Puppet Notes (Wearing Book) - 65

 

| PN | Do Exercises | 65

Agu indeed needed to be punished.

Chi Yao and Moss follow their father's orders, pressing him into the spatial vortex. For the next three months, Agu would be imprisoned in the trial grounds on their father's command.

"Father is so thin-skinned."

Despite the punishment, Agu wore a grin on his face, his smile unchanged even with a two-meter-long red blade pressed against his neck.

Moss, trailing behind Agu, thought about their father's expression earlier and rasped, "What do you mean by that? What is this about father wanting to 'catching a man'?"

"Didn’t you already have the answer when you asked that question, big brother?" Agu's smile widened, his green eyes filled with malicious intent. His wheat-colored skin made his blue earrings look particularly dazzling.

Moss fell silent, his dark eyes deep.

Nearby, Chi Yao, hearing Agu’s nonsense, spat in irritation. Her red eyes were filled with anger as she twisted her slender wrist and swung the large blade directly towards Agu’s neck.

“Stop stalling or I’ll cut you down.”

Chi Yao’s tone was thick with displeasure.

Agu nimbly bent backward, narrowly avoiding the sharp blade. He gave Chi Yao a wink with his grin and then hopped away into the trial grounds, waving at the two puppets standing in front of the spatial vortex.

“Agu will miss you! If Father successfully catches a man, remember to tell Agu! Agu will come back to congratulate him!” After saying this, the black-skinned puppet dashed away, disappearing from sight in an instant.

Chi Yao disdainfully watched Agu’s retreating figure, then shouldered the large blade and turned her red eyes towards her older brother. “Big brother, what does that guy mean?”

Agu’s words were a mix of truth and falsehood, but even her father’s attitude seemed intriguing to her.

“What does ‘catching a man’ mean?” Chi Yao couldn’t reconcile those words with their father. Her red eyes looked at her brother with some confusion. “Is catching a man that difficult?”

She paused and then added, “Big brother, tell me who that person is. Chi Yao will catch him and put him in the pond for Father to catch.”

Moss paused, thinking that Chi Yao was joking. He turned to look at her. The red-haired puppet’s face was serious as she added, “If Father can’t catch him, I’ll chop that person into pieces. There’ll be a piece of meat for Father to catch.”

“No need, it’s not that kind of ‘catching’.”

Moss was silent for a moment before explaining, “Father wants that man to become his partner.”

Previously, Moss had heard this term in the animated shows Lan Luo liked. He realized that when their father wanted to be closer to Qi Chao, it meant this kind of relationship.

“P-partner?”

Chi Yao stuttered out the unfamiliar word. Her father wanted a partner? She knew what a partner meant; there were many couples in the trial grounds.

Those couples would scream and shove their partners in front of them to block blades when danger approached. In Chi Yao’s view, human partners were just substitutes to protect each other’s lives.

Oh, and they also sometimes did exercises that she didn’t understand.

When Chi Yao used to hide in trees to sleep, she had seen those so-called partners, men and women, sweating together while doing exercises. They always seemed happy after the exercises.

Her father must want a partner for those activities.

Chi Yao looked at her brother with intense red eyes. “Where is Father’s partner? I’ll bring him over so he can do exercises with Father.”

“Exercises?” Moss looked a bit confused, but he understood that Chi Yao's comment about "exercises" wasn’t important. He pressed his lips together, hidden under bandages. “Father won’t let us interfere, so you and Agu should not get involved with this matter for now.”

“Understood.”

Chi Yao nodded. Unlike Lan Luo and Agu, Chi Yao and Agu respected Moss as their older brother. As she was about to sheathe her blade, her gaze suddenly fell on the doll in Moss’s arms.

She pointed at the puppet and asked, “Big brother, what is this thing?”

Moss squeezed the puppet and rasped, “It’s a gift from the man Father values.”

“A gift?”

Chi Yao was momentarily stunned. She pushed her red hair back from her face and leaned in to look at the puppet more closely. Her red eyes were puzzled. “A human gave you this gift?”

Chi Yao had never received a gift from a human.

In her brief memory, humans had only shown fear and dread towards her.

Moss nodded, as if recalling something. He pressed his lips together beneath the bandages, his dark eyes deep. “Yes, it’s from him.”

Chi Yao stared at her brother’s expression for a moment. Her hair, which had been pushed back, fell loose again, covering the patterns on her cheeks and her deepening red eyes.

Moss noticed that Chi Yao hadn’t moved and tilted his head, his dark eyes filled with confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, big brother.” Chi Yao lifted her head and smiled at her brother. Moss didn’t think much of it and turned to continue walking.

Watching Moss’s retreating figure, Chi Yao tightened her grip on the large blade. She, too, wanted a gift from a human. Her brother’s gift was from a future partner of their father.

Chi Yao’s red eyes showed a hint of obsession. She licked her lips, thinking that if she could make that person become her father’s partner soon, she would be able to meet him and get a gift for herself.

Meanwhile, Qi Chao, after channeling spiritual power to the three mother stones in the fish tank, glanced at the holographic screen and returned to his desk to continue refining the design of the Tengu.

After several minutes, while Qi Chao was still working on the accessories, he heard the system’s indistinguishable electronic voice.

【Host, I’m back.】

Qi Chao paused his pencil and stretched his shoulders, smiling lazily. “Thanks for your hard work. Did the General Administration have any explanation regarding my spiritual power?”

【Yes, according to this dimension’s ranking standards, your spiritual power level should be SS.】 The system continued, explaining, 【The previous measurement of your spiritual power as A was a deliberate disguise created by the General Administration to reduce the rejection from the world’s consciousness.】

The system, having inquired with its superiors, knew this information. It then opened the host’s panel and projected it into the air.

【Host No. 188 

Name: Qi Chao

Occupation: Puppet Master

Spiritual Power: SS (Updated)

Puppets Created: Li Bai, ?? (Unnamed)】

Qi Chao glanced at the panel showing his spiritual power level. He wasn’t surprised by the high rating and casually asked, “Did the General Administration provide any explanation for why my spiritual power can merge into other puppet master’ mother stones?”

【According to the analysis, this phenomenon might be due to your excessively high spiritual power level.】 The system explained based on the upper-level response.

This explanation seemed too simplistic. Initially, the system thought the General Administration was brushing it off. Given the General Administration’s reputation for efficiency, it was unusual for them to take almost a day to investigate this matter. 

Why would the General Administration go to such lengths for an ordinary craftsman with high spiritual power? Was their efficiency really this low just because it’s a terrifying world?

The system felt something was off, but since that was the upper-level’s explanation, it, as a small and helpless system, could only relay it.

After hearing the system’s response, Qi Chao nodded and didn’t ask further. Smiling, he said, “Alright, thanks for the information.”

After finishing his question, Qi Chao lowered his head to continue refining the puppet design. Noticing that the host had begun working, the system quietly kept him company for a while. After receiving a request for help from a neighboring dimension, the system hesitated for a moment before quickly transferring to another dimension for check-in.

Qi Chao noticed the system’s departure but didn’t think much of it. Once he had fine-tuned the design to his satisfaction, he put away the drawings and headed to the living room.

He expected the two children at home to be happily watching animation. When he reached the living room, he found Lan Luo and Li Bai indeed watching an animation, but unlike usual, there was clearly some discord between them.

Li Bai and Lan Luo were sitting side by side, both holding the remote control. Their eyes met with sparks of contention.

Qi Chao always enjoyed a bit of drama, chuckled and walked over to the sofa. “What’s going on here?”

Seeing Qi Chao return, Lan Luo grumbled, “I want to watch the animation, but Li Bai won’t let me.”

“Li Bai wants to watch too!” Li Bai retorted stubbornly, his golden eyes shining brightly behind his mask.

Listening to the two children bicker back and forth, Qi Chao quickly understood the situation.

In short, after Lan Luo had taken a rest in his room, he discovered that Li Bai was watching an animation he disliked and was thoroughly enjoying it. Lan Luo wanted to switch it back, but Li Bai refused, leading to a quarrel between the two children.

Qi Chao glanced at the projection and saw it was a superhero animation he had liked a long time ago.

“I don’t want to watch this,” Lan Luo said, pressing his lips together.

“I want to watch it,” Li Bai countered firmly.

Li Bai had always found Lan Luo’s educational animations boring. However, when that animation added a guessing game element, he found it somewhat interesting, but it still didn’t compare to how engaging the current animation was.

Qi Chao, instead of rushing to mediate, took a few photos of the arguing children from his corner and sent them to the doctor.

Doctor: 【Are they fighting?】

The reply came quickly. Qi Chao noted that it was 7 PM, and the doctor should be resting.

Amidst the background noise of the children’ argument, Qi Chao enthusiastically chatted with the doctor. 

Initially, they discussed the children’s quarrel, but the conversation soon wandered off to other topics.

Chao Dad: 【So, are you sorting diamonds now?】

The doctor sent a quick “yes” and followed it up with a photo.

The image showed a pair of fair fingers delicately holding a transparent diamond. From its color and size, it was clearly the same diamond Qi Chao had given to Shen Yuxi previously. The cleaning cloth and liquid beside it indicated that the diamond was being carefully cleaned.

Anyone would feel pleased to see their gift cherished this way, and Qi Chao was no exception. 

He looked at the photo several times, initially just feeling happy. Eventually, his attention was drawn to the doctor's hands for some unknown reason.

Shen Yuxi's hands were quite beautiful. Qi Chao had known from the start that his nails were smooth and clean, his fingers long and pale, with well-defined joints. They resembled the hands of a pianist more than those of a typical puppet master.

On the other side, after sending the message, Shen Yuxi placed the diamond back into the soft box on the desk. As he read Qi Chao’s next message, he typed a few words in response. 

While waiting for Qi Chao’s reply, Shen Yuxi’s eyelashes fluttered slightly as his fingertip gently brushed over the avatar.

Having already photographed his hands twice, Shen Yuxi thought he would not take any more photos. Anything viewed too many times loses its appeal. Shen Yuxi always had a goal in mind when doing anything.

Shen Yuxi knew which parts of his body were attractive and understood how to use them to achieve his goals. Rather than directly expressing his desire to become Qi Chao’s bed partner, Shen Yuxi preferred to slowly stir Qi Chao’s desires, avoiding putting himself in a passive position.

Chao Dad: 【How about a video call now? We had discussed letting Lan Luo meet his sister, so it would be a good opportunity to also calm down Li Bai and Lan Luo.】

Shen Yuxi had no objections. He called for Moss, gave him a few instructions, and Moss left the basement.

A few minutes later, Chi Yao and Ayu emerged from the space vortex.

Chi Yao was aware that she was supposed to video call with Lan Luo. However, what mattered more to her was that Shen Yuxi’s future partner would be on the video call. Chi Yao thought to herself that she needed to ensure that the man and her father had a workout session together.

In Chi Yao’s limited understanding, only after completing the workout would her father and that person truly be considered partners.

Chi Yao thought to herself that once her father and the man became partners, her father would be happy, and she would be able to receive a gift from the human as well. Her excitement grew as she imagined the possibilities.

Meanwhile, Lan Luo, who was still in the middle of arguing with Li Bai, came to his senses and stuttered, “Wh… what?”

Qi Chao, thinking that Lan Luo was simply too excited to hear clearly, smiled and said, “I’ve arranged a surprise for you with your father. Now you can video call with your sisters, Chi Yao and Ayu! Aren’t you happy?”

Lan Luo, who was extremely reluctant to meet the two sisters, responded with a blank stare: ……

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