Chapter 2: A Fetus of Many Treasures. Pink bubbles filled her eyes, yellow waste filled her mind...

The young man in her field of vision leaned back on a recliner, his legs crossed.

Chi Leyou couldn't see clearly without her glasses, but she vaguely felt that the scene resembled the male protagonist in her roommate's painting, a few strokes evoking the atmosphere.

In the next shot, the comic book character in her mind raised his hand, beckoning her over.

Thinking he was calling someone else, she instinctively turned her head away.

The shoddy frames she'd gotten at an optical store in H City, China, had lasted two years, and then, that morning, she was dismembered in the school library.

The man hadn't done it on purpose, and his confession was sincere. He offered to help her secure a prime library desk for three months until he could work and raise the money to pay her back.

Chi Leyou's gaze lifted from the frayed cuffs of the man's sweatshirt and strayed to the leafless branches outside the window.

It was a Kawazu cherry tree.

In three months, the petals would eagerly bloom before the buds emerged.

After a magical attack, it would become a giant, fluffy pink lollipop.

What's the difference between studying here and standing in a gallery admiring a world-famous painting?

Click—

Chi Leyou, like a forensic doctor, snapped a photo of the body in front of the framed corpse.

She desperately wanted to sob to her few Instagram followers.

Her fingertips lingered on the upload button.

She realized it was study time, and the internet would only slow her down.

So she arbitrarily set a posting timer for a few hours later. Chi Leyou pulled herself back from her thoughts

.

Before she could show her employer the documents proving she wasn't a child laborer, she reached into her back pocket again.

The man on the recliner glanced at her, his tone casual, "Twenty, if you say so, then twenty. After all, Liam's job is hiring, and he'll take the rap if anything goes wrong."

His voice was carried away by the headwind, and Chi Leyou, still mourning over her glasses, didn't hear it clearly.

The next second, a massive shadow descended, a burly man descending like a celestial being.

Security personnel immediately appeared, and Chi Leyou made a gesture as if she were drawing a gun.

The expected pain in her wrist didn't come, and she opened one eyelid.

What caught her eye was not the uniform of the security guards. Instead,

it was a large expanse of well-defined oblique abdominal muscles.

The rich sister's boyfriend's voice hit her head: "This is the staff we hired to take care of the pool. Show some respect."

The voice was as smooth and clear as a stream after melting snow.

"Yes." The security guard withdrew his two thick arms like pile drivers.

Chi Leyou blinked and locked lips, her heart aching for Amitabha, her eyes filled with lust and desire.

The boyfriend was strong and fit, with smooth muscle lines, and more muscular than the body Chi Leyou had spied in the studio.

"Looks good?" This Asian boy was really presumptuous. Where was he looking? Chen Che gathered his crimson nightgown.

"...Ah?" Chi Leyou let out a dud.

The oblique abdominal muscles in front of her

disappeared like a theater at the end of its curtain call.

Chi Leyou suddenly woke up, her hands abruptly lifted into the air, and she retreated tactically.

"I didn't touch him." Her eyes turned over her boyfriend, and then jumped over the white security guard who was as strong as a bull, and floated over mountains and hills to Du Yuanshan.

Du Yuanshan: "?"

Chen Che: "???"

She was kind enough to help someone out, but what was the result? He was eager to distance himself from the matter.

Was he radioactive dust? Biochemical pollution? Zombie plague?

As for keeping a safe distance of more than 1.5 meters from him?

After the little episode.

Liam asked everyone to work, and the workers scattered like bees.

Du Yuanshan, wearing woolen slippers, squeezed to the edge of the lounge chair, "Stop staring. Keep staring at the two big holes on his body."

Chen Che: "Who am I staring at?"

"I'm not blind. That little guy looks like a girl. Aren't you staring at him all the time?" Du Yuanshan blinked, and her voice became more and more inappropriate, "You want to come out, today is a good day."

"I'm gay?!" Shen Che raised his voice.

Du Yuanshan poked his knee affectionately with her fingertips. "There's a lot of this kind of thing going on in this industry. I'm a big fan." Chen Che

pulled back one knee, his eyes gracing the bare cherry blossoms above him. "...Get out of the way."

"I can't touch you?" Du Yuanshan raised her voice.

Several heads gathered around the pool raised their heads, saying "do, re, mi, fa, so. "

Du Yuanshan awkwardly gathered her hair.

Most of them didn't understand the coded language and stared at her blankly.

Du Yuanshan could only applaud like a sponsor, sacrificing her exaggerated, performative English: "Good good work, day day up."①

"do, re, mi, fa": "???"

Only the Asian kid in a headscarf said "so," installing the hose at the farthest angle.

Du Yuanshan warned in a low voice, "Chen Xiaoxi, don't be disrespectful." "

Ms. Du, don't call me by my nickname."

Du Yuanshan frowned. "I don't have the right to call

you that?" The young man rested his head on his arm, legs casually crossed. His voice drifted softly through the air, "Tsk, if you don't mind, I'll call you by your real name too."

— "Du, Zi, Teng, female, scholar."

A surge of anger surged within her, but Du Yuanshan suppressed it, lowering her voice to the lowest possible level, attempting to justify herself: "I've changed my name to Du Yuanshan."

A stage name.

Chen Che shrugged, his smile spreading into the cool air. "Shall we ask the Director to check Ms. Du's real name in the household registration system?"

Du Yuanshan nearly yelled, "Don't mention that old thing."

Far away in China, Director Shen was referred to by Du Yuanshan as "old thing."

Thinking of her home in China, she saw the "Five Good Family" honor plaque hanging outside the gate.

Chen Che held high the banner of spiritual civilization, undeterred by a shrug. "Mom, you're the eldest in our family, so I can call you whatever you want. Can we call you in private? There are so many of us..."

He didn't want anyone to know about the Shen family's progressive naming system.

Great-grandfather Shen Dahai, grandfather Shen Dajiang, father Shen Dahe.

He was a man of integrity, yet he was called Shen Xiaoxi.

Du Yuanshan's smile stretched to her cheekbones, and she elbowed him in the forearm: "Stinky boy, so you still think of me as your mother."

The winter sun, shimmering softly, shrouded the sprawling manor villa like a veil.

The chilly air was warmed by the hustle and bustle of everyone working.

Chi Leyou used a net to scoop dead leaves and trash from the pool.

She crouched by the edge, straining the extended telescopic pole toward the center.

A clump of party paper flowers gathered in the pool, the fruits of a rich sister's party.

Chi Leyou retracted her pole. The shiny paper flowers in her net reflected the sunlight. She murmured, "It's a hexagram."

Hearing this, the man on the recliner chimed in, "Well, there aren't just stars in the wishing well, there are also mutants." Trying

to scare the kid.

Unexpectedly, a certain action-oriented person frowned and, like two slender finger bones, dug in the net like chopsticks.

Finally, they pulled out a long, green organism.

"Thanks for the heads-up," the kid's eyes shone brightly. "Hey, a tent caterpillar, only found in warm winters."

"..."

After this round of fighting, the loser abruptly averted his gaze, not daring to meet the kid's gaze.

Chi Leyou tilted her head and muttered, "Tsk, a grown man is afraid of bugs." Chen

Che, who had just pulled out his phone, felt his pride swell in his chest, and he blurted out a retort, "Girls are afraid of bugs."

Chi Leyou pinched the soft tail of the bug and swung it in the air, deflecting his words back, "Really? I'm not afraid."

The wind blew past, blowing away her dark headscarf. The sun broke through the cotton candy clouds, and golden rays penetrated the cherry blossom branches, focusing on her head.

Chen Che could see the "boy's" hair clearly—the dreadlocks favored by Black Pearl ladies, each with a purple headband.

The night was like a storm, and large flashes of purple lightning dyed the sky.

She was a girl.

And a Shamatte.

She looked formidable.

A good man doesn't fight a woman.

Chen Che was too lazy to speak, looking down at his phone.

His Instagram friend Yoyolooping posted a minute ago: "Farewell (glasses emoji).

The picture showed a pair of tortoise-shell glasses, barely put together.

It was like a screaming letter, the other party's miserable wails could be heard even from afar.

Brook replied: RIP (palms together + glasses + candle emoji).

The other party didn't reply immediately like before.

Liam checked the pool's water pump and heating system, making sure there were no impurities blocking the equipment.

Chi Leyou held the electronic water quality tester, eyelashes lowered and brows furrowed. The blue and green progress bar representing the pH value on the screen jumped out at her eyes, a fascinating battle between green and blue.

"Liam," Chi Leyou called him in English, chin raised, "Am I doing this correctly?"

Liam lowered his giraffe neck: "It's been calibrated?"

"Yes."

"You picked it up quickly!" The foreigner was not stingy with praise, praising Chi Leyou to the point of pouting.

She simply fixed her hair, using the anti-hair loss method of the bakery, and tied her headscarf tightly.

His deep gaze turned to her. She was not playing with insects, but was working seriously.

The white neck was like a cute mushroom beside the forest path, full of vitality.

His ordinary denim overalls took on a playful air, and his tomato-red rubber shoes resembled... the tender hooves of a newborn gazelle.

"Although you're not gay, Mom isn't very happy." Du Yuanshan fetched a blue and yellow cashmere blanket from inside and draped it over Shen Che's head.

His vision suddenly darkened, and a voice filled his ears. Shen Che could only hear Du Yuanshan's warning: "The girl is pretty, but unfortunately she's too young. If you break the law, your father will personally arrest you and send you back to China."

"They said she's twenty, an adult." Shen Che lifted the blanket in dissatisfaction. "Ms. Du Ziteng, please learn some English, okay?"

"Ah! You little brat!" Du Yuanshan held his hand, her anger rekindled, refusing to let him throw the blanket away.

There's a kind of coldness when a mother feels her son is cold.

The LED lights for the party were put away. Chi Leyou checked them one by one, making sure they were still usable. He wiped the water droplets off each one and put them in the equipment box.

He glanced up at the wealthy sister.

How could such a perfect woman exist? He fell in love with her at first sight.

Her sister's voice was tingling... her ears were pregnant—if men could get pregnant, her boyfriend would risk everything to give her a litter of adorable pups, right?

Having multiple babies isn't impossible.

She stole another glimpse at her boyfriend.

His eyebrows, eyes, and nose—everything was meticulously sculpted by a cartoonist, a true hero. He was tall, his muscles thriving in the way a young man should.

As long as he didn't speak, he looked docile and harmless.

Chi Leyou imagined a series of sensational online stories about wealthy women keeping young boyfriends.

Pink bubbles filled her eyes, and yellow garbage filled her mind.

Jesus, God bless you, Nezha the Third Prince, my sister is eating so well!

Chi Leyou drooled over the beauty of the wealthy woman and marveled at the handsomeness of her younger brother.

Ahhh, he's so lucky! He saved himself thirty years of hard work!

Her heart throbbed as she opened a can of soda labeled "I'm So Envious." After finally getting out of the blanket, Chen Che

,

whose head was once again covered by Du Yuanshan, looked back at the lightning-shaped dreadlocks peeking out from under the girl's headscarf. His gaze

lingered on those overly clear eyes.

She was good at creating contrasts.

Their eyes met over the pool.

Chen Che was stunned. What was wrong with her? Why was she staring at him? Was she a nymphomaniac?

Could it be?

He lowered his head to check the waistband of his nightgown.

The neat bow didn't reveal a single bit of flesh.

He curled two fingers, pointed at his eyes, and poked her in the air.

Chi Leyou pouted. What are you doing?

Chen Che mouthed: What are you looking at?

An inexplicable war was about to break out over the pool.

Chi Leyou, a flexible worker, stretched out her arms and opened her palms: "Here you are."

Tsk, look! He had already guessed the answer!

This damn skin really gave him a lot of trouble.

Love letters, flowers, chocolates. Just because he didn't accept them didn't mean other girls wouldn't give them.

He waited for the girl to say the boilerplate confession he'd heard so many times

before. Instead, he heard the girl explain, "I fished it out of the swimming pool. It looks like... women's earrings?"