For Bian Bian, one of the benefits of saving Zhu Yuan was that once he woke up, she could eat cooked food and drink hot water.

In the first few days after Lu Yu’s accident, Bian Bian was terrified. Every day she would stand at the front door, press her small face against it, and listen for sounds from outside.

But there were no sounds at all.

She obeyed her grandfather’s instructions: no matter what she heard, she must not open the door.

So even though in her heart she spent every moment longing for her grandfather to come in and open the door, Biānbiān never once opened it herself.

She tried to heat water for herself but fell and injured herself, and afterward was too afraid to go into the kitchen to use the utensils. She could only drink cold bottled water with the hard instant noodles.

Biānbiān had a weak stomach; the past few days whatever she ate she would vomit. She knew it was wasteful to throw food away, so later she dared not eat, only sipping small amounts of cool water, and when she finished the water her stomach ached again.

It was those few days that she visibly grew thinner by the naked eye.

After getting through the worst of it, Biandian’s body gradually adapted and stopped rebelling.

With Zhu Yuan’s arrival, the kitchen utensils and the remaining gas cylinder finally had a use. The little girl went to the kitchen several times, staring longingly for a moment before going to her grandfather’s room to look at the sleeping Zhu Yuan lying on the bed, whispering prayers that her uncle would wake up soon.

After the bullet was removed and the wound roughly bandaged, Zhu Yuan lay down and slept soundly; he needed sleep to restore his depleted strength.

His lips were chapped and peeling; she took her cup back and forth, and, imitating how Grandpa used to care for her, dipped a cotton swab in water and used it to smear Zhu Yuan’s cracked lips.

The little girl was so serious about applying it; she reapplied it when it dried, repeated it more than ten times before finally putting the cup down, then lay on the bedside staring at Zhu Yuan.

“Huaihuai, when uncle wakes up, we can have hot noodles.” Her little stomach gave a rumble. The girl rubbed it, remembered the taste of steaming noodles, and smiled with anticipation.

Suddenly she remembered something, turned and ran back to her room, pulled a pink tin box from the drawer, opened it, and inside were some colorful little stones.

Bianbian knew these were crystal stones; sometimes grandpa would kill monsters and dig them out of the monsters’ heads. Grandpa had said they were good things, and Bianbian had even seen grandpa hold a crystal stone with his eyes closed.

Uncle was so badly injured — wouldn’t the crystal stones help him get better faster?

Bian Bian carried the iron box to the next room, stuck her hand in and grabbed a handful, placing them onto Zhu Yuan. Then she saw the cyan stones light up, emitting a faint glow, and she knew the cyan crystals were useful for Zhu Yuan.

So the little girl carefully selected a handful of cyan crystals and placed them on Zhu Yuan.

Peeking at the screen, Xiu Jin felt as if his heart were soaking in a vat of vinegar—sour to the core.

He began to regret having “performed surgery” on Zhu Yuan.

What made Xiu Jin even more sour happened next: when the little girl saw the cyan stone start to glow, she obediently left the room, closed the door, then dragged Zhu Yuan’s changed clothes to the bathroom—she wanted to wash Zhu Yuan’s clothes for him!

Xiu Jin: “…”

Could those little arms and legs possibly handle washing the clothes of a grown man?

Xiu Jin was furious; how on earth had Lu Yu raised his granddaughter to be so casually kind to strangers?

“Grandpa’s clothes are for Grandpa to wear in the future. I’ve already given a set to Uncle Zhu Yuan to wear, so we can’t take any more.” The little girl muttered to the teddy bear; this was the real reason Bianbian wanted to wash clothes for Zhu Yuan.

She was being stingy, not wanting to let Zhu Yuan wear Grandpa’s clothes, but Zhu Yuan had no other clothes, so she had to wash the clothes he took off so he could alternate what he wore.

The little girl thought this with endearing concern.

Xiu Jin instantly felt relieved. So the reason his precious daughter was washing clothes for Zhu Yuan was that she couldn’t bear to let Grandpa’s clothes be given to him.

Adult clothes couldn’t be washed in the bathroom sink, so Bian Bian used a basin to catch water, soaked the clothes in it, and poured in some detergent.

Then Bian Bian looked at the dark reddish water that came out from soaking and felt troubled.

It was filthy.

After changing the water several times, the color finally lightened. Bian Bian was exhausted; she hadn’t expected washing an adult’s clothes to be so hard. Finally she shook her aching little arms and decided to leave the clothes soaking there for now and wash them herself when uncle woke up.

Grandpa taught her the idiom “not to bite off more than one can chew,” so Biandian didn’t think that washing only half the clothes was giving up halfway.

Xiu Jin listened to his precious daughter’s babyish, mumbling chatter and smiled.

The little one was really clever—using idioms at such a young age.

But if Old Man Lu taught his precious daughter idioms, why didn’t he teach her to read characters?!

Just thinking about his precious daughter not recognizing characters gave Xiu Jin a headache.

If Bian Bian couldn’t read, he couldn’t communicate with his precious daughter by writing, and if he rashly made a move in front of her, he might scare her and cause their intimacy to drop again.

But if he did nothing, how could he raise his precious daughter’s intimacy toward him?

Xiu Jin was going bald online.

A communication request popped up, so Xiu Jin had to exit the game and answer the call.

It was a friend of his calling.

“Ajin, do you have any plans today?”

“Why?”

“My son’s birthday is today. We’re having a small get-together. Do you want to come over and join us?”

Xiu Jin was about to refuse—he was still here going bald raising his little one, had no energy to attend a birthday party—but before he could say no, he suddenly remembered—

“How old is your son?”

“Six,” his friend said. “If you don’t come, he probably won’t even remember you.”

Xiu Jin felt a stir in his heart. A six-year-old boy would be the same age as his precious daughter. He couldn’t gauge the little girl’s thoughts within the game, but if he actually interacted with other children, might that help increase his daughter’s intimacy points?

Thinking this, the Seventh Prince immediately agreed: “Alright, I’ll come over later.”

He needed to learn from the other kids!

*

Xiu Jin’s friend was a leisurely noble named Mei Shaoxian, who married young and had a son, Mei Qingruo.

Mei Qingruo, a six-year-old little gentleman, bowed like a little grown-up when Xiu Jin entered, enunciating clearly: “Your Highness Seventh, good day.”

Xiu Jin: “…”

“Call me uncle.”

“Hello, Seventh Uncle.”

He glanced at the little boy: “Six years old… that tall?”

Compared to Mei Qingruo, his precious daughter looked increasingly malnourished.

Mei Qingruo looked up at Xiu Jin and said earnestly, “I’m 1.35 meters, Dad is 1.9 meters, so compared to him, I’m not tall.”

Xiujin thought six was already tall enough; from the kid’s tone there was even a hint of disdain.

After giving the children the birthday presents he had brought, he thought for a moment, then pulled Meishao aside to chat, asking how he usually got along with Mei Qingruo.

Meishao nearly thought he’d misheard—Xiujin was actually asking him a question like that.

“What’s the matter? The Emperor is rushing you to marry and have kids?”

Xiu Jin: “Don’t overthink it. Answer my question first.”

Mei Shaoxian said, “Then why are you interested in the question of raising a child? Could it be that…”

“Are you going to answer or not?” Xiu Jin shot him a glare.

Mei Shaoxian shrugged. “That’s one you actually stumped me with. I work during the day, the kid is raised by his mother, so I don’t have much time to spend with Qingruo. But when I have time off, I take him out, hang out with him, play games and stuff.”

“Does your son like you?”

“Of course.” Mei Shaoxian said proudly, “He’s my own son—if he doesn’t like me, who would he like?”

Xiu Jin sneered inwardly, as if saying it like he didn’t have a little one himself.

It’s just that his little one is only in a game.

Xiu Jin wanted to learn more, but other guests arrived and Mei Shao went to attend to them, so Xiu Jin had to let him go and instead pulled little Mei Qingruo aside, “Little Mei.”

Little Mei Qingruo frowned, not very approving, and said, “Uncle Qi, I have a name. I’m Mei Qingruo, not Little Mei.”

After all, Xiu Jin had something to ask, so she changed how she addressed her: “Xiao Qingruo, I want to ask you, suppose you’re home alone, your parents aren’t there, and you need adults to help with everything. At that moment, you suddenly find an invisible person has come into the house, wanting to secretly help you. Do you think that person is a good person?”

Mei little friend widened her eyes and shook her head anyway: “They sneaked into my house, how could they be a good person.”

“They’re hiding and want to help me? Obviously they want to do something bad.” The child righteously concluded, “That person must be a bad guy, a big pervert!”

So, in the dear daughter’s mind, I’m a big pervert? Is that how the -50 intimacy points came about?

Xiu Jin: “…”

He humbly asked, “Xiao Qingruo, then what would someone have to do so that you wouldn’t be afraid?”

Mei Qingruo thought carefully, shook her head: “I don’t know. In any case, if an invisible person really ran into my house, I would immediately trigger the home alarm. The security team would arrive as quickly as possible and catch that big pervert.”

Xiu Jin: “…”

He felt he had asked the wrong person for guidance.

When Xiu Jin reopened the game and found his precious daughter nibbling on instant noodles again, not caring whether the intimacy value would drop, he hurriedly bought today’s big apple in the mall.

At least apples taste better than instant noodles; he really couldn’t just stand by and watch his precious daughter gnaw on instant noodles with cold water without doing anything.

How could the cub of the Seventh Prince possibly eat these?!

With a soft thud, Bian Bian looked up and found that on the table, just like yesterday, there was another red apple bigger than half her head.

The little girl immediately realized that the scoundrel hadn’t left; he was still here.

Bian Bian cautiously turned her little head, sizing up the surroundings like a small animal. However, probably because Zhu Yuan was now in the room, this time Bian Bian wasn’t particularly afraid.

Moreover, her thinking had changed.

Even if some bad guy wanted to fatten her up and eat her, it would be fine — once Uncle Zhu Yuan woke up, she could ask him to help chase the bad guy away!

So, this big apple that had appeared was an especially strong temptation for Bian Bian, who had tasted it just yesterday.

to the point that the young girl suddenly found the instant noodles in her hand no longer appealing.

So, Xiu Jin saw the system flash a pleasantly satisfying prompt: [Intimacy +5]

???

Xiu Jin was stunned. He stared at that prompt for a full minute—what a truly earth-shaking +5!

Mr. Xiu’s face showed a strange expression, which the smart butler happened to notice; after searching, it matched the idiom “bursting into tears of joy.”

And, not at all afraid of consequences, he even turned it into an emoji and forwarded it to Xiu Jin.