Chapter 227: Chapter 190: Sadness Flows Upstream
Actually, making it like this is part of Lin Li’s plan, everything that’s happening is what Lin Li had calculated.
Yeah.
Damn it, bullshit, even Lin Li can’t believe this himself.
Aren’t we bros?
Mind taking back that message?
Looking at the system’s notification, Lin Li had mixed feelings—kinda happy, but also thinking happiness is unlikely.
This system task shouldn’t be completed in such a way...
"Sigh, Little Qiuqiu, I can see you seem to genuinely recognize me," Lin Li said coolly, looking down at Qu Wanqiu who was laughing while sprawled on the table.
His voice was flat, showing a semblance of hopelessness.
"Of course, I truly admire you, Lin Li, haha. You might not understand if you’ve never been in a kitchen, but to manage to make fruit look like this takes quite some skill, haha—is this carbonized? Hahaha—"
Qu Wanqiu didn’t stop laughing.
After giving Lin Li a thumbs-up, she turned to explain to Ding Sihan and the others.
Lin Li sighed, figuring if the face has already lost, it’s best to use it to its fullest. So he took back his carbonized orange, squeezed it in front of the other three, and said proudly, "How about it? Impressive, right?"
"Impressive." The other three were also laughing.
But this task seemed to be against him. When he wanted to grow flowers, they refused to bloom; when he took initiative, the task showed no response.
Maybe if he pees on these flowers another day, they’d behave.
The grudge today, Lin Li must have held it yesterday.
But since the praise failed, he had used his lost face to its fullest, it was time to pick it up. There was no such thing as giving up in Lin Li’s Oxford Dictionary—
"Heh, you’ll regret laughing at me now." So when faced with ridicule, he simply glared back defiantly, "I will definitely make a perfect candied fruit!"
Qu Wanqiu reached out worriedly, seeming like she wanted to stop him but then relaxed a bit and said with relief, "The B&B’s emergency facilities are well-equipped, so go ahead."
Bu Hao! That’s a boomerang!
That’s what he just attacked her with!
Damn Little Qiuqiu.
"How about you devein the shrimp, and I’ll make the candied fruit?" Bai Bufan, who was shelling and deveining the bought shrimp, said seriously, "I think I can do better than you."
Lin Li walked over, plucked a hair, and silently used it to scratch Bai Bufan’s face.
Bai Bufan: "..."
"You shrimp-head guy, indeed very suited to handle shrimp heads." Bai Bufan wasn’t Ding Sihan, so Lin Li’s intent needed no explanation as he rubbed his nose with his shoulder while commenting.
"Precisely because I’m a shrimp-head guy, I can’t harm my kind. Good luck, poop-playing kid," Lin Li said lightly.
Bai Bufan: "?"
"What the hell is a poop-playing kid?"
Lin Li snickered to himself and walked away.
Wait, Bai Bufan looked down; his deveining actions did seem like playing with poop.
"You son of a—!"
...
"Never thought that not only can’t you use Baidu for medical questions, but you also can’t use it for recipes?"
Lin Li’s creation required no kitchen equipment, indeed didn’t need to be in a kitchen; a power source would suffice, as he whispered outside.
Slight physical discomfort + Baidu = Prepared for cremation.
Lin Li + Baidu = Candied carbon.
So darn dangerous, this Baidu.
"Seems like it’s better to stick with basic operations honestly, no more trying fancy stuff." Lin Li sighed, putting down the supposedly best strategy to make delicious candied fruit, and started following the most basic guide step by step.
Before learning to walk, better not run.
Stirring the syrup with a spatula, Lin Li awaited it to reach the right state.
The system buzzed to life.
[Venturing abroad to study, improving mecha piloting skills on the arduous path, leaving homeland, the three accompanying girls’ sorrow finally explodes, starting to cry silently.
You are at a loss, but as the world’s only male, perhaps the only way to help them temporarily forget their worries and regain joy is through your robust physique!]
[Task Triggered!]
[Task Six: Use physical contact and union to let the girls experience joy.]
[Task Reward: Physical Improvement: Mecha Synchronization Index +10; Random Talent; System Currency * 50]
Lin Li: "?"
Not until the syrup bubbled did Lin Li snap back to reality.
Aren’t we bros?
Why is there another one?
This task also involves that familiar progress bar.
But the main point isn’t that; it’s why are they crying?
A bit concerned, Lin Li immediately unplugged and returned to the kitchen.
Chen Yu Ying and Ding Sihan’s eyes were red. Though their eyes were shimmering with tears, they resolutely refused to let them fall. Their trembling eyelashes seemed ready to sweep away their sorrows.
Although they were facing the doorway, they turned their heads slightly.
It seemed they didn’t want Lin Li to see them crying.
Lin Li ought to ask what was wrong.
But he damn well saw the onions the two were cutting.
Turning their heads wasn’t about avoiding Lin Li seeing them, but about trying to avoid contact with the onion vapors.
"What’s up? Did you finish the coal again?" Chen Yu Ying asked curiously, wiping her tears with her arm upon seeing Lin Li return.
Lin Li: "..."
System, why don’t you open your damn eyes and take a look?
Where did this sudden sadness come from? Onion sadness?
But Lin Li had to admit one thing; at this moment, he did feel a bit of that sadness.
What bullshit task is this, bringing joy through physical contact and integration?
The rewards are so stingy, and it’s just a talent reward. If there were an option to abandon the task, Lin Li would likely give it up.
"It’s fine. I came back to see if I could find an opportunity to make you happy with my body." Lin Li replied coolly to Chen Yu Ying’s inquiry.
Chen Yu Ying, Ding Sihan: "?"
But since it’s Lin Li, saying something perverted like this isn’t that unusual.
It’s unrealistic for the system to expect him to use that, that. But if it’s just about physical contact and integration, can tickling complete this task?
Lin Li approached the three girls, taking a glance.
No one had exposed their waist, and if he tickled them through clothes, the system definitely wouldn’t count it as physical contact.
Looking down, Chen Yu Ying and Qu Wanqiu were wearing small sandals, so their feet were bare.
Ding Sihan was wearing pristine white socks. Lin Li suspected she might be gay, liking boys.
"Aren’t you going to make your candied fruit?" Chen Yu Ying asked, squeezing her eyes shut tightly to regain clarity in her blurred vision, when Lin Li approached.
"I can’t stand seeing girls cry. Class President and Ding Sihan, leave cutting the onions to me." Having found a convenient excuse, Lin Li simply said.
At the moment neither Chen Yu Ying nor Qu Wanqiu was barefoot, making them lift their feet for him to tickle wasn’t realistic; he’d have to find an opportunity later on.
Better not let crying trigger any other tasks.
"Okay, I’ve cried enough, too." Ding Sihan cautiously set the small knife on the table and handed over the onion without hesitation.
"Alright, just be careful." Chen Yu Ying was a bit more polite.
...
"Bufan, do you think looking up at a 45-degree angle can stop tears?" Lin Li, with reddened eyes, mournfully said, "Life is so fleeting."
"I, ha, don’t, ha, know."
Maybe it was empathy, or maybe it was Lin Li who perversely moved the cutting board and onions over to Bai Bufan, almost using his face as the cutting board. Whatever it was, Bai Bufan cried even harder than Lin Li, sniffling through his words.
"Can you hum, move somewhere else to cut onions, Lin Li?" Finally, Bai Bufan, who’d cried enough, couldn’t take it anymore.
In choosing his onion-cutting method, Lin Li picked the one with the most barrage comments between the simplest and most laborious options.
"No way, if everyone cries and you don’t, you’ll look out of place." Lin Li feared the onion juice wouldn’t reach Bai Bufan’s face, slicing the onions with such intensity that the pinging and slicing echoed like bursts of water, making Bai Bufan’s head buzz.
"My nose is itchy, my eyes itch, but my gloves are full of crap. Do you know what I’m thinking now?" Bai Bufan was itching all over, gritting his teeth.
"You’re obviously thinking about us four leaving the kitchen so you can wolf down these shrimp shells like noodles, slurp them down, and then happily pat your stomach saying, ’Wow, this crap tastes great.’" Lin Li rapidly replied.
A long and complex sentence, but not a confession, an accusation.
Bai Bufan: "?"
"You son of a—"
Their words were colorful.
And so, in the kitchen, Bai Bufan cursed while crying, and Lin Li cried while being cursed.
The moving dialogue between the two made the eyes of the other three girls in the kitchen redden—Lin Li was slicing with such vigor that the effect spread everywhere, even Qu Wanqiu couldn’t escape it.
But the corners of the three girls’ mouths remained uplifted.
Bringing Bai Bufan along was indeed the right decision.
The two could truly achieve a miraculous effect of one plus one being more than zero.
Scattered farts all over the place, gathered into one pile of dung.