342 Sunbathing (1/2)
Leaving the underground palace was not as hard as they had imagined. Most musicians were rational. They would not fight if there was no definite reward. Small tussles happened continuously but real fighting never happened. However, when they were going up toward the exit, they realized that the path they had first used had collapsed. The surprise they had left had probably been given to the owner. It must have been very interesting.
When they left, the musicians were still exploring enthusiastically, but there had been no real breakthroughs. It was as if they had run into an obstacle in the aether ball games. However, no one expected that they would be stuck for days.
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During these few days, Ye Qingxuan had gone to the palace every day. When he saw that the musicians before the door still had no solutions, he would go back and sunbathe happily. Yes, sunbathe.
While everyone was racking their brains trying to solve the problem, this *ss would lay in the Romulusian market and sell the swords that no one wanted to buy while sunbathing on a ratty chair. He would read when he was bored, eat when he was hungry, and drink juice when he was thirsty. The afternoon sunlight was warm and bright. He was relaxed as if he were on vacation.
Musicians that passed by him would practically break their teeth from grinding them too hard. They wished they could drag this guy over and beat him up. He must be so lazy that not even the Angloian musician could stand him. He needed to clean out his student!
But actually, they were overthinking. The Angloian musician, the mysterious 'big guy,' had never appeared again after that first day! According to Ye Qingxuan, he just ate and slept, ate and slept in his room. He was even lazier than Ye Qingxuan! Since the teacher was like that, the student should not be blamed. Ye Qingxuan irresponsibly stirred up the serious trial.
During this, Mr. Hu brought his students around the city. Sometimes, they would go over to say hi to Ye Qingxuan, talking about Eastern culture and specialties or discussing their thoughts on interpretation and ancient history.
In the beginning, the stars of the Imperial College felt competitive against the white-haired boy of the same race. However, they were disappointed by his indifference and unprogressive style. They murmured, ”The environment changes people” and decided to ignore him. If someone this lazy was in the Imperial College, he would have been expelled early on!
However, Ye Qingxuan quickly discovered that his happy days were over. What was the phrase? The villain had his own devils.
Just as Ye Qingxuan was sprawled on his chaise, sleeping and drooling, he felt a shadow fall over him. Opening his eyes, he saw a familiar map and Elsa's gleeful face.
”Sir, would you—” Before she could finish, Ye Qingxuan shot up from the chair in fright. ”I bought the map! Please let me go!”
”Oh…” Elsa instantly grew dejected. ”Do I know you?”
”Uh…” Ye Qingxuan looked around to see the Romulusians around him. Their faces said, 'try bullying her and you'll get it.' Face twitching, he answered honestly, ”Kind…of?”
Elsa nodded. Seeming to have some thoughts, she circled his chair in confusion. ”What are you doing here?”
”Sunbathing.”
”Oh.” Elsa was instantly satisfied. But instead of leaving, she…lied down! She actually lied down!
Ye Qingxuan's head promptly started hurting. He watched as the girl lay down beside him and copied him. She squinted and started sunbathing.
Girl, you can't do this! Ye Qingxuan felt the shocked eyes on him. Complaints stuck in his throat, his grew both sad and furious. If you keep doing this, I'm going to have to call you 'dad!' Having bad memory doesn't mean you can extort people like this!
Thankfully, Elsa climbed up after a short while. She stared at Ye Qingxuan blankly. ”What am I doing?”
Ye Qingxuan's headache grew worse. He answered weakly, ”You're…probably sunbathing?”
”Oh, I like to sunbathe? No wonder I'm so tan.” At this realization, Elsa looked at her bronze skin and started laughing happily for some reason. Ye Qingxuan had never seen someone so happy just from sitting under the sun. She seemed to have made this her home turf. She sat down while humming and took everything out of her bulging bag. Then she used a dirty handkerchief to wipe each item 'clean' before returning it. The objects formed a small mountain. Small pencils, small hair clips, small lids, small dolls…
”What's this?” Ye Qingxuan looked at a small bottle that had rolled to his feet. Picking it up, he asked in confusion, ”A toy?”
”I think it's something I like.” Elsa scratched her head. ”I have bad memory so I keep everything I like with me. Look at this, isn't it pretty? And this—oh, and this!” She excitedly showed Ye Qingxuan her collection—the hair clips, dolls and…the dead white mouse.
Seeing the dead rat so close to his face, Ye Qingxuan's face twitched. He tried to scoot back. ”You like this?”
”Yeah. I don't remember it, but I bet I liked it a lot before!” Elsa started petting the little mouse in her hand. She said gently, ”If only it liked me too.”
Ye Qingxuan fell silent. He reached out and petted her head. ”Don't worry. It likes you too.”
”Really?”