Chapter 88: Sleep—We’re Home
Hearing that soft, gentle call, Qin Mochen felt as if his own heart softened along with it.
Or perhaps it was simply because the night was deep and quiet—without the daytime clamor—making one’s mind naturally calmer and more at peace.
“Mm. Sleep—we’re home.” Qin Mochen couldn’t help rubbing her head.
Su Keke smiled sweetly at him. “Uncle, you should sleep early too. Good night.”
“Alright.”
Su Keke blinked twice, then drifted off again in a drowsy haze.
Early the next morning, Qin Mochen was having breakfast in the dining room when a sudden shout came from upstairs.
Not long after, Su Keke dashed downstairs, clothes in disarray. “Ahhh, I’m going to be late! Uncle, I’m going to be late—!”
The little girl’s hair was a messy curtain, not even combed. Her cheeks still held the rosy glow of a good sleep, her eyes were wet and shiny—she looked like she was about to cry for real.
Qin Mochen glanced at her and kept eating, saying leisurely, “I asked for a half-day leave for you. Wash up, then come down and eat breakfast.”
Su Keke let out an “Ah,” froze for a full five seconds, then gave a silly “Oh.”
Uncle actually asked for leave for her?
For her, aside from not being able to see Daxing and Manman, reading at school and reading at home were pretty much the same. She didn’t listen to the teacher’s lectures anyway—not because she didn’t want to, but because she still couldn’t understand them yet.
After Su Keke washed up and came down, Aunt Lin had already prepared her breakfast: freshly made soy milk and freshly steamed soup dumplings. Su Keke could stuff one whole dumpling into her mouth in a single bite—so delicious.
“Uncle, did you take leave for yourself too?” Su Keke asked.
After Qin Mochen finished breakfast, he didn’t leave. He simply sat to the side watching Su Keke eat. Hearing her question, he said, “No. I’m just going a bit later.”
Qin Mochen sounded calm and unhurried as he said it, but Wu Zongbai—who received his call early that morning—was as shocked as shocked could be.
This was Fourth Master Qin. Qin Mochen, the Fourth Master!
Unless he was on a business trip, he had never been late in all three hundred and sixty-five days of the year—so much so that he’d become the living benchmark of the entire Huaxia Shengshi Group. And yet he’d actually told him he would be late today?
Wu Zongbai didn’t dare ask why, but for the ten-odd minutes after hanging up, he couldn’t stop thinking: What on earth could make Fourth Master late?
There were no recent business-trip records—so it definitely wasn’t that. Could it be that when he made that call… Fourth Master was still in bed?
So Fourth Master slept late last night, so he can’t get up?
But why would he have slept late…?
Once Wu Zongbai started imagining things, he couldn’t stop.
After Su Keke ate a few xiaolongbao, she let out a satisfied little burp.
Seeing her small claw reach toward the basket again and grab another one, Qin Mochen stretched out his long arm and lightly slapped the back of her hand.
Su Keke immediately pulled her little claw back. The xiaolongbao pinched between her fingers dropped back down at once and even rolled a small circle.
“Uncle, what are you doing?” Su Keke frowned and pouted, looking at him with displeasure.
Qin Mochen’s expression didn’t change. “You’ve already eaten seven. You still want an eighth?”
“C-Can’t I?”
Qin Mochen’s brows twitched. His handsome sword-like brows lifted—half lifted, half not. “If you keep eating, you’ll become as round and chubby as this xiaolongbao.”
Su Keke looked unconvinced. “Uncle is lying. Shifu said I’m still young. If I eat more now, I’ll only grow taller, I won’t get fat.”
Qin Mochen immediately threw out a line: “Girl, aren’t you good at reading faces? Tell me—whose words do you think are more reliable, your Shifu’s or mine?”
Su Keke froze and blurted out instinctively, “Uncle.”
Qin Mochen gave her a meaningful look. “Mm. I won’t lie to you.”
Su Keke was so stunned she couldn’t speak. So the saying “I’m still young, eating more will keep me growing taller” was… fake?
After she turned sixteen, she really hadn’t grown much. But Shifu said it was because she ate too little.
“Girl, your Shifu probably wants you to grow a bit sturdier. But eating more doesn’t automatically make you sturdier—you need to exercise more. Otherwise, with the way you eat, you’ll turn into a little chubby dumpling in a month.”
The moment Su Keke heard the words “little chubby dumpling,” her whole mood collapsed. She absolutely didn’t want to become a little chubby dumpling. If she turned into a dumpling, she wouldn’t even be able to chase ghosts in the future.
“Uncle, from now on I’m going to wake up early and do morning training with you. And at night, let’s change our walks into running!”
Qin Mochen gave a low “Okay.”
After the little girl finished breakfast, Qin Mochen sat for a while and then went out.
Only after seeing him out at the courtyard gate did Su Keke go back in.
She secretly giggled to herself. Uncle didn’t… wait specifically for her to wake up, finish breakfast, and only then leave, did he?
Tomorrow was the mock exam. Su Keke braced herself and reviewed, going through all the key points Luo Man had marked for her from beginning to end again.
After going to school in the afternoon, Qin Xing, Luo Man, and Zhao Kexin took turns cheering Su Keke on.
“Don’t worry. All the key content and question types Manman marked for me—I memorized them,” Su Keke said with a grin.
The two days of exams passed quickly. After the exams ended, everyone asked each other how they did.
Su Keke said, “I roughly calculated it. If you don’t count the multiple-choice I guessed blindly and the fill-ins I couldn’t do, my Chinese should be around 130, math around 90, English around 95, physics…”
Zhao Kexin asked in shock, “Keke, you even had time to estimate your score? I didn’t even have enough time to finish the questions.”
“Probably because there was so little I could do. Once I finished, of course I had time.”
“This math was really hard. I’m guessing I’m only around 90 too. I didn’t expect you also…” Zhao Kexin said in disbelief, “Keke, you’re amazing.”
Su Keke hurriedly said, “The amazing one is Manman. I used all the key question types Manman organized for me. The steps were almost the same—just different numbers. I can still do addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. And I recently learned how to solve equations too, and it happened to be useful.”
Luo Man smiled. “I wouldn’t dare take the credit. It’s the result of your own hard work, Keke.”
“Alright, alright, stop the mutual flattery. You’re all amazing,” Qin Xing laughed and cut them off.
Top student Luo Man, based on the difficulty of this exam, roughly estimated the class average. “Keke, no problem. This time your overall average will definitely be higher than the class average.”
“If Manman says you can, then Keke definitely can!” Qin Xing said.
Su Keke felt a little excited.
Luo Man smiled. “Keke, if your foundation weren’t so weak, you could do even better.”
Not just better—given time, Su Keke would definitely shock everyone’s eyes out!
She was afraid that if she said it too early, Su Keke wouldn’t work as hard as she did now, so she held back the rest.
As they were talking, Jiang Yueyue happened to pass by them.
Qin Xing called out to her and reminded her with a smug face, “Jiang Yueyue, don’t forget the bet we made that day.”
Jiang Yueyue glanced at her, said nothing, and walked away.
“Huh? Jiang Yueyue didn’t even snap back at me? Did the sun rise in the west today?”
Su Keke said, “She should be troubled by something. She’s not in a good state.”
“Forget her. Tomorrow we have a day off. As the class life committee member, I’m going to represent the whole class and teachers to visit Song Yuan. Do you want to come with me?” Qin Xing asked the others.
Su Keke paused slightly. “Song Yuan? That name sounds familiar.”
Qin Xing lowered her voice. “The one who used to sit in your seat.”
After the first one got into a car accident, his parents directly took him abroad. The second one was this Song Yuan.
