| PN | Unlucky | 30
The blonde puppet seemed very sad. The usually radiant face was now filled with confusion and sorrow. His eyes were misty, as if he could cry any second.
"Kiddo, what's wrong?" Qi Chao panicked immediately. He quickly squatted down to hug the little puppet, gently patting his back while saying, "There, there. Can you tell Daddy what happened?"
Lan Luo pressed his lips together, staying silent.
He couldn't say it. If he did, it would expose the fact that they had been to his room.
Seeing that Lan Luo wouldn't speak, Qi Chao stopped asking and instead answered his earlier question, "Of course, Lan Luo is a good boy. No matter how many times you ask, you're always a very good boy."
Liar.
Lan Luo lowered his head, his blue eyes clouded. He said he was a good boy, but the plush doll was only given to his big brother.
His big brother was so bad, yet he had one. Why didn't he?
Qi Chao looked at the fluffy head of the little puppet and thought for a moment. "How about this? Daddy will carve a bear for you later, like the one you really liked last time we had dinner. Does that sound good?"
He didn't know why Lan Luo was angry, so he could only use this to comfort him. Qi Chao remembered that the last time Lan Luo saw the energy stone carved into a bear, he couldn't bear to eat it.
Compared to the bear, Lan Luo wanted the plush doll more. However, he knew he couldn't bring it up.
Thinking this, Lan Luo reluctantly nodded. After a few seconds, he casually asked, "Will big brother have one too?"
Qi Chao looked at Lan Luo's expression and tentatively replied, "Moss won’t get one."
Lan Luo was instantly happy. He pressed his lips together and nodded, saying, "Big brother doesn't like bears. Master, don't make one for him."
"Okay."
Qi Chao smiled. So, Lan Luo was upset because of a quarrel between brothers?
Qi Chao also had brothers and knew that arguments between them were normal. During their rebellious phase, he and his brother couldn't stand each other and fought every few days. Their parents never intervened, yet the brothers still had a good relationship.
He thought about it and decided to keep observing. Unless it became absolutely necessary, he and the doctor would best stay out of the brothers' affairs.
At lunchtime, Lan Luo looked at the exquisite rainbow bear on his plate and then at the plain rabbit on Moss's plate. He was instantly satisfied and gave Qi Chao a bright smile.
Moss had no idea that Lan Luo thought he had won and was feeling proud. He quietly ate his meal as usual.
Shen Yuxi saw this and looked at Qi Chao in confusion. Sensing her gaze, Qi Chao tugged at the corner of his mouth and mouthed, "I'll explain later." His dark brown eyes were smiling, like the winter sun—warm but not intense.
Shen Yuxi glanced at him, gently nodded, then lowered his eyelashes and continued eating.
After the meal, Qi Chao explained the earlier situation to Shen Yuxi in the kitchen.
"Lan Luo and Moss both have good personalities. I think it's better to let them handle their brotherly conflicts themselves," Qi Chao said with a smile. "But you know them better than I do, Brother Shen. If you have a better method, I'll follow your lead."
He waited for Brother Shen's response but saw Shen Yuxi staring at him intently, as if there was something on his face. Qi Chao felt puzzled and asked, "Brother Shen, is something wrong?"
"No," Shen Yuxi replied, a slight smile tugging at his lips.
How interesting.
Shen Yuxi hadn't met someone this intriguing in a long time.
"Let's follow your suggestion for now," Shen Yuxi said softly, his gaze as gentle as a tranquil lake under the moonlight.
In the afternoon, Shen Yuxi was going to wash the ointment off Lan Luo.
Qi Chao and Moss watched nearby, as their presence wouldn't interfere with the simple cleaning process.
Shen Yuxi, wearing gold-rimmed glasses that obscured his peach blossom eyes, sat in a chair.
As he washed the ointment off with water, he gently asked Lan Luo, "How does the wound feel now?"
Lan Luo loved being close to his father, but when his father was actually near, he would get very nervous. He fidgeted with the bedsheets with his left hand, and he replied somewhat nervously, "It doesn't hurt."
Shen Yuxi nodded and continued to clean the ointment from Lan Luo's arm.
The cool water trickled down his arm, and Lan Luo caught a faint whiff of his father's scent. He couldn't help but inch closer, but when his father was about to look up, he quickly retreated, his heart pounding with anxiety.
His father gave him a brief, indifferent glance before looking away again. Lan Luo, worried about being disliked, became flustered and fidgeted with the bedsheets. Before he could think of what to do next, he felt a warm sensation on the top of his head.
"Why are you so nervous?"
The man's eyes were filled with concern, making Lan Luo freeze. Sometimes, the master's keen perception was unnerving.
"Don't be afraid. Brother Shen said your wound will definitely heal." Qi Chao gently rubbed Lan Luo's hair, his voice full of heartache.
Although Lan Luo wasn't worried about the wound, looking into the man's eyes, his unease and anxiety gradually faded.
The white ointment quickly dissolved into soapy water under the rinse, flowing down his wrist.
The dark cracks on the back of his hand had long disappeared, replaced by tender, white skin. If Qi Chao hadn't seen it with his own eyes before, he would never have believed that there had once been a nearly ten-centimeter crack there.
After Shen Yuxi finished washing the ointment off Lan Luo's ankle and saw that the skin there looked no different from the surrounding area, Qi Chao finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"He is recovering very well," Shen Yuxi said, taking off his glasses. "If nothing unexpected happens, Lan Luo's wounds won't reopen."
Qi Chao smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Brother Shen."
Shen Yuxi's lips curved slightly, his peach blossom eyes warm with a gentle smile. "It's nothing. I should be the one thanking you."
With Qi Chao around, his plans could proceed on schedule.
Qi Chao didn't catch the underlying meaning of Shen Yuxi's words, assuming the doctor was just being polite.
Seeing the cracks had healed, Lan Luo jumped off the bed and, after informing his father and Qi Chao, he excitedly ran downstairs to watch cartoons. Moss nodded to the two of them and slowly followed Lan Luo out.
Qi Chao, thinking about his work for the day, explained to the doctor before preparing to return to the basement to continue his tasks.
"May I join you in the basement?" Shen Yuxi called out to Qi Chao, tilting his head slightly, his tone gentle. His neatly tied blonde hair hung smoothly in the air.
"Of course," Qi Chao replied with a smile. "I'd be delighted."
The basement was filled with materials for making puppets. Qi Chao knew that the doctor's offer to go to the basement was only to help him. He didn't directly express his gratitude, knowing that some things were better left unsaid; actions would speak louder than words in the future.
According to Qi Chao's plan, he would make the puppet’s eyes that afternoon.
In his vision, the new puppet would have a pair of golden amber eyes, mischievous and lively like a little fox's.
Although Shen Yuxi came to the basement, he quietly watched Qi Chao working on the eyes, only speaking up when Qi Chao made a mistake.
Qi Chao was smart. Although he was initially a bit unfamiliar with the process, he quickly mastered the method of making eyes for the Blue Star puppets. After finishing one eye, he made fewer than two mistakes.
On Blue Star, every step in making a puppet involved using mental energy, including crafting the pupils.
Shen Yuxi watched Qi Chao's black gloves, his blue eyes flickering, and his lips curving slightly.
The green indicator light on the gloves signaled that mental energy was being transmitted. Maintaining mental energy for three consecutive hours would have made a normal A-level mental energy user lose consciousness, yet Qi Chao was perfectly fine.
Even though Shen Yuxi had anticipated this, he couldn't help but smile.
How interesting.
After soaking the completed golden amber eyes in the nutrient solution, Qi Chao breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to the doctor and smiled. "Finally done."
"Congratulations," Shen Yuxi said with a smile.
Even a top-level Puppet Master on Blue Star would take three days to make two eyes, primarily due to insufficient mental energy and the headache-inducing intensity of long periods of concentration. However, neither Qi Chao nor Shen Yuxi mentioned this.
One of them was unaware of the situation, still thinking that making puppet eyes could be done in a few hours like in his previous life. The other knew the truth but kept silent for his own reasons.
"Did you finish the plush doll you mentioned yesterday?" Shen Yuxi suddenly asked as they walked out of the basement. Since it was the first time someone was making a plush doll using his image, Shen Yuxi naturally felt curious, although it was faint.
"Almost," Qi Chao said, considering his progress for the evening. He smiled, "I'll finish it tomorrow and show you."
"Okay."
After dinner, Qi Chao returned to his room to continue sewing the doll. Unlike the focused intensity required for making doll eyes, he was in a good enough mood to hum a song while sewing the doll.
He used blue thread for the eyes, pinkish thread for the blush, and slightly thick golden string for the hair. Qi Chao's hands were skillful; as he braided the hair, he recalled the doctor's hairstyle, threading the golden strings through his fingers and quickly recreating it perfectly.
Looking at the chibi-style doll on the table, Qi Chao felt quite satisfied. He thought for a moment and then dressed the doll in custom-made tiny shirts and pants.
Since the doctor usually wore light-colored, casual clothes, the doll modeled after him was dressed similarly.
The system arrived just in time to see its host tidying the plush doll's clothes. It stared in silence at the roughly thirty-centimeter plush doll on the table.
Why is the host making a plush doll of the villain?
Considering that every time the host answered its questions, it was left speechless, the system refrained from asking this time and quietly watched the host's antics.
After the host went to sleep, the system, feeling that its daily duties were complete, prepared to return to headquarters for some rest. The next second, it shrank into a trembling ball.
Damn!
Why are there demons in the room?!
And two of them?!
Moss had the same question for Lan Luo. He looked down, his deep black eyes staring coldly. "What are you doing here?"
Lan Luo tilted his head, his smile still as bright and warm as a little angel's. "What's it to you?"
The larger and smaller dolls stared at each other in the dark room for a long time. Finally, Moss turned away first, his voice hoarse and menacing in the darkness, "Don't look at my doll."
Lan Luo's smile froze instantly. The black mist coiling around his wrist suddenly surged violently, a clear sign of his displeasure.
"Your doll?"
The system, huddled in the host's sea of consciousness, watched this scene and almost cried.
Why is it always the unlucky one?
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