Chapter 51: A Gift
Wen Xiuyi suddenly perked up and chuckled, “Sweetheart, you know how to make wine?”
After all, he’d never seen Wen Yao brew wine before, so none of them knew she had this skill.
Wen Yao: Did I ever have the conditions to brew wine before? You need space to do that! Brew wine in an apartment complex? She’d have to be crazy.
“Just a superficial understanding, nothing in-depth,” Wen Yao replied openly. After all, she hadn’t even had the chance to study it seriously before they ended up here.
Perfect. What she hadn’t done in the past, she could do now.
Wen Xiuyi laughed heartily and patted her shoulder. “Then you’d better study hard. Whether I get to drink X-tai or XX-ye in the future all depends on you!”
Wen Yao rolled her eyes dramatically. “If I had that kind of skill, would I still be just a small-time influencer?” She would’ve been poached long ago with a high salary.
Da Tou tilted his head at her. Influencer? What’s that?
But since he didn’t speak, his confusion was automatically ignored by the other three.
Since they still needed to discuss the matter of the apprenticeship gift, Wen Xiuyi didn’t dare drink too much that night. Besides, the alcohol was much weaker than what he used to drink, so by the time they walked home from the old house, he’d pretty much sobered up.
That night, after Wen Yao put Da Tou to sleep and made sure he wasn’t faking it, she tiptoed out and headed to the room next door.
The father and son were still awake, waiting for her.
“Yao, take a look and see what kind of things in your space would make a good gift for your brother’s apprenticeship,” Wen Xiuyi asked quietly.
No choice—he had to speak softly. The soundproofing in the house was terrible.
One day, when he had money, he was definitely going to build a big house. Each of them would get their own room, and the walls would be thick, real thick—fully soundproof.
Back to the gift. Wen Yao didn’t even need to look inside. “As long as you can think of it, I can probably get it. This thing is just like that orange app—ask and you shall receive.” Honestly, it probably was modeled after that very platform.
Wen Xiuyi: “Then buy me a plane.”
Wen Yao: “…”
Wen Xiuyi: “No? Then a car. Walking to ‘work’ every day is exhausting.”
Wen Yao gave him a huge eye roll. “Why don’t I just get you a tank?”
Wen Xiuyi shook his head solemnly. “No, I don’t know how to drive one of those.”
Wen Jun nearly laughed himself breathless and asked, “Then do you know how to fly a plane?”
Wen Xiuyi glared at his son for ruining the fun. “Focus, focus. We’re talking business here. So tell me—what should we give? Anything from our time would probably be seen as a treasure here, but that wouldn’t be appropriate. Look at our family’s circumstances—if we hand over some rare artifact, it’s like announcing we’ve got a problem.”
“Then we might as well buy something here,” Wen Yao said. “But do we have money? Oh! Money! I almost forgot!”
As she said this, she pulled out a bunch of things from her space with a flurry of motion.
“You bought clothes?” Wen Xiuyi picked up a piece. It was a bit thin.
Wen Yao explained what she’d bought during the day and ended with a complaint. “The prices here are ridiculous. Decent winter clothes are so expensive. So I thought, tomorrow I’ll go with my brother to earn some achievement points and buy each of us a down jacket to wear inside. It’s not like anyone’s gonna strip our clothes off to check.”
“That’s unlikely. Folks here aren’t that twisted,” Wen Xiuyi said while flipping through the clothes.
As for the paper, they didn’t mind. As long as it worked, it was fine. Da Tou was still small—this would do for now.
After checking the haul, the three went back to agonizing over the gift.
“I noticed Master likes tea. How about we give him some good tea?” Wen Jun suggested.
Wen Yao ran in to check the price of quality tea and came back out, spreading her hands. “Broke.”
God, premium Biluochun—eight hundred achievement points per pound.
She could afford one ounce at most.
Wen Jun: “Tea set?”
Wen Yao popped in and out again. “The cheap ones are no good. The expensive ones? Can’t afford them. Don’t forget, when it comes to ceramics, the ancients were our ancestors.”
Wen Xiuyi sighed helplessly. “So we can’t afford this or that. Might as well give him two glass cups—cheap and one-of-a-kind.” Two yuan shop, two bucks each.
Wen Yao rubbed her chin, thought for a moment, then vanished again, leaving behind one sentence: “I’ll go check.”
She browsed for glass teacups and tea bowls, flipping through pages, until she settled on a pair with gold rims and a subtle pale blue hue. Twenty-six achievement points each, fifty-two total. Perfect—she had just over twenty points left.
Once again, she cursed this stingy space for being so tight with the points and selling everything at such steep prices.
She emerged with the cups in hand.
Both Wen Xiuyi and Wen Jun were very satisfied and praised her taste.
“But how do we explain where it came from?” Father and son were now troubled by another problem.
Wen Yao didn’t mind. “Blame it on my long-lost mother. Say it’s part of her dowry, or a family heirloom from my maternal side. Whatever. The more secrets, the better. It’s not like Dr. Jin’s going to verify it with her.”
If she were Dr. Jin and got something this nice, she’d hide it away and enjoy it herself.
“What if he asks why she didn’t take it with her?” Wen Xiuyi asked.
Wen Yao yawned. “You think he’s like our neighborhood gatekeeper back home? So nosy? This is a place where etiquette matters. A high-level guy like Dr. Jin isn’t going to pry into your personal life. Obviously not. Don’t overthink it. This’ll do. Dad, bro, I’m seriously exhausted.”
Seeing how sleepy their daughter and sister was, the two didn’t keep her up any longer. Just before she left, Wen Xiuyi asked her to grab a simple wooden box from the space to wrap the cups in. Couldn’t exactly show up at Dr. Jin’s place carrying them in a plastic bag.
The next morning, the first thing Da Tou saw was the set of writing tools and paper laid out on the table. The little radish-head ran over barefoot, eyes wide, gently touching and exploring the items like they were made of gold.
Wen Yao came to wake him up, only to catch this adorable scene. She scooped him up and set him on the stool, then quickly grabbed his socks and shoes.
“Why’d you come down barefoot? What if you catch a cold?”
Da Tou tugged at her sleeve and pointed at the table, then happily pointed to himself.
For me?
Wen Yao finished helping him with his shoes and nodded. “Yep. Do you like it? Dad, big brother, and I prepared this surprise just for you.”
Da Tou nodded like his head was on a spring, joy written all over his face. He picked up a brush eagerly but carefully, pretending to write in the air.
Wen Yao saw his grip was off and gently corrected it, even grinding a bit of ink for him.
Da Tou hesitated, lifting his head to look at her.
Wen Yao gave him an encouraging nod. “You can do it. I believe in you.”
He took a deep breath, dipped the brush in ink, and carefully wrote on the paper.
The first character he wrote was “Wen.”
But it came out a little wonky—worse than what he’d done using a stick on the ground before. He looked a bit discouraged.
Wen Yao noticed and patted his head with a smile. “That’s already amazing. Let me show you mine.”
She took the brush and deliberately wrote a ridiculously ugly version of the same character—far worse than his.
Seeing Da Tou’s brows relax again, Wen Yao smiled along with him.
She could write calligraphy just fine. It was one of Professor Wen’s hobbies, after all. But to encourage Da Tou, she had to “hold back” just a little.
