NOVPUB"Forget it, I'll go find Grandpa."
Xiang Beifei put away the video, then walked out and soon found his grandfather wandering around the kitchen, supervising the work.
"Eh? Xiaofei, you're back?"
Upon seeing Xiang Beifei, Xiang Qingde immediately showed a happy smile, walked over, pinched Xiang Beifei's arm, and said, "You've gotten thinner again, you need to eat more."
"Okay." Xiang Beifei nodded.
In the eyes of the elderly, his grandson seemed to have lost weight every time they met.
The people washing vegetables in the kitchen were also thrilled to see Xiang Beifei, all greeting him enthusiastically.
"Hello."
Xiang Beifei politely greeted these people. The people here were very familiar with him, everyone was proud to work under the arrangements of Xiang Qingde, after all, he was the grandfather of a national figure!
Xiang Qingde took Xiang Beifei out of the kitchen, and while they were walking, he asked, "Xiaofei, are you eating here today?"
"Okay."
Xiang Beifei nodded in agreement, but his gaze fell again on his grandfather's system interface.
It was still a snowy screen.
Strikingly conspicuous.
Xiang Qingde didn't know what Xiang Beifei was looking at and cheerfully said, "Then I'll go and stir-fry a couple of dishes later."
"There's no need for that much trouble, just something simple will do, Grandpa. Let's go for a walk outside instead, give ourselves a break," Xiang Beifei suggested.
He was about to venture to the outer wilderness next, and if he went searching for Comrade Xiang Tianxing, he didn't know when he would return, so he wanted to spend more time with his grandfather.
"Okay then."
In the past, Xiang Qingde would work from dawn till dusk selling vegetables, saving money for Xiang Beifei to perform system tasks; even though he no longer worried about money, he seldom went out as he was probably too used to being busy to settle down.
In the park, there were many people taking walks back and forth. Xiang Beifei slightly disguised himself to avoid causing any unnecessary sensation.
The grandfather and grandson leisurely walked in the park, chatting happily along the way. Xiang Qingde was quite talkative; working in the store, he often chatted with people there and encountered many interesting things.
For example, recently a man's child awakened an SSR-level system, and as a father, he was overbearingly proud, feeling as if he had ascended to the heavens in one step. There was an N-level waiter at work who accidentally touched this man's clothes and was immediately grabbed and accused by the man of deliberately soiling them because waiters are lowly.
At that moment, the waiter was terrified and quickly called Kong Daming, but Kong Daming couldn't smooth things over, so he had to ask Xiang Qingde to intervene. Once the man saw Xiang Qingde, he immediately panicked, and his arrogance was extinguished, apologizing with a sheepish grin.
"Boasting because he awakened an SSR system? My grandson awakened an N-level system, have I ever boasted?" Xiang Qingde said proudly, hands behind his back, head held high.
Xiang Beifei couldn't help but laugh silently.
In his grandfather's eyes, an N-level Awakener was even more impressive than an SSR-level one.
"Haha! Thanks to you, my words now carry more weight than those of SSRs! They know you've beaten up countless SSRs, so they don't dare to be presumptuous in front of me."
Now wherever Xiang Qingde went, he was praised. After all, he had raised a prodigal grandson; parents of SSR-level Awakeners wouldn't dare confront Xiang Qingde unless their children were as formidable as Xiang Beifei.
The grandfather and grandson sat down in a pavilion in the park. The summer cicadas softly sung from the willow branches, the breeze gently rippling the lake's water, presenting a beautiful scenery. It being the weekend, many people were strolling around.
"Grandpa, have you ever heard of the Congji Abyss?" Xiang Beifei asked.
"The Congji Abyss?" Xiang Qingde pondered for a moment and replied, "I seem to have a faint recollection, saw it somewhere last time... Why do you suddenly ask about this?"
"Just curious, I can't think of anyone else to ask about it."
"Strange, I've heard of it too, it rings a bell." Xiang Qingde thought for a moment, "My mind conjures up many people."
"Many people?"
"A bunch of vague figures all in white, not very clear in my memory, they seemed to be searching for something," said Xiang Qingde.
"Why would Grandpa have such an impression?" Xiang Beifei asked.
"Not sure, probably just dreams... I'm getting old, memories are a bit jumbled, sometimes I even dream about people covered in tentacles running around," Xiang Qingde laughed.
Xiang Beifei was slightly taken aback.
"Grandpa has never mentioned these to me before."
"Is that important?"
"Hard to say, what else has Grandpa dreamt about?"
"People that scatter with a single touch, people bursting into flames, a tall stone tower, a sonorous stone bell, several mountains pierced by chains, a stone statue torn apart in the sky... I can't be sure, just flashes of scenes, unable to connect them," Xiang Qingde explained as he rubbed his forehead.
Xiang Beifei was puzzled, "What are all these things?"
"I don't know either, dreams are hard to explain accurately, but I remember the sound of that stone bell quite well, I heard it dong, dong, dong, I remember the melody because I usually like to hum it; perhaps it's a case of daydreams becoming night dreams," hummed Xiang Qingde in the tune he often sang while cooking or sweeping."
Xiang Beifei pondered slightly, opened his notebook, and recorded what his grandfather had said.
"Are you recording what I said again?" Xiang Qingde asked.
"Yes, when I have time in the future, I'll write a biography for Grandpa," Xiang Beifei said offhandedly.
"Haha, Grandpa isn't that important a figure, who would read it?" Xiang Qingde laughed.
"How could there not be? A senior who raised an N-level genius, wouldn't everyone be curious? I could title it, 'How is an N-level Genius Made?', 'Xiang Qingde Tells You How to Raise an N-level Genius Grandson', 'The Senior Behind the Popular Choice'... All definite selling points."
Xiang Beifei organized the information he had just mentioned and copied it into Comrade Xiang Tianxing's pioneer stone.
Xiang Qingde chuckled, "That's true, many people come to me for advice, asking how to raise their N-level children to be as outstanding as you! Haha, I always say it's like raising piglets, just keep up with their nutrition, and they don't believe it."
Xiang Beifei: "..."
The grandfather and grandson idly chatted as they continued their walk in the park, but just as they reached a fork in the road, a figure suddenly ran over in a hurry, standing at the junction looking around anxiously.
Xiang Beifei was surprised to find it was Lu Zhiwei.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Xiang Beifei tapped Lu Zhiwei on the shoulder.
Lu Zhiwei immediately jumped back a big step, her fist already clenched, and turned around warily. Upon seeing Xiang Beifei, she exclaimed happily, "Oh, Beifei, it's you! Long time no see!"
Seeing Xiang Qingde, she quickly said, "Hello, Grandpa Xiang!"
"Xiao Wei has become quite the beauty!" Xiang Qingde laughed.
"Grandpa Xiang flatters me," Lu Zhiwei said with a giggly smile.
"What's wrong? You seem startled," Xiang Beifei asked.
"I was chasing a criminal!" Lu Zhiwei said, rubbing her fists.
She had now reached the Meridian Opening stage as a martial artist, thanks to Xiang Beifei, who had forcefully refined a Beast Pill from the God Refining stage into pure Spiritual Power, aiding her in successfully opening her meridians.
Recently, Lu Zhiwei had started her internship at the city's guard team, working under her dad. This girl, wild by nature, loved to fight, and was totally enthusiastic about such tasks.
"And then?" Xiang Beifei asked.
"That's when I lost the criminal..." Lu Zhiwei said dejectedly, hands on her hips, "That thief, so infuriating, he has a cloning skill, now I don't know which way he went."
Xiang Beifei stroked his chin, looking at Lu Zhiwei's system interface:
[Current Deduction Accuracy: 9%]
Well, isn't that something, down from 11% to 9% over the past year. Touching.
"Aren't you good at deducing? Use your deductive skills to see which direction the thief could have run," Xiang Beifei said.
"But my deductive skills are terrible!"
Lu Zhiwei sighed, a hurdle she could never get over. For her, deducing was too exhausting, nothing beat the directness of drawing weapons or throwing punches.
"Don't worry, I'm here. You deduce, and I'll give you pointers," Xiang Beifei said.
Lu Zhiwei's eyes lit up, and she nodded, "Okay!"
In her eyes, Xiang Beifei was a super deduction master. Even before he had gone to university, he had helped the guard squad solve major cases, which had made Lu Zhiwei incredibly envious back then.
Just thinking about getting pointers from Xiang Beifei filled Lu Zhiwei with confidence. She started to crouch and inspect the scene's footprints at the fork:
"The weeds in the cracks of the ground tiles have just been broken, the traces are still fresh, at least four people stepped over here, analyzing the direction of the footprints, they should belong to a two-meter-tall man. The footprints overlap, the grass here is blown away, it seems like someone in a hurry tore through here. According to my deductive logic, this means — he ran to the left! Should I go left to chase?"
Lu Zhiwei asked, her hands on her hips, bubbling with excitement.
"No, you should go right," Xiang Beifei said very surely.
"Why?"
"I'll explain after you catch the criminal."
"Okay!"
Lu Zhiwei quickly ran toward the right fork.
About ten minutes later, Lu Zhiwei returned, dragging a short man about one meter and fifty centimeters tall. This man had awakened the [R-class Clone System], currently capable of producing two clones, but unfortunately, he was using his abilities for petty theft.
Now he was beaten black and blue by Lu Zhiwei, looking quite pitiful.
Lu Zhiwei excitedly waved over, saying, "Wow, Beifei! Your deductive skills are still so amazing! I chased to the right as you said, and actually caught him! Tell me quick, how did you deduce he would run right?"
Xiang Beifei spread his hands and said, "By eliminating the wrong answer, what's left must be the right one."
"Huh? What do you mean?" Lu Zhiwei didn't quite understand.
"Because you deduced that the criminal ran to the left, that means he definitely ran to the right!" Xiang Beifei said seriously, "Your deduction had to be wrong! I thought you knew that."
"..."
Lu Zhiwei turned to stone on the spot!
