chapter 16
Cheng Miao looked at the three Chair in the distance, a vague idea forming in her mind. “Those three Chair – did you notice anything different about them?”
Logically speaking, Qi Jiajia disliked Cheng Miao the most among the group, but for some reason, every time Cheng Miao spoke to her, the equal and emotionless look in her eyes always managed to extinguish the blazing resentment burning in Qi Jiajia’s heart.
Hmm… maybe this woman wasn’t so annoying after all.
“Nothing,” Qi Jiajia lowered her head and tugged at her Western Dress. “Those three Chair look exactly the same – I can’t see any difference in height or material. Maybe you have to actually sit on them to find out if there’s a difference?”
Thinking of this made her a bit irritable. “But Zhao Liang is so annoying, always hovering around me. Those Chair are very large. If I sit on one, I’m afraid I’ll need him to help me get down.”
Tong Qian nodded in understanding. “Let’s go take a look later. I’ll sit, and you help me down.”
“Like I’d need your help?” Qi Jiajia said darkly, refusing Tong Qian’s goodwill. Tong Qian just smiled good-naturedly and didn’t mind.
Cheng Miao hinted, “I advise you both to stay away from those three Chair for now. Also, the bowls in the Kitchen – don’t touch them unless it’s absolutely necessary.”
Bai Jiang suddenly looked up, eyes shining. “You’ve got an idea?”
Cheng Miao nodded, not hiding anything. “I do have a theory, but I need to verify it.” Then she looked at Tong Qian. “What about you? Any discoveries?”
Tong Qian hesitated, a bit embarrassed. “Nothing much. I saw a basket of yarn on the table and thought maybe it hinted that Mama Bear loves to knit, but I searched for a long time and couldn’t find any needles. Maybe I was wrong…”
“No!” Cheng Miao’s gaze was deep. “Your logic is correct. I think the needles will only appear under certain plot conditions.”
Many clues have yet to surface; blindly guessing is just a waste of time. When Zhao Liang strolled over, Cheng Miao opened the Notebook.
It was a Notebook recording the daily tasks of the Three Bears.
The Three Bears love to sleep; starting at noon, they would begin resting, and if there was nothing that had to be done, they would just keep sleeping and not get up.
But today, it was clearly written that there were tasks to do.
After their nap, Baby Bear needed to do homework, Mama Bear had to wash the bowls in the Kitchen, and Papa Bear, as head of the family, just needed to get up and drink his porridge.
Cheng Miao handed the Notebook around for everyone to see. “If the Three Bears wake up, they’ll be a threat to us. No one knows if they’ll discover us, so I think we’re supposed to help them finish the tasks listed in the Notebook.”
“The first two are easy enough, but how are we supposed to help Papa Bear eat?” Tong Qian, now a little braver, asked eagerly.
Cheng Miao wasn’t sure either, and carefully described the situation in the Kitchen to everyone. “There are three bowls. I guess we have to figure out which one belongs to Papa Bear, and put the other two away.”
The basket of fish in the Kitchen had already attracted everyone’s attention. Zhao Liang volunteered to go wash the bowls, but Cheng Miao, not trusting this oily-looking Man, had Tong Qian go with him.
Zhao Liang looked a little disappointed and specifically asked Qi Jiajia if she wanted to go with him.
She answered with an eye roll. Zhao Liang rubbed his hands together awkwardly and slunk away.
Tong Qian didn’t follow immediately. She watched Zhao Liang walk off, her delicate brows furrowing as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
“It’s fine,” Qi Jiajia, for some reason, felt her mood lighten and was willing to say a few words to Tong Qian. She waved her hand impatiently. “I know he doesn’t have good intentions.”
Tong Qian let out a quiet sigh of relief, feeling a bit embarrassed, and gave Qi Jiajia a friendly smile before jogging to catch up with Zhao Liang on the way to the Kitchen.
Bai Jiang had already climbed onto the table and found the only Notebook without any writing on the messy desk. He waved for Cheng Miao and Qi Jiajia to come up.
Cheng Miao wasn’t one for fussiness. She let Qi Jiajia step on her shoulder to get onto the table, then reached out to grab Bai Jiang’s hand and nimbly climbed up herself.
The three of them gathered together to look at the exercise problems. It was brand new, the cover cleanly written with Baby Bear’s name, and looked to be at elementary school level. There were only six questions on the first page.
1+8=
2✖4=
15÷3=
4+7=
6✖6=
20÷4=
This was way too simple. The three looked at each other, a bit unsure of what the questions really meant.
“Maybe we just fill in the correct numbers? After all, it took us ages to find the Notebook. If we weren’t careful, we wouldn’t have dug it out,” Bai Jiang said, sweating profusely. Even though it was just finding a Notebook, in this Instance it felt no less than heavy labor.
Qi Jiajia put her contemporary student exam skills to use, thinking it over and even considering brain teasers, but there didn’t seem to be any other answers.
Thinking about Bai Jiang’s words, she found them reasonable. She picked up a pencil with effort, ready to write the answers in the Notebook.
“Wait a second,” Cheng Miao reached out to stop her. It was so simple that it felt like a trap.
Qi Jiajia grew a bit irritable, her analytical thinking making her mood darker. “Maybe it really is just a regular math problem. After all, this is just one small task, like washing dishes-nothing difficult.”
That did make some sense. Bai Jiang, frowning deeply at the side, also wondered if he was overcomplicating a simple problem.
Cheng Miao pressed her tongue against the warm, moist inside of her mouth, still not convinced the Instance would hand out such a freebie.
To be absolutely sure, Cheng Miao told Qi Jiajia not to write anything yet and turned to look at the towering pile of books.
Sure enough, after searching for a while, Cheng Miao found what she was looking for.
Bai Jiang and Qi Jiajia watched as Cheng Miao dragged out two more Notebooks from the pile and compared the dates-they were previously used Notebooks.
Cheng Miao flipped through them quickly, then turned the books around for Bai Jiang and Qi Jiajia to see clearly.
“Look, Baby Bear’s math must be really bad. Not a single problem in the previous two Notebooks was answered correctly. If we help with the homework and get everything right, it’ll definitely be noticed.”
Cold sweat slowly dripped down Qi Jiajia’s forehead.
They’d almost made a mistake. If not for Cheng Miao, she would have hastily written the correct answers, and who knows what would have happened.
Too impulsive-she needed to change.
Trusting her own judgment, Cheng Miao finally let Qi Jiajia write down a few completely unrelated answers.
Bai Jiang looked at the Notebook. The line that read “Baby Bear needs to do homework” was fading away slowly, like ink dissolving in water.
·
Tong Qian arrived at the Kitchen a step behind Zhao Liang. She wrinkled her nose-the smell in the Kitchen was like being at the seaside, but much stronger than the usual fishy scent.
Zhao Liang squatted next to a basket of blue, strange-looking fish. Seeing Tong Qian follow him, he knew that Cheng Miao and the others didn’t trust him to do the task alone.
He cursed inwardly, then pointed at the pile of bowls in the sink, making no move to go over. “Why are you just standing there? Go wash the dishes!”
It was Tong Qian’s first time doing a task, so she asked uncertainly, “Just wash the dishes directly?”
Zhao Liang was poking at the fish in the basket with a stick. He didn’t care much about Tong Qian’s question. “Then look carefully. Does everything need to be taught to you? Am I your dad or something?”