Caught Doing Bad Things by Mother-in-Law

While Lu Mingyuan and Jing Zhi were embracing in the small space by the counter, quietly enjoying the warmth.

Suddenly, a melodious and crisp voice like a lark's call reached them.

"Hey, hey, hey, look what I found, in broad daylight..."

Startled by the sudden voice, Jing Zhi quickly tried to break free from Lu Mingyuan's embrace.

Lu Mingyuan, however, pulled her even tighter into his arms, completely ignoring the newcomer. Jing Zhi let out a soft hum and pushed him away forcefully before finally escaping. She tidied her clothes and then looked at the person who had arrived.

The newcomer was a girl about fifteen or sixteen years old, dressed in a light green dress with two braids of medium length hanging in front of her chest. She was curiously approaching Lu Mingyuan and Jing Zhi, looking at them as if she had discovered something earth-shattering, her face full of an inquisitive expression.

Seeing the mischievous girl, Jing Zhi subconsciously patted her chest. It was her younger sister, Jing Yue. Thank goodness.

However, judging by her sister's words, she thought they were doing something wrong in public. While it was true that it was somewhat in public, they weren't actually doing anything wrong. No, she had to retort.

Then, Jing Zhi gently said, "Have you finished your homework?"

Upon hearing this, Jing Yue immediately dropped her inquisitive expression, and her small face became dejected. "Sister, can you stop asking about my homework like Mom and Dad? Can't you care about your beautiful and adorable younger sister?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Mingyuan, who was beside them, saw Jing Yue, his sister-in-law. But his sister-in-law was quite bold today, daring to tease him. So, he quickly added, "Yue'er, why aren't you at school today?"

Jing Yue became even more depressed. Why was everyone talking to her? Had she angered everyone?

And where was her gentle Brother Mingyuan?

Why had he, like her sister, learned to make things difficult for her?

Was this what it meant to be a couple?

Just as Jing Yue was racking her brain for an answer, Jing Zhi saw her sister's face lengthen considerably. It seemed she was genuinely angry. Jing Zhi quickly stepped forward, took her sister Jing Yue's hand, and comforted her, "Alright, alright, I won't talk about it anymore. Look at you. Sigh!"

After a while, her sister Jing Yue seemed much better. Jing Zhi then asked, "Weren't you calculating problems in your room? Why did you come out?"

Jing Yue then mumbled, "It's Mom. I was busy, and Mom suddenly told me to come out and take a look. When I came out, I saw you two embracing."

"Uh, Mom?"

After confirming with her sister, Jing Zhi was stunned. Why would her mother suddenly tell her sister to come out and look?

Could it be...

Could it be that Mom had come out just now?

Thinking of her mother seeing her and Lu Mingyuan's appearance just now, Jing Zhi's pretty face flushed. She raised her other hand and swatted at Lu Mingyuan, who was watching the show from the side.

"It's all your fault! It's all your fault! Mom even saw us... I'm so embarrassed..."

At this moment, seeing Jing Zhi push all the blame onto him, Lu Mingyuan quickly reached out to block the incoming fists. The fists didn't have much strength. While blocking, Lu Mingyuan admitted, "Okay, okay! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

He didn't dare to say that Jing Zhi had leaned into him, or it would cause another uproar.

Even though that was the truth.

But she was his wife, so he had to coax her. It was only right to take the blame occasionally. It wasn't a big deal.

The few of them fussed for a while before stopping.

At this moment, Lu Mingyuan suddenly remembered something. Logically, his sister-in-law should still be attending 'Wutong Academy' now. Why was she at home? And Jing Zhi had just said she was calculating problems?

Regarding this question, Jing Yue's answer was: she had already learned almost everything from her brother-in-law Lu Mingyuan, and her sister also tutored her frequently. So, she had discussed it with her family and decided not to attend 'Wutong Academy' anymore.

Lu Mingyuan had no other opinions on this after getting Jing Zhi's confirmation.

It was just a private school; if she didn't want to go, she didn't have to.

Besides, Jing Yue probably wouldn't learn much more at 'Wutong Academy'. It was good that she had withdrawn.

In fact, Wutong Academy was indeed a private school, similar to Lu Mingyuan's 'Tingtao Academy'. The only difference was that 'Wutong Academy' didn't have as few classes as Lu Mingyuan's 'Tingtao Academy'.

Wutong Academy's system was similar to that of an academy, with five days of classes per week and two days off.

As for Lu Mingyuan's 'Tingtao Academy', it only had about two days of classes per week.

Since the main lecturer, Lu Mingyuan, was also attending an academy, he could only use his weekends to teach. Of course, the tuition fees were also much lower.

Because Lu Mingyuan's teaching quality was not bad, there were still many students, or rather, parents, who chose Lu Mingyuan's 'Tingtao Academy'.

Of course, the main students of 'Tingtao Academy' were from the families of familiar residents nearby. These residents trusted Lu Mingyuan, or rather, they trusted 'Tingtao Academy', which had been passed down from Lu Mingyuan's mother.

In fact, on the Heavenly Luck Continent, anything not called an academy was a private school, regardless of whether it was a martial arts school, a learning hall, a family school, a tutoring school, a kindergarten, a scripture hall, a village school, or a clan school; they were all private schools.

Generally speaking, there was a fundamental difference between private schools and academies.

For a place to be called an academy, it must have at least three or four teachers from the various schools of thought working there. Furthermore, the government had strict registration and management systems for academies, and the cost of opening an academy was much higher than that of a private school. At least the original Lu Mingyuan couldn't afford it.

Therefore, the term 'academy' could not be used casually.

As for general private schools, they mostly taught students simple literacy and cultural subjects like the Four Books and Five Classics. They rarely covered subjects like arithmetic, history, geography, or the investigation of things. As a result, students from private schools generally had a narrow scope of knowledge.

But there was no other way. Ordinary people couldn't afford to attend academies. And private schools couldn't afford to hire teachers from the various schools of thought. The teaching quality could be imagined.

Even Lu Mingyuan's 'Tingtao Academy' was more like a kindergarten, only teaching children literacy.

As for more advanced courses, Lu Mingyuan could teach them. At least the sisters Jing Zhi and Jing Yue were both taught by him. This was not because Lu Mingyuan was biased, but because his energy was indeed limited. After all, Lu Mingyuan himself still had to attend school and couldn't possibly take care of too many people.

Therefore, when those children got older, Lu Mingyuan would have their parents send them to other private schools.

Two years ago, Jing Zhi and Jing Yue had already completed their studies and graduated.

Jing Zhi then became Lu Mingyuan's assistant at 'Tingtao Academy', jointly teaching the children.

As for Jing Yue, she was still young at the time and couldn't do other things, so the family found her a private school. Whether she learned anything was secondary; the main thing was to keep her from running around.

Now, looking at the situation, Jing Yue didn't want to go anymore.

But, what was this "problem-solving" that Jing Zhi just mentioned?

Regarding Lu Mingyuan's question, Jing Zhi found it a bit strange. "Mingyuan, don't you know about the Supernatural Power: Chicken and Rabbit in the Same Cage? Weren't you interested in numerology since you were little?"

"Chicken and Rabbit in the Same Cage? Isn't that the illusion supernatural power that was all the rage more than half a month ago? I know about that. What's happening now?"

Hearing "Chicken and Rabbit in the Same Cage," Lu Mingyuan was even more puzzled. Something else had happened? How come he, the person involved, didn't know?

As for Jing Zhi saying he was interested in numerology since he was little, that was true.

Before awakening the memories of his previous life, Lu Mingyuan would spend all day studying and calculating books on numerology. But after awakening his memories, those problems seemed like child's play to him. He just calculated each one once and then stopped paying attention.

At this moment, Lu Mingyuan added, "I've been busy with supernatural powers lately and haven't had time to care about other things. What exactly happened?"

Seeing that Lu Mingyuan genuinely didn't know, Jing Zhi recalled for a moment before saying, "About three days ago, a piece of news spread that solving the problems within the Supernatural Power: Chicken and Rabbit in the Same Cage could greatly increase the growth speed of talent."

"Greatly? By how much?" Lu Mingyuan quickly asked.

"About eightfold. And this eightfold increase is based on diligent study. If you were originally inconsistent, like fishing for three days and drying nets for two, the efficiency would likely be even higher, perhaps fifty times, or even a hundred times the original."

"Really? That's too exaggerated."

Hearing this, Lu Mingyuan's face was filled with astonishment. Yes, that was a normal reaction.

At this point, the little girl Jing Yue chimed in, "Brother Mingyuan, it's true. I tried it. I was just doing problems in the house."

"Reading and doing problems can increase talent; everyone knows that. But to be able to improve so much, that's truly terrifying."

As if thinking of the eightfold increase in speed, Lu Mingyuan's face also showed a look of disbelief.

Seeing this, Jing Zhi was not surprised. When she first heard the news, her reaction was even more exaggerated. "When Uncle Song said this, everyone in the restaurant almost went crazy."

Recalling the scene from a few days ago, Jing Zhi still felt a lingering fear. She was afraid everyone would tear down the restaurant.

"Uncle Song announced it directly in the restaurant?"

Jing Zhi "En"ed and continued, "That morning, right at Chen Shi, when there were many people, everyone was eating breakfast. Suddenly, they received this news. After verifying it, they almost turned the restaurant upside down with noise. That was also the day we had the most leftover food."

Lu Mingyuan could understand the matter of leftover food. Diners, upon suddenly learning this news that could rapidly increase their strength, would surely be anxious to try it out, go back to tell their families, or bring their children to cultivate.

This was understandable.

For some reason, although the Heavenly Dao Virtual Net had many classics, profound texts, and great works, there were very few books that offered explanations or analyses of these classics. In other words, there were no translation, commentary, or practice books...

In reality, such books weren't truly non-existent, but no one uploaded them.

To learn the explanations and analyses of classics, one could only go to academies, the various schools of thought, and official institutions...

It could be said that books offering explanations and analyses were monopolized by these forces.

Without books offering explanations and analyses, this greatly limited everyone's understanding speed. Therefore, even though the Heavenly Dao Virtual Net had all sorts of classics, everyone's talent growth speed remained very slow.

The official explanation for this was to prevent other races from quickly improving their strength by secretly learning classics.

As for whether this was true, no one could say. Everyone could only believe it.

This time, with the sudden appearance of a supernatural power that could increase talent growth speed by eightfold, everyone was undoubtedly going crazy. This was an opportunity...

Hearing that this matter had spread rapidly and widely, Lu Mingyuan thought to himself, "No wonder my supernatural powers have sold tens of millions of copies these past few days. It turns out everyone is rushing to seize the time, as no one knows when this supernatural power might be taken down."

As for the supernatural power being taken down, this wasn't the first time such a thing had happened.

"By the way, Ah Zhi, did Uncle Song say where this news came from?"

"This~ Some said it was from Linzhou Town in the southern region, some said it was from Yangpu City in the east, and some even said it was from Xiaoxiang Academy in Liyao City, Chu Kingdom. Many, many places. Uncle Song said he didn't know which one it was."

"Is that so? Then it seems many places have discovered this."

After a pause, Lu Mingyuan asked, "Hey, Little Yue'er, who in our family learned this supernatural power?"

Humans could only learn supernatural powers on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Net after turning eighteen and awakening their Supernatural Power Stone. So, it definitely wasn't Jing Yue who learned it herself; she couldn't. Even her sister, Jing Zhi, couldn't learn it yet.

Jing Yue replied, "It was my dad. Dad just used this illusion supernatural power on me earlier, making me answer questions inside. Brother Mingyuan, the questions in there are really difficult. I was exhausted just now."

"Tell Uncle Jing not to keep you in the illusion realm all the time. When this supernatural power is used on others, the time ratio is at least ten to one. Don't wear yourself out."

"En, thank you, Brother Mingyuan."

Illusion realm type supernatural powers can only be adjusted to one to one when used on oneself. When used on others, it's at least ten to one. This means that if ten seconds pass in the illusion realm, only one second passes in reality.

Originally, if this supernatural power was treated as an offensive one, since enemies could emerge after only one second passed in the outside world, the time ratio wouldn't matter much.

However, if this supernatural power were to be used as a long-term learning tool, it would be best not to sustain it for too long.

Setting aside the issue that time in the illusion realm also consumes soul lifespan, the mental exertion, ten or even a hundred times greater, is a significant problem. If the brain's nutrition can't keep up, the risk of sudden death is very high.

Therefore, Lu Mingyuan had to caution her. While rapidly increasing talent is a good thing, it shouldn't be overdone.

Otherwise, it might backfire. By then, it would be too late to regret it.

As for why this illusion supernatural power could be used long-term as a learning tool?

Wouldn't one be released after finishing the problems?

In fact, after finishing the problems, or after one second passed in reality, the recipient could choose to exit or remain inside.

Of course, to stay in the illusion realm for a long time requires the agreement of both the supernatural power caster and the recipient. Once one party disagrees, either party can interrupt at any time after the time limit.