Little Bodyguard(GL) 41

Chapter 41

When they were ready to go out, not only were they wearing matching scarves, but Li Qinyue had also chosen a coat in the same color as Zhuo Zhi’s.

It was cold outside. As soon as they stepped out, Zhuo Zhi grabbed Li Qinyue’s hand and tucked it into her down jacket pocket, nagging, “Do you know why your hands are always cold? Because you wear such thin clothes! If you know you get cold easily, you should dress warmly. What’s wrong with down jackets? They’re pretty nowadays, why do you insist on wearing a coat…”

Li Qinyue looked at her sideways, “Even calling you Dad isn’t enough anymore. My own dad doesn’t nag as much as you.”

“I’m not nagging,” Zhuo Zhi quickly clarified, “I’m just telling you a story.”

“You call this telling a story?”

“Yes, this is the beginning of the story, the introduction. Now I can say, ‘Once upon a time…” Zhuo Zhi led Li Qinyue towards the plaza. “Once upon a time, when it got cold, I could only wear padded jackets and pants, the kind made by hand. Have you ever worn them? Two layers of fabric with cotton in between, very warm, but also very ugly. Even skinny people looked like they had no gap between their legs. You walked like a penguin…”

There were many more people in the villa complex than usual because of the Christmas events, and it was quite lively outside the residential area. Mostly young people hanging out, but none of them were having conversations like theirs.

Li Qinyue found it amusing and interesting. She looked at Zhuo Zhi, her little mouth chattering away, her eyes sparkling, and felt that she could listen to her talk about anything, it was all so entertaining.

When they reached the plaza, the setup strangely connected with Zhuo Zhi’s story. People nowadays lived comfortable lives and had many forms of entertainment. Having grown tired of modern things, they started reminiscing about the past. Li Qinyue couldn’t find the dance floor, all she saw were open-air stalls.

Ring toss, balloon shooting, gambling games, rocking chairs, bumper cars, bouncy castles… very nostalgic.

“This year’s party,” Li Qinyue said, “Must be the ‘Reminiscing About the Good Old Days’ theme.”

Zhuo Zhi pointed, “Look at the prize area, it’s still very Christmas-y.”

Li Qinyue looked over. It was a colorful display, prizes wrapped in Santa hats and stockings. The staff members were wearing Santa Claus costumes without the headgear, a fusion of East and West, creating a unique atmosphere.

“Oh,” Li Qinyue replied.

“We can play the games first, collect cards if we win, and then draw for prizes,” Zhuo Zhi said.

“You seem to know this quite well,” Li Qinyue teased her.

“I saw the announcement board when I was buying groceries at noon.”

“If I hadn’t used the Lan Xi incident as leverage, you wouldn’t have come out at all, would you?” Li Qinyue pointed, “All those games are like free prizes for you.”

“Not really,” Zhuo Zhi looked down at her toes.

“What are you thinking?” Li Qinyue felt inexplicably irritated, “You only came out to please me just to find out about that?”

“No!” Zhuo Zhi immediately shouted, raising her head and glaring at Li Qinyue.

“I didn’t know you could open your eyes that wide,” Li Qinyue glared back.

“It’s true!” Zhuo Zhi stepped in front of her, taking her other hand, “Lan Xi will definitely advance in the next two rounds, I don’t need to ask you to know the result. I sincerely wanted to come out and play with you.”

“You went to ask her?” Li Qinyue’s focus shifted quickly.

“No, I don’t have her contact information.”

“Really?”

“Really!” Zhuo Zhi quickly took out her phone, “See for yourself…”

Li Qinyue glanced at her phone. Zhuo Zhi’s contact list was sparse.

“What about WeChat?” Li Qinyue asked.

Zhuo Zhi quickly switched to WeChat.

Besides “Sister Qinyue”, there were only a few official accounts she had subscribed to.

Li Qinyue pursed her lips and chuckled, “Who wants to see your phone? I’m not your girlfriend right now, I don’t have the right to check up on you…”

Zhuo Zhi put away her phone, “You can check even if you’re not my girlfriend.”

“Anyone can check?” Li Qinyue frowned again.

“Oh, come on, Sister, why are you so difficult?!” Zhuo Zhi said, “Of course not anyone, I mean, as long as it’s you, you can check in any capacity, I’m your bodyguard, I have no secrets from you.”

“Oh.” Li Qinyue wasn’t sure whether to be amused or annoyed. She pulled Zhuo Zhi along, “Wait, did you just call me difficult?”

“Yes,” Zhuo Zhi suddenly let go of her hand and skipped ahead, “Miss Difficult! Hahahaha…”

Li Qinyue thought it was silly for them to be running around and laughing like this.

Very silly! Super childish! Look at that couple over there, running around like they’ve lost their minds…

“Come on, Sister!” Zhuo Zhi was standing at a cotton candy stall, waving at her enthusiastically, “Come see my performance!”

Li Qinyue pouted, but her feet moved on their own, and she ran over.

She controlled herself and didn’t burst into laughter, trying to maintain a mature demeanor.

After reaching Zhuo Zhi, Li Qinyue glanced at the whirring cotton candy machine, “What’s so special about this?”

“Hehe, I can make shapes,” Zhuo Zhi said to the vendor, “Can I try?”

It was just a promotional event, and the vendor had learned how to operate the machine on the spot. His wrist was tired from spinning sugar all evening, and the cotton candy wasn’t round.

He stepped aside, “Sure, but it’s not as easy as you think…”

He couldn’t finish his sentence because Zhuo Zhi had already added a scoop of sugar and started spinning the stick. She looked much more professional than him.

The vendor stepped back and watched her spin, “I can also make pink ones.”

“Yes, yes, I saw,” Zhuo Zhi’s fingers spun quickly, a small, round ball forming on the stick.

Li Qinyue looked at the growing ball and asked, “What are you making?”

“You’ll see later,” Zhuo Zhi said.

“Tell me now.”

“It’ll be done soon,” Zhuo Zhi added another scoop of sugar, “Otherwise, there’s no surprise.”

“There’s no surprise if I keep staring at it either.”

“Oh, that’s true. Then turn around, Sister.”

“Are you being childish?”

“Please turn around, Sister!”

Li Qinyue turned around, “If you don’t surprise me, I’ll teach you a lesson.”

Behind her, she could hear the whirring of the cotton candy machine and the vendor’s repeated “wow” and “you’re amazing” as he chatted with Zhuo Zhi. Li Qinyue pouted, staring at a Curious George rocking chair nearby, thinking that she had truly gone crazy after meeting Zhuo Zhi.

That couple who had been laughing like crazy just ran past her again…

Zhuo Zhi finally said, “Sister, it’s done, you can turn around now!”

Li Qinyue turned around, but didn’t see the cotton candy. Zhuo Zhi was hiding her hands behind her back, looking at her with a smile.

The vendor, perhaps infected by the mood, or maybe everyone in the plaza had turned into fools today, was also hiding his hands behind his back, smiling at Li Qinyue.

“Guess where it is?” Zhuo Zhi asked, blinking.

“It’s obviously in your hand,” Li Qinyue said, “You wouldn’t let anyone else hold something you made for me.”

“Wow, you’re so smart, Sister!” Zhuo Zhi said, then added a cheesy sound effect, “Ta-da!”

It was such a cheesy sound effect. Li Qinyue stared at the cotton candy that appeared before her, looking it over carefully, and her bad feeling gradually turned into reality.

Li Qinyue took the cotton candy and was about to take a bite.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Zhuo Zhi ran from behind the stall, “Don’t eat it yet!”

Li Qinyue took a big bite, “Isn’t cotton candy meant to be eaten?”

“You haven’t even seen what shape it is!” Zhuo Zhi was anxious and tried to snatch it back, “Look, I even used pink for the other parts so it’s easier to distinguish…”

Li Qinyue raised her hand to stop her, but Zhuo Zhi was Zhuo Zhi. If she really wanted to snatch something from you, Li Qinyue couldn’t stop her.

Seeing that it was about to be taken away, Li Qinyue stomped her foot and shouted, “What else could it be?! A pig, of course! Do I need to look closely?! Are you obsessed with pigs?!”

Zhuo Zhi stopped bouncing. She looked at Li Qinyue, her smile shy and innocent, “You figured it out, Sister, go ahead and eat it then.”

Li Qinyue tore the cotton candy apart and swallowed it in a few bites.

“Sister, how does it taste?” Zhuo Zhi looked up at her expectantly.

“Does cotton candy have any other flavor?” Li Qinyue squinted at her.

“I made it,” Zhuo Zhi said, feeling a little wronged.

“Sweet!” Li Qinyue shouted, “Cloyingly sweet! Sweet enough to make my teeth hurt!”

Zhuo Zhi burst into laughter.

For the rest of the evening, Zhuo Zhi dragged Li Qinyue to almost every stall, trying all the games.

As Li Qinyue had predicted, for games that required some skill, like ring toss and target shooting, Zhuo Zhi could win with her eyes closed.

The little girl showed off her skills at first, attracting a crowd as she shot down balloon after balloon, clearing the entire target board.

But afterwards, amidst the applause, a shy teenage boy came over and asked for Zhuo Zhi’s WeChat ID, scaring her so much that she grabbed Li Qinyue and ran away, not daring to show off her skills again.

Li Qinyue laughed at her all night. Zhuo Zhi’s revenge was to choose pig-themed prizes for every game.

“Sister, I’ll win you a Peppa Pig.”

“Sister, let’s ride the pink pig bumper cars.”

“Sister, look, that star in the sky looks like a little pig!”

Li Qinyue: “…”

As the night grew late and the crowd thinned out, many vendors started packing up. Zhuo Zhi, holding a handful of prize tickets, dragged Li Qinyue to the prize area.

There weren’t many prizes left, hanging sparsely. Zhuo Zhi was a little disappointed.

“We should have come earlier,” she said, handing the tickets to the Santa Claus without a headgear.

“Wow, you’re so amazing, so many tickets,” Santa Claus exclaimed, “You can take all the prizes on the wall.”

He then let out a hearty “Ho, ho, ho” to match his role.

“That wouldn’t be a surprise,” Zhuo Zhi said, tugging at Li Qinyue’s hand, “Which one do you want, Sister?”

“Don’t we have a lot of tickets?”

“But you should choose one at a time,” Zhuo Zhi said, “So we can pretend we only have one ticket and see what we win, then two tickets, and so on…”

“You’re so boring,” Li Qinyue chuckled.

“Come on, let’s see your luck,” Zhuo Zhi nudged her.

Li Qinyue randomly pointed at a prize. Santa Claus took it down, a sock, and handed it to Zhuo Zhi.

Zhuo Zhi opened it and exclaimed in surprise, “Wow! Bluetooth earphones! The second prize! You’re amazing, Sister!”

Li Qinyue smiled, not really caring.

“Continue, continue,” Zhuo Zhi urged her.

Li Qinyue chose a few more prizes.

Zhuo Zhi exclaimed “wow” every time, being very supportive and making Li Qinyue feel like winning these small prizes actually proved she had incredible luck.

“Wait,” Zhuo Zhi suddenly said as Li Qinyue was about to choose the sixth prize, “Turn around, Sister.”

“Why do I have to turn around again?”

“Because it won’t be a surprise if you choose directly.”

Li Qinyue rolled her eyes, “Should I choose with my butt?”

“You can,” Zhuo Zhi chuckled.

Li Qinyue swayed her hips suggestively. Zhuo Zhi said, “We’re outside, Sister, don’t do that.”

Li Qinyue: “Tsk.”

After a while, Zhuo Zhi said, “Okay, you can choose now.”

Li Qinyue jumped slightly and pointed randomly behind her.

Zhuo Zhi grabbed her hand, her warm palm enveloping Li Qinyue’s, “Congratulations, Sister, you won the grand prize!!!”

Li Qinyue was ecstatic. She turned around and looked at Zhuo Zhi, “Did I win you, my grand prize?”

“Hehe,” Zhuo Zhi raised her other hand, holding a big red cloth bag, “You won this grand prize!”

Li Qinyue took the bag, opened it, and the smile on her face gradually froze.

It was a wooden pig, a carefully crafted, hollow, smooth, ugly yet cute, wooden pig.

“Merry Christmas, Sister!!!” Zhuo Zhi’s smile was as bright as a blooming flower, “This is my Christmas present for you, I made it myself! You can save money in it, and you can also put little notes of happiness in it. Do you like it?”

“Like…” Li Qinyue’s lips twitched, and she slapped Zhuo Zhi’s head with a loud “thwack,” “My ass!!! Because I was born in the Year of the Pig, I’m a pig now?! Am I obsessed with pigs?! Is my name Pig Qinyue?! I…”

Zhuo Zhi stood on tiptoe and suddenly kissed her on the lips, silencing her outburst.

“You swore, Sister,” she said.