Chen Qin During Middle School Years

"Here, Granny."

In a spacious penthouse, an apple traced an arc through the air, caught with pinpoint accuracy by a waiting hand.

Crunch. The crisp sound of a bite. An Shiyu, sitting in a gaming chair, glanced at the figure by the door. "What did you say? Granny?"

"The English for apple. Ing-ger-lish."

"That pronunciation sounds terrible." An Shiyu crunched away at the fruit, her gaze landing on the other fish's Santa Claus outfit. "If I remember correctly, Christmas is tomorrow, right?"

"Close enough," the other shrugged.

"Get me a juice."

"Hey, don't you have hands?"

"Aren't you standing right next to the fridge?"

"Alrighty~"

With the sound of the fridge opening, Chao Yiyu took out a bottle of juice. Just as she was about to toss it over, her hand suddenly went weak. The juice slipped from her grasp, hitting the floor and spilling everywhere.

"Hmm?" An Shiyu tilted her head to look and noticed the puddle of juice. "What's up? Couldn't get a good grip?"

"..." Chao Yiyu was silent for a few seconds, looking at her own palm.

Just then, a robot vacuum cleaner whirred over and began mopping up the juice with its cloth.

"It was too slippery," she said, taking a new bottle from the fridge.

"You owe me a new one."

"Broke."

"Tch."

Chao Yiyu walked over to An Shiyu and dropped the juice bottle onto her desk. Leaning her arms on the back of the chair, she suddenly noticed the clothes laid out on the desk.

"Oh?" Perhaps because the style was unfamiliar, she slowly picked it up, only to find it was a rather ladylike dress.

"Such a snow-white piece of clothing, it's really..." Before she could finish, the dress vanished like the wind.

Watching An Shiyu quickly refold the dress and sit on it, Chao Yiyu teased, her tone playful, "Wearing such a prim and proper dress... you're just missing a pair of princess heels, aren't you?"

"..."

"What, cat got your tongue? Got a date with Uncle tomorrow? Gotta look pretty for your birthday."

"..."

"Oho, getting shyyyy—" Chao Yiyu didn't finish before a cushion came flying at her.

The next second, the two fish grabbed cushions from the sofa, erupting into a full-blown pillow fight.

Today's result: An Shiyu's loss.

……

……

Elsewhere.

"Tasty, right?"

"There's improvement." Ye Shuang looked at the dishes before him, then at Chen Qin holding a soup spoon. Well, how to put it.

There definitely was significant progress.

"Munch munch tasty munch munch..." Bai Yuyou, meanwhile, kept picking up food with her chopsticks. She wasn't picky about flavor; basically, as long as it wasn't lethal, she could accept it. But compared to Sister Chen Qin's cooking from before, this was indeed much better.

Tang Keke also tried a bite. It was true.

At the very least, she could shed the title of Dark Culinary Queen.

"I studied in my spare time at the office. Impressive, huh?" Chen Qin said proudly. A little culinary skill was nothing, surely this would win him over?

"It'd be even better if you didn't fiddle with that electronic scale when seasoning," Ye Shuang added.

Chen Qin cooked by formula—precisely so many grams for so many grams. Just moments ago, she had to weigh the salt on the scale before adding it.

If Ye Shuang were cooking, his seasoning amounts were basically just a few measures—

A pinch.

To taste.

A bit more.

Then taste. If bland, add more. If salty, add a bit of sugar or some water to dilute it. He could never achieve Chen Qin's precision of matching grams of seasoning to grams of ingredients.

"This is called professionalism," Chen Qin said, wagging a finger.

Ye Shuang smiled without saying more. But thinking about it carefully, for a young lady like Chen Qin who never had to do housework, reaching this level was already quite remarkable.

Unintentionally, Ye Shuang suddenly noticed a clock icon appear on Chen Qin's body.

Ye Shuang: "..."

Can I enter again?

Since healing An Shiyu, Ye Shuang had almost stopped using the system's power. In other words, he felt a kind of weariness.

Reliving that same day over and over... to be honest, Ye Shuang's spirit had once broken down, even giving rise to thoughts of giving up.

But the belief in his heart supported Ye Shuang until the very end.

After all, back then, with An Shiyu collapsing in his arms, her heartbeat growing fainter and fainter, it felt like a hand was squeezing his heart.

How could he give up?

So he persevered until now. But because of that, just like eating delicious food—even eating the same thing over and over can become tiresome—Ye Shuang now wasn't very keen on using the system's power to travel back either.

Even so, Ye Shuang still wanted to see his parents. This was his selfish desire, perhaps.

Was this the only way?

Ye Shuang fell silent for a moment, but finally decided to use this power once more.

With that thought in his heart, the clock beside Chen Qin began to spin rapidly, followed by a vast expanse of whiteness.

...

...

"Ah Shuang, what are you spacing out for?"

"Ah Shuang?"

The scene before him gradually cleared. It was still the familiar room, the summer cicadas chirping outside the window.

And before him, a faint, pleasant fragrance.

A young-looking Chen Qin was leaning forward slightly, studying him with curiosity.

She wore a white tank top and hot pants, a summery outfit. As she leaned forward, the upper halves of her not-yet-fully-developed slimes were clearly visible, along with their red noses.

Ye Shuang was quiet for a few seconds before averting his gaze and speaking slowly, "Um... where are my parents?"

"Have you lost your mind? Uncle and Auntie just went out," Chen Qin said, then sat cross-legged, showing her white teeth. "Did you get amnesia?"

"No," Ye Shuang said, then glanced at Chen Qin's appearance. Probably early middle school period?

Which meant...

Ye Shuang looked at his own hands and found he was holding a GBA. On the screen was Pokémon Ruby.

"Hurry up, hurry up, use Strength to push that boulder over," Chen Qin said with a grin, her body almost leaning against him.

Even though it was summer, the coolness of the girl's arm made Ye Shuang instinctively shift away a little.

"Huh? Meeh?" Chen Qin, seeing Ye Shuang's reaction, seemed puzzled.

"You're too close."

"What's the big deal?" Chen Qin didn't quite understand, then suddenly noticed Ye Shuang's strange look.

Following his gaze, Chen Qin now noticed that the edge of her panties was showing with her legs crossed like this.

"Wah, you peeper!" Chen Qin immediately covered up with her hands. "Don't you have your own? What's so interesting to look at?"

"..." Ye Shuang's expression turned a bit awkward, because he had indeed glanced subconsciously.

"Not fair, I want to see yours too! Let me see!" Chen Qin reached out her hand.

"W-wait?!"