Chapter 11

Nan Yuan carefully held three leaves in his hands.
He wanted to see through the leaves and uncover the mysterious person behind them.
But Nan Yuan saw nothing.
How did she appear? How does she move? Why can’t he see her?
And what are her intentions in being so kind to him?
A series of questions flooded Nan Yuan’s mind.
He gave the paintings on the leaves a strange look.
His face also flushed suspiciously.
If she’s a girl, always patting his head and getting so close...
Nan Yuan didn’t realize that the tips of his ears were even more vibrant than the bright red fruits.
On the other end, Tao Shushu was acting coquettishly with her mother. "Mom, starting next Monday, I’ll be attending physics competition training. I’ll be coming home really late."
"Shushu, you’re going to have a tough week ahead. How about this, I’ll take you to the hot spring spa today to relax properly."
Tao Shushu refused. "No need, Mom. I want to spend more time reviewing."
Tao Shushu repeatedly declined, showing no interest in the spa or massage, so her mother had no choice but to drop the idea.
"Are you sure you don’t want me to stay home with you? Then go out with your classmates and buy some pretty clothes." Mother Tao transferred 100,000 yuan to Tao Shushu as pocket money. "In that case, your dad and I will go see the lawyer today. That company slipped up yesterday."
After her mother left, Tao Shushu called out to the system, [Use one Primary Clarity Card each on my parents.]
[Okay.]
Tao Shushu now had a total of four Primary Clarity Cards. After using two, two remained.
This roundabout method was too troublesome.
Recalling the system introduction and the original plot she had read yesterday, Tao Shushu asked, [The female lead’s first major goal is to rank first in the monthly exam, right?]
[Yes?]
[Next month’s exam, first place is mine.] After saying this, Tao Shushu returned to her desk.
She opened the game first and found that the cub was obediently lying on the makeshift little bed transformed from the passenger seat, covered with that oversized fisherman’s sun hat.
It seems her drawing had achieved a communicative effect.
The cub is so well-behaved.
He listens as soon as Mom communicates.
The cub hasn’t fallen asleep yet, his eyes are blinking as he looks in different directions.
Is he searching for me?
But no matter how much the cub looks, he can’t see me from within the game.
Tao Shushu affectionately rubbed the cub’s head.
Then, she noticed that the cub wasn’t covered with a blanket.
The only thing in the car that could be considered a blanket was that cotton-stuffed quilt. He had neatly placed the only comfortable resource to one side, along with the red fruits and the motor oil whose purpose Tao Shushu didn’t know. Yet, he only had a thin layer of gauze draped over himself.
There was dew outside the car, and the nighttime temperature wasn’t high.
He’ll catch a cold like this.
Tao Shushu rubbed the cub’s head and noticed his slightly curled-up posture. Clearly, he was cold, but he couldn’t light a fire for warmth inside the car.
How could the cub be so careless with his own health?
Tao Shushu was angry.
She shook out the quilt and draped it over the cub. Seeing that he wanted to struggle, Tao Shushu reached out and pressed down on the quilt with two fingers.
Nan Yuan’s eyes widened.
He hadn’t retracted the fine threads he used to detect her position.
Thus, he clearly saw,
While she was fetching the quilt, the distant threads also moved.
But when she covered him with the quilt, only the threads closest to him were disturbed.
Could it be that she was standing very close to him?
She was pressing down on that cotton-stuffed quilt, she might even be watching his expression.
So Nan Yuan stopped struggling.
He turned his head away, curling up even tighter. Because of the difference between men and women, he had deliberately used the heat-resistant suit as a blanket.
But…if he stubbornly refused to cover himself, she would probably keep pressing down, wouldn’t she?
Nan Yuan gave up struggling.
Forget it. Using a shabby cotton quilt as her designated blanket was too pitiful. He must, without fail, give her the very best things.
Tao Shushu pressed down for a few seconds and was surprised to find that the cub had stopped moving. He lay quietly under the quilt, only his nose twitching slightly.
The cub’s face seemed a bit red.
Could it be that she pressed too tightly just now and covered his nose?
Tao Shushu gently tugged at the quilt, wanting to uncover the cub’s face and neck, but found that he suddenly pulled the quilt tightly over his head, covering his entire face and curling into a small ball.
Just as Tao Shushu was about to pull again, she saw the cub gripping the corner of the quilt firmly with both hands.
Tao Shushu smiled.
She knew it, on such a cold day, the cub must be chilly. Once covered with the quilt, he wouldn’t want to let it go.
But refusing to cover himself and waiting for Mom to do it, the cub is a bit tsundere, isn’t he?
Tao Shushu didn’t force the quilt open. She gently patted the cub.
A good mom knows to pat her cub’s back and coax them to sleep when they’re being tsundere under the covers.
Tao Shushu felt she was quite qualified.
After a few minutes, seeing that the cub had fallen into a steady sleep, Tao Shushu finally stopped.
Afraid that the cub might encounter danger while sleeping, Tao Shushu didn’t close the game.
She placed her phone in front of her, making it easy to monitor the cub’s situation at any time.
Then, she lined up various reference books and past exam papers. [System, which subject should I study today?]
[Chinese.]
[Complete the classical Chinese literature exam paper with a perfect score within three hours to receive one Primary Clarity Card and 10 gold coins.]
Tao Shushu wailed, [Alas! Oh, heavens, I can’t do it.]
The system remained unmoved.
Tao Shushu glanced at the cub, snugly wrapped in a blanket and sleeping obediently. For the sake of her cub, she had to study.
Suddenly, Tao Shushu spotted a loophole. [Past exam papers? Every year’s college entrance exam papers are past papers, and each set offers a chance to score full marks]
The system fell silent for a moment. [I knew about the loophole from the start. But I thought your ability… Friendly heads-up: your entrance exam results have been graded. Your overall ranking is 189th.]
Tao Shushu, whose ability had just been looked down upon: …
Alright, classical Chinese was indeed her weak point.
Tao Shushu opened the test paper, scanning the questions casually while her mind wandered. The system had improved since yesterday.
Yesterday, it still didn’t quite understand the lifestyle of humans on Earth, but today it had even investigated her weaknesses and even knew her entrance exam results.
She had never disclosed her personal situation, which meant the system had gone behind her back, infiltrated the school’s grading system to collect data, and analyzed it.
The learning speed of artificial intelligence was truly impressive. But she had the instruction manual and wasn’t afraid.
After mulling it over, Tao Shushu began seriously looking at the questions. [Oh, it only says full marks, it doesn’t say I can’t check reference books first to study, nor does it say I can’t look up information while working on them, right, System?]
System: [Next time, I’ll definitely patch the bug.]
Tao Shushu giggled, picked up her pen, set a timer, and started working on the questions.
Her Chinese language scores weren’t great, but her handwriting was quite neat, so she always got full marks for presentation. However, when it came to questions like classical Chinese, which required literary knowledge and accumulated skills, she was at a loss.
The question she opened was like most classical Chinese exam questions: three multiple-choice questions testing the meanings of content words, the usage of function words, and comprehension of the entire passage, plus one punctuation task and one translation task.
Tao Shushu thought and thought, but only managed to figure out the function word question.
When the timer ended, she flipped to the answer key and carefully corrected her work.
This time, she only scored on one question, but she wasn’t upset. The first attempt was to assess her own ability, identify weaknesses and work hard to improve.
Tao Shushu looked at the cub on the screen, drew inspiration from the cub, and gave herself a pep talk. Instead of rushing to do more questions, she used a notebook to copy and organize the classical Chinese knowledge points from earlier. Then, she opened her Chinese textbook and classical Chinese reference book and began studying.
She glanced at her phone from time to time.
On the screen, Nan Yuan gradually fell asleep, tugging at the blanket and revealing his head.
Inside and outside the screen, one was sleeping while the other was focused on solving problems.
Both were quiet.

When the first ray of sunlight touched the earth, Nan Yuan was already awake.
He had been struggling to survive alone on a desolate planet, always on high alert, his mind constantly tense, and even a brief nap was a luxury.
But after that person appeared, he had managed to get two good nights of sleep.
Nan Yuan rested his hand on his forehead.
He thought with a bit of frustration, how did he actually fall asleep? Last night, he noticed she was insisting he cover himself with the blanket.
To avoid awkwardness, Nan Yuan pulled the blanket over himself.
The heat on his cheeks wouldn't fade, and afraid she might notice, he had to cover his face as well. He had intended to peek out again after she stopped watching him, but she ended up patting his back.
Just like when he was a child, and his mother would coax him to sleep.
Nan Yuan unknowingly drifted off.
He slept for a long time, even feeling a bit reluctant to get up.
It was as if he had returned to the time before the apocalypse, waking up before the alarm, lying peacefully in bed, waiting for his parents to call him.
Thinking back, the apocalypse had only happened half a year ago.
Nan Yuan gave himself just two minutes.
He had no room for indulgence or relaxation; the apocalypse was equally cruel to all living beings.
Nan Yuan got up and tidied the blanket.
He hesitated for a moment, then took away the mistakenly identified engine oil, folded the blanket neatly, and put it away. The fruits he had picked earlier were no longer fresh.
After a moment's thought, Nan Yuan gathered his equipment, got out of the vehicle, and headed into the woods. He remembered glimpsing some red berries in that area the night before.
His movements were gentle. Though he didn't know where that person was or if she was sleeping somewhere in the vehicle, he couldn't help but soften his actions, unwilling to disturb her.

After organizing her study materials, Tao Shushu looked up and saw her cub climbing into the vehicle, holding a handful of red berries.
The cub was awake and Tao Shushu ruffled Nan Yuan's head.
Their parking spot wasn't open or safe for camping.
The cub started the vehicle and continued driving forward.
Tao Shushu checked the time, she still had an hour and a half left for classical Chinese practice, which was plenty.
She skimmed through her notes again, opened a practice question, and began working on it seriously.
Fifteen minutes later, Tao Shushu put down her pen, checked the answers, and found she had made mistakes in the multiple-choice questions and sentence parsing.
She noted down her errors and moved on to the second passage.
The second passage tested exactly the knowledge points Tao Shushu had reviewed. When she checked the answers, she scored perfectly for the first time.
Still, she marked down any characters or phrases she hadn't fully understood while reading the questions, then opened the third set of exercises.
She repeated the cycle of solving problems, checking answers, and reviewing mistakes.
By the time the session ended, Tao Shushu had completed eight sets of practice questions, with four of them entirely correct, earning her four rewards.
[Congratulations! Your classical Chinese proficiency has greatly improved. Rewards distributed: Primary Clarity Card ×4, Gold Coins ×40, have been credited.]
Tao Shushu stretched lazily. Studying all morning had worn her out.
But she felt a great sense of accomplishment, she had never imagined she could get classical Chinese questions all correct.
Tao Shushu glanced at the screen. The cub had parked the vehicle in an open area and was starting a fire to roast meat.
Watching it made her feel a bit hungry too.
Tao Shushu also went downstairs for lunch.
Seeing that the cub seemed to have prepared a portion for her, Tao Shushu picked up a leaf and used her usual method, drawing pictures to communicate with the cub.


Author's Note:
The gifts Nan Yuan gave Shushu: red fruit, engine oil, and a small blanket, all very practical.
Pure-hearted cub shyly online: Urgent, waiting online for Shushu to lift his blanket.