Caught Doing Something Bad by His Future Mother-in-Law

While Lu Mingyuan and Jing Zhi embraced in the cramped space behind the counter, quietly savoring the warmth of the moment,

a voice as clear and lilting as a songbird suddenly rang out.

"Hey, hey, look what I've found! Right here in broad daylight, too..."

Startled by the sudden voice, Jing Zhi hurriedly tried to escape Lu Mingyuan's embrace.

But Lu Mingyuan only tightened his arms around her, pulling his sweetheart closer without a care for whoever had come in. Jing Zhi gave a soft, exasperated snort and shoved at him until she finally wriggled free. She straightened her clothes, then turned to look at the newcomer.

The girl wore a pale green dress, with two braids of moderate length hanging down over her chest. She looked to be around fifteen or sixteen. Now, she was leaning in beside Lu Mingyuan and Jing Zhi, staring at them with an expression full of curiosity, as if she'd stumbled upon something astonishing.

When Jing Zhi saw the mischievous girl, she instinctively patted her chest. It was only her younger sister, Jing Yue. What a relief.

Still, judging by what the little girl had said, she was accusing the two of them of doing something bad in public. Well, to some extent, they had been in public—but they hadn't done anything bad. No, she couldn't let that pass.

Jing Zhi gently asked, "Have you finished your homework?"

At that, Jing Yue immediately dropped her inquisitive expression. Her little face fell into a long pout. "Sis, can you stop being just like Mom and Dad, always asking about my homework? Can't you show some concern for your beautiful, adorable little sister?"

As soon as she finished speaking, Lu Mingyuan realized that the newcomer was Jing Yue, his sister-in-law. But his sister-in-law sure was bold today, daring to tease him. So he piled on, "Yue'er, why aren't you at school today?"

Jing Yue looked even more dejected. Why was everyone picking on her? Had she somehow made the whole world hate her?

And where had her gentle Mingyuan-ge gone?

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

Was this what they meant by husband and wife looking alike?

While Jing Yue racked her brains for an answer, Jing Zhi saw how far her sister's face had fallen and realized she was truly upset. She hurried over and took Jing Yue's hand, soothing her. "All right, all right, I won't say anything more. Look at that face of yours. Honestly!"

Before long, Jing Yue seemed to have cheered up. Only then did Jing Zhi ask, "Weren't you solving problems in your room? Why did you come out?"

Jing Yue muttered, "It was Mom. I was busy, and she suddenly told me to come out and take a look. Then I came out and saw the two of you hugging."

"Uh, Mom?"

After confirming it with her sister, Jing Zhi stared in astonishment. Why would her mother suddenly tell Jing Yue to come out and look?

Could it be...

Could it be that her mother had come out just now?

At the thought of her mother seeing her and Lu Mingyuan like that, Jing Zhi's pretty face turned red. She raised her other hand and started smacking Lu Mingyuan, who was watching the show from the sidelines.

"It's all your fault! It's all your fault! Now Mom's seen us... How embarrassing..."

Seeing Jing Zhi blame him for everything, Lu Mingyuan quickly raised a hand to block her incoming fists. They were hardly strong enough to hurt him, and as he fended them off, he readily admitted, "All right, all right! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"

He didn't dare say that Jing Zhi had been the one to lean in first, or she'd kick up another storm.

Even though that was exactly what had happened.

But when it came to his own wife, he had to be the one to coax her. Taking the blame once in a while was only right. It was no big deal.

The three of them carried on like this for a while before finally settling down.

Then Lu Mingyuan suddenly remembered something. His sister-in-law should have been studying at the "Wutong Academy" right now, so why was she still at home? And hadn't Jing Zhi just said she was solving problems?

Jing Yue explained that she'd already learned just about everything she could from her brother-in-law, Lu Mingyuan, and her sister often tutored her as well. So she'd discussed it with her family, and from now on, she wasn't planning to attend the "Wutong Academy."

After Jing Zhi confirmed it, Lu Mingyuan had no objections.

It was only a private school. If she wasn't going to attend, then so be it.

Besides, Jing Yue probably wouldn't learn anything more at the "Wutong Academy," so it was just as well that she left.

In truth, Wutong Academy was indeed a private school, much like the "Tingtao Academy" run by Lu Mingyuan's family. The only difference was that Wutong Academy held many more classes than Lu Mingyuan's "Tingtao Academy."

Wutong Academy's schedule was much like that of a proper academy: classes five days a week, with two days off.

As for Lu Mingyuan's "Tingtao Academy," it held classes only about two days a week.

Since the lead teacher, Lu Mingyuan, was also studying at an academy, he could only teach on weekends. Naturally, the tuition was much lower as well.

The quality of Lu Mingyuan's teaching was also quite good, so many students—or rather, parents—chose his "Tingtao Academy."

Of course, most of the students at "Tingtao Academy" were the children of familiar local residents. They trusted Lu Mingyuan—or, more precisely, they trusted the "Tingtao Academy" that had been passed down from Lu Mingyuan's mother.

In truth, on Tianyun Continent, anything that wasn't called an academy was a private school. It didn't matter whether it was called a school, a study hall, a family school, a children's school, a classics school, a village school, or a clan school; they were all private schools.

Generally speaking, private schools and academies were fundamentally different.

For a school to call itself an academy, it needed at least three or four teachers from the Hundred Schools of Thought on staff. Academies were also subject to strict registration and management by the authorities, and opening one cost far more than opening a private school. The Lu Mingyuan of the past couldn't have afforded it.

That was why you couldn't just call any school an academy.

Ordinary private schools mostly taught students basic literacy and cultural subjects like the Four Books and Five Classics. They generally didn't cover arithmetic, history, geography, the study of things, or other such courses. As a result, students who graduated from private schools tended to have a very narrow range of knowledge.

But there was no helping it. Ordinary people couldn't afford to attend academies, and private schools couldn't afford to hire teachers from the Hundred Schools of Thought. The quality of their instruction was easy to imagine.

Even Lu Mingyuan's "Tingtao Academy" was more like a school for young children, teaching them only how to read and write.

It wasn't that Lu Mingyuan couldn't teach more advanced subjects. After all, he'd taught both Jing Zhi and Jing Yue. It wasn't that he was playing favorites; he simply had limited energy. He still had to attend school himself, so he couldn't take on too many students.

So when the 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.

After that, Jing Zhi had worked as Lu Mingyuan's assistant at "Tingtao Academy," helping him teach the younger children.

As for Jing Yue, she was still young at the time and couldn't do anything else, so her family found another private school for her. Whether she learned anything there didn't really matter; the main thing was to keep her from running around.

Now, it seemed Jing Yue didn't want to go anymore either.

But what were these problems Jing Zhi had mentioned solving? What did that mean?

When Lu Mingyuan asked, Jing Zhi looked at him strangely. "Mingyuan, don't you know about the [Chicken-Rabbit Cage Divine Ability]? Weren't you interested in mathematics from a young age?"

"Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage? Isn't that the illusion divine ability that caused such a stir more than half a month ago? I know about that. What's happened now?"

At the mention of Chicken and Rabbit in a Cage, Lu Mingyuan was even more confused. Had something else happened? How had he, the person involved, not heard about it?

As for Jing Zhi saying he'd been interested in mathematics from a young age, that was true.

Before he'd awakened his memories from his previous life, Lu Mingyuan had spent all day studying and working through books on mathematics. But after his memories returned, those problems had become child's play to him. He'd worked through each one once and then stopped bothering with them.

Then Lu Mingyuan added, "I've been busy with the divine ability lately and haven't had time to pay attention to anything else. What exactly happened?"

Seeing that Lu Mingyuan really didn't know, Jing Zhi thought back for a moment before explaining, "About... three days ago, word got out that repeatedly solving the problems inside the [Chicken-Rabbit Cage Divine Ability] could greatly increase the rate at which your Talent Qi grew."

"By how much?" Lu Mingyuan immediately asked.

"About eight times. And that's if you study seriously. If you used to fish for three days and dry your nets for two, the increase would probably be even greater—fifty times, maybe even a hundred."

"Really? That's way too outrageous."

Hearing that, Lu Mingyuan looked astonished. That was the normal reaction, after all.

Jing Yue chimed in, "Mingyuan-ge, it's true. I tried it. I was doing problems in my room just now."

"Everyone knows that reading and solving problems can increase your Talent Qi. But to boost it by that much? That's terrifying."

As if he'd just thought of the eightfold increase, Lu Mingyuan wore an appropriately incredulous expression.

Jing Zhi wasn't surprised. When she'd first heard the news, her reaction had been even more exaggerated. "When Uncle Song announced it, everyone in the restaurant nearly went crazy."

Thinking of what had happened a few days ago, Jing Zhi still felt uneasy. At the time, she'd been afraid everyone would tear the restaurant apart.

"Uncle Song announced it right there in the restaurant?"

Jing Zhi nodded. "Mm. It was early in the morning, just after the hour of the Dragon, when the place was at its busiest. Everyone was eating breakfast. Then they suddenly heard the news, and after confirming it, they nearly turned the restaurant upside down. That was the most leftover food our family's ever had."

Lu Mingyuan could understand why so much food had been left over. The diners had suddenly heard about a way to improve their strength quickly, so of course they'd be eager to go home and try it, tell their families, or start training their children.

That was understandable.

For some reason, there were plenty of classics, commentaries, and great works on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network, but very few books explaining or interpreting them. In other words, there were no translations, critical analyses, or exercise books...

There were books like that in the real world, of course, but no one uploaded them.

If you wanted to study the explanations and interpretations of the classics, you had to go to an academy, the Hundred Schools of Thought, or an official school...

In other words, the explanations and interpretations were monopolized by those powers.

Without books explaining and interpreting the classics, everyone's understanding advanced much more slowly. So even though the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network had all kinds of classics, everyone's Talent Qi still grew very slowly.

The official explanation was that this was meant to stop other races from rapidly improving their strength by secretly studying the classics.

Whether that was really true, no one could say. Everyone could only believe it.

Now, a divine ability had suddenly appeared that could increase the rate of Talent Qi growth eightfold. Of course, everyone was going to go wild. It was an opportunity...

Hearing that the news had already spread far and wide, Lu Mingyuan thought, No wonder my divine ability has sold several tens of millions more copies over the past few days. Everyone must be rushing to make use of it. After all, no one knows when it might be taken off the market.

It wasn't as if divine abilities had never been taken off the market before.

"By the way, A-Zhi, did Uncle Song say where the news came from?"

"He did. Some say Linzhou Town in the south, others say Yangpu City in the east, and still others say the Xiaoxiang Academy in Liyao City, Great Chu Kingdom. There are lots of different stories. Uncle Song said he didn't know which one was right."

"I see. Then it looks like people discovered this in a lot of places."

After a pause, Lu Mingyuan asked, "Hey, Yue'er, who in our family learned this divine ability?"

Humans could only learn divine abilities on the Heavenly Dao Virtual Network after turning eighteen and awakening their Divine Ability Stone. So Jing Yue couldn't have learned it herself; she wasn't old enough. Even her older sister, Jing Zhi, couldn't learn it yet.

Jing Yue replied, "Dad did. He just used the illusion divine ability on me and had me keep answering questions inside it. Mingyuan-ge, the questions in there were so hard. I'm exhausted."

"Tell Uncle Jing not to keep you in the illusion all the time. When this divine ability is used on someone else, the time ratio is at least ten to one. Don't wear yourself out."

"Mm, thank you, Mingyuan-ge."

Illusion-type divine abilities could only be adjusted to a one-to-one time ratio when used on oneself. When used on someone else, the ratio had to be at least ten to one. That meant ten seconds passed inside the illusion for every second in the real world.

If the divine ability was used for attacking, there was no harm in making the time ratio even higher, since the enemy would be able to leave after at most one second in the outside world.

But if it was used as a long-term learning tool, it was best not to keep someone in the illusion for too long.

Even putting aside the fact that time spent in the illusion also consumed one's spiritual lifespan, the sheer brainpower required—ten or even a hundred times as much—was a serious problem. If the brain didn't get enough nourishment, the risk of sudden death would be high.

So Lu Mingyuan had to remind them. Quickly increasing one's Talent Qi was a good thing, but it was possible to overdo it.

Otherwise, it could backfire. By then, it would be too late for regrets.

As for why this illusion divine ability could be used as a long-term learning tool—

Wouldn't you leave once you'd finished answering the questions?

In fact, after finishing the questions—or once a second had passed in the real world—the person under the spell could choose to leave or remain inside.

Of course, for someone to stay in the illusion for a long time, both the person using the divine ability and the person under its effects had to agree. If either one disagreed, either party could end it at any time once the time was up.