"Ever since the Value game began, we've seldom had such leisure. 'Above sits the Heavenly Immortal'..." Turquoise Pool started to sing a line from "Great Ascension."
"Turquoise Pool, you can sing Peking opera?" Li Qianxia asked curiously as she leaned in.
"Of course, that's my special talent." Turquoise Pool revealed a rare proud expression, "I used to listen to operas with the elders when I was young. I sang a couple of lines and, because I sang them so well, my parents decided to let me learn to please my grandfather. For his birthday, I performed 'Drumming and Scolding Cao' and 'Empty Fort Strategy' among many others onstage!"
"...Is this what it's like to be from a big family?" Li Qianxia had a stunned look on her face.
"Yes," Turquoise Pool found it amusing, "but the older generation all liked Peking opera, like how people enjoy pop music now. Doesn't your brother also know how to sing it?"
"My brother?" Li Qianxia looked at Li Changzhou, "Old Li the barbecue seller, you can sing Peking opera?"
This was a dangerous topic. Why did Turquoise Pool know that Li Changzhou could sing Peking opera?
Even though it was December, the temperature in the Maldives was like summer, so there was no worry about the barbecue getting cold.
Turquoise Pool immediately grabbed a skewer;
Li Qianxia, as if worried they would all be eaten up, took a corn cob with her right hand and also grabbed a skewer with her empty left hand;
Only Yang Qinglan was leisurely eating grilled smelt.
She didn't need to rush. Li Changzhou was in charge of the barbecue, and she could just order whatever she wanted on the spot. The chef would prioritize her requests.
Having a barbecue chef for a boyfriend, no, having a boyfriend who does barbecue is convenient.
"If the Value game gives you a special identity, then the player must fulfil the special aspects of that identity," Turquoise Pool explained.
"There are only three of us, I've never thought about it before," Yang Qinglan said slowly as she nibbled on the fish.
As Li Qianxia gnawed on the corn cob, she said, "In 1880, I was a Demon Hunter, no problem there, but in 1928, why was I a factory worker?"
"Think about it, if in the real world, you didn't have me, wouldn't you just be a factory worker based on your behavior of not doing homework and liking to play games?" Li Changzhou said.
"Nonsense..." Li Qianxia considered the role her brother played over the years and had to admit there was a little bit of truth in it, "What's wrong with being a factory worker? What's bad about being self-reliant?"
Li Changzhou, Yang Qinglan, and Turquoise Pool all laughed.
The way Li Qianxia said this was too cute, nothing like a tough girl.
"What about you then?" Li Qianxia retorted, "What makes you think you could be Li the second master?!"
"By your tone, it sounds like you hope I'm not doing well?"
"Of course, if I had to work, you should be tightening screws, no, pulling a rickshaw!" In any case, Li Qianxia was set on mutual destruction.
"The Value game arranging it this way might mean..." Yang Qinglan glanced at the sibling pair, "Without his sister, the brother would become utterly lawless and do as he pleases."
"I'm very rule-abiding, okay?" Li Changzhou protested.
"You play so 'rule-abidingly' with your own sister and sister-in-law?" Yang Qinglan retorted.
"...I think it's not about whether or not there's a sister, it's about not having Qian Xia. Only Qian Xia is my real sister; Li Biwei isn't."
"Still, remembering another sister's name, huh, smelly man." Li Qianxia bit into a corn cob forcefully.
"Not only do I remember her name, but I also know she's only seventeen, tender and juicy, as fresh as a peach just picked."
"Hmm?" Yang Qinglan gave a puzzled look.
"Sisters, they're all sisters." Li Changzhou picked up a skewer, "By the way, speaking of peaches, should we plant some fruit trees in 'Honey Pot World'?"
"Planting takes too long. We can transplant ones that bear fruit immediately, right?" Yang Qinglan was also concerned about Li Changzhou remembering Li Biwei.
Whether or not there was affection, she saw it very clearly.
"Don't rush, don't rush," Li Qianxia interrupted the topic, "I want to know, what about Qing Lan? Why was Qing Lan apprenticing in the Pear Garden in 1928?"
"Petty bourgeois life," Li Changzhou revealed his jealousy towards financial freedom, "Running a bookstore in real life, learning opera in 1928, no worries about living."
"You sound unsatisfied?" Yang Qinglan put down the finished grilled fish skewer.
"My sister works in a factory, I pull rickshaws, how about you stay at home and write letters for people?"
Yang Qinglan laughed, "That works too."
"Every night, big brother, you'd take me and Qing Lan out for a ride."
"Take you out for a ride? Can you even say that? You, a stinky worker, can afford to ride in a rickshaw?!"
"I've ridden in one!" Li Qianxia almost spit out the corn in her mouth.
"What a happy family," Turquoise Pool said with a smile, looking at Li Changzhou radiantly, "Do you know which play I just sang from?"
"Drumming and Scolding Cao?"
"Would there be a 'Heavenly Immortal' in 'Drumming and Scolding Cao'?"
"Diao Chan, Zhen Mi, ah."
"And that one!" Li Qianxia got excited, sitting up straight, "'Don't resist the charm of a beautiful girl in vain'!"
"Let me explain," Li Changzhou raised a roast lamb, "She's talking about Cai Wenji, that makes three Heavenly Immortals."
"Get lost." Turquoise Pool tossed a skewer at him.
"Great Ascension," Xue Pinggui found Wang Baochuan after being separated for eighteen years. The new wife and the descendants fought to meet with Wang Baochuan. The two met and got along smoothly. Xue Pinggui enjoyed the bliss of Qi people.
The topic shifted back and forth, the roast whole lamb was eaten, and the four of them practiced visualization.
The next day they played in the Maldives for a morning, then went to Hokkaido, Japan, to ski, eat seafood, and soak in the hot springs in the afternoon.