Let's Do Some Questions - Chapter 40

When Song Man woke up the next day, she was contemplating the three ultimate questions of life.

Who is she, where is she, and what is she doing?

Why was she wearing unfamiliar clothes, bare-legged, and hugging a pillow?

Huh? Huh? Huh?

Song Man shook her heavy head, sniffled, and started to recall. This was Chu Fengqiu’s place. She had come here to hang out with Chu Fengqiu yesterday, drank some wine last night, and then… then she blacked out.

Song Man only remembered being on the boat. She couldn’t recall anything after that, no matter how hard she tried.

Song Man figured she must have gotten drunk, and then internally cursed. That shouldn’t be right. Her alcohol tolerance shouldn’t be that bad, and it was just fruit wine! She got drunk in front of Chu Fengqiu just like that? That was way too embarrassing!

Song Man scratched her messy hair, then felt something wasn’t right around her chest. It felt too loose, too free. That meant… Song Man pulled open her collar and looked down, unable to resist cursing again internally.

She had absolutely no consciousness last night. Did she get up, undress, and change herself? It must have been… If not, that would be super awkward.

“You’re awake?”

Chu Fengqiu pushed the door open and walked in, looking at Song Man sitting on the bed in a daze.

Song Man was sitting on her bed wearing her clothes. The surging emotions in Chu Fengqiu’s eyes flickered for a moment, then quickly disappeared.

“Yeah. Are these your clothes?”

Song Man tugged at the clothes she was wearing. They were quite loose but only covered her legs a little.

“Yes. I wanted to get you pajamas last night, but I didn’t know the password for your suitcase, so I got you one of mine.”

“I… didn’t do anything last night, did I?”

Song Man asked tentatively. She had drunk plenty of alcohol before, but always in moderation, and had never gotten drunk. So she didn’t know what she was like when drunk.

She hoped she didn’t sing loudly or try to dance awkwardly. If that happened, after the Little Magic Fairy and constipation incidents, her image in Chu Fengqiu’s eyes would truly be completely ruined.

Chu Fengqiu’s heart skipped a beat at the question. She actually hoped the other person remembered, but seeing Song Man’s tentative look, she probably didn’t. “You held my hand and said you wanted to go catch jellyfish with me.”

Chu Fengqiu looked troubled, her expression making her words seem highly credible.

“Ah? No way? Really?”

Song Man looked at Chu Fengqiu, her big eyes filled with great confusion.

“Just kidding.”

Song Man was very well-behaved when she was asleep and didn’t go catching any jellyfish.

“Wow, you’re so mean.”

Song Man got out of bed.

“But when you got off the boat yesterday, you thought there was an earthquake and told me to run quickly.”

Song Man’s mouth twitched. She muttered softly that catching jellyfish would have been better.

Song Man squatted by her suitcase looking for clothes. Chu Fengqiu stood beside her and saw the password.

“Does this number have any special meaning?”

It wasn’t any of the answers she expected, so Chu Fengqiu asked curiously.

“No special meaning, I just set it randomly.”

Song Man answered while taking out the clothes she would wear today from her suitcase. Indeed, it had no special meaning. It was just that when the suitcase arrived, she was working on a particularly difficult problem. It asked for the work done by a force on a particle moving along a spatial curve under the force’s action, starting from rest at a certain point on the curve, when the particle returned to that point. She simply used the number from the answer as the password to celebrate solving the problem.

“Okay, you change first. I’ll go get some hot water for you in the basin.”

“Okay.”

Song Man quickly changed her clothes and tidied up the bed and quilt.

After washing up, Song Man realized it was already ten in the morning.

She opened her phone, replied to messages from her parents and her followers, put her phone in her pocket, and followed Chu Fengqiu out the front door.

Since they had missed breakfast, Chu Fengqiu had said she would take her out to find food while she was washing up. Thinking about the delicious food she could eat, Song Man’s steps became lighter.

Sulan Town didn’t have concrete roads yet, only paths paved with blue bricks. Song Man looked around curiously next to Chu Fengqiu, who took her hand. She held Chu Fengqiu’s hand back, gave her a big smile, and swung their arms while humming a tune.

Chu Fengqiu’s heart stirred, but her expression remained unchanged.

She took Song Man to a shop she used to frequent as a child. The shop was still open, and the layout hadn’t changed much from seven or eight years ago.

The owner recognized her and greeted her warmly.

“It feels so leisurely here, so suitable for retirement.”

Song Man sat on a long bench and sighed.

The pace was slow, consumption was low, the scenery was good, the air was good, and the relationships between neighbors were also good. It was completely different from the city made of steel.

“Then, when we’re older, let’s come here together.”

Chu Fengqiu planted a seed in her words, waiting for Song Man to take the bait unknowingly.

“Okay, as long as you don’t mind me freeloading then.”

Song Man naturally didn’t catch the deeper meaning in Chu Fengqiu’s words and nodded along.

“Of course not.”

Chu Fengqiu’s tone was light, and she didn’t hide the smile on her face.

Song Man saw it and felt that Chu Fengqiu was a really good friend. Talking to her was easy, and being with her was comfortable. If there was really a chance to live a slow, leisurely life together in the future, it would be really nice.

There weren’t many customers at this time, so the food was served quickly. Soon, the things Chu Fengqiu ordered were brought to the table.

Four meatballs were placed in a delicate small steamer basket, with another layer underneath. Chu Fengqiu removed the top layer, revealing the bottom layer, which contained shrimp dumplings with transparent wrappers and fish dumplings with opaque wrappers. Beside them, a large bowl held bright, clear soy milk, and a plate of brightly colored seafood fried rice noodles was also served.

“It looks so delicious.”

Song Man picked up her chopsticks. A small bowl was placed in front of her. She scooped some fried rice noodles from the plate into her bowl, blew on them to cool them down, and took a bite. The savory, spicy, and fresh taste mixed with the seafood flavor. The rice noodles were very chewy. Song Man gave Chu Fengqiu a thumbs-up, then took a sip of soy milk.

The soy milk was original and purely hand-ground. Because Chu Fengqiu had told the owner to add extra sugar to Song Man’s bowl, the sweetness level perfectly matched Song Man’s preference. She reached for the meatballs on the first layer.

The meatballs didn’t look big; they could be finished in one big bite or two small bites.

“What kind of meatballs are these?”

Song Man picked one up and looked at it. It didn’t look like it was made of glutinous rice; the outside was pure white.

“Fish balls, made from a type of fish from the river that has no small bones. The fish meat is repeatedly ground into a paste, then wrapped and shaped. Try it.”

Song Man took a bite, and the fish ball revealed its core. The sweetness of pumpkin burst between her lips and teeth, so delicious that Song Man almost cried.

The fish meat was fresh, sweet, soft, and tender, not dry or fishy, almost melting in her mouth. One bite felt like pure sweetness, making little stars explode in the eyes of someone who loved sweets like Song Man.

“This is too delicious! You eat too.”

Song Man saw there were four meatballs. Two for her, two for Song Man, very fair. She picked up another milky-white meatball and found that the taste was different from the previous one.

This meatball was smooth and springy. She tasted it in one bite and knew it was a shrimp ball. There were some crushed nuts inside, which made it quite fragrant.

Four meatballs, ten steamed dumplings, a plate of rice noodles, and two bowls of soy milk. Song Man and Chu Fengqiu finished sharing everything, feeling very satisfied.

Then Chu Fengqiu took her around to explore. She tried rowing a boat and picking lotus pods and even encountered a team doing a Hanfu photoshoot there.

Living here was too happy, or so Song Man thought until she saw the mosquito bites all over her body.

“Damn, when did I get bitten by these? I didn’t feel anything at all?”

When Song Man sat down after a day of playing, she finally noticed the itchy feeling.

Because it was hot in the summer and Song Man was prone to heatiness, the clothes she brought were all super short shorts and skirts. She didn’t care about getting tanned; sometimes she even wanted to be a little darker because it made her look more imposing.

So her exposed long legs suffered, covered in mosquito bites, with some on her arms and back as well.

Song Man scratched her legs, feeling incredibly uncomfortable.

Chu Fengqiu felt distressed seeing Song Man like this. The moment she noticed, she quickly went to get the medicine kept at home.

“I should have worn long pants.”

Song Man looked at the long pants Chu Fengqiu was wearing and said somewhat mournfully.

Places with high humidity and lots of vegetation naturally had many mosquitoes, but she hadn’t paid attention, and this was the result.

Song Man wanted to scratch the bites on her legs but was stopped by Chu Fengqiu holding her hand.

“Don’t scratch. It will hurt if you scratch too much later.”

“But it’s so uncomfortable, Chu Fengqiu, I’m so itchy.”

Song Man rubbed her legs together, frowning, trying to suppress the itchiness.

She wished she could pull off the proboscis of those female mosquitoes and stab them back into themselves, Song Man thought with a cold face.

“You go take a shower first, then come back and I’ll help you apply the medicine. Absolutely don’t scratch yourself too much. I’ll go get some water for you.”

Song Man wiped the sweat from her forehead and nodded.

She felt she had to give up the idea of retiring here with Chu Fengqiu. Anyway, the essence of humans was being a procrastinator, right?

After washing herself clean, Song Man entered the room. Chu Fengqiu was waiting for her with the medicine.

Song Man stretched out her legs and watched Chu Fengqiu apply the medicine for her.

When her fingers brushed over her thigh, it still felt a little itchy.

One bite was even on the inner side of her thigh. Song Man didn’t know how that mosquito managed it.

Before Chu Fengqiu’s fingers could go deeper between Song Man’s legs, Song Man stopped her.

“I’ll do this one myself.”

Song Man didn’t know why her face felt a little hot. This was quite embarrassing.

After applying medicine to her legs, Chu Fengqiu went to apply it to Song Man’s upper body.

For visible areas like her stomach, it was fine, but for the places she couldn’t see, Song Man had to give the medicine back to Chu Fengqiu and ask for her help.

There was one on Song Man’s side waist as well. As Chu Fengqiu’s fingers spread the medicine over that area, she noticed Song Man’s body trembling slightly.

Chu Fengqiu’s fingers slid a little further towards her inner waist, applying medicine to a bite that wasn’t actually there, and found that Song Man’s trembling almost disappeared.

Her fingers returned to Song Man’s waistline, and she came to a conclusion, hiding the smile on her face.

After all the mosquito bites were treated with medicine, Song Man breathed a sigh of relief. The ointment Chu Fengqiu used had a herbal scent, and the areas where it was applied felt cool. Song Man’s mood finally improved.

She leaned against the pillow and opened a turn-based battle game. While doing daily tasks, her phone suddenly paused, and a WeChat call came in. It was from Zhuazhua. Before Song Man could hang up, the call ended.

She went to WeChat and found that Zhuazhua had sent her many messages.

【Zhuazhua】: Boss, are you there!

【Zhuazhua】: Brother Man!

【Zhuazhua】: Someone issued a challenge! There’s a super arrogant person who came right in and challenged the big shots in the Advanced Zone!

【Zhuazhua】: Seven consecutive wins so far! Really amazing!

【Zhuazhua】: She’s already gone from Beginner to Advanced! She’s practically got your style from back then!

【Zhuazhua】: Why aren’t you and Q-Shen around?

【Zhuazhua】: [Voice call ended 00:01]

Song Man became interested. She had only been away from the Question Bank for two days, and there was already another expert? The Question Bank, across its various sections, was actually divided by ability into the Beginner Zone, Intermediate Zone, and Advanced Zone. These weren’t sections but titles or ranks. Everyone started in the Beginner Zone and could only advance by having a high enough win rate and passing assessment levels.

PK challenges had no restrictions; beginners could challenge advanced players. Beginners who won against advanced players would gain a lot of win rate, while advanced players winning against beginners would gain very little. Zhuazhua said this person went from Beginner to Advanced, combined with what he said earlier, meaning this person was originally a beginner, came in, directly initiated PK challenges against those in the Advanced Zone, quickly accumulated win rate through victories, and then passed the assessment test to reach the Advanced Zone.

This operation felt very familiar, after all, Song Man did the same thing back then.

【A Man】: I’ll go meet her.

Song Man went to the Question Bank, clicked into the PK zone. There were many people currently PK-ing. Song Man clicked on the PK match with the highest difficulty at the top.

One ID was familiar to Song Man; she had competed a few times before. Although they were defeated opponents, their strength was not bad. She directly looked at the other ID.

She clicked into that profile and found that they had indeed just joined yesterday. The record showed consecutive wins, the title was in the style of the Advanced Zone, the ID was Chuanlin, the avatar was a rainbow, and the gender was female.

Song Man looked at the questions and then at the progress of the two people, forming a preliminary judgment of Chuanlin’s ability.

If she were an opponent, she would be exceptionally tricky.

This person’s strength was very strong, extremely strong.

This was an absolute crushing victory. The loser in the PK zone joked, “Girls are so good at solving problems these days,” which sparked discussion among the onlookers.

【Honestly, in math, boys really have the advantage from childhood to adulthood.】

【Six girls in our class are in the top ten, but the first place is a boy.】

【I’m a girl who’s not good at solving problems, embarrassing my fellow women ORZ】

【Chuanlin is so awesome, and she’s a girl. I declare her a goddess.】

【I really want to see Chuanlin PK with Man Shen. Isn’t Chuanlin’s crushing style just like A Man back then?】

【Came from Zhuazhua’s live stream. Zhuazhua has already called Man Shen over.】

【I was about to go to sleep, but when I heard Man Shen was coming out, I immediately took out my Tianli 38 Sets again.】

Before Song Man could even post a comment to show her presence, she found she had received a PK invitation from Chuanlin.

Oh, Song Man became interested and accepted the invitation.

【A Man】: What are we competing on?

【Chuanlin】: I’m invincible, you choose.

Song Man raised an eyebrow. Someone was even more arrogant than her?

When it came to arrogance, Song Man could never lose.

【A Man】: Okay, I like helping noobs make decisions.

Song Man chose a question. Once the other party agreed, the PK countdown would begin.

PK countdown: ten seconds.

Students who received the news rushed in. Zhuazhua, as the first one to rush into the PK arena, was already posting comments and starting bets.

【Must be Man Shen! How many question coins have I earned relying on Man Shen these days, sob.】

【Must be Man Shen!】

【I think Chuanlin is very stable. This kind of dark horse is usually very powerful. Wasn’t Man Shen the previous dark horse who has dominated until now?】

【I bet on the newcomer! The waves behind push the waves ahead!】

【Holy crap, this is a Mixed-Subject Question?】

Mixed-Subject Questions, as the name suggests, were a mixed bag.

Song Man chose subject mixing. Out of ten questions, there were four math, two physics, two chemistry, and two English questions.

【Looks like one math book isn’t enough. I’ve put all my test papers on the desk.】

【Wu San requests to join the battle. It’s killing me.】

【Although I don’t understand the big shots, I still took out my Xiaoti Kuangzuo (a practice book).】

【I was playing games with my cousin, saw Man Shen was going to PK, immediately turned off my phone and went back to my room to do homework. My cousin outside wants to kill me right now.】

【Don’t be afraid upstairs, pick up your politics book for protection.】

“I’m going to the bathroom.”

Song Man said this to Chu Fengqiu when she was choosing the question and walked out.

She needed absolute concentration and couldn’t be disturbed, nor did she want to reveal her identity just like that.

Fortunately, although other parts of Chu Fengqiu’s grandmother’s house hadn’t been renovated, there was still a toilet, built separately and relatively clean.

Song Man stood inside and began her battle against the questions on her phone.

After Song Man went out to the bathroom, Chu Fengqiu went to wash her hair and take a shower. But when she came back to the room, wiping her hair, Song Man still hadn’t returned.

It had been at least forty or fifty minutes. Chu Fengqiu walked out and found the light in the bathroom was still on.

Was Song Man constipated again?