Swan Chocolate

In the end, after layer upon layer of observation, they discovered that there was only one enemy Little He Qing could not defeat.

It was a little fatty called Xiao Long.

This little fatty had chubby cheeks and was also very tall. Although he had only signed up for Taekwondo this year, he relied on his natural advantages to crush all his seniors.

With Little He Qing's tiny arms and legs, naturally, she could not defeat him either.

Lin Zhengran asked her if she had ever sparred with Xiao Long before. Little He Qing nodded. "Twice. The first time, he threw me to the ground in one move. I was stunned."

"What about the second time?"

"The second time, he still threw me to the ground in one move. I was stunned."

Lin Zhengran broke out in a sweat. "Then do you think you can defeat him?"

"I can't." Little He Qing told the truth, but what she got in exchange was naturally a knuckle to the head.

Little He Qing covered her head.

Lin Zhengran asked a second time, "I'll ask again. Then do you think you can defeat him?!"

Little He Qing looked like she had done something wrong. Holding her head, she nodded. "I can."

"Very good!" Lin Zhengran smiled. "See? Aren't you very confident in yourself? When kids fight, size is actually secondary. What matters is mental fortitude! As long as you're not afraid of him, even if you get hit, you have to keep putting on a tough, terrifying expression. He'll definitely be intimidated by a little girl like you."

Little He Qing did not understand a single thing he was saying. What the heck was mental fortitude? And what did intimidate mean? None of that had been in the textbooks.

But she still nodded. "Mm!"

"Then for this final month, our focused training will have only one goal: training your willpower! Once you've trained it well, as long as you defeat your opponent in aura, you can just casually practice things like strength and leg techniques. He won't be able to beat you."

Lin Zhengran stared at Little He Qing, looking every bit like a coach. "Come on. Make a terrifying or oppressive expression for me."

Little He Qing looked confused. In the end, she cutely bared her teeth.

Lin Zhengran helplessly tugged at her cheeks with his hands. "What are you doing?! Showing me whether your teeth are white? Why are you acting cute?!"

Little He Qing closed her eyes in grievance. "I'm not acting cute. I don't know how."

Certain Person sighed. "Forget it. With that personality, who'd be scared of you? Just learn from me directly. I'll teach you to frown first, then make a cold face, and finally look at people from the corner of your eye."

After Lin Zhengran finished making the expression, Little He Qing followed him with a blank look on her face. Of course it did not go smoothly, but fortunately, after Lin Zhengran manually adjusted her face, her expression froze into a look that could just barely be considered oppressive. On the street, Little He Qing frowned as she gazed into the distance, gritting her teeth, somehow looking even more stupidly adorable than before.

Lin Zhengran looked as if he had eaten a mosquito, but he could only take it slowly. Under the setting sun, he pointed at the road in the distance. "Now run three laps around this street with me! During the run, your expression can't change at all! Start!"

After saying that, he ran off into the distance.

Little He Qing hurriedly chased after him. "Lin Zhengran, wait for me! If you run that fast, I won't be able to catch up!"

"Aren't I waiting for you? Run faster! And your expression, your expression! Why aren't you baring your teeth anymore?! Keep it up!"

Lin Zhengran's devil training was not all that difficult, but for Little He Qing, it was much harder than before.

For the first time, she realized that pretending to be fierce and angry was so tiring, and she could not help feeling curious. Those adults who kept straight faces every day must be living so tiredly.

The days of training quickly reached the latter half of the month.

Today was a rest day. Little He Qing went to the supermarket with her mother to buy things.

Holding her mother's hand as they entered the big mall, Little He Qing suddenly remembered something and scampered over to an expensive dessert counter.

She leaned against the glass display case and looked toward the very back of the counter, where there was a chocolate dessert shaped like a White Swan.

The dessert was not big, probably only about the size of Little He Qing's two palms, but it was very expensive, costing several hundred yuan.

The clerk at the dessert shop was a pretty older sister, and this was not the first time she had seen He Qing. "Kiddo, here to look at desserts again?"

Little He Qing gave an mm and pointed in her milky voice. "Older Sister, no one's bought this chocolate yet, right? You absolutely have to save it for me. I'm going to buy it at the end of the month."

The older sister bent down and smiled. "Don't worry, I've been saving it for you the whole time. But"—she pointed at Aunt He in the distance—"is the person buying vegetables over there your mom? Why not have her buy it for you now? Older Sister can give you a discount!"

Little He Qing stared at the swan dessert and shook her head. "I'm not asking Mom to buy it for me. I'm going to take part in a competition, and if I win, our coach said I can pick any gift under five hundred yuan. I want this."

"Oh?" The older sister was curious. "What competition are you taking part in? You're that confident you'll win the championship?"

"Taekwondo. I'm confident!"

The other party laughed and walked out, then patted Little He Qing on the head. "What a cute little girl. Don't worry. Before the end of the month, Older Sister will definitely protect this dessert for you and wait for you to come buy it. This dessert is delicious. It won't disappoint you!"

Little He Qing shyly said, "Thank you, Older Sister," but very quickly, she looked at the dessert again and thought of Certain Person. "I'm not eating it myself. I'm giving it to someone else. He really likes chocolate."

He Qing felt that Lin Zhengran would definitely like this gift. This was also the reason she had to win the championship.

After Aunt He finished buying vegetables, she called out to Little He Qing. "Qingqing, do you want dessert?"

When Little He Qing heard her mother's voice, she shook her head. "I don't want any! I'm just looking."

She said goodbye to the older sister, ran to her mother's side, and took her mother's hand again.

Aunt He asked, "What dessert were you looking at just now? You come look every time. Are you really not planning to buy it?"

Little He Qing shook her head hard. "I'm really not buying it. Let's go home, Mom. I still have to go find Lin Zhengran."

Little He Qing knew very clearly that this was a prize. If she begged her mother to buy it through some other method, then it would lose its meaning. The dessert would become bad-tasting, and she could not give Lin Zhengran something bad-tasting. It would make him angry.

The older sister at the counter waved at Little He Qing from afar, but who would have thought that just as she returned to the counter, a new customer, while making his selection, pointed at the White Swan and asked, "This one looks pretty good. How much is it?"

The young woman smiled. "This one isn't for sale anymore. There's only this one left this month, and someone reserved it long ago. If you'd like to buy one, you can come back next month and have a look. We'll make a new batch then."

The customer sighed helplessly. "All right, then I'll look at something else. Give me this one!" She pointed at another dessert.

"Okay, I'll pack it up for you." The young woman looked toward the little girl who had already disappeared in the distance, then turned to get a takeout box.

Another week and a half passed, and the end of the month arrived.

The contestants in the Taekwondo Hall were fired up today. Although it was only a small in-house competition, there were prizes involved.

So some of the contestants were still very excited.

Little He Qing had changed into her snow-white Taekwondo Uniform backstage and took a deep breath in front of the mirror.

She walked out of the changing room and saw Lin Zhengran sitting on a bench in the audience seats with his arms crossed. Their eyes met.

In a rare move, Lin Zhengran gave her a thumbs-up.

Little He Qing's face flushed bright red, and she nodded hard. Today, she had to win! In front of him.