Chapter 305: A Heartwarming Daily Routine
Xu Shengsheng was dragged out of bed early in the morning to tidy up her room, all because Bai Cha was coming back today.
Bai Cha’s place had also been unlocked and dusted off.
Xu Shengsheng felt like she was already exhausted to the point of extinction—doing housework was far worse than studying.
“Get up! Just look at you! So young, yet so devoid of life!”
Bursting with vigor, her aunt yanked the limply seated Xu Shengsheng up from the sofa.
“Your sister is bringing a friend home with her, and I heard she’s even a company boss. How embarrassing would it be if people saw you like this, huh? Get up and go buy some groceries!”
Donning an expression of utter agony, Xu Shengsheng stepped out the door.
In the dead of summer, it was so ridiculously hot.
By the time she returned with the groceries, Xu Shengsheng saw that her family’s car was already parked downstairs.
Feeling somewhat excited, she ran upstairs.
Sure enough, Bai Cha had already returned. Her small face looked sallow, even more haggard than before, and she had lost some weight.
Xu Shengsheng instantly checked her urge to pounce forward, gazing at her older sister with deep heartache.
“Sis, your complexion looks terrible! You need to build your strength back up now that you’re home!”
Amused, Bai Cha nodded—she was well aware of that, of course.
Xu Shengsheng gave her another worried look before finally noticing Shen Qingchen beside her.
Shen Qingchen was dressed in a casual dress with no makeup on, her aura considerably subdued, making her look quite gentle.
“This is Shen Qingchen. You can just call her Sister Shen as well.”
Xu Shengsheng nodded, opening her mouth to greet her, only to suddenly react to the name.
“Huh? Shen Qingchen? Isn’t that the number one player in the game?”
Her eyes widened round, and she scrutinized the person before her intently.
An actual person from the leaderboard!
Shen Qingchen cast a somewhat surprised glance at her.
“How is your younger sister also…”
Bai Cha nodded with a heavy expression.
Shen Qingchen patted her on the shoulder.
“Xu Shengsheng! Now that you’re back, come in and give me a hand!” her aunt shouted from the kitchen.
Resigned to her fate, Xu Shengsheng let out a sigh, giving the two of them a lingering, reluctant look.
“Guess I’ll go then. We’ll chat again later.” Her tone was mournful, looking less like she was off to help cook and more like she was stepping onto a battlefield, never to return.
Shen Qingchen chuckled lightly. Watching her enter the kitchen, she said, “Your sister is quite adorable.”
“She is,” Bai Cha sighed with emotion. “It’s great to be young—so full of vitality.”
Shen Qingchen immediately gave her a thoughtful look.
“You’re still young yourself. Broaden your mindset a little.”
The meal was sumptuous, yet generally kept on the lighter side, considering that Bai Cha couldn’t eat anything greasy, spicy, or irritating right now.
Her aunt was as warm and hospitable as ever.
Bai Cha actually intended to ask about her mother, but this wasn’t quite the right time. She planned to first check with Shen Qingchen on whether the dodder vines could be planted inside a player’s body before going to talk to her aunt.
Although she had no idea what the game was up to by changing her entry interval back to normal, it was good news nonetheless—at the very least, it gave her more time and freedom to get things done in the real world.
Truth be told… at a certain moment, Bai Cha had felt somewhat annoyed.
Because if the game had changed the interval to once a month just one dungeon earlier, she wouldn’t have gone so far as to resign and return home.
Just as she decided to quit her job and come home to settle the game’s affairs first, the game went ahead and altered her schedule.
It was truly difficult not to curse the game for that.
“Xiao Cha, do you plan on staying at home from now on?” her aunt asked.
“For now, yes. I haven’t really thought about what comes after.”
“That works too. You should focus on nursing your health back first. Just look at yourself right now—it’s downright terrifying. Once you’re fully recovered, you can go back out to work. Conveniently, if you aren’t going out this year, you can keep an eye on your sister and tutor her a bit. Don’t worry, I won’t let you do it for free; Auntie will pay you.”
This was actually just a disguised way of giving Bai Cha a stipend.
Just as Bai Cha was about to decline, Shen Qingchen smiled and said, “Is your sister in her senior year of high school now?”
“Yes, senior year already, yet she still doesn’t know how to settle down and focus every single day! She angers me to death; her grades just won’t go up no matter what!” Her aunt instantly perked up, launching into a lively conversation with Shen Qingchen.
Xu Shengsheng wore a mask of agony once more.
Nobody wanted to be scolded in front of an outsider—especially not in front of a pretty older sister who was also a company boss.
“Mom!” Xu Shengsheng desperately wanted to beg her to shut up, but didn’t dare say it out loud, so she gave Bai Cha a pleading look instead.
Bai Cha offered an amused, helpless smile.
“Sheng-sheng is actually already very outstanding. Kids nowadays face quite a lot of pressure; as long as she can maintain her current grades, that’s enough. Being in good health is what matters most.”
Her aunt wanted to argue, but catching sight of Bai Cha’s pale complexion, she shut her mouth again.
“True…”
If any family had a child who fell ill at the drop of a hat—looking so sick at times that they seemed on the brink of death—and lived in fear for so many years, they too would come to appreciate the blessings of a healthy child.
Even though she was always harping on about Xu Shengsheng’s poor grades and telling her to study hard, she would indeed whisper to her husband in private that while Sheng-sheng’s grades weren’t great, at least her health was solid.
That way, regardless of whether she scored well or not, at least when she went out in the future, her mother wouldn’t have to worry so much.
Take Bai Cha, for instance—whether she was going away for school or work, every time her aunt thought about her falling ill, she felt it impossible to put her heart at ease, constantly terrified that something terrible might happen to her.
Yet she was merely Bai Cha’s aunt, and Bai Cha was fiercely independent, making it awkward to bring up many things.
“Fine then, but you still have to study hard. Learn from your two older sisters here and show some ambition!”
Xu Shengsheng nodded along while shoving food into her mouth.
Seeing this, her aunt opened her mouth, but mindful of Shen Qingchen, she ultimately held back from saying anything more.
In truth, she had originally wanted to say that the girl knew nothing except eating, incapable of letting out even a single fart’s worth of useful words.
As for Xu Shengsheng, she actually knew exactly what her mom was going to say—it was always the same old routine.
When scolding her, if she stayed quiet, her mom would call her a sawed-off gourd that couldn’t squeeze out a fart; if she spoke up with an apology or a nod, her mom would claim her attitude was perfunctory and infuriating; and if she argued back, her mom would accuse her of defying authority and rebelling against heaven.
Either way, her mom had all the angles covered.
After finishing the meal, Xu Shengsheng announced that she was going to help Bai Cha organize her things, using it as an excuse to make a quick exit.
Her aunt rolled her eyes behind her back.
“You’d better actually be helping your sister, not causing her extra trouble!”
Xu Shengsheng pulled a face with her back turned to her aunt.
The two families didn’t live far apart, a ten-minute walk at most, though Bai Cha was walking rather slowly right now.
Even so, walking was beneficial to her current recovery, so she turned down her uncle’s offer to drive them.
It was quite hot at noon; as they walked under an umbrella, the heat radiated continuously from the ground, as if trying to steam a person alive.
“This is way too hot, I feel like I’m about to melt,” Xu Shengsheng wailed.
“If I had known, we would’ve taken the car,” Bai Cha said.
“Ugh, forget it! For such a short distance, the car’s AC wouldn’t even have time to cool down. It’d be hotter inside the car than out here!”
At this temperature, after a car baked in the sun, the seats were hot enough to scald skin.
Noticing a supermarket, Xu Shengsheng wanted to buy an ice cream.
“Sis, I want to get an ice cream. Wait for me a bit while I buy one. Do you two want any? Oh wait, Sis, you can’t eat it. What about you, Sister Shen?”
“Let’s go take a look together; it’ll cool us down a bit too,” Shen Qingchen agreed with a nod.
Bai Cha wore a look of deep, grieving pain.
Curse it all—she wanted to eat ice cream too!
