Chapter 69

Xiao Qi, wearing a white dress, passed by a small makeshift market that had formed spontaneously at the entrance of the hospital and bought some vegetables.

She noticed that buying vegetables while wearing a dress was slightly more expensive than usual, costing an extra one or two cents.

Moreover, when she squatted down in her white dress, the hem easily touched the ground and got dirty.

Xiao Qi bought some sweet potatoes, some sweet potato leaves, a slice of winter melon, and half a pound of mildew-free vegetables.

In the evening, she planned to make sweet potato rice, stir-fried sweet potato leaves, winter melon and mildew-free vegetable soup, and also stir-fry some preserved pork with cabbage, using the leftover cabbage from before.

Carrying a bundle of vegetables, she entered the hospital and encountered the unmarried groom with a broken leg that Auntie had mentioned. He was sitting in a wheelchair, pushing himself along the small cobblestone path in the hospital courtyard.

Xiao Qi saw that he was stuck on a step, so she walked over and helped lift the wheelchair a bit.

Liu Anquan recognized the person who had come—it was Su the nurse's niece, the girl who he used to see from his bed when he couldn't get up. He could see her reading, cooking, and she was pretty and well-behaved.

When he heard Su the nurse calling her Xiao Qi, he couldn't help but think of the donation number that also had a seven in it. But he thought he was overthinking it since the girl was still in school and he heard she was working part-time during the summer to earn her tuition.

"Thank you. Do you cook after buying vegetables?"

"Yes, I'll be on my way. If Grandma Liu needs to use a pot to make soup, she can come down and borrow one."

She was a bit curious about this man with a broken leg.

His leg was broken, his wife had left him, and everyone said he was miserable and unlucky, but the system actually said he was an optimistic and positive person who didn't have any negative emotions.

And Brother Lin Min, who looked polite, studied well, got into a prestigious university, and was praised by everyone, the system kept mentioning his moderate darkening, as if he had an antisocial personality.

While thinking about this, she ran into Brother Lin Min as she was going downstairs.

Brother Lin Min was planning to go out and was dressed neatly.

White shirt, dress pants, his outfit was somewhat similar to what Uncle wore today, but the effect was completely different.

Brother Lin Min was tall, with long legs, and his dress pants were crisp and well-fitted. He had a pair of slender legs, and on his feet were casual yet formal sneakers. The fabric of his pants was shiny, unlike Uncle's loose and somewhat faded dress pants. The same went for the shirt. It was also a white shirt, but Uncle's shirt collar was slightly curled, while Brother Lin Min's shirt was very upright, clean, and had no stains. You could see the creases in his clothes, as if they were brand new.

And because she had just seen him buy a watch, Xiao Qi noticed that Brother Lin Min was wearing a new watch, which seemed to be a Longines.

The salesperson had strongly recommended Longines watches to her before, so she had a particularly deep impression of the brand logo. The two of them met at the entrance of the underground passage, which was the backyard, and Brother Lin Min waved and greeted her. He had just finished washing his hair, and he looked much more handsome than usual.

When they met, she could even smell a faint fragrance on him, which she didn't know if it was from shampoo or shower gel.

"Hello, Brother Lin Min."

"Welcome back." Lin Min paused when he saw Su Xiaoqi. It seemed to be the first time he saw her wearing a dress.

She wore a white long dress, with slightly messy hair, and held vegetables in her hand, but she looked good from head to toe.

A thin ribbon around her waist revealed her fair ankles. Her arms were also fair, and she wore a slightly oversized digital watch on her hand, but it looked lively and playful.

"Where are you going today? You look so beautiful." Lin Min asked casually.

"I'm going to attend a relative's wedding feast with my uncle. Brother Lin Min, you look handsome today too." Xiao Qi smiled.

Lin Min's expression remained unchanged, but his ears turned slightly red for a moment. However, they didn't say much and just brushed past each other.

In the evening, Lin Min was going to have dinner with his business partners to celebrate the success of their training school.

His training school was a partnership of three people. One was his classmate, and the other was introduced by his classmate. She was referred to as his sister, although not a biological sister. She was older than them, around twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. It was said that she had been divorced once and was quite wealthy and generous. The school was located in her house, which was rented at a super affordable price, although it wasn't in the city center.

The clothes, pants, and watch Lin Min was wearing today were all gifts from that sister. She also gave one to his classmate. At first, Lin Min felt a little uncomfortable, but the other party said it was to give face to the training school and wanted them to dress more mature and better.

That sister also took them to a high-end club.

He hadn't been home for the past few days, saying he was staying at his classmate's place, but it was actually the house provided by that sister.

It was a tall building with floor-to-ceiling windows, facing the Lu River, where they could watch the sunset.

In just a few days, he had experienced more things than he had in the past ten years.

He was somewhat addicted.

Instead of taking the bus, he hailed a taxi when going out.

Sitting in the car, the driver played music on the radio.

In his mind, he recalled Su Xiaoqi, not the one wearing a white dress, but the one sitting upright at the desk writing in the dusty room, with a straight back and focused eyes. During the evening rush hour, the traffic was congested, and the driver honked madly...

After Xiao Qi and her aunt finished dinner, her aunt asked about the wedding situation, but Xiao Qi had nothing much to say.

Su Simei, on the other hand, had a bunch of complaints because she had seen Xiao Qi's uncle's son when he brought his new wife to the hospital. They were not divorced at that time, but the other party was a relative from Xiao Qi's grandmother's side, so it wasn't appropriate to say such things. Besides, it wasn't good to nag the little girl about these things. Su Simei held back and washed the dishes after dinner, preparing to go swimming.

She had learned how to swim now, and it was the perfect time for swimming. Moreover, swimming was really effective for losing weight. She felt like she had shed a layer of fat recently, not only did she lose weight, but her spirits were also better.

After Xiao Qi finished her meal, she had been running around all day. She spent almost the entire afternoon in the swimming pool. Now, as she lay on the bed for a while, she could even hear her backbones clicking.

After lying down for a while, she decided to get up and study. It was almost eight o'clock now. If she went to sleep, she didn't know when she would wake up.

And today, with a new doubled efficiency buff, she wanted to experience what difference it would make.

She decided to start studying the fourth volume of New Concept English and finish reading this book. She poured herself a glass of water, went to the bathroom, and then sat down properly. The graceful demeanor buff was no longer present, but she found that it still left some traces on her, and she had to maintain it herself.

It was like someone had forced her to sit up straight before, and now it had become subconscious, but she had to actively maintain it.

She glanced at her watch; it was exactly eight o'clock.

Opening the well-thumbed fourth volume of New Concept English, she began by transcribing what she had memorized yesterday, using it as a review and reinforcement.

As the pen tip touched the paper, scribble-scrabble, time passed like sand slipping through an hourglass.

At this moment, she was completely absorbed, focused and undistracted, as if she had blocked out all external sounds, supremely concentrated.

Normally, she would get up and stroll around or suddenly pick up her phone, inevitably getting distracted.

But today, when the clock struck nine, her set alarm went off, and she finished her study session.

A full hour had passed, and she looked at the courses she had transcribed, which were two or three times more than usual.

What used to feel arduous and hard to remember in the fourth volume of English now seemed simple and easy during that hour.

It was more than just doubling her study efficiency; she felt that one focused hour of studying could achieve the same results as three hours before.

However, at this moment, her mind was a little tired, and she felt like collapsing back onto her bed.

Having experienced the buff's enhancement and subsequent disappearance, Xiao Qi felt that the buff could be memorized and learned. The more she used the buff, the more traces it left on her.

Her memory and sense of language were better than before, and she carried herself with more grace.

So, she was very excited about the efficiency buff. If she could benefit from the efficiency buff, it meant she could learn more content.

She had originally thought about learning another language, but she always felt that she had the desire but lacked the ability. Now, it seemed that this problem was being solved, and she wanted to learn Japanese. Liu Shaowei liked watching Japanese anime and had shared it with her before. At that time, she thought it was really cool when Liu Shaowei could say a few words in Japanese.

Now, Xiao Qi rarely thought of Liu Shaowei, but she still remembered the Japanese anime he liked. She decided to learn Japanese.