Don’t Covet the Beautiful System!! - Chap 61
When leaving the bakery, Pei Qingyuan came out with a large bag of freshly baked pastries. Pei Qingyuan’s arms were also stuffed with a bag of the same size and He Shiwen refused to accept money no matter what.
Pei Huaishan smelled the tempting aroma wafting from the paper bag and cautiously thanked He Shiwen.
He Shiwen waved his hand with a smile. “It is okay. You don’t have to be so polite. Come and sit often when you have time. See you next time!”
He stood at the door of the store, watched the three of them leave and waved reluctantly.
After pushing open the door and returning to the store, he could see the new addition to the photo wall at a glance.
One was Ji Tong, who was making a scissor hands gesture, and the other was Pei Qingyuan, who had a gentle expression.
There was also a photo of Pei Qingyuan surrounded by two pairs of scissor hands. Ji Tong and He Shiwen were standing on both sides and smiling so hard that their teeth couldn’t be seen.
This was taken by Pei Huaishan for them.
Maybe it was because of the person taking the photo or maybe he was influenced by the two fools next to him but Pei Qingyuan was giving a rare smile in this photo.
He Shiwen stared at it for a while. He suddenly remembered the back view of Pei Qingyuan leaving in a hurry on a bicycle late at night.
He thought it was fortunate that he called out on that day to the boy who was always wandering outside the door.
The wind chimes hanging in front of the door sounded again. A customer came in and He Shiwen turned around with a smile.
At the car parked on the road, Pei Huaishan handed the bag full of pastries to the driver who came up to him. He looked at the store on the street and said with a smile, “You have met a good person. A good person will have good luck.”
Pei Qingyuan heard the meaning of his words and nodded silently.
“Now that my body is better, I have moved back to the mountain to live. It is quieter. I should leave the company’s business to young people.” Pei Huaishan smiled. “Remember to come to the mountain to play with Grandpa during the holiday. If Tong Tong’s parents allow it then bring Tong Tong with you. How many times did you go there when you were young? Do you still have any impression of it? It is very beautiful.”
“I remember some of it,” Pei Qingyuan replied. “There are many fruit trees.”
“Yes, it is very cool in summer. The best time is when your college entrance examination is over and it is summer vacation.” Pei Huaishan said in detail, “At that time, many trees will bear fruit including peaches, lychees, red bayberries… in addition, there is the mountain spring water. Do young people like to eat hot pot? I heard from a group of children on the mountain that the hot pot boiled in mountain spring water is delicious.”
Pei Qingyuan saw Ji Tong’s eyes becoming brighter and brighter at the second half of his grandfather’s words and Ji Tong couldn’t help gulping. Pei Qingyuan smiled and said, “Grandpa, I will bring a friend to play when the summer vacation comes.”
At that time, Ji Tong would have a new appearance.
“Good, good. Bring friends!” Pei Huaishan was very happy. “You can bring as many as you want. I have room!”
Ji Tong had already started to fantasize about the mountain spring water hot pot. “Thank you, Grandpa. Grandpa is so good.”
“Hey!” Pei Huaishan happily responded to the ‘Grandpa’ that came one after another.
He raised his hand and rubbed Ji Tong’s hair. Originally, he also wanted to touch his grandson’s head like he did when he was a child, but Pei Qingyuan’s height had already passed his. Instead, he just patted Pei Qingyuan gently on the shoulder.
“You are grown up and you are happier than you used to be,” Pei Huaishan finally said. “I am very happy.”
Pei Qingyuan wanted to say something but couldn’t find the right sentence. Therefore, he just responded softly and rubbed Ji Tong’s hair like Pei Huaishan.
The distant sunset sank gently.
After bidding farewell to Pei Huaishan, Pei Qingyuan led Ji Tong home.
“Ruan Ruan, is my hairstyle messed up?”
“…No.”
“Really? Let me see.”
Immediately afterward, Pei Qingyuan was stunned to see Ji Tong open the schoolbag on his back and take out a small mirror.
“Why is there a mirror?”
“It is because this is a treasure bag connected to a mysterious space. I can also conjure flowers from here. No one is passing by now. Do you want to see the flowers?”
“…No need.”
“By the way, you just said you would like my ‘father’ to go to the parent-teacher meeting. Will you go back on it?”
Pei Qingyuan saw Ji Tong, who was holding a small mirror to sort out his hair, and thought about it before saying, “No.”
“Great!” Ji Tong immediately cheered. “Thank you, host!”
“How are you going to attend?”
Ji Tong shook his head. “This is a secret. You will know when the time comes.”
“Okay.”
“In addition, Ruan Ruan, can I take a day off on the day of the parent-teacher meeting? I’ll be back on time in the evening for the parent-teacher meeting.”
“Take time off?”
“I have a very important thing to do, so I have to leave for a while. I will leave some data in the watch to monitor the dynamics around the host. If you encounter an emergency that I didn’t discover, you can contact me at any time and I will rush over immediately.”
The very important thing was to welcome Fang Hao, the naive elementary school student who was bored enough to roll dice in the chat group.
Ji Tong couldn’t help feeling a bit of sympathy for the elementary school student who went from unwilling to numb at the countless ‘Brother Ji Tong’. Therefore, Ji Tong planned to invite him over in the next few days.
The cross-world data exchange was a troublesome matter and there were many procedures to go through. In the end, Fang Hao was the first friend to visit him and Ji Tong must do his best as the host, leading him around to familiarize him with the environment here.
It was quite exciting to think about. There was the feeling of meeting an online friend.
This was a cross-world online friend.
Ji Tong finished speaking and looked at the host beside him expectantly.
Apart from the regular system meeting, this was the first time Ji Tong had asked him for leave.
Pei Qingyuan was stunned. Then he saw Ji Tong’s bright eyes and agreed. “Okay.”
He didn’t know what Ji Tong was going to do but it was just a day off. It would pass quickly, Pei Qingyuan thought.
However, once it really came, the day that seemed to be the same as usual was no longer ordinary.
Ji Tong disappeared in the morning and there was no child who loved to hum songs wandering around the house. Only he and Hua Hua ate breakfast quietly.
When going out, Xiao Mei would still broadcast the route and estimated time to him. This was the present program left by Ji Tong, but the slightly mechanical voice would no longer nonsensically evaluate the shape of the clouds in the sky.
Pei Qingyuan rode silently all the way to the school. Once he entered the classroom, a line of text appeared on the dial on time.
[A new day begins. Host, jiayou! (@^▽^@)ノ]
It was the familiar colorful bubbles and small flowers next to the text. This was Ji Tong’s usual style.
Pei Qingyuan subconsciously wanted to talk to him, but he stopped in time when the words were about to be spoken.
It was still a preset program.
He watched this line of text gradually fade and a sense of loss surged in his heart for no reason.
It was early reading time and the classroom was filled with the noisy sound of reading. The morning reading sound of the next classroom also floated through the window and it was lively everywhere.
However, Pei Qingyuan just felt that it was exceptionally quiet.
There wasn’t the animation of the little robot that always changed patterns and there wasn’t the clear voice that always rang in his heart.
Outside the window, the bright and beautiful weather shone warmly on this suddenly ordinary world.
His thoughts wandered for a long time and the book in his hand was frozen on the page he had read yesterday.
Where was Ji Tong now?
What was so important?
Pei Qingyuan couldn’t help thinking of these two questions.
Far away, a tall figure appeared out of thin air in a deserted corner of the city.
The handsome man in black looked around, his entire body shaking.
Ji Tong, who had been sitting on the stone and waiting a long time, waved at him enthusiastically. “Little brother Xiao Hao.
Fang Hao didn’t refute this name but his expression was strange.
Ji Tong was dissatisfied. “Why is your expression so stinky? You have often called me Brother.”
“It isn’t because of this.” Fang Hao seemed to find it a bit hard to speak. “…I’m a bit dizzy from teleporting over.”
He was still dizzy and didn’t care about maintaining his image. Therefore, he simply sat down on the stone next to Ji Tong.
Ji Tong looked at the handsome but sluggish elementary school student beside him in amazement and asked, “Did you get motion sickness before?”
“Yes,” Fang Hao nodded honestly. “I’ve had motion sickness since I was a child.”
Ji Tong sighed. “It is good that you went to a fantasy world. It feels good to be able to fly around, right?”
“Yes, I like it.” Fang Hao nodded again. “I’ll take you to play next time.”
Ji Tong imagined the appearance of a tiger-headed elementary school student getting motion sickness and suddenly felt that the image of the handsome guy in front of him, which was originally very cold, had become cute.
He pulled out a box of motion sickness medicine and a bottle of water from his universal bag and handed it to Fang Hao.
“Come and re-experience the power of modern science.”
The food that could work on a human body wasn’t changed. This was one of the things he had prepared in advance, but he hadn’t expected to really use it.
In the end, this was Ji Tong’s first time welcoming a friend to play with him and he was inevitably a bit over-excited.
—Just a little bit.
Of course, this part didn’t need to be told to the elementary school student.
Fang Hao looked at him with some surprise and whispered, “Thank you.”
Ji Tong took the opportunity to hit the top of the handsome man’s head. “You’re welcome. Welcome to my world.”
“Hey, don’t mess up my hairstyle.”
“It isn’t messed up. It is even more handsome.”
“Really?”
“Really. It is a pity that I don’t have a mirror or I would show you.”
“Then I’ll change into a mirror and—”
“Okay, okay.” Ji Tong quickly fixed his hair and changed the topic. “Are you feeling better? Where do you want to go?”
Two hours later, Ji Tong and Fang Hao reluctantly walked out of the game center. The latter was carrying a large bag of dolls in his hand. There was an ice cream store next to the game center. The two of them looked at each other before tacitly turning around and walking over.
“If only you were a bit older.” Fang Hao held the sweet cone and sighed. “You can only shoot basketballs and catch dolls. It feels like a crime to take you to other game consoles.”
“Yes, I really want to grow up.” Ji Tong sighed. “But you were originally an elementary school student. You wouldn’t be able to play without me.”
“…Oh.”
The expressions of the big and small people were the same, attracting the attention of countless passersby.
“By the way, is your host in class?” Fang Hao was curious. “Will I see him when he finishes school?”
This time, Fang Hao’s external identity was Ji Tong’s bodyguard. It was quite reasonable when taking into account the fictional background of Ji Tong’s family.
Of course, when explaining this to Pei Qingyuan, Ji Tong would tell him that this was a system colleague who came to visit from another world. Apart from the human identities of him and Fang Hao, other parts could be truthfully told to the host.
Hearing him mention the host, Ji Tong checked the real-time images transmitted by his data and found no abnormalities. Pei Qingyuan also didn’t contact him.
“Yes, I will introduce you to each other at that time.” Ji Tong closed the monitoring window in a reassured manner. “The host’s school will be having a parent-teacher meeting tonight.”
“I hate parent-teacher meetings the most.” Fang Hao frowned and asked casually, “Who will attend for him?”
“Us.”
“……” Fang Hao’s cone almost fell to the ground. “What? Who?”
Ji Tong smiled slightly. “Come here. I will discuss something with you.”
Fang Hao bent over to listen. After a long time, he sat up again and his expression was quite subtle.
“Aren’t I a humanoid puppet then?” Fang Hao thought for a while and was a bit unhappy. “It is also someone else’s face.”
“No no no, how can you be a puppet?” Ji Tong shook his head again and again and asked in a solemn tone, “Is Ji Yanxing handsome?”
“…Handsome.”
“Then do you know about Gundams?”
“Of course. What does this have to do with Gundams?”
“There is a cockpit inside the Gundam and a pilot inside, right?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t this a combination of the two of us? I am in charge of control and you are in charge of being handsome. I might be the one talking and commanding but others don’t know this. What they are saying is you. It is the handsome Gundam Ji Yanxing.”
Seeing the sudden light in Fang Hao’s eyes, Ji Tong knew that this person must be shamefully moved.
No schoolboy could refuse to be a cool and handsome Gundam.
Fang Hao pondered on it for a moment before coughing and casually saying, “Then I will reluctantly agree to you.”
Ji Tong stretched out his hand with satisfaction. “Happy cooperation.”
Fang Hao also shook hands with him in satisfaction. “Remember, it must be handsome.”
Under the expectations of different people, night gradually fell.
Tonight’s evening self-study for seniors was canceled and the classrooms were reserved for parents having the meeting. Students could go home or back to the dormitory after school. They could also stay in the school and wander around, waiting for their parents before going back.
Among the crowd of students who were either apprehensive or worried, Pei Qingyuan’s slightly somber silence seemed normal.
He was going to the basketball team in the evening to practice and wasn’t affected by the cancellation of the evening self-study.
Pei Qingyuan walked to the gymnasium as usual while feeling that today was extraordinarily long.
In fact, he wanted to contact Ji Tong several times in the middle but gave up before speaking.
He couldn’t find a suitable reason.
Nothing happened that required help from the system.
So why did he want to find Ji Tong?
Pei Qingyuan felt that his mood was very strange.
It couldn’t be explained by clear and orderly logic.
The night sky shone with stars. Under the dim street lights, he pushed open the door of the gymnasium and walked in silently.
At the same time, outside the extremely lively school gate, a pure black luxury car slowly stopped.
There were cars parked near the school gate since many parents had driven over today. Even so, this luxury car was quite eye-catching.
Some parents who were car fans sighed. “I didn’t see this car at the parent-teacher meeting last semester. Which boss became rich?”
Once the door opened, this small discussion quieted down.
The handsome man stepped out of the car and an indescribable aura spread. He wore a well-cut black suit and a shirt of the same color with a slightly open neckline. This caused the formality and solemnity to fade away and he showed a bit of wantonness. His suit was similar to the pure blackness of the night and only the light gold cufflinks on his cuffs were shiny.
