Chapter 105
“Where are your parents?” Chi Lin had genuinely thought the child was drowning. “It’s dangerous for two children to be playing in the sea without adult supervision.”
The little girl’s large eyes crinkled with laughter, her short hair making her look even more lively. “My sister and I have been diving since last year, it’s okay, thank you for your concern.”
Chi Lin nodded, slightly puzzled. This child, barely old enough for elementary school, had been diving since last year?
Chi Lin herself had learned to swim at a young age, but diving still made her slightly apprehensive.
These parents were quite bold.
Lou Mi returned with a cooler full of drinks, having asked a staff member to deliver it to their beach umbrella.
She didn’t see Chi Lin and, looking around, spotted her in the water again.
Chi Lin saw Lou Mi and swam back to shore, the little girl swimming beside her, keeping pace effortlessly.
Chi Lin noticed the child looking at her and glanced back.
The little girl was indeed staring at her.
Chi Lin: “?”
“Big Sister, are you Lin from Nine Heavens?”
Chi Lin remembered her newfound fame in this era. In her eagerness to rescue the child, she had forgotten to hide her face.
She smiled at the girl and put a finger to her lips.
The little girl smiled back, her smile as sweet as candy, and mirrored the gesture.
They reached the shore. Little Twelve, holding an ice cream cone, glared at her sister:
“So slow, hurry up, I’m hungry.”
Her sister, Little Seven, walked over and said, “Didn’t you see who just saved you?”
“She didn’t save me! I was holding my breath! Stop twisting the facts!” Twelve protested.
“Don’t you want to know who she is? Look closely, she’s your favorite person.”
“My favorite person?”
Twelve looked at Chi Lin suspiciously. Just as she did, her sister snatched the ice cream cone from her hand.
Twelve: “Hey!”
Lou Mi handed Chi Lin a drink and told her to rest on a lounge chair.
“Where did these kids come from? Are they alone?”
“They were having a breath-holding competition in the water just now.”
“Huh? Little kids holding their breath in the ocean? And their parents are okay with this?”
Chi Lin shook her head.
Wei Zhuoning emerged from the water, still excited from her snorkeling experience.
“It was so beautiful! The fish were kissing my hands!”
Lin Xiaozhi, floating beside her, held her hand and smiled: “Of course, you’re so cute, even the fish love you.”
Wei Zhuoning smiled shyly: “I wonder what kind of fish they were.”
“Keep playing, I’ll take more pictures.” Lin Xiaozhi held her waterproof camera. “We can look them up online later.”
“Aren’t you coming?”
“I’m right here with you, taking your pictures is my priority.” Lin Xiaozhi turned and kissed Wei Zhuoning.
Wei Zhuoning, slightly dizzy from the kiss, lost her balance and swallowed a mouthful of seawater, coughing and sputtering.
Lin Xiaozhi quickly held her up. Wei Zhuoning, tears streaming down her face from the salty water, clung to Lin Xiaozhi for support.
“Oh dear,” Lin Xiaozhi said, her heart aching, “poor baby, be careful, don’t be so eager.”
Wei Zhuoning glared at her: “It’s your fault!”
“How is it my fault? You kissed me back.”
Wei Zhuoning: “…”
“Judging by your swimming skills, maybe you should use a floatie, so you don’t drown.”
Wei Zhuoning was horrified: “What? No way! Floaties are for little kids! I’d be so embarrassed!”
“Which is more important, your life or your pride?”
“Pride.”
“…”
“And with you here…” Wei Zhuoning’s voice lowered shyly, “I’ll be fine.”
Fu Tu, dragged around by Xie Buyu in the waves, crawled back to shore, exhausted.
Lou Mi waved them over to rest.
Fu Tu, panting, collapsed onto a lounge chair, took the drink Lou Mi offered, and chugged it down.
Xie Buyu, seemingly full of energy, stood with her hands on her hips, shaking her head at Fu Tu:
“You’re so weak, and you call yourself a professional gamer, a tank, no less? Who would believe that? Come to the gym with me tonight, don’t embarrass Nine Heavens.”
Fu Tu muttered under her breath, “Don’t bother me tonight, then.”
“What did you say?”
“You heard me.”
Xie Buyu pounced on her, and Fu Tu, screaming and struggling, almost fell onto the sand.
Wei Zhuoning and Lin Xiaozhi, approaching, witnessed the scene, and Wei Zhuoning immediately turned around.
“What are they doing! Is that what you were showing me in those videos?”
Lin Xiaozhi: “…Why are you still obsessed with those videos?”
Chi Lin, seeing their revealing swimsuits and their roughhousing, quickly looked away.
Lou Mi kicked them playfully: “Hey, hey! What are you doing? Have some decency! There are minors present!”
“Who’s a minor?” Xie Buyu, pinning down the struggling Fu Tu, asked.
Lou Mi looked around. Well, they were all technically adults. “They’re still high school students! Have some shame!”
Xie Buyu pushed Fu Tu away: “Where was your shame when you turned the guild headquarters into your personal palace? Or when you were sitting on Little Sister’s lap during the live stream? Do you even know what shame is?”
This comment shifted the target of their aggression. Lou Mi turned and pinned Xie Buyu to the ground.
“Little Sister! Little Sister!” Xie Buyu cried out for help. “Save me! Your sister is trying to kill me!”
“Calling for backup? Look where your little sister is standing. If she interferes, you won’t just be pinned down, you’ll be crippled. Now, who’s shameless?”
“Me, me, me, it was me, okay! Fu Tu! You’re just going to watch me get bullied?!”
Fu Tu: “Yes, I am. Sister Mi, you go, girl! Rid the world of this pest!”
As Fu Tu cheered and praised Lou Mi, Chi Lin, unable to bear the scene any longer, went to play in the sand with Lin Xiaozhi and Wei Zhuoning.
As the sun set, exhausted and hungry, they returned to the hotel, showered, and went to dinner.
Lou Mi, Chi Lin, Xie Buyu, and Fu Tu met in the lobby. Lin Xiaozhi messaged Chi Lin, saying she and Zhuoning had something to do and wouldn’t be joining them for dinner.
After relaying the message, Xie Buyu said, impressed:
“Young people these days, so much energy! Little Wei seems so quiet and reserved, I wouldn’t have guessed.”
Lou Mi glanced at her, a smirk on her face.
Xie Buyu: “?”
“Even a seasoned pervert like you can be mistaken sometimes. Do you really think Little Wei is the dominant one? Think again.”
Xie Buyu paused, then realized:
“You mean Xiao Lin?”
Lou Mi raised an eyebrow.
Xie Buyu exclaimed in surprise, marveling at the diversity of the modern lesbian scene, that such a sweet and innocent-looking girl like Xiao Lin could be so dominant.
She tried to pry more information from Lou Mi, but Lou Mi feigned ignorance.
“How would you not know?”
“How would I know?”
Xie Buyu decided to ask Chi Lin directly.
Chi Lin, already mortified by their earlier conversation, seeing Xie Buyu turning her attention towards her, wanted to use her Qinggong and disappear.
After dinner, Xie Buyu and Fu Tu wanted to go to the bar for drinks. Chi Lin’s eyes lit up at the word “drinks.”
“Seeing your reaction,” Lou Mi chuckled, patting her head, “let’s go together. We’re on vacation, it’s all about eating, drinking, and having fun. We can sleep it off tomorrow, no worries.”
Chi Lin nodded happily, and they set off together.
The hotel bar was crowded. Without a reservation, they could only stand in a corner.
An AI attendant, its appearance almost human, N-T’s latest model, capable of complex conversations, came to take their order.
It even had a name.
Chi Lin hadn’t realized it was a robot until, after Lou Mi ordered their drinks, its eyes flashed with a faint blue light, and it said:
“Your order has been placed, please wait a moment.”
After the attendant left, Chi Lin asked, “Was that, an AI?”
Before Lou Mi could answer, Xie Buyu asked curiously, “Hey, Little Sister, isn’t your mom a senior engineer at N-T? Her team developed these AIs, didn’t you know?”
Chi Lin had no idea what Peng Ziyuan’s work entailed. She vaguely remembered hearing about “engineer” during dinner.
But she wasn’t familiar with this era’s terminology.
Lou Mi clicked her tongue, rescuing Chi Lin:
“You’re so nosy. Little Lin is busy with school and training, how would she know what her mom’s company is developing?”
Xie Buyu whispered to Chi Lin, “Sister Mi is so scary, she looks like she’s going to eat me. Little Sister, you’re still young, are you sure you want to spend your life with this tyrant?”
“Want to fight again? I shouldn’t have brought you, I should have left you at the club to train the trainees!”
Lou Mi and Xie Buyu’s bickering was interrupted when a table became available, and they sat down.
Two pairs of small eyes peeked in from outside.
“Seven, there are X3 AIs here, they’re connected to the network, they’ll scan our faces and know we’re underage, they won’t let us in.”
It was the twins Chi Lin had met earlier.
Seven said, “If you really want to go in, do as I say, and I’ll get you in.”
Twelve glanced at her: “You’re the one who wants to go to a bar. What’s your plan?”
Seven whispered in her ear, and Twelve’s face scrunched up: “Why don’t you do it!”
“It’s your punishment for losing the breath-holding competition.”
“Wasn’t the punishment sneaking into Mom’s room for snacks?”
“I already got the snacks while she was in a meeting this afternoon. Now you have to cooperate and have your first drink. Otherwise, I’m not sharing.”
Twelve: “…”
Just as their drinks arrived, they heard a child crying.
Lou Mi instinctively looked towards the sound—why was there a child in a bar?
Two small figures were being stopped by an AI attendant: “Sorry, this bar is for adults only, please leave.”
Seven, pouting, pushed her fake-crying sister forward: “My mommy is inside, and my little sister accidentally wet her pants, I don’t know what to do, please let us in, we need to find our mommy.”
Twelve, an elementary school student and a prodigy in the science and technology class, almost forgot to cry.
Weren’t they just supposed to cry? Why the wet pants story…?
Who wet their pants?! You wet your pants!
The AI continued to block them, repeating, “Sorry, this bar is for adults only.”
People were starting to stare. Seven pinched her sister’s waist, and Twelve cried even louder.
“What’s going on?” A guest, annoyed, came over to ask.
Seven repeated the story about looking for their mommy. The guest glanced at the AI and sighed:
“These N-T AIs are so useless, they have no common sense, these children are looking for their mother! They must be so worried!”
The AI smiled at her: “If you can’t contact your parents, the hotel offers a one-touch emergency service. Would you like to contact the police?”
The guest rolled her eyes, pushed the AI aside, and led the twins inside.
“Go ahead,” she said. “Find your mommy.”
Twelve darted off. Seven, holding the guest’s hand, said sweetly, “Thank you, Auntie, you’re so pretty.”
The twins successfully entered the bar, bought two beers from a vending machine, and hid in a corner, sipping their drinks.
Lou Mi, who had been watching the whole time, nudged Chi Lin:
“Hey, look at those kids, sneaking into a bar to drink.”
Chi Lin glanced at them. Twelve, having chugged half a beer from a glass larger than her face, put it down and sighed:
“Alcohol, nothing special, just like any other drink.”
Seven sipped hers slowly: “You’re drinking too fast, you’ll get drunk.”
“Let’s go back after we finish,” Twelve said. “Or Mom will find out.”
“We were so careful, she won’t know, she’s busy with her new language system. You heard how stupid that X3 sounded, right? She’s trying to fix that. And Big Mom isn’t arriving until tomorrow, so she’ll be working late tonight, trying to impress her.”
The twins’ mothers were Xu Youyuan and Shi Yue.
The hotel was owned by X Group, founded by Xu Youyuan, who was also the creator of the first holographic game, “Reshaping the Universe.”
Her creation had paved the way for the current boom in holographic gaming.
N-T Group, the current leader in gaming and AI, had also been inspired by “Reshaping the Universe.”
Shi Yue was the CEO of N-T, and Peng Ziyuan’s boss.
Shi Yue and Xu Youyuan had been married for eight years, their twin daughters growing up fast.
It was summer break, and the girls wanted to go on a trip.
They were both busy with work, but having broken their promise last summer, Xu Youyuan was determined to make it up to them this year:
“I don’t want them to have boring childhood memories.”
Shi Yue, unable to refuse her beloved wife, adjusted her schedule, freeing up four days. Just as they were about to leave, Xu Youyuan was delayed:
“I can’t make it today, I’ll take the first flight tomorrow morning and meet you in N City.”
Shi Yue’s face turned green:
“What’s going on, Xu Youyuan?! You planned this trip, and now you can’t come?! You want me to take these two little devils on vacation alone? Are you serious?!”
Xu Youyuan was also worried, but she couldn’t leave: “How about asking your sister to come?”
“She’s on a two-week trip to Mars with Ah Fu, she’s not even on Earth!”
“Sigh…” Xu Youyuan, defeated, said sweetly, “Honey, I’m sorry, just one day, I’ll be there tomorrow, okay? I don’t want to be away from you either… I miss you so much.”
Shi Yue, unable to resist her wife’s charm, agreed.
So, Shi Yue arrived in N City with the twins. Knowing their mischievous nature and their tech skills, she made sure they went to bed, told them bedtime stories, locked their door, and worked in the living room.
She thought she had taken every precaution, but the twins, using their self-written program, unlocked the door and snuck out while Shi Yue was in the bathroom.
Hence, their current adventure in the bar.
Shi Yue, engrossed in her work, had no idea that Xu Youyuan, to surprise her wife and children, had finished her work early and was already at the airport, on her way to the hotel.
Seven burped and decided she couldn’t drink any more.
Adults loved alcohol, but it caused trouble. Big Mom had told them about her past struggles with alcohol, so they were both curious and wary of it.
Feeling slightly dizzy, Seven nudged her sister:
“Twelve, we should go, that AI has been watching us, it’ll activate parental controls soon, and if it contacts Big Mom, we’re dead.”
Seven stood up and was about to pull her sister up when she noticed that Twelve had not only finished a large beer but also a whiskey.
“Twelve? You drank all that?”
“What’s the big deal?” Twelve stood up, swaying slightly, and giggled. “I’m perfectly fine, alcohol is nothing special.”
The twins, holding hands, stumbled out of the bar. Chi Lin, slightly worried, said she would follow them.
Xie Buyu and Fu Tu were enjoying their drinks, and Lou Mi didn’t want to interrupt them. She paid the bill and, as they left the bar with Chi Lin, the twins were already gone.
“They’re fast! Little monsters!”
Shi Yue, finishing her work, felt a twinge in her back.
She was getting old, actually experiencing back pain, something that used to be Xu Youyuan’s specialty.
She stood up, stretched, and went to check on her daughters, quietly opening their door.
The door was unlocked.
Shi Yue cursed inwardly, immediately understanding.
She pulled back the covers, revealing two teddy bears grinning at her.
She looked at the childproof lock, designed to prevent children from sneaking out.
It had been hacked?!
She was both impressed and annoyed. Like mother, like daughters.
She immediately went looking for them.
Where had those two little devils gone in the middle of the night?
They better not get into trouble, or Xu Youyuan would skin her alive.
Shi Yue grabbed her phone and rushed downstairs, finding the manager and asking him to alert security.
As the security team mobilized, Shi Yue stood outside, thinking, where would those two go?
She had known about their snack-stealing habit, but since they were on vacation, she let them be.
Besides snacks, what else?
She remembered ordering a glass of wine on the train to N City, and both Seven and Twelve had snuck a sip.
If Xu Youyuan were here, she would have spanked them!
Shi Yue had turned a blind eye, and now they were pushing their luck?
Don’t let her find out they went to a bar…
If they could hack a door lock, bypassing the bar’s AI would be child’s play!
Shi Yue hurried towards the bar. Seven and Twelve, stumbling out, spotted a climbing wall.
Twelve pointed at it: “Dare to race me?”
As a star player on the school’s hockey team, Twelve was confident in her physical abilities.
Losing the breath-holding competition to her sister had been a blow to her pride, and she had been looking for a chance to redeem herself.
Seven, slightly tipsy and with a headache, sat down on the steps:
“Sure.”
“Let’s do it!” Twelve swayed slightly.
“You go first.” Seven gestured.
“You time me!”
Twelve went to look for a safety harness. At this hour, the staff were gone, the harnesses stored away, and the climbing wall locked.
She swiped her custom-made access card, and the lock clicked open.
“Tsk, same pathetic security as our room.”
Seven chuckled: “If Big Mom finds out you’re making these virus programs, she’ll spank you.”
“Like you don’t.” Twelve, not bothering to look for a harness, started climbing, quickly reaching the halfway point.
Seven, rubbing her head, suddenly realized something was wrong.
Wasn’t Twelve climbing without a harness?
The realization sobered her up instantly.
“Twelve… Little Sister!” Seven shouted. “Stop messing around, you’ve been drinking, come down, it’s dangerous!”
Twelve was almost at the top. Shi Yue, who had been searching nearby, heard Seven’s voice and saw Twelve high above.
Her heart leaped into her throat. She didn’t even dare to call out Twelve’s name, afraid of startling her and causing her to fall.
She quietly approached.
Just then, Twelve’s hand slipped, and she fell.
“Twelve!”
Everything happened so fast. Shi Yue screamed and instinctively rushed forward, arms outstretched, trying to catch her!
Just as Twelve lost her grip, a figure flew towards her, caught her, and landed gracefully on the ground.
Shi Yue, still frozen in shock, her arms outstretched, watched as Twelve slid down from the woman’s arms and stood up, unharmed.
Shi Yue: “…”
What did she just see…?
Qinggong?
She wasn’t sure, but she recognized the pale-faced woman standing nearby, clutching a suitcase, who had witnessed the entire scene. It was her wife, Xu Youyuan.
Chi Lin asked Twelve, “Are you alright?”
Twelve shook her head, still stunned.
Chi Lin smiled and patted her head: “You must be scared. That was very dangerous, why would you climb after drinking?”
Twelve, still shaken, was captivated by the woman’s gentle smile and beautiful face.
“Are you… Lin?”
Chi Lin smiled, the same smile she had when she led Nine Heavens to victory in the Winter World Cup.
Twelve couldn’t believe it, her favorite player, her Young Master Lin, was right before her!