In the living room, Du Qionghua and Liu Xin watched the two little ones get tugged and dragged into the bedroom...
They exchanged a smile and started chatting like old friends.
Meanwhile, in Yu Qingmeng's room, Chen Yan was facing one of the greatest challenges he'd encountered since transmigrating.
"Brother Xiao Yan," Yu Qingmeng declared solemnly in her soft, babyish voice, her bright, clear eyes blinking. "Let's play Hide and Seek!"
"You're five months older than me. I'm not your brother..." Chen Yan tried to reason with her...
But when he saw her lower lip quiver and her eyes quickly fill with tears, as if to say, "If you don't agree, I'll cry," he immediately surrendered.
What was he doing, trying to reason with a little kid? He must've lost his mind.
"Fine, fine. Go hide. I'll count to a hundred, then come find you."
Yu Qingmeng looked a little confused, but she'd understood the two key phrases: "go hide" and "come find you"...
She happily turned around and scampered off to hide.
Chen Yan covered his eyes for show and began counting slowly as he surveyed the bedroom.
It was a standard pink princess room, but also... quite wild.
Crayon and watercolor marks crisscrossed the walls. Abstract lines and splashes of color filled his field of vision, proclaiming the owner's "artistic talent."
Chen Yan's lips curled. What a little menace.
Back on Blue Star, any kid who acted up this much would've had their bottom spanked raw...
An idea struck him, and his gaze fell on a paintbrush on the desk.
He went over, rose onto his tiptoes, and picked up the paintbrush, its bristles still coated in paint.
He quietly sketched the outline of a bird on a relatively clean patch of wall.
Of course, it only looked like a bird to Chen Yan...
"Hmm..."
"I didn't know I had such a talent for painting!"
Chen Yan began to congratulate himself.
[Congratulations: You have completed a painting and triggered a new skill—Painting.] [Train diligently to increase your Painting progress. Once progress reaches its maximum, you can advance to the next sequence.] [Advancement sequence: Painting → Image Projection Scroll → Myriad Image Painting Heart → ???] [Current Painting progress: 1/1000] [Painting]: Improves observation and hand-eye coordination. [Image Projection Scroll]: Turn the illusory into reality, animate painted spirits, and trap things within a drawn boundary. [Myriad Image Painting Heart]: Depict the source and define the laws.
"Hm?"
Chen Yan froze, paintbrush in hand.
He'd only been trying it out on a whim, and it actually worked?
Was his Innate Dao Body just that ridiculously powerful, or was this system completely absurd...
He couldn't tell anymore.
"Still, the skill descriptions are a little abstract..."
Since he'd triggered a new skill, it was a good thing, at least.
Chen Yan put it out of his mind.
Once he'd counted to a hundred, Chen Yan began his "search."
He made a big show of it, pacing around the room and loudly asking:
"Where could you be hiding?"
"Are you under the bed?"
He bent down and peered underneath. Nothing there.
"Are you in the wardrobe?"
He opened it. There were only a few cute little dresses inside.
He searched so halfheartedly that it took him a full three minutes.
At last, he spotted a little figure behind the curtains, bottom sticking up in the air, convinced she'd found the perfect hiding place.
"Found you!"
Yu Qingmeng had been "caught" red-handed, but she wasn't the least bit disappointed.
Instead, she burst into gleeful laughter and rolled around on the floor.
Chen Yan watched her, speechless.
How could such a pretty little girl, as delicate as a porcelain doll, laugh like a bandit holding up the road...
In the living room, Du Qionghua and Liu Xin heard the laughter from the bedroom and smiled with relief.
"Looks like Xiaomeng really likes Xiao Yan," Liu Xin said with a sigh.
"She does. Those two get along so well." Du Qionghua took a sip of tea. "Speaking of which, Xinxin, do you remember the promise we made in high school?"
Liu Xin paused, then smiled too. "Of course I do."
"We said that if our children were the same sex, they'd be best friends for life..."
Du Qionghua picked up where she'd left off. "And if they were different sexes, we'd arrange a betrothal."
They exchanged a knowing look and smiled.
Chen Yan naturally had no idea that his two shameless mothers had already "claimed" him for each other.
Even if he had known, he would've declared in no uncertain terms that he couldn't bring himself to lay a hand on a girl so young.
It was a matter of principle!
As for when they grew up?
That was another matter.
After one round, Yu Qingmeng was clearly still eager to play.
She came over and poked Chen Yan's arm, then excitedly ran to the wall. Copying what Chen Yan had done, she buried her face against it and began to count.
At the same time, she mumbled incoherently:
"One... seven... five..."
When Chen Yan didn't react, Yu Qingmeng ran back and tugged on his clothes, pleading with him.
"Play... play!"
"You mean it's my turn to hide?" Chen Yan guessed.
"Mm-hm!"
Seeing the eager look on Yu Qingmeng's face, he swallowed the refusal that had been on the tip of his tongue.
Fine. He'd treat it like entertaining a client.
To end the childish game as quickly as possible, Chen Yan chose the simplest hiding place: behind the door.
His small body was almost perfectly concealed once he stood behind it.
But the moment he settled into place, the system notification sounded again.
[Congratulations: You have learned Hide and Seek and triggered a new skill—Hide and Seek.] [Train diligently to increase your Hide and Seek progress. Once progress reaches its maximum, you can advance to the next sequence.] [Advancement sequence: Hide and Seek → Shadow Concealment → Presence Erasure → Embodying Nothingness] [Current Hide and Seek progress: 1/1000] [Shadow Concealment]: Conceal your aura and cultivation; blend into your surroundings. [Presence Erasure]: Make others overlook your existence; make your karma difficult to trace and your fate difficult to divine. [Embodying Nothingness]: Absolute concealment. All Laws Cannot Touch you!
Chen Yan's eyes lit up.
Shadow Concealment!
Presence Erasure!
Wasn't this exactly the life-saving skill he'd always dreamed of?
With this, he wouldn't have to worry about getting dissected for research anymore!
The path of quietly building up his strength stretched bright and clear before him!
As he was getting excited, Yu Qingmeng finished her jumbled counting and turned around to search the room.
She looked under the bed, opened the wardrobe, and finally even rummaged through her own toy box, but she never once checked behind the door.
Standing behind it, Chen Yan started to get bored.
He looked at the little bird he'd painted on the wall. His hands were itching to paint some more.
He picked up the paintbrush again and added a few clouds to the wall behind the door.
The moment he put brush to wall—
[Congratulations: You have learned Dual-Mindedness and triggered a new skill—Dual-Mindedness.]
Chen Yan: "???"
"This trip really was worth it!"
Before you continue