, I’m a Hui Muslim..."
"The new Range Rover, SVAutobiography Long Wheelbase, now selling for 1.73 million..."
’My phone’s algorithm is getting ahead of itself. I make 600 yuan from three missions, and it already dares to push a long-wheelbase Range Rover on me.’
"People who masturbate..."
’Fuck.’
’On the bus, a zero-frame startup. Impossible to defend against.’
He turned off his phone and looked out the window, watching the shadows of the roadside trees fly by.
Chen Yuan found the whole thing ridiculous. In fact, it was beyond ridiculous.
’I’m a pure and innocent 18-year-old male university student, and it’s making me a nanny!’
’I don’t want to jump straight to this! I still want to take the muddy, winding path in between! I haven’t even tasted whether women are salty or bland yet!’
Chen Yuan was from the north; he was on Team Salty.
After five bus stops, he arrived at his school, Zhonghai University of Technology.
It was the October 1st long holiday, so most students who didn’t live too far away had gone home. But there were many universities nearby, so even with so many people gone, there was still enough business to keep the area around University City bustling.
He had left the noodle shop halfway through his meal earlier. Now he was in that half-hungry, half-full state and planned to buy something else to tide him over.
RING RING RING—
His phone rang. It was a call from his roommate, Sun Pengnan.
"Boss, when are you getting back?"
"I’m already here. What do you want to eat?"
"Two shouzhua bing, add bacon, a bottle of Coke, and no cilantro."
"Got it."
Due to the class schedule, they had no classes yesterday afternoon. Because his "ox didn’t show its head," he went to get a circumcision.
His reasoning was simple: he believed he would have a passionate romance in university and was afraid it would affect his future "performance," so he decided to get it done early to "toughen it up" through more trials.
As one of the only two people staying in the dorm over the long holiday, the task of buying food for him naturally fell to Chen Yuan.
"Three shouzhua bing, all with bacon, and two of them with no cilantro."
Chen Yuan wasn’t full, so he planned to buy one for himself as well.
Business wasn’t as booming during the long holiday, so Chen Yuan buying three servings at once made him a big customer. The auntie running the stall was very enthusiastic.
With time to kill, Chen Yuan went to the nearby fruit stall, intending to buy half a watermelon to take back.
The uncle running the stall was smoking a cigarette. When he saw Chen Yuan approach, he immediately called out.
"Five yuan a jin, guaranteed sweet."
Chen Yuan picked out half a watermelon. There were only two of them, and without a fridge, anything they couldn’t finish would go to waste.
After buying the watermelon, he returned to the shouzhua bing stall.
Pre-made dough, processed bacon—in just a few minutes, the three "Songyang High School specials" were ready.
"Um... can I exchange this watermelon?"
Just as Chen Yuan was about to leave, he heard a pleasant voice from the side.
He turned his head and saw a very pretty girl standing in front of the watermelon stall.
A cream-colored long skirt that fell to her ankles, paired with white sneakers and a simple black short-sleeved shirt. That, along with her clean, oval-shaped face and fair, delicate features, instantly made the other decent-looking girls around her fade into the background like extras.
’She’s genuinely beautiful.’
’My gut tells me she’s probably not from my school. More likely from the teachers’ college next door, or the medical university across the street.’
’After all, those schools have more girls.’
"What do you want to exchange?"
Facing the pretty girl, the watermelon uncle’s tone was not as friendly as it had been with Chen Yuan.
Their "goddesses" were the type whose smiles could topple cities; this innocent university student type wasn’t their cup of tea.
"Th-this watermelon’s weight isn’t right..."
Chen Yuan glanced at his own watermelon. ’Could I have been ripped off too?’
"Hey, hey, hey, little girl, don’t talk nonsense. What’s not right about it?"
"You said this watermelon was eight and a half jin, but I weighed it when I got back, and it’s only seven and a half."
The girl’s voice was quiet, and she didn’t seem very assertive. This was understandable; girls tended to be thin-skinned, so it was impressive she even came back to argue.
[System Mission: Your baby is a bit timid. Help her resolve the issue of being short-changed on the watermelon. Reward: 400 yuan cash, 5% memory enhancement.]
[An 8-month-old baby is a baby, but a 210-month-old baby is also a baby.]
’Holy shit.’
’Are you kidding me?’
Chen Yuan turned and walked to the small convenience store behind the stall. He bought a bottle of Coke and, as he was paying, said:
"Bro, could you help me weigh this watermelon?"
The convenience store also sold fruit and had a digital scale.
"Just put it on," the owner said.
"Six and a half jin."
’He ripped me off by a whole jin.’
’Damn it, did Qin Shi Huang forget to include this guy when he standardized weights and measures?’