Chapter 24, Section 24: "You hid me in your eyes."...
Yan Xingli was invited to visit the Little Fish for the first time.
The seemingly small Little Fish has a hidden world inside. Behind the luxurious cockpit is a spacious laboratory filled with instruments that Yan Xingli does not recognize, and rows of containers filled with unknown liquids.
The language bracelet and queen's cape that Qi Youyu handcrafted were completed in this laboratory.
Inside the Little Fish, it was as bright as day and the temperature was pleasant. Yan Xingli followed behind Yu Yu cautiously, looking around and asking about the strange instruments.
Yu Yu answered all his questions, but none of them were understandable to him, so Yan Xingli simply stopped asking.
Continuing to press him will only expose his shallow knowledge.
Yan Xingli carefully extended a finger and touched the surrounding wall. The touch was cool and slippery, somewhat like a smooth, oily jade.
He ran his hand down the smooth wall, and suddenly felt a warmth on his fingertips.
哢哒.
The button-like protrusion lit up with a green light, appearing very suddenly.
Yan Xingli had a bad feeling and hurriedly withdrew his hand, but it was too late.
The surroundings suddenly underwent a dramatic change.
The hard floor beneath his feet had turned into soft, green grass. The place where the instruments used to be was now occupied by lush trees. A flock of white, plump sheep was scattered not far away, and the air was filled with the scent of grass and lambs.
Above him was a blue sky with white clouds, and occasionally flocks of birds flew by. The ethereal and clear bird calls and the soft bleating of sheep made Yan Xingli feel completely dazed.
He looked up in a daze: "I've traveled through time?"
Yan Xingli stared blankly, his heart feeling like a fruit leather sausage being stared at for no reason—nervous, scared, helpless, weak, and pitiful.
It's a ghost! It's a ghost!
"uncle."
The child's sweet voice, like heavenly music, pulled Yan Xingli back to reality.
He hugged Qi Youyu as if she were his lifeline, his tiger eyes filled with tears, and said, "It's over, Yuyu, we've time-traveled. Do you know how to herd sheep?"
A round, cartoonish hand rested on his shoulder, and Xiaohua calmly and directly explained: "Brother Xing, don't be nervous. This is the viewing mode. Spending too much time in the laboratory can be a burden on a young scientist's mind and body. Beautiful natural scenery can relax the mind and is beneficial to the healthy growth of a young scientist."
Yan Xingli turned his head and stared at Xiao Hua.
"Oh." After realizing what he meant, he forced a smile. "So that's how it is. You guys have so many high-tech gadgets."
Qi Youyu tiptoed, touched his face, and comforted his frightened uncle with a smile.
"Don't be afraid, adults, we have you here."
Yu Yu's holographic technology was far more advanced than Yan Xingli had imagined. It wasn't just a visual change; his sense of touch, smell, and hearing couldn't detect a single flaw.
The shock of this incredibly realistic technology reached its peak after Yuyu switched the scenery several times.
Springtime grasslands and seas of flowers, summer gardens and lakes, autumn rice paddies and canyons, winter hot springs and snow-capped mountains.
Yan Xingli even scooped up a handful of cool lake water and drank it. The feeling of fullness in his stomach made it hard for him to believe that what he was seeing was just a holographic image.
How exactly did they manage to do that?
He shook the water off his hands and asked casually, "Yuyu, there are only four scenic spots here, right?"
"Yes, Uncle."
The child lay on the hillside, swinging his little feet, with a blade of grass in his mouth, and said, "But Little Flower remembers all the places she's seen. Uncle, if you have any favorites, you can tell Little Flower, and it can switch places anytime."
Wouldn't this place be a small world?
Yan Xingli was extremely envious.
"By the way, Uncle, is there anywhere you want to go?" Yu Yu sat up, her eyes shining as she looked at him.
Yan Xingli raised an eyebrow: "You want to go out and play in the Little Fish?"
The child nodded repeatedly, proudly raising his head: "I'll treat my uncle to a ride in the spaceship."
Yan Xingli immediately refused, "Take it easy, you'll see how you get home once you run out of the energy you just saved up."
"No way," the child said bluntly. "I'm the uncle version of Yu Yu now, and I'm very stingy."
She will plan the most energy-efficient route, striving to use every bit of energy wisely.
Yan Xingli, understanding the unspoken meaning in the child's words, asked, "?"
Harsh words hurt his uncle's feelings, and he wouldn't listen to his harsh criticism.
Unaware of this, Qi Youyu led Yan Xingli into the cockpit and happily showed him her control panel.
The variety of buttons dazzled Yan Xingli.
As the small screen on the control panel switched with the fish's coordinates, countless images flashed by quickly, making Yan Xingli feel as if he were watching a trailer for a TV series that spanned from ancient times to the present.
"What are those images?" he asked curiously.
It was too complicated to explain, so Yu Yu passed the trouble to Xiao Hua.
Xiaohua answered succinctly: "Each coordinate corresponds to a different time and space, and these images are taken from real scenes in each different time and space."
Yan Xingli understood immediately, and his breathing became slightly rapid. "So the scenery and people I saw just now all originated from the past?"
Yes, you can understand it that way.
Yan Xingli's cheeks turned visibly red; he was clearly extremely excited.
At that awkward, adolescent age, who wouldn't want to embark on a spectacular time-travel adventure?
Who wouldn't want to go back in time and see themselves as a child?
"Uncle, I'm going to sleep now." Qi Youyu jumped off the chair, rubbed her eyelids, and climbed onto Xiaohua's back. "Goodnight."
"...!!!"
It's a tonic.
Yan Xingli watched the child skip away, his eyes filled with longing. He shakily raised Er Kang's hand, his face flushed red, and he hesitated to speak.
My uncle regretted it; he was no longer so proud.
TAT
I want to ride in a spaceship.
I want to time travel!!!
*
During the second day of the live stream, some netizens noticed that Yan Xingli seemed a bit out of sorts.
He forgot to ask last night if Yu Yu's parents would be like her, breaking into the house without any sense of public morality if they came to Earth.
It's best to come at night; it's scary during the day because there are cameras inside and outside the house.
The two children made a promise to play together today. Little Flower disinfected everything inside and out. She always takes extra care of human babies.
Yan Xingli was unsure if Zheng Yue would be allergic to animal fur, so he invited his daughter and Eleme into the cat villa in advance.
With so many people around, it was lively, and Qi Youyu also invited Xiao Fu, one of her only two best friends on Earth.
As soon as the three children met, their young master, Qi Youyu, took Zheng Yue and Xiao Fu's hands together and introduced them warmly:
"Yueyue, Sister Xiaofu is a foreign language version of the child; she only knows a little bit of Chinese."
Zheng Yue attends an international bilingual kindergarten, where there are many foreign children in her class, so she is no stranger to blond-haired, blue-eyed kids.
Upon their first meeting, Xiao Fu greeted Zheng Yue with a sweet smile and spoke in Chinese.
"Hello, congratulations on your fortune! Have you eaten yet?"
To make a good impression on her new partner, Zheng Yue slowly replied, word by word, "Thank you, I'll eat it."
She lowered her eyes, too embarrassed to make eye contact with the little foreigner across from her who looked like a porcelain doll.
"My name is Zheng Yueyue."
Zheng Yue's slow tone was so gentle to Xiao Fu, who was in the learning stage, and Xiao Fu was pleasantly surprised to find that she could understand every single word.
"Zeng month? Zhe month?"
Xiao Fu couldn't distinguish between retroflex and alveolar consonants, and she had difficulty associating words with sounds. She looked at Zheng Yue with her bright blue eyes and sincerely begged her to teach her two more times.
Xiao Fu not only had to learn pronunciation but also how to write. Her thirst for knowledge moved Zheng Yue and also put Qi Youyu, who could hardly read any characters, in an awkward situation.
"Yu Yu, how do you spell your name?"
Qi Youyu blinked twice, giggled for a while, and spread her little hands, saying, "I won't say anything."
Zheng Yue and Xiao Fu widened their eyes in surprise, and the two children looked at Yan Xingli, who was watching the show.
The two girls didn't speak, but how could Yan Xingli not understand their hesitant glances?
He shrugged and gloated as he revealed his child's secret: "She was lazy and unwilling to learn to write before, so now she doesn't know how to write her own name."
Qi Youyu puffed out her cheeks and glared at him with a cute but fierce look: "Don't laugh at me, or I won't take you on the spaceship anymore."
With one move, Yan Xingli obediently shut up.
The screen was flooded with comments like, "[Yan Xingli really cooperates with my little Yu Yu Bao. He's so good at coaxing kids; he'll probably be a great dad in the future.]"
[Fish, your aunt is going on a spaceship ride too, remember to take her with you!]
Zheng Yue took Qi Youyu's hand, a gentle dimple appearing on her lips: "Yuyu, I, I'll teach you."
She is in the last year of kindergarten, and her vocabulary is already about the same as that of a third-grade student.
If it were anyone else, Yu Yu would have waved her hand and politely declined, but facing the shy and delicate Zheng Yue, she instinctively swallowed the refusal that was on the tip of her tongue.
The little foreigner and the little alien sat on the left and right sides, respectively. The little foreigner was seriously drawing circles and checkmarks, while the little alien's eyes gradually wandered and he was getting distracted.
The character 戚 has eleven strokes.
This is so tiring.
"Fish?"
Qi Youyu turned around and saw Zheng Yue standing behind her, bending over and looking at her with a puzzled expression.
Yu Yu put down her pen and looked at her intently: "Yue Yue, I was wrong."
Zheng Yue: "?"
The child spoke nonsense in a serious tone: "My name is not Yu Yu, my name is Xiao Qi."
Zheng Yue was shocked, her eyes wide open like a cat's: "You, me, ah."
Xiao Fu, who was blocked from the encrypted call, was anxious to join the chat. Fortunately, she and Zheng Yue had been immersed in a bilingual environment since childhood, and Zheng Yue explained the current situation in English.
"From now on, you can call me Xiao Qi."
These two combined don't have as many strokes as the character "戚" alone, and Yu Yu is very satisfied.
“She’s just being lazy and making things up,” Yan Xingli interrupted. “Her name is Qi Youyu, a name given to her by her mother.”
Seeing that the child seemed to have some reservations, Yan Xingli smiled enigmatically and asked, "Could it be that your uncle is wrong?"
The child got up and hugged his leg, like a little calf trying to bump his uncle's leg with his hard head.
Yan Xingli pressed down on Yu Yu's head: "Your friends are still here, don't you care about your pride?"
Yu Yu suddenly snapped out of her daze, let go of her uncle's leg, raised her hand to tidy her messy hair, and grinned at her two friends.
She pulled a handful of milk candies from her pocket and gave them to them.
"I'm going home soon, so here's some candy for you."
Zheng Yue, who had been quite happy, froze. The candy in her mouth no longer tasted sweet. She asked hesitantly, "You're... leaving?"
"Yes." Qi Youyu's little braids swayed back and forth. "My mom and dad are going to pick me up and take me home."
"Then, us, will we be able to see each other in the future?"
This was devastating news for Zheng Yue. She lowered her eyes in despair, and her eyes quietly reddened.
Did you cry?
Zheng Yue turned her back and shook her head: "No, I didn't cry."
The more others said this, the more determined Qi Youyu became to find out the truth. She ran over to Zheng Yue.
The chubby girl was surprisingly strong; Zheng Yue, who was a little taller than her, couldn't match her strength, and Yu Yu pushed away her hands that were covering her face.
Zheng Yue's two red, rabbit-like eyes were revealed.
Feeling embarrassed by Yu Yu's stare, Zheng Yue was about to turn her head away when Yu Yu suddenly leaned closer and cupped her face in her chubby little hands.
"You can't cry, or I'll fall out." Her little brows were furrowed tightly.
"Wh-what?"
Qi Youyu said, "I've already been hidden in your eyes."
“If you cry, I will fall out.”
She spoke with great conviction.
Upon hearing the second half of the sentence, Zheng Yue, whose eyes were brimming with tears, quickly rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand: "I, I won't cry."
She tried to open her eyes wide, as if that would allow the fish to stay hidden in them longer.
Qi Youyu stood straight and, imitating the adults, rubbed and patted Zheng Yue's little head with her hand.
"Oh dear, I'll be back."
[Is this for real? Is Yu Yu quitting the recording?]
[I checked the show's Weibo account, but there's no such announcement! Ahhhhh, without YuYu, I'm just staring at thin air!]
[The daily interactions between the uncle and nephew are so endearing, they're perfect for watching while eating!!]
After Qi Youyu comforted the upset Zheng Yue, Xiao Fu came over and asked, "Why did Yu Yu leave?"
Qi Youyu kept in mind Yan Xingli's instructions not to reveal that she was going back to another planet, so she made up a reason on the spot.
"I want to go home and help my dad dig dirt to earn money."
"It's so pitiful for Dad to be digging in the dirt all by himself."
[Um, is Mr. Qi the foreman at the construction site?]
There are so many jobs related to digging, maybe even construction work. And the way cement is handled and digging probably looks quite similar to what kids see.
It seems that Yu Yu's withdrawal from the show's recording is now a foregone conclusion.
The entire production team was completely dumbfounded.
Zheng Xiaofeng was so anxious that he immediately called Yan Xingli. Yan Xingli took off the microphone from his clothes and went to a corner without surveillance cameras to answer the phone.
No one knew exactly what the two said; only the staff on the other side could tell from the director's solemn and helpless expression.
The three children spent a wonderful time together on Earth.
Xiao Fu watched the live stream with her Chinese teacher and learned that Yu Yu's uncle was very poor and would soon lose his job.
Now her father has to rely on the children to help him earn money again, and she feels that Yu Yu's family must be very short of money.
Xiao Fu gritted her teeth: "Yu Yu, please believe me, I will save you."
She wants to help Yu Yu make money.
While pacing back and forth at home, Xiao Fu suddenly had a flash of inspiration: That's right, Dad's company is currently looking for a spokesperson, and I heard that the annual endorsement fee could buy a truckload of Barbie family sets.
Xiao Fu, clutching her favorite teddy bear, pushed open her father's study door.
Sure enough, Dad Bros was looking at profiles of potential child stars for the young spokesperson on the computer.
"Dad, I'd like to recommend my good friend Yu Yu as our spokesperson," Xiao Fu said bluntly.
A chubby, rosy little face popped into Bros' mind, and he calmly replied, "The child you specially invited to your birthday party last time?"
"Yes, Dad."
Although Bros was puzzled as to why his daughter would suddenly come up with this idea, he did not blame her.
“Honey, choosing a product spokesperson requires consideration of many factors. Dad knows you really like your friend, but this is work, and Dad can't make a decision lightly.”
“But many children also like Yuyu,” Xiaofu said confidently. “She has many fans.”
Bros: "Really?"
“Yes,” Xiao Fu nodded, “she is a shining little star.”
Bros smiled and said, "Sweetie, Daddy's so happy you've made a new friend. I've got your suggestion in mind; I'll think about it when I'm done with my work."
When adults say "consider," it's equivalent to a rejection.
Knowing this, Xiao Fu became a little anxious: "Dad, Yu Yu helped me before. She's a very kind and helpful child. Don't you want to save a poor child?"
Unaware of the true situation, Bros asked, "Baby, what are you trying to say?"
Xiao Fu embellished the story, tearfully describing her best friend's extremely difficult and dangerous situation.
Bros' handsome face turned serious: "I never imagined that little Yu Yu's family would be in such dire straits."
"All right."
After a moment's hesitation, Bros relented: "Honey, Daddy is willing to give Yu Yu an interview opportunity. If she's suitable, she'll be the spokesperson."
"It's a deal then."
Xiao Fu's Chinese teacher is a big fan of pop diva Liu Qin, and is active on Weibo year-round, possessing in-depth knowledge of the tricks and procedures for creating data for her idol.
Following her teacher's advice, she gathered Qi Youyu's fans together and asked Grace and a few other friends to help her boost Qi Youyu's popularity and data.
Grace: "I declare Fishy Candy to be the most delicious treat in the world!"
"Look at what I did before. I was so stupid to think that Yu Yu was a person with bad taste."
“Evelica, please make sure to convey my apology to her. If you’re willing… I’m willing to donate one month’s, no, two months’ allowance to you.”
The little black boy was hesitant and timid, so I didn't dare to have too high expectations.
After all, among all her friends, Evelyna had the most pocket money; she wasn't short of money.
"OK."
To everyone's surprise, Xiao Fu's eyes lit up, and she deftly extended her hand to her, saying, "Oh, thank you so much."
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