Chapter 104 The action He Zhao made was exactly the same as what Qiao Yanyu had done to him before he left home that evening…
The action He Zhao took was exactly the same one Qiao Yanyu had done to him before he left that night, only a little more tender. After the kiss, He Zhao sat up, looking at Qiao Yanyu's faint outline in the darkness, and whispered, "Sister Qiao, it was a goodnight kiss. I'm going to sleep now. You should go back to your room and sleep too."
"……good."
He Zhao returned to her room, jumped onto the bed, and started rolling around in excitement. She was overjoyed. Knowing that Qiao Yanyu had also been extremely worried about her, waiting for her all along, even keeping track of the time she would return, filled her with immense happiness.
But after she finished being happy, she stopped rolling around and thought about what happened last night—did that mean that Qiao Yanyu knew everything about how she had lingered outside Qiao Yanyu's room and sneaked away like a thief?!
Sister Qiao, you're bad!
With a mix of happiness and embarrassment, He Zhao quickly washed up and went to sleep.
The next morning, he got up early and was immediately pulled into the system space by the system, starting a new round of learning how to cook simple home-style dishes. This lasted for another two months. He Zhao was bewildered. When he emerged from the system space, he couldn't help but ask the system, "Wait, how much longer do I have to learn? I feel like if I keep learning like this, I'll go crazy first!!"
He Zhao knew that the system's previous host would enter the system space to learn once per cycle. This was something the system had told her when it first kidnapped her, asking her which mode she wanted. She chose the method of eating white rice until she died, so she also knew what the other mode was like.
He Zhao also had reason to suspect that it was because she chose the former option that her guest was the ghost.
If she were a living guest, no matter how delicious her white rice was, she wouldn't come over to eat it every day just for this wretched white rice.
But now He Zhao has added extra homework for himself, wanting to learn how to cook home-style stir-fries. He even told the system that he couldn't learn it all at once, but would learn it slowly. That's why he's now being pulled into the system every day to learn two or three dishes.
He Zhao felt a pang of regret. Being dragged into those classes for so long every day left her feeling utterly exhausted, both physically and mentally. Even though her body was tireless and her wounds healed instantly within the system space, she still felt incredibly distressed.
Faced with He Zhao's question, the system honestly replied: "Host, it won't take up too much of your time. There are currently over 600 more home-style stir-fries. Once you learn them, cooking in your daily life will be no problem at all; you'll be able to cook any dish with ease."
[You can see the big picture from small details. Even if you only learn ordinary home-style stir-fries, the day you graduate, even dishes for a grand banquet will be a piece of cake for you.]
As a system that doesn't understand human nature, it had already tried its best to persuade He Zhao with persuasive words. But from the moment it spoke, He Zhao only heard the words "more than 600." She took a deep breath, then leaned back strategically, followed by a sharp, explosive sound: "Young Master?! More than 600?! You might as well just kill me!"
There are over 600 questions. Even if we say 600, if she studies 3 questions each time, she would need to study 200 times, which would take 2 months each time, totaling 400 months. 400 months is more than 33 years, which is approximately 12,154 days, or more than 300,000 hours! The most crucial point is that even with such a long lifespan, if we take away half of that time for sleep and the time for eating, drinking, and relieving oneself, the actual time spent awake and working is not that much.
But the system space is completely different! It's all about working from the moment you open your eyes, no sleep, no rest, you don't even need to go to the toilet or eat, it's just constant learning and constant work!
She saved her mother's life! She hasn't even lived 33 years, and she wants to study for another 33 years! Like, for a full 33 years!
For a moment, He Zhao didn't even have the strength to refute. After she finished yelling, she said to the system in a deflated state, "Why don't you just kill me? Do you think that's possible? Huh? I said I just wanted to learn how to make simple home-style stir-fries, but you've given me so many courses, and it's so hard to graduate. Is that normal?"
System: [...] It was actually a little guilty, because He Zhao was indeed not cut out to be a chef.
After much deliberation, the system finally relented, lowering the graduation requirement and adjusting the time allocation to prevent He Zhao from being dragged into the system space for daily torment. He Zhao breathed a sigh of relief, not telling the system directly, "I quit, I'm not learning anymore, whatever," because... she was a person in love, and a bit of a romantic.
If she really doesn't study, that won't do either. If she doesn't study, what will Qiao Yanyu eat?
We can't expect Qiao Yanyu, who has both legs in casts and a medical back brace, to go into the kitchen and cook.
After arguing with the system, He Zhao got out of bed, took a shower, and went to find Qiao Yanyu.
Qiao Yanyu still ordered some food for her. The leftovers that He Zhao had put in the refrigerator yesterday noon, which he planned to eat today, had already been thrown away by Qiao Yanyu. Her reason was quite convincing: "The quality of takeout food is inconsistent. If it's been in the refrigerator for a day, it's really inedible. For your own health, you shouldn't eat leftovers."
He Zhao understood this principle, but she still shifted the blame to Qiao Yanyu: "But Sister Qiao, you ordered too much. I'm alone, why would I need to eat so much?" Even when she was in love, He Zhao was still someone who would shift the blame without hesitation, and she wouldn't even feel guilty about it when she shifted it to Qiao Yanyu.
Besides, she was telling the truth; how can that be called shifting blame?
Qiao Yanyu paused for a moment, still disagreeing with He Zhao's statement: "But I didn't order much, and they were all very ordinary dishes. These are the most basic nutrients that the human body needs."
The two argued for a while, but since the food had already been thrown away, He Zhao had no choice but to take the new lunchbox that Qiao Yanyu had bought and eat it just like yesterday. While eating, she didn't forget to tell Qiao Yanyu about the suture-stitched water ghost incident.
Qiao Yanyu nodded: "I know about this. I already know the time of Lin Gao's execution. For both reason and duty, you should go and see the sutured water ghost..." She hesitated for a moment, then said: "But you shouldn't go and see Lin Gao's execution. The scene of the soul being peeled off the corpse and then directly destroyed is too shocking for people who haven't seen it before. I don't recommend that you go and see it."
He Zhao paused in his eating, nodded, and said, "I understand."
She was genuinely curious about what it would be like, probably the kind of spectator feeling that ordinary people in ancient times would have when watching a heinous villain get beheaded. But since Qiao Yanyu said it would be very impactful... she was probably being conservative; it might even make her want to vomit.
Given this situation, He Zhao's curiosity was dampened. She knew that the impactful scenes in the real world were completely different from those in movies; they were direct and unsettling.
He Zhao was just a little curious; he wasn't crazy. There was no reason for him to know that it would be disgusting and still go to join in the fun.
The next day passed peacefully, just as He Zhao had imagined. The two ate together and watched a movie, choosing the next installment in the zombie series. Then, after the movie, He Zhao's eyes suddenly lit up as he said to Qiao Yanyu, "Sister Qiao, would you like me to help you wipe yourself down?"
Previously at the hospital, she repeatedly refused, showing no intention whatsoever of helping Qiao Yanyu clean her body. Because at that time, Qiao Yanyu had no idea she was a lesbian, and if she took advantage of her vulnerability and cleaned Qiao Yanyu's body without her knowledge, what difference would that make from being a pervert?
Now, the situation is completely different. Now they are lovers, in a romantic relationship. What's wrong with helping each other wipe their bodies?! It's perfectly normal.
Qiao Yanyu hesitated for a moment, then said, "No need, the caregiver helped me clean it when I was in the hospital..."
"But it's been several days already, won't Sister Qiao feel uncomfortable? I won't do anything weird, and I won't touch any private parts, I'll just help Sister Qiao wipe herself clean!" She used her shameless tricks, acting coquettishly. This was He Zhao's best trick, one that Qiao Yanyu couldn't resist at all.
After He Zhao's persistent pleading, Qiao Yanyu finally relented and allowed He Zhao to help her wipe her body clean.
After turning off the TV, He Zhao pushed Qiao Yanyu back into the room. Qiao Yanyu sat on the bed by herself; given her abilities, it was better for her to do it herself than to have He Zhao, who was practically useless, help her.
Seeing that Qiao Yanyu didn't need her help, He Zhao went into the bathroom, found a towel and a basin, filled a basin with warm water, and returned to Qiao Yanyu's side. She soaked the towel in the warm water, wrung it out until it was half-dry, and set it aside for the time being. Then she removed the gauze bandage from the plaster cast.
The cast used on Qiao Yanyu's leg was a lighter type, not the traditional kind often seen in TV dramas where the leg is completely bound like a bucket. Instead, it was a semi-open type, only half of the leg was in place, and it was also lighter overall. The other half was secured with bandages and gauze, which made it more breathable and easier to change.
Those fully enclosed ones really only work in the hospital with the help of nurses, while these can be taken off at home, cleaned, and then put back on by family members, which is much more convenient.
This was the first time He Zhao had ever seen plaster casts like this.
Qiao Yanyu had seen how nurses changed gauze in the hospital, so she imitated them. After taking it off, she rolled up the loose legs of her pajama pants, revealing Qiao Yanyu's legs to He Zhao. There were no fresh wounds on her legs, only some areas with ointment applied, which looked almost completely healed.
But... she still had some old wounds on her legs, and those wounds had turned into somewhat ferocious centipede shapes, some small and some large, coiled around her legs, looking rather terrifying.
Qiao Yanyu seemed to notice He Zhao's gaze, and she awkwardly tugged at her trouser leg, trying to cover up her past scars.
"Don't look..."
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