Looking at the countdown in his mind, Lin Jiang nodded with satisfaction. He'd be getting paid this time tomorrow.
Just then, another notification sound rang out.
[NPC Affinity function unlocked...]
[NPC: Xu Lin]
[Affinity: 10]
Huh?
Lin Jiang paused.
"What's Affinity?"
[Affinity represents the player's level of friendship with an NPC. Once Affinity exceeds 80 points, a main quest will be unlocked.]
'There's even a main quest!'
Now Lin Jiang understood.
'So what I'm doing now is the equivalent of side quests and daily quests. Only when my Affinity with an NPC reaches 80 or more will I get other main quests.'
'Tsk, tsk, tsk, it really is just like a game.'
"Is doing quests the only way to increase Affinity?"
[Methods for increasing Affinity include, but are not limited to: completing quests, gaining an NPC's favor, making them happy in body and mind, etc....]
Nice!
Lin Jiang was secretly delighted.
'This way, I can increase Affinity much faster.'
'I wonder what kind of main quests are waiting for me.'
He lay on the sofa, eating the fruit Xu Lin had given him, and sent her a message to let her know he had brought her son home.
Xu Lin replied quickly; her phone was clearly right next to her.
She sent back a "thank you," followed by a smiley face emoji.
Lin Jiang didn't reply. The first quest was complete, and tomorrow, he'd have over twenty thousand yuan in his account.
The apartment he lived in was practically in the city center. When he and Chen Jingjia had discussed buying a place before getting married, they could have bought a slightly larger one in the suburbs.
But Chen Jingjia had looked down on those places as old, small, and run-down. She insisted on buying this apartment, even if it was smaller, which left him saddled with a huge mortgage and a lot of debt from the down payment.
He couldn't afford to neglect his shop's business right now. A reward of over twenty thousand yuan was just a drop in the bucket compared to his 300,000 yuan debt.
But even a mosquito's leg is still meat; he couldn't afford to be picky.
'The damn wind and snow have beaten me down for two or three years—no, it's been five years in all.'
'In the near future, this serf will finally rise up and sing!'
'Awesome!'
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK—
Just then, a knock came at the door.
Lin Jiang got up to open it and saw Zhao Wenxuan standing pitifully at his doorstep.
Just as he was about to ask what was wrong, he saw a blue label floating above the boy's head.
[Trustworthy Neighbor Uncle]
Huh?
'Could this be the effect of the [Evaluation Label]?'
'Though it's useless as hell, it seems kind of fun.'
"What's wrong?"
Zhao Wenxuan's little face was tense, but he was trying his best to look calm.
"I'm a little scared at home by myself. Can I stay at your place for a bit?"
Lin Jiang glanced at the window in the hallway. The sky outside had already darkened. The boy was only in second grade, so it was no wonder he'd be scared all alone at home.
"You can come over, but you have to bring your homework."
"No problem."
Kids are like that. They're little tyrants in front of their parents, but they're much more obedient with outsiders because there's no one to back them up.
Zhao Wenxuan went back to his apartment and brought over his schoolbag. Lin Jiang led him inside.
Once inside, Zhao Wenxuan looked around, and the tension on his face quickly vanished.
"Your mom's orders: you can play after you finish your homework. So get started. There's fruit on the table, you can eat while you work."
"A man's life is already hard enough. Why must a man make things difficult for another man? Sigh..."
Zhao Wenxuan took out his homework with a look of mock seriousness and flopped onto the coffee table to start writing.
At the same time, he grabbed a cherry and popped it into his mouth.
"The cherries at your place taste just like the ones at my place. They're pretty good."
"If they're good, have some more. Don't be polite." Lin Jiang was a master at the art of regifting someone else's gift.
Zhao Wenxuan didn't act like a guest, eating and writing at the same time. His posture was so contorted, it was as if he had worms crawling under his skin. You could tell he really didn't want to do his homework.
Watching him, Lin Jiang found it amusing. It was like seeing a younger version of himself; he had probably been the exact same way.
At this age, the boy couldn't possibly understand how wonderful it was to be sheltered by his parents, to have everything provided for him without lifting a finger.
Lin Jiang smiled. 'You can buy the wine and flowers, but you can never recapture the days of youth.'
Once childhood is gone, it's gone forever. It never comes back.
After a moment of reflection, Lin Jiang opened his game panel.
[Name: Lin Jiang]
[Skills: Culinary Skill (Basic)]
[Attributes: Physique 13, Comprehension 11, Charm 15]
[Martial Force: 12]
[Items: 0]
[Treasure Chest: 30/100]
'My Charm went up by 1 point. I've gotten even more handsome.'
RING RING RING—
Just as Zhao Wenxuan was in the middle of his abstract performance, his kids' smartwatch phone rang. It was a call from Xu Lin.
"Are you at home doing your homework like a good boy? No slacking off."
"I'm at Uncle Lin's house."
"Why are you at Uncle Lin's house? Come home right now, don't bother him."
"I was a little scared being home alone, so I came over here."
Perhaps feeling that this wasn't "real" enough, Zhao Wenxuan's voice wasn't very loud.
There was a clear pause from Xu Lin's end for a few seconds.
"Alright then, be a good boy at your uncle's house. Don't be naughty or cause any trouble."
"I know. Don't worry, the two of us are getting along great."
"Okay."
Xu Lin hung up, and a second later, Lin Jiang received a message from her.
Xu Lin: "I'm so sorry, my son must be troubling you."
Lin Jiang: "It's nothing, don't worry about it."
After replying, Lin Jiang took a short video of Zhao Wenxuan doing his homework and sent it to Xu Lin as proof.
Xu Lin: "I'll be back as soon as I can. Thank you so much for your trouble."
Lin Jiang: "No problem, take your time."
Lin Jiang replied politely. 'Based on my experience with online games,' he thought, 'an NPC is bound to have more than one quest. It's essential to build a good relationship with Xu Lin. It'll make future quests much more convenient.'
"Uncle Lin, there's a problem I don't get. Can you come help me look at it?"
"What subject? What kind of problem?"
"Language Arts. It gives a few words and tells me to make a sentence, but I don't know how to write it," Zhao Wenxuan said, chewing on his pen.
"What are the words?"
"Summer, strawberry, youth, sunrise, cicada song."
'Five words?'
'Is second-grade homework really this hard nowadays?'
Lin Jiang had always been a terrible student, and an engineering major at that. In recent years, the only "literary works" he'd studied were with a few "teachers" on his computer.
It had gotten to the point where he couldn't even remember if his high school Language Arts teacher was a man or a woman.
'But a grade-schooler's problem should still be manageable. Against anyone below elementary school level, I'm invincible. Against anyone above, it's a one-for-one trade at best.'
"Let me see."
Lin Jiang walked over and sat cross-legged next to the coffee table. Zhao Wenxuan pushed his Language Arts homework toward him.
Please use the five words: summer, strawberry, youth, sunrise, and cicada song, to form a single sentence.
Seeing the words in the notebook, Lin Jiang racked his brain. It was genuinely difficult. After struggling for a good while, he cursed silently in his head,
'That summer, I... took the strawberry-flavored youth... and fucked out a cicada song?'