Seeing Ke Ning sitting on his lap, Ye Chuan wasn’t sure why she had fallen asleep, but he didn’t move—after all, this was her exchange for the shrinking device, so he simply stayed put.
Ke Ning was small and delicate. Ye Chuan glanced at her slightly curled long hair and instinctively took a whiff.
It smelled nice, like shampoo.
He had assumed Ke Ning, who spent day and night buried in research, would have messy, slightly unwashed hair. But it seemed she had either showered or used some high-tech shampoo to maintain cleanliness.
A Rubik’s Cube floated nearby, as if recording Ye Chuan’s actions.
About half an hour later, Ke Ning finally stirred. She slowly opened her eyes, yawned, then stood up from Ye Chuan’s lap. Turning around, she tucked her hands into her pockets and spoke calmly,
"You can leave now."
Ye Chuan: "?"
That’s it?
"Aren’t you going to explain what just happened?" Ye Chuan asked.
A hint of confusion flickered across Ke Ning’s face. "As you saw, I was sleeping. There’s nothing worth explaining."
"So why did you fall asleep?" Ye Chuan spread his arms wide.
"I noticed last time that I sleep well around you," Ke Ning replied. "I don’t need medication to achieve deep sleep. This was just a small experiment."
"And?"
"It was comfortable."
"……"
Ye Chuan twitched his lips but decided not to press further. "Alright, I’ll head out then. Remember to come out for lunch."
"It’s fine. I can just eat energy bars for nutrition."
"You should still eat properly," Ye Chuan said. "Take better care of yourself, little scientist. If you collapse, I’d be worried."
Caught off guard by the sudden concern, Ke Ning’s lips parted slightly in surprise. But in the end, she didn’t say anything, just averted her gaze and muttered, "Go on, get out."
"Right, sure."
Ye Chuan left the room. Ke Ning stared at the door for a moment before turning back to her work.
……
"Ooooh, ultimate move—Xiaoke Dash!"
Lan Xiaoke’s excited shouts echoed from the living room. Ye Chuan initially thought she was messing with him again, but when he walked over, he found her playing a racing game with Bai Qianshuang.
On the TV screen, Lan Xiaoke’s car was far ahead, leaving Bai Qianshuang’s in the dust.
"Quite lively here," Ye Chuan remarked, noticing Luo Xi busy in the kitchen preparing lunch. "If you have time to play games, why not go help Luo Xi?"
"It’s fine, I told them to relax," Luo Xi said cheerfully, wiping the dining table with a cloth. "Cooking doesn’t take long. No need for help."
Luo Xi had whipped up four dishes and a soup in under an hour. Her skills weren’t just limited to sports and academics—her homemaking abilities were top-tier too.
"Whoever marries you in the future will be lucky," Ye Chuan commented.
"What’s that supposed to mean?" Luo Xi planted her hands on her hips.
"Nothing, just that I’m the lucky one."
Luo Xi froze for a few seconds before realizing what he meant. She smacked his arm lightly. "Hmph!"
[Luo Xi uses Combo Slaps. It’s not very effective.]
[Ye Chuan uses Bullet Seed. Temporarily unavailable.]
At lunch, Ke Ning seemed to heed Ye Chuan’s words and emerged from her room. Sitting down, she turned to Luo Xi and said, "Please give me 200 grams of rice."
"200… grams?" Luo Xi held the rice scoop uncertainly. How much was that?
"One bowl should be about right," Ye Chuan said.
"Okay."
"Thank you." Ke Ning accepted the bowl and began eating in small, measured bites.
"Why did you ask for 200 grams?" Bai Qianshuang asked, tilting her head curiously.
"To control calorie intake," Ke Ning replied.
Hot?
Isn’t rice already hot?
Though Bai Qianshuang’s face remained expressionless, her eyes were filled with question marks.
"Luo Xi, I want 200 bowls of rice," Bai Qianshuang declared.
"There isn’t that much…" Luo Xi wiped her forehead helplessly.
In the end, she served a few bowls before handing the entire rice cooker to Bai Qianshuang. "Here, take the whole thing."
But Luo Xi was well aware of Bai Qianshuang’s appetite.
"Thanks."
Meanwhile, Lan Xiaoke sat at the table with nothing to eat, her eyes darting left and right as she sniffed the aroma of the food and scratched her head.
"You’re already at the late Foundation Establishment stage, but you still can’t materialize?" Ye Chuan asked, seeing her drooling expression.
"Soon!" Lan Xiaoke nodded vigorously.
"You could also possess a corpse that hasn’t been dead for more than four hours," Bai Qianshuang suggested.
"No way! I like how I look now," Lan Xiaoke shook her head like a rattle-drum.
Being a ghost had its perks—she could phase through walls, never age, and didn’t have to worry about appearances. Still, if she could regain a physical body, she’d gladly take it.
Just not someone else’s.
"Speaking of which…" Ye Chuan pulled out his phone and scrolled through the alchemy interface.
He had taken many pill recipes from the Qingyun Sect, and he vaguely recalled one that could reconstruct a physical body for spirits.
[Ethereal Body Reconstruction Pill
Flesh Spirit Mushroom (0/1)
Lifebloom Flower (0/1)
Bonegrass (0/1)
Effect: Strengthens the soul and reconstructs a physical form.]
There it was.
Ye Chuan found several pills capable of body reconstruction.
"I can help you regain a physical body," he told Lan Xiaoke.
"I don’t want someone else’s body."
"It’ll be a new body formed from your own essence," Ye Chuan grinned.
Lan Xiaoke blinked. "Really?"
"Yep."
"How?!" She instantly floated behind Ye Chuan, massaging his shoulders eagerly. "Ye Chuan, I’ll stick with you forever, okay?"
Ye Chuan leaned back, resting his head against her as he enjoyed the impromptu massage.
After half a minute, he finally spoke. "I have a family recipe, but it’ll take some time to gather the ingredients."
"Mm-hmm!" Lan Xiaoke nodded like a pecking chick. She could wait!
Ye Chuan tapped his phone a few times, harvesting all the miscellaneous spirit herbs from his garden in one go.
"Alright, got the materials."
Lan Xiaoke: "?"
What just happened?
Ye Chuan hadn’t been growing all those spirit herbs for nothing—it was precisely so he could immediately craft any pill once he had the recipe.
"Let’s make Xiaoke’s pill first." After collecting the herbs, Ye Chuan decided to craft the body-reconstruction pill right after lunch.